Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Let's all do the Windchill!

Winter is hitting Ontario nice and hard today and tomorrow. I think it's mad because it's almost over, although I'm sure we'll get more snow and stuff in March.Today it's -13C out(about 8F) and a biting -25C with the wind chill(-13F) So we got to put on all our winter clothes for the walk to school. Even I have ski pants I wear under my full length coat when it's this cold. In full gear I'm not cold at all - the kids still complain some though so I don't think their winter gear is quite as good as mine.I actually pull my hat down further and pull my scarf over my face more when I'm outside and you'll notice I don't have my glasses on(they fog up when it's this cold and I have a scarf over my face). My full gear is Boots, Ski pants, full length winter coat with hood, hat with ear flaps, scarf and gloves - all in black to collect any warmth from the sun if it's shining.K is wearing a snowsuit(coat with a hood & ski pants), and the hood of both her hooded sweatshirt and her coat up and gloves ... she has a scarf but didn't wear it even though I told her to. A has on a snow suit, a ski mask and gloves. M has on a snow suit, a hat and gloves and also has a shirt tired on to use as a scarf(I need to buy her a lightweight scarf like I use). They are all also wearing winter boots. It takes a good 10 to 15 minutes to get everyone geared up to go out when it is this cold but it's worth it to have some peace while the kids are at school!

Cass :)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Look at the Puppy now, oh yeah, and shots of the younger kids :)

So little S is now 12 weeks old or three months old and still as cute as can be.Last night we went out and got both M & A's hair cut. The hairdresser pretty much refused to cut M's hair as short as I wanted it but as long as I keep on top of combing it we should be okay.Oh and A finally lost that other front tooth.
This is the look I will be getting from M when she is K's age ... /is afraid/This shot says "Whatever!" to me and I see the same look on K's face often now that she is 12.

I tried to get a couple shots of S outside to show her coat colour better:

J got a couple nice shots of S and the cat playing. We've pretty much decided to see how they are together - keeping them apart was a huge hassle.The second shot also clearly shows the cool diamond-ish patch of black on S's tail and it's black tip.

These last two are just cute shots:
Until next week, I remain, Mommy :)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Puppy & Family update OR Yes, I know I still have kids.

So we've had little S for 5 weeks now and she is now 11 weeks old and has had two sets of puppy shots and is due to have two more sets. Her house training is going well and she is growing fast and seems to be adjusting well to her new food.I've noticed her body is starting to fill out to catch up with her legs, which is good.

Here's a couple close ups of her - I even managed to catch a yawn :)

Also my younger two puppies ... I mean, children decided to cop goofy faces for the camera. A has lost on of his front teeth and the other is loose and all crooked and weird looking and I think M has a mild eye infection(that she won't let me treat).Last but not least is a shot of S looking cute - the hat is hers and not M's :)

In other news I had a lovely day both on the 14th and yesterday - I had a bad evening yesterday though because I got a horrid headache and felt ill from the pain.Today has also been fairly good so no fear my mood has improved.

Cass :)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Slumpy grumpy Mommy

I'm having a bad afternoon and feel unappreciated and neglected, although I'm certain the neglected part is all in my mind. I know this is the lot of most Mommies we feel like this often and I'm not alone no matter how alone I may feel. My family loves me and I'm sure they like that I get up at 5am and take the dog out and make food for everyone and walk kids to school and shovel snow and take the dog out 15 times a day and keep the dog from chewing on the cat and take the compost and trash out and pick up the poo from the back yard and scoop the litter box and do the laundry and put away the laundry and clean stuff and tidy stuff.

I suppose they must notice all that, right? Do they know that sometimes I get fed up and I feel like I have no down time that doesn't involve sleeping? I know that's not true I read and watch TV and I'm sure I don't spend all my time doing stuff for everyone else. In fact I know I don't ... I spend a lot of everyday doing nothing at all so why all of a sudden do I feel like that's not true?

Oh and now I have to go ... the dog needs to be kept off the cat, again. /sigh/

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Have I become a dog food snob?

