SHARPER

Update on Rachel

2011-10-27T15:50:00.000-05:00

My foster girl is getting adopted this weekend. She had many people interested in her and many applications were filled out, but there were so many delays. Rachel went through 2 rounds of a UTI and this time we are hitting it with more potent meds. Then she had a home visit a few weeks ago with a great couple, and for some reason they didn't follow through with the adoption. So finally, she got spayed yesterday, almost 6 months old. She is the last of the puppies to still be in the rescue. Joey and Pheobe were adopted. Chandler had something wrong with his esophagus and couldn't keep any food down. It wasn't really fixable, so sadly, he had to be euthanized. It was definitely heart breaking and with no doubt, his foster momma was devastated. I couldn't imagine this happening to my Rachel. I've had her for 2 months at least and she's definitely melted every heart that she came in contact with. Reuben got attached and they play often. Jason snuggles with her a lot. And I can't help but spoiling her with as much love as possible. The hardest part will be this weekend when we say goodbye to her. Meeting her new family and seeing their home last weekend really comforted me to know this is the best family for her. They will give her everything she wants and will love her. She seemed really happy on the home visit, too. I'll miss this girl.

My New Foster Dog, Rachel

2011-08-25T15:18:00.000-05:00

Meet Rachel.

She is 4 months old, full-blood yellow lab. She is sweet, precious and affectionate. Her and her siblings are named after the characters of the Friends TV show. - Rachel, Pheobe, Joey and Chandler.

But the best thing of all is she is the most well-behaved puppy I've ever had in my home.

She hasn't destroyed my couch within the last 24 hours. In fact, she hasn't destroyed anything. She stays with her toys and that's it.

She knows what No means and takes great offense to it. So she stays a good girl so she never has to hear it again.

100% accident free! So far, potty training has been way too easy. Even though she was kept in the shelters outdoors, she somehow knows her potty training. She goes outside everytime.

She sleeps through the entire night.

She is with Lonestar Lab Rescue. She isn't quite available just yet. We are making sure her and her littermates are strong and healthy for a few weeks. The litter of 4 were turned over into the shelter and I assume it was a breeder that couldn't sell them because they outgrew the cute little baby stage. GRRR.....If you are going to breed and you can't sell the litter to really great forever homes, then you need to take the responsibility and take care of them. These people just turned them over to a city kill shelter. Horrible! Not only that, but the owner didn't even vaccinate or get them to a vet at all! And then the shelter puts the puppies in outside kennels in this Dallas, TX heat. It's still triple digits every day. And they had a bazillion fleas all over them. All the fleas are gone now, but they have a lot of itchy bite marks. It looks like all of the puppies were allergic to fleas. Poor babies. She scratches so much.

Support Appreciated!

2011-08-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

I have another blog kicking about my on-going fitness. I'd love it if my friends that follow my personal blog, also hit up my fitness blog! I could use the support, yal! Love you!

Getting Beachbody Fit : http://beachbodysteph.blogspot.com/

Shhh...Roo is asleep!

2011-08-11T17:27:00.002-05:00

The Dogs Wanted A New Couch

2011-07-31T18:09:00.000-05:00

And what better way to tell me they want a new couch than to destroy the current one, right? Reuben and Arthur both woke me up early this morning. I took them out to potty and we came back in. They started playing and I went in the bedroom and passed back out in the bed. I didn't think anything of it until an hour later, I went back into the living room and this is what I saw.

So frustrated! They chewed up my expensive pair of glasses just a couple weeks ago!

So we spent our Sunday couch shopping. We decided to go with a leather/pleather couch this time. Something where I can easily wipe away dog hair and it doesn't absorb dog smells. I'm hoping it will hold up to dog nails, though. Here is what we ordered - an Ashley Alex Chocolate Sectional. It will arrive in 2 weeks.

What I LOVE about Ashley Furniture is they give a 5 year warranty on everything. Even if there is a hole, a rip, scratch or stain. They will come and repair it. If they can't fix it, it's replaced!

Bitey-Face Games

2011-07-14T07:28:00.002-05:00

Roo and Arthur play hours and hours of bitey-face these days. Here's a little snippet of what home-life is like around here now.

Meet Arthur

2011-07-12T16:06:00.000-05:00

So I have me a temporary foster boy. He'll be here for another week or 2. He was a stray in the Ft Worth shelter and on the EU list to be put down. DASH, Dallas Australian Shepherd and Herding dogs rescue came to his need. The problem was there weren't any fosters available at the time so they put him in a boarding kennel resort for dogs. He got a bath, but that was about as much grooming as they gave him. He stayed there for 30 days. I was contacted by a lady with DASH that knew of my love for Aussies and asked if I would take him for a few weeks. He was getting stir crazy and I wanted to get him out of there.

The poor fella had some wild hair and much of it was matted up. Even though he had a bath at the boarding, he was still very dirty. The kennel staff told me he was in really bad shape when he came in. He needed a hair cut really bad. His fur was very unhealthy, brittle and dry. Other parts were really oily and stuck together. You could smell the oil from far across the room. He was still dirty because when you bathe him, you couldn't get past the top layer of fur. And he had this huge thick lion's mane that was unruly. I felt bad for the guy, so I took him home and cleaned him up. I cut his fur pretty short in hopes that more healthy fur would grow in. I gave him a huge bath and it took so much hair off of him. His undercoat just fell out with the Furminator brand Shampoo and Conditioner. I trimmed his nails and cleaned some really nasty ears. I believe he has an ear infection and ear mites, so he goes to the vet tomorrow. But after his clean up, he felt like a million dollars! He looked so much better too. He had his bounce in his step, and he gave me a ton of kisses after it was over. He was such a happy guy. It felt good to me and worth all of the work.

Over last week, Arthur has become affectionate and very sweet. He plays with Reuben nonstop. I think he's become really attached to him. He has to be near Roo at all times. They love bitey-face games and will lay next to each other playing bitey-face for hours.

He's about 3-4 years old. He's pretty chill, not bouncing off the walls like Roo. He doesn't have a drive for balls or frisbees, but he's working on that. He isn't potty trained, but he's working on it. He just has trouble holding his bladder and I think maybe he has a UTI (also going to the vet for that). I think once that's cleared up, he'll be fine! It feels good to give him a chance to experience a home-life. We just adore him! :)

Here are some more pics of him:

Cure to my Bad Day

2011-07-08T17:18:00.000-05:00

Reuben seems to always know when it's been a bad day for me when I come home. Some how, some way...he knows.

So I came home yesterday, worn down from the stress and aggravation. All the dogs were there to greet me at the door. I said hello to each, and then I walked through the stampede of animals to make my way to the couch. Roo calms down fast, climbs on the couch, lays beside me, lays his head on my shoulder and gives me so many kisses until I giggle. I had to take a photo of our moment.

You can't beat the feeling of someone thinking the complete world of you. I love this boy.

Progress with Boot Camp

2011-07-05T12:47:00.000-05:00

Today, I begin my 13th week of boot camp. Each round is 5 weeks with a week of rest in between rounds. So this is the 3rd week of the 3rd round (15 weeks if you include rest weeks). I've lost 10lbs, lost about 6% body fat and many inches....don't remember the inches, but just trust me, it's a lot. My tummy is getting flat, the top row of my abs are showing when I contract, my arms are sporting some guns and I can do more lunges than you! I think this is the first time in my entire life that I've had this much muscle. And the compliments I get from everyone has been a great boost for me. I don't mind going to the pool and wearing a bathing suit in front of everyone like I used to.

The new 3rd round started with a lot of changes. Our boot camp instructor had moved on to better things. It upset me because he gave me that whole "I'll never give up on you and be by your side through your whole journey" speech during round 1. He has checked in on me, but its not the same.

He's also my Herbalife dude, and I'm starting to shy away from Herbalife for a little while. It sure is expensive and I hate that there is a pill for every little thing you want to change about your body. At the most, I was taking 4 pills in the morning, 3 pills for lunch, and another 4 pills at night. That's just for Herbalife. That doesn't include my medication that my doctor has me on. Also, I was taking Healthy Meal shake mix with Protein Drink mix and Prolessa Duo all mixed in a blender in the morning. Then at night, i had more healthy meal, more protein drink mix and some active fiber in a blender before bed. It's starting to become not only too expensive, but ridiculous. I was constantly thinking about Herbalife all day long. So I'm taking a little break and seeing if I can get the same results. I still consume my healthy meal and protein together if I need a protein shake after a workout.

It's not certain who our new instructor is. Three instructors switch days. One does all of the morning classes and the evening is sometimes shared or switch out with two other fellas. And I can tell I'm not the only one that is loosing interest. Each person has their different training styles, so you tend to pick a favorite and just go to that person's class. So now my attendance has dwindled. Not only that, but it's getting damn hot outside. It's difficult to do serious training in triple-digit heat! I might skip out the next round and get back into it in the fall. This heat is giving my heart rate some serious issues. During week 1, I felt light-headed, dizzy and nauseous. My heart rate goes into the 190s-200s which is a ridiculous high rate for anyone. I thought it was my asthma medication, so I stopped taking it. My heart rate is still high during workouts. During rest, it's completely normal.

Now if I can just keep going through the end of this round, I'd like to. But after this round, I'm not sure what to do for working out. I do know it better be inside with air conditioning! I've always wanted to try TurboFire and just kick ass in my own living room. Then pick up boot camp again in the Fall. We'll see!

Vibram FiveFingers

2011-07-02T00:45:00.000-05:00

These shoes got my attention when I saw my trainer wearing them back in Feb/March. He swore by them. They get your feet back to the basics that your body is meant to walk: barefoot. Many shoes are actually bad for your feet, legs and back. They angle your heel up and many running shoes also angle your toes up also. They also provide arch support, which is another thing your body wasn't made to have.

They make different models of these shoes for every type of activity you are using them for. I was planning to use them in fitness training and running. I found the Bikilas to be a better fit because of the slightly thicker sole on the bottom. But these shoes are extremely flexible. I can bend them and twist them in any way. Doing lunges and push ups really help me bend those toes in these shoes. And running in these help you build muscle in other places you didn't think you had! You can't get that with regular running shoes.

I've only had them for a couple of days, but I'm so ready to buy more pairs in the different models! I love these things!

Reuben's First Birthday!

2011-07-02T00:34:00.000-05:00

OMG! I never got around to posting about Reuben's first birthday!

We ordered a peanut bone-shaped birthday cake with "Reuben" written on it. He loved it and Jaymie got a big ol' piece, too! Jaymie couldn't keep it from sticking to the roof of her mouth. It was so funny to watch her with her head kicked back and licking away at the air.

Roo's birthday present was a Kong Snugga-Wubba. He loves Wubba's and this was a different kind. It's made out of fleece. And as of today, it's already de-stuffed and destroyed. Jaymie enjoyed it too. They played tug with that thing for hours every day. Now he plays with a Kong de-stuffed beaver. But anyway...He LOVED HIS BIRTHDAY!

As for me, I got a little teary-eyed. My baby is no longer a puppy. I went over his baby photos and realized just how fast he grew. And now that he's an adult, he tells me he doesn't have to be in his crate while we are away from the house. He hasn't chewed or destroyed anything and so he has free roam of the house while I'm at work. I will admit, my trust in him isn't totally there. I do push everything back from the edge of the counter. I know he'll still counter-surf if given a reason to. lol

Wet Reuben

2011-06-06T15:12:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the crappy quality, but this was taken with my phone. This was after a long swim in the lake. He's starting to dry off, but his stance is so regal. I guess the swim really made him confident! He has really taken to the water this summer. He will swim all over for toys or just to be with us. I have a little floaty raft out with us for him to dock onto.

Oh I think I forgot to post about Roo's birthday! I'll have to get those together and make a post tomorrow about it!

More Pics of Lola

2011-06-06T15:08:00.000-05:00

Lola has gotten more comfortable with getting her pictures taken. At first, she would only allow me to take pictures of her with my phone. She didn't like the dSLR. It was a big flashy thing that made weird noises and she was scared. I think these photos show that she's totally cool with the big flashy-clicky-thingy.

Lola

2011-06-03T15:43:00.000-05:00

After many days of being a sleepy and hungry dog, her grouchy mood went away and now she's the happiest dog! It's like night and day! Her personality has come out and now she's BFFs with Reuben. They play all over the house. Roo has taught her how to play tug, too! Not only does she get along with my dogs, but she also gets along with my cat! She follows me around and demands her head rubs and attention. She loves affection and she's so sweet. She's such a great dog and she'll definitely be a great addition to anyone's family. I hope to find her a great home soon!

As far as rescues and shelters go, I've gotten the runaround and some have completely ignored me! I'm completely baffled! Over the years past, I've attended, supported and donated to rescues and their benefits. I've been highly active in them. This is the one time I've actually needed their help and they all turned their back on me. I watch as they take in all these owner surrenders of dogs that are in bad shape and probably not even adoptable, but they wouldn't dare take this dog that my boyfriend and I risked our lives saving her in the middle of a freeway! Not to mention, she's a full blood chocolate lab, cute as can be, young and spayed already! This girl is VERY adoptable! It's upset me so much that I don't know if I want to support them anymore, ya know? I was trying to decide on which organization I was going to be a foster for in the near future when I got a house. But now they've convinced me that I might not want to work with them at all. I may just start my own little foster rescue! Perhaps this is why there are so many little rescue foster groups out there....everyone wants to start their own because they don't want to work with the bigger ones. Who knows. But as of right now, they've all pissed me off.

So here I am, with this rescue and no money to get her checked by a vet or vaccinations/microchip so that she would be ready for adoption. And any day now, my landlord will notice the new addition and either fine me big money or evict me. Quite stuck in the situation.

Run, Lola, Run!

2011-05-25T13:55:00.000-05:00

Guess where I found this baby girl? Running in the middle of the freeway. Yep. We have named her Lola since she was frantically running for her life.

Last Sunday evening, we were about an hour away from home. We were going to pick up my car in another town that had some vinyl wrap graphics work. We were in a rush to beat out a storm that was on it's way. You could see a lot of lightning in the distance and could hear the thunder. It started to sprinkle. The traffic down this freeway was going well over 70 mph. All of a sudden, traffic ahead of us slams on their breaks. I thought there was a wreck ahead, but noticed people proceeded to slowly pass through and drive on. Then I saw her, frightened to death, running as fast as she could and glancing back at our headlights every now and then. Jason stops in the far lane and I'm trying to call her to come. She runs into another lane with an 18-wheeler that was passing through. He slams on his breaks and I see her hunch down in fear. I hide my face. I just knew she was hit and I didn't want to see.

showing off her new pink collar

She didn't get hit. Instead she ran around and hopped into the driver's side of our car. She was panting so hard and hid her face under my arms. She was shaking and so stressed out. Caked in dried mud and in sticker burrs, I held her the whole way to our destination. She rode in my car on the way back home. Another hour and a half drive in a terrible storm. She kept wanting to get in my lap to hide, but everytime the lightning lit up the sky brightly, she ran to hide in the floorboard on the passenger side. So I'm guessing she is afraid of storms and this is how she got to running away in the first place.

Finally at home, it was immediate bath time. I can't believe how much mud washed off of her. She was so stressed. She DOES NOT like baths! lol The sticker burrs would take another couple days to work out. She didn't like our dogs at first, and had to keep them separated (in a 1bdrm apartment, that's hard to do). But over a couple days, she's warmed up to them and now we can all be in the same room, chilling on the same couch. I've discovered that she can walk on a leash, house broken, happy to greet as many people on our walks as possible, knows what play toys are, knows how to communicate with people. She's protective of her bowl, bed and toys around other dogs, but not with me. She gives a warning growl, but nothing more. But it's enough to make my dogs afraid of her, so I can't keep her long. It's not fair to my dogs.

I really hope to find her owners. She had no collar and after a scan, she does not have a microchip. I've posted daily on Craigslist, made 2 pet amber alert sightings this week, been in contact with several rescue groups in the area that are getting the word out about Lola, and have made "found" reports with sooooo many shelters. I've also posted on petfinder, lostandfound.com, Pets 911, pet harbor, spca lost/found, petango and who knows what else. I've done so much! I came up with so many leads, but they came to a dead end. I'm now starting to think we are in a foster situation of finding a good home for her. And I hope to do it quickly as we aren't allowed to have anymore animals with the landlord and I don't want to stress out my dogs anymore. I enjoy fostering her, but I might be finding a rescue org to take her soon. She's so sweet, beautiful, happy and affectionate. I know she'll make a wonderful pet for someone!

