Amelia at Nine Months

Can you believe that it has been 7 !months that we have had her already? She has had her nine month birthday recently, and I am in disbelief! She has grown into this gorgeous creature, and has become the absolute love of my life. How did I live without this unbelievable animal?

I feel like every post I do on her becomes into this love story about her, but to be honest, its totally true. My existence revolves around her, and with every day, I love her more. Even my husband feels jealous of my adoration to this dog. That says a lot. What more can I say?

We have gotten much better with her, as a family. She is brilliant, learns so quickly, and definitely knows how to get what she wants. We take her to the dog park often, which is without a doubt, her most favorite place to be. We live in a very small one bedroom apartment, so getting her out to the dog park to run and play, even makes me happy to see.

We found a more local dog park, which is much smaller than we have previously been visiting. At the bigger park, it is much more populated, and she will follow other dogs and people around. We always have to chase her back to us. So, the smaller park is much better - we are usually the only people there, and she does not stray from us. We bring a ball and just let her run. For me, I love watching her run and get all her energy out, being in a small apartment for a large dog, is probably not the ideal.

She is also sleeping through the night outside of her crate, and in bed with us. (Well, actually, it is usually me not being able to fit in the bed with the husband, two cats, and the dog - so Amelia and I somehow end up on the couch.) But that's okay, I find the couch more comfortable than the mattress anyway.

Amelia has gotten much more beautiful with her coat now as she's growing older. Her "feathering" is coming in beautifully on her tail and rear end, making her look unmistakable as a golden retriever. Recently we have only been questioned of her breed as a "setter." It used to be "is she a lab?"

DIY Washi Tape

Lately, I have been getting into a new hobby, called smash booking. Or, junk journaling. Over the past couple weeks, I have spent quite a bit of money buying supplies and getting ready to start actually creating. Smash booking, is what I like to think of as scrapbooking, without all the photos. It focuses less on pictures, but more on embellishments, or whatever else you want to "smash" into the book.

 In my quest to buy supplies for this new thing, I came across something called Washi Tape. This is like a low-tack tape that is decorative, perfect for smashbooking. However, the price... Makes me cringe every time I come across it. For a little roll,the price is at least $3. Sure,it doesn't sound like much, but when you have at least 4 different patterns that you feel you can't leave the store without... It adds up. So, my cheap self, decided to find a way to make my own. I googled, and came across a video. I wish I would have saved the link, because it was really helpful. (If anyone knows the video where this tutorial came from, please let me know!).

I took photos of the process of how I made my own washi tape. It was rather easy, but quite time consuming. However, I love being able to find any kind of paper I like, and be able to make tape out of it. Will be great for unique projects, where you just can't find the right kind of washi tape for. Anyway, on to the photos!

These are the supplies you will need.

• A ruler. Instead of the ruler and pen, you can use a paper cutter if you have one. I didn't, so I took the time to measure the paper out with a ruler and cut by hand.
• Scissors. To cut the paper if you don't have a paper cutter, and to cut excess tape.
• Patterned paper. I used a sheet from a scrapbooking pad of paper that I bought from Walmart for $5.
•  Tape. Obviously. I used just regular scotch tape, with a matte finish. You will need quite a bit of it.
• A bowl of water.
•  Bone folder. I am not really sure if this is needed, but I think it is handy to have for this project.

First thing you want to do, is to measure how big you need your strips. My tape was 3/4 inch thick,so  I cut my paper to be a bit bigger than the width of the tape. I measured them an inch wide, each strip.

Next, cut out your strips from the paper. Again, this would be tons easier and quicker if you had a paper trimmer on hand. I did not.

Third, you are going to apply the tape directly to the front of each paper strip.  Trim off any extra tape from the sides. I personally, didn't bother with trimming the paper off the sides, because you'll end up rubbing the paper off anyway. But, you can trim up the sides if you want to. However, if you have extra tape hanging off the paper, be sure to cut that off. I ran the bone folder over the top a few times, just to be sure I got a good transfer seal on them.

Now that you have your paper with tape attached, dunk into the water for a few seconds. I have found you don't want to leave them in the water too long because the pattern will kind of chip off with the paper in the next step.

