I deserve a medal! (or at least a sticker?)

Today I had a dentist appointment first thing in the am.  An older filling needed to be replaced because I grind my teeth at night.  Blech.  So not only did I have to grit my teeth (literally) through novacaine and a filling, I also decided to get a night guard to protect my teeth from further self-inflicted damage.  That was a painless process unless you count the $350 cost.  Yuck!

I was very brave today, even though the anesthesia hurt a little.  It wasn’t quite as bad as I remember having in the past, so that was good.  I wimped out a little before she started drilling because I was afraid she hadn’t given me enough novacaine but she did.

Afterwards I went to work.  I got there by 8:40 am.  Less than 40 minutes at the dentist’s and then 4 hours of feeling numb!  I was hungry so ate some jello but it hurt to open my mouth far enough to get the spoon in!  Fortunately I survived my ordeal.  That deserves an Olympic medal, no?

Hey I’m still alive.  It’s harder than you’d think to find something to say and motivate yourself to say it.  I should probably come up with a theme and write about that aspect of my life.  Le sigh.

I had a really fun time watching the CMAs last night.  It was so fun seeing the faces of the voices on the radio.  Everyone looked so relaxed and approachable.  I really adore Brad Paisley.  All of the preformances I watched were fantastic.  Holy cow Zac Brown Band was great!
One thing I really love about country music is that it is so human.  There’s something in every song that people can relate to.  Even if you haven’t felt that type of heartbreak you can imagine it by how real the pain of the song feels.  There are fun songs too.  Music takes all of the things that make us human and makes them available to everyone.

One of my favorite songs is I Need You Now by Lady Antebellum.  It’s just haunting and gorgeous.  When I hear it I can really understand the pull of telling yourself not to call an ex but really needing them anyway.

I adore country music.  It just makes me happy.  I’m not crazy about the sad songs or the ones that talk too much about Jesus or USA but I love the twang and the rhythm.

Sorry I’ve been a little quiet lately.  Life has been nuts.  I was sick on and off and Evan got sick over the last weekend.  We took our first trip together as a family (Evan, Emma and me) to Lancaster PA for my birthday.  Emma did ok on the car ride though she threw up twice when we were very close to our destination.  We even let her roam the hotel room without being closed in the crate for three hours when we had dinner and she didn’t destroy anything.

In the house it’s a different story.  She likes her chew toys but she also enjoys anything that gets left around the house.  She destroyed one of my wedding shoes, some chapstick, my eye drops, a library book, and a few other things, but she means well.  Also we’re all still settling into a routine and she’s had a few accidents in the house.  I think when she doesn’t get a walk when she expects it she worries that we’ll never take her out.  We need to work out a better system.   One of my co-workers suggested training her to ring a bell at the door when she wants a walk.  We’ll see.

 

Emma!

I can’t figure out how to download these videos from youtube.  Evan saved them on his computer but I’m at my work computer.  Anyway here’s a cute video from one of Emma’s first nights at the house.

This weekend went so quickly.  Evan and I got a lot of rest and we got a little bit of work done too.

On Saturday there was an event at the park right by our house sponsored by Fidos for Freedom.  It was a walk for dogs around the lake with some vendors and booths.  There was a demonstration of Flyball and an agility course run by 4-H kids.  (Did you know kids could do projects with their dogs for 4-H?  I totally could have joined but now I’m too old!)

Fidos For Freedom Stroll ‘n Roll.

Emma did amazingly!  She was curious about the other dogs and tolerated their sniffing in return.  We took some video but I don’t know how to upload it so that will come soon.  I was so impressed with how well she behaved.  She was only intimidated by the loud and agitated dogs.  I am excited to see how well she does tonight at the first training class!

I had a little panic on Friday night, though.  She’s a very difficult dog.  She gets these spurts of energy where she runs around the house like a maniac and bounces from couch to couch.  She can get bitey at these times and it’s kind of frightening.  I don’t really know how to handle this.  She’s made a mess of our couches and I’m really upset about that.  She’s scratched the fabric from all her running and jumping.  I’m going to buy some slipcovers because they’re going to get ruined and smelly in no time.  Maybe the trainer can offer some insight.  I take her for long walks and we run around together a couple of times a day but maybe it’s just not enough for her energy level.  Then the rest of the day she’ll spend sleeping on the couch.

She’s a nut and she drives me crazy already but I really do like her a lot.

Yesterday Emma was a totally different dog than we’d come to expect.  My mom was in a rush to meet her new grandpuppy and asked to come visit.  I asked if she was coming for dinner and she said no.  Around 5 she called to say what’s for dinner, dad’s in DC and he’ll be home late.  Then when I was walking Emma my dad called and said he’d be coming to dinner too.  Now I adore my folks and I was very excited for the chance to play hostess.  I just felt badly that they were descending upon Evan with no warning.

The good news is that they picked a night where I was motivated to make a lot of food.  I was making meatloaf for the first time and I made one with ground beef and one with ground turkey.  I also made 3 sweet potatos and that turned out well because my mom doesn’t eat them but the rest of us did.  Evan made brussels sprouts and I made some peas because I know Dad doesn’t eat brussels sprouts (though he did try them).

Emma was pretty well behaved mostly.  When they came in she growled but wagged her tail.  Then she calmed down and behaved ‘normally.’  She was also a little bit bitey, which worries me but I think she’s just testing us to see what she can get away with.  Plus she’s just afraid of strangers.  Everything is new to her right now.

We’ll see how training class goes.  We start on Monday night at Petsmart.  I liked their facilities and the trainer I spoke with when we were there buying supplies.   I’ll let you know how their classes are.

