Take a walk!!

Okay I haven't said much about anything but the puppy lately which I feel is understandable because she's like a new baby in the house - blah blah blah. Today I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart - walking.

Is it just me or have any of you notice no one walks anymore?? This drives me crazy! It's really gotten to the point that I imagine(if the lack of proper maintenance of sidewalks is any indication) that no one thinks about the walkers in the world much anymore. At least not in my city. Now the City itself seems to have it's act mostly together even if they do clear the roads first after a snowfall. They salt their sidewalks and so forth most of the time.

Today I had to run a couple errands or rather walk them. I needed carrots and yeast from the grocery store and a new bread maker because mine died on me(after over ten years of service). So I grabbed my wallet and backpack and off I went. Now my sidewalk is nice and clean and not slippery - I salt my sidewalk. I make note of this because the weather has been changeable around here and is in an awkward there is some snow and then it melted some and then it got cold and now it's all melting again. I salted after the last needing shoveling snowfall and so haven't had to shovel since. Not very many people have done this ... those that didn't now have sidewalks that have very slippery patches of ice/snow/slush and if you aren't careful when you're walking you'll wipe out. I hate this. The roads are clear.

So I had to be careful. Also while I was out I saw maybe 4 other people walking.Really just 4. Everyone else was driving. I don't understand. I think it may be some kind of weird vehicle hating syndrome I have. I walk. I walk my kids to school, I walk to the Y, I walk to shop, and someday when she's big enough I'll walk the dog. If it's close enough I walk it. If it's not I ask Jim to do it on the way home, get the bus or beg a ride from a friend(I rarely do this).

I also got some really odd looks on my way home carrying my bread maker in it's box /grin/ good thing that doesn't bother me :)

I'm just saying ... next time you go to get in the car or van or truck ask yourself: "Can I walk?"

You may be surprised and find you can.

Cass :)

MissS over two weeks

Yup our happy little puppy has been with us a whole 2 weeks.Don't be fooled by her innocent looks, we dog sat today and she wasted no time putting our house guest in his place. Her 'pal' is a Pug/Beagle cross and is 8 months old.Uh-huh, my dog kicks butt in a "we're not actually fighting honest - he's on my turf and needs putting in place" kinda way. It was funny and would have been even funnier if it hadn't gone on for hours. They worked it out and the dogs are now back in their regular settings and very very tired as am I. It was a good day.

Cass :)

Don't look! It's a house tour!

Against my better judgment ... okay I have three planned kids, I have no better judgment ... I took up a challenge by an internet friend to share pics of my house(no cleaning just take the shots and share) she went first so I decided to do the same. So with no more fanfare(okay maybe a little) here are pictures of my house.

Please note all the rooms in my house are 10 feet by 10 feet or less. I took the shots by standing in the corner or doorway of the room, held the camera over my head and tilted it. This gives an almost complete shot in one picture.

If you picture my house from above it is a square with 4 squares inside in the corners(living room, bedrooms, kitchen) and a couple tiny rectangles in the middle area (basement stairs, bathroom, hallway) and one tacked on the back(the back room).

Left front room - living room(M is in this shot - under the seat of the second chair)Hall to the rest of the house - this shot shows(from left to right) A's bedroom door, the basement door and the girls room door. Also in this shot is the hamper that I keep my extra flour in and the side of the pantry.Right front room - A's room - I am in the doorway and in the corner(bottom left of the shot) is his dresser.Right middle room - The bathroom is significant because it serves 5 and is tiny!! The bathroom door is opposite the basement door.Right back room - The girls room - K moved just so she could be in this shot.Left back room - The kitchen. In mid right side of the picture is the sink.The back room or mudroom. In this shot it is set up for Play Doh play(which clearly the kids had moved on from since they were all in the living room).Right middle - The death stairs to the basement - I took no basement shots because if you look you can find shots of my bed and computer areas already in my blog.Last but no where near least - my huge giant backyard. The small green shed is the back limit of my property. Of course the yard is only huge in comparison to my house.

Compare Little Miss S over 1 week.

Not exactly the same shot but I really did my best. My furniture patter is the same on all the furniture.
S on Jan 12 2008
S on Jan 19 2008

I'll try to get the shots of her in the same place next week :)

Stressful morning!

This post is dedicated to M(you know who you are) who was wonderful and supportive when i was a weepy mess. Thanks M for the drive and the support!!

Uh-huh, now I have a puppy to stress over as well as the kids! I got up this morning and realized that little S hadn't eaten her night feeding from the night before. After her morning trip outside she didn't eat and drink like she usually does(if there is a usually after only having her for one day shy of a week) but went right back to sleep. She played a little at about 7ish but mostly she wanted to sleep. When I took her out again at about 10am she still didn't eat or drink upon coming back into the house and I started to worry ... a lot ... I called the vet who informed me that no a 7 week old puppy really shouldn't go over 12 hours without eating and I should bring her in. After some calling around a good friend of mine agreed to drive me to the vet's office and I got an appointment for just after 11am and took her in.

She's fine. Just wasn't eating. Anyway I was given a couple cans of supplement food and was told by the vet to give her some of it with a syringe if she didn't eat an hour after I got home. I did that and when I went to give her more and hour or so later she was licking the food off the syringe so I thought if she liked it so much I would squirt it on her food ... she ate the whole 1/2 cup in about 5 minutes!! I have no idea why she quit eating but hopefully it won't happen again!

