I GOT A NEW BALL!!!

I got a new ball...

and it squeaks when I bite it really hard!

I wore myself out

Love All the Fluffy Things!

Bosley has been showing his massive affinity for fluffy places lately, and I can't stop giggling about it! His new favorite spot is on the blanket tower in the living room, and he was a huge 'help' during laundry today - he kept grabbing towels and tried to make a warm fluffy nest and wouldn't let me fold them. Then he found my robe, fresh out of the dryer, and it was game over. I let him snuggle with it for a while but I practically had to fight him for it when I wanted to put it away!

Crafty Happy Birthday

 My brother's girlfriend, Saddie, is celebrating a birthday tomorrow! I'm taking a risk by posting this before I send the card, so Saddie - if you are reading this STOP!!! Also, sorry the card was late.

I went for broke and completely made the card. I have been getting little scrap booking doodads to make my cards with but I was inspired today. Are you ready for this? I dyed tissue paper!

4 drops red + 1 drop yellow food coloring in water

Dip paper then dry with hair dryer

My supplies - note the foil cupcake liner and my newly dyed pink paper

3 layers of dyed tissue paper and 2 layers of foil cupcake liner

I'm crazy happy about how this turned out and I really hope she likes it!

Little Nuggets of Wisdom

I've been doing semi-homemade gifts lately, and its so enjoyable. It's really gratifying giving someone something you put more than just money into. Plus, it's a great creative outlet. 

Now, when I do creative gifts, I like them to be on the cheesy side. For example, Erik's valentines day gift this year was specialty hot sauces and I made him a card that said "I've got the hots for you". He loved it by the way.

Today we had a graduation party for one of Erik's cousins, and I definitely wanted to give her something cute and unique. Since she is the oldest in her family and will be the first of her siblings to go off to college, I thought I would share some 'Little Nuggets of Wisdom'.

I printed out labels with little tips like:

 "Get plenty of sleep - all night study benders aren't as beneficial as you think"

"Get to know your professors - they are the best network for after college"

"Have school spirit and show it often"

"Get a flu shot"

"Make lots of friends"
"Ask questions - don't be afraid to raise your hand"
"Sit in the front - you will be more likely to stay awake"

"Register for classes early - if you think its a good class, so does everybody else"

"Get involved - student orgs are another great way to learn"

"Study - no matter what, school comes first"

 and

"Have fun - these are the memories that will last you a lifetime"

I took these labels and some money and wrapped them around Hersey's Nuggets. I also made her a card with one of my favorite quotes,

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

 -Eleanor Roosevelt

Arts Festival

Abby working the red carpet for the Chait Gallery

by Bekah Ash

Drummer for the dancers

Walked downtown after work to grab some good food with great people. We sat in the sun out on the patio and people watched as the Ped Mall slowly filled with people. Our restaurant was right next to a whole row of food vendors. The smells of funnel cake, BBQ, and kettle corn made our stomachs growl while we waited for our dinner.

After thoroughly enjoying our meals we began strolling the booth lined streets. There was so much to see and it's almost impossible to see it all. Several artists stood out among the crowd to me, and as we discovered on the Gallery Walk, Dalyz and I have completely different tastes. Abby and I also had a therapy session about our inability to commit to large art pieces. There are so many paintings in the sea, and we're not ready to be tied down to just one yet. Hopefully we'll settle down some day. 

Between the booths of pottery, handmade silver jewelry, photography prints, and wind chimes were other forms of art. Someone playing the community piano, a drummer keeping the beat for dancers drawing a large crowd, and a couple strumming a banjo and bowing a violin kept the Arts Festival patrons entertained as they wandered.

As I usually do, I found the perfect gift for my sister's birthday, but I'll have to wait to share until August. I also absolutely fell in love with every piece by Bekah Ash. I might settle down with one of her paintings...maybe.

My First Award!

I am honored! Thank you so much Betty the Bichon for bestowing this award upon me! I shall display this button with pride!

 With this honor comes great responsibility. I have the duty of passing along this award to 5 other blogs of distinction. I am fairly new the blogiverse, and I want to pass this along to some bloggers that have not yet received an award, therefore I am deciding to make my decision at a later date. I promise to pass this along soon!

Thanks again, Betty! Her blog is an overload of cute, so be sure to check her out!

