That's not possible...seriously?

I'm about to rant about a dog owner in my neighborhood, but I'd like to preface first by saying that I know lots of people who own dogs and who have very nice, polite, quiet pets, and by no means am I making a generalization that all dog owners are irresponsible and inconsiderate.  I should also point out that I've never owned a dog, nor do I want to.  I like dogs just fine at a distance.  As long as they aren't jumping on me, shoving their noses in my crotch, barking, peeing on my shoes, drooling on my clothes, or licking me, they are ok in my book.  We didn't grow up with dogs; where I grew up dogs aren't treated as a child of the family.  Often, dogs are outdoor pets only, and are allowed in the house only when the temperatures get really chilly, but even then they may be allowed only in a garage or barn, or maybe a mud room.

So, we've lived in our house for 3 years now.  One of the things I love about our neighborhood is how quiet is is.  Often the only sounds are meadowlarks, a few planes shooting landings at the airport, and some kids playing over at the playground.  It's been very peaceful and is a place where you want to open your windows and let all the sounds and smells in on a nice day.

This all came to a screeching halt about 6 months ago.  Lots of new houses have been built along the lots that border our back fence.  We were happy to see the houses finished, cause that means no more construction, and we hope less dust when everyone gets their yards in.  Yay!  This spring one of the houses was sold to a couple and their dog, and whenever they go somewhere they kick it outside and let the neighborhood listen to it bark until they get home.  The dog is smart though, it seems to quiet down right when its owners pull into the driveway.  They apparently have no idea that the dog barks while they are away.

We've had many occasions over the past 6 months listening to this dog bark, one time the barking started at 8 pm and extended until midnight, which was causing tension in our household, since Matt needed to get up at 3:30 am for a 6 am flight out the next morning.  We didn't do or say anything to the neighbors, beings that we were sure one of their direct neighbors would talk to them about it.

Which brings me up to yesterday.  I was working at home and starting around 2:30 their dog starts to bark.  Now the barking isn't a constant minute after minute thing, however it does carry on for a good 15-20-30 minutes then takes a break, and then starts up again.  I'm not sure what is provoking the dog to bark, possibly the other neighbors cat is sitting on the fence make the dog go nuts.  Cat's are devilish that way.  Mind you, it's winter; I don't have any windows open, and I'm inside our house.  When it barks I can hear it in every single room in our house; it's that loud.  I finish up work around 4:00, occasionally going out to the kitchen to see if it looks like anyone is home in the house where the dog lives...they don't appear to be.  I can tell because their security bar is down on their sliding glass window that they let the dog in and out of.

I go pick up my little one, come home, and the dog continues to bark until 7:30 that night.  My 2.5 year old daughter even says at some point "dog barking!", and I say, "Yep, it must be lonely or scared."

At 8:00 I decide to grow some courage walk over there and talk to the owners about it, since they're finally home.  I feel that I owe them one "discussion" about it before I can call the police, so they have an opportunity to correct the situation.  When the owner opens the door, and I say, "I'm one of your neighbors, and I just thought you should know your dog has been barking all afternoon", to which the guy says to me "That's not possible."  What?!  Not possible?  I think my mouth fell open!  I couldn't believe what I was hearing!  So I said "Look, I realize that this is uncomfortable, and I wouldn't be over here knocking on your door unless I was very sure that it is your dog that's making the noise...I'm not going to come over and make up stories about your pet."  After a little more discussion he told me that noone has ever mentioned this to them and this is the first that they've heard of it - which is a total lie.  Discussing the dog one afternoon this fall with one of my neighbors, she told me that someone had actually called in a noise complaint to the police, although the dog owners didn't know who.  So clearly they know that someone else in the neighborhood, besides me, has issue with the dog being out barking all day/evening.

So now they know.  He went to far as to give me his cell number so when it happens again, I can call (mostly likely I will text), and let them know what's happening.  I'm hoping that we can return to the nice quiet neighborhood that we fell in love with when bought our house.  We shall see!

BTW - I'm finished with my neighborhood ranting now - back to the regular schedule programming of cute kid stories.

Trimming the tree.

After work last night, we decided to go get our Christmas Tree.  We could have done it this weekend, but I just have too much stuff going on this weekend to be messing with our tree - I need to finish my Christmas shopping, so that I can get gifts in the mail this up coming week to be sent back home.  I figure I need to account for a week of shipping time...so it has to be done this weekend.   So, since my weekend is already full of shopping I decided we should get our tree this week so we could get it decorated and beautiful and get to enjoy the tree for a couple of weeks before we leave for the holiday.

We decided to go to the place that we always go to - just down the road.  The family that offers the trees there are so nice and always so helpful.  Their trees might lean towards being on the more expensive side, but they are always beautiful trees.  We drove up, started milling around, when all 3 of the family came over and asked if they could help us pick something out.  We told them we like fragrant tallish skinny-ish trees, and within 10 minutes we had a tree strapped to the top of our car and were headed home.  Miss Muffit was thrilled and very excited.  The people were even nice enough to ask her if that was an ok tree that we picked, to which she agreed.

We got the tree set up in our stand, and after supper I got the lights put on so that little miss could come down after her bath and help me decorate it.  She was adorable and sweet putting on the little ornaments, and did a very good job considering she'd find a spot where she could get the ornaments to hang and then hang as many more as she could on that same exact spot.  Occasionally, Matt would come over and move a few of her concentrated ornaments to other parts of the tree.  It took us about 45 minutes to decorate and looks lovely.  I don't have a photo at the moment, but I will try to get one up.

Trimming the tree has been something I've always enjoyed - whether it be with my mom, grandma, or just by myself.  I'm so excited to have gotten to share this with my daughter - I hope it becomes something she looks forward to for many years to come!

Little Gems.

I read an article recently that a friend posted to facebook...stating all the things you shouldn't do on facebook....they called the people that did them various things, to which I agreed with.  I just tried to find the article, it seems to have gone missing, and I don't remember who posted it.  Anyhoo - one of the 'nono's' according to this list was posting mudane details about your kids...and that you make think that they are cute and adorable, but to everyone else, it's not!  What?!  You're telling me you weren't as excited as I was when Miss Muffit pooped on the potty?!  Gasp.

That's where this blog comes in - I'm pretty sure I have a fairly limited audience, so I get to post the random things that my sweetie pie says and does here!  I've been writing a few of them down as of late so when she gets bigger and doesn't say these adorable little things to us anymore I can still remember them.

Just this morning she said to me inside daddy's car "Mama - come kiss me!" since I always give her a kiss before she leaves for school.  She was super excited when I hopped into the car next to her and said I was going to work with daddy!

Some more:
"I need dis side buttered too" - referring to the bottom side of her toast one evening

Me:  "What should we name baby sister?"
Little Miss:  "Tinkerbell"

On her way to bed:  "Look daddy - boots" - pointing to our Christmas stockings.

And every day when I pick her up from school "Got candy mama?"