Los Siete Enanos

This is what it would look like if Mexican's took over Disneyland...

Je-fuh-fuh Dunhaaaaaaaaaam

We watched Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special the other night and this was by far the most hilarious part of the show. Take about 5 minutes and watch it. We were dying.

Changes, they are a'comin....

We's big kids now!

We finally got our big-kid table! After a slight mishap with the first one (it came to us damaged), we have a brand new, awesome kitchen table. We got a really good deal on the table and 8 chairs. It's counter-height too so your feet dangle off of the chairs. And even though it's not an EXACT match to our other furniture, it's pretty darn close. This table was our reason for hosting Thanksgiving this year. Oh, and that whole family togetherness thing too.... ;) There will be a total of 6 people there and the table comfortably seats 8 (it has a removable leaf), so no worries for elbow room!



GASP! Is that a paint can in the background??? I wonder what that is doing there??

Old Man Hayden

When Josh and I were painting, I decided to go over and antagonize him with my fully loaded paintbrush. After he'd had enough, he came after me with his roller. Upon hearing my squeals, Super Chicken, er, Hayden, comes running in to save his momma and attack the big, bad paint roller. This is the result...

Pregnant??? Maybe!

So the first progesterone shot was given last week, hopefully resulting in a successful conception. We won't know for sure for another week or so if it took but we're crossing our fingers! It's a little earlier than we had planned but we're sure that it'll all work out.

We're going to see the momma when we drive to Vegas for Christmas. And the breeder has one of the pups from a prior litter from same the two dogs. He's going with a different daddy than he had previously planned, but I guess he's her boyfriend so it should be an easier breeding.

If everything works out right, we should have another set of feet running around in the first part of May. Albeit, they will be very BIG feet...which mean very big poo's... Eesh!

Even though puppy-hood is a very trying stage, it's so nice to be able to see the dogs that they grow into. It really makes all of the time and freakin' money that we put into our babies so worth it!

Ten pounds lighter, and not from a diet.

I cut my hair. Like majorly cut my hair.


Ok, now pick your jaw up off the floor. It was just time to make the change. I'd had my hair long all my life, except for one stint in 4th grade when I thought an earlobe-length cut with a poodle perm would look cute... I also thought that hypercolor, spandex bike shorts, pegged pants, Hammer pants, and banana clips were cute, and at some point, I probably wore all of the above...at the same time...

I'm still getting used to the length of it, or lack thereof. But I absolutely love that my hair has a style now. Yeah, it now takes me about an hour just to do my hair in the mornings, but I think that I'll like it so much that I won't ever grow it out again. One good thing that came out of this though is that the salon that I went to participates in the Locks of Love program so soon somebody else can be wearing my hair! Just a little FYI: you have to have at least 10 inches of hair cut off to be eligible. Yea me!

BOO!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

We carved pumpkins last night and this is one out of the FOUR that we did. Of course, we all had to have one. And I chose one that took me OVER TWO HOURS to complete!

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!"

New trailer!!! I love how dark these movies are getting too. I just wonder if they'll be able to pull off the next three movies because the crew isn't so young anymore.... I'm hoping though that it's worth waiting EIGHT MORE MONTHS to see it!!

Decisions, decisions....

We moved into a new building at work this week and this new sign in our restroom had me scratching my head. Are we, the users of the toilets, the ones to properly decide if it's solid enough to be a solid? How solid does it have to be to be considered "solid"??? Is the same sign in the men's restroom as well?? These are the things that I ponder as I'm sitting at my desk. What if you have a situation where what's supposed to be a solid, isn't quite solid? Do you flush in the middle? No, because I had to see if that would work, and it doesn't. And to actually wrap your foot around the lever to pull it up for "liquid" waste is a feat in itself! Do they seriously expect us to TOUCH the lever on the toilet?? No.Way. So after almost falling over in the stall because I was trying to properly flush my liquid waste, I decided to treat it all as solid and save myself some embarassment by not having to explain why my sleeve was soaked from falling into the toilet or why I had a mild concussion from banging my head on the wall...

My babies is so smaht!

My babies are so smart!! They graduated their Beginning Obedience classes! Even though I don't think that any of the dogs failed.... We're going to put them in intermediate for the next session and then get Hayden into agility or rally classes. Abbi could care less about running through a tunnel. She'd look at you and tell you to do it yourself!

It's a dog's life!

This is what our place looks like on a typical Saturday afternoon. Dog beds pushed and pulled until they find the comfy place. Mom's current yarn project, or two, laying out. Dog TOYS all over the place! A blanket on the floor that's been pilfered from the couch by a cold furbaby. Daddy napping. And at least one dog on the couch.



We actually folded and put our couch blankets away where they’re supposed to go and Miss Thang decided she wanted to lay in them anyway. This is Abbi curled up in our blanket basket.






Hayden, looking out the window, waiting for momma to come home.

Things that we lost in the move....

...other than Abbi's front leg:












*My red "train bag." I'm dying without it!! It's the bag I would pack everything in for my commute to and from work and without it, I don't have a free hand to fend off the drunken homeless men that seem to gravitate towards me.

*Josh's twine. Even though I think he's a little batty because I've NEVER seen this supposed twine since we've been living together, this seems to have gone missing. He was diligently searching for this last weekend and getting so frustrated that he couldn't find it. Um, sweety, it's twine. It's cheap. Go buy some more!

*A new pair of Josh's jeans, but we're not quite sure we actually had them to begin with...

*A roll of dog poo bags. The importance of these cannot be expressed unless you've been without them.

I think that's it! We still have a few boxes in the garage to unpack but it's stuff that we don't need on an every day basis. I actually don't even know what's still in those boxes... We're still not completely settled though because we have an ever-expanding list of things that need to get done before we can move on to the next project. Here's a little sample:

*Buy curtain rod for master bedroom (we're changing in the bathroom or closet right now so the neighbors can't see us nekkid).
*Fix closet shelving in the second bedroom (it started pulling away from the wall) so we can unload the boxes that are sitting on the floor in there.
*Prime and paint wooden beam in living room.
*Prime and paint pink walls. WOOHOO!!!
*After painting walls, hang pictures, clock, and hook up surround sound.
*Buy, paint, and install baseboard throughout.
*Miraculously find replacement closet doors for master bedroom.

That's all I can think of right now, without having my 3/4 page-long list in front of me. We're entertaining the idea of pulling out the sink in the master bedroom and putting in a pedestal. Just so we can have more room!! We've already installed a medicine chest in the bathroom and that has given us much needed storage space.

Warm and Toasty

Josh made the first fire of the season on Sunday. Since I like to have the windows open most of the time, the temperature in our house is almost North Pole-ish. I tried to get cozy pictures with the dogs in front of the fire, but they were having NOTHING to do with it. I'm sure they'll get used to it though and those cozy pics will come.

Yea for the changing of the seasons!!

We made it!!

Yesterday was our 1-year anniversary! I had the day off from work for Columbus Day so it was spent cleaning with the dogs...Josh had to work. He was home early enough to enjoy the cake that my parents bought for us as an anniversary present, but not early enough to enjoy a nice dinner together. :( We have a nice bottle of champagne that we've been saving for this but we didn't think that it would quite go with the mac & cheese that was for dinner... Josh brought me home some really pretty flowers though, so that made him coming home late a little better.

When we're guaranteed a night together, I'm going to make him a nice dinner to celebrate. And so we can pop the cork on that champagne!

See Dad, I can cook!!

Okay, I admit it, I'm a blog-stalker. There are a few blogs that I regularly follow without the blog owner's knowledge. One of them is my sister-in-law's sister's sister-in-law. Uh....what??

Anyway, she's got some great recipes on her blog and I saw one for calzones that looked easy enough for me to tackle. After a quick check in our cupboards and pantry, we amazingly had all of the major ingredients to make the dough and the filling. Josh got sent to the store for the filling while I was making, yes, MAKING, the dough and cooking the chicken breasts. Our filling was a small amount of tomato sauce, the baked chicken, reduced-fat mozzerella cheese, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms. The general consensus was that there needed to be more cheese in there but I went in to food-Nazi mode and told Josh no!. This recipe is definitely a repeater. So thank you, Tami's sister's sister-in-law!! I may just try to tackle pizza next!

The piiiiiiiieeee is made with dough and then you throw it. Into the air... Into the air...


The finished product


And here's a little song that I'll be singing when I try to make homemade pizza.

We're Outta There!!!

We turned in our keys to the leasing office yesterday. So long, Stinktown!! We're bummed though because we're leaving behind friends that we recently made, but it'll just force us to make an effort to still get together. Now we can devote all of our time and attention to the duplex, and maybe get the garage cleared out so Josh can finally park the truck in there...

Take me out to the ballgame!!

