Weekend Update - The Houston Dog Show

 I thought this painting looked like JR and I. He's the one wearing glasses.

JR, Nessa and I went to the dog show this weekend. We took Nessa because I thought she would enjoy the outing and because I like to show her off. And, show her off we did. She garnered a lot of attention.

Walking through the vendor and the rescue booths was a case of walk 20 feet, stop and explain what type of dog she is, where we got her, how easy is/was to train her, and does she shed? The answers are: she is a goldendoodle, we got her from some friends that bred their standard poodle to their golden retriever, she was the second easiest dog I've ever trained (the first being our Border Collie), and no, she doesn't shed.

We let her try her paws out in the agility course. She wasn't all that good at leaping over the pole. Probably because she thought it was stupid but she totally aced going through the tunnel thingy. This was the one thing I didn't think she would do.

We found a place up in Spring that will teach your dog to dock dive and to swim. She has only had one dock diving/swimming lesson so far (last year in Colorado) and I think she needs more practice. We worry every time we go to the beach that she will run right out into the waves. She loves the water so much. So I'm going to look into some swimming lessons for her. (Yes, I totally get that I treat her like a grandchild, that I indulge her and project her with human thoughts and emotions. I'm okay with that).

As we were leaving we saw two other goldendoodles. One looked very much like Nessa. Or at least he was cut like Nessa. Sort of long and shaggy and sweet. Kind of sheepdog looking.

The other was all dolled up. This is a picture I found on the internet that looks a little like what they did to that poor dog. Except that its top notch was like twice as big, it had fluffy poodle cut paws and what they did to its tail was an embarrassment to all dogs everywhere. They asked us whether Nessa gets matted and we said that yes she does if we don't brush her about once a week. They said they took their Doodle in every three weeks for a cut, brush and bath and that they brushed him every day. EVERY DAY! That is just craziness. They didn't seem to have time to chat or I would have told them about the baby powder trick.

Our groomer told us to use baby powder to detangle Nessa's hair. It works like a charm and makes her smell amazing.

Anyway, we had a great time. Nessa slept the rest of the day from all the stress of being adored. JR and I saw a border collie puppy that we are thinking of adopting. We are trying to talk ourselves out of it but he was cuteness personified. All in all a good time.

Stay grovvy,
Michele

RTT- Only in Texas

I don't often participate in the Random Thoughts Tuesday deal because I just don't seem to find the time. I don't really even blog as often as in the past but I've got a couple of things that I just can't leave only. So here goes...



From the annuals of "Only in Texas"
I was invited to an Executive Round Table breakfast this morning to speak. (Though I didn't speak all that much.) When I say Executive Round Table meeting think old white guys. Respectful, very nice but still old white businessmen. Anyway the start of the meeting is what was, to me anyway, strange. Sort of on the surreal side of strange. Sort of funny but not really funny ha ha. The opening of the meeting started like this;

1. a prayer, (short, sweet and to the point. Bless our endeavors, our government as long as they do what WE think is best and our christian values. I'm sure you get the picture.)
2. then came the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S., (this seemed a little less heartfelt than the next number. This pledging came complete with U.S. small flag.)
3. then the Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas flag, (yes, there is one. This also came complete with a small Texas flag. Of equal size of the federal flag, mind you.)
4.  then the singing of God Bless America. (A rousing rendition I might say.)

At this point I think the other diners at IHOP were pretty freaked out. I was pretty freaked out. I didn't know what was going on so I kept trying to sit down between each section. After the first pledge I stayed standing, waiting for the others to sit just so I didn't make more protocol mistakes.


From the home front
Nessa went to the groomers on Sunday. This is not her favorite place to hang out but she bucked up. She got the whole spa treatment including the Top Dog Package. This package had her smelling like pina colada. 

She has a new little neighborhood girlfriend.  McKayla is 10 years old and a sweetheart. When she comes over Nessa becomes so excited that she runs circles around McKayla and the house. They play fetch, tug-the-toy and chase. This is the first young kid that Nessa has ever bonded with. Normally, she is afraid to children. 

Entertainment
JR was given free tickets to a baseball game tonight. You may have seen my posting on Facebook. These tickets are in the luxury suite. All the food and booze we can drink and all free! Well, free for him. The price for me is sitting through a baseball game without a book. He made me promise not to bring one. I tried to get him to take our friend Mark with him but he wanted me there. Strange man! He knows I'm an introvert who would rather stay home with a book and a glass of wine by myself.



