Semi trucks, popcorn and dog pee : )

My morning started off on a good note...... Charlie peed all over the floor. I went to bed at around 12:30, exhausted after a busy weekend and an 11.5 hour work day. At around 5 am Charlie jumped on the bed and was trying to push me off the bed and laying on my pillow. I pushed him enough to make him go away. About 5 minutes later I am laying there and started to smell pee, are you kidding me??!!! I looked down and there was a little pee on the floor so I got up and went to the door where he peed some more and took him out.
 So now it is 5:30 and I can't go back to sleep. I start to get ready for work (maybe I will be on time for once, or gasp-early?!) nope......... when I walked in the closet to get dressed I found the mother load of pee, all over my freaking clothes!!! I had a big pile of hoodies that needed to be hung up (yay fall!!!) just laying there and he peed all over it and around it! Best part of this story is that our spot bot is broke because I put some of the pieces in the dishwasher to clean them and one of them shrank so I could not use it. On a positive note-my day only got better! This dog is really preparing be for future endeavours in life.
Tonight we had class and he did great. Next week is our last week and we get tested to see how obedient he is. All of the people there are so impressed with how far along he has come. I don't know if that is a good thing because they also suggested we take the second level of our class after we finish this one. : )

Here he is in my parents swimming pool. We just bought them a new winter cover because he destroyed theirs last year. Well, he has already chewed the new one.... 

This weekend I went to Chicago with my sister to meet up with some of her friends she did her residency with. We had so much fun. On our way there my sister and I were driving on 65 west (or so I thought). There was this crazy semi truck driver in front of us speeding like crazy and literally driving in the shoulder. After a few minutes of this madness we decided to call 911. (I never do anything like this so that should let you know how out of control this guy was driving) I was talking to the operator when he asked me where we were. I told him about 3 times we were on 65 West around mile maker 146 then he finally said, "Mam, 65 goes North or South", crap well I guess 65 North. My sister and I were laughing so hard. He transferred me to the State Highway Patrol where I was asked to give a description of the vehicle including the license plate number. My response, "A tall gray semi truck driving fast in the left lane." I don't think I was any help but I tried. 

Another exciting part of the drive was when our friend Ken (the Australian Garmin man) decided to take us off the interstate and through Gary, Indiana. Nothing like a nice scenic tour of the ghetto at 10pm on a Friday night. 

Since we got there so late we just found a parking space (always an adventure in downtown Chicago with my sister driving and Ken telling us where to go....). After reversing out of a few garages into traffic we found our hotel. I must tell you all this bed bug talk has me nervous to sleep in hotels, the whole time I was laying there I would swear they were eating my legs. 

Saturday we got up and grabbed something to eat. It was cold! I know Chicago is cold (the windy city, I know) but it is still September!!!! Most of Saturday was spent on Michigan Avenue shopping and eating. I got a new purse and bought Dave the world's largest Reece Cups (1 lb.) We also ate at this popcorn place that was really good. The Chicago mix is cheese and carmel. I gave it a try but my sister and I decided we liked just the cheese best and bought that. (It was good hot but even better the next day on the drive home, yum!). 

Saturday evening we went to dinner at a place downtown. My sister's friend has a gluten allergy and there are a lot of things she can't eat. She told the waiter when we sat down that she needed to know what items on the menu were gluten free. Shortly after the manager came over and said, 

"Does somebody here have a gluten allergy?"-manager

"Yes"-Sarah 

"Excellent"-manager 

WTH? We were laughing so hard, did he really just say that? Dinner was great, food was good, company was even better. Here are some pictures: 

"I am sweating and buzzed"-Danielle 

Sunday was spent eating brunch and going to the Willis (previously Sear's) Tower. There are some great views and I am really glad we decided to walk over and see it before we left. My sister and I ended the weekend by walking through the streets of Chicago with a pumpkin Chai Tea-that is good!!! 

Back to a crazy week of life and counting down the days until Dave comes home. We are at day 78!!! 

