Grandpups

I love my mother. However, she sent her youngest child off to college three years ago and is desperately looking for that next stage in her life....being a grandmother.

Now she never directly says "Please have a baby now". But everytime she overhears my response to children as "Probably closer to 30", she thinks that is way too long to wait.

That being said, Dakota and Daisy take A LOT of pressure off of me. Ever since we brought Dakota home almost 2 years ago, she spoiled her rotten. She spent more money on Dakota her first Christmas then she spent on him and I!

As soon as Dakota broke her leg, my mother did not hesitate to write on my FB wall, "I am coming down to get Daisy". But mom, I didn't even ask? Do not get me wrong, I knew something needed to be done to help Dak recover and am forever thankful. And when I mentioned a 6-8 week recovery time, she didn't even flinch. She responded with a "Well you can get her on Thanksgiving".

I needed to drop Dakota off at the vet/boarding place before I headed home this weekend. I felt so sad leaving her there, but knew it would be the only way she could recover. Not to mention I boarded her at the same place that treats her.

After coming home last night, I am seriously and I mean seriously afraid I will not get Daisy back!

My neighbor came over to greet me and told me how much my parents stinking spoil her. My mom just signed her up for a $100/year dog park (now half price since its September). I met my parents at the dog park when I first arrived in town.

That dog park is AMAZING! Now I know why so many people pay so much. I came during "Yappy Hour" where all the owners are served beer and wine as they watch their dogs play. Daisy looked incredibly happy (and tired). She is the center of my parent's universe.

I always knew my parents would make wonderful grandparents and how they treat my puppy furthers my convictions. Thank goodness for "grandpups" as my mom calls them.

Thrive or just survive?

One of my good friends informed me that August 5th (my last update) was a long time ago. Because of the gap in entries, I could blog about any number of things. San Diego, engagement pictures, , my new beautiful diamond ring, his wonderful friends visiting from all over, my new survive and thrive goals or the aftermath of him getting back on that plane to head back to the sandbox.

While I will eventually blog about my wonderful two weeks, the aftermath is too fresh in the mind.

He left a week ago. On Sunday I decided to cut the grass. I took the mower out of the shed and realized I needed to pick up dog poop. When I turned on the lawn mower, it started and like most of us, I began to push forward. When I looked down 1.9 seconds later, I saw four baby bunnies desperately trying to run for their lives.

For everyones sake who is reading, I am not going to describe the scene. I do not know how I cleaned it all up.

Two hours later, I finished cutting the grass, cleaning the pool, gardening and pulling weeds. Daisy began sniffing like crazy. She darted to the corner of the yard. I knew what she saw...baby bunny #5. I began screaming and so did the baby bunny. Daisy swallowed her whole.

The next day she found bunny #6. Same story.

On the third day, after an exhausting day of subbing I walked in the door to let Daisy out of her cage. Bunny vomit everywhere. I immediately took her and the cage outside and started hosing everything off.

I noticed my garden needed some water. Instead of pulling the hose all the way to the back of the yard, I stood at a distance. Dakota loves drinking water from the hose. She began jumping around like a grasshopper. I tried to yell at her to stop, but Dak Dak loves running and jumping. On one of her jumps, in about 5 seconds I saw her land just on her back right leg funny and let out the worse noise I have ever heard in my life. A noise I hope I never have to hear again.

I did not even hesitate. I picked up my 60lb dog, placed her in the Envoy and grabbed my purse. The vet told me she broke her leg in two places. I did ok emotionally and then they told me I needed to leave her overnight. I started crying and could not stop crying all night.

Little did I know, the hard part would be afterwards I picked her up today. The vet informed me in the next 8 weeks, there should be little movement and exercise. I have to carry her up and down our deck stairs. The splint is located near her "goods" so everytime she pees I need to pull the splint away so she doesn't urniate all over the splint. She's still in pain and whines quite a bit.

And right now? I still have my head up, but would consider myself as emotionally exhausted.

