Bailey's Progress Report

Bailey has had a pretty eventful week. Last weekend, when we had people over to help us with the house, everyone was SO busy! There was stuff all over her play areas, her toys were getting lost, Mommy and Daddy were putting things away, moving, going to Lowe's and feeding people when they should have been playing with her ALL weekend. She was not happy about this. She tried to hide a paintbrush so the painting would stop and she would be allowed back in the State Room. She tried to eat the garden so Mommy would throw her basketball for her instead of planting tomatoes...and worse of all...she peed on the floor...A few times...Right in front of me. I'm pretty sure it was because she wasn't happy about not getting all of our attention over the weekend. Each time we were downstairs, no more than 20 feet from the door she usually waits to go out at. We had also come in from outside. Nope...I was not a happy Mommy. Since then she has gotten back to her normal self, with one accident this week. She's still holding it while we're at work. We recently (yesterday) started freezing her water so she can lick on ice throughout the day. I don't know why didn't start this a lot sooner. Before, we couldn't give her too much water or she would pee several times during the day. No matter how much we gave her, she drank most of it up before we even left the house, so she didn't have water with her lunch anyway. This way, she can just lick on it when she's thirsty. She seems to enjoy it too. 

Last week we noticed just a few days after her bath, Bailey started to smell again. This isn't normal. She usually doesn't start to stink until it's almost time for her next bath. She wasn't acting any different, she just smelled different. When I washed her, I found the problem. She had earmites. Since she's been to many new places and met many new dogs recently, I don't know the source. I gave her ears a good cleaning and picked up some treatment. I started treating her ears Saturday and they're SO much better. Everything seems to be cleared up, but I'll treat them at least once more to be sure. We also found a flea on her. When I found it, I looked over her thoroughly and I didn't find any more (or eggs). She has been itching on and off since we got her. It's been hard to troubleshoot because things around her are constantly changing, especially her environment. Things are getting more regular now, so hopefully we'll figure out what's going on soon. I think we'll start with her shampoo.

So...on top of having to share attention with humans, getting ear mites and having me pour stuff in her ears and clean the gunk out on a regular basis, she's also having her teeth brushed a lot more often. She doesn't seem to hate this anymore, she just tries to chew on her toothbrush. I want her to get used to this before her permanent teeth come in and it becomes an issue. Speaking of her teeth...she's teething majorly now! I can literally tell a difference in her front teeth like day to day! 

Bailey is doing well in her puppy class. We continued to work on heel this week. She's doing SO much better with that. We worked on sit, down and stay. She did really well with all of these. She got really excited after we praised her one time and she peed on the floor. It was SO embarrassing. None of the other puppies are her size, so if they pee on the floor it's just a little bit. When Bailey pees, it's like a river! Jenna had us line up and each puppy took turns weaving in and out of the other puppies. This is the only part Bailey struggled with. She wanted to play with every puppy that walked by. We hope to take her to a park or something this weekend so we can practice on having her sit and stay when dogs are walking by. I can't wait to see how she does in next week's class. 

101 in 1001

I'm a really big list person. I make lists for everything. If you've never heard of 101 in 1001, I'll fill you in a little. Basically, you make a list of 101 present tasks you would like to accomplish in 1001 days (or 143 weeks, or 32.89 months, or 2.74 years). The tasks must be specific with a goal that is measurable and clearly defined. They should be realistic and stretching, so they should represent some amount of effort. 


Why am I doing this? I think it's a great way to keep life interesting. If I don't have tasks, or goals in mind. Life just flies by and I don't even realize it. Of course it will still fly by, but at least I'll be doing everything I can to enjoy every minute of it. This is a great way to document that! 


I started making my list for this well over a year ago. I never really kept up with it. In the end, I just threw things on the list to fill it up. I found the list not too long ago. I don't even want to do half of the things I put on there any more. For example, I was supposed to watch a bunch of classic movies. I don't remember how many, but it was a lot. I should have known better than to put this down. I usually don't care for older movies. Don't get me wrong, there are some I would like to see, but I found myself looking through Netflix, trying to find classics. I would just cringe when I saw the movie posters and things for them (yes, I'm quite shallow when it comes to movies...I appreciate the glam and technology we have today over whatever it is people see in the classics). What would you put on your list?


