Baby Girl's Christmas Concert and a lesson in child protection

Baby Girl's preschool class performed Christmas concerts Monday and Tuesday. I brought the video camera Monday, only to find out there was no tape in it. Damn it.

Tuesday morning, we searched high and low, but could not find any tapes. Fuck.

So Gumby quickly downloaded an app to his iPhone that allowed him to video take it with it (crafty, that one!).

Baby Girl is 2nd from the end in the gray sweater and pig-tails. Sweet Jebus, that kid is cute.

And today she got "big girl boots". Up until now, she has always gotten boots that Little Man can wear the next year, because I'm cheap thrifty. So we currently have several pairs of navy Land's End boots.

While we were visiting Santa Monday night, we realized Little Man's boots were too small. Normally he would get Baby Girl's boots and she'd get new boots. Except when we went to Land's End today and tried on the next size up, they were way too freakin' big for her. She couldn't walk and they would not stay on.

So I had to buy the same size she had, but figured I might as well let her get a girly colored pair, since Little Man would just wear the navy ones next year. So she got a pair of light blue ones that match her snowpants/coat lining. Yes, I'm a nerd.


Yesterday we had a minor blizzard here, 12+ inches of snow. The city was pretty much shut down until noon, so Baby Girl's preschool was closed. We headed over to the In-laws for some sledding.

I, of course, have a terrible cold. I stayed in when we got there and ate my Taco Smell. Gumby ate his as well and we watched the kids from the picture window and the dog was out there with him.

Now. A bit about the dog. He's fiercely protective of the kids. And rightfully so. So normally when the kids are out, he's always within 15 feet of them, especially if we are not out there with them (which doesn't happen often or for very long, with the exception of winter, when I will happily watch from the picture window the entire time they become "one" with nature. heh)

All of the sudden the dog took off. Baby Girl was calling him in her best Boston accent, "Hunt-a!". I opened the window and gave a shout out and he didn't come back, so I figured the little shit was chasing some prey.

Alas, I did hear some ruckus by the neighbor dogs, but typically that means our dog is chasing prey and the neighbor dogs want to hunt with him, but they have an electric fence, so it's the worst tease EVER.

Gumby heads out to sled with the kids and the dog come back and they all happily play for at least 30 minutes, maybe 45? The damn dog was so cute, bounding in the snow, playing catch with Gumby. He'd charge up to one of the kids, lick 'em and bound off again.

They all finally start to file in the house and the dog has the biggest grin on his face. But then I notice some blood by his ear.

"Come here booger-butt, what'd you do to yourself?" (don't you love my pet name for him?)

Except it was some blood, it was a lot of blood. On both ears. And his back hind-quarter. And his jowl. Holy hell, what just happened to our dog?!?

My MIL comes over and we clean him up and I'm pretty anxious and she tells me he's fine, he tangled with something, blah, blah, blah.

We wait a while and are still talking about it. Then my MIL says, "Well, we do have both a coyote and a cougar that come through our yard."

Oh shit.

We ultimately decide she should at least call the vet (at 4:55 PM, on a Friday, of a blizzard...righhhht)

Normal vet is closed and referred us to the Emergency vet (hello second mortgage sized bill!). She calls what she thinks is the previous vet they used (she got confused and it was actually the vet they used 20 years ago *smacks head on keyboard*.

They freak out mildly and say we need to bring him immediately and they'll wait for us.

Gumby and I drag booger-butt off to the vet. He gets a very clean bill, but they give us pain pills and an antibiotic for him.

Essentially, what we think happened is that he was out with the kids, got the scent of something he didn't want near the kids (more than likely the coyote) and took off to let him/her know in no uncertain terms our yard was off limits. And when Gumby went out, he had either finished the fight or knew it was OK for the kids to be out because Gumby was there.

I'm not sure I could love that dog anymore than I do at this moment. I'm a bit freaked out now about the kids outside and my FIL is insisting the dog be leashed at all times (not sure how that's going to go down...normally Gumby and the dog play a lot of catch, which isn't happening if he's on leash).

But that dog made out like a bandit last night. Not only did he get several bones from my MIL while she made her beef stock, he got some cinna-twists from Taco Smell and that dog loves nothing more than sugar.

