Well, poop!

Sometimes having dogs gives a great introduction to raising kids.  I know they are not really comparable, but they do offer some great lessons in patience and a strong gag reflex.

Today, for example, I came home from work to find Jesse standing in the kitchen with a plastic bag and the roll of paper towels in his hand.  As soon as I walked in our house, the stench of poop slapped me across the face.  This means that one of the dogs pooped in the house.  This is actually a rare occurrence with our dogs- they never poop in the house, so it must have been a dire emergency that one of them could not hold until we got home.

Jesse told me that he spent about 20 minutes searching for the scene of the crime.  Duke always poops in the basement because he's so embarrassed about it.  Otherwise, he never goes in the basement without us. Jesse said he checked the basement twice, checked upstairs in all the bedrooms; he basically scoured the house for this poop and could not find it.  Retracing his steps to where the smell was the strongest, this lead him to our guest bathroom on our first floor.  Still, no poop.  Jesse pulls back the shower curtain, and TADA- the biggest pile of poop you could imagine- in our BATH TUB!!  Apparently, Duke thought it was a better idea to poop in the bath tub than anywhere else in the house.  Our shower curtain was closed, so he even jumped in, did his duty, and then jumped back out without disturbing the curtain.  Even though that is beyond disgusting, we are thankful it was in a place that is easy to clean up.

As I am standing in the hallway and laughing about the poop incident, I hear guttural sounds behind me.  As I turn around, Daisy throws up all over the floor.  Apparently she was disgusted about the whole thing too.

Let's just say, thanks to our dogs, we will be well prepared for any poop, vomit, or other bodily fluids requiring a clean up in aisle 3.  

Hello 3rd trimester!

Entering my third trimester is pretty exciting, and yet pretty daunting.  I already asked my friends not to tell me about labor; I don't want to know the gruesome facts, as it is too late to change my mind about this whole giving birth thing.  

I guess I should pick out a crib and start thinking about nanny or daycare options.  Oh yeah, maybe I should take a tour of the maternity section of the hospital.  Working full time really puts a damper in my schedule. 

Why can't I be like the rest of the Barrington moms?  Stay home AND have a full-time nanny?  Somebody has to take care of the baby and the dogs!

The newest family member will be here in August!!

We found out we were expecting our first baby (a real one) in December.  Our due date is August 10th and so far the pregnancy has really agreed with me!  I was really tired during my first trimester, but was lucky enough not to have any morning sickness.  Our doctor told us that Baby Marek must be reading medical books, because everything has been "textbook" so far!!  We found out that our baby was going to be a BOY at the end of March.  Duke and Jesse will have another boy to be part of their club. :)

Here is me at 6 months, on my birthday too! 

Along came Daisy...

After we were married and planning on starting a family, we decided Duke needed a friend.  Duke is our everything- he gets all of our attention and we knew it would be a difficult transition once Baby came and he had to share his attention.  

So along came Daisy!  The cutest and sweetest pittie mix we could find.  Duke is pit/lab mix, so we wanted another pit mix as part of our family.  Pitties, unfortunately, get really bad reputations, but Duke and Daisy have been nothing but wonderful dogs.   

Our first baby

Technically, our first baby is Duke. The dog that nobody wanted.

After my dog, Ada, passed, I thought it would take a long time to welcome another dog into our home.  After about 3 weeks, I missed having a dog companion, so I looked into fostering a dog.  I found a local shelter that needed foster homes, as they were bursting at the rims with dogs in needs of home.  


Duke was one of those dogs.  He was transferred from a high kill shelter to this no-kill shelter as a puppy. There he stayed for all 10 months of his life. Nobody ever called about him or came to look at him, until me. I asked the shelter who needed the most love and they directed me to this big black dog.

Technically, I was fostering him, but as we drove away from the shelter, I was already in love with this big dog with those funny ears. Three weeks after that, we adopted Duke and made him an official part of our family.