Snoopy

Oh, what a wild couple of days it’s been!  Click HERE to go to the blog I share with my sister and you can read about Snoopy’s first couple of days.  There are a couple of pictures there as well.

One definite highlight of these past couple of days of being off work to help facilitate the new resident has been the glorious sunshine that we’ve been able to enjoy together.  We’ve walked 17 kilometers since Tuesday night, all the fresh air has felt great!  It’s really good that it’s nice outside too because Ray and I are feeling a little trapped at home right now.  We can’t leave the pets home alone yet which means that either we go out seperately or we stay home.  This morning we were all (dogs and people) laying on the couches depressed with the situation and sleepy from being stressed out and we decided that enough was enough.  Seriously, I know it’s only been a couple of days but our little happy world has been rattled more than we thought and it’s making everything seem hoardes worse!

We four went for our morning 5k and then showered and we threw the dogs in the car and thought, “Sink or swim, just don’t eat my steering wheel!”.  We successfully went for a coffee and then shopped at Costco and no leather was chewed and no fur flew.  Following Costco I was feeling pretty confident so I left Ray home alone and headed to the gym (4am on a day off just seemed cruel!) for Thursday’s workout.

I am SO glad that I waited until mid day to do it because I realized how little energy I have in my early morning workouts!  I felt light as a feather in the warmup jog today, even increasing incline and drilling up the speed.  During weight lifting I managed to add weight to all the movements and felt really strong!  I was consistent all the way through, even up to the final movement, planking.  I had been doing 3 x 45sec of plank but today I got it up to a minute each which is quite incredible!

I’m not sure what I’m going to do going forward, I can’t really get up any earlier to eat first, I already go to the gym in the middle of the night.  I’m going to try and find something fast digesting that isn’t too carby for fuel and see how that goes.  If you are a morning gym-goer, how do you fuel?

Anyway, I should get going & grab a shower while both dogs are sleeping…seperate couches but same room so that’s a huge improvement.

For my friends who happen to be grain free, I MADE BUNS LAST NIGHT!  Seriously, actual buns that will hold filling.  Hamburgers and fried egg sandwiches!  Go HERE to find the recipe!  They are very, VERY good!  A bit time consuming to make and dirties a few dishes, but the four buns you get from it are SO WORTH IT!   (the hamburger picture are the burgers that I originally read about on GirlMeetsPaleo.  They’re delicious burgers to begin with but the addition of the Bacon Balsamic Onion Jam that goes with them is really just killer!)

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Pressure Cooker!

I started writing a post last night and I was going to post pictures and then I was going to go around and read blogs and comment (because people love comments!).  So what happened?  I melted, that’s what happened!  My back deck, the one in the shade, was 34C (94F) at 7pm last night.  I rubbed my dog down with an ice pack for awhile and then fed her a beef popsicle (beef broth frozen into a disc).  I ate ice cream.  I struggled to not eat the entire container of ice cream because it was cold and sweet and HOLY CRAP I was hot!

 Grace was bugging the shit out of me last night.  Our normal routine is that she eats while I make dinner, I eat and then clean up and once the dishes are done, we go for a walk.  I really thought it would be best that we not go for a walk last night, pushed-in-face dogs suffer just that much more in the heat and she was already suffering pretty good.  But she was driving me crazy!  Crying and pawing and woofing and making sad eyes.  So……we went.  In order to make sure I didn’t walk too fast for her I wore my flip flops and we went only about 20 minutes.  She was happy and I was happy she wasn’t bugging me, life was good. 

I’m going out for a business lunch today, first time in over 5 years that I’ve been invited, so I’m looking forward to it, got all dressed up and everything!

 I really promise to try the picture posting again tonight.  In the meantime though, here’s Grace’s story about how she came to live with us and what life is like now.  Eventually she’ll be published as a success story on the rescue website….when I get around to sending them some pictures!  😉

 

My name is Grace.  Well, that’s what they call me now.  I’m around 3 years old.    Some bad people threw me out of a moving car along a California freeway and I’m really lucky that I didn’t get hurt.  I spent some time in the LA Shelter and then I went to LA Boxer Rescue.  Jennifer from Without Borders Boxer Rescue came to visit me and while she was there she found me my new family.

 That Sunday morning I got put on an airplane and a few hours later my new Mummy & Daddy picked me up.  Now I’m a Canadian girl (I haven’t seen snow yet though, ask me in the winter if I really appreciate that!).  I didn’t know them but they seemed nice and I was really glad to be out of the airplane so I hopped into the truck and we were on our way home.

 I’ve been in my forever home now for a little over a month and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.  I don’t remember much of my old life but I do remember my manners and how to be a very good girl.   I’m starting to learn what toys are and that they are lots of fun when mummy or daddy chases me around the house and we play tuggy with them.  I love my snuggles and trying to sneak daddy some kisses on the lips.  I am a very good walker and mum and dad take me out for lots of long park walks.  I am a bit nervous around other dogs but once we sniff and say hi, as long as everyone stays polite, I’m good to go.  I am quick to try and defend myself if another dog tries to intimidate me.  I’m learning that I don’t have to be in charge though; mummy and daddy do that pretty well.

 I love food, I’ll do just about anything for a treat…except swimming; I didn’t really appreciate that.  I love blueberries, cherries and nectarines as treats; mummy tells me I’m weird that way.  I also have an uncanny ability to hear an ice cream scoop cutting through delicious vanilla ice cream from several rooms away and I can hardly stand waiting for a taste.

I went camping this summer for the first time and I had a really good time.  I found sunny dirt holes to lie in and bugs to chase.  I was a little apprehensive about the campfire the first night but I got used to that pretty quickly.  I really wanted to try a marshmallow but daddy put the kibosh to that.  The best part of camping was that we got to go fishing every day in The Big Boat.  Mummy & daddy weren’t sure how I would do but I just laid down and took a nap.  I got braver with walking around on the boat and eventually I parked myself on the bow and helped with the navigation.

Mummy & daddy also have noisy motorcycles, I did NOT like those at the beginning, and I would bark and try to chase after them.  Daddy’s buddy has some pretty noisy ones too and I don’t really like it when he brings them over.  I’m definitely getting used to them though, every time they get off those noisy things I get lots of rubs and kisses so maybe it’s not so bad.

I’m a relaxed, mellow girl, I love napping on my mum’s pillow and going for long walks every day.  I can’t remember my old life…but I don’t care, this one is everything I could have asked for.

Fast & Furious

It is blissfully sunny out (finally!) and I am insanely busy at work so have been getting there early to start work…which eats into my blogging time.  😉

An update of things ongoing in point form, shall we?

• Grace is catching on to life with us…in most respects.  It is becoming apparent that she never spent any time outdoors.  She is nervous and insecure about absolutely every little noise, movement, breeze or bug.  It’ll take time but she’s a smart girl, she’ll get used to it.
• We are more careful about keeping her under our control (leash) than we were at first, now that she’s gaining confidence her little firecracker personality is coming out and she has no hesitation about chasing cats in our neighborhood or even chasing a motorcycle down the road at top speed.
• We discovered yesterday during a visit with our adoption co-ordinator that she was not abandoned on the side of the freeway as we first understood.  She and her brother were tossed out of a moving vehicle at freeway speed and the car that was behind her car pulled over and went back for them while the owners just sped off.  I just about puked when I heard that.  And then cried. 
• I rode my motorcycle to work on Friday for the first time!
• Going back a little ways since I haven’t been posting much, our family dinner worked out absolutely beautifully, everyone was on their best behavior and got along well enough that I would not hesitate to do it again (and we may, in September)
• On the exercise front I have walked 40.1 kilometers in the last 7 days.  This is, apparently, enough for me to not only maintain my weight but to help strip off a little more fat in the legs and belly and replace with lean tissue.  Perfect!  Especially since, because the weather is gorgeous, we are certainly drinking more than we do when it’s raining out. 
• There was a cougar reported in our area late last week, freaks me the hell out!
• We went to a dinner party at Ray’s ex wife’s house last night, she was at our house on Saturday with George so they could meet Grace and she is coming to Ray’s mom’s b’day dinner and then to our house for coffee & cake this coming Sunday.  I am definitely struggling at this point, I don’t mind her, she’s a nice person, I love her dog…….but it’s a strain on my good humour and sociability to crank out a happy face when nerves and upset is what I’m feeling inside.  And Ray, per normal, pays absolutely no attention to my discomfort whether I specifically mention it or not.  It’s a problem.

So, that’s what HAS happened, and here’s what’s coming:

• Grace has a vet appt tomorrow.  We thought she had an ouchie foot because of all the walking however it could be because of how she was….um….surrendered.  She needs to get that looked at.
• Tara is coming over for dinner on Wednesday so that we can drink a nice rose in the driveway and so she can meet Grace
• Ray’s mom is turning 75 on Sunday (hence the birthday dinner and get together at our house).  She just took a tumble yesterday and may have broken her wrist…which is not great, she’s not a great exerciser to begin with and has little confidence in walking to begin with and this won’t help.  Plus, she’s going to Israel and Jordan in September so she needs to get up and going.
• Saturday we have a Harley meeting, a chiropractor appt (that Gracie gets to go to…and he offered to take a look at her and see if he can help her at all) and then a memorial service in the afternoon. 