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Memories

We went camping this weekend! First trip of the season and we saw all kinds of weather to make it interesting. Luckily on Friday it waited until after dinner to down pour. The sound of rain hitting a tent is one of my favorite sounds - it's so calming. Our little $40 tent held up so well. Bosley had a hard time drying his fur and ended up having a panic attack after breakfast. The temp was in the 90s all day Saturday too, so for Bosley's sake, it was a really good thing that I had a party to go to. We were only camping a few miles out of town so I dropped him off at home while I was at my friend Abby's bridal shower.

Abby and I met in college. We were both in the Athletic Training program, and in our senior year we were both placed with football team. This meant a year of long hours in the training room, her comforting me through my first airplane flight, and being drunk for ten days straight in Tampa. I've got tons of memories with this girl but we lost touch after graduation. Well, it turns out she met and fell in love with one of Erik's friends from high school. Small world!

I've been on a semi-homemade / personalized gift kick lately so I wanted to do something cute for her. I took two hand towels that she registered for and wrapped them around some bottles of wine and tied them with a bow.

I think they were a hit, but it turns out several people got them wine. I can't wait for the wedding in July!

Went back out camping on Saturday and Bosley is currently boycotting going outside. I think he's done for awhile. I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Should I stop this?

Ok doggie lovers out there, I need some advice.

My little snuggle-muffin has a sucking problem. Every night Bosley sucks on things to wind down and fall asleep. It's usually his teddy bear or squirrely, but more often than I would like, it's one of our pillows. Here is where you wrinkle your nose and think 'Really? She allows that?'. Well, I guess that's how I feel about it sometimes. It's fine when it's his toys and I really don't mind most of the time when it's my pillow because he's just so damn cute while he's doing it! He snorts a lot and gives what ever he's sucking on a huge hug. 

Now, while I agree that the pillow sucking is on the edge, I think there is a larger problem. He has been sucking on his paws since he was pretty young. It got so excessive that his skin on his paws was in pretty poor shape. Our vet recommended changing his diet to lamb and rice because of a potential food allergy. He's been on this diet for almost a year now and he's still sucking. I do believe that the food had something to do with it because he gets itchy all over if his diet gets broken, but it almost seems like its more of a behavioral issue now. We are constantly reprimanding him for sucking on his paws. He'll stop for a moment then start again. I've put olive oil on his pads thinking they were dry, we've given him omega fatty acid capsules, and made him wear a cone. I don't know how to get him to stop sucking his paws.

Am I encouraging him to suck on his paws by letting him suck on toys and pillows? Am I putting too much thought into this and am I just being a whackadoodle? Is the sucking on teddy before bed a good way to let him calm down and relax, making me cruel if I make him stop?

HELP! Let me know what you think.

Monday Mischief - Dog Park!

You come here often?

Hey big guys!

Very important play strategy meeting

My girlfriend Rosie was just giving out kiss to any puppy!!

Monster Gifts for Baby!

Earlier this month, I helped to host a baby shower for my friend Kathie. I absolutely love this sort of thing, and I was beyond happy to do it for someone as awesome as Kathie. I didn't have a huge role and the real party was planned by Dalyz and Ali. Those two have been friends with Kathie for close to a decade. How amazing is that?!

 

Dalyz, Kathy, Ali, myself

It's a boy!

 Diaper Cake

 Kathie and Chauncy

 Some of Kathie's family

Dalyz really took charge of the theme and decorations and she did such a good job. The theme was 'Baby Steps' and she painted a beautiful canvas with a poem about them first falling in love, then saying I Do, and now they are welcoming a boy in blue. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it. The next time I'm at Kathie's I'll have to snap one.
 To go along with the theme, we hung a garland of baby socks. It was pretty precious.

 Kathie and her friend Mariama.

In the background of this photo you can kind of see some of the 'babies' we created as a game. We printed out photos of both Kathie and her husband and each of us had to create their future baby from these photos. It was a blast! Some of them were pretty hysterical - random ears and noses, some with glasses, others with full heads of long blonde hair!

Everyone showered her with wonderful gifts. Kathie is a fan of super cute little monsters. A family member took this idea and made her little boy a beautiful blanket. 

I remembered her mentioning a local artist that painted cute little monsters. Turns out she makes plush dolls of her characters too! I had made 'lolli-pops' out of bibs, wash cloths, and feeding spoons. I tucked them into a basket with a little plush monster. Unfortunately I failed to take any photos while I was making them but here is one taken at the party.

I got the idea for the lolli-pops HERE

I'm so happy for Kathie and I cannot wait to celebrate Ali's little bun in the oven in a few months!

