Resolutions update & other stuff

Hey everyone- sooo I thought I would update on my New Years Resolutions and how those are going... maybe I'll do this every month?

So the New Years Resolution thing has been going ok so far.  I have already tried a new recipe this month-- it's kind of just self-created so maybe the next time I make it I will do a video & more official recipe.  But we made turkey burgers!  We (and yes, we, on a night my husband was actually home from work at a decent hour we cooked together) made ground turkey into patties, seasoned them generously with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, cooked them, melted some shredded fiesta blend cheese on them, and then ate them with mayo & tomato.  Super good.  I also pan fried (yes I know- I should've baked them but they always turn out kind of mushy when I do that) some frozen french fries along with them.  It's definitely a repeat recipe!

I started out really good with the exercising thing- I was doing 20-30 minutes of cardio something (either clogging or dance aerobic videos) 3 days a week, "beginner" type pilates 3 days a week, and only taking 1 day a week off.  Well, this past month I just had an off-the-wall only 19 day long cycle (so I'm betting there was no ovulation going on there).  I haven't been under a lot of stress or anything, so I'm guessing maybe the sudden start in extra physical activity was what decided to make the dreaded monthly visitor appear 10 days early.  Or it could've just been a random fluke.  (Side note- that has never ever happened to me, having a cycle that short)  But either way since we're trying to make a baby I thought it best to cut back a bit.  So now I'm going to just try and get some exercise in 3 days a week instead.  Just in case.

Now on to the money thing- that's a bit trickier!  We haven't put any into savings this month because we've been in "recovery-mode" from Christmas.  (Paying for gifts AND also me not working very much in December drained us)  We're getting back on our feet now though.  I revised a budget for us, I'm hoping to stick to it better in 2012.  It's just hard with my income being so variable.  Well, and Brew's as well, since he always has overtime factored into his pay.  If he doesn't have ANY OT (which that is literally NEVER) then I have to work at least 10 days to pay the bills.  However, his average paychecks make it so I usually only have to work 5-6 days to pay the bills.  Anything else is what we use for extra things, like going out to eat, and buying certain things we "want", etc.  So my goal is to work at least the 10 days a month so we are covered no matter what.  That's hard though, when there's no guarantee how much work I will get.  Blah.  I hate money.  Sometimes I wish my husband was really good at managing money so I didn't have to think about it/stress about it.  Unfortunately he's HORRIBLE with money so I get the job!  I'm not great but definitely better than him lol.  Anyway, went off on a rabbit trail there, but that resolution is still a work in progress!


In other news, poor Earl got neutered today.  He wasn't a fan of the whole vet thing.  He never has been, always gets a little scared. Duke, is completely the opposite.  At first  mention of the word "ride" he leaps up and down with excitement.  Can't wait to get in the car and stick his head out the window.  When arriving at the vet is so excited he's beside himself.  It's a battle to keep him away from other dogs who he views as his playmates (when several of them are sick or not quite as friendly as he is), and he thinks the vet is the bomb.  Always giving plenty of puppy kisses with that big ol' tongue (good thing she doesn't mind!)  Earl on the other hand, isn't sure what to think of the car.  He just sits/lays there with a scared/pathetic look on his face.  Then when we get to the vet he is nervous and has to be either right by Duke or on one of our laps.  He shakes when he's on the vet exam table.   I don't know maybe he'll warm up to the idea of car rides at least.  Duke we took a lot more places- we took him to the park for walks and obedience classes, and also to my brother's all the time to play with his dogs.  Now that we have two dogs who can play with each other and a big fenced in backyard, we don't hardly take them places.  Earl has only had a few car rides, when we first moved to this house, and then his now three trips to the vet's office.

Anyway, he's doing well after his surgery.  Laying around a little more than usual but otherwise you'd never know any different.  And thankfully, he's not mad at me for abandoning him to the horrible vet's office only to lose his manhood... ;)

This was at a red light on our way home this afternoon.  He gave me this same pathetic puppy-eyes look on the way there.  Boy does he know how to lay the guilt on! ;)

My boys snoozing on the couch beside me while I blog ;)

 

Dogs playing in the snow!

Recorded this yesterday...

First snowday + December video!

