Happy Pup...

Laila has been introduced to another life experience- the dog park. Gil & I felt like parents watching our child play with other kids for the first time. It was really funny & cute to see how she interacted with other dogs. There was even a full grown Newfoundland the second day we went.

Laila's interactions with other dogs pretty much goes like this- sniffing with her tail between her legs, rolling over, letting other dogs tackle her and pin her to the ground. She's pretty much the most submissive dog ever.

She also looks like the happiest dog of all time when she's around people and other dogs. She runs around with her tongue hanging out of her mouth trying to make friends with everyone. I heart her. If only we could get her to stop jumping on people to show her love...

Laila & Cash on their way to the dog park.

Did I mention that Laila loves Cash?

Well, she does.

Cash, on the other hand, could do without Laila.

She found a new friend to follow around.

Laila is now 8 months and about 80 pounds. She's growing fast, but showing us that she's a smart pup. She can sit, lay down, stay, come, "leave it", shake, wait, and she knows what "out of there" and "get down" mean. She's not an expert at these, but as she calms down with age I think she'll get even better.

Running Machine...

I am loving vacation. Since I've had time off of school, I've been going to the gym a ton. I forgot how good it feels to workout! I'm going to really try to keep it up after I go back to school on the 3rd.

It should be a lot easier to get runs in because we bought a treadmill over the break. It won't be arriving for 7-10 days, but I can't wait to run in our house instead of having to drive all the way to the gym. Not to mention our gym has all the treadmills in the front window (no blinds) so it's sweltering with the sun beating down. Now I can run sans headphones and with a fan blowing on me. It'll be great.

I don't know much about treadmill buying, but there were some good deals going on after Christmas. Here's the one we went with:

livestrongfitness.com

I think I'm going to train for the Riverbank Run. I don't think I have it in me to train for the 25k again- those long runs left my arches and knees so incredibly sore- but the 10k training schedule will keep me running and is an attainable distance. Wish me luck with running in 2011!

Wordless Wednesday...

Christmas Parties Galore

I'm officially on break for two weeks! No teaching and no homework!!!

We kicked off the weekend by heading to Gil's work party at The Henry Hotel. It was black tie, so I got to buy a pretty dress for the part-ay. It's fun to dress up once in a while, although I was not a fan of leaving the house in 20 degree weather.

The next morning, we headed to Grand Rapids for my family's Christmas get togethers. We surprised my aunt with a card full of money for her birthday trip to the Bahamas. It's been a long running joke that all of the nieces and nephews would send her to the Bahamas for her 50th and that time has finally come!

Later on in the day, we headed to my mom's house for some more food, family, and presents. It was fun watching the babies play. I got some quality time playing with Maddie as she explored her feet. So cute!!

Happy Holidays everyone!

In Place of Homework...

Well, I have a paper to write. This is the last week of my second class in my program. I am so ready for a break from homework!! I really am going to knock out a chunk of my paper tonight...in a minute.

Lately when I've been taking Laila for walks, I've been window shopping and have noticed a couple of little shops that have the cutest clothes in the windows. I've been meaning to take a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to check them out, but haven't yet. There's a new purse store called Jenna Kator that I'm going to have to stop into one day. It's just a tiny little boutique, but the designer is a fellow Michigander.

I'm not typically a handbag/shoe type-a-girl but they have some cute bags. I want this Traverse City Tote in particular.

jennakatorhandbags.com

Now, since I've been complaining all day about how much I have to do this week, I better get to it...

Happy Snow Day!

Well, I am one happy girl. Today was a snow day!! Snow days really are the best way to start a week...

I'm also glad that I could stay home with Laila one more day as she continues healing from surgery. Have I mentioned that it's nearly impossible to keep a 75 pound puppy from wanting to run, jump, and play? Well, those were the directions post-surgery. She isn't supposed to have a walk for 6-10 days. She's used to getting two walks a day. Yikes.

Right now she's lounging around and acting pretty sleepy though.

We finally got our Christmas tree decorated and it's pretty much my favorite. I love having our house decorated for the holidays.

I'm so thankful for an extra day off and I plan to get a lot done including:

• Cleaning the house

• Getting ahead with homework

• Laundry

• Start Christmas shopping (ahhh so behind this year!)

• Find a dress for the Gil's work Christmas party on Friday

Wish me lots of motivation today!

Winter Storm?

