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!