Hello!

Why hi there... I bet you're wondering where I've been... nowhere really... I have to admit, even having a dog doesn't make my life all that exciting. More painful, but definitely not more exciting. Let's see what's gone on in the last month...

My pup has grown, she's now about 12 pounds and a little monster. Olive will sit if she thinks she is getting a treat, sometimes will lay down on command, and is now playing "which hand?" with Ben, although she's not too good with it. Still some piddle accidents inside when she doesn't let us know she's got to go, but she does great on the leash and really likes to jog with me. We're starting puppy classes Wednesday at Petsm@rt so hopefully she won't be known as a little monster any more.

This weekend my Grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. 50 years... incredible to me. It was good to see my family, but a little strange since I really hadn't seen much of them since I started Tech. I talked with the people that were important and if I make it to the family reunion I'll be sure to get around to some more people that weren't at the party.

Wow other than that, we have a few busy weekends coming up. Ben is having a few friends over for this weekend (my first opportunity to play hostess to friends), next weekend is Kristin's wedding which I'm super excited about, then Ben's parents are coming to visit and the weekend after that I have a few hours to work on Sat and maybe Sunday.

Here are some pics of Olive.... and after those check out little Sonya... can you see any resemblance?

Facts of life...

My little girl is Olive, sounds like the fruit. I really like the name olivia, but a guy in my hallway at work named his little one Alivia or something like that and it didn't feel too appropriate to have my dog with a name that sounds exactly the same. So Olive it is... Ben even gave in on the name Sophie, but by then I felt really bad and Olive is really cute. Or at least that's what everyone at the vet said and the people we hung out with at Millers the next day.

so now to the facts:

-Olive can now sleep through the night!!! Thank you!! only 5 days where she whined quite a bit.. she does like to play at 5 in the morning, but hey, a least she doesn't get up at 1, 3, 4. 5...

-Olive doesn't like wet grass so she has a tendency to leave "presents" on the stepping stones and rocks right in front of the stairs from the deck.

-Puppy bites and scratches heal quickly, the scratches and bites I get today will be gone tomorrow and replaced with a new set.

-I'm super excited for Kristin's bridal shower tomorrow, and the fun night after! I'm bringing my pup to the wedding but she has to stay home this weekend... so she knows where home is :)

Announcing....

OLIVE!!!

So here the little girl is… we picked her up friday night, and rode all the way home in my lap. She was 6.2 pounds when we took her to the vet the next day, super tiny, much smaller than I thought she would be. Which meant on Friday we needed to stop at Pe1smart to pick up a new leash, collar, and a few more toys. On Saturday we picked up a dog bed for her, another toy and another crate so if we go anywhere she can have a home if she'd like. It's much smaller than the one we have at home, which will accomadate her full size so it's much to large to take with us everywhere. Ben's parents are going to buy it from us for their cat once we outgrow it which makes it nice for us. The whole reason we didn't want to get a smaller oneis that she should out grow it in a month or so.

Olive went on her first road trip to Clarkston on Saturday. She got to meet and pick on Winston, who was a great host to the little girl. He's kinda lazy so he let her play all over him and even eat the hair on his tail. Such a nice playmate :) Sunday was a day of rest mostly. She sleeps really well during the day but doesn't sleep so well at 3 in the morning. A great deterrent for wanting children for sure. Yesterday she sleep under the deck while Ben broke up the random slab of concrete in our backyard. She slept better last night and even walked with me on a leash last night and this morning. I'll work on getting video of her, but that takes a lot of sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out what I'm doing so I'll try that a little later. There are some pictures of our adventures below… Enjoy!!!

Holy wow!

Oh my, I just rode 24 miles on Ben mountain bike... it was on the road mostly on the Pere Marquette rail trail... not much in the way of hills or really even bumps in the road but I'm exceptionally impressed with myself. It took about 2 hours and for a girl about 30 pounds overweight I don't think it's bad... The coolest thing is that I rode more miles than Ben golfed today.. :)

Little girl

I just thought I'd put another pic up of my little babe... a week from today I should have her home and probably watching her sleep :)

Nothing but Nets...

So I have never watched American Idol... before this season. Ben actually doesn't mind watching it, so we have been sucked in. So tonight they are doing their "tele-a-thon" which is great since aren't we always asking people to use their good fortune to help others. Well they just did a piece on malaria, which reminded me of another person who used his connections as a writer for Sports Illustrated to encourage others to purchase mosquito nets. Rick Reilly is far and away my favorite writer. This is part of the reason why. Normally you only see the initial article and no follow up. Well again here is another article that tells of all the good people are capable of doing.
I'm intrigued to see how well this "tele-a-thon" works. Oh and one of my goals this year is to make a significant donation to a good charity that serves my area...
Oh and please read the articles I've linked, I know he's from a sports magazine but he writes so well and its quite touching... here's the link to the charity also... Nothing but Nets

This week

So this week I am living alone since Ben is in Houston doing training. I'm having trouble getting motivated to do stuff around the house.. including making dinner. I don't know if you guys remember my dinner skills in college, but I'm reverting back to them. That can of corn/package of frozen corn is looking great right now. Ok so I'm really not going to have just corn, I think I'll call out for some pizza...

Otherwise we did quite a bit of demolition in the yard this weekend. We broke up a slab of random concrete in our backyard, although it's still there since we have to get a dumpster to dispose of it... There were also two hideous bushes in the front yard that took up half the yard. They once probably looked really nice, but they had since overgrown so much that they created a circle 12 feet in diameter. Way to big, and it started out as an easy job, just a few scratches on the legs here and there but cutting the branches off went pretty well. Then we got to the enormous stumps and tried to use a chain and Ben's truck to pull them out but it ended up being harder than we realized. In the end we had a few neighbors over trying to help and we managed to finish the job. We now have a birch tree with a 12" circle of dirt around it in the front yard... I'm sure our neighbors love us (especially since we really don't have a plan yet to fill it.)

So that entire process took about 5 hours outside and since I didn't expect to be out so long I didn't put any sunscreen on... BAD IDEA!!! I'm so burnt, and itchy... besides aloe, do you guys have any ideas for me?


Oh and updated puppy countdown: 11 days till she gets here. The breeder wants to keep her another week, which is fine with us, we want her healthy and ready to go when we pick her up. We did spend a bunch of money on her things this past weekend, we now have her kennel, dishes, some food, a food storage container, leash, collar, clippers, a few more toys, and my favorite - potty bags for picking up after her! I'm so excited!!!