Howling Dogs and Screaming Frogs

6 days a week our neighbor has a friend that drops off their dog.  When this first began we weren't sure what breed it was, not that it mattered, but it looked like a large Jack Russel Terrier.  Now that it has been a few months we now realize that it is a mix with a greyhound.  As if I needed one more reason to feel better about my cats never going outside again. That dog can jump the fence like it was laughing at it.  It runs all over the place, and across the road (and its a very well traveled road). 

We both used to be very impressed with that dog.  It wouldn't get too close. It has zero aggression.  It never barks.  I was impressed.

This dog now howls; all the time.  From almost the minute it is left for the day, till someone arrives back at that house in the afternoon, that dog will howl.  At first I was unsettled, thinking maybe one of its friends died; after all its not the only dog next door, and those chihuahua's I once mentioned I have not seen in a very long time. 

I was afraid of what I might see if I went to check on that dog.  It did run in the road a lot; maybe it was hurt.  I have a horror story of a cat I came upon that had been hit by a car.  Stephen and I were living here in Thatcher, when we were first married.  The cat was alive, and I was so horrified that I ran off to pull Stephen out of class. I couldn't just do nothing, but I also didn't want to pick it up.

Anyway, back to my story. 

That dog was just howling out of loneliness.  Nothing was dead, no one injured.  So I scolded it, and every few minutes went back out there to tell it to shut up.  I have kids sleeping and I'll be danged if some stupid dog will wake them up.  This still continues, but a few days ago I heard it whining as if it really was hurt.  "What now!!?"  I had to laugh.  My neighbors either got sick of nearly running over it, or someone heard me, but they now keep that dog tied to a rope in the back yard.  I've watched it longing at the fence, dying to jump over.  Sucker!

The monsoons have been awesome.  We've had some amazing lightening storms, and so much rain.  I'm so glad that my parents have given us the leftover rock from one of their projects; such a life-saver; no more trekking through inches deep mud to get to/from our vehicles.  For any of you that know where we are located, or have been to our home (thanks for visiting, we love having visitors!) we have water treatment ponds nearby.  True, a northern wind doesn't smell pretty, but we do have lots of wildlife, also thanks to the river less than 1/2 a mile away. 

We were watching a movie the other night, and I about had a heart attack.  I heard screaming!  I instinctively wanted to dial 911 but thought I'd make sure I wasn't the only one hearing it.  We paused the movie, and then I realized I was hearing a lot of screaming, not just one voice.  Stephen laughs and tells me its the bull frogs outside.  Stupid frogs!  Ugh!!  They aren't all that loud, but I thought it might have been a murder going on, or maybe one of my kids cries was being muffled by a pillow.  Stupid amphibians!  Just like those stupid peacocks that sound like they are crying "Help!". 

hmmmm...

I've got an idea for a cruel joke.  Get a peacock, and at least 3 bull frogs and put them in someones back yard in the middle of the night.  I can just picture it now...

Just a few little things while I'm thinking about them. Sheesh, I never thought I'd struggle to have to remember, and make the time (not like I'm busy all the time anyway) to do blogging.

Lisette is a sleep talker. It was cute at first, and maybe even a little endearing, but now its not so. She'll have her outburst, wake us up, and then after she gets one of us out of bed she's quiet again. I have to confess, its usually Stephen who gets up. Most of the time she doesn't bring me out of consciousness enough to get me up before he's on the move. Poor Stephen!

Franklin doesn't like Wal-mart. Once he sees where the car is pulling up to he begins to get mad, and sometimes throws a fit. What can I say, he's such a drama king! Its odd though because he's happy to be there when we're inside. I guess he just hates how it looks from the outside. Maybe I should tell Wal-mart so in the future they can make them more appealing and inviting for when you arrive. But if its only Franklin who cares, then I suppose there's no rush.

He loves to sing and does it more often everyday. Whether its the TV, the radio, or one of us, he just might randomly sing along. After he sings he always wants a high five. Usually its not just one; so its more like a high 50. He also plays it up when there are others around. He gets really silly, and constantly laughing at himself. What a funny kid!

Of course the sillier (is that a word) he gets the more memorized Lisette is. She wants to do more with him. She's finally got the rolling over thing down, not perfectly, but she does it more often. Now that she's accomplished that she wants to get moving. Having an older sibling sure rushes things along, sometimes. No, she's not crawling but last night, after rolling over, she kept pushing her self up, and wiggling her head as if she was trying to figure it out. She determined to play with Franklin. At least that seems to be her goal; to get to play more with Franklin.

