Spring Break 2014

I always feel so guilty when I don't blog for a while. Generally the reason is because not much has happened, so saving my (few) readers a detailed play-by-play of the mundane goings-on of my life is actually a favor ;) But the past week has actually been BUSY. Which means I have things to report on, but no time to actually report.

Last week I successfully completed two more training sessions (on Wednesday and Friday). I'm a fan of my trainer so far. She knows how far to push me without making me so sore that I can't sit on a toilet (which has happened before, and I pray never happens again. It's not pretty). The weight room was also far less crowded on Wednesday and Friday (hmmm... maybe men also subscribe to the whole "I'll start again on Monday" thing?), so it was much less embarrassing.

***Side Note*** Apologies to my parents for using the phrase "popped my weight room cherry" in my last post. Apparently they were horrified at my choice of descriptive language. ***End of Side Note***

Joe and I left on Saturday afternoon for our Spring Break trip to California. It's been nearly a year since I've been home to visit my family, so I was super excited. What I was not excited about, though, was leaving my poor baby:

I mean - seriously - who could leave this adorable face?!

Instead of boarding him at the vet (which is what we did the last, and only, time we left him), we hired another dental student to stay at our house and dog-sit Buster. It was actually comparably priced to boarding, and I hate the idea of putting a former shelter dog back in a shelter-like setting. Reports from Buster's sitter have been good so far - much less crying than we expected.

***Side Note*** The lack of crying was on Buster's end, as I bawled before the sitter got to our house on Saturday. I am a legitimate crazy person. ***End of Side Note***

Coming home has been such a surreal experience. It certainly does NOT feel like we have been gone for a year, and it makes me realize how quickly dental school has been passing. This is definitely a good thing, as I am ready to ditch this chapter of our lives. While I like Philadelphia and am proud of all that Joe is doing, I miss living by family and I want to feel more like a grown-up and less like a college student. While it's Joe doing the studying, we live on a college student budget. The shopper in me cannot stand that ;)

Speaking of chapters in our life, I lately have developed an obsession: reading every single fertility / pregnancy book I can get my hands on. To be clear, we are not currently trying. After all, we have the unlimited booze package booked for our cruise, so that would just be crazy ;) Also, D2 (the second year of dental school) is the most difficult, so having a newborn during D2 would be pretty ambitious.  But, I am nothing if not a planner, so I am devouring everything I can in prep for baby-making and baby-growing.

To be honest, it is terrifying me.

But I can't stop.

I really had no idea that pregnancy was so horrific. I knew you got fat. I knew your boobs ached. I knew morning sickness existed. Little did I know that these things barely scratch the surface of the ailments a poor pregnant lady must endure.

Of course, it will all be worth it.

But WOW.

While there is more to say about the trip, I am exhausted and now I feel a little sick thinking about my not-too-distant future. Time to get back to my latest pregnancy book and hope that this one is a bit more positive ;)

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What a Week

As expected, Stacey's visit brought lots of things to blog about - but zero time TO blog.

And although she left on Sunday and it is now Wednesday, poor little Buster has been sick so I've been busy caring for the mutt. He'll be fine, but he had a double whammy hit him.

Sunday, Stacey and I brought him home a bone from the Italian Market and the oinker ate the whole thing. It was probably NOT a good idea to try the bone because a few hours later he started throwing up. I took him to the vet Monday morning to make sure he'd be okay (he threw up at least 15 times), and we found out he also has a bladder infection. Like I said, poor little Buster.

So the past couple days I've been taking him out every couple of hours to pee (because of the bladder infection he kept peeing in the house), cleaning up pee that didn't make it outside, administering his medication, and boiling chicken and cooking rice to feed him every 3-4 hours. I've also been giving him lots of cuddles.

Now that he's on the mend, I plan to blog about our adventures over the next few days. Unfortunately, with it being Wednesday and all, I MUST set my fantasy football lineup for this week. So until I can actually dedicate some time to post about Stacey's visit, here's a shot of Philly that I took and played with in Picasa:

I do not know how to use Picasa for realsies, so I just make pictures look "artsy" haha

I am SO in love with this city.

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Week Re-Cap

That's me!

I haven't been very good at blogging this last week because work, dealing with Buster's separation anxiety, and trying to support Joe through orientation has taken up pretty much all of my time.

So I'll hit on the highlights (and lowlights) of each and try to be better next week.

