the real honest truth....

This is what the living room looks like some mornings, when Puppy has been ripping things up. Ripping things up is her favorite. Shopping bags, cereal boxes, stuffed animals, she's not picky. She was looking for something under that rug, too, I guess. The truth about puppies, besides being irresistibly cute, is:
1. They are slobs.
2. They are pooping/peeing machines. Sunny gets confused when it's snowy on the deck, and thinks it's a great place to poop. The snow is now melting, and voila, five piles of poop on my deck! It's not MY favorite to clean it up, but that's what I had to do this fine morning. (housebreaking them is no picnic! Sunny is fine during the day now, she has learned to whine or bark at the door, but sometimes she still leaves a present near the door during the night, what a thing to have to face in the morning!) But she is getting better and better.
3. They have too much energy. They crash and smash, knock things over, and romp around the house.
4. They like to steal things and run away. When we were matching socks, Sunny had great fun with this. (Thankfully,she's learning to Drop It, with the help of lots of treats and rewards...)
5. They get really really muddy on rainy spring days. Romping through the drainage ditches is also Sunny's favorite.
6. They grow up too fast, ha.
7. They sometimes bring yucky stuff into the house. At exactly 5:03 a.m. on Sunday morning, Little Miss Sunshine brought in a huge bird head...it was hanging out of her mouth, she dropped it when commanded, got her treat, then I had the privilege of disposing of it...it had a huge beak, and one eye looking at me.

So the real honest truth about puppies is they seem to take more patience than we can possibly possess, to the through those first crazy months, then all of the sudden one day you realize that you have a pretty nice dog.


And, the real truth about me...

1. I also am a slob. I like clean, but I also like to drape sweaters on chairs and create stacks of things to go through later.
2. I seriously wish I had a house cleaner. I don't mind cleaning the house every once in a while, but ever single day gets old.
3. Weight loss...ugh. More like the creep...the dreaded creep. But I am not giving up, never ever.
4. Writing is my favorite. Besides snacking, but we know I can't just do THAT.
5. I cannot wear high heels. My feet are wide, perhaps from all the pregnancies, because they were a nice 7 1/2 narrow when I was a teenager. Now...an 8 1/2 wide, ugh. It's hard to find comfy shoes, thus I am a Brikenstock girl. From flat comfy Ugg-type boots in the winter, to sandals in the spring, occasionally Birkenstock clogs.
6. I love to bake. That's a dangerous love.
7. Babies...oh, I held my niece's little one the other day, and instant love.


And, the truth about our weekend in the kitchen...last week, I spent lots of time on a huge church gathering we had on Saturday. Wednesday night, shopping for dessert items...Thursday night making white cakes, seven sheet-sized cakes (the huge full sheet pans, the kind that don't fit in regular ovens). That endeavor was a huge crying FAIL. They rose up beautifully, then sunk down, way down, and took forever to bake all the way through...they were nicely golden brown on the outsides, then soupy in the middle, so I had to turn the convection oven down really low and wait for them to bake through. We served them anyway, I hoped that berries and whipped cream would cover a multitude of sins, and they did. Some people actually loved the "cake", it was like a thick brownie-like cookie thing. I mean, they were made withall those pounds of butter, and 48 cups of sugar, so how bad could they be?

The rice krispie treats turned out marvelous though! They had seven packages of Oreo cookies in them, which Char and Cam crunched up for me. They were drizzled with melted chocolate chips, then cut and individually wrapped, 240 of them.

We somehow managed to make that meal for almost six hundred people...300 pounds of ham. I made the glaze with 18 pounds of brown sugar (and honey and orange juice), it was pretty good. Paul and Kim sliced that ham, we glazed it and baked it a bit...we trimmed, wrapped, poked, and baked 600 potatoes. And the green beans...boiled, run under cold water, chilled, then tossed on the griddle with bacon grease, chopped onions, lemon juice, and a bit of crushed red pepper, served with lots of bacon pieces...and rolls...600 rolls, heated in the warmers. The plating crews did a fabulous job of serving it all up with butter and salt and pepper, and sour cream. It was a busy day in the kitchen, but the meal came out wonderful. Emily was the manager, and she kept it together, and we had great fun.

