"Nobody Told Me There Would Be Days Like These"

Monday
We met a sweet 12-week old, 25 pound-black lab that we knew belonged with our family.

Friday
We brought our puppy home and named him “Nacho” as in “Nacho Libre” as in the movie for Ignacio.

The house where puppy lived seemed as if it was as far away as Timbuktu and we only had a two-hour window to get out there pick him up and get my eldest son back for his second of nine play performances. Puppy didn't eat the rest of the day, but we didn't think anything of it sense we just figured he was excited about his new environment.

Saturday

Our friends brought over their Shih Tzu, a dog we have taken care of several times and does well at our house.

We were dog-sitting him for a week so I covered all the furniture with sheets because he likes to jump on the couches and chairs when we are not looking. All the while our puppy was peeing and pooping all over our carpets, including my white and black one in the front room, so I covered the carpets as much as I could with blankets. Nice look, eh?

Sunday
By evening I had used an entire bottle of Woolight to clean all the messes on the carpet. We were following Nacho everywhere he went in the house and we split the day up in four shifts. Puppy still hadn’t eaten.
My eldest still had plays to perform while I had to put in my volunteer time, all the while my husband worked endless hours to put up the posts for a fence in our backyard.

Between performances we jetted off to supply and grocery store for son's science project that they had two weeks to work on but it was now due on Tuesday.

Monday

Our puppy still hadn’t eaten and was getting weak. So I called the vet and was not looking forward to their location which was near puppy's old home; a long way from here.

"Hello, my 12-week, old puppy has not eaten for four days; can he be seen sometime in the afternoon?"

"Well," the vet receptionist replied, "the soonest we can get him in is at 11:20am. You can come then.”

“Do you have any time in the afternoon?” I replied thinking about the deadline for the rough draft due at noon and I needed all morning to work on it.

Silent on the other end for a few minutes, receptionist not looking up if she had an opening later in the day, “Um, maam, your puppy has not eaten for four days….”

I knew what she was trying to say and if something were to happen to puppy, I wouldn’t want anyone to point the finger at us for not bringing him in sooner.

I then took time off of work and drove puppy to what I'm sure was Timbuktu. On the way over I called puppy's original owner and informed her of the situation. She was very worried. The veterinarian took a couple of tests and deducted that he had a digestive track problem and needed antibiotics and a “bland diet” which meant boiled chicken, cottage cheese, and rice. He was having a difficult time adjusting to his new environment.

That night I bought and cooked the referenced items enough for the next day.

Tuesday

We put “Nacho” in a vacant room in the house while we went to school and work during the day. He chewed through the cable wires and tore down the blinds.

I also had a lot going on with work and was planning a big event the next day that I was worried about the lack of interest and low attendance numbers.

Wednesday
Puppy started coughing – we just thought he was having troubles digesting his food.

It was also the day I had a big event at the DoubleTree Hotel and my husband had to ride his bike over to pick up the kids from school (due to the fact we still don't have a second car - but that is another story for another day).

That night, Nacho was also not sleeping under my son’s desk at night like he did the other days. He went pee and poop in their room during the night and ate through my son's favorite bag with Mickey Mouse on it. We also caught him chewing on the Bernstein Bear's book, "Trouble at School." Oldest child said there will be "Trouble at Home" if he ever chews on his precious hardback books he treasures.

Thursday

A full day and we couldn’t get home until late afternoon. The longest the puppy had stayed in the vacant room in one day. We opened the door to the room to find that there was a mirror attached to the back of the door that we didn’t know was there and he had scratched the door so much that the mirror came crashing down and broke into tiny pieces all over the room. We were welcomed to three sets of urine puddles and two poop piles. That was just "fun" to clean up.

I also went back to work after dinner and stayed almost to midnight to work on my deadline and came home to find everyone was up and out of bed. Puppy could not go to sleep and was whining and keeping everyone awake. He needed "his" blanket.

Friday

The crate finally arrived.
It had been a week since Nacho had been at our home and we wanted to start him on "kennel/crate training" from the beginning, but it took a while for the crate to be delivered and by that time puppy had already started some of his own habits.

I also completed my big project deadline and our visiting dog went home later that afternoon. The dog's owner came into our house to find a big "turd" sitting in a pile in our living room. Lovely. Ended up that "Buddy" left with the “kennel cough” puppy gave him that we didn’t know he had.

No Walks For Puppy
We were finally able to bring puppy back for his veterinarian's “puppy check up” and get his booster shots, only to find out we have to come back in three weeks for more and until then we cannot bring him in “public” places until he has had all his shots. Yes, that means we can’t take him on a walk for three weeks and he is cooped up in our house and back yard which has no fence. My husband had been working more hours on putting up the fence than he ever anticipated!

Exhausted but Thankful for Puppy
We are tired and all I can say is that it is a darn good thing puppy is so cute and sweet. He is our new family sock thief, paper shredder, potted plant puller, and food bandit. Puppy also lets the boys drag him around, stick their hands down his mouth to fetch out a non-puppy toy, and he bounds excitedly where ever he goes. And yes, he is cute when he is asleep even though he wakes us up at 3:30 and 5:20 am every morning.

Nobody Told Me It Would Be Like This!
Now my week was out of control for several reasons: I had a hectic week at work; followed puppy around the house all his waking hours; scrubbed rugs and hard wood floors of smelly odor; made homemade puppy food instead of just scoop and serve; couldn't take puppy on a walk or even to our front yard; had to get up in the middle of the night to take dog out; was woken up at 5:20 am every morning; the house became a disaster with torn papers, blankets, and sheets strewn all over the house; and on top of that there were play performances to attend, school projects to complete, a fence that was not up, and deadlines to meet. Whew.

It was too much for me to handle and I have to say I was a royal stress case and I was not pleasant to be around. I'm trying to have a better attitude and enjoy our sweet puppy who really has already become part of the family.

Have you had days like these? What has happened in your life that seemed out of your ability to control or cope? Or please share any puppy advice or words of encouragement.

Overwhelmed

Do you ever get overwhelmed? I hear people complain how busy they are or how they stayed up until 3 a.m. working on a project, but sometimes I just think people like to feel busy so they can moan about it so others can think and they can feel real important (or is that just me being extremly cynical?). So if you are busy it must mean that you have great skills and people need you, right?

Do you ever get so busy and realize you are actually not getting anything done at all? Well, that is how I feel sometimes. My son said to me the other day, "Mom, why don't you just say NO?" It is funny that he says that, but I really don't have a problem turning someone down I just have too many things I want to do.

Now my husband and I purposely only have our children in one extra curriculum event every season, but my husband and I are personally busy too so we continue just run around in circles. We also seem to "volunteer" to be the coach, the team mom, the one to put together all the bios and photos in a memory book for the drama group, or also be the kid's classroom parent for the year.

We are active, but we purposely make sure we are available for friends (and always are kids - we have alot of fun together and try to keep our family nights). My husband and I have had this ongoing understanding since marriage that friends are important and if the other wants to hang out with some buddies, we would do what was necessary to change our schedule around to be available for them. But isn't it funny, our friends seem to be too busy to get together. And then I think, wow if they are busier than me (knowing full well others are busier), how can they function or even think?

We don't even have TV network and yet we still don't have time to do all that we want to do.

So here is the thing, how do you volunteer, pursue your goals (such as writing a book and keeping up with a discussion blog where nobody is discussing) and on top of all that exercise, (loose weight and not eat chocolate all the time to feel better?) eat right, be there for your kids, have time with God, work full-time hours, and still be sane? Let's try and discuss it here folks and let us know how you do it - that is keep sane and still pursue your goals. We are all in it together so let's learn together!