Life in the Robinson house is always crazy, but sometimes the level of crazy is just a little… Well, you know. Recently we decided to change our level of constant craziness… we got a pup. (What was I thinking??) We love this dog. She is a cute, little, 8 month old shepherd mix. Her name when we found her through the rescue was Libby… Well, the girls think it is AWESOME, so Libby it is. Have I mentioned that this dog does not respond to its name at all… my neighbors probably hate the name Libby right now. Hahaha. We are working on training her, and I think her name is said at least 100 times a day… by each kid. Meet Libby.

Life with Libby has been quite entertaining. She loves people food… especially when it is H that has food. She prefers the comforts of our furniture, and apparently she is house broken. Hahaha. Yes, I totally get that changing her life will make some things a bit more challenging. To be fair, she is doing so much better in a couple of those departments. We do love her though. To see the way the girls light up when they see her first thing in the morning… it is so sweet! I am reminded of my sister who would get in the doghouse with our dog Pepper growing up. My mom has said many times, when you couldn’t find Jay, she was always with Pepper. It doesn’t matter where Libby is, one of our girls will be laying with her… on her bed, in her crate, behind the couch, under a bed, in the dirt in the backyard. Hahahaha!! She is definitely loved in our house!

So here we have this sweet pup, and it is prime training season for the hubs. Meetings, long days, late nights, a couple of days out-of-town here, a few weeks there… it is just a part of life.  Now, any of my friends will tell you, that as soon as your husband leaves, the bottom falls out. It’s Murphy’s Law. It’s just the way it goes. Two days before Mike headed out this time around, we ended up in the ER. Our middle monkey, E, ended up needing stitches. My girls are super loving and sweet, but they are so full of energy. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be in the ER for stitches or a cast. Amazingly enough, there was no craziness involved. The girls and their friends were hanging out watching a movie. After dropping something off of the couch, E climbed to end of the couch (the recliner was open), and when she reached down to grab it the recliner swung shut and she hit the corner of the coffee table. What followed was crazy (as usual), entertaining, and hysterical. When I saw her eye, I knew she needed stitches. Our fabulous neighbor swooped in (you know because we needed to add more crazy to her life too), took my girls and the rest of the kiddos to her house, and sent her oldest daughter with us to the ER  to help keep E calm for the car ride. Y’all, this little girl is a tough cookie!

They had her inhale this stuff to help her relax before they numbed her up… boy was it entertaining. She held perfectly still and was a total Rock star while she got shots and stitches. When it was all said and done, she was happy as a clam, and beyond funny. Have you seen those videos of people coming out of anesthesia? She wasn’t that wild, but she was oh so funny. We had to stay a while so they could observe her O2 levels from this drug they gave her… At one point she was rubbing the remote with this totally amazed look on her face… When I asked her what was wrong, she whispered, “Mom, it’s so smooth and bumpy.” She said totally off of the wall things and made the strangest faces for a couple of hours. We were all getting quite the kick out of it. She even asked us when she was going to get her stitches done so we could go home and play… she had no idea they were already there. Christmas is now in September, her dad was a kid who can drive, everything felt amazing… it was funny. Seriously though, this kid is such a sweet, bubbly girl. LOVE her!!!!

So having this ER visit before Mike leaves means we’ve bypassed Murphy’s Law, right? Bahahahahahahaha!!!! If only it worked that way. Yesterday I decided to join some friends for a beach trip. Three moms, eleven kids, coolers with packed lunches, sand toys, blankets, chairs, and a slammed beach. What more could you ask for? We actually had a ton of fun. They kids played for hours. We saw sea-lions and dolphins playing in the water not to far off shore. One sea-lion kept coming up pretty close. It was really cool. There were no major meltdowns (which is saying something), everyone had fun… it was really awesome! We finally head home… I did get stuck in the parking lot when my ticket wouldn’t work and I couldn’t get out… but that was nothing major. Printed out a lost ticket, paid, and got outta there. The kids fell asleep on the way home, but that was ok too. We were going to church after dinner and they always play with their friends after class. Normally late naps mean really late bedtimes.

