Weekly Goals

Melissa has inspired me to give goal posting another shot. I think I'm going to also write them on a post-it note and put it where I'll see it all the time. Hopefully I'll do a lot better than I did a couple of weeks ago (though, I did accomplish the largest thing on my list -- buy a house -- which I think is a pretty big deal).

Tuesday:
- Pooches for a walk (I can't do this if it's raining. I think they're allergic to raindrops.)
- Jillian's 30 Day Shred (Thank goodness there are free videos on Comcast!)
- Wash a load of towels

Wednesday:
- Clean out hallway closet
- Inventory box supply, make arrangements to stock up at work
- Do a load of laundry

Thursday:
- Pooches for a walk after work (again, dependent on the weather)
- Jillian's 30 Day Shred
- Clean out linen closet, pack up anything that isn't a towel or sheets
- Type recipes from one magazine that I want to keep

Friday:
- Pooches for a walk (ugh, weather)
- Jillian's 30 Day Shred
- Weigh in!

Is it irritating that I've broken them down by day? I figure if I do it this way I'll be less likely to fail. If I say I want to take the dogs on a walk but don't specify the day, it's very likely I'll think to myself that I can do it tomorrow, which means it'll never get done. So there they are, those are my goals. I would have made them a little more exciting, but I'm working seven days in a row, so home time = lazy time!

What is it...

...about 'community' that some people do not understand?

We received a couple of new additions to our building this weekend. We don't share more than a passing 'hello' with our neighbors, so we generally don't notice. This time was different, though. This time, it wasn't only a human moving in.

There are plenty of people with dogs living here. We wouldn't have given this dog a second thought if they owners hadn't stuck him out on the balcony and shut the door. For the better part of two hours Saturday evening, we listened to what is obviously not a small dog whimper and whine outside. Later that night when we were ready to go to bed, we got to listen to the same dog bark and howl because he was confined to one bedroom, which just so happened to be the one above our bedroom.

Lovely.

Now, I want to feel bad for the dog. Really. It's not the dog's fault that it has separation anxiety and is being somewhat neglected by its owner. I am a dog person and may love our dogs too much (if that is even possible). However, when a pet owner and their pet infringe upon my basic rights, I get a little cranky.

It's called the Right of Quiet Enjoyment. Illinois State Real Estate Law states that I should be able to enjoy where I live in an appropriate manner. I shouldn't be disturbed by excess noises or things of that nature. When we are up half the night waiting for the neighbor's dog to stop barking and go to sleep, we tend to be a bit cranky the next day.

Not only do we have to listen to this dog bark, but it's making our dogs bark as well. Our dogs, for the most part, are rather well-behaved beasts. They seem to think that it is their lot in life to let this new dog know that it needs to be quiet because they are trying to sleep. We, on the other hand, aren't as verbal. We're worried that our dogs' reactions to this new animal are going to disturb more people in the building. It's not our goal in life to ruin any one's sleep, so we gave the apartment manager a call this morning. Hopefully the situation works itself out soon. I know that we're moving in a month, but it'd be great if it weren't a sleep-deprived one!

Updates

Friday Weigh-In:

Down 2 lbs from the awful, 4 lb weight gain from the previous week. I'm back to 204.6 lbs. I'm still 2 lbs over where I'd gotten to after the first week, but I'm feeling a bit optimistic. I do a lot of lifting and running around at work, so I am definitely more active.

Weather:

Spring is here in the Midwest. One day the temperature is nice and warm and the sun is shining and the next day it's cold, raining, and you wish that you lived somewhere else. It's been raining here all afternoon and it's supposed to turn to snow at some point. I'd rather that there were blue skies and sunshine.

Our House:

We drove by our house yesterday. It is so exciting to think that in only 41 days, it's going to be ours. We're going to live there! What was truly exciting, though, was what was in the front yard. On top of the realtor's sign, in big bold letters, was the word 'SOLD'!!!!

We close just under 6 weeks from now. It's not really a long time, but it seems to be going by so slowly!

Husband:

Never listen to your husband at Wal-Mart. Especially when you're in the aisle where they stock hair dye. Don't listen to him when you say you want to dye your hair and he tells you that you would look good with a little red in your hair. Don't listen when he points to a box of Cinnaberry hair color. Your naturally dark brown hair will take on a slightly purple sheen in certain light. You will thank your lucky stars that you grabbed a bottle of wash-out hair dye, but it won't detract from the fact that you may have aubergine tresses.

