Random Life...

My weight loss program isn't going so hot. I've stayed pretty much the same weight. I'm noticing that I look and feel better though, so at least I've got that.

This weather is going to drive me crazy. I don't know whether I love it or I hate it. It's insane because it's in the 70s in February. February is winter. It should not be 70 degrees until at least April. At least. Probably not until May or June. At least I got to see snow twice this winter. Damn early spring. That groundhog was so wrong. Even if it isn't supposed to be like this, it is so nice!

We went hiking on Sunday. We went to Joe's Uncle Joe's property at South Mountain. We took all 4 dogs because they don't have to be on leashes there. They just walk a little big ahead of Joe and I. They had a wonderful time. We hiked to the waterfall and then Joe and I had lunch. There was still ice on the water around the edges (even though it was in the 70s), but that didn't stop Cody, Daly, and Jippy from jumping in (of course Jack stayed out of that cold water! He wouldn't have jumped in if it were warm!). Jippy stopped after one time, but Cody and Daly just kept going back in. Cody kept trying to get the huge chunks of ice (like he normally does with sticks that we throw in the water). It was really cute. Joe tried to help him get a big piece with a stick, but then Cody just became more interested in the stick than the ice. He's adorable. Anyway, we hiked back to the road after a while.

I don't know if I blogged about this yet, but my hours have been rearranged at work and now I only work 7:30 to 5:30 Monday through Thursday and I have a 3 day weekend. It is so wonderful. I can actually get things done around the house! This Friday, I will be devoting less time to cleaning and organizing the house (as I have done the past 2 Fridays), and instead, I will be working some more on my book. News about the book: our computer crashed last week and I lost all that I had typed up about the book. No, I didn't have it backed up anywhere. However, I do have a handwritten version of all of my notes and outlines. :)

Also, I don't think I blogged about this either. Joe and I have talked about getting married. I know, we're insane. Don't worry; it will still be a while. We've just decided that whenever it happens, we are now ready for it. We want to take several days off work and rent a cabin in the mountains. A cabin big enough for a lot of people. We're going to invite our closest relatives and friends (definitely no more than 50 people, but probably closer to 30). Anyone who would like to stay at the cabin is welcome to. We'll spend a few days hanging out, then have a very small ceremony on our anniversary (September 23). Then after that, we'll have a reception and hang out for a while and then kick everyone out so that we can have a short honeymoon. :)

So far, we are thinking probably 2011. We have our vacation for this year planned (KOREA in less than a month!!!) and we are planning on going to Rome next year, but we have no vacation plans so far for 2011. So, don't make any plans for September 23, 2011. It's quite possible that you'll be attending our wedding. :) Of course, Joe still has to officially ask me to marry him. But that is just a minor detail. lol :) With plans for 2011, I don't think there is any real hurry. It's still 2.5 years away!

Life Update + My Love for my Dogs

My inhaler is apparently working. I had to use it several times in the first few days. However, I haven't used it since Saturday, and I seem to be doing fine. :) So, that is great news. I think I'm going to cancel the follow-up doctor's appointment that I had scheduled for January 2. I'm not interested in going to see the NP who doesn't read when I'm feeling better. She doesn't know what's wrong anyway. I have 2 refills for the inhaler and the inhaler will last me 100 times. At this rate, the inhaler will last 6 months! :)

Joe and I tried to get all of the dogs together to do a Christmas picture to send out with our Christmas cards. I set the timer on my camera and we posed in front of the Christmas tree. It never failed that at least one of the dogs would lay down or look somewhere other than the camera at the last second. So, that didn't work out. Finally our patience wore thin and we gave up on that. We may try again, but our days are numbered before the Christmas cards have to be sent out.

I've been making cookies and fudge and other delicious but bad for you treats. I'm stuffing tins full of goodies to give to people. It's a very slow process. :( And, I keep eating what I've made and then I have to make more. haha... that's not so bad, though. :)

Cody attacked Jippy on Monday. I was a mess. First of all, Cody has never attacked any of the dogs. He is as sweet as can be. Jippy irritates the other dogs, and it's likely that he started the fight (he bites the other dogs and jumps on them when they don't want to play -- he's not vicious... just annoying). Daly has attacked him before, but I thought we had it under control. The dogs know that they aren't allowed to fight (unless they're playing -- It's easy to tell the difference). Cody is especially not allowed to be aggressive because he's so big. He could easily hurt any dog he decided to turn against. It's never been a problem before.