Also the red's just clinched the National League Central Division!!!!!!! Reds baseball in October is good, LIFE is good!!! : ) 

Sunday Funday

Happy Sunday! Today I had my family over to my house for football Sunday. Every week we go to somebody's house to watch the game. Sundays are my favorite day of the week (I LOVE FOOTBALL) but also the worst. I miss Dave the MOST EVER on Sunday evenings...... ugh! So I will just post and do laundry to help past the time until he calls.
Speaking of Dave... he is doing good. Whenever I ask him about his day this is what he says, "It is groundhog day, every day." So I don't get a lot out of him. Starting this week he is switching from nights to dayshift which will be and adjustment for his sleep cycle. We are on day 69 of his deployment so we have approximately 110 days left.

Today for football Sunday I made chesscake, it is super yummy. I got the recipe at my family reunion last weekend. I have never had it before and now I think I will make it all the time. It is very easy to make and taste really good. I am becoming quite the chef if I do say so myself. Today when I was making the chesscake one of my mixing bowls melted in the microwave, which is garbage because it is supposed to be microwavable. The bowl melted into the cream cheese and I had to go to the store to get more ( I didn't think it would be too safe to mix cream cheese with melted plastic into my cake). I was gone for all of about 7 minutes and when I came home Charlie had got into the garbage and ate egg shells and grease, hopefully he doesn't get sick!

Speaking of Charlie (I can't go a single post without talking about him...), he is injured. I don't know how but I kept finding blood spots on the carpet (which is fantastic because we have cream color carpet) and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I was checking his lips (from frisbee injuries) and wouldn't find anything. Then today when he was laying down my sister noticed his paw was bleeding. I had to go to the store and get gauze and wrap it up. I need to call the vet tomorrow and see if I need to do anything or how to help it get better.

Here he is with his injured foot. This picture also shows you are new fence we got a few weeks ago....yay!

Luckily the Bengals pulled it off today and it looks like my fantasy team is going to beat my sister's team also. She made a super cute cheese ball for the game today. Here is a picture of it:

She is too crafty.

After everybody left my parents helped me hang some wall decorations I bought a couple of weekends ago. I think I like them. You will have to let me know what you think! 

Hanging it up as Charlie waits for my dad to throw his frisbee for him.

Final product... what do you think?  I think I like it. It doesn't look level because of the picture frame, but it is. We have
this crazy laser thing (Dave had to have) so I know it is for sure level! : )

This week is going to be very busy. I have a lot of work to do (since I was a slacker last week and took a half day on Thursday) and my sister's birthday is Wednesday. I am attending an Apraxia conference on Thursday and Friday then heading to Chicago for the weekend with my sister. I am very excited about Chicago, we are meeting up with some of her good friends (whom I love). I have never been to Chi-town in the fall, can't wait!!! 

Hope everybody has a great week! I will leave you with this quote (it helped me get through my last week, which was a rough one and might help you thru your monday): 

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. -Francesca Reigler 

Sundays are good. Life is good : ) 

Fourth week of class and flowers at work!!!

Today was a whirlwind. This morning I was stressed out and missing Dave very much. Then my pager went off and I went up front and found these beautiful flowers waiting for me!

He is so amazing and makes me the happiest girl in the whole world. These definitely helped make my day better and cheer me up! Not that anybody is counting but he has been gone for 65 days which means we have about 114 days left! He is doing good, keeping busy and working a lot. He is about to switch to days so his hours will be different. 

Then I got home from work and found this: 

These are bookshelves that are going in the office. My parents are coming over tomorrow to help me put them together. I had to cover them with a sheet because Charlie had chewed on one of the other boxes already but apparently that didn't stop him today. Yesterday when I came home from work I found he had destroyed one of my Halloween decorations I put out. 

After these shenanigans the past two days I decided it was time to get a new crate. I don't like putting him in a crate because I work really long days but I am afraid if I don't I am going to come home one day to a disaster. After his class this evening we made a pit stop at Complete Petsmart to buy the biggest crate they had. The whole time I was putting it together he was just sitting back and watching. 

