she's growing up!

Our sweet girl is growing like a weed! It makes me kind of sad knowing that she used to be so tiny, but she's still so freaking cute. We don't even know what to do with her!

Clearly not a morning person, just like her momma!

halloween 2014

The weekend before Halloween, we started this holiday off right with Wag-O-Ween! This is Savannah's trick or treating event for dogs, where all the funds go to local pet rescues. This was our first year, but it has been going on for 9 years. It was pretty fun! I loved seeing all the dogs in their costumes! And instead of trick-r-treating for candy, they got dog treats!

Cooper was a crayola crayon in "Fire Hydrant Red," of course! And Ginny was a "Wide Retriever" complete with extra padding. They were both pretty cute, but cooper wouldn't keep his hat on to save his life!

On Halloween, we dressed the pups up again and by this time, we had Stella! Seriously one of the first things I said after we won her was "I have to get her a halloween costume!" By this time, they were pretty picked over, but we did manage to snag an adorable ladybug costume that was slightly too small!

We don't have any kiddos yet, so I love dressing our dogs up for Halloween. Cooper was a prisoner and Ginny was a cowgirl, who wouldn't wear her hat either.

And because this is one of my favorite pictures ever of Coops, here he is last year as a dinosaur. Ahh, I love it!

Saturday night, Bradley's sister had a halloween party, so we got to dress up. This costume was so last minute, but turned out to be my favorite one, yet! The Hunter and The Hunted.

My friend gave us this idea after she couldn't use it! We didn't have anything planned for the party yet, so I jumped on this idea. I enlisted my mom to come help and man did she rock it. It definitely pays to have a mom who's an artist!

Now I have no clue how we are going to top this next year! 

sweet stella girl

I am skipping forward a bit because we have some exciting news! We got a new puppy!

Meet Miss Stella!

How we got her really is a sweet story. Bradley and I had been talking about getting another dog, but had planned it out for years down the road. We kind of settled on a goldendoodle because they don't shed, but Bradley still wanted a german short haired pointer. After losing Solly, I did want another golden, but had questioned if I wanted the hair, too! I decided since I'm the one who always cleans the house, that I get to rule out shedding dogs. A goldendoodle was the perfect solution.  

So, my mom had donated a painting to the Savannah Children's Theater Gala and went to drop it off at the lady's house who was going to take it to the auction. Well, turns out she was also holding a very sweet pup that was going to be auctioned off later that night. We get a call from my mom telling us about the puppy. See, my mom was already going to make a nice donation to the theater because she loves them. It's a great organization that could always use additional funds. If we liked the dog, she could just use her donation in the auction. So basically, we would get a free puppy! 

We drive over to the house and I am more reserved than Bradley. He immediately turned into a little kid and it only became worse when we met her! I admit, we were in love, but it wasn't really in our plan. Do we really need another dog? We already had 2. But she was so sweet. Bradley gave me the look of 'let's do this.' So we decided that we wanted her, but it wasn't that simple! We still had to win her in the auction. 

Later that night, I actually had to babysit so I couldn't be there at the event, but my mom did go so she could bid. I had her updating me all night with pictures. She then texted me that the live auction had started. She said that puppy was the last item. Closer to her turn, I was freaking out. I finally had to tell my mom to stop texting me and focus. I didn't want her to miss her shot! So then I get a facetime call from my mom that immediately gets disconnected. She was trying to let me see the auction while it was going on, but accidentally cut me off. Then I get a phone call. All I can hear is the auctioneer addressing the bids. I had no clue who was bidding what. Talk about nerve-racking! So finally we get to the end and I hear "going once, going twice, Sold!" but still I didn't know who won! I was freaking out. Finally my mom came back on the phone and told me that she got her. I was so excited and the anticipation of it all made me all jittery! I was shaking. Immediately I called Bradley and told him, and the first thing he said was, "When can I go get her?" So sweet. My mom ended up bringing her to our house, but I was still stuck babysitting, so Bradley got a few one on one hours with her. I was so jealous! 

It's so funny how this all happened. When I got home that night, we sat on the kitchen floor, playing with her and watching her with the other dogs. I remember looking at Bradley and saying "Ok, we have a puppy!" It really was the craziest thing, but as we have had her, I've realized that this is the best time for us. I have started going back to school to become a teacher so right now, I'm home a lot. I still work in the afternoons, nannying, but I'm here most of the day. She needs a lot of attention right now. She needs to be fed 3 times a day and let out about 50 (ha!), so it's really good that I can be here. 

Bottom line: we are so in love! And no we didn't plan it, but it has worked out perfectly! And I can't thank my mom enough! As I'm sure you know, these dogs aren't cheap, so this was an incredible gift! Love you, mom!

we'll miss you, sweet boy

On January 2nd, we lost our sweet boy. He was my first dog and almost 13 years old. I am still in shock and just want him back so that I can rub that spot between his eyes once more. He loved that.

