Pre Trip

If you don’t know, I’m a planner.  I have lists.  My lists have lists.  My lists and the list for my lists get done.  Granted, not 100% all the time, but when it comes to traveling or preparing for something bigger than normal, the lists get done.  They have too….for my own sanity.   I think I make lists so that I don’t have to try and think about everything all the time.  I always have too much on my mind, so reducing a little of it helps.  I like to think it helps Doug too; he doesn’t have to ask what needs to be done…there’s a list!  I had a lot of lists for our vacation a few weeks ago. I also had a lot of lists for my recent trip to Texas.  One list was preparing the house and dogs for friends (Mike, Tammy and their daughter Sophia) to stay for the long weekend.  I portioned and labeled food for each dog, bought new bones, toys and things to entertain the dogs, took pictures of the way we set up the baby gates and the list went on and on. 

Doug has been in Chicago, so I randomly sent him pictures of our beasties: 

I even had a short list regarding my mom since she was going to stay the night because we had an early flight.  Her list consisted of “Go To Kohls” and “Go See Debbie”.  We stopped at to see Debbie so my mom could get some help with her hair.  She learned quite a bit from Debbie and I’m very grateful for Debbie’s talents and her willingness to help my mom.  My mom has been pretty happy and looking forward to some healthy hair changes.  Debbie gave her a quick cut, trimmed up her layers and showed her how to style it.  We bought some products and my mom ordered a flat iron online too.  Her hair looked really healthy when Debbie was done. 

I had $35 in Kohls cash and rewards to spend, so I decided to get my mom a few new shirts – we also got Sophia a cute new outfit while we were there.  We grabbed a couple pizzas on the way home and sat and visited for a while before we went to bed.  Tammy told a few stories that had us laughing like crazy – Tammy could hardly catch her breath too.

Just Because

I have a lot of random pictures and stories, so I’m going to cram them all into a long post to get caught up. 

It’s been pretty toasty here.  I drove with my windows down the other day and told my brother I was trying to acclimate to Texas weather.  Luckily we don’t have their humidity; not looking forward to that! 

I sent this picture to Doug – I’m sure these heels cost a lot of money, but I bet I could make them for a lot less!: 

I said goodbye to the sacrificial stingray.  It actually took a while before the dogs ripped it apart.  Once they pulled the tail off, it was over: 

Doug got his staples out last Thursday.  The nurse asked if he would be okay if she removed his staples with direction from the doctor since she’s never done it before.  Doug didn’t mind, but he said it was hard not to shout, “OUCH!!” just to freak her out.  He brought home his fancy little staple remover and the staples: 

We made a large donation run on Saturday.  Gotta love those tax write offs!!: 

Here are our targets from our archery class. 
Doug’s: 

Mine: 

We had a jam packed day on Saturday, but most of it was fun.  I got to see my dear friend Valerie; we’ve known each other for over twenty years!  She said we’re old friends, but I’m not OLD!!  HAHA We compromised on “longtime friends”.  We went on a double date with Valerie and her hubby, Zach (who I’ve also known for about 20 years!  Crazy!!).  We saw the new Transformers movie in the theater and then we went to lunch.  It was a great date!  We probably could have sat and chatted all day long, but we needed to run other errands before Doug flew out to Chicago on Sunday early morning.   We took a quick picture and went our separate ways: 

We worked our way back home stopping to get groceries at Costco for our dog/house sitters, we bought Doug some big-boy shoes.  I say big-boy shoes because we usually get him cheap shoes, but these are durable MAN shoes and work boots: 

I got a text from the fantastic gal, Noush, she made us cookies again!  We picked them up on the way home and ate them after dinner: 

Doug pulled a suitcase out so he could pack for his work trip.  Ruger was very nosey; too bad I couldn’t send Ruger with Doug!! 

We took the dogs when we went to the airport at about 4am.  I didn’t want them well rested when I got home.  Ruger rested on Doug’s suitcase: 

I watched the sun rise on the way home: 

Luckily the pups were ready for a nap around 7am, so we all got some rest. 

Doug sent me pictures of his room – its much nicer than the hotel we stayed at during our vacation: 

I broke a bowl one the second night Doug was gone.  He always scoops our ice cream and now I know why!!  The ice cream was hard and the area I was scooping gave way, so my arm and the spoon jerked to the left, the ice cream container jerked to the right hitting the bowl and flinging it into the sink.  Whoops!!  I was glad it landed and broke in the sink and not on the floor where the dogs could get hurt: 

I saw a family birthday decoration very similar to this earlier in the year, but I really like this one too (saving the picture here, so I can hopefully make it sometime): 

I did more shopping for our house guests (Tammy, Mike and Sophia), so Sophia will have some entertainment while they are dog and house sitting: 

I also bought a bunch of dog toys and chews to keep the pups entertained too: 

Another beautiful sunset: 

I can’t wait for Doug to get home next week!  I’m really excited to see my brother this weekend though!  I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share… and they’ll be human pictures and not just dog pictures for a change!! HAHAH  (I’m sure I’ll work dog pictures in too!)

Winnie

I was going to post a lot of pictures and random info to catch up before the weekend gets here, but Winnie gets her very own post.  We rescued her 6 months ago on the 17^th.  I forgot how skinny she was when we got her!  At the shelter (her name was Lady): 

Her back story never made our adoption post about her:  someone found her on the streets at about 3 months old, they kept her for about 9 months and then gave her up.  We don't know when her birthday is, so we decided it's January 1st.

After 6 months – both her ears are up which doesn’t happen very often: 

Annoyed we cleaned her ears.  I said she looks like that green guy from the Star Wars movies when her ears are out to the side. (still haven't watched Star Wars) HAHA: 

With Ruger: 

Cuddles ... although it seems that Ruger has the upper hand while using her head as a pillow:

Smiling early in the morning:

Enjoying life:

 

Cleaning!!

We spent a lot of time cleaning the carpet in this bedroom.  We shampooed it one more time and then used the carpet cleaner with warm water and vinegar.  It smelled like Easter eggs in there for quite a while.  I've been lazy about putting the room back together, but we need the bed in the coming week.  I had a day off by myself and I made quite a list of to-dos.  I spent the day going through closets, dusting, vacuuming, purging items we don't use, organizing, etc.  It was an exhausting day, but I felt very accomplished when I was done.  I didn't finish my list, but after 11 hours, I gave up.

 

It's hard to tell, but one wall is blue:

The other 3 walls are green:

I guess I had a random sunset picture to share :)  :

I was purging clothes from our closet and Winnie came to help.  She's sleeping on my snowflake footie pajamas.  I finally decided to get rid of them since I've been too tall for them for years.  I usually stand up straight to try to stretch them out and just deal with it, but Doug bought me a couple new pairs of footie pajamas.

Our bonus room has been a mess since we pulled the other bedroom apart to clean the carpets:

Finally put back together:

Sunset:

Sunrise:

I don't think my desk has been this clean in years!! 

Play Date

Mike and Tammy are going to house and dogsit while we're out of town, so they came over for dinner and puppy time.  Sophia had a great time with the dogs.  She would run and jump into a lap when the dogs would run towards her, but then immediately climb down to play with them again.  She wanted pictures taken while she was climbing on me:

Doug has his last day of scruffy, vacation face:

Her very own selfie:

She climbed on Winnie, cuddled with Winnie and hugged Winnie.  Ruger wanted to play, play, play and wouldn't let her get close enough.  Every time Sophia went towards Ruger, he would inch away trying to get her to chase him.

Ruger plopped down for a moment, so she got a little close up time:

More hugs and loves for Winnie:

Ruger was pretty tired when they left!  He was ready for a nap!: