Friday, July 29, 2011

te goat rodeo and te case of te missing letters

do yo notice someting missing?  does tis post ave a certain, "je ne sais qoi?"  Maybe it's more like, "Je ne sais qoi in te world yo're trying to say."

earlier tis week, kids spilled water on my keyboard.  My entire first two rows don't work along wit a few letters and nearly all pnctation.  

It's an expensive wireless Mac keyboard, so we can't jst pick a replacement p at te trift store.  I oped it wold dry ot and save me sixty dollars on a new one, bt anyone wo tries to read tis disaster realizes tose letters and nmbers appear to ave taken a permanent vacation.

O yes, tis is te glamoros life of a blogger.  

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Goat Rodeo entourage got a little bigger

Well, my dear sweet readers, you met "Dobby Dog" in a previous post.  He's a very protective, high strung, ankle-craving, not at all social 5-year-old Chihuahua.

That dog FLIPS OUT when anyone comes into or out of our house (or even approaches our home from a 5 block radius).  He's a sweetheart, but he's not that bright.  He failed puppy class because the only behavior he learned there was to CLIMB UP MY SHOULDERS and perch there shaking because he was so terrified of the other dogs.  An owner of a (gigantic) dog in the class laughed while my dog scaled my shoulder and said, "That's not a dog.  That's a squirrel."  And that's how the dog got one of his middle names (his full name is Chiawoohaha Hurley Squirrel).  

Chi aka "Dobby dog" on his hind legs staring at the neighbors
because my kids dared to leave the house and he seems to feel he is single-handedly responsible for their safety.


He was sweet (to us and us alone.  Everyone else who exists in the world is a deadly predator in his mind), but not that bright to begin with.  It appears our 5 lb, barking, shaking wonder canine left what little brains he had somewhere along the way during the move.  I suspect that, scattered along rest stops between there and here I'll bet you can find the last of this dog's brain cells.

Upon arrival at this house, he decided to try to play leap frog  and red rover with the cats who have claws and very little patience.  Being the dog of little brains that he is, he didn't get the message.  He did, however, get attacked again and again and again.

We thought, perhaps, a friend would help.  After taking into account all his quirks and special needs, we came up with a list of things we wanted in a new dog and headed to the shelter.  Then we headed to the next shelter.  And the next.  After shelter-hopping for a while, we found a very sweet 4-year-old female chihuahua this past weekend.  She was spayed yesterday and we picked her up yesterday evening.

We discussed a long list of possible names (all Harry Potter-related, of course) and settled on one.

And so, I would like to introduce:  Mischief-Managed

Mischief-Managed



Note that, in the background, you can see Peek-a-booDuck, one of our cats, who tells me she will never forgive us for bringing another dog into this house.

Am I the only one who gets the urge to adopt ANOTHER dog just so we can name it I-Solemnly-Swear-I-Am-Up-To-No-Good?


Friday, July 15, 2011

And Ode to Harry Potter

We LOVE Harry Potter here at Chez Goat Rodeo.

Our Harry Potter Purim was the best Purim ever.

We plan to decorate our basement to look like Hogwarts (I kid you not).

I even scrapped about the final book.

My middle daughter knows every single little detail about these books.  Seriously, it's scary. It has gotten to the point where I'll say, "Well, I thought I remembered X, but she's saying, 'Y," and it's her after all, so I'll go with Y."

One of her camp counselors last year posted a status update about how he was never going to argue with his campers about Harry Potter again.  I replied asking, "What did my daughter do now?"  Sure enough, she had argued with him and SHE WAS RIGHT.

She's read all the books at least 3 times each.

Our Chihuahua's nickname is "Dobby Dog."

My children commonly run around the house shouting spells at each other.

Yet, through all that, we never even considered going to the movie premier early this morning.  #1.  We have the rule that you must read the book before you see the movie.  My oldest has yet to read the 7th book.  So she couldn't come with her twin sister to see the movie.  I wouldn't leave her behind and only take one.  #2. While I was a night owl back in the day and still stay up pretty late now, the thought of having to give up those few hours of sleep--precious wonderful gorgeous sleep, was not something I could stand (most especially because the youngest has decided sleep is for the weak, or more precisely, not for me, over the past few nights).

So, we didn't go.  I noticed a number of my friends complaining that they, too, weren't able to go last night.  So we're banding together and forming our own little group scattered all over the country, where we go next Saturday night instead.  That should give the oldest time to finish the final book (please, G-d!).

I've never been a huge fan of the movies, but still, this is the absolute end.  This is it.  It's over.  I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it all the same.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Wordless (day before) Wednesday: Nightstand redo

I'm horrible about getting my WW posts up in time, so I'm doing this the day before Wednesday in hopes of FINALLY having one up for Wednesday.

When my daughters wanted a nightstand, I decided to find one and redo it for them.

The end result isn't anything I'd pick for myself, but it's what my girls wanted and they love it.

I used the turquoise paint we have for the youngest's room because it goes well with the pink in the big girls' room (I also used it on their dresser which isn't quite done yet).  We scoured the scrapbook aisle for papers they liked and I cut those into squares and decoupaged the top and side with Mod Podge (inspired by this adorable dresser I found through Pinterest).  I used the leftover paper scraps and the same dark pink paint I used for table accents on this "Magic" canvas I made for their room.  Somehow, I screwed up and got paint drips on the top, so I covered those with butterfly wall stickers from the Dollar Tree (which are also on their dresser).  I sanded down the edges to distress it.
After


Before

During




side
Top

I'm not happy with the handles, but I just painted and reused the existing ones for now.  Anyone have any ideas for alternatives?  It's so busy that I'm not sure what to do.  I'm leaning towards these.  I saw a turquoise painted dresser on pinterest with these black half-circle pulls and I loved the look.  What say you?  Do you think they'll work?


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Tuesday To Do Party





Transformation Thursday

Friday, July 1, 2011

Things I Love (day after) Thursday: Magic, Creativity and My Kids

I'm a day late, but I'm still hopping on the Things I Love Thursday train at The Diaper Diaries.


I'm missing my girls something awful this week.  This is the first time I've been away from them this long and it's the first time they've been completely without either one of their parents.   I know they're having a blast and they were absolutely ready for camp.  I, however, am adjusting.  

Since we've been busy working on other rooms in the house, we haven't even begun work on the girls' room.  Our goal is to have it finished by the time they come home from camp.  

I have a number of different pictures, posters, and quotations saved on Pinterest as inspiration for ones to make for their room.  While unpacking, I found our large canvases (that I found on sale at Michael's last year super cheap) and headed to my board for an idea.  This one spoke to me the most.  And so, I created that canvas up there.  

It's not perfect.  I see lots of little things I would change if I hadn't rushed into it.  Still, I like it. It's far more sparkly than it appears in this shot.  The background paint and the paper used for the letters is the same paper I used to decorate their night stand (that's another post for another day).  

I'm going to hang it in their room if we ever when we finish it.