Dottie is 7!

What a nice day for a birthday.

Her special treat was a single glazed Munchkin from Dunkin Donuts. Yes, I told the person waiting on me why I was buying a single Munchkin. He didn't charge me :)

The Munchkin did not last long.

See?

The weather was actually nice enough to go outside for frisbee time.  Look at that face!

It was pretty windy today, which explains the crazy ears.  

Overall, I think it was a pretty good birthday!

I'm really alive!

Just having a hard time getting back to my lil blog.  I'm tired and busy and finding it difficult to achieve a good balance. But, I like my job so much! I have a whole post in the works (read: I have snippets and sentence fragments in my head). In the meantime, some photos of recent happenings:

A JPII photo frame I found at a store called Bargain Warehouse.  My bestie's grandmother was a huge fan and would've loved this.

A Steelcase chair I spotted while thrifting with my parents a few weeks ago.  It was priced at $30, but a very nice store employee informed us that Mondays are Senior Discount Day.  My parents picked it up for me a few days later, and now it lives at my house.  Final price: $15

If I don't close the shower door all the way, Dottie slips in and licks the floor.  Gross but true.  She really hates water, so I suppose I could just turn the shower on.  She probably wouldn't try sneaking floor licks after that!

Pastravaganza!  Pasta is my favorite food.  Buca di Beppo is my kind of place.  Yes, I ordered baked ziti with a size of fettuccine alfredo.  Don't judge.

Finally, Dottie's happy car ride face.  We took this on the way to grandma's house for Easter lunch.

Nurse Dottie

I am under the weather today after a rough night of tummy troubles.  I don't think I am actually sick with the nasty flu that has been going around (thank goodness).  No, no.  My tummy troubles are probably of my own doing, which just makes me SO MAD at myself.  I'll just say this; don't overdo it on the Chia seeds, or you could find yourself in some serious intestinal distress.  Oof.

This dog, I love her so. She senses that I'm not feeling so hot, and has been absolutely glued to me all morning. Dottie firmly believes that her snuggles and puppy kisses have serious healing power.

Who am I kidding...they do have serious healing power! There's nothing like a warm, furry lump of dog to make you feel better. 

Our Trip to TN

As told mostly through photos of Dottie.

Ed and I celebrated our 10th anniversary at the beginning of May.  In honor of this momentous occasion, we decided to take our first REAL VACATION (not a work trip that pretends to be a vacation) in about 5 years.  We booked a great little cabin in the Pigeon Forge, TN area for a whole week.  When I say cabin, I mean it had central AC, internet access, and a hot tub.  We weren't exactly roughin' it.  I became quite attached to our little home away from home, and wouldn't hesitate to take this type of trip again.  I love that Dottie could come along with us!

 Packin' up.  She's just making sure we don't forget the tennis balls and treats.

She claimed this bed for herself as soon as we got to the cabin.  Funny story; there was a pool table right next to the bed.  Dottie kept staring at it and whining, but we couldn't figure out why.  It turns out that she thought the billiard balls were tennis balls, and that they rightfully belonged to her.

 Our view from the porch.  There was a storm the night we arrived, and it was both awesome and scary to watch from here!

Another shot of Dottie, just chillin'.  She quickly made herself right at home.

 

Taken from one of our stops along the Cades Cove loop.  Majestic!

 The name of this place in Gatlinburg cracked me up.  So fancy!  I went inside, and they did, in fact, have tablecloths, as well as cloth napkins and napkin rings.

 Playing Yahtzee.  Dottie beat the pants off of us.

Aaaand home.  Going on vacation is exhausting!

Happy Birthday Dottie!

6 years old!

We celebrated Dottie's birthday yesterday.  I know I say this every year, but it still feels like we just brought her home.  She makes us happy every single day.

I found this doggie cupcake kit at Barker and Meowsky and had to get it.  Both the cake and frosting mix are dog safe, and the silicone cupcake liners are reusable.  Just add milk!

She wouldn't actually eat until we gave her permission.

 But, once we gave her the go ahead, all bets were off!

Slushy Day

Will we ever get to go outside again?

We woke up to some pretty gross weather this morning.  It rained yesterday, and then snowed through the night,  so it's pretty much a wet, slushy, slippery, mess out there.  Also, it seems that both Ed and I are coming down with colds.  Dottie appears to be under the weather, too.  Poor pupper.  I still have some energy, so I decided to squeeze in some errands and chores today before I start feeling too craptastic to complete them.  I'm all set for the wave of illness!

Happy Saturday

A cute photo of Dottie, just because.

I love this dog.

