{day TWENTY-FIVE} the DOGS

Dustin asked me when I was going to do a grateful post about our dogs, Sammie {L} and Tod {R}.  And since I'm very grateful for Dustin, I decided to follow through with his request.

I'm not a die-hard dog lover, but I don't loathe them like some people.

There are elements to being a dog owner that I can't stand.  But, there are things that I enjoy too.  Particularly, when Dustin is on business trips and I'm home alone with Isabelle.  I'm grateful that the dogs are there to bark their brains out if someone comes to the door.

I don't consider myself a paranoid person by any means; however, I do feel a sense of security when I go to bed at night knowing that Sammie and Tod will lose all control should they hear anyone near or in our house.  These creatures bark at the wind, so they'd certainly bark at a strange person coming into our house.

They've even comforted me one time after I watched an episode of Medium when I was home alone.

So, yes, in some small way I am grateful for Sammie and Tod.  They may look harmless, but when it comes to people in the house they are fearless.  :)

INSTAGRAM wednesdays: SUMMER memory

It's officially summertime!  Last year, Isabelle fell asleep on the stairs while wearing her swimsuit.  It is probably my favorite memory from last year.  I just had to share it again.

I also love how Sammie {the dog} is just staring at her, as if to say, "I'm the only one allowed to sleep on the stairs."

S is for SO, ANYWAY

Do you ever have days that throw you total curve balls?  I tend to have days like that.  I'll prepare to do one thing, and then something completely different happens that throws the entire day off.

We had a day like that yesterday.

It all started when Dustin decided to take our dog Tod for a walk.  We had had a lazy morning so far, and I was still in all of my morning time glory - bed head, PJs, etc.  Anyway, as Dustin was stepping out the front door with Tod, our other dog Sammie decided she wanted to go too.  She ran out of the house NOT on a leash.  Dustin and I immediately went into panic mode because when Sammie gets loose it's a process getting her back.  With cheese in hand, Dustin went back outside and I came out to help.  Isabelle and Tod were left inside.  I closed the door behind me and immediately realized I had locked us out.  Right before Sammie escaped, Dustin had locked the door and I didn't know.

"Do you have keys?"  I said.

"Yes."  I stopped panicking.

We caught Sammie and started to head to the door.  Dustin tried the knob.  It was still locked.

"You said you had keys."

"I thought you said cheese."

Crap, we were locked out with our daughter inside.

Luckily, our neighbor was out and about, so we used his phone to call a locksmith.  As usual, they said it would "be awhile."  I suggested we call the police since Isabelle was in the house.  So, we called the cops and they agreed to come out to help, but when they got there they said all they could do was kick the door down.  I didn't want to have to pay for a new door, so that wasn't an option.  Plus, it would've scared Isabelle to death and I wasn't willing to put her through such trauma.

So, the cop called another locksmith that said they could come out in about 15 minutes.  Our only choice was to just wait.

In the meantime, I was talking to Isabelle through our window right by the door.  Thankfully, it is low to the ground so she was able to see us and we her.  I tried over and over to get her to unlock the door, but, of course, she had no idea what to do.

The locksmith arrived and within minutes, we were back in our house.  Isabelle had quite the adventure with some leftover Easter basket grass.  I think she enjoyed her time alone and I was so grateful to be back in the house I didn't mind having to clean it all up.

After we paid the locksmith, we tried to go about the rest of our day as planned.  It was such a "so, anyway" moment I couldn't help but laugh.

P.S. Isabelle now knows how to unlock the door.

you LITERALLY can't make this STUFF UP

I have a love/hate relationship with the local news in Utah, specifically the news on KSL.  I love watching it because some of the stories they consider Top News or Breaking News is just insane.  And I hate it for the exact same reason.

The other day, I learned about a man that had been shot in the butt by his dog.  It was the Top Story on the KSL website.  Little did I know, a major windstorm was heading in my direction, and nowhere did I find a front page article about that.  But, that's besides the point.

Anyway, as I read this article, I was reminded of my favorite TV comedy show, 30 Rock.  In the episode 2.6, "Somebody to Love" Jack (Alec Baldwin), who is a staunch Republican, falls for a Democratic congresswoman, C.C. (played by guest star Edie Falco).  After a spontaneous evening together, Jack learns C.C. originally got into politics after her neighbor's dog shot her in the face, requiring her to have many reconstructive surgeries.  He also learns that her "getting shot in the face story" was made into a Lifetime Original Movie called A Dog Took My Face And Gave Me a Better Face to Change the World: The Celeste Cunningham Story.

Hilarious.