Well folks, we finally had our first snow day of the year today!  Normally where we live we get a decent amount of snow, usually starting in December and continuing through February/March depending on the year.

This year so far it's been a very mild winter, most days the temperature being around 40.  Other than a light dusting we haven't seen snow at ALL this year!  (and by this time last year we had already had like 3 snow days and a two hour delay)

Yesterday the temp went from being in the upper 40s to the low 20s by last night.  A rain and acutally some thunderstorms came through followed by snow.  Not a lot of snow, mind you, just a couple inches, but there was plenty of ice underneath (enough so to cancel school!).

Here's what our backyard looked like this morning (along with the dogs happily playing in the snow).

I also had time to edit/upload my December video to YouTube-- the last of the 2011 monthly videos!  I have some different plans for my YouTube channel for 2012 so look for a video explaining that soon!





Hope everyone has a great day-- and stays warm!

A great Christmas!

Hey everyone, sorry I've been MIA lately, Christmas has kept me suuuper busy!  But unfortunately it's over now. :-(  I have a bunch of pics to get off my camera still yet and my hubby's iphone. I made out like a bandit this year.  Got a Kindle Fire from my parents (loving it), a $50 Shutterfly giftcard from my inlaws, and a Keurig from Brew!  Not to mention lots of other "little" things :)

I promise to do a Christmas/New Years tradition post later, complete with lots of pics from the holidays, but for now I'll leave you with a few pics from Christmas :)

Our Christmas Tree this year!

Close up of the tree decorations.  It was silver/white/red & snowflakes!

Inspiration for this year's tree-- handmade snowflake ornaments from my husband's grandmother.  She passed away before Christmas 2010 but left a set of these for us and my mom-in-law gave them to us last year.

Our keepsake ornament for this year!

My little tree in the upstairs living room :)

Hubby & I underneath our *new* mantle on Christmas Eve!

Earl & Duke enjoyed getting presents on Christmas morning!  :)

Pics of our new puppy, Earl (and big brother Duke)

Just meeting each other and still checking each other out :)

A little unsteady on his feet still ;)

Being a puppy is exhausting

Duke playing w/his new toy we bought him.  Operation remove squeaker has begun!

Mr. Duke <3

Duke & Earl playing outside

Duke

Earl thinks it's time for his close-up

Sweet lil puppy :)

Dare you not to say "awwww"

Just can't quite make it up the front step yet!

One Year

On Sunday (the 26th)  Brew & I celebrated our first anniversary!

 

 

It's crazy how fast time has gone.  It doesn't seem like it's been a whole year, but at the same time, it's almost hard for me to remember life without Brew!

I'm soooo blessed to be married to my best friend.  He's everything I could ever want or need, and I'm so glad I get to spend forever with him.

And actually, the year-old cake wasn't bad at all (the looks on our faces are BEFORE we tasted any lol)  My mom did a good job freezing it!



To celebrate our anniversary, and to take a vacation together, we went on a camping trip to Babcock State Park.  We left on Thursday evening (the 23rd) and came back on Sunday the 26th, our actual anniversary.

We had a lot of fun, we brought Duke along-- he's definitely a camping dog, that's for sure!  We visited the New River Gorge Bridge, and the Glade Creek Grist Mill, hiked a few trails, and just enjoyed getting away & being together!

Duke loved playing in the water

And the car rides!

Us at the base of the New River Gorge Bridge

And us at the Glade Creek Grist Mill (this is the mill featured in a LOT of pics of WV and Appalachia)

Duke and I during a hike

Sitting by the campfire

After conquering a difficult trail!

Duke LOVED the trail hikes too!

I'm working on getting a video up I'm making for Brew, a slideshow of pics for our first anniversary.  I also have yet to upload my May update to youtube.  It's finished I just haven't been on my desktop computer pretty much since I got this laptop LOL.  But I hope to have them up soon!

Proud Puppy Mom

Yep that's me!  So Duke went to his first obedience class yesterday evening.  As you could probably tell from my previous post, I was nervous. 

But I had little to worry about!  First of all Duke was NOT the worst-behaved dog there (like I was afraid of).  There was another dog, that was an adult dog that was pretty bull-headed and the trainer had to be really tough on him/her.  But Mr. Duke did great! 

