Traveling with Puppies, Part 1

I love my puppies. 

And for that, they are with me on my visit of my fam-jam in the big old city of Vancouver

 I love it here, it is so unbelievably gorgeous. I'd love to live here... 

When traveling with puppies, it's very much like traveling with babies. 

Or at least my dogs are. 

And with such, I have a running tally with my sister-in law

Current Score Furbabies 1: Babies 1. 

Why the tie? 

Wins

Furbabies 1 : Furbabies you can leave unaccompanied  or in the company of basically anyone (no skills needed here). However, this is narrowly defined in a home. I can abandon them at my moms, my dads and anyone else's' who will let me. I can't abandon them in a hotel room, unfortunately. 

Babies 1 : Babies you can take with you in places, such as the bathroom, 

the restaurant, the mall, etcetra. 

On my way to Chilliwack today, I wish I could stop and go shopping, but I can't because then I'd have to leave furbabies alone in the car... not always the best idea!

Ties:

Both Furbabies and babies require a LOT of stuff. 

My puppies have a big box of dehydrated food (very much like formula)

A big tote of toys.

A playpen-kennel. 

One Bed, two blankets, and a pillow... the list goes on. 

My furbabies don't sleep through the night. They require the use of the bathroom in the middle, or at 6:30 - which totally sucks, this comes from them having free access to a dog door. 

My furbabies cry when they aren't happy - like last night when I forced Caper to sleep in the play-pen with Daisy instead of allowing him to cuddle with me. 

Stay Posted.  I'm traveling/in Vancouver for the next week.

Sleeping in the back seat. As long as they don't need to go to the bathroom, this is what they do once we hit highway speeds. Slower speeds, they beging to wake up and start taking interest in the world

Driving through rush hour traffic in Surrey with the window down. Going no faster than 40km/hour,
Daisy  loved this experience. Caper joined in for a little fun.

BIG ROAD TRIP DONE! I'M FREE!
At the end of the night, playing at the grassy nole near my Dad's house
Puppies are so excited to see green grass!

All Done

On Friday I handed in my 30 page paper on Neighbourhoods & Health: Uncovering the built urban form and its role in enabling or disabling neighbourhood health outcomes.

 

On Saturday, I finished my last shift at La Vie En Rose for the time being. 

On Sunday, I had my last Sorority Meeting of the school year (Our AGM). 

And now what? 

I don't start work until April 30, 2013 (Our 1 year Wedding Anniversary). 

My house is not overly clean, but come on, we are still laying flooring. 

And, really, it wont take me THAT long. 

Now what? 

I'm going to visit the fam-jam and the city on Wednesday. I can't wait. 

I miss my husband though. He's not home. 

I wish he was. 

Life is lonely here in the North. 

Black and White Sunday

This week I was preoccupied with finishing a 30 page paper on the joys of health promotive environments. But, like any good mom, I still take millions of pictures of my babies, especially my furbabies.

Mom, I'm ready for my close up

BBCAN

Are my Big Brother Canada days coming to an end? 

It was inevitable, there are only a couple of weeks left. 

But with Peter gone, I don't have anything left to live for. 

Perhaps he wasn't meant to win, but he sure made the house fun, and manageable. 

As for now, let's see... 

Jillian - Can't make up her mind, keeps making false alliances with everyone, is major power tripping, and seems to be a lying whore. To phrase it nicely. I can't stand your games, they don't make sense. 

Talla - I prefer your nickname "Lala" all that bitching you did this past week wants me gone, plus you've totally floated you're way to the top. I have no respect for you, you seem like a spoiled little brat. 

Andrew - I don't actually mind you, and wished Jillian wasn't playing you. 

Emmett - you went with Jillian instead of with Peter, for that I don't trust you. Follow you're own drum. You've played a good game, and I'd like to see you and Andrew in the final three. 

Gary - I don't love you. I don't hate you. I just didn't like the first few weeks, you got better when the house guests started liking you. Not entirely sure. Maybe you could join Emmett and Andrew. 

Will I watch next week, maybe. But I'll probably fast forward through all the bullshit and just learn the concluding results. 

