To kill, or not to kill a mockingbird?

I’m going with kill.
We have lots of mockingbirds here in Texas and they are pretty annoying little creatures. Not to mention, I’m terrified of birds, so one less in the world would be great.
Anyways, back to why I want to kill this little guy…
If you’ve never heard a mockingbird, they like to mimic everything, hence the name “mockingbird.”. Mostly, I’ve only heard them laugh at people. But, last night I got to witness the true mocking nature of these little weasels. It was around 4am, and of course, I couldn’t sleep. I had the windows open and I could here a bird that must have been very close to the window based on how loud he was. He was chirping non stop. After I listened for awhile, I realized he was mocking 17 different bird calls. 17!! And, once he went through all 17, he’d start over at the beginning, no break in between. Now, why was he up in the middle of the night? I’ve never heard birds chirping in the middle of the night. Don’t they sleep? And, 17 different bird calls? Really? Now you’re just showing off.
And now, I hear nothing. Oh, it must be his bedtime. Of course.
I’m interested to see if this is a new nightly thing. Will he be back to annoy me again tonight?

On another note, I have lots of photos to share with you…I’m just been too lazy to upload them. Haha. I promise, I’ll get them up soon!

Enjoy your day (and I hope it’s mockingbird free),
{d&k}

Snow…Boo!

I hate snow.  I was not ready for it this year.  At all.  And, I thought I’d just have to see it when we visited our family in Michigan.  Oh no.  I was wrong.

Guess what showed up in TEXAS on Christmas?!  Yep, you guessed it.  Snow.

Then, we get stuck at the airport for 4 hours due to snow in Michigan, which delayed our flight.  When we finally landed in Michigan, there was way too much snow for me.  Way too much.  K said there was a little path cleared for the plane to land on the runway.  That’s why I don’t look out the window when flying.

And then we spent the rest of the trip in this:

Snow.  Everywhere.  And, it was cold.  Like 9 degrees cold.

Thankfully when we got back to Dallas, it was in the 50s.  I’ve only been gone a year, Michigan.  I’m not ready for snow yet.

And, I’m happy to report we haven’t had any more snow since we’ve been back. Unfortunately, it is raining right now and going to continue to rain for the next 24 hours. So, we’ve replaced snow with mud. But, at least it is not 9 degrees!

 

Did anyone else see snow on Christmas?   Anyone else in Texas see snow recently?

 

Enjoy your day and stay rain and snow free,
{d&k}

Wth, Texas, Wth?!?

What the heck, Texas!?!  I’m mad at you.  You know why.  Because it is cold here (really, really cold) and it snowed yesterday!  SNOWED.  In Texas.  Before it snowed in Ohio.  Wth?!

I have only been gone a year….I’m not ready for snow yet.  I know I’ll see some when I’m back in Ohio for Christmas, but I was not prepared for it yesterday.

Yesterday morning I got up to let the pups out, only to find snow covering my car windshield, the roof of the house and shed and enough on the ground to hide the ugly brown grass.  Wth?!  I ran back into the bedroom to wake up k and tell him.  He growled and when back to bed.  Later, when he woke up and looked outside he said, “Hey, it snowed!”  Apparently the growl was not for the snow, but for me waking him up.  Haha, oops.

Thankfully the snow had melted by 9am and everything was back to normal.  Or was it, Texas?!  Nope.  It was still cold.  I can’t handle this cold weather.  That’s one of the reasons I moved to TEXAS!

But, I can’t be upset with you for too long, Texas.  You promised it would be in the 70s this weekend and I’m holding you to that.  I have antsy dogs that need walked and none of us are venturing out for a walk in this weather.

So, get it together, Texas.  I mean it!

 

Enjoy your day and your weather,
{d&k}

 

Christmas in the South

How’d you like our news from yesterday?!  Pretty crazy, huh?!  Yep, we are still shocked and it doesn’t quite seem real yet.  I’ll fill you in more in an upcoming post.

It’s Christmas time!  Yippee!!

However, it’s very weird celebrating it here in the South.  It’s warm.  Really warm.  We were decorating our Christmas tree in 80 degree weather, while wearing shorts and tank tops.  Weird.  We had the windows open!

I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that.  But, I will take this weather over the cold Ohio weather any day.  And, we’ll be traveling back to Ohio after Christmas so we’ll get our fill of cold, possibly snowy, weather then.  And, that’s enough for me.

On Sunday night, we went to SMUs tree lighting ceremony and that was weird, too.  It was still 80 degrees.  People were walking around in tank tops and shorts.  And, if that’s not weird enough, we were singing carols like that.  In tank tops!  Haha.  That’s the weird part.

After the tree lighting, we went out to dinner and sat outside on the patio.  On December 2!  Haha, it still is amazing to me.

