Merry Christmas

Christmas is finally here! This year it actually felt like it came really fast. This is one of the best Christmases (is that a word??) I have had. I probably say that every year but each year I feel that way. This year Kevin's sister and her kids are in town so we are very excited to be able to spend some time with them. Kevin did all the shopping this year although I did accompany him to some the stores and gave some input but other than his sister Jen's gift Kevin picked them all. I have never seen him so excited to give gifts. We didn't do too bad this year either. We each got some things that we really wanted/love! Some of my favorites: Nana got me beeswax candles, Kevin's brother got me a glass water bottle, and the one I am the most excited about, Kevin got me a 40 day unlimited class membership to a very cool yoga studio. Today we are off to nanas for Christmas lunch and family time and then we will be headed back over to Kevin's mom's to spend some more time with his sister, niece and nephew.

Wedding up date

I really haven't done too much more wedding planning because really there's not much to do. Really the only things left on my list are a decorator, a dj, and to ask the rest of the bridal party. Kevin and I have each asked one person. The main thing we must get accomplished is the save the date cards. Ideally I wanted to have them sent out in November but that didn't happen and I didn't want them to get mixed up in with peoples Christmas cards so December was out but I also don't want them to get accidently thrown out when Christmas stuff gets put away so I am hoping to get them sent out by the end of January. My sister pointed out that November would have been a year in advance and that January is ten months early. I realize that most people don't send them out this early but most people get married during wedding season (the summer months) and most people don't have people traveling as far as we do. Our wedding is in a month that has a major travel holiday (and its also very close to Christmas) and we have a lot of people coming from other sides of the country and other countries so etiquette says they need to go out a year in advance. (I didn't make that rule up Emily Post did, so if you have a problem with it take it up with her). The other night Kevin actually spent a lot of time giving me some of his guest list, he is up to about 50 invites!

And while I'm thinking about:
Kevin and I would love to share all of our engagement pictures with everyone, once they're taken that is, but would greatly appreciate it if everyone would refrain from sharing them or using them on facebook. I have seen a lot of my friends' very personal pictures (sonograms, babies, wedding, engagement, and so on) being shared by  friends family members and used by friends and family as profile pictures. This is one of my biggest pet peeves and I'll tell you why. I know who all of my friends on facebook are but I do not know who your friends are so I can't control who sees or uses it once you share or use one of my pictures. If you would like a printed photo just let one of us know and we would be more than happy to get you copies of any picture you like.

12 days till Christmas!!

There are 12 days until Christmas and Kevin and I have seriously not bought a single gift. However I did send out Christmas cards this year! Last year I only sent out about 3 and this year I think I sent out around 30. Two weeks ago I went to my yearly doctor appointment and the nurse who took me to the exam room and did my blood pressure and questionnaire and such is a horrible person and the doctor and I had a long chat about her after my check up. Everytime I go they ask me about a million questions about my health and routines. One of the questions they ask is do you take any medicines or vitamins, she seriously rolled her eyes while I went over what vitamins I take. Then she asked if I had gotten the flu shot yet and of course I said no, which prompted her to say it wouldn't be a problem t get it during my visit. I politely declined which sent her into a long lecture about why I need one and blah blah blah. I gave her my reasons for not wanting one and she made me feel like crap for them. You better believe I let the doctor know that I didn't appreciate being lectured on my medical choices especially ones I have extensively researched and she agreed that the nurse was out of line. So while I'm on the subject lets discuss the flu shot for a minute. Did you know that the CDC recently released a statement admitting that the flu shot does not work? I don't need the CDC to tell me it doesn't work there is plenty of proof. Example one: a U.S. Navy ship (the military requires that everyone must get a flu shot except those who are exempt because of allergies or religious reasons) that was almost completely vaccinated had a major outbreak of the flu. How does that happen if the flu shot works, shouldn't only a few of those on board (the ones who didn't get vaccinated) be the only people who got sick? Example two: There have been I want to say around 100 cases of people who have gotten the shot and then been diagnosed with the exact same strain of the flu as the one in the vaccine. Example three: Matt and Charlene had all three of their kids get the vaccine and the past two weeks all of them have been home sick with the flu. I don't need any more proof than that to tell me that the flu shot does not work.

