A little love in your heart

Year after year my husband has consistently shown what an excellent gift-giver he is, surprising me and showering me with the most perfect and thoughtful gifts. I often hear other women complaining about what rotten gift-givers men are, citing perfect examples of poorly chosen gifts (which I won't list in order to protect the guilty who think they are innocent). I, fortunately, do not have to participate in this form of man-bashing. Quite the contrary, in fact. It is I who is usually left to feel inadequate as a gift-giver each holiday that warrants the exchange of gifts. I suffer from Tool-Selection-itis....you know, the inability to select any type of tool with any success. I do not know what the man owns or know what would fulfill his wildest tool fantasy. OK, here I go, meandering aimlessly (thus the name for the blog).....let me refrain from making a long story longer! Back on track.....this year I vowed that my gift-giving prowess would shine through. The dog that we had gotten months before our wedding passed away in 2004, devastating the entire family. Recently our paths have crossed with numerous puppy encounters. Each time I could see the longing in my husband's eyes. Of course I emphatically protested a new dog....too much mess, the children are terrified of dogs, lack of time....you name it, I said it. One day it occurred to me that a puppy would be the ultimate gift for my husband. I knew that he was yearning for a pup and that I could, for once, give him what he most wanted deep in his heart. So, about a week before Christmas, I contacted a friend who was secretly getting a puppy for her family. Of course all of the pups in that litter were gone. OK. Sign that we were not to get a puppy. On the Wednesday before Christmas, I received a call from this friend that she knew of someone who had just purchased a pup for her grandson. Here was a sign saying that we should have a pup. I made a few calls only to find that the pups were all male....hubby only wants a female (as if he doesn't already have a bitch to live with ha ha!). Sign: not meant to have a pup. I called my brother who was ecstatic over a new pup....especially if I got one that he could mate with his dog. He set right to work trying to find what I wanted in my price range. Meanwhile, I had to still buy regular, unimpressive gifts in case the puppy did not materialize. As he searched, I still was not certain if the family was ready for a new, four-legged family member. The call came Thursday afternoon....Dec. 22 - nothing like the last minute. I decided to go for it.....all the signs led to going for it......with a name like Carolina Tarheel Retrievers, how could I resist?! Now, how to actually get the puppy.....the breeder was about two hours away from my house. How could I escape for several days on Christmas Eve Eve? We still had to wrap gifts and make numerous preparations. So, I thought and thought and eventually decided that I had to do what any woman would do: devise a devious, Lucille-Ball-like scheme. I consulted a long-time friend and conspirator (to be henceforth known as Ethel) and roped her into helping me convince my husband that her husband was treating us girls to a massage and facial. We could not go with manicures and pedicures because both procedures would require visual evidence that we had no time for. We left at 7am Friday morning for our early appointments at a spa over an hour away (we live in a remote area so this was not even something to question). Never having experienced the whole "purchasing a puppy thing", I was thrilled to have my brother, his wife, and her mother accompany Ethel and I on this escapade. We we unable to select the puppy immediately because other people were ahead of us in the picking order....I guess they had already placed a downpayment. As time ticked by, knowing that I would more than likely be in the doghouse myself for exceeding the acceptable time limits for beauty on Christmas Eve Eve, I became quite anxious waiting for the other family. My brother had to return to work and left the women-folk to make the final pick of the litter. We girls ended up going to a small diner for some food while we waited for the other family. Yum! German apple pancakes and hashbrowns! Nothing like a good southern diner. We finally returned to Carolina Tarheel Retrievers as the other family was making their selection. The dilemma of choosing from one of the playful, adorable pups was quite daunting. One? How to choose just one?! With some help from my sister-in-law, her mother, and Ethel, I was finally able to decide. While there, however, the absolute cuteness of the pups took hold of Ethel. She consulted her hubby and decided that a puppy would put the finishing touch on this year's Christmas presents. So, after shelling out our cash, filling out paperwork, and far exceeding our time allotment for beauty, we finally left Carolina Tarheel Retrievers with two precious girls. We headed back to Manteo, where my brother works, to hand off the pups as well as his mother-in-law and wife so Ethel and I could begin the next leg of our endeavor: purchasing the needed puppy supplies. The hubby called while we were in K-Mart.....his most despised place on Earth. He did not sound pleased to know that I was in the midst of shopping an hour away when I had been due home at 1pm at the latest and it was now 3-ish.....but did not last long on the phone for fear of K-Mart's aura reaching out to him through the cellular signals. As late as it was, we still had at least one more stop....my brother's house to hide all of the puppy supplies. It was after 4 when we arrived there and could not resist romping with our new babies. TICK TOCK TICK TOCK. On the way out of the housing development, I nonchalantly waved to the male half of a couple the hubby and I hang out with. OH CRAP! What if he calls the hubby?!!! I immediately dialed the wife to fill her in on the covert operation and beg her not to let her hubby (we'll call him Clem) let my hubby know he has seen me. TOO LATE!!! He walks into his home ON THE PHONE with my hubby having already told him that he has seen me in the housing development when I should have been home! EEK! Off to Ethel's shop to drop off remaining evidence of the pups. Who pulls up?! The hubby!!! This life of deception is far too tricky! What was the absolute worst, though, was the fact that somewhere in the course of the day I had pulled a muscle in my back. How could I even think of going home after my "massage" with an aching back?! I really did not know how I was going to make it to Sunday without letting the cat...I mean dog....out of the bag. I had too many ducks to keep in a row. Well, to wrap things up, I called my brother on Christmas morning as soon as my brood was awake and he promptly delivered the puppy. Of course my hubby wanted to go get some tool out of his truck that would assist in toy assembly as soon as my brother pulled into the driveway so I had to BEG him to wait inside until my brother came inside with the dog hidden in his coat. The pup was a hit and we now have a new member of our family. We have named her Finley. It means something along the lines of "golden" or "yellow" or "fair-haired" and since she came from Carolina Tarheel Retrievers....it helps that there is a Finley Golf Course at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am sure you will read many more excerpts about our life with Finley in the future, but for now I will end my first blog ever!!! I think it has most certainly lived up to its name: meandering aimlessly.