There's Just Something About Girls and Horses

Today we had a very unique day. First of all, it snowed. And sleeted. We had a winter storm on the very last weekend in March! Seriously. It looked like it was January or February. It's hard to believe that April starts on Wednesday.

Then, after I worked my tax season hours, (ugh) we all went to the U of A Horse Festival! We saw it advertised in the Kid's Directory. My girls watch Saddle Club on AETN. So they are both accomplished equestrians in their own minds.

Anyway, the festival was somewhat of a bummer since it snowed. All the vendors that were going to be outside had to be moved indoors. Some couldn't make it. However, we still got to see some nice horse exhibitions that we wouldn't normally see. I think I'll just post some pictures and let them do the talking for me.

This lady is Templeton Thompson. She is a singer/songwriter who loves horses. She rides on horses and sings. She was very good. The title of my post, "There's Just Something About Girls and Horses" is the title of one of her songs.

This lady is Julie Goodnight. She has a horse show on RFD (rural free direct...yea I'm watchin' that channel....) She knows A LOT about horses.

This man "trained" a zebra. The zebra's name is bar code. :) Bar code is the father of a donkey-zebra mix - a zonkey. The zonkey's name is Zonkey Ho-tee. (get it?)

This horse's name was Cookie Monster because he's colored like cookies and cream.

They had miniature horses in the parade of breeds.

I apologize for the blurriness. This is a Tennessee Walking Horse that I thought was absolutely beautiful.

This is the Rodeo of the Ozarks Rounders drill team. These girls rode their horses with American flags in precision drills. They were very fast and fun to watch!

These are the Express Clydesdales. These horses are enormous! They pulled a replica of a stagecoach that would make deliveries. They called them the 18-wheelers of the 1800's.

The last event they had was jousting. It would have been cool if they had actually jousted. But the two "knights" didn't even hit each other. Beta got to pet their horses through the fence. (Funny story....when they came out wearing armor, this little toddler sitting behind us said "Robots!")

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves. This entire show lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes! About 30 minutes before the end, we decided to leave and look at some of the exhibitors. But by then, most had packed up so we ended up back inside. Beta had not wanted to leave even though she was complaining quite loudly by then. The popcorn we purchased had only lasted so long......

So now Beta REALLY wants her own horse. She thinks we can keep one in the backyard and Jim can build a stable for it. Aaahhhh.....to be young and think your parents can pull off the impossible.

Dog update: I have some bittersweet news. The dog has a new home. Unfortunately, it's not with us. Jim and I prayed about it, and we both felt the dog would be better off with the man who had contacted Jim about finding the owner. We took him over last night. The man said he'd met the original owners and taken the dog back to them. He also confirmed that they probably dumped him. (or at least, let him out and didn't bother to look for him) We know this guy and his fiancee will take great care of him. They have a house about 4 miles down the road with a huge fenced area. Plenty of room to roam. He'll also have 2 dog buddies to play with.

I think the girls are taking it ok. They both were upset last night, even though they had a whole day's warning before it happened. This morning, however, Beta came in while I was getting ready. She sleepily said, "I'm glad we don't have that dog any more, but I sure do miss him!" I think that was an answer to my prayer asking if we had done the right thing. I know it summed up my feelings exactly. I think we made the right decision, even though I also think we could have made it work. But that's a long story that I don't feel like getting in to right now. I can't believe I miss the little guy so much! I'm pretty convinced now that this summer is the time to get a dog. But we've got to get over this one first.

So there you have it! Our unique day!

Update

We still have the dog. However, we -think- we have found the owners. Here's what happened: Jim got a call one day from a guy. He said he knew the dog and knew where he lived. So last Thursday night, Jim and the girls headed over to return the dog. The guy had said it was a young family with a little girl.

The first house they thought it was housed a young college student. Oops. So they started going down the row. They got to one house and the door was opened by two little girls. When they saw the dog their faces lit up! Jim asked if this was their dog and they went "um, uh, hang on" and ran away. They came back to the door and said "no, we don't have a dog". The mom, whom Jim never saw and never came to the door, yelled down the stairs, "we don't have a dog!" Ok. So they walked on.

The next door neighbors said the dog didn't belong to them. BUT, they said, we have returned him to his house several times. He lives next door.

So.

Now what do we do????? The guy who contacted Jim seems very interested in this dog. We think he probably thought "next time that dog gets out, I'm keeping him". We're still not 100% sure those were the owners. But Jim said he got a weird vibe about it. He thinks he was reading too much into it. I say Jim is a guy. He NEVER reads too much in to stuff. So if he got this weird feeling, then there's a good chance it's true.

So we still have the dog. We can't decide whether to keep him or give him to this other guy. We're both torn. There are days we both want to keep him and then there are days where we think he'd be better off with those other people. (They have two other dogs and no kids.)

