Blue Monday

Apparently today is Blue Monday - "the most depressing day of the year." This is based on some pretty scientific things like:

• Twitter posts from the past 3 years
• People having to go back to work after the holiday break
• The reality of holiday expenses showing up on your bills
• New years resolutions already failing

Ok, so it's not scientific at all;) And the only reason I know it's Blue Monday is because I'm at home watching The Today Show. That's right - HOME! No Blue Monday for this girl - my office is closed today because of the foot of snow that fell this weekend (and it's frigid!). And it couldn't come at a more perfect time. 

Because this weekend we added four adorable paws to our little family. Meet Clover Klamm, a 1 1/2 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix that we adopted from Petsmart on Saturday.

I think hers is a story of God's sweet, perfect timing. You see, we saw Clover at Petsmart back in October before we moved to our new, pet-friendly home. We saw her, she was adorable and we resisted (because we had to). Since then, we'd been back to Petsmart a handful of times and she was no longer there. We weren't seriously searching during this time though because we had just moved and the holidays were approaching which meant traveling and a lot of non-routine events for a new dog. We had our heart set on a lab/retriever mix of some sort, stalking a golden rescue organization on Facebook and getting used to the idea of starting our true adoption search at the end of January when Jonathan got back from a weeklong trade show in Las Vegas. In the meantime, we began nesting, ordering a crate, a cover for the trunk in Jonathan's new Pilot and even a DropCam (aka Puppy Cam) for us to keep our eyes on the pup when we're at work. We joked that we were crazy parents already and getting all these things prematurely. Then Saturday happened.

Mind you, this weekend the city of St. Louis was preparing for Snowmaggedon. Bread shelves were going bare at grocery stores. People were stocking up on shovels and salt. End of the world type stuff. No better time to peek into Petsmart adoption day, right? We pulled up to the parking lot and it was uncharacteristically chaotic. Again: people were preparing for the end of the world (which I guess means Target and Trader Joes for everyone). We drove around, no parking spots to be found, I said it's not worth it, let's just go home. Jonathan said go take a peek, I'll take a lap and come get you. I walked in and crate numero 1 held a familiar chocolate brown retriever baby. Clover. She had been returned a month ago. I rang Jonathan and I think at that point he already knew we weren't leaving that store empty handed.

She didn't mind the snow one bit before the temperatures got so frigid. 

Clover was adopted and returned twice. Her info sheet said she was high energy and got into everything. Red flags to most people, I suppose, but then again people who adopt a dog pre-snowmageddon are not your ordinary folks ;) She was mellow as could be in her crate so we took her out as her foster mom told us more about her. How she LOVES to play fetch, which we quickly learned. That she's great with people, dogs and cats. She just needs some consistency, a routine and to know what's expected of her. And a young couple to keep her active. Okay. Where do we sign. 

And that was it. We became a little family of three strolling through Petsmart, saying to each other, "We just did that. What are we doing?" buying all the other things we hadn't nested with yet (leash, collar, food, dog bowls, toys, treats -- dogs need lots of things!) I can't begin to imagine the process of preparing for and having a baby.

We got in some good play time in our backyard and a mile walk Saturday evening before we settled in and waited for the snow. She slept in her crate like a champ the first two nights and has only had two in house accidents so far (I'd like to see you try to potty in -7 degrees!). 

We love her. Every night the past few months we've said a little prayer that our future pup was somewhere safe and warm until we got her (we're just so silly...). Her timing, a little unorthodox (it's the dead of winter, Jonathan is traveling for work next week, I'm going home the following weekend), is a sweet reminder that our plans are small and timid compared to His.