It's been really hard to accept this because when Bradley and I left to go to Virginia, we took him to my mom's and he was fine. Normal solly. And within two days, I think, my mom called to let us know that he had started to have seizures. Of course, I immediately freaked out. He's my baby. But my mom assured me that our vet thinks it's just epilepsy, and to not worry. We would get him on some medication to prevent the seizures and he would be fine. They put him on some epilepsy medicine and valium. This combo made him very out of it. When I came home on January 1st, I went into my mom's bathroom. He was completely drugged. He couldn't move. We, and our vet, thought this was just a reaction to the medicine. It was too much. So the plan was to take him to the vet at 11 the next morning. She was going to get an iv in him and get all the drugs out of his system and start over. She said this was normal that there is an adjustment period to find the right dosage.

Now it was time to go to bed, but I couldn't sleep, and I needed it because I was supposed to work at 9 the next morning. Every so often I would hear Solly whimpering and I would go lay beside him and calm him down, then go back to bed. This happened repeatedly throughout the night. Morning came and I went to take a shower. I found that Solly had thrown up and pooped during the night. I felt so bad because he was so drugged he couldn't move and we couldn't get him to go outside. And he's the kind of dog that never uses the bathroom in the house. So I'm sure he was doing everything he could not to go. After my shower I kept waffling on whether or not I should go to work. I decided not to. Within the next few hours he had thrown up again, but then seemed to be sleeping really well. But he still couldn't move. He would try to lift his head, but nothing. And then it happened. I was sitting at our kitchen table and my mom told me to come in there. I knew by the sound of her voice what was happening. He was gone. How did this happen? He was fine and now he's gone? How did we not know? So many thoughts were going through my head. I wasn't ready to let him go.

Our vet now thinks that he had cancer and that it had gone to his brain- causing the seizures. It's just so hard to believe because he had a full workup at the vet last March, to check everything. Something they offer for senior dogs. And nothing showed up! And in less than 5 days, all of this happens.

I keep battling with the fact that I want him back, for purely selfish reasons. But he was almost 13. He deserved to be able to go. I guess it's just hard without warning.

festive five

 

 one.

Is this not the cutest little dinosaur that you have ever seen? I don't have any babies to dress up yet, so you better believe my little man is getting a costume. Funny thing is, I think he actually loves it! Normally, he will try and scratch his way out of them, but this one is working for him. 

two.

So like I said in my last post, I am obsessed with decorating for fall. And I can't stop. I don't know, pumpkins and gourds, big and tiny just keep showing up at our house!

I'm running out of places to decorate, so these are actually on top of the dresser in our bedroom. Bradley kind of freaked when he saw them. He thought it was getting a little crazy when I resorted to this because I was running out of room. But who doesn't love a little ombre pumpkin festiveness to help wake you up in the morning? 

three.

I was able to wear a scarf today! It only got up to about 71 degrees. Thank you rain! The thing is, I have much cuter fall clothes than summer, so we need to get the ball rolling on this whole cold weather thing. 

four. 

I have been really good about keeping my nails looking good lately. This raspberry

(sally hansen: cherry, cherry bang, bang) and this warm gray are my favorites. They are the perfect fall colors for me. 

 five. 

We have been participating in soup sunday. This creamy chicken noodle was so amazing!! I love the spinach and big chunky carrots. Next up, taco soup!

bella's bed

Last quarter I was in a class called "Studio Production." I gave you a little info on the class and told you that I would do a post on the dog bed that I made. Well, I lied. Sorry about that. Here is the post, oh only 5 months later! :)

With the project, I was assigned a word. There were 3 words: eating, sleeping, and relaxing. I got "sleeping." I had brainstormed many ideas, such as, a sleeping bag or some curtains that would block out the light. But, I know when my idea is not quite right. It doesn't click. A few days and some heavy thinking later, I decided to make a dog bed. And not just any dog bed. This would be a dog bed for poor Bella, my mom's almost completely blind dog. She was having a lot of trouble finding her bed because the colors closely resembled the color of the floor. She needed her bed to have contrast so that what little vision she had left could find it easily. I chose to do a chevron pattern because it also helped give contrast.

This is how I laid out my stripes. I first grouped colors and then sewed the squares into half square triangles.

All of the half square triangles leaves you with a lot of dogears, but I think it's a beautiful mess. 

     

At this point, I realized that half of the stripes were going to be on the front and half on the back, and this is not what I wanted. So I split the colors and put some on the front and some on the back. Problem solved. Next both the top and bottom were quilted and then sewn together with a side panel and an invisible zipper. I wanted to make this washable, so the zipper was a must.

And here it is! All finished! The best part is that it actually works. Bella can find her bed so easily now. No more wandering aimlessly around the room hoping to stumble upon the bed for this girl.