So that's where we are. Just kinda hanging on in limbo b/c we aren't sure what's best for us or the dog.

Other quick updates:
Beta gets her stitches out tomorrow. She is worried that it will hurt really bad. I told her tonight that it would not hurt REALLY bad. I don't think it'll hurt at all, by the looks of the scab. I'm not sure she's convinced.

Alpha is back at school after spring break. She had to go to Jim's office every day last week. Borrringgg....I feel so bad for not being able to take her places and do something fun. And one of Jim's coworkers went on vacation so Jim had to cover for him. That meant he couldn't take off and do something fun. She was still glad that she didn't have school, though.

3 weeks and counting left in tax season! I hope I can make it....I'm hitting 50 hours a week, or darn near close to it every week. Come on April 15th!

It just keeps getting better!

Wow....the things in my life that are helping me get my mind off tax season! First, we end up with a dog. We STILL haven't found the owner. We've had a couple of phone calls based on our flyers, but so far nothing has panned out. Jim and I are totally at a loss as to what to do. I guess my prayer to find the owner, and quick, isn't going to be answered.

Then today, at 10:00 am, I get a phone call from Beta's preschool. Apparently, she was running back to her table and tripped on a Barbie doll. In so doing, she fell and hit her chin on the table. They said it might need stitches......

Usually, during tax season, Jim has to take care of things like this. This time, though, when we were faced with injury, I knew I couldn't stay at work. I would have been texting Jim every 2 minutes to see what was going on. So I sent my boss a quick email and headed to preschool.

Since it's late, I will make my long story short. Beta needed 3 stitches in her chin! After waiting 1 hour and 20 minutes for the doctor's office to "work us in", (I had to go get a little pushy....) they took off the bandage that preschool had put on and are like "Oh! She needs to go to the procedure room!" Yea, once they saw it, suddenly we were on the short list.....Anyway......

They put some cold goop on her chin that numbed it. It must have worked like a charm b/c she didn't flinch at all during the procedure! And yes....as the mom I had to watch the whole thing. Needle, thread, and all.... (I remember being a senior in high school and going to a career fair...Some nurses were there and knew my mom and tried to convince me to go to nursing school.....Mom and I were like, "um, no.")

I still can't believe she didn't flinch. Thankfully she couldn't exactly see what they were doing so that helped.

Afterwards, she got a "certificate of bravery" which entitled her to a free kid's meal at chick-fil-a. As an added bonus, since it was St. Patrick's day and we were both wearing green, we each got a free ice cream cone. So, a good time was had by all! Well, um, ok not really. :]

She has to go back in one week and get them out. She's very worried that it will hurt. I told her it probably wouldn't. (it's ok for moms to lie.....right?) She asked if I had ever had stitches and if they hurt to be taken out. I told her I had had stitches, and I didn't remember if they hurt or not. (lie #2) (Honestly, it was just staples from the two c-sections. And it really didn't hurt to get them out.)

She's secretly kind of excited to get to go back to preschool tomorrow and tell all her friends she got stitches! Oh, the things that make 5 year olds happy....

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of the dog. He likes to play tug-of-war with Jim's sock. As you can see, he looks a lot like a schnauzer, except he's black. So we figure he's some sort of mutt. (those are the best kind!)

I've also got a video of him playing. I was going to post this Wednesday night, but after we thought he was gone forever, it was just too heartbreaking to watch. But he's back now so here you go.

Good news!

We found him! We heard our doorbell ring at 7:00 this morning. Our neighbor, Sue, who lives directly across the street from us, said, "you know that little dog your husband had? Do you know who the owner is? He stayed in my house last night, but I've got to go to work and I just can't leave him at home with my 2 dogs. Do you mind keeping him for today?"

I cannot tell you the joy we had! I quickly said yes and she brings him over on a leash with a little doggie coat on! She said he'd had breakfast and everything. He even slept in her bed last night!

So he is at our house now. He's staying in the laundry room because they are predicting sleet and junk for today.

The girls were thrilled! I did remind them, however, that he's not our dog. I told them to think about how horrible they felt last night, and imagine that that's how his real owner is still feeling right now. He's been gone since Monday.

So we're going to make flyers up tonight and hopefully put them up. I'm afraid the girls will be said again when the owner comes, but at least it'll be happy for the dog. We were so worried that something bad had happened to him.

Praise God! :)

Sad news

I have sad news to report. I hope this is a premature post.

We don't have the dog any more. He got out. Ironic, isn't it? Alpha had a basketball game today at 5:30. It was a make-up game from the ice storm. After that we had to rush to church. We got home about 7:30 and had supper. The dog had been outside, and we decided to keep him there while we ate.

When we were done, Jim went outside to let the dog in. I thought it was weird that we hadn't heard a peep from him. Jim came back in and said the dog was gone. He noticed a huge hole under the fence. He either dug out, or, in my opinion, the hole is plenty big that he didn't have to dig. I think he just hadn't found the hole until today.

Jim has gone out looking for him. He didn't see him in our neighborhood. He's in the car now trying other neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, I'm at home tending to the greatest cry-fest the Kane household has ever known! (sorry to jest.....trying to lighten the mood a little....) People warned me that if we had the dog for too long, the girls would get attached to him. I'm afraid that, even if we had found the owner within an hour of meeting the dog, the girls still would be crying their eyes out.

Here are their words, just to make you cry:

Beta: If we don't find him, can we get another dog? I really wanted a dog! (She had already asked if she could bring her puppy to preschool for show and tell.)

Alpha: (I told her, like Jim did, that perhaps the puppy had gone back to his home....) She responded: "He didn't!" I asked why and she said, "Because he wanted US!!!" I think I bawled just as much as she did.

I didn't try to hide my own tears. I tried to be hopeful and tell them that God was watching out for the puppy and that He would take care of him, whether He brought him back to us or not. I prayed with each girl. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help.

So who knows if we'll ever see him again. I hope he is safe. He is such a sweet little dog! I hope he somehow found his way back home, but I'm an adult, and I know the chances of that.

Please pray. Not necessarily that we find the dog, but that we all recover from our heartache.

Dog update

Well, we still have him. It rained last night (stormed) so we couldn't get out and walk to any more houses. Jim is putting ads in local papers. He also filed a found dog report at the animal shelter. He took him to the vet, but he doesn't have a micro chip in him saying who he belongs to.

I just have to say.....this is the best behaved puppy I've ever seen! He slept the ENTIRE night on Monday in his crate. Didn't make a peep!

And last night, he did the same thing! Well, ok. So he cries when he first goes in to the crate. Jim asked if there was Ferber-izing for dogs... But it only takes about 10 minutes and then he is perfectly quiet. The whole night! We're liking this crate thing.

I've got video of the girls playing with him, but I haven't had a chance to upload it yet. My favorite dog mishap was Tuesday morning. Jim let the dog in while we were eating breakfast. Beta got down to pet him and he jumped up and licked her in the face. She started crying. We assured her he was just licking her and not biting her. She said "But I don't like to be licked..."

I didn't really blame her. He's a puppy, so he nips. And even though we assure everyone he is NOT biting, his stinkin' little teeth are sharp! He also jumps. Which isn't bad for us, but on Beta he comes up to her waist.

So we'll try to print up flyers tonight and see where that gets us. I just know the owner has to be out there somewhere. We live in the middle of a neighborhood with at least 75 houses, and we're surrounded by two other neighborhoods. I just don't think this one is a stray. He even came with a collar!

Wish us luck!

Dog Days

Well, the dog days of March are upon us! Wait, you're asking...dog days of.....March? Yes. You see, we seem to have found a dog.

Or rather, he found us. And we're not keeping him. Not for long, anyway. :)

The girls were playing outside while I was fixing supper tonight. (thanks to saving-daylight time) When all of a sudden they open the kitchen door and are shouting something about a dog. I look down, and in runs the cutest little black puppy! Yep. Straight into my kitchen. I think he smelled the chicken I was fixin'. LOL!

He is incredibly clean and is wearing a flea collar. Uh oh. Someone's dog got out. Thankfully Jim was home and just happened to have a leash. (it's a long story....) Off they went to find the owner.

They walked. and walked. and walked. All the while they talked. and talked. and talked about what we were going to do with the dog, how we would feed it, and we'd have to give it a bath!

No luck.

We ended up eating supper while a whiny puppy yelped at us through the window. After supper, the girls took baths (after much coaxing and a threat or two) and Jim set off to find the owner. He was gone nearly 2 hours.

Nothing. Nada. Nobody knows who the dog belongs to.

So back out Jim goes. This time to walmart to buy food and a crate. While he's gone the dog is in the backyard. Yelping. Then he starts to howl. I'm starting to worry about how this is gonna go. Then, it gets quiet. Now I'm really worried because I think the dog has gotten out of our backyard! But he hadn't. I peeked outside and could see him. He had fallen fast asleep right up next to our back door. Awwwwwww.........

Long story short, Jim got the dog in the crate. He yelped at first, but I think the 2 hour walk wore him out. He is now sleeping soundly in the crate in our kitchen.

Jim says "when" I hear him in the night, I can just wake Jim up and he'll take him out. I'm like, oh no...YOU'RE going to hear him! (It's strange how a man may not develop daddy ears with the babies, but I bet he develops "mommy ears" with this dog! haha!)

To be continued.......

What happens when you leave the bubble bath unattended: