UNEXPECTED IMPRESSION.

Jim sent this to me a few weeks ago and it caught me truly off-guard. It reminds me that there are moments in life that still can leave us speechless.

NEWS FROM NEW PUPPY LAND.

Jim is a far less neurotic parent that I am. Far less. I'm on "high alert" so much that I think I'm adding tension to our household. She wines horribly when we leave her alone. Easton growls when she goes near his rawhide, his food bowl, him. I read that it's NORMAL and I'm sure it is. He feels displaced and it's making me a sad sack.
She is however cute...extremely cute.
Rambunctious too.
Easton is so amazing that he's trying. We took him for a special ride to Sonic tonight and got him a hot-dog.
She's teething too which means, move everything out of her way.
We did this weekend (which is a good thing), get to eat yummy dinner with Jon, Alison, Pete and Tia and then today went to see 1408 (see Musings of a Muse for my review).
Mostly, things are good in the midst of a big transition.
Jim is the best doggie daddy ever.
Btw...we've named her Ulika "Uli" Bear Rogers.

THE BEATLES & ZOMBIES - PERFECT TOGETHER.

Our good friend April (who saw this from our other friend Matthew), posted this on her blog today and it made me laugh. It's kind of a perfect for our group in a way or at least Jim and I.

OUR POSSIBILITIES - AND HOPES!

Well, the dog we were wanting to adopt from the rescue already has an adoption contract on her. So the woman asked if we'd be interested in "fostering-to-adopt" a puppy she's named Panda. Panda is a mixed-breed with AED/Spitz as her primary breed (which is what we were looking for). Jim and I talked about it and agreed to foster her and as long as everything goes well with integrating her into our 2 cat, 1 handsome dog family we're planning to adopt her! Easton has really enjoyed playing with Trixie and Ginny since they've moved in and I think he misses Lady-Bear like we do. We agreed to give this the big try, and did this without even seeing her...so they sent us a picture tonight.


OMG - Could She Be Cuter? We're excited and spending the next 10 days puppy-proofing the house as much as possible! Wish us luck - I hope this goes well!

ACCOUNTABILITY UPDATE - HA!

The Weekend is sadly over - here's what we said we'll do:

HOUSE NEEDS
1) Move all "Anna's Office Furniture" into that room - MOSTLY DONE!
2) Move all "Sunroom Furniture" into that room - MOSTLY DONE!
3) Take TV out of our bedroom and put in sunroom - YEAH, NOT DONE AT ALL.
4) Move all "Garage Sale" crap into the...wait for it....Garage - HA!
5) Do an overall "straighten up" routine - NOPE!

SOCIAL LIFE NEEDS
1) Reset the start date of the Movie Lover's Club, and make sure everyone we want to invite is invited - STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS!
2) Let people know that the start that was supposed to be next week has been postponed until next month - THAT'S ON JIM NOW.
3) Go see Oceans 13 - DONE - GO SEE IT!
4) Go see Knocked Up (I'll be shocked if we actually get 2 movies in this weekend) - NOT YET, BUT I KNOW WE'LL GET TO IT.

WE did do grocery shopping for the next week +, I did stick to my diet, and Jim and Chris did get our remodel garbage to the dump so YEAH FOR US! It was also good to see part of our circle of friends at The Creamery on Friday too...we have so much fun with everyone. Here's to a good week ahead!

NEW FAMILY MEMBER? POSSIBLY.

No, no, no - sadly I'm not pregnant yet! Hey, since I'm finally working hard-core on my weight loss effort, I'd like to lose the weight before I gain the baby-belly.

Anyway...since Chris and the puppies have moved in, we've fallen in love with the Trixie-dog breed = Alaskan Eskimo Dog / Spitz. So, since we have been considering inviting a new canine girlie into our lives since we lost our beloved Lady-Bear almost a year ago...we've decided to look at the AED/Spitz breed. We've found a possible dog from the AED/S Rescue in TN and we found a possible new baby-girl addition to our family.

She's 1 year old, good with cats, good with other dogs and good with children (even little ones - so the hopeful baby will be okay). We've gone the distance by contacting the rescue and filling out the adoption form. We'll probably have to have a home-visit done, which is fine with us! Based on her foster-parent's profile of her, she seems like a perfect fit with our family. I don't want to give a whole lot of information on her yet because I'm hoping that she'll join our family (i.e. I don't want to jinx it). She's cute as can be.

If we do get her we're toying with 2 different names "ELKE" or "AVA". That would make us a 2x2x2 household: 2 Adult Humans, 2 Kitties, and 2 Pups! Who knows - we're hopeful! Wish us well in whatever is supposed to happen for all of us!

