Another conversation I'm tired of having:

The dog vs. the baby. This is usually on Twitter but there's a lot of dog-hating on Facebook too. Holier than thou moms don't discriminate on which social media they take to with their complaints. 

There are a lot of women out there who insist that having a dog while you have young children is the worst, most overstimulating mistake you can make. 

This discussion pops up every 3-4 weeks like rage bait on the socials. 

My advice:

If you are getting married and are wanting to have a baby right away, maybe don't get a dog. 

If you are pregnant, maybe don't get a dog. 

If you have 4 kids you struggle to handle, maybe don't get a dog. 

But IF you already have a dog before you have a baby, knock it off, suck it up, and welcome to being an adult. I'm so tired of women shaming other women for liking dogs (talk about gross: cats poop in the house, but we're not ready for that conversation I guess because cats are seen as more low-key...)

Our dogs were 4 and 5 when we had Wells. Scout the dog has always been indifferent to children (but he's also indifferent to me) but Jett loved Wells like his own. Same with Sutton. Jett could not get enough. 

My dogs were not more or less work after Wells was born. WELLS was a lot of work. But no one is telling moms not to have kids. We're missing the point here. The kid is the work, the dog is mostly self-sufficient. 

And let me tell you: the fact that I HAD to run my dogs through the fields every day and walk them and get out of bed to feed them, kept me going when I didn't want to leave the house. Do you know how good it was for me and Wells to get out and walk Jett and Scout on trails in Wyoming every day? The fresh air? The exercise? Same in Pittsburgh. People in the northeast generally don't go outside in the winter. The reason everyone is sick and miserable in the winter is because they don't go outside. Dogs get you outside.

It is exactly the same thing here. My kids walk a trail every day so the dogs can run. Find me another 3 year old (with a mom like me who generally hates outside) who is out walking a mile through the fields and woods every day. 

So yeah, if you adopt a pitbull while you're pregnant, maybe you just make perpetually bad decisions anyway, but it never ceases to amaze me that it's always the Christian moms online who shame people for, God forbid, loving having a dog. 

Sutton in a princess dress and wand in hand, if you zoom in there. 

This was 15 degrees on Monday.

My original Conversations I'm Tired of Having was about Halloween, last fall. 

Stuff and Things Thursday

+Hot take: I don't like Lululemon. I don't get the appeal. I think it's pretentious and anyone pretending the quality of Old Navy workout clothes is that much different than something 4x the price is absolutely deluded. You don't need a LLL tank because it's "the best". You want it because it has that dumb little symbol on it. There is nothing (nothing) you can get from LLL that you can't get somewhere else that might even be better. I think I've only been in a physical LLL once? I've had a tote once (which I ended up selling) and I had the align leggings, which I also sold because I rarely wore them.

To the women who say they "only" wear LLL:

+They've not deactivated my school email and I sincerely hope they never do. I'm loving it. I at least want it so I can see the test scores from last year come October. That being said, Pinterest culture in the classroom has got to stop. Kids aren't learning anything because we spend all of our time personalizing it with fluffy rugs and pretty bean bag chairs. I used to make it a point not to use pink; I used a lot of neon accents or non-primary colors. It's a place of learning for 20-100 students, not your Xanga page circa 2004.

+I've been on the hunt for a fall bag. I ended up ordering this from Stitchfix (Here's my code if you like SF...I do). Amazon has something similar I will try if I don't like the SF one. However...I was sent on this bag hunt because I saw this $5,000 bag on Instagram and wow, I liked it. This creator does amazing price-breakdowns of rich girl hauls lol. Right now, she focuses on the sororities since it's rush season. 

I adore this Longchamp I bought myself as a birthday present when Sutton turned 3 (I think this is something I will do every year, honestly, as her birth was a feat), but I'm ready for something else after 5 months. 

+One of the things I wanted to do this summer was "sit on the porch and/or read on the porch". I've done NONE of that, but the dogs are enjoying the deck. 

+I've also been walking the dogs almost 3 miles every day. They start bouncing around by 10am wondering when the heck we're leaving, if we haven't gone. 

This last week I didn't feel great and it was really hot so we ended up just taking them to a trail/park and letting them run in the evening. I like this better than the 3 mile walk, not gonna lie. 

#fall will arrive, I just know it

+Homeschool Update: This is it. It's organized. I've got what I need in here to get things started. We'll see where/how it goes. 

The bottom shelf is Sutton's. Any and all books are downstairs in the basement and I have two tubs of other supplies but they don't need to be out every day. We're working with a 4-day week, Fridays I'm planning to be co-op days, and I do need to schedule in those hour-long dog walks somehow. 