I updated my survive and thrive goal list and it made me think about taking the word "survive" out completely. I feel I "survived" so much in the past 9 months

lost two jobs, house struck by lightning, replace and fix AC not once but twice, replace garage door, replace 2 cell phones, fix board for front circuit breaker, pool breaks down twice, re-install both internet and cable, lawnmower breaks, almost needed to put Daisy to sleep, both dogs sick with kennel cough, cleaned up 15 dead animals in our backyard (birds and bunnies), his dying grandfather, and now my baby breaking her leg

If I can still laugh about all of the above...shouldn't this techincally be considered as "thriving" during the deployment? I guess I didn't need to make any outrageous goals. I think getting by for an entire year on your own is good enough for me.

We're almost there....

Nesting

Super Jeni is now 8 months pregnant. These past few weeks I've headed over to her house to move the washer/dryer, lift/move the mattress, move boxes etc. She says she is going through a "nesting period".

So that is what they call it.

I know they say boys do not notice this stuff, but I am a clean freak. To the point where I am that person grabbing your plate before you finish eating just so I can rinse and stick it in the dishwasher. That being said, I cannot stop cleaning...like really cleaning.

In the past two weeks I have:

Swept and organized the garage and shed.
Took out everything in every cabinet and scrubbed in the inside
Took out everything in the refridgerator and scrubbed the inside
Cleaned behind the washer and dryer
Washed and dry cleaned all the curtains
Shampo the carpets

Will he notice? Oh absolutely not. Will I feel better? Absolutely.

I still need to clean out our bedroom. Daisy sleeps in there every night and even though I vacuum every single day, there is still a lot of dog hair.

I also need to show the girls how to share the bed. Dakota sleeps on his side, head on his pillow and everything, and Daisy sprawls out as wide as possible, legs in the air and everything, in the middle of the bed. We honestly have no room for daddy, but will need to make room pretty soon.

Happy Birthday Daisy!

Someone, somehow disconnected our internet for no reason. I need to call tomorrow and get to the bottom of it. I am beginning to learn its always something when being a homeowner. Katie and I decided to head out and find some wi-fi after a few days of no internet connection.

In brighter news, my parents visited this weekend. We accomplished so much. I have a laundry list of things I want to get done before he comes home for R&R. And we crossed quite a few things off the list. Not to mention the house is sparkling clean. Only 3.5 more weeks...

Also, this weekend we celebrated Daisy girl's birthday. My, how much she's grown in a year.

Yes, she's pretty close to being as tall as me. I am short.

A doggie ice cream sandwich! Do not worry. I bought one for Dakota too.

Not. In. The. Mood.

Tonight I am hosting potluck at 6pm.

I walked in the door at 4pm. Walked into the laundry and instantly smelled poop.

Daisy pooped EVERYWHERE. She will be a year old this month and has NEVER done this, not even at 4-5 weeks old. Thank goodness for a hose and kiddie pool. I locked her and Dakota upstairs while mopping the floor (yeah poopy paw prints). When I went upstairs, Daisy puked all over the carpet.

WHAT DID SHE EAT?!

Icing on the cake. Today I finally replaced the entire AC unit. I am out 1300 dollars. However, this evening I just noticed its not working...again.

Hot in here.

Today reached 94 degrees. Not fun considering the AC did not work. I also found out today I need to replace my entire air conditioning unit. Ah, lightning struck somewhere it shouldn't have and messed up our circuit board.

So even though I break a sweat standing and walking in my house, there are many things I found I am grateful for over the past few days.

1) The FURiminator

Actual FURminator session with a Siberian Husky:

Seriously, where have you been all my life, or at least the past 10 months?! I decided to share this particular picture because that dog is seriously Daisy's twin. I am not saying I do not have hair in my house, but the amount of hair that finds the garbage can instead of my clothes, couches, and even vacuum cleaner makes me a lot happier.

2) Carpet Cleaners- Even through the revolving door of electricians and AC repair men today, I still managed to clean my carpets. I love the feeling of cleaning carpets.

3) P90X- Yesterday I decided to take my workout to the gym. I filled my notebook up with all the necessary exercises. I did a 40 minute workout and managed to belt out 120 push-ups in that workout. My favorite comment coming from the sterotypical "meathead", "Whoa, that seemed like an intense workout".

I feel my body getting so much stronger and I absolutely love it. While I may not be able to run like I use to ( I did get in a 1 mile run), I am loving the changes I see in my arms, stomach, and even back.

4) His sister- I love having her around. I, of course, got her on board with P90X so its nice to have a workout partner not to mention we take turns making dinner so its nice to always have a cooked, healthy meal.

Feel the love

You know that feeling when you walk in the door and realized you haven't peed all day and immediately race to the bathroom.

Well that happens to me everyday.

As soon as I walk in the door, I let the dogs out and run to the bathroom. However, I cannot tell you the last time I used the washroom in complete privacy.

Everyday I forgot to close the door and every single day after work, I have two puppies trying to jump on me while trying to do my business.

You think I would learn my lesson.

Looking up...

I swear he is my good luck charm. Today I heard his voice for the first time in about 2 weeks and we spent the entire 20 minute conversation laughing so hard, my mouth started to hurt.

After our conversation, I gained another client at a time where I needed it the most.

And nine years later, our fighting/arguing is at a bare minimum because of honesty and laughter. Before he left, we talked about communication. I said:

I do not care about emails, flowers, or phone calls, just make sure you write on my FB wall once a week to let me know you love me and/or you are alive.

Seems simple enough. Oh its been over a month and of course I let it slide until I saw him writing on one of our best friend's wall for his birthday.

Our first conversation in two weeks started like this after our initial greetings:

Me: So I saw you can write on Brandon's wall, but not mine?
Him: (loud eruption of laughter)
Me: Do not laugh at me. I only asked for one thing before you left (I start laughing)
Him: (continued laughter)
Me: (me yelling his FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST name)
Him: I just wrote Happy Birthday
Me: Well you know you can write that on my wall every once in awhile too

Well he wrote Happy Birthday on my FB wall. We're still 4 months away from my actual birthday, but boy did it make my day.

The laughing did not stop. I shared how Daisy brought a dead bird into the house on Thursday night at 1AM. And how I always kill flies that get into our house with our kitchen towels and now Dakota likes to grab the kitchen towel out of your hand and bury it in the backyard. We think she's confused on whether the towel is the bad guy or the fly.

Or how his dad forgot to pick me up for church on Sunday. And when I walked into church 10 minutes late, he let out his infamous chuckle. No worries, he bought breakfast afterwards to make it up to me.

So after an amazing weekend of laying out at the beach, hanging out with both families, and visiting my alma mater, an amazing phone conversation, and a pretty good day at work, things are definitely looking up.

I hope this lasts for awhile.

Keep on truckin....Keep on laughin...

I truly believe God not only knows I have a sense of humor, but at times abuses this knowledge.

I walked into the house after an awful day of work. I pulled into my driveway and noticed my jungle of a yard. I needed to clear my head so I took the girls for our usual 2.5 mile loop.

When we walked back into the house, I saw bloody paw prints behind Daisy. My heart broke. I learned today from Super Jeni that dogs can get 3rd degree burns on the bottom of their paws in the summer time from the pavement.

I filled my bathtub with super cold water and soaked my baby's paws for about 5 minutes. It helped tremondously and she seemed to enjoy it.

Next up on my list, my awful grass. I gave in and called a locksmith. After some research I realized the lock on my shed is un-pickable.

Forty dollars later, I was finally able to cut my grass. And you bet I mumbled swear words under my breath every minute for the entire 2 hours it took. As I began to clean up, I looked down on the floor of my garage. And what did I see? Clear as day?

The keys to my shed.

I may or may not finish a bottle of wine tonight by myself.

Screw you Mommy.

After a 12 hour day...I knew walking into our house, the girls were not going to be happy with me. Even after a 2.5 mile run this morning at 5:30am.

My normally sweet and obedient Dakota managed to break into the pantry and eat some of the paper plates. By the time I took Daisy out of her cage, they nearly knocked me over in excitement.

I let them calm down for about 10 minutes. Leashed them up and put on my rollerblades in the garage. I heard them jumping more than usual at the garage door to the house. When I reached to grab the handle. Locked.

I definitely did not lock it. With all their jumping, one of their paws must have hit the lock.

I rollerbladed a mile to my life savior, Destiny's. Not home. Headed to my friend Laurie's house to use her phone to call Destiny. No answer. A few minutes passed and I saw her car pull into her street. I chased her down (still in my rollerblades) and she of course laughed at me. Mostly because I was laughing at myself, saying, "My life is a mess sometimes".

I hate locking myself out. Which reminds me, I still need to get my lawn mower out of the shed.

P.S. My girls, currently wrestling outside on the deck. Their bodies just banged into my kitchen window.

P.S.S. I still rollerbladed with them for another 2.5 miles tonight.

Anyone looking for two very calm and obedient puppies? Going for a good price...

Paranoid

One of the things I am most paranoid about: Oversleeping

I ran youth baseball tournaments a year ago where I run the actual tournament 6am-10pm then head back to the hotel to finish another 3 hours of work. I actually set 4 alarms including my cell phone, my work cell phone, hotel alarm clock, and the good ol' morning wake-up call.

I still set two alarms, sometimes three.

You can guess what I did this morning. Yep, overslept. For some reason, my puppies picked today out of all days not to wake me up at 6am. Of course most days I run my own schedule, but today I had a 7:30 phone conference with our new Regional Sales Manager.

I jumped out of bed around 7:15. Luckily I am able to phone in from home. About midway through the phone call with 15 of my colleagues, Daisy managed to break into the office and howl at me. The colleague talking said, "I do not know what that was".

Thanks Daisy.

This morning, even after the conference, I felt I never caught up on any of the work I wanted to get done today. I ran around all morning like I was still late for something. I HATE when your alarm decides not to go off one morning.


Switching modes. While finishing some reports from home, I came across this story on NBC's Nightly News. It is for my mommy bloggers out there:

What is a mom's work worth?

There is actually a calculator on there. Pretty cool. I am curious to see how much a working mother of two puppies is worth? Especially after rainy weekends with lots of muddy paws.

Continued.

I decided to leave my bedroom door open last night. Our bedroom lies off the kitchen and I know Daisy likes sleeping on the cold floor.

I lifted my head this morning around 5:45am to the buzzing of my alarm. I saw white just outside my bedroom door. I smiled at Daisy after I realized she only woke me up once around 12:30am.

As I turned my head back to the pillow, I saw Daisy again? She was sleeping right next to me. I immediately jumped out of bed and walked into the kitchen to look at my floor.

White stuffing from their huge bed everywhere.

I did not care. I actually left it there for over 2 hours while exercising and getting ready this morning. I was in such a good mood for actually getting a decent amount of sleep last night, the huge mess on my kitchen floor did not phase me.

Victory = Me

Can we laugh now?

So after pacing in my office this morning, I saw my dad's number on the caller ID. He gave me the news...

Her diagnosis: A cat scratched her eye.

Not just any cat, my cat at home. Now before you all laugh at the very crazy dog lady, the doctor did tell my mother and his mother the scratch could have been fatal. Apparently cats carry quite a bit of gross, disease like things in their claws.

The doctor told them it was a blessing we treated Daisy for a UTI (you didn't loose a week and a half of sleep lady) because my dad religiously fed her the antibiotics since Saturday. The medicine pretty much killed all the bacteria and infection from my cat's claws.

I couldn't tell you the relief and thousand pound bricks lifted off my shoulders when I said out loud, "She's going to be OK".

Moving on to the good part. He hates...no, no, no hate is an understatement...he loathes our cat at home. I do not care much for our 15 year old cat because of my allergies. But everyone knows how he feels about the cat.

I will edit the love of my life's response to my news on Daisy. I laughed so hard at work. And I promise you he will not hurt the cat. They are all threats.

We all know I am a avid F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fan so I will replace any swear words with the word candy.

"I am going to kill that mother candy cat.I cannot believe that candy cat hurt Daisy. If she is not dead when I get home I am going to candy put that candy cat in the candy microwave"


That is all folks.

Fight Like Hell

On my drive home Friday night (before the bad news), I called his sister like I typically do on my long drives and we chatted for a good hour.

She and her boyfriend hit a rough patch in their relationship. They reached their one year anniversary last week. And she does what I use to do way back in my 15, 16 year old days with my love. I stubbornly sat on the other side of the phone refusing to call him. Have I ever mentioned our first year together was something out of a bad teen relationship movie?

Our relationship improved mostly because I refused to give up. Yes, I will take a lot of credit and most days he even agrees. I told his sister on the phone, "This advice might shock you and I am sure your other girlfriends might not be telling you this, but you have to call him, so what if you call him more than he calls you, big deal. If its what you want, fight like hell".

Fight back.