Settling In

We made it to Chicago (relatively unscathed) at the beginning of the month.  Most of the boxes are unpacked.  Our new apartment is very different from our old one, so it's been a challenge to get everything just the way we want it.  Dottie, as you can see, has found her perfect spot on the couch.

Her first week was a bit rough (she stayed with my parents our first week here while we moved in and unpacked).  She's basically a country dog, and throwing her into a city with lots of new sights, smells, and sounds was hard.  The sound of the nearby train was scary for her at first.  She's never been fond of other dogs (and there are LOTS here).  She had us pretty worried for about the first week and a half; sleeping much of the time, not showing any interest in playing, not even waking me in the morning to take her outside.  She was still eating regularly, so that was a good sign.

She has slowly come around.  The train doesn't bother her anymore.  In fact, this is her favorite spot to explore:

The grassy lot by the L tracks.  We have a great little park nearby, but she prefers this place. Lots of sticks and stones and unkempt grass.  The occasional piece of trash.  I've been careful about it, and we haven't found anything dangerous there yet, so I think it's fine.  We're still working on being ok with other dogs.  I don't think she'll ever be super best friends with them.  If she can seem them without barking like mad, I'll be happy.

A few observations about our new home:

- People here LOVE Halloween.  Decorations everywhere.  

- There are a lot of weird looking strollers, each carrying multiple babies and children.

- I thought I might lose some weight from all the walking I've been doing.  Wrong.  And that's because...

- There's a ton of good food here.  We already have a couple of favorite neighborhood places, and have been exploring a few in other neighborhoods with our friends.    

- Having an iPhone has been helpful.  I'm not really a fancy phone person, but can totally understand having one in a city.  I think it has actually made me a little more brave about exploring, because I know that if I get lost I can always get directions home.

I hope to update with some photos of our new place soon!  

Ho Hum.

I often find Dottie perched on the foot stool by our front window, but this is the first time I've seen her lying down with her chin propped on the windowsill. 

I guess she was very tired from all of the tennis ball chewing, face licking, belly rubs, and ear scratching.  Or, only boring stuff was happening outside.  Probably a little of both.

Silly Dog Photos

These photos are brought to you by they tiny pieces of cheese I used to hold Dottie's concentration.

 We recently discovered that, if you can get her to hold still long enough, she will model necklaces beautifully.

 Ladylike.

Patient.

 Slightly less patient.

 Eyes on the prize.

aaand photo shoot over!

Dottie is 5!

My pupper girl turned 5 the other day, which seems impossible.  It feels like we just brought her home last week!

This was taken 2 days after she came to live with us.  That face!  C'mon!  Ridiculously cute. It was impossible for me not to scoop her up.

I was trying to get a good 5th birthday photo, but Dottie was so very excited about her present that she wouldn't stop moving and barking (notice the blurred tail and open mouth).

Enjoying her present.  We gave her a Squirrel Dude toy and some Old Mother Hubbard biscuits.  I think she likes them!

Taking a break, because being so adorable can be awfully tiresome.

In charge.

Putting together our new GALANT table while Dottie supervises.

Dottie with Mug

 

I watched Hotel for Dogs last week while sitting in a hotel room in Chicago.  It made me miss Dottie.  Sure, we were only away from her for 2 days, but I couldn't help it.  Just look at all of that super adorable snuggly-ness.

 

I am not one to make New Year's resolutions for fear of disappointing myself or others.  However, I did decide to make a teeny little one this year.  

 I want to take more photos of Dottie and post them here.  That way, when I have to be away from her, all I have to do is look at my blog.  Awww.  So, if you don't like fluffy, adorable things, avert your eyes.  I hope to make this space very cuteness heavy in the coming months.

Also, before I get any hate comments about giving my dog coffee (DO NOT give your dog coffee, the caffeine is very dangerous to them), the mug contained the tiniest amount of vegetable soup leftover from my lunch.  I think Dottie enjoyed it.

Holiday Sewing: FINISHED Mother and Child Doll

 

Emmy's  present is done!  Dottie decided that she needed to appear in these photos.  She could not be persuaded to change her mind.  Anyway, here are the dolls together...

...and here they are apart.  I ran out of the groovy blue and green fabric, so ended up going with a reddish twill for the child doll.  I stuffed both of them pretty loosely, so they are very soft and squishy.  Good for grasp-y baby hands.

A bonus shot of Dottie.  There were VERY important things going on outside our window that day, mostly snow plowing.  You guys, I have had SUCH a hard time trying to get photos, which is part of the reason I haven't been so great at updating.  It's dark when I get out of bed in the morning, and it's dark when I get home from work.  I know my photos have never been earth shatteringly awesome, but I at least try to get some sort of natural light.  I managed to quickly snap these on my lunch break.  I will try to be better about getting photos and writing posts!  Honest.