Puppy Advice Please!

Laila has been so good so far. She hasn't been chewing on our things, she hasn't peed in the house much and she has been sleeping a lot. The only problem we have is that she HATES her crate.

We have been leaving the door open so she can explore it if she wants. She has a toy inside and we give her a treat when she goes inside it. She doesn't have a lot of interest going inside the crate though.

At night time, we have to put her in the crate, since we obviously can't be watching her. This is when she FREAKS out. Our otherwise calm puppy whines, cries and barks for quite a long time (30 min. +). Reading online, it sounds like we've been doing the right thing by not going to her when she cries because she wants our attention. We have been setting our alarm for the middle of the night to give her a bathroom break. But she is getting so upset that she is going to the bathroom in her crate several times per night because she's so worked up. I've been doing tons of laundry.

This is the only thing that has been frustrating about our otherwise perfect pup! Any ideas??

"Please don't make me get in the crate!!!!!"

Meet Laila!

We got her on Friday and she's been a very good puppy so far. We love her!

One year ago...

today we became home owners! I can't believe it's already been a year. We had some initial problems with our lovely home, but so far we LOVE living here! I'm so glad that our house is no longer in this stage:

And after nearly a year of our guest bedroom being a storage area, we are finally getting it in shape. We actually have sheets on the bed! We bought our bedding from the Thomas O'Brien Vintage Collection at Target and I love the simple pattern on the coverlet. However, I don't think I'm lovin' the green walls with the pale blue bedding. That's for another day though.

And do you see that red bedside table? I just want everyone to know that I put that together! I only made one mistake putting it together, but you can't tell from the front...so there! It's important to note that I HATE putting things together and normally delegate this to my husband. :)

We still need to get a small dresser of some kind, a rug and we need to hang the curtains. I'll have to check out Home Goods soon. We bought pictures from IKEA quite a while ago to hang. They are Parisian inspired:

Hopefully it won't be another year before we get these hung up!

School's Out For the Summer!

I am officially on summer vacation as of today! I just had to sit through a brutal PD and now I'm FREEEEE!

I can't wait to relax for an extended period of time. I also can't wait for my new little niece in July!!

Will We Ever Find a Puppy?

Gil & I have continued to look for a puppy that will be just right for us. So far we haven't seen any that we have fallen in love with right away. Lots of the dogs in the shelters around here are pitbulls and we aren't interested in that breed. Gil has decided that he wants a Newfoundland dog and so we've been reading a lot about the breed. They are very gentle, sweet dogs and they are HUGE.

I kind of like the idea of a large dog, but I don't know if I could handle all the slobber and shedding. They take a lot of time and maintenance. I was watching videos on youtube of Newfies and they do look like the nicest dogs. But really...they are huge!! They also can have many health issues because of their extra large size. I think it takes a certain type of person to own a Newfie. Are we that type? I don't know!

End of the Year!!

I can't believe I will be done with school on Wednesday (well, with kids at least). My class this year was awesome and I am sad to see these kids go. I am equally sad that only NINE, yes NINE, showed up for field day today. It did make the moon bounce easier because my whole class could go in at once and no one had to wait. If more kids don't show up for the last day and a half, I will be super annoyed after having given them ALL of my patience for an entire year! This happened last year too, so at least I am more prepared. But it's always amazing to me that the kids don't come to say goodbye or get their crayons, summer packets, and portfolios!

So Much For Pet Adoption Events

Well, we did not get Ralphie. We got an email from the animal shelter saying that the foster mom got too attached and so she gave the dog to her neighbor so she could watch him grow up. I feel gypped! What's the point of an animal adoption event if you get a bunch of people interested in a puppy and then decide you don't want to give up the dog after all!?

I'm currently feeling like we'll never find a dog as cute as he was. I'm sure that's not true, but I feel like it is right now! Back to Petfinder...

A New Addition?

We've been weighing the pros and cons of getting a puppy or young dog for a while now. Today we started out at the animal shelter, which I have to say, was actually quite stressful once we were there. The tiny room was full of very large pit bulls and they were barking so loudly and jumping at the cage walls like they wanted to eat me. The woman reassured us that they were all very nice, but they just get worked up. Either way, we couldn't stay in the room for more than 30 seconds before leaving. Way too intense!

After that, we went to an adoption event at Petco because I found the cutest puppy on Petfinder. He was equally cute in person!! Petco was also really loud because some of the dogs did not stop barking the enter time. There were probably 15-20 dogs at the event. It was good to see which dogs barked the whole time and which ones were nice and calm. We applied to adopt Ralphie, the dog that I had found online. Lots of people had the same idea though, and they said there were already 10-15 applications for him. We had to fill out a two page application, talk briefly with one of the shelter workers and then she told us if our application was selected, we would have to do a home visit. We will see what happens.

Here's a picture of the cute little guy as posted on Petfinder: