puppy.

John and I love animals.  It is our destiny to one day have enough money and land to own and work a small hobby farm so we can have all the dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and horses we want (within reason).  Currently we have 5 pets, but only 3 if we’re just counting mammals.  Two cats and a dog.  And we talk about puppies a lot.  I have close ties to Animal Control where we live and go to the animal shelter fairly frequently.  I both love and hate it when I have to go over there for work.  I love seeing all the babies (pets are always babies to me, no matter what age) but hate how sad I feel in my heart when I leave to go home without bringing one with me.  We’ve often wondered how our household would change by adding in another pup.  Would it be a good thing?  Does Rory need a playmate?  Or a bad thing…  Would our cats hate us forever and never want to cuddle again?

Puppies are hard.  When I got Rory four years ago it was just me and Penny and I was living by myself.  Raising a puppy by yourself is not easy.  I broke down in tears a few times on the phone to friends because I just couldn’t do it!  Puppies have endless amounts of energy and they chew everything.  Ev-er-y-thing.  I always told myself I would never get a puppy again, I’d go for the older dogs.  But now that John and I are together my thoughts are changing.  When you have a partner to tag-team the puppy business it’s so much easier.  A puppy might be better, I thought.  John and I got to test out the waters this past weekend.

Meet Macro:

puppy collage

Macro is a 9 week old golden retriever puppy.  One of my coworkers and his girlfriend got this puppy a couple weeks ago and had to go out of town. So my initial “I’ll totally puppysit for you anytime” offer upon finding out they had decided to get a puppy was redeemed more quickly than I thought.  They both had to go away this weekend so we got to take over this lovebug for a while.  We got him early Friday morning and returned him to his mama late on Monday.  We were so excited.  His smell.  OHMYGAWD puppy smell is the best.  Why do all baby animals (humans included) smell so good?  Is it so we will continue to love them and cuddle them even after they’ve kept you up all night and/or eaten your favorite ballet flats?  Probably.  Because one whiff and you are in heaven.

This first day:  Easy peasy.  He’s little and cute.  The cats hate him but whatever.
The second day:  a challenge… he’s everywhere! stop eating carpet! that is my shoe! ouch that’s my hair!  is he peeing again?!   We are never getting a puppy!
The third day:  We got this.  The dogs are getting along and napping more because they wore each other out the previous day.  The puppy is SO cute when he’s sleeping.  The kittens are coming around…
The fourth day:  We don’t want him to go!  He’s so cute and sweet and we love him and will miss him.  We reluctantly met up with Macro’s mom in the evening to return him to her.  We were sad the entire drive home.

The verdict:  We think we could totally add a puppy into our mix at home.  BUT!  We aren’t going to just yet.  At least this weekend proved that when we join forces, puppies aren’t so hard and we could definitely do it.  Rory would get along with a new puppy and the cats will warm-up to the new one in a few days, so it could work in our household… just not yet. In the meantime, we will just puppysit periodically to get our puppyfix.  No puppies of our own right now.

hump day +/- list.

+ Today is warm.  It is currently 86 degrees.

- I couldn’t find the little o for the degree symbol on this pc.

+ I love my mac products.

+ Planning a wedding is easy.

- …except for when people don’t know how to RSVP

+ I now have my dress and our wedding bands in my possession and it makes me so happy that it is so soon and I get to see some friends & family and spend time at the beach.

- I will miss my monsters so much while I’m away from them for 10 days.

+ The library book sale is this week!  BAG DAY is my favorite holiday after Christmas & Thanksgiving.

 

that’s all I feel like sharing.  It’s been a weird week for me, so I’ve been challenged with looking on the bright side and choosing joy recently… but I’m doing it! 

 

 

MVPenny

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We assign the pets MVP of the week around here and this girl has been the star for weeks now. Which is pretty amazing if you know how moody this queen can be. She is the best lately– cuddly, sweet, she doesn’t get in the garbage, she doesn’t break things, she doesn’t make a mess.  Good job, Penny.

and it’s one life, and it’s this life

March is just marching right along now, isn’t it?  Dang.  Life has been pretty crazy for me lately, busy but not bad.  So many things!  So much time and so little to do! Oy with the poodles already!

My supervisor at work left which was bittersweet.  Bitter because I miss her so much (and she’s pregnant so I will miss the last 4 months of her growing belly), sweet because she has a wonderful new job and deserves the absolute best so I’m happy for her.  I have been so blessed when it comes to my bosses in my work life.  I’ve had so many wonderful people hire me and mentor me — I’m one lucky lady.  She left and we are now 1.5 weeks down without her.  This interim time is weird but we are all adjusting — she left a ginormo hole so it’s definitely sink or swim time for us, but we got our floaties on and are doing okay so far ;)

Let me interject here — it’s after 7PM and it’s still light outside!  Hallelujah.  I am a spring/summer girl all the way.  I need light.  Not necessarily warmth — although I love it — I just need sunlight.  North Carolina really shows off in the spring and all our azaleas around our house will start blooming.  I don’t think anyone was as excited as I was to “spring forward” this year.

