As I am sitting here working (I'll use that term lightly) at the computer I can hear snoring coming from the dog crate in the kitchen as well as the bedroom. Brian has been home from work for 3 days now with the flu. I didn't get a flu shot this year so I am really praying that I don't get it next. He has been REALLY sick.

So. Here's a question. Since the dog is asleep currently, do I get him up to take him outside one last time before my bedtime? I have no idea how many times a day a dog goes to the bathroom. Hmm. I guess it's not like a baby where he is going to start crying if I get him up, but to be honest his snoring is really sweet and I don't want to get him up. He has been so good tonight. Brian took him for a long walk around the neighborhood when he got home and he has been in his crate (to protect him from the 6 hands that want to keep touching him) for the rest of the evening. We really haven't heard a peep out of him. Emily can't wait to get her little hands on him. I will tell you who is not excited about the new face--Mac. He is a scrappy little cat, so my guess is that he will be the instigator (if there is one), but he was all Halloween cat today with the arched back and hair standing on end and everything. He took off to the basement around 5:30. I carried him up and past the crate in the kitchen at 8:00 and he took off for our bedroom. I guess this might be a good diet plan for him since to get to his food he must walk right past the dog.

The dog days of February

I am not going to post about this evening when I was quietly washing dishes in the kitchen for 20 minutes all by myself and then I remembered as the baby toddled in without a diaper and the nasal saline in her mouth, oops...the baby isn't wearing a diaper. I also then had the thought, hmm...if she has the saline then she was probably in the bathroom. I won't think about how she has been bee-lining for the toilet these days when the bathroom door is left open. It was awfully quiet and peaceful though for 20 whole minutes. No, this post is not about children. It is about our newest family addition. We are getting a dog! I know some of you family and friends are thinking that we are certifiable. And we probably are. But, nonetheless. Instead of new years resolutions we sat down at the beginning of the year and thought about some of our long term goals for our family and what steps we could take to make them happen. Allowing more interaction with animals was one of the things we could do now. We have found a dog that we think is a good fit for our family. We were supposed to bring him home yesterday, but Brian had to go and get really sick so we haven't gotten him yet. I think it will be Thursday afternoon. He is a 4 year old lab- border collie mix. We think we are going to name him Carter. As in June. Brian really liked the name Cash, but I felt a little strange about that name, so Carter seemed to be a good compromise.

Elijah has had this tooth on top that has been hanging by a thread for weeks. I think he was just trying to torture me with it. Finally yesterday he let Brian pull it out. As soon as it was out Brian started freaking out, "put it back, put it back!!!" Elijah looks SO OLD. I guess he is 6 1/2 now, but still. He's gonna have one of those big old giant top teeth that looks all gangly and weird. The permanent tooth is already through, so I suppose it won't be long. Emily on the other hand is still waiting for her top teeth to poke through. She is the slowest teeth cutter I've ever known. She still only has 4 teeth at 15 months. Oh, and she is officially a walker now. She decided this week that crawling no longer gets her there faster. It was like overnight.

I haven't been posting much because our life seems to be spinning out from under me. We had a really full--too full-- weekend last weekend and we paid for it all week. Today is the first day since last weekend that I've even really sat down at the computer much. Last weekend looked like this:

Friday at 3:30: leave school, buy a birthday gift, pick up three kids at three places. Come home and let Elijah change clothes, send him out the door with Brian for basketball practice. Feed the girls a quick snack, wrap present, meet Brian and Elijah at practice.

5:30 p.m. Discover a rash all over Mary's body. Tell her she cant go to the birthday party at 6:00. Comfort her cries for the rest of basketball practice. Take Mary and Emily to my parents house and Elijah to birthday party.

6:30 p.m. One hour for dinner with Brian at Christos

7:30 Brian leaves for band rehearsal

8:00 pick up Elijah from party, take all three kids home and put them to bed

The rest of the weekend wasn't much better. It was fun, don't get me wrong. I mean, there was Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday. But it was literally one thing to the next. So today we are making a real effort to relax and take it easy. Well, after basketball and gymnastics, anyway : )

I think we might go get our dog tomorrow. I've had my eye on this one dog for about a month and he is still at the shelter. Maybe tomorrow we'll go take him for another walk and spend some time with him to see if he is a good fit for us.

So, you know, just another Saturday at the Greene household. Making egg masterpieces. All in a day's work. This has had us cracking up all day. You have to listen carefully at the end, but Mary is the most funny of all. She did not seem to have the same opinion about the new egg.

Because the reason we bought our kids digital cameras was to see life from their point of view, and because their point of view is often funny, and because I can't stand a blog without pictures and I haven't taken many lately...

Y5K

I think this might be our year. The biggest year yet. Today Brian and I did our first 5K as we prepare for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon in May. Granted we walked almost all of it, but it was a breakthrough for our family. Our pace was fast enough to outwalk the slow bus (if you don't know like I didn't--for the mini marathon the roads have to reopened after a certain amount of time, so you have to maintain a pace or a bus comes and picks you up). In 3 weeks we'll be doing the 10K. This will be significantly harder for us. Today wasn't a stroll in the park, but it was definitely in our ability range.

We've been himhawin' around as of late whether we are staying in this house, moving to Warren County, where Elijah is going to school next year, all the usual decisions to be made. Well, this weekend we were reading a remodeling magazine and we found what we think is going to answer some questions for us. We are seriously thinking about cutting a hole in our ceiling and making a large loft area out of our attic. It seems like it would be the perfect solution for our house. We haven't done much with the attic yet because it would be such a big project. I suppose this project would be big too, but it just seems more do-able. It would make that room feel like part of our existing home, it wouldn't necessarily require this special kind of window to meet building code for bedrooms, it wouldn't mean getting a whole other heating and cooling system, and the list goes on. So, who knows if we will actually do it--our summer is getting pretty booked with dreams of two weeks of travel out west, putting siding on the outside of our house, motorcycle trips, a week on the beach in Michigan...: ) Too bad our pocketbook isn't as big as our wish list!

And I made snickerdoodles tonight.

No babies were injured in the making of this video

Emily has been intrigued with chairs lately. She has discovered with great delight how to climb up into Mary's camp chair. She usually sits and swings her legs back and forth and generally just has a great time. I thought, "oh what a cute thing. I should videotape it so everyone can enjoy the cuteness." Don't worry--she didn't cry or even act upset.