Winter Is Coming

Not coming, winter is by golly here! Last night we dropped 20 degrees in one hour--what the what?! Yesterday is was 79, today it's 33. That's right, people, winter has arrived.

Last night I tried to prep for the big artic rush and someone decided they needed to "help" in this process. There's a $3.50 faucet cover totally demolished. Darn thing lasted a grand total of ten minutes. She just can't help herself sometimes...Oh, Penny Love.

Me? I was all too thrilled to pull out the warm hats and scarves for this year! I'm sure I'll be over the cold soon enough, but for now I'm excited to bundle up! Who's with me?!

Can't you see the excitement? Or maybe that's the caffeine...hmm...

Do you get excited for colder weather?

Tales from a Puppy Mama

It's been three weeks and so far we're surviving with three fur balls in the house. I have to admit, at times it can be a little chaotic, but what's life without a little chaos? Even though I remember Piper, my puppy sister and family golden retriever, as a puppy, I'm starting to realize that I didn't really understand what having a puppy meant until Penny. She's like a fuzzy four legged toddler with teeth. Because of that, Pyro Man and I have really started to grow as fur parents.

When we got married and moved in together, our kitties came, too, of course. That was a process in and of itself. Nearly two years later and each kitty is still partial to their respective person. Honey sleeps with me at night, lets me hold her whenever, purrs in my arms, and hugs me close. It kills Pryo Man when she runs away from him or loudly fusses when he picks her up. She's a bit dramatic.

Layla, although she can be affectionate towards me, much prefers the man of the house. In fact, she sits on the dryer and cries for him any time he goes out of town. No amount of treats, toys, or coaxing will get her to move from her watch post most nights.

But Penny? She's definitely ours and that means we're finally having to work together to raise her together. We're learning. We're growing. As a new puppy mama, I've learned quite a bit so far so I thought I'd share.

Top Ten Things I've Learned as a New Puppy Mama

1. Biting can mean many things including:

• I love you
• I'm excited to see you
• Pay attention to me
• You have peanut butter on your hand
• I piddled on the floor
• I really love you 

2. Puppies bark for a number of reasons. You should always pay attention to each one. Chances are the ones you ignore are the ones in which they're telling you they need to go outside. 

3. Invest in paper towels. 

4. Woobies are super fun to play with, but not quite as cool as live woobies (aka. Honey and Layla). The hissing, spitting, and batting make the game so much more interactive. Plus, when they live woobies run away, puppies can chase after them adding into their cardio workout for the day. Score!

5.  If you stray beyond the puppy boarders, aka the baby gates, it's very traumatizing for the puppy. Even though she can still see you, you're too far away to gnaw on and therefore she must bark and whine about it. 

6. If your lap is open, the puppy will be in it. 

7. It takes about four times as long to do anything because the puppy is always into something, onto to something or chasing something.

8. Now you might think that silence is great, but oddly enough, silence is suspicious.

9. No shoelace is safe and tears in pants are inevitable. 

10. Unlike cats, dogs love to get dirty and frolic in muddle puddles. I don't think I need to explain this one. 

At the end of the day though, puppies are great and there's nothing like a bouncing ball of energy bounding towards you when you come home. You can't help but melt when that fur creature falls over itself trying to welcome you home no matter how long you been gone. It's a pretty sweet deal being a puppy mama. 

Happy Belated Birthday, Piper!

Yesterday was my precious pup's birthday.





Six years ago in the early fall of my senior year we traveled to a breeder out in east Texas to meet this little ball of fluff. She was spunky and eager to please. She was absolutely fascinated with the human hand and loved to explore all sorts of places. She also had a habit of falling asleep in her food bowl. It was love at first woof!

Little Piper has been the light of my life since day one. We affectionally dubbed at Hyper Piper or Pirana Puppy those first few months we had her. Fortunately we grew out of the chewing stage, but she still has such a zest for life. Sometimes it's a bit much for our visitors. Now she's getting on up there and becoming a little spinster. She doesn't mind though. She's treated to some special things at our house like front seat access on road trips.



Empty ice cream cartons.



(We really don't do that any more--that was a one time treat.)

And of course there are the peanut butter treats...



She hangs on my every word...especially with a treat in hand.



And because I am her puppy sister, she has just as much right to my bed as she does hers. Including the space I'm already occupying.




She's been my buddy though so I'm happy to share. Who could resist such a face anyway?




Happy Birthday, precious Piper! Here's to another six wonderful years ahead of us!

Sweet Honey Child

There's a new addition to my family! I welcome to the world the little orange fluff ball, Honey!!



