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more chewie!

Sleepy boy :)

Chewie has been in our lives now for almost a month. He turned 4 months old on the 19th, and I'm pretty sure he's gotten bigger. I might be crazy, but I always think he looks a little taller or bulkier than when I last saw him (yes, even though I see him every day!).

A little size comparison, this was a week or two ago (?I can't remember)


For the first couple of weeks Chewie was obsessed with the carpets. We're assuming that over the years enough has been spilled on these carpets that there were maybe some buried goodies. Anyway, he'd try his hardest to nibble and take a bite out of it!

We've learned some of his quirks along the way, but I'll share a lot of pictures here as well. It has been tough to get some great pictures since he is always moving! I swear, he will be out like a light in his bed and the second anyone moves he perks up. I've tried a few distractions that didn't quite work (you'll see in a second), so I've succumbed to using flash for a lot of these. Not the best quality in pictures, but it works for now.

Puppy in motion! This bone comes out at meal time to keep him away from begging


Watching me take photos of the spring snowfall

Chewie LOVES his toys! This was something we were told the day he first came for a visit. It has grown since then, and he frequently tries (and sometimes succeeds) in putting two toys in his mouth at a time. In the list of things I wish I could photograph about the puppy, this is probably #2 (of a top 5 or so).

The first toy we bought for Chewie (before he even arrived!)


I don't care if this makes me a horrible puppy mommy, it was cute!

#1 on that list would definitely be the way he runs around the furniture. It's hard to explain without drawing a diagram of our living space. I don't have that much ambition right now though. Basically he goes into hyper speed mode and SPRINTS around the dining room table, behind the couch, around the coffee table, and around the big chair, making a speedy path around the space. While doing this he is usually carrying his favorite toy, a stuffed elephant my coworkers gifted. It's hilarious to watch, you'll just have to trust me :).

That's his elephant at the bottom of the photo

First bath - Skinny puppy!

Training has been going pretty well for what we can do at this time. He is doing GREAT at potty training. We are crate training him, and he has always been able to make it through the night without dirtying his crate. During the day when we aren't at home he is locked into the kitchen and never does his business in there. When we are home we just keep a close eye on him. We've learned his signal that he's gotta go. He will sit at the top of the steps, and just stare. As long as we pay attention to those times and take him out at reasonable intervals, we're good! He has really only had a handful of accidents total since he came here, so I don't think we can take all of the credit for how well he is doing.

In the morning Chewie just sits here while I get my jacket on and everything waiting for when I'm ready to take him outside.

Other than potty training, he has definitely learned his name and the word "off" (although could use some work on that one). I decided before a dog came that I didn't want him to be on the furniture. While I would really like to have him up and cuddle on the couch with me sometimes, I just think it can lead to bad habits otherwise. He will start puppy kindergarten next month and that's when we'll work more on the "sit" "stay" and other things.

Ugh! I'm so sad that the part of this picture in focus is his hindlegs


He did this on his own, too adorable

Ok, so I thought this was mostly going to be photos, oops.

i'm stuck

I need some help, and I'm looking to you fine folks. I'm looking into changing this blog to a different web address so that my full name is not associated with it anymore. The problem with my current blog name is that I don't want my address to be comingsoon.com, that's just silly.

So I need a new blog name, which will become the new web address. I'm struggling with ideas and haven't latched on to anything yet. It might be easier if this blog had any sort of theme, but it doesn't.

I'm open to any ideas, so throw them at me!

To the winning idea... I'll send you a free 8x10 of any of my photos, why not? :)

the day the dog came home - part 2

Need to catch up on the story? Start Here.

When I left off we had decided that the Corgi option (at least from a breeder) was not going to work out. I started back up on searching for any puppy in the area on petfinder. One of the first puppies I saw was this cutie named Clyde.

Clyde is ¾ Shiba Inu and ¼ Rat Terrier, and both Mr. Y Not and I agreed on him! The next day I contacted this shelter to get more details. Surprise! Surprise! They emailed me back that very day. Thank goodness someone out there knows how to do business (the two breeders still have not gotten back to me and it's been over a week). However, it came with a bit of bad news. Another family was interested in Clyde and was having their home visit that day. With Mr. Y Not's approval I went ahead and filled out an application for adoption anyway. Crossing my fingers that this home visit went poorly and that we would have our chance. I got the message later in the day that the home visit had to be rescheduled.

