5QF: Love, Pets, Sugar, Babysitting

What is a 5QF?
It's a 5 Question Friday!  I know I have a lot of followers that don't even know who I am, so I thought I would start this one to give you all a little insight in to me.  We'll see if I like it.  Basically, five random questions from 5CrookedHalos.  You can join in too if you'd like!  Make sure you share your link with me below in my comments!









1. Is love at 1st sight possible?
No, I do not believe it is.  But everyone has a soulmate and when you meet that person you automatically have that intense connection.  So love at first "sight"?  No.  Love at first meeting?  Sometimes.

2. How did you choose your pet's name?
Our Jelly Bean passed away in April.  It was very sad.  She was originally named "Sally" after my very good friend.  But it didn't feel right.  So my husband and I just made a list of names.  I jokingly said "Jelly" when looking at food in our kitchen, and it just sounded right.  We gave a few names to our daughter, and she picked Jelly.  Shortly after that, she became Jelly Bean, Jelly Belly, Jels, Beanie, Jell Bell, Beaner...  I miss her.

Ernie was originally "Ninja".  I chose the name to make him have a connection to my hubby.  Not that Luke is a ninja, but he fantasizes about it.  Two or three days after we got him and had been calling him Ninja, my mom started calling him Ernie as a joke saying that he looked more like an Ernie.  Then Ty started calling him that, and it just stuck to him.  His official name is "Ernie the Ninja".  We call him Ernie, Ernie Bernie, Ernest, Ernest Bernest, Ninja, Minja (how one of our sons used to say it), Peanut Butter, Wallaby...  so many others.

Kiwi was way different.  We actually chose her name before we met her.  I made a list of names that I liked.  Luke vetoed several.  Each time I would meet a potential new member of our family I would see if any of the names "fit".  Then when we met our Kiwi, I took a picture of her and sent it to Luke with the caption, "Is this a Kiwi?"  He wrote back and said, "That's a Kiwi."  And the rest is history.  I really liked this method because it felt like she was definitely the one for us.  I love her to pieces!!

3. What are you considering giving up (cable, home phone)?
Sugar.  I've noticed over the last week with me trying to consciously eat better that I eat a lot of sugar.  Candy, chocolate, ice cream.  I don't want to give it up completely, but I think I need to remove it from my house.  Damn temptations!

4. How much do you pay your babysitter?
Nada.  Our family does our "baby sitting".  We never could have a baby sitter who was not trained in Tyson's medical needs, so we had to rely on family.

5. How "young" is old enough to babysit?
I started baby sitting at like 11.  I think I would let Annie baby sit her brothers at that age, but not other kids.  I think 13 is better.

Today sucks...

My day has been rotten thing after another with only one bit of good news.  I'm feeling negative, I'm feeling irritable, I have a head ache, I hate everyone and every thing....

What do we do in this situation?  Practice Positivity!  Normally I would punch anyone in the face for saying this to me.  But I've found it works slightly.  If I just go back and find the little things that were good, then I can get through the rest of the day.  Ready?  Here goes...

• Luke got me a whole slew of chocolate pudding cups.
• It's my sister's birthday and the kids' message in her voicemail of them singing "Happy Birthday" made her smile.
• My mom is coming back from Florida today.  Somehow her being back in Michigan makes everything better.
• Someone asked me about the "LOVE" on my wrist today so I got the opportunity to tell them about TWLOHA.
• I just got $8 added to my PayPal account from a client.
• I got permission to use the local orchard for a family photo shoot next week.
• Ernie is giving me puppy dog eyes.
• I heard a song on the radio that I really liked.
• My new computer mouse came in the mail today and it glows.
• Julie (the therapist) told me she was proud of me even though I felt like a complete failure last week.
• How I Met Your Mother is on tonight, plus Two Broke Girls which I am strangely enjoying quite a bit.
• I booked a senior picture shoot, a newborn shoot, and a family shoot today.
• I have a Kit Kat on my desk right now staring at me.

Did it help?  Yes, my chest doesn't feel so tight, I'm not grinding my teeth, my eyes aren't squinty anymore, and I feel like I can get through the next 7ish hours of the day before I crash in my nice warm bed.