Moving on to his mother. Well way back almost 9 years ago, we butted heads on our first meeting together and over the years, it happened a lot more. I would never dare say I hated her, but we really didn't get along.

That is until I started voicing my opinion. Through this deployment we talk almost everyday like best friends. She took me out to breakfast on Sunday and we discussed many things. The topic of Army came up and we disagreed on something. She said something bluntly and voiced her opinion. And back in the day I would curl up into a ball and let her comments eat at me. I snapped back and spoke my opinion. I did not back down.

And when I walked into my house yesterday, I received the sweetest email from her saying she is so proud of me and loves being a part of my life. I think she respects and truly loves the fighter in me.

Fight back.

Now his grandfather. Diagnosed with cancer last July. I, unfortunately did not worry for a minute. It is his grandfather! I mean this 80 year old lifts at the gym, hunts, walks, goes to Church every Sunday.

So when I found out last week his cancer doubled in size. I suddenly wished I prayed a little harder for him over the last year. When I visited him this weekend, I did not see a 80 year old with terminal cancer, I actually saw his grandfather, one of the toughest old men I've ever met. He looked surprisingly healthy and God, you better know he is not going down without a fight. Grandpa keep...

Fighting back.

Now my events through the past two weeks might not get some people down, but I definitely hit a very low point. I cannot explain what I felt happening to my body, to my emotions, to my mental state. Where did my spunk go? I spend a lot of my time and days concentrating on the positive. I am without a doubt an optimistic. On Saturday, I honestly wanted to give up...to cry, to lock myself in my room until his mid tour. On my drive Sunday I continued to tell myself...

Fight back.

And Daisy. Tomorrow is judgement day. His wonderful mother and my wonderful mother will be taking her to a specialist together. She is my pistol, my ball of energy and humor, and I do not even need to tell her...

Fight back.

Because I know my dog will fight like hell.

Today, after three weeks, I received my first, new account at work. The love of my life surprised me with a plane ticket to Tampa Bay so I do not have to spend 24 hours in the car this weekend. And last night I slept for a continuous 7 hours for the first time in 10 nights.

And even though I truly believe Daisy will be OK, if you could, send a few prayers or good luck thoughts her way, I know we both will appreciate them.

Seriously

I really hate trying to play "poor me", but I just really want remember the lowest point of this deployment, how I handled it, and more importantly how I trucked through it.

That being said...

I fell rollerblading yesterday. Tripped over Dakota. And while meeting with a client I decided for some reason to drive over the parking curb. I began to laugh at myself and said, this will get better.

I think I may have been off just a little...

His wonderful mother met a vet appointment at her vet's office. Dr Jones is a good family friend and adores not only me, but him. He coached my love in soccer for years and their kids grew up together. As soon as I saw him I gave him a big hug.

Before he entered the room, Daisy did her usual staring. Only I noticed she looked VERY creepy. One of her pupils was so tiny and the other was normal size. I asked his mother, "Doesn't she look weird". Now this dog stares at me all of the time, so I truly believe this is the first time I noticed this.

Dr. Jones walked in and I pointed out her eye. He looked a little confused and pulled her onto the examining table and said he needed to go get a few more tools. Well Miss Daisy jumped off the table and into the Doctor's area. I apologized and Dr. Jones said he actually wanted the doctors to look at her eyes. I laughed, walked back into the room.

I immediately turned around to see 3 doctors surrounding her in addition to a tech holding her down. I made a joke to his mom, "Oh they do not want to tell the crazy dog lady something is terribly wrong with her dog".

Dr. Jones walked in and it did not look good. He seemed very confused by her eye. He said something is pushing her pupil forward in the back of her head. Fungal disease is common in huskies and other wolf like dogs.

I continued to nod and said, what every other owner would say, "What does this mean?"

His response, "I want to wait and see, but Courtney, I do not want to even go there just yet, let's just say it's not good, worse case scenario". Dr. Jones knowing me immediately grabbed the kleenex box.

And 1 hour later, I am still crying.

Dr. Jones told me to wait until Monday to see what happens with her eye. Right now Dak is over with his parents and my parents are spoiling Daisy rotten.

If there is any silver lining in any of this, I mean what are the chances that not only am I sitting in the vet's office when I notice this, but his mother happens to know a dog eye specialist's home number since her own bulldog went there a few times.

