Double Trouble

My view...haha. Here are the two doggies walking on their leashes with me. Wrigley is leading the way, bravely forging ahead, whilst Ivy is keeping close on her heels! I have been taking the dogs out together for walks and it's beginning to get a little easier to control them. I don't know how long I will continue to do this, with the heat of summer coming on, but it feels good so far. I even walked them Friday morning before work for 15 minutes!

Our morning walks have led us to encounters with squirrels, birds, and mud puddles. On our evening walks we have met rabbits and frogs. Both times of day lead to run ins with dogs and cats. Last night I thought we might have a problem when a very very large dog got loose from it's owner. It was a young boy who had been holding the dog on a leash on their porch, and when it got away the adults came running out to help. The man actually tackled the dog and laid his full body across it to keep it from escaping! To give you an idea of how big the dog was, it's name was Moose... Anyway, no harm was done, but I don't think we will be walking down that street any time soon.

The reason I get nothing done...

This little pup is trying to fool you...she is looking all sweet and innocent, laying there on a pillow, looking up with those big brown eyes... She is really a little devil dog! Constant energy! Run through the house, attack the cat, attack the older dog, attack the people! She loves to chew on anything, including me! AAAGGGGHHH!

She is the sweetest little gal too. Very playful and a smart little cookie. We are working on the housebreaking, STILL. It is coming along, although not as fast as I would have liked. We have days when there are no accidents at all in the house, then she sort of backslides and has a bad day. Everett has already cleaned the carpet twice. We will get there with her, it just takes time.

I'm still losing weight. This week has been a teeter totter between 189 and 187. The 189 just came back into the picture this morning and I don't understand why, except maybe water weight. I am not stressing over it, that's for sure, because I know it's going away, slowly but surely.

I just have not had the umpfh to go upstairs and sew lately. Ivy requires constant supervision and I don't want her upstairs in the sewing room, that's for sure. I have been tossing around the idea of making Ben and Johnathon matching shirts for Father's Day, but I don't know if I will or not.

Money is getting tight again. Ev was short a day on his paycheck last pay period and then yesterday they called him off for lack of work, so he will be short again this pay period. I know it will pass, it always does, but it's aggravating. He is supposed to get some overtime this coming week. Hopefully he will.

I went to my brother Joe's college graduation last weekend. Got to see Mom and all the family up there, including Gram in the nursing home. She is not well at all. But the graduation was very nice and I had a good visit.

Naan Bread

Here's a picture of the naan bread. This is four pieces. They are flat sorta rectangles about 9"x6". These were extremely easy to make. I tore a corner off of one and tasted it and think I may be making this alot in the future!

For Nick and I, I will be sauteing a couple portabella mushroom caps and some green peppers with onion and a can of diced tomatoes. That should be a good topping for the bread. I may add a can of black beans to the mix too.

I already baked some pork chops for Ev for dinner and fried some cabbage and baked some potatoes. That will make a couple of meals for him. He had to go in early today. I know he will be wore out when he gets home tonight.

Playing Hooky

I didn't go to work today. Didn't feel so hot last night and didn't sleep well, so I just took the day off. Ev had to go in early and no one would be home with the pup, plus yesterday there was a threat to our office, so I just felt like it would be an all around good day to stay home.

I just got back from getting my hair cut. It's really short and I think I am going to love it! Finally got a haircut that fits my style - no hassle!

Ivy is doing okay with housebreaking. It's taking a little while, but I think she is getting the hang of it. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

Our yard under the maple tree has all kinds of tiny maple trees sprouting up in it! I know it's from the 'helicopters' off the tree, and the next time Ev mows grass it will kill them all, but it's kind of neat to see them. Maybe I should start my own tree farm...haha.

Still waiting for Nick's final grades. On edge to see if he's going to have a high enough gpa to stay where he is, or if he has to go to the community college in the Fall for a semester. I really hope he doesn't have to do that. But if he does, he does. He put himself in this spot and I know he's regretting it, but there is only so much that we can do. Hopefully he has learned from it.

Today I'm making something new. It's Naan bread. I saw it on t.v. and it looks good and easy. It's an Indian bread made with flour, yogurt, and yeast. It's a flat bread. I think Nick will like it, and I'm sure I will. Ev's not a big bread eater.

Johanna came up last night and we went out to dinner at Denny's. It wasn't long after that my stomach started feeling bad, so it could have been something I ate. It's gone now, thankfully.

Two of my babies

Although I'm pretty sure my 19 year old son would not like to be referred to as my baby, he still is, in my heart. He took a quick nap with Ivy this afternoon before he had to go to work. They were both so cute, I couldn't resist snapping a picture!

Ev and I had an interesting day today. We actually met Ivy's mother. This all started a few days ago when my friend Barb at work mentioned she thought she knew where Ivy came from. Barb lives out in the country and bike rides every morning with a friend. She and her friend were riding past a farmhouse and noticed a pup in the yard that looked like mine. She mentioned it to her friend and that gal said the man who lived in the farmhouse was 92 and just had to go to a nursing home because he fell, just for rehab, but his kids took the litter of pups, except for one, to the shelter.

Since we don't live that far from the farmhouse, Ev and I took a ride over to it this morning, just to see if we could get a good look at the mama, to maybe gauge how big Ivy is going to be. Well, we were in luck because a neighbor was there cleaning out the fridge, and she called over the mama dog. She isn't a black Lab at all! She is quite an assortment, really! She has the prettiest blue/smoky grey eyes. There may be some Shepherd in her and maybe some Husky, and probably some kind of hound dog. Her markings are speckled brown, white, and tan. She has a very good temperment.

We had Ivy along, so we brought her over to the mama dog, who is named Blue, and they certainly remembered each other! It was quite heartwarming to see Ivy roll over on her back and Blue smooch her all over! I'm guessing the daddy dog has the Lab in him, and I know Lab is a dominant trait in dogs, but it still really surprised me to see Blue.

Here she is!

Meet Ivy! Our newest addition to the family. Wrigley is following her around in this picture trying to decide how to annoy Ivy as much as she has been annoying her! Ivy has a LOT of puppy energy... And she loves to chew. On anything. Toys, rawhide bones, pigs ears, furniture, shoes, feet, hair... What have we gotten ourselves into????? haha. Loving it! The housebreaking is coming along. Not as quickly as I would have liked, but it's getting there. It's only been a week and she has made a lot of progress. She has been waking up at 4 a.m. consistently and I take her out then, which prevents an accident, I'm sure.

Today I am going to get back into the sewing room for a while. Haven't really been up there much this week because it seems that every minute I have to be watching the pup, and I don't want her in the sewing room just yet because of the chance of accidents. And who knows what kind of goodies she would find up there to chew!

Stormy weather

Last night we had a pretty good round of thunderstorms come through. We didn't have any tornados here, thankfully, but there were some reported in areas surrounding us. The winds were up to and over 70 mph! Ev was at work, but I had Nick, Johanna and Ben here for a while until the storm passed, which was nice.

One more day until we can get Ivy! I called the animal shelter yesterday and they would like to keep her until Sunday because she didn't get spayed until later in the day Friday. That's fine with me, let her heal up some then we can bring her home.

This past week I have gone upstairs and done some sewing before work on a few days. I have actually been able to accomplish something that way! I need to sew less than 10 strip sets together and I will have enough for the four patch units for the mystery. Pressing them will be the next step, then cutting into 2-1/2 inch pieces for the 4 patch units.

Donna and I are looking into going on a 'shop hop' for the first time in July. Need to get more info about it, but it sounds like a lot of fun!