Friday Favorites!

This has been a pretty eventful week, so this is a little longer than usual...that's a good thing though, right?!?


1) Sweet 16 - So I know this was one of my favorites last Friday, and I know we had a bad game. I know we could have won that game, but it definitely could have been worse. We got farther in the tournament than I realistically thought we would. Our team definitely has a lot of room for improvement, but I think we're moving in the right direction. So, I'm sad that our season ended when it did, but I'm looking forward to making it even farther next year! Now I'm ready for our football season opener...less than 5 months away! When I put it that way, it does sound kind of far off, but I know the time will fly and we'll be in Atlanta watching our Wolfpack play in no time!

2) Grilling out - Saturday, we had some friends over to cook burgers. It was a rainy day, so we didn't spend much time outside. We hung out for a while and just caught up, then we played Taboo! It was so much fun! It was our first time playing. It's similar to Catch Phrase, which is one of my favorite games, but it's so much harder! Bailey was even on her best behavior! She sprinted back and forth between us and them when they first came in, but once she calmed down, she was a good girl. :-)

3) The Hunger Games - Josh was a sweetheart and took me to see The Hunger Games this past weekend. He doesn't like going to the movies, so we rarely go. Not to mention they've gotten ridiculously expensive. I'm usually fine waiting until a movie comes out to watch it, my couch is much more comfy than movie seats anyway, but I've been really excited about this one. We went earlier in the day so it wouldn't be so crowded and I'm glad we did! We got awesome seats with no one around us, and it was cheaper! It was a good movie. I think my expectations were really high since the book was so good. I was a little disappointed. There were certain things I expected to WOW me, and they didn't. With that said, it was still a good movie. I think they did a great job with casting, with one exception. Donald Sutherland plays President Snow. I just don't think he's evil and disturbing enough for this character.

4) Bottling - We usually save brewing and bottling for the weekend, but we wanted our next beer to be ready to drink when my family comes for Easter. We didn't have time to do it last weekend, so we did it early in the week. I'm glad we did! We're getting more efficient so it didn't take as long as it has in the past. I was also able to multi-task and get dinner started.

This is Josh filling a bottle. I'm the designated capper. Our dishwasher sanitizes, so we loaded it before work and our bottles were ready for us when we got home!

5) Weeknight Date - We had a Groupon that I thought expired this weekend. For some reason, I decided to double check and I realized it expired Thursday! So, we had a last minute weeknight date. We went to Waterman's Tavern. The food was SO good and the service was pretty good at first. Then other people started to come. They were definitely understaffed. There was only one waitress for the whole place (it's a small place, but still, one wasn't enough for the dinner rush). We were really enjoying ourselves, but we were getting to the point where we were just ready to get home so we would have a chance to play with Bailey and wind down a bit before bedtime. It took us 30 minutes to get our check! We were a little irritated because we could have been home in less than that. I guess the food made up for it though :-). I got a Cheesesteak with Chesapeake Pasta Salad and Josh got a Chesapeake Burger (burger with crab dip...AMAZING) with some really delicious handcut fries. YUM!

6) Running - I mentioned a couple weeks back that I wanted to start running 3 times a week. Well, for the past few weeks we've only been running twice. Something else always comes up of course. I have to remind myself that there will ALWAYS be something else to do, I just have to make fitness a priority. I think I got really motivated when my bathing suit came in. Haha. This week was the first time we actually ran 3 days. We're still under 2 miles, but more than 1. We almost didn't run yesterday, but I'm SO glad we did. It was probably one of the hardest runs I've done. I ran a lot faster (I kept up with Josh and Bailey for the first time) so I got tired a lot faster. I started thinking I wouldn't be able to make it a mile, but I kept pushing myself. Once we turned around to start heading back home, I had it in my head that I was going to make it and I was going to keep up the pace. I did fall back just a little toward the end, but it was still a huge improvement. Now I have to decide if I want to focus on extending the distance, or increasing my speed.

