Whew!

Well, animal control came and took the Sheppard mix momma dog from down the street. I thought it had already happened, but she showed up on our doorstep Saturday morning, hoovering out the food dish. That she could even walk was amazing to me. I thought she was starved before...I called animal control and left a message, and then called them twice today to try and find out the scoop. Legally, they can't tell you anything about the case, but I told the person on the phone that all I wanted to know was if the dog was gone, or if I still needed to put food out for it. The response was that animal control had gone out and picked 'them' up. I assume from the wording that the6 puppies (who supposedly had homes and were to be gone by the end of last month) were still there and taken as well. Now, if there was only a way to keep them from ever getting animals again. Or having any more kids.

Random thoughts on Tiny Homes

I have been doing a lot of research on Tiny Homes and trailer living. I miss my small spaces, and really enjoyed living in one. I am curious as to how small I could actually go, and I really believe that nothing smaller than 200 sq ft would work for me. I have some things I am sentimentally attached to, and I do like decorating a little for the seasons, which means I would need storage. I need my books, or at least a small space for keepers and a space for rotators. And at this point, I would want a home I could travel with. However, I am not sure how travel-worthy Tiny Homes are. They are definitely not very arrow-dynamic, so hauling them down a road long distances might be worse gas mileage wise than a trailer. I don't know. Haven't looked into the details yet. I am enjoying pinning ideas and pictures on my Tiny Home board on Pintrest. Lots of great ideas even for everyday rooms. I loved the size of my 244 sq ft apartment in Snoqualmie. The thing I didn't like about it was that it had only one window, so I could not get a through breeze. I loved the high ceilings, and those allowed me to do a lot more with the space, making it very livable. My 350 sq ft apartment in Vernonia was like a mansion, and I would never need any more space than that. Especially if I designed the interior to fit my needs. That would be fabulous! Something else I have been wondering about is why trailers are so much more expensive than tiny homes, and why the people who design them have not caught onto the tiny home idea for interior design. What do I mean? Well, simply every RV and Trailer I have looked like is tacky colors and patterns. It's like something my grandma's mom would have loved, but not someone like me. Big, cheesy mauve and grey fabric with matching wall boarders and ugly draw pulls? No, thank you. Anyways, just something I have been thinking about.

When life gives you lemons...

Or children. Take them, because, hey! Free! I have to say that living with Sece is an experience, and as I have stated in Facebook, an experience that is reaffirming the correctness of my choice to never, ever, ever have one of those of my very own. Ever. Never. She is a watercolor of sound, an oil painting of emotions, a sculpture of habits (mostly annoying and bad because she's 12). She is smart and brilliant when you put a pencil and piece of paper in front of her and let her draw. She would be the first to die in even a semi-apocalyptic event. I would almost think she would walk right into the first round of horrifying death, simply because she refuses to condition and comb the mop of nappy, crazy hair out of her eyes. She is dumber than a door knob when it comes to street smarts, and is so afraid of everything- or pretending to be so afraid of everything because it is funny- that she is actually a danger to herself while standing still in a room made of pillow. So, she makes me laugh, and her Mom loves her. I had respect for parents before. I knew it was a hard, merciless, spirit-breaking job that I never wanted. I have an even more acute respect and awareness now. Lets take example A: pan burns on the counter. If you make eggs, you do not set a hot pan on the counter to load your plate. You take the plate to the pan. Unless you are Sece. Then you burn the counter 'cuz hot pans only stay hot when on the stove. They instantly get cold when you take them off the stove. *headdesk* Example B: For 3 weeks you are told multiple times a day to not kick your shoes off into the middle of the entryway when you come in. People will trip on them. People will hurt themselves. You explain this multiple times, show her 2 corners she can kick them into, and give her a shelf to put them on in the shoe rack. You start yelling when she does it. Then, one day, you simply take them. She can't find her shoes. When she figures it out, she learns she will need to earn them back(That was my brilliant idea(. What better way to get her to understand to respect her stuff and others, right? So, to earn them back she has to load up a pile of branches that had been cut a few days before, and unload them at the dump. At most, going slow, this should only have taken an hour. 2 hours later, I am helping her finish up because I have better things to do with my time, because I have been up in hot and humid conditions since 3am doing hard physical labor, and because she is the biggest whiner ever. And I mean ever. I can't help but wish it was winter, and that I had a chipper, and that I lived in Fargo. I kid you not(hahaha); 10 minutes into this she wants to know when we are breaking for lunch cuz she is hunger. She had an hour before we started to get ready. She could have eaten then. I point it out, and tell her I can cut her up some cheese and salami to tide her over. Nope. Not good enough. She wants something specific. I tell her tough shit then, let me know when you change your mind. There are many other versions of trying to get out of The Punishment during those few hours. I hold fast. I think of chippers, of hog boiling time, of bigger, prettier rosebushes. Finally we are done, and a few hours later I hear her talking to her mom about how making her do that made no sense because it had nothing to do with shoes, and she will never remember. THAT was pretty infuriating to hear, but I am willing to bet if she has to do more stuff like that to earn her shit back, she will make the association. I just don't know if I can do it. There have been many little trials and issues since she moved in. She is spoiled in the way that kids get when one parent is tired of trying to do it all themselves. Mary's husband was not a constant when it came to teaching and helping. Mary is all over it with Diana and I backing her up, though. However, there are 12 years of whining and laziness to overcome if she is going to live here with us. Fingers are crossed.