After a few seconds, the paper should be wet and saturated. Take it out of the water, and rub your fingers over the paper. It should start to ball up, and separate from the tape, leaving the pattern behind. Keep rubbing until all the paper is gone. If it gets too difficult to remove, dunk it in more water and continue rubbing.

Some tips, mainly for myself if I intend to keep at this project.

• After being attached to paper, doused in water, and then rubbed on, the tape will lose the majority of it's sticky-ness. I suggest to use a clear adhesive of some kind to stick it to wherever you need to to stick to. 
• The tape will also not lay completely flat, usually. Again, use a strong, clear adhesive of some kind to force it to lay straight.
• I found that different sheets of paper, yield different results. For example, one sheet of paper from the scrapbooking pad, came off rather easily when rubbed, while another sheet (from the same pad) didn't come off nearly as easily, and still had quite a bit of paper attached. Which can be good, depending on how grungy and opaque you'd like your tape. I don't mind, in fact, I prefer to have some differences in my tape.

Pretty cool, huh?

Laundry Room

When we moved into this apartment back in March, one of the most awesome parts of it is that it came with washer and dryer hookups. So, I could have my own washer and dryer. However, we have never had the money to get them. Every time I would go into Lowes, Home Depot or even Sears, I would price them, then leave because well, they are expensive. I started looking and Craigslist, and Facebook Swap groups for used sets, but we have no truck to pick them up. It was disappointing. We had to find somewhere that delivered.

My birthday is coming up next month, and the only thing I wanted was a way to do my own laundry. My husband currently spends his days off over at his mother's house, doing our laundry. He doesn't remember specific washing instructions I give him, and he left my favorite pair of my shoes over there a few weeks ago, that no one is able to find now. I felt like I need my own way to do laundry.

I considered the Wonderwash. It looks awesome, easy on water, and requires no electricity. I was concerned about the drying time. I feel like the clothes would be soaking wet, and I have no where to dry them. It would be awesome drying outside on a clothesline, but... Well, I live in an apartment. The clothes would have to dry inside somewhere. That being said, the Wonderwash wasn't logical for me.

Tyler told me to start looking for a used set. I called around and found one. They were still way much more than we wanted to pay, but they delivered. We went up there, and purchased them. When we were paying for them, it was an additional $75 for delivery and what she called "installation". This was cool because we never installed a set before, and if installation was included with delivery, that was even better.

Guy came, dropped off the appliances in the middle of the laundry room, and handed us hoses. And left. My husband and I looked at each other after he left, dumbfounded. We both were like, wasn't he supposed to install them? I called the company back, to question why didn't he install them. Apparently, delivery was free, but if they bring it into the house and supply the hoses, that's what they call "Full Service Installation." therefore, he did what he was supposed to and we were not entitled for a refund. I was pissed. Maybe don't use the word installation to people? He paid $75 for what we thought was installation, but really was just to wheel the things 10 yards into the house and putting hoses into our hands. Ugh. Would never purchase another used appliance from them again.

But anyway, he hooked up the washer and dryer, and I spend the whole day doing all my laundry. I love having clean clothes. And I love having my washer and dryer in my own apartment.

I started to knit a grocery bag caddy a while ago, and finally finished it in time for the appliances to get here. Was trying to pretty up my new laundry room, and it turned out pretty nice! I like it, and it holds a ton of bags in it. Didn't require much yarn, either. I am thinking that I'll revisit this pattern around Christmas, because they will make wonderful gifts.

The dryer doesn't go all the way to the wall because our vent is somewhat where it isn't supposed to be, so we have to have a tubing system of some kind back there, which won't let it go all the way back. It is kind of a tight squeeze in there, really only enough room to turn around in. I could, possibly move the wash machine back further,but my OCD wants them side by side. Add the cat litter box in this room, and it feels even smaller.

So pretty! Even with all the drama of that day they came, I love my washer and dryer!

Almost 5 Months

Amelia is a little over almost 5 months old today, so I think it is time for a little progress report.

We have been visiting the dog park almost every weekend now that she is fully vaccinated and healthy. She loves the dog park! She runs and plays with all the dogs, and is so exhausted when we get back to the car, which is awesome. Occasionally, we will run into a mean dog, but she will just run to try to get away. When we see it happen, we leash her and take her to another part of the park. I worried about her at first because it was a huge park, and I knew if she ran from me, I would never catch her. But, she is the one who never lets us out of her sight.