I admit I was a bit nervous about the choke collar that's used.  It kind of seemed cruel to me at first.  But the trainer showed us all to use it properly.  And guess what- it worked!  I was afraid it wouldn't with Duke because usually that sort of thing doesn't much.  As far as worrying about it hurting him, I honestly don't think it does.  It gets his attention for sure, but he NEVER yelped or anything that would make me believe it hurt him.


They learned how to "heel" first.  At first he was pulling me around like he does without his no-pull harness.  The trainer stepped in and showed me what to do, I did it, and BAM.  My dog knows how to walk beside me without pulling!  It's amazing.



Anyway, it went great, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the classes.  I think this is really going to help.  Not just with him learning basic things but also help him to respect me more and to listen better.

Right now he's begging for a walk so we're going to go practice :)

Obedience school dropout...

...at least I hope not!!!

Tonight is Duke's first obedience class.  We'll be leaving in about an hour and 15 minutes.  I want to get there plenty early to walk around w/him and hopefully get him calmed down a bit from the car ride.

So far since I got home he's been unusually calm.  (Thank you, God-- He must be already answering my prayers!)  The reason I'm nervous is because, though Duke is the sweetest dog you could ever meet, he'd never hurt a flea...  he gets sooooo spastic/excited around other dogs.  He just wants to run around crazy with them and play (like he does with my brother's dog Gibson.  Thankfully Gibson loves it just as much.)  But I know not all dogs appreciate it.  He also gets excited around new people and thinks that the proper way to greet new people is by jumping up on them (which can hurt) and incessantly licking them (which not all appreciate).  Those are the reasons why he's in obedience to start with.  I just hope he's not so spastic/badly behaved that he gets kicked out.  Or that he embarasses me and everyone glares at me like I'm the dog owner who can't control their dog.  This has happened.  Numerous times.   Like, every time I've taken him to the vet where there's other new people & dogs around.

Please Lord, give me patience, and give Duke some self-control, and help him  us get through this class in once piece- and with our pride intact.

Thankfully, Brew should be getting off work on time and meeting us there.  I want him to be there for the first class to help control my hyperactive mutt ;)

I'll let you  know how it goes...

Warmer weather...

Hey friends! :)  I know I've not been doing well updating often, but I'm about to post like 3 in a row so maybe that makes up for it???

Well since the weather's been warmer, and I've had a few days off- (for a little while I was working every single day)  I've had time to tackle a few things I've wanted to for a while.

First- I'm trying out my brown green thumb and I actually have flowers.  Surprise!  They are looking good!  LOL.  (Those that know me well know I'm no gardener.)  Though I was unable to put a flower bed or vegetable garden in.  (Those are long term goals haha)  This year I got a few hanging flower baskets to pretty up my otherwise white-trash looking porch.  (Sorry if that offends anyone-- but well, obviously the broken screen door propped open by a broom isn't the nicest looking set up LOL)

 

Next- I actually did this a few months ago but never posted the final product.  I made this collage of pics from our honeymoon with Picasa, ordered a 11x14 print from Shutterfly, used a frame from Wal-Mart and a cute decal (that says- "Always Kiss Me Goodnight") from the dollar tree of all places.  I literally have less than 10 bucks in this and I love it!  <3  It's in our bedroom :)

 

And lastly, I reorganized our bedroom closet.  Our closet is shared with the 3rd bedroom (which currently has a bunch of random junk belonging to my uncle and us in it-- but will eventually be a nursery when that time comes)

Before, we had just been using the entire closet for our stuff.  Well, I bought those plastic drawer carts for some of our clothes, shoes, hats, purses, belts, etc, and also used some milk crates on the left (you can't see them) for things we seldom to never use, and on the right (again, behind the wall- can't see it) I have our bigger duffel bags and stuff stacked.  So we were able to consolodate our clothes to one rung, and I'm planning on buying drawer carts for the other side as well, whenever a baby does come along, and doing the same for their closet. :)


So I still have lots of things that I want to accomplish around here, but at least I've gotten something done :)


And before I go, one cute Duke pic- taken today!

Ahhh Friday

Hurray it's Friday!

