Five things Friday–Picture Style!

 I survived another week of the long drive to our client 80 miles round trip away.  Needless to say, my monthly gas bill will hate me at the end of all this and I learned that my pregnant self cannot sit through 2 hours of traffic so I have a Burger King on my way home that I borrow to use the bathroom {TMI, I know} … but we are making good progress and adding value and that is what we are supposed to be doing.

So, I decided to shake things up a bit with my Five Things Friday tradition that I am on.  I feel like this really is the easiest way for me to keep everyone in the loop about what is going on in our world.  And everyone loves pictures – visually appealing and all!

{one}

The house that I grew up in and the only house I remember went on the market this week. There are so many good times and memories in that house and even though I knew this day was coming eventually, it is still bitter sweet.  Just that neighborhood in general is full of summertime memories. Even when I posted on Facebook that it was on the market I had friends make comments like “wow I feel like I also grew up in that house” or “5710 will miss you in the neighborhood!” But, I can say that I was SO SO lucky to come home to the same house and same bedroom every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Summer breaks and then holidays when I was in college and then after I moved to Atlanta. But, while it is sad that there will never be another Thanksgiving or Christmas in that house it is an exciting new chapter for my mom and dad to be moving into their retirement house and to have their 2 kids (and grandbaby) so close by.  So – if you know of anyone in Northern VA on the market for a house to create their own memories in – let me know!

{two}

please stop everything you’re doing right now and take a look at this baby shower invitation. it is for the shower my friends at work are throwing Kyle and me. And when I opened it, I literally said “stop it. where did you find this”.  McKenna is getting an Alabama themed baby shower – which is fitting since I refer to her as my little “Roll Tide Baby” and she will eventually be an Alabama alum. This is called starting them young!  I really am so lucky to have such a great group of girls at the office and to work for a company that is like my 2nd family.  But seriously. how cute is that baby shower invite?! This will have a perm place in her baby book!! =D

{three}

Look at what Kennesaw did this week!!  Normally she just pops open the door and lets herself out.  This week I believe she was making a statement. Not quite sure what the statement is, but I think she may be tired of being crated every single day so she just shoved the whole front part of her crate up and messed up all her bedding.   Demon.  She is a demon.  This weekend we are purchasing zip ties to tie the walls of the crate together so this does not happen again and then bungee cords to keep the door closed hopefully.  She does not do this everyday, but when she does it is just funny to see.  Kyle is more annoyed than I am, but I think she is just a nut job of a dog. Does anyone else have a Houdini dog?!  If so….. what did you do to keep you dog in their crate each day versus breaking out of their crate. 

{four}

McKenna got her first baby gift this past weekend and we love it!!  my aunt – her great aunt – gifted her with crib sheets and the crib skirt for her nursery and when I say the picture does not do the cuteness justice, the cuteness is just too cute.  The little pink and gray bunnies are just too cute. And I got an email today from Koo Koo Bear Kids about a St. Patricks Day Sale – so we are going to go buy the crib and dresser this weekend at a whoping 50% off1! We will end up saving so much money and have a really high quality crib so we are stoked.  Me more than Kyle.  And…. it is supposed to be a rainy weekend which means I can put K to work painting the nursery!

{five}

if you’re ever looking for a unique Thank You gift to send someone and don’t want to sent the normal flowers or something like that you need to think about “The Cravery” – which is a cookie boutique that is amazing and makes me drool thinking about them.  Kyle’s mom sent me a dozen cookies {as a pregnancy snack} and let me tell you, Kyle and I were fighting over the Birthday Cake ones.  They are kinda pricey – but no more than flowers – and they taste so good.  We got Red Velvet {delicious}, Birthday Cake {I died they were so good} and a chocolate truffle {good, but too rich}.  Words cannot express how good they actually are but I feel like just thinking about them can give me gestational diabetes, but that does not mean I would turn away from them in the future.  Seriously, give them to a friend, family member, client, whatever.  You will get major kudos.

I hope everyone has a really good weekend!! We have pretty much nothing but lots of house stuff on the calendar – cleaning, painting, yard work, etc… and another trip to the vet’s office …. kennesaw went last week and was told she is a good dog – they don’t know about her crate habit. Mulligan goes tomorrow. And I want to hit Zumba in the morning since I have not been in awhile and need to be a little more active than I have been.

Death of Bed #2

My dog is the love of my life. I love and adore him. But it should not be news to anyone that he acts like a fool and it a total menace. Sure, it comes down to pure bad training and lack of discipline but really … what makes him destroy beds?! I have it down to a few ideas.

1. he is trying to tell us to keep him out of the crate.
2. he is bored out of his freaking mind for 9 hours.
3. he just likes to frustrate us.

