A photo essay of Jack

This is Jack and his favorite squeaky toy. It's orange, round, and has feet sticking out of the bottom of it. It squeaks wonderfully, and we can get his attention wherever we are in the house or outside with it. Every squeak brings an excited and happy Jack running.









Mom....throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Mom...I'm sitting like you asked....please throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball!











Adam and Jack at the dog park today. Adam is using the "Chuck It" for the first time. It's an awesome dog toy that holds a tennis ball. You hold onto the handle and move your arm like you are going to throw the ball. The motion releases the tennis ball, which goes super far and allows the dog to do some major running without a ton of effort for the thrower. This is a very good toy for us since Jack loves to chase a ball for hours and hours.










Jack and his new favorite dog park toy taking a quick break. He must have chased that ball at least 50 times!!! Little guy drank two bottles of water during his game of fetch with Adam.









Jack and his new friends, Luna (female Great Dane), and Rocky (male Husky). Luna is a huge, gentle giant that as soon as she got out of her dad's truck, she started drooling uncontrollably. She was so sweet and cantered around the park playing with all the dogs. Rocky is a sweet pure bred husky. Our friends Josh and Katrina were at the park with us and were hoping to breed with Stella. Unfortunately, Rocky is fixed. Jack also met a beautiful miniature Australian Shepherd named Sky, a Husky/Border Collie mix named Cookie, along with a lot of other dogs.








And now we have a VERY tired doggy, that was so tired he couldn't wait for us to bring his bed out before he passed out on the ground by my feet.

Sweet dreams, Pup!

Mmmmmm.....Sushi.....

Wow....last night's sushi was amazing!!! Of course, Adam always makes excellent sushi, but this time we did it a little bit different. Instead of Adam making everything, he made the first roll, then we all took turns making rolls! I've never made sushi before, I always let Adam do it. It was soooooo much fun!

So, we each took turns making the rolls, and then we'd cut it into 8 pieces and each of us would have 2 pieces. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to make and eat 6 rolls. Each roll was different and very good. I was actually surprised how quickly we all picked up on how to make the rolls. It's actually not very difficult at all!! After we were done eating, my dad went immediately into a sushi coma on the couch....I love sushi comas!

Mom and I then made three rolls for Sam, who spent the night at his friend's house. I'm so incredibly jealous that he gets to eat sushi today...does it matter that I ate it last night and he didn't? Ummmm....No. Not at all. That was yesterday, this is today. ;-)

We were all way too into eating the rolls last night that I didn't even think about taking pictures, so I don't have any images to post today.

Until next time!

The dog park

Today we took Jack to the dog park for the very first time. He loved it! He was such a good boy and stayed right by us the whole time. There was this group of 7 dogs that were all running around together before we got there, so we decided since this was Jack's first time, we'd go to the other side of the park.

After playing fetch for awhile, the other dogs got curious about the "new kid" and came over to say hello. Jack stood in the middle of the pack while all 7 dogs sniffed him all over. After initiation, he and this really sweet little Australian Shepherd chased each other around for awhile. Then back to playing fetch. He's been asleep all afternoon since we've been home.

Tuckered out Jack

Tonight we're going to my mom and dad's for dinner. Adam is making us all sushi...yum! I'm going to try to take some pictures of the finished products...but it might be difficult since everyone will be snapping it up!

Have a good night everyone!

Fabulous, it's Friday!!!

Oh boy!!! It's FRIDAY!!!! I'm so glad to be able to have some down time over the next few days. This has not been the best week I've ever had...some work stuff went down around the middle of the week that I can't really can't talk about. Let's just say, it wasn't happy times. However, while this week sucked, it's very possible that it may not be as bad as it seems right now. I'm a very firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I may be seeing the reason this has happened VERY soon. More to come on that when I have more information.

Some cute pictures of Jack and Stella from dinner at Josh and Katrina's last night. Their sprinkler system has been acting up and creating big puddles in the backyard. Imagine our surprise when we looked outside and saw that Stella and Jack were covered in mud! This is when I'm glad Jack isn't pure white...can't even tell he's dirty in the pics! Stella on the other hand....not so lucky!

This weekend should be super relaxing...Tomorrow Adam and I are going to view our landlord's other house and discuss options for buying it. We've decided that this is the year we are going to buy a house and luckily our landlord is super cool and is giving us some options that may work better than a regular home loan. If we decide that isn't the house for us, well, we're lucky because there is a grant one of our friends got when she bought her house. Apparently, the government is trying to get first time owners into rural areas and offers a grant up to 4% of the total house costs to assist with down payments and what not. Adam and I qualify for this grant in the area we currently live in (which we would love to stay in, too). So, whether we buy our landlord's house, or we go after another one, we're sure to be buying this year! If you are interested in learning more about the rural Nevada grant program, let me know and I'll send you the link.