Looks like we have a beautiful weekend in store! It's been raining off & on today, but thankfully cleared up and the sun came out just in time for me to get home from work and take my pooch for his walk.

Speaking of which- Duke stayed in the house today without being in his crate for the WHOLE day, as in almost 9 hours, and was a perfect angel. He didn't tear anything up, or make a mess, or anything! I'm so proud of him. Hopefully the crating days are in the past. Not that there's anything wrong with it- I know it's usually a good thing. But I just mostly want to get that big giant thing out of the way. And I feel less bad about leaving him home alone when at least he's not cooped up in his crate. We close all the bedroom doors, and leave him plenty of chewies and his kong toys out. He's done wonderfully!

So plans for this weekend-not a whole lot actually... Tonight, Brew'll be off almost on time! So I'm thinking we may grill some steaks and just relax and maybe watch a movie or something. :) tomorrow we are going to go look at that house at 11. Then I'm not sure what we'll do the rest of the day. I probably should work on laundry & cleaning. Sunday we have our usual church & lunch with the family. After that I'll head over to clogging practice. Then we'll have the evening to do whatever!

So I found this on another blog- Here Comes the Sun, and she credited Our Little Lifescicle. Though, I'm not positive who actually started it! So I just linked both here :) Anyway it's the 10 day YOU challenge. I think I will start with 10 and count backwards :)

Day 1- 10 Secrets
{this is actually really hard for me to answer... I can't say I have many "secrets"}

1. As a little kid, I was terrified of lightning. Really bad storms still scare me.
2. I have only ever had two boyfriends. I married the second one lol.
3. My car is embarrassingly messy.
4. If you make a surprise visit to my house I guarantee you will find dog toys laying around, an unswept/mopped floor, dishes in the sink, and papers piled on the table.
5. I was engaged once before to my ex-boyfriend (see #2). It obviously didn't work out and was a mistake. We were so young/naive) but a lot of people don't know that.
6. My hubby & I had our first kiss before we were officially a couple.
7. This blog is not well known among friends & family. I actually kind of like it that way.
8. I'm going to include the fact that we are trying for a baby as a "secret". Even though a few know (and readers here) Because of #7 and other reasons, my family & most friends do not know.
9. I've never truly lived on my own. I lived at home while in college and the year after, then I got married and hubby & I live together of course. No regrets though. :)
   
10. I was teased for various things as a kid, mostly 4th through 7th grade... (my small-ness, the fact that I didn't hit puberty until 7th grade, the clothes I wore, etc.) But I think those experiences made me a better person. :) At very least, I got over some of my shy-ness and can stand up for myself.

Help with dog training...

Bad Dog!

*WARNING- Ranting post ahead*

Ok I'm so P.O.ed right now it's not even funny. So we've been leaving my dog home for little bits at a time, usually up to 4 hours outside his crate. My goal is to get him to where he doesn't have to be crated at all. But I've been working on it gradually and he's been doing great.

Until today. I had to be at work early this morning for an IEP meeting so I left earlier than normal, just as hubby was getting up. So he was the last one to leave the house (and in charge of putting the dog away). Well he, I guess in his ignorant man-ness, decides to NOT crate him today. Now I know he was aware of my plan to gradually graduate him to longer periods of time but apparently he thought today he was ready for an 8 hour stint at home alone.

So I get home and find the living room rug (a cheapo one mind you, that was already falling apart) all bunched up with a hole chewed out of the middle. And all of his toys strung out. Ok I was a little irritated, but I had been planning on buying another rug soon anyways so I didn't get to bent out of shape. So I reprimanded him and ignored him for a while till he got the message. Then I rolled up the rug and put it in the trash and cleaned up the mess, and made up with Duke by playing with him.

THEN, I walked into the living room and something made me look at the hope chest that we have in there (that used to belong to my mom). And saw THIS:




Ohhhh I'm livid. Seriously??? Of ALLLLLL the things I have furniture wise he chooses to chew on the one thing I actually CARE about. Why not the end tables that I got for $30 with the dining room table from my uncle's old roommate? Or even the secondhand couch or chairs that I paid nothing for. Oh no. We go for something that has sentimental value, something that I was planning on keeping in my family and giving to my daughter someday. Ugh.

