Seriously? Sleepover HELL.

OK... So a slumber party for her 10th bday party was not my brightest moment. I'll take that one. We had a complete blast doing the scavenger hunt at the local mall, that was really fun. But 9 girls (that's including my sassy lou) coming over to spend the night after the party - NOT SO MUCH. So first, the scavenger hunt... Thank you so much Danielle - for helping me wrangle the girls at the mall - that was great of you and I couldn't have done it without you! I really, really appreciate it! ;) So, the scavenger hunt list had 40 items on it and we had a 1 hour time limit - there were all kinds of items on the list from things like a shopping bag with handles to taking a video of the entire team playing duck, duck, goose in the mall. Some of my other favorites were:

• A photo of all of the team members washing their hands in the sink at the same time.
• A photo of all of the team members riding a kiddie ride - all at once.
• A video of the team singing "the barney song" in front of Abercombie and Fitch.
• A photo of the team standing like mannequins in a store window.
• A photo of the team sleeping on a mall bench.
• A photo of the entire team wearing a feather boa.
• A photo of the entire team wearing ugly hats.

After the scavenger hunt, we came back to the house and all of the girls made their own personal pan pizzas with whatever toppings they wanted... that's when it all started to go downhill. I think there was just too much ... "downtime"?? I dunno - 9 preteen/teen girls in one house is just too much. "She looked at me funny", "She won't give me the blue candy", "She said she won't be my friend anymore!" WOW. I mean, seriously - there were no major fights or anything - just all these little things going on. AND, I think the worst offender was probably my very own sassy lou. YEP. nice. I just poured another glass of wine - what's a mom to do? :) sigh. That'll be the last big sleepover for a long time, i'll tell you that much. In anycase, I survived to tell about it, and be a warning to other moms out there who may be thinking about doing this - SEND THEM HOME! Please, heed my advice. hahh!

Hope y'all are having a happy Monday!

Now what?

Happy April Fools day to all you Fools out there! ;) Hope you are enjoying your special day! I know I am... well, as much as I can. I'm at work right now, but am thinking about leaving here in the next hour or so - it's an absolutely GORGEOUS day outside! I love it! Fuddy and I can go and enjoy the day! that'll be nice. Today is quarter-end at work, so our system is down and locked, so there's not much for me to do without getting into the system. (perfect excuse to get outta here, huh?) Well, I hope y'all have a great afternoon too! I think i'll wrap up a few more things and then go home and enjoy my Fuddy! Tata for now!

Smart Ass

SMART ASS: Two young businessmen in Florida were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store in the shopping mall. As yet, the store wasn't ready, with only a few shelves and display racks set up. One said to the other, "I'll bet that any minute now some senior is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling."Sure enough, just a moment later, a curious senior gentleman walked up to the window, looked around intensely and rapped on the glass, then in a loud voice asked, "What are you sellin' here?" One of the men replied sarcastically, "We're selling ass-holes." Without skipping a beat, the old timer said, "You're doing well. Only two left."
Seniors -- don't mess with them, they've been around!

Hahh - I thought that was a pretty good one, hope you enjoyed! ;) Anyway, we are getting rid of the lil girl for the night and my son is having 3 of his friends over for a small bday party/sleepover. This should be fun - yeah, like a lobotomy... sure. Eh, it can't be as bad as one of my daughters sleepovers - that's for sure, having four or more 9 year old girls in the house... AUGH. Anyway, I think I'm pretty prepared for tonight - we shall see. Hope y'all have a great weekend - chat with you more later!

Fast Weekend...

The weekend went by ridiculously fast, don't you think? It seems like I just left work, and here I am - right back at my desk. sigh. Oh well. Did y'all have a good weekend? Do anything fun? I really didn't get much done - certainly didn't get everything crossed off my list that I intended to. Here's the highlights as it were...