May 8th, Here We Come!

Well we are one step closer to becoming homeowners! We had our inspection yesterday and it went really well! Our inspector could not believe it when we told him that the house is 90 years old. It's obviously been taken care of over the last century. Even the boiler, which was manufactured around the time that dirt was invented, is in great condition.

I'm really excited about buying our first house. It's such an exciting time in our life. I've been browsing the IKEA website, searching for inspiration, and daydreaming about all the things we can do with the house.

Of course, we don't close until May 8th. The lease on our apartment doesn't end until May 31st, which is why we're waiting. I know it really isn't, but six weeks seems like an eternity!

Truffles are NOT the Answer

Sorry. I've been on a technology hiatus for the past several days. I haven't been spending much time on the computer. When I got online this morning, my Reader had a long, long list of blogs that I'd missed reading this weekend and I had tons of e-mails. I'm all caught up and will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

So last Friday's weigh-in... It happened. On Thursday, I was at the bookstore and saw a book that said 'Pie is not the answer' on the back. I've decided that this is true of truffles, even if they are super-yummy oreo truffles. They weren't good to me. The scale was not good to me. Well, I take that back. The scale is nothing but honest. I, on the other hand, was not good to myself. I had truffles. I knew making them that I was planning on eating them. I did, however, take the majority of them to work. I guess if I'm not going to be skinny, I'll at least have chubbier co-workers.

So back to my weight. It was back to 206.6 lbs, which, interestingly enough, is my starting weight. It's not all because of the truffles, though. Some of it was... water weight. Ladies, you can all relate. I wasn't expecting a loss, so seeing the scale go back up wasn't a shock or disappointment.

As for last week's goals? Here's how they went:

- Try a new recipe: This I did do. Twice. The truffles were amazing. I also made PW's cheesebread, but it wasn't my style.

- Dogs: I did clip their toenails. They still need baths, though.

- Clean out one closet: hahahahahaHAHAHahaHahahahA... ahem

- Take dogs on walks: The dogs go outside all the time. We walk around for 15 minutes or so, but I didn't take them outside specifically to walk. They're tiny. The Internet tells me that they get enough exercise inside.

- Buy a House: YES!!!YES!!!YES!!! This one actually happened... sort of. We made an offer and it was accepted! Our inspection is in the morning. I am really hoping that this one goes better than the last one we had. I'm keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed!

- Laundry: holy moly, the pile of laundry is HUGE. It's NOT clean laundry, either. I failed miserably at this one. I have one pair of clean pants left, so you know what I'll be doing when I get home from the inspection.

I've been reading more lately. My brain is getting plenty of exercise. I can sort of say the same for my body. Working out in the garden is exhausting. After my shift, all I want to do is take a hot bath and a long nap. I am going to have muscles by the end of the summer, not to mention a tan. Unfortunately, it's going to be a tan with awful tan lines, but at least I'll be tan, right?

The Bride's Family

I thought I would pick up where I left off with the wedding photos. The last photos were of my groom and his groomsmen, which brings us to the photos of me with my family.

Here I am with my immediate family -- Dad, Mom, and little brother.

Dad, Mom, me, little bro, Grandma, and Grandpa

Grandpa! Me! Grandma! ((Aren't they the cutest grandparents?))

My dad, me, and our Chucks. We wore matching red Converse sneakers. How cool are we?

Me and Ma

T is for Truffle

This afternoon I was craving sweets and browsing through the recipes over at Bakerella (not a good combination). I came across a post with Oreo Truffles. It seemed like the perfect recipe. Chocolate. Check. Fewer than five ingredients. Check. No actual baking involved. Check! It was right up my alley. I quickly headed over to the store and picked up the necessary supplies. They're delicious.

Crumble one package of cookies in your food processor. If, like me, you have a tiny food processor, this will take quite some time to finish.

When you're finished, it'll make a nice Oreo 'dirt' like this.

Add in two 8 oz packages of softened cream cheese.

Combine thoroughly.

Roll into balls and place on parchment paper-covered cookie sheet...

...and then place in freezer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt one package of chocolate candy coating...

Drop in a truffle and coat with melted chocolate. Return freshly-coated truffle to parchment paper to set and...

...Enjoy!

Lucky Day!

Today is a lucky day.