Monday Mischief

Oops...Daddy caught Mommy baby talking to me and kissing my nose. No one was supposed to know I love this sort of thing! Now I'm going to have to go destroy something to get back some man points.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today makes me look back at the last two years I've been 'Mommy' to my little man. From the moment I met him on our litter visit, and he threw the biggest puppy tantrum I've ever seen, it has been love. All of the late night yelping with me kneeled in front of the kennel pleading for you to sleep, all the times you got sick and I woke up to vomit-beard and had to give you a puppy bath at 3am, all the times I came home from work to see my bathroom covered in poo because you were stressed and thought the walls needed some art, all the hundreds of dollars worth of shoes I used to have, all of the pairs of socks that have the toes eaten out and all of the pairs of jeans you pulled out of the hamper to chews holes into in the middle of the night, and all of the trips to the emergency vet - I look back and love every second of this. It's all worth it for the kisses when I come home, the sassy sideways glances to scold me, the urgent cuddles in the middle of the night when the floor got too lonely, the happy conversations that only consist of 'Woo Woos", the funny cuddling positions you get into, seeing how happy you are hanging out the window on car rides, all of our adventures out in the wilder wild, the full body wiggles when you get excited, all the ridiculously loud burps after you eat dinner at warp speed, watching you defend your castle from the evil TV dogs, playing bite-hand and Nascar, and so much more. 

I love you, Bosley, and you make me one happy Momma!

Check out a bunch of pictures of Bosley on his very own page - HERE!

Best 48hrs EVER!

As you can tell from the title, I've had a pretty phenomenal last couple of days!

It all started with Erik's White Coat ceremony on Wednesday evening. It symbolizes them moving on in their professional career. They graduated from mannequins to real, live patients!

Getting the coat

Dental school Wolf Pack

 It was a nice event. There were distinguished speakers and then the students all came down one by one to receive their coats before reciting their oath in unison. I was so proud watching Erik experience this momentous transition.

To keep the celebration going, I treated my future Doctor to a fancy dinner at Givanni's. This place has it going on - fresh, handmade pasta; fantastic wine list; and great atmosphere. It was a great little date night.

Erik had no class for the rest of the week, so spur of the moment I took Thursday off. He has been talking, nearly obsessing, about going fishing since Man Camp, so I decided to join him. We woke up early and went to get me a fishing license and a rod and reel. I ended up getting a pink one! We packed a lunch to grill out, got Bosley all riled up, headed out to a local county park. 

Between the two of us we only caught a small bass. This event, however, was like puppy Christmas! Bosley immediately started dancing for the fish. This is one of his tricks we taught him where he spins around on his hind legs. Bosley is also not a huge fan of the water. He'll swim, but only to get back to shore after mommy or daddy put him in the water. Once Erik got the fish unhooked - he had to do this while running away from our little monster that was now jumping and furiously gnashing his teeth - he threw it back in the water. Bosley looked at us like we had lost all sanity and went running all the way to the end of his leash trying to get in the water after it. It was so cute!

After that excitement, we grilled some lunch. Turns out we forgot a plate for our brats so we had to improvise. Luckily I had thrown a frizbee in with our stuff - just in case we wanted to feel really uncoordinated and wanted to do a lot of running to go find it. A little Purell and a quick rinse, and its a plate! It also turns out we completely forgot about the sun. Classic first-full-day-outside-since-winter, we failed to put on sun block. My arms are currently on fire!

We ended the day by going to watch the new Avengers movie. We thoroughly enjoyed it and now we really want to see Thor. And how amazing is Robert Downey Jr. at playing Tony Stark? Can't wait for Iron Man 3!

I was back at work today and a few of my co-workers went out for dinner. We had a bunch of laughs and it was nice to get together outside of the lab. When I got home Erik, was there with flowers! He had gone down to his mom's house for the day, and all of her flowers were in bloom so he picked me some!

I have the BEST boyfriend and the funniest dog! This is going to sound cheesy, but I LOVE MY LIFE!

Why be difficult, Blogger?

I'm having serious problems with my Blogger right now! I just spent over an hour trying to upload photos to no avail. Also, my reading list got deleted - so frustrating! Is this happening to anyone else?

Hopefully there will be a very exciting post soon - I've had a bunch of really awesome things happen but the story would be better with pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Victory!

I ran the RiverRun 5k this past Sunday and it was a blast! I have to admit that I wanted to throw-up before the race - I was so nervous! Since this was my first race and I did zero training, my goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. I made it! I finished in 29:40! I did walk twice - no one said there would be hills. The list of people that beat me included a 6 year old, an overweight bald guy, and a lady that ran with her arms curled up like chicken wings (I love funny runners). I hope to beat the overweight guy next year.