I think it is a combo of all three. I think he likes to frustrate his mom and dad. And I think he is trying to say “hey, put me in that crate and I will destroy my bed” … but I also think that he just does get bored. I mean, I could only sleep so many hours if I was in a crate all day. Poor animal. Poor bed. Poor mommy’s bank account.

RIP Red amazing bed. If I was a dog I would love you. You were comfy and corduroy and amazing. I thought it was a great find of $40 at the local Petsmart. Mulligan loved it too, for about a week. He would play with it, lay on it, drag it around the apartment and then all of a sudden BAM the bed was no more. He destroyed the comfy piece of heaven. I wonder how much he will love just sleeping on the hard plastic. I wonder how fast he would destroy blankets or towels. ….I wonder how long he will destroy things for?! … Will he ever grow out of this phase of his life?! Please please please!!

So what is next?! Kyle really thinks I should put Mull’s $100+ Orvis ‘ToughChew’ bed in his crate. I think yeah right … give my dog 9 hours and he can totally destroy it. I did some research and lots of dogs have eaten through the “non destructible” bed so I do not want to take that risk even if they will refund your money 100% or give you a new one. I just wish Mull would not destroy things. Why is he such a jerk?!

Puppy for sale. Only 50 cents!!

The Crate... continued.

A few days ago I told you that my dog hated his crate. I now have evidence. Please see the pictures included. To the right it is from a distance and to the left it is zoomed in. If you're wondering what happened - let.me.tell.you - he shredded his crate bed in attempt to say I HATE MY CRATE GET ME OUT OF HERE!

I can only imagine what was going through his little puppy brain today. He thanked me for his stick (it's a rawhide treat he gets every morning) ... he ate it ... it was gone - he can eat it in 4 seconds flat ... so he started screaming and barking to get out. No one answered, no one let him out. He slept some because he was super tired. He woke up and said F this mom and day. He then decided it was time to act out and get some energy out. Cue digging a

nd chewing. ...I think Mulligan thought that his Friday should not be spent locked up...

My boyfriend came home to a snow like filled bathroom. I guess Mully was just answering his request for snow and gave it to him in the form of fluff. I got the great honor of sweeping it all up and throwing the bed away. Luckily it was only his $40 Petsmart bed and not his $200+ Orvis one ... now I know why we invested in the "tough chew" indestructible bed.

Puppy for sale. Only 50 cents!

The Crate.

First. I want to say do not lecture me about crate training and how it is so good for your puppy blah blah blah. When we rescued our cute little thing we had a crate from him. It was big enough for him to stand up, turn around, lay down in, and be jovial. He hated it. He screamed, cried, and screamed some more. We picked him up on Friday night from the rescue hoping that after 1 sleepless weekend we would have a crate trained cutie. We thought wrong. Being in an apartment made it so much harder with neighbors above us and below us we were terrified we were going to get evicted. We let him scream. We covered the crate with a blanket to comfort him (...the puppy book said to). It did nothing. I felt awful for him, my heart broke in 17 million little puppy pieces and we gave in and took him out of the crate and put him in our bed.

We went to work everyday and just put him in the bathroom. He screamed and screamed, we chalked it up to separation anxiety. A few weeks later we came home to chewed base boards. Cue Bitter Apple. A few weeks later we came home to chewed door frames. Cue Bitter Apple. A month or so passes and BAM we have hole numero uno in the wall. He was trying to eat his way to freedom. ...fast forward 8 months and 6 holes in the wall later... he got a BIG crate for his birthday. Nothing says Happy Birthday Bug like "you misbehave so we have to lock you up". ...He hated that crate as much as the little one we first got for him. Screamed. Cried. Rammed his head into the door to get out. He hates his crate.

Fast forward 5 more months to the present day. He still hates that crate. Most mornings I have to wrestle with his 75 pound body to just get him IN the crate. I close him in and all is quiet while he eats his treat and like clockwork I get to the stairs and BAM screams. cries. I swear the devil is going to get us booted and we're gonna be homeless. I guess I feel the need to talk about this because I find it utterly ridiculous. Must he sound like he is being murdered every morning and every time he goes into his crate? Must he bark and bark and bark and let everyone in my apartment building know that he has been left alone for the day? Must he be shoved in their with all my might every morning?! I mean he has a water bowl in there and like 4 toys AND one of my tee shirts to help with the separation anxiety. Why can't he be a normal dog who loves his crate and goes into it when he wants to be alone. Oh wait, Mull does not want to be alone... he has to always be the center of the world.

Just picture it though. Me. All dressed to go to work. Fighting with an animal to get him in a crate ... every morning. I must have been a bad person in my past life and Karma is coming back for me full force.