In Honor of the Birthday Boy!

Here's a little tribute to a boy I like to call Coop Doggy Dogg:

Happy birthday, Coopy! I love you!!!!

Happy Birthday To My Baby Boy!!!

Happy birthday to Cooper, aka Coopy Doggy Dogg! My baby boy is 8 years old today! It seems like just yesterday that he was a little puppy...and now he's a grown boy! I love this dog with all my heart and can't wait to give him lots of hugs & doggy treats tonight!

I'm at work right now, so unfortunately this is the only pic I have available (I have LOTS more at home). This was taken a couple years ago when Rylie thought she'd tuck him in for the night, lol. Being the obedient dog that he is, he sweetly complied. Happy birthday, boy! I LOVE YOU!!!

Frustration Consumes Me

A) I went shopping again last night and STILL have no shirt to wear out for my birthday this weekend. :\

2) We still don't have a home yet for Cody (aka Stray Lab). Double :\

I went to the mall last night in a last minute attempt to find a shirt to wear out for my birthday this weekend and still....nothing. I'm so frustrated. I'm going to try one more place tonight. If I can't find something, I don't know what I'm gonna do...... :(

Last night was a busy one. I tanned right after work (trying to look skinnier for my bday, lol). Then ran to the mall as soon as Rylie got home from school. After that, I popped some chicken enchiladas in the oven (I had cooked them awhile back and froze them) and then headed to the gym to swim laps while Randy stayed home and fed the girls. I swam a whopping 22 laps!!! Then headed home to eat an collapse on the couch with a drink. I'm pretty sore today - mainly my neck, shoulders, and back. Swimming is such a great workout.

The rest of the week is going to be pretty busy. I feel like my life is a whirlwind right now....

Weekend In Review:

Well, Friday night I ended up running my 3 miles so I could skip practice on Saturday. Running in 56 degrees sounded much more pleasant than 12 degrees, so yeah...

Saturday I was up pretty early, around 7:30 or so. Rylie and I ran a couple errands in the morning and then the rest of the day was spent cleaning the house. Randy left for what was supposed to be a couple hours to help Bobby with some stuff, but ended up lasting until 7pm. We were supposed to take Rylie bowling Saturday night, but by the time we got there we were going to have to wait for an hour and a half for a lane. So we just went out for ice cream instead and then went home.

Yesterday was a grueling day of shopping for me. Anyone that knows me knows that I really hate to shop. I can do an hour...two, max. After that, I'm done. Well, I needed to find a shirt for to wear out for my birthday this weekend. I seriously went to 8 different stores and must have tried on at least 50 shirts. It was just depressing. I still haven't lost all the weight I gained when I was pregnant with Harper, so trying stuff on just isn't fun at all. :\ I never did find anything, so I'm going to have to go look again one night this week. I'm running out of places to go to also...sucks.

I have a really busy week ahead of me. Tonight: swim practice, tomorrow: Rylie has dance and it's parents watch week, Wednesday: I have to run & Rylie has gymnastics, Thusday: Randy and I have an appointment and then I'm HOPING to finally get a damn shirt for the weekend. Friday is my birthday......gah, I'm turning th.....th.....thir....thirty. Wow...

Oh, and by the way, we still have Cody (aka Stray Lab). Randy posted an ad on Craigslist to see if anyone is missing a lab. If no one responds, he's gonna post another ad to get rid of him. OH - and of all the random things, a stray GOLDEN RETRIEVER showed up in our yard on Saturday!!! What are the freakin odds of two pure bread strays showing up in our neighborhood in the same week and they just happen to be the two breeds that we own??!! This golden was soooo beautiful!!! He could be a show do! He is also not neutered, but he was very calm and very obedient. A guy came along in a truck not long after he showed up and he said that he found him about a week ago and has been basically doing what we've been doing with Cody - calling vets & shelters, posting signs, etc to see if he can find the owner. Apparently no one has reported him missing. He said that with the economy, people are deserting their pets because they can't afford them anymore. People's homes are being foreclosed and they are being forced into apartments where they can't keep their pets. It's really sad. I kinda wanted to keep that golden....but hell, we already have a damn zoo at our house.

If anyone would like a free black lab or a free golden retriever (both males, both need neutered) please, PLEASE let me know! These dogs need good homes!