• Friday night... what did we do that night? I can't even remember... that's how exciting that was! ;) Sat around, had a beer... watched TV.
• Saturday, I ran around all afternoon. Took the kids to open up savings accounts (FINALLY), and ran to the store to spend some of the Christmas money. Tough decisions spending that Christmas money - too long at the store. Lil girl went off to a slumber birthday party that night and we stayed home and watched movies. We watched Knowing and The Invention of Lying. I liked them both.
• Funny story from the bank: While we were sitting there waiting on the lady to enter all of the kids info into the system, I had lil girl on my lap and I was looking in my wallet for their social security cards. I pulled them out and handed them to the lady, and then I noticed a folded up piece of notebook paper in my wallet - not sure what that could be, I opened that up and found Lauren's "toothfairy note" - AUGH! I quickly refolded it and stuck it back in my wallet, but of course - not before she saw what it was. She looked at it, looked at me... looked back at my wallet and looked back at me. She folded her arms and had a very "deep thought" look on her face and then proclaimed "You're the toothfairy! How did you get that note!?" I tried telling her that the toothfairy just left it for me, because it was such a nice note - but she simply wasn't buying it, and I really couldn't keep a straight face - nor could the bank lady. She said "No wonder, I didn't get any money on the nights that I lost teeth and you were already asleep! AND how do you do it? WHAT TIME do you get up in the middle of the night to do that???!!!" ROFL - it was very funny, the whole scene was quite comical and amusing. Oh well - it had to come out sooner or later I s'pose... hahh!
• Sunday was another interesting little something... Alex came home from the neighbors house proclaiming that him and the neighbor girl are now "boyfriend and girlfriend" - WTH? lol! I said - what does that mean? hahh! She's a total cutie and really super sweet. But it's a riot. He spent the afternoon over there and now I guess they are "going out" or "dating" in whatever terms the kids are using now. So, this is his first official girlfriend, I guess we have to lay down some ground rules now. Lauren is not real happy about this whole turn because she is also a friend of Lauren's and she knows that now when she comes over, she'll be hanging with Alex and not Lauren - that's not a good thing. Well, we shall see how this all pans out. hmmmm.

Anyway, that's my weekend in a nutshell - hope you had a good one too!

My aching tooth...

So, last week - I ate a stale piece of licorice a broke a piece of my tooth off! Can you believe that crap?! I KNOW! The worst part about it all, is that I really didn't even want the licorice... I just kinda grabbed it off of a co-workers desk (he's got this big container full of it) and he even warned me that it was going to be stale! hahh! served me right! I bit into it and I'm chewing and ... I'm like... WTF? out comes a hunk of my tooth... YEP. So, a week goes by before I can get into the dentist tomorrow morning. I'm so anxious to get in there now. sigh. AND i NEVER look forward to going into the dentist. Well, tomorrow I am! ;)

So, everyone say a little prayer for me - I'm going to need it - Novocaine doesn't really work for me, so I will be taking a few Valium before I go, JUST to help me relax a little bit... I'll need it.

Lost in space...

That's how I feel today... Back to work, but without my computer. All I did was click on one little itty, bitty link to look up something for Alex's new nintendo and BOOM! *weird scenes inside the gold mine* all around me! Yeah - got some sort of weird funked up virus hitting my work computer, NICE. So, i tried to run my anti-virus and all that - but nothing was working. Just shut it down and waited til today when I could bring it in to the PRO's ;). So, they've been working on it all morning, and I'm lost without my computer. I'm going back and forth from the conference room to other co-workers computers - and that's just FUN. oh yeah - a blast. It's really quite difficult to do your job without your computer at your fingertips. sigh. I just checked in with my IT person and she said it would be another hour or so because it was SO junked up - she had to completely remove the hard drive and rebuild it. Well, you know me - when I do something - I do it RIGHT. oh yeah. no fooling around with silly little virus's for me - huh-uh. ;) oh well... sit and wait, sit and wait... yep. So anyway, did everyone have a very Merry Christmas? I hope so. We did - it was very nice. Santa was good to us. I enjoyed it. Now, it's time to get ready for the New year - WOW - another year coming to a close again. Didn't we just do this? geez... Oh well - must get running and get a few more things done! Talk at y'all later! buh-bye now...

One more week left...

to shop and get ready... sigh. Can you belive that Christmas is next week? DANG! I know - next Friday! shwew! ;) I really don't have much left to do cuz we are not doing much this year - it's back to basics in our house. That's kind of a relief actually - maybe this will hang over to next year, and the next? I hope so... it's not all about the bigger and better gift anyway is it? No, it's not. Nice and simple - that's all I want!

