The Dog Test

I stumbled upon this Parenting Test the other day as I was surfing the web and then I started thinking.  What would a dog test look like for someone considering getting a dog....

The Dog Test 

Test 1

Spend a day going to every hairdresser within a 50 km radius of your house.  Collect all the swept up hair that was cut that day and place in a garbage bag.  You will need several bags.  When you get home empty the bags all over the house, ensuring each room has a collection of hair on the floor and noting also to spread over the furniture and a few items of clothing (black is ideal).  Do not get the vacuum just yet, try to live with it.

Test 2

Drink lots and lots of water.  When you need to go to the toilet just take your undies off and go where you are standing, carpet is a better choice than tiles.  Once done, clean it up.  Ensure that you also try and find a few spots to go that are in hard to reach corners, such as behind an armchair.  This way the mess cannot be seen and can only be smelt a few days later.  

Test 3

Go to a local daycare/playcentre and ask to borrow all the plastic play balls the kids play with.  Dump these balls onto the kitchen floor ensuring full coverage.  Now attempt to make dinner without stepping on any balls.

Test 4

When you have a few moments of quite time find your favourite chair and read a book/watch a DVD/ do whatever makes you happy.  Have a family member jump up on you and climb over you as much as possible.  Attempt to continue on with your activity.

Test 5

Go for a walk.  Stop for 30 seconds at every object that comes from the ground, both natural and artificial, notice that your 15 minute walk suddenly turns into a 30 minutes one.  Ideally go to the toilet on this walk, preferably not long after leaving and carry it with you for the rest of the way.

Test 6

Whenever you have something important to do at home, have a family member stand at the back door and scratch away at it while making dog like noises until it drives you to the point of letting them inside the house.

Test 7

Every time you sit down at the table to eat have a family member sit on the floor and start to jump up on you, have them scratch your leg and when you do not give them food straight away have them start barking at you.   Finish your meal.

Can you think of any other tests to include?

A Little Passion For Wine

I was a nerd at school (and yes parts of that have carried through) aside from the odd swig of beer from Dad when I was a kid (that I couldn't stand the taste) I actually didn't drink until I was 18.  I started on "Stollies" (Vodka and Lemon) that was really all I could stomach.  A few months after turning 18 I went to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Victoria.  My cousin was in Year 12 with me and my parents thought I needed a break in scenery and sent me down to study with him.  My Uncle was a huge Wine Buff.  I remember for dinner he opened a bottle of red and asked if I wanted a glass, I told him I was not sure.  He poured me some, I didn't like it.  He laughed and told me that red wine was an acquired taste and that I needed to stick with it and after several attempts I would be able to drink a full glass.

I do not know why, but it stuck and I did persevere with it.  Within a few weeks I could drink a glass of red.  In fact that was all I could drink, I wasn't even into white.  So while my friends started drinking 'Breezers' I was into the more finer things in life.

Sure enough as life went on, my palate for wine developed and I was off on day trips to the Hunter Valley educating myself.  Let me be clear though, for I want to establish that I am not one of those people.  The ones starting with a W, or a wine snob.  I just knew what I liked and what I didn't and I wasn't afraid to say it.  I was not carrying a notebook with me and standing in a cellar door bragging that I could make the distinction between American Oak and French Oak in the 2002 Shiraz.  No, I was the one that told the nice young man behind the counter that I prefer my white wines with balls.

Having altered our road trip Honeymoon to include a few wine tours, you could say that wine is a little bit of a hobby for me.  And I would have to agree.  So when it came time to pick a name for the newest member of our family I knew it would need to be a wine, just like Mr C.  We decided on Shiraz, Hubby only agreed to this because in public we could just yell out 'Raz' or 'Razzie'.  Although now that he has come into our lives I hear Hubby yelling out "Shirazie" all the time.  Seems someone else has turned into a little wine snob themselves.

Smile

 There is a golf club up the road with a bright LED sign.  The sign is right on the boundary so that anyone driving past can clearly read it.  It advertises the bistro specials, particular golf days and then it tells you to smile.  I first noticed it a couple of months ago as I was waiting at the lights (the sign is placed just behind the lights) it told me about a lunch special and then a smiley face appeared with the word "Smile" next to it.  I had to double check I wasn't seeing things, it was completely random.  But it was there and then it was back to the lunch specials.  The lights changed and as I drove passed I smiled.