Silas Problems

About a month ago we started to notice Silas' rear end had a bad smell coming from it so into the bath he went. The bath didn't help the smell came right back. So we (and by we I mean me) inspected him closer, it looked like he had diaper rash really bad. No amount of cleaning him up and applying triple antibiotic ointment helped so after a couple weeks we went to the vet (I feel like it is a second home). His poor butt was extremely infected and because we have amazing vets they wanted to wait on oral antibiotics since they know how sensitive his tummy is. They also recommended we start him on prescriptions probiotics just in case he would have to take them. After only a few days on them he has completely transformed. He now has a real appetite and real interest in food. He has never really begged for food and up until now we could sit right next to him and eat and he wouldn't pay much attention to it but now he acts as though he hasn't had anything to eat his whole life. He has more energy and play drive. He acts like a normal puppy. We went back to the vet today for his third checkup and he still has to go back in for more treatments but he is looking better. While there I told the vet how much he has changed since starting the probiotics and she was very happy for him so she wrote him unlimited refills for a year! You know how I know we have great vets? The whole staff celebrates with him every time something good happens to him. Today he got lots of extra pets and treats and even the doctors we have never had an appointment with know him and all his issues and they even get excited for him. Maybe next year we will only have to go to the vet for regular yearly check ups.

In other news nothing exciting has happened. I'm still at the same place I was with wedding planning so no news to report there. Kevin bought more work clothes so now I can do laundry a little less. He has also been working days so that has been really nice since now we get to see each other more.     

Work Work Work

I have been busy busy busy. I am almost done with all the wedding planning.
Church: check
Photographer: check
Reception venue: check
Caterer: check
Flowers: check
Dress: Half check (its ordered)
Decorator: we're still negotiating a price
Bar service: check
Dj: I called and left a message for the one I want so I hope he calls me back soon

Who is in the wedding party? Well that's the one thing we can't decide on. We are basically struggling with how many people to have in the wedding party. Once we have that number it won't be as hard to decide who to ask. I am hoping to have our engagement pictures taken soon and the save the dates sent out in the beginning of January.

Finally

On Halloween Kevin proposed!!!

 

We have set a date. November 7, 2015. Put it on your calendar now because you are not going to want to miss this!!!

 

Fall

Not much is new. Kevin has been working first shift for a couple of weeks so  the dogs have been going to daycare and loving it. They get so excited when we pull in the parking lot and Stan hasn't gotten a bully report sent home the past 4 times they have gone. Good job Stan! The dogs have been enjoying the cooler weather but I for one am not enjoying it at all. I hate fall and winter and am so ready for summer.

Chickens

I have wanted to get backyard chickens for over a year now. Last year Kevin got me two chickens and we ended up eating them after we found out the fine for owning chickens within city limits. I want them even more after doing all this scary food chemicals and organic/holistic lifestyle research. I also really want to get a hive or two of bees. I watched about 4 hours worth of bee keeping videos on youtube and they are so cool. In the spring there is a beekeeping school in Indy that I told Kevin he and I should attend. He said he doesn't want to waste time if its something I'm only going to give 10% effort into. I'll show him when I'm making tons of money from selling eggs and honey.

Oh Stan

Yesterday I came home and Kevin told me that he thought Stan had torn off part of a plant or something and I should probably check into it next time I let them out. It was one of my blueberry bushes. Not part of it but the WHOLE bush roots and all, ROOTS!!! Not part of the roots all of the roots. I have no idea how he did it but he did.

Its always something

Last night Kevin played in the alumni soccer game. Right after Kevin left I took the dogs for walk and then I played with them out back for a few minutes. While we were out there Silas cut open his other leg. Of course it happened when Kevin was gone and our vet office was closed. I refuse to ever go back to the emergency vet unless it is life or death, over $200 just for an office visit is absolutely ridiculous. I tried my best to find anything to use to wrap up his leg and I finally found a bunch of old gauze from when I had my wisdom teeth taken out and tried to use that. I thought I had done an okay job but I didn't and it keep falling off. When Kevin got home he used some of his old medic stuff and did a much better job at fixing Silas up. It fell and by fell I mean Stan and Silas were wrestling and Stan pulled it off while they were outside so we couldn't put it back on but the bleeding has stopped so for now I think he will be alright.

Fur babies

Getting ready to swim.

Aren't they adorable?

Stan

This was Silas' bandage. So cute.

no more toothpaste???

After watching all of these documentaries lately I have really stepped up my holistic lifestyle. I have checked out and read about 5 books from the library, found a few more blogs to follow, a few more groups to join, and all of that has led to some purchases online.