7) Weight - This is directly related to #5, but I'm really excited, so I gave it its own spot! One of my goals on my 101 in 1001 list is to get back to my wedding day weight. Well, at the beginning of the year when I started shredding, I wasn't losing weight at all. I haven't weighed myself in probably a month because I was getting so discouraged. I wasn't seeing any results all around. I didn't look more toned, so it didn't feel like I was gaining muscle. I weighed myself yesterday (and this morning, just to see if it was consistent) and I'm over half way there! YAY! Just a few more pounds to go! I care more about being toned and fit than getting to a specific weight, but the weight is much easier to measure. I'm so glad this is finally paying off!

8) Gardening Deals - Home Depot is having their Black Friday sale this week. We've been planning on doing some landscaping, but we've been putting it off because of rain. I stopped by Thursday after work and got some great deals on flowers, mulch and charcoal! We should be set for the year on charcoal now. Haha. Now I just hope the rain holds off enough this weekend for us to get everything planted!

Mashed Caulifower

I first saw this recipe a while back and I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. I'm a huge potato person, so I didn't think cauliflower would satisfy my craving for mashed potatoes. Well, recently I've been trying harder to eat healthier and cut down on carbs a little bit. So, I decided I would give this recipe a shot. It's actually really good! While I wouldn't always use this as a substitute for mashed potatoes, I would do it on occasion. I made this one night and I didn't tell Josh what it was. I asked him what he thought about it and he said it was good. I asked him if he knew what it was. His response..."mashed potatoes?". I don't think it tastes just like mashed potatoes...but it's pretty close! I first saw this recipe on Meredith's blog over at Newlywed McGees. I stuck to her recipe for the most part. I did substitute sour cream for the half and half/cream since this is what I do for regular mashed potatoes and that's what I had on hand.

Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 2 T butter
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
- salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
- chives (I had dried on hand, so I used those)

Directions
- Roughly chop the cauliflower and boil for about 10 minutes, until soft enough to mash with a fork.
- Add cooked cauliflower to a bowl and break up the pieces with a fork. Use an immersion blender to puree the cauliflower. Add the sour cream and butter. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in shredded cheese. Serve immediately.

Friday Favorites!

1) Sweet 16 - I'm SUPER excited that we made it! I have us going to the Sweet 16 in my bracket, but I hope I'm wrong after that! Considering how we started our season off, I'm definitely impressed. Hopefully we can at least give Kansas a run for their money tonight!

2) My Office - I came in to find my office decorated in Wolfpack gear on Monday! My boss did it for me...such a nice gesture! It definitely brightened my Monday morning blues! I've left it up all week and it's been keeping me excited for our game tonight. GO PACK!


3) Bathing Suit Shopping - Well sort of. Online shopping still counts, right? I love Victoria's Secret bathing suits! My local store does carry them, but only a few of them. I looked around the last time I was there and they didn't have any that I liked...so, online ordering it is! Luckily, they had free shipping so it didn't matter anyway. I ended up getting this one. I know I like the style of the top because it's the same one I got for our honeymoon. Now I just have to get my belly this flat. Bahahaha.

4) Brewing - We FINALLY brewed this past weekend! We've been putting this batch off for over a month now. Our weekends get so busy, it's hard to dedicate several hours to any one thing. We brewed a Pale Ale. I'm usually not a big fan, but I've recently found 1 or 2 that I do like. We wanted to do something a little different, so we added honey after the peak of fermentation to add a sweeter flavor. I think I will like this. Next on the list...Blueberry Wheat. I'm SUPER excited about that one. It's the perfect warm weather beer...if it turns out as planned.


5) Guest Room Progress - I mentioned a while back that we picked out a comforter for our guest bed. Well, we FINALLY got around to painting the room! It turned out well for the first part. I did get a little bit of paint on the ceiling while attempting to maneuver myself off the top of the closet. I'm planning on fixing that this weekend. We have a couple spots we need to touch up on the trip where the paint leaked through the painter's tape too. I still need to pick up the paint for the bay window since we've decided to do an accent color there. We're going to do it in a burnt orange like the comforter. Then the curtains will be the color of the rest of the walls. It's the same color as we have in the living room and kitchen. I didn't necessarily prefer to use this color here too, but we had WAY too much left for us to justify buying more paint for this room, especially since we'll probably be painting it again when we have little ones. 