The barn I go to weekly for therapeutic horseback riding is closing.  I’m so sad to see the program end, but this past Saturday we did get some good news about the whole thing.  The TH instructor I work with is possibly getting a job at a barn not too far away, and if she does — two of the horses are going with her AND some clients.  She asked John & I if we’d be willing to drive a little farther so we can continue at the new barn and ABSOLUTELY we will.  I can’t imagine not working with horses regularly now.  I’m crossing my fingers that everything works out at this new barn so we can continue.  John and I are really attached to our Saturday morning client and horse and I love doing the autism camps in the summer.  AND Laura (TH instructor) said she would try and get the new barn involved with Special Olympics so I can hopefully continue to do that.  Things seem to be falling into place, so we are glad for that.

Speaking of things falling into place– all this wedding planning is going splendidly.  I think it helps that A.) we are not having a traditional wedding so we can do whatever we want. B.) due to our location we have to have a super small wedding (which we wanted so that’s why we chose the location, but now we have a number that we are not allowed to go over) and with less people there is less stress, not to mention less money to put this whole shindig on.  C.) you don’t have family members pressuring you to do what they want.  SHOUT OUT TO THE PARENTALS!  HEY OHHH!  But seriously — our parents rule.  So supportive and are going along with our crazy shenanigans. D.) you let go of the things people keep convincing you that you “need.”  It’s kinda crazy when you think of how brain-washed you can get about what a wedding is “supposed to be.”  I mean, we may or may not be having beer pong at our wedding because we are classy and think it’s fun and it’s OUR party and we WILL cry if we want to.

But in all seriousness… I’ve had way less stress over planning this wedding than I did planning the going-away party for my supervisor at work.

First comes love, then comes marriage… can I just be 100% honest with you?  John and I are both (yes BOTH) feeling the loud tick of our biological clocks and have babies on the brain.  The grandparents will be over the moon about that ;)  I don’t even know when the switch happened but we talk about our babies so casually now and a lot.  We’re not crazy about it around other people, so don’t think we’re weird.  We’re just excited for the next season of our lives, whenever that happens.

A good confessional style post does a girl good.  The sun just went down and my mister just walked in the door so I’ll stop this now.  Happy March!  Hope your life is going swell.

let’s go to the beach!

Last Friday night we were having an off-night, after an off-week and just feeling blah.  A bit before 7PM John suggested we go to the beach.  I said yes!  He said really?  I said let’s do it!  I’ll Pack!

We packed in about five minutes.  Set out enough food and water for the kittens, packed up Rory’s things, and hopped in the car.  Rory is always up for a road trip.  Truthfully, I wish our dog behaved as well at home as she did when traveling – she’s a dream to travel with, which makes her 90lbs easier to manage.

In the car we listened to the audiobook of Catching Fire because we love the audiobooks of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire is my favorite of the three by far.  We are audibook people when it comes to road trips… no radio, no cds, just books.  Music is everyday car-listening, not long trip-listening.  My favorite road trip audibook is At Home by Bill Bryson in case you were curious.  Love that man, love that book.

Originally we were going to go all the way to the OBX (approxmiately 4.5 hours from us) but we didn’t wanna drive that far since it was already 7 and we had a pup with us and most of the hotels on the island are ClosedForBusiness in February.  So we took the easypeasy route and traveled the 2 hours to Carolina Beach instead knowing that there’s always rooms available there and we can still see the ocean and it’s close! And it’s cheap!  And we just need to pick a destination so we can drive.

The hotel we found on the beach was cheap and everyone there was two sheets to the wind hanging out outside on the decks and staring and talking and conversing with way drunk voices.  It wasn’t even late and everyone was super wasted.  This is when I thanked my stars that we had a huge dog that looks/sounds super intimidating with us.  Oh Rory — her only crime ever in life is loving things TOO much, but dear darling Rory sounds like she would rip your legs off in two seconds when she barks.  It’s terribly hard for her to make friends.  That is her cross to bear.  So anyway — I take the dog out to do her thing while John sets up her crate in the room and lugs up our quickly-thrown-together bags.  We get in the room and we are hungry and thirsty but the only places around that are open are filled with noisy drunk people and we didn’t want to leave the dog alone.  John got provisions while I snuggled with the pup and flipped through the 5 channels on the television aimlessly and took scared looking pictures of myself on my phone because there were people right outside our room with way drunk voices yelling and such and sometimes when you’re in a seedy motel your mind wanders to all the horror movies you watch all the time and you think people have set up cameras behind the mirror so they can videotape your violent death.  That didn’t happen, but for the 10 minutes that John was gone, I was scared.

We just hung out that night in the room watching Friends dvds on John’s laptop and luxuriating in the king size bed that fit all three of us way better than our queen size at home.  So obviously by morning we were all on top of each other once again as per usual because some habits they just stick.

