Follow Up

So, as a follow up to yesterday, I actually got most of my list done and in good spirits. Scramble was pretty calm and it was nice to have his company when I did my chores. I gave him his medicine in the morning and there were no problems. He swallowed it all right up and didn't squirm. I ended up not needing to call the doctor's office because I received a letter in the mail that gave me all the information that I was going to ask for. I really lucked out on that one. :) It wasn't the best news but I was happy not to have to make the call. I cleaned the whole apartment, even more than I was planning on doing and in good timing too. Scramble was out of his crate and just follow me around. He got a pretty decent amount of NOs yelled at him but for the most part he was a champ. All of the pieces are cut out for my friend's bag and the letters for Scramble's bed are cut out as well. I am very happy with what I accomplished yesterday and I am hoping that by the end of today one of the sewing projects will be done. :)

P.S. Emily- Thank you so much for your suggestions. I love that you give me advice. :) I was thinking I was going to do a little something more for Scramble's doggy bed. I wanted to put a space of fabric in between the top and bottom layer. This is what is intimidating for me but I think I might just do what you suggested that way he has a nice bed that is done this year. Thanks again.

Against My Will

I have a few chores today that I do not feel like doing. The chores are as follows: give Scramble his deworming medicine, call my knee doctor's office, clean the apartment, make Scramble's bed, and make Mimi's bag. Now these things seem pretty simple and could even be considered fun to some people but today is not the day that I consider them fun. I am in a lazy mood and when things intimidate me I really don't want to do them. I shall explain my apprehensions for each chore.

First off, giving Scramble his medicine is really not that hard. It is this yellow liquid that is in a syringe that I just put in his mouth and have him drink. I just know that he doesn't like it and that it tends to fall out of his mouth once he takes it. This happened last time. I am just not looking forward to fighting him and then cleaning up all this yellow gunk but he needs it and it must be done.

Second, calling my knee doctor should be a quick and simple thing right? Wrong. I need to call and see that the knee surgery that I am scheduled to have on Aug. 18th will be completely covered by my insurance and find out how much the physical therapy is afterward. I am a complete dope when it comes to insurance stuff. I can't for the life of me understand premiums and coverage, co-payments and deductibles. It's just way over my head and that is basically what I need to call and figure out. I miss having my mommy take care of everything in this department for me.

Third, cleaning the apartment is something that I do consider fun as weird as that sounds but it has now become a little more difficult with Scramble in the picture. He likes to be involved in everything you are doing and that is a little difficult when you are working with chemicals. I need to do this with him in his crate and hopefully I can without him whining. I feel bad when I put him in there when I am in the house and awake.

Fourth/Fifth, making Scramble's doggy bed and my family friend's bag. I bought the fabric and zipper for his little bed and it should be very simple but I just don't know how to "free hand" a project like this. I am definitely intimidated and keep putting it off, even though poor little Scramble keeps laying on our throw pillows or Dom's clothes. I think he'll really like it, I just need to figure out what I am doing and just do it. The bag that I have to make is definitely doable and it isn't so much intimidating as it is time consuming. I have made two of these bags before and one just the other day but it took me all day and I messed up a different way for each bag. I am hoping that the third time is a charm and that it goes smoothly.

Now that I have thoroughly complained about mundane projects that I need to accomplish today I will share with you a bit of exciting news that I saw this morning. I am friends with our wedding photographer on Facebook and he posted a link to an article he wrote about wedding photography and one of the pictures from our wedding was in it! I was so excited and hope that you have time to take a look. Here is the link: http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/2251. Thanks and I hope everyone is having a stress free, productive day. :)

Tired

People say that having a puppy is pretty similar to having a baby. Getting up in the middle of the night, watching them constantly, making sure they're ok. I don't think it is the exact equivalent but after taking care of my baby brothers, I can say that there are some similarities.

Scramble is slowly learning all the things he needs to. He went from getting up every two hours to three, then four, and now he sleeps seven hours in a row. Almost a full night through. He knows how to sit and come and occasionally he will lay down when commanded to. My favorite thing he is learning is asking to go outside to go to the bathroom. I am trying to make sure that whenever he is near the door I say, "outside" and then take him outside so he knows that's how to ask. Well, yesterday we were in my bathroom together and he wondered off like usual and I went after him and I found him sitting in front of the door patiently waiting for me to come and let him out. I did and he went potty right away! I was so proud of him and so thankful. He did it again today.

