joy

i don't have much to say.

so i'll just let these few pictures from our easter trip to the delaware state beach do the talking...

 

daddy training.

i thought we should start the training process early.
VERY early.

this simple nine-step plan should get fly boy ready, for everything.

step one: get a dog that wakes us up in the middle of the night.  poops/pees all over.  cries. bites. leaves toys all over the house.  reminds you that your life is no longer your own.   

 check

step two: every time daddy in training (DIT) goes to target with you, linger on each baby aisle.  "oooh" and "ahhh" over the baby clothes, shoes, toys, blankets, etc.   

check

(picture from Tilly Whistle on etsy)

step three: start baby sitting for friends' children with DIT.

check

step four: while working on step three, make sure that DIT plays tea-party/dress-up/barbie/princess.

check

step five: go visit friends in the hospital shortly after baby is born so that DIT gets the FULL experience.

check

step six: cry at the drop of a hat.  this way, when you are pregnant, DIT will already know how to handle the extra hormones.
check


step seven: when visiting babies and/or babysitting, make sure babies drool & spit-up on DIT as often as possible.

check

(disclaimer: connor did not spit-up or drool on fly boy in this picture.  i believe his niece has already taken care of this step for us.)

step eight: start spending more than your monthly budget now.  DIT will already be accustomed to how expensive children are once they start growing out of clothes every two months/want to sign up for ballet/soccer/eat you out of your house/ask for money for dates/beg for a new car on their 16th birthday. 
check
 
step nine: while working on step three, if the child has exploding diaper have DIT change the dirty clothes, aid with the bath, change the dirty diaper and take out dirty diaper trash.



we'll see how the nine-step process works out someday.

really, i just wanted an excuse to post the picture of fly boy playing tea-party with addy and cinderella.

consistency

it's not my strength.
never has been.
but it's something i long for.
(so i married an air force guy.  the military is totally consistent, right?)

while my life may not exude consistency, this does.
this is my morning.
this is my consistency.

preview of prom

i get to see these beautiful girls go to prom tonight.
i'm pretty excited.

more to come on prom later.

doggie daycare

disclaimer: i realize lots of my posts have been about my dog.  don't judge.  fly boy has been out flying for the last couple of weeks. he's back now though, so hopefully i'll have more material than just lil' lucy.  this is not a blog solely about dogs.  i promise.

last weekend while fly boy was hanging out in the sandbox, i decided to head home to syracuse.  i love living in delaware and being able to just pop down to roanoke or up to syracuse for the weekend.  it's the best.  there was a slight glitch in my plans though.  i have an hour commute to work everyday.  an hour north.  as in an hour towards syracuse.  i don't get off until 7pm, and really didn't want to drive an hour south to pick up lucy, just to turn around and drive right back.  it was a problem.

solution: take lucy with me to work and drop her off at doggie day care.

i researched a few doggie day cares in the area, and narrowed my search down to two options.
option 1: cheaper.  by $2.  they were also only 0.3 miles from work. 
option 2: has nicer web site.  has web-cams in every room so you can watch your dog.
as i looked more into the sites, i found that option 1 charges you $1/minute you are late dropping your dog off or picking your dog up.  fail.  option 2 would allow me to drop lucy off anytime during the day, AND after i went through the "interview," found that even if i was late picking lucy up at night, it would be just fine.  score.

so lucy spent her first afternoon at doggie day care last friday.  i was nervous.  lucy was excited.  when i dropped her off, i thought they might let me go back with her, watch her interact with the dogs, make sure hew as ok, like any concerned parent would want.  they didn't.  lucy disappeared behind the back door, and i was left standing in the foyer. alone.  (sidenote: i know lucy is a dog, not a child. i just thought they would do something for your first visit.  apparently not.)  when i came to pick lucy up, i asked how she did, they said fine.  that was it.  i was expecting a little more. i didn't get any other feedback.

but all my concerns aside, lucy LOVED it.  everyone loved lucy.  and she slept the entire drive from delaware to syracuse.  thank you dogtopia.  you have saved me 4 hours of driving anytime i want to go home for the weekend.

ps: lucy is feeling much better after her "surgery." she has perked up, even spent some time chasing her tail this morning.

