Long Few Weeks

Well, it has been a long few weeks, and super busy at best. And I doubt this next week will be much better, not with everything I'm doing. It feels like I've had very little downtime for myself lately, and Mom pointed that out to me last Saturday.

I guess it started a few weeks ago, Arla is still trying to sell the house we are living in even though no one is interested in buying it. They just want to look around and the Relator Arla hired hated our dogs. Like with a passion hates them because they barked at her when she showed up three hours late and no one was home. Of course Jack is going to growl and bark at her we have "Beware of Dog" signs on the sign on our doors for a reason. Priestly has also started playing the part of guard dog, a habit he's picked up from Jack, but Yorkie's are known to be good guard dogs. Priestly thinks he's the biggest dog in the house and puts even Jack in his place. When Jack has enough he tries to smack Priestly with his paw but Priestly is too fast for him.

Anyway, Jack had been feeling sick that week. Mike had woken up Tuesday morning to Jack breathing in his face. Mike pushed him away and rolled over to go back to sleep. Then he heard what he discribed as a wet raspberry sort of sound coming from the corner of the bed where Jack was and then it began to stink. Mike just thought Jack was farting at first but then the smell didn't go away. So he got up to check and was very angry when he saw Jack had had an accident because his stomach was so upset. I wasn't angry with Jack he had tried to let Mike know that he had to go out but Mike had ignored him. I was upset when the light was turned on at 2:00 in the morning when I had to get up to go to work in less than two hours. Mike cleaned up the carpet muttering to himself the whole time then went to his office to wait for me to officially wake up so he could clean the carpets with the shampoo machine. I couldn't fall back asleep so when my alarm went off at 3:30 I just rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom to get ready. Mike had put Jack in there so Jack kept me company while I got dressed and ready for work.

When I came out Mike was standing there, hands on his hips, glaring at me. Now, what happened wasn't my fault and I wasn't going to take any crap from him about it. When Mike told me what happened I couldn't help but laugh. The situtation was anything but funny but the faces Mike was making and the sounds he used to add to the story were too funny not to laugh at. Mike saw the funny side later that day and he got over it.

That Thursday I woke up to Jack breathing in my face and I rolled over to go back to sleep but when I heard him pass gas I was up and out of bed so fast that Mike thought something was wrong. He shot up and asked me what the matter was, but I didn't have time to answer I had grabbed Jack by the collar and was hauling him to the bedroom door, where I quickly unlocked and opened it for him, he ran down the stairs and was waiting by the back door to be let out. I felt relieved, until I got a text from Mike later that morning. He said that Jack had had not one but two accidents and that it was high time Jack got a kennel. So I took all three dogs down to my parents that afternoon and I went shopping for a kennel.

Now we have kennels for the puppies - they are the ASPCA brand and were only about thirty dollars each for their size. For Jack's size they were between seventy to eighty dollars. We don't have that kind of money right now so I looked for something else. I found a nylon kennel that you can fold up and store for only thirty dollars. It was perfect so I got that one and pulled it out for Jack to try when I got back to my parents. Jack seemed to like it, but unfortunately, Priestly liked it too. I couldn't get Priestly out of it, and finally turned it up so that the door was facing the ground and shook it gently to get Priestly to come out.

That afternoon Dad asked if I'd color for him. It turned out that he had a project he needed to get done for his safety calling for the stake. He had to outline and color certain areas on the neighborhood map and then write in the house numbers on larger maps. I colored two of the smaller maps and then wrote the numbers in on the larger maps. Dad was so pleased he asked if I'd finish them for him. I told him I'd finish them if I could take the smaller maps home because I wanted to go home. I was getting tired at this point and I still had to work the next day. So I packed up the colored pencils, markers, and maps as well as the dogs and headed home. I set up Jack's kennel in the kitchen with a few pillows and he seemed content enough to be in there. All three dogs slept in their respective kennels while I worked on the maps for four more hours before finally calling it a night and turning in.

Mike got home early from school and we went up to bed. But were not able to go to sleep thanks to a chorus of howling from downstairs. First Jack would howl then Priestly would echo him, then Jack would howl again and Priestly would echo him. Mike went down there to tell Jack to be quiet but came back fairly quickly and told me to come look. I got up and went down to look and saw Jack's kennel stuck in between the baby gate and the kitchen wall, he'd managed to flip his kennel over to the baby gate and push it open slightly but had gotten stuck. So we put him back and went upstairs. Mike bet me a dollar that Jack would get out but I told Mike he didn't have any dollars to spare as he doesn't have a job. A minute later Mike went to get a drink, but hadn't even left the room all the way when he called me again. I went over to see Jack sitting outside our glass livingroom door smiling a doggy smile at us.

