Even more of a reality check.

Hey all!

It's been quite some time, I know. I'm sorry I'm such a neglectful blog owner. It's been a pretty difficult and uneventful month to be honest. We had even more of a reality check upon having a landscaper come in and give us an estimate and what he could do.

Sadly, a sod lawn is out of the question because of the land this property is on. He suggested tiling like before, with gravel surrounding the tile and some plants to add a bit of colour. It was of course most unfortunate to find out that what the landscaper offered to do instead would cost us over $3000. Which was $2000 more than if we did the labour ourselves.

So, everything is getting shot down. It's kind of been bad luck after bad luck, and it's getting frustrating. But we're keeping our heads up and getting ready, still, to welcome a new puppy home. Good news is though I got my old job back and will be starting again in several weeks! Hooray!

We interrupt this program....

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been quite a week. We've had a lot going on. In the turmoil of several different dramas taking place, I had forgotten until later on in the week, that it was my birthday weekend.

Now it being my birthday, and in the recent puppy craze I've developed that's replaced my nesting complex, I've spent all of the free time I've had last week watching surprise puppy videos. It all began with this heart wrenching video of a boyfriend surprising his significant other with a puppy after her recent loss of another dear dog.

And it all spiraled down from there. I've learned that I don't really favour the children getting surprised with puppies, but I'm much more drawn older people getting surprised with puppies. Because it really is tear jerkingly adorable.

I am particularly thrilled to have found this one and this one. If you have extra time, I would definitely suggest you watch those. So with these videos really just encouraging my puppy craze, I've put a huge amount of pressure on my duck to really rise above and beyond.

On Thursday was when it all started. I was supposed to go into archiving, however, something came up with my supervisor, and I had the day off to myself. My girlfriend stated that she needed to go get some stuff done for financial aid. She was gone for about five hours, but knitted a great story about how she had to wait because there was only one counselor and they made her wait while the people took their lunch. It was quite convincing. She even told this story convincingly to her mom at my birthday dinner the next night.

Despite it all, there was something in the back of my mind really just tugging saying "no. There is no way that she's gone for that long. And it's your birthday. She's planning something...." then of course, my imagination took it from there and I convinced myself that "OH MY GOD. SHE IS GOING TO COME HOME AND SURPRISE ME WITH A PUPPY"

She came home, and that wasn't the case. However, we did start talking about different puppies. She showed me an adorable Dalmatian puppy on a site and sent me to a website that sold different collars and dog beds and toys.... really, she was hyping me up that much more. By this point, I had fully convinced myself that there was a puppy in the near future. I could feel it in my bones. In my mind, I was completely in a Kristen Bell with a Sloth kind of state.

Saturday morning, crack of dawn rolls around and I see that my girlfriend is gone. I text her and she tells me, again a very convincing story of how her brother needed to be taken to the hospital because he was feeling extremely ill, and couldn't drive himself.  She's gone for quite some time, but knowing how long emergency rooms can take, I don't really question it.  She returns claims that her brother mocked how dirty our car was and really wanted to clean it out. So I lock Moose and myself in my room so that the duck can start cleaning out the car.

This was the moment, where I expected the Duck to come into the room with a puppy in a box. Nope not at all. Nothing. Nada. I'm slightly crest fallen and I kind of bug Duckie about it: what she got me for my birthday and our plans. We decide then and there that we're not really going to do presents and we're just going to stay home and take it easy. I was okay with that. It's always really nice to get some rest. 

Come my birthday, which was Sunday, June 9, I wake up quite early. We relax for a bit - then she tells me to get ready. She dresses me and then we take off. She drives me around and around - me thinking to throw off the scent of where we're going. She tells me that I have too high of an expectation of her to get me a puppy for my birthday. Even though I'm slightly crest fallen, I try to make the most of what's to come. We drive around some more, Duckie is trying to stall - and then we drive into a local barbeque takeout restaurant. Where I see my friends waiting for me! They had all planned this behind my back and they all took me to Bodega, where we ate, drank and were merry.

But the surprise is yet to come. I began opening presents. Everyone was absolutely generous. My friend Sarah got me a Pier 1 gift card to satiate my overwhelming nesting complex. AND it even came in a nest of a wrapping!

 My other friend Rachel got me a Pearl Necklace. Of course we're both pearl babies.  And pearls are my favourite. It's absolutely lovely.