Not to mention my dog has NEVER chewed up anything other than his toys and bones. And when he has tried to, or acts up like that, it's usually when we're home. He's usually a really good dog about that sort of thing. I just hope this is an isolated incident.

Needless to say, I can't really punish Duke for it now because who knows how long ago he actually did it. But I'm still so irritated. I'm *hoping* that Brew can fix it somehow. Maybe sand those little handle things off on both sides and refinish? I don't know. I guess we shall see. Duke is NOT on my good list. Needless to say, when we go to Lowes to get a rug tonight, he's going in his CRATE!

Typical MONDAY

Ok so I'm still behind on my thankful list but I'm not feeling particularly "thankful" at this moment. I need to rant so here goes...

It's been a pretty sucky Monday so far. This morning got off to a bad start because Duke woke up at 4 needing to go out. So I let him out & then brought him back in and he went back in his crate & slept till 5 or so, then he decided he wanted to get up AGAIN. Knowing full well he did NOT have to go out again, I laid there & listened to him whine/cry for 20 min or so, before finally relenting and getting up and letting him out (as predicted he did not have to use the bathroom) and fed him. Hoping to squeeze another hour or two of sleep in (as I didn't have to work today because of a Drs appt) I put him back in his crate. He then proceeded to whine/cry some more. Frustrated I woke Brew up, who can sleep through World War III, and asked him if he minded if I let Duke come up on the bed for an hour or so so I could sleep. Well then he gave the way WRONG answer and really ticked me off. He said "No then I can't sleep!"... "Ok," I said "then what am I supposed to do, I can't get back to sleep" And he says "Well get over it or get up". Yea. Not the right answer. So I was really ticked off and frustrated and tired at this point. So I laid there until Brew's alarm went off and he got in the shower (when Duke finally shut up for 5 seconds) and then he comes BACK into the room and flips the light on in my face. Ugh. Not a good morning for us we'll just say that.

Then I was going to take an order into Shirt Factory for the clogging team after my Drs appointment. Well I don't have a printer so I emailed the spreadsheet to myself and went to the church where mom was working to print it out, only to find out that the document didn't attach properly and I just got a bunch of weird symbols and such. Grrrr. So I just went home, ate lunch, and am now complaining to the world. lol. I'm going to try this whole shirt factory order again here in a sec. This time I'm saving it to a jump drive AND emailing it.

It's just one of those days...




Ok well to avoid having this blog be entirely "poor me", Brew is going to apply for a job with CSX railroad in St. Albans. His dad says that there is also an opening coming up in Parkersburg (yay!) So I'm not crazy about the possibility of moving an hour and a half away, but there's a good chance he could be transferred back to Parkersburg within 5 years if he gets the one in St Albans. Not to mention he'd be making twice what he does now, and this is really a career. If he were to get a job for the railroad he'd be the 5th generation railroader in his family, which is kind of neat. His dad works here in Parkersburg. So I'm just going to be praying for God's will on this one. If one or the other job is right for him now then I pray that he gets the position, but if it's not right then I hope he doesn't.


Alright well that's all for now. I promise since tomorrow is the 30th I will post with my final 5 things I'm thankful for. :)

Duke vid! :)

Some video I took of my puppy Duke playing in our yard the other day. The clicking noise in the background? That is what my digital camera does when recording. No idea why. Lol anyway, enjoy :)

October is here...

Can't believe October is here already-- though I guess I can definitely feel it in the chilly air! It's gotten soooo much cooler here the last week or so. Insane. I don't mind the cooler weather, I just wish it didn't have to be rainy and gloomy. I feel like I forget what the sun looks like...

We FINALLY got furniture moved!!! My bookshelf, dresser, and Brew's old bed are now residing in the guest room/computer room where they belong :) I promise as soon as I get my house clean- I will take pics and put some before/after pics up here and facebook, of the entire house- in case you don't want to listen to my rambling video tour I did the other day haha. But I'm still unpacking stuff and cleaning the regular usual mess so as soon as that's done there will be pics!