 

My meatloaf recipe:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl:

ground meat (approx 1 lb)

1 egg

Worcestershire sauce

Ketchup

bread crumbs

spices – pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, dash of paprika

chopped onions

Form meat into loaf shape, cook covered 40 min, smear ketchup on top and cook another 15-20 minutes.

Happy new puppy day!

Emma on her new couch with her new toy frog!

So yesterday we took Emma home with us!  It was pretty exciting.  She was spayed on Friday (5 days ago) and she’s been a little curious about her sutures.  She isn’t supposed to jump on furniture or take steps while she heals, but good luck telling her that!  We carried her up the 3 flights of steps to our apartment and let her explore.  We shut the cat in the guest room for a bit while Emma poked her nose around.

Emma was a little shy and retreated under the dining room table a couple of times but she let her curiosity win.  I let the cat out of the guest room and put a baby gate in the hall so the dog could explore the front of the house and the cat could hang out in the back, but Abby was too excited and jumped over the gate to meet her new sister.

Both cat and dog are afraid of each other (and Emma’s certainly afraid of Abby’s hissing) but they both slept on the bed with us last night.  I fear I’ll have to fight my way to cuddling with my husband between the two of them!

The hardest thing about owning a dog is that Evan and I are intent on training her correctly but neither of us has had a well-trained dog before.  It’s hard to leave her in the crate during the day even though all of our friends who have dogs promise that Emma will get used to it.  It’s hard to remember not to use her name when we tell her to stop something, hard to not yell at her when she does something wrong and instead praise her when she stops.

Also it’s pretty interesting to see which toys she prefers.  We bought two soft toys (one squeaky), a kong toy and a kong toy with a rope.  She’s really only interested in the soft toys.  I’m afraid she’s going to rip them both to shreds with her exuberance so I’ll definitely purchase more soon.  It’s a big change to puppy-proof the house.  The cat doesn’t play with anything we leave but the dog is interested in plastic wrappers and cat toys and anything that’s new to her.

Emma did a good job today while I had breakfast.  She whined a tiny bit but I ignored her.  We will probably follow the trainer’s suggestion and put her in the crate while we eat at night.

Evan’s got the responsibility to put Emma in the crate before work, since he leaves at 9 and I leave much earlier.  I feel badly making him do that the first few days but Emma’s definitely lovey with us both so I’m sure she won’t hold it against him.

Any thoughts on training?  We’re starting beginner training class at PetSmart on Monday.  I’m really excited!

Keep posted for more adventures!

Happy Potential Dog Day!

This is the dog we're interested in adopting!

Last weekend Evan and I went to meet with some of his friends and one of the guys there had some puppies with him.  He’s been breeding miniature schnauzers and had two puppies, I’d guess about 12 weeks old: George and Gracie.  They were all black and one had white on his muzzle.  Gracie was available but he wanted $600 for her.  Evan and I have been talking for a while about getting a dog and these guys were adorable.  I love the new puppy smell.  Precious.  Except if we got a puppy we’d have to deal with training her and getting her spayed and all the chewing and night time whining.  They were precious but it wasn’t going to work for us to get a puppy.

The seed was planted though.  We talked about a few breeds we liked – I’m more partial to poodle mixes and Evan’s more of a terrier guy.  We need a dog that doesn’t shed to minimize any potential allergies for Evan and also his parents.  Plus it’s just easier around the house.  We know we’ll have to get the dog groomed and do obedience classes.

Anyway I sent an email out to schnauzer rescue but after three days of no response, I found a couple of dogs on petfinder.com and asked Evan his opinion.  We liked the profile for one of them so I sent an email to the rescue organization, Tara’s House http://www.tarashouse.net/.  The application was pretty in-depth and took a long time to do.  Then I got a phone call later that day for a phone interview.  The person I spoke with was wonderful and we’re going to set up a time for Evan and me to meet the dog.  She’s about 1.5 years old and recently had a litter of 4 puppies but she will be spayed next week as the puppies are weaned.  She’s a westie mix and is all white and very tired looking right now!

I’m a little concerned about our current pet, Abby the tabby cat.  She’s a little growly at other animals.  But she’s also very bored at the house now that it’s just two of us and no other pets.  Before Evan and I got married I lived in a house with 3 roommates and another cat, plus a lot of visitors and significant others all the time.  I guess we’ll just have to see.  She’ll have to find some high up places to hide. :-p

Any advice for what to ask when we meet this dog at her foster home?  Any advice for introducing a TERRIER to my poor antisocial cat?

Also anyone with a small dog crate they want to get rid of might be a huge help!

A side note, I wanted to publically wish a happy two month anniversary to my husband Evan!

Lisa passed away on Saturday morning.   We had the funeral on Monday.  I can’t put into words how I feel about this loss.  I hope her kids and husband can mourn but also live their lives for the future not the past.  Lisa was a huge scrapbooker.  I looked through her old books and was amazed at how much her personality shone through the pages.  I miss her so much.  She was so wild and fun and unreserved in her enthusiasm for her kids.  I can’t stand that I’ll never get to hug her or go shopping with her or make fun of her to her face ever again!   It’s unreal to me.  Slowly sinking in though.  And then her friends Lori and Barbara were helping to finish her scrapbooks and I really felt close to her.  I think I could get into putting them together.  She uses all this Creative Memories stuff.  The albums have spaces so you know what to put where and it’s all color coded and she’s got stickers.  I want to start doing scrapbooking too!  It’d be so fun to have memories documented so we can revisit.  For Lisa’s family the scrapbooks are a wonderful connection to her at her most alive and vital.  I wish I had been keeping better track of my photos.  Anyone want to give me some supplies (they are so expensive) and I can start a book about the first year of my marriage!