iNsANitY!!

That's what you get when you have two wild and crazy dogs cooped up indoors for about two weeks. Since this stupid smoke is lingering, none of us have been outside for more than a potty trip, and we're all feeling it... We keep hoping that the air will clear up by the weekend, but no such luck yet. We've wanted to go camping too but haven't been able to find a site that is dog-friendly and by some body of water. You'd think that with as many people that own dogs and want to enjoy camping with them, there would be a whole lot more dog-friendly places. Or some of the ones that are dog-friendly, confine them to the campsite or only allow them to walk on the road in the campground. Lame.

So until we can get out of the house, we're carefully dodging running balls of fur that seem to be aimed for our lower extremities!

The fat lady has sung

Since Josh and I both are collectively about 65 pounds heavier than we were when we first met, we are now on a diet. I unofficially put us on Weight Watchers, since that is about the only thing that we can both realistically stick to. The food isn't bad either; we can eat pretty much whatever we want. Although, a Burger King Whopper isn't what one would call a "healthy choice"... We've been doing it for four days now and the only difference that I've noticed is Josh's mild irritation at the energy that I've aquired. Apparently, a leaping, bounding wife is not what a work-weary husband wants to be greeted with after a long day. But it's okay if the dogs come leaping and bounding to greet him....hmmm......

My goal is to feel comfortable in a bikini again. Not the kind of comfort where you quickly take off your t-shirt and shorts and all but sprint to the water and not get out until you think that nobody is looking. I know that I'll never be strut-your-stuff-on-the-beach skinny, but I'd like to at least get back to the way I was when Josh & I met. To think, to go from being able to run 10 miles with relative ease, to not being able to complete one, that's bad. As soon as all this stupid smoke clears, we're gettin' outside again!! The dogs love to be outside and it's a great time for Josh & I to talk about our days, etc.

A bit of advice...

Another dog-crazy friend of mine emailed this to me the other day and I had to sit back and think how true it actually is. Dogs live their lives so simply that if we looked at life like they do, how easy would it be???

Take some advice from your furkid....

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.

When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.

Let others know when they've invaded your territory.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout...run right back and make friends.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.

Stop when you have had enough.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

Our babies make us laugh from deep within our bellies every day and I am so thankful that I have two wonderful, furry, stinky, wiggly bodies that great me with so much excitement every day that I get home. I could just be though that they really have to pee...

One step closer!

Moving day is gonna be here before we know it so we want to get as ready as we can now so it's not such a big ordeal when it actually comes. So Josh and I spent part of Sunday (Happy Father's Day to Josh!!) looking at paint chips at the local Sherwin Williams. Wow...is their paint expensive!!! We're planning on painting every wall and door in the place so it's gonna look quite different the next time that Dan & Tami see it. We're taking a risk because Big Gramma isn't such a fan of color. Unless it's Dusty Rose, or something like it.....

This really is a poor representation of what the colors truly look like, but I think that the general idea is there. We'll take before, during, and after pictures so the progress will be shown. We'd like to do a whole lot more stuff to the place, but we're only renting, after all. Maybe we'll be able to talk gramma into some updates soon!

On to the color parade!!
We chose, fittingly, Cargo Pants as the main color for the living area and Cocoon as an accent wall in the living room itself. Our couch is an army green-ish kind of color and we have a lot of greens running through our decor. We thought that they were really warm and inviting colors too. Aren't mental institutions painted green...???

For the master bedroom and bath, we chose Stucco for the main color with Sommelier for the accent wall. We have a black comforter and pillowcase set, with an off-white design running through it. The sheets that we're using now are a tan-ish color so all of the colors together will all look very nice together.

We're going to put our bamboo decor in the second bathroom so we want to continue with that color and are going with the color Pier for all of the walls. The ceiling is white so the green will definitely "pop" too. Wow, that color doesn't look green AT ALL.

The second bedroom is going to be our challenge: the walls are painted bright and dark colors so we're going to have to prime them pretty well before we put the new colors on. Cool thing though is that there is a chairrail already on the walls so we're going to take advantage of that and still paint the walls with two colors: French Roast on the bottom and Andiron on the top.

And for the coup de gras: we're painting the kitchen a color called Crabby Apple .

When I first mentioned going to look at colors, Josh thought that I wanted to paint the walls with bright yellows, reds, greens, etc. He was really surprised when we agreed on the colors so quickly and how "normal" they are. We're hopefully going to replace the baseboards soon with wider, white ones and we'll be painting all of the doors white as well.

I'd really like to get this rug to go in the bedroom too. It's from the new Canopy collection from Walmart. They're getting some really cute things in now and it's definitely not the Walmart of old.

We're planning on replacing our kitchen table with something more "grown up" but that won't happen for quite some time. Josh & I are having a lot of fun right now, envisioning what the duplex is going to become after we move there. But more than the excitment of getting into the duplex, we're excited to get OUT of the apartment! GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Holy dirt, Batman!

Josh & I took the kids, and went with Josh's friends Mike & Shelly, their daughter, Emma, and their dog, Duke, up to a place called Stumpy Meadows. It's about an hour and a half up Highway 50 from Folsom, nestled back in the El Dorado National forest on Highway 193. Now, for any of you that know what a, um, priss that I am when it comes to camping and dirt and showers, the mix of the first two without the third doesn't usually equate to a good thing. So Ms. Priss had a little freak out when she discovered that when the website stated the campsite has "vault toilets", that it really meant "a fancy outhouse." Ooof.... It wasn't bad though and I definitely survived.

Josh had always talked about going to Stumpy Meadows and how much he liked it. And now I see why. This campgound probably has all of 30 campsites and the furthest one is probably less than 1,000 yards from a gorgeous reservoir with water warm enough to swim in and our site was the closest to the water. I wasn't expecting much, based off of descriptions of the place, but when we rounded one of the last curves (the road was quite curvy and had we gone a little farther, I might have needed a little, white bag...), we were met with this:



The weather was great while we were there: warm enough for t-shirts and pants during the day but as soon as the sun started to go down, we had the sweatshirts out in a hurry. One thing that we all noticed though was the ginormity of the insects there! The carpenter ants must have been on steroids, the spiders were about the size of half-dollars, and the termites were probably working out with the ants! There were a crazy amount of mosquitoes there too so we all smelled pretty sexy with our bug spray...

We all had a blast and we're hoping to get out there next month, when it's a little warmer and swimming will be a little more comfortable. Oh, and we'll make sure BEFORE we leave that our next air mattress doesn't have a hole in it. We found that out the first night that we were there.

Not there for 20 minutes and they're already filthy!


Josh got them beef femur bones to keep them occupied while we were setting up camp


They swim like rocks!


Spoiled girl!


The obligatory sleeping dogs picture


What our hands looked like before we had a chance to wash them


So we're home now, with what looks like a tan, but is really just a layer of DIRT covering our skin. The dirt there is crazy: it's so fine and it gets everywhere. And try as we might, we could not seem to ever get it out from under our nails the entire time that we were there. We had a blast though and after all of us have had a good nap, we're looking forward to going again!

Watch your step!!

Josh and I donated a bit of money on Sunday and took the kids to particpate in the 2008 Doggy Dash. The SPCA's website said that there was a record number of registrants this year: about double from last year - about 3,000. And I believe it... We did the 5K (3.something miles) walk through William Land Park. The only thing that we had to watch out for were landmines in the middle of the path that other dog owners "missed". Yeah, right. I don't want to pick up my dog's poo any more than the next person but it's just common courtesy, yo! It was a perfect day for this too. The weather was really nice, a bit chilly in the morning though. Abbi and Hayden got a little nervous in the beginning with all of the people and other dogs there but once we got walking, they really enjoyed themselves. Josh & I did too so we decided that it's something that we'll continue to do. Although, I'm not sure how we'll be able to do it next year with three...

Dillon's Beach

So on Memorial Day, Josh and I took the kids out for some much needed play time. He's been working so much and we haven't had much time for us to spend together. And the kids needed to burn off some serious energy. We found that Dillion's Beach is an off-leash beach, but were considering another beach in Bodega Bay too. So after Abbi and Hayden saying that they'd rather go to Dillon's, off we went! It was really nice because all of the traffic was going the opposite way because people were leaving as we were arriving. The weather was a little chilly (60-ish degrees) but no rain and no heavy winds. It was so nice to get my feet in some sand and ocean water again! Even though it was a bit cold...



Josh and I came back a little more relaxed, with two tired babies, and with a ton of sand in the backseat of the truck! It was so worth it to just get away with each other and to reconnect.

The Tree of Life....or of Immense Frustration!

So I decided to tackle a new knitting project, but now I feel more like Steve Young after a quarterback blitz: lying flat on my back, with the wind knocked out of me.

I thought that I had knitted enough now to be able to handle an "intermediate" project without too much swearing, eyebrow furrowing, and heavy sighing. It seems I have met a worthy adversary. Lion Brand Yarn is hosting a knit-a-long right now and this is the project that they are using: http://blog.lionbrand.com/2008/05/21/tree-of-life-knit-along-2/. I'm only 16 rows in and already the frustration is palpable.

Very cool afgan once it's complete, just getting there I think is going to be the death of me. And maybe Josh's too because the knitting needles go flying sometimes.... Ugh.

Warning....inappropriate-ness ahead!

This picture is especially for Dan, who pointed out the huevos in one of the other pictures of Hayden.

Hayden says that he can't help if he's a fine male speciman.

Here it is!

Here's the blanket that I'm giving to Josh's mom. It's just a simple single crochet using what I think is the biggest crochet hook ever made: size Q! I really enjoyed making this one because it was so simple, quick, and feels so niiiiice. I'm making one for my mom now too and I'll post pictures as soon as that one is done. I'm hoping to have that one knocked out by next weekend.


Close-up of the stitches.

I think that I'll just hafta make myself one of these.

Another one down!!

I finished another crochet project last night!! It's an afghan for Josh's mom that I'm going to give to her for Christmas. I wanted to keep it for myself but Josh wouldn't go for it....

I'll have pics up soon!

