Weekend Update

While we typically work at least an hour a night on the house these days, Friday night was the exception. Since we worked all night Wednesday and Thursday, we figured that we deserved a break. So a little pizza and a little movie .... much needed.

But back to work on Saturday. It was a long day of painting, laundry, cooking and caulking. No more pictures of renovations for a while. It's nice to see a little bit of difference being made each day and I want you all to be floored when you see the final product.

E left early to attend a boys night at Matt's house where they grilled some fish and he was able to take Maggie too so that she could play with their dog, Neal. While they did their "boys thing," I stayed home and made The Lady and Sons Lasagna, Blueberry Compote and Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies. I love to put the Blueberry Compote between 2 whole wheat blueberry waffles for breakfast and I had a Ghirardelli dark chocolate toffee bar just sitting around looking for a good use...so why not cook. Besides this may be the last time I actually want to cook for a while. But I also made the lasagna so that I would have a few meals in the freezer for after the baby gets here. So I plan on putting it in the over tonight and eating it for dinner, BUT that still leaves 3/4 of a casserole dish for left overs.

I know I know...thinking ahead!!

Sunday, I made 2 big pots of Southwest Chicken Chili. One for us and one for Renee and Russell who just a baby on Wednesday. Congratulations to them on the birth of their son, Isaac. Renee was three weeks ahead of me and so I always got the 411 on everything that was going to happen to me 3 weeks ahead of time!! That was nice!! And we didn't even eat half of our pot of chili and I can throw the rest of that in the freezer too for the post baby season! Told you...thinking ahead!!

I do have a picture or 2 though from Sunday night. I took a nap and when I woke up, I saw this. E, napping, and Maggie watching tv (which she never does) in the living room. But then I took a closer look. She was actually watching the AKC Dog Show. It makes me wonder if she actually got a hold of the remote control...

Thanks GOD It's Friday!!

I know I am not the only one that is exhausted after a long week. Raise your hand if you are ready for the weekend!!!

Since "NOTHING" is happening regarding the birth of my daughter (can you tell I am still bitter about this?!?), I am keeping busy at home. I was told by the dr. that misery was in my future. Those last 3 weeks, you just start spitting venom you are so miserable. But I was feeling fine and thought nothing of it. The next day, the misery began. But I am not that person that can sit on the couch and relax when there are things to be done. Plus, I always feel guilty when E is working on the house and I am relaxing. So, instead of putting my feet up, I decided to put a coat of paint on the walls of the laundry room, do the baby's laundry, and help E install the new carpet tiles.

I felt so bad for him scraping the old vinyl tiles off of the floor but we put all of the carpet tiles we had down and realized we only had enough to do about half of the room. So he put down as much as he could and then laid in the floor and wrestled with Maggie on the new carpet!!

What is Happening?

Well, E's dad arrived last night to help work on the house for a few days. E took a few days off of work to work with him and I am very thankful for them both!! It is such a relief to have a husband who is actually handy! This is what he did this weekend. He got all of the walls installed until he ran out of wood and then installed a light fixture. I love days like this one where at the end, you can really see the difference in what you started with and what you ended with.

What did I do? Laundry...it was Saturday after all...and then I painted a little more of the Living Room took a nap! But we have lots of plans for this week since the boys are working for 3 days straight, that I hope come to fruition...

1.) finish the laundry room

2.)install recessed lighting in the dining room

3.) hang new chandelier in the living room

If they finish all of those things and I finish painting the Living Room, we are really putting a dent in our work. Wish us lots of luck!!

P.S. Here's a picture of Maggie when E opened up a new bag of dog food and left it in the floor for her to chow down...What a bunch of animals!! I guess this is the dog version of drinking milk out of the carton!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I know I haven't been around much lately but trust me, there are good reasons.

First, let's start with work. The twelve hours days are catching up with me alot faster than they used to especially when we work through the weekend. Such a drain on my "good attitude" and my extremely pregnant body! All this working makes me sour, fast and that goes double for E who has been working strange hours lately too. All of this schedule shifting has left Maggie INSANE!!!!! She never knows whether we are coming or going and with all of the uncertainty, she has been destroying our house once again.