I ordered an organic oral health kit (I actually ordered a couples kit [it was only $2 more] but Kevin isn't really on board with this one yet). It includes: 2 organic bass toothbrushes, 2 tongue scrappers, and a bottle of a special mix of essential oils to use in place of toothpaste.
As of right now I still use toothpaste in the morning unfortunately we have too much and I don't want to waste it so I'll keep using it while my body adjusts to this new routine. My goal is to within a few months be completely off toothpaste and only doing oil pulling, using the oil blend, and using homemade 'toothpaste'. Why do I no longer want to use toothpaste? Do you know what's in it? There are a bunch of cancer causing ingredients in toothpaste. Colgate is the worst! Did you know that fluoride is extremely bad for you? From this point on I will start to refuse fluoride treatments at the dentist. Speaking of I am also looking for a holistic doctor and dentist if you happen to know of any.

I also ordered a Himalayan salt lamp. I was the most excited about this and it was delivered yesterday and doesn't work. Talk about major let down. I immediately called the company and of course they weren't extremely helpful. I now have to contact amazon and have them send me a receipt  so I can send it to the company so they can send me a replacement cord beaus apparently the proof of purchase code isn't enough proof.
I bet you want to know what a salt lamp is. It is a huge (6 pound) salt crystal that is slightly carved out inside so a small light bulb can sit inside and warm it. As it warms the salt crystal releases negative ions and naturally purifies air. It is also said to host a bunch of other health benefits such as relaxation and even migraine relief. I'll let you know if I think it works once I can get a new cord.

I also have a huge list of other things I want to slowly start to purchase and incorporate into our everyday lives. There is also a list of things I want to get out of our lives. The microwave is one of them as well as grains. Earlier this week I was telling my dad about some of these things and he asked in Kevin is on board with the holistic lifestyle. Kevin  supports me and the things I want to do. He definitely supports some things more than others. He is good with canning and organic clean eating. However he is not completely sold on getting rid of the  microwave and removing grains from our diet or switching out toothpaste for essential oils.

Silas Update

Silas is doing fine. When Kevin took him in for the follow up appointment they said he didn't need to get stitches, surprisingly the glue held. They rewrapped his paw with new bandages and said we could remove them later that night. We were supposed to keep him calm and not let him outside off leash because if he were to break it open then we would have to bring him right back in for the stitches but that only last for a day. He seems fine except in the early mornings and evenings when the pain meds start to wear off.

My poor poor baby Silas

Silas and Stan were rough housing and came flying onto the couch so since my mom was by the back door I asked her to let them out. After they had been out a few seconds my mom goes "Is that blood?" and what do you know there is blood every where. Seriously blood every where! I didn't know where it was coming from so I went outside and sent both dogs inside. At first I couldn't figure out where it was coming from because there was so much both dogs had it on them and were leaving bloody paw prints. I check all of Stan's paws and didn't see anything suspicious. I checked Silas and he was standing in a puddle of blood. I lifted his paw to be sure and it was just gushing out. I grabbed a leash and my phone and called the vet on my way to the car. They were 10 minutes from closing and I was praying they would answer so I didn't have to go to the emergency vet, they said as long as I left asap one of the vets would stay. I got there pretty quickly and we were greeted at the front door by one of the vet techs and she took us straight to the scale to weigh him and then straight to the exam room where the vet was waiting. (Remember a post I just recently did about the special dinner and the vet I didn't like? Yeah you guessed it we had him. Maybe he got in trouble or does better in emergency situations but he was friendlier) Silas does not like the vet who was there and immediately cowered behind me and I felt so horrible forcing him to be examined. They actually had to take him to the back because there was so much blood they couldn't see where it was starting from and because I couldn't take that much blood anymore I was so glad. When they vet came back in he said Silas his pad clear across and that it wasn't too deep. (He said whatever he cut it on was SHARP because it was a clean straight slice) He said that he tried to hold it together and use skin grafting glue to seal it but with that much blood it might not work. They bandaged his paw up for tonight and it now looks like it is in a cast. We have to take him back first thing in the morning to have it looked at again and if the glue held they will clean it up more and re-glue it again? but if it didn't hold (and they are betting it won't) he will have to be sedated with anesthisa and have it stitched up. They gave us some pain meds and antibiotics to give him but told me not to feed him or give him any in the morning in case he has to have the sedation. As we were leaving I noticed the vets office looked like a slasher movie had been filmed there, there was a trail of blood from my car to the exam rooms. I got my poor sad pathetic baby home and gave him his meds and now he is laying on the floor oh so sadly because with his cone on he can't figure out how to make it up onto the couch. (Actually I just lifted him one half at a time onto the couch because he looked so sad) Poor poor little baby Silas.

What scares me

Some people are afraid of heights, some are afraid of clowns, others are afraid of spiders, but I am afraid of food. Seriously, I'm terrified.
Most of you know I am into holistic and natural and organic things, well recently I joined a holistic group on facebook and came across a recommendation for a documentary on organic food. I found the documentary on Netflix and it consumed me. Once I finished watching Netflix recommended more documentaries for me to watch (Netflix recommends movies and shows based on things you have recently watched or rated sometimes it only gives you 10 seconds to decide if you want to watch it or not before it starts playing) and I obliged and watched them. Over the course of 5 days I have watched roughly 10 or 11 hours of documentaries on food and chemicals. I have also done about 12 hours of my own research. I just can't stop watching and reading this stuff. I am now convinced that every time I eat I am poisoning my body. I will definitely be going back to buying only organic and cutting out as much meat from my diet as I can. I told Kevin that I have changed my mind and I am willing to settle for a smaller house if it means I can have a bug yard with plenty of space for me to plant my gardens and fruit tress and berry bushes. I also still really want to own chickens but after learning what is in milk I now also want my own dairy cow. I talked Kevin into chickens a long time ago so maybe now I can get him to okay a cow (wishful thinking).

What a week

On Tuesday I took Aaron to play at the mall but the play area was under construction, just my luck, so we played with the train set in Barnes and Noble until the mall opened and then we walked around. We ended up stopping in at American Eagle and it was buy one get one 50% off on everything so I bought some stuff. I bought a pair of jeggings. I hate when people wear leggings as pants but since jeggings look like jeans and are the style I bought a pair to try out.

On Thursday I got my hair done. I cut off almost 5 inches!!! And then Kevin and I went to the vet dinner. Our vets office invited us to a special dinner because our opinion and ideas are very valuable to them. (we took this to mean we have spent a lot of money) There about 20 people (10 couples) invited and only a few didn't show up. We ended up sitting next to the most annoying people there! The representative would ask a question and then let us all answer and talk amongst ourselves (he was recording everything we said). I felt like we could have accomplished much more if people would have stopped dragging out every story they told. There were a few people who would tell a 10 minute story that had nothing to do with the question or even the vets office, I just kept looking at kevin like oh my gosh are they serious. Overall I think people gave good ideas and suggestions. I even made a knew friend who is also into the holistic stuff.

The agony of the smell

Kevin gave the dogs another bath yesterday morning and he said that here or there was a patch were the smell reactivated but other than that only their heads and faces smelled so I made another batch of the peroxide recipe and Kevin put it on them the best he could. The smell is basically out of the house but my car still has a pretty strong odor. There is also somewhere that still has the skunk oil on it because I keep touching it and getting it all over my hands but for the life of me I can not find the source any where and some how it is only me that touches it!
In other news they came yesterday and put in our fence. The job wasn't that big and was only supposed to take 3 hours tops but for some reason it took them close to 7 hours. The dogs are ecstatic to finally be able to just run or lay in the sun or just walk around and sniff things for longer than 5 minutes. They have spent the majority of the day outside and are so tired they have both been sleeping for the past hour and a half.

Still stinks

The dogs don't smell anymore except for their faces and I no longer smell but the house and my car still smell pretty bad. I thought since I have leather seats it would be easier to get the smell out but I was wrong, I actually think it would be easier to get the smell out of cloth. I put both dogs' collars and leashes in the peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap mixture an it got the smell out of Stan's stuff (which is cloth) but Silas' stuff is still a bit fragrant (his is leather). I went to the pet store today and bought him a new collar and it ended up being too small he needs an extra large instead of the regular large I got for him. I also bought some skunk smell remover and have been using it in my car but the smell is still there. Its not as strong but its still there especially if you sniff the seats. I had also ordered some stuff on amazon and I am still waiting for it to arrive and hopefully it get the smell out. Today is also Silas' second birthday. I baked him a special cake last night and then frosted it with a special dog safe icing when I got home from work tonight and let him have a special treat after dinner. He loved it! Stan had some too and also approves. I'm thinking about freezing half of it and using that on Stan's birthday since they don't really need this much cake. Last year I took slices of it to all of Silas' dog friends in the neighborhood but since we moved they don't have any dog friends to share with.