AN EXPERIMENT IN ACCOUNTABILITY.

Poor Jim is riding along on my new "hold myself accountable kick", so let's see what happens when we set plans and aim to follow through. We have discussed getting some projects done in the house since we've backed up our trip to the mecca that is IKEA for next saturday...here's what we said we'll do:

HOUSE NEEDS
1) Move all "Anna's Office Furniture" into that room.
2) Move all "Sunroom Furniture" into that room.
3) Take TV out of our bedroom and put in sunroom.
4) Move all "Garage Sale" crap into the...wait for it....Garage.
5) Do an overall "straighten up" routine.

SOCIAL LIFE NEEDS
1) Reset the start date of the Movie Lover's Club, and make sure everyone we want to invite is invited.
2) Let people know that the start that was supposed to be next week has been postponed until next month.
3) Go see Oceans 13.
4) Go see Knocked Up (I'll be shocked if we actually get 2 movies in this weekend).

All right...let's see what we're capable of!

THE READER'S DIGEST CONDENSED VERSION

Okay, it occurs to me that if anyone is actually going to read our blog, we need to be UPDATING it more often. Otherwise, it's normal to grow tiresome of a page that doesn't change and evolve. Wow, that sounds self important. Anyway - here's the 2 minute recap of life from December till NOW.


DECECMBER
Christmas was fun!
Easton likes to stay at the Lowes Vanderbilt Hotel.
Jim's Mom got us a Wii and Wii LOVE IT (and have no idea how she scored one for us)
New Years was Fun with Dave, Paula, Pete, John, Alison and the rest of the crew at D & P's House.


JANUARY
I get promoted to Project Director/Manager at my Job - Whoohoo!
I cope with another year of missing my Mom - it's been 8, my god.
Jim's job still going strong and he's happy!
Jim and I start working out at the GYM.
Jim realizes he misses playing Racquetball and dives right back in.


FEBRUARY
We go to VEGAS BABY as we celebrate 5 years of love!
We don't win money :(
We do see 2 amazing shows: Zumanity and KA (both by Cirque du Soleil).
We learn that Kevin James is a Breakfast snob.
We are reminded that French Cuisine ROCKS, and eating at even a fake Eifel Tower is decadent.
We realize that Fairmont Street, even with a canopy, is SAD.
We learn that it is possible to sleep in an airport on a 5 hour unexpected layover in Chi-Town.
We are reminded that the NORTH is cold -
Chicago was 5 below zero and we had to walk outside to get to the plane (I did not have a jacket).
We realize if it ever happened, we'd consider living in VEGAS.


MARCH
It's a blur, I'm sure things happened.


APRIL
I get older (friggin 33).
I get to go to her annual decadence that is The Melting Pot for my birthday.
(Thanks hun, I know it doesn't make you feel good.)
Jim does really sweet things for my birthday (flowers, itunes credit, dinner, extra good attention).
I begin "Do-It-Yourself Communion" and consider eating more Christ-Chex daily.
Jim still rockin on his job.


MAY
Jim, Easton and I go camping with the "inner circle" of friends up here and spend an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL and restful weekend at Elkmont in the Smokies. We cannot wait to go again!
A good friend of ours moves-in because he's in transition and needs some time to figure out his next steps; it's fun having a guest who can take care of himself!
Jim and I considered potentially taking in a teenager at our church who needed a home. After a lot of hard thought, Jim and I realized we probably can't make a successful leap from "NOT PARENTS" to "PARENTS OF A TEEN" so easily since we both (kinda) live like college students. We realize that adopting a teen may be in our future but after we have our own child because frankly, it allows you to adjust to parenting a bit more (i.e. it takes time before the kid can understand rules/boundaries, etc...which gives us time to figure out how to set those and maintain them).
We agree to be respite providers for said TEEN above - he's a really cool kid.
I legally change my name (it's time).
Jim and his friend Darrin finally get tix to see the Police Tour.
We learn that the Millertown Carmike theatre is somewhere NOT TO GO EVER AGAIN.
We see Hot Fuzz (****), twice; and Shrek 3 (**).
Jim get's an amazing performance review and reminds me how PROUD I am of him - he's one talented man.
We go to an AMAZING cookout at D & P's house with the "inner circle" and realize that Dave can cook the hell outta' some chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs and are sad because we missed out on the ribs. I'll eat there ANYTIME!


Which brings us up to JUNE -and we'll update this more often as I'm sure there's plenty I've missed along the way.
I have got to encourage Jim to post too - we'll see if that happens!