Supposedly we are getting a good amount of snow tomorrow. I for one never believe the weather reports until I actually see the snow falling. I tend to get excited for a snow day and then it doesn't actually happen. Having grown up on the west side of the state, I love getting huge winter storms because I'm used to lake effect snow. I hate driving in it, but I love the snow when I can stay inside. :)

On Friday, Laila was spayed and she's pretty much been sleeping ever since. She also had a tooth removed that was extra- growing behind the normal row of teeth. The vet tech was really excited about this...apparently it was pretty slow around their office this week and they were excited to find that. Haha. They gave us the extra tooth in a container when we picked her up. What they expect us to do with her extra tooth I'm really not sure. They also found one FLEA on Laila. Gulp. That was less than exciting news for me to hear. Hence I will be cleaning our entire house from top to bottom today- steaming the floors, lots of laundry etc. Ew. I guess this is what happens when you bring animals into your house!

Where'd November Go?

Well, November came and went quickly and now I can't believe it's already almost time for Winter Break (hallelujah)! I don't know what it is about this school year (well yes I do, it's the kindergarteners) but I am exhausted all the time. I think trying to keep my patience all day is the really exhausting part! Exhausted as in- I fell asleep sitting up watching TV on Friday with Gil...at 9:45. Saturday I barely made it to 11 and if I'm being honest, I fell asleep about three times before actually going up to bed.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree but we didn't decorate it until this weekend.

We contemplated getting a fakie this year, but in the end, we opted for the real thing and I'm glad we did. You really can't replace the smell of a real tree. I love when our house is decorated for Christmas. I just want to sit on the couch in front of a fire for the next 4 months. I really would hibernate if I could.

Gil got me a new camera for my birthday, so I will have to post new pictures more often. It's hard to get everything done after work when my bedtime has been 9:30 lately and I have homework to get done in there too. I definitely want to post pictures of Laila more often because she's getting to be sooo big. She's 7 months old now and she is getting spayed on Friday. I'm pretty nervous about that...getting her in and out of the car (she is 70+ pounds now) and keeping her still so she can heal afterwards. Hopefully everything will go well. Wish us luck!

Perfect Sunday

This afternoon, some of my family was able to head over to our side of the state for a little visit. It was super fun seeing two of my nieces...we missed you Kiki!

Sisters :)

Also sisters...haha.

Wish you lived closer fam! Muwah!

Happy Halloween!

Our friends, Erin and Matt, came over today with their dog Wrigley. Wrig and Laila romped and tired each other out while we ate lunch out on the patio, made a bonfire, and carved pumpkins. Gil's pumpkin is a wolf & mine is covered with flowers. It was freezing carving pumpkins outside, but super fun.

We went to a costume party yesterday and I dressed up as one of the Kardashians, along with two other friends. It was pretty funny when you saw us all together...

We just got done passing out candy to trick or treaters. It was pretty lame. We only had about 15 in all. I just talked to Erin and she said they were up to 115 and still going. It was still fun to see the few kids who came out...especially the baby dressed as a peacock. So. Adorable.

Happy Halloween!!!

Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

As a former second grade teacher, coming into Kindergarten has been an eye opening experience. Everything is a new experience for these little ones- including writing time. I've realized that I need some more resources besides just Lucy Caulkins to get me going. This book, Teaching Writing in Kindergarten, caught my eye in the Scholastic resource catalogue. I think I might use some of my book order bonus points to buy it.

Fun With Yard Work...

Laila at almost 6 months old "helping" in the yard...

Wordless Wednesday...

IKEA Makeover...

I haven't cared for our "formal" living room since we moved in. We really didn't have enough furniture after we moved from our one bedroom apartment to our house & we ended up buying things more quickly than we probably should have. Now I wish I had taken some time to think about what I really wanted & what would go together well. Obviously we're not going to buy all new furniture again, so I'm trying to think of ways to makeover the room. The biggest obstacle to decorating that room has been the chairs that we bought from IKEA. Although I really like the shape of the chair, the color palette and pattern of the chairs are a challenge.

Enter Bemz, a company out of Stockholm that creates slipcovers for IKEA furniture. Now we have all these choices for our chairs. I just need to figure out what color palette I'm hoping to achieve in that room before I make more impulse purchases.

Our house is so shaded by trees that the front living room doesn't get tons of light. Couple the lack of light with dark wood tones and a dark brick fireplace and the effect isn't as light & bright as I'd like. But I've heard that painting original brick is not the best move for resale. I just can't handle how traditional this room feels.