Worst night ever

Last night started off okay; I took the dogs for a walk, came home and made Kevin's lunch, watched a bit of tv, woke Kevin up for work and got ready for bed, said goodbye to Kevin, and this is were it went down hill. Since the fence hasn't been installed yet every time the dogs need to go out I have to put them on leashes and walk them around the back yard so they can do their business. I got them all leashed up and took them out for one last potty break before bedtime. I was glad we were out when we were because it look like it was about to pour but the rain hadn't started yet. Both dogs had finished their business and we were heading towards the house to go inside and that's when the rain started. We were about 3/4 the way up the yard when Silas bolted. (Silas always lets me know when there is something he sees and is going to chase but this time there was no warning) Stan took off about.0002 seconds after Silas. Now remember they are on leashes and those leashes are connected to me. Together the dogs weigh at least 160 pounds (more than me) and they were running so fast and pulling so hard I couldn't stop it and somehow ended up tripping and falling and being dragged along on this chase. (Had it been just one dog I probably could have stopped it) At this point I'm on the ground and can finally see what the are chasing, a little white cat. It started to run away but then changed its mind and started running right at us. I was afraid I would be attacked so I started yelling and trying to scramble to get up. Then as this cat is less then a foot from me I can see that it is not a cat and in fact a skunk. I lost it at this point and was screaming no and leave it and really trying to get away. (I lost a shoe in the process) By the time I made it to the back door my mom was coming out to see what was going on and I told her what had happened and she said we were lucky to not have been sprayed. I wanted to check the dogs over and make sure it hadn't bit or scratched them but it was too dark so we took them in the kitchen. Silas took off up stairs so I went to bring him back down. In the 10-20 seconds it took me to get him Stan had started foaming at the mouth so bad it was just pouring out. Its about this time I notice a faint onion type smell that gets stronger and stronger and I realize we have been sprayed. I took the dogs straight to the emergency vet to get Stan looked at and the vet said since they were sprayed in the face they needed to dye their eyes to see if they had been damaged from it. This did not go over well. They were crying and pulling and growling and fighting harder than I have ever seen them fight but we were able to do the test and their eyes are slightly irritated but no damage. Stan's mouth was extremely irritated and the vet said to expect a lot of vomiting from him. They charged me an outrageous amount and gave me a recipe to get rid of the smell. I stopped CVS and bought all the peroxide and baking soda they had and went to Nana's. Poor Nana had agreed to let me bathe them in her shower. (I thought she had the type of sprayer that is connected to a hose and you can take it down but turns out she only has the regular kind) We owe her big time. I used all the peroxide on the dogs so I took a bath in baking soda paste to try and get the smell off me. The house smells horrible! It was after 1 am by the time I had finished the dogs and me. So then at 1 in the morning I was googling ways to take the smell out of the house. Google said open all the windows and turn all the fans in the house on so I did that. Another website said to boil vinegar and put a bowl of vinegar in every room because it should absorb the smell so I did that. When Kevin got home form work the first thing he said was what is that smell and then started gagging. The downstairs smells way worse than the upstairs. He said the bedroom wasn't too bad and then kicked me and the dogs out and said we would have to stay downstairs and sleep on the floor. In my whole life I have only ever seen one other skunk and I have never met anyone who had been sprayed. This weekend is going to suck and I'm probably going to have to shell out $100 dollars to take the dogs to a groomer since I don't have a shower to wash them in. I'm also terrified to take them out in the yard. We are going to need lots of prayers for the smell to fade quickly.

safety first

Today Kevin and I ordered me a helmet so I can finally ride on the motorcycle. I apparently have a very small head. The first few I tried on were extra small and much too big for me and I thought I might have to buy a youth sized one but we finally found one that fit although I think it squeezes my face too much. Unfortunately style that fit me didn't come in any fun or girly colors so I had to go with just plain white. I had originally wanted a pink or turquoise one or a black one with a girly design, and Kevin wanted me to get a 'cool' one with like flames or something on it so that's what we went looking for and ended up with plain white. Go figure. They didn't have any in my size in stock so I am still waiting for it to come in so we can pick it up and go riding.   

Oil pulling

Around ten or twelve months ago I learned about something called oil pulling. Up until recently I had never tried it (I thought it sounded absolutely disgusting). Late last week I found a jar of completely organic coconut oil, that I had totally forgotten we even had, in one of the kitchen cabinets. Since we weren't using it and I didn't want it to go to waste I decided to look into oil pulling. I spent about two and a half days on the internet researching oil pulling and decided I felt comfortable enough to give it a try.

Side note: Sometimes Most times I get slightly obsessive about the things I decide to research. Two and a half days is like light research, I have been known to spend a week or two at a time staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning researching crap on the internet. Any way.....

