This is how we spend much of our time these days. Digging in the dog’s mouth. He eats everything. He thinks it his purpose in life to destroy all hair accessories that my girls own, and every ball that belongs to my son. Caroline told him yesterday “stop eating stuff or you are gonna meet your brother in heaven”. The “brother” she is referring to is our previous dog Matty, that we sadly had to put to sleep several months ago. Yes it’s a weird and disturbing thought, and yes she heard it from me. But through all the annoying that comes along with a dog, we forgive him because of this…

And this…

And even this…

He fits into our family so well because he is weird. He loves the swing and we are not sure why. He gets stuck in it every single time the girls forget to put the swing up high where he cannot get to it; and as soon as you free him from his entanglement, he jumps right back in. Why?

Do you remember the scene from Jaws when Martin Brody sees the great white shark for the first time? Do you remember what he says? He turns toward his shark hunter shipmate and says “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. This week I uttered similar sentiments to my husband…but I wasn’t talking about a boat.

Why is it that the woman in the Brooks Brother’s catalog (the one that is holding a straw hat, resting in a lawn chair, with her golden retriever by her side) doesn’t have an enormous scooper/rake combination in her other hand? Because I have to tell you, if that family in the catalog really owns that dog, and that clean and luscious green lawn that they are photographed on, there is someone that is walking around behind them with an enormous scooper.

Real life can be funny. Even when it’s not funny while you are in the moment, if you are wise, you will allow yourself to find the humor in it after the moment has passed. Each afternoon while I comb through my backyard with my newly purchased scooper and rake, I’m not laughing. Usually I am actually quite irritated, complaining and barking even louder than the dog. Sometimes I even raise my head from it’s downward posture to find my husband looking at me through the back windows laughing. And because I know him well, and because I know he is really laughing with me and not at me, I kind of start laughing too. Because it is kind of funny. It’s kind of funny that when we bought Mr. Darcy, I only saw the Brooks Brothers picture as our future with him. I only saw the green lawn, the sunny afternoons, the straw hat, the linen suit that bears not one wrinkle, the bow tie around my husband’s neck, and the three children standing in fine tailored, pressed clothing. That my friends, is pretty funny. In hind sight, it’s actually hilarious, because the reality is the only thing I have in common with that woman in the catalog is the golden retriever….thank goodness.