Trigger

Our Trigger dog passed away on Friday.  We've known for a few weeks that his heart was in bad shape.  He was still pretty perky  and he wasn't in pain so we made the decision to bring him home and hope that he would be comfortable.  Friday night as we were getting ready for bed, he slipped away peacefully. Even though we were mostly expecting it, we are all pretty sad.  He was almost 13 so the kids don't remember a time without him.  Glenn and I just miss his face and his stubby wagging tail and his constant cleaning off all of the dishes in the dishwasher.  

Trigger was a naughty dog for a significant portion of his life.  He used to run out the front door any chance he got and race up the street.  We'd hop in the car and race after him but with his head start, he'd usually have a 15 minute adventure until we caught up with him.  He also did the same thing anytime he was off leash camping or hiking.  Certain members of the family can't drive past a camping spot in the Snowies without remembering the day we spent tracking Trigger down (instead of camping and hiking ourselves!).  

Trigger also enjoyed eating food off of the counter, off of people's plates and in the last few months of his life, he liked to pull the cat food bowl off of the table and eat that.  One time he dragged a couple potatoes and two bananas into the living room and while he just nibbled the potatoes, but he ate both bananas and somehow managed to peel them. 

He was an affectionate and loyal dog who loved Glenn the most.  Once he got too old for his own hunting trips, he'd mope until Glenn came home and then he'd sniff every item of clothing that Glenn had worn, as if he was reliving the hunt.  A few times, I'd take the other two dogs on a walk and have to leave him at home because of a sore leg and he would howl until we got back.  It was the saddest, most dramatic noise.    

We can't forget the great Chicken Coop mystery.  We had no chicken eggs for months, couldn't figure out why there was coop bedding in the house until we finally caught Trigger red-handed (red-pawed?) in the coop snacking on fresh eggs.  He squeezed his appropriately-sized frame through a chicken door because he needed a snack.  

Trigger loved his pack and they miss him.  We've noticed Tootsie walking around the house a few times and I wonder if she's looking for him.  I'm glad he had such a long life and I'm so thankful that he found his way to us.  

Trigger loved sleeping on the couch.... on his back with his feet in the air.  

I took this picture after I sprained my ankle.  Dog pile!  

Trigger loved nothing more than sleeping in the sun in our backyard.  He was mostly deaf in the last year and there were a few times where he didn't hear me coming and I had to double check that he was still breathing!  

This is how we will remember him.... sitting in the sun looking at us while we yell his name like "what?"  

 

Christmas Wrap-up and I'm 50!

We had a really nice Christmas and I meant to write about it a bunch of times last week but then I got busy hanging out with kiddos, cleaning up from Christmas and knitting (I'm knitting again!), watching Andor with Glenn (so good!) and I didn't blog about any of it.   But we had a nice break.  Glenn and I worked some of the days.  Will had wrestling practice.  Reina tried out experimental recipes in the kitchen.  The cats terrorized the Christmas ornaments.  Fun was had by all. 

We received so many lovely presents - it's hard to pick just one that's our favorite but I asked everybody tonight for a quick review:  

Reina's favorite present was her iPad from Mom and Dad.  She downloaded a drawing app already and has quite the portfolio already.  

Will's favorite present was an interesting Broncos sculpture from Aunt V and Uncle M which had some money taped to the back.  He hasn't put the sculpture in his room yet because he's scared to wake up and see it staring at him. 

Glenn's favorite present was a mug that I had made with pictures from Will's football season. I'd like to say I made the mug but that was all Shutterfly.  

My favorite present is hard to choose from but it's probably a drawing that Reina did for me that I need to frame and hang up - and take a picture for the blog!  

Today is my 50th birthday.  50!  I've been dreading this one a little bit.  Fifty just feels so .... fifty? Didn't I just graduate from college?  Or get married?  I think underneath it all, this feels like a decade of big changes.  I'll probably get a new job this decade when I can retire from the State.  Kiddos will graduate and go to college this decade.  Who knows how many animals Glenn and I will bring home in the next 10 years.  But the day turned out pretty great.  My co-workers decorated my office in black crepe paper and pictures of me photoshopped as Sally O'Malley (SNL, google it).  Glenn gifted me a car detailing from an actual detail place and not just me with the shop vac trying to get out the detritus of almost two years of driving teens around.  Reina picked out some really pretty earrings and Will got me a really nice wallet (he dislikes my current wallet and he has opinions about a lot of things).  I also got gift cards and cash and a book. I'm a lucky middle-aged lady.  

