I HEART MY PUPPY!

Not gonna lie, we got off to a rough start. The first two nights I got less then 8 hours of sleep total (not including the interruptions of walking her between 3 and 5 AM). The next two weeks were about waking up in the middle of the night and walking her, which meant splitting up my sleep. For me that makes functioning on the difficult side :) But we managed to get through it and now she sleeps until 8-ish in the morning! So I can get about 7 hours of sleep a night.
The first week Napolean would just watch her (mostly eye her from a distance). Then he started to walk up to her and hiss. It was kind of funny. Then he would puff himself up so he was bigger then her (He was at the time). Now she is taller then him. But now he is back to sleeping in bed with me. He watches her play on the floor from chairs or the bed. Every now and then he will swat at her and hiss...just to let her know he still runs this house. In the morning if she is rustling around in her play pen, I will stick her on bed with us to sleep until I can wake myself up to walk her. He stays on the bed and puts up with her. So I would say Napolean is adjusting nicely...faster then I thought he would.
She is very good at sitting and she is okay at lying down. I have to work more on that one. She sits before we leave the house and come into the house and she's getting good at that; so good that a large amount of time I don't have to say it anymore. She walks on a leash nicely. But she can be a slow poke some times. And she is afraid of cars. She also gets freaked out by the neighborhood dogs when we go on walks. I don't blame her (they are pretty annoying dogs). I keep telling her to wait. When she is full grown she will be able to kick all those dog's boh-tay's! She is still having issues with the crate and separation from me. But we are working on it and she'll get there eventually. I just have to keep telling myself to be patient.


She really likes Napolean's toy mice. I keep having to take them away from her.







He was observing her play from a safe distance







Cute face!







These were taken after her first appointment to the groomer's. She looked like a Bouvier when she came out of there.














Licking the snow








Playing in the snow!!





After a bath. She hates baths and whines a lot. But she is getting better at them







I love her ears. They are super goofy right now and flop all over the place! LOVE IT!

January Rocks

I LOVE January!! This has already been a great month. It was tough but great. I started off the end of December with a new puppy. She is a Bouvier des Flandres and I heart her already even though she is lacking some bladder control and hates her kennel (all will come with patience). She is really cute most of the time and she loves me. It's nice having the unconditional love of a dog. Even when I yell "NO" at her for doing stuff that she's not allowed to do (like chew on the chairs, chase after the cat, pee on the floor, go in the family room, whine at me when she is in her bed area...well you get the picture). She is really cute and she already has "lie down," "touch," and sometimes "sit." It's super funny when she does sit cause she does it and then slides down on the wood floor. Awwww, I love my puppy. Her name is Nori (short for Noriko). I have this weird love of everything Japanese. I don't know why, I just do! So, that's Nori.




This is cute Nori





She really likes to play with her toys









She was using my leg as a toy to jump over and run around.






The kitty is actually kind of getting used to her. He definitely lets her know who is boss, but he's not minding her so much now (he really likes her because of her puppy food and puppy treats).



I did my first night of a stake event that my calling was in charge of for new year's. I've decided I like holidays better when I don't have to be the one planning the event. It makes it less fun. But it was really cool. We had blow up stuff all over the gym at church. We had sumo wrestling suits, and a bungie cord one, and a wrecking ball, and a boxing court, and my personal favorite was the obstacle course. Way too much fun! I loved that obstacle course, and true love lasts a life time. So that was an interesting way to ring in the new year. I'm not gonna lie, I missed the traditional night I spend with Ali and her parents and their friends and the crazy hats at their place. But it was a fun new way to do new year's eve.

Lastly, I PASSED my licensure exam for social work. It was one of the scariest things I have ever had to do. I don't know why I fear testing so much, but I do. This test was just weighing on my shoulders. It's scary when your future is held up by one thing, a stupid test. I don't thnk the test really tells the association of social work board whether or not I will really be a good social worker. But I passed it and I don't have to worry about another one of these until I go in for my LICSW, which could be at least two years from now. I usually have this ritual of throwing out my note cards, but I saved them for the next test. It has similar content in it. So next time I can just pull those old babies out of a box and get back into the studying mood ;)

Now I have to update my resume, get intouch with all those supervisor's I once had and ask for their reference, and find a job. But I am going to leave all that stuff for next week. Right now I am just going to enjoy the fact that the test is taken and passed, I have congratulations balloons on the table from my parents (thanks mom and dad), and I have great friends AND amazing family who have helped me prepare for my test. So far (and I am only in 5 days), I would say January kind of rocks!!