I'm not going to laugh..

As M exhaustedly got up at 3am to be into work at 5am, little did he know that he would be spending the majority of his time with Sam, outside, frantically trying to convince him that peeing out there was a good idea.  Only to have him go on the livingroom rug.  You see Sam has decided that he kind of likes it in the house and if he never has to go outside again, that would be just fine with him.  Right now he is quite contendly sleeping under my desk after being awake all night howling.  Yes that means that we were also awake all night.  Is it wrong that I am happy that the kids are home this week so they can wear this little fucker out?

I haz a cute!

Please, by all that you consider holy, tell me again why I thought this would be a good idea?

This morning I got 1 cig and 1/2 cup of coffee down by 5:30am and yet M was fed breakfast and had his lunch packed and happily out the door on his way to work.  ^^^^^  That thing The puppy had been taken potty twice, fed his breakfast, played with and put down for a nap.  When I went to lay back down for a nap?  Holy hell the lungs on him.  I swear the entire block now thinks I string him up by his toe-nails.

I will admit that he is rather handsome now that he's cleaned up but gawd did he STINK.  My dogs so do not smell like that.  Just in case you're wondering, he is 11 weeks old and these pictures don't really do him justice as far as displaying his size.  His uber cuteness is the only thing saving his hairy little ass from coffee and sleep deprived decimation.

None of these explain the size ratio.  This one does.  Check out that paw compared to my hand.  Yes he's a lab, no he's not a cow.

Meet S.A.M.

Poppa

I am part of freecycle (of course) and one of the things that came up 2 springs ago was white cedar saplings so knowing that M's dad uses cedar almost as his totem, tucking pieces into Christmas cards and caskets alike, I grabbed them figuring that he would like them.  They weren't saplings, these things were 3 feet high.  And there were 14 of them.  Well I distributed what I could amongst my friends and brought what was left up north to his Dad.  His brother took one, which left 5 that M helped him plant down in what he calls the cedar swamp.  A month later I asked how they were doing so we walked down there to check on them.  On the way down he told me stories of the different trees along the path like the basswoods that grew in clumps instead of solitary trees because he and his brother had cut the trees closest to the road to sell for shipping material when they were teenagers and the clumps were what had grown out of the stumps.  He showed me the mound that was actually an old stump that he and his father had pulled out with the team of horses when he was home from college one summer.  About how what we were walking on started out as Highway 8, then was abandoned when they put the paved road in at the bottom of the hill.  How then it became an Indian path and the reason for the Indian gap right next to the gate at the top of the driveway.  He pointed out dead limbs that he would have to "get to" before syrup season.  All in all I think it was only about a 20 minute walk but it was amazing to listen to his stories of this land that he grew up on and was now growing old on.  We entered the swamp from the north west and he didn't even hesitate as he walked up to the northern-most tree.  He examined the branches and needles and told me about how when you planted things here there were plenty of rocks you had to move and sometimes you just had to work around them if they wouldn't be moved.  How he hoped he had picked the right spot for the trees but only time would tell if that was true or not.  He examined each tree for signs that he had chosen well and before we reached the 3rd tree, I realized that he had planted them in a circle.  At the 5th tree he stopped to catch his breath and told me that he passed the cedar along as a sort of "good journey" wish and maybe it was a bit pagan but that was okay.  There was an Indian that he used to work with who taught him that there was more than one way to worship and that he hoped his kids had learned that lesson, and that he thought they maybe had.

We walked back mostly in comfortable silence.

Total win..

LOL

Something to love..

I had to find something to love about this job or I would have slowly lost my mind.  The thing I found is that I can save people money.  I'm a known spendthrift.  I make my own laundry soap, dog food, freeze veggies from the garden, and make my own jam.  Not just because it's better for you, but because I'm just that cheap.  I love freecycle (even if M has "discussions" with me about what's junk), and have been known to occasionally pick useful things up at the curb.  My children know that when clothes come in a garbage bag, they have every right to veto them but NOT because they were pre-owned.  I rarely buy anything new, and it takes an act of the Goddess combined with a direct order from M to get me to buy clothing for myself in a store that isn't a thrift shop.  I do have limits, however.  Underwear (knickers) are never ever bought used.  Socks are only if I know the person I'm getting them from and they are in pristine shape, same goes for bras.  Tennies and most shoes to be honest are new, unless I can't see any signs of wear on them.  School supplies are re-used from the year before and I am the patron saint of all the dollar stores (you have to be smart at those and realize that if a roll of paper toweling is only a buck, but at the grocery store you can get 6 for $5, that isn't that great of a deal).

Why am I such a cheapskate thrifty person?    If you've ever stood in line at the food pantry just to be able to feed your kids, you would be too.  When I divorced X I didn't have a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of because I refused to strip that house that my children considered "home" just so that I could be more comfortable.  I was also unemployed as most of my customers left when I moved.  In putting together a home for us from scratch I came to the realization that you could have a very nice home for very little money just because people throw away the damnedest things.  3ft high Kenwood speakers?  Yep, got em free.  Broyhill sofa?  Yep, free.  Working washer and dryer?  You guessed it.  Dressers? Amazing what a little sandpaper and finish work will produce.  Need a freezer?  No joke.  Full size upright freezer that isn't new but isn't ancient.  All for the price of hauling it.

Saving someone $10 on their cable bill while getting them more services is right up my alley.  Lemonade anyone?