Vegas Baby

This time next week the husband and I are headed to Las Vegas! Most people don't understand how truly remarkable this trip will be for us. If I have done my math right (trust me I haven't) this will be the first time in 8 years the husband and I will actually take a trip alone. With a special needs kiddo it is about near impossible to get time alone. Time alone for us is when she goes to her grandparents for a few hours.

When the hubby first mentioned the possibility to me we discussed taking her with us, but we both knew we would really like to take the trip ourselves.
I then called my Mother to see if she was available that week. Like an angel descending from the heavens she said she could come and stay with the kiddo and puppy. (Note: this is not an actual picture of my Mother) The in-laws are going to be out of the country while we are gone so Mom is bravely taking on both the kiddo and the puppy by herself.

All next week I will make myself crazy trying to think of every single thing that might happen and what my Mom might need to know. But what I do know is that everything will be fine. The kiddo loves her Banma and can't wait to spend the week with her, the puppy will make them both crazy as puppies do. My Mom survived raising me so I think she can handle things for a week here at the house.

I will over prepare, I will forget things, but I have promised myself once I get on that plane I will relax and enjoy this trip. Who knows how long until we get to take another one.

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Dog School Delay

We missed dog school this week as Maddy was not feeling well. I am going to be out of town for the last class. I spoke to the people over at Dogwood and they were kind enough to let us into the next class. The only down side is I did not get into an earlier class. Oh well..can't win them all.

We begin dog school again on April 13th for the full six weeks and I plan on practicing like crazy so Bruiser and be the star every week!

Wow!

Take a min and watch this and if see if you don't say.....WoW

Random Thoughts

Here is a sorted assembly of random thoughts.....

I can't figure out my new cell phone because it is too simple and easy to use. I accidentally killed my other phone and bought the cheapest one I could find. This phone is very perplexing because things are where they would logically be and I have not owned a piece of equipment like that in years.

Tomorrow is back to school for Maddy and I after a 2 week Spring Break..wonder who will be crankier in the morning?

The dog has taken over the bed and I don't want to kick him out..well except for when he takes my covers.

The hubby and I are now taking two vitamins via liquid. You know you are getting old when the only shots you have are vitamin ones.

Monday will be two weeks without beer.

I am thrilled to have followers on my blog and want to thank my Dad for the wonderful comment he left about my Church post. Looking forward to hearing more from my readers.

This morning at church we had a mime perform learning how to turn the other cheek.

Time

Time is a funny thing. We all seem to either have too much of it or not enough. One thing is for certain and that is we all just get a limited amount of it. Over the past 6 months I have had to learn how to deal with time in a new way and I think I am better for it.

When the decision was made for me to stay and home and home school the kiddo I had all of these "June Cleaver" type daydreams of a clean house, fresh baked cookies, and a nice dinner on the table every night. I soon learned that my day dreams would be just that "dreams". The house is basically clean, we all eat, and once in a while cookies are made.

The hubby and I both consider ourselves very efficient and productive people. We can typically do things in about half the time of anyone else we know. One of the first things I had to learn was that the kiddo moves at her speed and trying to shift her into another gear is counter productive and frustrating for both of us. It no longer bothers me that when she gets out of bed in the morning it will take her 30-45 min to put on clothes and brush her teeth. She has taught me to slow down a bit in life.

Over the course of the past few months I have learned to look at what needs to be done, what should be done and what could be done each day. I found myself spending more time doing the what could be done and a little less of what should be done.

Things like playing with and training the dog, taking him to the park and going for long walks. Going to lunch with friends and family during the day. Sitting on the couch and watching a TV show and talking about it with her. Spending hours and hours "just losing" a video game to watch her laugh and knowing that she is working on visual and fine motor skills. Doing crafts on Fridays or making the monthly newsletter. Going to the gym to work out and provide her with good exercise habits.

Once I let the guilt of not having a perfect looking house and three course meal on the table I have found more joy in the past few months than I could have ever imagined. Often I am sending pictures to the husband of random things that we are doing to share our day with him.

I have learned a little bit more to live in the moment. Time has become more of a friend than a stopwatch. I look forward to many more adventures by spending time on what we can do!

Dog School

Sometimes I need a little more faith and patience. (O.k. maybe more that a little). Last night was week 3 of our Basic Dog Obedience class. When we signed up for this class I thought it would be something that Maddy could be successful at while continuing to build her bond with Bruiser. I knew that with the class starting at 8:15 at night that would be a struggle for me. I don't like to leave the house that late. I am Ms. Morning and have no desire to leave my house past about 4:00 in the afternoon.

The first week of class, Bruiser was the stubborn dog and spent most of the class looking at me trying to figure out what he had done to be brought here. The second week on the way to class he accidentally rolled the window up on his head. (There mass panic, but we all survived). So needless to say last night as we are preparing for class I am doing all I can to stay positive and remembering that this is not about me and is for the greater good.

