Mack “Attack” Brooks
Taylor and I almost share a birthday. We are off by 2 days, which means the day between our birthdays is prime time to celebrate. And in the summer of 2007, we celebrated by getting a dog together. This might seem like a normal idea but a) we weren’t married, b) we had 2 years of college left, and c) I was moving with friends into a rent house that didn’t allow dogs. (Yet we had 3. Sorry again, landlord Ann. The angry handwritten letters you left in our mailbox really did make us feel bad for being such horrible renters…) Getting a dog at that point in our lives was a horrible…
Bad Luck Mack
You know the Bad Luck Brian meme? That is my dog in real life. If there is a situation that could go wrong with a dog, he’s your dude. He is Bad Luck Mack. If you know anything about our dog, you know that he’s a handful. He’s a nervous Nancy who quite possibly suffers from an anxiety disorder. You may also know that his anxiety has skyrocketed again recently. (Having nothing to do with the accidental tail severing. Haha…hah…ha..h.) We thought we could solve the issue by just sticking him in the back yard any time we left the house (which is when his anxiety kicks in), but a letter from the city…
Dung Beetles & Canine Lasers
Last Saturday was a family day full of projects and errands. Midway through our excursions, we stopped in at King Wok for some lunch. (Not to be confused with King Wok II, also by our house. Just regular King Wok.) The mister and I are big fans of good Chinese food which, unfortunately, King Wok is not. It’s quite terrible, in fact. Very…gelatinous. We finished eating and started packing up to head to our next stop. I picked up the babe to change his diaper and my hands touched a wet bum. Never a good sign. I checked his back out and – sure enough – poosplosion. Honestly…my kids never…
Pin the Tail on the Door
I had a conversation with Taylor on Wednesday night about Mack. (You know – our beloved lab mix who is sometimes on Prozac.) “He’s getting old, babe. He just doesn’t keep up like he used to. He’s always kinda just in my way and doesn’t hear as well as he used to.” I mean he is technically 56 years old…so…he’s pretty ancient. JUST KIDDING, MOM. Anyway. Had this conversation Wednesday night. The next afternoon as we were doing the leave-the-house/”WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES”/”IF YOU DON’T PUT THAT TOY DOWN RIGHT THIS SECOND” shuffle to meet some friends at the park, I began making my rounds to shut all the doors…
Mental Dog, Car Shame, & Theme Park Love
Life is totes cray cray right now. Cray cray enough for me to have just used that phrase. Somewhere in the very illogical part of my brain I thought, “I’m having a baby in February, so clearly I’ll be out of pocket then. In the meantime I should probably just say yes to everything I’m asked to help with.” Such a good idea…until you see how many colors I had to use on our whiteboard calendar this month and how many activities are crammed in each day’s tiny box. (Why do they make the boxes so dang small, anyway? It’s America, for goodness sake. We love cramming our calendars full.)…
Soul Patches & Tails
We have an action-packed week in the Brooks’ house. Yesterday my friend Candace (affectionately known as Auntie Candy by Beckett) and I had a delightfully horrible shopping experience during the torrential rainstorm, ate at a delish Mexican joint, and stayed up googling “staph infections” and “stretch marks” well into the night. Tuesday, my mom comes in from Kansas. She’s scheduled to come anyway. There’s a good chance she’ll spontaneously combust before she even gets down here. She’s just a wee bit excited. Wednesday is Ladies’ Bible Study, but more importantly – my brother’s birthday and Beckett’s 6 monthiversary. It’s going to be a good one. Here’s a few highlights from…
PTSD & Characters
Post-Traumatic… How did I end up with an incredibly easy baby and a super high-maintenance dog? I mean, really. Come on. Mack has started doing this really cool thing where he sneaks off to a quiet corner of the house to tremble. I find him under the kitchen table, behind the rocker in the nursery, or on our bed. Just sitting there. Shaking uncontrollably. Something horrifying probably happened that day to freak him out, like my cooking on the stove, turning the bath water on, or dropping something on the tile floor. These may seem like normal, every day occurrences to you, but to my 70 pound lab they…
JoJo, DIY, & Buckshot
It’s spooky scarf weather!! I know what you’re thinking. “I really thought she’d get less enjoyment out of dressing her dog once she had a child.” False. Still very entertaining to me. A dog in a scarf? That’s comedy in Sarah-land. JoJo JoJo (momma Sparks) came to visit this week. You know how a parent’s love is “unconditional”? That means their love for you will never run out – at least not until you have their grandchild, then you’re dead to them. That’s not fair to say. You’re not entirely dead to them, you just morph into strictly the car seat carrier and occasional baby-feeder. I kid, I kid. We…
Firsts, Schedules, & Steve Chan
Firsts We’ve had a week of firsts. I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. It is a proven fact that the fall season will not commence until Starbucks begins offering this heavenly beverage again. Welcome, fall. We had our first Cowboys game watching party of the year which also entails Mack’s first time wearing his dog football jersey. (By “party” I mean 3 of our friends came over.) He’s gained a little neck weight since last season… Other than the first celebrations of fall this past week, we’ve had other firsts: First month of life completed. Congrats to Beckett. He’s still a little unsure how he…
Mack & Nesting
This is a big week for team Brooks. We have three birthdays in the course of 5 days. That’s a whole lot of partying happening around these parts. Let’s start with the first man of the hour: Mack/Maximus/Mack Daddy (I also may or may not call him “Maxi Pad” on occasion. I can’t help it.) 4 years ago, Taylor and I made a horribly rash decision that has altered our lives for the hairier. We adopted this little guy: I’ve always been a huge animal lover, so when my birthday rolled around in the summer of 2007, I thought getting a dog would be the best present – and best…