6) Pub Dog Happy Hour - Today we went to a happy hour at with some of Josh's co-workers. One other guy was bringing his dog and we decided to bring Bailey. She's SO full of energy we have to exercise her a bit before we can do anything like this with her. We left work a little early and came home to throw the tennis ball with her for a while...then we left for happy hour. I was so glad we were going somewhere Bailey would be able to go, because we really want to focus on her being around more new people. I was glad there was going to be another dog there took, because we're working on getting her to listen while there are distractions around (and there's no greater distraction for her than a new dog with a new owner). Well, we were pleasantly surprised. There were at least 10 different dogs there throughout the time we were there. Bailey got to meet every single one of them and she was well behaved overall. She did try to steal a bone from another dog and got a little defensive when he tried to take it back...but then she let another dog take her bully stick from her with no issues. So random. We had a great time and I got to meet some more of the people Josh works with. I hope we get to do it again soon!

DIY Starburst Mirror

I've been wanting a starburst mirror for quite some time now, but I haven't been able to accept the price tag on them. Not only that, but each one I see that I like, there's still a little something I would like to change about them.Here are a couple that I like.

$365  (+64.49 shipping) = $429.49- We're saving for living room furniture, and this is more than we're putting back each month. I'm obviously not dropping that much on a single mirror. Plus, there's just a little much going on for me here.

$69 (+10 shipping) = $79 - I like the way this one looks a lot better, but still, almost $80 for one piece,           more than I wanted to pay.

I started searching for tutorials and found this one pretty helpful. I did a few things differently, so I'll still provide a step by step.

Materials:
- A larger, round mirror (I used a 7 in. mirror from Michael's) - $4
- Smaller mirrors, mine range from 3/8" - 1" ( I got 2 mixed packs from Michael's and still have extra) - $4
- Wooden Skewers (I didn't even use half of them) - $2
- Metallic spray paint (I had some already, but you can find it for less than $5)
- Glue gun
- Glue sticks
- A piece of cardboard
* Picture hanging strips 
(I already had the last few items)

Total cost - $10 
(Prices are approximate. I bought the supplies several months ago and just got around to doing this project, and I took advantage of coupons.)

Even if you had to buy everything, you could still make this mirror for around $25, which is still much better than $80, and definitely better than $430!

Directions: 
1) Spray paint the skewers. I used a silver metallic spray paint. I tried to paint them flat, then roll them over once they were dry, but some of them just kept rolling back over. I had a random piece of styrofoam laying around and I just decided to stick them all in there and give them a couple coats. This way, I could spray all the way around at once. I wish I would have thought of this at first!
2) Glue on your painted skewers. I wanted my skewers to be different lengths outside the mirror, but I didn't want to take the time to cut them, so I basically made the "shortest" ones meet in the middle. I did draw some lines on the back of the mirror, but since I ended up using an odd number of skewers, I didn't use them. I just eyeballed it and made sure they were evenly spaced. Once these were in place and I was satisfied, I placed a skewer in between each skewer, I moved these closer to the outside of the mirror, so they appear to be longer than the first ones.
3) Glue over the back of the skewers. I did this because this thing would hurt if it fell on someone. Call me paranoid, but it would really suck. Honestly, going back, I think it would be plenty stable on its own and this just added to the bulk (I'll visit that issue later in the post.)

Before gluing on the mirrors.

4) Turn over and glue on your mirrors. I arranged mine in a pattern on the floor beforehand so I could get an idea of what it would look like. This is not necessary, but I'm a bit OCD about things like this and I needed a pattern. Haha.

Practicing my arrangement.

