Call it a breakdown in communication

There was a terrible breakdown in communication. It's pretty common in our house, but when Paw Paw arrived at the twins' birthday party with a puppy, all I could utter was "Oh noooooo! There's been a terrible breakdown in communication!" My husband shot me that look. You know the one.

"What," Paw Paw asked increduously. "The girls wanted a puppy. You didn't tell me you already got one."

"Well you said you were going to Wal-Mart to get their presents," I exclaimed back. "You always get them gift cards!" I was beginning to freak.

"I was going to Walmart ... to get the dog!" Paw Paw answered heatedly back. There was nothing we could do at that point. We just had to make the best of it. I suppose since I had twins I have to do everything in twos.

So the girls got a little brown chihuahua to name Bambi like they wanted all along, ever since the Puppy Parade when Caroline cried the whole time.

Isn't she seriously cute?

She was about as big as a hamster. Smaller than a guinea pig for sure. Too young to have been sold, straight off the puppy mill. I like to think we rescued her from a horrible life. Technically she is Shih Tsu and Chihuahua. She's what we call a Designer Dog.

Here's Rooster with his baby sister. She makes him look like a Big Boy. He loves her so much. But he does like to pounce on her and roll her around like a bouncy ball.

OK, enough of this. I swear I have fascinating decorative painting pics to share. I haven't given it all up for puppy raising.

Oh and one more thing. Guess what the big lesson was, as I struggled to make it through those first two tragic weeks of puppy crate/potty training?

I do have enough love to go around. My new key word, which I should get tatooed somewhere important, is .... perseverance.

It's a face only a mother could love

Meet Rooster. He's got a face only a mother could love. Bulging eyes, and shiny black hair the same color as his eyes. When he raises his ears he looks like the chupacabra. Oh, but do we love this little guy.

It all started with Caroline. She loves dogs and likes to plan parties in her mind. She loves to tell you about the party, the food she's planning and the guest list. Emma, Emily and Baby Caroline, plus Slick, Rusty and Chula are invited to every party and barbecue. If you didn't know these dogs you would think her little preschool friends have some pretty strange names. In April, Paige, Lauren and I took a collection of kids to the Fiesta Pooch Parade. I thought it would rock Caroline's world since she loves dogs so much. Nope. She was completely traumatized.

This little guy walking by the girls was sporting a mini sombrero.

Paige and I especially liked this family of real-life wiener dogs.

Catherine & Chloe weren't bothered at all by the endless parade.

Caroline, on the other hand, cried "I want a baby puppy, Momma, I want a baby puppy" for about an hour and a half, and part of the way home. Lauren advised me to "distract and redirect" but I couldn't figure out how to do it as the "baby puppies" just kept on coming.

That day, Caroline became determined she had to have a "brown chihuahua with a pink dress." I was happy because my most favorite dog ever was Weeni Banana, a chihuahua whose mother came tearing around the corner and bit my ankle when I went to pick her out. The most amazing thing about Weeni was that she was an extremely good judge of character and could eat sunflower seeds by cracking the shell, extracting the seed, and discarding the shells into a little pile on the car seat during long drives through West Texas. If Weeni ever growled at anyone, and showed her little teeth, they always turned out to be a real deadbeat loser. She did a lot of growling during those Odessa days.

Getting back to this story, when Rooster showed up black and without the pink dress, Caroline didn't give it a second thought. We work hard to steer clear of racism in our house, toward dogs or anybody else. Caroline still wants to get Rooster a pink dress, and Catherine seriously wanted to name him Princess. We delicately explained Princess was just not the name for the only other boy in the family besides Daddy.

When he eats all his dinner, Ryan says he looks like a pot-bellied pig.

As for my creative career, I promise to get busy and show you the ever-s0-clever project that really should have been an HGTV gone wrong episode. Have you ever wondered why the women on HGTV transforming an entire house with a $50 budget don't ever show their wine glasses? I guess that's why Lauren and I don't have our own show yet.