Irritated and angry I grabbed Jack and took him back to his kennel before heading back upstairs. But I only made it halfway before I heard a thumpety-thump thumpety-thump and so I turned around and sat on the stairs to watch. Jack was standing up in his kennel on his hind legs and was pushing against the roof of the kennel to flip it over to make it move. Mike found this very funny. We decided that Jack would find a way to get up the stairs one way or another, kennel or no kennel so we let him out, took the kennel upstairs to our room and put him back in. He didn't move or make a sound the rest of the night. I still didn't sleep well because Mike was laughing so hard over the image of Jack flipping the kennel around the kitchen he made the bed shake all night.

I finished Dad's maps the following day after another 4 1/2 hours and about a week later I finished the large maps for him too by writing in the numbers. Victoria's family was going out of town and hadn't invited her so she asked to stay the weekend with us. So I had to go down there to pick her up Saturday night, even though she wouldn't get off work until 10:30pm. I told her that was fine.

The Thursday before she was supposed to stay our second microwave pooped out on us. So I had to go buy a new one Friday. I went with my Dad and when I stopped at the house Mom told me that we were invited to go celebrate Grandma Condie's birthday with her by going up to Tooele for dinner if we wished. Mike was all for it so I told her we'd go. Mom picked us up for dinner and we enjoyed spending the time up with my Mom and Grandparents exchanging stories and visiting. After dinner we went to Grandma's to watch her open presents but by this time I was getting tired. It was after 9:00pm and I'm usually in bed by then. We finally left close to 10:00pm and we got home a little after 10:30. I didn't get to bed until after 11:00pm and got up at 4:00am the next morning to go to work. So I was pretty cranky and tired.

I got a call from my friend Chantel around 6:30am that morning telling me that she had had her baby even though she was five weeks early and she wanted me to come see her in the hospital. Since I was going to Riverton anyway I decided to go down and see her that day. Mom called me later and told me to try and take a nap if I got off work early before coming down to Riverton. She said I'd been doing things for everyone else lately and she knew how tired I must be because we hadn't gotten home until late. I didn't have time for a nap though and I knew it. I wanted to get the bathroom cleaned when I got home and get some laundry going. Work was busy so I worked a full day and when I got home Mike was waiting for me. He told me that I looked exhausted and to go relax while he cleaned the bathroom for me (isn't he sweet?) so I relaxed for about forty minutes before getting ready to go.

When Priestly saw I was leaving again he threw a big stink. So I loaded him into the car and took him with me. I dropped off my items at the library and Priestly at my parents then went down to the hospital to visit Chantel and the baby. Then I went back to my parents and that was when I finished the big maps for my Dad. Then very tired at this point as it was almost 10:00pm I got Priestly into the car and we waited for Victoria in the parking lot.

Victoria spent the night and all of Sunday with us, and I took her home Sunday night. Monday I was so tired from doing things for everyone else all weekend I just wanted to stay home and relax. Mike, however, wanted chocolate chip cookies bad and begged me to make some. So I spent the next three hours making cookies and fixing dinner. I talked to Chantel who had brought the baby home and she too said cookies sounded good. Since we had a lot I promised to bring her some later in the week.

On Wednesday after I got off I went down to visit Chantel and to take her some cookies. It was nice just spending some time with her and seeing the baby again. To catch up on girl talk and just let off some frustrations that we both had been storing up.

So here it is Saturday again and this next week I'm on paid vacation from work. Jack is going in for surgery Monday morning to get a lump on his side removed so I want to be home for recovery time with him. Tomorrow we are going to Aunt Shirleen's for Alexis' graduation party for a bit, Monday is Jack's surgery and I'm going to see Chantel again while I'm waiting for him to be finished, Tuesday is Stephen's birthday. We don't have money for gifts so he wants me to make him my chocolate cake with homemade frosting and mini chocolate chips on top of it - it's Mike's favorite cake. Thursday Stephen is coming down for dinner one last time before they go to Thailand for a month. Saturday we are doing game night and Father's Day at Mom's and hopefully the rest of the week I can spend being with my dogs and husband and enjoying my time off. But that doesn't seem likely.