Happy happy joy joy!

I’m not sure exactly why, but I am in just a terrific mood this morning! So of course, I just had to share with you guys! Aren’t I the sweetest? Really, there could be numerous reasons for my gleefulness this morning…

It might be because I am so proud of my doggies. Yesterday, it was (supposed to be) raining and storming all day long. I really didn’t want to have to put the dogs outside in that kind of weather. They would be miserable and covered in mud when I got home! So, for the first time ever, I left them inside. OUT of their crates (which we’ve broken down and stored away). For the ENTIRE day. Now, I did contain them to the upstairs hallway, like we do at night, but still. I was very nervous to what I would come home to. Well, I got home, let them outside then went up to survey the damage. Or rather, LACK THERE OF!! No damage at all! They didn’t try to eat their pillows. They didn’t chew on the furniture. They didn’t even pee on the carpet!! Oh, I was but ecstatic! I even gave Major a hug. (He’s a good hug giver) And while they were cooped up all day and all night yesterday, they were still perfect little angels this morning as I got ready for work. I love my dogs. They’re the greatest!

You know, my good mood most certainly could be from the fact that I went to Bunco last night, at my mom’s house, with my best friend. It’s actually been a while since my best friend, B, and I have had some just us time. And it was great. She got me all up to speed on her pregnancy. Her new pictures. Her new due date. Her eating rules. What they’ve started picking out for baby. It’s all just so exciting! While I didn’t win anything at bunco, (though B did!) it was a great relaxing night with a fun group of ladies. And I definitely need that every once in a while.

Really, it could just be the weather that makes me so giddy. We had a cool front come through yesterday and I woke up to 52 degrees this morning! BRRRRR!!! The sky is crystal clear blue today with the most perfect cool breeze. I even wore a long sleeve shirt to work! I L-O-V-E this weather. That alone can put the hugest smile on my face! Though it would be even more perfect if I, you know, didn’t have to work. But hey, we take what we can get, right?

Also, I finally started rereading Twilight (again)!! Though I'm only two chapters into it so far, just the fact that I'm reading it again makes me smile.

Now, my last reason, is, well, a little controversial. I’ve been debating whether to post it. But I figured y’all would have the best advice, so here goes. I’m actually in a good mood partly because my husband is out of the country. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way. Let me explain. I love my husband dearly and I am sad when he’s away, but he’s been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo super stressed lately and he’s bringing all this bad stressful energy home. I’ve been trying very very hard lately to simplify and declutter and relax my life. I stress out too easily. Even though he’s got about 1000 times more stress than I do, he’s not trying very hard to rectify the situation. And really, his stress and bad energy just ends up bringing me down with him. I try my hardest to get him to see the light and make changes, but he just doesn’t. And so, while he’s away, I feel so much…lighter. Like I can breathe again. It really does break my heart to see him like this. Who knows what I can do to help him out?? I want to be able to have these wonderful, carefree, happy feelings when he’s at home!! I want us to be happy and carefree and relaxed TOGETHER! Help a girl out??

Okay, okay…I really do need to get some work done today! I truly hope that all of you are having a super wonderful fantastic Friday!

So pushy

How Major lets you know he wants some attention:



I know it's a little hard to see, but that's him setting his head on my laptop...while I'm in the middle of typing! Sheesh...

Oh Major...

I think Major forgets sometimes that he's actually a dog and not a person. Like when he's sitting on the steps...

Just a quickie

I say that, but watch, this will end up super long.

I just wanted to write a quick update while I still have a few minutes of lunch left.

This week has been an absolute whirlwind. I seriously don't know what day it is. But I need to so I don't forget to go to workout class tonight! Ward did NOT end up going to Brazil this week. Which would be a good thing if I had not already planned dinners all week for just me. As in leftovers and Tuna Helper. Ward is not such a big fan of either. That said, we went out Tuesday and ordered pizza last night. And I went out to lunch yesterday since me and coworker, M, were out in the field. I feel like I've gained twenty pounds in the past week. Oh wait. I also just finished my ten days of progesterone pills which make me retain water like a friggin sponge! So I probably have gained twenty pounds! Ugh.

In happier news, I'm doing an alzheimer's walk with my mom Saturday morning. It's a 5k walk on the beach and I get to bring the dogs! I think it will be fun. The dogs L-O-V-E the beach!

The past two evenings I've been pulling weeds out of our front yard. Seriously, our yard is atrocious! I've filled up a big potting soil bag and a 35lb bag from dog food so far and I've done about 1/8 of the yard. It's disgusting. But I'm trying! We REALLY need to work on our yard maintenance.

