If you give a mom a phone...

I'm home today with two sickies.  Kyle and Hope both have colds with coughs and feel miserable after a not-so-good night's sleep, so I get an unexpected day off.  Tough on the paycheck, but I'm not complaining...these years go by too fast and one day I know I will miss it terribly.  Nick and Vinny are already old enough to be home alone if they are sick, no more mommy coddling needed for them.  Sigh.

Oh yea...how about if I call school to let them know they are absent?  That would be a good idea, 'specially since school started half an hour ago.  GAH!  I remembered to call into work, and cancel the puppy sitter, school should probably know too.  I intended to call earlier, but got distracted.  Those who know me well, especially those who have to live with me, are not surprised by things such as this.  They know that I tend to move about the house like a "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" book.  Today it went something like this:  If your child is home sick from school, you will need to go to the kitchen and call the school to tell them about their absence.  And if you go into the kitchen to get the phone, you will see that the dishwasher needs to be loaded, and when you go to load the dishwasher, you will see that the dog peed on the floor, and if the dog peed on the floor you will need to go downstairs to get some paper towels to clean it up, and when you go downstairs to get paper towels you will see that a load of laundry needs to be started, and after you start a load of laundry you will feel so productive about your day already that you will decide to go back upstairs to the kitchen and blog.  

And forget to call the school.

See? 

This sort of thing happens regularly with me.  It drives Vince crazy, but lucky for me he usually still finds it cute. Usually.

So.

The dogs have been keeping us busy, and also sufficiently broke.  Feliz has been to the vet more in the past three months than her entire life.  She has been having urinary tract infections and possibly bladder stones and has been on special food and several rounds of antibiotics already.  It clears up...and returns.  Hmmph.  And Macey, in addition to her regular puppy checkups and shots, now has to go in for a possible uti herself, as evidenced by the sudden and frequent peeing and unproductive squatting in the yard that she has been doing the past two days. I just have one question: WHAT IS UP WITH THE POTTY ISSUES???  Seriously.  I wasn't surprised with Feliz, since she is a Bishon and they are notorious for bladder problems, but Macey too?  Ugh.  

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that she is eating anything and everything she can find, including (but not limited to) sticks and leaves and sand and lint balls and tiny little wrappers and erasers, and whatever she can lick off the baseboards in the kitchen.

She is so naughty.  She knows when she has something she's not supposed to, and that if we catch her we are going to try and pry her little alligator mouth open and dig out whatever treasure she's munching on.  So if hiding under the dining room table doesn't work and we actually catch her, she gets all manic, locks her jaws shut, and swallows it as soon as possible.  And then looks at us like this...

How are we supposed to get mad at that face???  She is growing so fast.  Her legs are getting long and she has those big puppy lab paws now, and it's so cute to see her clumsily bounding about.  She's adorable and hilarious and driving us all crazy.   Feliz included, but that is nothing new.  Although, they are getting along much better, Macey still pounces on poor Feliz most any chance she gets.  Feliz will play with her and even instigate now and then, but she still walks around in fear of being blind sided by her unpredictably rambunctious sister.  Poor Feliz has even developed a nervous facial tick.  She's always had it, but I never really noticed it much before until Macey joined our family, and it has thus increased exponentially.  Now, Feliz quite often looks like this...

Poor baby.  Maybe she needs therapy.  Anyone know a good pet shrink?