Ponds, Puzzles and Dogs

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we were at my Mom and Dad’s house from Saturday through Wednesday, watching their house and their animals while they went to Cooperstown, New York to watch my cousin’s son play baseball.

They only live a little over 10 minutes away from us, yet it feels like a completely different place. They have a log home that is in a private setting with a pond. It’s gorgeous and my kids love it there because they can swim and drive a golf cart around on the trails behind the house and there’s a lot of space to play games and have a bonfire and all sorts of good stuff. They made sure to get good use out of the pond over the past several days and Asher even jumped off of the dock into the pond for the first time. The surroundings are just gorgeous.

Another nice thing about being over there is it just gets us away from the normal routine at home and we tend to do more things that don’t involve technology. Brian and I love doing puzzles and playing games, so we decided to get a good puzzle to take over with us, since we were going to be there for a few days. Brian decided to get a little crazy (yeah, we know how to have a good time) and get a 2,000 piece puzzle. That’s the biggest puzzle we’ve ever attempted. We started it Saturday evening and I finished it on Wednesday afternoon before heading home. It was painful to have to take it all apart after just getting it put together. We worked on it every day for several hours, so it was a pretty hard puzzle. I did get some pictures before I took it apart though. It was a nice, relaxing thing to do while we were there.

Don’t think it was all fun and games though. The main reason we were there was to take care of their animals. They have a Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab Mix, 2 cats and a Miniature Pinscher. The big dog and cats are a breeze…the miniature pinscher is a whole other story. She was bit in the head by a big dog when she was just a few months old and almost died. My parents loved and spoiled her to the state she is now. She’s mostly normal, but not quite. The thing is, she is SO SPOILED that if she doesn’t get to sleep with you, she does this siren sound that is one of the most horrible things you have ever heard. I’m not even kidding. A couple years ago, she did it while we were there watching her and it woke everyone up and Asher was crying and everyone was completely freaked out. You absolutely would not believe that that kind of sound could come out of such a tiny animal. So, I had the “enjoyment” (NOT) of having to sleep with her. Don’t get me wrong, Brian was in the bed too, but he can’t get anywhere near me without her growling. She can’t even open her mouth to bite anyone or anything, so it’s not like it’s threatening, just annoying. In the morning when he would go to leave for work, he would tell me goodbye and as soon as he started to lean toward me to kiss me, she would start growling like crazy. Kind of funny. Oh, and she doesn’t just sleep next to me, she has to be wrapped up in a blanket and in my arms to be happy. Totally obnoxious. So, here’s how I slept for four nights.

So, that’s what my weekend and week have looked like so far. Anything amusing going on with you this week? I bet you aren’t sleeping with tiny dogs like they are babies! LOL