Mippy Manor's Week in Review: Chaos Edition

Ahhhh... I am sure that I was not the only person who began this week by that phenomenon I call Holiday Hangover. Coupled with the fact that we had Tag here to boot, it was definitely not your average week. I'm not complaining, but it just was a bit off kilter.

Since it is officially spring, the kids have once again been playing outside with the neighbor kids when they get home from school. By around noon, they start asking if their friends are home to play yet. They have gone out during the day a bit this week, as our neighbor has brought over his two year old charge. The old storage bins from our minivan have been getting a ton of use. Ryli uses one for her Littlest Pet Shop paraphernalia and dolls. Landry has his filled to the brim with dinosaurs. Having Tag around up until Thursday night definitely gave them a kick in the pants as far as picking up their toys.

I was originally going to write the "Life With/Life Without" series that I have been doing the past several weeks for a total of eight weeks. That notion has officially left the building, as I came up with three additional topics. I'm rather ashamed that I didn't think of any of the three sooner, but at least I thought of them while I'm still writing the series.

Our lease here is up in under a month. I'm starting to gear up for the inevitable packing, which I will more than likely start as soon as we get the annual inspection done next week. The part I fear the most is taking the kids away from all their friends that live a hop, skip, and a jump away, but they will make new friends. Also, I will eventually need to scrounge up movers. I'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess.

We have to restart getting Ryli and Landry to sleep in their own beds. With Tag here, I had to have him in the room with me, which meant they were in my bed as well. That will start tonight with a vengeance. The stupid folded laundry did not put itself away, so that's what I get to do tonight as a nightcap. 

Thursday night we went grocery shopping with our neighbor Nicole. Of course the kids minded freakishly well. They had an audience to preform for, after all. The best part of that, though, is that we got a few treats to bake tomorrow, like pretzels and chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and Landry's undying love of play dough will surely require a replenishment of his stores. Hopefully, he will forgive me if I forgot to grab more food coloring. If he has a problem with it, I'll just remind him that we would have food coloring if he and Ryli did not demand to have their bath water colored.

I'm really missing Tag. More than I dare let on with Ryli and Landry. Soon enough, though, we will have a new place, ideally one level with a yard, and a puppy won't be so daunting of an undertaking. Tag would get tired and want to nap, and he would always find me and curl up at my feet.

Here is to a dozy of a week, with appointments three consecutive days. We get our monthly water delivery, I start a parenting class, and who knows what else. Thursday will mark one week from seeing my mom and Dacey. That will be quite the adventure, taking the bus and train to Union Station, and from there, on to an southbound Amtrak. My mom is going to bring us back on Saturday, That I can NOT wait for. The kids will get more excited as it draws nearer, I am certain.

And I almost forgot... Winter is coming! Season five Game of Thrones starts tomorrow night!

Tag is gone

They came and got Tag tonight. Ryli was ready for it; every day she asked if he was going to leave us today. Landry lost it for about two minutes, until I reminded him that we would get a puppy when we got moved. Tag didn't even stay with us for a full week, and as much as I was annoyed that I had to clean up after him a lot, I hated to see him go. He was too young to be house broken. No matter how long we had him outside running and playing, or just walking around, he would not potty outside. Instead, he'd wait till we'd gotten inside, and then whimper once or twice before peeing on the linoleum. He'd only poop at night, while everyone slept.

Landry handled his presence well, like I knew that he would. He is petrified of small dogs, but he is crazy about big dogs, even while they're puppies. Ryli was the enforcer. If Tag ran off, she would pick him up and bring him home, scolding him and loving on him all the while. 

I think that as soon as we find a new place and get settled in, a puppy will definitely be in order. They may still be rather young, but they knew what they needed to do to take care of him. They only needed to be told once about dogs not being able to have chocolate (Easter Bunny came on Tag's first full day here). Landry was Tag's personal meal planner, filling his dog bowl whenever it needed to be filled and making sure he always had water. Ryli was the disciplinarian, trying to get him to behave and alerting me to any puddles or piles.

So, someday soon, I hope, we will make our way to the shelter and rescue a pup of our own. There will probably be a bit of fighting over a name, but I think that will be minimal. And when we move, we will have at the very least a small yard, so I can turn them all out together. Heck, we may adopt a puppy and a kitten, since the kids both want one of each. Get them young and they'll at the very least be used to each other.

The kids have already started to save money towards their pet fund. Ryli has gone without asking for a Littlest Pet Shop since she met Tag last Saturday evening. That, in itself, is nothing short of miraculous!

I guess a lot of it stems from the fact that as long as I lived with my parents, we always had at least one dog. I was raised with German Shepherds, and we had a German Schnauzer while I was little, and then Max and Baby the Cocker Spaniels from elementary school on. I think we'll go with a larger breed. We'll do obedience school and the whole nine yards. 

