Doggie Kisses

My sweet pup and her cousin sharing a quick little doggie kiss on July 5, 2011.

I'm linking up to The Paper Mama Photo Challenge... this week the theme is "sweet"!

Weekend Update

So my fabulous crib is back to $130 plus $50 in shipping on Amazon, but I found it for $125 with free shipping from Walmart. I stalk it daily and that's the best deal I've found. I wonder if it's a Memorial Day thing or if it'll stay that low for a while? I am also really still wondering when it's appropriate to purchase a crib.

My bump will be making an appearance at the pool today. It's 90 degrees out, I need some sun, and Ryan assured me that he wouldn't be embarrassed of my very naked bump exposed in a public forum. It's very Teen Mom, but I totally don't care.

I went to see Sex & the City 2 last night... I liked the first one better, but this one was really good. Classic Samantha. I laughed a ton. Liza Minelli doing Single Ladies was awesome.

There's a new ticker at the top of the page, since I don't need to know when Sex & the City 2 opens any more. We're totally finding out if baby H is a boy or a girl and that goes down on June 10. The coutdown to shopping is on.

Our pup Marley turned 6 on Thursday. I have to upload a ton of pictures from the past month, so when I do that I'll put up pics of her birthday cake. Speaking of birthdays, mine was last Saturday and it was the best birthday I've ever had. My wonderful husband secretly invited our college friends down for the weekend! We were sitting on the couch on Friday night and there is a knock at the door. I'm on the phone, it's 10pm, and I'm slightly pissed because who is knocking on my door at 10pm? So I get up to grab the dog and I make Ryan answer the door. So he does and my jaw just drops as I realize that 4 of our friends are standing in the dark on my front porch. It was awesome and we had a great time.

We have a daycare appointment set for June 11. It is so intense to know that you need to find someone to watch your child for 40 hours a week. It's all fun and games when you're picking our cribs and names and deciding whether or not you're going to do swim lessons at 3 months or 6. It is completely different when you're deciding who is going to be your child's primary caregiver for 40 hours a week.

Time to go get my 17 week old bump into a bikini. I'll let you know if anyone runs away screaming.

Loving You is Cherry Pie

I love Lady Gaga and I love the Westminster Dog Show... and some crafty, crafty marketing exec came up with the best commercial ever:





Honestly, is that not the best? I love the white dog that blinks a few times. She looks like such a priss. And of course, Marley is ready for her close-up as well:

She's a little pissed they don't have a mixed-breed division and no amount of reasoning will shut her up. The Sporting, Working, and Terrier groups are all on tonight at 8pm... I can tell you where Mar and I will have our butts parked so we can watch all the fancy dogs prance around the ring. Anyone have a favorite? Or do you just watch it (like us) to see all of the adorable pups?

Disinfect, much?

This happened last week, and I almost didn't want to share, but then I figured, why not? Everyone has a good poop story, right? No? Just me? Ok, then.

So I have a pair of snowflake PJ pants that I stole from Ryan waaaaaaaaaay back in college when he was just a guy I really liked (and thus, stole clothes from). Obviously I can steal his clothes any time I want, seeing as we're married, but I do love the snowflake pants. So I wear them constantly.

As in, the minute I get home from work, snowflake pants and sweatshirt go on. I like to be comfy. Whatev.

I actually get changed before I even take the dog out (do you see where this is going?), and usually just slip on whatever shoes are by the door to let her out.

So one day last week (or possibly before then, I just happened to notice it last week) I took the dog out in my snowflake pants.

Now, keep up with me here, because this next section is very important.

After taking out the dog, I went upstairs to get a package of decals I've been meaning to put on the living room wall. I bring said decals downstairs. I climb on the couch to position them just so. I step back and look at my work. Not satisfied, I climb back up on the couch. I walk from one end of the couch to the other. I step back again. I go to the kitchen for some water. I go by the dining room table to sort through mail, all while looking at the decals. I decide I like them where they are. I go back to the couch, climb up, walk over throw pillows and blankets, and get the decals up for reals.

Then I go over to the armchair Ryan is sitting in, I climb up, and snuggle for a bit. The dog jumps up. I fall out. And I notice there is something brown on the carpet.

