No, we're not having children

Josh and I just had this conversation on Saturday night about all the assinine things people say to us when we tell them we're not having children. For whatever reason, people believe it's their business whether or not we're going to procreate and it's their place to make comments on our choice to not have kids. I've learned to just get over it - and remind myself that it's no one's business but ours.

But for fun, I thought I'd just make a list of all the different things we've heard over the years from people when we tell them we don't want kids (and these are in no particular order):

1. "You'll change your mind when you get older." We're 30 years old; we're pretty stable in our lives and pretty sure of what we want. Maybe it applied when we were 18, but come on, we're old enough to know what we do and do not want in life!

2. "Who will take care of you when you get old?" Really? Because people are having kids strictly so that they have someone to take care of them when they're old and frail? I thought parents don't want to be a burden to their children. Lord, when I get old and frail, I'm going to be put in a home to let the professionals take care of me - just like I'll do for my parents. I'm not a caretaker, I'm not going to change my parents' diapers and I wouldn't have children just so they could change my diapers.

3. "You don't know what you're missing." Which goes hand in hand with "You'll wake up one day and regret not having kids." Yes, I don't know what being a parent to a human child is like. No, I will not regret it. I've thought long and hard about this - it's not a decision we made on a whim. And I thought when our friends started having babies, it would hit us that we were missing out and it would make us think more about having kids. But really, it's just the opposite. Sitting with friends last night watching a movie, I remembered how great it is to not have kids - at home, we watch a movie with no kids talking or toys making noise. Last night, we had to struggle to hear above Ethan asking questions about the movie and Kendra's toy making all kinds of ruckus. And when we go out, and our friends can't because they can't find a sitter? Again, reminds me of how easy our life is without kids - we can come and go as we please (well, almost, it's a little more restricted with Kayla being sick, but for the most part we have tons of freedom).

4. "That's selfish of you." Wow? Really? Isn't it selfless of me to realize I don't want kids, rather than just having kids because that's what's expected of me, even though I don't want them. I'm not going to have a kid just cuz that's what everyone does if I don't really want the kid to begin with. Nothing like screwing the kid up right from birth!!

5. The most creative one I've heard - "That's a waste of a good uterus." That one cracked me up!!

6. And the one that I had to force myself to continue walking away so I didn't drop kick the person who said it - "Where's your motherly instinct?" Have you not seen me with my dogs? I have more motherly instinct than most mothers of human children. Just because I don't want kids doesn't mean I don't have motherly instinct.

Don't worry, I'm not bitter. I've come to realize over the years that people love poking their noses in other people's business. And thankfully, I do believe our parents and close family have all realized we are serious about not having kids, so they don't pressure us to do it. They know we're more than happy with our three pugs and that's the way it's going to be!!

Time to be Thankful

It's a little early since Thanksgiving isn't for another week and a half, but I'm being reflective tonight and thought I'd do a post about all the good things in my life that I'm thankful for.

1. My husband. I'm thankful to have a husband who loves me and works hard to support us. Yes, most days I'd like to smother him in his sleep and collect the life insurance money, but, alas, I refrain from doing this and he lives to see another day!!! Just kidding - I do love him and he does take care of me. Besides, I'd hate to have to hire someone to clean the house and do the laundry if I killed him!!

2. Diesel. This boy makes me laugh day in and day out. My heart literally melts when I lay eyes on him. As I type this, he's gotten up off the bed and went to lay by himself in his dog bed because I'm apparently irritating him by making noise or moving or both. That personality of his cracks me up!! And in addition, he's my only healthy baby, so we're always thankful for that!

3. Makayla. I'm thankful that she's still here with us. Last year at this time we didn't know if she'd be here in a year. And yet here she is - still fighting. She's a trooper and I admire her more and more every day. She doesn't let her disability slow her down - she just gets up and goes on with her life. She's taught me more than I ever thought I could learn from her, and yet I feel there's even more to learn as our journey continues. She's still as stubborn, bossy and bitchy as ever - gotta admire that!!

4. Gracie Lou Freebush. Mrs. Freebush - she's a character and I'm thankful she found her way into our life. I don't know that anyone else would tolerate Grace and her antics the way we do. She's taught me immense amounts of patience - and to not take life so seriously all the time!! When I want to yell and scream because she's sassy, she gives me her "Elvis" look and cracks me up!

5. My job. At times when so many people have lost their job, I'm thankful to still have a job. And a pretty decent boss too. Even when it's stressful and I'm tired of dealing with people, it's still good to have an income and a little job security!