She's the sweetest little girl you've ever seen! Purrs like a little motor boat and loves to snuggle up with her people. Big Sister happened to find Honey at a local Petsmart in McKinney and called Mom about her this past weekend. Three trips to go visit the kitty and we finally broke down. Something about her purring in my arms just made me cave.

We'd been looking at a lot of shelters around town, looking at kittens, holding them, trying to figure out how to add in a kitty to our family. I really wanted to adopt. That was super important to me because there are so many cats in shelters that I would like to help at least one out. My first cat, Esme, was a shelter kitty. Mom rescued her for my 6th birthday and she lived for a quite a long time just as fat and happy as can be.

Honey is actually a foster kitty. Her foster family picked up Honey and brother when they were three weeks old. Since she's been hand raised, bottle fed, etc., Honey is extremely loving, is very docile, and has a sweet disposition. Although, I'm slowly finding she's a feisty little creature, too.

She's learning the lay of the land here at our homestead, but she's not quite on her own yet. Too many places little Honey can hide including under the couch and let me tell you--I ain't no 8 year old who can squeeze behind the couch to catch little kitty. I should preface that she likes to find these hiding places from Piper.

Yes, the light of my life, the giant, loveable fur ball is a little scary to poor Honey. This is about as close as she will get to Piper.



It's a work in progress.

Piper just wants to play and love all over kitty like her own woobies ("woobie" - a pet stuffed animal), but Honey is having none of that! She is happy running from Piper and Piper is happy to follow with a spunky wagging tale.

We've found that Honey loves feather toys, hates the sound of flushing toilets, and really hates when you don't pay attention to her. Recently discovered that she will try to hop in the shower with you to get your attention. Her foster mom gave us this little fluffy bag she sleeps in--we call it her baguette. She curls up in it, pads it with her little paws, and rubs her face all over it. Pretty darn cute if you ask me.

She's a wonderful distraction here at our house and we're having a lot of fun getting to know our new little Honey. Honey Bee. Honey Child. Honey Bun. Are you totally gagging over the nicknames yet? Still have to get her tags for her honeybee collar, a vet visit, and her used to the dog. That one might take a while.

A happy hump day to all! I must go make sure Honey isn't terrorizing poor Piper! Oh dear.

Things That Go Beep In the Night

I'm home, right? Here on my spring break, resting, trying to get work done. Resting.

Last night, as I lay in my bed with my trusted companion snoring on the floor, I awoke to a noise. Not any noise, a repeated beeping. "Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeebeep!" Argh! So I fwop over to turn off my phone alarm (Fwop: to roll over, throwing ones body weight into a new position out of exhaustion or irritation). Only problem is that my phone is not going off because it's five am and I don't get up at five am.

Wait a minute. Wait. A. Minute. Why is there beeping in the house at 5 am? (See, this is how my sluggish brain works if my slumber has been disturbed. It's not quick on the uptake initially).

I sit straight up, heart violently pounding, my mind reeling with all sorts of scenarios and sticks to one in particular. Someone must be in the house and they're trying to "beep" their way out! Ridiculous but it's the best I had to come up with. Throwing the covers off, I swing my legs over the side of the bed only to find my foot suddenly connected to my fuzzy puppy's head--no worries folks, she was unharmed. SHE was still sleeping, completely ignoring the beeping noise. How is that possible? How can I, a human, hear this high pitched beeping while my dog, who usually hears highly piercing noises, is sound asleep?!?

The beeping stops all together. I sit there for a moment contemplating my choices. Perhaps I have overreacted and it was Mom or Dad's phone alarm. Yeah freaking right. Perhaps the intruder is still in here and he's contemplating taking my sleeping, precious pup away! Oh no!

So I do what any young woman would do. I ran into my parents room to wake up Dad.

Don't judge--you would have done it, too. Anyway, so I go scurrying off to my Dad's side of the bed trying to stay in control without freaking out over the fact that there is a possible intruder beeping his way in and out of our home. I poke him once without much success. Well, it would only make sense that he just didn't feel it so I shake him awake. "dad. Dad. DAD!" Good thing Dad doesn't mind having his rest interrupted.

Dad: *Dad sits his fuzzy head up--clearly where my bed head gene comes from* "Huh?"

Julie: "Dad! There's a beeping in the house."

Dad: "A wha....?"

Julie: "A BEEPING! There's a beeping in the house. Someone could be here! You have to go find it! Oh forget it, I'll go find it."

*Clearly Dad was not awake enough to process the severity of the situation as I have imagined it. Deciding to take matters into my own hands I start to storm off then turn right around and run back to Dad's side*

Julie: "PLEASE go see what the beeping is! I don't wanna!"

