Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I hope the first day of 2009 started off better for you than it did for me... First of all, how could Georgia Tech lose in the Chick-fil-a Bowl last night? What a depressing way to end a great football season. My plan was to sleep until 9-ish, have a leisurely breakfast, and then drive for an hour to Kennesaw to participate in the Atlanta Track Club's Resolution Run 5K race (that's 3.1 miles for those of you non-runners), which started at noon. But guess what... that didn't exactly happen. The pups woke me at 5 a.m. to go outside to potty. I went ahead and fed them, then shut my bedroom door so they wouldn't wake me again until I was ready to get up. I didn't bother setting the alarm clock because I rarely sleep late. Big mistake... I guess I hadn't shut the bedroom door entirely because Riley came crashing in at 9:52 a.m. and plopped his arms up on the bed across my chest. Yikes, I overslept. But no worries, because I could still take a quick shower, dress, grab a Clif bar and make it to the race in time. I thought... So after I got dressed I headed to the kitchen to grab fresh bowls of water to take downstairs for the pups while I was gone (I don't trust them inside while I'm away). Well, I can't really trust Riley inside when I am here either. As I walked past the Christmas tree I was startled to see a string of lights strewn across the floor. And of course, Riley was in the process of eating yet another ornament...

Oh well, I'll be locking them outside so I can clean that up after the race. I grabbed fresh water bowls and head down to the basement. Bright white paper in the yard catches my attention. OH NO!!! Riley had taken a Christmas gift bag outside. It was a bag that I had consolidated a few of Kyra's gifts into. When I walked out into the yard, he had a green jewelry box in his mouth and I almost cried. After prompting, he dropped the box into my hand and I had a moment of panic when I opened it and the earrings from Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Wahkie and cousins Brianna and Reuben were missing. I glanced around the yard and saw gifts strewn about. Luckily, I found both pairs of earrings beside another shredded jewelry box. And a stuffed animal in another location. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to sort through poop in a few days, so I ran upstairs to grab the camera.

When I returned, he had resumed shredding the gift bag. I walked through the yard to see what else was out there, not remembering exactly what had been in that particular bag. And then I found the real damage. Kyra's favorite babysitter had given her a scarf, pens, and a Mad Libs. (Mad Libs is a notepad where you fill-in-the blanks to create funny stories.) Thankfully I had hung the scarf in the closet, knowing it would be something he would be interested in. But sadly, the Mad Libs were totally destroyed. In the next photo, I'm sure Tasha was just an innocent bystander. She's such a good puppy. She was just pointing out to me where the Mad Libs could be found. How sweet of her to start raking them up!

By this point, it was 11 a.m. I was fuming mad. I thought that if I sped, I could maybe make it to the race before the start. But of course I caught most traffic signals when the light was red. After driving for about 20 minutes, I realized there was no way I would get there in time. Should I turn around and go back home? Along the route from our house to Kennesaw is a wonderful place to walk/jog, the Cochran Shoals Park along the Chattahoochee River. I like running there but rarely do because of the distance away from home. Since I was near there when I realized I couldn't make it to the race in time, I decided to just run there instead. I wouldn't get a t-shirt, but I don't really need another t-shirt anyway. I enjoyed the 3.27 miles that I jogged near the river. Most other people there were walking or running with dogs. I wished that I had mine with me. I'll have to come back another day and bring Kyra and the pups.