One Year of Maverick

Mav actually turned ONE on May 18th, but we got him on July 13th. 

(I will remember this, always, because it was the day of the assassination attempt on President Trump. And if you want to liken that event to the kind of anarchical chaos Maverick has brought to us, go ahead.) 

So, the downside is that we can never ever get rid of him because of the way Sutton says "Oh Maverick!" and hugs him 12 times a day. The upside is that he is unflinchingly loyal and loves us so much so he's becoming a very good dog. 

He still chews on things. He still will maul and annihilate a Little Person and eat the foot off a doll. His actual favorite past-time has been seeking out Sutton's sippy cups, running out the doggy door with them, and chewing the lid off to get the remnants of milk on the inside. It's not been uncommon for me to find piles of take-and-toss cups laying in the yard. (We went through a lot of take-and-toss cups in the last 6 months.) He would actually open her bedroom door in the middle of the night (her door in MO didn't latch properly so he just needed to ram it a bit), grab the cup, and I'd find it in the yard in the morning.)

And he really doesn't like being in trouble because he will run away and pee at the same time. The only time this happens is usually when he tries to steal food from the kitchen counter (he ate half a mushroom pizza once and has lived for me to tell that tale).

The good news is that with a third dog, you kind of just assume they'll survive things and he's proven to be resilient. 

He was completely crate-trained and then something happened when school was over and he realized that I wasn't leaving for work anymore and he started to rebel and now he doesn't go in the crate and we just let him loose in the basement while we're gone. We've determined that as long as he has plenty to chew on, he's fine.  

Sutton's handiwork

Since we've been in Kansas, we've leash-trained him and Scott will take him out for his first hunting season this fall. 

He's definitely the biggest dog we've had at about 46 pounds at one year old and he's solid muscle. He was the only boy in a litter of 3 pups and it shows. He's determined and in charge but Scout puts him in his place. 

Maverick is a very good dog and we've been on a learning curve, having not just a puppy but training a teenage dog again. The puppy part goes fast; the teenage part is the hard part. 

Give him an antler, he's happy

Scout and Mav had birthdays the same week. Mav was too overwhelmed and insane over a plate of salmon in front of him, so no cute pictures. 

He's such a good dog and too smart that he's almost dumb, if that makes sense. 

He always looks slightly like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't. He loves to curl up on our feet and be petted and see what's going on. He's exactly like Jett in this way. Scout does not possess these traits (Scott always said that "Scout is his own dog", while Jett always needed our approval and now Mav wants our approval too.)

He always looks like this spaniel.

We've also figured out that Mav is a terrible swimmer. Like, he'll do it, but he looks like he's drowning. Jett was the same way. At least Mav will run and and jump into the water. Jett would just stand on the shore. 

Scout is graceful and quiet and paddles with ease. .

..and honestly, Scout and Mav have the same markings, come from the same breeder, and they HAVE to be related, yet they are so different. 

Puppy flashback from last year

When do dogs start to listen? (asking for me)

(or when do kids start to listen?)

Another spring is here so dog-walking weather is back. When I didn't work, I would try to walk multiple times a week year-round with baby Sutton and two dogs since Wells was in preschool. 

Now, Wells is almost 7 and old enough to listen and pay attention and not randomly scooter off into traffic. 

Sutton, not so much. She has taken over the whining and complaining role that Wells used to fill. 

(No one tells you that when your kids are about 4 years apart, one will get really easy all of a sudden and the other will slide into that hard age. They take turns, basically.)

I'm back to walking a puppy, which I haven't really done since 2014-15. 

Here's the thing: Scout has always been terrible on a leash. Always. He's almost 12. He is still terrible on a leash.

Jett was worse than worse than worse on a leash. Jett was so bad that I took him to obedience school for a few months and they didn't even know what to make of him. He did not graduate (that I recall). I think we literally just quit. It was getting to be embarrassing. Joke was on them: he turned out to be the best possible dog to walk and 3-4 year old Wells often held Jett's leash because he was so obedient and protective of us when we were out. 

Maverick, comparatively, is not that bad. He's more just dumb and I don't trust him. But a couple of shocks and he realizes what's up and he'll walk along at my side. 

Scout does not care. He's also deaf now so it doesn't matter if he cares or not. 

I remember taking Jett and Scout to a dog park in Colorado Springs in probably 2015, and they were awful. So so so awful. Like, it was embarrassing. 