5) Glue over the backs of the little mirrors. This is just for a little extra stability.
6) Cover the back. I used cardboard for this, but I wish I had used something different. It's thick and it makes the mirror stick out from the wall to the point where it bothers me, and you can actually see the cardboard. Depending on where you're hanging your mirror, this may not be an issue. It's pretty high up on our tallest wall (close to the peak of the top floor), so you can just look up and see behind it. I want to try to use something thinner. If that doesn't help, this baby will have to find a newer home. This is where cutting the skewers short may have helped. I didn't want mine to stick out as far as the ones in the tutorial and I though this was easier than cutting several inches off each one.

Finished product!

Overall, I'm very happy with this mirror. Even if I can't find a way to resolve the cardboard issue (I'll post it if I do), I like it a lot and I think I can place it somewhere else in the house where it's not as noticeable. :-)

I know you can't see it as well in this picture, but you can tell how high up it is this way. I'm starting to think it's maybe a little too high up. I may move it down a few inches or so. What do you think? Any ideas on an alternate back so it doesn't stick out so far?

Here is the back of it now.

Friday Favorites!

1) Horseback Riding - Josh and I got to go horseback riding last Friday morning. It was So much fun and so relaxing. It definitely brought back some great memories from my childhood and our early dating days. Neither of us had been riding since a camping trip we took when I was in 9th grade. I love horses and this made me really miss having them. Aside from dogs, they're the best animals! 

2) Atlantic City - We spent last Friday night in Atlantic City. My favorite part about it was that I didn't even know we were going there until about 15 minutes before we got there. I knew we were taking a trip, but I didn't know any details. This was pretty spontaneous for us. Josh booked our room the weekend before and that was it. We didn't make any plans, we just played it by ear once we got there. We didn't even lose any money gambling! We came out $10 ahead! I hope to go back at some point :-)

3) ACC Tourney - I was pleased with our performance in the ACC tourney. We made it to the semi-finals, which is more than I would have expected after that dreadful game against Duke. We weren't able to watch the majority of the UVA game, but we did catch the tail end of it and we were getting updates on our way to Atlantic City (thanks Anna!). We stopped at Applebees on the way home on Saturday and we were able to watch the majority of the UNC game. I was definitely disappointed in the outcome. We lead the majority of the game and it just slipped away at the end. I guess it is a lot harder when you're up against an 8 man team, but man, we HAVE to improve on our free throw shooting! That could have been the game for us. It's OK though, Florida State had an amazing game against Carolina. It would have been nice for us to have made it to the final game, but I think FSU had that game in the bag no matter who they played. I think they'll make a decent run in NCAA Tourney too. 

4) NCAA Tourney - We're long overdue for an appearance in the Big Dance! I'm really pleased with what Mark Gottfried is doing with our basketball program and I'm impressed that he got us to the NCAA Tourney his first year. We had a good first game against San Diego State and I hope we can pull off another W! I didn't feel great today, but the game made me feel a little better :-). I'm being optimistic, I have us going to the Sweet 16.

5) Spring - I guess technically it's not Spring yet, but technically doesn't matter to me. The weather has been beautiful this week! We didn't really have a real Winter anyway, but I'm still super excited about Spring. It's my favorite season! We've taken all our plants outside so they can get a lot of sun and they're doing really well!

6) Running - I haven't been running consistently since before the wedding. I would run for a week or so then stop. Earlier in the week Bailey, Josh and I went running. Up until that point it had been well over a year since I had gone more than half a mile. I was determined to run a mile, and I did! It was slow, but that's alright. A mile's a mile. I did it twice this week. My goal is to run 3 times a week. Hopefully we'll be able to stick to it. We want to make sure Bailey's getting enough exercise, so hopefully that will keep us motivated.

Weekend Away

I mentioned in my Friday Favorites post that we were taking Friday off. I'm SO glad we did. We got some long overdue time away. We slept in on Friday just because we could. We did have to get up by 7 to make sure Bailey got breakfast in time (she has to eat at least 1 1/2 hours before daycamp). We took our time getting ready  and making sure we had everything we needed. I had packed most of our stuff Thursday before we got home, so we didn't have much to do. We dropped Bailey off around 9 and went to breakfast. We decided to go to Eggspectations a few minutes down the road. We've been wanting to try this place for a while, but we just haven't for some reason. I guess breakfast is a meal we usually have at home. They serve their full menu all day. Josh actually got a breakfast meal, which is not typical of him, especially if we find a place that will serve a burger for breakfast! 