Although, none of this is as weird as the November we went to visit T in Phoenix and the cacti were decorated for Christmas.  That was strange.  And, it was still 90 degrees.

But, I guess it doesn’t matter where you are or what the weather is like…it’s still Christmas!  And, that makes me very happy.  We have the inside of our house decorated, trees up, and now we are just waiting for a free evening to decorate the outside of the house.  That’s k’s job.  I hate lights!

How about you?  Are you ready for the holidays?

I also added the cutest little reindeer family to our Christmas decorations:

Aren’t they so sweet!?  I broke down at bought them at the bazaar on Saturday.

Speaking of the bazaar…
I had a great day and my shop did very well!!  I was hoping to at least break even!  I had no idea I would sell so many things and sell out of boot cuffs within the first hour and a half!  Now, if I get in next year, I know what to stock up on.  And, hopefully I will have more than 2 weeks to fill my booth.  Here’s how I decorated my booth:
   

It turned out much cuter than I imagined.  And those little banners…I made those out of burlap and I just stenciled the letters on there.  How cute!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Yay for Christmas!!

Enjoy your day,
{d&k}

 

 

1 year!

A year ago, this was us:

Jam-packed into the car, getting ready for our 20 hour drive from Ohio to Texas, with 3 drugged cats and 3 dogs.  Wow, what an adventure.

 

I can’t believe it’s been a year already.  Time flies by when {d&k} are having fun!

 

Oh, and just a little reminder about the Jesuit Christmas Bazaar tomorrow, 9-5, at Jesuit High School.  Stop by and visit me at The Polka Dotted Pug booth!

 

Enjoy your weekend,
{d&k}

Fall, Fair, and Fried Everything!

Hi friends!  How was your weekend?  {d&k} had a fantastic weekend!!  And, lucky for you, I took lots of photos.  See, I’m always thinking about you!

So, let’s get on with the photo overload…

{d&k} went to a pumpkin patch to get a few pumpkins and to my surprise, they had a petting zoo!  YES!

A couple of longhorns. Except, their horns aren’t that long. Maybe they were babies?!

My new friend, sheep. He was very sweet and soft. I even made k pet him.

Some of our pumpkins!

After the pumpkin patch, we had lunch in Rockwall, overlooking the lake.

Next up, the state fair! Holy cow, this was the biggest fair I’ve ever been to. And, the amount of people there! Wow. They had anything and everything you could imagine…fried. For example, k tried a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I tried a few bites of it and it was amazing! I could not have eaten an entire sandwich like that, though. Too rich.

Then, we tried fried samoa girl scout cookies. Are you kidding? These are my favorite girl scout cookies!!

And, I had no idea we’d get 4 cookies! Bonus! These were delicious! However, I do not want any more fried food for at least 3 months.

The fair also had the best petting zoo I’ve ever been to. Yes, I’ve been to a ton. And, this was the second petting zoo in one day. Bonus! Here are just a few of the animals that we petted (and, I’m pretty sure I petted every single one of them).

Yep, that’s right….a baby giraffe!

Yep, that’s right….a kangaroo and 2 babies! I actually didn’t pet these guys. They didn’t seem to want to get up from posing for photos.

A zebra! More shocking is k petting a zebra! He won’t even touch my parent’s mini donkeys or horses. And, he just kept saying, “How cool is this!?” Go k, go!

There were baby goats galore! They were so, so cute. And, there were 2 very tiny guys that would have fit into my purse perfectly. K said no. But, he was okay smuggling out a zebra. Really, k?!

Look at that cute little baby llama! He was a feisty little thing and was running right into the other baby, trying to get him to play. When that didn’t work, he went to the pen next to his and had a stare down with a very large ostrich.

Look! K is feeding an alpaca! That fried pb&j must have made him feel invincible. He never gets that close to an animal’s mouth. Not even our own.

There were so many more animals I didn’t get pictures of. If you are ever in Texas during the state fair, you have to go. Just for the petting zoo. I mean, come on, is there anything better?!

Well, there you have it. That’s what we did last weekend. I hope you enjoyed the photos! Stayed tuned for another issue of Random Photos Found on my Phone and Oskar’s sleep habits.

Enjoy your day,
{d&k}

One Week

One week.

That’s how long it will be until I see my k again.  7 days. 

They cannot come soon enough. 

This has been the longest month ever.  Even longer than the month of October when k moved to Texas before me. 

I also miss my little, squishy faced dogs.  And the big, dumb dog too. 

I can’t wait to be back in my own bed, cuddled up with k and a pug or 2.  Hurry up, 7 days! 

But, I will say that this week will be the busiest week since I’ve been here, so hopefully these next 7 days will fly by.  I shouldn’t even have that much time to think about it.  So, I guess I have that going for me. 

Ok, let’s go, 7 days.  Quickly!

 

Enjoy your day,
{d&k}

What have {d&k} been up to?