My Butt Is Big...(Nike Women Ad)

2011-05-08T16:27:00.000-05:00

Boot Camp Drama

2011-04-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

The next morning after Thyroid Drama, I got up at 4:30am to get ready for boot camp class. I can't just sit back and allow myself to get fatter than I already am. So it's back to work out and watch my classmates loose weight, while I stay the same.
I told my trainer, Bijai, about the news and my frustrations. In case you are just tuning in, he's my boot camp instructor and my Herbalife nutrition coach. But I say "trainer" because not only is it easier to say, but I kind of get that as a bonus. He gives me workout homework outside of boot camp and guides me the way in my weight loss. I also like that he has also had other hypothyroid patients as clients, so he knew all about the problem pretty well. So Bijai was also disappointed in the results, but was relieved that this was the reason I wasn't loosing weight. It's not a mystery anymore. He was also very proud that I came to class. He kind of wondered if I would continue this or not.
I struggled through the strength portion of class that morning. I knew it was because of my pity party I had the night before. A lot of crying and a lot of eating = horrible workout performance. And to be honest, I didn't want to really give it my all. I was still pissed off at my "situation" and probably wasn't mentally ready for a hardcore workout.
It wasn't until the cardio portion at the end of class, when Bijai pushed me too far. He sent his slowest people out to run laps first -- me and another girl. We start jogging our lap, unaware of why we were sent out when no one else was. Once I got to the other side of the lap, I hear a stampede rumbling behind us. Then I hear Bijai yell "DON'T LET THEM PASS YOU!!!" I'm like "what the hell?!" So I start running as fast as I can. Now I'm in sprint mode = dying mode.
Well, everyone passes me and I feel my heart rate rising. I keep a heart rate monitor on me to keep a close eye on it. My heart rate gets waaaay too high. I don't know why but it will get way past my calculated maximum at times. I'm supposed to keep it below 175, but I've seen it at 197 before. It's often over the 175.
So...everyone passes me and for punishment, we all have to run another lap. And I'm the reason why everyone has to run again. So embarrassing!
During the extra lap, my chest started to burn. I glanced at my heart rate monitor and it read 195. So I slowed down to a light jog and I could hear Bijai yelling at me to pick it up. So I go back into a run, but my chest was hurting so bad, that I immediately went into a walk. He yells - "Don't give up! Don't you dare!" The finish line was close and everyone was there waiting on me. I was breathing so hard, and my chest hurt so bad. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I don't know if it was because of the pain, the frustration, being pissed off or being upset at my thyroid drama. But in my mind I was saying - "omg, please don't cry during boot camp!" It was cool down time, so I was the first to leave the track to head back to our cool down mats on the building roof over.
As we laid on our backs with our knees pulled into our chests, the sun had come up for the morning and it was a cloudy day. (I love morning classes, because the sun comes up right at the time of cool down and it's surreal) I pulled my knees in tighter and watched the clouds rolling up above me. I was drowning any chatter out and it was just me, my mat and the clouds.
But then Bijai came into focus as he pushed down on my legs to help me get a deeper stretch. He looked down at me and gave me a motivating speech I'll never forget. When thoughts of giving up pop in my head, I'll come back to this moment. I don't remember exactly word for word, but I do remember him telling me that this is my journey, my story to tell. I'm here and I'm fighting. It will be a hard fight, harder than most people have to fight to loose weight, but I have the drive and strength to do it. It might take a long time but Bijai says he'll be right beside me every step of the way if I want him to be. He says he's not going to give up on me, when other people have. I've even had doctors give up on me in the past. It hasn't been pretty. But I found a solid rock that will help and support me. I need this and I needed that talk. He says "you may be pissed at me this morning, but be pissed at yourself for not giving it your all. That's what happens when I have to push you because you won't" Tears were welling up and running from the outside corners of my eyes, down to my mat. It was clear that I wasn't mentally ready for working out today. I was pissed at him for making me run so hard, but it was clear that my emotions were because of my thyroid drama. Perhaps he needed to push me to that point so we could have that talk. I'm not sure. But I do know that I will treasure the words. They will be my fuel to keep going.
Later that morning, I got a text from him - "You did great today boss. I hope you understand that I won't give up on you losing weight." I think I'm trusting my trainer more than my doctor these days.

Thyroid Drama

2011-04-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, it was time for my annual thyroid checkup. My thyroid had been at an okay level for the past couple of years, that I graduated to only annual checkups, rather than the 3-month and 6-month checkups. So with my crazy workouts and amazing healthy eating habits, I wasn't loosing any weight...and I mean NOTHING. So I wasn't surprised to get a call back from my doctor to come see him soon to discuss my lab results. I knew something was wrong.
I went to see him on Thursday afternoon and he tells me that my thyroid is very slow. Not sure when or why things have gotten worse, but they have. My TSH sky rocketed and that my T4 plummeted. After taking a resting metabolism test, it showed my metabolism was greatly affected.
How can it get worse, you ask? This was stressing the hell out of my adrenal glands even more than usual. I had mass amounts of cortisol. So, while my slow metabolism was making it impossible to loose the weight, my adrenal glands were producing so much cortisol, which told my body to store more fat.
All of my work, sweat, tears, effort and time to loose weight was just to keep from getting fatter. I was so frustrated and cried in the doctor's office.
So here we go. I'm getting my Armour medication increased from 120mg to 150mg. This is just for 2 months and then based on another test, I'll have it increased it again. The problem with thyroid medication is that you can only increase medication at small increments over a long period of time. So this will take a while to get my thyroid hormones back to a normal level. In fact, my doctor said it will take at least 4 more months before I can be back to good and can start to loose weight.
4 months...4 more months of struggling to not get as fat as a house. It's a constant fight...a very hard fight.
My adrenal gland medicine will not be changing. My doc says that my adrenals will chill out once my thyroid is happy again.
I was devastated! I drove home crying. I told my trainer that I couldn't make it to boot camp that evening. I stayed home and had a really big pity party. I ate what I wanted and it was all drama.

The Game "Where Are We?"....staring Reuben

2011-04-04T14:19:00.001-05:00

Rock Star Boot Camp

2011-03-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

Scared? Yep. These guys run this 5-week boot camp called Rock Star in several locations within Dallas. I joined on Tuesday. I'm still having trouble moving today. My 2nd class is tonight. Have mercy on me!

These guys are serious about getting their peeps in shape and they are pushy! Just what I need...I think. During the hour, it's kind of like...well....like a military boot camp of working out. We don't get punished or anything and you can always "fall out of line" if needed, but they do bark orders and they do motivate you to push yourself. They don't insult you or get up in your face like military, so it's probably not like the military at all. I wouldn't know, I've never been to real boot camp. I do know that my heart rate monitor reported that I burned 570 calories during the hour. Anyway, one of the trainers (not pictured, but trust me, he's just as big and just as tough) is my Herbalife nutrition coach. Herbalife is another subject on another sunny day. :)

Dropping Biddy Off at the Hospital

2011-03-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

Kissed Biddy good bye as I dropped him back off at the dealership. They hooked me up with a 2011 MINI Clubman S for a loaner. But I love my car the best, so I hope it's an easy fix and there is an end to the MINI drama!

MINI Drama Continues...Cold Engine Start with Idle Issues

2011-03-29T11:57:00.003-05:00

Biddy definitely doesn't want to idle in the morning. I guess he's gotten to be a little fussy. I don't blame him, though. I'm not much of a morning person either! I guess we have more in common than I thought.

So this morning, I decided to record a typical morning startup since I got him back from the shop. I hope it will show the technicians what I'm talking about. When I start it up, it's in neutral and I'm not pressing any petals. I even have the AC turned off. Notice the RPM needle jumping above and below the 1k and you can hear it revving up. That's not me. It's doing it on it's own.

That's not the part that bothers me.

Once it stabilizes just below 1k, I give it a little gas above 3k RPM and then I take my foot off of the gas. Watch what happens. The needle drops down almost to 0 RPM, the car shakes, rattles and almost dies.

It kicks back in and stabilizes back up to just below 1k. I do it again, give it a little gas and take off my foot off of the petal, and the car almost dies again.

This explains why the car died at the first stop sign yesterday morning while I put the car in neutral and it idled down to a death. Once I start driving it, Biddy wakes up and behaves.

Poor Biddy! (pssst...Biddy is my MINI CooperS)

2011-03-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

Ugh...I've been through some serious MINI Cooper drama over the past couple of months!

I've only had my '07 MINI Cooper S for a year now, but man, this year is finishing out with a bang! When I bought "Biddy," my car, it was my first time buying a used car. I've bought new in the past because the secure reliability of a full warranty and ....well...it's new. My boyfriend assures me that it's perfectly okay to get a used car, as long as you check the car fax, make sure it has low mileage, and it still has warranty left on it. Even though I had my worries, I fell in love with Biddy the moment we met, and I brought him home from the MINI dealership in Arlington, TX in March of last year. I learned that he was in great condition, and was a leased car during his first few years of life. He has all the bells and whistles and some of the biggest upgrade packages available.

I LOVE MY CAR!!! Love him so much I became obsessed with the MINI brand and joined a huge MINI social car club in Dallas. Every day, it was all about my MINI! I couldn't have asked for a better car! He has a ton of power, hugs every turn, and just overall so much fun to drive.

Then last year, late in the summer, I started getting a sticky sunroof. No biggy, just bring it on down to the dealership and get it fixed. I brought it to the dealership in Dallas, because it was closer than the dealership I bought it from and they are huge sponsors of our club. They gave me a loaner and it took 2 weeks for them to get it fixed for good.

Then when the cold weather came in, I noticed a weird rattle noise when I started up the car in the morning. This was known as "the death rattle" in MINI speak. It had to do with the timing chain tensioner would get too stretched and start to rattle. I took it back to the dealership in Dallas, no biggy. But then they found out I had a big oil consumption problem on top of that. They replaced a valve cover which was believed to be the fix.

A few weeks after that, I noticed my oil was low again, so I took it back and they found a leak in the oil pan gasket. Again, no biggie. It was fixed. But by this time I was becoming quite used to dropping my car off and driving a loaner.

This is where it gets juicy. What I was really scared about was that my warranty was coming to a close in March '11 (now). So at the beginning of February, during a big deep freeze, I started up my car to find took a little longer to start up and the idle was really rough. I thought it just needed a moment to warm up. But then...my check engine light came on. Holy crap! Just before my warranty is up! I bring it down to MINI of Dallas again to get it fixed.

A week later, they replaced the high pressure fuel pump. They took it out for a test drive and the engine light comes back on. This time it pulls up a different code. They did something else at that point, I forgot what it was. But they also did a smoke test through the intake to check for leaks. No leaks. They take it for another test drive and then the car overheats. They find out that the thermostat went out. So then they replace that. Five weeks later....yes, I said FIVE WEEKS LATER...I was told that they couldn't figure out the problem. The check engine light keeps coming back on. Now they are in contact with engineers at MiniUSA (the corp) about the problem. They wanted to check everywhere for carbon buildup.

That was the last I heard before 7 weeks had passed. Yes...I said SEVEN WEEKS! Then I get a call telling me that my car was ready to pickup! YAY!

I get there, and there is Biddy, staring at me. I gave him a HUGE hug and had my service advisor take a pic. lol It was a really big deal!

Biddy comes home with me just fine. But when I get to the house, I sat idle for a bit, looking around the inside of my car...admiring my baby. I noticed a quick glimpse of smoke in my rear view mirror. I got out of it, ran to the back and there is smoke coming out of the exhaust. All of a sudden, the car is having trouble staying idle. It was just a really rough idle. It was shaky.

I call my service advisor immediately and he goes to speak with the technician. He calls me back and tells me that If the check engine light is still off, I needed to keep driving it until it comes on. Eventually the smoke will cause more buildup and the engine light will come back on. I was so shocked! From what I gathered from the conversation is that MiniUSA (the corp) told MINI of Dallas that my car is fixed until the light comes back on. When the light comes back on, then we can go to the next step. I was pissed. Why on earth do I have to drive a smoking car around?!

I wanted to cry.

Jason came home and I showed him the problem. I sat it neutral and gassed it and a lot of smoke came out. On Saturday morning, it was much less smoke, but some buildup material had blown out of the exhaust and dusted the cement under it. I drove it around that day and it drove really well. I had no more problems. The smoke went away and everything was happy again. I was so happy to have Biddy back.

Sunday, I didn't go anywhere, so Biddy had a day's rest.

Monday morning (today), I started it up, drove out of the parking lot and stopped at the stop sign. The car had such a rough idle that it shook and then died immediately. I started it back up and it ran better. I was able to make it to work. I got to work and went back to neutral for a minute. Then I tried to get into first gear, which was kind of hard to do. I was wondering why on earth it was hard to put the stick into first? Then I gassed it and a felt a puff of smoke come out of the exhaust because it kind of gave a little push and a "poof" noise. Then i drove, but I noticed shifting got a little more rough. I don't know if the shifting is my imagination or what.

During lunch today, I started it up and sat in neutral to watch the rough idle continue. It would get shaky, make a deep exhaust noise and then it would regain control.

I told my service advisor about my day and he FINALLY said that I could bring it back when they have a loaner available. Don't know when that would be, but Biddy is going back to the "hospital" again. My warranty is now done for, but since this case was opened during my warranty, it's still covered.

Weight loss update

2011-03-22T10:26:00.000-05:00

It's been a little over a month since I started dieting and working out...AGAIN. The first week was awesome, and the scale completely stopped for 2 solid weeks after that. And I mean seriously stopped, all the way down to the decimal. Ah....such the life of a hypothyroid. Weight loss never seems possible. I was doing 2 circuit training classes (30 Day Shred and EA Active2) back-to-back which were really wearing me down. Then immediately following that, I was doing my cardio (Zumba). This was about 6 days a week. On my one off day, i'd just do some Zumba. That was in addition to consuming 1200 calories a day.

Did some research and found out that if I go over a 1000 calorie deficit for the day, I may be going into starvation mode which will stall. Also, I needed to zig zag my calories so that my metabolism doesn't slow down. So I bought a heart rate monitor with a chest strap to accurately monitor what my calorie burn was for every workout. I was burning 600-700 calories per day during my workouts. And my calorie intake was already set at a 500 deficit. So I was definitely going over that 1000 calorie deficit everyday. So I adjusted, ate back some of my workout calories to keep under the 1000 deficit, while zig zagging also. It was a miracle, because I lost half a pound during the 4th week. I was thrilled!

I continued that for the 5th week,and I gained a full pound. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. I was really upset. Someone told me that I may be working out too much. So for the 5th week, I went on break and went on vacation. I went to Austin and ate some things I shouldn't have ate. I didn't workout, but I walked a lot through downtown and went hiking on one day. I was soooo scared to climb back on the scale when I got home. Guess what happened? I lost 1.5 lbs!!! What the hell!! How does that even make sense??

So...new plan for this week: I'm working out every other day. Since I have finished the Cardio Kickstart program on EA Active2, I'm going to give it a rest for a while. I'll just be focusing on 30 Day Shred and Zumba. This is every other day now, and on the off days, I'll take the dog for a nice long walk. That way I'm still active, but it will be very low intense.

On a Weight Loss Mission.....AGAIN

2011-02-26T23:07:00.000-06:00

Putting my crappy thyroid issues aside, I'm trying to fight through it with hard work. I can't just sit around and use my thyroid as an excuse that it's impossible. And no more fad diets or crazy plans. I've gone back to the basics....counting calories and working out.

I've found out that MyFitnessPal.com is awesome! Not only is it a calorie tracker, but you set goals and there is a MASSIVE community for support. It's also set up in a social Facebook style. You make friends, and can post a status that goes on your friends' news feeds. If you lost weight, it notifies your friends and you can even share your calorie daily diary. You also can keep a blog for everyone to see. The amazing support from everyone has been great! It really keeps you motivated and going. Reading all the success stories and strategies everyone has has been relieving. I highly recommend this website! Oh and the most convenient thing is they have free apps for the major smart phones, iPhone, Android, etc.

I've learned a lot from this website and it's a great tool! So, week 2 is finished. I've lost a total of 5.5 pounds. The 5.5 pounds were actually lost during the first week. This 2nd week finished at a stall. I'm trying not to let the stall bum me out.

In addition to doing the calorie reduction (1200 calories, but I think I might try the zig zag method), my workouts have been EA Active 2 and Zumba Fitness. I've been doing the Cardio Kickstart 3-week program on the EA Active 2. When that's finished, I'll go on to the full 9-week program. Zumba Fitness on the Wii has been a BLAST! It was really hard at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was very fun! It's a great cardio burner.

But I still think that it's not enough working out, so in addition to the EA Active and Zumba, I've ordered some Jillian Michaels DVDs that were highly recommended on My Fitness Pal.
1- 30 Day Shred - I heard this is really hard, like P90X hard. I'm scared of it.
2- Banish Fat Boost Metabolism - my metabolism just plain sucks. So I'm hoping this will help.
3- No more trouble zones - this belly and butt needs to go!

I'll keep ya updated!

Roo and Pedigree Commercials

2011-02-16T16:11:00.002-06:00

He loves them a lot.

Holy Sweet Neglected Blog!