I talked to a man there who was older and he had a 12 year old dog who wasn't doing well, health-wise, and he said he'd love to have a disobedient puppy again. I get it: I'd love to have another day with puppy Jett (well, maybe 5 year old Jett). I understood what he was saying even if I hadn't experienced it yet. But anyway, I really thought Scout would've calmed down by this point. Even Maverick can hold it together. Scout is insatiable when he comes to running and sniffing and hunting. He hyperventilates the whole way to the destination, and knocks small children over to get to where he wants to be. 

So while clearly this is personality-dependent, 12 is not the age when a Brittany spaniel starts to listen.

Meet Maverick!

Maverick (Mav) has been with us for about a week and a half now. He's almost 10 weeks old and is a Brittany. He came from the same breeder/kennel as Scout. His full name is Cross Creek Maverick but his call name is Mav because of the one syllable. 

(This does not mean Scout likes him and this definitely doesn't mean Jett likes him but he's a very sweet little guy. He's eager to play and eager to please. They are all slowly warming up to each other.)

As far as being a puppy goes, he's a good one! He's better than Scout was and miles better than Jett (I sweat just thinking about puppy Jett). We had gotten Scout at 6 weeks old and I think he developed some unhealthy attachments and anxiety because of it. So far Mav is just anxious about when it's time to eat. 

He loves his crate, he generally lets us know when he has to go outside, and he's so snuggly. I forgot how puppies can't walk on leashes and can't sit or stay or lay down. I'm used to talking to grown-up dogs. I also forgot how much puppies need to nap and how they're always trying to unalive themselves by eating whatever they find. I'd also forgotten how much puppies love toys; our dogs lost interest in toys totally by age 2 and just wanted to be outside running and chasing rabbits and digging holes in Colorado. We've accumulated a lot of dog toys over the last week or so and I've pulled out all the other toys I had stuffed away. 

Mav is certainly my little shadow right now and follows me everywhere. Wells loves him and so does Sutton but he gets a little too close to her for comfort, right at her eye level. 

I'm keeping track of his age in the same way I did with Scout. They have birthdays the same week in May so he'll be at the same stages of development through the seasons. 

Scott took him to the gun range after we'd had him for a day and this is how bothered he was by hundreds of shots going off at once:

(a shoe he should definitely not have)

What he spends most of his time doing. 

Scout and Jett go on vacay

If there's a word I hate, it's vacay. (Or if you don't like phonics "vaca".) But when referring to a dog's vacation, it's probably okay.

That's the only way I could think to title this post. They look forward to each and every hunting outing with Scott. He takes them as much as he possibly can; sometimes 2-3 days in a row on the weekends. But then, every year in September, they head out to the plains for several days to hunt. 

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a counselor (Insurance pays for it so I go once in awhile because I have nothing else to do) and she was wondering why I brought the baby with me if my husband was off work that day. I said Oh, he's hunting. She asked if I was okay with that. 

LOL. 

I, looking back, had no idea how much Scott wanted to hunt/fish in all of his spare time until after we got married. But the long and short of it is: he works 14 hour days, he rarely gets a day off, sometimes even works weekends, and we have two hunting dogs. So yes, I'm okay with it.

The counselor was just like "hmm most wives wouldn't be okay with him not taking the baby on a day off".  I believe her, based on her military clientele, but that still blows my mind. 

But really, the reason why I don't care how much he hunts is because of Jett and Scout. As long as they get to go, it's fine by me. 

They are dogs with a purpose. They look forward to this trip every year. They start running around the house from window to window when they see the camper getting packed. Scout saw Scott load up the guns one night and he did. not. sleep. for fear of missing his wake-up call. 

Opening weekend every September always happens to fall on our wedding anniversary, which Scott absolutely insists is not his fault and "take it up with the migration patterns". 

I didn't tell the counselor about that funny coincidence. 

(These are doves. I could show you the pictures of all the dead ducks too, but you're probably not here for that kind of content.)

Errday on Friday.

1. "I feel like we had a nice and productive weekend."

Famous last words ^^^ That was the beginning of a post I was going to publish on Monday. 

I had started writing a weekend recap and then things imploded slightly on Sunday night. We were left with a childcare emergency on Monday and, now, we're in a childcare conundrum. 

It's consumed my every thought, which leads to the crushing guilt that I've done this to myself.  So, it's been a week where all of the things have gone wrong and I don't even know what to say about this.

2. Not surprisingly, Wells has been all out of sorts this week. Sick (sick) on Wednesday night. He's never sick. I've written sub plans more than once this week, just in case he threw up or had a fever because that's where I assumed this was heading.

3. The weather has been insane with wind and our good friend the red flag warning is back. Luckily, it's not red-flag-errday, all day, like in Colorado Springs, but this is the first I've dealt with since leaving Pittsburgh.  

Some of you all (okay, most of you all) have mentioned the PTSD you feel you suffer from this time of year because of what happened last year in March 2020. PTSD is a thing for sure but, for me, this ain't it. Any and all PTSD I have is triggered by deployments and red flag warnings. "March 2020" doesn't mean much to me. Is that weird?

4. Jett turned 7 this week. 

I feel bad that we didn't get to celebrate much in the middle of our chaos. They got new antlers. Not that a dog knows the difference, but I'm sure they appreciated no party hats this year. 

5. My contact lens ripped on Thursday morning so I worked more than half a day with only one good eye. 

6. Again, back to the childcare conundrum: I am wholly commitment-focused in that I made a commitment to this school and this district and, short of my child being actually ill (see: sub plans up above), I'm going to do whatever I can to keep that commitment. I've got two-ish months to go. We'll cross next year's bridge when we come to it.

7. This goes back to the fact that I chose this and made all of this stress and worry for myself (which is what I would tell a counselor if I still cared enough to see a counselor). However, the amount I have learned and practically injected into my veins in the form of current education practices and use of technology is equivalent to at least a masters' degree, probably a doctorate.  It's not been wasted time, that's for sure.

8. Lastly, have you ever had a Go Noodle song stuck in your head? Every class I work with has their favorites on Go Noodle. Currently, my group loves the NTV channel on Go Noodle (if this is completely foreign to you, I'm sorry and good for you). We dance to this one probably every single day. I was never a huge fan, but it's adorable to watch how much the kids like it, so now I don't mind it. 

It's a heck of a way to live, with Two Princes stuck in your head as an ear worm day in and day out. 

5 Friday Things

This is another list of recommendations...I think that's what I'll do on Fridays for now, because that ring wash recommendation (that I found as a recommendation from another blogger on IG) was brand new information last week! That's the point of blogs and whatnot...I get my best recommendations from other bloggers.

1. This podcast.

2. This cake recipe.

No pictures because I haven't put the cake together yet, but it's absolutely delicious if you are in need of a chocolate cake. I ate a bunch of scraps while I trimmed the layers to level them. 

3.  This dinner. 

Our friend from India would sigh and shake his head, but I added roasted zucchini and broccoli because I had it to use and I didn't have any chickpeas. Seriously so good. I skipped the kale because kale is gross. 

4.  

The Pittsburgh salad. Not officially named that, but that's what I call it. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I was flabbergasted and confused to find that "salads" in Alaska weren't covered in french fries, back when we moved there in 2009. I couldn't understand what was happening in restaurants. 

Then I realized that only in Pittsburgh are salads covered in fries. I do recommend trying this if you get a chance. Got this at a place downtown yesterday. 

5. Socially-distant vet visits. 

Scout had his yearly check-up this week and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing vet trips this way. Wells got to just crawl around the car while we waited because they just came out to get Scout when it was his appointment time. SO MUCH EASIER than hauling him and a toddler into an (always kind of smelly, right?) office. The vet is never my favorite errand. 

Scout likes it less than I do, obviously. 

(And this sour, refuse-to-look-at-the-camera face, really, is just because he doesn't like the kid and The Vet + Wells = True Punishment.)

I also shared a few recommendations on Wednesday...mascara and shorts!

Happy birthday to Jett-Jett!

Yesterday was Jett's birthday.

He would not oblige me with a photo.

Scout did. He knows the drill.

Salmon for dinner.

Here's some poorly-lit pictures of Scout meeting Jett back in 2014. 

A few days later, they had kind of become friends. 

Then Scout spent some time contemplating his life and how this had happened to him. 

But Colorado was really the only home Jett has known. We moved there after we'd had him for about 3 weeks. When we started living part-time in Laramie, he'd never seen a squirrel or had a neighbor or..wait for it...walked on a leash. Aside from a few realllllly terrible park/trail experiences when we first got to Colorado, we only used leashes for vet visits. #practicallyferal

Jett is the best dog you'd ever want by your side if you're outdoors. He doesn't leave you for a minute. He guards the stroller. He stays so close it is a hinderance to your own safety (meaning you will trip over him). He has "potential" to hunt. He just is too smart and uses his spent energy wisely; mostly on chasing rabbits and picking up whatever bird Scout has run back with or swam out to get and claiming it as his own.

He still loves to eat more than anything and tolerates Wells better than we expected he would. 

We love him dearly. 

His food-coma, after he got into the dog food bag at 9 weeks old and ate his fill when we weren't paying attention.