I have to say

I did a kick-butt job at making dinner last night. It was Josh's birthday so I thought he needed a special dinner. We had bleu cheese crusted filet mignon, steamed asparagus, french bread, and topped it all of with a funfetti cake.

We'd celebrated Josh's birthday with the family last weekend and I gave him a pair of Oakley sunglasses that he has been coveting for the last year and a half. So he just got some boring ol' shorts and shirts last night.

On another note, we've been telling people that we're getting another dog soon. When we tell them what we're getting (a Cane Corso), we'll usually get one of two questions: "What kind of dog is that??" or "Why not another boxer?" Well, it came down to that we both picked Abbi, I got to pick out Hayden, so Josh picked out this next dog. We've done a lot of research on the Cane Corso breed and really feel that it will be a good addition to our family. Granted, it will be a big addition... We're getting really excited though and were just "cleared" by the breeder. I guess he thought that we were normal enough and didn't want to use the dog to guard drugs, fight pit bulls, fight off cops, or contribute to illegal activity. All of those things, by the way, are things that people have told the breeder as reasons that they want a Cane Corso. The reasons that we want one though are because we really enjoy the large breed dogs, we want, well, Josh wants, a dog that will be a protector to the home, one that is good with children/family, and one that will be a good companion dog as well. The Cane Corso shares many of the traits that a Boxer does, just not as goofy. We won't be getting one until either late this year or early next year, so we have plenty of time to enjoy the babies that we have now. And for Hayden to grow up a little more. He's such a sweet boy and we want him to stay that way. :)


I'm so glad that the kids play well together...

I think that if anybody just hears them playing, that they may think that they're trying to kill each other.

We're still up in the air about a name for the next pup. We're getting a male and we want a strong name because the dog is on the large-ish side. The breed is Italian so we're sticking with the trend and picking a name from the country the breed is from. Here are some of the names that I really like: Forza (strong), Dante (enduring), I like Luigi (famous warrior) but doubt that Josh will go for that..., Nico (victory of the people), Piero (rock), or Rico (brave ruler).

Here are some pics of the kids from the last couple of weeks. The reason that there are so many of them sleeping is because that's the only time that they are still enough for a good picture!! Any good ones that are taken of them while they are playing, are just by accident. And Miss Thang pushed all of the blankets off of the bed and moved the pillows herself to get comfy for a nap. Who has spoiled dogs? Us?!!? Nah!!

Yea for cool yarn and free time!

Some time ago, I'd sworn off Lion Brand Homespun yarn because of its tendency to tangle, but have recently picked it up again.

I finished this knitted scarf in about three days and am going to give it to one of my aunts for Christmas.









Then I said "What the heck!" and am trying to tackle an afgan to give to Josh's mother for Christmas. I'm just beginning it but it's shaping up nicely so far.

So maybe I have turned into an old lady by the time I was 30... So.What.

Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas presents this year???

Just call me Rudolph

I can't remember when my allergies have ever been this bad. If I'm not sneezing, coughing, taking hits off of the inhaler, or keeping Josh up at night with my snoring, then I'm frantically searching for a kleenex to wipe my ever dripping nose. Which, by the way, I've become quite the expert in tissue types. We took the kids out for a walk and a romp in the field last night and by the time we got back, my eyes were swollen and my nose was raw from me itching it. Sexy. I don't know what else to do at this point. Maybe I just need to be put in a bubble...?

My purse arsenal

Ramblings...

I realized as I was thinking about people's blogs with tons of posts on them, that our lives are actually quite boring... Which I guess, in a way, is a good thing. I just continue to go to work each day, Josh continues to travel up and down Northern California for his job, and we continue to have fun with our furbabies.

Let's see....what else....? OH!! I FINALLY finished a crocheting project: I made a baby blanket for my nephew. I was SUPER nervous to give it to my sister-in-law because she crochets too and would know what mistakes were made... I'm glad that I was able to finish it though and feel a small sense of accomplishment. Now on to the next project!!




One more thing: we're getting another dog. We both feel that our "family" isn't complete yet so we're doing research into the Cane Corso breed. It's in the mastiff family so the dogs are big: around 120 pounds. But from what we've read and been told, they're just like big Boxers. We won't be getting one until later this year, or even early next year, but we're getting really excited about it already!

Fur vs. Skin Kids

When our relationship became "serious", Josh and I had the do-you-want-kids talk. At that time, we were excited to eventually have a couple of rugrats running around, looking forward to getting them involved in sports, and doing all of the parent-like things. Fast-forward to a year later, we both decided, separately, that we did not want children. We found it so strange because we have always envisioned ourselves with them. We just feel that our lifestyle doesn't really have room for kids... Although, I do love to see my little neice, and now my nephew, growing up.

We now have two beautiful Boxer babies that are our world:
The Princess, Abbi and the Little Man, Hayden









We wouldn't trade them or the love we have for them, and them for us, for anything. I find it amazing that I could have so much love for something that can never tell me how much they love me. But all it takes is one look, wiggle, kiss, cuddle, etc. from either one of them and my heart melts. Josh is the same way too, even though he'll deny it. ;) As soon as we can, we'll be adding more little, furry, wigglebutts to our family!