A Little Chaos

We have invited chaos into our household and well......it looks like she's decided to make us her permanent family. She has materialized (and when I say "materialized" I mean that we researched ad nauseam, paid good money for her and drove 8 hours roundtrip to pick her up and bring her back with us) as a gorgeous and fluffy ball of sweetness and we call her Muzzy Blue. She is an 8 week old puppy. Tom likes to tell people that we "rescued her from a breeder." Marin already loves her tiny and furry sister. It is so much fun to watch the two of them chase each other around. It's also eye opening to watch Marin react to seeing another being receive so much affection from her parents. Surprisingly she seems to be just fine with that -- it's Muzzy's crate that has her in a fit at least twice a day. She is SOO jealous that Muzzy has her own little cage that she can crawl in and out of. We're beginning to think that really the best Christmas present Santa could have brought for her would have been her own personal cardboard box!? What a lunatic.
We are facing a few challenges right now (potty and crate training) and I'm sure we're in store for a few more down the road, but we think Muzzy is well worth it. I commented to Tom earlier today that it's kind of like we have two toddlers right now -- one who gets to wear diapers and one who doesn't. Seriously, I hope I don't offend anybody when I say this, but I cannot imagine what life is like for those parents who potty train their infants from day one by not using diapers at all -- have you heard about this? I call it crazy. If it were feasible and reasonable to put a puppy in diapers, I would do it. Anyhow, while we do have moments of craziness in our house these days, it's really just lots of fun (minus the middle of the night potty breaks in single digit temps with an inch of snow on the ground -- but Tom did all of that last night, so what am I complaining about? -- actually it was pretty tortuous when he, in the form of a popsicle, climbed back in bed and nearly froze me right out.....)! Yes, I am thrilled that Tom is willing to do the midnight potty breaks and he certainly has won over Muzzy by doing so ---- SHE LOVES HIM!! It is adorable. She follows him around like, well, a little lost puppy dog. Two gentle souls. Cal on the other hand...........let's just say that Muzzy is really putting the "gentleness" of his soul to the test.

Barnyard Time in the Backyard

Drink Up

PS Tune into Oprah on Monday and you may catch a glimpse of Tracey cheering for Mississippians to lose some weight. Oprah visited Meridian on Friday to kick off her Best Life Weight Loss Challenge and Tracey was in the crowd.

We're Happy 'Cause We're Gettin' a Puppy!

The most exciting gift that we received from Santa this year undoubtedly was a golden doodle puppy. Since we don't have the puppy yet, it has meant a lot of time looking at photos from the breeder. Marin now believes the sole purpose of a computer is to look at pictures of puppies. She scrambles over to whomever is sitting in front of the screen and exclaims,  "Buppy" and will not relent until her demand is met. So much for being tough parents.
We are picking up the "Buppy" in two weeks and could not be more excited. Once we do have our little Muzzy (the name we've decided on) we'll be flooding you with pictures.  Until then, enjoy these few from the breeder.

PS Muzzy is a tribute to one of our favorite characters, played by Carol Channing, in Thoroughly Modern Millie.