I was walking down the stairs getting ready for work when I heard them fighting outside. I assumed that it was Jippy and Daly. It hasn't happened for a while, but they're the only ones we had ever had a problem with. I ran down the stairs and out the door. Well, as I got to the door, I realized that Cody was on top of Jippy biting him. I started screaming at Cody and I shoved him off as I got out the door. Cody stopped as soon as he heard me, but I still wanted them separated. Jippy was shaking. I haven't really spanked Cody since he was a puppy. There hasn't really been a need. I occasionally slap him on his butt when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't be, but never hard. It's just a little tap. It's just the fact that I have slapped him that upsets him and he knows that he has to stop. It breaks my heart to do that because he gives me the sad puppy look.

Well, this time, I was so upset that I really spanked him. Hard. I don't know if it hurt him or not, but I know I hit him hard. Several times. He gave me the sad puppy face and that just made me cry (I was on the verge before because I was so upset, but that sent me over). Joe took Cody and put him in a crate in the garage while I comforted Jippy. He shook all over. So did I. When I calmed Jippy and Daly down (she got upset over all of the commotion), I went into the garage and talked to Cody. I know, some people think I'm crazy for talking to my dogs, but I swear that they understand most of the time. Cody was upset. He doesn't have a crate. Only Jippy, Daly, and Jack have crates. So, he wasn't used to having to be in a crate. I yelled at him and cried and he was sad. I calmed down and told him that he wasn't allowed to attack his brothers. Then Joe and I went to work. I was crying for part of the ride into work. Cody stayed in the crate all day while we were at work.

It's really upsetting to me. For so many reasons. The dogs are not allowed to attack each other, for one. And then, it was Cody. Cody is the one I least expect it from. I've not had any problems out of him. He's not an aggressive dog. He occasionally growls at strange dogs, but he's never attacked any of them (without provocation -- there was a greyhound who attacked Jack and so Cody bit that dog, but I don't count that... that's in his job description). He's always incredibly patient with the other dogs, even when they are incredibly annoying. I expect better of Cody. I love all of the dogs equally, but I love them all for different reasons. Jack is sweet and cute. Jippy is dumb but adorable. Daly is my eager little girl. Cody is my amazingly loyal and smart and just plain good dog. It's not that I love Cody more, it's just that there is no argument that he is the best dog we have. I don't know if that makes sense. He does what he is told. He always behaves himself. We never have any problems out of him. He's the one you can really trust to not let you down. So, I was in shock and so disappointed that he would do such a thing. And on top of it all, Cody is incredibly strong and so much bigger than the other dogs. He weighs about 80 pounds. He has huge teeth. He could seriously hurt or kill one of the other dogs very easily. I hadn't ever thought twice about it before because it's never been an issue. Now it's in the back of my mind eating away at me. If I think that Cody can't be trusted with the other dogs, other arrangements will have to be made. Arrangements that won't make any of us very happy.

Cody is the only un-neutered dog we have. If this happens again, Cody will be getting neutered, no matter what Joe wants or doesn't want. And I don't want to think about what will have to happen if that didn't help.

I'm sure Cody doing that is just like how my mom felt when I skipped school in high school. She was so disappointed in me. She wouldn't speak to me for weeks. I had always been the good daughter. I never did anything wrong and I got straight As. I'm sure she was shocked. It makes me laugh to think of it that way.

I want to go back to how I don't actually love Cody more than the other dogs, because I'm not sure that it made sense... I mean, why wouldn't I love the "good" dog more than the other dogs? I want to try to explain how it's possible. I love Cody for all the reasons that he is a good dog. He protects me when Joe is not home. He is loyal. He knows lots of tricks. He's eager to please. He's just a good dog.

Jack isn't always perfect. He doesn't always listen (even though he is also a very good dog). However, he's got a different personality. He comes across as human a lot of times. He's stubborn, but sweet as can be. And, he always wants to be with me. So, even though some people wouldn't think of him as as good of a dog as Cody, I love Jack just the same for all of his cute imperfections and all of his human characteristics.