2011-02-11T17:09:00.001-06:00

Oh my poor bloggy blog! I feel so horrible but I have not forgotten. Things got busy and before I knew it, the habit of updating my blog and checking with all my blog subscriptions completely went away. I have so much catching up to do! I have to catch up with the other doggies I've used to follow! Yikes!

Well, let me tell you about my Roo. He is almost 9 months old - holy crap! He's pushing 50 lbs...holy jeebus! He has turned into a handsome young man! He got the "snip-snip" back in November. And ever since then, his affectional side came out. He's now a snuggle bug when he's settled. He now likes to lay in the bed and on the couch with us. He's just so sweet! But he's still loud, barking about everything. He's very vocal. He's way too smart, it sometimes scares me. Like, seriously scary. He has turned out to be such an amazing dog. It was well worth all the struggles I went through during his puppy-hood.

Here are some recent photos of him playing in the snow.

I'll start with a model shot. He still knows when mom has the camera out.

Beautiful boy!

Lets see....he LOVES his frisbee. He can't do any crazy jumps or not really good at catching either, but he loves it. He chases it and he's obsessed with it. He just doesn't know that he should be running out ahead of my throw. And I have no idea how to teach him how to do that. Instead, he sits in front of me, eyeing the frisbee and going insane until I throw it. We took the frisbee out in the snow that day. We are using the KONG frisbee. It's rubber, floppy and VERY durable!

I have a couple of videos of him playing in the snow and chasing his frisbee. But I haven't got them off of my phone. That'll be in another post (in the near future, I promise!)

He also modeled off his CAB (Cute Aussie Butt).

Here are a few others that are equally as cute!

This is what they call taco frisbee

and this is what happens when the frisbee is lost in the snow

This is how our day ended. We couldn't find the frisbee. We had to wait a couple days for everything to melt. Roo was really happy to see his frisbee again.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

Catching Up!

2010-10-11T17:26:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have completely neglected my blog and all of the blogs I follow for the past week or so. I've been trying to concentrate more on other things, including some soul searching to correct my negative outlook on life lately. I've also been spending every free moment with Jason and working on the things we plan to work on. Everything is working out perfectly so far. :)

Reuben is doing well and he's becoming the popular kid at the dog park with the other dogs. He has also started to slightly hike his leg sometimes. He's becoming so handsome! He's 4.5 months old now and weighing in at 30 lbs! His personality just shines. Due to financial reasons, we didn't continue his obedience schooling, and it's starting to show. He's definitely trying to push the boundaries and going through some teenager rebellion at times. I'm sorry, I haven't been taking any pics in the past 2 weeks, but I plan to get some taken and posted soon!

I've been getting back to yoga when I get time in the evenings and the meditation has really helped me tap in some inner issues I didn't realize were issues. It's been tough to keep Reuben away during my yoga sessions. If I put him in a separate room or in a crate, he cries and barks which is very distracting. Since it's been a long time, I've gone back to beginner poses and a few intermediate. I'm discovering that my flexibility is crappy again.

Since my doctor had taken me off of HCG (my blood pressure got dangerously low), I didn't end it correctly and go through the phase 3 process of getting my hypothalamus reset. I had lost about 20lbs on HCG, but had gained 10 of those pounds back, possibly 12 lbs. I was so angry about the whole thing and completely didn't care about what I ate. Now I'm just angry with myself and I don't feel like the confident person I was. Being intimate and outgoing completely faded and it put a strain on my relationship.

So, after realizing that, I decided to go for a Round 2 of HCG. This time, without my doctors approval or monitoring. He had me on a prescription gel. But this time, I'm taking homeopathic drops that go under your tongue. You don't have to have a prescription for it. It's still the same exact diet that I did last time. I hope i don't go insane from the short list of things I can eat. I will be starting sometime later this week, as soon as it arrives in the mail. I'm hoping to go the full 43 days. Last time, the doc pulled me off at 27 days into it. I hope I can mentally stay strong against cravings and temptations. Having grilled chicken breast for the 100th time in a row is not fun. I haven't even ate an apple since that diet, either. I think I ate 3 full bags of apples last time....ugh. And I've sworn off white fish for life. I now hate it after that diet. So yay....this is going to be great, right? lol What will be awesome is the first week is called "honeymoon week." It's where you loose the most weight and last time I lost 12 lbs in that first week. It's a wonderful motivator. It's just after that, when everything slows down, things start to suck. grrr.

I'll get some new pics up soon!

Happy Updates!

2010-09-28T23:01:00.001-05:00

First of all, thank you so much to all of you for your kind and heart-felt words. They helped me so much to get through those rough days. It's amazing how wonderful people are on blogger, people I've never met before. It has really touched me. Thank you so so so so much!

He's back and it's happy times again! Didn't take long before he realized that's not what he wanted. The more he thought about it, the more he knew it wasn't right. He came home and we talked. The more he talked, the more he confused himself. It was kind of like an early mid-life crisis of sorts. He wanted to go back to the days of being single and crazy. He reminisced how fun those days were. He wanted to relive those days again, but he only just went to his parents house and stayed there and was sad the whole time. Everything reminded him of me. All I can say is, THANK GOD! I will never take every day we have together for granted ever again. I learned to cherish every minute.
We are working on a lot of things, yes, both of us! My goal is not to be so damn boring all of the time. I get home from work and I'm just way too tired to much of anything. I just sit on the couch all night and then it's bed time. I need to work not being such a bummer. And forcing myself to get up and being a joy to be around as been....well...wonderful! It's actually making me feel better. I'm working out more and getting back to YOGA. Oh how I miss my yoga. It's tough to get back into it, but it feels so good afterwards.

On another note, Saturday morning was quite unusual. I got up at the usual 7 a.m., because Roo says I should. I took both him and Jaymie out to potty and back inside. I fed them breakfast, made sure there wasn't anything on the floor for the dogs to chew on, then I shut the bedroom door and went back to bed. Usually, this does not work. I usually hear Reuben making tons of noise: barking, growling, yelping and whatever else noise he can make while playing. But on this morning, it was very very quiet. And I was able to sleep for an hour and half. I should have known it was too quiet. Because somehow, Roo pulled down a whole loaf of wheat bread off of our kitchen counter. I can't believe he could reach that high! The whole loaf was completely gone, just some crumbs, plastic wrap and a twisty-tie laid on the floor. Roo would be the only one that could closely reach the bread, but Jaymie showed that she ate more than her share. Her belly was bulging! She looked like a round marble. And the water bowl was completely empty. After refilling it, they were fighting over the water. I can't imagine how thirsty they were after all of that bread. It took all day before Jaymie started looking normal again and we had to go out for many potty breaks. Now I'm scooting everything away from the counter edge!

And then today, Roo went to pee and then as if something over came him, he felt like lifting his leg. He wasn't hiking it on anything, but just held it up off of the ground. I got so excited and Roo ran up to me and started barking and licking my face. OMG!!! My boy is all grown up!

Oh okay, I can't write a long post without posting some new pics of the babies, right?

3 years down the drain

2010-09-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

And although I know my life isn't over, it sure does feel like it tonight. It fell all around me.

I thought everything was going fine. Just yesterday, we were laughing and having a great time. Today, he tells me he's been unhappy. He says he doesn't like "playing house." The daily routine is too real for him. I'm a bore, I guess. He packed some clothes and left today.

I sit in shock. I was blind sided. I had been ready for two years to go a step further in our relationship. I was waiting for that moment that would hit him - when he thinks about his future, he will think of me. When he thinks about his life, he will think of me. I watched as our friends got married over the time we have been together. One of my best friends got married last weekend. Another one will be getting married next month. I thought my turn was coming around soon. It never happened. Even though he's 30, he wasn't ready to grow up. I don't know if he ever will be.

I don't party as much as I used to. He wants a party girl. Funny, huh? Most guys want a real strong woman. He wants a fake girl that parties and will be his DJ groupie for life. I stopped going to his gigs every damn weekend and started to do things on my own. You know, have a life of my own, so I'm not following him around like a puppy. I wanted to make my own friends, instead of being friends with his fans. Now he thinks I don't show any support. I guess he wants someone that will give up their life to wait on him hand and foot. Cheer him on 24/7 as he plays gigs at cheap parties and raves. Shine a beacon of light onto the 16 year old girls in their bra and panties dancing in front of the DJ booth. I'm turning 30 in 2 months, perhaps I was reaching his age limit on a woman.

I have no idea. All I know is in all of the three years we were together and lived together, I thought we were happy. I was happy. He was my world. The only guy I went for after my divorce 5 years ago. Hell, I think I'm more heartbroken over this than my divorce. I'm in a lot of pain. I'm a complete mess. I now know I was always in 2nd place to the DJing, or was it 2nd to the fans, or was it 2nd to the parties, raves and getting drunk?

I'm alone, but not completely. My dogs are taking care of me. It's the first time I saw Roo show genuine concern. He hasn't left my side. I might not be good enough or a bore. But my dogs think I am their world. That's what will keep me alive tonight. I'm not sure how the rest of the nights will go. I'm not sure of anything right now.

Wordless Wednesday and Twinkie's Tongue Contest!

2010-09-22T12:27:00.002-05:00

edit: I just found out about Twinkie's Tongue Contest! How funny is that I posted a pic of the dogs making funny faces for the camera, including Jaymie sticking out her tongue for Wordless Wednesday. Does this count for itty bitty tongue portion of the contest?

Reuben wants to join in, too. I think his tongue is growing bigger than his head!

"Sallie Mae - It's All About Burstin' Dream Bubbles"

2010-09-20T15:01:00.003-05:00

I tried to get a private student loan today with Sallie Mae. It didn't take long to get a denied reply for a measly $3k loan.

I've been DYING for a career change for the past year. I don't want to sit at a desk and deal with the corporate bullshit for little tiny paychecks for the rest of my life. If I'm going to get shit pay, why can't I at least enjoy what I do? I'm not getting anything out of this. No money, no self-reward/fulfillment, no happiness, all stress, long hours, answering to several bosses, sitting and staring at a computer for 8-10 hours a day, no challenges, no learned skills, etc.

I've been REALLY wanting to get a certification in dog obedience training and found a distance learning school that was book study for the first 6 months and then the end half of the year was hands-on apprentice. Then there was continued education in special animal behaviors and another in private in-home training. All of it would be just $3k, a tiny fraction of what my bachelors degree had cost. This was the perfect start for me to get out there and change things up now! It was affordable and had financial aid with Sallie Mae. And since I'm already paying a ton in student loans from my bachelors degree, I definitely needed more financial aid, as I didn't have any money for a down payment for school. When I graduated at SFASU, I owed Sallie Mae $25k, and I had paid about $10k of that off as of today. I had never missed a payment, and even had payments auto-drafted every single month since graduation. So....you would think Sallie Mae likes me?....obviously not.

I'm completely crushed and feel like I'm stuck at this dead end job for the rest of my life. I had been dreaming of this new career for a while and now it's dead. Time to make a date with Mr. Blue Bell tonight.

Bitey-Face Games

2010-09-19T20:03:00.000-05:00

RAWRRR!!!

Roo's Sensitive Side

2010-09-17T17:43:00.001-05:00

"Mom, that's so cool that you came home early today! But why are you just laying there? You sniffle and you cough. I don't like this. I want you to play with me!! ....okay, fine, I'll try to lay with you and be sweet.

.......
(1 minute passes)
......

Does this mean you can't really supervise me around the house? Whelp...see ya later!"

Reuben & Jaymie want to help a dog!

2010-09-16T11:30:00.001-05:00

So we thought all dogs had an Auss-some home with cool parents that spoil them and a cat to pester. But my mom told me that that's not true. We found out that there are 4 million dogs that are homeless in shelters per year and they greatly depend on people to adopt them and take them home and give them food, and love and a cat to pester, of course. I can't believe this! I just can't imagine what it must be like to be without a home! But when mom said if we posted on the blog between now and this Sunday about Pedigree's Auss-some charity, Pedigree will give out a 20lb bag of Pedigree brand dog food to one shelter dog. Can you believe that?! I don't even know what 20lbs looks like, but I think that's a HUGE BAG!!! That's great news!

Not only that, but our mom went to their Facebook page and clicked "Like" to become a fan, and Pedigree will give a bowl of dog food to another shelter dog! Right now, over a million bowls of dog food have been given. PEDIGREE ROCKS!

So check it out! You can help too!!!

........................................................

Each year, more than 4 million dogs end up in shelters and breed rescue organizations. Pedigree created The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive to help shine a spotlight on the plight of these homeless dogs.

This year the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive is raising awareness for homeless dogs by donating a bowl of food to shelter dogs for everyone who becomes a "Fan" or "Likes" the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. So far more than 1 million bowls have been donated.

Special for BlogPaws West: For each blog that posts about the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive through September 19, PEDIGREE will donate a bag of its new Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to shelters nationwide. It's simple: Write a post, help a dog.

Thursday, September 16 through Sunday, September 19, the Pedigree BlogPaws bloggers will host a Blog Hop to help raise awareness for the "Write a post, help a dog" effort. (blog hop is below)

Tell as many of your blogger friends as you can, so we can help even more dogs. And if you don't have a blog, please tweet about this using the hashtag #dogsrule, re-tweet this post, or share on Facebook to help spread the word even further!

Disc Dogs!

2010-09-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of videos from the disc dogs freestyle demo that the Dallas Dog & Disc Club put on at the Operation Kindness Dog Day Afternoon last Saturday. You might want to extend to full size because my iphone doesn't want to zoom to fill the screen. Aren't they incredible?!!!

Here are some pics of them doing their thang.

"I'm A Big Kid Now!"

2010-09-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

Not only did Roo turn 16 weeks old today, but he graduated puppy kindergarten yesterday! Yay! He aced it with flying colors and we might be starting intermediate obedience classes in a couple of weeks. The next class was "Basic" which I guess is like an elementary, but Reuben actually sort of tested out of it. The trainer feels that he can move on to intermediate. I hope to get him CGC certified later on, so I do want to continue his classes.

He gained 2 lbs this week! Whoa! He's seriously going through a major growth spurt and now he weighs 22.5 lbs! His adult features are coming in and I can see he is going to be a really handsome boy. I'm just amazed at how fast it all happened!

Our Saturday morning started out early when we went to meet up with the Dallas Dog and Disc Club for a play day / meet & greet. I couldn't believe how many Aussies and Border Collies there were! I got to talk with a lot of experienced Aussie owners about raising pups. It was great to talk with other people that completely understand how difficult Aussie puppies can be! I got a ton of pointers, too. I also got a lot of frisbee advice and how to get him started. Apparently Aussies are supposed to get that instinct soon. I didn't know it was an instinct. They said that usually the drive and motivation hits around 4.5 to 5 months of age. This gives me so much hope because Roo isn't that crazy about it yet. I keep trying at it, but so glad I was able to talk to some others who've been there.

Right after that, they all hauled off to Operation Kindness' Annual Dog Day Afternoon where they gave a full freestyle demo. We went over there to watch an amazing show. It was so impressive! Jason knew the disc dogs were cool, but when he saw the demo, he knew exactly why I was fascinated by it. He told me he definitely wants to get into it. YAY! I took a TON of pictures of the demo, but I haven't got through them yet. I'll post those up tomorrow. But for right now, I got some cute pics of Roo looking on at the event.

He was so super tired by the time we went to his training class. But I found out it helped him focus better. He wasn't going all crazy and excited as usual. He was able to do a sit-stay and a down-stay with complete success.

Here's some more pics of him posing with his certificate. He's really excited. lol

He got a floppy chicken from Fat Cat for his graduation present. Jaymie got a big floppy football toy for being awesome. But they told me that each other is the greatest toy they have. lol

Saturday is too packed!

2010-09-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

9am - Dallas Disc Club is having a play day/ Meet & Greet that is open to everyone. I've been meaning to go to this last month, so I'm definitely going this time. I want to meet the members, get some advice on training Roo, seeing what these amazing dogs can do and deciding on joining.

10am - Operation Kindness is having their 16th Annual Dog Day Afternoon. They will have a ton of vendors with free samples and goodie bags. Canine contests with prizes, pet CPR demonstrations and the Dallas Disc Club will be doing a demo later that afternoon. Also, they are doing free microchips for the first 45 dogs! This looks absolutely awesome, but I think we'll have to skip it because I'm sure Roo will want a nap after the disc club.

11am - MetroplexMINI club is having their annual park picnic and monthly meeting. So many people will be at this. Roo would also love this, but yeah, definitely not going to this because Roo will still be napping. And it's important that he gets a nap before our next scheduled event

1pm - Reuben is graduating puppy kindergarten! Yay! But what's funny is he seems to have forgotten everything he's learned! All week, he's been giving me that blank look in response to commands. When he gets confused, he goes into barking or tries to jump at me to change the subject. My trainer says it might be because of the recent growth spurt he just hit. She says they have to relearn as their body grows. So I'm worried that when we get to our last class, Roo won't be able to show anything he learned. yikes!