On the 20th of September, Josh and I went to Oakland for an A's vs. Mariners baseball game. It was so much fun and both of us really needed the distraction. The weather was gorgeous: just right for a short-sleeved shirt, but with a little breeze. Our seats kicked butt too!! We were right behind the net, which was a little distracting, but so cool!

Note to parents and potential parents: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take small children or toddlers to a sporting event unless you are 100% POSITIVE that they will not scream, cry, act out, misbehave, or incessantly kick the seat of the person in front of them. Having a child like that behind us really made points of the day unenjoyable. The dad ended up taking the kid home after the 6th inning, so he wasn't able to see the double play that the A's were able to make, the three runs that they were able to score off of one hit, and the last inning where the A's were able to win, which was an intense three up, three down. Reason #13595223 that we're not having kids: they ruin sporting events. We really should start making a list of these reasons...

Here are some pictures of the game. Lemme just say that I L-O-V-E my camera!!

Our seats. Ichiro and Ellis were sitting in the stands with us when they weren't out on the field.


Swing and a miss!!


Oakland fans across the field


Check that bat for cork!!


Uh oh....this is never good


The ever-classy picture of Josh with a huge dip in his mouth... The only things missing are a Natural Ice beer can in a coozy in his hand and me with a dirty baby naked, except for a diaper, on my hip. Nice.

WE'RE EXPECTING!!!

We got confirmation yesterday that we'll be bringing home a bouncing baby boy around the end of March, possibly early April. We're so incredibly excited about this because we've both felt that our family hasn't been complete and this new addition will help us get there. We didn't have a plan as to when we wanted to extend our family, but just knew that we would know when the time was right. Finding a name for the little guy is hard!! We've gone to so many websites with meanings but haven't found "the one" just yet. A few ideas, but nothing that we're in love with yet. I'm so excited during this time; this anxious anticipation! I just keep thinking of all of the things that we have to do and buy and spend money on! for him. It's okay though because it'll all be worth it to have a happy, healthy pup.

These are the planned parents, that if mother nature works right, will be giving us our new baby next Spring.

We did it!!!

We FINALLY got done painting the two bedrooms!! Who would've thunk that it would take THIS LONG to get it all done?? Stupid blue paint tape threw a monkey wrench into the mix though. Lesson learned: DON'T TRUST THE BLUE TAPE!! After putting two coats of primer and two coats of paint, we pulled the tape off to reveal that the paint had bled ALL OVER the baseboards and the chairrail. Not good. We found something called frog tape, which does the same thing as the blue paint tape, only better. So after taping off the ENTIRE ROOM again, a-painting I went. Again.

The carpets are being cleaned this morning (probably as I type this) so everything will be ready for our move this weekend!!

Here are some pictures of the after. I forgot to take pictures of the before... The colors are not true at all, but the general idea is there. The model in the pictures just adds to the effect.

The master bedroom. With the green frog tape still on the wall...


The master closet with the new wire shelving. We still have a few more shelves to install though.


The second bedroom.


And the newly painted white doors, that used to be dark brown.


We're eventually going to rip out the small, brown baseboard that's throughout the rest of the house and replace it with wide, white base. But before that, we're going to tear out the mirror in the master bathroom and replace it with something smaller and then put some sort of storage in there. I'll definitely take before and after pictures for that! Fun stuff!!

A Little Less of a Man and School Starts Tonight! and Updates

Little Hayden got his not-so-little fuzzies chopped a week ago today. I was so worried that he wouldn't do well under anesthesia because of his murmur. But the vet said that he did great and that he was such a good dog, doing everything that he was asked to do. Awwww! My little boy is so sweet!! He was sent home with some meds for pain and valium for sedation, and with instructions to keep him calm and sedated for 7-10 days. Uh, yeah, we have a problem there. Boxer pup and calm and sedated are complete oxy-morons! He was quiet for the first night and a little into the next day but he's been his normal, happy, bouncy self since then. Even with us giving him three doses of valium a day...

School is starting for the kids tonight. I'm really hopeful that they'll learn some good skills from this class. I'm taking Hayden and Grampa is taking Abbi. Thank goodness for Grampa because I would've had to leave one at home while I took the other to class, and that would not a happy boxer make! The skills learned in the class is all dependant on how "smart" the dogs are going into it so I'm hoping that there aren't too many or any "dumb" dogs there tonight because then I will get bored and feel like I spent money to teach my dogs to sit. Again. But then again, my dogs might be the dumb ones in the class and holding all of the other ones up!!!

Following tradition, I'll take first day of school pictures of them tonight. All pretty, and p-o'd, with their snoot loops and leashes on.