At this point, I no longer care about the drama that pursues, I just want to know who wins. 

Realistically, I should get back to my 30 page paper due tomorrow on place-based health effects in geography. 

Swirly Jars - Pinterest Pin

I found this great pin a while back and had to try it

Centsational Girl does a great tutorial. Check out her site for the tutorial. 

My living room is accented with shades of lime green, so naturally I did greens. 

(pre tip: check your colours before starting, my one colour is too camouflage looking for my comfort)

But here are my tips. 

1. You're going to use more paint than you think. I used up three little bottles. 

(Mind you some were partially used, and I might have used too much paint).

you can't have too much of a good thing, can you?

2. Check the consistencies of your paint before you start. 

One was nice. perfect. 

One was too gunky/thick. 

I, personally, think it would be better to add a little water to the paint in the bottle and shake it all about till you get the right texture. "sprinkling" water into the vase like I did was a major fail, especially when some paints didn't need to be lightened up. 

3. Clean up the edges before it dries. 

4. Don't use too much paint because then you'll have to drain it and your swirls might get mixed up. 

5. If you can, I'd recommend rotating throughout the drying period. I have one side which you can tell was the side that I let it dry over night on. I don't really like that side. 

I tried to hide the messed up side in the shadow on purpose. I don't want people to know it's there!

Overall: LOVED THIS PROJECT

Will I do it again? 

As soon as I can find a home for another vase and a reason to do this craft again. 

(because seriously, I can't just have a collection of glass jars everywhere. 

*must have a purpose before crafting*

Black and White Sunday

Black & White Sunday is supposed to be short and sweet, but I can't resist but to give you a black and white recap of Miss. Daisy's experience over the past two days as we rip up our flooring and replace it with beautiful chestnut coloured bamboo.

The adventure's begin with the ripping out of the carpet.

No more carpet. 

A new floor! Subfloor time!

Just watching from my bed. 

Ah, the sunshine, such a nice spot.
There was a couch here once before, wasn't there?

Progress!

What's Uncle Phil doing?
Enjoying the serenity of the couch. 

Doggy time with Aunt Ashley!

Alas, the peace has arrived. 

Hardwood Dilema 1

Remember When I showed you this picture of my DH earlier this week? 

Did anyone notice something odd or strange about it? 

We didn't either. Home Depot didn't either. The delivery man didn't either. 

So, we started chugging all that wood to the top of our house. 

We live on the second floor, and rent out a unit on the first floor. 

We are redoing the entire top floor (minus the bathroom and two bedrooms)

in solid chestnut coloured bamboo. 

DH and I only got half way through before we were tired and exhausted. 

I should actually say him, the boxes weigh 60lbs and I can't really lift one without a lot of complaining. 

So, we asked my SIL if she knew any kids who wanted money to lift up hardwood to the top floor. 

She knew herself. So we paid her 50$ to move the remaining hardwood. 

Now when Phil and Ashley finished the project. They sat down and Phil said something along the lines of 'you have a lot of wood' and then gestured to the pile in the dining room and said thata could finish the house! Well, then what about the pile in the kitchen? the hallway? the spare bedroom? 

He asked if we measured and ordered correctly. DH runs through it in his head. yes. he did. 

I pulled out the order contract. 36 boxes that looks about right. 

Now, hold on, how many boxes did we get? So we run around panicking and counting. 

The dinning room pile has 31. 

The kitchen pile has 15

There are 15 in the hallway... 

SHIT! 72 boxes of hardwood! 

See, two flats delivered. 

And nobody noticed it was too much. 

Our Neighbour had commented on the massive flooring project. 

But we are newbies, I didn't know how much was really in a box. 

So, after debating what to do, I called Home Depot the next morning. 

Flooring department wasn't in yet, so I left a message "They delivered too much flooring"

The lady calls back, they thank us very much for calling them. 

They'll be by to pick it up. 

They can't help me move back downstairs. 

So I tell them they have to wait till Saturday to pick it up. I can't move them, I'll have to wait for husband to be home. 