I mean, it is St. Patrick's Day after all, shouldn't everyone have a little luck on this day? I know that I, personally, felt as though today was my lucky day.

First, I woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window, rather than to the obnoxious sound of my alarm clock (it was two minutes before it was set to go off, but it still counts). I could already tell that it was going to be a beautiful day since the birds sounded so cheerful and happy.

When I took the pooches outside a few minutes later, something amazing happened.

Let me back up a little. We live on a second floor apartment with little dogs. It was cold this winter. Life was much easier when we decided to potty pad train our new puppy. He's a rock star with it. Of course, now we would like for him to go outdoors most of the time so that he's on the same schedule as the other dogs.

So anyway, I take the three dogs outside for their morning business. Wally was walking around funny, which I assumed was the pee-pee dance. Oh, no no, it was much better than that. He went #2! I know, it's an overshare, but this is a big deal! It was a good day in our little dog world.

I was going to tell a story about being lucky at work today, but it's actually a little boring, especially compared to what's below.

You'll remember that last week we went and looked at houses and found one that we really liked. We made another appointment to see it Saturday after I got off of work. We loved it just as much as we had the first time, if not more. So we thought things over for a couple of days and decided to make an offer.

We met with Rebecca Monday evening to fill out the paperwork. We countered back and forth several times over the next few hours. We finally decided to think about things until this morning. We decided to put in our final offer and did so on Tuesday around noon. A little after 1PM, my cell phone rang. Of course, I was at work and couldn't answer it. I recognized it as our realtor's phone number. Several minutes later, my phone went off again, though this time it was a text message. Michael let me know that they had accepted our offer!

Of course, it's a little tough to be really excited about this after what happened with the last house. Once we know that we're getting it for sure, I will morph into a different person. I will clean and pack 24/7 until there is nothing left to clean and pack... and then I will wait six more weeks until we actually get to sign the papers and move in.

Here's a horrible photo I took on Saturday. I was in a hurry to get back to the car and failed to actually line my photo up. Hopefully I'll be able to post better photos soon!

Weekend Weather & Weekly Goals

Wowza, what a weekend! The weather was beautiful! I was finally able to spend time doing my new job, which meant that I spent two days enjoying the outdoors. It was glorious. It was so nice outside that being there didn't really feel like work. Most of the customers I spoke to were doing light yard work, which mostly involved fertilizing lawns. I cannot wait until we get plants in!

One of the major differences between my old job and my new job is the amount of physical activity. Being head cashier, I did a lot of standing around. I felt like a gargoyle with an override card. Being out in the garden center, there was a lot of running around. It's a large department and people always need something from the opposite side. This should definitely help me burn more calories on those days I can't make it to the gym (which seems like every single day right now).

After work, I was making dinner and thought I killed the microwave. I was veeeeeeeery unhappy about the possibility of not having one. We use it mainly for reheating leftovers, so it would be missed. It wasn't until a while later that I realized I had the tea maker and George Foreman going at the same time. Adding the microwave to the mix was just too much for the breaker and quickly tripped it.

I'm feeling random this evening, so I thought I'd share my goals for the week. Remind me about them on Friday and we'll see how many of them I actually accomplish.

- Catch up on laundry

- Buy a house

- Walk the dogs at least three days

- Clean out and organize one closet

- Bathe dogs and clip toenails

- Try a new recipe

Those seem like good goals, right? Not too overwhelming. Well... I take that back. Wally doesn't love the leash, so taking the dogs for walks might be kind of tricky.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! This goofy gardener is heading to bed early!

Currently Love...

- Lifetime

- Sunshine

- Cooking magazines

- IKEA

- Cuddly puppies

- Hot baths

- Iced tea

- Chicago

The Ugly Cake

Today I worked on getting all of my random recipes gathered up in one place. It's kind of like I'm making my own cookbook, but didn't write any of the recipes. I have a stack of cooking magazines that I have to go through, so it's going to take a while to finish.

Thinking about all of that food made me want to make something. We'd already eaten dinner, so I decided to bake. I thought it'd be cute to make a St. Patrick's Day cake. I don't have a large cake pan, so I decided to use two small round ones and make a layer cake.

Let me just start off by saying I am not the best baker. I am notoriously impatient. I hate to let the cakes cool long enough after I take them out of the oven and more than one cake has looked a bit melted. Needless to say, I have a history of ugly cakes. Of course, most of them were for my Dad's birthdays.