I start dying lauging, and tell Ryan to smell it because I think the dog let out a stink nugget (a rare occurance, but it does happen when she gets excited). He leans down, says no way, and touches it. He smells his finger and promptly starts gagging, to the point where he needed to remove himself to go to the bathroom.

At this time, I am laughing so hard I can't even move. I then smell the carpet and sure enough, it's crap. And now I'm wondering where it came from.... I check the bottom of shoes. I check the dog's butt. I check around the house.... and there's a smudge of poop by the couch.

Shit. Literally.

I check the bottom on my foot. Smeared in shit.

I immediately drop to my hands and knees and crawl upstairs to the tub, where I promptly realize that there is poop smashed into the hem of my snowflake pants.

Of course the only logical thing to do here is ask for a pair of scissors to cut off the offending hem (and the other hem later because the pants are too terrible all lopsided). So I washed off my foot, gagged at the poopy pant hem, and then realized that I must have stepped in poop when I took the dog out earlier, and because the pants are so long, the hem covered the bottom of my shoe. And then when I took the shoe off, I stepped on the hem

WHEN I WAS ON THE COUCH.

Project "De-Poop" commenced, and only now do I feel 100% comfortable with the amount of cleaning that has been done.

Show Us Your Life: Pets

Today is Show Us Your Pet, hosted by Kelly over at Kelly's Korner. I did a few of these back when she first started the series but haven't done one in a while. I have a ton of cute dog pictures though, and figured I was due!

This sweet sack of love came into our lives on May 27, 2005.

She's a smiley girl, and loves getting her picture taken (yes, she's wearing daddy's tie).
She loves laying out in the sun, and will sit or lay quietly and just look. Ryan had just come outside, and she's looking up at him.

Before we got a dog, I was completely against having a dog on our bed or couch. The first few nights we tried to make her sleep in the kitchen, and she cried and cried. A few weeks after, Ryan went away for business, and I was just plain scared to sleep in my bed alone... so I invited her up. Whoops - she hasn't left. Every night she sleeps with us, only instead of she sandwiched between Ryan and I, I get sandwiched between her and Ryan. And she takes all of her day naps up on the furniture.

Marley's Stats

Name: Marley May

Weight: 55 lbs

Height: No idea, she's pretty little

Age: 5

Nicknames: Bean, Snuggle Face, Pumpkin Pie

Likes: Kisses, knowing what everyone is doing at all times, laying in the sun

Dislikes: Baths

Life Goal: Getting her tongue in as many mouths as possible

Grey hairs.

This morning I was sitting on the couch with my dog, reading blogs. I looked over at her sweet face and saw 6 or 7 grey hairs on the bottom of her jaw, and promptly burst into tears. My girl is still a puppy (at 5 years old)! How can she have grey hairs already??!

How much can we cram into 7 days?

6 days and counting! I am SO EXCITED. So what did I do? I made a list. Duh. And lucky you, I'm going to share it.

MidWest Road Trip '09 - Must See Stuff

Chicago
We've both been to the Windy City numerous times and can't wait to go back! Millenium Park, Michigan Ave, Second City - seriously, what's not to love? The one thing we won't be doing is touring Rush & Division late night style. I like to save that for when I'm out with the girls... speaking of, I'd fly out for a bachelorette party in Chi-City (Sept. Bride, I'm talking to YOU!). Anyway, things we will be doing include:

• Lunch at the Signature Room at the 95th Floor (of the John Hancock Center). I've been there for drinks, and the view is stunning. So stunning, in fact, that I don't care that the club sandwich is $12. On a clear day, you can see so far... though the main attraction is the Lake shoreline, if you're lucky enough to sit on that side of the building.
• Walk out on the Sears Tower Ledge. I'm imagining it will be like that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but better. And by better I mean vomit-inducing. I am so pumped.
• US Cellular Field. The Yankees will be in town and we've got tickets. Is there really anything better than a Chicago-style hot dog at a Yankees game? I think not.
• Shopping on Michigan Ave. And by shopping I mean oogling sparkly things in Tiffany's while reminding myself that I'd really like a reason to carry a diaper bag more than I'd like one of these. So I guess we'll be window-shopping. Whatev.
• Hit the beach. In general, I'm really against calling anything a beach if it doesn't have salt water lapping up against the shore, but I'll make an exception for Lake Michigan. Sand, waves, and my favorite city skyline? OK.

