It's a girl!

We are officially sleep-deprived new parents. Our new Devon Rex baby, Callie, came home during Spring Break and we immediately commenced spending every spare moment trying to keep Shelby from using her as a chew toy. Shelby thinks she is the greatest puppy toy EVER so it's been a huge challenge to keep them separated, especially since Callie loves to play "swat the doggie on the nose with razor sharp kitty claws and see what happens." So far there have been no major altercations but we're missing all of our TV shows these days because we have to keep an eye on them every second.

Easter in a can

I saw the can idea on Pinterest. You open a pop top can from the bottom, fill it with candy and small items and seal it up with a glue gun. The kids get to pop the top and be surprised with the goodies inside. I used small items from the Dollar Store and the white and brown rabbits from Graphics Fairy. The tag on the back says Happy Easter and includes a warning that the edges will be sharp. It's awesome having neighbor kids... I can see them whenever I want and they do an excellent job of tiring out the doggy when we're too busy to walk her.

A lazy weekend

So much for posting every day. I spent Saturday having what Martha Beck refers to as a Minimum Day and what I usually call a Cat Day. Either way, it wasn't a productive get-things-done sort of day although I did take a shower and go to the grocery store with Mr. W. I got a lot of rest and watched way too many hours of true crime TV while Chelsea dozed on my lap. I'm pretty sure she misses having another cat in the house and I'm really trying hard to get her a little sister.

In other non-news, I cooked up several gluten-free vegan dishes on Sunday but the one I was counting on for lunches during the week came out way too spicy for me. I have a lot to learn about using seasoning in moderation, apparently. (I can say this because I've made this exact same thing at least 4 - 5 times before and it turned out perfectly. Who knows what I was thinking this time.)

Now it's time to get back into the workweek swing of things and not let that time change wreck my schedule. Go team!

Spring cleaning

I'm happy to report that many lost things have been found and many drawers are organized, plus there are large piles of clothes to donate and a giant bag of trash to go out. It feels good to tackle previously chaotic spaces.

The joys of dog ownership - now with more poop!

Our precious little bundle of joy has always been a champion pooper. One of the reasons her original family gave her up was because of training issues. They pad trained her but she would play around with her poop, which was a contributing factor in their decision to find her a new home. On a day like yesterday when we walked in the door for lunch and our entire house had little puddles of dried poop marks all over the floor, we remind ourselves that if she was perfect she wouldn't be ours.

As it happens, when we go home for lunch it takes 15 minutes to get there and 15 to get back (assuming no delays of any kind) so we have a quick half hour to heat something up and wolf it down. My 30 minute lunch plans did not include having to muzzle Shelby and pop her in the tub but I managed. She yelped like I was killing her but all I really did was use the shower sprayer to wash off her butt. (Thank you - I know this story is fascinating!) Once I got done she was no longer skulking around with her tail down like she was in pain and I had something to look forward to after work - cleaning and disinfecting the floors. Luckily we confine her to the hardwood and tiled portion of the house when we leave and luckily she didn't get up on the couches or the bed so it could have been much worse. It's probably time to invest in a doggie door and a system that will keep the cat in. I'm looking at the PX 1 Power Pet (sliding door version) and am pretty sure I've found my next Smarty Pig goal.

Move more, eat less

So let's see... yesterday I did a little cardio, worked on my shadowbox project in the garage and the invitation for the wedding and watched a whole lot of 30 Rock. Oh yeah - I also threw together a red lentil stew so I would have a healthy lunch option on hand this week because I'm faithfully logging all of my food on My Fitness Pal. It's working out great, motivationally. Now that I actually see how constant snacking on the weekends adds up, I'm much more likely to either make healthier choices or have a dialog with my inner bottomless pit about why I think I'm hungry.

I'm also loving Martha Beck's book The Four Day Win. She's given me a whole new way of looking at my food issues and for the first time ever, I'm actually going to do the exercises in a self help book. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

Hometown tourist

While Mom was here last month we went to the Miami Seaquarium. I figured it's about time I visited the place since I've lived here 25 years and have never been. It was pretty cool and we got splashed by a 7,000 pound killer whale. It's always nice to get a bonus shower for delicate electronic instruments like the camera and our iPhones while watching the show.

February Arts and Crafts

It's after the fact but here are the Valentine's Day treats I made for the neighbor kids. They're designed to cut off a pair of chocolate kisses each day to count down to the 14th - or just open them up and eat them all in one sitting like I would do.

Project number two: one Saturday I was watching Season 3 of Downton Abbey without a break and made this kissing booth for Shelby. It took a lot of peanut butter to convince her to sit in it but everyone who saw her wanted to kiss her. 

March. Already.

Last month you didn't hear from me because I was very busy with the following:

1. An awesome visit with Mom, who came down from California for a long weekend that encompassed Mr. Wonderful's birthday, complete with a party.
2. My struggle to lose and regain the same two pounds I've been battling since last fall.
3. A wedding I'm thrilled to be helping with that may challenge my typical "wait until the last minute to do actual work" system.
4. The overflowing garage with (conservative estimate) at least ten projects going at once. I am simultaneously refinishing furniture, making shadowbox banks, etching favors for above-mentioned wedding, prepping wine bottles for glass cutting and making Easter gifts for the neighbor kids. 

In my spare time I've been hitting the thrift stores so I'm also thinking of featuring some good finds here just for fun now and then.

So there you have it - a whole lot of stuff and now that March and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) has rolled around again, I will be back to daily updates. Rest assured there are doggie pictures to post and stories to tell.

Grateful

Yesterday evening I grabbed Shelby and set out on a walk around the circle in our neighborhood. It's 2.75 miles and my calf muscles were definitely protesting about a third of the way in. Neither Shelby nor I have been walking any long distances lately so she started giving me THE LOOK which involves her flattening herself on the grass next to the sidewalk and looking at me oh-so-pitifully in the hope that I might pick her up and carry her. Since she weighs 13 pounds now and the walk was already no picnic for me, I just pretended I didn't notice her pleading puppy eyes. At the about the half-way point our next door neighbor came by on a golf cart. This neighbor is the one Shelby stays with sometimes when we're away so she loves his entire family madly. He offered to take her home on the cart so I loaded her up onto the passenger seat, gave her a treat and off they went.

When I got home, the cart was parked at our other neighbor's house and Shelby was hanging out with them all. I didn't think anything of it until Mr. W came out of the house looking very serious. Apparently the two five year-olds that live on either side of us had taken Shelby inside (without knocking) and failed to close the door properly. They politely inquired of Jeff whether they could have a tour of our home and he was keeping an eye on them. Shelby decided to go back outside and pushed the door wide open in the process. Jeff saw the open door, looked around for Chelsea and couldn't find her anywhere. He came out to get me and I quietly tried to quell the panic as we looked EVERYWHERE for her and couldn't find her. She's afraid of strangers, has never been outside and is declawed. Finally I found her crouched behind the printer on the sliding shelf under the desk in the office. Of course she didn't acknowledge that we had been running around calling her name for twenty minutes and of course I hugged her as hard as possible and gave her extra treats. Rotten cat.