6. My family. We may be one of the more dysfunctional families in the world, but I still am happy to say we are a rather close family. I'm thankful to know that they'd be here for me at the drop of a hat no matter what.

7. Our health. Although we struggle with the pugs' health issues, for the most part we are healthy and so are our loved ones. That's a big thing to be thankful for.

I hope everyone who reads this blog is as blessed as we are. And I hope you all take a moment this holiday season to county those blessings and give thanks for them.

Ahhh, peace and quiet!

Happy Saturday!!! I'm enjoying a couple hours of peace and quiet this morning. Josh is doing a side job and the three stooges are at the groomers for their spa morning. And how do I celebrate my morning alone?! I'm about to begin doing some work from home - yep, I get a couple hours of peace and quiet and I use it to do overtime work. That's how busy life is lately!!

Things have been great lately. We've put Grace on pain meds, which seem to be helping with her back legs. We'll touch base with the vet next week, but I'd imagine we'll work out some sort of long term pain med regimen for Grace. Kayla's holding her own as always. We started her on Vallium to help her be less restless through the night. And it's working well - she's still up several times during the night, but when we go back to bed, she settles in and is able to go back to sleep (and so are we!!). Makayla's on several different meds right now, but she's still a happy go lucky girl. She wakes up smiling every day and still loves life. And that's all that matters for us anymore.

Have a great weekend - and remember to always live for the moment!!

Really it has been a crazy life lately

Time has flown by recently. Every part of life has been hectic.

October has been a busy month for my Tastefully Simple business. It's been great - I'm glad to have be busy with Tastefully Simple - it's fun seeing my business grow and I find that I enjoy parties more and more with each one that I do. Plus, the few extra bucks I make certainly do help!!

Our law firm has been crazy busy lately, which is great - always good to have job security. Most of the staff has been working 50+ hours lately, which is unusual for so many of us to be so busy. My weekends lately have been spent at the office on Saturday and then working from home on Sunday. Right now, we have a temporary reprieve, but in about 3-4 weeks, the workload is going to pick back up again and we'll all be working mass overtime all over again. Oh well - it's a good time of the year to be earning extra money from OT!!

Makayla has been doing well - as well as can be expected. The steroids have had her feeling a little better. However, her appetite has become insane. She is constantly hungry. In fact, she gets a meal around 2 a.m. so that she can make it through the night. And she's been drinking more and more water, which means more and more potty trips. Needless to say, I'm exhausted because I only sleep about 2 hours at a time at night since Makayla is up so much. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm just thankful that Kayla's still here with us and feeling as well as she is.

We had our family photo shoot last week and it went so much better than I expected. We should be getting the proofs any day now and I'm cannot wait to see how great the pictures turned out.

And last but not least, Grace is headed to the vet tomorrow. She's having some trouble with her back legs and we need to find out what's going on with her. We always knew she'd be the next one to give us major health issues, but were so hoping to have a little reprieve between handicapped pugs. As of right now, that's not looking like it's going to happen. Cross fingers and paws that we can figure out what's going on with Grace.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment!!

We've scheduled a photo shoot with Lori Skalitzky Photography in a couple weeks. I really want to get a photo shoot with Makayla while she's still up and mobile and feeling good. So Lori will be coming out to our house for an outdoor photo session in our backyard. And for fun, I decided we should try to get a family photo out of it - we'll see if Grace cooperates and gets close enough to be in the same photo as Josh!!! If we do manage to get a nice family shot, I'd love to have a gorgeous 16x20 portrait to put in the living room with the pugs' portraits. And hopefully we'll also end up with more beautiful pictures of the stooges.

Or, I'll have a lot more gray hair by the time the shoot is over!!

Reality Check

Nothing like a trip to the vet for a little reality check. We took Makayla in for a checkup tonight because her leg spasms are still continuing and she's not sleeping more than 2 hours at a time through the night. We're going to try out Prednisone and see if that helps with the spasms, and if it does help, we will probably keep her on it long term. Here's the reality check - I asked Dr. Pat if we should be concerned about long term Prednisone usage. That's when he said we don't need to worry so much about long term side effects because, in essence, we're at the stage where we are more concerned with quality of life rather than quantity. Who knows how long we have left with Sissy - but we're going to make it the best we possibly can for her. So here's hoping the Prednisone works and we can get the spasms under control.