On a sidenote, Laila is supposedly done with teething and yet she is still intent on chewing us out of house & home. With all the chewing and digging she's been doing lately, it's a good thing she's so darn cute!

Another Golfer in the Family...

So the other day I was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner when I began to hear some suspicious noises downstairs. Knowing that darling little Laila must have gotten into something, I rushed down the stairs. She had knocked a bag off the counter and out had rolled a new toy. Now, I know that this might not be the safest thing ever for a puppy, but I assure you that she is supervised while playing with her new-favorite-thing-ever. Laila has been endlessly entertaining herself with a golf ball. She hasn't tried to eat it and it doesn't seem likely that it will lodge in her throat, so I'm going with it. It rolls around great on our tiled floor, bounces, and doesn't get stuck under furniture. She gets as tired out from the golf ball as she would after playing with another puppy. In short, it's fabulous.

Laila Likes to Pull

Laila is a puppy. Therefore she gets lots of walks each day in order to maintain some kind of control in our house. But Laila is a big puppy and big puppies like to pull. She pulls me over to greet other dogs, she pulls to get closer to squirrels, and she pulls because frankly she's in the mood to frolic. Laila is now right around 50 pounds at nearly 5 months old.

Enter the harness. Today while we were at puppy school at PetSmart, we picked up a Sporn Non-Pulling Mesh Control Harness. Within approximately 10 steps, she had begun to chew through the part that connected to the leash. I went back to the house and sprayed Bitter Apple on it to keep her from chewing and that worked well enough.

The harness itself worked really well when she was trying to pull forward. It gets uncomfortable around the front legs, so the dog stops pulling. However, Laila also likes to pull to the side or she dilly-dallys behind me and it's like pulling a mule. The harness didn't help with any of those scenarios. The other problem that I had was that she didn't like the feeling of the harness fastened at her back (which I'm sure takes some getting used to) so she repeatedly barrel-rolled across several lawns. I'm sure we looked pretty interesting walking down the street.

I've heard that the Gentle Leader is good. Does anyone want to weigh in on this?

...Sigh, remember when she was just a little teeny baby and we didn't have this problem?

Groupon

I just found out about this cool site called Groupon. It features a deal a day (like Slickdeals or Woot), but it only features things that are in your local area. I checked out some of the past deals and wish I had known about it before. Some of the past deals for my area included Door to Door Organics, cheap pedis/manis at a local salon, and deals on yummy restaurants. You should check it out for your city!

Busy, Busy!

Wow, I've been exhausted lately! I forgot how much energy the first month or so of a school year can zap out of me! Ever since we went back to school, it's been go go go. I had about a day and a half to throw my room together after moving classrooms this year. For some reason, we had 2 (FULL!) weeks of Professional Developments before the school year started and Zero work days in the classroom. Yikes. Let's just say that my room is still not setup to my liking quite yet. This is what my room looked like about a week before I had students coming in!

Scary, I know. I'll have to post some pics of my room as it looks now.

My first two weeks in Kindergarten have been exhausting. I am soooo not used to kids crying to go home, pooping their pants, and generally not knowing how to do one single thing by themselves. There are parts I love so far (like the cuteness of 4 and 5 year olds) and some things that I'm having to adjust to (shoes constantly untied, not attempting to cover their sneezes etc.). 8:30-4 has never felt so long! Especially since we teachers have to pull lunch and bus duty on some days this year.

Have I mentioned that I've also started my Masters program? And we have a puppy? So...when I get home exhausted from school, I fall onto the couch and nap, right? Wrong. Walk the dog, feed the dog, homework, keep the dog from knocking things off counters! I've never loved the weekends so much!!

Oh, How Fast They Grow...

2 months...

4 months...

She doesn't look amused...

Notice Anything Different?

Before:After:

No, i'm not pointing out that our grass isn't as green as the day we bought our house...

If you didn't notice on your own, we had a HUGE (mostly dead) tree removed from our yard- to the left of the house. It was being consumed by vines and the brittle branches hung precariously over our roof. I'm glad it's gone so I don't have to worry about bad storms anymore, but I'm not used to that wide open space yet. Now that the tree is gone, we can have our new patio installed. Can't wait for that!

On another note, our front porch has gotten a little attention lately.

Before:

After:

Much better, I think!

Some of My Favorites...