Cass :)

More pictures of S ...

... because who can get enough of a puppy???

"Puppies and kids are a perfect fit!" - George from George Shrinks(a children's cartoon).We know she's going to be big and soon so this only happened a few times before we put an end to it!!I had no idea this old cereal box(just the box, no liner) was under the ottoman but S soon brought it to light!!A growing puppy needs her sleep.

That's it for the puppy shots for now, honest. We plan on taking a shot of her once a week to chart her growth. I think she's bigger already!

Cass :)

News!!

Mr. Cat is not pleased to announce a rather quick addition to the family ...

Please Welcome:
Our new Puppy Ms. S.

As I'm sure you all remember our Old Dog died of probable heart failure on Christmas Day morning 2006 at the ripe old age of 16 and is much missed by me and the rest of the family. We, however, have been talking of getting another dog for the last 6 months at least but were hesitating due to money issues and the desire to give a little breathing room before bringing a new puppy into our lives.

Today PetSmart hosted several shelters in the area and we went to apply for a puppy and we were surprised to find they handed them over right then(which is cool) and we didn't have to wait. S is one of 8 puppies that were there from the same litter. She is 7 weeks old and is a Lab/Sheppard/Husky mix.

We hope she will live with us as happily and as long as Old Dog did and are happy to have another four legged freeloader in the house.

Cass :)

PS - Yup this is my excuse to stay close to home for the next couple months at least. :)

More exercise ... week one almost done.

So far I'm doing okay with the whole exercise thing, yay me. Of course my housework is suffering because I'm all tired and stuff from exercising /sigh/ and I have been going to bed at about 8:45pm every night so I'm not on the computer as much. I can feel already that 8:45pm is going to be my bed time again tonight even though I took a half hour nap this afternoon.

To wrap up this week:

Monday - about an hour of brisk walking and 40 minutes of light walking.
Tuesday - an hour of brisk walking, 40 minutes of light walking and 20 minutes of swimming laps.
Wednesday - 20 minutes of brisk walking and 40 minutes of light walking.
Thursday - an hour of brisk walking, 40 minutes of light walking, 5 minutes of laps and 25 minutes of treading water and chatting.
Friday - will be another hour of brisk walking and 40 minutes of light walking but I think that's it. I'll be running errands.
Saturday - an hour floating around the pool with the kids.
Sunday - I hope to go to the pool and swim laps for 20 - 30 minutes.

I'll have to wait and see when I can stay up past 9pm before I up this. My next step would be Aquafit on Monday and Friday. Wish me luck.

Cass :)

Update on my day...

... Okay so I got everyone to school on time/gasp/ and then went to the clinic to set up my 24 hour blood pressure monitor appointment and then I waited to find out that they want me to fast for my blood work. So no food for me after 8pm tonight :( facing a morning of nothing to eat makes me think getting up at 5am will be a mistake. I think I'll wait and get up at 7am instead ... I hate being hungry and by the time 9am rolls around and they're taking my blood I'll be so hungry I'll feel like either throwing up on the nurse or eating her arm /sigh/.

I then went on to the Y and showered and shaved and looked up the pool schedule to find out when a good time to swim laps will be. Looks like Tuesday and Thursday mornings for about an hour will be it and maybe on Sunday's with Jim as well, I keep forgetting I own a 12 year old that is perfectly capable of watching A & M for a few hours while I spend some time at the gym without having to walk there.

I've had a nagging headache all afternoon, I keep thinking it's from not enough water but it's still hanging on :( Hopefully I will feel better in the morning(even though I'll be all hungry and cranky then).

Wish me luck for tomorrow - I'm going to pack a breakfast and go eat it at the Y and then relax for a little and swim some slow laps. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to that, when I swim with the kids I don't really get to swim :( So I'm really looking forward to some nice repetitive laps :)

Later!

Cass :)

Argh! New Year - New date to remember...

... Although admittedly this was harder for me when I was in school. I rarely have to even write dates anymore so remembering the 2008 rather than 2007 won't be too horrid I'm sure. The main bummer of New Year is that it puts a certain amount of pressure on you to do better. I know this will end up being a good thing in the end but since on the bottom of it all I am lazy and would rather do as little as possible change is hard for me.

I am still struggling with housework but meal planning is still going well and has been since August. J tells me we're fine budget-wise and things are okay(as long as nothing totally expensive and unforeseen happens; furnace{possible},oil tank{highly possible}, van{making funny noises-something is loose}, large appliance{not likely since they are all under 10 years old}). I think we all live on that edge though so I try not to fret ... we have enough credit to cover any big emergency as long as it's not too big and it would only set us back a little in our debt repayment.

So now it's the New Year and I have to step up and start moving more. This is important since I managed to gain back all the weight I lost year before last(because really to be honest I did squat in 2007) which is sad and makes me sad. It's no comfort at all that J is in the same boat as me, exercise is just something we are finding very difficult to work into our daily lives and we're rotten at supporting each other in activity.

So now the kids start back to school I have no more excuses not to get out of the house in the mornings and at this point I'm looking forward to it because I've been pretty much stuck at home the last two weeks. Today I am going to swing by the clinic and see about some stuff I got the doctor to give me paperwork for last year(blood work and 24 hour blood pressure monitor), then I'll go to the Y and relax for a bit and after that I will either head home or go to the library before getting the kids from school. The afternoon will be spent watching M with both eyes and doing housework.

Wish me luck!

Cass :)