Christmas Eve Eve

 I took December 23 off and we spent the day working on last minute Christmas errands.  The niblings hung out with us for a little while so that Aunt Vicky could volunteer at the mall for present wrapping.  We had lunch and then came back to roll out some sugar cookies.  

Reina is happier than she looks.  

Cousins helped me roll out the dough and bake and then Glenn and Reina decorated later that night.  Some serious artistry happening here. 

We wait until the last minute to put any presents under the tree because several of the four-legged members don't abide by the societal rules of "don't open presents before Christmas morning and definitely don't own presents that don't have your name on them."  When we opened up the box from my Aunt Mary (she always sends cat presents) and put the packages under the tree, it instantly became the hot spot for cat hangouts. 

The face of innocence

Will brought home a gingerbread kit last week so he and tried to put it together.  No pictures because it wasn't exactly structurally sound.  But we had fun.  It reminded me of the days of Lego building and teamwork and all of that good stuff.  It was a sweet way to start off the holiday weekend. 

A weird week

We've had a weird week at the Pauley household.  On Saturday, while walking into the high school (our rival high school) for Will's wrestling meet, I slipped on the one patch of ice in the parking lot and fell like the middle aged person I am and wrenched my ankle.  A lot of drama ensued but long story short, Glenn took me to the ER where I found out I didn't break anything but just sprained it.  For the first time in my life, I have crutches although by this point in the week, I'm feeling much better and don't need them anymore.  

Well that was weird.  And super inconvenient because I had a ton of Christmas chores to get done. 

Yesterday and today, Reina has stayed home from school with a virus that is not covid, the flu or strep.  That's the good news.  She does feel pretty puny and we had to miss the annual trolley/Christmas lights tour but she got some meds for the accompanying ear infection and hopefully she'll start feeling better soon.  I stayed home with her today because she wanted the company and needed someone to bring her sprite and jello every 5 minutes.  

Dress shopping with a teen

 Reina had a school dance at the beginning of December and she wanted a winter-y dress to wear.  She showed me some pictures online and finally on Black Friday, we braved the mall to do a little shopping.  

Our first stop was TJ Maxx because I remember finding cute prom dresses there.  Unfortunately we didn't find anything that passed the Reina Test even though I lobbied hard for these festive kitten overalls.  Holiday!  Velvet!  Cat!  Modest!  

Next we went to our only big department store in the mall and hit the jackpot.  The entire junior dress section was full of moms and teens looking for the perfect jr high dance dress.  Some of the dresses were even on sale.  I really liked this one and Reina didn't mind it so we got it as a church dress but not a DANCE dress.  

Reina and her chaperone on the big night. 

The winner!  She was happier than she looks in this picture. 















 

We are a wrestling family now apparently.

 Will is a couple of weeks into his JV wrestling season.  He's never been on a wrestling team and except for a brief two week camp in second grade (third grade?), he's never wrestled.  He joined to help get him ready for next year's football season.  The workouts are tough, the rules of wrestling are confusing (to me) but he is making it work.  I printed off a 'wrestling for dummies' cheat sheet to take to his first competition last week and he won in a pin after about 30 seconds.  That's one of the fun parts of wrestling - none of these pesky 60 minute games and time outs and halftime and everything.  Just wrestle!  He participated in a tournament this weekend and won 2 out of his 3 matches.  He keeps trying to practice his moves on Glenn and that's probably not going to end well.  Will thinks that Reina should try wrestling next year because there's a girls team too.  Mom has thoughts.  Until then, let's go watch some wrestling!  

Snow Day

UGH it's been way too long since I wrote on this lonely blog.  Fate intervened and we have a snow day today.  A snow day that's exactly 4 days away from a two week Christmas vacation for the kids.  To clarify, today is not a full snow day, it's a virtual learning day which means Will is holed up in his room powering through all of his classes as fast as possible and Reina and I are sitting on the sofa while she works on earth science and I write this post.  Later we'll do some baking, maybe some house cleaning (ha ha ha) and start the Christmas letter.  Glenn is on a work trip and may be there for a little longer than planned if this storm is a bad as predicted.  I'm going to catch us up with one post an hour today.  Here we go!  

Obligatory cute cat picture