I’m glad you asked!  {d&k} have been very, very busy the last few days…

{d&k} celebrated k’s birthday on Friday.  And d’s brother, Big E, was in town.  First, {d&k} went to pick up k’s first birthday present….a new car! (Said in my best Price is Right announcer voice.)  We had been wanting to trade in k’s car for a while and had been shopping around a bit when we found a cute little, black Nissan Altima that was perfect for us.  So, Friday we stopped by the dealership to sign the final paperwork and take her home.  Yay!

Next, we all went to pick up k’s second birthday present…a new basketball hoop!  (Again, announcer voice).  He’s been wanting one for awhile and I was waiting for the perfect time to give it to him and since he’s been playing basketball 3 times a week at the school, I thought this was it!  Well, I don’t know anything about basketball hoops, backboard style and size, and all of that.  So, my best option was to take k to pick it out.  Not very much fun to “open” though.  But, I did wrap up a new basketball that the pugs so lovingly picked out and had him open that before we picked out the hoop. 

After shopping, we all went out for Mexican (what else?!) and then went back home to put the hoop together.  Big E and k spent about 2 hours putting the hoop together and then another 2 hours playing on it.  They didn’t come in until 1am!  I think they had a blast.  The remainder of the weekend’s free time was spent playing basketball.  Yay for a great gift idea!

Before we got to enjoy k’s birthday weekend, we had the “pleasure” of trying to register our cars and get new Texas driver’s licenses.  What a horrible, horrible, time we had.  First, I googled where to go for a new driver’s license and it sent us to the DMV location nearest us (which wasn’t really that near).  When we got there (before it opens) and waited in line, the women at the desk tells us we are in the wrong place and that we have to go to the other end of town.  Ok, then what exactly are these other 20 people waiting in line for?  What does the DMV in Texas do?!? 

Then we drive across town (and it’s Dallas, so it is not a short trip) to the Department of Public Safety and we wait in a really, really long line, only to find out we have to have our cars registered before we can get our licenses.  What?!  Then we tell the lady that the website first sent us to the DMV and didn’t say anything about registering your car first and she said, “Oh yeah, the website is wrong.”  Thanks, lady.  You’re very helpful.  And so it your WRONG website.  Ugh. 

So, back in the car we went.  We drove across town (closer to where we live) again and went to register our cars.  Thankfully, the line wasn’t that long and the lady that helped us was very nice (something we had not been used to thus far).  Now that we had already wasted 4 hours, over 2 days trying to get this stuff done, it was time to go back to get our licenses.  We waited until Friday morning to do this, so we could get there at 7:30, before they opened at 8am, and get in line.  Well, a line was waiting for us.  We were probably 25 people deep, oi.  So we wait, and wait, and wait.  Finally get in the door and “check in”, only to wait more.  We’re finally called back and have to show our Ohio id’s, our birth certificates, social security cards, and practically give them blood for them to believe it’s us, before they give us a Texas license.  I’m confused by this.  People can walk into a store and buy a gun and go to war with less documentation.  And, after all of that, they gave us an 8.5×11 sheet of paper with what our license will look like until we get it in the mail.  Seriously?  So after 6.5 hours over 3 days, we get a piece of paper?!  You should have seen us trying to get into a bar on Saturday night to celebrate k’s b-day.  They looked at us like we were nuts with this huge sheet of paper, trying to pass it off as our id.  Then, even though our picture is on it, they didn’t believe us, so we had to show them something else with our picture on it.  Well, the only other thing we had were our Costco cards.  Haha.  They eventually let us in.  Good Lord!  And, I was terrified to try to go through airport security with that, which of course, was no problem at all.  Strange? Yes.  No, you can’t come into my hole-in-the-wall-bar, but sure, hop on a plane across the country.  Enjoy your flight!

And, that transitions me into…we are back in Ohio!  {d&k} are back home visiting friends & family, and d has 4 weddings to coordinate {happy dance}.  I’m already missing my zoo, but they are in good hands.  I just hope they are behaving.  Sneaky little weasels. 

 

So, that is what we’ve been up to.  I have pictures of k’s birthday, and I’ll post those soon. 

 

Enjoy your day,
{d&k}

 

Everything’s Bigger In Texas

…including the bugs

…and their shadows!

We have these beetles that only come out at night and attach themselves to our screen door and wait to come in.  Uma treats them as a delicacy, slowly waiting to pounce and devour them.  The crunching of their bodies in between her teeth grosses me out.

The beetles are so big, they set our motion detector lights off.  Sometimes the pugs don’t even set those lights off!

While the motion lights are on, the beetles will fly over to the screen…but since it’s dark, you can’t see them, just their huge shadows.  It looks as if a bird is heading straight for the house.  I’ve nicknamed these bugs birdbugs, for that very reason.  (I’m very creative with my nicknames.  I put tremendous thought into them).

