Five For Friday

By | Posted November 11, 2011

Posted in Five For Friday | 6 Comments »

So last week, I decided I was going to play with our dog in an effort to become a decent dog owner.  How has she repaid me?  By chewing through our fence three days in a row.  And then leaving our yard.  Because of course, not only does my dog chew through fences, she also runs away.  She runs in the exact direction which will most likely result in her death.  With me and the children chasing her down.  Which will then result in watching her die and scarring my kids.  No lie, I just ran outside to chase her away from chewing through yet another board.  WTF?  What am I supposed to do?

This leads to the question of when do you cut your losses with a pet?  I don’t give away animals, but this dog might be the one.  I honestly don’t know what to do with her.  Quite frankly, she has become “one more thing to deal with” every day.  That sounds horrible, but I’m being truthful.  The reality is that I don’t have time for a dog anymore.  I play with her when we’re outside, and yes, now I am trying to make a better effort, but I’m spent.  I am at a time in my life where I feel like I am just getting by more often than not.  I’m not being a good mother and if something has to give, it would be the dog not my kids.  I know this makes me a pretty bad owner, but at the same time, I have to be truthful as to where I am these days.  I don’t know…How do I deal with this?  More torn up crap, more barking, the crazy lady freaking out…

In googling advice for “my dog chews through my fence” the best answer on Yahoo was “stay home”.  Really?  This was the best people could come up with it.  Doesn’t do much for me since she started chewing through the fence today when the kids were outside trying to play with her.

Last week, I read about the family cloth.  Ever heard of it?  In a nutshell, it’s reusable toilet paper.  This is not something that interests me in the least.  Of course, that didn’t stop me from reading several (as in over 50) comments about it.  From the comments, the people who seem to be using this are those who also use cloth diapers.  However, there were many who use cloth diapers that don’t go for the family cloth.  I don’t use cloth diapers, but don’t think they’re weird at all.  In fact, I have a lot of friends who use them on their babies.  (And all their babies are potty trained much faster than my generic disposable diapered babies.)  One of the commentators asked “what do these “family cloth” families do when company comes over”.  Easy, they have toilet paper for those occasions.  That answer got me thinking…do any of my cloth diaper friends use the family cloth in their homes?  And do I want to know?

I have a nasty cold and was in the mood for soup.  I wanted something easy, so I made this soup called Chicken Tortilla Soup.  I use that term loosely; this is not what I would consider a tortilla soup.  Regardless, Lance loves it and constantly tells people about it.  I’m glad he likes the food I cook and that he brags about it.  But this recipe…it’s a soup from a ton of cans.  Canned pinto beans, canned great northern beans, canned hominy, Rotel, and more.  The recipe even calls for canned chicken, but I draw the line at that and buy rotisserie instead.

Today is Veteran’s Day, and also my mom’s birthday, more on her later.  As a member of ROTC, Squirt will be marching in the parade today.  In his uniform.  He wears his uniform to school once a week.  And on those days, he has been asking me to drop him off at the ROTC building rather than have him walk across campus.  Why?  Just some asshole kids who make fun of him for aspiring to be in the military.  I am so proud of Squirt for not quitting ROTC.  It’s hard to do something that people consider different.  He wants to do this, he wants a career in the military.  And while I am like most people, wanting someone else’s child to serve our country, I couldn’t be more prouod of him today.  A huge thank you to those who have served our country, a big hug and kiss to my son for supporting those who have served.  And a big F-you to the kids who mock my son.

I just had my first true “I’m the mother of a lot of boys” moment.  Kind of strange that it has taken this long.   The boys collect treasures on a daily basis: rocks, acorns, leaves and sticks.  These items end up in the house with Goose having a huge collection in his closet.  We also are trying to implement a nature table around here.  I have a nice little basket with our thankful leaves and acorns the boys have found all week.  Today there were white worms with brown little heads crawling around.  I want to puke.  My boys thought this was so cool and started picking them up.  I didn’t freak out in front of them, but I want to puke right now.  In fact, this is much grosser to me than the above mentioned “family cloth”.   Now I am thinking about Goose’s closet.  And after telling Lance, he used the word MAGGOT.  No, not in acorns, right?  I am not even going to Google it because I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.

update: my dog chewed through the fence again.


Comments on Five For Friday

  1. From cory:

    We had a dog that chewed through 60 fence pickets in a 3 month period. I ended up lining the inside of the fence with 3 ft metal fencing that he couldn’t chew through. It wasn’t expensive but a pain in the ass to install.

    Tell your boys I can bring them some nice fat red worms if they want.

  2. From reagan:

    3 words….Mans Best Friend !!

  3. From Jenn:

    I love his commitment to the military!

    (And I’m dreading the piles of gross #@$# I will find from W!)

  4. From Nicole:

    Chicken wire? or something more?

    I had forgotten about that purchase you made. I’ve had enough worms for a lifetime.

  5. From Nicole:

    Today, I found another container of stuff and was scared to look inside.

  6. From cory:

    it’s a little thicker that chicken wire. It comes in a role of 3ft by 50 yards.