Josh and I haven't been doing much lately. We went to the fair last Sunday and spent ALL DAY THERE! I tell ya, if you ever want to feel pretty, go to the fair. We stayed later than we usually do because we wanted to see the demolition derby at the end of the night. Why it's fun to watch people SMASHING the heck outta perfectly good cars (most often classics, a T-Bird in this case) is beyond me. But it IS fun!!

We're still in the process of moving but should be done in a couple of weeks. Every time we go to the duplex, we bring a little more of the little stuff with us. We can't do much more than that because we're waiting to get the carpets cleaned, which is waiting on us being done painting. I. Hate. Painting. I think I've done enough painting in this last week to last me for a long, long time.... But it's looking really nice though and I can actually see the progress, so that makes me feel a little better. We did an off-white-ish color on three walls in the master bedroom and, for lack of a better description, an army green on the fourth wall. We tore out the existing closet storage and have installed wire shelving. We have a TON more storage available now! Which means more clothes! Right???? In the second bedroom, we did the same army green on the top of a white chairrail with a dark chocolate brown on the bottom. The contrast of the dark colors and the white chairrail and baseboards looks really nice! Quite the change from the wasabi green and bright raspberry pink that was in there before!! We're also painting the once dark brown doors, white. It really makes a difference in the place and lightens it up nicely. We're lucky to be living in a place that my gramma owns so she's given us the freedom to do whatever we want to it. We still have a lot to do to the place, and quite a few things to buy, but we're excited to move in there and even more excited to GET OUT of the apartment!! Abbi and Hayden have been coming along with us pretty much every time we go out to the duplex so even though they're still a little uncomfy with the place, they're getting more used to it. However, Abbi, in her princess-like self, won't go outside to potty at night by herself. Guess she doesn't like pottying in the dark. Who does though???

A broken heart...

We got some bad news in the beginning of July that little Hayden might have a heart murmur. But because of our late-night emergency vet visit the night before (he thought it would be a good idea to eat the outside of a stuffed basketball), it was possible that it was just a stress-related murmur. No such luck... We went back to the vet yesterday and he gave us the thumbs up that yes, Hayden does have a heart murmur. A low-grade one though. We have to keep him calm (yeah, right) until we get in to see the cardiologist....in about 7 weeks. We're not sure what this means as far as what his activity level can be for the rest of his life, or even how long his life will be... We just have to make sure that he knows that he is loved and let each of his days be full of fun. We felt bad for him yesterday after we left the vet, so we let Hayden go pick out a new toy at the doggy boutique a few doors down.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that it won't be too serious when we finally get in to see the cardiologist, but right now, we just don't know...


UPDATE: We've decided against taking Hayden to the cardiologist. It's a poop-load of money to get him tested and we just don't have that money to spend right now. Besides, the cardiologist already recommended keeping his activity limited and not to let him exert himself. This means no running or playing. He's such a happy boy and loves to run that by limiting him, it would make him so unhappy. We figure that we're gonna let him continue as if we didn't know that he has a murmur, and if he drops dead in the middle of a sprint across the field, then at least he died doing something that he loved. We don't want to keep him medicated for the rest of his life and keep him from doing something that he loves to do.

Hanging by a limb...

After putting the Tree of Life project down for a bit, starting again, unraveling, starting again, unraveling, you get the picture, I think I've finally gotten the hang of it. For now... I'm 23 rows in and doing well so far. Wish me luck!!

You can't give a Dementor the old one-two!

I..........CAN'T........WAIT!!!

UPDATE: Stupid Warner Brothers is deciding to hold off on releasing this movie until July 17th of NEXT YEAR! Stupid. Still can't wait though!!

Ahhh...memories!

I was organizing all of our pictures from the last couple of years and came across the ones of Abbi when she was a puppy. Like 5 weeks old puppy. I can't believe that she's grown so much in the time that we've had her!! She's such a good girl and more than I could have ever asked for in a dog. Those that know the kind of "special" relationship that Josh & I have with our dogs, can somewhat understand what I'm talking about. Then I came across pictures of little Hayden boy and my heart completely melted. I love my little babies so much, it's almost like I birthed them myself!

It's just so hard to imagine that they went from this

Abbi:

Hayden:



To this!!


We're really excited to expand our family with another little four-legged baby, but it's gonna have to wait a bit. Which is completely fine because it'll give us more time to enjoy the babies that we have now. And give us the extra money to get our new tv!! Priorities, ya know. ;)