I got the "Brioche Beauty", a grilled cinnamon roll with fresh fruit and yogurt. With a mimosa of course. Delicious!

 Josh got the "Eggwhat?", corned beef hash with potatoes, eggs and fresh fruit. Also delicious.

Both of our breakfasts were absolutely delicious! I used to always get something sweet for breakfast, now I'm always torn with something sweet and savory. Luckily, I have an amazing hubby who doesn't mind sharing. All of our food was great, but those potatoes were SO good! I love potatoes but I've been trying to cut down on carbs, so before this little trip, I hadn't had any in a month! I made up for it though :-).

After breakfast, we headed to Happy on Hooves in Hampstead, MD. I love driving to the more rural parts of MD. It's just so peaceful and beautiful! It reminds me of home. I was SO excited about doing this. I had horses growing up, but I haven't ridden at all in at least 8ish years or so. We got there and we met Mandy, the owner. She is super nice. She's the only person who runs the farm and she said she had sold 1400 Living Social vouchers for the deal we had! That's crazy. Anyway, we got there and met our horses. Both our horses are retired show horses. I don't have any pictures of just my horse and I since I had the camera. I didn't think about having Josh take pictures on a phone until just now. Oh well, it's OK.

 Josh and Marco. He's a big boy! He's a 12 year old Oldenburg.

 That's Mandy on Kat, and Josh and Marco. The dog is Daisy. She decided to come along with us. She's a sweetie.

I was riding Sadie. She would fall behind a little while we were going downhill and run to catch up when we were going uphill. I kind of let her go at her own pace.

 Daisy catching up after she stopped to do some sniffing.

 So pretty, I bet this ride is really gorgeous during the Fall.

 I could live here, but I think Josh would get bored. He said we would have to have a farm and lots of kids to keep us busy.

 Josh on Marco and me on Sadie. She's such a sweet girl! She's a 10 year old Quarter Horse. If you look really close, you can see another horse in the background, that's Kat's baby. He's only 2, so he's not ready to ride just yet. 

 This is Mandy's pet goat. She said she's just like a dog. I had a pet goat growing up too, so this brought back some memories for me. :-)

We had such a great time at Happy on Hooves! I'm sure we'll go back at some point. We want to take my dad when he comes to visit again. I know he would love to ride again.

After we left Hampstead, it was time to go to our next destination. I didn't know where we were going, but I kept guessing along the way. My only clues were that we were going to another state and we had about a 3 hour drive. We were planning to watch the second half of our game against UVA. We never found a good stopping point. We finally decided we would just go to a sports bar and watch the end once we got to our destination. We were driving South at first, so I thought we were maybe going to VA. Then, we started going North. My next guess was New York. I was really excited. I've wanted to go back to New York since we went a couple years ago. However, I knew Josh hadn't planned anything past our hotel room, so I wasn't sure how New York would turn out. There's just SO much to do. If you're only going for 1 night, you definitely need a bit of a gameplan or you'll be so overwhelmed when you arrive, you won't know what to do. 

 Going over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, I was pretty sure we were going to New York at this point. 

 I was wrong! I started to think Atlantic City was a possibility when we were only about 15 minutes from our ETA and I started seeing signs for Atlantic City. Josh wouldn't tell me though. Parking isn't very abundant here, so we decided to check into our hotel and go to the bar there to watch the rest of the game. We were staying at The Chelsea. Josh explained his hotel selection strategy to me as we were finding our hotel. He pointed out all the hotels he considered then told me why he didn't pick them. He also considered Tropicana, Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza. I don't remember is reasoning for not picking the Trump hotels, but he didn't pick Tropicana because they didn't have any rooms available with a king bed. Silly hubby, I don't need a king bed, I'm going to sleep on the same half as you anyway. Haha. I did get a couple pictures in our room, but I wish I would have gotten more. I LOVED how it was decorated. 

