Why We Sometimes Don't Love Our Dogs...

So, as some of you may already know, our dogs have been rather mischievous in the past few months. Some of their escapades have included chewing up a pillow from our new couch, eating a DVD or two, shredding two chair pads from the dining room (plus side to this--I wanted new ones anyway, bad side-she will likely eat the new ones too!) and of course breaking my pampered chef magic pan =). Recently, they have gotten into some more trouble...ripping a new speaker out of our home theater system, eating the Cinderella, Jungle Book and Winnie the Pooh video cassette boxes (apparently she has an issue with the kid movies we have for McKayla) and munching on some magazines.

This past weekend, when Sierra ripped the speaker out, I thought her time just might be up. Justin has been getting continually more frustrated with her, and was very, very close to taking her somewhere....not sure where, but Saturday evening he was ready to take her just about anywhere. Fortunately, I talked him down =). Sunday after church, we went to Pet Smart. We took a look at more crates. Some of you may be wondering why we don't just crate her. Well...we tried that, and she ate her way out of it and escaped (yes, she is a Houdini dog). When we first got her, we had every intention of crating her everyday. However, something in her history has made her absolutely terrified and completely against crating. After eating her way through the first crate, we bought a second one (this was getting expensive). We left her for less than an hour, and she had already eaten her way through part of it and there was blood all over because she was cutting up her mouth and tongue. Eeeesh...so, we decided at that point in time to let her roam free. And, at first, she was great....but she's slowly escalated to all her recent escapades. So, back to Pet Smart. We decided we were sure we were ready for trying the crate again (or to spend $150+ on it), since we don't think she will like it any more now than she did a year and a half ago. So, we opted for buying some 'bitter yuck' spray. We have now baited her by spraying things we know she usually tries to get to. Yesterday, no destruction...so we will see about today. We also got some "calming" pills to give her, to see if that would help calm her down a little. Yesterday, she seemed normal and not any more "calm" than usual...but we'll see. Hopefully, we will soon resolve all these issues, and Justin and I can feel comfortable when we leave the house =).
I've decided there must be a lesson in this for us, and I think it's that we aren't in control, and we have to realize that and accept that. So, though they are quite mischievous at times, I must say I really do love my dogs, even though I cannot always control their every move =). Good practice for children I guess!!



In other news, we were able to go have dinner with Andrea, Kyle and the girls on Saturday. I got some time to play with McKayla while Justin chatted with Andrea and Kyle. She has such an imagination! It was so much fun to just sit and listen to her make up her stories with all her toys. One of the funniest things I noticed is that she is saying some words with an English accent. She was talking about a baby mouse, so picture a three year old saying "mouse" with the English accent. It was too funny. She also was saying "pic-a-nic". Very British and way too cute. I knew that grandma often had her watch some BBC cartoons, so I asked Andrea about it. She had noticed it too, and we figure that she is picking up the accent from watching the cartoon show. Too funny. She also loves to say, "But then, very soon after....". Her sentences just amaze me! She was telling me that Esmerelda and Lila (she names all her toys) were going to have a "pic-a-nic" with the baby mouse, but then very soon after, all the other girls will come for a ball! The best part though was when Kyle came in to join us and she said, "Daddy, you may not stay and play with us!" She was very emphatic. Of course, I felt good because she was having a good time with me...but felt bad for daddy =). After dinner, I did get in my fill of holding the babies too. Hailey is now over 10 pounds, and Abigail is just under 10 pounds. Still so little for babies that were born almost five months ago...though adjusted age they are still just over two months. They are looking more and more alike each day, and I can never figure out which one is which, so it will be fun to watch them grow and see if they continue to look alike, or if they start developing more clear differences. They were fraternal twins, but I have met other fraternal twins who look almost identical...so we'll see!
I'm definitely looking forward to this week since we will see them again on Thursday for Thanksgiving. One of my favorite parts of this year is that we get to see family lots more than usual!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving holiday!!!