I wish the events were more spread out through the day, then I can do all of them. At least I plan on bringing my camera. I didn't get any pics of Roo all week! I think he grew way more than the last time I took pics. So I need to catch up!

As for Sunday, we might be visiting with the flyball team again. We didn't go last week because we started to wonder if maybe Reuben needed to finish his beginning flyball classes first before bugging a team during their practice time. But we were told that it's okay to bring him and do recalls on the track after practice and he can practice with them as he does his classes on the side. We haven't got him into a class yet. I'm still shopping around at different trainers and wondering if I need to wait until Roo is healed from his neuter. That should be within 4 to 6 weeks from now. Geez, i can't believe he'll be 16 weeks old this Sunday. Time flies.

Who Needs a Mechanic?

2010-09-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

Not me!

Although, I'm sure this is nothing to some people out there. But it was my first time working on my MINI Cooper S. Actually, it was my first time working on a car at all! I changed out my rear brake pads to some fancy shmancy EBC Red Stuff brakes (has ceramic material for hard brakers and reduces brake dust), replaced the rear brake sensor, bled the brake fluid lines and rotated my tires. I was going to get the rotors checked, but I couldn't get them off, even with a breaker bar and penetration spray. Of course, I was supervised. But I was in there getting dirty, and even laying under my car. My hands were black, and I even had brake dust all over my face. I had to wash up about four times during the whole day. lol But you know what? After it was all over, I had a ton of pride in my work. I think you feel more proud of your car if you do your own work on it. Not only that, but I'm sure I saved $200, at least, in labor.

Here's my new shiny red brakes.

And here's pic of me putting my wheels back on. I put on a mean face to make me look more tough.

Doggie Bloggie Award

2010-09-03T19:38:00.003-05:00

Woohoo!!! Thanks RYKER! I told Reuben a little while ago that we won the Doggie Bloggie Award and his nubby tail did a wag as fast as it can go and he did a "owwwoowoowwwooo." He like to talk like a husky sometimes. Thanks to Ryker from Ryker Rules for the pass to us! It was awesome to read 10 auss-um things about Ryker. I usually don't do these blog award thingies, but Roo wanted to share 10 things you didn't know about him, especially after reading about 10 auss-um things about Ryker. So for the first time ever on my blog, I'm just gonna let Reuben do a post with some supervision.

10 Auss-um Things You Don't Know About Reuben

1- The cheapest and most entertaining toy in my life would be the ice cube. I get one every time Mommy is in the kitchen...which is a lot of ice! There is an unlimited supply in that box! I play hockey with it all over the floor before I chomp down.

2- Mom calls me a drama queen. I don't know what that means, but when I get a boo-boo, It's a big deal!

3- I LOVE my Kong! (Mom here: Roo, they already know this.) Yeah, but do they know I get a frozen stuffed one every day? I climb into my crate with excitement because I know she gives it to me in there. Sometimes I climb in there and stare at her through the bars in hopes that she knows to go get me one - pronto! That reminds me, I haven't got mine yet today.

4- I know sit, down, sit-stay, down-stay, come, leave it, no pull, quiet (sort of), check it out, bring it back, spin, shake, paw and speak. I'm learning how to roll over this week.

5- I got my last round of shots yesterday. That means I got my official big boy license! Mom says the next step is the "snip snip." I have no idea what she means by that. She won't really tell me.

6- I do not like baths and absolutely hate swimming pools, but I love swimming in the lake. I do not like the rain, but I do like sprinklers. There is a difference, I know there is.

7- My mom says I was the only red merle out of a litter of 9 puppies from an accidental pregnancy. My birth mom is a red merle and my birth dad is a blue merle, so that makes me a double merle puppy. Mom tells me thats not a good combo and I was lucky that I'm in great health.

8- I'm picky about people. Some people I like okay and some I think are scary. My trainer is nice, but one time she held me while my mom ran away. That freaked me out, man! That was 2 weeks ago, and I still will not come to her. I'll never forget it. (Let me butt in, Roo. We were learning recalls that day. She wasn't hurting you.) Don't care, I didn't like it and she better not do it again.

9- I'm loud and I don't care. I will bark when I play, bark at people, bark when I want attention, howl when my parents leave the house and cry praises of joy when they come home. I would win in a loudness contest with any dog - try me! I'm even barking while blogging.

10- My favorite activity is slobbering all over the cat. The day isn't complete until his head is soaked. I think he likes it. Mom says he doesn't.

Okay now I get to pass this on to another dog blog that I like! Yay! Okay...drum roll puhlease...................

BRUTUS AND HIS SISTER, CARMEN!!!

Not only do they look awesome in their Ohio State gear today, but Mom reads me their blog and shows me their pics all of the time. Brutus really rocks at agility, a great photography model and I bet they both snore loud like my sister with those flat noses. And did you know that Carmen got her CGC (AKC Canine Good Citizen) certificate before turning 5 months old? Mom says she wants me to get my CGC, too, but maybe later when I'm not so bouncy. I know just about everything about these guys, so I wonder if they can come up with 10 things I don't know about them? Hmmm? http://brutusthefrenchie.blogspot.com

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-01T12:17:00.001-05:00

Bully Sticks

2010-09-01T00:15:00.001-05:00

Everyone raves about the bull chewies. I never bought them because they are so expensive! It was odd digging through a bin of dehydrated bull penises, but we picked out two of them. One for Jaymie and one for Reuben, $5 each = $10 worth of bull willies.

That $10 spent lasted a day. I really thought they would last a little longer than that.

Obedience and Flyball

2010-08-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

Roo went to his 4th obedience class on Saturday. I can't believe there are only 2 classes left! I showed our trainer the videos of him doing Down Stay and Leave It. I had been going along with Down Stay and ignoring Sit Stay because everytime I said the "Stay" part, he would end up lying down. I can do a Sit Stay now for a couple of steps, but if I step away a little farther, he decides "Oh this might take a while, so I'm gonna lie down." It's been frustrating, but the Down Stay has been excellent.

So anyway, it was a good thing that I had recorded it to show he can do it, because he refused to do it in class. So embarrassing. Then after awhile, he got so bored with the commands that he wouldn't even sit if I told him to. My trainer said we needed to start all over since he won't even sit now. But I don't think that's true, he's just starting to pop some attitude and do the commands whenever he feels like it. He knows them, he's just starting to ignore me sometimes.

Our trainer knew we were wanting to get Roob into disc sports soon, but she was actually on a flyball team. She told me all about it and that they practice on Sundays so I could go check it out. To be honest, I wasn't that interested at first. Disc dogs look way more fun than some dogs running up and down a track. But when we got there, I was amazed by how fast these dogs were running. Some of them would run the track in 3.5 seconds! These dogs were way faster than I had imagined! They were all so excited, barking like crazy for their turn and had such a blast! Reuben sat in my lap on the sidelines and he would watch them go back and forth over and over again. Sometimes he would want to jump out of my lap to run out there with them.

So I wonder....maybe he would really like flyball? Whatever he wants to do to burn up that extra energy and have a good time, I'm all for it. Maybe we can do both disc and flyball? My concern was that I didn't think Roo would ever run that fast, but seeing that 90% of the team was Aussies and Border Collies, perhaps he would be that fast when he's grown and had plenty of practice.

Another big concern was that he doesn't really get excited about balls. But my trainer told me that it's not about the ball, it's about the tug toy celebration at the end. "Bring me the ball and we get to play tug." Well now...Roo loves tug ropes! It sounds more like his kind of sport now! After all the practice runs were over, they took down the jumps and it was time to play recall with the puppies. Someone held Reuben at the end and I started running down the lane with a tug rope. He went on a full sprint to get to me, but when he got to me, he wasn't interested in the rope. He wanted me. He bit at my pants every time I ran down the lanes. I was really disappointed. Of course, it wasn't his tug rope, so we are going to work on it with his very own and see if it changes his mind. But right now, to him, my pants are way more fun than any toy I hold.

Roo - Leave It....

2010-08-30T19:16:00.000-05:00

Oh my! I completely forgot to post Reuben's latest obedience skill - Leave It! Here we demonstrate with the tempting, delicious doggy cookie with carb chips. Oh my.....Can he do it? Lets see!

Reuben - Down Stay

2010-08-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

We worked on down stay for a bit this week.

See how far away I can go! I'm so proud of my boy :)

As The Kong Turns

2010-08-24T17:18:00.000-05:00

Rueben LOVES his Kong....or, he did love it. I noticed last week that his interest in his Kong has diminished. Perhaps I wasn't keeping enough variety stuffed inside to keep it exciting. Or perhaps I was making it too tough to get it out.

Then on Sunday, as I handed him his Kong, I realized....Oh DUH!! It's obviously way too small for him now! No wonder why he's not interested anymore. He can't even get his big tongue in that tiny thing. My boy has outgrown his baby Kong!

So it was an immediate Kong emergency! To keep Roob's boredom at bay, I stuffed his holy orange ball full of treats. He started to roll it around on the floor to get the treats out while I headed to Petco.

We made it to Petco and I actually had a coupon for $2 off. But you wouldn't believe it, but apparently there is this shortage of medium size Kongs in the classic and puppy versions. Petco only had small and larges. The only medium sized one was the one that has the squeaker in it. How are you supposed to stuff goodies in that? No way! The manager said that for some reason the demand for medium size has been way more in demand lately than the supply. She hasn't been able to get a shipment of mediums for over 2 weeks.

What I love about living in the city is knowing that there are several Petco's nearby. So the manager starts making some calls and finds one with a few mediums left. So off we went on a Petco tour and I was able to arrive home with a properly sized Kong to make a puppy very happy.

He went into Kong euphoria.

I'm just starting out on finding crazy ways to stuff a Kong. I haven't got a ton of experience built up. So I'd love to hear how you all stuff them. I've always mixed in some dog food into mine, but I switch it up to include cheerios, oatmeal squares, dog cookies, cream cheese, crunchy peanut butter and Kong Stuffin peanut butter paste, and some grilled chicken and a little mashed potato from leftovers I found in the fridge. I try to make it up ahead of time and throw it in the freezer. It makes it hard and lasts a lot longer. And whenever that "moment" comes, I know to grab it out of the freezer and chunk it his way. I need to buy some more Kongs over time, so I can have a good rotation going.

As for the baby Kong, Jaymie says she likes it just fine! So now she's into the Kong craze.

So, is there anything crazy you are putting in your Kongs?

Avoderm Again

2010-08-24T17:17:00.000-05:00

It wasn't too long ago when I tried to switch Reuben's food from Beneful Puppy (what the breeder was feeding) to Avoderm Puppy (after a saleswoman convinced me to switch). Reuben had some serious diarrhea during the switch that was over 3 days. I ended up cursing Avoderm and dumping the 15lb bag in the dumpster and saying goodbye to the $27 I spent on it. We immediately went back to Beneful Puppy to get everything back to normal before trying another puppy food. But things didn't go back to normal. Roob's tummy problems had continued and just gotten worse. So while he was at the vet for 2nd round of shots, we found out he had a bad case of the tapewormies. This was the REAL cause of the issues. After getting him the medication that he needed, everything went back to normal and Reuben felt so much better. But even though his tummy was better, his scratching came back. He was itchy all over and I knew it was because of the poor quality food. It interrupted our walks and our training sessions. He was scratching all over. His skin was pretty flaky, too. It was time again to try to switch to something better.

I researched and learned A LOT.

I feel like I owe Avoderm an apology or something for my accusations. And I wish I didn't get angry and throw away my $27. I started to do more research on many puppy foods and Avoderm included. I narrowed it down to Avoderm and Blue Buffalo. Both are actually ver high quality foods. A third choice would have been Wellness Super5Mix, but the big fish bone scare was weird and it was way more expensive. Avoderm gets 4 stars on Dog Food Analysis. And it even got 5 stars on some of the other dog food rating sites. The one thing that concerned me was the big avocado controversy. This is what caused some ratings to go down just because avocados are controversial. Ever hear that avocados are toxic to dogs? Then why on earth would they include it in their food for dogs? I found out recently that it's only a Guatemalan species of avocado that is harmful. We don't even eat those kind. About 20 years ago, a goat ate a Guatemalan avocado and died from it. Somehow, that spread that dogs will die from avocados. And then I found out that there is a mild toxin in the leaves and bark of the tree and it has to be consumed in large amounts to do any damage. So it seems like it was a rumor that got out of hand. People worry just to worry and make things into a bigger deal than what it really is. Avoderm uses avocado meal and oil only....the good stuff. To add to that, Avoderm has been fed to dogs and cats for 30 years. Not one dog or cat has had any negative effects from the avocados.

Avocados have so many health benefits that I eat a ton of them myself. And after reading a lot of customer reviews, the most compliments were on the coat. And I'm not surprised. Not only are avocados packed with vitamins A, B6, C and E, but they have a ton of other nutrients and especially good fatty acids. It's like a super fruit! These are amazing for skin and coat. I read many people that show their dogs feed them avoderm for that amazing coat. And since Roob's coat is one of my favorite physical characteristics, I want something that is really going to enhance it.

All of their formulas are completely natural. The puppy formula is chicken and brown rice. Chicken meal is the first ingredient, and since it's already dehydrated into meal (and not the raw full meat with water included) I can be assured that is truly the first ingredient. A lot of great dog foods say meat as the first ingredient, but they mean the weight of the meat raw with up to 80% water and sometimes bone included too, before it's dried out and ground into kibble. After it's dried and ground up, it could possibly much further down the list of ingredients. This leaves grain as the number one ingredient. Protein is the biggest of importance and knowing that chicken meal is the first ingredient was a huge plus for me. There is even herring meal included for some extra omegas. NO corn...YES. A ton of added vitamins for eyes and brain function....YES.

The only negative thing I saw was there are 2 different types of rice as the 2nd and 3rd ingredient (ground whole brown rice, ground whole white rice). If you combined them, would the weight of both of the rice outweigh the chicken meal? Then that would be the first ingredient - rice. Who knows? This is the only reason why I started to consider Blue Buffalo. But they don't have meat meal listed as first ingredient, they have fresh meat with water included as the first couple of ingredients. So the rice wasn't enough to budge my decision.

Everything looked perfect. It's obvious I needed to try Avoderm again. That's what I've been doing for the past week. I bought a small bag this time. And I have been doing the switch WAY longer. We are now at about 70% Avoderm and 30% Beneful now. And so far, no tummy problems! The itching has mostly gone away. There are still a couple of moments of itchiness, but for the most part, it's completely gone! But you know what I've noticed just within the past 2 days? His activity level is shooting through the roof! He is bouncing off the walls way more that I thought he would. So I guess that's great for his health, but not good news in our home. lol More walks and longer ones are in order and bed time is getting to be more of a hassle. It's like telling a 5 year old kid to go to sleep. But perhaps this is the real Reuben all along? Maybe the Beneful was making him more fatigued?

Roob's New Bling

2010-08-22T19:50:00.000-05:00

Reuben loves his new shiny tag. When we put it on him, it didn't bother him one bit, even if it has a new sound to it.

I think he really likes it. It always looks like he's showing it off.

But I'm glad he can't read. And I can't bare to tell him...his name is spelled wrong on the tag. So shhhh!!

You see, never send a man to do a job, right? I have been wanting to get Reuben a tag for a while. And since we were at training class yesterday, I sent Jason to go get Roob's tag made. Jason came back to me to show me the tag and he said, "It looks really good!" Ugh...I shook my head. Do you know how to spell your son's name? But anyway, it was over $10 worth, so we decided to keep it. It still does the purpose. At least the phone number is right. And we will keep this a secret from Reuben.

New Dog Water Bowl

2010-08-21T17:48:00.004-05:00

I know, I know...how exciting can a new dog water bowl be? Well, it's called a No-Spill Water Bowl. And it's mainly used for travel. You can have it in the car, and the water won't spill out of it. It's super neato! The water goes into the base, then there is a floating plate that just sits on top of the water. The floatation is around the sides of the plate, and it dips down in the center with several holes. This allows just enough water on top of the plate for the dog to lick out of. The top black part is a lip that prevents any possible splashing and it goes pretty far from the sides of the bowl, so the dog can only go through the very center of the bowl. There are several types online, but I found this one at Petco, large size $19. Which is cheap compared to the $30 ones I saw online. I believe the medium size was $16.

So why am I using it in my house? Someone actually gave me this idea that it will prevent Reuben from digging in the bowl. Reuben has a BIG urge to dig in the water. He digs and digs and splashes it all over the floor, then he lays in it to get his belly wet. It has been so frustrating to get him to stop! We've had this bowl for about a week now and he hasn't dug in it one bit. Now more toweling the floor every 5 minutes and no more slipping and sliding around with wet feet! The first day, he stuck a paw in it, but realized the big black lid prevents him from digging. Then he never tried again. This bowl has been my life-saver!!! And i never thought to spread the news about it until I noticed MANY dogs at the dog park were also digging in the water bowls there. I had to tell their owners the wonderful news.