That's it for me. Everyone have a great day.





Be groovy,
M

RTT - IM chats, Texas wildflowers, new knife

It is that time of the week.

One of the ways that I keep in touch with my children is to chat with them on IM. These chats can be anything from links to articles they want me to read to these sorts of chats. I got such a laugh out of this particular IM chat.

Ben: the hell? people in the south put peanuts in coke?

Me: they put peanuts in everything

Ben: how can one region be so wrong at everything all the time

Me: they boil the damn things and if that isn't gross I don't know what is

Ben: well frying everything I get to some extent
 that is a trend elsewhere too parts of britain well known for it

Me: whoever the genius was that thought up fried pickles should get a Nobel

Ben: this year's culinary nobel prize goes to Cletus spends money immediately on meth

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I needed a new knife. It is very handy that JR works for a restaurant supply store but I try not to go to his place of employment because, well, I could spend a whole lot of money. I mean really!, who doesn't need a whisk the size of their head? And, don't get me started on ladles.

I did spend a little money on Saturday. What did I get? I picked up a professional grade sudoku knife for half what I would have paid for it online or at the kitchen supply store. Score! These are my favorite type of knife though I was eying a 8" serrated knife. I might could use one of those. (that's Southern speak for, "it would be handy to have one".)

 

I'm pretty particular about my knives so buying professional quality is important. I want one that feels good in my small hands, not too heavy and with a sharp edge.A really sharp blade. I'm talking Ginsu sharp.

I picked up a medium hand grater and a really cool spatula. I was like a kid in a candy store. I know...I'm such a cooking nerd.

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We went with some friends to Brenham, Chappell Hill (pronounced chapel. Texans will fight you on the pronunciation of this town's name, trust me) and Independence, Texas to eat ice cream, 

 see the blue bonnets,  

have lunch 

and just hang out. 

We took Nessa because we really never go anywhere without her if we can help it. 


We are in a drought so the blue bonnets are not as prolific as they have been in the past. I got some pretty good photos though. 

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I found the title of this historic building ironic, this being the South and all.

Is it just me?


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That's all for me today. Go visit some other random players


Love,
M

Weekend recap - RTT style

The backstory:
Keely start Random Tuesday Thoughts.
Everyone loved it.
Keely's life got busy.
Stacy graciously took over.
Everyone loves it.
Giving Keely a much needed break.
You got all that? Yeah, me too.
Let's get down to business


I made food this weekend.  This may not seem like a big deal but I've been gone quite a bit in the last few weeks so all cooking, painting and cleaning were put on hold. Since, I consider cooking a creative outlet, putting it on hold is very hard for me. But I'm back in the saddle and have come up with something I think will be awesome! An egg baked in an avocado half. Topped with a little lime and cilantro. In fact, I'm jonesing for it right now. Except it is Tuesday; I don't have any avocados right now, shopping day isn't until Saturday and this sounds like breakfast to me. Not that breakfast food can't be dinner. Damn! I'm now convincing myself to stop at the store.

Doesn't this look like dinner?

Oh look! The California Avocado Commission has a recipe. I think this will be on Saturday's breakfast menu with a few vegetarian tweaks. Considering my love of all things avocado, (except maybe the avocado colored appliances that my mother-in-law had...ewww..whoever though THAT was a good idea?) it looks like I'll be culling through their recipe website soon.

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I painted.

 I thought I was done with this but I want to fill in a little on Sprite's bow and Jen's shirt. Other than that I think it came out really well. It is hanging on my drying wall. Jen's wonderful husband John takes the most amazing and heartfelt photos that he could keep me busy for a year trying to paint them all. Damn.You.John! (and I mean that in the nicest way because I love all of you)

This gray scale is of a friend's sleeping baby. I adore the look of it. JR wasn't sure what it was at first and I LOVE that about this painting. You really sort of have to know what the subject matter is or unfocus a little to figure it out.

Next up is the "We can afford that" banner and one of JR's grandmother boarding a train back in 1910. I'm planning to paint that one in a post-impressionism style. That ought to really confuse JR.

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The weather was a little hot and muggy on Saturday which encouraged our hibiscus to bloom.

Thankfully, it cooled down. I'm seriously hoping that we don't start summer until at least May this year.