I know my own wedding is over...but that doesn't mean that I don't still love all things wedding! The husband rolls his eyes whenever I watch "Say Yes to the Dress". He can't understand why I would want to watch girls pick out their wedding dresses since I already have mine. But weddings are just so...pretty! This blog shows all the lovely details of a wedding. Rachael, you'd love this site! It's called Style Me Pretty.

There are a few blogs that I check out for ideas around the house. My faves are Design Sponge, which feature lots of before & after pictures, Decor8, and Young House Love, which features lots of DIY projects. Young House Love makes me wish that I was more inclined to try some projects around the house rather than just buying things. However, my skills are limited when it comes to using any kind of tool, sewing, or planning ahead. Maybe that will be a resolution for next year? Haha...probably not!

15 Weeks

Laila is growing everyday. This puppy has some long legs on her! It's so fun seeing her turn into a big Newfie! Last weekend Laila went to the beach for the first time. She swam a little, but the waves were really big & intimidated her a bit. Can't wait to try again soon.

She even got to go to Butch's Beach Burrito where she met a few new friends. I have to say, Newfies seem to get a lot of attention on the street. Everyone loves to comment on how big she'll get and what sweet dogs they are. The woman in the booth at Grand Haven State Park even had some doggy treats for her!

Day 4: Leelanau Peninsula

One of my favorite vacation days included a lot of driving. We decided to drive up the Leelanau Peninsula and then over to Leland. It was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Along the way, we stopped at one more vineyard that we happened across called Gill's Pier Vineyard & Winery. We bought a bottle of the Icebox Apple Wine...made with Michigan apples, of course!

After more driving, we headed over to Leland which is so cute. How have I never heard about the Historic Fishtown in Leland? It was darling. A couple of people had suggested eating at the Cheese Shanty in Leland so we made our way there for lunch. It's a tiny little deli located in Fishtown. I wasn't sure I'd be a fan of the pretzel bread when I ordered my sandwich, but it was sooo good.

Since we were playing things by ear, we decided to find a beach where we could spend the rest of the day. We headed South towards Sleeping Bear Dunes knowing that we'd find a great beach along the way. We ended up at North Bar Lake, which was such a perfect little spot to stumble upon. It's a cute little inland lake that sits right next to Lake Michigan. We took a short walk over the dunes to spend the day at Lake Michigan. The weather was perfect and the water was warm. I wish I had taken a picture at the beach! Swimming and laying on the beach = A perfect day!

Day 3: Old Mission Peninsula Vineyards

Last Tuesday, we spent the day exploring the vineyards of Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City. I had never been wine tasting before and it was so fun!

We started out the day at 2 Lads winery, which had a modern look & an amazing view. We got a glass of the Pinot Grigio, crackers and cheese and enjoyed the view while we ate. We got a bottle of the Cab Franc. Yummy.

For the record, I'm not having a baby...apparently we just pose for pictures like this. :)

Next it was on to Chateau Chantal. After a fun tasting, we bought a bottle of the Sparkling Cherry Wine. Delish. We also did a cellar tour, which was a bit long winded so we skipped out early. It was cool going down to see inside the cellar, but I was bored within about 30 seconds! Chateau Chantal was under construction while we were there because they are currently expanding their tasting room and the cellars below.

Next we made a quick stop to Bowers Harbor Vineyards. They had a cute little tasting room and I really liked the feel of it. They are famous for their resident Bernese Mountain Dogs. I got a picture of Cooper laying around the Tasting Room. He's a biiiig boy. This made me miss Laila!

Next we went to Brys Estate Vineyard & Winery. We got a bottle of the Cab Merlot. Somewhere along the way, we stopped for lunch at the Bad Dog Deli. Yummy sandwiches, connected to the Peninsula Grill.

Chateau Grand Traverse was next and we picked up a bottle of the Late Harvest Chardonnay. I didn't know until this trip that I actually really like chardonnay.

One of my favorite stops of the day was to Old Peninsula Cellars tasting room which was set up in an old school house from the late 1800s. How fun is that? Unfortunately I had stopped taking pictures at this point. Wish I had gotten a picture of this place! Some of their wines had a school theme and we picked up a bottle of the unfiltered "Dentention" and a bottle of the "Homework". They were really yummy, sweeter wines.

The last winery of the day was Black Star Farms. We splurged and bought a bottle of the DELICIOUS Sirius Raspberry Dessert Wine. It tastes like jam. You should get it!

Wine tasting was definitely a fun day and a great way to experience lots of different types of wines. It's a great way to find out what you like and what you don't like, while enjoying awesome vineyard views.