Jippy is the least trained dog we have. He is not smart. He doesn't understand what you're trying to get him to do a lot of the time and when he gets confused, he rolls over on his back and pees on himself (it's called submissive wetting). It irritates Joe. While most people wouldn't see how I could love Jippy as much as Cody or Jack, I do. He needs me to understand him. He tries so very hard to please me. It's easy to see that he doesn't want to upset me. He loves me very much and anyone can see that. It's hard for him to understand, but he still tries. And I love him so very much for it. He has to try much harder than the other dogs. And that means a lot.

Daly was the hardest for me to get attached to. But now, I love her all the same as the other dogs. She is lazy. She is not as smart as Cody or Jack, but she is still smarter than Jippy. As she's becoming an adult (she turned 1 on Friday), she's getting even better. She tries to please. And she's very affectionate. She loves to give kisses. And she's learning lots of new tricks. She loves to be near me. It's easy to see how much she loves me. She's very loyal. She wants to be near me when the other dogs are playing (even though she wants to play as well). She fights it. She runs back and forth between playing and coming back to love on me. It's cute. I know that she loves me as she loves her brothers. And she brings out goodness in her brothers. She can get them to play so easily (when she's not being lazy). She has a lot of goodness in her and anyone can see it.

So, it might not make sense to everyone, but I do love all of my boys dearly and equally. I do not have favorites, although it may seem like it sometimes. I just have different expectations for all of the dogs. But I love them all the same for different reasons. :)

What I'm Thankful For...

1. My wonderful family: Joe, Jack, Cody, Jippy, & Daly. My babies are smart and sweet and beautiful.
2. My fantastic friends.
3. My healed relationships with my parents and sister.
4. A house not in Crackton.
5. Four-Day weekends :)
6. A degree in Religion & Philosophy (I can't believe I finished in May... It seems so long ago now).
7. Mario Kart. It's amazing how much fun it can be. Especially with cool people.
8. Black Bean Soup. It's just so incredibly comforting and delicious. :)
9. Good books... like the Twilight Saga and White Oleander. You just can't beat curling up with a good book.
10. Rain. It rained yesterday. I missed that a lot during the drought (technically a lot of NC is still in a drought -- Shelby is still in a Severe drought, Salisbury is in a Moderate drought, and Charlotte is still "Abnormally Dry", but there are now only 6 counties in an "Exceptional Drought" and only 8 counties in the slightly less bad "Extreme Drought." See the link for more info.).
11. Autumn. There actually was a fall in North Carolina this year. It was beautiful. Oh, how I have missed the change in seasons. Indiana always changes dramatically and I missed that in NC. I didn't have to miss it this year! :)
12. Hope. In many things. A hopeful change in direction for the way our country is headed. A possibility of snow in Shelby, North Carolina. :) A house in a nice neighborhood. A lot of things.
13. Having tickets to South Korea to see a couple of amazingly awesome people.
14. A job. Not my dream job. Not an exciting job. But, a job. That pays pretty well. And that is something that no everyone has. Especially with the way the world is right now.
15. A clean conscience (vegetarian since August 20, 2007). I can look animals in the eye without the guilt of knowing that their kin had to die for my dinner. :)
16. Netflix. It is so awesome that I can watch movies and tv shows online. It makes me happy.
17. Good television. Mostly The Big Bang Theory and Heroes. They keep me entertained on Monday nights while Joe is gone to his basketball game. :) And to go along with this, Sylar... Wonderful character. You have to love the bad guy who has the potential for something good. Keeps me on the edge of my seat. And I would totally date any of the guys from Big Bang. They are awesome! lol

And so much more... I am just thankful for the here and now. :) It's wonderful.

Jippy + Other Stuff in My Life

Joe and I picked Jippy up from the vet this morning. He is now testicle-free. :) He doesn't seem to be in any pain. He's on pain medicine though. He's mostly just scared/traumatized. And probably not because of the lack of testicles. Probably because he not only had to go to the vet, but he also had to spend the night at the vet. He's never spent the night anywhere other than at home (or at least he spends the night with us when he's away from home).