Sorry about the tangent...Anyway...after we go check out the house, we're taking the boy to the dog park for the first time! I'm really excited to see how he does with other dogs and people. He's been barking a lot at other people and dogs while we're on walks. Our trainer suggested taking him to the dog park to get further exposure and socializing. There's this big event at UC Davis (Adam and my alma mater) next weekend and there are lots of other dogs and people that will be there. We'd like to take Jack with us, but I want to make sure that he isn't going to be too far out of his comfort level. If he is, we'll bring him back to our friends' house that we're staying with...but it'd be really fun if he was able to go with us and have fun and meet new people and dogs!

The other sweet thing about tomorrow...Adam is making sushi!!! MMMMMMmmmmmmm...It's been awhile since we've had sushi. I'm so excited! My parents asked us to come over because they want to learn how it's done. I know exactly how it's done...Adam goes to the store and gets all the goods. He comes home and prepares it lovingly while I watch some crappy reality television show on the couch. Then he says, "Come get your roll!" and I scamper into the kitchen and wolf down my roll. Then we repeat until we're both stuffed (yes, he actually gets some too!). I'm pretty sure once they see how much work goes into it, they'll use the same sushi process I do!

That's it for the big plans this weekend. Sunday will be a day to get some house cleaning done, and that's about it...Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Today sucked big booty

Can't really go into details because I don't want it to come back and bite me the butt later on....but today sucked hard core big booty! Lame.

Back to Monday

Really? Is it really Monday again already? I had such a relaxing weekend, and it's always so sad when it's over!

Friday night, Adam and I had our friends Josh and Katrina over for dinner (http://mrsjuicebox.blogspot.com and http://juiceconcentrate.blogspot.com). I made lasagna for dinner, and Katrina brought an amazing carrot cake (recipe on her blog). Oh, and can't forget that the beautiful Ms. Stella came, too! Stella is Josh and Katrina's pure white husky. I'm pretty sure Jack is smitten with her! They played the entire time they were there! Adam and I have really enjoyed our new friendship with them, and we all try to get together for dinner once a week. It's good to have friends with similar interests...and now that we have Jack, it's even more fun to get together!

Saturday was a very relaxed day. Well, for me it was! I took Jack for a long walk, about 45 minutes. Later that morning, I met up with my mom and little bro at Costco to get some stuff for the furbabies...cat litter, bully bones, and a new dog bed for Jack. Adam was stuck at home working on a 10 page paper for his management class. That night, we went over to my mom and dad's house for dinner, and we brought the boy. Jack had tons of fun hanging out with m&d's dogs, Bandie and Goldie. They ran around the back yard for about 4 hours! We enjoyed beer and wine, and an amazing dinner of grilled tri-tip, fruit, and garlic bread. I can't believe how much tri-tip we all ate! Then we played a couple of games of dice as a family, which is always fun. We called it a night after that...Jack was giving us "I'm so tired!!!" stares through the door, so we felt it was time to take the boy home for bed.

Sunday was also a really relaxing day. We took the boy for a walk in the morning. Adam worked on his paper for awhile and I relaxed by watching some tv and reading. In the late morning, I took Jack with me to Borders to pick up a book about Australian Cattle Dogs that Adam had ordered (that's what the boy is), and then to Petco for a little bit of training and shopping. Our trainer told us it's a good idea to bring Jack to Petco in between classes to get a little extra practice. Sometimes he has a hard time focusing in class because there are so many distractions, and because the only time we've practiced in there is during class. So we did a little shopping and Jack found a new squeaky toy and frisbee he liked, as well as his favorite stinky treat, cow hooves. After we got everything we needed, we hung out for an extra 20 minutes and practiced our commands. For the most part, he did VERY well! Then we stopped by Panda Express to pick up some lunch (which was a surprise study break for Adam). After lunch, Jack and I watched the second season of Lost while Adam continued working on his paper. We rounded out the evening by playing a mini Backgammon tournament (which I won!) taking a short walk and having a light dinner before bed.

Even though we pretty much get up at the same time and don't really sleep in on the weekends any more because Jack is anxious to get up and start the day, it's still hard to wake up on Mondays...I hate it when the alarm goes off. It reminds me of the commercial that MONSTER.com did during the super bowl when everyone in the neighborhood wakes up and brings things with them to the nearest field to stop the sun from rising. The whole premise of the commercial is about how you don't have to fight Mondays if you have a job you like. It's actually pretty clever. But I like my job and I still hate Mondays...pretty sure that's never going to change!

Anyway...that was my weekend. Hope whoever reads this had a great weekend themselves...feel free to share if you'd like!

Happy Monday!

Mother of the year goes to....

As part of my profession, I am required to make at least 30 phone calls a day. I talk to a lot of different people all over the country. Yesterday, I spoke to one of my clients in the mid west. About 10 seconds into our conversation, she said "I have to keep this short, my daughter got a pebble in her ear and I'm waiting for my husband to get home to help me get it out." Apparently, her 5 year old daughter thought it was a good idea to put a small rock in her ear.

What makes this story even better? The woman told me that, in an effort to get the rock out, she tried using her vacuum to suck it out!!! Are you kidding me? Who uses a vacuum to get a rock out of a small child's ear???? She said "I thought it would work...I have a Bissell, so you know it's got a strong suction."

Wow. I really don't have any other words....

Happy Wednesday!