Just as I ran back to Dad, the beeping starts up again. This time Dad actually hears it and about that same time, Mom wakes up. She's rustling around with blankets and jabbering on about "I don't hear any beeping!" "MOM! SHHHH!!!!"

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Heroic Daddy takes off to find the bothersome beep. YAY Dad! I'll just stay behind with Mom. You know, protect the back part of the house--I'm sure my fuzzed out hair will be enough to scare off anyone. That and my morning breath.

Well, I decide I was going to put on a stiff upper lip and go follow Dad to see what the heck is going on. Here I go, putting on a brave face, going to ward off what predator lays in our house, probably trying to take off with my clean laundry. I tip toe behind Dad, into the kitchen to discover....the weather station is beeping. The weather station? It's a dang wireless weather station that tells you what's going on outside in case you live in a house without windows and doors. Why was it beeping? Who the heck knows, but I certainly thought it was an intruder. Dang.

Praise be we didn't have some crazy person eating the Girl Scout cookies in our kitchen--what would I have done? Probably thrown that dang weather station at them and taken off running and screaming like the girl I am. The mystery was solved so we trotted back to bed and as I'm telling Mom what was actually beeping, in walks the dog. Our brave, guard dog comes sleepily staggering in to find out what the commotion is all about. Yeah, Piper. I feel so safe with you.

"Come on, Piper. Time to go back to bed." And so we drifted back to sleep, the excitement over, the mysterious beeping finally turned off, and the the assurance that no intruder was going to eat our Girl Scout cookies or take our puppy. All is right in the world of the Russell Household again.

Puppy Sister

One week from today I will be reunited with the light in my life, that sweet precious creature, Piper. Oh goodness, I cannot wait to see that golden fuzz butt! I can see her now, wiggling violently in the back of Mom and Dad's car as they pull up in my drive.

Of course, I'm talking about none other than my puppy sister, not my actual sister. Sarah will probably be working hard, enforcing rules in a courtroom. Big Sister was always enforcing rules, especially when we were little and played board games together. I could never get a break even when I gave her The Look! She apparently is the only one immune to my quivering lower lip. Dang.

Anyway, Piper is coming and I cannot wait! If anyone knows me well enough, they know I harbor a deep love for my dog like no other. I will happily argue she is the cutest pup ever to grace this green earth. Case in point:



Told ya. I call her my puppy sister because, well. I just am. She loves to steal my "toys" or shoes rather and at night, she has her side of the bed and I have mine. Although sometimes she tends to get a little mixed as to which side is hers and which is mine:



And that's cute, too...until she gets excited and wedges her bony elbow into your side. Good morning! We read together, too. Oh yes.



Although be warned, when it's time to play with the puppy, she will most certainly let you know! This dog is as big a mess head as I am--you saw the pictures of the peanut butter jar, right? Beat you didn't know she liked her ice cream, too:



(Just so you know that was an empty carton that she was lucky enough to lick clean.) The girl loves her some food. One time I came home from school just to visit family and as I chatted with a friend in the kitchen Piper came trotting her happy tail over to us.

"Well, hey there, Piper! What the heck have you got in your mouth?"

Kid you not, the dog had a chocolate chip cookie in there! I reached down to pull it from her and she staggered backwards, turning her head slightly to the side as if to say, "You can't have this!"

"Piper, what have you got?" Again, she backs her happy butt back and gives me those innocent eyes, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Smart dog, she's learned from the best when it comes to giving those innocent eyes. Think I taught her a little too well. Anyway, finally got that crumbly, stale cookie out of her mouth and asked Mom where on earth she would have gotten one (There sure as heck weren't cookies when I got in!). Apparently Piper had stolen that one from a batch Mom had made about a week prior. A WEEK! One solid week she had been hanging on to that cookie! That dog must have a stash of food somewhere in the house that we don't know about. That's pretty surprising since she's always on top things faster than a duck on a june bug. If it drops, better watch cause she will bowl you over trying to grab whatever you dropped.

She has her place by the sink when people are cooking. Leaning up against the bottom cabinets, she will plop down on the floor, throw her face straight up at you and stare while you chop away, mix, whatever. She just prays for gravity to grant her some delicious morsel from above. I'll give her this, she's pretty quick. I've heard several stories of her eating whole batches of cookies, breads, even got a hold of a ham last week. Also loves broccoli. Yup. That's my dog.

I make her out to sound like a little piglet, which she is--you should see her eat popcorn sometime--but she's capable of so many other things. She's a great runner. Beautiful. Unless you're the one watching her run out the back yard. Then it starts looking like a pretty ugly situation. All she's really doing is playing tag...or her version of it. Piper runs away, we chase her and she keeps running until we give up. Then she prances back home, happy as can be to once again be back with her people. She's a nut.

