Dog Poo

I have mastiffs...

In case you've forgotten what they look like....

Here's Katie at 3 weeks (she's the one on the left with the white chin).

Here is Gracie at 9 weeks.

Here is a more recent picture of them.

They weigh 220lbs collectively.

We (and my we I mean me) scoop the poo from the back yard.

Imagine the poo.

'nough said.

Three Things...

Well I had goals for when I got home from work today.

1.  Fix dinner at home instead of eating out.

• Check - I made an egg and bacon sandwich

2.  Blog

• Check - doing that now...

3.  Do 10 squats

• Haven't done that yet but plan to before bed.  

And let me tell you why the squats.  I'm getting old.

When I walk down the stairs my knee feels weak.

So I decided to do squats.  That should help - along with losing about 40lbs.  

I don't like this getting old shit.

It SUCKS!

It's not easy to maintain your weight - use to be but isn't now.

Things start sagging and falling apart.

Your hair turns grey - and not just the hair on your head.

MY FREAKIN EYEBROWS ARE GOING GREY!

WTF?!

AANNNDDD....

I tired of working - I'm just not interested anymore.

It use to be an adventure and exciting.

You get out of high school you go to college.

That's exciting because WOW you're an adult.  You learn how to pay your bills, pay for school, food etc on your own (at least I had to). AND no one is telling you what to do.

AWESOME!

Then you get your first job - Double wow!  Your making more money than you did during college.  Not much more - but it seems like so much more because you don't have to figure out how to pay for school and your apartment, and food, and gas, and the car note - you get the idea.

And you also don't need to worry how your going to get enough sleep while working full time, going to school full time, and studying.  So it's like you have all this extra time, it's exhilarating and energizing.  

Then come the promotions.  Yay!  More money.  Then you buy a house (condo for me), a new car, appliances (how exciting a washer and dryer), start saving for retirement.

Then you get married.

Travel the world. 

Then 15 years pass and now, now I'm older and I know there is way more to life than work.

So now I really can't be bothered.  

I know I have to be bothered in order to pay for my house, my dogs, food, clothes etc...

But all I really want to do is travel - in style no less - you know take a private flight with the dogs to Europe, five star hotels, villas, pdiddy man servants....

And when I'm home I want to do volunteer work, dink around the house, take my furbabies to the park, hang with my husband.

I do NOT want to go to work and interact with stupid people and deal with crap bureaucratic BS.

I am not a diplomat.  Have no desire to be one.

I'm to straight forward.  If X then Y.  I don't see D and E...

Unfortunately, I haven't won the lottery.  So I have to try to see D and E.

It sucks.  

But they make it worth it!

Gracie Playing...

Katie with her woobie...

Gracie looking cute...

And my love...

Weird Dream

Really weird.

I dreamed that my dogs were chewing up the end of my umbrella - not a normal umbrella end oh no...

One that was shaped like and made of the same material as one of those boxing balls.

You remember those right?

Like this but only a lot smaller.

And it was torn and tattered.  Very weird dream but I figure that I dreamed it because I came home to this...

Gracie decided she was bored I guess...and her toys just didn't cut it.

I think this is similar to the kids who prefer to play with boxes instead of the present.  She's got a whole box of toys.  But she wanted to rip up the toilet paper - I guess it was more fun...  You know, interactive.

The culprit up close.  The one in the front.  Not the one that's trying to look interested and innocent.

Here they are chewing on their bully sticks.  In the crate.  Together.  They actually stayed put long enough for me to take a photo.  I didn't put them in there, they sauntered in there themselves.

Who me?! I am sweet...

 I am innocent!

I just want LLLLOVVVVE!

Or a nap.  Gracie is natural born napper and cuddler.

Isn't life Grand!?

Babies!

I never get tired of looking at these faces...

Katie Marie

Gracie Jane - and my husband.

Katie again...I love the iPhone apps...

My Babies

How fricken' cute is this?!

 Little Katie Marie snoozing...

And here... Gracie and Katie hogging the bed.  How comfortable does Gracie look...I mean really you'd think they were in their own bed...

And here they are again chillin' in the living room - of course you can tell it's a bit of a mess.

Oh well...

Demon eye in her baby bed...I can't believe she got her big 120lb body into this bed I bought her when she was only 30lbs.

I can't find a photo of her in the bed when I first bought it for her but you can kinda see here that she was small enough to fit into it with room left over...

Waiting for treats....

My sister with Gracie - can you believe how big Gracie is compared to her?  She's 5'6" and looks like a midget.

So sweet...Gracie asleep.

I love my furbabies....

I'm still here! I'm still here!

We are still unpacking and painting and getting settled in!

It's taking a lot longer than before...because we care more because it's OURS!!!!

Anyway I haven't been feeling well - but still went to work because one of my co-workers was leaving...WAH!!!

So I had to learn how to do his reports.

And my illness - upset stomach - got worse.

So I didn't go to work today.

I spent it at home with this:

And this:

And later on this:

You can't really tell from this photo - but to give you an idea how big they are...the "little" one is 80lbs and the big one is about 120lbs.

The Interweb

Well I'm back!

We moved into our new house the first weekend of October and the internet didn't get set up until last night.

I don't blog from work, because well...it's work.

So I've been offline because I've been really stressed out, and here's why:

I've been:

Dealing with crappy new neighbors.

Can you believe I moved next door to psycho hippies?!  We wanted to replace the wrought iron fence because we have dogs and the neighbors beside us have kids they babysit, and the ones behind have grandkids.

Kids poke at dogs.

Dogs get pissed and bite.

I don't want to be sued - even though the little bastards would deserve it.

So I thought I was being a good neighbor - informing and getting buy in from them.

She said o.k. - replace the fence, but let's double check with my husband.

Reasonable.

I checked - he said go ahead.

Then I get the fence guy out and she comes over and says - I changed my mind.

Why did she change her mind do you ask?

1.  She was attached to the wisteria growing on the fence that encroached into my yard about 3 feet.
2.  She said she liked to see into my yard so she could pretend that it was part of hers because she was - and I quote - "a country girl".
3.  She thought being able to see straight into my house would ensure our home's security because she could report anything unusual.

Can you say really nosey neighbor?!

I said, hmmm - well I need to tell you the fence is going up.  Regardless.

Because:

1.  I have very large dogs and you have kids over.
2.  I find it really creepy that you want to see into my home (at which point she said if we didn't want her to see anything we could just pull the blinds - WTF?!  Really?!)
3.  When I walk around the house nude she didn't need to see.
4.  When I have sex with my husband - she didn't need to watch.

She responded - well let me talk to my husband...

You do that honey...

So I went back a few days later - The husband said yes go ahead and replace the fence (btw we were doing this at our cost - NOT asking them to split it).

And I told him the Jasmine on the fence was dying so we were going to cut it back.  He said OK.

Our landscaper - who also put in our fence was there for the conversation.

So he cuts back the Jasmine, and I leave to go out with my husband.

Then I get a phone call - the husband was freaking out about the Jasmine...because his wife flipped her lid over it.

Really?!  Seriously?!  It's a fucking weed.  The shit is growing back as I speak.

But not for long I'm killing that shit.

The next day (Monday) the fence guy meets me at the house so I can pay him and he's going to start the fence job.  I pay him, discuss the fence and leave.

No sooner do I leave then he calls me and tells me the neighbors came out telling them to stop.  Seriously?!  ARGH!!!

So I calle a lawyer.  Fuck being nice.  Look where it got me.

He said if I went ahead I would win in a lawsuit because they said yes, I relied on it, paid the contractor, and he had started work when they stopped him.

So...They took down the fence - the neighbor yelled at me.  And we don't talk to them.

Simple.

I'm still waiting for papers to be served to me since she was so pissed about the fence and the removal of her weeds.

I guess she'll think twice before giving permission again.

Packing:

I had to pack in 5 days because I decided to move sooner than originally planned - because going back and forth between houses was making me freak out.

Packing really is a pain when you do it yourself.  Really it is.

Home Chores:

Dealing with foundation guy.
Dealing with the electrician - who by the way still isn't finished.  We have light fixtures hanging by wires, rooms with no working outlets etc...
Fencing - need I say more.
Painting - the ceiling is finished in the middle of the house, one wall is painted, two are partially painted, and one room is fully prepped.