***Side Note*** As a follower of blogs myself I hate when my favorite bloggers aren't consistent. Though I doubt I can count myself among anyone's favorite bloggers (yet? or is that wishful thinking?), consistency is still important. ***End of Side Note***

Work

As previously mentioned, I'm going to be vague about my nanny job for the privacy of the family I am working for. This was my first full week, and it was a doozy. The girls don't start school until September, and so they are home all day long. This means my days are about 10-11 hours (once school starts I'll have a 4-5 hour break in the middle of the day). They needed me for a bit yesterday, so I did get to go home early on Wednesday and Thursday, which was awesome since I had errands I needed to run and a dog I needed to rescue from our bathroom (more later on the dog).

Going from working 0 hours a day for 5 months to 10+ hours a day is not an easy adjustment. And starting any new job is always rough. This combination didn't make for a super week, but I am sure next week will be better.

I do have to say that I didn't realize how difficult nannying would be. I worked at an after school program after college and it was cake compared to this (mmm cake). I can't really pinpoint the reason it's so hard (maybe it really is just the long hours and fact I'm learning as I go?), but I found myself wondering a few times this week how moms and dads (especially stay-at-home parents who are with their kids 24/7) do it. It's not that the girls are bad, they are super cute and very smart, it's just HARD and a lot of responsibility.

I think these feelings depressed me a bit this week too, which probably didn't help the whole adjusting to work thing.

My whole life all I wanted to be was a stay-at-home mom (SAHM for those of you who don't read a lot of mom-blogs). I've been counting down the days until Joe and I can start a family and have worked out budgets so that we can see if having kids at some point when he is still in dental school is even feasible. After this week, I don't mind waiting, and even told him if we had to wait until after dental school I'd be 100% fine with that.

This scares me, as my identity is so wrapped up in being a "future SAHM." What if I can't hack being a SAHM? What if I don't like it? I always thought my stress and anxiety was mainly brought on by not doing what I wanted with my life (being a SAHM), but what if NOTHING will make me happy? Not a happy thought.

Buster

As I mentioned in my last post, we are having trouble with Buster's separation anxiety. When I came home on Thursday he had pooped in the bathroom and tracked it everywhere. He also covered the main mound with his towel, so after I had cleaned up almost everything and went to move the towel to his bed, I had a nice little big surprise.

He also found something to rub his nose on in the bathroom and injured it further. Also, based on the placement of his toys it looks like he is neither playing with his toys nor laying in his bed. We think he's just crying at the door and jumping up and down in the bathroom (he used to jump up and down at the shelter and Joe found a blood mark on the door pretty high up - we assume from his nose). I mean, seriously, it's like a crime scene every time we come home.

Not true, but made me laugh

My friend Erin gave some great advice about getting a child gate so he doesn't feel so confined. Given Buster's proclivity to jumping, though, I'm sure he'd clear it in a hot second.

Since the bathroom isn't helping and we can't chance him getting poop all over our bed again by leaving him in the bedroom, we decided we are going back to the crate. At least in the crate he doesn't poop, he's safe (if we can figure out how to protect his nose), and he seems to settle down eventually. When we come to get him out he's usually laying there pretty calm.

I also contacted a dog trainer and am going to read some books on separation anxiety. This little pup is costing us a pretty penny, but we love him so much we don't care.

Hmmmm. Wait a minute. I may have had another "aha moment."

I've always been a person who likes dogs, but said I'd never put up with BS from one of my own. I would see people baby their animals and put up with bad habits, etc. Behaviors in another animals would drive me crazy, but Buster doing the exact same things I find cute or, at the very least, easy to forgive.

Example? I sometimes let him lick my fingers after I eat (*hangs head in shame*). Are you kidding me? If I saw someone else do that I'd roll my eyes and think they were insane.

It must be the same way with children. So even though nannying is tough and scaring me a bit from having kids of my own, I'm sure I'll find that I love them so much that the hard times won't be so hard. It'll just be different.

This actually makes me feel better. Blogging is SOOO therapeutic ;)

Joe

Joe's orientation went well. He's really excited about school starting and more confident than ever that he made the right choice picking Penn.

There were events at night during the week and we attended most of them so we could get to know people. I was EXHAUSTED from work, but went anyway because it's important to start these next 4 years off on the right foot and I was hoping to meet other dental school wives/girlfriends/etc. (which I didn't - wah wah).