We also took this bowl in the car when we went to the lake earlier this week. It has velcro strips at the bottom, so it attaches to any carpeted floorboard. The dogs definitely appreciated having the water available in the car. Not one splash!

But it doesn't prevent sleeping at the water bowl. Reuben still gets up from heavy naps, walks to the dog bowl, lays down and drinks water while sleeping. He's got a ton of weird quirks, and this is definitely one of them. Here he is.

Blog Hoppin'

2010-08-21T10:21:00.002-05:00

Haven't been able to hop on the Saturday Blog Hop in a while! Glad to be part of it today!

Today will be another busy day. I'm about to run out to a bridal shower and then race my way back to take Reuben to his puppy class. We didn't practice much this past week, so I'm not sure how well he will do today. Yikes!

MINI DIY DAY

2010-08-20T00:45:00.003-05:00

Oh I realized that I never got around to posting pics of the MINI DIY Day that happened a few weeks ago! Yikes! Can't believe how bad I'm behind! Better late than never!

This is half of the MINI of Dallas service garage. We got to use all of the lifts for free!

And here are some of my favs

There are a ton more, but I guess I need to stop there

Vacation

2010-08-19T22:44:00.005-05:00

Oh my! I've been gone over a week! I haven't really been busy, so I have no excuse other than this week has been my stay-cation. Reuben will be 13 weeks this coming Sunday and he weights 16.5 lbs.

He did okay on his 2nd training class. He was more distracted as there were more dogs in the class this time. There were times he wouldn't even respond to his name. The loose leash walking has really been helping! He's really catching on. I also have taught him "shake" (his left paw), "paw" (his right paw) and "speak" just within the past 2 weeks. They all came within 5 minutes of teaching. I can't believe how fast he catches on.

We had been hitting up the dog park nearby in the mornings all week. He has mainly been with the small dogs area. He started off stuck to my legs the entire time. But by the end of this week, he takes off running as soon as we get through the gate. He's been playing a lot with many dogs his size. We also end the visit by checking out the big dog area. He is definitely not ready for it yet, but I want him to be exposed to bigger dogs. We spend 5-10 minutes in it and he can say hi to the dogs there. This morning, he watched another dog chase and jump for a frisbee. He ran after him trying to get the frisbee...YAY!

On Tuesday, we went to the lake to swim and we took the dogs along. But this time, Reuben took to the water much better this time. He actually started to wade out in the water on his own until it covered his back. When we went out there to swim, he came along for the fun. He swam back and forth, and all over the place. I couldn't believe it! He loved it! He even went to get a ball and his frisbee in the water. But swimming with toys in his mouth was something to learn because he would swim with it for a little while and then spit it out. We had a float out with us that was a little island for the dogs to chill on. Which was good for Jaymie because she can't swim well at all. She sinks like a rock. She was wearing her lifejacket, but she prefers to just chill on a floaty. I was soooo upset that I didn't bring my camera, but I did have my iphone, so excuse the bad quality.

The end of this video is so funny! He swam out to Jason and then he swam back to me, but at the end, he leaps to try and grab my phone. Luckily, he didn't get it, but it was really funny.

Also, here are some wet dog pics.

Jaymie said the lake was way too hot for her. She mainly stayed in the shade if she wasn't on the float with us in the water.

And another video of him having a great time.

On Wednesday, Jason and I headed out to Six Flags. I was dying to ride some big roller coasters because it's been FOREVER! We started off riding the Titan twice, then hit up some random water ride, then Batman and then Mr. Freeze. Batman is my absolute favorite, so I was wanting to ride it another 5 times, but Mr. Freeze made both of us motion sick. Going forward on the ride was fun, but once it goes up really high and then falls back down for you to ride the whole ride backwards...ugh. We took a break and I got back to normal. I was ready to go do some more, but Jason was still sick and it wasn't going to be an all-day thing. We were there for about 2 hours before we left for home.

On the way home, Jason was pulled over for speeding. He was riding along with traffic down the interstate, but I'm sure bright yellow Mustangs can easily be picked out of the crowd. The ticket was a ridiculous $250! I heard on the news that our city government is absolutely broke, but didn't think they were THAT desperate! Needless to say, that put a damper on our vacation.

We would have stopped it there to save up for the ticket fees, but we had already bought tickets to Hurricane Harbor for the next day. So today, that's where we went! For those of you that have never heard of it, it's a big water park in Arlington. But here is the kicker, it's my FIRST EVER water park! Yep! I've never ever been to a water park ever in my whole entire life. So I was thrilled!! If we had the money for an actual vacation, I'd be hitting up a beach. I haven't been to a beach in years. So I was so excited to see a big saltwater wave pool!!! Oh my, it was in heaven! It actually felt like I was at the beach! After that, we went through a lazy river that went through the park. Then we hit up several different water rides. I had a blast! I was so sad to leave. I can't believe this park is so close to home, yet I've never gone! Now I'm thinking of season passes for next year!

Tomorrow, we will be hanging at the pool and eating all day. Oh yes, I've been eating and being very bad to my body all week. I've been avoiding the scale like crazy. Saturday, I'll be at a bridal shower, and then running as fast as I can to puppy class. It seems like I'm always late to puppy class because there is something else going on right before it. grrr. And then after that, my vacation week is over and it will be back to work, I go :(

First Dog Park

2010-08-09T10:59:00.003-05:00

After getting the green light from the vet for puppy classes and other social dog events, we chose to try out a fun dog park yesterday. This is White Rock Lake dog park, and part of it is right on the edge of the water, with the fence going out into the water. We started out in the small dog area. I don't think he will be ready for the big dogs for a while. Some small dogs came up to smell and say hello. Reuben didn't like that there was more than one at a time. He stood between my legs for a little while, before venturing out to say hello.

Then a dachshund kept giving him kisses. So he decided that was his new friend.

Then another new friend was made.

But after wading in the kiddie pool of water, he found a new friend which was a little pomeranian pup. Then he finally started to play.

We decided to try out the lake area so Reuben could see some dogs having a good time in the water. I didn't get many pics of this because I was in the water. I stood in very shallow water and Reuben would leap out at me for me to catch him. This was an old abandoned boat ramp and there was a drop off the concrete, but it wasn't so far down that he couldn't jump down to it. But for some reason he had the "I trust you to catch me in mid-air" thing going on. It was a new thing that I didn't expect. I didn't know if I should discourage it or not. I know in disc dogs and agility, the dogs jump into the owner's arms at the end in celebration. So in that sense, I find it okay. But if he does it in these moments, there might not be times I'm ready to just randomly catch him whenever he feels like jumping to me. Everyone thought it was super cute, but I was in shock. He did it over and over again. He would jump out of the water, run up the ramp, then run back down to me and jump at me again. I caught him every time, but I know he won't be so light and easy in the future.

But he did see a black lab jump out for a swim to get a ball, and Reuben decided to follow. I was so happy to see him swim out. It was just the one time, but he swam out a bit and immediately came back. We showed a lot of praise. I think he enjoyed it, but with waves washing up ashore, he wasn't too confident to do it again. With the concrete drop offs and big rocks laying around, it's kind of hard for a small dog to get around. I think I might find a sand bank somewhere and try again. But there won't be any dogs out in the water to follow or play with.

Here he is hanging out with Daddy in the water, watching another lab swim around.

I really wish this pic was in focus, but it's cute anyway. This is at the end of our visit and Roob is giving that, "I'm done" look. His eyes are olive green again. Weird.

And it was no surprise that he slept the whole way home and most of the rest of the day.

Puppy class was exhausting

2010-08-09T10:32:00.005-05:00

First day of puppy class and it's a small one because it's a spill-over from the full class that was earlier that morning. That's great news because we get more one-on-one attention from the trainer. What I liked about this trainer is she is allowing me to use my clicker in class. Not many trainers allow it, and I made sure of it before we signed Reuben up. He responds better to the clicker than everything else. But we are using verbal praise along with it.

Reuben learned the name game and look at me, which is pretty much the same thing. Reuben already knew his name, but it's great to practice in a distracting environment. Because he tends to try to ignore me if he's interested in something else. The challenge is getting his attention when something is way more exciting than mom.

Another thing we learned is loose leash walking. This is going to take a lot of practice. Reuben pulls now, and it's okay right now, but when he's bigger, it won't be cool. So we are breaking that first thing. But with the new training, our walks are a lot longer. Stopping every time the leash gets taught is about every few steps. But he is starting to get the hang of it. He gets worse when we start heading back to the house. He'll pull like crazy to get home.

What was funny about the class was he started to test his boundaries on the leash. He would pull, i would stop and he would back up for a split second to make some slack and then jump ahead to pull again. He thinks that will get me to walk. So the trainer had to adjust our technique to make him turn around and look at me before we could continue walking. She said he's super smart is definitely trying to find loop holes.
After class was puppy playtime, but Reuben wasn't interested. He was sleepy and just laid down. So we had discussion time about problems we'd like to correct, like barking. Then we carried a sleepy puppy back home, and he was out.

2nd Vet Visit

2010-08-06T13:44:00.010-05:00

My photography disclaimer: these were taken with cellphone.
Guess what? He didn't sleep through this one! He weighed in at 12.0 lbs. It was all exciting and fun until it was time to check temperature. I held his front and tried to keep his attention on me, but who can when there is a thermometer up your butt? He kept turning his head around to look behind him. "What is going on back there?!!!" What is so funny is he slept through this part 3 weeks ago. lol But it was all too much as he wanted off the table after that. He spread his belly on the cold floor and flipped his frog legs out and tried to forget over the not-so-enjoyable moment.

This was all before the vet came into the room. When she came in the room, she said "Oh he's awake this time! I can finally meet him!" She sat on the floor with crossed legs and Reuben came to greet her. He climbed up into her lap and gave her kisses. Usually, he's pretty shy around people he doesn't know, but this chick was cool with him. They sat and talked for a little while and then she carried him back to the dreaded table. But after a few cookies on the table, it was all good again.

I talked to the vet about Reuben's recent tummy issues and how they continue. Since it's been so long since the attempt at a food change and we've been back on the old food ever since then, it has become clear that it wasn't the food change that was the problem. The roundworms from the last exam are gone, but now he has tapeworm(s). After a few other tests of ruling out some other things, we are assuming the tapeworm is causing the issues. But luckily, he's still gaining weight and growing at a healthy rate, so he is still getting all of the nutrition he needs. So on some meds he goes. He got a pill yesterday and will get another in 3 weeks. I'm hoping that will make things better.

In addition to that, he started Revolution to prevent fleas and heartworms. This will also replace his heartworm preventative that he was on last month.

I mentioned that Reuben would be starting puppy classes this weekend, and even though they wait for the 3rd round to give the bordatella, they went ahead and did it this round. This is so he can be around other puppies without getting kennel cough. So we got the green light for going to classes, board, and everything else, including dog parks - woot! I thought I'd have to wait till the 3rd round, but she said it was okay, just start off slow. We are going to try the nearby community dog park first, once Reuben is feeling better, of course. It's just our neighborhood. Then we will move on to one of the bigger ones. There are so many dog parks in Dallas to see, including the one that is at White Rock Lake. The fence goes out into the lake so dogs can swim. I'm excited!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-04T20:52:00.001-05:00

the ever changing eye color

2010-08-04T14:15:00.002-05:00

I thought I caught a speckle of blue or grey last week in Reuben's right eye. But it was hard to tell with a puppy that does not stop moving their head for more than a second. And it seemed like I could only see it in sunlight. I thought it was my imagination and never went looking for it again. Jason didn't even believe me when I told him. Roob had gone through many color changes, but usually when they go brown, they stay and we still are pretty sure it will be that way.

I'm not going to lie. I wanted a dog with blue eyes. And picking out an Aussie that was red merle, light in coat with many specks of white on the face, the chances of getting some blue eyes were good. I'm a little disappointed that his eyes are amber/light brown, but I still think he's handsome and love him no less. Maybe there is a glimpse of hope or a tease when I saw that speck of ice blue?

When I picked out Reuben at 3 weeks of age, he had royal blue eyes. His mom had 2 full ice blue eyes and she was also red merle.

When he turned 6 weeks, he came home with blue eyes that were a greener shade.

But sometimes, they started looking turquoise

Then they just went olive green lightened with hints of golden amber. I started to get mesmerized.

And just recently, they went all amber and started to darken to a milk chocolate. But the green showed mostly in the sunlight.

But today....today I caught the blue/grey creeping in that spot where I saw the sparkle of it last week. How could I have not noticed it till now? I can't believe I was able to catch it with the camera. Can you see it? It's on the side, against the pupil. I can't tell if it's an ice blue or grey fading in.

Looking back at the first pic. Now can you see it?

Happy 10 Weeks!

2010-08-01T23:35:00.007-05:00

Oh my! You are 10 weeks old! Look how much you have grown! You weigh in at a whopping 11.4 lbs today! You can pick up your ears and now you can give an adult Aussie look every now and then. The color of your eyes seem to change by the day. They started out at royal blue, went to a turquoise, then aqua, then a bright olive green and now they are a golden amber, but sometimes light chocolate. I've even noticed a speck of light blue on the side of your right eye, but you have to be still for a little over a second for me to see. Your legs are getting so long so fast that you can't keep up. Every now and then you trip over those long legs. You know come, sit, down, stay and touch. You are now starting to ring the bells at the door to let me know you need to go potty.
You love stuffy toys, treat dispensing toys, tug toys and starting to explore into rawhides. Balls and frisbees are cool as long as they are rolled on the floor and they don't go too far. You don't like baths, ear cleaner, the brush, nail clippers or anything that I think is good for you. You also don't like to cuddle, but I'll never forget that moment we had that lasted for 5 seconds.
Outside is getting more fun, as long as you are out of the sun. Even though you use your puppy pads and have a whole room to yourself, you still don't sleep through the night and you still insist we all get up before the sun ever makes an appearance. But as long as there is a kong stuffed with treats and peanut butter, a holey ball filled with food to roll around, a few cubes of ice and a good rawhide, you will let me sleep for a few more minutes.

The local swimming hole is the water bowl and I've given up on toweling the floor every 5 minutes. I'm praying that it's just a phase, but I'm starting to accept that you and the floor will never be dry again.
You love playing bitey-face and tug games with your sister, Jaymie. I don't like it when you play bitey-face with me. And you love to tackle the cat and have him chase you around the house.

You start puppy kindergarten next weekend and meet the local disc dog group the weekend after that. You've been to both Petco and Petsmart for the crazy new experience. You've discovered the window during car rides.

You still haven't overcome the aftermath of the food switch, but since I threw the whole bag out yesterday and replaced it all back with the original food, I hope things will get better. I still feel really bad for the upset tummy.
You may be celebrating your 10 weeks, but I'm celebrating surviving 4 weeks! What a crazy rollercoaster this past month has been! And thank you for letting me take that amazing nap today. For that, I got you a present.

update - it's the next day and duckie has been beheaded and currently being destuffed. This has been a joint project from both Reuben and Jaymie.

Wordless Wednesday...well, a few words

2010-07-28T07:43:00.004-05:00

This is Sumo. He was the garage supervisor at the DIY Mini Cooper Day this past weekend. Check out his awesome MINI collar and leash! Reuben wants one when he's is old enough to get a big boy collar.

ps, I'll have to post some pics from MINI Cooper day soon!

A Puppy's Milestone

2010-07-27T12:57:00.002-05:00

Reuben got on the couch all by himself today. I was so thrilled that I put him back on the floor, grabbed my phone and tried to get him to do it again. This is a big day for a puppy!

Now Jaymie can't jump on the couch to get away from him anymore. lol

AvoDerm, more like AvoDoo

2010-07-26T06:15:00.007-05:00

Reuben only had a couple days left of his Beneful Puppy food. He was weaned off on the food, so that's what we continued to buy when Reuben came home. I thought it was a good time to switch to something better, so I went out on a hunt. I had Eukanuba in mind because my mom's chihuahua was on it when she was growing up and I thought it was a good food that wasn't too pricey at all. I got to Petsmart to check out my choices and it was on a special day that a sales lady from AvoDerm Natural was there to talk about her food. She tells me this food has added vitamins and minerals specifically for the eyes and brain function and how that is perfect for training a puppy and keep him focused. Then the avocados, this is what makes AvoDerm special, they are really good for the skin and a shiny coat for Reuben to grow into. And that the Puppy formula was chicken and brown rice, which is perfect for sensitive puppy tummies.

But Reuben has an iron stomach. We feed him a little bit of scraps from time to time. A little bite from the table to see what he likes and doesn't like....he likes everything. When I take him on walks, he picks up rocks and tries to eat them. He even eats bark out of the the flower bed. There is nothing this guy can't handle.