Last night, Joe walked by Jippy's crate at bedtime and freaked out. He demanded to know where Jippy was. It was cute. As soon as he said it, he realized where Jippy was and he tried to clear the emotion from his face. I rubbed it in that he missed Jippy and was worried about him. He had to admit that he does love Jippy. :) I think Joe has finally accepted Jippy as a member of our family. It only took him several months!

Unfortunately, Daly will be even harder for him to accept. She's such a pain in the butt. At first, Joe was more attached to her than I was. He had an easier time getting close to her. It took me a long time. But then, the more she misbehaved, the more she got on Joe's bad side, and now she's gone too far and it's going to take some growing up on her part before Joe will reattach himself to her and accept her as family.

More demolition took place at our Shelby house yesterday. I didn't get to see any of it because we didn't go up there last night. We went home and ate black bean soup and watched Pursuit of Happyness. It was pretty depressing. Joe was freaking out because we just bought a house and he's worried that the market is going to go to crap and leave us with a mortgage that we can't afford. So, that wasn't such a great choice for a movie. I thought with the word "happyness" in the title, that it would be a happier movie (P.S. It drives me nuts to have to spell happiness wrong for that movie!). Not true. There are 115 minutes of unhappiness and then 2 minutes of happiness. :( I could have used some more happiness in the end. Also, I wanted him to find that taxi driver and pay him back. I guess I was just asking for too much.

Joe is going to pick up the bed today after work so that my mom and I will have someplace to sleep while we're in Shelby at the new house. And then we're going to buy the paint so that we will be all set to get started on the house when my mom gets here. :)

Our house is a very, very, very fine house!

We had a frustrating first weekend. We spent a lot of time at Lowe’s but in the end, they didn’t have the kind of paint that we needed for the tile in the bathroom. Well, they did, but with the paint they had, it could only be tinted a very light color and we did not want to go with something that light. So, after all of that aggravation, Joe and I decided against painting that bathroom. Lol… I’m going to look around and see if we can find anything, but if I don’t find any paint that we can use, then there is nothing that we can do.

Paul Kitchen started on Friday and has almost all of the baseboard heating out of the house already. Luckily, the holes are in the walls and not the floor! :) So, that was good news. And they are just tiny holes in the wall. However, there were thermostats in each room for the baseboard heating and they came out leaving holes in the wall that have to be patched. :(

They will be back again today to finish demolishing the downstairs bathroom and to take out the rest of the baseboard heating units. I think the new A/C unit is being put in today as well.

Our doorbell started working! The inspector said that it didn’t work. Well, I pushed on it a few times and it didn’t work. Then a few minutes later, it rang. It scared me. It turns out that something was just stuck and it unstuck itself. Now it works perfect. :)

We cleaned a bunch. It was me and a crew of three men. :) Joe, Dan, and Philip. Lol… it was amusing to watch them scrubbing the walls because I don’t think they’d normally be doing that sort of thing. I got all of the caulk off of the tub in the upstairs bathroom. It was disgusting. Then, I tried to recaulk the tub. So far, it’s just a mess and I’m probably going to have to remove that caulk and try again. lol

The bathroom floor has stains in the grout. I’m still not finished in there. I couldn’t find a brush at Wal-Mart so I had to use a toothbrush to scrub it. That was working, but I wore out quickly. Joe went last night and got be a good scrub brush, but I was busy playing with the caulk at that point and then we went back to Gastonia. So, the floor in the bathroom still has grout stains over ¾ of the floor. Joe doesn’t want to go back over there tonight. I’d like to go back over and get more done! I understand that he needs a break though.

I found places where the wallpaper is peeling. I pulled and it came up easily. I think that we may be able to get it off there!! :)

My mom comes in on Wednesday to help me do the painting and the other stuff. She'll be here until the following Wednesday. It turns out that my ex-boyfriend and his parents will be in town at the same time. His parents have asked if we could go out to dinner on Sunday, so I'm hoping that they don't mean with Michael and his girlfriend. That could be uncomfortable. I'm not even sure they'd be comfortable this way (especially if Joe goes with me). And, they invited us to dinner at a Barbecue place. I checked out the menu. Not Veg friendly. So, I'm probably going to have to pass on that unless they don't have their hearts set on that restaurant.

