Merry Christmas!!

May the greatest gift you receive be the memories you make with loved ones.

been busy living life...

While my blog has been boring, life has been anything but. Here are the highlights, in no particular order:

• Lily missed three days of school due to the croup.
• We traveled down to and spent Veterans' Day weekend with my in-laws in New Jersey. The Sandy devastation --especially through Connecticut and New York-- was insane.
• I registered to "go back" to school in January. (I'm going to save the details on this for another post!)
• I've had two (out of three) pets to the vet for regular checkups. Both --Maggie and Sadie-- are doing fine. Sadie actually goes back again tomorrow for her second Lyme Disease vaccination booster.
• Lily joined a Brownie troop.
• I got a chance to spend a day with my favorite cousin. She came to see our new home, then she and I did lunch and a little shopping (where I spent too much at AC Moore, as usual).
• Sadie graduated from puppy obedience class.
• I met with Lily's teacher for the first parent-teacher conference of the year. My kiddo is doing great. Top of her class in math, actually. Yay!! She's also fitting in well with her new classmates :) 

And...I got caught up on my housework. Well, maybe for a day, anyway...

{wordless} whirlwind

A freak storm cropped up in a Southern Maine dining room and wreaked serious havoc. If you look closely, you can see the eye of the storm...

three weeks.

When I first sat down to write, I intended to start this entry with "It's hard to believe that tomorrow marks three weeks of Sadie being a part of our lives." But, as I sat here and thought about that statement, as well as the past three weeks, I decided that might not be completely true. At all.

I can believe it's been three weeks. It's been a loooong three weeks of spot treating/cleaning the living room carpet nonstop, night after night of interrupted sleep, cats being tormented and chased, items not nailed down being stolen and chewed (including my iPhone), and a constant battle of wills.

Do I regret bringing her into our home? Not even a little. I know she is going to make for a wonderful companion and protector for our family once we get her trained and grown up a bit. Will my sanity last long enough to reach that point? I'm not sure.

I'm kidding. (I hope.)

She's passed out on the living room floor as I write this, sprawled and snoring; completely exhausted from her puppy obedience class earlier this evening. When I get up in a bit to refill my water glass, she'll follow and resettle on the kitchen floor, ready to sleep on the cool (and definitely less comfortable) wood flooring just because it means staying close to me. I'll come back in here to sit down and she'll return to curl up at my feet. It's probably just the Shepherd in her -- trying to herd, but I like to think that maybe it's because she's a little attached to me.

Because I know I am attached to her. The past weeks haven't really been all that fun, but the longer she's here, the more I find that I love having her around.

{wordless} well...

Puppies are adorable. Also?

They're hard work.

little miss sadie

We have wanted a dog for years --specifically a German Shepherd-- but as renters, weren't allowed to have dogs in any of the homes we lived in.

Today, finally, we brought one home. A little girl.

Sadie.

She is eight and a half weeks old, and a complete cuddlebug. At this point, she is pretty attached to me specifically and won't leave my side. When she sleeps, she has to be touching some part of me. Right now, she's curled against my right calf. 

And even though she's been part of our family for just about 12 hours, we already adore her.