What is oil pulling? Its an extremely old folk remedy, I think it started in India, that involves swishing oil in the mouth. The people who started it believed it could detox the body and help treat and/or cure a lot of different things. Not very many studies have been done on it but the ones that have been done have reported that it can actually reduce plaque, gingivitis, and oral bacteria. Although the studies do show it is not as effective as prescription mouthwash, but I mean come on prescription mouthwash is some pretty strong stuff.

How do you do it? Its ridiculously easy, all you do is put a tablespoon of 100% organic oil (either sesame seed, sunflower seed, or coconut oil) in your mouth and swish and pull it through your teeth for twenty minutes first thing in the morning and then rinse with warm water and brush like normal. I use coconut oil and it actually isn't too bad. Before I tried it I was really worried about the taste but it doesn't really have a taste or at least I didn't notice it. What got me was the texture! Coconut oil (not sure about the others) starts out a bit solid (kind of comparable to butter) and I had to chew it for a bit until it started to melt. I didn't think I would make it past that point (seriously it made me want to puke) but once it got melty it wasn't bad at all. I did it while I was in the shower so I'm not sure how long I did it for, but I do take a long time to shower  normally about 20-30mmintues. I know I'm slow. You can't swallow while doing it because the oil is said to pull toxins and bacteria into it and you don't to swallow everything your trying to get rid of.  Basically your mouth gets pretty full. I'm glad I was in the shower while doing it because every now and then a little bit would spurt out and because I'm apparently 5 years old every time it happened I would start to giggle and then a little bit would dribble out and make me giggle more.
Is it working? My mouth does feel cleaner after I finish. I read that it takes a few weeks or a month to see big results so in a month we will see if Kevin thinks my morning breath is better. However over the weekend my sister did comment on my teeth being whiter. She even referenced the episode of Friends where Ross uses an at home whitening kit and leaves it on too long and then his teeth glow in the dark. I don't think my teeth are white enough to glow but I will let you know in a month if I notice otherwise.

new computer

We finally got a new computer! No more virus!
We are boring and just work a lot. In our spare time we have been watching the show Dexter. When Kevin first said we should start the series I wasn't sure I would like it but it turns out we both love this show. It must be something about shows centered around bad guys, first we watched weeds then breaking bad and now Dexter.
What else is new? The dogs are on a killing spree. So far this summer they have killed: 10 bunnies, 3 adult moles, 2 baby moles, 1 entire nest of birds, 4 baby birds, 1 adult bird, 3 toads, and some other animal I was unable to identify. I love my dogs but I am very tired of finding dead things in my yard. I have also started buying all of the dogs' things on amazon because it is so much cheaper. Silas' food costs $75 at the pet store and $55 or less on amazon plus free shipping. I may never go to the pet store again.

wow

I haven't posted in a long time! And really not much has happened since the last post. Stan has recently started to chew up everything! This would include Kevins brand new sunglasses and my phone, so if you are trying to call me I won't answer because my phone is broke. Oh and we bought a motorcycle.

Summer!

School is officially over for the kids! I think I may be more excited than they are. Now we can go to the zoo, the park, and the splash pads! Silas and Stan are also excited for summer, they have spent almost all day everyday outside for the past week. Last week we got out the pool for the first time this summer and they both love it. It took Stan about 30 minutes the first time we got it out to figure out that he could get in it but after that he has been the first one in every time. Kevin left yesterday for his yearly army training thing and will be gone for two weeks. :( I am already bored, but on the bright side I can go to bed before midnight! Last night I went to bed early and had enough energy to get up on time today. I even went for a morning run, showered, fed the dogs, let them play outside, got completely ready, ate breakfast, and cleaned up the kitchen all before 6:30 am!

Wow it's been a long time

We have been a bit busy. Silas started his therapy classes and now he and I spend every weekend at a different hospital for lessons and spend our weeks nights working on our training. I have to say I did not expect there to be so much work involved. I have also started working on Stan's training so that he can have some manners. Speaking of Stan, one of the other puppies families had a dna test ran and it came back as Rottweiler German shepherd and collie mix pretty similar to Silas. How funny is that. I was like what are the odds of that happening.

Game of Thrones....

... is my new obsession. Once a year? Twice a year? I don't know the exact details but every now and then Comcast has what they call watch-a-thon week and you can watch all kinds of things on demand including hbo and other channels that require a subscription. So I started watching Game of Thrones and am now addicted and am in agony because we don't have hbo and Kevin won't let me order it. I feel like a crack addict without crack so if you have hbo and are willing to let me use your account so I can watch it online I will forever be in your debt. I tried to find it online and the only place you can watch it is project free tv but trying to download everything the website kept saying we needed messed up the laptop and didn't even work, so someone please help me out.