So we've had S for just over a month now and she has caused us to look at pet foods in a way I never thought I would. Now for me, personally, it's a trust thing and I am saddened by the level of lieing done to sell dog food(or anything really) that is done now. But let me start at the beginning - and yes this really is going to be a long boring post about dog food.

When we first go S just over a month ago we were told by the shelter lady that she was eating Old Roy Puppy food. The shelter lady said "It's really not a good food, switch her as soon as you can.". At that point J did what we had always done with Old Dog - he picked up a bag of what he thought was good food from the grocery store. We switched her and she seemed to be doing fine.

When Susie was 7 weeks old(just a week after we got her) M messed with her food and water and S stopped eating. I was very concerned and took her to the vet. While I was at the vet she seemed very unimpressed with our grocery store food and said "You should get her on a large puppy food." she then rattled off the usual higher end brands that I had heard of(Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba). When I told J about what the vet had said he did some research of his own and found out some very interesting things about dog foods and what things were good to have in them and what things were not so good to have in them. We then did some online label comparisons and settled on Royal Canin Large Puppy as our wonderful new food and switched S to that. I felt good about our choice and we also switched the cat to better food.

This morning as I was looking over a few things on the new forum I just joined(a dog forum) I decided to look at their food and nutrition section and see if any of them were feeding RC as well. A post in one of the threads had a link to a Dog Food Analysis site that compared and graded all sorts of different foods. I found out there that our great food only got a 2 out of 6 in their rating system(1 being the bottom of the barrel). I looked some more and e-mail J with links and asked him if we should reconsider our feeding choice, again.

J surprised me by bringing home a new dog food, a full 6 out of 6 from the listing and we are once again in the process of switching foods on S. Now I don't really want to become a dog food snob and the new food isn't any more expensive than the old food...in fact it's a tiny bit cheaper. All I want to say is if you have a dog and are wondering where your food stands you should consider looking into switching - it doesn't always end up costing more in the long run because better food doesn't have to be fed in as large a quantity. I would also suggest buying from a store that pretty much only sells pet foods(so not PetSmart or your local department/grocery store) as they will have a higher end variety than anywhere else(Pet Valu and Global Pet Foods in Canada are good choices).

Of course everyone makes their own choices for their pets and their kids, you don't have to do things the way I do. I'm just sayin'

Cass :)

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Puppy update - 4 weeks

Yup we've owned little Ms S for a whole month now! She got her second puppy shot from our vet yesterday - she's now 10 weeks old. To recap: I had her to the vet when she was 7 weeks old and at that point she weighed 2.4KG(5.3 lbs for my American friends) at 10 weeks(just 3 weeks since her last visit) she weighs 5KG(11 lbs). She doubled her weight in just 3 weeks. I sure hope she doesn't keep that up!

I'm changing the format a little this week and just including shots of her today - you can scroll down to look at the other shots of her from the last 3 weeks.

S now takes up almost an entire sofa cushion!My hand for scale - please note her giant paws.Children also for scale - I left M's eyes red because I feel they reflect her true nature, A is petting S's nose :)

The great news is that the cat is now okay with S and they often play(I assume it's play because no one draws blood).*nom nom*When the cat gets enough he heads down to the basement ... S often goes to look for him.It's really sweet.Often M is just down a few steps taking a break from S.With no cat to play with she comes back into the living room and lays down for a nap.Today it was on a blanket that was on the floor in front of my chair. Anyway she's growing and happy and seems to be slowly getting the whole potty outside deal so we're all happy.

In other news - we've gotten lots of snow lately here are a couple shots of my driveway and street from my front door.And that FF is a Snowbank :) Poor thing you don't know what you're missing there in Florida!! /lol/

Okay that's it for me today - I have to go watch children with both my eyes now.

Cass :)

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Puppy owners for 3 weeks - Pictures!

Those are the comparison shots the rest are just "Awwwww!" shots, hey I even have one of my two youngest playing in the snow in here as well(we were trying to get a shot of the puppy though - lol).