Spring Forward

Right, so it's been a month since my very brief post the week before Valentine's Day. February was a bit of a blur really: the week leading up to the big day we were working like little elves, swimming in a sea of flowers with zero time to stop and smell the roses, and still got completely slammed beyond our expectations on the day of. It then took us a good week to recover from the sleep deprivation and we're glad that it's all over now but I gotta say, the store did look pretty amazing and everything went very well:

Sadly, just before Valentine's Day we'd heard news from Mike's parents that Max hadn't been well and had to go see the vet. Max was a 10-year old Jack Russell that Mike had had since he was a puppy. Poor Max had gone blind by the time he was a year old and also had to deal with things like nerve problems and arthritis on top of that. Max was always such a good sport though, he loved to play and go to the cottage and go for walks and was a big part of the family.

When he'd started to have a hard time standing up, we'd hoped that it was just another thing that the poor puppy would have to sort out and that he'd feel better soon. But one day, Max got really sick and kept whimpering, so Mike's dad had to take him in to put him down which I can only imagine was the hardest thing he's ever had to do because Max really had become his best friend. We went back to Kingston for the long weekend and Max wasn't wagging his tail at the door to say hello when we arrived. No one said anything because we knew we would all just break down.  

Max, we miss you very very much and will always remember you.

As though to cheer us all up, baby Alex decided to start smiling a few weeks ago. It's hard to say whether the smiling actually corresponds to feelings of happiness, or whether it's some sort of reflex that comes with farting (which, I suppose, can contribute to feelings of happiness), but either way it is so super cute. Also, how cute and comfy are onesies? I want one for myself so badly. Sue did mention that they had "adult onesies" at Primark for less than a tenner but neither the cow nor the leopard prints sounded all that appealing to me so I'm gonna hold off until they do chocolate brown stripey ultra soft fleecy ones like the one Alex has here:

On Wednesday I sat down and reviewed our budget for 2011/2012 (did I mention that Mike made up a spiffy new Excel spreadsheet for me, with fancy formulas and pivot tables and all? I love it.) and found myself wishing that money grew on trees (or fell from the sky, whatever, I'm not picky). According to my calculations in cell C27, we could theoretically save just enough money to do all the things that we want to do... we just have to be very good with sticking to the budget and not spending money on things like these adorable owl linen bookends that were on sale for half price at Indigo... (to be fair, I'd bought them in February, before I had a proper look at the spreadsheet, you see.)

Anyway, we're going to be good from now on and not go out for dinners/drinks, not buy new clothes and things we don't need, and just focus on studying, doing stuff around the house, exercising and eating well. After all, what is March for if not to re-start New Year's resolutions? ;o)