Last night, we had ribs. They cooked on low in the oven for four hours, then slathered in barbecue sauce, for another hour on high. We also had fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries with real whipped cream (no sugar!), served as parfaits (some of the kids had strawberry yogurt with theirs)(and confectioner's sugar sprinkled on the whipped cream). We sort of celebrated Kathryn's birthday, and she wanted fruit instead of a cake.

Here's a really good story:
My oldest daughter Emily is a lovely girl, she loves reading good books, writing stories (she has a few health themed short stories published in, "The Healing Muse"). She is also a hard worker. She has been a registered nurse for years now, but in addition to working full time, she has gotten her Bachelor's degree, and now is working on her Master's. It takes a long time to fit those classes in while working, plus all the other things Em does, like catering and doing trips and activities with the kids. So...she is considering cutting back her work hours at the promptings of her sisters Abigail and Mirielle, who are also her housemates. They have offered to help her financially and in any other way they can, so she can be a full time student, still working her nursing job at the hospital, but with less hours, so that she can finish her college in one year instead of dragging it out! That means in just one year, she will be a Nurse Practitioner! I think Abby and Mirielle are wonderful sisters. It just makes my heart full.

So anyway...the truth about my mornings...when I get up at the butt-crack of dawn, as my girls like to say, with Duke barking, and there is NO present near the door, it's a good day. When there ARE messes to clean up, it's not necessarily a BAD day, but.

Duke. His days are numbered and since I have already covered this topic too many times, I am not going to go there, but I can't take it. Being a dog owner isn't all sunshine and rainbows when they get old and decisions have to be made. I would rather he just pass away in his sleep, but he's just so feeble. One day he was standing in front of the fake fireplace barking. Just barking at it. And he gets a bit growly and snappy sometimes because he can't hear, and can't see so well either.

Oh, and here's a truth: Our sweet kitty Kettler is going to have ANOTHER batch of kittens! Yes, I know, irresponsible pet owners, who don't spay their cat. But there's a method to their madness, my kids' madness. Suzanne owns the Kettler, she is Suzanne's kitty. She has the responsibility of getting her spayed. I will pay for it, but Suze has to look into some of the low-payment options out there, and she has. But after the last kittens were all given away with us not keeping one, which considered a wonderful thing, as we need another cat like we need an elephant. But the kids do not see it that way. Three dogs, two cats...they NEED a kitten. They are all on the same page on this. After this litter, the cat will get "fixed", they promise. But we need to keep one. NEED. Who am I to argue against this? I don't want to be the really bad guy, and I also like kittens, having a kitten with Labs is adorable. They are so gentle with cats, even Sunny. Oh dear, am I crazy?

Anyway. Yesterday I took these nice girls to the mall...Sonja, my niece Grace, and Evelyn.

Sonja wanted a new jean skirt, which she found. Then we went to Forever21, which had a sale on clearance, buy one get one free. I found these sweet little white lacy dresses for the little girls and cousin Dani...$7.99, but but with the buy one get one, they were four dollars! (Sonja also got a four dollar skirt) After just H&M and Forever 21, we were done. I don't much like malls with their high prices and bright lights and people looking so lost. I mean, it's like, "Let's go to the mall and buy clothes to wear to the mall!" I would rather shop thrift stores, or maybe just cruise the clearance racks. Yesterday I rather wanted to get home, I had ribs in the oven...and older kids coming over to visit.

I took the girls for milkshakes at McDonalds, which turned into some chicken nuggets too, and you have to have some fries! Not me though, I had a few nuggets and an iced coffee.

I have truly enjoyed the comments, the stories, the introductions. :) Any more?