There are times when I look at our goofy collection of rescue animals and my heart swells. They are really the coolest, motley crew ever.

Damn truck

Today I worked at 10:30 AM. As I arrived at work (early!), I turned off the truck and tried to pull out the key, but it didn't move. I slightly twisted the key, thinking I had gone past the "removal" point and had gone into axillary power.

Except it still didn't come out. I bent over to look and saw ice (!) at the top of the metal key part. I flick if off, hoping that was the end of it. Alas, I was again, wrong.

The whole frickin' key was frozen in the ignition. In my 17 years of driving, I've never had this happen. I blame Dodge.

So I had to sit in the truck and wait for it to warm up completely (because the 4 minute drive from our driveway to the Walgreens parking lot was not not enough to warm it). Which meant, I was a few minutes late to work.

At least they had a good laugh about it.

The children had a good time playing Wii tonight. They were playing baseball when I got home and did some Wii fit before bed.

Other than that, not a whole lot in the day.

Taking the good with the bad.

Today was Little Man's first appointment with the dentist. He did well, no cavities and he was patient with the whole thing. First he saw me have my exam and cleaning, then it was his turn. Of course they decided to fit in an emergency between my exam and Little Man's, so poor kid had to wait quite a while.

We were going to meet Gumby for lunch, but were delayed too much before picking up Baby Girl from preschool. So off we went to get Baby Girl and then went to have lunch with Daddy, aka, Gumby.

We went for wings, 'cause it's 60 cent boneless wing day. Mmmmm...wings....

As we arrived, the kids dashed off to the lower part of the restaurant where you can watch the traffic by the mall. There was a table of maybe 7 gentleman from the Army, in camo.

The first thing I hear as my beasts claim their table is, "Watch your mouth now." from the head dude at the Army table.

I look up surprised, mumbled a, "Sorry guys." to them, but was appreciative.

We had lunch and at some point the kids asked about the American flag on the uniforms, so we ended up having a conversation about it.

"Mumma, why do they have American flags?"

"Well, it's their job to protect it. To protect us from bad guys."

"How come?"

"Well, that's their job, they decided that's what they want to do."

I really didn't want to get into anything more. But they asked more questions, much too wise for 3 and 4. And we had a good chat about it.

I didn't think the guys were paying attention, but as they left, one thanked Gumby and Gumby was quite confused.

"Why are you confused? There's a huge anti-war sentiment going on right now. We may not agree with the war, but we'll ALWAYS support our troops. They heard us speaking positively to the kids about them."

And I was oddly moved by all of it. I will say, it is moving to see soldiers in uniform, knowing they are protecting me and my freedoms that I completely take for granted (hey, I admit it).

As we were leaving there was a woman, she was huge. I'm a big woman, but was small compared to her. And I knew something was up.

I had Little Man and Gumby was delayed behind me with Baby Girl. I was trying to maneuver Little Man out of the building and this woman was blocking us. Totally stalling and kept moving in front of me.

As we got out into the freezing cold, she turned around and said, "Excuse me."

I, dumbly, thought she was apologizing for being so fucking slow, but oh no, she was not.

"Excuse me, I'm homeless with no money. I slept outside last night with only this bag." As she shows me her bag. "I have no food."

To which I respond by shoving my leftovers at her. And I SHIT. YOU. NOT. She turned her nose up and said, "What's this?!?" As if I'd just handed her rat poison.

"Chicken wings!" I respond with more cheer than a freshly blown elf.

I'm sure she promptly threw them away, which is annoying. But fuck, if you're really that hungry, eat that shit. Clearly you were hanging out at Buffalo Wild Wings, so you're not opposed to the food.

"Have a nice day!" I cheerily sang as I walked away, pretending I didn't notice her trying to see what was in my purse (mental note, close the damn clasp on purse).

It's interesting to me. When "homeless" people approach me for food. I often give them whatever leftovers I have (because either we eat out a lot, or I typically get hit up after eating out). Most times, I've been met with complete disdain. Because you know, I'm not giving them money and the option to get the food THEY want. Umm, hello? If you're that damn hungry, you'll eat it. I think twice, I was met with true appreciation and that was great.

But the rest of them are a bunch of lazy, fucking douche bags that can just go fuck themselves.