She does love to be thrown around. We're not overly doing it, or anywhere like we do with Franklin; she's only 6 1/2 months old for crying out loud! When she's laid on a bed, or the couch she wants to be bounced, and tossed (lightly) onto pillows. She seems to have developed that fearless trait that must have skipped over Franklin. Don't worry, he's getting more brave, and I'm sure when Lisette starts showing him up, he'll do more.

Oh, and another thing about Franklin. So I believe I already shared, and if not here it is, that he says "Wha deer dur?" which stands for "What are you doing?". Now he calls the cats "cow" or "kitty cow" sometimes. He still calls them kitties, or says kitty kitty, but sometimes he throws in cow. I think its because of Fatty. Just kidding. He still recognizes a cow, but somehow he says it to the cats. Oh, and "Bobby" is cake. How weird is that? I guess he's making it easier for me to learn Franklinese, but won't give in to learning english 100% just yet. You should hear us sometimes.
F(ranklin): Bobby!
M(ommy): cake
F: yeah! bobby
M: no, cake
F: yeah, yeah, bobby
M: C-a-ke
F: Bobby!!!
M: Ugh! CAKE
F: yeah, yeah!!
...and so on.

Yep, that's how it is with the Cat/Cow thing too. All birds are "guck" (ducks) except for the seagulls, they are "burr". I'm wondering if I can get him to do the whole "Look, pájaro", "no, da bird" with me, just for a laugh. I know most of you are wondering the significance of that. Well, I grew up in Panama from 9 months to 4 years old. We had a maid, who was also like a nanny to me, and she tried to get me to learn spanish. So now you should see how the conversation fell into place and why I still don't know Spanish. Of course I just had an epiphany as to why Franklin won't speak more english.

So now I wrote an entry far longer than I anticipated, but that's ok. This was fast and easy to do. Lisette is still asleep and I have to try for a second time to get Franklin in bed. Have a great one everybody!!

What he does best

Franklin is a pro at stealing hearts. I'm not entirely sure how to descibe what he's doing other than it is super cute. He chatters and talks his own language constantly, as if you know what he's saying, however he doesn't talk as if he's being serious and that you should understand him like I've seen a lot of toddlers do. The whole mouth, tongue, and eyebrows get into it too. He gives the whole personality all at once; that is if he isn't pretending to be shy at first.

He also believes he is very clever, especially when playing "Where's Franklin?" He'll use his blanket, or his hands and cover his eyes. When you "find" him he laughs as if he is the most clever boy in the world. He has smooth moves too, if you ask for a kiss he'll lean his head forward and let you kiss him on the head (he doesn't give as many slobbery, on the mouth kisses, but he does them every so often), and he loves to copy silly faces, especially if it has anything to do with the lips.

Nursery is great, and he's learning where it is, and what it means when he goes. He can't wait to get to nursery now! Our primary kids miss him, but it feels like we actually have full lessons now in class. We're still trying to find out what happened to naps since the time change. Its like he knows, and now its not just Sundays, its every day.

My sister, Greta, babysat Franklin for us on the Saturday before last so Stephen and I could attend the Temple. It's been ages since we've gone, mostly because I wasn't ready for a babysitter. It was a relief to have her watch him, and he enjoys his cousins. Greta's been urging us to go on more dates, and leave him with her more. He sure won them over, and now they can't get enough. Its the whole personality at work, I tell ya!

This last Saturday was very nice. Stephen says I've created a new V-day breakfast tradition: Crepes with strawberries, mmm, mmm, good. Franklin took his morning nap, as we watched a movie that we've had forever (and needed to go back to the store). We ate lunch, and immediately after I got sleepy. Stephen was great, he let me sleep, even though there were things we wanted to get out and do and Franklin woke up right after I went to sleep. When I did get up, we headed out because we wanted to see Bolt at the dollar theater. It was insane out on the roads anywhere near theaters, mall, and major stores. We bought our tickets, thought we'd take care of an errand, then thought better of it and turned back.

Franklin LOVED the movie. It was the best he sat through ever!! We really enjoyed it too, it was more commical than we expected. Toward the start of the movie Franklin though he wanted our soda, versus having his own drink. It was too heavy, and we weren't paying much attention till we both felt our legs getting wet. At least it was at the start of the movie so it had time to dry before we got out in the cold.

Just a little side information: Sunday before last we were told by our landlady that her roommates would be moving out by the following weekend. We were very surprised, and excited. I've lost lots of sleep on account of the noises from upstairs, and as a result my stress has been out of control, and I started getting migrains. I've never had them before, and I started to get really sick because of them. My doctor has given me something to help me sleep, but it seemed once we had that news my stress was back in check, and my pains were going away. On Thursday I heard a discussion from the mother and daughter upstairs, and decided to take Franklin out of the house so they could talk as loudly as they liked. Stephen and I agreed that the result of this conversation would be that they would not be moving out. The weekend came and went, and we have had some communication that now proves we were right. Ironnically my stress has gone up a little since, but now we know what my struggle is we are trying to keep it under control so that my pains won't return.