I've been busy lately-- I had an interview last Thursday at Pleasants County Middle School for an 8th grade WV history teacher. I felt good about the interview, but I KNOW better than to get excited about it because I will most likely be trumped by someone w/a Master's degree and/or more teaching experience. Haven't heard anything yet so we'll see... But I've been getting regular subbing work, usually 3-4 days a week, which is good.

HOWEVER-- annoyingly I was summoned for Jury duty today (super fun right? LOL) so I had to cancel a job I had for tomorrow. That bums me out. I know you get paid for Jury duty but I don't particularly want to do it. Tomorrow is just the pre-screening thingy so I'm hoping I say something they don't like and can get out of it! Haha.

I was productive this afternoon too-- I made Duke's first vet appointment (yes- I've been slacking-- but he already had his first shots/deworming), so we're taking him there Thursday evening.

Annnnd guess what- Brew (and I) FINALLY have health insurance!!! wooo hoo! Mind you it's costing us $300/month which is ridiculous but hey it's insurance. So I finally made an appointment w/the hematologist I was supposed to go see last Spring. (In case you're wondering- my mom had a pulmonary embolism which they contributed to estrogen birth control, so when I got married, my gyno put me on a progestin-only pill, and wanted me to get further testing to make sure I didn't have a genetic clotting problem that could be caused/made worse by excess estrogen. If I DO- that means no estrogen bc for me AND when I get preggo, I might have to be on blood thinners and such. But that's like worse case scenario- I may not have anything wrong, but she just wanted me to get checked to make sure). So I have that in a few weeks, super fun (not). I'm not too much of a wuss when it comes to needles but I don't exactly look forward to it. I am going to have her type my blood-- because I don't even know my own blood type lol.

So that's pretty much what's going on in the Dean house now. I'm super pumped for this weekend. Saturday we're going to Morgantown for the WVU game :) WVU football games are always fun, but it's also going to be nice to get away w/my hubby for the day. Duke is going to stay w/his "uncle" Matthew & "aunt" Amanda and play with his new cousin "Gibson" (lol- my bro & sis in law got a dog this past week) while we are gone. So predictably this week is going slow!

Alrighty well I'm going to get off here and head to bed soon! Until later!!!

Getting a slow start today...

So today I'm getting kind of a slow start at things. I've been up since 6:30 when Brew got up to get ready for work. I just decided to stay up after he left even though I'm not working. Duke was wound up and I didn't figure I'd get back to sleep anyway. Buttt, I've done a whole lot of nothing. I did fold some laundry but mostly I've watched some episodes of TLC shows through Netflix on our Wii :) Finally got that hooked up!

I was thinking of taking some pics of the house and putting up before & after pics BUT, most of the "before" pics I took were on my laptop that was stolen :-p I have a couple on my phone, and maybe a few on here. I think what I'm going to do is make a video of the house (like a tour) and incorporate some of the before photos into it that I do have. Now I'm not doing it until we at LEAST get the guest room finished set up. I'm getting ready to call mom though, I'm off this Saturday (from work at the Y) so I'm hoping we can borrow my parents truck & trailer and move some furniture!

Sooo Brew & I are considering getting an iPad.



Brew has an older laptop, and we have my desktop computer, so I think an iPad would be perfect for the entertainment/media side of things, which is what we'll use it for, because we already have two other computers to use for Office and things like that. What do you think? I'm probably going to score a gently used one from Ebay to keep the cost down. I doubt I will buy anything within the next couple of months but we're trying to decide if we should get an iPad or another laptop pc to replace mine that was stolen, OR if we should just forget it and save the money... Does anyone that reads this have an iPad? Is it worth it to buy one? Should we stick to getting another pc laptop? Or just forget it entirely? It's definitely a WANT not a NEED. And like I said it'll be a few months before we make any purchases but just wondering what you all thought.

And with that the dishes & laundry are calling for me (as usual) I'll post again soon!

Fall around the corner...

Well today is the first day of September! I don't necessarily have anything to really update you on... but since it's a new month I thought I should write something haha.

Things have been going well, I've made miniscule progress on the "to do" list from my last post. I've gotten some sub jobs! :) I worked a half day on Monday at Lubeck, and I worked today, the next two days, and 2 1/2 days next week at Franklin. I'm happy about that, I'm hoping I get lots of work coming up, we could use the money of course.