St. Louis
Neither of us has ever been to St. Louis, though we've heard there's a lot of cool stuff to see. Things that made the list include:

• Trying to steal a penguin from The Zoo. (Just kidding, zoo keepers. Unless you have a tiny pengy you want to give us. We would provide said pengy with a wonderful home - just ask our dog, I'm sure she could provide a great reference.)
• Go to the top of the Arch. Take a million pictures. Enjoy being at the top of the Nation's tallest monument and totally respect Thomas Jefferson's role in opening the West.
• Drink beer, say hi to the horses, and try to spot the Dalmation at the Anheuser-Busch brewing factory.

Terre Haute, Indiana
Ryan went to grad school out there, and I moved out to be with him. We lived in a little one bedroom apartment on a lake (ok, a retention pond, but it had fish in it). He was in school, and I worked 3 jobs to help pay rent. We didn't have a penny to our name, but it was good. Our relationship is much stronger for it, and we have a little red dog to show for it. You can't get from St. Louis back to the east coast without going through Terre Haute, so we decided to make it an official stop on our Tour. Our must see list:

• Terre Haute Humane Society. We adopted our girl in 2005. Back then she was a sack of bones covered in red matted fur. Four years later she's healthy, happy, and sleeping with her head on my pillow every night. THHS gave us our beautiful dog, so we're dropping off a few big bags of dog food in hopes that THHS can feed a few more pups 'till they get adopted, too.
• Moggers. Ryan used to live in a teeny-tiny apartment above this restaurant and we'd always go for dinner whenever I visited. The have the best bourbon sauce. They mean for the sauce to go on buffalo wings, but I prefer it on quesadillas. Wow, I could really go for a quesadilla dipped in bourbon sauce right now....
• The Garden Quarter - our old apartment community. I'm a sap like that. If you click the link and scroll down, you can see the pond that was right outside our sliding door. Marley spent lots of time barking at the geese that lived there. I am tearing up just thinking about it. This does not bode well for that segment of the trip.

Champaign, IL
I really want to write something sappy here, but I'm going to refrain. E&L, we can't wait to see you. For real. Oh, and we're pumped for the party. I'm hoping those cornhole boards are still around; I haven't played a proper game of cornhole since we moved back east.

• Friends, friends, and more friends.
• Dress shopping!!!! Of both the bridal and bridesmaid variety.
• Champaign County Fair? I don't know if we'll have enough time, but just knowing it'll be happening makes me warm and fuzzy inside.

So that's it, folks. Our whirlwind MidWest Tour in a nutshell. Ryan - you seriously may need to call in sick on Thursday; I truly don't think we'll be back on Wednesday night.... but it'll all be worth it, right?! Getting back to our roots? I mean, I worked at Columbia House for this relationship. The least you can do is let me re-live it for a minute :-)

What do you think? Can this list be accomplished in 7 days? I guess we'll find out!

Dog Cake

For those desperate to bake for someone other than themselves :-)

Peanut Butter Cake (found HERE)

Ingredients:

1 cup white or whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup shredded carrots

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup honey

1 egg
fat-free plain yogurt for frosting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Mix together four and baking soda. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool, then frost with yogurt.

I used two mini springform pans to make the 2 layers. This recipe makes just enough to fill each springform pan about half way full; the batter will expand while cooking and will make 2 perfect cakes. I suppose it will also fill an 8x8 pan nicely. Here are the two mini springform pans after baking, layered with yogurt in the middle, and frosted:

The yogurt doesn't stick very well to the cake, but it works. The cooked cake is actually quite tasty (without the "frosting" unless you're into plain yogurt. I'm not.) and Marley loved it. To make it healthier, I used all natural peanut butter (the ingredients were just peanuts and salt; how great. Too bad I'm too cheap to feed myself this), fat free yogurt, real honey (not the imitation crap), and whole wheat flour. I did use regular people frosting to make the red 5 on the top (see yesterday's post), but it wasn't a lot and I was ok with that.

She loved it.

Guess who is 5 today?

Marley May!

Marley celebrated her 5th birthday in style today - complete with double layer carrot cake (made with all natural peanut butter that costs more than the crap Skippy I eat) with yogurt frosting.

Here she is with her cake. She's a ham for the camera.

YUM. Happy Birthday, Marley!