I had a couple very interesting conversations with coworkers yesterday about some happenings here at the office. I might blog about it all if I get a chance, but fore warning, it'll probably be a really long story!

Okay, that took up way more than the few minutes I had so I better get back to work. We are way swamped...

The Ups and the Downs

How was everyone's weekend? I love long weekends. I can get so much more done! This long weekend for me had some ups and it had some downs.

We'll start with the downs and get those out of the way so we can end on a good note, shall we? Plus, there were fewer downs than ups, so that's good, right?

One down was the fact that I really didn't get much cleaning done around the house. And boy does it need it! I really should have cleaned the kitchen and gotten more laundry done and went to the grocery store, but I didn't. Other than that, the really only other bad thing was the fact that my husband, who also had the day off today, didn't actually take the day off. He left this morning to meet his boss at work, then went from there to a draft for a fantasy football league he joined, then from there went to his boss's house to do some more work. So he left this morning before 10am and didn't get back for another 12 hours. :o(

Now, for the ups! We went to the beach on Saturday and that was really fun. The dogs had a blast, it was a beautiful day, and it was great to spend some times with friends. Sunday, I got the office all painted, so I was really happy about that. I've only been wanting to finish painting the rest of the house for months, and in the past month, I've gotten 2 more rooms done! Yay! So, while hubby was away today, I worked on getting the office put back together and started with the big organization project for that room. It might be a mess for a while yet since there is A LOT to go through and organize. So, needless to say, I will not be able to post some before/after pictures for some time. I also went out to a movie this evening with some friends, too. We went and saw Gamer. It was a different movie, but good. The fact that it starred Gerard Butler was a definite plus. :o) Love that guy. And while hubby did not go, since he was not home, I still had a good time and am glad that I went and got out of the house for a bit. But too bad for him because I know he would have liked the movie, but now he'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD and we can put it on our Netflix.

See? I told you there were more pluses about the weekend than minuses. However, I've been feeling quite dizzy since I got home earlier this evening. Weird. But maybe I'll still be dizzy in the morning and can call in sick to work. :o) Anywho...I digress...I meant to say, I've been dizzy so I'm gonna go ahead and call it a night. I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend and enjoy this nice short week!

Semi-freedom

As you all know, we have two big dogs. They'll both be 2 years old later this summer. We've crate trained them and while they stay out in the yard during the day, they sleep in their crates at night (and occasionally during the day if it's really rainy outside). We knew at some point they would not have to sleep in their crates anymore without fear they'd potty in the house...or eat something they shouldn't. I think we're coming to that point. On rare instances, we'll let them sleep in our room with us, and they do pretty well.

I wanted to try to start giving them a little more freedom at night, but I was nervous about letting them have complete free run of the whole house. But then I wanted to give them more roam than just one room. So we compromised. I put a baby gate at the top of the stairs, closed the doors to the guest room and hall bath, and let them roam between our room, the hall, and the office where their crates are. We've been trying that out this week and so far it's worked pretty well.

Cocoa was restless the first night and wandered around a lot, which kept waking me up, but Major still slept in his crate all night. The next night, Cocoa started out in her crate, and Major was in our bed...he just wanted to snuggle after a tiring day at the beach. By morning, both had made it to our bed. Last night, Major was in our bed most of the night and Cocoa was on the floor in our room. It helped that we moved some pillows in there for them and they slept on those off and on throughout the night. And silly Major, our door was open, but when he had to go potty at 3am the other night, he came, licked my face, and then went and sat in the open doorway. He knows to sit by the door to go out, so I guess he figured he'd still sit there, even though the door was open. He's so silly.

Anywho...so far it's working out pretty well. They mostly sleep the entire night anyway, so maybe in the future, we can open the stairs so they can go downstairs if they want (Major likes to sleep on the couch) and then we can close our door to keep them out. It's a little distracting when they jump on your face at 6am when you still have 30min. before the alarm goes off!!

So, yay for our puppies...finally growing up and becoming (just the slightest) more responsible. :o)

Brake-fast bowls

Have you guys ever heard of these?? Let me tell you, they are awesome! My sister told me about them. Her roommate had bought one for her dog because he would eat so fast it would make him throw up. Well, when our two big dogs were puppies, they devoured their food in record time. Especially our lab. She could eat two cups in like 5 seconds it seemed like. Since that’s not really healthy for them, I decided to give these bowls a try. Presto! They totally slowed down. The trick with these bowls is they have to start eating around the little legs in the bowl so it takes them longer to eat. The bowls also slide easily on a hard floor so the more the push on it to try to get to the food easier, it slides away from them making them work even harder to get the food and thus slowing them down even more. They come in a few different sizes so no matter how big or little your pet is, if they eat too fast, you can slow them down. We’ve been using these bowls for about a year and a half now. With Cocoa’s anxiety as of late, she doesn’t really need it (since she’s eating so slow as it is!!), but Major still uses his…and still slides it all around the kitchen during meal time.