My girlfriend's gift was last. I opened the small bag, in it sat a $25 gift card to Outback, which she was surprised to find that I was thrilled about, and several notes. One of them was a birthday card wishing me happy birthday. Another was a note that read....

And then, she whipped out two large bags....

 That included puppy toys, bed, collar and a puppy starter kit. That's right, guys. As the letter states, I'm officially in line to pick a puppy to call my own come Spring! I'm going to be a mommy! It's still taking a bit for everything to sink in, but I am thrilled to announce this happy news. My Duck really went above and beyond with this, and I am so so very very blessed to have this opportunity. I am so appreciative, excited and just....I don't know what to even say!

That was my birthday, thanks for reading!

Love, Lily.

Happy birthday, moose!

It's our moose's ninth birthday today. 

Duckie loves telling the story of when she first brought moose home at the age of 4 weeks. It was love at first sight. And I am so lucky that this little monster took me in as her new mommy. 

Happy birthday, little one. Even if you can be a pain in my butt and the cause of many numbness in my legs, I am lucky to call you my baby. 

Home redecorating reality check!

Hi all!

So Duck and I decided to begin our redecorating extravaganza yesterday by starting off with our backyard and upstairs patio. The patio needed a bit of a sweep down and a rise.

We've neglected it for so long that it accumulated a lot of spiders, bugs and leaves from the recently removed tree in our backyard. We want to put an outdoor rug with a little sitting area and table. A patch of grass, maybe so that Moose will be able to enjoy the outdoors with us. So we got to work...

Power spraying the backyard sounds easier than it actually is. Especially on such a small area that's overflowing with yucky bugs. After letting Duck have a reign on the patio for about ten or fifteen minutes, we've decided to let the patio dry before we apply bug spray.


 On to the backyard we trekked. We have BIG plans for our backyard: Installing a tile patio with hopefully some lawn for our future puppy and to add some greenery to the area. Perhaps a gazebo and a sectional for our friends to enjoy. In order to begin this whole process however, we had to get rid of the rock/gravel that is currently cozying it up back there.It makes our backyard look like a barren wasteland!

Our backyard, like everything else in our house, has a lot of potential. Not to mention, I'm renting this place from a dear friend of mine, and really want to help her raise the value of this property! It's such a great home, really, and with the right touch, it can be the coziest place! I can admit that we have been quite neglectful what with school and jobs, but I hope now that I have a bit of extra time before my Master's program starts and between looking for a job,  I'll be able to give our home the right kind of TLC that it deserves.


So with all of that motivation in mind, it was full steam ahead. We get to work. In the 90°F heat, we began shoveling gravel into a bag only 1/3 of the way because we lack the proper tools to haul the bags out conveniently.  We start in one of the corners, scraping the top layer away And then, after two or three scoops, all of the sudden, TING. ....W...what was that? Our shovel literally stopped after the first layer. Can't go any further and we feel like we're going to break our shovel. Why can't we get into the soil?

If we had done more research into this, we would have known, but the land that this is built on is adobe. It is rock hard and we can't get through it. Thanks to Duck's dad, who informed us of the state of the land and continued to tell us that our backyard is absolutely inconvenient for us to really do anything besides gravel and tile. Mainly because there is no gate opening and will not be able to get the proper tools into our yard.

sigh. Can't a girl with creative energy and nesting craze get a break around here? What do I have to do to channel this creative energy?

Completely disheartened and slightly irritated, something that happens extremely easily for me these days, we trudged our way back upstairs to reel it in and discuss our options.

1. We could continue with the tile and add nicer gravel where we were going to add grass and have some plants to add colour.
2. We could make our entire back yard tile.
3. Hire a landscaper.

We went with option number three and are awaiting a landscaper to come and look at our backyard and give us an estimate on the cost of fixing it up.

So all in all, our plans to do this all on our own to save some money has gone down the drain. I'm just hoping that my motivation doesn't go down with it.

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

Lily

Research is my favourite part!

Hi, guys. As mentioned before, in order to ready myself for a new puppy in our life, I've started researching about different breeds to see which dog would be the best companion for me. I've taken several different match maker tests and my favourite of all was the Pet Centric by Purina that my dear friend introduced me to during the middle of setting up for her Thesis Project. Not only are they incredibly hilarious because of the fact that the dogs talk, but also is a great first step in finding about what breed really suits you.