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I've been working out very consistently for the last week and a half. While my scale and I are not agreeing, I say I can see/feel the difference. My clothes are fitting a little better. After all the travel food I've been eating I needed to get back into shape. Eating all those calories isn't hard but burning them off sure is.

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I love yoga.

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Nessa is spoiled.

In a sweet cuddly fuzzy type of way that is impossible to resist.

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That is it for me. Please take a few minutes to pop over to Stacy's place to visit other RTT participants.

Love,
M

RTT-shameless self promotion

I totally plan to shamelessly self-promote today.

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 Paintings:
This is the one that I've been working on for a week or so now. It is coming along. I need to let the painting dry a while longer. I'm mostly working on the hair right now and blending the flesh colors. The blending stage takes the longest time. Sketching takes a little while mostly because getting the perspective right is difficult for me. Slapping the first layer of paint on doesn't take any time at all, a couple of hours at most. The blending and layering stages takes forever since you can only work on a little bit at a time. From now on I'll be adding highlights, low-lights and detail.

This is the second one that I am working on. As you can see it is another grayscale piece. I really like the abstract quality of it, JR not so much but than JR doesn't really like any abstract paintings. It is not a true abstract, of course, more of a study. This painting is of a baby's eyelashes. Which I think is kind of cool. My friend Lacey took the picture of her son while he was sleeping. I cropped it a little closer and chose to paint it on a 12 x 12 canvas. I think it gives it an interesting sense of motion and emotion. Once again, during the coming weeks I'll add the details. What do you think?

I have two more paintings in the drawn out phase. One is the banner from the "We can Afford That" site without the text. The other is an old photograph of JR's grandmother and her friend/sister (I'm not sure which) boarding a train home from boarding school for Easter break. Obviously, the photograph is in black and white since it was taken around 1910, but I'm going to painting it in color. I'm going for a very impressionism style with this one. It will be interesting to see how it comes out. I've found that paintings tend to take on a life of their own. I'm sure these two won't be any different.

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If you haven't watched it or if you have but found it so compelling that you just HAVE to watch again or if you have time on your hands or you just can't get enough of University of Houston during WWII history or you are so bored that you will watch anything even mildly interesting in an effort to relieve your boredom. Here is the documentary film I made with some others.



The University of Houston: War and Growth, 1939-1950 from UH Memories on Vimeo.


I figured out how to actually embed the file! Yay me! I'm feeling oh so clever now.

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As a Goldendoodle Nessa doesn't shed. Which is a good thing. What is a bad thing is the amount of money that it costs me to take her to the groomers every 3 months. Since, I have become very cheap this year I've decided to groom Nessa myself. I'm proud to say that she doesn't look too much like a lawnmower cut her hair and I've only nicked her once. The groomers can't say that. Now, if I could only be more proactive about bathing her every couple of weeks and brushing her at least once a week she'd have to have less mats cut out of her fur.


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As many of you know, my one New Year's resolution was to do one random act of kindness every day. This has now become sort of mantra for me and it has spilled over to JR. We were doing our (what has now become) bi-weekly grocery shopping trip and another driver was being a jerk. I said to JR, just let him cut in and don't get all huffy about it. Then call it your random act of kindness for today. Which he did. JR has been getting more on-board with this philosophy. Pretty soon we will either be the nicest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse (name that paraphrased movie quote) or biggest suckers to ever live. I'm okay with either.


That seems to be the limit of my random today. head over the Stacy's place by clicking on the button at the top of the page to read more random posts from other exciting bloggers.

Love,
M

Productivity over the Turkey-day Weekend

We were really productive over the long weekend. It was like we had all the time in the world so let's just slap it into submission. The list of our weekend accomplishments is amazing and it is little wonder that JR is snoring away at 6:40 tonight.

Here's the play by play,

Thursday:
*cooked like a mad woman. I know I said I wasn't going to work that hard but it seems I can't help myself. Though I have to say that our dinner was wonderful. Roasting your vegetables just to make stock for the gravy was the best idea ever. I'll be repeating this for other holidays. And, it makes a ton so I have it frozen for future use.

*JR tried to replace a bulb in the truck headlight but was totally defeated. They just don't make vehicles that an owner can really work on for themselves. It is a sad fact.

*We cleaned the garage out. There are only 3 more boxes that need to be gone through and put away from the move but now the garage is clean enough to get the car in. Of course, it is a two car garage but we are not going to let a silly thing like one whole side of the garage stuffed with boxes deny us a sense of accomplishment.