Happy Easter!

The eggs have all been accounted for. Ryli has rifled all the way through her Easter basket, while Landry pretty much lost all interest in his once he saw his T-Rex.. He wasn't "in" the basket, being that he was too stinking big. Landry has been no more than a few inches from T-Rex. Ryli has been playing LPS at my other desk. It's been a pretty chill morning. The kids have been up since around 6:30. The Easter Bunny almost got busted. Figures the one time my alarm goes off that it wakes up a kid is when I'm playing Easter Bunny.

They went off happily to Memaw and Pepaw's, with minimal whining about missing the egg hunt that the complex was throwing on "our" playground. The rain helped on that one; I just told them it had been cancelled. Turns out, they still had it, but they had at least ten huge storage tubs of filled eggs, and not nearly enough of a turn out. So I asked if I could get a bag for Ryli and Landry since they were with their father. The kids now each have a bag full of plastic eggs when they get home.

Tag has been sleeping off and on all day. He did wake up while I was vacuuming. He bit my sweats and tried to pull me as I vacuumed. I got some dog food from my neighbor. Still no hits on the Craigslist ad. I must admit, I hope no one misses him. I suspect that no one will. The kids slept in my bed last night, along with Tag, who alternately cuddled with both of them all through the night. Ryli named him Tag, but Landry has given him another name that I can't quite pronounce. 

I am going to spend the last of my reprieve from the kids cleaning my desk (yawn), assembling my control journals, and making chore charts for the week. I'm pretty certain that the kids will be ready for bed within an hour of getting back home. They are rarely up before 8:00 when they're healthy. After they go down, I'll curl up in my bed and watch "Wolf Hall" on PBS, then read some Bring Up the Bodies to try and get it done prior to that half of the miniseries! 

Mippy Manor's Week in Review: Solo Edition

This has been an interesting week, to say the very least. Ryli and Landry have stayed out until almost 8:00 all week playing with the neighbor girls. I've hung around with their mom as well, and it has been a nice change. I never knew that a 5 year old girl and a 6 year old girl could butt heads so hard. And Landry proved that when it comes to rough housing with one of the neighbor boys, he can definitely hold his own. All that did get a little maddening, however, as Ryli and Landry peppered entire days with "Are they home yet?"

The chores went surprisingly well. Ryli makes her bed now after only having had to be asked one time, on Monday morning. They know that Eroy is coming to check up on them full time starting tomorrow night. I think Ryli will get it a little bit sooner. Then again, with the rate that her LPS pets loose their heads and deco-bits, maybe not. Landry always carries his larger dinosaurs off to bed with him. We shall see.

Tuesday night, I realized that my refrigerator was not working. In fact, judging by the fact that my tube of breakfast sausage resembled an over-inflated football, it had expired at least 24 hours before. Maintenance couldn't do anything about it that night, so it was 3:30 Wednesday afternoon before we got a replacement. Thankfully, all the meat and vegetables in the freezer didn't thaw out much, if at all, so Tuesday night, they went to one neighbor's, and the leftovers from the crock pot went to another.

Thursday, I got all ready to go to court. Then, once I was all ready to go and my friend was minutes away to pick us all up, I got the call that the hearing was going to be continued, since the morning docket had gone over. Now, I have to wait until June to get everything settled. 

After the kids got picked up today, I made a trip to Walmart for a few Easter things and groceries. I never expected to be followed home by a puppy from the bus stop, but I was. I put an ad on Craigslist to try and find his owner. He's been "fixed", but he didn't seem very well fed, and he was on me like white on rice until I locked him in the house and went out to meet the kids. He also drank water like he'd been in a desert.

I had them hurry to the door and knock on the window until he came up. Before I opened the door, I explained to them that someone may be looking for him, so he may not stay forever. They agreed, and I let them in. Puppy love, multiplied by three. As I write this, the three of them are all curled up in my bed, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" still playing.

We dyed Easter eggs tonight. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so it will limit the hiding places. Originally, I planned on six eggs a piece. Unfortunately, Landry bobbled and ultimately cracked an egg while removing it from the dye, so I had Ryli pick one of hers to eat. We then decided that next year, we would hide six eggs each, then seven, and so-on. Ryli's age will determine the number of eggs that we will dye and the bunny will hide. 

Tomorrow, while they are gone again, I will perfect my cleaning of the house and put my Fly Lady control journal together. I'm not going to lie, I'm excited. I also have to run over to a neighbor's house and see if I can't procure a bit of dog food for Tag. I've also got to see if there's a place to get him checked for a chip within walking distance.

Time for me to go to bed... some bunny has to get up really early to hide eggs. I have it on good authority that she is going to break out the Easter baskets before bed to limit the amount of things she has to do when she gets up at six.