not necessarily in this order

I am a library person. Right now, 100% of the books I read come from my local library. My holds list is a source of joy and I’m so grateful that the library part of a system that will get me books from other libraries and allow me to request books that aren’t currently in any of the catalogs.   Over the last 2 months, I’ve had a library experience that I’ve never had before, and it threw my routine into such a tizzy. And I say that as someone who just got a puppy and lives in chaos.  Months ago, I had gotten on the hold list for the sequel to very popular book club read from a couple of years ago. I had mildly enjoyed the first book and just like to put in holds for sequels because the list gets so long. The book finally landed with me in late July and I saved it for our family vacation in New Hampshire in early August.  Unfortunately, I read the first chapter the day before we left and absolutely knew it was not for me. It very well may be for lots and lots of people, bu...

Things have been… a lot. Work, parenting, puppies, estates, etc. Rather than saying nothing, here’s a list about our newest love, Maysie the Bernedoodle.  She’s so much bigger than we expected. She’s so “long” and has these huge paws. But, she’s all fluff! You can feel her poor ribs under all that hair. We are working to catch her up on weight now that she’s off the antibiotic, but it’s going to take a bit.  Maysie does a downward dog stretch on the top stair every time I take her out, which makes me think of Nicole .  Maysie just finished her vaccines so we can start walking her and taking her places to socialize, which is great. She’s a little shy around people indoors, but does much better with the space of outside (well, our backyard so far).  Maysie loves leaves. And eating things off the ground. And sticks.  Maysie does not love moths, however, as we’ve learned during a choppy battle by moonlight.  She’s almost 5 months old, so she still naps a few ti...

  I think where we left off was that my little family was getting a puppy in the latter half of September?   I’m allergic to everything, so we had to make some concessions in breed. I so want to be the person to walk into a shelter and save a pup, but we had been waiting for a year for a dog that wouldn’t turn me into a sneezy, hivey mess and that just didn’t happen. So, we researched ethical companies and found one that could help us get a 18-week-old    Bernedoodle from Wisconsin to us here in Massachusetts.  LM has been so excited to dive into puppy prep; she also won the name voting with “Maysie”, named after a character from Seussical the Musical . We got Maysie a crate, worked on ways to separate her and our senior population Morkie, Bella, and dove in to house decluttering while waiting for our transport weekend.  We were supposed to get a call on Saturday letting us know she was dropped off with the transporter. LM and I had seen a play the night be...

  Random life updates :  1. More on the puppy when she’s here – expected arrival is the week after next! So much to get ready, but also so much excitement and anticipation.  2. Lil Momma survived her first few days of 7 th  grade but is having trouble with the noise levels of having THIRTY SEVEN other kids in the classrooms. There is a whole other post I could write about public schools and overrides and how we’re failing our kids and our teachers and staff, but that is not for today. Foot/Ankle/Morale Update    I am almost 5 months out from having this foot/ankle surgery. If you had asked me before the surgery, I would have thought I’d be 80% back to my life: Walking in the woods, if not hiking. Strength workouts. Slow jogs on the treadmill. Intervals on the bike. Dragging my family on weekend adventures.    That is not how it has gone down.   I severely underestimated what recovery would look like. My expectations were so far out of reality...

Why would we get a dog right now? Honestly. Everything is wildly chaotic and I live in a constant state of overwhelm. The news this week has been so horrifying and that’s on top of the sad and awful it’s been. Why would we get a dog right now? We just survived the back to back of the Mr. and my 20th dating anniversary and Lil Momma’s 12 birthday. For our anniversary, we saw it was the year of “metal” and pulled the plug on buying new kitchen appliances (much needed), including our first working dishwasher and a fridge with water (with water!! So fancy!!) that arrive tomorrow. We have to take a cabinet down tonight somehow and then find a place for the fridge contents. I’m sourcing ice and coolers. Don’t even ask me about the ballet barre and turning pad we got LM; no clue where those will be stored. Why would we get a dog right now?  School starts next week. Besides the fact that LM is 5 feet tall now and 12 years old, the idea that she’s in 7th grade seems unfathomable. This yea...

 Life is life-ing. It’s all happening all the time. We are a week from Lil Momma’s 12th birthday. We are two weeks from school starting. This weekend is the Mr and my 20th anniversary. I’m so unprepared for all of this. But that is not my story for tonight.  I was taking Bella, our senior Morkie (Maltese/Yorkshire Terrier) out, something that’s only my job when the Mr is at dart night. It was dark, I was tired and sore from a long walking day in office, Bella was over it and just wanted her three treats I owed her once we got back in the house.  As we came up the deck stairs to head in through our sliding glass doors, my hair got caught on the branches of a hanging plant. Easily remedied, right?  NO! IT WASN’T! Why? Because THINGS FLEW OUT of the hanging plant and I felt them on my head. ON MY HEAD. Although I love the memes of how bats look like dancing emo goths, I am deeply afraid of bats getting caught in my hair (because it happened to me once).  I screamed...