Dad, I'm sorry that a few years ago I made you a blue cake where I put all of the mix into what should have been two cakes, thus resulting in the strangest cake ever. Thanks for eating it. Also, I'm sorry for the purple cake for your birthday in 2007, the color was Clint's idea. I'm sorry for the many, many candles that were stinking out of it. And that it was made with a bundt cake pan. Though, I am not sorry for the rainbow chip icing. It's the best!

This one may be the worst I have ever made, though.

Let me just start off by listing the problems. I did not level the cakes after taking them out of the oven. I thought that was just wasteful, and in these times of economic hardship, one cannot afford to be wasteful. I also had to use the top tier upside down because I turned it over and let it cool and the top of it stuck to the plate. I thought it'd make a nice little bowl to sit on the other cake, but I was wrong. This is why I prefer to plan things.

I'm also a horrible piper. I thought it'd be cute to pipe icing along the top and bottom and get that cute scalloped edge you always see on cakes. Of course, I've never done it before, so it went pretty horribly.

And then there's this...

Since the cakes weren't leveled, there was a gap between layers. I attempted to use frosting as a sort of mortar, but it obviously oozed out. It also leans. A lot.

I'm obviously not the engineer in the family.

I'm getting ready to try my first slice. I'm worried that once I pull a piece out, though, that the rest of the cake will fall over.

Day Dreams & Pudgy Friday

Part 1:

Well it's that time of the week again. When I decided that I needed to lose weight, I was ready -- ready to go to the gym! ready to sweat! ready to burn fat! And then life happened. It is my fault for not making working out a priority. It's not even that I haven't made working out a priority, it's that I'm not making myself, my health, a priority. I spent a week in a panic over my in-law's impending visit, convinced my apartment had to be spotless. I've spent the last week annoyed about my job. All I can talk about is work, where I should be, where I am, worried about driving a forktruck. I get home and whine about my job rather than lacing up my Adidas and heading to the gym.

Then this morning I weighed myself. I expected things to be worse. I expected to be back at my starting weight. I expected a gain.

I was almost right. I didn't lose any weight. However, I also didn't gain any. I maintained. Of course, I use the term 'maintain' very loosely because I did nothing this week that even resembled eating healthy or exercising. Maintaining is when you're at a weight you like and you work to stay there. No. I did nothing. I existed in a space of nothingness.

So here are my crappy stats:

Last week: 203.2 lbs

This week: 203.2 lbs

BMI: 30.0 (obese)

I've got my Buff Brides book out and am reading through it again, checking out the exercises. I won't have a problem with that. It's the cardio I have trouble with. Running on a treadmill is so boring. Not to mention I'm allergic to running. ((Okay, so my doctor didn't buy that one either)) I need to find an activity that I really enjoy doing and stick to it. I'd love to get a membership at the Y so that I can take the workout classes. I just have to wait and see if I can fit it into the budget.

On a somewhat related note, the sun is shining! I'm thinking about gathering up the pooches and taking them for a walk. Maybe. Wally's not so good on the leash and even worse being left inside alone.

Part 2:

We've been giving home-buying a lot of thought lately. Can we afford it? Are we ready to be entirely responsible for everything? Is this what is best for us right now? I say yes, yes, and YES. Since I'm off today, I've been talking it over with the pooches. I mentioned words like 'yard' and 'no leash' to them and their little ears perked up. I feel so bad that they don't get to run around outside. They've placed their votes, and are ready for a house.

Of course, since we're thinking again about buying a house, daydreaming about home-ownership has helped me pass a lot of time at work. What's interesting is that I haven't been thinking so much about the things inside the house, but the yard. Oh, the yard. I've been designing a little vegetable garden for behind the garage, the flowers I'll plant in the front, the compost pile I'd like to have.

I'm not sure about the last one. I've been doing a little research online, but am still nervous about having a compost pile. It's a great way to reduce the amount of waste that you send to the landfill, but it also takes a while to actually make compost. It's just something I'll have to continue to think about and decide on if and when we actually get a house.

Conclusion:

I've sort of been in a funk this week in regards to my blog. If anyone has any great ideas that I could post about, let me know. I'm going to spend the afternoon cleaning and putting the random recipes I love into a binder.

I'm Busy

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. It feels weird not posting every single day like I generally do (or almost every single day). I'm just going to give a brief update as to what has been going on the last few days:

Monday:
I ran to the bookstore at the mall Monday morning. I was looking for a decent book on personal finance and budgeting, but all I could find were books about getting rich without working and things such as that. I ended up in the fiction section and discovered Jodi Picoult. I picked up Plain Truth and really enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that I tore through the novel in 24 hours -- which, by the way, included a full day of work and other errands!

I also took little Wally to the vet for his puppy shots. I'm not sure how it happened, but we completely sailed by his two month birthday without a thought of taking him to the vet for his well puppy shots. As soon as we got there, they weighed him. The little booger weighs 3.6 lbs. Can you believe it? I couldn't. He's a tiny baby! But yeah, he's chubby. He also has a heart murmur, which sounds scarier than it is. It's more than likely something he was born with and will fix itself, but in case it doesn't, we just have to keep an eye on him.

Tuesday:
I worked Tuesday. Yuck. I was supposed to start my new job in my new department that day. However, a certain person from my department is currently on a "leave of absence" so I have to stay up front until she returns. The other head cashier called me at home on Monday and said she was going to write down that I was to be up front as needed. Of course, the front end department manager likes to run away, so as needed translated into all stinking day. I have tons of training to do for my new department, so it was kind of a bummer to be stuck up there.

It also rained like Rock-A-Doodle that evening. I made it back to the training room for twenty minutes to watch videos. I could hear the rain over the headphones. As I made my way up front, I walked through Home Decor and noticed water was pouring in through the roof. I knew we had tons of leaks, but not that they were so major. We're supposed to get a new roof this year, so hopefully we get one before the whole roof caves in.

Wednesday:
More work today. I actually got to go to Garden finally! It was nice. Okay, so I was there for an hour, freezing my tootsies off outside with my new department manager. I ended up inside at 8:30 to finish my videos. At 10:30, I went to lunch. When I came back, she told me that she wanted me to get licensed for the power equipment. I thought she meant lawn mowers and snow blowers. Nope, she meant the forklift. Holy moly. They want me to drive the forklift. While this is pretty exciting, I wonder if she should have her head examined.

After work, Michael and I went house shopping. We had been holding off on looking for the last two months because we thought there might be an opportunity to return to Missouri. Since that's no longer an option, we've decided we'd like to try to buy something. Our lease is up at the end of May, so we're hoping to find something soon.

The first house we looked at was cute. It was old, but cute. It was a two-story home with cute shutters and hardwood floors. The upstairs bathroom looked amazing, but the kitchen was hideous, they'd plugged up the fireplace, and the basement smelled wet. We didn't stick around long. Our realtor had found a couple of other places for us to check out, so we headed down the road.

The second house was in the same neighborhood, but further from the college (a very good thing) and a little further north. When we turned down the street, we immediately noticed it was less busy and seemed a lot more quiet. We saw the front of the house and liked it immediately. We also liked the two car garage in the back that we could easily get to. Things only got better when we walked through the front door. The kitchen is a bit out-of-date, but everything works and that's what matters. The backyard is fenced in, which is wonderful for our dogs.

The third house was better than the first, but worse than the second. It was a peach ranch. The kitchen was updated with stainless appliances, a cheap counter top, and vinyl floors. At first we thought the cabinets were new, but then we realized that they had simply updated the hardware. (I guess HGTV is right when they tell you to replace hardware!) I didn't like it as much as the second house.

So we'll see what happens. We already like the second house more than the house we made an offer on in January. We haven't really talked about making an offer, just that we like it and we're going to go from there.

Sorry for the boring post after a three day hiatus.

Chicago!

What a weekend!

Michael's parents and step-brother arrived around 9PM on Friday night. We had plans to get up early the next morning, so we quickly went to bed. Saturday morning, Chef Michael went to work in the kitchen to whip up a quick batch of biscuits and gravy. Unfortunately, the gravy didn't turn out well, so we had a gourmet breakfast at McD's.

It started raining on our way there and progressed to a downpour by the time we arrived. We parked in the garage under Soldier Field. We had planned on going to Shedd Aquarium, but the Field Museum was much closer, so we went there instead.

We were not disappointed. We saw this bag of bones:

It's Sue! Sue is the largest, and most complete T-Rex skeleton to be discovered, as of date. The skull on the large display is a fake one. Her actual skull is too heavy, so it is on display on the second level. The Field Museum paid a lot of money for her, but from all of the people gathered around checking her out, it was money well spent!