Morning — let’s get out of here!  We cried.  We fed the dog, packed our things, and got back in the car to head to the nearby beach park.  We walked with Rory around the park, she was too thrilled with new smells to be bothered to go to the bathroom but eventually we managed to get something outta her.  It had started to rain, so we headed south to the ferry.  We didn’t want to do anything at the beach, we just wanted to see the ocean.  Because when you go too long without seeing the ocean, funny things start happening to your soul.  We waited on the ferry and looked out at the water, then enjoyed the 20 minute ferry ride to Southport.  Southport — such a cute little gem of a town, we just drove through… most of the things were closed as it was early and the offseason.  We’ll just head back up to Wilmington.  We did, we drove around downtown, noted the changes (we’ve both lived there at different times in our lives), found some breakfast, and then said okay we can go home now.  So we did.

The rest of the day/evening we worked on a 1000 piece puzzle and had a Gilmore Girls marathon.  Sunday came and I woke John up by asking him if he wanted to create a breakfast feast.  So we did and we ate it and then we spent the rest of the gorgeous, sunny day outside.

It was a good weekend.

2013 Goal: Regularly Donating Platelets

donating platelets

essentials for successful donating: Tums for calcium, LOTS of water,
your donor card, and a fun movie to watch!

One of my goals for this year was to get on a regular schedule to donate my platelets. I started donating platelets late last year after giving blood at a blood drive, finding out my blood type, and being asked to donate platelets instead.  It’s something that I actually like to do, which surprised me a whole lot.

So for 26 years of my life I had no idea what my blood type was.  My mom would guess at what she thought my blood type was but she didn’t know for sure.  Last fall I donated blood for the first time ever.  As someone that regularly passes out when she loses a small amount of blood and has “challenging” veins, I was not keen on donating, but signed up anyway.  I almost passed out but I didn’t — just had to stay in the chair for a long time with fans on me.  But… never doing that ever again for two reasons:  I don’t like it that much and it’s slightly pointless for me to do it anyway.  Pointless might be a bad word choice.  I’m sure they can still use my blood, but when I got my donor card in the mail, I found out that my blood type is actually AB+ which is somewhat rare.  Two good things about this:  AB+ is the universal receiver, so I can receive blood from any type.  AND AB+ is the universal platelet and plasma donor.  American Red Cross started sending me information about how they would rather I donate platelets.  So I signed up.

Donating platelets is the bombDOTcom compared to donating blood.  It takes a lot longer to donate (you are on the machine for 1hr45min) but it is a pleasant experience.  That sounds weird, but it totally is.  The first time I went, I was passed on three times by nurses, until the head nurse in charge came over.  Everyone else was afraid to stick me because, like I said earlier, I have “challenging” veins.  My veins have always been super deep down in my body… they are just shy, I think.  But the head nurse told me she would & could do it, so she did.  From that time on, I always have to make sure to donate on a date she will be working because she’s still the only one that will stick me.

Why is donating platelets awesome?!  Let me tell you!  It is awesome because I get to be in a comfy reclining chair, they give me heated neck pillow and pile warm blankets all on & around me, it doesn’t hurt when Rosie sticks me (she’s the BEST!), it takes a long time but I don’t feel like death while I’m on the machine (unlike whole blood, because you get some of your blood back!), and THE BEST PART – I get to watch whatever movie I want from their library (or you can bring from home) and my donation site always has brand new to DVD movies too!  So for two hours I get to hang out in a comfy chair with warm blankets all cozy like and watch Pitch Perfect?!  YES!  And I get to go home not feeling weak at all!  It is win win win.

Here’s all you need to do, if you’re interested.  Call the local Red Cross & set up an appointment.  Drink lots of water the day before and the morning of appointments, take lots of Tums for extra calcium (needed because of the anti-coagulant they give you… they also give you Tums on the machine every 15 minutes or so), eat a hearty meal before — I always have a smoothie packed with spinach to boost my iron levels, bring your donor card, and bring a movie (if your site doesn’t have dvds available or you have a particular one you want to watch).  I do not recommend watching anything gory or violent.

If you don’t like donating blood, you should give platelets a try.  The Red Cross is always in need of whole blood and platelets and they are very nice to work with — if you’re interested visit RedCross.Org to find a donation center and more information!

computer files. a conversation.

While I, Rhianna, was looking in the “Wedding, Mine” folder on the laptop…

R:  This file titled “hobbits are my jam” — what is it?

J:  Oh that’s the song list we started making the other night.

R:  Okay, but why did you title it that?

J:  You said that.

R:  What?

J:  I was trying to come up with songs and you just said “I could watch the shit out of Lord of the Rings right now.” And then I said “Rhianna, what other songs should I put on here.”  And all you said was “but hobbits are my jam.”

R:  Ohhhh

J:  [defeated] So that’s my life now.  My life with you.