So, it's been a busy week. My mother-in-law has been staying with us for a few days and we've been having a great week. Eating, drinking and making merry! ;) Last night, my father-in-law got in too and we had a wonderful dinner and a great night. They're leaving today to head back up to Ohio. It was a really nice visit tho' and it was just a spur of the moment thing - so very cool that we got to see them before Christmas! Today, my parents are due to arrive in to Huntsvegas to spend the weekend for a short visit - so yeah - busy week. They're coming in to see the kiddos before Christmas and bring them their Christmas presents and all that jazz. It'll be a very nice visit too - glad we get to see everyone. The kids don't even know that they are coming so it'll be a fun surprise for them - can't wait to see it! hahh! Lauren will be shocked - cuz her room is such a mess and I know my mom'll get on her for that hehhe! yeah - not like my mom ever got on to me for my room tho! whatever... ROFL!

Anyway - that's all that I know for now - hope y'all are having a great morning and I'll talk to ya later! buy bye!

The Crud...

So Fuddy took in Lil man to the doc this morning and he's got THE STREP - ick... He's been running a fever since Sunday, so we've kept him home from school, and he's had a headache - we finally got him into the doc this morning and yep... strep throat. Poor lil man. Now the tricky part is to keep the rest of us healthy - that's always hard. I don't wanna lil girl to come down with it next, especially so close to the holidays. AUGH! We'll just need to get him healthy again and back to school! ;)

In other news - is everyone ready for Christmas? I have bought 2 things. That's it. We are doing an extreme minimal Christmas this year - back to basics... we'll see how that works, it's hard for me. But hey - it's not all about these crazy big gifts anyway right? right. I have to get busy and finish up, but you know me - always the last minute shopper... hahh!

Random bits and pieces about kelwhy...

• I love bleu cheese, but I don't like bleu cheese dressing unless I am eating Buffalo wings - then I love it! YUM.
• My favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story. I know they totally overplay it every Christmas, but it kills me - I love it. I love Ralphie, he reminds me of my little brother, Kevin! ;) Too funny.
• I completely suck at video games. I really wish that I could play them, but everytime that I try to play with the kids, I'm reminded how horrible I really am at them and I should not be playing these. sigh...
• I could eat Pasta every day of the week - I mean it, really, every single day of the week - just bring it on - I love me some pasta!
• I wish I were more creative - that's something that I would change about me... I just don't have that "creative" streak in me... and that's not something you can just add... you really have to work at that one...

Happy Anniversary to us!

14 years ago today I married the man of my dreams... sigh! It wasn't love at first sight or anything - we grew together. But I truly feel that he's my soulmate - is that mushy? Well, whatever... How did I know that he was the one? I don't know exactly - it was the little things...

• He's totally boss. He's the cheese to my macaroni...
• I remember the first time that I met him - totally cool, leaning against the cooler in the kitchen at Chi-Chi's with a few of the other guys, he was a waiter and I was a hostess at the time. He laid some "slick" line on me and I thought... "oh good lord - who does this guy think he is?"... hahh.
• We can finish each others thoughts and sentences - and seriously, we have always been that way.
• We started off as friends first... really good friends, and I enjoyed hanging out with him.
• We went putt-putting on our first-first date (we had 2 first dates), and to Olive Garden for dinner. After that back to his apartment where we watched Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man - it was a very awkward, not very good first date. (I can't quite put it into words here) We just decided not to date again. Obviously, we changed our minds and did date again - had a second first date almost 8 months later - that one went MUCH better... lol. We stayed friends the whole time - so it wasn't like we didn't talk or anything...
• One of the first times that I knew he might be the one for me - We had a patron at Chi-Chi's that passed away. He was a regular that was just part of our family - we all loved him. At the "get-together" to celebrate him and his life, I broke down and was just standing there crying - Steve just came over and held me. That was it. He just held me and my feelings for him changed there and then. He was there for me, he knew how to comfort and support me.

Anyway - there are a zillion other things about him - but I'm not posting them here for you to read! hahh. I just feel lucky that I have found my FuddyDuddy out there and we have other. I think we'll go out to the Bistro for some wonderful dinner tonight and spoil ourselves! Can't wait! ;) mmmm.... Hope you have a great day!

SO much to catch up on...

It's been awhile, so lots and lots to catch up...