She's asleep at my feet, full of cake. I can't believe we've had her for 4 years already - it really seems like not that long ago we were bringing her home. I so wish we would have had her when she was a little puppy, just to see all of the cute puppy stuff... but we wouldn't trade her for the world.

I'll need a savings account specifically for photos.

The Picture People at the mall by me were having a pet photo contest this week, and after seeing the Lola's adorable pictures (Marley's BFF, the bulldog), I figured I'd set up a session for Marley. Going into this, I was a little worried about how she'd be in the mall with all of the people walking around and I had no idea if she'd even sit still for the pictures. But I figured it would be an adventure and we'd get a free 8x10 out of it, so why not?

Well, we got to the mall and Marley stuck close to my side, navigating the Saturday afternoon crowd like a pro... like she'd done it a million times. She didn't stop to sniff any kids in strollers (her weakness) and didn't even look in the direction of anyone holding food. It was amazing/unreal. Maybe she goes to the mall while I'm at work.... I mean, this was really old news to her.

When we got into The Picture People, we waited for a minute, and were then lead to one of the backdrops. Then my version of how this would all go down started: Marley was way more interested in being by my side then sitting nice for the camera, and every time the camera flashed, she'd jump up to lick the photographer. She also managed to get her tongue in direct contact with the camera lens. I don't think she sat still for even a second. The photographer was really nice and said we got some good shots, but I knew Marley was too excited and so I really wasn't expecting much in the way of "good shots".

Well, when those pictures came out.... it was all over. For those of you with human children, prepare to have either very strong willpower or a credit card with a very high limit. Try to have ugly children, if possible; that way you won't even want their pictures. I'm telling you - you will spend a fortune on pictures of your children when you see the photos all nice and matted in beautiful frames. Seeing them on the screen is one thing; seeing them printed and matted and wall-ready is a completely different matter altogether.

Even though Marley was squirmy and jumpy, the photographer got about 8 different shots that I was IN LOVE with - I sat there with the lady trying to decide which ones I wanted for about 20 minutes. If I had even an ounce less willpower, I would have paid for all 8 sheets of prints. I managed to leave with a free 8x10, and 2 additional sheets of smaller prints, which ran me about $25. I can't imagine it will go well when I'm in there deciding on baby pictures.

I should have the proofs emailed to me in the next few hours, and I'll try to post them if the site will let me copy/save to my computer. Until then, I'll be looking into high yeild savings accounts. Screw the college funds: my kids are going to need a Photo Fund so I don't go broke when I take them for their infant photos. The only thing cuter than my dog is a set of little bitty baby toes...

Source

And are you really telling me you wouldn't be willing to put out good money for a shot like this? Those toes are really only this little for a few months.... then they get big and gross and no one wants pictures of that. But these little toes? This is what I need a Photo Fund for....

More pics of Marley and Lola!

More pics, as promised... because who doesn't want documented proof that Marley has a BFF?

I don't think they could have been cuter if they tried.

Marley's BFF.

This past weekend my girlfriend and her husband dropped off their sweet-as-pie bulldog at our house so they could take a long weekend in The City (I'm originally from NJ, so The City for me is NYC). When I offered to watch their meatball of a bulldog, I had no worries that she'd be perfectly fine at my house. I was, however, terrified that my dog wouldn't be so happy. For whatever reason, Marley isn't really great with other dogs. Ryan and I have our theories that she is still aggressive with other dogs because she remembers having to fight for food on the street, but we're not 100%. She's ok with some dogs, a little iffy with others, and with some, it's a complete no-go. She especially isn't fond of random boy dogs trying to have their way with her, but then again, I'm not really a fan of random human boys trying to have their way with me, so I guess I can't really blame her there. At any rate, I've been friends with B for 3 years now and had been putting off intros (between our dogs) because I was terrified Marley would hate the Meatball (don't worry, the Meatball has a name; I'm getting to it.) and do something semi-terrible, which would lead to B hating me and then me having to kill myself because B's one of my BFF's and it would be terrible if she hated me.

In reality, the girls got along famously and now I feel like a jerk for depriving Marley of her own BFF for the last 3 years. Sorry, Mar. Anyway, on the to pictures (because that's what you're really here for, right?)!!!

Meet Lola. She's an English Bulldog, which is really just code for Meatball. She has the most adorable smooshed in nose and little legs that seem to have no joints. She's 45 pounds of pure love.