Screw you Murphy.

A few tears...A few cookies

This weekend I am heading out of town for one of our very good friend's wedding. I am excited to see his friends who over the years have turned into my big brothers/best friends/family.

However, I am forgetting about two very important things. Dakota and Daisy.

I kept putting off what to do until tonight. I called my mother and toyed with the idea of driving 6 hours north to Chicago to drop them off and drive another 14 hours south to the wedding.

I began researching boarding places. Dakota is tough and stayed with some crazy people down at flight school. With Daisy, I am more sensitive, especially after her surgery experience. I looked up a place everyone raved about here. I began reading the reviews:

the packages of food I had expected them to eat were still in the bag. As soon as I got them home, the female jumped out of the car and let loose a large diarrhetic stool

My friends dog got killed here.It was a small dog, and since they were careless, they let it in the large roaming area with big dogs. The poor thing got mauled to death.

I was told by more than one reliable source that a large dog died while at the Guest HouseI was told that the Guest House was negligent in caring for the dog and that the dog died a traumatic and terrible death.

So I started crying about the thought of boarding them. I sucked it up and called a good friend stationed here. I asked him about the possiblity of house/dog sitting and he agreed. I wanted to reach through the phone and hug him.

I still feel guilty about sitting around so besides running and rollerblading, cooking and baking take up a lot of my time now.

I made a yummy homemade salsa for a nice healthy snack for when I get home:

1 med green pepper, diced
1 med red pepper, diced
1 med vidalia (sweet) onion, diced
4 regular tomaotes, diced OR 6 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 bag frozen sweet corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1 packet good season dry italian dressing mix

Combine all of the ingredients and refrigerate 2 hours before eating.

And on Sunday, my poor friend had one of our friends fall through her attic floor into her kitchen so I brought over Dijon Orange Roughy Fillets (fish very similiar to Tilapia)

It might be the easiest, best tasting recipe ever.

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablesoon Dijon mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice

4 Orange Roughy/Tilapia

3 tbs fresh bread crumbs

Preheat over to 450 degrees. Melt butter over low heat in saucepan. Add mustard, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice. and mix well Place fish in lightly greased baking pan. Pour sauce over fillets and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake for 7-8 minutes.

I also made layered oatmeal-chip cookies tonight for our pot luck dinner tonight. However, I made 30 cookies and while they were cooling, I forgot about them and walked out of the room. My beautiful husky snatched 4-5 of them. Grrrr.

Pick Your Favorite

When I look through my pictures and posts it scares me how much I discuss Daisy. I sometimes feel bad for my other wonderful dog, Dakota.


Now I could not survive without Dakota. Everyone who comes to visit, his family, and my family all love Dak Dak (nickname). Her temperment is incredibly sweet and loyal. She's my protector. If she hears a noise, we need to go inspect not only where she thinks she heard the noise, but the surrounding rooms. She heads in a room, does a lap, looks up at me like the coast is clear then walks out the door into the next room.


I guess I am making a point that I love Dakota.


But I have said it before and will say it again that I have never met a dog with more personality than Miss Daisy Girl. He and I talked today about how much she makes us smile. Even thousands of miles away, he always laughs out loud watching her on the webcam.


Case and point. These pictures are just from today. I could blog about her adventures everyday.


Two dogs outside in the rain for two minutes. One comes in completely clean, the other walks into my kitchen looking like this:



Over the past 8 months with her, I continue to learn my patience and sense of humor always shines through these mishaps.


I decided to clean out my car today. As soon as I open up the door:



I tried getting her out of the car. However, she wanted to go for a ride. She sat like this for a good 20 minutes looking out the window in the garage





I thrive during this deployment because of both of them. One protects me and the other one drives me crazy and makes me laugh on a daily basis.

Yeah Right...

About two weeks ago, my mom and I discussed my bruised tailbone:

Mom: I fell on my tailbone 4 years ago
Me: Oh yeah, I remember
Mom: And when its cold outside, sometimes it still hurts

In my head: Ok mom, we all know you're crazy, but we love you anyways

After 3 decent runs outside, I felt a little better about my upcoming race. Today the temperature dropped to 39 degrees after 4 days of 65+ temps. And my back started killing me today!

It doesn't help that after 10 days with 6th graders, I know have a terrible cold.

Did I mention I am running a half marathon on Saturday?



Remember when he surprised me with Daisy? He informed me that the breeder said she would only shed twice a year.

In my head: Yeah, whatever. What is she a snake? I am sure its no big deal

Sure enough, after 8 months of seeing strands of white hair here and there, I am now seeing CHUNKS of white hair EVERYWHERE!

I cannot stand it. I vaccum twice a day now sometimes and fill my wonderful Dyson to the top.

I kept telling her today (yes I talk to my dogs, my better half is deployed) that she's lucky I love her so much.



I guess seeing really is believing.

Q&A Part Three

Oh yes, I finally sat down and finished answering your wonderful, wonderful questions. This last session is all about me...and my puppies :)

I am going to start with two of my favorite questions. I mean they were all excellent, but these two put a big ol' smile on my face.

MG wants to know if you are planning on reading the book for book club?
Sadly, I did not read the 1,000 page book for bookclub. I did, however, read all three books I borrowed from a few of our members. Considering this was less than a month ago...I am quite proud!

meganewoldsen asked


Do you think Daisy and Blaze would make super cute Siberian Husky pups?
Oh heck yeah!

Daisy

Blaze (Picture totally stolen from the wonderful Megan)

Anyone else agree?

Worst Habbit?
This might sound crazy, but most of my family HATES that I see the good in everyone and both he and them HATE hows naive I am at times. I know, terrible "worst habbit", but I guess it can be a bad thing as much as a good thing.

sfpm said...
What was a Best for this past year?
Oh easy, living with him...

What was a Worst for this past year?

Quitting my job and then trying to find another one as good as it.

Weakness?

Details, details, details. I pay close attention to them, but sometimes not close enough.

Strength?

Organization and leadership

(army)Wife said...

What's your dream house like?

Two story house with large, open kitchen and living room.

What is the one thing you want to save to give to your daughter/son?

I am not sure about my son, but I know I will eventually give my daughter my WP minature class ring he bought me during Ring Weekend.

Week Eleven

Well where do I start...

I truly believe I am suffering from blogger's block. And I know exactly why.

About 10 days ago, I decided to "forgo" my newest job opportunity. Its an incredibly long story that I promise to share eventually. I will say I absolutely made the right decision and have no regrets whatsoever. For awhile I found it difficult to blog.

I am back in the interview/resume/application saddle and found some luck. I am on interview #3 with a company, but not sure what will happen next. While I continue my job search related to my major, I am subbing. And let me say, God Bless teachers. I taught elementary all of last week. I never said "Keep your hands to yourself" or "Eyes and ears on me girls and boys" more in my entire life.

This week I am subbing 6th grade English at a local middle school, Monday-Friday. Its like a real job, ha, which I am still adjusting to this new schedule. They actually offered me a long term position to teach that class until the end of the school year. I have until the end of the week to decide.

And let me tell you, my dogs HATE my schedule. I truly believe I trained obedient dogs, but not as of late. Friday afternoon I came home to two very hyper dogs. I immediately changed my clothes and put on my rollerblades. The girls took off so fast that all of a sudden I witnessed both of my legs and rollerblades fly straight into the air and I landed square on my back. I self-diagnosed myself with a bruised tailbone.

Four days later I am still in a ton of pain. I did not go to kickboxing for the first time in 2 months. Instead I lifted and ran two miles at a very slow pace. My darling friend and neighbor brought over her heating pad and let's just say, its my new best friend, even replaced DVR in my life!

I promised myself to take it easy this week, but I am growing more and more frustrated as I realized I am 11 days away from my half-marathon. I do not know what to do.

Besides all the minor drama, I am still feeling good about a lot of things. As I approach the three month mark, I am:

• Still cooking three new meals a month
• Scrapbooking a lot more
• Already reading my second book, a trashy Hollywood novel this month
• Studying a little more for my personal training license
• Involving myself more at my church and still attending every week

Six out of the past seven weekends, my house was filled with visitors. Last weekend my sister and brother-in-law visited. This weekend is no different. His former teammate at WP's wife wants to come check out the area while her husband finishes Ranger School. They plan to move here in May which means another wonderful friend nearby.

Hopefully this ends my blogger's block!