Let me give a few examples of what we have encountered this week alone:

-She ate a bag of assorted chocolate bars
-SHE UNWRAPPED ALL OF THE PRESENTS THAT WERE WRAPPED UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!! (Ironically, she unwrapped all of them but only ATE all of E's gifts from me)
-She ate and DESTROYED a roll of paper towels
-She ate and broke our heating pad
-She nosed through E's bag and ate a pack of gum
-She has eaten the craziest things outside and then gets sick in the middle of the night, 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW LAST WEEK. (Another reason I am tired, from cleaning dog vomit off of the floor at 3am)

I thought you would enjoy a picture or two of what we came home to the other night...





I am too tired to give any more excuses any picture today so I will leave the rest for tomorrow!

Brushing Maggie's Teeth

E decided Saturday morning that he was would brush Maggie's teeth. Normally we would let the vet or the groomers deal with that but not that day. He is a picture of the struggle. Maggie's wanted to eat the brush and chew on E's fingers...just a little bit...and E wanted to go ahead and get his done.

It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't sent me to get his own personal toothbrush for the task!! Luckily, he had just gotten back from the dentist and had received a new one.

Everyday Bailey Saturday Morning!

Normally, we have a Saturday morning ritual. (And by "we", I mean "me") E sleeps in. But me? my pregnant alarm is set quite early. I get up, make some coffee (2 pots these days, one decaf and one fully leaded) and then start on a special breakfast. Last Saturday was no exception ...except...Maggie wanted to join in this time. She slept in with E for starters. I got up and made the coffee. I was making a Blueberry Coffee Cake this particular morning. Yum!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Next, we spend the next hour or 2 sitting in front of the tv eating breakfast watching the news or anything we both like that is saved on our DVR. During the morning coffee, we typically don't pay attention to a whole lot else except getting our coffee fix.

Well, Maggie sat on the couch for a while with us and then jumped down very quietly. She snuck into the kitchen and started eating her own piece of coffee cake. E heard a noise, ran into the kitchen and caught her in the act. She was quickly devouring the rest of our breakfast. That Little Sneak!!!

Here she is playing dead which she does really well when she doesn't want to obey!

Maggie and Bob

Pam and Dennis (E's parents) came to visit this weekend and brought Bob with them. Bob is their very tiny miniture Yorkie!! He is so tiny and so terrified of Maggie (for obvious reasons-Maggie is at least 25 times his size).

But as soon as Maggie laid down and rolled over, the game was on. So we made Maggie lay down and keep still and Bob finally warmed up to her, so much so that he felt gutsy enough to take her ball away from her the day they left. She didn't care though. She thought they were going to play chase with it. Boy was she wrong! He just wanted the ball!! So in retaliation, Maggie went back to his bed and took some of his toys. It's so weird how closely related kids and dogs are!

And then, evidently, she felt comfortable enough to jump into Pam's lap to watch TV with her before they left.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

After we got Maggie, the vet gave her a birthday of July 11th. So while we were at the beach, we threw her a small little birthday party.

Here she is upside down wrestling with E while I got her cake ready!

Here is her cake. It is a Beneful Chicken and Vegetable Stew topped with whipped cream with one peanut butter raw hide stick (since she is one). This actually worked out really well because she didn't want to eat the whole time we were on vacation so she was excited about the stew and of course the shipped cream!!

She was too excited about the cake. So we had to calm her down by doing a few self control exercises. So here, she is already sitting and shaking with me.

And here is the birthday girl and her cake!!

Arguements

So, you are correct, I am involving you in my arguments at home. Maggie, the little darling that she is, LOVES to eat things. I take that back...she really like to chew things apart into tiny little pieces and then suck on the pieces and spit them out. She doesn't actually swallow them. I really truly think that I can't say that enough. I am positive that I have written at least 5 blogs about this...THAT is how crucial this is around our house. We have all lost valuable items. Me? I lost an ipod, all of my shoe heels, 10+ pairs of underwear, couch pillows, the master bedroom carpet, an easter pork loin (she swallowed that one), a new pair of Crocs...I am sure there are WAY more on my list. E list? Well, he lost the original copy of his GRE scores, his work hat, a pair of flip flops, a pair of sandals, a pair of Keens, and a shoe lace. This picture is from last week when she ate all of the stuffing out of her bed.

