Lesson 114: Dog Park 2.0

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone. Tyler and I kicked off our mini vacation with a trip to the dog park. I love this park. It is HUGE! and really well kept up.

Max chasing his tennis ball.

 Ruby running. Tyler says she looks like a squirrel.

 You can kind of see in this picture Ruby's running method. She is so top heavy her back legs fly up in the air when she runs.

 Meet Duff. He was more than happy to play with Max and Ruby's tennis ball.

 Luckily for Ruby he tired out pretty quickly.

 This is one of my favorite shots of the day. Max the flying chiweenie.

 It was a hot sunny day but off in the distance we could see a storm coming on.

 Ruby the hot tater tot

 Max made friends with a pit bull/mastiff and a Samoyed. The white dog looked so much like a little teddy bear :)

 Max does not mind running with the big dogs. Ruby spent most of this time hanging close to Tyler.

 Can you spot Max?

 There he is cooling off in the shade



There is also a playground. Most, if not all, of these structures were made by girl scouts!

 Max has a future in agility

 Ruby on the other hand is still a little afraid

Awwwwww

 Max and Ruby venturing off into some side trails.

 Tyler trying to get Ruby to sit...

 Tyler making Ruby sit. She is not a fan of being told to sit.



Lesson 113: When in doubt posts pics of dogs

There has been quite a bit going on including a Petapalooza, Nerf gun war, and date nights... but I did not take pictures... so here are pics of dogs. Enjoy!



(Benny)





Lesson 112: The surprisingly short life and times of the hybrid dress

This morning I finished the hybrid dress. This dress is a combination of the bodice from a full skirted dress and a pencil skirt. I will remind you of my original sketch idea I made to show Tyler:  

I think it turned out pretty good. There is a side invisible zipper and a small slit in the back.

Here is The Surprisingly Short Life and Times of the Hybrid Dress: I finished the dress this morning. Put it on. Drove to work. Got great compliments from co-workers. Stood up to better show my handy work. Sat down and RIIIIIIIP. Even people who have not had this happen directly to them know the heart stopping horror that comes from this noise. It is akin to stepping down on your foot wrong and rolling your ankle. This pinpoint instant where the power to go back in time would be kind of helpful. I had a 5 inch rip up the back of my beautiful new dress only 5 minutes into my work day. Luckily my sister lives nearby and delivered one of her dresses for me to borrow.

When I was able to change into a new dress and inspect the damage I found that it was not the seam that busted, but in fact the actual fabric had torn! This may make my booty sound... voluptuous, but the point is that it was not me sewing skills that did the dress in!

That made me feel better for a bit. I am not sure how to repair the tear...

 I really love the lower picture of Max. He just has the skill of timing when it comes to goofy photos.

Last weekend I did yard work in the gorgeous Saturday sun and Ruby discovered she loves to dig in the dirt. You can kind of see her dirt smudged pug mug. This was taken about 5 minutes before bath time.

 Max enjoyed the sun too :)

Lesson 111: Heavenly Father Answers Prayers... and take whatever you get

From Divine inspiration I thought it would be a good idea to perhaps pray for help with trimming Ruby's nails (see Lesson 109). Even if something seems like a small matter, if it is important to us then it is important to Him. I have been praying please help Tyler and me to figure out how we can trim Ruby's nails!!

This morning I picked Ruby up and clipped 2 nails and gave her a treat... then she wigged out. A short while later I was able to trim one more nail before her melt down. :) It is a small victory and I most certainly will celebrate!

Last night Tyler downloaded an app that is called the ugly tester or something close to that name. You take your picture and it says how ugly... or attractive you are. Tyler and I both received crying pigs, which I suppose means we are unattractive. We then took a picture of Ruby who was awarded cool pigs. Once again I have not idea what this means but the assumption is that she is good looking. I can't say I disagree, just look at this face....

Lesson 110: Step 2...You just ate a tub of ice cream, how do you feel about that?

Today marks my third day of Step 2 in the Sugar Addicts Guide to Total Recovery. You will remember step one was making sure to eat protein for breakfast everyday. I can proudly say I have been able to accomplish this task successfully so far. Step 2 is journaling everything you eat.

As a veteran of weight watchers I have quite a bit of experience meticulously weighing and measuring each bite, lick and sip. While on the WW program this worked fantastically.... now, a couple years later the idea of not being able to just eat when and what I want frankly annoys the heck out of me. Leave me alone points tracker! You don't know me! I even considered hanging out on step one for a few more days to avoid progressing on to step 2. 

Remembering that I have made a commitment to give this 7 step method to recovery my full force effort I began logging. It is not too bad. For this program I don't have to count calories and measurements. I am simply writing everything down, how I feel physically, and how I feel emotionally, pretty simple. What I have learned so far is that a piece of paper does not judge you. There is no point in lying to a piece of paper about what I ate for dinner because in all honesty the paper just does not care. Neither does the pen I am using to write down my diet. And they don't talk to each other when your back is turned about how dang girl, she really should not have had that brownie. :)

Unfortunately I still can not really tell if anything has changed as far as my sugar cravings and moodiness because Tyler and I have been sick with the dreaded head cold for the past 3 days. It is amazing how something as simple as a runny nose and sore throat can cause a full grown adult to curl in a ball with the dogs and have absolutely no desire to move ever again.

I believe tomorrow will begin the journey on to step 3... Protein with every meal bum bum bummmm

Lesson 109: The nightmare that is trimming pug nails...

Ruby does not like having her nails trimmed. There is not reason for it. I have never hit her quick. Max does just fine getting his nails worked over. Distract him with a bit of bread and he becomes my submissive little batdog.

RUBY on the other hand wants NOTHING to do with me and my torture tool. Tyler and I have tried everything we can think of! Ruby Kinkaroo has even been rejected from the vet for being too crazy.

Trimming Ruby's nails has included:
Tyler holds her and feeds her bread while I trim: FAIL
I put a sweater on her to calm her down: FAIL
We cover her eyes: FAIL...she took the timmers away from me at this point and hid them under her belly as she lay in the corner
Do it while she is sleeping: ONE NAIL TRIMMED
Take her to the Vet: ONE PAW TRIMMED AND THEN REJECTED
Wear Ruby out on walks and then trim: FAIL
Put her in a bath and trim while she is focusing on being wet: FAIL
Get her used to the clippers being around but don't use them: FAIL

The idea of a sedative has been tossed around but I am not a fan of this method. My pug I had growing up eventually had to take something to calm him down for a nail trim and he was mush the entire day. A dog's life is already short enough. I don't want to waste her days with being a zombie-pug.

She does not mind you touching her paws and playing with her toes. Once she sees those clippers come near her it is GAME ON. She flails her entire body to the point where you worry you will drop her, she will hurt herself or as the vet experienced she was turning BLUE! (How a pug mug turns blue I have no idea but if someone could do it it would be Ruby.) We have a joke that Ruby does not want us to cut her nails because she is a girlie pug and likes her long nails. I am worried we will not be able to get these nails clipped and the quick will start to grow. HELP!

The pictures for the post have nothing to do with anything. They are just pictures I have that I have not yet used :)