• FOOTBALL is here! Are we all thrilled and excited!?! yes! The College Football season has started with a bang. My Buckeye's finished off with a win - not a very great win - but a win nonetheless, and I'll take it! The Alabama Crimson Tide, however finished off with a very exciting win over #7 Virginia Tech! What a game that was! This weekend is the BIG GAME for Ohio State - vs. USC at 7:00 cst - cannot wait. It's at home in the horseshoe - GO BUCKEYE's!!!
• We spent this past weekend in Georgia at the Seeeemons new abode. It was quite loverly! They were most hospitable! We had an absolute blast there! We watched tons and tons of football, we ate loads of food that was heavenly and we visited with wonderful friends. What a great weekend. It was the the 4 of us Wrights, Donnie and Cameron, and the 4 simmons - it was fun for all.
• However, on Monday morning when we got ready to leave - it was not good. I woke up not feeling... "right". NO - i was not hung over. It was the start of a nasty bug. I was down with it til this morning - the good news tho was that I lost 5 pounds - woohoo! ;) hahh. I won't go into any of the nasty details about the virus except to say, that I don't want that bug again - ick. That was the longest 5 hour drive home from Georgia! Hated that.
• So, here we are and I have to catch up on work now... I hate that.
• Did y'all have a good labor day weekend? what'd you do exciting?
• Go Steelers tonight - that's for my brother Kevin in Myrtle Beach... :)
• and I'm outta here - gonna go home and rest, then log back on to catch up on my work email. FUN STUFF. Hope y'all have a great Thursday night!
• ta ta for now...

Here we are again...

It's a Tuesday... already? And it's the first of September - can you believe it? WOW... The year is simply flying by - we are nearly through 2009 already? damn. I can't believe it. So I have a fairly 'bizzy' week this week and that's a good thing. We have football and soccer practice tonight, tomorrow night off, a soccer game on Thursday night along with football practice that night as well and then we leave for Georgia on Friday. Busy, busy! Meanwhile I must get loads of laundry done and the house cleaned so that we can get outta here at a decent time on Friday. FUN. yep. I'm lookin' forward to our trip over the weekend. We get to see our friends again, and their new house - can't wait. A weekend of beer, food and football! woohoo! GOOD times. How are things going for you? Do you have exciting plans for the Labor day weekend? I hope so. Lemme know what you're up to - I mean, outside of football of course - I know that EVERYONE is going to be watching college football this weekend - being the first game of the season and all - of course they are! hahh! ;) lol. OK y'all - I'm outta here - hope you are having a wonderful, wonderful day!

A very rich man met a beautiful lady and he decided he wanted to marry her right away. She said, ''But we don't know anything about each other.'' He said,''That's all right, we'll learn about each other as we go along.'' So she consented, and they were married, and went on a honeymoon to a very nice resort. So one morning they were lying by the pool, when he got up off of his towel, climbed up to the 10-meter board and did a two and a half tuck gainer, this followed by a three rotations in jackknife position, where he straightened out and cut the water like a knife. After a few more demonstrations, he came back and lay down on the towel. ''That was incredible!'' she said. ''I used to be an Olympic diving champion. You see, I told you we'd learn more about ourselves as we went along.'' So she got up, jumped in the pool, and started doing laps. After about thirty laps she climbed back out and lay down on her towel hardly out of breath. ''That was incredible!" he said. "Were you an Olympic endurance swimmer?'' ''No,'' she said, ''I was a hooker in Venice and I worked both sides of the canal.''

The People, the tradition, the excellence...

Wow - what a crazy, crazy weekend. It was fun - but I'm seriously getting too old to do this shit! ;) damn. We left Huntsvegas on Thursday afternoon and drove to Florence, KY and spent the night at Big Steve's new house. It's very nice, we had a great visit and drank too much wine and stayed up way too late - as always! Then we got up bright and early on Friday morning and headed on into Canton to mom and dad's house to visit with them and prepare for Fuddy's high school reunion part one.
So, Friday night we go out to the Geisen - which I always love - and have the "informal" reunion. Everyone had a great night and they had to push us out the doors of Geisen at 2:30 am - I think Fuddy had a really good time there catching up with everyone. Saturday morning came all too early - but I was doing OK since I was the driver on Friday night - shwew! ;) I don't think Fuddy felt as good as me that morning. hahh. We got up and went to breakfast and then came back and went back to bed - my parents had the kids and took off to places unknown, thankfully! We visited awhile and then packed up and went to his parents house to hang out all day and get ready for High school reunion part 2 - The Main Event!
Had lots of yummy foods all day at my in-laws and some beers and then we got ready and went out Saturday night to the Main Event. Fuddy's younger brother was our driver that night so that we could both "partake" in the festivities. It was a good time, interesting to meet these people that he went to school with - they were all really nice. Hope to keep in touch with a few of them - we shall see. We didn't stay out as late that night, after all - we had to drive back to Bama the next day - 10 hours in the car hungover would not be a good thing! ick. So we got back to the house and crashed, slept in - had some breakfast and packed up and left.
The drive home wasn't horrible I guess - it is what it is... I guess we are sorta used to it. Anyway, we got to visit with both of our parents, see his old friends from high school and see Big Steve - so I guess that was a good trip - I'm gonna need about a week to recover from it tho! Wish we could get up there to see everyone more often... oh well.