Start date: 6/16/2011
End date: 3/13/2014


Italics=In progress
Bold=Complete
Red=I didn't do it

Cooking

1) Make a meal with things only from my garden (or mostly, I can use eggs, seasonings, oils, flour...those types of things...otherwise I would just have to make a salad)

2) Compile a cookbook of my favorite recipes

3) Cook lobster at home
4) Try 50 new dishes (3/50)
5) Make pasta from scratch

Entertainment 

6) Go crabbing

7) Eat at 10 new restaurants (0/10)

8) Try a new type of ethnic food

9) Try a new type of food (ingredient)

10) Go to a comedy club

11) Watch all of the Star Wars movies

12) Go to a shooting range

13) Host a Super Bowl party

14) Host a game night

15) Go to a new theme park

16) Go ice skating

17) Drive in DC

18) Go to an Oriole's game

19) Go to a horse race (preferably Preakness)

20) Go to a regular season NFL game

21) Attend at least one home and 1 away NC State football game a year

22) Attend 1 NC State basketball game a year

Financial

23) Pay off credit card debt

24) Pay off student debt

25) Start 401K/Roth IRA

26) Build our emergency fund to 3 months

27) Build our emergency fund to 6 months

28) Start meal planning again

29) Find a way to make a steady supplemental income

For Me

30) Get a massage

31) Have my house cleaned

32) Write a letter to myself to open in 5 years

33) Get a manicure and pedicure

34) Buy at least 5 new outfits that make me feel great (0/5)

35) Make a list of 100 things I love/that make me happy to put in craft room

36) Learn to change a tire (and actually change one)

37) Ride a horse again

38) Take a class on a subject that interests me (fitness, cooking or other hobby)

39) Get a new passport

40) Either sale/donate/or find another use for my wedding dress

Giving Back/Acts of Kindness

41) Donate unwanted items bi-annually  (1/5)

42) Leave a 50% tip

43) Leave a nice note in a library book for someone to find

44) Donate $5 for each incomplete task to charity

45) Send a care package to a soldier

46) Volunteer

Hobbies

47)  Re-vamp the blog...it's been the same since I started it

48) Scrapbook wedding

49) Scrapbook honeymoon

50) Build a piece of furniture

51) Re-upholster or paint/dye an old chair

52) Re-finish a piece of furniture

53) Read 50 books (2/50)
Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
Pretty Little Things

 54) Attempt to make wine/brew beer

Home

55) Update kitchen counters

56) Update kitchen cabinets

57) Make a piece of art to display in our house

58) Add something I love to every room of our house

59) Decorate guest room

60) Decorate living room

61) Find use for empty space in kitchen and utilize it

62) Install functional storage in laundry closet doors

63) Build deck

64) Fence in yard

65) Landscape front yard

66) Establish a cleaning schedule

67) Make a household binder

68) Get a safe for important things

69) Decorate master bedroom

70) Get TV for State Room

Life/Relationships

71) Start retirement or other type of savings plan for Daddy (because he will never do it himself)
72) Create a will (Josh and I)
73) Create a living will (Josh and I)
74) Get supplemental life insurance (outside work)
75) Make 10 cards to send to friends and family (0/10)
76) Take another family vacation

Marriage
77) Take a full day for us to relax together once a month (1/33)
78) Take family pictures at least once
79) Have 2 dates per month (1/66)
80) 50 random acts of kindness for Josh (1/50)
81) Not get pregnant

Mind/Body/Soul
82) Get back to my wedding day weight
83) Run 1 mile
84) Run 2 miles
85) Run a 5K
86) Complete some sort of exercise program (I'm thinking about 200 Sit-Ups)
87) Find a church
88) Answer the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind


Pets

89) Take Bailey swimming

90) Teach Bailey to put away toys

91) Teach Bailey to "say your prayers"

92) Teach Bailey to bring beer

93) Make and organize a file for Bailey

Travel

94) Go on a cruise

95) Take a spontaneous weekend trip (I'm a big planner...this doesn't happen to me often)

96) Tour Chesapeake Bay Wine Trail

97) Visit 5 new towns in MD

98) Visit a new state

99) Go back to NY

100) Travel outside the country (other than a cruise)


101) Make a new 101 in 1001 list

House Progress

 We are almost finished moving everything out of the apartment. We just have a few small loads to move. We still have to clean and prime the walls back though :-/ I wish I could spend all of this time working on our current house! 

Speaking of our house...We got a LOT done around the house this past weekend! My dad came and he brought more help with him. We had an electrician, a painter and a carpenter to help us all weekend. My dad finished changing all the dingy beige switches and plugs to nicer white ones. They are also child proof. This means we don't have to put those plastic outlet thing in when we have kids. They are more convenient and it will save us money in the long run. He also changed out a lot of our lights that we didn't like. He got us a new fan to go in our dining room, but he has to exchange it. For now there's a simple light fixture over our table. On his next visit, he'll finish changing fans, change out our smoke detectors and change the doorbell chime (the smoke detectors and doorbell chime are really dingy right now, so we'll have clean white ones). 