So Saturday they are picking up the extra pallet. Apparently the vender screwed up. That's what they are insisting. I know how it kind of happened since our order got a little complicated when she had to 'return' and 'resell' us the hardwood so that it would be delivered properly.

Yesterday, Eric went to Home Depot and asked about buying some of it back. 

Well, why not? We have a master bedroom I'd like to do too. The spare maybe carpet. 

So, she sold us 8 additional boxes at 50% off! score! 

Now we only have to move 28 boxes downstairs! 

What would you have done?

It's one of those tough moral/ethical questions....

In other news, carpets out. 

Starting to lie the subfloor, and then Phil says he can get it in over the weekend. 

Looks like I'm making ribs this weekend! 

A (not-so) Wordless Wednesday

This (not-so) Wordless Wednesday comes to you from my instagram account.

 A few of my favorite coloured photos from the past weeks. 

Daisy girl taking in some wind on the back dash board

If it isn't me and my fur babies on a beautiful Spring Day.
Loving the front seat on the way to the park. 

We have renewed Caper's interest in playing fetch finding
some of his small tennis balls. 

She's just a cutie. 

Clean Eating Update

It's kind of like clean eating but more limited. How's it going? We are now into week 3.75, and I'd like to say that I've only kind of failed a few times. I had half a bun with a chicken sandwich a while back, I ate some pizza (thin crust), I had some cookies this afternoon, I ate risotto and quiona, I had cheesecake... But, overall not bad. 

I love eggs, but I couldn't eat eggs every morning all month. 15 days in and I caved and pulled out the blender and the protein powder and created shakes. 

I have a pinterest board dedicated to my new food plan. 

So far, the reicpes that I have tried:

#1 #1 #1 --- Roast Beet Chips and Avocado Dip

This is Eric's FAVORITE HEALTHY CHIP RECIPE. 

And he's right. It's delicious. We make this ALL the time. 

The trick is to cut the beet chips thin, even, and let them get nice and crispy. If they are soft when you pull them out of the fridge, they need for heat! 

#2 #2 #2 Roasted Cawliflower and Aged Cheddar Soup.

I've made this THREE times. It's my go to soup. I add chicken or turkey stock to amp up the protein. 

It's delicious and gives me a chance to use my immersion blender.

"Asian Taco Night" - Bikini Rolls

need to chop vegetables really small, I found this really hard to do. Plus, finding rice paper took me forever. I didn't like the peanut dip that I made... nor the mustard soy sauce included in this recipe

it's hard to make food look pretty! 

Roasted Butternut with Rosemary and Balsamic

The link is now broken, but I HATED HATED HATED this. 

I'm not sure if I hate butternut squash or this recipe. 

Red Cabbage with Raisins

Cabbage is interesting. I'll eat it. 

But really, not my favorite ve Sauteed ggie on the plate. I do prefer this recipe over green cabbage recipes. 

Oven Roasted Cabbage

Meh, if I want roasted cabbage, I'd eat brussel sprouts. 

Roast Chickpeas

Love this idea but I haven't figured out how to master the roasting and flavouring. 

I bought some from Superstore, but they are TOO spicy. 

Must keep working on this, because I LOVE snacking, especially now that it's final essay crunch time.

Black and White Sunday

My little helper! 

Look what Arrived today!

OUR BAMBOO FLOORS! 

More to come, but it was not a fun experience carrying it upstairs and beginning to unpack it. 

Chalk Coloured Puppies

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law Ashley was over with her puppy for a puppy-play date. 

We sent my DH out for Blizzards, reeses peanut butter cup, and in the meanwhile, we got board. 

The idea sparked that we should colour our puppies! But how! 

A little while earlier I had seen Pet Grooming: The Good, the Band, and the Furry colour a puppy and she used chalk! So, I pulled out the chalk and we went all out. 

Mind the terrible pictures, low light and figidity dogs = not my BFF

Caper got a green tail and a green back

Rosey had her white spots turned purple

Daisy got some some pink highlights

How did we do it?