I was hesitant. A bag of 15lbs was a whopping $26. But I'm a sucker and when she gave me a $5 off coupon, I got the food. I wanted a good quality food, but didn't want to go super premium expensive quality. Ah well. I get it home and I mixed it with the old. The instructions say to switch it over a week, but I had enough for a couple of days and since Reuben can eat rocks, I'm sure he would be fine.

So the weekend goes by and I wake up this lovely Monday morning at 5:30am to the usual Reuben cries. I get up to take him out and to start my morning way earlier than I'd like (ya know, the usual). Without my glasses on, I see little blobs all over the floor. I go to get my glasses on and pray it's not what I think it is. It is. Reuben has an upset tummy and diarrhea was all over the place! I didn't know so much could come out of that little thing. It was the first time he had ever had tummy issues. He sat there with a sweet face and baby whimpers. I pick him up and give him cuddles and apologize for being such a bad mommy. I should have followed the directions, bought some more of the old food, and slowly switched out. Now I'm spending my Monday morning with a sick puppy and scrubbing the bathroom floor.

As I was cleaning up the mess, I couldn't help but think about their slogan - "Total Health from the Inside Out." And maybe this is what they meant by it? lol

Love Parade no longer lovely

2010-07-25T09:59:00.003-05:00

The latest tally I heard was 19 deaths and 340 injured. What an awful tragedy! This stampede trampled people. People were crushed to death in this tunnel that had only one entry for 1.4 million people. The head organizer was warned that this was too dangerous and that there are too many people. The big tunnel was meant to hold half a million people, not 1.4 people. If you wanted out, you had to go against the crowd to exit. The other end of the tunnel was the stage and people were pushing to get closer to it. Some died from asphyxiation in there and others died from crushed spinal cords. 340 people went to the hospital for treatment.

I cried as I watched the news clips. As a music event promoter on a much smaller scale (extremely smaller scale), a fan that does attend techno music festivals, and a person that has been trampled before at an over crowded show - this news hit home to me. The Love Parade is supposed to be about peace, love and understanding. Its very clear it has become all about commercial companies wanting to make big bucks and don't care about the safety of the people. "The tunnel can only hold half a million people? Oh hell, lets cram 3 times that in there! They all are paying for tickets, and I'm gonna collect!" I've been to a couple of shows that were way oversold and crammed past capacity. I was angry because you can't breath, it's too hot and people are pushing and shoving. You are always against sweaty people that you don't know. You don't enjoy yourself and paid high dollar to get into the door. Big time promoters always do these things. Fire marshall? What is a fire marshall?

Back in 2005, I went to see Armin van Buuren in a small club in Dallas. First of all, this club was WAY too small for someone this famous. I got there early an was near the front of the stage. People started packing in. It went from uncomfortable to scary very quickly. Armin finally came on and there was shoving and pushing. People were trying to get to the stage and I'd let them get their way because I was scared. I'd say it was about 10 to 15 minutes into his set, a bouncer came roaring through the crowd behind me. He was trying to get through really fast and pushed a ton of people. They fell on top of people who fell on more who fell. It was a domino effect and I was at the end. People struggled to get up, but by the time they got up, they were all on top of me. My legs were stepped on and bruised. I was so freaking scared. I couldn't get up. People were pulling me up but others were standing on me. I finally got up, but my knee was hurting. I had to leave to get it checked. Luckily it was just bruised. I had many bruises from that night, but the mental picture of it lasts forever. I was scared for my life that night. Thankfully it wasn't anything serious. But hearing the news from the Love Parade brought back all of those feelings. I cried for these people. My thoughts go out to the families all over the world that will be receiving their loved one back in a box. I'm angry that this all could have been avoided if the organizers just listened to the fire marshal's warnings.

And even though its sad that the Love Parade will not happen anymore, I agree with the head organizer's decision. He should be ashamed of himself and what he did should loom over his head for a long time to come. The point of this wasn't to make good money, it was to be with others to celebrate love and peace. If that can't happen, then the Love Parade is no more. Even the website was taken down with some simple text of explaining why. http://www.loveparade.com/

Posing for the camera

2010-07-23T10:09:00.004-05:00

It's like he knew he was in a photo shoot

Reuben in HDR

2010-07-22T23:20:00.002-05:00

The reflection in his eyes made this photo perfect for and HDR treatment.

Night duty...nope.

2010-07-22T07:13:00.004-05:00

I think my body physically cannot do the potty breaks in the middle of the night anymore.

It's been 3 weeks now. For the past week, I've been doing about 2 or 3 potty breaks in the middle of the night. Those take about another 30 mins to an hour before he falls back asleep, which is when I'm allowed to go back to bed. And then Reuben chooses a final potty break to be around 5 or 5:30 (2 hours before I'm supposed to get up for the day) and he decides that sleep is no longer an option after that. I sit on the couch in a slumber while the sun still hasn't come up and watch him play with his toys on the floor.

During the day, I don't get naps to catch up from lost sleep. I consume dangerous amounts of coffee and 5-hour energies throughout the day, just to seem somewhat awake at work. When I get home in the evenings, Jason is at school or has to do some errand of some sort. So I have to watch Reuben, which means no nap time for me.

All of this lack of sleep has got me feeling ill. I have no idea what well-rested feels like anymore. I'm just dragging around and I'm not in a good mood and very cranky (okay the cranky part may be the caffeine). What energy that is left is spent taking Reuben on walks and obedience training. I don't have the energy to play really. I just dump out the toy box on the floor and hope it keeps him entertained for a while. Jaymie does a great job of babysitting for me. She takes over duties of entertaining sometimes. But there is only so much an old woman can do. She has to jump up on the couch or get in the crate to take a break from him.

Last night, about 2am, Reuben woke for his first potty break of the night. My body said NO. So he cried a little more. I kept hoping it would just go away, but it didn't. We already had a babygate in the bathroom and we had been laying down newspaper and keep him in there during the day while I was at work. This was because he can't hold his bladder very long, even though I come home during my lunch hour. At night, we had been crating. But last night...I couldn't do it anymore. I put him in the bathroom without taking him to potty. He cried as usual, so I laid down beside the gate and he eventually went to sleep.

I woke up this morning to his usual puppy sounds and it was 6:30. Wow! I got to sleep till 6:30!!! How awesome is that? Still not a full night's sleep due to it being a little early and still had to get up for a while, but it was the most sleep I've had in a while. Not only that, but I didn't hear him cry for the rest of the night, so other than moving him to the bathroom, I didn't have to get up at all. Of course, there was a mess in the bathroom. He had pooped twice and peed twice on the newspaper. I didn't mind cleaning it up because I knew that would have been the number of times I would have had to get up last night.
I know this doesn't teach him to hold his bladder or become house broken. This teaches him that it's okay to go to the bathroom on newspaper. I really don't care at this point. I'm sick of getting up in the middle of the night, literally!

How did people house break their dogs before crates got popular? I know my parents never got a crate for any of the puppies we had when I was a kid. Somehow, they learned. I know that the crate is the best way to go. Jaymie was crate trained and still loves her crate to this day, 6 years later. But Jaymie wasn't like Reuben. I remember getting up in the middle of the night, but it was brief and she would go back to sleep immediately afterwards. Reuben thinks it's play time at every potty break. The only thing that really saves us is his pacifier I made (sterilized hollow bone you can find at any Petco or Petsmart, and get some peanut butter on your finger, and line the inside walls of the bone with the peanut butter. This gives Reuben tons of time trying to stick his tongue down the holes to get all the peanut butter out. I hear him working on it several times a night. He is more entertained by that, than the Kong). Reuben does know to go to the bathroom outside. He immediately does it as soon as we get to the grass. I clicker train and have been clicking and treating after every pee and poop that is made outside.

So now I'm on the fence...to crate or not to crate? Perhaps it just doesn't work out with certain "problem" type puppies? Perhaps I'm too much of a wuss to carry it all the way through?

Oh okay, I'll end with some cute puppiness.

Mini Cooper Race Stripe Ideas

2010-07-21T14:12:00.005-05:00

So I've had my Mini Cooper S for about 4 months now and I love it. I loved that it didn't have any of those race stripes and I think that makes it simple and clean. But lately, I've noticed way too many dark silver Minis like mine. Though, I'm sure they don't have the badass red interior but I need mine to look slightly different on the outside, but still have that clean look. And after doing some researching, I've decided to get stripes, but I want them to be very subtle. Not only that, but I joined a Dallas-based Mini Cooper enthusiasts group called MetroplexMIni. Looking at photos of what fellow Dallas folks have done to their Minis has inspired me to go for it. The only thing is money. It will take me quite a while to save up, especially with Reuben's upcoming shots and his neuter in the future. So maybe I can ask for it for my birthday in November? That would be perfect! Or maybe some donations for my birthday to help pay for it? Maybe Jason still loves me tons when my birthday comes around and wants to buy my Mini some stripes to show his love? Teeheee.... :)

There is a frosted type of stripe I can get. It just makes a matte, frosty look, which I think is SEXY. I found one on the internet that has the frosted stripes. I FREAKING LOVE THIS!

The only think I wonder about the frosted look, is do you think it might look like someone got stripes and then ripped them off? Maybe it looks like the old adhesive left behind if you are further away from the car.

OR it would also be nice to get the stripes in a light silver, so I have 2 different shades of silver popping.

I can't decide! Geez! I love them both! What do you think? Which one do you like better?

Also, there are several different styles of stripes - YIKES!

There are also flames and a stripe that is off center. I've already marked those off. I'm thinking one of the thick center stripes since it will be a subtle change in color, I might need to make it thick.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-21T07:18:00.002-05:00

This pic says it all. Both of us are exhausted! lol

Everything is More Fun Under the Coffee Table

2010-07-20T21:36:00.003-05:00

The dogs have really enjoyed the coffee table lately. For the past few days, some crazy noises have been coming from under it. If you look under to see, this is what's going on.

Looks like someone LOVES it down here. lol

And then Jaymie gets up on the couch, knowing that Reuben can't jump up there yet. It won't be long, though!

Reuben Goes to the Vet

2010-07-19T07:01:00.003-05:00

Reuben went to get his first round of shots on Friday. I was so upset that I didn't bring the camera or at least get a little video. We got there and all of the staff had to come up front to play with him, hold him, carry him all over the place and take pics. They loved him to death and he loved this place to death! All of the excitement exhausted the poor little guy.

By the time we were called to an exam room, Reuben had a case of the "sleepy face." He walked in, smelled a few things and then I picked him up to put him on the table. He laid down and fell asleep. I poked him and sure enough, he was in a puppy coma. He wasn't going to awake for anyone, not even the vet that walked in a few minutes later.

She listened to his heart beat and said, "Well, he's still alive." lol She did the whole exam, rolling his body over to his side and on his back to give him a good look over. Then she opened his mouth to look at his gums. He didn't even open his eyes for a second. He was dead weight. When it came to look at his eyes, she had to physically open his eye lids to look at them. Reuben was kind enough to take his eyes rolled behind his head to the front so she could see. That was about as much energy as he was going to waste for this exam. LOL

I thought he would cry when he got his shots, but he slept through the whole thing and didn't flinch. After the exam, I picked him up and carried him to the front counter to pay the vet bill. He slept right on the counter while I paid and scheduled his next appointment.

He gets his next set of shots in 3 weeks. He told me he'd rather visit everyday.

Why Is My Toy Box Making Noises?

2010-07-19T06:57:00.003-05:00

Jason's parents gave us this giggle ball because their dog wouldn't play with it. Ours didn't play with it either, so I threw it in the toy box to be forgotten about. But every time the box moved or they shuffled through their toys, crazy noises came from their box. Even our cat was curious. After all the commotion, they decide it really is a fun toy.

And I noticed Reuben crawling over and into the toy box with ease. It was a sudden realization that he's growing faster than it seems. He could barely reach anything that is hanging over the top of the box, then the other day, he was choking himself over the top, trying to get to a toy. And now he's all over it. And on top of that, he turned 8 weeks old yesterday! My baby is growing! *cries*

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-14T12:47:00.002-05:00

Reuben's First Bath

2010-07-13T08:14:00.002-05:00

Oh life must be so hard for a puppy! What torture you must go through to get a bath! Reuben did not like it one bit! The water was really shallow and luke warm. I threw in some toys and got my feet in to play with him in the water. He was sort of interested in the toys, but once I poured a cup full of water on his back, that was it..."get me out!"

Jaymie loves baths. Don't let that face fool you. She was begging to get in the water, so we let her in. I thought if Reuben saw how much she enjoys it, he would begin to like it.

Instead, he stood beside her for protection.

Can I get out now?

Please!?!!!

Reuben turns 7 weeks

2010-07-11T20:12:00.003-05:00

Happy 7 weeks, little man! Although you may be celebrating another week older, I'm celebrating that I got the first week complete! lol

The crate training is going well. I'm still on the floor next to him, but he's sleeping a little longer so I've increased my alarm time to 1.5 hour intervals, but I'm thinking he can go 2 hours. I'm not sure about backing away from the crate yet because he always looks to see if my hand is in the crate and lays up against it. Once he falls asleep, he moves away from my hand.

His outdoor time is still odd. He still hates outside. I used to could just put him in the grass to hang out a bit without a leash, but now he hauls ass to the door to get inside. He doesn't act like he's scared of anything, he just doesn't like it for some reason. Now I put the leash on him and he cries and then chokes himself trying to get back to the house. If he needs to potty, he'll do it, but once he's done, it's time to go back inside. Today, we tried to bring some toys out to play in the grass. This time we went to another grassy place that he didn't know how to get home from. I rolled a ball and tried to get him intrested in a puppy frisbee. He didn't care, he cried and wanted me to pick him up. I've never known a puppy that doesn't like to play outside. Going on a walk is also an issue. It's hard for me to wear him out right before bed if he doesn't want to go on walks. I thought Aussies are well known for loving the outdoors? I'm hoping it's a phase that will go away soon.

Speaking of house breaking, I'm impressed by how far Reuben has come! He just turned 7 weeks old today and last night I saw him sitting at the door. I asked him if he needed to go potty and he got up, turned around to face the door. I thought maybe it was a coincidence that he was just randomly there, but I got the leash on him and told him we are going outside. As soon as he got in the grass, he went potty. I was so proud of him, he probably thought I was smothering him with kisses. lol I wouldn't say he's housebroken by any means. As I type this, Jason is running outside with Reuben because he just peed. LOL But last night was definitely an accomplishment!

Not only that, but he's conquored "sit" and does it on command about 90% of the time. He does "come" only when he really is interested in coming to you. He is learning how to play more and more everyday. Jaymie is still too rough on him, but he doesn't mind. I roll the ball, he can follow it some of the way. Other times, he just gives up or doesn't see it. But lately, it seems like he sleeps more than he plays.

2010-07-10T15:08:00.004-05:00

Nights have been better! Thanks to Ace's mom's advice, I've been sleeping on the floor next to Reuben's crate and setting my alarm for every hour for potty breaks. We've done this for 2 nights and hardly any cries from Reuben about it. Last night, we did have some problems getting him to settle. But that's our fault for not exercising him enough before bedtime. It was raining like crazy yesterday and we didn't a chance for a walk to tire him out.

Now although he sometimes chooses to ignore me when I call his name, I do know he knows it. He just wants to run off and do puppy things. He turns 7 weeks old tomorrow and he already knows "Sit" and does it on command if he sees a good reward involved. His motivational rewards keep changing interests. One day it was one of his toys, the other time he wanted his breakfast badly, and sometimes it's a little treat. The next day he isn't interested in any of those, so I have to find something else.

The howling and barking outside has gone down, but he still doesn't like being outside at all. He gets in the grass, pees, and then starts hauling ass to the door. I have to put him on a leash now to persuade him to stay outside for a bit and enjoy the day. I'll try to walk him, but a lot of time he just sits and whines a little. If I have Jaymie out there with me, he will want to follow her for most of the time. So I need her to come out with us to help out a little. It's completely different at night. We go out, he goes potty and then he lays in the wet grass, chases bugs and wants to run through the tall monkey grass. I don't know why the day time is different. Maybe the sun hurts his eyes? Maybe he doesn't like warm temperature? Maybe he can see more things in the day and that scares him? I have no idea. I just know I need to expose him to more of it.

Speaking of Jaymie, she is wanting to play with Reuben some more. They just haven't figured out the play, yet. Reuben is just too small and once Jaymie knocks him over, he runs and hides under the coffee table. But it's cute to see them try it out. They really like each other. I'll need to get some video next time I see them play. Loki, our cat, is even starting to like the little guy.

So this week is my first week on the blog hop! YAY! My blog isn't solely about my dogs, but as of lately, it has been a great deal, so I would consider it a pet blog for sure!

He's Lucky He's Cute...