She has begun to lose her baby teeth as well! The other day, I had given her a bully stick, and had a bit of a freak put moment when I found blood on it, and on the carpet as well. I looked over her body, and found she had lost one of her larger, back teeth. After cleaning the mess, I later found the tooth on the floor (by stepping on it). As weird as it sounds, I was really excited to find one, so that I could keep it, yay! I think the majority of her teeth are her adult ones by now, she lost 2 of the sharp canine teeth, so now I think we only have the remaining top canines left to go.

We are doing loads better with her chasing the cats. We started training what I call "bad no cat, good no cat". I put a bunch of little treats in a small baby food jar, and pretty much kept it with me at all times. When a cat was walking by, and Amelia would stare at it, I would say "hey" or something similar to get her attention and look at me. When she turned her head to me, I would say "good no cat!" And give her a treat. My theory was that if I can praise her for looking away from the cat, she might see that as a not wanting to look at the cat?

It has been working really well so far. The other day, she was laying on the carpet with a toy, and a cat came up to her. I watched the entire encounter, waiting for Amelia to give chase, but she never did. The cat first started to sniff her tail, then her legs, and slowly sniffed up to her face, but Amelia never moved. When the cat started to walk away, I thew a huge "good no cat" party for her, and gave her an almost handful of treats for that one. I was so proud.

Occasionally, we will still have a "bad no cat", when she will start chasing one, or walk up to the cat, trying to mouth him. When that happens, I will tell her "bad no cat" and lead her into her crate. We only leave her there for about 5 or 10 minutes, then start the process again. We are getting it, bits at a time!

I have been wanting to try and wean her off of the crate at night. So a couple nights ago, we wanted to test her a bit We brought everything we could up off of the floor and out of reach, and closed the bedroom door off. My husband did not want her out at night because he was certain she would have an accident on the floor. My concerns were that she would find something to destroy while I was sleeping. She did a lot of getting on the bed and then getting back off, but eventually, she went into her crate by herself and slept there. We closed the crate up a little while afterwards. Confusing because she will whine for a while after we put her to bed, but she goes and sleeps by herself last night? I don't know.

We are slowly getting it with her. We have had our bad days, and our good days. Lately I feel like we have more good days than bad.

Nail Polish Collection

I used to chew on my nails for the majority of my life. It was really bad sometimes because I would chew them down so low that my nail beds would actually bleed. That isn't to mention the horrible, countless hang nails that I would get. After dealing with them for so many years, my new years resolution last year was to simply stop biting on my nails.

I went and got acrylic nails done, thinking it would help me. It kind of did. I did not bite on my nails, but having to pay $20 to get them done every couple of weeks was not going to do it for me. Besides, I wanted real nails. I vowed to let the acrylics grow out, and then work on strengthening my real nails.

Once I removed the fake nails, my real nails were incredibly weak. They were not even breaking because they were so weak, they were bending instead. They had the feel of a drinking straw. It was discouraging. I tried many different strengthening products, spent a lot of money on them. But what worked for me was moisturizing my cuticles with Burt's Bees Cuticle Balm, and the NailTek system. They slowly became stronger.

The biting itself was rather easy to stop, once I really set my mind to it. My theory was that if I kept my nails painted, I could pick off the polish, but not stick my fingers in my mouth. I figured, as long as I was picking polish off, I wasn't destroying my nails. It worked. Eventually, I stopped picking at my polish, and had no interest in biting my nails.

However, once I started buying nail polish, I had trouble stopping. There was always a color that I didn't have, a new collection I didn't have, or a creative glitter that I felt I needed. This lead to a huge explosion of nail polish that I accumulated.

Recently, I found that I had nail polish scattered through the house, and decided to take some time yesterday and reorganize them all back into my shelves. I was shocked at how much it grew since the last time I did this.

So now, I will give you all a peek into the most intimate part of my life... my nail polish collection. It has gotten so overwhelming in the past year and a half that I am almost embarrassed of it. But Anyway, here we go!

This is what a large portion of the nail polish community call a Melmer. It is basically a drawer storage system that they sell at Michael's and craft stores. I believe it is mainly supposed to be for scrapbooking storage, but it is fantastic size for nail polish bottles. I store all of mine in one of these.

It holds a lot! I really wanted a Helmer from Ikea, which is twice the size, but it would have cost a fortune to get it to me. I would have had it shipped to me.

Now, for a closer look into each drawer!

This is the first drawer, which I affectionately call "the fire drawer." Meaning, if the building catches on fire, or some other catastrophe happens, this is the drawer I would pull out and take with me to safety. It holds my more expensive polishes, my indies and other ones that are more difficult to get. Ones that I have ordered from Etsy (such as Different Dimension) and others which I had to jump through hoops to get delivered to the United States (like my A England's and Emily de Molly). A lot of these would be difficult to replace.

The second drawer is more common ones, ones I picked up on a whim, clearance or sales. There is a lot of China Glaze in here, because the Sally's Beauty Supply near me used to have good sales and I found them on clearance sometimes. I would pick up several at a time.

The last drawer simply is Julep and Essie polishes (and a couple other randoms that won't fit in the second drawer). I used to subscribe to the Julep Maven box, but found that the price of the polish was expensive compared to the size of the product you got. I much rather preferred their beauty products. Anyway, this drawer has the most room left because I strictly only buy Essie nail polish now. After all the brands I have tried and owned, I found that my nails will only allow Essie polish to stay on longer than a day. Everything else, does not last longer than 24 hours. I am told that my nails are too oily and won't keep nail polish on. So, the majority of nail polish I apply will just peel off in sheets.

Up on top of my drawers, are my accessories. I have a modpodge of everything up here. Cuticle pushers, nail files, a stamping kit that I never used, and even swatches. Also here are all my top coats, strengtheners, glossers, bonders and base coats.

So there you have it! While I was organizing everything and had all the polishes sitting on the table, both my husband and I was in disbelief. It is one thing to see them all tucked neatly under the bathroom sink in a set of drawers, but when they take up a huge portion of your dining room table, looking at you in the face, you view them a little differently. Hah!

Michelle's Baby Blanket

A friend of mine recently had a baby late last month. I was excited for her, but at the same time... a little jealous because of my lack of ability to have children (as some may know, my husband and I have been trying for almost a year now). She's one of my closest friends I have here, and she has done a lot for me. Such as, photographing my wedding, which was huge.

I don't like to knit for other people. Usually, you know I care about you if I knit something. I will knit the occasional sock for Christmas for a very close family member (Tyler got his first pair of socks last year), but I usually knit things for myself. It's difficult to explain why, though. Everything I make I feel like I put a ton of work into, and a lot of people don't realize how much work goes into knitting. That being said, I need to know that the people I gift handmade knitted items to will appreciate the work put into them.

Michelle has recently become one of the few in my "knitting gift" circle. She loves everything that she receives, has done so much for my husband and I, so I wanted to give something to her to celebrate the beginning of their new baby's life. I decided to make them a baby blanket!

The pattern is just a simple Old Shale pattern found in a stitch dictionary. I wanted to make her something that looked impressive, yet was easy enough to get done in a quick amount of time. I had started this a week before the baby was born, so it needed to be done... quick! I panicked, thinking I wasn't going to be done in time, but after a couple of days of really furious knitting, I finished. I didn't finish before the baby was born, but it was done when I saw her next.

Her and her husband chose not to know the gender of the baby, so I picked out a neutral yellow color. It turned out really pretty! And, she loved the blanket, which definitely made all the furious knitting worth it.

Amelia At 15 Weeks Progress

Amelia turned 15 weeks this week! She had her final set of puppy vaccinations on Friday, which I was excited about. Those are finally done, so we have been trying to take her out, finally on grass. We have been careful not to take her on strange grass, because I have been terrified about her contracting parvo, or even distemper.

We take her out to potty on the grass outside of our apartment, but when we go for walks elsewhere, we walk out in the street. Occasionally, I come across drivers who have an issue with it (like the grouchy woman who was determined to make her point that I should be on the sidewalk), but I imagine they don't realize that I have a reason for it. So the fact that we can start behaving like a normal dog walking family, and not some obsessing weirdo, is a good thing.

