My Controlling Male

My life is controlled by a male, who if he doesn't get his own way will make my life a misery until he does; he controls my stress levels and even how much sleep I have, when he wakes, I wake, when he is sleeping, I can completely relax (well almost).  Just to be clear, I'm not talking about my husband Nath, I am talking about my 13 month old (I totally acknowledge that I just did that irritating Mum thing, were I say my baby's age in months and not years) dog Eric.  Eric is a Boxer, a breed renown for being stubborn, the class clown and with one of the longest puppy stages in the dog world (research suggests he'll be an adult when he turns 2).

As I write this I am on the dog couch (yes it's Eric's own couch) with him snoozing away contently on me, the radio is at a level to not disturb him and I am absolutely busting for a pee, due to his head resting on my bladder. Will I move, no of course not, I could end up disturbing him and he's all snuggy.

Nath came home from working away last night, which meant that Eric didn't have his normal amount of space in the bed; I woke up this morning with Eric in the middle of us, his back to Nath and his legs stretched right out. Nath didn't get much sleep, as he was precariously balancing on the edge of the bed, it would seem Eric had his back to Nath in the attempt to shove him out of the bed completely! Of course Nath could have moved Eric, or even made him go sleep on his own bed but no he didn't want to disturb him!!

As Nath is one of those irritating cheery morning people, who can just jump out of bed at daft o'clock and be happy (I have tried this but then look in the mirror and tell myself to fuck off being so cheery first thing), he gets up when Eric does to let him out and give him breakfast but with me it's another story. When it's just Eric and I and it's around 0600 hrs Eric will start staring and I will be on full alert, my whole body tenses mentally begging him to go back to sleep for another hour....ok hour and a half. Sometimes Eric will go back to sleep but a lot of time he jumps off the bed, which I still ignore, willing him to go on his bed but then I hear the click clack of his paws on the tiles in the kitchen, throw a bed tantrum (you know the type) then get up and make sure he has what he wants!

Eric is cool though and is a great protector, he makes sure that the postman and everyone (including small children) know to not even think about coming into our house by barking mentally at them through the living room all day......yep all friggin day.

Despite the lack of sleep and Eric not getting weekends, I wouldn't be without the big handsome lump, who makes me laugh daily!

Is that a Squirrel?!

Snowboarding Tantrums

Nath and I went snowboarding last weekend to Marmot in Jasper National Park, we figured it would be nice to get away from Edmonton for a couple of days and take in some mountain air. All was well until I threw a tantrum.....

Now I am absolutely rubbish at boarding and because I'm bad at it, I don't enjoy it but because I know Nath enjoys it so much, I agreed to go. So I squeezed my feet into my boots, which seriously felt like I was going to break my foot, why on earth are they so uncomfortable! As we walked towards the slope, I could feel the dread building up in me but put on a brave face and plastered on a smile continuing to be one of those irritating positive types. The first few runs were actually pretty good and I was v pleased that I didn't just heal edge down the mountain but actual pointed my board downwards, I was equally impressed with myself for getting off the lift without making a twat out of myself and piling in!

Feeling full of confidence I agreed to go to the top of the mountain, it has green runs all the way down so I was happy enough..........So on the lower slopes, I had been practising my turns and doing quite well at it but on top of the mountain, god knows why (seriously why??) I just wasn't as good and actually had to unclip at one point (most embarrassing thing to do on the mountain). I was practising my turns, which I was getting good at but as soon as I tried to link turns, I piled in and smashed my head on the ground (luckily I had a helmet on); the second time I piled in literally broke the very thin thread, that was holding onto my positivity and reasoning.

The second fall knocked the wind out of me and again I took a very bad hit to my head and I lost it!! Why can't I just be good at it, it looks so fuckin simple!! I was giving myself a proper hard time and then something awful happened.....I felt tears welling up, yes me, a fully grown woman was crying because I was shit at boarding, wtf! I was then berating myself for crying and telling myself to get a grip. Nath kept asking if I was ok and I just managed to say yes without my voice cracking as tears kept flowing behind my goggles!

We carried on down the mountain with small children passing me without a care in the world, switching from their toe to heal edges like little experts (show offs). Thankfully there was a bar, which pleased me, until I remembered I was doing a challenge, which meant I can only drink once a week (bore off January) so ordered a Coke. I tried to cheer up but the silly little girl in me wouldn't fuck off. I could feel myself getting upset, Nath looked at me all distraught and had no idea why my face was doing that weird thing when you're trying your best to hold it together; it was that bad, I had to excuse myself and go to the washroom to pull myself together.

It got worse, as soon as I got in the car I broke down and had a good old full on sobbing feeling sorry for myself cry, it was pathetic. I was like a child with Nath consoling me, that it's ok that I'm shit at snowboarding! We got back to our hotel, watched Border Security for an hour until I got a grip of my emotions then went out for a lovely dinner and to check out the planetarium (the planetarium in Jasper National Park is well worth a visit).

Will I go boarding again, probably, I have to justify all the kit I got when we started!

Responsible Adult Stuff!

So it's January and we're full of good intentions and have made some new year resolutions that we will try to stick to. So here's the first one.....I am actually going to blog and not just have an empty blog space! The second, is to be more productive with my time (it's Shell writing btw), which also includes tidying up after myself (you would think this to be basic thing to do but I often have to spend hours tidying up). The final one, is to get back into running, I always forget how much I enjoy running and how much I eat which makes running a necessity!

As we head into our forties we should probably start doing responsible adult stuff, you know those smug adult types who are just so organized and on top of everything, well we're going to attempt that! Which takes me nicely into our smug adult jobs we have done today.

Eric got a bath, as he didn't smell very well after spending two nights at his fave doggy camp, whilst we were away hitting the slopes in Jasper. He now smells lovely and won't get picked on by the other dogs for stinking. We've also pickled garlic, I know how adult like is that right; we had a load of garlic doomed for wastage at the bottom of the pantry, so instead of throwing it out, we pickled it and now have three jars of garlic cloves that will last us a life time. That was one of those smug responsible adult things that I just have to tweet about! If you want to be a smug adult and pickle some garlic then here's the link to a helpful post on how to do so: http://www.barefeetinthekitchen.com/2012/09/preserving-garlic-for-winter.html

Afternote:

So the garlic has now turned Blue, I've asked Google who assures me this is safe and it does brighten up dishes!