My first day home alone with the gremlin

Today is my first day home alone with our little gremlin.  Going back to work after being off for five days would normally be an exciting endeavor.  I like my time off work, but gosh it seems like when the whole family is home nothing gets done.  I feel like going back to work is my time to clean the house and take care of my housewife duties while hanging out with my babies.  Well.....here is how my first day back to work with the gremlin, our cocker spaniel, Molly went...

• Alarm goes off at 6:45 a.m. look over realize that; 1) Molly is awake and 2) Allie is in bed with me..when did that happen??
• Hurry up run to the bathroom to pee because there is NO way I can stand in the cold waiting for the puppy to pee while I have to pee.
• Grab Molly take her outside.  Did a pee and a poop (score!) back inside.
• Wake Allie up
• Find Molly chewing on a sock, take sock away.  Give Molly puppy food.
• Wake Allie up again
• Find Molly eating the cat food
• Tell Anna to hurry up in the shower (on a positive note she did get up on her own this morning)
• Take puppy outside again.  Did a tiny pee (yay)
• Realize Joe didn't make coffee this morning, not time to make a fresh pot so I pulled the grounds out from yesterday and ran yesterday morning's coffee through the pot again.
• Allie comes out to the kitchen looking for her "Cat-attitude" shirt she got for Christmas that she HAD to wear today (I think Joe even did a special load of laundry to get said shirt clean) I send her to look in her room and upstairs toy room where we fold laundry.
• Coffee is finally done, pour in my special blend of creamer and Miralax (yes I have a poop problem) where's Molly? Trying to play with (fat) Lily.  Lily hisses at Molly, Molly yelps like she is being slaughtered.
• 7:04 a.m. Allie is losing her mind looking for her "Cat-attitude" top she HAS to wear to school today.  I head to the laundry room, tell Anna, who is finally out of the shower, I was coming in.  "MOM!  I am buck naked" My response "Well, cover it up"  Head in the laundry room and look in the drier.  Find the shirt.  WHEW crisis avoided!
• 7:08 a.m. First daycare kids arrive.  Grab Molly, who is still whining from her near death experience with the cat.  Have a tiny break when +Leia Shirk holds the puppy.  Introduce Molly to Wes and Olivia, Leia's kids and two of my favorite daycare kids (they are all my favorite)
• Pull out pentagon play pen (lovingly called the pigpen) for the toddlers and get toys into pigpen.
• 7:18 a.m Need more coffee, top off my cup with what's left in the pot.  Where's the puppy.  Chewing on Allie's hair...again.  Pull Molly out of hair and re-direct with chew toy.
• Have Anna take Molly outside (she peeded and pooped!  My God how much poop is inside this dog)
•  Kids take turns entertaining Molly.  Anna finally decides to dry her hair.  Thankfully both girls are dressed.  I take two minutes to change out of my pajamas and into my uniform of yoga pants and a sweatshirt.  As I am putting my shirt on Molly comes tearing down the hallway, into my room, followed by all the kids.  Ok, first day back to work and all the kids have seen me in my bra...again.
• 7:32 a.m Kids start putting their 29 layers on to head to school.  
• Take Molly outside again, did a tiny pee (this is getting old)
• 7:40 a.m kids head to school.  Molly is whining, take her outside again, into the cat food again. Finally get smart and pick up the cat food.  Get Molly into the kennel.
• Help Anna get her bag ready for school, ask her if she has breakfast.  Find Anna a cereal bar. Take Anna to the high school to get on the bus.
• Get home let Molly out of the kennel. Go outside again.
• Sit down drink a little more coffee.  Finally put the Molly on a leash to keep her with me.  Try to convince Molly not to chew on the leash.  Yes I just admitted to talking to the dog.
• Next day care kids arrive put in pigpen.
• 8:15 a.m change a poopy diaper. Gross
• Take Molly outside 25 more times just to tinkle the tiniest little bit and play in the snow.  During one of those times outside I realize my yoga pants are too thin to be standing outside in the snow.  I can't find my long john's so I put on two pairs of yoga pants. Epic ingenuity I think.
• Next daycare baby arrives, introduce to puppy then put in pigpen
• 9:30 a.m. Need to change another poopy diaper, during which I am trying to keep track of Molly, keep Molly out of baby wipes and poopy diaper.  My cell phone rings I can't answer, get the poopy and puppy all worked out.  House phone rings, can't find it my cordless phone, lose the puppy, answer phone, find Molly, tell friend I'm too busy to talk, feel like an epic jerk.  
• Molly has another run in with the cats, at least this time she tried to play with them and not run away yelping like the cat tried killing her.
• I sit down, puppy takes a nap

This is just a tiny snippet of my first day home alone with Molly.  I know it seems like a lot and that I might be losing my mind with frustration.  But, through all this I never lost my temper, I never felt like I was going to lose my temper.  I knew that getting a new puppy was going to be a challenge and when we discussed getting her Joe and I knew we would be up for the challenge. As I sit here writing this at 2:30 in the afternoon, my little gremlin has been asleep on the couch for the last two hours.  I emailed +Joe Egloff  and told him I needed him to have a smile on his face when he got home and to sweep in an be on puppy duty all the while telling me how amazing I am.

Do you have any words of encouragement for this new chapter in our lives?

Love Always Wins,

Katie