 Super comfy bed!

Our view. We actually never made it out to the ocean though.

Anyway, we found our hotel and checked in. As soon as we got our stuff in the room, we went down to the bar to watch the end of our game. It was happy hour anyway, so it was perfect timing anyway. Well, we thought. Apparently this was a fancier bar and there were no TVs. It looked really nice, but we didn't stick around. We were determined to catch the end of out game. We ran back to our room and crossed our fingers that our TV had the right channel. After bypassing all the silly hotel pay-per-view stuff, we finally found our game in time to watch maybe the last minute. We won! 

We were starving, so we started looking for places to look. It was Restaurant Week and we were going to have a nice dinner later that night. We picked a place and made reservations. Once that was settled, we went out to find something to hold us over. We went to Tropicana since it was closest. There are lots of shops and restaurants inside this hotel. We actually didn't know it was part of the hotel when we went in. When you walk it, it's decorated like you're outside. I only got one picture, and it's really too dark to make anything out, but here it is.

After considering a sports bar and a Cuban place, we decided to eat at Ri Ra's Irish Pub. While I was looking at the menu, I decided I didn't want a fancy dinner later, I wanted to have dinner NOW. Haha. I mentioned it to Josh and he said that was fine and we would cancel our reservations for later. We were both starving so we got an appetizer of potato cakes. AMAZING! Josh ordered fish and chips and I got pork chops with homemade apple sauce and colcannon cakes. I didn't know it, but colcannon cakes are pretty much potato cakes with cabbage in them. I didn't even know there was cabbage until I just looked it up. I found a recipe and I think I'll try to make it this week. You couldn't taste it at all, all the food was so good!

After dinner, we walked around Tropicana a little bit more. It was like walking through a couple blocks outside. We finally found the casino and walked around it a little bit. We brought nice clothes to dress up in. Luckily we walked around before going back to our room to change, because people were in normal street clothes for the most part. We did go back to change, but we stayed in normal clothes. After that we went to Trump Plaza. We were both pretty disappointed with this place. We expected it to be really nice, but it just looked so dated compared to our hotel and Tropicana. We didn't stay long and went to Caesar's. 

 Is this the real Caesar's palace? 

We stayed at Caesar's for quite a while. This is where we finally gambled a little bit. Josh had planned on playing a little bit of poker. Before we even checked into our hotel room, we decided on an amount we could spend on gambling and agreed to not go over that amount. That way, we didn't have to worry about losing a lot of money then losing even more to get it back. Josh had originally planned on playing some poker but decided against it once he realized how expensive it would be. I thought it was $10 per game, which would have been completely fine. It was actually a minimum $10 bet. Josh explained how poker and betting worked and said that he could easily lose $200 in a hand, which may only last a few minutes. We decided to forgo that experience this time. Haha. We walked around a bit more and decided to play some video poker. Josh taught me how to play and we both had a lot of fun. 

We each played $5. I lost all of mine, but Josh won enough to make up for both of us!

After he won this, we decided to try a different casino. We went back to Tropicana and each played $5 again. 

Again, I lost all of mine, but Josh won enough to make up for both of us. We played a few more times and we ended up coming out $10 positive! Not too bad!

Tropicana was a bit nicer, it felt a little more like a club. We actually liked Caesar's a little better from the gambling standpoint. They were much more generous with their drinks.

We ended up gambling until around 1am and we were hungry. We went back into the area with all the restaurants. Well, at 1 am, all the restaurants are night clubs. We ended up going to a market where we could make our own plates, it was kind of like a buffet. We also bought some water. We ended up paying $5 for a liter and a half of water! Crazy! It didn't have a price on it or we wouldn't have bought it. We went back to our room and crashed. We slept in the next morning and got up just in time to shower and get breakfast before we had to check out.

We stopped at Applebee's to watch the majority of our game against UNC. We had a pretty good time. We were obviously disappointed, but we played a good game. We got back on the road to go pick up our Bailey!