If you ever get the chance to come to our house, we have a mail slot in the front door. So the mail comes right through the door and onto the floor. Maggie loves to eat that mail like it made from rawhide. It never fails that the afternoons that I come home from work and really have alot to do, those are the afternoons that she provides a nice mess of shredded mail for me all of the living room floor. We tried to use the laundry basket to catch the mail, but if the mailman misses the basket, it's fair game. Now, the basket doesn't even matter. She goes and gets whatever she wants out of that basket to play with during the day. And yesterday made matters worse when she ate a book that I had ordered as a gift for a family member. Grrrrr...And this is what I come home to every afternoon. In this picture she ONLY ate the circular ads that come every week with the specials from the grocery store and a free grocery bag that I won off another blog a month ago, a coupon from Stanley Steamer and a Chase Bank Credit Card solicitation.

As the person who has to clean up this mess, I have asked for a mailbox to be attached to the house on the front porch. I have already bought it and pulled it out of the box and everything. E is in complete disagreement. He wants to train her not to eat the mail by sending fake mail through the slot! I think if we tell her not to eat it she won't, but if we aren't there, it's on!!! The mail never stood a chance! After work, I go to the gym, then come home, walk Maggie, make dinner, clean up dinner and have to pick up the house. Evidently, I need to add "clean up shredded mail" to that list. I thought E would have been convinced that we needed a mailbox when she brought him is very large check from the VA that was the reimbursement for his school. I guess common sense strikes us all at different times.

Happy Trails

My neighbors told me about a new public trail that the Parks and Recreation Department built on the other side of town. She said it was about 3.5 miles and that it was a hike and bike trail. If you know me...you know my mind is working. I suddenly got really excited about going hiking. I put on my new hiking shorts, loaded up my CamelBak with water, granola bars, my ipod, the camera and some snacks for Magpie. I threw her in the car and headed towards the park. As I pulled in the parking lots, my spirits bottomed out when I actually saw the "Hiking" trail!! PATHETIC!! It's basically a running sidewalk.



Since we were already there, I took Maggie around the loop and enjoyed the landscape. (If you look close enough, you can see the refinery on the other side of the trail)

Funny Pictures

After three attempts of trying to get this giant stick through the back door, she finally mastered it and dragged it through the house. It always amazes me what she finds entertaining. I almost felt bad taking it away from her...ALMOST!

Here she is again as I am getting ready to leave for tennis practice. She can always tell when we are about to leave and will immediately get clingy! I packed up all my gear and had about 5 minutes left so I sat down and evidently my 75 lbs. pup thinks she is a lap dog!

Weekend Catch-up

Well, E is home and I am super glad. Maggie has been crazy all weekend. She has really taken to him and doesn't understand when he leaves. This weekend while he was gone, I took her jogging on Saturday morning and then we played chase in the backyard for about 30 minutes along with a perpetual game of fetch!! She slept the rest of the day. She was SUPER tired!! I was folding laundry and looked over and saw her asleep like this. She didn't even flincth when the flash went off.

Sunday, I, again, had lots to do. Many errands to run and lunch with friends. So when I finally came home, I had a surprise for her. I brought her home a furry caterpillar. HOLY COW her reaction to the new toy was unbelievable and she hasn't let go since. Within 45 minutes, that poor caterpillar was legless, without eyeballs, and she had already pulled the stuffing out of 2 of the 6 segments.

Then her focus shifted to E's possessions...his work hat and his GRE scores...E was not happy about that!!
Then it turned to my chocolate bar. By then I was done making dinner and finally paid attention to her and noticed the mess!!! Sigh! It feels like all I do is clean up her messes.

But E is back home now so hopefully she will calm down a little bit. She was so happy to see him that she jumped out of the car at the airport while he was loading his luggage. Sigh again! Luckily we have a podunk airport and no one was there!

People tell me this is good preparation for kids!!! Whew! I still don't think I am ready for that!

Lonely Days

Well, E is gone an ANOTHER business trip this week. I am glad this is the last one for a while. I feel like we barely see each other anymore because of all of the business trips we both have been on lately!

But I forgot that I took this picture of him and Maggie in bed together the morning he left and I thought it was cute!

Dog Wars

E left to go on a business trip all week so that leaves me at home with Maggie for a few days. Normally, that wouldn't bother me since she is much calmer lately.