Therapist Silas

I got the official email for Silas to start his on location training. From now on every Saturday Silas and I (and Kevin when he can make it) will have 2-4 hours of training at various hospitals, nursing homes, special needs homes, and rehabilitation centers around Allen County. I am so excited to start the process, although I am less excited about the amount of driving I will be doing. Silas will have to pass two final tests at the end of training to receive his certification and unfortunately for Silas he will have to pass both tests twice, once with me and once with Kevin. For Kevin to be able to accompany us to places Kevin will have to be certified, I figured as much. So think good thoughts and prayers for Silas and I as we start this little adventure.

Whats new

On our end not much is new. I bought a new car about a month ago and the snow has finally melted but other than that its been pretty boring around here. Our washing machine was starting to not work again so instead of spending $200 to have the guy come out and fix it again I watched a bunch of videos on youtube and figured out how to do it myself! And by myself I mean I told kevin what to do and then watched him do it. Our drain pumped was clogged again and I was blaming all the dog hair, well turns out it was actually just a pair of my underwear that was blocking it. How does that happen? I have no idea but it did.

Stan

Stan

Puke puke and more puke

Stan has decided to puke on our bed every day for about 4 days in a row. I am so tired of waking up at 2 am to the sound of puke. And I'm also extremely tired of washing the same thing every morning! In other news Stan now weighs in at about 25 pounds and has been off his diarrhea meds for 24 hours with no problems so fingers crossed it stays that way!

Things that make me mad

So last night I had trouble falling asleep and for some reason I just kept thinking of things that make me mad.

(In no particular order)

1. People who have a baby shower for any child that is not their first. It is incredibly tacky in my opinion and you should already have everything you need from your first baby. If you are having a baby shower because you can't afford things then you should not be having a baby in the first place.

2. People who leave their carts in parking spaces instead of taking them to the designated area. I mean seriously how lazy are you? Especially those carts one space from the area. I literally want to punch these people in the face.

3. People who are rude. Whatever happened to please and thank you and excuse me. If you bump into me say excuse me. If you need something at the store and I'm standing in front of it don't just reach right in front of my face use your manners.

4. People who wear mismatched socks on purpose. It is not cool, it makes you look like you got dressed in a rush in the dark and are not put together. It just makes you look bad.

5. A few of my friends (5) moved to other countries. 2 for work purposes and 3 for mission type work. 3 of these people have since come home way before their expected time wasting everyone's money. That makes me mad.One came home because they were home sick after only two months, one came home because they were sick (which you may think is an acceptable reason) but it could have been prevented had they gone to the doctor when the symptoms first started instead of waiting a month and another came home for a church members wedding. All of these people made a minimum of a year commitment to the places they went and none made it more than 3 months. People charitably gave them money to found these trips, pay for their rent, plane tickets, and so on. And it really makes me mad that they then asked for people to fly them home. You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to go. Suck it up!

6. People who take shopping carts out of a store at the mall and use them as a stroller. It says sears for a reason and that reason is because it belongs there. If you can't afford a stroller you don't need to be shopping for things at the mall.

pictures

If only I could do my own hair this well

Too lazy

I haven't been posting very much lately because I am just plain too lazy to write a post. Stan takes up an impressive amount of my time and energy. I am constantly complaining about him and Kevin is constantly reminding me he is just a puppy. I keep forgetting how easy Silas was and there was just one of him.Stan has a weird aversion to pooping outside in fact the other day he went 24 hours without pooping because we wouldn't let him poop inside. He also just pees whenever he feels like on whatever he feels like, he has ruined a dog bed and our rug with his nastiness. Stan also farts more than anyone I know and his farts are loud and can clear a room.