By the way, Bailey was on vacation too. She got to stay at Camp Bow Wow while we were away. She has never boarded before and she's only stayed the night away from us once with a friend and another dog. We wanted to board her for a short time before we put her in for a week. I'm glad we did. They have webcams so we can watch her play while we're away. We were only able to check in on her once since we were so busy, but I really like that we can. She was really happy to see us Saturday evening and she was SO tired and calm. I love when we take her there!

We had an absolutely amazing weekend! I'm really glad we took a 3 day weekend for this trip. We were really tired when we got back, so it's great we've had Sunday to relax and recover from traveling. 

Friday Favorites!

1) Surprise gift - I got a package in the mail from my mom. It's nowhere near my birthday so I was a bit surprised. She sent me this necklace just because. My mom is a Carolina fan (I know, we all have our faults), so it's a big deal when she gets State stuff for me :-). Thanks Mama!

2) Orchid - Josh had to work again last weekend. When he came home from work, he had this mini Orchid plant for me. I LOVE Orchids, so I'm really excited about it! 

3) Passport - My new passport came it! My face looks really fat in the picture, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Haha. I didn't think I would get my old passport back, but I did a few days later! I was so excited because now I still have the stamps from my trip to Australia and our honeymoon!

4) Short Week - Since Josh has been working a ton of hours and we haven't had the chance to spend much time together lately, we decided to take today off together. Yes, I have the day off and I was still up at 6:30. I just couldn't sleep in. We're going horseback riding today then we're watching our basketball game at a sports bar. GO PACK! THEN...I have ANOTHER surprise waiting for me. We're going somewhere...and I have no idea where it is.

5) Wolfpack Win - This is always a good thing. The Pack won their first round game in the ACC tourney! Unfortunately, the game was at 2, but luckily I was able to keep up with the first half at work and make it home for the majority of the 2nd half. Today, we should be able to watch all of it! Yay.


6) 11 Years - Today is our 11 year dating anniversary! It has been a wonderful 11 years and the time has just flown by! It almost makes me feel old when I think back to when we first started dating. It doesn't seem like 11 years ago! Haha. I am so fortunate to have found the perfect guy at such a young age. We have grown together so much over the years and I know we'll continue to do so. Love you hubs!

This is us when I was in 9th grade...or maybe 10th?

A Little Football Season Prep

I wanted to wait until our season opener to post this, but since I hope to be AT the season opener and I'm just not that patient...  

This is Bailey's latest trick. Touchdown! 

She threw her hands up like this one day when she was really excited and wanted a toy. Josh had the idea of turning it into a trick. We played around with a few ideas and finally decided on touchdown! I'm SO glad we did. 

One morning I decided to give it a shot. I started off by getting her to high five both hands at once. This took a few tries. From there, we moved farther away from her then transitioned our hands from the high five position to the touchdown position. It only took a few days to get it right consistently! The clicker really comes in handy for tricks like this. The only thing about this trick is that you have to get her excited or she won't put her hands up that far. That's why I sound so animated. She does this trick better for me since high pitched voices get her really excited. 

Happy Birthday Bailey!

This post is a week late, and it's going to be picture heavy, but Bailey is already 1! Her Birthday was last Sunday.

She's definitely come a long way since the first time we met! She went from being a skittish little puppy to an outgoing human lover! She loves everyone and other dogs. 

We've had some great times with Bailey during her first year!

I wish I could make her this little again...just for 1 day.

 Her first trip to the park.

 She still does this :-)

 I love her silly faces!

 Bailey's first trip to visit the family.


 Getting her first NC State collar

Moving into our new house.


She had her first visitor in our new house.

 She became a STAR puppy

  

She visited NC State for the first time.

 She went swimming for her first time. This was not a favorite for her.


We had our first Christmas together.


She got some new kicks.

 She got to play in the snow!

Baby kisses!

 She met her little sister, Kenya (from a different litter).


We made the puppies wear Birthday hats so we could get a picture and act like they got to celebrate their Birthdays together.

Since Bailey came to live with us, she's learned so much. She's a smart little pup. She can be a bit stubborn and she doesn't care for some of the tricks, but if you have the right kind of treat, she'll happily do any of them. 