However, since Matt and Elizabeth are in Africa on a mission trip for 2 weeks, I offered to take care of Neel (their dog/Maggie's boyfriend) for a few days. Instead of leaving him at their house to stay by himself all day, I went ahead and brought him to our house so him and Maggie could play. Neel has spent the night for the past 2 nights. Maggie has a problem about leaving him alone. She feels like she has to be in his face 24/7. So my thought was to put him in her cage at night so he could get some sleep. Well that didn't work. Maggie sat in front of the cage all night whining for him. She would get up in the bed with me for a few minutes and then jump down to check on Neelfor several minutes...then back in bed with me. This happened about every 20-30 minutes during the night. By 4:00am I was TICKED!!! I was exhausted and only had 2 hours until I had to get up. I kicked her off of my bed and commanded her to sleep in her bed which she did until morning.


However, I can't function with 2 hours of sleep. I was already planning to take off a little early for a function I had to go to last night so I went ahead and took the whole day off to try and get some rest. So last night, I left them both out thinking they would find a cozy spot on the floor together (like they had done all day long) but that didn't happen. They got into bed with me. That's fine as long as they go to sleep. Neel groomed himself most of the night and Maggie felt the need to be in his face while he was doing this. Neel would then growl at her because he doesn't like to be messed with once in bed. They finally got still and I thought we were home free until the whole process started over again. At this point, it's 11:30pm. I typically go to bed around 9:30 since we get up at 5:30 and I wasn't going to have a repeat of the previous night. I locked them both in the kitchen together for the rest of the night. It seemed to work until the barking started. Maggie started barking at Neel because he wouldn't play with her. I went into the kitchen where she had him cornered, told her to "HUSH" and "Get into to bed." Which worked for about and hour and a half. And this process repeated the WHOLE NIGHT!!!!! I finally stopped getting up and just screamed "HUSH!!!" from my bed, which seemed to work, until morning.

So now, I have to function like a normal person today without 2 nights worth of sleep. I am taking Neel home tonight so he can sleep and I can finally get some rest too. It's my stupid pup that's keeping me up all night. The "Great Experiment" failed. I wonder if this is how Marie Curie felt! HA

E, I, and Maggiepie

Since I have a rough week coming up next week with lots of long hours, and since I have been sick this week, I stayed home a few days to rest up. Here are a few pics from my quality time spent with Maggie!

While I napped on the couch, she took a seat in the back den and curled up for a nap!

I think all dogs have a born desire to take off with their owners undies. E thought he would take it one step further and actually put them on her. She was so confused.

Then we taught her how to catch the ball in the air last night. She repeatedly jumped up into the air after the ball until she was too tired to move. I never did get a good picture of her catching it but this one was rather funny.

E had just cut the grass when we started playing with her so everytime the ball hit the ground, a few more grass blades stuck to it. By the end of the night, this was what Maggie's tongue looked like.

Gone Camping

So while I was in San Antonio, E was going to take Maggie on a camping trip with our Sunday School class. So the weekend before, we were cleaning out the garage and decided to go ahead and start getting all of the camping supplies together. When I came outside, E had setup the tent to make sure all of the parts were there. After one look at the tent, we decided to campout into the backyard since I wouldn't be able to go the next weekend on the trip. We made homemade ice cream and threw some steaks and veggies on the grill. E started a fire in the firepit and we threw out some folding chairs and sat by the fire for a while.

The funniest part was trying to persuade Maggie that it was OK to come into the the tent. She was so scared. She barked all night at every little noise she heard. The next morning, she was a little disoriented and afraid to get out of the tent because she didn't know we she was. It was so funny!!

Back in the Saddle

With all of the distractions lately, me and E have been exhausted and overworked. So we agreed to start eating right, sleeping right and exercising again. So I went to the grocery store and got plenty of food to cook all week and make our lunches for work. We went to the gym last night and then came home to walk Maggie. Afterwards, I made a very healthy dinner of salmon and sauteed artichokes.

However, we both have a nasty habit of eating junk if we feel like we worked hard enough at the gym for it. I left to take some movies back and E yells "Why don't you stop and pick up some cookies on the way home?" That sounded SOOOO good to me..... so I did!

I came home threw the first batch in the oven. They came out WONDERFUL. Me and E gathered in the kitchen to pour the milk and pile on the cookies. We got our treats and then retreated seperately. Well, Maggie got quiet...and when she gets quiet...that's never good. All of the sudden, E starts screaming at her to go and get into her kennel. She came running into the bedroom and went immediately into her kennel. I guess I had a puzzled look on my face because E just immediately started explaining that Maggie had eaten almost all of the cookies. This is starting to feel like deja vous. Here's what was left...