Here's the hubs and his dad. We had a wonderful time hanging out with his family this weekend. It's the first time we've had family come up and stay with us here in Illinois, so we were more than excited.

It's us! We really loved Chicago. Unfortunately, the bad weather prevented us from seeing the beautiful skyline or Lake Michigan. The top of even the medium-sized buildings were obscured by clouds and fog. I was excited to see one of the Great Lakes, but, from what I could see, it looked like a pond full of ice chunks. Hopefully we can get back up there to do the tourist thing later this year when it is sunny and warm outside.

The in-laws.

The in-laws + Austin

Flabby Friday

It's that time of the week again. This week didn't go as well as last week. In fact, I gained.

Ugh, I know. It's okay, though. It is my own fault. Not only did I allow my eating to slip, but I did not make exercise a priority. All I can do is start over again today.

Here are my stats for this week:

Last week: 202.6 lbs

This week: 203.2 lbs

Gain of 0.4 lbs

I had planned on posting this great blog about the beautiful weather outside today, but time is ticking and the cleaning isn't quite done. My in-laws will be here in about three hours and I need to finish up a few things.

TGIF!

A Disappointing Post

I had planned on writing a fabulous post tonight. I hadn't decided if I was going to write about how I am giving my immediate boss a taste of her own medicine this week because I go outside next week and life is too short to be sweet and kind all of the time, or if I was going to post another pooch survey, or the next installment of wedding photos.

Instead, I have spent the evening cleaning like a Merry Maid on speed. My in-laws are coming to visit for the weekend and I feel the need for the apartment to be spotless. Fortunately, my husband has been at work all evening, so I got tons done. I cleaned the dining room, kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. All I have left to clean are the bathroom and guest bedroom. Oh, and some laundry. It seems like there is always laundry to be done.

Anyway, because of this I do not have time to make the glorious post I had planned. Instead, I am going to turn off my HP and go to sleep!

Oh, and tomorrow is weigh-in day. I didn't have the best week, so we'll see how the numbers are.

It's Re-Pete!

This is Re-Pete! I've decided tonight to fill out a survey about him that I found on Sarah's blog. I thought it was really cute and, since I have nothing to blog about today, I decided that I would write about the furry creatures that melt my heart!

Breed: Chihuahua
Age: He turned 4 years old in August
Fur Color: Red? Fawn? I'm not certain on the exact name of the color.
Eye Color: Brown
Size: Re-Pete weighs in at a whopping 5 lbs! He's actually the largest of our dogs.
What's your Favorite thing about your dog: Re-Pete is my little snuggle-buddy. If I am ever on the sofa relaxing, Re-Pete is right there next to me, keeping me company. When I was still in college and he was an only child, Re-Pete would keep me company on the evenings that Michael had to stay on campus and do homework.
What's your least favorite thing: He growls! When we put him in the crate and go to close it, he growls at us like he's going to attack!

Where did you get him: I got him as a puppy from Michael's parents.
Runt of the litter? Nope. He was one of two puppies and they were both about the same size.
Any special details? We were the owners of Re-Pete's dad, Pete. Notice it yet? Pete & Re-Pete. Oh, yeah. We thought we were pretty clever when we came up with it.
Where's his mother? I have no idea where she is now. She was a mean little dog. I sat near-ish to her once and put my hand down and she tried to attack me.
Spayed/Neutered? Nope, all of his plumbing is in working order. We can't decide if we want to get him fixed or allow him to breed our female again.
Any injuries/illnesses? When he was an only child, he was always scaring me! One year, during his yearly shots, he really scared me. We were sitting in the waiting room after his shots, waiting for the student to finish up the paperwork. Re-Pete suddenly began to act very strange. He wouldn't look at me and I noticed he was starting to go to the bathroom. I started to take him outside when he suddenly collapsed in my arms. I was immediately in tears, convinced my dog had just died in my arms. It turns out he was allergic to the rabies vaccination they gave him. He was rushed back to critical care where he was given a shot of epinephrine, benadryl, and a steroid shot. He stayed at the hospital overnight for observation and was given fluids through an IV.

Does he bite? No. He's too much of a weenie to get that close to strangers.