Stray Lab.....He's Still With Us

Okay, so Stray Lab (who I have now named Cody...cuz it sounds cute with Cooper and Callie) is still with us. :\ Randy took him up to our vet's office and of course he is not chipped. He was also not in our vet's database of missing dogs, and all the shelters Randy has called are kill shelters that kill in either 3 days or 5 days. Black labs are apparently the hardest to get adopted because they are the most common breed of dog. The only no-kill shelter in our area is full right now and not accepting any new dogs unless you are returning a dog you adopted from there. That is the shelter where we adopted Callie. I joked that we should take Cody up there and say he's Callie, lol. Rylie made up some posters to put around the neighborhood, but we'll probably end up paying to take him to Wayside. It's too cold to leave him outside...so we've basically been taking care of him until we figure out what to do with him.

Anyone want a free black lab??

In other news, I took Harper to get her 6 month shots yesterday. I'm sure she'll be cranky pants today. The little nugget is still in the 95th percentile in weight and 90th in length. She's such a chunk, lol. But a CUTE one!

I have tri practice tomorrow morning and we are running....in the cold. Not looking forward to it. I'm really sore today from yoga, running, and muscle conditioning so I'm taking today off from working out. Went and saw my chiropractor for a MUCH NEEDED adjustment yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty good today and I am welcoming the break from training. Tomorrow morning is gonna suck.

Update on Stray Lab

I really love dogs and all........






......but this dog has GOT TO GO!!!!! OMG, I came home and found that not only had this dog had massive diarrhea all over our garage (probably from the 4 bowls of food he consumed last night!!!), but he also got into all the trash and chewed on everything he could find from laundry baskets to the shop vac hose! He pissed on the spare bed mattress and THANK THE LORD he didn't do anything to my road bike, which is worth almost more than my car! I would have shot him dead. I knew we shouldn't have trusted a stray animal in our home while we were not there. I'm making Randy take him somewhere as soon as he gets home. I already have 2 big dogs, 2 kids (one being a baby), and a husband to clean up after. I'm not adding a large PUPPY to the mix. No thanks.

Last Night's Adventure

Okay, it wasn't really an adventure....just something a little out of the ordinary.

When I got home from work, I noticed the neighbors across the street were outside and there was a black lab running around their yard. They yelled over and asked if it was our dog. To be honest, from across the street, the dog really did look like Callie. It was the same size/build, and of course, it was a black lab. But I thought to myself, how did Callie get out?? We keep the dogs in the house all day long and even if she did get out in the morning, A) Randy would have called or emailed me to let me know they dogs got out and 2) Cooper would have been with her, which he was not.

I walked over to where my neighbors where and yelled "Callie!" but the dog didn't come to me. Then I noticed the dog wasn't wearing a collar...and then I noticed that this dog was a boy and not a girl. Nope, not my dog. There is a house back behind my neighbors across the street that have a black lab because I've seen it in their yard when I'm out running, so I assumed it was their dog. I told my neighbors it probably belonged to those people.

Well, I went inside and went about my business. I let my dogs out and started fixing dinner. I looked out the window shortly and noticed that the stray lab had jumped our fence and was in my back yard playing with my lab and golden retriever. They looked like they were having fun, so I let them be. I'd rather this dog be safe in my back yard than running around loose and risking being hit by a car. I figured once Randy got home, I would drive over to the house that owns the lab and let them know he was in our yard.

As the dogs kept playing, I noticed the stray lab humping my golden (who is also a male). Now, Cooper is the most submissive dog in the world. He even lets Callie hump him and typically humping is a sign of dominance. But....it wasn't long before I noticed that the stray lab had his red rocket out for the world to see. Sick. So I went ahead and brought my dogs in. They were soaking wet from the stray lab's drool. Stray Lab was obviously going through puberty.

Well, Stray Lab continued to sit on my back porch and whine. Randy got home and I left to go tell the owner of Stray Lab that he was in our yard. Well, the neighbors that I believed Stray Lab belonged to answered the door....with their black lab in tow. So Stray Lab obviously didn't belong to them. I asked if they knew of anyone else in the neighborhood that owned a black lab and they said no. So.....we were stuck with Stray Lab.

Randy let Stray Lab out of our yard so he could try to find his way back home, but he ended up back in our yard. It started getting dark out and I really didn't want a black dog running around the neighborhood after dark cuz I didn't want him to get hit by a car. We decided to just let him stay in the yard until we could figure out what to do with him.

Well, when Rylie and I got home from gymnastics, Randy informed me that Stray Lab had obviously not eaten in days. Randy fed him and he ended up eating 4 bowls of food!! Poor guy! We ended up letting him sleep in our garage last night since it got down below freezing. He was really good - he never barked or whined, which is surprising considering he was in an unfamiliar environment.

