Just some thoughts

I like to feel good.  Don't we all?  And I had a couple weeks there where I was finally feeling "good".  "Good" meaning normal, functional, and not out-of-my-head-weird.  Seems that's the best we can ask for sometimes.  So I did what any perfectionist, control-freak woman would do.  I tried to change what I'd been doing and told myself I didn't need some of the help I'd been provided with.  MISTAKE.  So as I get myself back to where I was and suffer through a few days of re-readjustment, I've been doing some thinking.  Some of my thoughts have been productive and make sense.  Some of my thoughts have been downright odd.  Like, for a split second today, I wondered if it would be nicer to be a dog than a human.  As long as you were a well treated dog.  For just a nano-second, I was jealous of all those pampered pets out there whose only worries in life are why your humans aren't getting your food bowl out at the exact same second they'd gotten it out in the past.  Wouldn't it be nice to exist just to be loved and hugged and played with and doted on?  And all you had to do was lay around and look cute? 

I probably had that thought because I can't seem to stop obsessing about getting another dog.  Being the perfectionist, control-freak that I am, the non-decision about a dog or no dog, a puppy or a young dog, when to get a dog, a male or female dog, a rescue dog or a purebred dog is driving me crazy.  Which is already a problem for me lately so this situation is no good.  Stu is helping me out.  He put his foot down and declared, "No dogs until next Spring; so stop thinking about it."  But I just can't seem to help myself.  I'm constantly previewing dogs on petfinder.org and (unfortunately) found a petfinder app for my iPod Touch.  I keep telling myself that even though I'm with Stu on the decision not to get a dog until Spring, that there's the possibility that the perfect dog is out there right now and I might miss it!  Herein lies the other problem.  Rosko certainly wasn't the most perfect dog in the world, though in my opinion he was darn near close.  As some of you may know, we adopted a second dog nearly two years ago and it was a disaster.  So, when it comes to adopting dogs in this house, I'm batting .500.  And for a perfectionist, control-freak, that ain't good enough.  And so my agonizing continues.  And it doesn't help any when I see pictures like this:

3 month old female Basset Hound for adoption through Secondhand Hounds

Female yellow lab puppies for sale from Smith's Farms Labradors 

I look at these pictures and first I want to scoop up those little babies and squeeze 'em, and kiss 'em, and hug 'em.  Secondly, I get a pit in my stomach and want to throw up because they're either going to be wonderful blessings or the bane of my existence....and how do I know which they'll end up being?!  Yeah, you're right.  I'm a little overanalytical and dramatic.  But I am who I am.

On to some other, less doggy, thoughts.  I shared awhile back about our going to bed routine around here.  I'll update you with our ongoing, cute routine.  Once the kids have brushed their teeth, been read a story, and get into their respective beds (where most of them stay put all night, but one in particular really does not...I'm not naming names), it has become our nightly ritual that I must visit each child and say their bedtime prayer with them (if they didn't already say it with Dad) and then give them a back massage while singing my version of the old school "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" theme song.  It goes like this:

"Mickey Mouse, DONALD DUCK, Mickey Mouse, DONALD DUCK.  Forever I will hold my banner high, HIGH, HIGH, HIGH.  Come along and sing the song and join the jamboree!  M-I-C...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E....m..i..c...see ya real soon..k..e..y...why? because we like you..m....o...u...s...eeeeeeeee"

I'm pretty sure I don't have all the words right and I'm certain that I'm off-key but all three kids love it.  Don't ask me where it came from or how it started.  I haven't the first clue.  Well, I do have the first clue - the first clue is that I love everything Disney and that song (incorrect as it is) has been stuck in my head since I was five years old.  I should probably be in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest time having a song stuck in one's head.

Did I ever post some pictures from Ryann and Adam's swim lessons this summer?  Cuz if not, I am remiss.  I got some great shots.  As you can tell, they really hated those swim lessons, did not look forward to them, and complained all the way there and back about how we made them go:

They told us in no uncertain terms, they never want to take swim lessons again....kidding.