:)

Team Trouble

Team Trouble is how I now refer to Silas and Stan because all they do is cause trouble. Well not all the time but most of the time they are causing trouble.
Stan is a much different puppy than Silas was.
Silas didn't chew on very many things other than toys and the occasional sock or shoe, Stan however chews up and tries to eat EVERYTHING!!! He acts as if he hasn't had anything to eat in his whole life.
Silas took two weeks tops to be almost completely potty trained, Stan just stops what he is doing and pees right there on the floor.
Silas had panic attacks if put in the crate, Stan doesn't complain about being in the crate.
Silas had to go out to potty once a night for about a month, Stan thankfully makes it all night! The vet told us we are lucky because most puppies his age can't make it all night.
Since we have had Stan I have thrown away more ripped/torn up toys than I did the whole year we had Silas. They play extremely rough with each other and I am always worried Silas is going to break little Stan, although sometimes he deserves it. Stan is quite the bully and Silas just takes it. Stan will eat all of Silas' food and Silas just watches, he takes toys from him, and jumps/ bites all over him and Silas just takes it.
We had Stan's 9 week vet visit yesterday and he now weighs 19 pounds! She said he looks great and gave him shots and that was it. I am hoping we have less issues with Stan than we did/do with Silas.

Meet Stan

This is our new fur baby, Stan Lee. He is a Rottweiler mix. Mom is a pure bred rottie and we aren't sure what dad was since mom was a stray. She gave birth to 10 puppies the day after being found and taken to the shelter, sadly due to the horrible condition she was in only 9 survived. Out of the nine half were fluffy like Stan and the other half had short hair. We had been thinking about getting a second dog (one close in age to Silas) and found one we liked but were unable to make it to the shelter before he was adopted to someone else. Then on New Years day I found this group of puppies needing a home (Kevin and I were trying to find Rottie mix dogs ever since we found out thats what Silas is) and it seemed to good to be true so we put in an application to adopt thinking we wouldn't get one. The very next day we got an email saying the puppy we had picked out (from pictures online) was ours. We picked him because he was fluffy like Silas and ended up picking the biggest puppy out of the whole group. Welcome home Stan.

Silas has an announcement

We got some snow

A while back we got some snow and Silas was enjoying it. In fact it made him brave and he kept jumping the fence to the garden but then was stuck because he couldn't jump back out.

Happy New Year

Once again we didn't do anything fun. We went out to dinner and then came home. We were planning on going out with some of Kevin's friends but somehow nothing got arranged and we ended up at home. Silas was not happy we were staying up late and kept ringing his bell to go out then when he would come back in he would look at us like ok its bedtime lets go. Around 11:30 he started huffing at us and then would lay down on the couch and glare. I told Kevin next year we need to throw a party.

Christnas

Merry Christmas! (a bit late) This year for Christmas Kevin and I went to Arkansas. On the trip down I nearly had a complete breakdown and was on the verge of tears for about the last 20 minutes of the drive. Kevin is a fast driver and kept going over the speed limit and kept telling me he wasn't sure where we were and then would make me drive so he could sleep and then at one point we got pulled over in the middle of nowhere because Kevin was doing at least 50 in a 25 and I was for sure we would be arrested for recklessness and then the officer asked for his insurance card and when Kevin gave it to him he didn't believe it was a real one so I was even more sure we were going to spend Christmas in jail but after what felt like hours he let us go without a ticket and told us to just slow it down. After that I couldn't calm down and it was really late at night so I was extremely tired and then a while later Kevin said he wasn't sure where we were and I lost it. But we got to his grandparents house and went to bed for a bit and then I was fine. I rather enjoyed spending time them. We didn't do very much while we were there basically just hung out around the house, once we went squirrel hunting but didn't get anything. On the trip back we stopped at a restaurant called Lamberts. They throw rolls across the room to you. Seriously! You look up and rolls are just soaring through the air. It was cool but I wasn't very impressed with their food. We were going to stop a few other places on the way home but somehow managed to miss every exit. Even though I really enjoyed our time there I was so glad to be home. (and once again I have no pictures because I suck at taking them)

Where was little baby Silas while we were away? He stayed at home and Melanie and Mitch came to stay with him. I tried to be good and not text them very much and they said he was very well behaved but was a little sad. Melanie also feed him triple what we feed him. I guess my instructions weren't as clear as I thought, so he is now on a diet. Also before we left K went to the store and bought lots of stuff for them to eat and snack on when we got home none of it had been touched they said they felt bad eating all our food so they bought their own, Melanie even washed all the dishes they used instead of leaving them in the dishwasher.

One night the week before we left it took me over an hour to get home. Silas goes to daycare off of Cook Road and we live off of Lake Ave and it usually takes about 30-45 minutes depending on the time and traffic but with all the last minute shoppers out and Holiday traveling it took one hour and 45 minutes for me to get home! And Silas must have played hard that day because he was out!

We had ghetto night

One day I was taking a shower and listening to Miley Cyrus' new cd and Silas hates Miley Kevin siad he kept barking at the bathroom door and this is where I found him when I got out.