Weekend Wrap: The car-shopping, emotional-breakdown, new-remodeling-project, dog-eats-a-bird edition

It was a wild weekend.

I had an emotional meltdown after our three hour car shopping extravaganza on Saturday. Part valid frustration, part pregnancy hormones.

It concluded with me crying in the Noodles & Co. parking lot about how everything is changing, and I just want to keep my car, and we don't need another car payment anyway, and Stella will just have to figure out how to fit in back with the baby. Cue Ben looking bewildered and slightly frightened. Luckily I had just eaten, or it would have been epic. I'm even scarier when I'm hungry.

Then we came up with the brilliant idea to knock a hole in the side of our house. Oh perfect. Because we all know that when you think Ben and Sam, you think prompt remodeling project.

The plan: sliding door off the dining room, new deck and fenced-in backyard. Which will require a nice big hole in the side of our house. I can't even imagine what kind of plaster disaster is lurking behind those ancient walls.

But the highlight of the chaos came on Sunday. When Stella caught a morning dove. In her mouth. Still alive.

We all know that I hate birds. They terrify me. Something about their wings and my hair. Or their sharp beaks and beaty little eyes. Or all the diseases they carry. G-R-O-S-S.

So when Stella caught the bird I was conflicted by running to the safety of the house, and getting the bird away from her so she didn't eat it.

Note that prior to capture, this bird was not injured in any way. Stella is quick, and the morning dove was dopey. So she snatched him out of the air and held him in her mouth. Wings flapping. Me screaming.

"STELLA! DROP IT. DROP IT!!"

But she's really proud of her capture, so she's prancing around the yard, occassionally bringing the bird over to show me. And as she gets closer, I run the opposite direction, inadvertently turning it into a game. Pretty soon she's chasing me around the yard with the bird. I'm screaming. And the neighbor lady thinks I'm certifiably insane.

Finally she dropped it and I got her in the house. But all I kept thinking was, "this is the kind of stuff I'm going to have to deal with when I'm a stay-at-home mom." After all, Ben's not always going to be here to deal with the dead birds, actual or metaphorical. I'm going to have to step it up.

Now granted, I still waited for Ben to get home to take care of it. But at least I'm warming to my new responsibility level.