It's tough not to have any friends in Philadelphia. The other dental students are very nice and include me in things with Joe. Once school starts, though, it's not like they are going to have free time to be my friend. And if they do have free time, that means Joe will also have free time and I am sure I'll be desperate for some quality 1:1 time with him. I started a Facebook group for significant others of Penn Dental Students, but only one guy has joined it.

Oh, well. At least I have Buster ;)

Last Day of Orientation

Today is Joe's last day of orientation and I can't believe how fast this week has gone. He's mostly been excited about orientation and starting classes on Monday, but we've had some Buster problems that have been stressing him out. I want to try to solve these problems ASAP.

Since I go to work before he leaves and get home after he does, Joe's been doing the brunt of Buster duty. The poor pup isn't used to being in a crate so long, and even though we thought we had successfully crate trained him, he's regressed in a major way. He looks like he's been rubbing his nose on the crate and has a sore on the top of it. He also annihilates anything he can reach from inside his crate (even though he isn't at all destructive outside the crate) and somehow is able to thump the thing up and down when he knows we haven't left the house yet and is trying to get our attention.

Since I can't stand for this little face to be sad (let alone HURT!)...

...we tried shutting him up in our room instead of the crate so he had more room to roam and could lay on the bed, etc. He didn't seem to like that much either, as he went potty all over the place and then walked in it - leaving little Buster poo-prints on everything. 

After that we decided to try to shut him up in the bathroom (much easier to clean up in there and less for him to get into- thanks for the advice mom). That seems to be working MUCH better- no accidents and he's not ripping up his bedding. But his nose looks worse, and I'm not sure if it's just because it's healing and itching so he's irritating it or if he is hurting himself out of anxiety.

I just feel so bad for him. Any advice out there? 

He's a perfect angel except when we leave... have we just spoiled him with too much love? I heard that dogs who think they are pack master have serious separation anxiety, but in every other way he seems to get that he's the bottom of our "pack." 

I really need to figure out some solutions here, Joe doesn't need the added stress and I want a happy pup.

Bringing Up Buster

It's been a little less than two weeks, but Buster has absolutely stolen our hearts.

I mean, look at his face, wouldn't he steal yours too?

The little guy loves us too, I've nicknamed him "my shadow" because wherever mommy goes, Buster follows. We think it has to do with being abandoned by his previous family and spending so long at the shelter. It's cute, but we don't want him to have anxiety and we've had serious trouble crate training him because the second we leave the room our quiet little guy starts barking and crying.

We went to the vet yesterday for a check-up, and got some great ideas to help with the separation anxiety and crate trouble. *Whew* not sure how much longer I can stand being holed up in this apartment. And every time he cries I feel like my heart is ripping out.

Speaking of heart ripping out, poor Buster was petrified at the vet. He shook like a leaf almost the entire time, and when the vet tried to take him he jumped into my arms, threw his front paws around my neck, and grabbed on for dear life. Good thing he's still a young guy (3) and in good health, because I don't want him to have to go to the vet again for a long time.

Knock on wood.

We are still trying to figure out his likes and dislikes. He sometimes has fun with his toys, but the only one he's really latched onto is a stuffed squirrel my mom and brother sent. He has annihilated that thing and loves to prance around the house with the squirrel in his mouth. It's too cute.

We tried taking him to the dog park the other day, but he was unimpressed. He just peed on or smelled everything.

Maybe this is a good place to pee.

This looks good too.

Dad - let me go so I can pee some more.

The one thing we are sure he loves (besides us) is being a total and complete couch potato. The vet said that comes from having some kind of sight hound in him (whippet or Italian greyhound are the most likely candidates).

He certainly doesn't love having his picture taken. I wanted a good picture of Buster and me, and that was just not in the cards...

Mom - don't you dare try to take pictures of me

I'll clean out your nostrils if you promise to stop

You think you have a big mouth?

That's nothing. Check this out.

I get worn out being so handsome

As American as Apple Pie

We now live in the birthplace of America, so you'd think we would have soaked up yesterday's 4th of July activities around Philly.

That didn't happen.

We have a new dog, and Buster is NOT a fan of his crate yet, so we had to make our own fun at home.