Friday
*JR had to go to work. I met a coworker at the local Goodwill for a little thrifting. Then we went to Micheal's Craft store for work related holiday decorations. We scored big.

*We made this

That is two boxes of 18 candy canes glued to a very narrow vase. I think it is adorable.

*Later on in the day we decided that we just had to go to Hobby Lobby for more crafty stuff. We didn't find anything for the work holiday party but we did come up with these:

Little jewel colored hanging pots. I love the way they glow when the sun shines in. I saw some really pretty bottles in the same jeweled tones. I'm thinking of going all the way over the top and hanging them here also. You know, because more is more.

*We ate leftovers and all was right with the world.

Saturday
*I made tomato bruschetta topping, herb goat cheese spread and another batch of mushroom pate. I had to make another batch because my friend and I polished off the first batch. We had friends coming over in the evening so I wanted to be prepared.

* JR sanded and painted an old bench.

*We did all our food shopping.
*I hung the little pots.That was actually a little harder than it looks. I had to come up with something fun. Turns out some old beaded curtains came to the rescue. Sometimes it pays to be a pack rat hippy.
*JR tried again (unsuccessfully) to put in the headlight lamp.
*I installed a magnetic knife holder and under-counter light both of which I had been hauling from place to place. So make that pack rat hippy handy-woman.

Do you have one of these magnetic knife holders? No? Go get one ASAP, unless you have bloodthirsty children then I would wait until they go to college.
*Then we cleaned a little because we had friends coming over and the place was kind of a mess by this time.
*I made a Christmas present for Dr. Boy. Since, he reads my blog occasionally I can't show it to you but it is terrific. Now, I want to make some for myself.  Make that pack rat hippy handy-woman crafter.

Sunday

*We cleaned up from having friends over because by the time they left it was all we could do but go to bed.
*We gave Nessa a bath and trimmed her up a little.

Doesn't she look gorgeous? And, she is so soft.

*JR stared at the truck headlight in frustration. Then opened the hood and stared and fiddled in frustration. I'm pretty sure there was some swearing. He was once again unsuccessful.
*I finish one painting, started a commissioned painting and got a good deal of this one done for Dr. Boy. I had been promising to him for forever. The next month will be taken up with painting, painting and more painting.

I've got a bit more to go on it but I think it is looking pretty hawt! I've never painted in just shades of gray before. It is interesting and edgy. I love edgy.

Well, I think that is about it. We were in bed by 8pm which is an example of what we got done and our age.

How was your weekend?

Peace and love and off to the dealership,
M
the pack rat hippy handy-woman crafty painter

The Great Western Journey hit a snag.

Things were going swimmingly through Texas, across the width of Oklahoma and the length of Kansas. Nessa is the best of traveling companions; quiet, undemanding and doesn't bitch about what is on the radio. What more could you want? Then came Colorado.

Saturday morning I was up early and on my way to Delta, Colorado to visit a blog friend only to discover that the truck just didn't want to get up the mountain pass. No matter how hard I stepped on the gas pedal the truck just laughed in my face. This was not good. I knew I would never get over the mountain pass.

After many many phone calls (thank heavens for unlimited weekend calls on the old cell plan) I found out that; 1. very few repair shops are open after noon on Saturday, 2. no diesel mechanics work on weekends and 3. a cute dog and a lone woman far from home are not enough to get a mechanic to work late. The one nice thing was the hotel gave me a really sharply discounted rate and didnt charge me a deposit for Nessa. The room has two queen size beds so I dont have to share with Nessa. At this point I have decided that this journey now rates as an adventure.

Being stuck in Pueblo is not so bad. Today Nessa and I went to the Pet Expo at the convention center. Nessa was fussed over by almost everyone there which she took in stride. I saw some very cute dogs, some kitties that didn't seem to enjoy Nessa's company and Nessa got her nails clipped for free. Score! It was reaffirmed that Nessa is a conversation magnet.

I then found out that there was going to be a Dock Dog event.

What is a Dock Dog event? I'm glad you asked. You didn't? Yeah, well I'll tell you anyway. It is exhibition of dogs jumping off a dock into a large pool of water to catch a toy of some sort. This is something that JR and I have watched on TV (because we are exciting like that)but never seen in person. I walked across the street to the Pueblo Riverside park to watch.