So that’s about it. It’s too beautiful here to spend anytime indoors and I’m too busy at work to do anything but swear and bang my head against the desk.  Three weeks from now we’re going on holidays as well and that is going to be crazy to get ready for, we’re camping just the two of us and our dog and also towing our big boat up there and going to spend at least a week on the water fishing and swimming and hanging out…..at this point I have requested two weeks off and only had one approved so we can’t even determine how long we’ll be gone for….which really blows.

Love Haze

I’m experiencing Love Haze.  I didn’t know that there was such a thing but about 20 minutes after Grace moved into our house, family, hearts this haze descended upon us.  Dog things that bugged me before (shedding, bits of dog food all over the floor, eye boogers, snoring etc….OK, it’s any wonder that I agreed to get a dog!) don’t.  She’s my baby and while I know that having a dog is nothing like having children, this is still amazing to me.  I’ve lived with a dog for almost the entire time Ray and I have been together, but she was never mine.  Brandy was never so excited to see me when I got home.  She never, ever snuggled with me on the sofa, never followed me around.  When we were home alone she’d go and sleep in the front room while I was in the family room.  She was Ray’s dog through and through and we never really bonded to each other.

Bliss-face with the car window open, sniffing away!

I had to apologize to Ray last night because I did not, for one second, understand the love he had for Brandy.  When Grace saw me come up the stairs when I got home from work and her little face lit up and her entire body started to wiggle with excitement I completely understood.  When she presses her little forehead so hard into my chest while I’m petting her, it absolutely melts me.  My rule had always been “greet humans first” because he would always greet Brandy before he would acknowledge me.  Now I understand how impossible it is to resist that wiggling body and excited happy face.

Snuggle time in the morning after I’ve gotten ready. Makes it darned hard to get off the sofa and go to work!

Anyway, dog- love aside….well….there isn’t really an “aside”, there’s not much else going on right now.  I can’t go to the gym for this week or next, Ray is on graveyards and doesn’t get home until 6:30am, it’s not like I can get up at 4:30am and leave Grace alone for a couple hours with no walk first thing in the morning.  So I’ve been getting up at 5am and walking the little sausage for about 4-5 kilometers before Ray gets home from work.  It helps to tire her out so that she’ll sleep while he’s trying to sleep during the day.  Worked yesterday, hopefully today as well.  I’m not toooo worried about the lack of gym but I would really like Ray to get all of our free weights and plates back from the person we lent them to so that I can at least do something while I’m on doggy duty for the next two weeks!  Of course after dinner we walk for another 4-5km so hopefully that’s enough to get me by for now.  Grace has already dropped a bit of weight, she has a waist again and starting to get a bit of loose belly fur so that’s great, hopefully Ray and I can do a little of the same!

How can you not love that face!

The sunshine is out for the next week or so which feels amazing and makes the 5am walk feel so nice and refreshing!  I imagine we’ll be adjusting for the next few days so there may be little for me to post.  If you want to, follow me on Twitter, that’s always fun and a great way to interact!

Amazing Grace

Not the song, Amazing Grace, the dog, amazing Grace!  Well….her name is technically Gracie but we prefer Grace and she doesn’t really care!

Saturday afternoon we got a call and a few pictures and a very small write up about Grace and we were told if we wanted her that we just had to say so and she would be arriving by airplane to Vancouver International Airport on Sunday at 2pm.  We said “Yes” and now she’s here!  We are absolutely thrilled with her, she’s calm and so sweet.  She’s three years old, walks amazingly on a leash (full heel with no prompting) and absolutely loves us.  Us.  Both of us.  Me included.  That was (perhaps irrationally) a fear of mine because our previous dog had been with Ray for 8 years before I came into the picture and she and I never really bonded.  This one though?  Loves me too!

Her story is kind of sad, she and her brother, a chihauhau-weiner cross, were abandoned on the side of a freeway in San Francisco.  The authorities found them and turned them in to the shelter.  The little brother dog was adopted but they were having a hard time adopting her out so they contacted LA Boxer Rescue figuring a more specific rescue organization would help.  While she was at the shelter in San Fran, a pitbull escaped his run and bit her in the side so she came to us with her left side a bit bald and having just had her stitches out.  Even after her dog attack she still has no aggression to other dogs and just wants to play with them.   She knows sit, stay, lie down, shake a paw.  She is also…..fat.  She’s a little sausage with legs, around 7-10 pounds overweight for her size.  They figure she was probably even fatter before she got into the shelter system because they certainly don’t feed them enough to maintain her mass!  The girl who brought her to us said that normally when they come out of the shelter system they are little bone-racks…..we’re not even positive this one has bones!  LOL!

