Have I told you that we've been training Gertrude and Gladys to ring bells to let us know they need to go out and use the potty? I had some clearance Christmas jingle bells laying around and when I saw them during one of my massive 1000 items-outta-here-house-purgings I knew exactly what to do with them. I hung two on twine times three sets and looped them over the front and back door knobs and upstairs railing. 
You gotta love lazy spring afternoons, right? The girls had a rousing game of squirrel chase as soon as I got home from work. Then we went outside to chill. Gertie and Gladys barked at birds, squirrels and neighbors. They also ran and dug. Several times they took rest breaks by leaping onto my lap while I was reading. Yes, my pages definitely got dog-eared. The most exciting find of the day was the dried up earthworm they dug out of a crack in the patio. 
As I type this I am being buffeted and body slammed by my beasts. Wrestling is pretty much 85% of their non-napping time. The other 15% is eating or begging for treats. Wait. That's not fair. Out of the 85% comes "Squirrel Time" "Squirrel Time" is a flirt stick. The girls LOVE the squirrel on a stick. It helps that it has two squeakers. When they get a hold of it they go to town. Squirrel Time is a daily or twice daily event. They run to the refrigerator and look up and sit patiently waiting for me to take down the world's best toy. In case I'm not paying attention Gertrude will let out an occasional bark to let me know that it is most definitely time to play. 
The other picture is raspberry frosting that was going to go into cake pups I made for the Vet tech program at Rob's school. (They work for food, as in they used Gladys and Gertrude's surgeries for training and the promise of treats. Nice deal.) But, I had to make more because while I was busy doing something else Rob was putting our dinner on plates. We had Gardein stuffed cutlets that came with gravy. So with my back to him, I gestured to the little plastic gravy bag and said, "Hey, there's gravy for those." I turned around as he was smearing the frosting from the bowl on his cutlet. Oops!
My getting rid of project is clicking right along. My count is at 534. I love the fact that I've got space in most of my drawers and closets. Don't worry. I can still keep going and make my 1,000. I decreased my Christmas decorations even further after Christmas. Why? Because what I didn't put out lots of my stuff. And I needed to assess why that was. Most of it went. I also haven't missed a single thing I've gotten rid of. Every day I've managed to find a handful of items slated for the get rid of pile. 
Michelle sent me this link and wondered if I wanted to make one while visiting. Since the temperature high was in the low 20's and low was wind-chill-minus-20-something I thought that seemed like a great idea. That and the fact that the little misses at my house always need a few sources of entertainment. Gertie has very sensitive feet and doesn't care for the snow, and neither of them should be bored since they come up with ways to entertain themselves. This thing seemed like a win win. 
I chose to have double 1/4" nylon (that's the proper one, see above) because I wanted to be able to tie the toy on. And since I'll be watching the entire play time I'm not super concerned about the dangling rope. This also lets me tie it high or low on the end of the rope. And of course we found cute duct tape at Michael's. The toy was clearance at Petsmart, a real bargain if you don't consider that I also bought some other clearance items. 
All told, without the other "deals" factored in and with the rope oops we spent less than $10.00 each. Gertie and Gladys, once they got over the barking at the stick, began enjoying the heck out of it. And it's no longer a Christmas toy since the Santa hat was ripped off the head of the two squeakered muskrat/squirrel/beaver thing.
Gladys has been doing a lot of back snoozing of late. Last night she raised both arms and held that pose for a bit. I think she looks a lot like an alligator at gator shows where they flip the gator over and rub it's neck to "hypnotize" it. Not sure what the arms up in the air were all about. But I'm pretty sure it's all about the cuteness factor. Cuz she definitely has that. 
I hope your Christmas was wonderful. Mine was rich and full. Christmas Day itself seemed to last 50 hours, but, in a good way. We got some serious kid time in and it was so fun to have little ones around. Noisy, of course, but fun. We simplified our big family gathering by doing finger foods and the traditional soup meal for Christmas Eve was pretty tasty. I conjured up a new soup that I'll likely be sharing here sometime soon. Gotta remake it to make sure I got the measurements down (bummer...if it's any indication my daughter-in-law who doesn't like soup went for two bowls of it). 