Anyway, I think Randy is going to take him today to see if he is micro chipped. I'm really hoping he is, cuz I really want him to get returned to his home...if he has one. Otherwise, we'll probably end up taking him to the Parkville Animal Shelter. How ironic that we just adopted Callie from that shelter just a month ago and now we'll be taking a black lab to that shelter to be adopted. They are a no-kill shelter tho, so hopefully he'll find a good home if that's where he ends up.

Side note, since I'm talking about my dogs, my Coop Doggy Dogg turns 8 years old one week from today! I can't believe I've had him for almost 8 years!!

Happy Obama Day!!!!!!!!!

Our IT department went crazy and decided to block any kind of video and radio today because of the inaguration - lame! So everyone was in the cafeteria to watch on the tv's down there. If they hadn't blocked it on our computers, we could still work at our desks and watch it at the same time. So yeah, that was stupid. Oh well, I went down and watched and Randy dvr'd it, so I'll watch it again tonight. Ry was so cute this weekend - she wanted to bank a cake for MLK Jr's bday and also for Obama. So yeah, dark chocolate would be the flavor, lol.

Funny thing happened Saturday night. Charren and Alex were over and Char was saying how they had a couple coming over the next day to look at their foster dog and see about adopting him. She was all, "yeah, their names are Angie and Rich Yates." I was like, um - I know them! Rich is my "ex husband", LOL!!!! Ah, the magic of Mardi Gras! Such a small world! And then Brewer called just a few minutes later, so I had to tell him about it. It was so funny!

So, we got a new dog on Saturday - a black lab named Callie. She is so awesome! She's needy, tho - needs attention ALL the time! But once Cooper gets his stitches out, they will be really good together. We let them play Saturday and Coop's stitches ended up busting and he ear is all swollen now, so we've had to keep them separated since then. But Callie is really good. She's house trained and very obedient. She does try to get on the furniture a lot, but if we yell at her to get down, she gets down. No, she doesn't get funky. She just gets off the furniture. She's been sleeping in our bed with us, which is fine and all except that she's shedding pretty bad, so we ordered a Furminator off of Ebay. Pretty much ready for that to get here!

Harper is officially in the big girl car seat - still rear facing, but she has outgrown the carrier. What a chunk! She'll be doing the truffle shuffle before long!

Sunday I totally had a "moment." I sat there feeling so content with life and thinking "how did I get so lucky to have 2 wonderfully behaved children, 2 awesome dogs, and the best husband ever??" I love moments like that. I need to remember to hold onto them more than I do...

I'm becoming a blog whore....

Okay, so I've got the bung blog going and that's dedicated to all things bung....and I've got my fitness blog to track my training and health regimine for the year. I want to keep each of those separate from my everyday life....so I've created this blog simply for journaling about life, day-to-day activites, how I'm doing, and how I'm getting by. It can definitely be tied to the other two...but more than anything, it's just for my own personal release.

I'll start off by getting up to speed on 2009 so far. Today is only the 10th day of the year and I must say it's been a very productive year to date. I have been very focused on my workouts and diet so that I can prepare for my triathlon (more about that in ashleysfitnessblog.blogspot.com) and I have successfully lost 7 pounds already. I've also been working an excessive amount of overtime, but in the end it keeps me busy and will be nice padding for the pocketbook.

The year hasn't been completely perfect, though. Both the girls have had ear infections this week and Randy has been sick as well. Yes, all three of them have been to see the doctor and our medical expenses have already been more than what we've budgeted for this month. And worst of all, we had to have our boxer Nikki put down last Saturday after she suffered a stroke and several seizures. Randy rushed her to the emergency vet to discover she had a brain tumor. :( He had raised her since she was a puppy. It was hard on our entire family, but especially on Randy. She was his baby and he's had her since he was in high school.

In addition, our other dog Cooper had to have surgery this week to drain and repair his ear from a hematoma. He is recovering well, though, and we hope to adopt a lab within the next few months to help keep him company. Poor Cooper has never been the only dog in the house before, so we will be looking forward to adding to our family in the months to come.

I really have great feelings about 2009. I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish and a lot of fun things planned for both myself and my family. I am excited to see what this year has in store. I feel like 2008 really opened my eyes up to a lot of things and I feel like I am finally seeing my life much more clearly than before. This gives me a great sense of peace, love, and satisfaction. I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be one of the greatest years of my life to date.