Anyway, more updates later... hope y'all had a great weekend too! chat with you later...

Buy One, Get One Free!

Don't you wish more things were Buy one get one? Well, probably if they were then the prices would just be all jacked up so it really wouldn't matter in the first place - would it? Oh well - what can you do? sigh. So did y'all have a good weekend? Yep, me too. It was a bizzy weekend, but good anyway. We did manage to get the kids all prepped and ready for school and then out the door and to school today! woohoo! ;) How bout them apples? Good stuff.

Lil girl was very excited about it - she was up and dressed before the alarms even went off this morning. I went in to wake her up and found her dressed - lol - too funny. I said, "i was going to cuddle with you for a bit" so she dived back in bed so we could cuddle before getting up. hahh! so funny.

So, I've got a bit more to do this week, we are heading to Ohio on Thursday afternoon as soon as the kids get outta school. Fuddy's 20th High school reunion is this weekend. Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it. We didn't go to the same school - so I won't know anyone, but still - I'm anxious to meet some of the people that he knew. PLUS - I still have to figure out what I'm going to wear and all that. Boy oh boy. hmmm. Guess it'll all work out - it always does... We'll be going to Geisenhaus Friday night, and then some Country Club even Saturday night - I can't wait for Geisen - that's always a good time - I gotta remember to bring my stein with us on the trip! ;)

Well, that's bout all that I know for now - guess I'll chat with y'all later - hope you're having a great day... ta ta for now...

What else? Can't really think of anything else

Things to do...

• Lil man's 7th grade school orientation today - fuddy is taking him.
• Lil girls 3rd grade school orientation tomorrow - fuddy is taking her.
• School supply shopping - must finish that up, school starts on Monday! AUGH.
• I have to call and schedule haircuts for both kids before school starts. They look like ragamuffins. (and you know how bad those ragamuffins look) hahh.
• I have to schedule a cut and color for myself before we head up to Ohio for Fuddy's 20th high school reunion - that's on the 15th. I'm running out of time!
• I have to find just the right dress to wear to Fuddy's reunion so I can show up looking like the trophy wife that I am - hahh!

Anyway - lots to do - lots to do... gotta get back to work, hope y'all are having a marvelous Wednesday... chat with you later...

Smith Lake Camping

How fun - we went camping this weekend at Smith Lake in Cullman, AL. What a blast! We had such a wonderful time. It was really great weather and everything was just perfect. We got everything packed up and arrived at the campground around 6:30 or so Friday evening. That left us lots of time that night to enjoy a nice campfire and some great food, which of course, we enjoyed all weekend long! We boated all day on Saturday. It was a really nice lake, clean and big - lots to explore and see on it. We let alex tube a bit and he even tried to get up on the wakeboard - no luck, but he kept trying at it - I was really impressed with him. He's getting so big. He wasn't about to give up. We were done with it before he was! ;) hahh. Anyway, it was a long day out there on the water and we all were all pretty red when we came in. We got back to the campsite, had a drink and then took the kids to the beach - can you believe they wanted more of the water? don't they ever get tired? what the heck???! lol. We stayed there for awhile and then headed back to the campground to get the fire ready for dinner and cook us up some goodies. YUM. Lots of s'mores to be had, taters in the fire, corn on the cob in the fire - brats, burgers - and the list goes on and on! Sunday we got up and started slowly packing up while we cooked up some blueberry pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, sausages and coffee. Then we went to play some miniature golf and took the kids swimming before completely packing up and heading home for the day. Fuddy did manage an injury of course before leaving - he cut up his foot and broke a toe at the pool. ahhh - my sweet Fuddy - I knew we shoulda brought his "walking around helmet" sigh. Oh well, what are ya gonna do?

I was completely and utterly exhausted when we got back home, just dog-tired - but what a fun weekend. The kids are already asking when we can do it again! So, I guess it was a hit! I will definitely try to plan another one of them soon... I hope! ;) How was your weekend?