lucy & molly

the night we picked up lucy, we drove up to syracuse.  christmas eve.  lucy got introduced to my aunt's dogs, but really slept for most of the dinner.  when we got home late that night, lucy met molly, my parents' very red golden retriever.  it was an instant friendship.

lucy & molly christmas 2010

 

march 2011

 

best. friends. forever.

april 2011

when lucy meets other dogs, she always flips over on her back to show that she is NOT the dominant dog.  except with molly.  since the day we brought lucy to my parents' house, lucy has thought that she is top dog.  mind you, she was all of 5 lbs compared to molly's 65 lbs.  lucy quickly discovered that she could hide under chairs or stools where molly couldn't reach her, bark and paw at molly.  molly was not amused.  but lucy clearly adored molly.

the next time lucy and i made the trek to syracuse, i was traveling down to florida with my nana for a week.  lucy stayed with molly.  when i got back, i saw this spot on molly's head (you can see it in some of the pictures.)  my mom had taken molly to the vet to make sure everything was alright.  she was fine.  it was just a stress spot.  lucy apparently stresses molly out.

sure enough with our last visit to syracuse this past weekend, molly had two more stress spots on her back by the end of the two days.  i'm hoping that as lucy gets older (and less of brat around molly) this will stop.  even if she is stressed, molly doesn't show it when lucy is there. 

so here's to you lucy & molly, and many more years of friendship.

connor

two months ago i got to go down to north carolina to visit lindsay (making joyful noise ) and connor.  i've been meaning to post some of the pictures (and email linds all of them) for a while...  so since i'm short on time to post tonight, here's connor!

motivation

i've been waiting to write about running for a while.
mostly because i haven't been running for a while.

but two weekends ago i got the kick in the pants i needed to get going.  i got to go running with my most favorite running partner ever, megan.  i'm a little very picky about who i go running with.  fly boy, though i love him dearly, tends to comment on my technique while we are running.  not a fan.  some people talk too much, while others don't talk enough.  megan, is one of the few that has the perfect balance of talking to quiet ratio for my liking.  so when she came to visit, i went running with her everyday.

it.was.fabulous.

i can't say i've ran everyday since she left, but it's been much more consistant.  i've also found that lucy LOVES to go "running" with me.  (i use the term "running" with lucy lightly because i go so slow that she isn't even trotting, she's basically still walking.)  so lucy and i have been "running" most mornings before work.  last week, lucy woke me up at her usual 6:30 to get breakfast.  after she was fed and had gone out, i got my computer and crawled back into bed.  apparently this was not part of lucy's plan.  she promptly went into my closet, pulled out one of my running shoes and brought it to me.

my dog made me go for a run.

i thought it was cute and funny.  i told fly boy about it. didn't really think anything more of it.

until this morning.

i guess i wasn't moving fast enough for little miss lucy, because again, she went and got my running shoes out of the closet and dropped them at my feet.

i don't need a personal trainer, i have lucy.  maybe there is even a way i can market this newly found skill of her's...."want to get into shape? come stay at our house for a week and lucy will make sure you run every morening!"  yeah, we'll see....

all this running stuff to say, a friend and i have decided to sign up for our first half marathon...and are raising money to support libby ryder. 

libby is a friend of a friend who lives in chesapeake, virginia.  her husband is an area-director for young life.  last summer she was diagnosed with lymphoma.  amidst her battle with cancer, she started a blog.  don't waste your cancer.  (she's amazing, you should read it.)  she's now cancer free (praise the Lord!) but obviously still has a lot of medical bills and such.  team libby started while libby was still undergoing chemo, and the group will be running a half-marathon at the end of the month.  mw and i couldn't make the nashville race, but still wanted to participate.  we found a half-marathon in the fall at disney world that we're both really excited for!

we haven't started the fund-raising process yet, but our goal is $5,000 each.  (more to come on that later.)

so i started running.  running with a purpose.  i'm only up to 3 miles, obviously no where near the 13.1 i need to go, but at least it's a start.  and on the mornings i don't want to get out of bed, i have lucy to bring me my shoes.

just a walk in the [dog] park

after our day trip up to princeton, lucy had a "play date" with her bffs from obedience school, moose and cede.  we decided to go to the local do park to let the dogs stretch their legs out.

the pack

lucy and moose

again

moose

cooling off.

family picture for fly boy

bffs.