Each week we have "dog school" homework. Maddy and I have been pretty good about doing it, but honestly we spend more time on the fun homework than the hard stuff.

We arrive at the school without incident (cheers) and get there a good bit early. I put Bruiser in a "settle" which is what got him labeled stubborn the first week and of course he goes right down. Maddy and I discuss the issue we are having with Bruiser not wanting to sit on their surface and on the wood floors at home. After getting a bit of advice we wander off to do our own thing before school starts.

Maddy and I are sitting on the floor with Bruiser waiting for class to start and the darn dog sits right down like he has done it from day one! Maddy gets so excited, she is just beyond happiness. During the class Bruiser (for the most part) is a shining star! He gets 3 "great jobs" from different trainers throughout the class. I looked over at Maddy after the second great job Bruiser got and she is standing there with little tears of happiness running down her face. She told me "Mom, I am so proud of him I have to cry".

At the end of class we learned the spin trick (which will be a good one for Maddy to do with him this week) and then we worked on walking on and around new objects for the dog. Things were going so well at the end of class I let Maddy and Bruiser show the trainer the high-five trick. The trainer even suggested a few other tricks that Maddy and Bruiser could work on.

Seeing Maddy be a proud puppy owner last night made it all worth while. It truly was all about the two of them and my faith and patience was renewed.

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One Week

At the end of the day today I will have gone one full week without a beer. For anyone who knows me understands that I love beer. I love the smell, taste, texture, well everything about beer. Heck I am getting a little warm and fuzzy thinking about beer right now.

My friendship with beer started easy enough, a beer here and there. Then if one beer is good then two would be great. If two beers are good then three would be even better. Well then I married a man that also loved beer as much as I did. Somewhere along the way that crazy word called moderation faded into the background. Between the two of us I think we might have kept the beer industry afloat (no pun intended).

Now the the husband and I are a bit older the beer is not so friendly to us anymore. For a couple of years now we have had the following conversation where one of us states that we need to lose weight. Then after about 10 minutes of crazy ideas on how to lose weight I would say..well we both know what we need to do. After a panicked moment we would laugh and enjoy our beer later that day.

There was no big event that lead up to the break in my friendship with beer, just the fact that it was time to do something and that time was now. It might take me forever to make up my mind, but once I do, I am 110%. This week I have practiced moderation with having no more than 2 glasses of my favorite red wine (Bully Hill vineyards, Love My Goat) and a martini sprinkled in for good measure. I lost some weight this week and already I feel better over all.

So to all my little bottled friends out there...I won't forget you, but we won't be hanging out together anymore.

Church..my how you have changed

While I was growing up church was a big part of my life. I grew up in a very small town and well, everyone went to church. Church was quiet, serious, not to be taken lightly. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed church growing up. You went every Wednesday and Sunday and you knew what to expect and you learned the routine quickly.

After I moved away from home and began my life wanderings church has come and gone. Each time I would find myself in church it was like going back home. It was comforting, the rituals, the words. At times I have attended church on a somewhat regular basis and then would let life interfere and attendance would drop off.

Now I am at a point in my life where I am in a situation where I need to encourage my child to have social interactions with children around her age. She is an only child and a special needs kiddo so social interaction with peers is very important. Harnessing the wonderful power of the internet I came up a youth group that would be perfect for her.

About a month ago, we ventured to this new church and youth group. She LOVED it, she looks forward to going each week. Currently she seems to be connecting with the adults more than the youth, but I believe that will slowly change. I now find myself having to re-learn what church is and can be.

This church is everything that church "was not" supposed to be. There was noise, rock and roll bands (christian of course), concession stands. You wear casual clothes, you drink your coffee during the service. The minister even wears jeans. I am slowly adjusting to my new surroundings, but I am still having a hard time because it just does not feel like church.

The message is good each week, and I can see that this is good for both of us, but I need to learn how to trade in my old rituals for new ones. Wish me luck!

Hidey Ho and Welcome

Here I am trying again to Blog..tried it once and it became "work" so I gave it up. I am not really sure why people would want to read about me or my crazy life, but if you do here is your chance.

First up why the name? Did you mean to leave out the "A" or what does S M R T stand for? To answer this question the first thing I want to you do is try to come up with a good name for how you would blog "your life" for the world to read? Not so easy huh? In this house we are all very clever in very different ways, we are all smart in different ways but we all have those days when the "A" is well...just missing.

With this blog I can't promise what you will get, but I will try to make it fairly entertaining for ya. Mostly I will share my thoughts and staying home full time and home schooling my special needs kiddo, living with an energetic puppy and supporting my best friend and husband.

I am off to get my day going, but I promise to be back soon and share stories about my life and being S M R T!