Sorry there are no pictures. Its not that we aren't taking them, I just don't always download them, so please be patient with me.

A funny thing happened on the way to the. . . ah, just go ahead and laugh!

Our place has become the official home where we hold FHE every Sunday for the Young Married couples in our ward. It's been the perfect way for us to get to meet other people, especially since we've been in Primary since the third Sunday we came here (the first Sunday was General Conference and we did unpacking while we listened, so we didn't meet anyone that day either). We've made new friends, and people have discovered that we are funny people, and having Franklin hasn't stopped us from being social. In fact everyone wants a piece of him. He's just like his mom (the whole social bug thing).

Speaking of Franklin a very funny, and gross thing happened the other day. So he's cutting more teeth, finally. However he isn't very quiet about it, poor thing, and I'm trying so hard to keep patient. He's gone back to waking up with the roosters, so we just give him another bottle, and he'll sleep till late in the morning, which I don't mind one bit. Stephen got up at 5:00 a.m. on this particular day; changed his diaper, and gave him the bottle. Stephen did this very sloppy, and didn't put his shorts back on him either. When I went in there at 8:30 I was horrified at the site, though I can most definitely laugh about it now.

There was poop EVERY WHERE!!! In his sleep he managed to get the diaper off, and while it was off he took his opportunity to poop. Of course there was no poop in the diaper, but there was on the outside of it. He had poop on his shirt, his head, hands, feet, legs, belly, but not his bum. It was smeared in the sheets, on his bumper, on the railing, his blankets, and he happily stands to greet me. Usually I walk up to his crib, and allow him to grab me, then I pick him up. I didn't let him touch me. That shirt was off in record time, I closed the door behind me, then put him in the shower. At first the water was cold, and he cried, but I wasn't going to let him put poop anywhere else except down the drain. Once it warmed up he was fine, and started having a good time till I had to start scrubbing him down. Then he was getting mad at me.

Once the poop was gone I filled the tub enough for him to play and finally gave him some toys. He enjoyed himself for a while, and I was happy to think that I could forget about the mess in his room for a while till he took a nap. I had to set up the pack and play in our room, which he didn't care for because he knew his crib was in the other room. While he played for a little longer, because he didn't want to sleep, I let all of his bedding soak. I must have put it through 4 cycles, the last one with a little bleach, before I put it in the dryer. I did laundry all day, with just one load! When he was asleep I took care of the crib. I love GreenWorks products! I also lowered his crib all the way down since he's discovered the art of climbing.

So, did you have a good laugh? or were you grossed out? Try being me on that unforgetful day!

VOTE FOR ME!!! Pretty Please

The local radio station is doing a Lasik give away for Mother's Day. All you have to do to vote is click here . You can either view the photos of all the contestants, that's how you find out their numbers before you vote (I'm 11) or just go straight to voting. I'm inviting you to vote for me, but you don't have to if you don't want.

Now I can't ask you to vote for me without me letting you know why I entered myself. True I think anyone who has ever had to wear glasses probably wished they could have lasik and be done with glasses forever; I'm the same. But for me, things are different. I haven't been able to wear contacts since the summber of 2005. Some odd, and unusual thing plagues my eyes when I wear contacts. It didn't use to be so awful for me. But the last few times I tried wearing contacts my eyes burned and immediately dried the moment the contact touched my eye. I did see an optomitrist in Tucson when we lived there, and after trying a few new "revolutionary" contacts she and I both agreed that it just wasn't worth it. She did however tell me I would be a great candidate for Lasik. I thought to myself, "sure, I'd love to, but when would we ever afford it."

So please, vote for me if you believe I am deserving of it.

The Dust

So I have finally came to a conclusion, and no longer a theory, of what the dust is. We run a humidifier everytime Franklin sleeps, it's pretty much a must with a baby, and helps with white noise for Franklin. Well I have recently destroyed it when I last cleaned it. Periodically I have to clean it very thoroughly because of the sediment build-up from our water. I thought Arizona water was bad.

Now that I have recently done some much needed dusting and now the humidifer doesn't work, my theory has been confirmed. We had a whole-house humidifier set up for a little while, and that was when the dust was a problem all over the house. We got lazy and didn't replace the filter, so we got out our smaller humidifier to use in just Franklin's room. The dust problem around the house got better while the problem in Franklin's room got worse. So last night Stephen and I agreed that it's from what is being evaporated in the air from the water. Oh boy do I wish more than ever that we could have a water softner, but alas, it's not our own home.