Since then I always notice it.  I smile everytime, sometimes when I smile I realise I must have had quite a frown on my face.  Everything feels better.  I look for the sign now, I look for the smile.  Sometimes as I drive passed, it doesn't, but I smile anyway.  In my head I am saying "Tell me to Smile!"  I want to see the face I want to smile.  I don't know why they do it, what they wanted to achieve but I like it, I smile, it makes the day better, as random as it is, although I am yet to still try the bistro.

This week and a half has been busy.  A puppy is so much work, I don't remember this much energy being spent on Mr C, but I am sure it was.  But I am smiling.  I might not have time for much else now and the kitchen bench may not be cleared and the items for ebay are still waiting to have their picture taken but I am smiling.  Raz is getting bigger already, and this is such a brief period.  He will be an adult before we know it, and he will loose his little baby noises, and his soft fur and I won't be able to pick him up with one hand.  As much work as he is, he makes me smile everytime and I can say now that he has fit into our family perfectly, and I am happy with the four of us.  Me and My Boys.

Introducing Raz

I decided to take this week off work to help Raz settle in.  We took Mr C home just before Christmas and we already had a week and a half off and it was good to have that time to settle him in, and most importantly toilet train him.  I decided to take a week off to do the same for Raz, I didn't want to bring him home and the next day leave him alone for 8 hours.  My timesheet at work says I am on Recreation Leave.  Hubby made the mistake of saying I was on holidays.  I wish.  I need a holiday.  I personally think I am on maternity leave.

I actually thought having a week off would give me time to do stuff around the house as well as play mum.  Things I struggle to find the time to do, like rearrange the pantry, get into our junk room that still has unopened boxes and unpack a few more things (that clearly we don't need if we have gone this long without).  I even thought I would be able to list a load of unwanted items on ebay.  Instead I have done a trillion loads of washing and mopping the floors, twice.  Being Wednesday I think the pantry is going to have to wait another couple of weeks or so.  

Everyone feels the need to comment that I should get used to it, because when we decide to have a family it will be like this but worse.  This is usually said by people who already have kids, or our parents who have been there done that.  This comment is always followed with a loud laugh, an apparent inside joke that we are not yet in on.  It is not helpful, nor is hubby when he said to me last night that I do not appear to be suited to 'Housewife'.  He almost slept on the couch.

So welcome to the family Raz, mum and dad love you, although we are a little frustrated with your zero warning signs when it comes to peeing, and as for our first born, your big brother Mr C, well, all I can say is that he has no choice but to accept you, and I am sure in due course he will.  I hope.

Expecting

We have been a little pre-occupied this week.  Only 3 more sleeps.  Hubby and I have been thinking for a long time that it was time to expand our little family of 3 to 4.  Mentally we are ready, the house is almost ready and after a little shopping spree I think we have everything that we need.  We have been waiting for months.  And on the weekend we found out that the pregnancy we were backing on wasn't to be.  However by some small chance, on Monday morning a tiny little add popped up, I made the call and here we are.

Mr C needs a buddy, I feel bad that we work full time, he is happy but whenever he goes to the kennels dog resort he goes off.  He loves it there.  The owner has a pug, his name is Gilbert, and Gilbert and Mr C are the best of friends, so we knew that when the time was right we could only go with another pug.  The breeder sent through the photo to me on Monday morning and as soon as I laid eyes on him, I knew, he was The One.  I sent it through to Hubby and he agreed.  I quickly made arrangements for us to go down there on Sunday to take him home.  He is 8 weeks today so the timing is perfect.

I am very clucky right now, for the puppy of course.  My mum is excited she loves Mr C, treats him like a grandson, which he is really.  We treat him like a really baby, while we don't go to the extreme some other owners go, he does walk around naked for example, he is the centre of attention every evening.  And we talk about him all the time as if he was our son.  When we first moved in one of the neighbours came around introducing themselves, pointing our their children, proudly showing off the latest addition, a 6 month old bubba.  I picked up Mr C and introduced him as our only child.  Fortunately they smiled instead of walking away wondering who on earth had just moved in next door.

Hubby's mum was very disappointed with the news, she wants a real baby so bad, but I told her, having two pugs will be perfect practise, once we have this down pat maybe then we will be ready for the real thing.  Surely we are not the only childless couple out there with fur babies who treat them like real children?