He also built us raised beds for our veggie garden. These make it so much easier to maintain our garden and it looks a lot better too. He had some extra wood left over, so he built us a picnic table! We were planning on building our own outdoor furniture, but there's no telling when we would have gotten around to it. 

Our State Room/Man Room/Josh's office is painted. We painted one wall Red. We chose Sherwin Williams Stop. The rest of the walls are SW Collonade Gray. We were going to paint the room red and white. Once we put the swatches on the wall, we decided it would be way too much white (with the trip and ceiling). Now that it's on the wall, I'm SO glad we went with a gray. I'l post pictures of the room later, it's currently holding all the unpacked boxes we have :-/ Here are color swatches to hold you over

 Stop

Collonade Gray

Our kitchen is painted too! This is the room I wanted to paint the most, because it was painted in flat paint! Flat paint in a kitchen=bad idea. The bathrooms are even painted in flat paint! We painted the kitchen SW Outerbanks. I love the way it turned out! I can't wait to update the cabinets and counters! We'll be painting the living and dining rooms the same color since they are all so open to each other. This will get done on their next trip down (possibly in 2 weeks!). 

Outerbanks

All our appliances are finally installed and the cabinets are in place. 



Before Moving in

The cabinets above the microwave had to be shifted up about 8 inches.

After new appliances and SW Outerbanks :-)

Our front door has finally been changed! This needed to be done desperately. We have new locks and more than one key now! We used brushed nickel hardware rather than the brass color I don't care for. The frames around the windows on our old door were melted from the sun. It looked horrible! We opted for a door with no windows this time. Just a peep hole is enough for me! I will be painting the handle on the storm door white in the near future. 

Before

After...Coming Soon!

The gate we wanted to put up to keep Bailey in the foyer during the day is built, installed and primed. All we need to do now is paint it! I'm so glad we're not using the back of our couch to keep her in there now! Speaking of the couch...we can't get it in the living room! It won't fit up the stairs because of the sharp turns and it won't fit out the glass sliding doors to put it up through the 2nd floor! This isn't a huge deal, because I couldn't figure out how we were going to arrange the furniture in the living room anyway. Right now we just have a loveseat up there. We hope to add 2 recliners in the future. 

We picked up our new mattress! For now it is on a simple frame that will eventually go in the guest bedroom. It's SO much more comfy than our old mattress. We were planning on building this bed for our bedroom.We were going to have our carpenter friend cut all the wood for us while he was in town this weekend. We were just going to work on it when we found time. he offered to help my dad build it for us! My dad will be picking up the materials for it and they'll bring it back up with them in a few weeks! We're so excited. I don't know what kind of a job we would have done and it would have been forever before we finished it! The bed is modeled after the Stratton Bed from Pottery Barn. This is obviously a MUCH cheaper alternative and we can change a few things :-) I can't wait until it gets here! 

We made a few small repairs (fixed some doors etc.) that don't look pretty, but are still a huge help! 

I am so thankful that we had so much help this weekend. It has been the most productive weekend we've had in a while! We have to be out of our apartment by Sunday, so most of this week will be spent at the old apartment :-/ We'll do a few things around the house too. We'll be taking a break from the house this weekend. We don't want to get burnt out on doing house things and a relaxing date night is long overdue.

Bailey's Progress Report

Bailey is growing like a weed! We got her last set of vaccinations this week & she took them like a champ. I hate getting shots, she's way better than me. Haha. We took her to a clinic to get her vaccinations. It was by an organization called LuvMyPet, I think they do clinics nationally. We were going to take her to a vet, but it was going to be $200 not including her heartworm prevention! Just the office visit was $55, we pay $9 for an office visit back home. I do miss those small town perks. We'll still take her to a regular vet for annual checkups etc. We spent $91 for vaccinations AND her heartworm prevention so I'm definitely pleased. While we were waiting in line, Bailey got to meet lots of other dogs. There was an older Corgi in front of us who barked at her a lot & peed on the floor. She barked at him a little when we first got in line but when we told her to hush, she was so well behaved. I was so proud of her! She did try to lay on a bed that was on display. Haha.  