I do not like bugs.  At all.  And here, the bugs are big.  I mean, what bugs have their own shadows?!

K said the birds take cover in the birdbug’s shadows to stay out of the heat.  It’s probably true!  These things are huge, people.

Every time I see a shadow, I dive inside for protection.  The dogs think I’m nuts.  K thinks I’m nuts.  You probably would too.  I’m waiting for the day that I throw myself through the screen door to take cover from a birdbug shadow.  I can see it now…birdbug at full speed, right for my head.  Me, diving through the screen door because I thought it was open.  Landing, painfully, on the wood floor.  Pugs, running around like little banshees, free at last.  K standing over me, angry forehead wrinkle staring down at me.  Then comes the yelling.

I think it’s safe to say that I will be inside this summer, away from all birdbugs and their humongous shadows, thankyouverymuch.

In case you wondering, the saying is true.  Everything IS bigger in Texas.  I’m not sure how I feel about these birdbugs and their creepy shadows.  {Shiver}

 

Enjoy your day & beware the birdbugs!
{d&k}

Wednesday Randomness

So, the last few days have been filled with boxes.  Lots and lots of boxes.  I have nightmares that I’m living in a cardboard box, sleeping on a cardboard bed (that is some how supporting {d&k} and the zoo without collapsing yet when I tripped over a box and fell onto it, it did no such thing!).  I wake up in a cold sweat and then I panic that the box bed will get soggy.  Maybe I shouldn’t eat before I go to bed?!  Anyways, the last few days have been a crazy mess of unpacking of said boxes and trying to find a place for everything.  Good news though….the house is completely unpacked and all the boxes are gone!  Wahoo!  I have realized that this house does not have nearly enough storage and I have jammed things into every nook and cranny I could find.  We went from having a basement, garage, attic, and an entire wall of book shelves to none of the above!  But, that’s ok because everything is unpacked!  And, this also means that k cannot be his usual pack-ratty self!  Can I get another Wahoo! for that!?!?

In not so good news…it is cold here!  That’s right, it’s cold in TEXAS!  Wth?  I didn’t sign up for cold weather in Texas.  Now, it’s definitely not as cold as Ohio, but you know me, anything below 80* is cold.  But, it has been very cold here and I can’t seem to stay warm.  The pugs and I were cuddled under a blanket with a small heater on us today!  Now, that’s just sad.  I know.  As soon as I typed it I thought “wow, she is a baby.”  But, like I said, I can’t help that its hard for me to stay warm.  Oh, and remember how I was having an “ooh shiny” moment?  Well, it has been so cold that the towels I put in there to soak up the water were frozen today!  Eep. So, my car is still a swimming pool.  I did park it in the sun today and left all the doors open, which helped to dry up some of the water.  I’m hoping to do the same thing tomorrow, if there is sun (which there better be, Texas. Do you hear me?).

Today I reopened my Etsy shop, just in time for the holidays!  I also added a few Ready to Ship items that will definitely make it in time for Christmas.  Pass the word along, if you know of anyone looking for a great Christmas gift 😉  Here are a few of the Ready to Ship items:

Ready to Ship Slouchy Beret Hat in Charcoal

Ready to Ship Ear Warmer in Marigold

Ready to Ship Ear Warmer in Navy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other random news…
Can I just tell you how many people told me that they love Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes too and after reading my post about them almost went out to the store to buy them?!  Haha.  I love it.  Mainly because I’m not alone in my strange, border-line-obsessive love tryst with Little Debbie and her deliciousness of goodies.  We should start a fan club.  But, we can’t eat the goodies, only talk about them.  I’m not condoning obesity and that’s what I would be if I could get my sausage-linky little fingers on a few thousand boxes of those wonderful {drool} goodies.  Ok, done now.  Do not let me near a Target. Do.not.  Ever.

And now, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t leave you with some of {d&k}s random conversations?!  A bad one, that’s what. And, I don’t want to be a bad friend, so here you go…

{d} – Your sideburns are very poufy.

{k} – I know! They are out of control!  Stay down.  Yes, I talk to them sometimes.  Stay down, little buddy.  Calm down.  Lay flat.

*******

{k} – I DON’T NEED TO WEAR PANTS TONIGHT!!!!!!  I can just pull up my socks!
(picture k standing in the middle of the bedroom with a hooded sweat shirt on, undies, and socks pulled up past his knees.  There is about 3 inches of leg showing, the rest covered by either undies or socks.  Hot.  Friends, don’t be jealous of me because I married that.)

*******

Any time k does something goofy, stupid, weird, etc… the first words out of his mouth are, “Crap, you are gonna blog about that, aren’t you?!”  Haha, why yes, yes I am.

Thanks for being so entertaining k!

Until next time, enjoy your day!
{d&k}