Magpie

Maggie is starting to get the hang of things around house. Disciplinary issues aren't what they were 3-9 months ago. We decided to start letting her sleep with us again. This is a very special treat for her. She loves to get in bed with us in the morning and practically bathe us with her tongue! Ekkkh! I always direct her "kisses" towards E.

This special treatment comes with rules though. She isn't allowed on the bed unless she is invited by someone who is already on the bed. This has worked very well over the past 2 weeks until this morning.

Look who I found asleep on the bed while I was in the shower!!! She actually had her head on my pillow until she heard me coming.

And Then There Was One

Just a small side note that you may find interesting, this is what my carpet looks like on a regular basis. Honestly, I got tired of vacuuming up all of the mulch, bones, sticks and paper scraps that Maggie makes out of the stuff she brings in from the backyard everyday. So it just stays there until the weekend. She has actually found a few more sticks and brought them in since this picture was taken. I have just given up!

When Mom was here last week, every time we turned around Maggie would take off with our chalk, or scissors, or pin cushion, or fabric, she wanted so desperately to chew on something that was not an approved toy! We were constantly fighting to regain possession of our materials. Thinking I was a genius for coming up with a solution, I tied her up in the front yard and left the front door open. Well, then she dug up my flowers we had just planted in the flower beds. ARG! There are no good answers.

When we started putting the cushions back together when we noticed the pin cushion was missing for the 5th time...MAGGIE!!!! She was sitting secluded on the other side of the room. Using her front teeth, she pulled each individual pin out of the cushion and set them aside in a small pile. Then she proceeded to chew on the cushion like a new ball, which is probably all she thought it was in the first place.

Well, Easter was getting close, so I went ahead and planned out my menu for Easter lunch. I made a list and went to the store. Saturday night, I went ahead and made the dessert and started trimming and marinading the 3 pork tenderloins. I had my recipe on the kitchen counter for the marinade. I turned my head and when I looked back my recipe was GONE! I looked everywhere for it and felt super crazy for losing it!!

So I ran into the office for less than 2 minutes to print another recipe off of the internet. I came back into the kitchen and Maggie was standing over one of the pork loins she had pulled into the floor. I just looked at her, completely stunned. She just looked at me, completely stunned that I wasn't yelling and screaming at her. I had no words ... until I noticed that only one pork loin was left on the counter. In the 2 minutes that I was gone, she had already eaten one of the pork loins and had pulled the second one into the floor to start working on it. She ate a 1 pound pork loin in less than 2 minutes!!!! I...WAS...FURIOUS!!!!! The only thing I could think to say was" E, this is bad...this is very bad."
















Well, Easter lunch turned out ok. Even without the planned number of pork loins, we still had leftovers. Here is Mags about 30 minutes after eating the pork....with a stomach ache...she goes to her Daddy for consolement!

New Ipod

It all started on a Saturday afternoon. Company was in town and the girls were going shopping while the boys showered for dinner afterwards. E, hopped into the shower for a few minutes and when he returned, Maggie had hopped onto the bed, mouthed open the zipper on my gym bag, pulled down my arm band with my ipod inside, and proceeded to chew on the band/ipod. The good news that my ipod still works. It still plays music but the screen will never work again. The bad news is, this is the ipod I use to gauge the distance I have run in races or when we are training. That was the sole reason I bought that specific ipod.

There are chew marks on the bottom and top left-hand side of the display.

Since Maggie ATE my last ipod, and I refuse to work out without it, (I know I am somewhat spoiled), E told me that I could get a new one, meaning the newest generation. I almost felt bad that he said that because I washed one of his ipods that was left in his pants and didn't let him get a new one. Oh well...by gones right?

My last one was a refurbished one from Apples website. So I started looking to see if they had any cheap ones. Nada, they were all the newest models and about the same price I paid for my broken one. So I started checking ebay...all I wanted was another one that worked. It didn't have to be new but I was seriously striking out. So I decided to bid on a few of the new models to see what kind of price I could get. HELLO!!! I won a new refurbished model on ebay for less than a used old model. It cam in this week and "it's so tiiinnny" (say that in a squeeky voice)