While this was somewhat good news, I still went home a little down and started my search back up again. This other family had put in their application first and had to be given top priority. With a little more digging Mr. Y Not and I settled on a “Plan B” in Phineas here. I wanted to wait to hear the status of the home visit with the other family that was looking into Clyde before going ahead and filling out an application for Phineas.

I love that Phineas has eyebrows,
his fur is a different color where the eyebrows "should" be

My answer came the very next day when a lovely lady from Clyde's shelter let me know that they had received my application and wondering if I wanted to continue with the adoption process. WHAT?!? First I said “OF COURSE!”, but quickly followed that with, “what about the other family?” As it turns out, the way this particular shelter works is that while there can be several applications for one pet, the first person to have their home visit gets to decide whether they want to adopt. If not, they move on to the next application.

This was intriguing, but couldn't have come at a stranger time. Alright, to catch up, this conversation about continuing with the process happened on Wednesday, Clyde was set to get his lovely bits removed on Friday. If I wanted to schedule my home visit (and get that done before anyone else) I had two options. Thursday evening or Saturday morning. I wasn't available on Thursday because I was helping out my brother-in-law with their twins overnight.

That left Saturday. Funny story about this Saturday, it was also the day I was set to move in with Mr. Y Not. Wow, puppy home visit (Clyde would be coming too) AND a Uhaul all in one day? Gotta do what you gotta do. Mr. Y Not and I spent Friday evening cleaning up the house to prepare for the home visit. We also bought a few puppy items, but things that we could use with any puppy we got.

I had been a complete spaz since Wednesday. The woman from the shelter heavily implied that we would have a puppy on Saturday. She said that not many home visits are turned away, and once people see the puppy they can't say no. She even went as far to say that she is a pushover and as long as the home isn't dangerous, it will work out. WE'RE GETTING A PUPPY!!!!! I started counting down the hours until Clyde came to see us.

Saturday morning came around and I could not contain my excitement! I woke up randomly at 6:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Our home visit was scheduled for 10:00, only 4 more hours to go. At about 9:58 Mr. Y Not said he saw a different car in the driveway. That drove me crazy! It felt like she took ages to get out of the car and ring the doorbell. But she did, and she had Clyde cozied up in a crate. I wanted to see him so bad!

She took him out, let him play around, and commented how much she loved the house (and she had only seen the first floor, we do most of our living upstairs!). When we got upstairs she continued her admiration for the house after seeing a wall that is painted with a unique texture. Mr. Y Not calls it the suede wall because that's sort of the feel you get from it, and he went on to explain how it was done. Enough chit chat! She finally took out the paperwork, explained anything we needed to know about Clyde (meds since he just got neutered, type of food he's been eating, that he LOVES his crate...) and that was that!

WE HAVE A PUPPY!!!!!!!

Meet Clyde, now known as Chewie (or Chewbacca) :)

He is only 5 pounds right now!
I will get a photo with some perspective on his size later.

He has definitely been a joy so far, and I will have to dedicate a different post to everything we have learned about him, since this one has gotten quite long.

the day the dog came home - part 1

This is the long story about how a small dream of mine came true.

Last July or August sometime Mr. Y Not and I were talking about dogs. His father has been raising and mushing (is that a verb?) dogs for about 30 years. Mr. Y Not eventually had a home pet of his own in a toy poodle. Yep, you read that correct, a TOY POODLE! My family on the other hand had a few pets over the years, but one dog that I believe meant the most to all of us. Norm, the yellow lab.

A toy poodle similar to Mr. Y Not's pet

A few years after Norm was sent to the “big farm” I was in college and wanted a dog of my own. Of course, I never lived anywhere that would allow a dog. Plus, there was no way I would have been able to afford it, if I was honest with myself. Still, I REALLY wanted a puppy! When I was living with my sister and brother-in-law their two dogs did the trick (a few of them, lol). But then they kicked me out to start their family and I once again was living in an apartment, still no dogs allowed.

Back to that conversation in July or August. Mr. Y Not mentioned that he wanted a dog. BAD MOVE BUDDY! I'm sure it was just an innocent “Sure, a dog would be great someday...” comment, but lil old me ran with it. I started pestering him to get a puppy. It was perfect, he could have it at his home and I could come and visit! Just when I thought I was making progress with him, he said he wanted to wait until spring to get a dog.

Why? Because it would be easier to potty train without the snow. I get this, I really do, and I accepted it. I accepted it without thinking through that we had this conversation in August and the snow wasn't going to start for months! Oh well.