She loves to walk, gets very excited when her leash comes out but she is also very obedient and will sit down to get her leash on and stay seated while you open the door until you invite her out.  Very well behaved.

I won’t be a crazy loon of a new dog owner and talk about her exclusively or bore you with nothing but pictures of her, I know that she’s absolutely adorable and sweet to us and that gets boring for other people.  However, today is her 3rd birthday, the day she became a Canadian and her first day in her forever home and that means she gets a few pictures on the blog!

Enjoy!

Four Day Break!

Holy, four days off seems like an eternity!  Where do I even start?  The gym was a write-off for the entire week, I am not proud to say.  Not proud at all.  Alas, there is nothing I can do to change that, I can only affect circumstances going forward!

Instead of hitting the gym on Thursday morning (my first day off), I slept in and then wandered around, washed my car, drank coffee, fussed with my flowers and then got ready for my mom’s graduation.  She graduated after 20+ years of night school with a BA in Adult Education!  Not bad!

My mom and I after she graduated University!

Thursday I didn’t get home until after 9pm from the graduation thing which sort of felt shitty since that day was also the 10 year anniversary of the day Ray’s dad passed away.  He took it a bit harder than he thought he would, especially with Father’s Day being right around the corner. 

Friday morning we decided we were not going to go camping as we had planned because the weather for our destination was predicted to be quite crappy.  Instead I did some errands and when Ray got home we walked 4km up to a pub for dinner and then walked home.  The beer that I’ve been loving there has been an apricot Heffewiezen (wheat beer).  I’ve had it a few times and not had any reaction to it so I figured I was in the clear.  About 4 years ago we drank a wheat beer while on a motorcycle trip and the agony and illness was intense and immediate.  Unfortunately this past Friday that came back to haunt me and I spent about 4 hours writing around on the couch.  So that’s pretty much the end of the apricot beer.  L

During the day on Friday, my dear friend Tara tweeted that she was up on her wine tour and had stopped in to one of my favorites along the way and loved it. And it got me to thinking……there is no reason that we can’t go on a day trip up there (it’s four hours up and four back) and stop at that winery and see if we can get together for lunch with Tara and Steve.  So, 7am we were in the car, noon we were parked in town and 1pm we were toasting a lovely day in a mediocre pub (good food and drinks, dreadful service!).  After lunch Ray and I headed for the soft ice cream store (over 25 flavours of soft ice cream and innumerable flavor combinations!) to burn off a bit of our lunch buzz before getting in the car and heading home.

Mine was a flavor mix of Coconut and German Chocolate. SO GOOD!

We stopped at the winery on the way home and bought a few new bottles.  Ray also bought me a pretty silver (not real) bracelet from that winery which I love. 

We were home by 9pm and while very tired, had a really great day.  Spontaneous road trip was a complete success!

Yesterday we slept and lounged around in bed until 10:45 and then sat around and drank coffee until noon.  Since it wasn’t raining we decided to go for a walk and ended up near Friday’s pub location but at a coffee shop.  Scrambled eggs and bacon for me, corn & bacon chowder for Ray and then we strolled home. 

Ray’s (adult) kids asked if they could go for dinner on Sunday night with him for Father’s Day and while I was invited I opted out.  He didn’t need me there for that and sometimes I think it’s nice for him to spend time with them alone.  So he went for dinner and I stayed home and made myself dinner….single-girl style.  Salad right out of the container and a glass of wine.  Easy, tasty, quick!

That pretty much concluded my four days off, bed by 9pm and at work bright and early in the morning. 

Unfortunately we did not get delivery of Olive on the weekend like we’d hoped, apparently her current owner isn’t quite ready to give her up.  We’re hoping for next weekend, the waiting is brutal!  We want her to have time to settle in and relax with us before the long weekend because we are going camping and she is coming with us.  In a way it’s good that we didn’t get her this weekend though, apparently Ray’s son had plans to be at our house when they came with her as well (he’s a HUGE boxer fan) and I completely disagreed with that.  This has given us (Ray) time to gently explain that we will be the only people there when she comes and when WE are ready for her to meet people, we’ll let him know.  Ray is also going to tell him that for the first little while he cannot just come over and take her on walks while we’re at work like he did with Brandy.  Olive needs some training and tonnes of consistency in her first few weeks and Kyle coming randomly does not fit with that plan.  Ray and I are going to implement rules for her right off the get go (eg. sit calmly before being fed, sit/lie down calmly before getting a leash on, no charging the crate-door or front door the second it gets opened etc) and Kyle doesn’t like giving dogs any rules, he thinks it makes them sad.  Obviously I/we disagree and think it makes them disciplined, stops them knocking people over or dragging them down the road and reminds the dog who is in charge.  If he won’t “play” by Olive’s set of rules, that just makes it so much harder and more time consuming on everyone, Olive included.