After the obligatory butt-sniffing (it is what it is) and "Hey this is my house", Marley showed Lola the ropes and they got down to business. Here they are looking at Ryan, asking him if he was really going to watch another episode of The Wire, and if so, could he make some room for two puppies.

It seemed that there was another episode on, but there was only one extra spot on the couch. Marley, the gracious host that she is, gave the coveted couch spot to Lola, but can be seen here asking Lola if it was her turn to get some couch time.


Anyway, the weekend flew by and both girls had a blast. Blogger is being a jerk now and won't let me upload more pictures, so I'll be sure to put up some gratuitous puppy pictures later tonight.

Our baby girl.

This post was supposed to be about our dog and her new BFF, but it just didn't flow since you don't really know Marley. So I figured I'd tell you the story about how Ryan and I became proud parents completely by accident.

In May 2005, I went out to Indiana to visit Ryan at grad school. We were moving in together in a few weeks, right after my grad school graduation, and we were going to look at an apartment. On the way to the apartment complex, we were talking about dog breeders and going to visit one right after I moved in - I was dying for a Britney and figured we'd buy one from an established breeder. In my young mind, shelter dogs were older, unpredictable, and more often than not had behavioral problems that I wasn't prepared to deal with. With a purebred, you knew what you were in for.

But as we were driving home from checking out the new apartment, Ryan looked at me and said, "Want to go to the shelter just to see what they have?" Knowing we wouldn't be taking anything home, I said "Sure, why not". Famous last words, let me tell you.

When we got to the shelter, we asked to see the puppies, but were told that the puppy room was off-limits due to an outbreak of parvo. I was a little disappointed, but figured while we were there we could play with the other dogs. We were lead out to a small yard and were able to play with the dogs one by one. Each time a new dog was brought out, we'd put out our hands to let the dog sniff... but each dog was more interested in being outside that in checking us out. Oh well. It wasn't like we were going to take home any of these mutts anyway, right?

But as we were walking through the shelter on our way out, one of the cage cards caught my eye: "Female, Approx. 1 Year Old, Found on Street. Injured." We had been looking for a puppy, certainly not anything over 4 months old, but as I looked through the wire cage door at the red sack of bones, an overwhelming sense of need came over me. I asked Ryan to find a kennel attendant; I wanted to know what was wrong with this dog. When someone came to open the cage, the little red dog slowly came forward, tail low, but wagging. She limped. I knelt down and she came to me, eyes sad and pleading. As I went to pet her, Ryan noticed that her back foot was bleeding. It looked as if someone had tried to cut off a single toe with a pair of wire cutters. The attendant ran to get an alcohol swab to clean the wound, and as she knelt down with me to clean the dog's foot, the dog moved forward into my arms and laid her sweet head on my shoulder. She whimpered through the whole process, but didn't move a muscle.

After her toe was cleaned up, I looked at Ryan and we asked to take her out to the yard. She gladly followed us outside and let us lead her over to a picnic table. I sat down in a lawn chair, prepared to watch her run around, free from her kennel. She looked around for a minute, then limped over to where I was sitting. She laid her head in my lap and sat very still, looking up at me with her huge brown eyes. As I put my hand on her little head, I looked at Ryan. He smiled and I knew - we wouldn't be going home alone.

On paper, she wasn't what we were looking for - an older, mixed breed, with no history - for all we knew, she could have behavioral problems, food agression... the list goes on. But in my heart, I knew we ended up at the shelter specifically to rescue her, and we took a chance. She has proven to be everything we could have ever asked for - she's a huge snuggle-fest and loves people. Her main goal in life is get her tongue in as many human mouths as possible. She isn't the best with other dogs (she's learning!), but she's great with kids. She's patient and smart and healthy and we can't imagine life without her.

Here she is today, 2 months shy of her 5th birthday, being the princess that she is:

Yes, that is our bed. Yes, that is my pillow. Yes, that is my husbands arm in the upper right hand corner. Yes, I love this little girl with my whole heart.

Soapbox: Shelter dogs make wonderful companions. I'm not going to get all Sarah McLachlan on you, but I believe in giving shelter dogs a second chance. Many times, all they need is a little love and encouragement to become a truly rewarding part of your family.