Anyway, we have been having issues with her having loose stools. Every time we visited the vet, we came home with some kind of medication. First it was some medicine that we had to give her in pill form, next, we were given some powder that we were to sprinkle on her food. Neither worked to hardened her stool up. Finally, I decided to switch her food. We switched from Nutro Max Large Breed Puppy to Purina ProPlan Large Breed Puppy. We changed food cold turkey because I thought... How much worse can her poop get? I was glad I did, because almost instantly, we had much more solid poops.

With all the medication she was being put on and the problems with her stool, I was also starting to get even more disappointed with our breeder. I had paid much more money for this puppy than I ever spent on an animal, I expected her to be healthy. However, apparently it was my fault for feeding her food that she didn't like! Oops!

We have successfully got her potty trained with a bell, which is really exciting because that was my number one thing I wanted. I did not want a dog that had accidents in the house. As much as I complained about her "not getting it" when it came to potty training, I think I was extremely lucky in how quickly she picked it up (as opposed to those who struggle for months with potty training). Now that we have been training other things, such as sit and stay, I am coming to the conclusion that yes, she is also very smart. We now know sit, stay, and on occasion, down. We make her sit and stay for food, any kind of treat she gets, and even before we open the door to come in the house from a walk. It has been a difficult road to train her, but I am determined! So far, it has been worth it.

Power Supply Replacement

About a week and a half ago, my husband turned on the computer to play his most recent favorite game, Elder Scrolls Online. He came out to fix me a cup of iced tea. When he was handing it to me, we both heard what sounded like a electrical explosion coming from the other room. We both looked at each other and ran into the bedroom to see what the noise was.

What greeted us was a smell of some kind of burnt plastic or electrical wires. And hey, the computer was off. Nor would it even turn on. It was a huge heart-sink, because just a few days prior - we lost our television due to a cat knocking it off the stand and the screen completely cracked. The only thing left in my head was: What more could go wrong?

Tyler bought a new power supply for it, and yesterday, it finally arrived. He was concerned that when the power supply went out, it took other parts of the computer with it, so I was nervous to put it in, just because I didn't know what I was getting into, and how much damage was really done.

This is my older power supply. I had bought it about the the time when I upgraded my graphics card, several years ago. The graphics card that I got required a higher wattage than what my computer came with. As you can see from the broken piece where the power cord goes, we've been having a few issues with it prior to it going out. I should have known something was going to happen, huh?

I don't remember it being so complicated when I put in the old one! A lot of cords, needing to go to many different places. And a lot of unused cords. Sheesh! But, eventually we got everything plugged in and successfully working. (Although it looks like the DVD drive was a casualty from the the power supply going out - it doesn't open or work anymore).

And, a last peek at the running computer before I closed it up! I was so excited that the damage wasn't more extensive (and expensive) than what it was. Whew!

I took several photos of Amelia puppy last night, so be looking out for those in the next few days!

DIY Frozen Dog Treats

I bought a rather large container of yogurt for mixing into a rubber Kong toy as a treat for her. However, it is quickly coming up to it's expiration date, and I still have half of it left. I wanted to find something that would be good for my puppy, that would use up more of this yogurt.

Looking around Pinterest (what was my life like without Pinterest, jeez!), I came across this recipe. I tried it as written, but found that I didn't really like how it turned out. I had purchased a really cute dog bone silicone mold from Kitchen Collections when I got my bone cookie cutters, so I was really excited to finally get to use them.

Anyway, this is what I came out with. They are cute, though obviously not as cute as the person who originally came up with them. But I tried. I can't really place what I didn't like about doing them this way though. Maybe because I froze them overnight, and the peanut butter was still not frozen? I had to take them out and place them on a plate to get completely frozen. Maybe I wasn't fond of doing the extra step of microwaving the peanut butter? I don't know.

I took the idea of these and just made a small change to make it work better for me. I used the same ingredients I had used prior, peanut butter, plain fat free yogurt, and my silicone mold.

I just took a spoonful of peanut butter, and maybe two spoonfuls of the yogurt, and mixed them together. That's the only deviation that I took, which made it much easier for my lazy self.  Less messy too!

Spoon it into the mold. Now, I just kind of dropped it in there. Next time I will maybe jiggle the mold or tap the bottoms of the mold a bit to get the mixture to settle all the way down. And yes, I realize that my mold is messy and weird looking, but hey... once they are done, you won't see all that ugly, right?? Wipe off any excess that isn't even with the mold. I just swiped a butter knife across the top.