Anyway, it’ll all work out eventually, she just has to come!  

Tonight I have an at home appt with my waxist and tomorrow I have a tattoo consult.  I’m really wanting to get to the gym tomorrow morning and start the second stage of NROL since I’m pretty much back to my pre-accident weights in the first stage and I’m getting BORED!  I also would like to get to the trail and do a jog/walk outside this week to try and assess that situation, I haven’t jogged outside since the accident and only for 12-15 minutes at a time on the treadmill.  Ideally Olive and I will do a walk/jog combo a few mornings a week after she gets settled, especially the days when Ray and I are at work on dayshift so she’s tuckered out and can nap easily while we’re gone.  I should probably make sure this is actually possible from my end first!  😉

That’s it. Wish me luck getting out of bed tomorrow, I love the gym, I’m just finding it hard right now.

Shifty Drifty

Wow, I really haven’t been able to get my feet back under me since the potato/tequila fiasco this past weekend.  I haven’t been to the gym yet this week (was supposed to go yesterday and this morning…….slept right through both of those!), I’m not motivated to cook properly (veggies are going to waste in my fridge which is very unusual!) and it’s been a raining bastard outside so we’ve only taken one short stroll. It was quite warm out for our stroll last night but we got soaked in a misty rain.

I’m pretty sure I’m low on iron and that’s causing part of my lack of energy problem.  Picking up the liquid supplement tonight so that should help.  There are a few other things going on though that are occupying my mind and energy.

First, on Monday when I was heading home from work, a huge flat deck tow truck side swiped my brand new car.  Less than a month old.  I could have puked!  So now I have another adjustor appointment to deal with and then repair shop etc.

Second, the chic at my insurance company is not happy with me that I’m only doing a couple of treatments a week since it would then appear that I’m complaining about ongoing injury but not doing anything to help myself.  I explained to her this morning, through clenched teeth, that there is a limit to the amount of money that I have and the insurance company paying $20 on each $100 is not particularly helpful.  I suspect that there will be a request-to-settle letter in my mailbox in the next month or so.  I was advised by my neighbor who is a lawyer, that I document every single day what happened and how I felt since the accident so that I have grounds with which to refuse to settle just yet.  I can do that because I jot everything down in my date book, but it’s a lot of extra work that I have to find time to do.

Third, Ray and I had a little squabble last night about my “obsession” with my fitness and weight.  I did not appreciate that.  I understand why he would think that but he sometimes has trouble understanding that if I am to maintain or improve myself then I have to give it a large degree of my attention and time. 

Finally, tomorrow is the 10 year anniversary of Ray’s dad passing away.  He’s a little on edge (hence the squibble-picking last night) and unfortunately I can’t be with him tomorrow because of my own family commitment.

On to happier news things that are also attention grabbers in my world these days.

First, I have the next two days off.  I’m free until 1pm tomorrow at which time I’ll put on a pretty dress and go watch my mom graduate from university.  Then we’ll all pile back in the car and endure 3 hours of “quality family time” with my grandparents…whom I assume will have passive aggressive or possibly blatantly rude comments to make the whole time.  Fun.

Second…..and perhaps most importantly and very excitingly.  Ray and I are expecting.  Yep!  There’s a little girl in our future.  Her name is Olive and she’s three.  She’s currently living on Vancouver Island and there are people hard at work right now arranging her transportation to our little family, hopefully this weekend.  I wanted to wait until I had my own picture of her to share with you, but I’m too excited. 

Meet Olive!  (you thought it was a child, didn’t you!  LOL!)

Olive (already nicknamed Ollie) will be with us in a few short days!

Olive is almost three, she’s a purebred boxer who had to be surrendered by her current family due to financial hardship and illness (theirs, not hers).  We had listed on our application that we highly preferred that our adoptee did NOT have cropped ears however she does.  It bugged me at first but I don’t care anymore, I’m just excited to get her.  She’s a smaller boxer, about 50 pounds, we think.  She’s been living with a Jack Russell and her current family hasn’t exercised her in over a year so she’s a little crazy at the moment.  She’ll settle down nicely into our routine and before long she’ll absorb our energy levels.  I’ll put up better pics when we actually have her and she’s not scared anymore.

So, all that above, it’s really no wonder that I’m drifty and unfocussed and motivated for everything but not able to carry out anything.