Chicago, here we come!

Have I said how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chicago??? It's such a fun, fast paced, neat city. Friday morning I am dropping the three stooges off for a weekend at Auntie Mary's house (thank God for Auntie Mary, since no one else in their right mind is willing to take care of these three crazy dogs for a weekend!) and we are hitting the road. We being me, Josh and Josh's dad, Jeff. We're taking a few days to escape life, do some sightseeing, a little shopping and just relax and enjoy the Windy City. And although I know Josh isn't looking forward to the 3 hour drive, I know he's stoked to be driving in downtown Chicago once again - that city is made for a crazy ass driver like Josh, so he feels right at home there!! We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post when we get back.

Another reason pugs are better than kids!

Yet another reason pugs are better than kids - because they like to sleep as much as I do!!!! We slept in super late today, got up and ate some breakfast and decided to lay back in bed and watch TV for a little while. And where are the pugs? Happily laying in bed and on the floor, snoring like freight trains! And Diesel is even under the covers as he feels it's simply too bright to sleep on top of the covers - he just can't get a good enough sleep!! See, kids don't do this stuff - they need to be up and moving around - too busy for me!!!

Random Saturday Thoughts

First, I have to thank my favorite cousin, Sara, for the picture she sent me last week - I have yet to get it framed and hung on my art wall, but I promise to do that soon and I will post a pic of it once I do.

It was a fun day of scrapping - working on two pages to submit for the Milwaukee Pugfest scrapbook contest to benefit pug rescue. Wow - it's hard to be given a theme and requirements to scrap. I've never done it before and it really makes you stop and think about what you're doing. I do believe, however, that I have finally gotten off to a good start and will get them finished yet this week. Which is good because they're due by Labor Day. And thank you to Mary for helping inspire me!!

Ah, yes, the reasons I don't have kids - Karaleigh (Mary's granddaughter) is one sweet little girl, but man that kid can wear a person out!! Just watching her run back and forth through the living room in her cowboy boots made me tired!! Oh, and she's very picky about the quality of stickers she uses - I tried giving her some of my stickers to play with and she never hesitated to give me back the ones she didn't like!!

And cannot forget my usual fireworks rant. Here's the deal, people. Fireworks are for the 4th of July. It's currently August 21 - long past the 4th of July, so if all the idiots can stop shooting off fireworks, I'd be forever grateful!!

Trip to Chicago next weekend with Josh and my FIL. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chicago so am really looking forward to a fun weekend. Maybe we can manage a stop at the outlet mall in Kenosha on our way there or back - not that I have any money to spend, but hey that's what keeps Discover, Mastercard and Visa in business, isn't it?! Well, that and my vet expenses!

Have a great weekend, lord knows the warm summer weekends will be over before we know it.

Grace, the squirrel hunter

Yesterday morning I fed the kids and put them out after breakfast for potties. The twins did their business and came in, but Grace was nowhere to be seen. I called her a couple times but no Grace. I figured she was out in my flower bed happily eating flowers. So I put on my shoes and grabbed a flashlight (it's dark, you know, since they eat breakfast at 4:30 a.m. - thank you, Sis!) and headed outside. As I walked around the corner of the garage, Grace came running from where the fence meets the front corner of the garage. I went to investigate what she was doing over there.

And I discovered that Grace was happily gnawing on the remains of the ground squirrel that had been caught in the trap just outside the fence. She happily dragged the back part of the squirrel through the fence and chewed away!! Icky little girl!!!!!!!!

So, now I am happy to see her eat poop again instead of rodents!!

"That poor dog" - Warning: Rant ahead

Makayla is a happy dog, who wakes up everyday with a wagging tail and a smile on her face and lots of kisses for us. She loves to play with her brother - and even manages to wrestle with him sometimes if she's in an extra silly mood. She can still bully Grace and boss her around. She's still the same old Makayla, she just walks a little funny. It's been a long 9 months since we began this journey with Makayla's failing health. And Josh and I have been very honest and up front with each other since the beginning. We will not let her suffer, we will not keep her around for our sake if she doesn't have a good quality of life. We will do what we can to make her happy and keep her comfortable and we both realize that one day we will have to make a tough decision and say goodbye to her, but until that day comes, we will do what's best for her.