Class

Bailey's 2nd class went really well this week. It was a bit smaller & Hercules wasn't there this week. I'm not sure if he dropped out or not. The only other dog that wasn't a toy breed this week was a Bull Terrier (like the Target dog). We worked on sit & heel. Bailey already knows sit, but she doesn't always listen to it when she's distracted. She was still doing much better than most of the other dogs. We hadn't worked on heel before this week, just trying to keep her from pulling (without much success). She's been fine while walking...until another dog comes along. She gets so excited & wants to play so bad. She would keep pulling even when she was choking herself.  We knew pulling would likely be a problem with her, so I wasn't surprised...just very frustrated. Since she's a dominant breed, we wanted to fix this ASAP. 

Our trainer had us walk our dogs individually. She had two different types of collars. She doesn't use choke collars. I don't like them & I know Bailey wouldn't respond to them even if I was OK with using one. She has no response when she was choking herself with her regular collar. The first type was a martingale, it didn't work at all with Bailey. It tightens when she pulls (but not like a choker, it has a stopping point). When our trainer saw that the first collar wasn't helping, she gave us a pinch collar. The Bull Terrier had to get this one too. I was a little familiar with how it worked & I saw that Bailey wasn't choking herself at all when we put it on her. I liked it. Josh was a little more skeptical. To be fair, it does look a little harsh. He had to put it on his own neck to see if it really hurt before he was OK with it. Haha. It's working really well & Bailey doesn't pull with it. This definitely doesn't replace her every day collar. This one is just for training purposes. I even tried "heel" with her regular collar yesterday & she did really well. Of course, she wouldn't have if she would have seen another dog. I can really see a LOT of improvement. I can't wait to see how she does in class next week. She always behaves worse in class than around our house. I guess because there are like 10 dogs in room rather than 1 or 2 passing by. 

Potty Training

I STILL haven't finished Bailey's poochie bells. Maybe we should have just bought a set :-/ She's still doing pretty well though. She has still been holding it all day while we're at work (I'm very impressed, I can't even do this)! She did slip up one day this week, but I think we gave her too much water before we left. She has had 1 accident in the house. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and I just wasn't paying attention to her. It wasn't long after she drank a lot of water with dinner, so it was my fault. Overall I think we're doing pretty well...could be better. She has still only had potty accidents in our new house so I'm super thankful for that!

Training

We're still working on play dead. Josh and I rotate which trick we want to teach her next. Mine was high five, this is his. She is showing progress but it's taking a bit longer than high five. She's smart, so she'll get it :-) I think it's harder for her because it's a 2 step trick. Of course, she has down. She's used to down & she gets a treat. Now we're making her fall over to her side too. I think she's just confused. It's so cute though, sometimes she'll throw her feet up in the air. Josh wants to get her to stop this once she understands the trick. I like it.

Versatile Blogger Award

Meredith over at Newlywed McGees has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! Like Josh and I, Meredith and her husband have just purchased their first home. I really enjoy keeping up with the progress they are making on their house. They have just painted their cabinets (something we plan to do eventually) and they look great! You should check her out.

For these awards, the blogger must:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award &

link back to their site in your original post.

2. Tell us seven things about yourself.

3. Pass along the award to five newly discovered bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know they got this award.

A little about myself:

1. I'm a southern girl at heart, it's a personal goal of mine to never live above the Mason Dixon. (Nothing wrong with the North...I just don't like not being able to get sweet tea at restaurants ;-) )

2. I think sea turtles are amazing creatures. I would love to rescue them some day, but I don't see myself ever living in a place conducive to that.

3. A year ago I didn't think I would ever want to move back to NC, now I know that's where we'll raise our kids.

4. I met my husband when I was 14, he first asked me to marry him when we were 15. Clearly it wasn't just puppy love. <3

5. I am super super indecisive, especially when it comes to things I know I'll have to live with for a while...like paint colors and furniture.

6. I love meat, I can't imagine ever being a vegetarian.

7. If I could be a mythical creature, I would definitely be a mermaid. 

Croissant Craic 

The Good Wife

The Glamorous Life of a Housewife

Project Open Hearts

Fun with The Super Munns

Happy Anniversary!

June 5 was our first anniversary. I can't believe it's already been a year! Time has just flown by. 

We decided to celebrate by going to St. Michaels. It's a super cute small town on the Chesapeake. We went on Saturday because the weather was supposed to be nicer. We were going to go to a winery, a brewery, have dinner & just explore the town. When we got to the winery, we realized Josh didn't have his ID. No big deal, right? WRONG! He keeps his ID on his keychain, because he can't keep up with his walled. This means he left his keychain at home. My keys were on his keychain (because last Friday was his off Friday). Our only house key is on my keychain. This means we locked our keys in the house! Why do we only have one key? We have a brand new door with a brand new lock and 4 brand new keys...we just haven't installed them yet! 