Just because I accepted it did not mean that I stopped looking for a beloved puppy that I could cuddle up someday when spring came. Mr. Y Not had a few requests in my searches. He wanted a smaller dog (even a lab was too big) and would prefer little to no shedding. His first desires for a breed were Jack Russel Terrier and Dachshund. Eh, I wasn't crazy about either of those.

I won't go through every dog that I pined over (I was searching for months, and puppies that I fell in love with eventually were either adopted or ended up on the “young” section instead of “baby”). I started leaning greatly towards a Corgi.

An adult Corgi, so awkwardly adorable!

I thought I hit the jackpot when petfinder brought me a listing for a purebred Corgi. A breeder in Northern Minnesota was donating the cost of this Corgi to a local shelter. JACKPOT! I loved that I could get a purebred pet and still support a shelter. The listing was up for awhile, eventually I contacted the shelter to check, the deal seemed too good to be true (this was probably early March).

It was true, and I started getting nervous that a puppy wouldn't be available in mid to late April when I was actually allowed to get a dog. So I did a search to try and find the breeder (the name wasn't on anything), and found one that was fairly close. I contacted the breeder about their litter. This is where my time line mixes all together.

I asked the shelter about the puppies and found out that one of the volunteers' mom was the breeder (no name, just “my mom”) and those puppies were 6 months old, they had two left. The breeder (who ended up not being the same as “my mom”) had a litter due in April. Mr. Y Not did not want a 6 month old, he would prefer a newer pup, so the shelter was out. I had been wary of the breeder from the start because of a few factors and ended up emailing them with a list of questions which to me would let me know if they were a reputable breeder or not.

After not hearing back for a couple of days I decided to look around. I found another Corgi breeder closer to the cities and was excited. They had a website and I could see that they had a few puppies available. So again, I contacted them with the same questions. After not hearing back from either breeder for several days I went back to square one. With no breed in mind I went back to petfinder to see what new puppies were available (this was last Monday).

TO BE CONTINUED...

losing the love weight

I can't say I wasn't warned, but when I put on some weight after Mr. Y Not and I started dating I assumed it was very temporary. You know, like it was holiday weight that would go away naturally. No? That's not how it works? Well, needless to say, spending more time with him, less (way less) at the gym, eating out more, and eating Mr. Y Not portion sized meals (have I told you that he is 6'6" and has the metabolism of a 5 yr old?) has not bode well for me. My clothes are tighter and I just don't feel good in general.

So! I'm doing something about it. I have never been, nor do I think I will ever be (unless very desperate), your normal dieting person. Not entirely sure how to explain this, but I don't like your typical diet regimens. Counting calories? I don't have the patience to look up everything I eat. Cutting carbs? PLEASE! Like this girl can stay away from her bread and potatoes. Vegetarian? LAUGHABLE! Not only am I a potato girl, I'm also DEFINITELY a meat girl. Especially red meat, the bloodier the better. I don't think I'd ever like diets like Nutrisystem where you have to eat the meals that they send you. They're all frozen not very high quality foods (I think, never actually had one). Also, they make it seem like this is the food you will have to stay on because once you stop you'll gain all of the weight back.

Here is where I become a semi-hypocrite. I'm doing the Special K Challenge. If you don't already know, here is how it goes. You replace two meals (usually breakfast and then either lunch or dinner) with one of the Special K foods like cereal or a protein bar. Then you get one full healthy meal a day. In between you can have two snacks of their cracker chips, cereal bars, fruit bars, or crackers. Also, you can eat all the fruits and veggies you want.

Yes, I realize this means I am cutting things out of my diet. But not entirely because I can still have a healthy meat and potatoes dinner. I'm also committing to one brand of food for most of the day. This I will admit is something that bugs me a little, but I'm ignoring it. They created this plan to make more money and have you buy more of their stuff, I get it. It worked on me!

However, it only lasts for two weeks. I have done this before and did lose the 6 pounds they advertise. I'm not necessarily expecting the same results this time (no more gym membership), but have hope. I truly like my veggies and fruit and they taste even better when all you've had all day is cereal! Haha, I'm not joking...

One thing I don't remember from the last time is feeling this much pang towards the foods I'm not allowed. All of the food commercials that come on, I want it! When a coworker talks about the delicious cheesecake in the break room, I have to pass. This protein bar that I'm clenching is about all I get. sigh...

After this, I will still have to work to lose the "love weight" as I like to call it. That will involve in general eating healthier and taking correct portion sizes. I have to remember when I'm eating meals with Mr. Y Not that his body needs and can handle a lot more food than mine. Eventually I will join the gym again, but until then I am doing some workouts at home.