I know most people don't understand how much I love my dogs - to most people, they're dogs. To me, they're my babies. And so when people make comments about Makayla, I can't help but take it personally. I can't help but begin to question myself and what I'm doing for her. And although I'm a pretty tough person, nothing gets to me or upsets me more than hearing "that poor dog" from people when they see Makayla. Josh reminds me that people don't see her everyday like we do and don't understand she's ok. Yeah, I know, but to have people pity her and question why we haven't put her to sleep just pisses me off.

There's nothing "poor dog" about Makayla. She's not sad, she's not feeling sorry for herself. She's handicapped and she's simply learning to live with her limitations, not let them stop her from being the same old Makayla she's always been. I've never learned as much from a person as I have learned from Makayla - she's taught me more than I could ever learn in my entire life - how to face life's challenges, how to overcome obstacles, how to not feel sorry for myself because of a difficulty in life. I'm so thankful each and every day that I have Makayla and that she's allowed me to go on this journey with her because it's been such a wonderful experience, no matter how hard it has been.

It's a small miracle I'm not an alcoholic!

So, yesterday I realized it's a small miracle that I haven't become an alcoholic! My life is too insane to be sober 24/7, yet I am!! This is a rambling post of the recent incidents that have made me realize it's amazing I'm sober!!

Sunday I went down to Sheboygan for a home visit for rescue. Took Diesel with me - since they had another dog and kids, he was the best one suited for this visit. I get there and knock on the door; Diesel begins barking his fool head off to announce his presence as well! We walk in the house, I put his belly band on and let him off the leash and he proceeds to show how very ill-mannered he is. Wanders through the entire house, upstairs, downstairs, kitchen, bathrooms - checking everything out. Comes back in the living room, jumps on the couches, jumps on the window sill and walks through the vertical blinds on the windows, sits on the top of the couch. You'd think he owns the joint. Pees on the wall (well, tries to, at least, since thankfully I remembered to bring his belly band). Basically, made me realize the boy has no manners whatsoever!!!

I had two ice cream buckets of plants sitting behind the garage to be planted when we re-do the planter in the yard. Well, with all the rain, there's now water in the buckets. The girls believe this is their new water dish. So they come out with a face full of mud (because there's dirt in there with the water!) and stinking like manure - there must have been fertilizer in Denise's dirt when she pulled out the plants! And of course, Grace tries to eat the plants, as well. That's it - in the dumpster they go - I don't have time to get them planted and I don't need two sick girls because they're drinking the water!!

And for fun, we've had thunderstorms basically every night for the last month or two. Which means Diesel and Kayla spent most evenings running through the house barking like maniacs. Last night, the power went out, so I couldn't even turn the TV up all the way to try to drown out the thunder. Poor Grace was scared out of her mind because it was pitch black and the two idiots are barking fools!!! In an effort to make the most out of it and to keep my sanity, I broke out the glow stick necklaces, put them on the kids so I could see them in the dark and sat down with my battery operated book light and a book.

So, tell me again why I'm still sober every day?!

Are we really planning Pugfest already?!

We had a board meeting today for Milwaukee Pugfest - to wrap up from the 2010 event and begin talking about ideas for the 2011 event. Geez, are we really planning for May 15, 2011 already?! As usual, before we know it, May will sneak up on us and we'll still have a million thing left to do at the last minute before the event!

It was a great brainstorming session today - lots of fun ideas for next year's event, both Saturday and Sunday. I'm already doing some online browsing and shopping stocking up on things to be used in the fun and games! Although it's a TON of work to plan, organize and carryout a large fundraiser of this scale, it's so much fun to see all of the money we help raise that weekend and see it benefit the pug rescues that participate. Hopefully, we will be able to have even more rescues participate in 2011.

I will leave you with one hint for Pugfest 2011 - we're channeling Bob Barker.

And in the meantime, please visit www.milwaukeepugfest.com to view details for the Pugfest Scrapbook Contest. This year's theme is "Spirit of the Pug" and the top three winners will receive donations to the pug rescues of their choice. How fun - scrapbook our favorite breed and win money for rescue!

Happy Fourth of July!

So, it's the 4th of July and for the last five years that has meant the annual 4th of July hat pictures of the pugs!!

As usual, Makayla did just what Mommy wanted her to do and was such a good girl (she asks that you please ignore her saggy boobies - she says if you're older, you know how hard it is when things start sagging!).





I do believe this was the first year I tortured Grace with the hat. She was bored with it:

But I managed to get a halfway decent picture of her in the hat. Needless to say, she's not impressed with the 4th of July hat!