Painting is a pain - but expensive to have someone else do so I'm doing it myself.

The actual move.  It's painful no matter how you do it.  Unless of course you have more money than God and you can hire someone to both pack and unpack everything for you so you just have to go on holiday and come back to a perfectly unpacked home.

Wouldn't that be nice?

The unpacking.

Which is not even close to being finished.

I've also been dealing with:

Katie - she's off to boarding school because I decided I didn't have enough experience to deal with her leash aggression.  According to the trainer she's making good progress.

YEAH!!!

And as far as dealing with stress, here's something good...

I've been...

Jogging!!!

Can you believe it?!

A friend and I started walking Memorial Park about 2 months ago and our time has gone from:

1 hour - at a very leisurely pace to 42 minutes where we are jogging and briskly walking.

The loop is 3 miles which means I've been doing less than 15 minute miles.

I'm pretty impressed with myself.

Go me!  According to Joel...I, or rather we, are GODDESSES!!!

I can roll with that.

Well now that I've kinda caught you up on my life - future posts should me more prolific.

And S.  If you read this send me your story.

I want to read it!

Ciao!

Why is my brain going straight down the drink?

I can't seem to remember anything.

Well anything I want to blog about.

I remember at work - but I can't blog at work.

And by the time I get home, feed the babies, eat dinner, and take the babies to the park, it's time to go to bed.

Or I read a book.

And I don't remember what it was that I wanted to blog about during the day.

Pathetic!

I guess I can catch you up on life...

Katie has leash aggression.

We're dealing with it - it's getting better.

If it's not pretty much dealt with in the next week we'll send her off to day school so a trainer can nip it in the bud.

My little Cujo...

She doesn't look mean does she?  She really isn't - but she sounds like it.  So it freaks people out.  Which makes it hard to get a person to agree to let us approach them so Katie can get over her fear.  Because that's the issue.  She's scared.  But when a person let's us approach she gets quiet and then tries to play.

After all she is only 5 1/2 months old.  Although at about 60lbs she doesn't look much like a puppy anymore.

She definitely doesn't look like this:

How in the world Stephen King managed to make a vicious St Bernard believable is beyond me.

That man is scary.

But you can't put his books down once you start them - so I don't even try because the last time I started one - I couldn't put it down and I had horrible vivid nightmares for weeks.

==============

Guess what we are doing this week?!

Buying a house!

Here is the front view:

This was the best part of the house and the main reason why we chose it!  The sun room:

And here is a photo of the living room.

I can't wait to move in!

These are the two biggest things going on in my world today...

What's goin' on in your neck of the woods?

How Come I Love...

My husband so much?

Maybe because he's awesome at taking self portraits on vacation? Or that he loves me in spite of, or because of, my craziness?!

Houston?

Because of the hippy art?  The great park system?  Both?

America?

This is the cemetery above the beaches of Normandy.  There are almost 10,000 Americans buried here.

What's not to love?  After living in Europe and the Middle East I know now that there is no better country in the world.  And I thank God everyday I was born here.

Thank you to all the veterans who make my freedom possible, especially:

My Grandfather who did 4 years in the Army during WWII, he survived the Battle of the Bulge.
My Father who was a door gunner who survived 2 tours in Vietnam, physically not mentally.
My Sister who's division supports the Marines, she did 2 tours in Iraq.

Gracie Jane?

Who in the world could resist this? I just want to smother her with hugs!

UGH!

Katie Marie?

Oh My GOSH!  How cute are my babies?!  What's not to love!?  And she's my little shadow, always at my heal.

And together....well look at them!~

CUTE! CUTE! CUTE!


My sister...

Oh yeah, because we laugh about everything and nothing.

My life!

 Breakfast at the Chateau in France...

Switzerland...

Koh Sumui Thailand...

Vienna...

Prague...

Edinburgh...

Brussels...

Santorini...

Istanbul...

Salzburg...

Germany...

What's not to like about my life now that I'm back in the USA!?

I have a husband who loves me as much as I love him, we travel all over the world, and have jobs we like.

Life is good...really good.