Mary Mary Why Ya' Buggin'

I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. But then it occurred to me last night that Valentine's Day is when we got Leia. Today marks the one year anniversary of Leia Skywalker joining our family. Mr. W was dead set on getting a dog.  I was less than thrilled. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a puppy. The original plan was that our 2nd dog would be a German Shepard. We soon realized that no way would a hairy, large dog fit in our RV, The Wonder Wagon.  Thank God! We went camping and saw the perfect dog for us, a Swedish Vallhund. Picture in your mind a "low rider" German Shepard, same coloring but only smaller.  Perfect temperament and size for our family after online research. The downside was puppies were extremely expensive.  Mr. W came upon a Swedish Vallhund website and saw that there was a breeder in our area who had a Cattle Dog/Swedish Vallhund mix puppy for free. It took Leia and I a few months to bond. She was Mr. W's idea but she has ended up a

For those of you who don't know I homeschool. Please, please drop whatever judgement that just popped into your head just now. No, I don't drive a 15-passenger van. No, I do not make my girls write passages out of the bible nor do I wear denim jumpers. Don't get me started about how some women think that yoga pants should be banned. That is another blog post for another day. Since I homeschool that means that I am with my children twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. After awhile it begins to wear on me. Thankfully, I homeschool with a few other moms and we have a mini co-op of sorts were we [GASP] socialize together a few times a week. I love that we have scheduled fun educational activities with other friends my girls' ages like art lessons and book club. It makes for some crazy busy mornings, finishing up schoolwork to meet up for activities in the afternoons. Most days I feel like all I am doing is racing the clock all the while making sure that we have acc

Tonight I finished up a four week swim class at my local community center.  After my first triathlon in September I struggled with the swim the most, complete with a freak out moment half way through the swim.  I was also having some pain in my left shoulder which had me worried. I am so glad that I signed up for classes as my form has improved and I am no longer in pain. I think I might actually be faster! Up till a few years ago I didn't know how to swim that well. I've never been afraid of the water. I just don't know how to do any of the strokes. I am pretty much still clueless when it comes to swimming but I am in the pool and I know more than I did when I first started on this triathlon journey so I feel at least I am making some kind of progress. My friend Anne was right when she said that swimmers are silent assholes. Have you been to a lap swim lately? I took her advice a few years ago and took lessons which helped a lot not only to help me not choke on water but t