Choosing a breed was difficult for me, because there are so many dogs that I would love to have. And before I started my research I had a predisposition towards the dalmatian breed. However, the more research I did about the dogs, and testimonials from different owners I've gathered, I've come to the conclusion that they're absolutely perfect for me. The Pet Centric Dog Breed Selector is what ultimately began my whirlwind of research. I'm a professional at this, as I work at my school archives and have for the past year done research on different requests that we receive from all different sources.

From the Dog Breed Selector, I went to different websites and breeder sites to learn more about the dog - This included history of the breed, temperament, health issues, diet, and ideal training techniques. It's great to start off understanding the history of the dog breed. Dalmatians at the earliest time in history were used as war and guard dogs. They were also known to be hunting dogs, and later were used as carriage dogs - they ran alongside, in front of or under horse drawn carriages to encourage the horses to run faster and to clear the path of traffic. From there, I went to understand their temperament. Their history shows that they are high stamina dogs - they need a lot of exercise and can't just sit around for hours on end. However, at the same time, they love being with the family and being adorable snuggle-muffins. Being able to balance both of those traits out is ideal. Next were the health issues: Dalmatians, like any other dogs are prone to health problems and it is important to research more about these problems and alter the lifestyle as well as diet to best benefit the dog.

The most exciting bit is being able to teach your dog tricks. Now, I am a firm believer in the potential of dogs. I think that a lot of people are predisposed to different dog breed stereotypes, and don't give certain dogs a time of day because of that - They're quick to judge how difficult a certain dog is going to be to train or to have. The most infamous dog breed are Pitbulls. Some people refuse to give them a chance because they're known to be aggressive, but some of the sweetest dogs I've ever met were Pitbulls. I don't ever blame a dog for their behavior - you can't generalize a dog the same way you can't generalize people. Every dog is different and with the right mindset, and training techniques, I feel that any dog has the potential to be well behaved, intelligent companions. All dogs need to continue their training after the basics of sit, down, and stay. They become brain games and are fun for the dog and useful for the owners. Ideally, I want my dog to be perfectly trained and just all around fun to play with. Kind of like this beautiful Dalmatian, Dino.

Or Moose (yes, it's perfect because he has the same name as my cat)  Link because the video won't embed So in order to succeed that, I went ahead and began researching training techniques. I bought a fantastic book called Brain Games For Dogs at Barnes and Noble to learn the different games dogs may want to play.

Now, I know I'm getting extremely ahead of myself here and am projecting an idealized concept of getting my puppy and having her trained at a drop of a hat. Though, underneath that, I do know that there's a lot of responsibilities involved and hard work. There will be a lot of ups and downs, like anything else in life. I'd like to think that I'm being a responsible owner in doing research and not getting a dog on a whim. And of course the research doesn't end here - There's so much more to do: puppy classes, pet insurance, and most importantly finding my puppy. But I'd like to think I'm getting a good start here considering we're waiting another year for her to come into our life. Because out of all of this, more than anything I want to be a great owner to my dog and not just her be a great dog for me.

That's it for now! Much love,

Lily.

Let the nesting begin.

First of all, I want to welcome you all and thank you for taking an interest in my blog. I'm a recent college graduate - with a BA in Art History. I'm currently looking for a relatively respectable job to no avail.

I'm planning on going for a Masters this fall, and in the mean time, I've developed a nesting complex. It's quite a bother when this complex has disrupted my sleeping schedule along with others in my household. I currently live with my partner of seven years, Duckie and our cat Moose.

We're a very happy family, but there's something missing in our lives. We've talked it over and decided to bring a puppy into our home.  And after more talking over and convincing done on my part, we've (more I've) decided to get a dalmatian puppy.

As excited as I am to announce this, we've decided to wait until next summer to bring her home. This is going to be my first dog, and I'm planning on doing more research, as well as sitting in on puppy classes and figuring out great places to take the dog for fun activities. I want to be a responsible dog owner and not neglect my dog in any way.

In the mean time, we're also going to be redecorating the house to accommodate the puppy and to make the place more hospitable to invite friends and family. It is going to be a complete makeover, and we're quite excited.

We have a fantastic little condo with a lot of potential, and hope to apply some of our decorating magic to bring the place to life.

I will be writing about our projects and progress on the housework, as well as the process on getting ready for the puppy.

I hope you guys stick around and continue reading! Thanks!

Much love,

Lily.