***Side Note*** It's a rule in our building that dogs must be crated when no one is home. I've never had an indoor dog before, so I didn't realize what went into crate training. I HATE IT. My heart rips out when my poor baby cries and paws at the door. I'm also pretty sure Joe and I are never going to be able to leave the house again at the same time. Joe is more optimistic. He also makes me leave the room if I start getting sad when Buster cries, worried that I am going to make our dog neurotic. It's probably a good thing I am practicing mommy-hood on a dog before we have kids ***End of Side Note***

Since I'd be stuck inside anyway, I got my mind wrapped around the idea of making a homemade apple pie. I've never made a pie before, and thought that now was as good a time as any to learn.

I don't always have the best of luck in the kitchen and tend to be too ambitious when I try to make things for the first time, so I decided to forgo making the crust from scratch. Instead, the goal was to practice making the filling and not burning or under-cooking the pie. Lofty enough goals for this wanna-be culinary goddess.

But somehow it turned out - and it was DELICIOUS:

I followed this recipe, which I highly recommend, making the following adjustments based on some of the comments:

• Used a combination of granny smith and pink lady apples (my idea!)

• Added 1 tablespoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar mixture

• Poured 2/3 of the sugar mixture on the apples before and 1/3 after adding the lattice instead of pouring it all on after

• Baked for 45 minutes at 350 instead of 15 at 425 and 30-45 at 350 (our oven tends to cook things quicker than other ovens I've used)

The only problem with the pie is that it was really watery, which my mom told me happens with apple pies in particular. I'm not experienced enough to know what caused or would solve this problem for sure, but she said to try mixing the apples with flour or cornstarch. The pie did become less liquid as it cooled more (and after sitting in the fridge overnight it is more like a runny caramel), so I'd probably try using cornstarch and making it a day early next time.

After dinner and pie, Joe and I took Buster for a walk and lit some sparklers. As a born-and-raised California girl (where fireworks are strictly forbidden for personal use), I've never even held a sparkler. So I was pretty excited :)

Buster's not too impressed haha

Yep - not one bit

And, of course, we had to watch Independence Day. I cannot believe the President's daughter is Egg (a.k.a. Her a.k.a. Plant a.k.a. Mouth a.k.a. Ann) from Arrested Development. That's one of my favorite parts about watching older movies (can you believe this one is 17 years old!!!) - seeing actors you now recognize from other things.

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New Addition to the Family

No, I am not pregnant :) but I AM a new mommy! Today Joe and I adopted a dog from a local shelter!!!

We have discussed getting a dog for a long time, and I was so excited that I've been on Petfinder more than Pinterest for the last several months. For a Pinterest addict like me, that's really saying something.

The plan had been to wait until we were fully settled, but we figured that the longer a dog would have to get acclimated to things before Joe starts school, the better. Plus, my brother Brian is still with us and is a huge dog lover, so we thought visiting a couple shelters would be fun.

We didn't realize how quick we'd fall for one!

At the first shelter we only filled out paperwork, as their dogs are fostered and you need to schedule appointments. There was one dog we were able to see, but she was a serious barker. According to our landlord, that's a deal breaker, so we had to pass. At the second place, they house their dogs on site, so we were able to walk down the rows and see which ones we wanted to "meet" in their meet and greet room.

As we walked down the aisle we couldn't help but notice one dog jumping up and down in its little room like Tigger. I recognized him from Petfinder (he was one I was interested in), but Joe said no way because his jumping was so crazy.

Instead, we met with a couple of quiet dogs who were super sweet, but just didn't feel right. I asked the lady if the jumping dog was a barker (assuming from his energy level he would be). But she surprised us by saying she isn't sure she has ever heard him bark.

Since we need a quiet dog and I was halfway in love with him from his Petfinder profile, I appealed to Joe and asked if we could just meet the little guy. He agreed, but reminded me the he was a crazy jumping dog and he'd have to be really impressive to be considered.

Well- he was very impressive :) Despite the jumping he was really calm in the bigger room. He had some energy - he liked to play tug of war - but certainly didn't seem like the same dog we had seen channeling his inner pogo stick. He had great manners, a sweet disposition, and seemed like the exact personality we were looking for. We were pretty sure he was it, but Joe (the reasonable one) wanted us to sleep on it.

It was good we did, because it made us both realize that we definitely wanted him :)

So today we went back and made it official! He's all ours :)

He's been a dream so far. He already has great manners and he seems really happy. He loves the car, food, his toys, and he seems to love his new family already. We sure love him.

And, without further adieu, introducing Buster Brier!

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