Wanna do it too?  Join me...  All you have to do is look back on your current situation and find the little things that are positive.  It should pull you up out of the negative the slightest bit to help you get through your day.  Add the button below (just copy and paste the code into the html part of your post) so that others join in too!  Feel free to post a link to your page here and view others' so we can all support each other. :-)

<center><a href="http://thepeartattoo.blogspot.com/search/label/practice%20positivity"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhO_ywJo41iwCumgw0Z62GuCQu3rLjQN1h9Fs4vDgrMyvrUQmYjnTynhAtczhu9_9Cf-YXNkVgDdYGgbG2aXeSP8U3x0nmw53F8HHattMgL6fhGE7Bklcpqb7IA7Nzpjn_KPSDFjkbsA/s1600/practice+positivity.jpg"/></a></center>

That Damn Dog!!!!!

In November, I brought home a runt pound puppy--3lbs, beagle heeler mix, half the size of his siblings, 9 weeks old.  Sweetest and smartest thing.  Learned his name in no time, and chased a ball like he was born to be a hunting dog.

And then we realized he's a goat and he should be named Houdini.

Ernie (who was first named Ninja, but then Tyson changed it with help from my mom) is now 9 months old, and 35lbs.  So that vet who said he was only going to be about 15lbs full grown needs to be kicked in the shin.  He eats everything in our house from blankets to clothes to toys to cords (how he hasn't been electrocuted already is beyond me) to plants to garbage to Jelly's poop (blech!)...EVERYTHING!  And he is still smart...too smart.  He knows what he is doing is wrong, so he does it where you can't see him.  Or he finds another way to do it so you have to say no to that too.  "Mom, you said I couldn't eat the YELLOW ball, I am eating the RED one now!"  Maybe he's taking lessons from our evil genius, Cooper.

Last summer we put up this nice green wire fence.  It's rather flimsy, but we did it to keep the kids in and to save some money on getting a chain link fence.  Plus, it's prettier than chain link because it's the same color as the grass, so you can't see it as much.  It's about 4 feet tall and perfect for reminding the kids they can't go running out in the road.  And Jelly is kept in, no problem.

Then we get a little peanut that grows into a tank.  The interesting thing is that he hasn't yet realized he can probably knock the fence over.  Nope, he's just found every single way he can possibly get through it.  From pushing the gate...which we then reinforced with bungee cords...to pulling the gate because he couldn't push it anymore...which resulted in double bungee cords....to chewing the fencing on the gate so he could go through the slats....which then concluded with splurging (thanks to my in-laws) on a chain link fence from the garage to the house (about 13-15 feet) to keep the damn dog in...to figuring out that he could squeeze his body under the rest of the fence....which made us tack the entire thing down with metal stakes.  We finally thought we had it like Fort Knox today.  Then my father-in-law came in the house to tell me he was taking the van for an oil change and informed me that Ernie had escaped once again to run after some bicyclists.  WHAT??!!  Where did he find a hole this time?

I can only wonder what our neighbors think of him.  We are always having to chase after him yelling his name and trying to stealthily pounce on him to bring him back home.  We are constantly trying to figure out how we can make it so he can't find a hole to weasel his way out of the fence.  How can our dog be 10 times smarter than us?

On top of all of this, Ernie is the stinkiest farter in the world!  I mean, his farts stick to your nose hairs, fill up your lungs and swirl around in their making you cough and gag.  And it's not like he farts once or twice a day.  It's more like once or twice every ten minutes.  Even the kids have been able to differentiate Ernie's farts from Ty's poopy diapers and any human flatulence in the house.

We often say "damn dog", "big dummy", "stupid Ernie", etc.  We tell him we want to give him to the pound.  We tell him he's going to be evicted.  Luke tells him he's MY dog.  The kids tell us that we should give Ernie away and just keep Jelly "the good dog".

But man, I sure do love him!  With all his not-so-savory qualities, he's got the biggest heart too.  He loves to bound up into my lap and put his head on my shoulder hugging me just like my kids do.  He loves to snuggle Jelly while taking a nap.  He knows when things are rough and gives me extra love.  When Ty has been sick lately, he likes to lay at his feet or curl up next to him on the chair.

Maybe he's going through the terrible twos, maybe he'll grow out of it all....maybe he'll just rival Marley for the position of World's Worst Dog.  But I'm not giving up on him.  I love him too much!



Yah better believe he attacked the camera right after I took this picture!