Something else he is learning is to ride in the car without freaking out. I heard most dogs don't do too well their first time or two and Scramble was no exception but now he just lays down and sleeps. I took him to my In-laws yesterday which is half an hour away and he did just fine. The next thing I would love for Scramble to learn is how to walk on a leash. For now he gets distracted too easily and runs into my feet and gets tangled up in his leash. I want him to be able to walk by my side or in front of me. I need to give him time. He is after all still a puppy.

So even though I am tired and always on alert about what he is doing, I love this adorable little puppy and I am so thankful that he is here with us.

Professor Scramble

Introducing Professor Scramble:

We finally got a puppy!!!! Yesterday I was searching on Craigslist as always and found some Min Pins for sale and asked Dom if we could go take a look (he doesn't particularly like that breed of dog) and he said yes. When we got there we saw tons of Min Pins in a cage but this little guy was just roaming about the property. I asked if this was the breeders personal dog and he said no, that he bread Springer Spaniels as well. He was just too adorable and Dom liked him better than the Min Pins so naturally we asked if he had a girl. He said there was one and when we went to look at her she shyed away from us and ran to her mom. She never came near and the entire time we were there the puppy shown above tagged along next to us. He played with me and nibbled on Dom's shoe lacies.

We did take the time to look at the Min Pins, especially since that was the type of puppy went to see but we kept going back to the little puppy that chose us. After some discussion and a little haggling, we took Professor Scramble home with us. :) We had a little bit of a rough beginning, what with car sickness, fleas, and pottey training, but in the end we just kept saying how cute he was and he gets more used to us by the minute. Dom's family came over last night and took pictures and played with him and Dom's mom and sister came over again today to do the same thing. It has been so fun and I am just so happy about the new addition to the family. :)

P.S. An explanation of the name: Dom's little sister has a number of stuffed animals she has collected over the years and each time she gets one she names it. When she was younger she would ask Dom what she should name the new addition and he would always say "Scramble." She would just roll her eyes and name it somehting else. So now that he can name his own real pet we decided to go with Professor Scramble. We just say Scramble but on our Honeymoon we came up with this full name and decided to stick with it.

"Busy"

This is just a life update blog. I have been semi busy this week. Monday: doctor's appointment, Wednesday: movie with sister-in-law, dinner with Dom's parents and sister, Thursday: lunch with Lindsay, doctor's appointment, Cold Stone run with Dom as celebration for our two year dating anniversary, Today: dinner with the entire Parisi family at his brothers. I am hoping that this weekend is just relaxing with my husband alone.

Update on the puppy search: So Dom and I really want a Shiba Inu and they are quite expensive so Dom has been calling breeders seeing if they are willing to trade for jewelry. He has gotten a couple bites but nothing concrete yet. Meanwhile my mut hunt has been put on hold until he is done with his trade attempts. I think this is good though. As much as I want a dog I might have to wait a little longer since I will be gone in August for a week and wouldn't be able to take the pup with me and then I am going to get knee surgery soon so I can't take it for walks for a little bit. God is still in control but trust me, the overwhelming desire to have a puppy is still very much alive.

Productivity

My main responsibilities of the day include: picking up after myself and Dom, doing whatever work orders come in, and making dinner. I have recently become accustomed to actually doing most of my chores at the beginning of the day (besides making dinner) and then having the rest of the day to do whatever I want. Before I got married I pictured that I would spend this time reading and sort of self-educating myself, try and get some culture. I really like to read and have done quite a bit lately but my biggest weakness has gotten to me again. I watch way too much T.V. I have been watching more T.V. then I have been reading and I at least realize my problem but now I am trying to figure out a solution.

I figure maybe I can take up a hobby that I can do while the T.V. plays in the background and while I am not reading. I like to knit but I am not that great at it and need to go back to Dom's mom for lessons. Unfortunately, I forgot everything she taught me because I didn't keep up with it. Something else I thought I could do and have always wanted to do was to take sign language classes at the local JC but either their classes have already started or they are at a time that I cannot attend. Since I also suck at sewing/quilting mainly because I have no clue what I am doing, this is another flawed idea. This leaves me at a loss of how to spend my free time.

I want to be productive but I just don't seem to have the motivation to get past the learning stage of a hobby enough to truely enjoy it. I have a problem where if I don't get/understand how to do something right away I don't want to do it. I need to learn to push past the beginning stages of things and learn to persevere if I want to get anywhere in life, especially if I eventually want my children to have this characteristic. Now I would love some ideas or suggestions on what I can do with my free time that would seem productive. If you have anything for me just leave a comment. :)