Thursday Night (freezing cold) FUN

Scotty looks like a rock star with his ski guitar.  :)

I would like some Wonder Mom points for taking four children skiing every Thursday night in below freezing temperatures.  (I would also like to know where to cash in my Wonder Mom points.  :)  I'd like to have a nap and maybe a vacation somewhere warm and sandy.)

This whole ski club thing sounded like a great idea before the POLAR VORTEX from CANADA showed up ...now I'm freezing my tushie off every Thursday night because it turns out "ski club"doesn't mean that your kids are in a club that takes them skiing.  It means that you get a special deal on weeknight lift tickets and then you take your kids skiing.  :)  True, next year Scotty will be old enough to ride the bus and go on his own, but Andrea still has a ways to go so I think this is a new winter activity for me.  Wheeee......  :)

Thankfully I signed #1, #2, and #3 up for lessons so everyone except for the five year old goes off for an hour in a different group.  Sounds perfect and what am I complaining about?  HA!!   It's the, getting all the snow clothes and skis and boots and snacks loaded into the car so we can leave as soon as they get off the school bus.  It's the, wrestling boots onto feet and making sure every part of everybody is covered so we don't freeze to death.  It's the, $4.00 hot chocolates and eating sandwiches for dinner before the hour drive home.  It's the, getting home AT bedtime and arguing with kids because they "didn't get to do anything"....

All my whining aside, it's actually really fun when we are there.  If nothing less, "ski club" forces me to take the kids skiing.  :)  It really does force me too.  You should hear the excuses I try to give myself all day on Wednesday.  Of course, I finally got to take out Michaela's snowboard last week and impress Scotty and Sierra with my awesomeness!!  Scotty actually does think I'm awesome after my snowboard moves ...and falls.  :)  It's been 16 years since I've been on a snowboard and I was impressed it was like riding a bike!

The kids enjoy it too... Michaela finally got the concept of snowboarding, Sierra does great, but still insists sking with her family is boring (like a good 13 year old should), Scotty goes super fast and it freaks me out, and Andrea is a super star; she is finally making turns instead of going down the hill like a tiny pink rocket.

So every Thursday please think of me and the torture I am enduing ...all in the name of well rounded children.  :)

Blue ...our DOG!!!

We got a.....  DOG!

The entire family has been bothering me for YEARS to get a dog and now that we live in a big house with lots of land I started running out of excuses.  I found myself falling back on the "because I said so" reason ...which by the way is still a perfectly good reason.

Of course I did still have the reason that it would be ME taking care of the dog and that I PERSONALLY was not ready for the extra responsibilities ...then I started thinking **secretly**...  that it might be fun to have a dog and that I did have more free time lately.  I couldn't admit my secret thoughts to anyone because I didn't want to be pressured into my choice so I started **secretly** visiting puppy stores to see if I really liked dogs.  :)  Turns out I do.  HA!

So Christmas night I gathered the family around the table after dinner and gave them a leash and collar and said they could have a dog.  Screaming and jumping ensued...  even some tears on my part, but I wasn't sure if they were happy or scared ones.  :)

Little did we know how hard it would be to actually find a dog.  I was really against getting a dog from a puppy store ...just because that sounded wrong on so many levels, but it got really difficult when I realized there are NO shelter or rescue dogs from New England!!  All the rescue dogs that are here have actually been imported from the South where less smart people think that dogs should not be fixed...  So shelters in the south ship their dogs up north and that is how we got Blue.

Blue is from Little Rock, Arkansas.  He drove 1500 miles to Portland, Maine and then our family drove two hours to go pick him up from his quarantined foster home on Janurary 23rd!  He actually came with the name Raleigh, but after a long process and very detailed voting process he was re-named Blue.  He was born on October 1st and his mommy was a Boxer/Lab mix...  that's all we know.  :)

Our house is getting used to our new four-legged friend and so far so good.  He's a mellow dog as far as puppies go, but he still likes to run through the snow and chase red laser dots around the house.  The chickens hate him, the cats dislike him and the guinea pigs could care less.

I'm sure there are many Blue stories to come ...like today when he managed to tear apart an entire roll of paper towels.  If you can't imagine the mess that would make, take one paper towel and tear it into tiny pieces and throw it all over your floor.  Now imagine doing that to 149 more sheets.  That's how big of a mess it makes.  For extra authenticity of the scope of the actual mess you could pour a cup of water in the corner and pretend it's pee.