He can lay down all the way and stand up so I feel a little better about having him in there for a good 11 hours. Maybe after a week or two in here I can try and leave him out again. 

Class this week was funny. He was in a weird mood today. He was going after the dog they use to show us our new skills (he does this every week, I don't think he likes her) and then the next minute he is asleep on the floor when we are supposed to be learning. Today we worked on staying for 2 minutes, that didn't happen. He does pretty good but I have to sit there and stare at him and he always moves his head and makes these crazy faces and I start cracking up. Then he gets excited and starts jumping and we have to start over. Everybody in the whole place is so amazed by how good he is doing. One thing we learned tonight is a trick to get him to drop his frisbee (he is obsessed with his frisbee but it is a fight to get him to drop it so you can throw it again). When the lady was telling me about this I didn't think it was going to work because he LOVES his frisbee, I mean really really LOVES it but I figured we would give it a try. She told me to have treats out and when he brings the frisbee back to offer him a treat and say "drop it", then the dog will drop the frisbee to get a treat. Over time they will associate "drop it" to dropping the frisbee and I won't need treats. I tried this with him when we got home. The only time he would drop his frisbee was when I gave Sammy a treat but if I didn't do that he just looked at the treat and kept his frisbee. We will try this again tomorrow maybe. 

Well today was long but good. I have a busy day tomorrow as well. My parents are coming up after work to help me do stuff around the house. Then my mom and I are going to go and try on a smaller size wedding dress to see if I can do that and not need as many alterations and leave my dad to cut the grass. 

Have a wonderful hump day, Life is SO good!!! 

Family Cornhole Tournament

Last weekend my family had the 2nd Annual Patrick Cornhole Tournament. The picture below is a sign my mom had made and hung. It is hard to read because of the wind.

The trophy table with photo album of last year's tournament. 

The weather was perfect, sunny and in the 70's. Last year it was like 100 degrees, no joke! This year we had 16 teams (not too bad!). Unlike last year nothing too eventful happened. We had brackets this year which helped out tremendously! It was a great afternoon with good food and good family. My uncle Rick and Cory (my cousin's husband) won first place. They got trophies and split the entry fee money. 

My cousin Megan and I got second place which I was pretty excited about. We got trophies as well. 

Below are several pictures taken from the day, It was a good time and I am looking forward to next year. 

My mom and dad with Gage and Teagan. I love how my dad and Gage are both doing "Cheese".

We have a lot of boys in our family!

Hope you enjoyed! Family is good, Life is good!!!!! 

Happy Birthday to Dave!!!!

Today is Dave's 29th birthday! Last year in his twenties...... uh-oh, next year will have to be a BIG party! This is the second year in a row we have spent our birthday's apart so next year we are going to do something fun to really celebrate both of our birthdays, even though his will be more significant than mine. I sent Dave a box for his birthday and he got it today. THANK YOU to everybody who sent a card to put in it! I found a card that was a "Happy Birthday from the dogs" it was so funny. My sister gave me the idea to get pictures of them in birthday hats and put in the card. Here is a series of photos I took and to put in the card:

Clearly, they are not too happy with wearing hats and playing with noise makers. I was cracking up the entire time I was taking these pictures. BUT they will get the last laugh..... This was on Friday and on Saturday I went to look at the reception hall with my mom and sister. I put the party hats and noise makers on the center of the coffee table. I was gone for about 2 hours and when I came home this is what I found: 

As you can see by the pictures these were not the only items on the coffee table. Charlie pulled off the party hats and noise makers and destroyed them! I guess he wanted to make sure he never had to wear it again. I love these pictures too, you can tell by how he acts he knows he is in trouble! These dogs are too funny. I complain about them a lot but really if I didn't have them, my life would be so much more boring while Dave was gone. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I put all of these in the doggy birthday card I mailed Dave today. 

Have a great evening, thanks for stopping by.... LIFE IS SO GOOD : )