2010-07-08T09:08:00.003-05:00

...because in the past 3 days and 3 nights, I've had a total of 3 hours of sleep. During night #2, I nearly lost it around 4am. I got so frustrated that I started crying my eyes out. So there we were, both crying. The nights are the worst because we are there to hear it. I'm sure he screams as much as he can during the day when I'm at work, too. I just hope I don't get a noise complaint from neighbors.

Strategy on night #1 was to have him in his crate in a corner of the bedroom with a blanket on top. Anytime he woke up, I got up and took him outside, and then I stayed with him in the living room and played with him till he wore back out. The issue with this was playing tugowar at 3am is not fun for me. Then I walked like a zombie back and forth while dragging him around the floor as he held on to my pants leg. He loves my pants legs. I would also drag him around the floor while he played on a towel. He loves towel rides. Again, fun for me if it was a normal hour of the day, not fun at 3am. Then after an hour of playtime, he would be sleepy enough for the crate again. Repeat cycle in an hour or so.

Strategy on night #2 was to scoot the crate to where it was right at the side of the bed. The blanket would be on the crate still, but I can bump the top of the crate in case he got too loud. I read on the internet that if a startling noise happens while he's crying, he'll associate it with his actions and stop. So, he would wake up, I would take him outside to potty, and instead of playing with him for an hour in the middle of the night, I put him back in his crate. He has plenty of chewies, toys and puppy pacifiers to keep him busy. He didn't care about anything in his crate, he wanted out. He screamed as much as he could. I would bump the crate, tell him "quiet." He would stop immediately...for 3 seconds and then he was back at it. Before too long, he got used to the crate being smacked with my hand and it didn't phase him anymore. I think his lungs grew twice the size this night. I know we aren't supposed to yell, because they think we are barking, and so it's alright to make noise. So I tried not to yell, but my "quiet" commands were getting louder, and louder. The more frustrated I got, the louder and mean I got. Before I knew it, I was rocking the crate and screaming "QUIET!!!" Meanwhile, my boyfriend is pissed that he's not getting any sleep (BTW...he has no reason to complain because he hasn't had to get up for any of this business on any of these nights) and then he starts talking about that we can't do this and it wasn't what he expected and we should find a new home. Geez, it's only the 2nd night! But by 4 or 5am, I broke down and started crying. Then decided I wouldn't go back to bed and we would get up early for the day. Jaymie was upset by all the racket and she wouldn't eat her breakfast, so I cried about that. The lack of sleep really wore me down. I was on edge.

Strategy on night #3 was an expensive one. We read that he's too young to be in a crate and that he's at a stage that has a lot of anxiety. The crate would create a high level of anxiety and he shouldn't be in there with the door closed until he is 11 or 12 weeks old. So the advice was to set up a play pen in the bedroom where we sleep and the crate would be in it with the door open. We don't have room for a play pen, but our bathroom opened into our bedroom, so we decided to set it up. I went and bought a really nice and expensive pet gate. It's a metal one with vertical bars so they couldn't climb it. It has a swing door, so we can open and walk through without having to jump over or take it down. It even has a small door for a cat to walk through. It wasn't a gate that you can take out of the box and immediately use. You had to really assemble it. It took us a while to figure it out but we finally got it. So we put Reuben in the bathroom to see if he would get upset. Nah, not really because he can walk between the bars!! WTF! It really didn't look like he could fit between them. Grrr!!! So we had to get inventive and find ways to plug up the holes in the gate. This also makes the swing door not useable, so we have to hop over the damn thing anyway. With our bathroom completely transformed to a puppy play pen, it was time to test the night out. I set up his crate with the door open, have his toys and pacifiers out, a bowl of water near the doorway, warm towels from the dryer (but he'd rather sleep on the bare floor without anything to cuddle with), and I set up my iphone to play a ticking clock sound all through the night (internet advice). Yes, he screamed, just as much. We didn't want the neighbors to hear, so guess what the plan is? I stay up all night again - YAY! We took him out late last night and went on a pretty long walk for him. We tried to ware him down. He got sleepy at midnight and so that is when our bedtime started. Everytime he wakes up and starts crying, I get out of bed and come sit down in the bathroom with him. I started taking notes of my night. He went to sleep at midnight, then woke up at 12:45. I came and sat in the bathroom and watched him in the low night light. He nibbled on his toys and walk around the room for a bit. He didn't bother me much and then laid down pretty quickly. I'd say it took him 20 minutes. I went back to bed and he woke up again 10 or 15 minutes later, at 1:15. We did the same thing again. He woke up again at 2:15 and even though he peed on the floor, I decided it was a bathroom break. We walked in the wet grass for a bit, but he didn't go. We went back inside and he was really ready to play. It took quite a while to settle him down. I tried not to interact with him while we were in the bathroom. I was just a presence and tried to ignore him. He woke up again at 4am and again at 4:50. Then again at 5:15, so we went outside to potty again. He finally went potty this time. I had to stay up with him until 6am before he was ready to sleep again. It didn't last long because 6:20, he was crying again. Then by 6:45, I decided there is no chance in trying to get anymore sleep. Time to just get up for the day.

I really can't wait for him to get out of this phase. The lack of sleep is really affecting my mental and physical health. The stress is mounting and effecting my work during the day. I haven't had a chance to take any daytime naps or anything. I'm running on caffeine and that's it. I've raised many puppies in my past and I don't remember having a puppy that wakes up so often as he does. I'm beyond frustrated!!! A friend of mine that has 2 lab puppies gave me some assurance that it will pass and everything will be okay. I know it will, but I just don't know when. I was told that intelligent breeds are really easy to train. I have to disagree so far.

And this morning, my boyfriend was telling me about his dream he had last night. I couldn't even listen to it. I was just too upset that he was able to get enough sleep to even have a dream. My sleep is in 30 minute intervals at the most. And it angers me that he says he's tired today because he didn't get good sleep. He gets to stay in bed while I deal with all of this!! He snored like crazy last night. He has no reason to freaking complain!!

I need some reassurance, guys! I need some advice! Please tell me this is normal!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-07T14:48:00.002-05:00

SURPRISE!

2010-07-05T18:35:00.002-05:00

It's Reuben...
...and he's home!... and a whole week early! I had a message today from the lady that had the pups. She said the puppies had been fully eating solid food and no longer on milk. Actually, the mom doesn't see them anymore at all. She said two puppies already went home this weekend and she is notifying the other people that they can come and get their pups. I was planning on getting him next Saturday, but I didn't want him to end up being the only little guy left all alone! And if he came home, he would still get to socialize with his big sister, Jaymie. We had already got all of the puppy supplies and we were ready, so we decided to head on our road trip to get our little man.

He loves the $2.50 toy, not the $13 toy. lol
"i kill it! grrrr!!"
He was pretty worn out from playing all morning, so by the time we got him, he was chilled out. He slept most of the way home. His eyes seem to change colors to me. Indoors, his eyes are a light olive green, but when I take him outside, his eyes are a bright ice blue. In most of his photos, they look green, too.

oh my...frog legs!
He does typical puppy stuff. He whimpers when you walk away too far. He has discovered my toes and the ends of my pant legs. He loves the cheapest toy out of all the ones I bought him. To him, the crate = torture dungeon. He breathes fast when he sleeps and spurts of crazy puppy dreams with little barks. His feet slip and slide all over the wood floor.
He is already responding to his name. The great thing is that he has peed twice and pooped, and it has all been done outside - YAY! Okay, I know it won't be this easy, but day 1 has been easy so far. Trying to sleep throughout the night will be the tough one. But how can I ever be frustrated with a face like this?! So far, he's been absolutely perfect!

nap time again

"hang on, mom. I gotta itchy spot"

Mexican Chunk Salad with Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

2010-07-02T14:44:00.003-05:00

Practicing some food photography. This was sooooo yummy! Most of it was hand chopping with some food processing. It's sweet, spicy and full of many flavors! The lime juice and olive oil marries it all up perfectly.

It looks really healthy, and i would say it is, but not for HCG or thyroid diet. lol

$130 later...

2010-06-30T19:45:00.003-05:00

Whew! I guess I got everything but the puppy food (have to find out what he's been eating first)!

I spent about an hour and a half in the store, having a blast and getting worried about costs all at the same time. lol Some things I already had - ear cleaner, toothpaste, nail clippers, etc. So that saved me a little. There are things I could have gone without for the first month of him being here. But where is the fun in that?

This guy will be spoiled, just like Jaymie!

-- Lets see...I regular have "Kids and Pets" cleaner, but I needed to get some more. I swear by this stuff and it's a hard find!
--I got some bitter spray - JUST IN CASE!
--Jaymie's dog shampoo is Pet Head (Bed Head brand) and I absolutely love it! Her coat is soft and she smells soooo good! So my little man needed some Pet Head tearless for puppies. I could smell the bottle all day - seriously!
--Definitely need a good brush for his type of coat
--I also got some poopy bags. Our apartment has a ton of them, but you have to go to the building next to ours to get to the poop station. That will not be fun during 3am potty breaks in the middle of the night. So I got some so we don't have to go to far.

The rest of the stuff is the fun stuff!
--He has two fluffy friends that he can snuggle up against in the crate at night. The part I don't like is they have squeakers and I'm sure it won't be long before he finds that out(I'm guessing that will also be at 3am)! But they were like 2 for $5 - so how can ya go wrong with that?
--I got him a tennis ball. I have no idea if he will be a ball-kind-of-guy. But I got one just in case.
--But I hope it's the frisbee he'll like the best. Kong makes a very soft puppy frisbee and it's smaller than the average ones.
--Chewies, galore! He has his own Nylabone Flexi Gumabone, chicken flavored.
--A sterilized bone that i can put cheese or peanut butter inside for a pacifier.
--Also, a puppy Kong, which I'm sure he will grow out of before I know it. Crunchy treats for the Kong. I wasn't sure about the squeeze paste stuff. I didn't want it to be a mess or upset his tummy.
--"Little Jack" is the smallest training treats I could find. All of the others seemed like it may take him a bit to chew.
--His leash and collar are padded nylon and a handsome aqua color with reflectors. Hell yeah, it had to be a matching pair!
--The choice over the food bowl was hard to make. Small, Med, Large? The small ones looked perfect, but I couldn't see a bigger dog eating out of it. But the large ones, I couldn't see him getting his neck over the top without him stepping into it. So I went with a medium size. Jaymie and him can share the water bowl, I'm sure.

What else did I miss? I wanted to get one of those fabric Chilly Bones that you soak in water and put in the freezer. But I'll wait till the teething months come in full swing. I read it doesn't get bad until 4-6 months.

Oh, that's not all! I have a present for Jaymie. I didn't want her to think this new guy comes in and gets all the cool toys! I'm hiding it and saving it for next weekend. So don't tell her, but I got her a "swirlly thang."

This isn't any ordinary toy. This is Jaymie-crack! For MANY years, this has been her favorite toy out of many that I have gotten her. This will probably be her 6th or 7th one over the years. They last about 5 or 6 months for her. First, the head comes off, then the stuffing comes out, then the squeakers on each side. Before I know it, she carries around just the middle part. That part stays until I get another. Whenever we go out to potty or go on a walk, she carries it in her mouth outside. She knows the names to all of her toys. If I tell her to get "piggy" she goes to get her stuffed pig. But these guys have always been "Swirly Thang." She will be so excited to get it. This is what her current swirly thang looks like - headless, de-stuffed and completely de-squeakered. We even have the head of the one before that somehwere around here.

Dear Steve Carell,

2010-06-30T09:25:00.002-05:00

What the hell do you think you are doing?

I live, breathe, eat and sleep The Office. I know every single episode since day 1. I love every character in that show, but you....you run the show. How can you abandon the whole crew and all of The Office fans? You say "The show can go on without me. They will be fine." Are you kidding me? The whole "Jenga Tower" balances on the block that is you. Once you go, the whole show is will bomb. The chemistry will be gone. MIchael Scott is the comedy relief that balances out the love story of Jim and Pam. Michael Scott is the mother of all awkward moments and dumb sayings. Michael Scott is the bounce off from Dwight Shrute. Michael Scott is the corral of all the characters in the office. You cannot find a better character, and you cannot find a better actor for that spot.

I have my doubts that The Office will go on with the same amount of success. I don't understand why you are leaving after receiving so many awards and nominations for your part. Since this will be your last season, I believe this will be the last season of the show. If it continues, it will go down in flames. The fans will be sad and The Office will be nothing but a collectors DVD box of memories.

I really hope they prove me wrong.

Happy 5th Week Birthday, Little Man

2010-06-27T11:04:00.005-05:00

Reuben or Brody - those are the choices we are at now. He was born on Mother's day, May 25th, so today, he is 5 weeks old. And as far as my wait, one week down and 2 more weeks to go. I might have to get the breeder to take more iphone pics because I'd love to see him again. Too bad he is almost 2 hours away from here or I'd go visit.

So far, we have got his crate set up. Petco had this awesome sale on small plush blankets for kitties for $3. They are soft and fluffy, so I got two. I washed them and already have them set up in his crate.....sigh. Is it wrong that I open the crate every day and feel the blankets?

I'm trying to hold off on getting puppy supplies until next weekend. That's when puppy insanity will really kick in!

While we were at Petco, Jaymie, our Boston Terrier, was picking out what cookies she wanted at the cookie bar. I saw a tri color Australian Shepherd. He was a grown puppy. He was big, but definitely still acted like a puppy. I went to pet him, but the sad thing was the owner didn't properly train him. He was out of control. He jumped up to the bar to grab a cookie and the owner had trouble controling him on a leash. He really didn't want to stop and talk to us. He was angry with his hyper dog and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I wonder if he even tried obedience when he was little or did he just wait until negative behaviors started? The man really seemed frustrated. I kind of got scared, imagining that my puppy would end up that crazy. I'm devoted to get into obedience training right away. I will be doing it on my own. I REALLY don't want him to end up acting like that man's dog did.

2010-06-26T21:01:00.002-05:00

We went out last night to promote some up coming shows (We have 3 shows next month!). A friend got a pic of us. This is my first time seeing a photo of me since my weight loss. Its way different than looking in a mirror. You can definitely tell my face is much skinner. My collar bones are much more defined. But damn, I need some serious sun! lol

What was really cool was one girl hadn't seen me in a long time and she kept saying how hot I looked. Then another girl texted Jason to say that I was looking hot. It definitely felt great! Still want off of this diet, though. lol

2010-06-26T14:46:00.003-05:00

Today is day 26 - 17.6 lbs loss. Weight loss is slowing to a complete halt. Just what my doc said it would do. But I have to say, my cheating within the past 3 days hasn't helped. I'm glad I haven't gained from it, but it's definitely caused the stall. I'll be honest - I'm really done with this diet. I'm not hungry but I feel deprived of a selection of foods.

Want a good example? Thursday night, I had this crazy dream. I was in this strange house and every door I opened had a different food in the room. The room was full of a specific sort of food and people were rolling around in it like kids in snow. There was a pizza room, a chocolate room and I even remember rolling around in ice cream! I never had a dream like that before. I miss good food. There have been some good meals. But the short list of the foods I can have has drove me insane. I will never eat white fish or shrimp again unless it's fried. I'm starting to get disgusted by chicken now! Chicken, even!!!

As for the cheating. It wasn't good to see. Thursday night, Jason ordered 2 medium pizzas. I'm ashamed to say, we ate both in one sitting. Ugh! This is the part where I say I'm disgusted with myself and guilty. But nope. It was the greatest night of my life! I was in complete bliss! I will never forget how amazing it was. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing! I woke up the next morning with no gain.

Friday, I went back to my diet and did good. But supper was disgusting so I didn't eat at all. I went to the club and danced my ass off for a few hours. I was starving by the time we left. We got near home about 2:30am and hit up whataburger. I could have ordered everything off the menu. I just got a whataburger jr and nothing else. I'm happy that i turned down fries. I just needed something small and quick to make the hunger go away. Besides, I danced for hours and skipped supper, so that should have made things not so bad.

Today, I'm trying not to eat but a random bite throughout the day. Just trying to bust through that scale stall. My gel is still spitting out doses, so I'm going to try and keep going. But between you and me, I keep hoping it will run out soon. I want to get on maintenance and get back to working out. I hate not getting to work out. I feel....lazy.

Reuben?

2010-06-23T14:54:00.003-05:00

I think Reuben is my favorite name so far.

I'm going to pick up his small crate this evening. And since I'm pup-sick crazy, I'll probably set it up in the bedroom tonight, place a soft blanket inside and stare at it. I'm that obsessed, folks. I already have picked out his puppy toys for his teething gums. I just have to wait till payday to purchase them.

Yeah, this looks like a Reuben.

Squeezing out a little more fat

2010-06-23T14:44:00.003-05:00

I'm now 17 pounds lighter than I was 23 days ago! My jeans are baggy and I'm digging things out of the closet that i haven't worn in a while. This morning, it seems like the hCG gel was a little short on pushing out my dosage. Perhaps it was my imagination, but it didn't seem like it was as much as it usually is. Perhaps my round is coming to an end rather quicker than I thought.