Speaking of which, Brew is working late tonight again. He likes his job but gets frustrated at the fact that he seems to get the shaft so to speak. Any late orders and stuff that comes in he has to take care of. Seems like the other two service reps get off on time or shortly afterwards whereas Brew probably works over more than he gets off on time. The paychecks are nice though. I told him that that sort of thing happens almost everywhere. People pick favorites for no good reason and sometimes you get stuck w/the crap all the time. I have a feeling though they are going to put a cap on overtime soon and if that's the case then I know he won't be working as late anymore lol.

Duke's doing well. He's pretty much into everything. I can't count the number of odd random things I've pulled out of his mouth the last couple of weeks. He has a knack for finding things that are not edible and wants to chew/eat them. He's doing ok on housetraining. He had a kick there for a while where he'd sneak through our bedroom closet to get to the 3rd bedroom (which is not being used for anything other than keeping some of my uncles' junk in still) and pooping. I've since baracaded the closet so he hasn't done that anymore. He's starting to go to the door too when he needs out and he has been making it through the night and when we aren't home w/out using the bathroom in the house. Sometimes he'll slip up, especially if I'm trying to do dishes or something and not paying attention, but mostly he's doing well. We're trying to break him of play biting and chewing on people. We're open to suggestions. We've just been smacking him on the nose but that doesn't really seem to phase him. I don't want him to play rough since we have young nieces and I just don't want to get any of that started. Overall though he's a pretty good dog :)

Alright I've rambled long enough-- I'll write more later when I have something more interesting to say LOL

Our puppy & other stuff...

Well our puppy is home!!! We decided on the name Duke. It just seemed to fit him well plus Brew & I BOTH liked it. Which if naming this puppy is any indication of how difficult it will be for us to name our kids then we'll have quite the challenge on our hands... But here are some pictures :)






He's still working on housetraining but so far he's been pretty good. I just have to be paying attention to him when he goes to the door cause he doesn't scratch or whine every time. He's getting the hang of it though. At night he sleeps in our bedroom, we just close the door to keep him corralled. He has a little doggie bed. (Ours is too crowded as it is- and there's no way he'd fit when he's full grown so we're not starting the sleep in our bed thing!) When I'm not home he stays in a crate, which he does well in. I just put him there so he doesn't tear stuff up lol. And he never pees in there either so that helps.

In other news... I haven't had any work yet (it's a slow time of year for subs). Last year I didn't work till mid-September. Which, we do ok with what Brew makes but I have a feeling after a week or two I'm going to get tired of sitting at home. Not that I don't have plenty to do. My to-do list is plenty big enough...

To DO:

- Wash Dishes (UGH this is never ending. I HATE doing this and try to talk my hubby into doing them as much as I can. I soooo wish I had a dishwasher!)

- Laundry (again, another ongoing project. Not only am I trying to keep up w/just our everyday clothes but also washing new sheet sets & blankets & off season clothes, etc. as I'm STILL unpacking)

- Finish wedding thank you cards (This is ALMOST done-- I just have to get some more envelopes cause I ran out for the last three, and mail Stef & Bas' from the post office since I don't know or have the correct postage)

- Unpack, clean, and organize guest bedroom/office (Where I'm at right now! It's coming along. I'm trying to get it straightened up and stuff by this weekend so we can move my dresser, bookshelf, and Brew's old bed in)

- Clean and organize our bedroom closet (yea it's kind of a jumble right now)

- Clean out the 3rd bedroom (this will require my dad's trailer and a place to put some of my uncles & grandparents' old furniture that's shoved in there now. I'm wanting to get it CLEANED so I can re-paint in there and we can use it for storage and the like. Eventually it will be the nursery whenever the time comes for babies :))

- Clean the rest of the house (because by the time I do all the above it'll be a disaster!)

- Finish my wedding scrapbook & work on my Thailand scrapbook (This is about the only fun thing on the list haha)

So yea, no shortage of things to do. I just need to find some motivation somewhere. About all I've wanted to do is sit on my butt or play w/Duke lol.

Alright well I need to get off here & get ready to go. I'm teaching clogging lessons for Teresa (from now till the end of the semester actually-- she has a Thursday night class)

Until next time... :)