After watching for a while they, the trainers from Sit Means Sit, asked if Nessa would like to try. Nessa had never been swimming before and she seemed unimpressed. I wasn't even sure she could swim. It has been something that JR and I have been worried about. She is so fetch obsessed that we have worried that if her ball ended up in a lake, river or pool she would go in after it without thinking then she wouldn't know how to swim. For $15 they would teach her to swim and teach her to jump off the dock. I found it slightly ironic that I was more than willing to spend $15 for a day of swimming lessons for my dog when I would negotiate a deal of 5 swim lessons for $15 for either of my kids. Sort of goes to show the hierarchy at my house.

Nessa wasn't sure about the whole thing but after awhile she got into it. She started out being pushed/pulled, at the same time, to get her off the dock, to just being told by me to "get in the water". And, she would. She also got to be a competent swimmer.

It would be wrong to let you think that Nessa jumped in like a pro. What she did was more of a crawl/slide/flop into the water. Since, by the end it was virtually unaided I'm calling it a win.

By the end of our lesson she was tired and I was proud. She was soaking wet and so was I. She was exhausted and I needed a glass of wine. All in all a good time.

The break in the drive to Oregon was all to the good even though it is an expense that we hadn't count on but such is the way of the world.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that the truck fix is simple and that we are on our way by noon. That is my hope. I'm keeping a positive attitude.

Love,
Michele

A day at the beach

Sunday dawned sunny and warm which led JR and I to think that it would be a good day to take the dog to the beach.

We got there before the church crowd let out giving us the beach pretty much to ourselves. Nessa at first was a little freaked out by being off-leash but she settled down quickly. Nessa tends to freak out easily.

When we found a stick to throw she stopped freaking out because FETCH!. Nessa has a bit of an obsession with fetch. Balls, sticks, toys, you name it; if it can be thrown it can be fetched. She even got over her fear of the waves.

She played

and she played

until she just couldn't play anymore. Then she sat in the wet sand and let the cool Gulf of Mexico water lap around her.

Love,
M

Weekend activities - Nessa approved

We have been having several long conversations about how we (when I say "we" I mean "me" because while JR will support my activity he has chosen to take the stance that this is a one person job and he is NOT THAT PERSON. He also gives me some jibber jabber about him not knowing how to run the steam cleaner and that I am so much better at this sort of thing, yada yada yada; fine I'll do it!) need to steam clean the sofa, loveseat, chair, and ottoman and that after we steam clean them we should put slipcovers over them so we wouldn't have to do it again...soon...or ever.

We made the supreme mistake of buying cream colored furniture. I wanted the red but JR thought we should get the color that closely matched the dog's fur. It was a conversation that we had while he stood in front of the furniture while it was in the store and I looked at it online. At the time we were living in two different cities, in two different states, with a state in-between. Oh, and two time zones away. Are you confused yet? I certainly am. 

Anyway, this Sunday was the day. The day that I decided out of outright desperation to just clean the dang things and stop all the long conversations.

They can out pretty well, I think. I couldn't find a slipcover for the chair or the ottoman but to tell you the truth I kind of like the not so matchy matchy look it gives the room. I'm not a particularly matchy matchy kind of person so it's all good. 

 

As you can see we went with green. (and when I say "we" I mean I stood in front of the slipcover display at the store trying to call JR but he didn't have his cell phone on even though I have told him countless times to do so because what if it had been an emergency? And, really wasn't it? What if I had brought home the wrong color of slipcover? Who would have had to take it back? That's right, ME! I made the executive decision to go with the green. I'm sticking by it.) 

The cushions dried in record time. The weather was warmish (72 degrees), a little breezy and very low humidity. Perfect for drying furniture out on the patio.

 

Terrible over exposure of Nessa in this shot but the important part of this is; there is no longer a space between the bottom edge of the sofa and loveseat and the floor. Why is this so important? Because now Nessa's balls won't roll under them or Nessa can no longer roll balls under them. I think she does this trick on purpose, so I'll have to get down there because when I do she always takes the opportunity to lick my face. I love doggie kisses as well as the next person but sometimes her aim is a little bad and I get a kiss right on the mouth or maybe her aim is a little too good depending on who you are. 

  
It was a lot of work. I'm a bit sore and for some reason my thinking processes are a little fuzzy today (maybe the fumes) The best part is the slipcovers have been doggie approved. Isn't that all that matters?

Love,
M

Waitin' on a Spin

It seems that I spend a lot of time waitin' 

Just this morning I woke up 30 minutes before the alarm went off. I waited until it did to get up.