1. Soak Chalk. 

Do soak it for as long as she suggests. We only soaked for like three minutes - because we were impatient, but wait the full ten so the chalk gets all soft and easy to use! 

2. Rub on dog fur. 

Not as easy as it looks for the more frigidity. Daisy stayed still, Caper loathed me. 

3. Spray with a light dusting of hair spray. 

We didn't spray Rosey because of her sensitive skin (Boston Terrier, you know) 

and she lost almost all of her colour

4. Let them run wild. 

Daisy's lasted the longest.

Caper had a hint of green in her tail for a while

Bucket List

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to complete a Bucket List. I think it's extremely important to have things in your life that you strive for and you want to do. Ambitions, dreams, goals, fantasies. Something to keep us motivated and enjoy life.

So, here it goes. Here is my Bucket List of all the things in the world that I want to do from this point forward.

1. Complete my Bachelors Degree.
2. Have a daughter.
3. Watch a meteror Shower.
3. Watch the Northern Lights
4. Complete a journal.
5. Have a wardrobe I love.
6. Have a pen pal, somebody I do know (aside from Mallory) and somebody I don't know
7. Get a small tattoo that means a lot.
8. Throw a dart at a map and travel there.
9. Participate in a really fun marathon.
10. Finish an Entire Colouring Book
11. Write a love letter.
12. Travel to the South of France.
13. Visit the Alps.
14. Attend my 10th and on reunions at Cottey College.
15. Visit Megan Smith whereever she is.
16. Reconnect with old friends (Particularly Maggie and Erin)
17. Travel across Canada.
18. Take the ferry from Rupert to Vancouver Island.
19. Canoe the Bowron Lakes.
20. Fall back in love with the outdoors.
21. Finish a quilt.
22. Eat Lobster on the East Coast.
23. Make a difference in someone's community.
24. Be an active member of my community.
25. Be an amazing friend.
26. Travel on a girls trip.
27. Visit Belgium.
28. Be the best Auntie ever.
29. Have a cabin.
30. love myself and my body.
31. Enjoy life.
32. Travel with my husband.
33. Do something I wouldnt do.
34. Take a train trip somewhere really cool!
35. Be independent, do something completely on my own.
36. Create my own family traditions.
37. Have great sex.
38. Have my breathe taken away by the landscape.
39. See my grandchildren.
40. Volunteer More.


Tomorrow, I'll print this list off, post it on the wall, and start working through it. I might even add a few more ideas! Do you have a bucket list?

Where Life's At

Living in Prince George continues to be a struggle. 

Part of what I'm doing with both my doctors is to be happier, but there's only so much drugs and new eating habits can do to make my overall mood happier. There must be other wives, other students going through these phases. 

I'm Happy Because

I love my husband and I get to live with him. 

I love my two puppies, Miss. Daisy and Caper. 

I have a home, a home which I make more and more beautiful each day. 

I am going to school and studying a topic I love. 

My husband supports me in my current and future ambitions. 

It's kind of beautiful up here. 

I have a few friends, my sister-in-law Ashley is wonderful, 

and I enjoy when I get the rare opportunity to hang out with some of my sorority sisters.

I really enjoy my job in retail lingerie and my coworkers.

I'm Sad Because

I miss my family, my mom and dad, and EVERYONE else. 

I miss my friends - Omar, Mallory, Jaclyn, Kayla, Chrissy, and many others! 

I don't really know a lot of people here, not very well. Not like my highschool

or college friends, not like the relationship I had with Maggie or with Omar, and because of that

I'm worried that I'll overstrain/stress the relationships that I do have. 

My husbands job has crazy hours, so I'm home alone a lot. 

I miss the city. 

I spend one too many Friday/Saturday nights alone. 

So what to do about it?

Well, I should really start blogging more and make some bloggy friends.

I'm thinking of taking up pelvic floor pilates and meeting new people. 

I should learn to be more friendly, like talk with people at the dog park. Ashley's so good at it, should listen to her and learn her innate ability. 

I wanna be able to open the windows in my house! 

Get some fresh air in. 

Maybe when I garden my front yard (to make my house look like MY house) I'll meet my neighbours.