But she's my nut and I love her all the more because of that.

Living Alone

Sitting in my apartment last night I got to thinking. It's a darn good thing I live alone at this point in time of my life. For one thing, school takes up so much time that if anyone were to be in the same space as me, I would revert back to a Procrastination Princess. I mean, seriously, I know when I go home or have people for the weekend I don't want to work--would you? Boyfriend visited this weekend and thank goodness he was so sweet as to tear himself away to the Big Bass and Pro store for a couple of hours so that I could work. He's selfless that way, what a sweetie!

No, really though, had he not physically left I would have just ignored my project all weekend long. That's horrible! I would have been in SO MUCH trouble showing up to class with nothing, nada, zip! So sitting there contemplating in the silence of my home, I began to discover several advantages and disadvantages to living along:

Advantages

1) The ability to leave your shoes ANYWHERE you want! Mother jokes about me leaving "Julie Piles" around the house and I cannot tell you how many times I was in trouble for leaving shoes lying about. No more! In my house I can leave them wherever I want and yes, I trip over them frequently...now I see why Mom never let me do that. Dang. She was right again.

2) Everything has it's place--according to me. I'm in control of where things are kept be it for the kitchen, my clothing organization, desk junk, whathaveyou. I often forget what my thought process was during my organizing spell and therefore forget where things are BUT it's where I put them! Hence why I have a new label maker.

3) Decoration--I got to pick out everything for decoration that I wanted in my apartment. I got the chance to create my home and I love it. I love being in my home and there isn't a thing I can complain about (with the exception of one noisy neighbor, but I'm so over'd that dude it's not even funny).

4) I can have a crazy dance party in my underwear if I want to--not that I do that too often but at least I have the option. Instead I just choreography like crazy in my living room and dining room. Neighbors must loooove that...

5) Meals are whatever I want, whenever, wherever, and on a Friday night, I have the option to watch whatever movie floats my boat.

There are so many reasons to love living alone--one of the more important ones being able to have a quiet, peaceful me moment. That can be anything from sitting in silence, enjoying the still after a hectic day, or even having a good laugh (sometimes cry) by yourself. Everyone needs that bit of "me time." In that same respect though, too many "Me Moments" aren't real fun. However, I'm putting my problem solving skills to good use and learning how to handle those not so fun moments:


Disadvantages

1) No one to come home to--not even a fuzzy creature, but that's because I picked a beautiful place to live with a no pet policy. *SIGH*

SOLUTION: I have plants to take care of (some are still alive...)and a stuffed animal to hold. Problem (somewhat) solved.

2) No one to cook for--trust me, eating a dozen cookies on your own is not a wise decision. Sure, it sounds like the best choice you ever made in the moment and that gooey goodness is heavenly going down. Then you get hit with a heck of a stomach ache, not to mention it ain't fun to put on tights and a leo the next day.

SOLUTION: Friday/Saturday night dinners with the girls--I have Cas and Leigh Anne over for some big meal and we enjoy food, wine, dessert, wine, stories, wine...Great fun! I also send pics to my family of whatever I made--nerdy, but I can't exactly serve them a plate when we're states apart. Problem (deliciously) solved

3) No one with whom I can share (Tad bit formal, but you try not ending that sentence without a preposition! It's hard, huh?). Seriously, this is one of the hardest ones to fix. When I make a discovery, whether its a dance move or a good joke, an article, something bizarre I found I could do, whatever, I want to share with people.

SOLUTION: Web cam--my gosh, I just discovered a while back that I could video myself doing random things to show people (mainly Mom because, well, she birthed me and she knows what a goober I can be. I don't think everyone is quite ready to experience that just yet though...). YES, problem (technically) solved!

Last night I was working on choreography (I swear it was actual work!) and I was using a hula hoop for a prop. To know that at the age of 22 I can still hula hoop like a champ, whoa. That's a big deal and I had to show Mom. So I facebooked her a video of my hula hooping then using arms then moving around while hula hooping and then I ran into a wall. Totally in Julie fashion, too. As stupid as it sounds, it was nice to send her a video of me being me in my house doing what I do best, being a goober.

*I would post the video except it was through facebook and I can't seem to retrieve the link--I swear I tried. *


Really there is no disadvantage to living by oneself--sure, there may be some hiccups but as you can clearly see, there are ways around it. Including filming your self flailing about while hula hooping. Mom, you must be so proud.

It Runs In the Family

To continue from last post...

I taught her everything I know.








Compliments of my Mother--Thanks, Mom for capturing these precious moments. I'm so proud.