Place the mold in the freezer over night.

The next day, pop them out of the molds and this is what you get! Store them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer until ready to give to your dog.

These turned out nice, I think. Amelia loves peanut butter and goes crazy for yogurt, so naturally, she loves these! Of course, I had hoped that she would make them last longer, but as soon as I give them to her, they are gone. Still makes a good summer treat for her when we come in from a walk though.

DIY Lotion Bars

I am finally getting through the pictures that I took for my visit in California! I'm still working on the majority of them, but I also did some DIY projects while I was there. It was much easier to do these beauty DIY things, because my family there literally had most of the stuff on hand. While, I, usally have to buy a lot of the stuff I want to DIY on Pinterest.

So, one thing I did while I was there was made some Lotion Bars. I was eyeballing this recipe forever on Pinterest, and we decided to make some. I took some photos along the way. I probably quickly became the family weirdo, taking photos of the process of making lotion bars. Hah.

Here's the ingredients we used. Not pictured, but we also used grape seed oil. I had forgotten to include it in the photo. Anyway, grape seed oil, unrefined coconut oil, essential oils (we had Lavender and Vanilla), beeswax, vitamin E oil, and jojoba oil. You'll also need a cupcake pan. We were not sure if this recipe was going to ruin her cupcake tins, so just to be safe, we picked up one from the local Goodwill for 25 cents.

Finding the beeswax was a chore. We had tried Joann's - they didn't carry it. Michaels normally carried it, but they were sold out. We ended up at a local health food store, where they finally had it, sold by the pound. We only picked up half a pound of it, which was plenty for us.

First thing we did was create a double boiler with a large pot and some Pyrex container that she had in her kitchen. It worked out well!

You'll want to mix equal parts together:

• 1/2 cup of grape seed oil
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of the beeswax pellets

Wait for the mixture to melt completely in the double boiler, which for us, took about 10 or 15 minutes. Once it's a pure liquid, you'll want to add your essential oils, and other things. We did a couple of drops of vanilla and lavender together, then about a teaspoon of each Vitimin E oil, and jojoba oil. Mix it together again, and have the cupcake pan ready.

Start pouring into your cupcake tins! It will probably be messy, and it will be hot! Mine was a mess, but you can't really tell now. I poured mine straight into the cupcake pan, but my particular family member poured hers into cupcake liners that she put in the tins. It's just a matter of preference. I've seen it done with soap molds, and silicone molds.

Once they are in the tins, allow to cool completely. I put mine in the refrigerator for about 3 hours. Once hardened, they just popped out of the tin with a little nudge from a butter knife. The 1/2 pound of beeswax we got made about 16 bars, which was not bad at all. My family kept 6, and sent the rest back home with me.

A few notes:

• These can be really greasy for a while after application. I personally love them right after drying off from a shower, I just wipe the bars on my body and get dressed. My family member, however finds them too greasy, so she applies it before drying off, which works better for her.
• Next time I make these, I think I will sprinkle some lavender buds on the bottom of the mold, so they have a bit more flair in appearance.

Amelia's Vet Trip and Progress

On Friday, our Miss Amelia puppy had her second set of vaccinations, as well as her well-puppy visit with our veterinarian. She was the star of the visit that day, when we walked in, everyone was "aww-ing" at her, as it happens with every where we go lately. She has gained over 3 pounds with us, putting her at 15 pounds now. I had some concerns with her, such as her loose stools, really horrible gas, and the vet informed me that if she wasn't dewormed at the breeder's, it's probably due to her having worms. He noticed other signs of her having worms, such as a pot belly. She got a deworming then and there. When we got home, her first stool afterward, had a big worm in it! I was so freaked out, that something like that can literally live in another creature. Blech! Anyway, we got her started on Frontline, and heartworm medication.

We are still trying really hard to house break her. She has to go out every 15 minutes... religiously, otherwise she will pee on the carpet. We haven't had a poo accident in the house in about a week, so that's progress, I think. The bell training is getting better, slightly. We no longer have to ring the bells for her, she rings them on her own, but only after we are standing next to them telling her "Amelia, ring your bells!" It wasd only last night that out of nowhere, she rang them 3 times on her own (once to pee, once to poo, and once to just annoy me and get me back outside). But since those three times, nohting. I feel like she's not associating the bells with potty, but more of "they are getting shoes on, I should ring the bells". We are still working with her though.

