Free dog = Good reason

I am one of those annoying people who like little, yappy dogs.  Before you decide to hate me, I promise I never loaded one into a purse and carried it around the mall, or anything.  I like tiny and cute.  I'm a girl, for Pete's sake, and the idea of one of my stuffed animals coming to life was long one of my most fervent fantasies when I was little.  As soon as I was old enough for pet ownership, I gravitated toward Chihuahuas.  Tiny and cute, right?

This is PJ, my first chihuahua.  Actually, she was a Chihuahua-Pomeranian mix.  She was a Chihuahuaranian.  Or a Pomehuahua, take your pick.

She was sooo fat and funny-looking.  Her hair was super fuzzy, and her body was roughly the size and shape of a small barrel.  Unfortunately, her head was about the size of an orange.  Strangers would laugh at her when we took her for a walk.  She had tracheal malaisia (sp?), which made her hack and gag and cough and spit like a cat with a hairball.  She was a mess, but she was even-tempered and sweet.  Never 100% house-broken, though.

Chihuahua #2--Mya.  Isn't she cute?  Good thing, because she is about 5 pounds of pure, unadulterated stupid.

Mya was free.  We traded a rabbit for her (don't ask).  PJ had gone to that great dog park in the sky, and I was on the prowl for tiny and cute again.  Mya is a full-blooded Chihuahua, which I thought would make her smarter and more well-adjusted than a mixed breed.  Little did I know that Chihuahua blood is rife with  crazy, so a full-blooded Chihuahua can be fully twice as insane as any mutt known to man.  She barks, and barks, and BARKS UNTIL YOU WANT TO POKE A STICK UP YOUR NOSE AND SCRAMBLE YOUR BRAIN LIKE AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SO THAT IT WILL PLEASE, PLEASE STOP.  We got her when she was 7 months old, and guess what?  She wasn't 100% housebroken.  She is tiny and cute, and I think I hate her (not really--not all the time, anyway).

Chihuahua #3--Sugar

I turned 35 this past summer.  At roughly the same time, Sassy turned 2, and stopped smelling like a baby and started smelling like a stinky little kid.  I was less than happy, so I started looking for another tiny cute thing to love on.  And I found Sugar.  When we got her at 6 weeks, she weighed exactly 1 pound.  She's now up to 2.2 lbs., so has remained tiny and cute, and thankfully is almost 100% housebroken.  She's not a barker, thank goodness, but she is a licker.  She will lay on the sofa, licking the same spot on the upholstery over and over until it looks like you  poured a glass of water there.  This is what Mya and Sugar spend roughly 90% of their time doing:

playing...I guess?  It always sounds like about a million angry bees, with occasional yelping.  Who knows?  I'm about to give up on tiny and cute.

Should I go for big and ugly next time?

Braving the Texas winter

We needed a little vitamin D therapy yesterday, so we hit the backyard.  Boy, it was rough out there in January--I think it was around 70 degrees or so.  Now, I fully admit there WILL be whining in July when it's 102 out and I'm praying that my 15 year-old A/C unit makes it through just...one...more...summer (please, please Lord, I implore you--just one more summer?  Just one?), but for now--I'm digging Texas.

Wordless Wednesday

My Kid Could (and did!) Paint That

please 'scuse the flash in the above picture. thank you.

Sissy's artwork.  For an almost eight year-old, I'd say she's pretty awesome.  I want to go sit on that island and drink a margarita, staring at the sunset.

Tiny Tates

We made cupcakes this weekend ("tiny tates", according to Sassy).  Very non-nutritious, cake-mix-from-a-box, pastel-hydrogenated-oil-frosting-in-a-can cupcakes.  They were fun & also delish. 

Chocolate, lemon, and cherry frosting--the cherry was pretty gross, actually--don't ever buy it.

Sissy got right down to business...

lickety-split!

Sassy, however, was quite intent upon creating a frosting masterpiece.

Not yet...

closer...

what?  You didn't tell me there were sprinkles!

Ahh...at last.  And it only took 30 minutes to frost one cupcake!  Perfection takes time. 

Checking In With the Chillun

Sassy smelling a leaf--what do leaves smell like, anyway?  I'll have to ask.

Just wanted to do a quick update on Sissy and Sassy, for whom this little blog is named.  We are having sleeping issues around the S & S household.  Sassy has graduated to a "big-girl" bed and has lost her mind in the process.  She used to be this baby:

Day or night, you could put this baby in her crib with a binky and her blanket, and she would drift right off to dreamland.  Maybe a cry or two here and there, but mostly such a great sleeper I got VERY spoiled--I did crazy things like take a shower, fold laundry, check the mail.  It was such a welcome change from this baby:

This beautiful child is the worst sleeper the sweet Lord ever made.  We finally drove her out of our bed when she was 5.  She still wakes up EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at least once, and she's about to turn 8.  I doubt she's ever experienced a single REM cycle in her life.  I know I've gone 8 years without one.  Somehow, she has stealthily communicated to her sister that it would be a great idea if they satggered their late-night awakenings.  It goes a little something like this:

8:00--Daddy gets Sassy to sleep; takes about 15 minutes

8:30--Sissy gets into bed, sternly warned not to read any books

10:00--after much drama (and book-reading), Sissy falls asleep

11:00--Daddy & Mommy turn in for the night

11:30--Sassy wakes up & Daddy goes & gets her back to sleep

2:00--Sissy comes in to use our bathroom, though there's one right next door to her room

3:30--Sassy wakes up & is brought into our bed out of desperation

5:30--Daddy hits alarm and nearly weeps from pure exhaustion

6:30--Mommy hits alarm and does same.

Sometimes, not one of us wakes up in the same place we started out the night before.  Often, actually.  And when I go in to wake up Sissy for school, I get this look:

 

Actually, that is a much nicer look than the one I usually get.  I refuse to take a picture of her devil-possessed look.

Oh, well.  One day I'll  back on these times and wish they still wanted nothing more than to snuggle in my bed.  But that time will probably coincide with me waiting up to see if they make curfew.  Sigh.

Ringing in the new year

Oh, bloggy friends, it's been too long.  I took a break to deal with all the insanity that is Christmas in my family, and am finally feeling normal again.  And, of course, I made the obligatory resolution to lose weight.  This time, though, it HAS to be different.  I'm 35 & at my highest weight ever.  And, friends, it is high.  The good news is that, by counting calories, I'm already down 4 pounds or so.  My goals, specifically:

To stop abusing food--'tis my delicious drug of choice
To drink lots of water
To pay attention to my body and its signals
To log everything I eat into caloriecount.com
To exercise moderately, stepping up the intensity when I see some weight coming off through dieting

Pretty much sounds like the boring advice in every magazine on the stands right now.  But I feel bad, and bloated, and unattractive, and unhealthy...the list goes on.  Most of the time the simplest thing is the best thing, so I'm ebracing the simplicity of this plan.  Keep you posted.

PS--I would give a whole, whole lot of money for a Dr. Pepper right now.  No fooling.