Update: here's a couple of pictures... we had a really good time there...

FuddyDuddy...

is on his way home...

thank god.

Is it only Tuesday? really?

Anyway, ain't got a whole lot to say today. It's just one of them days. TJ was talking about his milestone of his 900th post the other day, so I was wondering - how many posts have I had? I've been blogging since October of 2003 - that's a LONG time... so, I looked it up and was kinda surprised... as of yesterday, I've had 1,711 posts. Wow, that's a WHOLE lot of nothing there. Have I really been boring you people for that long? sigh. Sorry about that... I guess. Blame it all on Tricia, she got me hooked initially. I couldn't stop after that. I've met a lot of great people through this blog and have stayed in touch with a lot of my friends and family though this blog, so I'll keep at it for awhile. Plus, it's always fun for me to look back through and see some of the things that I've done here and there - like a journal of sorts.

• Just a few more days til we get the kiddos back! ;) woohoo! Let the re-training begin - hahh.
• No work on Friday and an ice cream party at work tomorrow - aren't you jealous?
• I'm looking for a new phone. I want something that I can get wifi on - or some kind of web on, I don't necessarily need email, or computer apps - but will want to facebook and do the "funstuff" from it. Any thoughts? I have verizon now and will most likely stick with that, simply because all of my family is verizon - but not tied to that.
• Next Friday the 10th is my 9 year anniversary at work - how bout that? craziness.

OK folks - gotta get back to work. Hope you are having a really great day and I shall talk to ya' later taters! stay outta trouble! ;)

Flying solo again...

So hubby is on the road again, heading up to Indiana. This means that I am all alone again until Friday. ALL ALONE. You know, at first, I wasn't too keen on this idea. I mean, it's one thing him being gone while the kids are here, and it's another thing being home ALL alone. I was thinking that it wasn't going to be that great - how wrong I was. So, this time, that he's going to be gone for 3 nights - I'm really looking forward to it. Now don't get me wrong - I would so much rather him be here. BUT, there is something to be said about some "me" time too. I plan on getting all of these little odds and ends done around the house and just enjoying some peace and quiet. I mean how many times do we ever get that? Really? As a parent - you very nearly NEVER get that. Not where it's just all you by yourself. Tonight I'm thinking that I'm going to mow the front yard, walk the dog, fold some laundry and just watch some "chic-flick" movie that I rent. See, that's the other bonus - I get to watch all of those movies that I normally want to see and I know he won't EVER watch with me! ;) It's MY movie time. Anyway, not sure if I'll get to all of that tonight or not - but that's the plan in any case. We shall see. The lawn and the laundry are optional - they may or may not happen! Well, that's all that I know - I'm outta here. Hope you are having a mahvelous Tuesday. Talk to ya later gator....

Dogsitting...

So, our good friends the seeemons have decided to abandon us and move to Georgia. I know - how could they do that to me? right? sigh. It's so incredibly sad, I can hardly talk about it. I guess, such is life and all that Bull - whatever. ;) Yeah, well, he got a job in GA and they pretty much can't pass this up and blah, blah, blah. He's moving my friend nicsims away, and I'm gonna miss her! (yeah, him too...) sigh. So anyway, in the process of this all, my FuddyDuddy has stupidlygraciously agreed to watch their dog Zeke for them. It's hard to move with a dog and all that, so while they are trying to get settled in and find a house, we'll keep zeke. Hmm. Now, if you know me at all - you know that I'm not exactly a dog person. I mean - I like other peoples dogs - I just don't want them to touch me (especially lick me - ewwwww). I'm not one of those people who just love on dogs, not exactly. And zeke - he's a BIG ASS DOG. He's a chesapeake bay retriever - that's a big, thickhaired, oily, strong, knock you over with his tail dog. So, zeke moved into our back yard this past Saturday and I have to say that it has gone so much better than i ever imagined. First of all, zeke is just not a barker, he's very quiet and laid back, what a mellow dog. Secondly, we've been going for a walk every night and that's been nice. He leaves me alone for the most, he doesn't jump on me - of course, I don't go out back and hang out with him - I leave that part to Fuddy. So, I think zeke and I may just work out to be friends. Who knows - at the end of this, I may want to get a dog to replace him... never do know. The kids are beside themselves excited that we have a dog, alex can't wait to get home to play with him! How funny is that?! Any tips on how to live with a dog for a non-dog person?