Gladys is either a wannabe hunter or nurturer. Not sure which. She routinely disappears into a different room and we'll hear whining. The first few times I took her out to go potty. But then we figured out it was part of her gathering behavior. She attempts to collect all of her toys in one trip. She scoops everything into her mouth, whining until it's full and then trots happily back into the room with us. 
She doesn't rip her toys to shreds, even though she and Gertie do remove the stuffing because that's fun to play with. Oh, and the squeakers, those get excised as well. 
I haven't had such a fun weekend in a long time. I'm tired, and a little shell-shocked by temperature extremes, but, hey, that's not uncommon around these parts. 
The girls have been alone in their room a few hours at a time with just a couple barricades and plenty of room to roam. So far they are respecting "the crib." This move opened up more room in the living room where the kennel has been resting since May. So we rearranged the living room furniture a little bit and I finished up a functional project I've been working on. 
Thursday was a wonderfully laid back day. We had a simple brunch with & and her little ones and a couple of friends. Thanksgiving was the 5 month anniversary of the little ones moving in with & and it was a cherry on the top of the sundae. The kids have bloomed under her mothering and we all love them. They spent the day and we pulled out all the Christmas items and we decorated and loaded up the Christmas tree. I tipped it over and broke two ornaments. But a good time was had by all. And my house feels festive. & and I cooked all the goodies we were going to be eating later that night. 
We had Thanksgiving dinner at my folks house. Another lovely get together. And of course the food was pretty amazing. & and I made several vegan options (our main dish was mushroom seitan loaf that was perfect but which I will add maybe a bit more garlic to next time I make it.) and my new sister-in-law and brother made a delish pumpkin cheesecake. Super delish. 
Friday night found me at &'s helping them decorate their place. The kids had so much fun. The 5 and 3 year olds especially got into decorating little Christmas trees for their rooms. So cute. Pure excitement. 
Seriously. The girls were crashed on the couch until we decided to watch Dogs with Jobs on Netflix. Ha ha! The episode was the Cheetah parent surrogate Jack Russell Terrier and Rookie the Canadian Beagle who sniffs out food and agricultural items that people bring into the country. At the first sign of the Jack Russell Terrier the girls were focused in rapt attention. Too cute! And yes, we are still in the 20th century with our television. I think it's about the size of my computer screen.
I took the day off work today. I had no x-rays and I have a serious MOP on my head. 
So before 9:00 a.m. I had swept, tidied, unloaded, loaded, loaded and washed, dried and folded. And painted. The pups always need to be right up in my bizness. But while they are in my bizness I know exactly what they are doing. 
Let's talk about puppy digestion. I have just heard, twice, that pumpkin is a lovely binder and hence it will become a regular pantry staple item for the pups. Gertrude has a little tummy bug, she tossed her treats Friday afternoon and took a few extra visits outdoors for emergency style gotta-goes. I was a little concerned that she'd have overnight issues. I want to set them up for success. So I kept one ear open and sure enough a whining commenced at midnight. Because getting them in and out of the kennel, in and out of harnesses and wrangling them for leash attachment can be harrowing in normal circumstances, when a puppy has to go NOW that adds a bit of drama, so I decided to keep them in their harnesses and let them sleep with me on the couch. Every two hours we visited the frozen way-too-early-winter-wonderland to make a deposit. 
For some reason the snow and arrival of winter weather threw me. I mean, I live in an area that certainly gives huge clues of climate changes. And winter comes every stinkin year. There are degrees of winter, but, it isn't a "hmmmm, did we have winter this year?" kind of a place. Ya know. 
The pups got to go trick or treating with the kids Friday night. Amazingly, they didn't rip their costumes to shreds (Nor anyone else's, whew). I didn't see them even nibbling at each other. It probably helped that they were focused on the kids candy filled pumpkins and a little shell-shocked with all the sights and sounds of Halloween. The temperature was a brisk 40 something. There were a few costume tilts and leans. But they looked pretty stylin, 
Saturday we had a little incident. Rob and I had a huge Aloe Vera plant that we separated into about 30 different plants. We had a few we hadn't given away. And since it had gotten cold we pulled them inside and put them on the mud room floor. 