Just this morning I waited for the coffee to brew or would that be steep in my house since we drink french press coffee every morning. And, a lot of it. And it was worth waitin' for.

I finished a paintin' last night. I'm waitin' for it to dry before sending it out. I'd show it to you but I promised I wait. 

 

I'm waitin' until my Nessa dog learns to pick up her babies (toys). I'm pretty sure I'll be waitin' a long time. At the present time there are baby arms, legs, and guts strewn around the house. We now have a paraplegic monkey. The new babies were bought on Tuesday as a reward for being good at the vet and groomers. I use the term "being good" loosely. I'm a sucker; she would have got them anyway. 

I'm waitin' for my trip to Ottawa. I've never been before. I also get to use that nice shiny new passport. 

I'm waitin', rather impatiently it seems, to go to Florida this October. (Jen and Casey, we'll be rolling into Orlando on Sunday night.) We are makin' plans, weighin' our travel options and saving our money. 

I'm waitin' to move. We found a large townhouse with a small fenced yard in town. My studio will almost double in size. While the kitchen is small, I'll get over it since the living space is big. Like, 700 square feet bigger big. I'll get 3 walk-in closets. Okay, JR will get 1. Still, leavin' me with 2. You know, he doesn't really need a whole walk-in closet. I think I'll put my shoes in his.

I'm waitin' until we move in to paint pictures for the covered porch. The light is kind of dim so I'm wantin' to brighten it up with something like this but since I want to take up most of one wall I'll need to wait to see how big the canvases need to be.

 That's all the waitin' I've got to do. People at work are waitin' for me to get there. I really wish I could find that job that didn't actually require my attendance. Now, click on the Spin Cycle button at top to visit other Spinners.

Love,
M

PS: sure I could and should credit the pictures above that I stole off the internet but since I didn't keep track of them we'll just let them speak for themselves. 

Occupancy rate

About a month ago JR and I bought ourselves a new bed. For years we had slept in a queen size bed and it was the ideal size for us. Not so small that his 6 foot 2 inch frame couldn't stretch out a bit and not so big that he didn't know I was in the same bed (probably why we have two children and surprisingly why we didn't have more but that probably is TMI). I don't take up a lot of room. At 5 foot 2 inches my space requirements are fairly small.

This bed size was working very well for us until Nessa decided that she just had to sleep with us at night.  Oh sure, I encouraged this behavior when she was little but now that she is 70 pounds and about the same length as JR when she is all sprawled out this situation had become unworkable. Even when the boys were little and would crawl into bed with us this size bed was fine. It didn't help that I hated the mattress on our old bed. I would wake up feeling like I'd been beaten up.

Then I started traveling a lot. Sleeping by myself in hotel king size beds turned from luxury to necessity. I learned quickly that being able to stretch your legs out, move around without encountering a body, and not having a paw pushed into the middle of your back in the dead of night led to a good nights sleep. 

After much complaining (by me) we broke down and bought a new bed. A king size bed, a bed hopefully large enough that I could have a little extra room to stretch out, with a mattress that didn't make me feel like my lower back hadn't been used as a punching bag by Lilliputians. A bed that Nessa didn't feel that she needed every.single.bloody.inch of. 


Here is a visual of the queen size bed situation:

Note: I'm the little one curled into the corner. Nessa and JR sprawled across 3/4s of the bed. 


Now, let see if this dynamic has changed by getting a bigger bed.

Hmmmm...not so much.

Note: that I am still scrunched into the corner while Nessa is enjoying the extra room to spread out. The only real difference is that JR is further away; which in this point in our lives doesn't really matter. Oops, TMI again. If I wanted to sleep perpendicular, with my feet in JR's face then I guess I could stretch out but as it is now the only thing I can say is my back feels better and I don't have paw shaped bruises anymore. So, there is an upside.

My options as I see them are; 
1. I could get stern with Nessa and order her off the bed that she will just get right back up in the middle of the night; which means I'll have several nights trying to break her of this habit. Meaning I'll spend several nights waking up every hour to tell her to get down. 
2. Or, I could just learn to sleep across the bed and while the thought of sleeping with my feet in JR's face doesn't really bother me it might him. 
3. Or, I could just get use to the scrunched up position that I find myself in every night and live for those times when I travel. 

Knowing how incredibly lazy I am I can safely bet that option 3 will be my choice. 

Which option would you pick?


Love,
M