They are a little bit more expensive than the food bowls you’d buy at the pet store, but I think it’s definitely worth it for the health and safety of your beloved pet. I would definitely recommend checking them out if you have a pet that inhales their food! Brake-fast bowls

Oh, my Cocoa...

Want to hear a funny story? Haha…who doesn’t? Okay, here’s my story.

We have a dog, Cocoa, that has problems with anxiety. Yes, you heard right…she’s very anxious/nervous/scared. The past week or so it has gotten even worse. Possibly related to enclosing a portion of the yard for them during the day? Very possible. Either way, there’s no reason for it. But she is seriously scared of EVERYTHING. Oh, but the best part, she’s not scared of things that she should be scared of. You know, like strange people or other animals. Oh no, she loves people and other dogs and bugs and other animals… What is she so scared of then? Inanimate objects. She’s scared of things. Oh, and noises. But mostly things. And change. She can’t handle change. I hung some clothes on the stair railing to take upstairs and she’s comes around the corner to go upstairs and saw it and about had a heart attack! She jumped, spun around and ran back down the hallway. Did I mention that Cocoa is a 60+ lb chocolate lab? Uh huh. Tell me about it.

The worst is umbrellas. She HATES umbrellas. And John likes to tease her with them, poor thing. If she sees you with an umbrella, she will run to the furthest opposite side of the room she can and hide behind whatever is over there. And then she’ll proceed to growl and bark at the umbrella. Like one of those “I’m terrified!!” growls. It’s very sad to watch. Though I know John would love to video it because it is pretty funny how she acts. But yeah, I could go on and on and on about all the things she’s afraid of. Smoke, Saran wrap, rollerblades, Tupperware…I’m totally serious.

Okay, well, like I said the past week or so has gotten really bad. How many people have ever met a lab that won’t eat!? Well, she’ll eat, but VERY slowly, and won’t even finish it all. Yesterday I tried to sprinkle some cheese in her dinner since she only ate like half her breakfast. That didn’t help. I tried to put her food in a different bowl. That didn’t help. She only ate more once I put it straight on the floor. And then still didn’t finish it! Major had to come in and clean up the rest. So this morning I tried pouring some milk in with her food (thanks for the idea, Val!) and she did eat more, but still didn’t finish. If I leave the room where she’s eating, she’ll stop eating and follow me. So I have to stand right there while she eats. And even then she’ll eat some, stop, walk around, I have to tell her to go back and finish eating and she’ll eat a few more bites, stop, look around. I tried to leave her to finish eating this morning so I could get in the shower, but again she stopped eating and followed me out of the room. I swear she’s losing it. And she’s not even 2 years old yet!

Well thank goodness we have an appointment at the vet on Monday. I’ve brought up her anxiousness to the vet before (it got REALLY bad after the hurricane, go figure) so I’m going to have to bring it up again. She might actually have to start on medication. I don’t know what else to do!

Yep, that’s my story. I guess it’s not super hilarious or anything, but it’s comical to me. I have a 60lb dog with such bad anxiety that she might need medication. That would be my luck.

Sleepless Nights

Yet again, I have a terrible time trying to fall asleep last night...as I lay awake listening to John snore. I finally drift off, just to be awaken by whining that gets progressively louder. I wake up and look at the clock. 1:15am. What now?? I go into the dogs room...Major is sitting up. He must have to pee. So I go ahead and let them both out and we run downstairs and out the back door. I sware he stood there peeing for like EVER...MINUTES! Cocoa comes back in and goes straight back up to bed. Major FINALLY gets done and we head back upstairs. He goes back in his crate, but won't lay down. So I turn on the lamp to see why. He had an accident earlier and the whole corner of his pillow is wet. Great. So I take him out and spend the next five minutes cleaning that up while he tries to get comfy on another pillow laying in the middle of the room to go back to sleep. Gee, thanks, Major. I finally get that all cleaned up and put Major back in. I get back in bed, what feels like hours later, at 1:30am. And again I lay awake listening to John snore for a while before I actually fall back asleep. Then, go figure, the 6:30am alarm comes much too early...so I turn it off...to finally get out of bed at 7am. Thank goodness I don't have to be to work until 9am. When will I manage to get a decent nights sleep??