Things going on around the Drum house

Water Guns=Dog Training???
 Look around our house and you may wonder why you see one of these in every room.

We took the dogs to the vet last week and one of the things we discussed with them was the excessive barking our dogs like to do lately.  It may be a little annoying now...but it's going to be REALLY annoying when the excessive barking wakes a sleeping baby soon.  Sure, we don't mind the barking when someone is at the door (since they are just being protective.)  But when a neighbor comes home, when a big truck turns around in the cul-de-sac, when a bird flies by .... now THAT gets excessive!! 

So our vet came up with an idea that sometimes works with cats that may (hopefully...fingers crossed) work on our water-hating dogs as well.  She said to squirt them in the face every time they bark in the house.  That way they begin to realize "barking in the house=water in my face=I don't like that too much."  We have been pretty consistant with it as best we can...but still too early to tell if it makes a difference or not.  We have the next two months to see if we make any progress in the barking department!

Safety First For Our Baby!!
Speaking of protecting our home and those who are soon to be a part of it...we recently had this installed...

and so far we are pretty impressed with having a home security system.  There is a sensor on each door that announces when and what door is opened...which will be great when she starts walking and feels the need to head out the door.  But one of the main reasons I was sold was getting the sensor on the nursery window.  If that window is opened, the alert will go off if the system is unarmed and the alarm will go of if the system is armed.  Another selling point is the extra smoke detector that they put in that is connected to it.  Before, if noone was home and there was smoke detected in the house, we would have to wait for a neighbor to call 911.  But now, with this system, if smoke is detected in the house...the system automaticly calls the fire department and sends them out.  We have these little clickers on our keychains that we use to arm/disarm the system from outside the house.  All of the instalation and equipment was free.  We are just paying $50 a month for the service...so if you are considering getting an alarm system, we reccomend APX!!  Also, we don't have a house phone.  This system is hooked up to our cell phones instead.  So if a burgler were to "cut the phone line"...it wouldn't affect the system.  (Can you tell we have been watching one too many Criminal Minds episodes?!...)

Male vs. Female Priorities
We recently bought a rocker/recliner for the nursery to rock sweet baby girl to sleep in soon.  We searched high and low at Ashley Furniture, Rooms to Go, Roomstore, Furniture Row, and Conn's for the perfect one.  H wanted one that was wide and that had connecting fabric between the chair and the footrest.  All I cared about was that it rocked, reclined, was comfortable, and that we could eventually put it in our living room once we no longer needed it in the nursery.  We didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for it either.  Most of the places were asking anywhere from $500-$600 for what we were looking for.  But low and behold we found the perfect Simmons rocker/recliner at Big Lots for $280.  It's huge!  It takes up A LOT of the nursery!  But we are pleased with it!!

 

And now I will introduce you to H's pride and joy.  This is something he has wanted for a LONG TIME!!

We hadn't bought a new tv in years.  The one we had in the living room was given to us by our good friends, Kim and Neil two years ago.  It was 15 years old or so.  But my female brain thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, so why get a new one?  But being the good wife that I ALWAYS AM try to be...my husband now has his "congrats on the teaching job/happy 28th birthday/happy 2 year wedding anniversary" present.  After all, according to him, we NEEDED it cause it will make Mollee smarter if she sees the tv in HDMI (whatever the heck that means.)  Apparently she will need to see 55 inches of flat screen fun, too.  Hmmmmmmmmm..............