On Friday, we got the all clear from our vet that she's okay with going on walks, as long as we stay on the sidewalk. I have been super-paranoid about parvo and other viruses that come from unknown dogs, that she has literally been confined to the grass right outside our aparment. So, after the walk-ok, we have been taking her out of the complex, and walking in the middle of the street. We can at least now, start training for the loose leash walking. It was horrible at first, but now it's getting better. No longer am I dragging her, but she walks near me... trying to eat every rock and mystery substance she can find on the ground.

She also got a taste of her first Kong yesterday. I stuffed it with a mix of plain yogurt and some of her kibble, tossed it in the freezer for a few hours, and let her at it. She loved it. It entertained her for several hours, until she finally got frustrated that she couldn't get the remaining kibble in the middle. She then growled at it, and walked away in a huff.

She is a cute puppy, and all things considered, she is well behaved and smart. She did really well at the veterinarian, slept on the table, didn't care what they were doing to her. She is learning many things (mainly how to get us to cater to her), so I can't complain too much, I suppose. She's very attention-getting with whoever she meets, including the neighbors. Every time the neighbors see her out, they rush up to give her pets and love.

We are trying, and we are desperately trying to get better with her. Getting her was my realization that I'm not going to be able to have children, and bringing her home was our version of adopting a furry child. And she is just that, a baby. She needs constant supervision, potty time every 15 minutes, middle of the night potty time, and she definitely needs the attention a baby needs. The only time I can get things done, is while she is sleeping!

Bringing Amelia Home

On Tuesday, I came back from visiting family in California. I had a fantastic time there, visiting Fort Bragg, shopping in Sacramento, eating all my favorite foods that Tyler doesn't like, and spending time with family. I took so many pictures there, close to 300, but I'll save that for a couple posts in the future. For now, Amelia!

Towards the end of my vacation, I started to make plans with Amelia's breeder to pick her up. Turned out, we didn't have to wait until that Saturday, like we originally thought. We ended up picking her up Tuesday evening. It was a huge day for me, I had woken up at 1:45am, left the place I was staying at at 2:30am to catch a 6:15am flight. After traveling all morning, I arrived back in Iowa at around 1:30 in the afternoon. I had made plans to pick up Amelia at six that same evening. We made the two hour drive back to my home, dropped off my luggage, and we were off again.

I was exhausted. Regardless, e drove up to LeMars, and picked her up. She came to us with her AKC paperwork, unbathed (and completely dirty from being in an outside kennel with her littermates), and without the small package of the kibble she was currently on, for easy switching to her new food. After a tiring day, I was getting grouchy and at that point, just wanted to go home. Maybe the situation wasn't as bad as I perceive it to be, I was just cranky? Don't know.

I held her the entire way home, and as we got off of the freeway to come back home... she got carsick, and threw up all over me, herself, and the car. It was a mess. By the time we pulled into the parking lot to the apartment, I was practically falling asleep.

While I took Amelia into the building, and cleaned her up, Tyler cleaned up the car (personally, I think he got the worst end of that stick). Then I showered, and let her explore the apartment. A little while later, she got her bath, dried off, and we went to bed.

She's extremely active a majority of the time, and whenever I try to get my camera out to take pictures, she runs up and sticks her snout in the lens. I feel like I can never get good photos of her. I made a serious effort this morning, and finally got a couple.

Crate training the first night, went really well. We went to be around 11pm, she only whined for less than 2 minutes, then was out like a light. She woke up again around three in the morning to potty, and again around five. By seven, she was up for the day. And apparently, so was I.

She'd started to get really good with her crate. The night before last, she went in with no whining, no nothing. Just laid down and slept. Last night, however... was not a good night. She went in, and cried for about 5 minutes. Really loud, obnoxious crying. We were unimpressed. Once she settled down, she was up every hour, on the hour, ready to potty... whining for about 5 minutes each time after being put back in her crate. I felt bad for our upstairs neighbor who had to listen to that.