For now, I'm going to go drool at the cheeseburger on TV.

lessons earned

WARNING: This post ended up being longer than I thought

Let's talk about education. More specifically, education in the dating world. Before Mr. Y Not I dated some, although never had a serious relationship. However, I still learned something from each guy. Every one of these lessons showed me what I really want (and don't want) in a life partner. They also helped open me up and accept another person into my life.

Here are the lessons that I learned along the way (in no specific order, and each number does not necessarily represent one person).

#1 taught me to be more a part of the relationship; this is hard to explain without going into one of the few details of our “relationship” that I always think back to. I was 15, he asked me to join him for his track event one day, and I didn’t go. I had reasons that I felt were justified, but I didn’t tell him what those were. Even though that only lasted 3 weeks, I pin point that occurrence as one of the reasons we didn’t work out. (And, hello, I was 15! It wouldn’t have lasted anyway)

#2 finally taught me to talk about anything. This dude seriously NEVER shut up. Our first date lasted 5 hours, not because it was anything fantastic, but because he wouldn’t stop talking! It wasn’t always interesting either. But, I finally got the hint that I don’t have to keep my thoughts in, I can share them with my partner.

#3 taught me that I deserve better. He wasn’t there for me, and he didn’t really care at all about building a relationship together. Eventually I accepted this (although I admit it took longer than it should have).

#4 is a lesson I learned later, but relates back to this person. I was really picky about the smallest things, with this guy, I didn’t like his face. Now, it wasn’t that he had a massive mole on the tip of his nose or that he had a third eye. There wasn’t anything wrong with his face, I just came to the conclusion that it looked too plastic. Yes, too plastic. It was like he had just gotten Botox or something and his face never showed emotion. I eventually realized I was petty to even list this as a flaw, and that no one is perfect.

#5 taught me that just because I like some country music, that doesn’t mean I should date a cowboy. (oh wait, #4 Plastic Face was also a cowboy)

#6 taught me that I wanted someone who was responsible and financially stable. Even though money can't buy you love, I like to know that my man can take care of me.

#7 taught me to just go for it! Alright, this was the result of more than one guy that I didn’t give a chance to. My friends would tell me “so-and-so likes you, do you like him?” For some reason I always got defensive and said no, even if I didn’t really know the person. I needed to give these guys a chance so that I could learn lessons like everything above.

My list of what I was looking for in a guy became something like this:

• Taller than me (this has been on my list FOREVER, and let's admit, it's not too difficult to find)

• Makes me laugh

• Honesty (a HUGE requirement for me)

• No games (this goes along with the honesty, but I've had guys play the game with me and I was so over it! I vowed to be so open with my guy that I could tell him ANYTHING.)

• Makes me/our relationship a priority

• Responsibility/Financially stable (see above)

I'm sure there was more, but not that I can think of at this moment. This list, along with the lessons I had learned eventually led me to Mr. Y Not. Why? Y Not? (hehe, I've been wanting to do that!)

Mr. Y Not is 6'6”, big fat check mark on the taller than me requirement. We laugh together, and he definitely has the responsibility and financial stability down pat. Since I held honesty as such a high priority, he knew about this before we even met in person (have I mentioned that we met online yet?). We tell each other anything which goes along with no games. This telling each other anything has proved very valuable in our relationship. I believe this is why we don't fight (yes, I know, everyone says that we will fight eventually. While I'd like to think that we will keep up our streak, we both understand that there could be a fight at some point.), whoa, long tangent. Anyway, we disagree once in awhile, but we discuss it rather than argue.

I am the #1 priority in Mr. Y Not's life. Let me explain how this came to be so important. This goes along with #3 from above. This person played a lot of video games and a common occurrence would be me going to visit him, and him playing a game for HOURS, leaving me to fend for myself. Mr. Y Not is also a gamer, but it doesn't cause a problem for us. This is entirely because he makes our relationship a priority. He still gets plenty of time to play his games, it just doesn't have to happen during our time together.

Are there things I would change about our relationship? Yes. However, there are only 2 things I would change if I could. I don't want to go into them, but they are out of our control. Besides, I'd say 2 things is pretty small a number.

I could go on about all of the things I love about Mr. Y Not, but this post was more about the lessons I've learned along the way and how they have played into my current relationship, besides it's gotten long enough already. He is a fantastic person who has proved time and again that we are a great match. He meets my requirements and then some.