Soooo… I pull up to our unit and I see a few kids waiting for me to get home. Someone parked in front of our house, so I had to walk a little ways to get to the house. But… I was met by a friend before I could get there. She was at the beach with us, but she beat us home because we had to stop on the way home. This is the same friend who took the girls when E needed stitches. The look on her face was an instant indicator that something was wrong, really wrong. Remember that sweet dog that I mentioned? Did I tell you that she also has a “little” anxiety? My friend says… “before you go home… I have Libby.” My brain is instantly racing… what do you mean you have Libby…. what happened?? She then tells me that Libby somehow got out of her crate and flipped out in the house. I heard one of the kids say blood and then I heard the words blinds… I am mentally freaking out at this point. I decided to just suck it up and walk to the house to see there damage before walking down to get Libby… HOLY COW!!!!!! How does one dog do that much damage???? The blinds are totally shredded… I mean completely trashed, ripped apart, in pieces, and barely hanging in the window. She did this to several blinds.

She cut her gums attacking the blinds so there is blood on the windows, on the couch, and on the floor…. (Not like a blood bath, just a few drops here and there… ). I see shredded toys (my youngest cried for quite a while last night), once folded laundry all over the floor, a pile of dog poop in a pile of clean laundry… I stopped looking. I was on the verge of melting down, but I couldn’t do that. There wasn’t time right then. I went to the neighbors, got the dog… there wasn’t much loving going on because I was struggling at the moment. I put her back in the crate… Yep, I locked her right back up, loaded the kids back up and went to the store. There I bought blinds for three of the windows, but not the biggest window because wait for it… no one sells them that big here. Ugh…. So the next best thing, buy a curtain and curtain rod for the time being. I bought a steam vac too…. because goodness know I NEEDED it. Now, while we’re at the store, now is when the meltdowns begin. One after the other… crying over little things, wanting in the cart, wanting out of the cart, wanting to go home, wanting daddy… the list was endless. Ha!! While checking out I was informed that maybe I should stop having kids if I can’t handle my current ones… Instead of biting someones head off I told him thank you for the advice… I would take it into consideration for the future and then I cried. Hahaha… the look on his face when I started crying. Honestly, I didn’t want to cry. Right then I wanted to be more tough and angry, but my brain betrayed me and the tears came anyway. I got the girls home, unloaded, let the dog out, and just sat with her. That is when I noticed that the mess that surrounded me was even bigger than what I initially thought. She got on the counters and ate the bread and butter… she ate the food, and shredded what was in the bottom of the pantry that was obviously not latched… she got on the table and shredded a school book… I mean really??? Instead of flipping out, which probably would have felt good, but it wouldn’t have done anyone good… I sent her in the backyard with the girls. I started the cleaning process. The dog mess… picked up and thrown out. Clothes back in the washer, chewed toys in the trash, food, and papers in the trash… Next the blinds. I moved the blinds from the back window to the front until I can put the curtains up. I went upstairs too, and changed out 2 of the 3 blinds, because silly me bought one set that was the wrong size… (insert “doh!” with a forehead slap). It’s alright though. Things are better!! My house was less of a mess. Yes, I still needed to steam clean, but that was ok. The girls needed attention, the crazy and somewhat psychotic dog needed to know I didn’t hate her… I could finish cleaning later, I could absorb what happened later. Once I got everyone cleaned up from the beach (that was a totally different dramatic saga… hahaha), we did story time and then bedtime with prayers. We always talk about what we are thankful for, and what we need to work on… Last night, they were thankful for going to the beach and playing with friends, for the animals we saw at the beach, for Libby, and for their mommy… What they needed to work on, being kind, a better helper, and could God bless mommy’s heart so she doesn’t cry at the store anymore (courtesy of my youngest)… Hahahahaha! I love those kids!! Even in my weakest, craziest moments they help to keep me grounded. I may have cried after everyone finally went to bed… I may have eaten a close to a whole bag of chocolate too, but that is ok.

A friend posted this picture yesterday and I thought it was so fitting. 🙂

The craziness in life is all relative. Different seasons will bring different challenges. Right now I am thankful for my babies, my family, those friends who just get it, and even the grumpy man in the store. Everything happens for a reason. We may not understand why things are unfolding in a certain way, but we can choose how we deal with it. Murphy’s Law is inevitable and one day this will be but a little blip on the radar. For now I am just going to ignore the window without the blinds. 😉 Time to go love my kids, walk the crazy dog… I mean Libby, and just take a breath. Remember, the next time you see a mama struggling in a store, you don’t always know what is going on behind the scenes. Sometimes a helping hand, or even just a kind smile can help someone get through the day.