Jump on people? See the above comment. He hates strangers. He barks like crazy and then goes and hides.
House-broken? Yes, though if it's raining or snowing, he hates going outside. We once got 18" snow and I tossed him into it. He disappeared. He also didn't go outside for two days.
Chewed up anything special? He's not a big chewer.
Does he bark? Ugh. When someone knocks on the door, he barks. When something is knocked over, he barks.
Fetch? No. He doesn't even play with toys. It's sad. I blame Daisy, my parents' yorkie. He lived with them until he was 2 and she wouldn't let him have any of the toys.
Sit on command? Sort of.
Obedience school? No, though I'd love to take him so that he can be exposed to other dogs. I think we did a poor job socializing him.
Does he play nicely with others? He's fine once he gets used to a dog.
Any Special Tricks? He knows what to do when we say 'Belly Scratches.' He flips over to his back and waits for well.... belly scratches.

Where does he like to sleep? He loves sleeping in our bed, but since we now have three dogs and a brand new bed, dogs have been kicked out. They stay in a big crate together now.
Favorite food? He loves all people food. He gets really excited about popcorn.
Favorite toy? Alas, he does not play with toys.
Favorite place to run around? Outside, though here he has to be on a leash at all times. So right now his favorite place to run around is at my parents' house in Missouri.
Favorite Owner? He loves us both, though I like to think he loves me more.

Calm or Hyper? Re-Pete is a pretty laid-back pooch.

Explorer or Couch Potato? He's a couch potato. He likes to watch things happen rather than be in on the action.
Does he learn quickly? I'm sure that if we tried to teach him something he would.
Stubborn? Yes. Try taking him outside in poor weather!
Does he like to swim? He's not a huge fan of baths, so I'm sure he'd hate swimming.
Is he a cuddler? Yes! He's snuggled up next to me right now!

Welcome to the World, Curtis!

My co-worker, Shawna, and her husband welcomed their first baby yesterday! Curtis was born via c-section early yesterday evening. I got to spend the afternoon snuggling with him and keeping momma company while daddy was at work.

Being Right Feels Good

As a young woman, I am noticing that older men think that I have no idea what I am talking about on certain subjects. More than once, it has been suggested that I leave certain things to my husband. The first time I really noticed it was when I went for the home inspection because my husband could not get off of work. I noticed it again today when the maintenance guy for our apartment complex stopped by.

A while back, we noticed that the hot water would run out quickly during showers. Not cool! I finally put in a maintenance request this morning and waited for the guy to get there. When I made the request, I told the girl in the office what we thought was wrong with it. When the guy got here, the first words out of his mouth were, "So your husband thinks the heating element has gone out?"

Um, excuse me?

I work at a hardware store, for crying out loud. I'm not one of those women who walks in and has no idea what things are. I did not correct him, but was a little annoyed.

At first, he tried to tell me that something else was wrong with it. That's fine. So long as it gets fixed, I didn't really care what was wrong with it. However, after about half an hour of tinkering around, he came into the living room and told me that the heating element really was to blame for the problem. The problem with this? It couldn't be fixed today. He'll have to come back in the morning. He has to drain the entire water heater to replace the heating element. Yuck. So one more night of lukewarm showers and rinsing conditioner from my hair with ice water.

But gosh, it feels good to be right!

New Job

A few months ago, I talked to the store manager about possibly moving to another department. I was unhappy in my current job for many reasons. A big part of that had to do with the fact that I spend the majority of my days standing around doing nothing. I am at work 40 hours a week, if I want to spend my time doing nothing, I'll do it at home.

It took quite a while, but I finally heard something two weeks ago. The manager approached me and asked if I wanted to go and work in the garden once it opens. At this point, any job seems better than the one I have, so I immediately said yes!

It took another couple of weeks, but I am finally on the schedule as a worker in the garden area! I was really excited to see that I would be away from the front beginning on March 7th. Of course, nothing at work ever goes to plan. I was talking to the human resources manager yesterday and he broke the news to me. I have to stay at the front until one of the other girls (who has the same job I currently have) is back from her leave of absence. She left last Wednesday or Thursday and will be back in fifteen days. Not much longer and I'll be working in the sunshine!

I would love to post something more exciting, but it's been a long weekend. I'll have more to post about in the next couple of days. My friend, Shauna, is being induced tomorrow morning and, hopefully, a short while later, will welcome her new son, Curtis, into the world!