Beat

It is only Tuesday and this week is just beating me up. I feel like I need two long days to just sleep. I would go to bed now, but E is flying in and I am picking him up at the airport.

Good news around these parts, is that we FINALLY installed a dog door. OMG! This is truly the best invention EVER. Not only am I enjoying it, I know the massive fur ball called Poppy is enjoying her new found freedom to go inside and outside as she pleases. I am not sure why it took us so long to do us. Probably because Eli and I are the two biggest procrastinators on this planet.

Off to SFO...

my dog ate my homework...no make that my dinner and eli's lunches

yes dear internet..my 110lb dog ate 5 beer brats and two large chicken breasts. All of it raw. She even broke one of my everyday dishes in going after the chicken. Our first dish casualty since we've been married.

I swear we feed her. twice a day!

I have a feeling I am going to have one sick doggie on my hands.

One of my favorite sounds

is hearing Poppy's wagging tail hit our wood floors when she is laying down. It is this continuous thumping sound. thump, thump, thump. It never fails to make me smile as I know she knows her name and the sound of my voice. Even though she is too lazy to pick her head or giant body up, her way of telling me how happy she is to let her tail go thump against the floor.

Gets me everytime.

adventures in dog sitting

This weekend I went to Chicago for a friend's wedding. I hired a dog/house sitter who was the younger sister of the girl who I normally hire to watch Poppy and our house. This girl was 18. As I look back, that was mistake #1. I met younger sis and introduced her to P and walked her through everything I needed her to do. I felt comfortable. Second mistake was to say that I didn't mind if she had someone over as long as she respected the house as it was her parent's house and to not have a party. That night, I typed out a page's worth of what I spoke to younger sis regarding the care of Poppy.

I left Thursday night. Friday morning I get a call at 830 PST time from a random person asking if I am missing a dog. I ask him twice to repeat this sentence because for the life of me I cannot process that my dog is out of my house without proper supervision. He backs up and introduces himself, where he lives and that Poppy is in his back yard. Thankfully, it was only a street above us. During this conversation, all I can think about is what f**cking happened this morning and please tell me that the younger sis is okay. I tell E, which at the time, we were in the car dropping off my friend and her husband at Midway airport. They were catching a flight to Ohio for a wedding on Friday night. E and I get back in the car. He is calling our neighbors (t&M because they rock!!) and I am trying to get a hold of younger sis. Her phone is off so I call A. A is her older sister who normally our sitter.

After piecing the events of the morning together..this is what happened. younger sis woke up to late to take Poppy for her morning walk. She also did not take the dog out to at least relieve herself. She left this to her boyfriend who was staying at our place. She left at 8am. Boyfriend had the door to our spare bedroom closed and did not hear P at all. This dog will whine if she needs go out. P needing to go out, which I find out later why she had to go so bad, will not go in the house. At All. So what P did to get herself out, is to unlatch our far window that overlooks the outside of the house. She pushed the window open and jumped 8 feet down. Meanwhile the boyfriend was fast asleep. As I mentioned before, I received a call at 830 PST that my dog was sitting in someone's backyard.
Our neighbors and A found Poppy, fixed the window and A took P to the vet. We found out that she has having diarehha and there was blood. Which explains why this dog had to get out.
The vet experience is what has me upset now. Our vet who has seen Poppy 3 times now is saying that she is overweight. I question this because she saw Poppy right after we adopted her, which was back in April. She weighed in a 109lbs. The last time we took her in, she weighed 100lbs.NOW she is telling us she is overweight? Secondly, the vet prescriped a $42 dollar bottle of sedatives along with the $20 bottle of anitbiotices because apparently our dog has colitis. I am okay with the antibiotics. But what concerns me is that she precribed sedatives without consulting me or E about whether or not Poppy really has anxiety. We mentioned to A and the younger sis that we think she does have anxiety but we are managing it by taking her out for walks twice a day. Which, I am sure that A mentioned the anxiety only because we brought it up but A is not the dog owner. I ask those of you who are dog owners, what do you think? Should the vet have prescribe the sedatives? I really hate the idea of sedating my dog. I don't think she needs it. What I have come to realize is that we do have a dog that really needs to stick to her schedule that E and I are working hard to maintain for her because she is a rescue dog. When she doesn't feel safe, she takes care of the situation to do so,which means to flee. That is my 3rd mistake, in not stressing the fact that this is the situation with our dog and this is what you must do in order to make sure she feels safe and secure when E and I are not there.
All in all, I have learned many, many lessons from this adventure. My doggie is okay, luckily she did not break anything by jumping out the open window. My window sills and blinds are another story but hopefully I can at least replace the blinds soon and we will figure out how to fix the window sills that are so torn up. It sickens me to look at them. I will never, ever hire an 18 year old to watch my house or my dog no matter how responsible they or the person who is recommending them think that they are. I also have a call into the vet to discuss her rationale on the overweight issue and most importantly her call in prescribing a $42 bottle of sedatives. That is what I am most pissed off about.