Tricks she's learned:
Sit
Stay
Down
 Off
High five
 Say Hi (wave)
 Shake
 Roll Over
Play dead
Say your prayers

Things we're still working on:
Walking - She does well for the most part, and she doesn't pull anymore unless she's really got to pee or she sees something (or someone) she wants. I'd hoped not to have to use her pinch anymore at this point, but we still do. She's still doing just OK with heel. When we walk her we either let her roam where she wants or we have her heel. We want her to know how to do both so if we're in a crowd or around a stressful situation (sirens, etc.), she'll know how to stay right beside us. She recognizes that there's a difference and that she's not supposed to stop and sniff things when she's in this position, but she will still go slightly ahead of us. Usually if we just tell her to wait she'll come back to our side, but sometimes we have to give her a little tug. From the beginning, we've been teaching her to sit automatically if we stop walking when she's heeling. She's pretty good at that, but she usually hesitates for a few seconds. We stop at intersections or when we cross a road and make sure she sits then too. We do this in hopes that she will stop before she crosses a road if she ever gets away from us. I know it's a long shot, but I think it's worth the extra effort just in case. We do the same thing before leaving our yard.

Separation Anxiety - It's gotten a lot better, but it's still there. I'm looking forward to not having to crate her anymore, but I'm afraid we have a bit before we're able to leave her in the house again.

Barking - She's become a very good watch dog...maybe too good. One of the crappy things about the proximity of townhomes is that she can hear the noises like garage doors, car doors, etc. from other homes so well. I don't think she's learned to distinguish the difference between noises at our house and other houses yet. She also likes to bark at dogs, cats and people when they're outside. If she sees other dogs out back, she will bark then ring her bells to ask to go out. We know she just wants to go out and play, but it's annoying and the other owners just want to let their dogs go to the bathroom and go back in. Another biggie is the doorbell. She barks like no other when the doorbell rings. The same goes for when the doorbell rings on TV.

I know we just have to be persistent and we'll get these issues taken care of. On a more positive note...

Here are some of Bailey's favorites...

Dog(s): Carter and Abby. She LOVES to play rough with Carter and chasing (and running from) Abby

Trick: Say Hi. This is her go to if she wants something.

Weather: SNOW, for sure. She loves the stuff. 

Toys: Anything that is stuffed or makes noise and bully sticks.


 I let her go crazy with a stuffed elephant last weekend. I decided I didn't want to sew this one up again, so I just gave it to her with a hole in it and let her have fun. My living room AND the State room looked like this when she was finished.

Show: Dogs 101

Hobbies: People watching, sun bathing by the windows, de-stuffing stuffies, annoying mom while she tries to work out, getting dirty

So, enough of the year review.
I wanted to do something special for Bailey for her Birthday, so I made her some treats. I gave her one Saturday night to make sure she liked them. She liked them, but they didn't like her. She had HORRIBLE gas, so I decided we would have to find a replacement cake.

The morning of her Birthday, we took her to the dog park. This was the first time we had been in months. She always gets super anxious and whines when we get close. She just gets so excited and she doesn't quite know how to contain her energy. Used to, when we first got to the park, she would be a little nervous about all the dogs and she would just hang around all the humans for a few minutes, then she would finally warm up and play with the other dogs. I can definitely see an improvement since she's been going to Camp Bow Wow. She started playing with the other dogs right away. I think she chased just about every dog there at some point.

Once we left the dog park, we needed to pick up a few groceries. Josh went to Costco while I took Bailey to the pet store next door. I saw these really cute cookies and decided I could get one of those as a replacement treat. Isn't it cute?

I picked out a toy for her so I could wrap it and give it to her. It's a Kong stick. She used to try to bring sticks inside and we wouldn't let her because we knew she would make a mess with them. She LOVES the stick.

Opening her stick.

Waiting for Mom to take a picture so she can have the cookie and stick.

I'm looking forward to another year of puppyhood with our little one. I know we have at least another year to go before she's a mature adult dog :-).