When she comes out of her crate every morning, she is an absolute terror. Of course, I expected some of it. But, I guess it has been too long since I had a puppy, I've forgotten most. This morning, we have decided to take her out on a walk around the complex to get out some of the pent-up energy from the crate. That was huge fail in itself. The whole walk was me literally just dragging her down the street because she refused to walk on the leash. Loose leash walking training is coming next.

We are doing terrible with potty training too. In the mornings, she give us absolutely no notice of when it will happen, and just squats to pee right on the carpet (hence, trying to take her for a walk), usually standing right in front of me. We are attempting to bell train her (having her ring a bell hanging from the doorknob whenever she wants to go outside), but she isn't getting it, and I think the bells are more scary for her than anything. So, she doesn't ring it by herself.

I watch her like a hawk every day while Tyler is at work, we go out as soon as she wakes up from a nap, which really helps with the accidents on the carpet, but I'm getting slightly annoyed that she's not even associating the bells with going outside at this point. I expected her to at least be acknowledging them by now. But she's not. I know it's not her fault, but we do this every single time we go outside, I am not sure what else to do.

We joke that my husband is her personal chew toy, because she is always latching onto his hand, jumping up to his face when he is sitting down. But, I think this is a bigger issue than what it appears to be (he has never had a dog before, so I'm not sure he knows how to act with a dog, at all). I feel like both Amelia, and Tyler need some training on how to act with each other.

Yes, I understand that she is a puppy, this is to be expected. We have only had her a little less than one week, and we still have loads of training to do. However, I feel like I have all the bad puppy traits to deal with, and no enjoyment out of owning a dog. So please, don't mind my venting here.

Amelia at 5 Weeks

Tired of all the puppy things yet? Amelia is pretty much the going thing in my life right now, and we will be bringing her home in less than 3 weeks. So, we have been trying to accumulate as much stuff as we can, and be as ready as we can be for her.

The day I've been waiting for - the 6 week old visit arrived yesterday. Actually, it was a 5 week old visit for us, because I'll be leaving for California tomorrow, and won't be around to see her at 6 weeks. The breeder was nice enough to let us come visit her early. Last time we visited her, was at a week old, she didn't even have her eyes open, or was able to hear us. But, we still picked her out that day.

As soon as we pulled up and walked up to the pen, I knew which one was my puppy almost immediately (because of the white on her chest). The litter of puppies were all so cute! Wagging their little tails as we walked up, wanting all kinds of pets.

I'll be honest. The breeder had sent me pictures of her weekly, and in the last batch of photos, I had been noticing one of her eyes looked a little strange, like it wasn't aligning up with the other eye. After googling this problem, it lead to me thinking it might be a medical issue that I'll need to address.

First thing I did was pick her up and look at her eyes. They looked normal to me! That in itself made the trip up there worth it. Definitely a worry off of my shoulders, so I was happy. She's so adorable!

Before we left, my photographer friend taught me some basics on how to use my Nikon D3200, because I had no clue how to use it for nicer-photos. I am so grateful for her time in teaching me more about my camera, because it really made a difference in the quality of them! (Can you believe I actually shot all these photos in manual mode?!) Of course, I know I still need a lot of practice, but these looked so much better than what I was taking before!

I was REALLY paranoid about her eyes. I wanted to look at her from all angles to see her eyes. Tyler had told me to not worry about the eyes, that it was probably just the angle of the camera. I wanted to make sure. But, in actuality, even if she did have something going on with her eye, I'd probably be just as in love with her as I am now. I am already very emotionally invested in her.

Anyway. I look at this photo and already see a wise soul in there. I think all golden retrievers have that look.

Probably my most favorite photo of them all. Tyler held her so I could get pictures of her, and when she started chewing on his face, I just went and snapped photos as much as I could, and this was one of those in that series. Definitely doesn't look like she had just been munching on his chin, right?

I was also following her around with the camera, taking as many pictures as I could, of every moved she made. I know she's going to grow so fast, I didn't want to miss anything yesterday. I also won't be seeing her for 3 weeks, when we pick her up. I wanted memories and photos to bring home with me. We were probably with her for a good 45 minutes. I took about 100 photos yesterday.

Bonus video! Please don't mind the shakiness, my ugly voice, or the fact that the camera was zoomed in way to close, and not focused enough the whole time. I'm practicing my photo skills right now, not my video skills!