And then there's Diesel, who apparently has decided he's had enough of this hat crap. This year he took matters into his own hands . . . errr, mouth, and decided he simply was not posing in the hat.

Ugh - the 4th of July!

I hate the 4th of July. Why? One word - fireworks. I never use to hate the fireworks on the 4th, but ever since we got dogs, I've learned to just hate the holiday! Kayla hears every boom and bang. And now that we live out in the country, they have huge fireworks out here and they're not just on the 4th. They're the week before and several weeks after. Our remedy for dealing with the fireworks? We close the doors and windows and crank up all tvs as loud as we can. I may be deaf by the end of the night because the tv is so loud, but it's the only way we can avoid Kayla hearing the fireworks and barking like a maniac all night!!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe fourth!

Makayla's Great Day

Kayla had a Bicom Therapy session today at her holistic vet. Since I'm gone from work for about 3 hours for one of her vet appointments, I decided to take Kayla to work with me this morning earlier than I'd usually go in and get in an hour of work before being gone all morning. I thought we were safe when she didn't poop before getting in the car at home and she was rather quiet and calm during the ride. Didn't that all change when we got to work?! She was all excited and as soon as we got in the elevator at work, she had to poop!! We picked up the poop with a poop bag but before I could get the febreeze and get back in there to de-stink it, Robyn had the pleasure of riding in the poop smelling elevator!!! I'm sure that's how she wanted to start her morning!! Thankfully, we were able to get the smell out of the elevator with a little febreeze and we got some work done - and Sis got a little socializing in too, looking for treats from everyone.

Her holistic vet said she looks great - she said her eyes even looked a little brighter and more alert today. She's been having a great couple of weeks and we're just enjoying it. She is down another pound in weight, down to 18.8 but we're ok with that because her strength in her back end has seemed to have plateaued right now. Otherwise, she had a wonderful visit - just a quick tuneup with her Bicom therapy and we're done for another three weeks.

New addition to the family

Well, we did it - we went and added another pug to the family. A beautiful little fawn girl that I've had my eye on for quite a while. She came with the name Gertrude and I think we will keep it. The only decision to make is whether we will call her Gertie or Trudy for short. Any suggestions?

Without further ado, here's Miss Gertrude:

If you've never seen these before, it's made out of beads - tiny little beads!! They're AWESOME and I've wanted one for a while but have been too cheap to splurge and buy it.

Come on, you didn't really think I'd brought home a living pug and lived to tell about it, did you?! Josh has firmly stated we're done at three!

Fun in the sun

I love that it's always a good 5-10 degrees cooler at home than it is in town. The car thermometer said it was 90 degrees in town this evening. But when I got home, there was a nice gentle breeze and it was pretty comfortable outside. So the kids and I ate dinner and spent some time outside in the yard.

Diesel waited patiently for his daddy to come back from Marty's:

And Grace enjoyed rolling around in the grass:

And Kayla found a really fun spot for rolling:

Welcome to our blog

Our life is always busy and fun - living with three pugs is never ending laughter (and, ok, I admit, frustration)!! So what better way to remember our fun times than to blog about them and share with our family and friends.

A quick rundown of our gang:

Diesel is our "first born." He's a fun, happy boy, who believes people roam this earth to lavish love and attention on him. He's never met a person he doesn't love! He's a talker, always willing to share his thoughts with you through growls and barks. He's just a fun guy to be around.

Makayla is our first rescue girl. She's having some health problems right now, which take up a lot of our time in caring for her and taking her to vet appointments and adjusting to her disabilities and constant changes in her needs. She opened my heart to pug rescue and I don't know where I'd be in my life if we'd never adopted Makayla. She's also a crotchety old bag - and being handicapped hasn't changed her one bit - she's as crabby as ever some days!!

And then there's Gracie Lou Freebush - who is all personality. She's our rescue girl who came from an awful puppymill. So while she doesn't care too much for people, when she's home and in her comfort zone, her real personality comes out. And look out!! She's the founding member of Pugs Addicted to Fabric Anonymous - and it's a one day at a time battle for her to fight her addiction. She keeps me on my toes every single day. And like a toddler, if she's out of our sight and quiet, she's usually up to no good! Though she drives Josh absolutely insane some days (ok, most days!), I wouldn't trade her for the world.

We hope you enjoy reading about our silly adventures - some days, it's life as usual (well, usual for us at least) and some days, life here is a little more chaotic than usual, but somehow we manage to get through every day with a good dose of laughter.