Randomness..

So, if I had to rate this week on a scale from 1-10. I think I would give it a 7.
Overall, I had a good week. Work is going well. I am rereading 7 habits of highly effective people. I've also decided to check out toastmasters in order to gain more confidence in public speaking. My first meeting is next Thursday. I am nervous, but I figure everyone that goes there is nervous for the same reasons, so I will be in good company.

Poppy training is going well. E and I are finally on the same page with training Poppy. We are totally buying into Cesar Milan aka Dog whisper's method of dog training. I do have to say it is working! I fully believe in the power of the walk. We are now walking her twice a day for at least 30 minutes. It has made a huge improvement. We still need to overcome her aggresiveness with other dogs when she is on leash but I am more confident then over that we will be able to fix it.

E is doing well with his flying. He is on reserve this month, which can sometime suck in terms of not getting flight hours. However, E is managing quite well. He is flying a ton, which is fantastic. Not only for the extra $$ we are getting but more importantly he is building his flight time. For a pilot, flight hours are EVERYTHING. I am just so proud of him and how proactive he is. It totally blows having him home only give or take 3 1/2 days a week. I do know that this isn't forever him commuting to his base in Chicago. Hopefully in the next few years, he will get picked up by another airline and be based here on the left coast.

What's been troubling me is that my two grandmothers' have been in & out of the hospital this month. It's been a revolving door between the two of them. Tonight I found out that my grandma morris is at the ER. She had a pacemaker put in a week ago and then had gallbladder surgery on Monday of this week. She was released on Wednesday but now is back in the ER tonight. We aren't sure what is going on. My other grandma, has been in and out for various reasons, but on Wednesday night, she fell at home, and broke her hip. She had surgery today and I heard she is doing well. My poor Grandpa finally got to see her today. He hasn't seen her since Wednesday night when they took her to the ER. I am worried, sad and just plain lonely. I couldn't get a hold of any of my girls to talk and E is in Chicago tonight.

Another thing that happened this week is that I was late. It was the first experience I ever had on being late. Mainly because since I was 18, I've been on BC. When I went off the pill, I missed the first month, but that was to be expected. Ever since that month, I've been right on schedule. While we aren't fully trying right now, we've also just decided what ever happens, happens. So what got me this week, is that finding out that I was late and looking at the calendar, realizing that there is really no way I could be pregnant, made me worry why I was late. Of course from the first day on that I was late all sorts of emotions kicked in. I will admit I did take a few HPTs and all of them were negative. After the 4th day, "it" showed. When it did. I will admit I was relieved but at the same time I was sad.

Maybe I am more ready then I give myself credit for. One thing is for sure, I hope my two grandmothers' and my one grandpa that is still alive will be around to see their great-grandchildren. That is my ultimate wish.





This is me with my grandmothers' at my wedding shower in Iowa.

love thy neighbor--and I do!

After a hard week at work and E being gone for almost a week, I was ready to just chill and relax tonight. I even told my co-worker how I had planned to purchase a bunch of magazines and take a bubble bath and just RELAX.