The next plan is to go 3 more days on the diet after I run out of the gel. Then Maintenance Phase 1 starts and I increase my food intake, but I still follow a low cal diet and avoid sugars and starches for 2 - 3 weeks. Something tells me I can last the 2 weeks, and not the third. My will power has been beaten up over the past month! After that, I can start to add in the starches and sugars. But it has to be one item per day. Either way, I'm going to hit the gym big time to make sure it stays off. I'm so scared of it coming back. And since i"m not at my goal, I need to really bust ass to keep loosing weight!

Puppy Names

2010-06-22T15:26:00.003-05:00

This isn't him. This is what my little guy will probably look like when he comes home. What a handsome boy! It's been 3 days and I feel like it's been 3 weeks. The wait is an eternity! I can't help but look at puppy photos, read tons of australian shepherd info and look at lots of toys on the internet.

Meanwhile, we are gathering a list of puppy supplies we will need and making plans to puppy proof. We have got things squared away with our landlord and our pet rent goes up starting in August. They also want a hefty extra deposit. We have paid $700 in pet deposit and now they want $250 more! And we are paying $15 in pet rent and they want $10 more per month! Pure robbery. When landlords are owned by corporations, they don't mind robbing ya blind. Hell, if I left my garbage can out past the hour after the trash is picked up, they charge a citation. Anything to make an extra buck off of it's residents. But hell...I love it here! I love my home, so I deal.

And I have been getting that same question over and over - "Does he have a name?" Nope. Still no name yet. But we have come up with a few that we like:
Archie
Dylan
Rico
Maddux
Simon

I'm sure as soon as we get him, the name will completely change. Never can confirm names until we spend a while together. Do you have any ideas for a name? I'm thinking of something handsome.

Almost done

2010-06-22T15:09:00.003-05:00

Today is the 23rd day and the weight loss is definitely slowing down. I've read that many thyroid patients have significantly slower weight loss than others. I'm definitely the rule in this case. Many at my stage are usually at 20 -25lbs loss. I'm not going to let it upset me. I still lost a ridiculous amount of weight. I will just have to be okay that I will not make my goal and I will not be in a bikini by the boat party in August.

Yeah, 23rd day is the end of a short round and I should be going to 35ish days. But I looked at my gel container and I'm thinking it might be all gone by this weekend! Who knows, it might keep going to the 35th day. But I'm thinking I'm about over. I'm not sad. I'm actually relieved! The food menu is definitely boring. BUT - the recipes that I found for hCG have been pretty damn good! Taco salad, chicken fajitas and beef chili were my favs!

Now I'm starting to think where to go from here. I have 2 options. I can take 3 weeks of maintenance and then start another round of hCG - definitely a short round. I would have to order the hCG drops online since my doctor will not prescribe me anymore. The bad thing is, I have to see him in about 5 or 6 weeks for another thyroid test. If I go in on hCG, he'll know something is up!

The other option is to take my 3 weeks of maintenance and then increase my food intake back to normal. And try back at working out and eating right. Perhaps try to burn off the rest of that fat. Hell, with the new puppy, I'm pretty sure I'll be too busy to eat! Like my doctor says, the hCG is meant to get rid of all of the abnormal fat. The normal fat is up to you. I don't know how much I can believe that, though. I've seen girls go from fat to skinny skinny on hCG alone.

If I took option 1 - I might can hit my goal and wear a bikini for the boat party. But I might get in trouble with the doc. And I won't get to eat yummy foods through the whole summer If I took option 2 - I might struggle just like like I always had before and I'm pretty sure I won't hit my goal. But I might hit my goal by next summer.

He Has Puppy Breath

2010-06-19T15:56:00.004-05:00

And puppy breath has to be one of my favorite smells in the world. He stumbles around, can't see well yet, but he is starting to play a little with his siblings and definitely knows when mommy is nearby.

He is a red merle Australian Shepherd and he has two blue eyes.
His puppy cries are adorable.
He licks my nose and sucks on my finger.
His tummy is round and full of milk.
His nose is pink.
His paws are delicate and soft.
His fur is fluffy.
His markings are handsome.
He has no name.
He fell asleep in my arms.

He will be coming home in 3 weeks. :)

2010-06-18T16:17:00.002-05:00

Yep!! 18 days are gone and so are 16.2 lbs and 13 inches total!

Not only is that awesome, but I got my first "you've lost a lot of weight!" comment at work. NICE! That made my whole freaking day! Oh hell, it made my whole week, too!

15 days complete! 14.8 lbs lost!

2010-06-16T09:40:00.003-05:00

I lost another half a pound this morning, putting me at 14.8lbs! I can't believe I've lost this much in just over 2 weeks! This stuff is freaking amazing!

Getting bored with my food choices, but found a free hCG Phase 2 cookbook that has been passed around. It's sparking up my taste buds again. Last night I made a fajita seasoning and cooked it with some chicken and chopped onions. Then I laid it all over a bed of lettuce. Oh my, it was so good. The only problem was that I made it way too spicy! I went through a whole bottle of water during my supper. But it was so good, I couldn't stop eating it. I was so damn full! I even had a few strawberries for dessert. And then woke up with half a pound loss....that's incredible!

Some people are going a little off of protocol to mix things up a bit. Not only that, but sometimes you don't feel that hungry at all when meal times comes, or don't feel like cooking. So some girls have been venturing into whey protein shakes that don't have any sugar, aspartame, or splenda in it. They are using them for meal replacements a few times a week. This is completely off of protocol, but they are still loosing the weight. One serving is only 130 cals! That's perfect for a quick lunch! I'm gonna try it and keep my fingers crossed that my weight still goes down tomorrow.

2010-06-15T14:34:00.003-05:00

Went though another rough 2-day stall. It sucked! But that is OKAY because I lost half a pound this morning! Finally, the scale is budging! I wonder if this is because of the vitamin shot I had yesterday? Awesome!

Today's challenge was that the whole building was doing a beef and chicken taco fiesta thing. Taco smells filled the entire building as people were piling their plates high full of tacos and another plate full of desserts. The one that caught my eye were these huge brownies. This one lady ate 3 whole brownies. Whoa! It was killing me! I wanted to chow down on those things! But I stayed strong and stayed on my diet. I walked out of there, went home and made my lunch. Yay to me! My body should thank me and show me another loss tomorrow. I'm close to 15lbs mark and I want to see it now!

Doctor Visit and Vitamin Shot

2010-06-14T18:32:00.002-05:00

After 2 weeks on hCG, I needed to go in to get a quick checkup and a shot of B vitamins.

My blood pressure was 90/60 which was pretty low. I'm not feeling dizzy or anything, so I didn't think it was that low. I wasn't supposed to see the doctor, just see the nurse. But I guess the blood pressure alarmed her to go get the doctor. He seemed to be okay with it, but he didn't want me to do the full 40 days. The reason wasn't because of my bp, but he said that if I lost 2 more lbs, I would finally be at a healthy BMI. 2 more pounds?! No no no no....I have way much more to loose than 2 lbs.

I have a goal of 115 and I plan to get there. That is my healthy weight for my height and small frame. But we had this discussion before i got on hCG, and now all of a sudden he says all I need to do is loose 2 more lbs? Hell, I was trying to tell him that I wouldn't get to my goal by the end of this round and if I could get a short second round. He says no. He will not approve of another prescription.

I pointed at all the fat piled on me and said "Uh, Sorry Doctor G, but this is all way more than 2 lbs" He says "Your tummy right here is your bad fat and it's going away. Everywhere else is good fat. This only takes away the bad fat. Besides you are looking really good!"

Whatever, I didn't like what he had to say. He even wanted me to cut my treatment shorter. No way. I have enough for a full round and I will use all of it. Not only that, but If I'm not at goal, I'll get some hCG drops for a short round. So there! hm!

Besides being pissed at my doctor, the nurse walks in to give me my shot. She went pretty deep into the muscle in my arm with the needle so my arm has been sore all day. What was crazy was the shot was red just like the photo above. It looked like she was going to put koolaid into my arm. Crazy!

Another 2-day stall

2010-06-14T10:25:00.004-05:00

I had that awesome loss the other day! I knew I shouldn't have gotten so excited. Yesterday, my scale stalled again with only 0.2lb loss. Today, it didn't move at all. So far, this is another 2-day stall. So if my body is developing a pattern, that means I'll loose another 1.5 lbs tomorrow morning. But I am still happy to see the 130s, even though it's only 139.8.

The weekends are tough. Everything is off schedule. I can't keep up with the amount of water I drink (I know I didn't drink enough). There is leisurely socializing with food everywhere (I didn't cheat, its just another challenge of temptation). My meals are not at their normal times.

I went to a pool party on Saturday and a Lake party on Sunday. Both were full of food and overflowing with alcohol. These are 2 things I CANNOT have. So I watched everyone get drunk and have a great time while I stayed sober as hell. It sucked sucked sucked. I wore a tankini with a skirt on it. I can tell you I still looked awful in that. I tried to keep covered up as much as I could when I was out of the water. I'm definitely not ready for being around people in a bathing suit.

Today ends my week 2. I should be excited, but I feel like the stalls lately are really bringing me down. Even though my scale has moved sometimes, my measurements haven't moved all week. The last 2 weeks have felt like they were 2 months. I guess I'm about halfway through. But I'm not halfway through to my goal. This means I'm definitely sure I will need to do another round after this is up.

I go to see my doctor today or tomorrow to get my vitamin shot. They said to just come in whenever. I didn't need an appt. My big question is seeing about adding on more days to this round or doing a 2nd round. I hope he'll be okay with that.

Stall is over!

2010-06-12T18:56:00.001-05:00

Yeah! The stall didn't seem so bad this morning as I woke up to a straight 1.4lb loss! Woah! That makes a total of 13.6 lbs in 11 days!

Oh and I hit exactly 140.0lbs. So perhaps tomorrow I'll say hello to the 130s?? :D

Salt = EVIL

2010-06-10T16:01:00.002-05:00

Last night, I decided to make one of the hCG recipes and made a taco salad. I decided that it needed a little salt after tasting it. So I put a little bit in, or so I thought it was a little. When I sat down to eat, my taco salad was a bit on the salty side. I kept eating it, but the whole time I was thinking "is this salt going to make me retain some water?" I'm obsessed with keep my weight going down and anything that can possibly cause a stall worries me. I haven't had a stall yet....until today.

I'm sad to say I climbed the scale and my weight has stalled. We all know the culprit - that damn salt! GRR!!!!

So today is my first stall. It happens to everyone on hCG, it's just bound to happen. You just have to figure out what made it happen, fix the issue and get the weight flowing off again. So today is NO SALT and drinking a ton of water to flush it all out.

I'm also wanting to break out my old yoga mat again. It's been an old friend to me. I don't remember why I stopped. I think it was because I wasn't loosing weight doing it. But it's obvious that it's not yoga that was the issue. It was the combination of thyroid, adrenal glands and the hypothalamus obesity disorder.

On hCG, you can't really do serious exhausting workouts. I can't go running, or hit the elliptical at full pace. First of all, your body can only deal with the 500 calories you give it every day. So you can get weak if you workout. Also, if you seriously work your muscles to where they are exhausted, they can retain all the water you give it. Many people complain that while on hCG, they do a workout, and the next day, they have gained. That is water retention in the muscles.

But yoga isn't that bad, and I need to stretch and get some more flexibility in. That will help to move that fat a little more and break open those cell walls that are holding water. That's what Dr. S says in his protocol, anyway. Many hCG experts or doctors will let you know yoga is the best form of exercise for hCG. But don't do a serious power yoga workout or hit a bikram yoga (hot yoga) class. Those are way to extraneous of a workout. I'm talking about regular, smooth yoga. Do you positions, hold and breathe. I can't wait to get home tonight and go for it.

1.4 lbs loss this morning!

2010-06-09T12:13:00.003-05:00

Yay! My losses are building back up! I woke up this morning 1.4 lbs lighter than yesterday!

That makes 12.2 lbs in 8 DAYS!

I don't know if it was HCG related, but yesterday, I had a HUGE migraine on the right side of my head. It was so strong that I couldn't walk or talk. I just had to curl up in a ball on my bed and cry. I kept taking 2 ibuprofen every hour and got to 6 of them before I stopped taking them. The migraine lasted 6 hours! I had never experienced a headache like that before - ever! I really hope it doesn't come back again.

TWO MILESTONES TODAY!

2010-06-08T12:17:00.003-05:00

10 lb milestone completed!! I made it and passed it up!

I lost a full 1.0 lb over yesterday! Woohoo!!! I was completely surprised since my cycle had started yesterday. Most girls stall or even gain when on hcg and cycle.

Also - This makes first week complete. One week down! The hard part is over! But I have to say, it wasn't really hard. There were some pretty rough challenges with being around food. But I wouldn't say it was all bad. I toughed through it. And what I accomplished in those challenges just makes me more stronger in the days to come. I've never been on a diet that gave me results like this. I absolutely love it! Well worth the money.

In the horizon - .there is a lake party this coming weekend that is huge. 200+ people are expected to be there and with my boyfriend being the center of attention, that makes me the secondary tagalong and labeled "awesome DJ's girlfriend." Ugh, I know I won't be ready to even be looked at, but at least I'll look better than I have been. If only this lake party was a couple more weeks down the road.

But that's okay...because it's the boat party in August I'm aiming for. That will be the goal. The lake party is just a precursor and I'll just have to deal. Damn...i need to start tanning now!

6 days complete at 9.8 lbs loss!

2010-06-07T09:40:00.004-05:00

Oh yeah! Do the cabbage patch with me! I'm on my 7th day today, with 6 days complete. Tomorrow I'll be celebrating a full week complete and I'm pretty sure I just might be celebrating 10 lb loss milestone. I can't believe 10 lbs in one week! This is amazing! Well, I guess I shouldn't celebrate just yet. This can be a trying week as it is the time of the month - grrrr! But as of today, I'm 2 days late already. Most girls on HCG start TOM really early. I guess I'm completely opposite. I just don't want the weight gain to come along with it.

This past weekend was full of challenges. Friday night's Rangers game started it all off. Damn I wanted a freaking nacho and a hotdog...for reals! But I went home to visit my family on Saturday and Sunday. I knew what was to come. My family had big steaks ready to go on the grill and huge baked potatoes. I went to the store and got some chicken, weighed it and had it thrown on the grill and hoped that none of the grease would get on it. I sat at the table around people pigging out on great food, while I had my little piece of chicken and salad greens. My mom baked brownies from scratch - FROM SCRATCH! The whole house smelled of chocolate. Oh lord! I had a pinky nail worth of brownie just so I could taste it. It took all I had not to devour the whole thing. Jason was a great supporter in just reminding me that I'm on my diet and to stay strong.

The next morning, I can't have a breakfast, but you know East Texas folks have to have big breakfast. The whole house smelled of bacon that morning. I laid on the couch and watched TV, while everyone sat at the table and at breakfast. I did not like it at all.

Then on the way home, Jason had to stop by a Carl's Jr ( a burger joint) and get some food. He ate it in the car while I drove. My whole car smelled of burger and onion rings. I begged to taste an onion ring, so I got about a quarter of one. It was euphoric.

And I know I didn't drink enough water over the weekend. It was hard to keep up with. But all is okay, I lost a full pound making the total 9.8lbs loss. Time to get back on track to keep loosing!

2010-06-05T08:00:00.005-05:00

Day 4, Friday, finished off with 0.8 lbs loss for a total of 8.2 lbs. I'm now 145.0, halfway out of the 140s! I will freak the day I see the 130s!

Yesterday was super temptation city! Not only was it donut day at work, but I won tickets to a Texas Rangers game! It was a LONG walk from where we parked to the ballpark. I thought all the walking I did would have seriously burned more fat off and I would have a greater loss, but it doesn't seem like it mattered much.

The temptations and challenges were at an all time high. The seats were great! But the people around us were drinking beers and pigging out on some of the most yummiest foods! Not only could I see it, but my nose could pick out a hotdog from across the section. There were nachos, cheese fries, hotdogs, popcorn, cotton candy, various icecreams and fresh roasted peanuts. It was killing me! I had to keep reminding myself - "Okay, you are NOT hungry. These are just things that you want to taste and it is not worth it. These are just smells, just like any other smell. They don't mean anything." It was really tough. But I did it! I was good!

On the way home, Jason stops by a Whataburger to pick up some food for him. The car smelled so good! I was thinking "just one fry, maybe?" But I stood my ground and didn't.

So all these challenges that I conquered and I would think my body would have rewarded me with more of a loss than that. But still, I can't complain! My time of the month should be tomorrow or Monday, so perhaps the slow down is because of that. Things will pick back up after that's over with