Desperately Seeking Stacy

This is what you are all doing right? Not that I'm channeling early 80's, bad Madonna movies, but what ever happened to that fun-loving girl with the big blonde hair?


Somehow lately, she's more inclined to be looking like this:


And what the heck happened to my blog? I've half-heartedly considered a few different posts, even started them by opening up drafts with one-liners. But they have never been completed (obviously) and you would think I could try and pick up the camera every once and a while to document my kids' cuteness, right? Months have gone by with nay a flash as my darling children have probably grown three inches and learned countless life lessons that I have failed to document.
Well, just as Spring is struggling to emerge from under the dismal weight of winter and much like our pathetic young sapling still trying to bloom in our front yard, I am turning over a new leaf. I've given my blog a little facelift (not much, I really wanted a cool banner, but it just proved too time-consuming) and I am making the renewed effort to bring back my timeless and witty posts that you have all come to love. Except here is the problem, it has been so long that I am certain that my readership has turned from a few regulars to a random wayward drifter who stumbles across my page at this point.
I mean, I really want to be like my friend Maleen, who is so loyal to the blogosphere that I am certain she has a camera glued to her right hand while her left is constantly occupied with jotting down cute kid quotes and every day sarcasm, all while chasing four little beauties around her house. But the truth is my company and my boys just seem to suck all the time and creativity out of me. And as much as I want to say "I am only doing this for posterity's sake", I would really get down on myself if my renewed blogging efforts couldn't muster a comment or two. But, I know this requires me to share the love, so I promise to make a more concerted effort to visit all your blogs more often and share my irreplaceable insight in comment form as well. (I hope you all know I am kidding, right? Sometimes I'm just not sure that the sarcasm transfers well to the written word).
So the past few months have been kind of a blur. I've been working. A lot. But I am really trying to lighten up about it. David is back to working at home with me as mortgage rates are down which means a lot more business, but the increased "together time" has resulted in him diagnosing me as being bipolar. My two personalities are "Weekend Stacy" and "Weekday Stacy" and apparently the latter isn't such a joy to be around. So my Spring Cleaning this year is going to include an attempted attitude overhaul as well.
And speaking of this annual cleaning tradition, we definitely did our share of it a few weeks ago. I would share pictures, but if you think my garage and pantry have sustained that level of unclutteredness for more than a week, I am afraid you have a misguided perception of my ability to keep up with these three mess-making boys. But dang it, it looked and felt great for a few days.
I took the following pictures a month or two ago. Not only is Zander still peculiarly obsessed with vacuums, but now he wants to do the dishes too:



Unfortunately, his idea of doing dishes includes getting inside the sink and splashing all over so as of recently, all our chairs are literally tied to the kitchen table. This prevents the little monster from dragging them all over the kitchen as he wishes to climb and wreak havoc all over the place. Cold, heartless, and absolutely necessary.
The saddest part of recent events is the unfortunate departure of our newest family member Dixie. Things were going so well for months, and I was even taking to the over sized germ-magnet. But the past 3 weeks or so, Ashton's allergies have gotten so out of control that daily asthma attacks were becoming common place. With it being Spring, Dixie was shedding like mad and we tried so desperately to control it and get her through it, but Ashton was so miserable we knew that we couldn't let him go through this. And Dixie just couldn't understand why her once free reign over the house had been reduced to her bed and the backyard.
We found her a really good home that was huge with nine acres and five loving kids and a stay at home mom, we knew she would be happy there, but we have really missed her. David has been quietly mourning her loss, but I have found myself openly crying about it a few times this past week. Being the dramatic person I am, I find my mind reciting the lyrics to Linda Ronstadt's "Goodbye My Friend" and allowing the sappy chorus to make misty-eyed each time.
Here's to Dixie, I never got used to your huge, wet nose or the way you slopped water all over the kitchen floor when you drank, but you made my boys really happy and I'm sorry we had to give you up. We know now that a dog just isn't an option for us right now and we hope one day maybe Ashton will grow out of his asthma a little and we can one day welcome one again in our lives.






And just for good measure, here is a little Linda as my parting thoughts.....

So goodbye my friend
I know I'll never see you again
But the time together through all the years (okay, months)
Will take away these tears
It's okay now
Goodbye my friend...