I arrived at home and to my surprise, our dog Poppy was not at the window (which she usually is) nor was she there to greet me at the door when I walk in. This kicked off the alarm bells. I looked all around the house and mind you my house is NOT THAT BIG. I noticed that the bathroom door was shut. Which is never closed. I tried to open the door and it was locked! A million thoughts ran through my head. I realized that my DOG WAS LOCKED IN THE BATHROOM! My Panic button kicked in. Poppy wasn't whinning but I could hear her moving around. Having no idea if she was hurt, I made a panic call to E who of course is sitting in Chicago. There on reserve, chilling at his brother's house. I am panicked. He is laughing. I hang up on him. Try to find a paper clip to try to jimmy the lock--not working at all.

Think about calling the fire department but decided my across the street neighbors would be better. I call T asking if her husband M was around, she said no and that was ever wrong we would put our two female brains to work. She could tell I was crying. I told her what was up. Her having two little girls of her own and dealing with many locked doors, she had what I needed...a skeleton key. Immediately she ran over and unlocked the door.

As soon as the door opens Poppy runs out. We look in and the bathroom is covered with Sh**T EVERYWHERE!! Poor thing. I think she got so scared, she literally pooped herself.

I gave T a huge hug,thanked her a million times over and told her I am so getting a bottle of wine after all this craziness. She says no you are not (after offering to help me clean my sh**t covered bathroom, I declined this offer of help). You are coming over and having wine with me. GOD LOVE HER!

I cleaned Poppy and the bathroom. I even managed to surpress the gagging while spraying the tub down the outside hose that I pulled through the tiny window. I am sad to say the bathroom rug didn't make it but I am pleased that the shower curtain and liner did.


Afterwards, I went across the street. T fed me a yummy dinner, wine and we had wonderful conversation. T & M are the best!

Becoming a pack leader

This weekend while I was in Chicago, I discovered the Dog Whisperer.
I have always "heard" of this man and his amazing ability to calm the wildest of wild dog(s). This weekend, I was introduced. And I watched and watched his show. After watching it, I realized some things about how I was treating Poppy and how Poppy was treating me. I am carrying this over to my personal and professional life. The DW philosophy in how you work with canines in being the pack leader is thee following: A pack leader does not project emotional or nervous energy and neither should you. This is what the DW calls calm-assertive energy.

This makes totally sense to me in working with my dog and in my own life because people just like dogs like it when someone is in control. In terms of people, you don't want to "control" someone but be in control; have a say, make a decision, make a point, disagree if need be, but be in control of you. In a calm and quiet way. When you have control in a calm and quiet way everything falls into place and you gain respect. Respect in a positive, leadership, trustworthy and a nice kind of way.

I've already noticed a difference within myself in how I work my coworkers, my boss and my clients. I definitely noticed it tonight with Poppy. She and I had an amazing experience during our walk to the dog park and when I took her off the leash at the park.

I guess there is a reason they call the DW the Dr Phil of dogs. I just never paid that much attention to Dr Phil.

Video of Poppy

I shot this video for my parents so they could see Poppy at play. I love how she shakes her head back and forth with the "squirrel ball" Of course as you will see, she is tired and doesn't want to play anymore and goes directly inside. Prior to this, We had a trip up to the dog park and played around in the backyard--so she had enough of the play. Of course now, she is sound asleep on her doggie bed. My next video is to catch her snoring.

Sorry for the delay

It's been awhile for sure! E's been home now for 3 weeks! It's been so great. He is currently waiting to go for IOE, which is "initial operating experience." Essentially he has to observe the pilots flying the jet he will be flying before he can be put on line. SO...he is home. He got a call last wednesday that had him scheduled for a trip to Chicago leaving last Sunday for the week. But at 630am on Sunday, crew scheduling called and cancelled the trip. I swear if he doesn't get called soon, I think he is going to go nuts. He is getting a ton of yard work done so that's been really helpful.

I am going to try to fix the slideshow of Poppy. We are having so much fun with her. She has totally become one of the family. Tonight we took her to Point Isabel. It is a dog park near the bay. There are a ton of doggies and you have amazing views of San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. We were so proud of Poppy as we took her of the leash for the second time. She did so well!! While I am so happy she is with us, it literally breaks my heart when I stop to think about the family who left her. Whoever this family was they did an excellent job training her. She will only sleep on her doggie bed. When I tell her to go lie down, she immediately trots to her bed. She has not had an accident in the house. I could go on and on.

Will promise to catch up here soon with everyone.