I was worried about how we were going to get back in. Bailey was locked in the house all alone. We were going to take her to doggy day care for the day, but she had to be picked up by 3. We had and 1 1/2 hour drive so we knew we wouldn't make it back by 3. Josh calmed me down and we decided to have dinner since we had driven all the way there. We were really excited about some fresh seafood. We went to The Crab Claw. We were excited because we wanted to eat on the water & this place had a great view. Josh got the seafood sampler and I got the fried hard shell crab. The rolls & cole slaw were delicious. Everything else was just mediocre. When we were ready to pay, I found out they only take cash and checks! Luckily, I had my check book on my. I thought that was crazy.

When we got home, we borrowed a phone book from a neighbor so we could call a locksmith. We decided to price shop a little and ended up using the first guy we called. By the time we called him back, he already had another call in Annapolis, so we had to wait on him to finish that one first. It was going to be 1-2 hours, so we decided to do some grocery shopping & come back. I wish I had more pictures of this day, but of course I took the memory card out of my camera and left without putting it back in. 2 hours and $95 later, we were back in our house. We played with Bailey for a bit then she got lazy. We watched our wedding video and had a glass of wine. 

Sunday (our real anniversary) we decided to relax a little. We did a few things around the house, grilled out and cut our cake. We picked our anniversary cake up from Cinda when we were in NC for Memorial Day. We froze it so it would still be fresh a week later. It was DELICIOUS! 

It has been a great first year for us. We moved, got jobs, got a puppy and bought a house! If you would have told me we would have a puppy and a house by now just 7 or 8 months ago, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. So, things haven't necessarily gone as we planned, and our plans changed a lot, but I wouldn't change a thing. They're so much better than we planned! 

Bailey's Progress Report

Potty Training

Bailey is improving (overall on her potty training). She is still holding it all day while we're at work (except 1 day this week). She was doing SO good while we were home. She went a week without having an accident in the house! (She did have accidents while we were traveling, in my mom's & Josh's mom's house, but I think it was because she smelled other dogs & she was in unfamiliar areas...I was still a bit upset because she was doing so well at home!) She slipped up one day this week and has 2 accidents in the house within an hour or so. She did it right in front of us both times. One time she was standing on the stairs, right in front of Josh. The other time she was in the living room & she had been out not long at all before that. I was so angry. She's been doing pretty well since then. She still goes to the door for the most part. I started working on her Poochie Bells last night so hopefully those will help. 

Training

We didn't have Bailey's class this week because Monday was Memorial Day. We have been training her as normal though. She did really well when we trained her while traveling. Definitely better than I expected since there were so many new people and distractions. I'm really looking forward to next week's class. We'll start working on "heel". That's what we need to work on most! She does very well with all her basics (except when she's really distracted & won't even listen to her name, UGH!) and we're just starting to teach her to play dead. She's doing well but I think this one will take a little longer than the other ones. I mentioned a while back that we were going to teach her to put her toys away. I originally thought this would be really hard but I think it will be fine. Every once in a while we will see her put a toy back in her toy box by herself :-) It's only happened a few times, but I get very excited because we haven't started doing that at all yet! Maybe it will be as easy as her high five! 

The Trip

We had a great trip home. Luckily, we didn't hit nearly as much traffic as I expected over the Memorial Day weekend!


Bailey likes to sleep in the car.

 In really awkward, uncomfortable looking positions.

 And cute positions.

And scary positions. I hate this one because she looks dead. It's creepy when her eyes are half open, but it's cute when her tongue sticks out. I tried to close her eyes all the way so the pic wouldn't be so creepy, but the kept coming partially open. Haha.

Saturday was Natalia's 4th birthday party. I can't believe she's already 4! After her birthday party, my mom had a cookout. We cooked a pig & it was delicious! We got some rain earlier in the day and this is what it resulted in...

A complete mess!

Sunday, we picked up our anniversary cakes from Cinda & went to visit Chris. We had another cookout at his house and we got to see some of our old friends. It was really great to catch up. Bailey got to meet everyone too. She loved running around in Chris' yard.

High fives for Uncle Chris! Haha.

We got up early Monday morning to drive home. We wanted to beat the traffic as much as possible. We were expecting the normal 4 1/2 hour drive to be closer to 6 or so hours but it was only 5! We had a great trip & I'm so excited for the next one in July. Bailey will finally get to meet her big cousin, Carter!