The dogs were with us at the house in Shelby all weekend. They seem to really like it. It's quieter so Jippy seems to be quieter. Not as much to bark at, I guess. And that is awesome. Speaking of Jippy, he went in to be neutered today. He will be neutered between 12:00 and 3:00. He has to spend the night at the vet. It will be the first night that he's not spent at home or with us since he's been with us. I hope that he won't be too traumatized.

Oh! and Joe admitted that he'd probably miss Jippy if he were gone. It's a huge step. Joe has had a lot of trouble getting attached to Jippy and Daly. He's still not close to admitting love for Daly, but I have high hopes. They're doing well now, so it's easier to love them. Daly is still such a needy puppy that Joe gets annoyed with her. And Jippy isn't the smartest dog (Jack and Cody are really smart), so Joe has had trouble bonding with him. But, Jippy tries really hard to be a good boy (and Daly is a brat!), so Joe is getting closer. :)

Also, while we were in Shelby this weekend, we ate (again) at this awesome Mexican Restaurant. It's called Mi Pueblito. It's got a vegetarian section on the menu! :) And it's absolutely delicious, and FAST. It's a wonderful place, and should you ever find yourself in Shelby, North Carolina, I highly recommend it! :)

House Update + Daly News

So, yesterday Joe had the a/c guy come to check out the a/c for the house. It won't be enough to heat and cool the house. It'll be $10,000.00 to update that. Which breaks our budget. There is almost no way that we could do the kitchen, the bathrooms, and update the heat and air.

And on top of that, while they were looking at that, they found a leak of some sort. I wasn't sure what Joe was talking about but, it didn't sound good. So, Joe basically said that there was no way that we could get Cabaniss. I was heartbroken, we thought we should look at some other houses in the area.

Last night, we went to look at three houses. None of them were any good. So, that instilled more of a want to get Cabaniss. Joe is supposed to schedule an appointment to see if a waterproofer can come out to look at the house and give us an estimate. Apparently on one side of the house, the ground is above the top of the crawlspace and when it rains, water gets into the crawlspace and under the foundation or something. The owners had someone come in and half-ass a repair but water can still get in. So, we’ll see where that goes. Depending on what happens with the waterproofer and the owners, it may still be what we buy. Joe sounded like it was a huge deal yesterday, but I’m not so sure that it will be. We talked to the realtor last night and she recommended a waterproofer and see how bad it is.

So, I was still feeling crappy when we got home because I didn’t like any of those houses and they were all more expensive than Cabaniss. It didn’t seem like a very good compromise. I like them less and they cost more. Well, if I thought I was feeling crappy then, I felt even crappier when I opened the door. Daly had somehow escaped from her crate (they were inside yesterday because it was supposed to rain, but it didn’t despite the 60% chance from 10:00 am on). Luckily we always keep our bedroom door shut, but we didn’t shut the office/spare bedroom door. She destroyed a bunch of stuff in the living room, the kitchen and the office and she tore stuff out of the trash. That wouldn’t have been huge because we know she is destructive when she’s left alone (she has separation anxiety). And none of the stuff was really that important. Paper towels and junk mail and a bag of chips mostly. So, it was a huge mess, but nothing that important. I was disappointed, but not ready to kill her.

Until I walked into the office and looked. She peed twice on the bed and on the treadmill. I literally squealed I was so shocked. A mess I can handle. Her peeing on the floor I can handle (we were gone longer than normal). But her peeing on the bed and the treadmill I could not handle. I just started bawling. Joe put all of them outside and we started cleaning up the mess while I cried.

That was the last straw from Daly. She is now a completely outside dog. She slept outside by herself last night and she’s outside by herself today because it’s supposed to rain. That upset me even more. I don’t want her to have to be an outside dog, but she can’t be left in the house. I don’t know how much money she’s going to cost us to fix that bathroom after she gnawed on the cabinets and the wood trim around the door a few months ago (that's why she's in a crate! I still don't know how she got out!). And now she destroyed the mattress. I couldn’t sleep last night. I just tossed and turned.

She seemed fine this morning. She apparently wasn’t fazed by it. So, that made me feel better. I feel like hell though. Yesterday just was not my day.