Aleaism of the day

"Mom, hurry up and get me to school! I have to get there and get teacht!"

Gotta love that girl! She cracks me up!

Dog Party U.S.A.

Sparkles gets to go to doggie daycare on the days I have meetings at school. He runs around, plays, barks, licks, sniffs, and in general does doggie things all day. He is much less wild after a day at Dog Party U.S.A. (doggie daycare). I never thought I would have a dog much less take it to doggie daycare. I think he is my substitute second child. We call Sparkles and Alea brother and sister and Davin and I are mom and dad to them both. Sad I know!

Surgery for Sparky

Sparky has to have surgery on his back left foot/paw. Somehow his foot was damaged sometime after he was born and before we got him from the shelter. They are going to try to fix the damage and save the pads if possible. It will take about two weeks or so to heal. Keeping track of Sparky while he heals is on my fall break to do list.

The third toe on the right

I think I broke my toe. Man, it hurts! How did I do it you ask?! Like most people with broken toes...I walked into a wall. Oh yeah!

One more week

I have one more week of work and then I have my first two week break/intersession. Since I am on a continuous learning calendar I get extra breaks throughout the year. I have plans to clean house, eat lunch with Alea at school, maybe volunteer at school if her teacher wants me too, do some Christmas shopping, do homework, go to the university to get a project done for my statistics class, test drive a couple of cars (just for fun and ideas), take Sparkles to doggie daycare a few times, cook dinner (at least a few times), walk Alea to school (she has been dying to do this), take Alea to school everyday for two weeks, and a lot of other productive things I haven't even thought of yet. Busy but AWESOME to have a break from work. I am loving the CLC schedule.

Yellowstone

I was talking to Alea and telling her that we are thinking about going to Yellowstone National Park for our vacation this year. She asked what we would do there. I told her we would see animals like elk, bear, squirrels (she loves squirrels), etc. She asked if we would see a rhinoceros. I told her no they live in Africa. She asked if we would see a cheetah. I told her no they also live in Africa. She couldn't figure out why we would go to this "Yellowstone place" when all the good animals are in Africa.

Sparky

I have taken Sparkles to doggie daycare one a week for the past two weeks. He loves it. This week I took him on Wednesday and then on Thursday and Friday morning he followed me around all morning and followed me to the front door. I think he wanted to go back to doggie daycare. He loves it there. The ladies say he doesn't back down from any dog no matter the size. That may have something to do with the fact that he think he is the alpha dog at home too. We're working on that. Sparky has a friend at doggie daycare that is a Maltese like him. The other Maltese's name is Sir Maxamillion. They said his people thought he needed a big boy name since he looks kind of girly. I said we just went with the girly look and let Alea name our Maltese Sparkles Rosebud. Good thing Sparkles can be shortened to Sparky. The best part of doggie daycare is that he is tuckered out big time when he gets home.

Punctuality

Alea asked me on the way home tonight how to spell "punctuality". What a funny girl! What a big vocabulary! I knew I would love her going to kindergarten.

Dating in Kindergarten

When I got home from school this is the conversation that awaited me....

"Mom, I've got something to tell you about school and you aren't going to like it."
Me: "What is it?"
Alea: "Well, two girls in my class are DATING!"
Me: "They are dating each other?"
Alea: "No, they are dating boys in another kindergarten class."
Me: "Hhhmm, what does "dating" mean?"
Alea: "Mooooooom, it means they do dating stuff."
Me in a voice of horror and jest: "Are they....HOLDING HANDS?"
Alea: "Kind of."
Me: "Do you know what to say if a boy asks to date you?"
Alea: "I tell him NO because dating is for when you're older...like fourth grade!"

Oh boy!! Trouble here we come!!

sicky

Alea was home sick today with a possible bladder infection and a sinus infection. I am remembering our five Friday's in a row last year with bladder infections...I hope we don't have a repeat of that.

Grad School Family Picnic

Yesterday was the grad school family picnic at the University. They had free BBQ and games for kids. Alea had a lot of fun. It was VERY low key. We walked around the university and I gave Davin and Alea a tour (of as much that I know...we even found somethings I didn't know about...like the Billingsley Music Building). See pics below

Crazy Busy

Full time job, full time grad school, mommy, wife = crazy busy!