If you're not watching 30 Rock, which could be because NBC is playing Whitney (gag) instead, the new season starts on January 12th.  If you're a fan of shows like Arrested Development or New Girl and aren't already a fan of 30 Rock, you'll probably like it.  Give it a chance.  If How I Met Your Mother or Mike & Molly is more your style, I don't think you'd like 30 Rock.  But, you never know.  Give it a try!

After all, their episodes do mirror real life events.

Here's a video clip of Jack watching C.C.'s movie.

according to INSTAGRAM

My life according to Instagram...

the OTHER DOG

Today's thought is about my dog Tod.

Back in 2006,  Dustin and I figuratively found Tod at our front door.  We had just come home from work and Tod was running aimlessly around our neighborhood, staying unusually close to our house.  He seemed to be okay, so we didn't think much of it.  Later that night, however, he  was still close by, and he didn't seem to want to go home.  Because of his dark fur, Dustin worried if he stayed out all night he would eventually get hit by a car.  So, we brought him into our house for the night and planned to find his owners the next day.

Amazingly, Tod (we called him just "the dog" at the time) hit it off with our own dog Sammie.  The two acted like they were separated at birth and got along very, very well.

That night, we put Tod and Sammie in our kitchen and closed the doorway off with a baby gate.  No sooner had Dustin and I gotten into bed, we heard a noise coming from the kitchen.  It was Tod.  He had jumped the gate and came into our bedroom.  And jumped on our bed.  Apparently, he wanted to sleep with us.  It was so hilarious and we were pretty stunned he had the ability to jump the gate like that.

So, Sammie and Tod slept in our bed that night.  Just the ONE time.


(And every other night since then).

The next day, after work, Dustin drove Tod to the humane society to see if they could tell him if he had a microchip or give us any sort of help with how to find the owners.  Apparently, you're not suppose to do that, at least that was the impression the lady with the humane society gave Dustin when she slammed the door in his face when he tried to enter the building.

Okay, on to plan B.

Next, we put together fliers and hung them all around our neighborhood and at the local businesses.  We also took Tod to the vet to see if they could find a chip in him.  But, unfortunately, he didn't have a chip and no one ever called us to claim their dog.  It was really frustrating, especially since we were planning to move out of state in just weeks.

Eventually, we decided to keep him.  We worried about his other owners and wondered if Tod really even wanted to be with us.  But, we wanted to do what was best for him, and in our mind this was it.

We figured we needed to give him a name.  After all, calling him "the other dog" wasn't the best name.  We thought and thought about names, but nothing felt right.  Then, one day, Dustin said, "How about we name him Tod? You know, as in The Other Dog.  T.O.D."

It was the perfect name!

One day, not long after the decision was made to keep him, he got out of our house.  I was home alone and as soon as he got loose I started to chase after him.  He was so fast that I lost sight of him almost immediately.  I was panicking and did everything I could to find him, but he just seemed to vanish.

Shortly thereafter, Dustin came home and I told him what had happened.  He started to roam the neighborhood too, but I was losing hope that we would find him.

Then, to my surprise, Dustin found him.  He was on the soccer field at a school near our house.  Dustin saw him from a distance and simply called his name and Tod literally ran right to him and jumped up into his arms.

After that, I didn't worry about Tod being with us against his will.  He was meant to be our dog.

Thoughts?

could you SPELL that, please?

PTERQUIE (tur-key)

Today's thought is about people who have common first names, but whose spelling of the name is anything but, and people who have unordinary names.

Every so often, my husband and I think about cool names for pets.  We apparently have too much time on our hands or have really bad sense of humors because it's one of our favorite pastimes.  Our favorites as of late are Jeffrey, Scott, Victoria and Beverly.

One day, we decided Turkey would be a hilarious name for a dog.  As if picking out dog names wasn't weird enough, we took it a step further and decided how we would spell it.  This is what we came up with:  PTERQUIE.  The "P" is silent.  While this activity of ours was a total joke to Dustin (the hubby), I decided IF (and that's a BIG if - I'm not a huge dog fan) we got another dog after our current puppies (Sammie and Tod) have gone on to the next life, the dog's name would be PTERQUIE.  We'll see if it ever happens.

When it comes to naming children, is it just me or are names getting WAY out there?  For example, Gwyneth Paltrow has a daughter named Apple and Ashlie Simpson named her son Bronx Mowgli.  Sure, apples are delicious and Mowgli was an important character in the beloved Disney classic The Jungle Book, but does that mean they make good names for people?

I think there should be an unwritten law that people need to practice a bit more common sense before choosing a name.  In my book, this would include a few things.  First, the name should be a good, solid name.  A name that isn't too weird and one that the child can grow into.  A name may be way cute when the child is young, but you've gotta consider if it would still be cute when the child is an adult.

Second, the spelling of the name should be considered.  I cannot even tell you how many ways I have seen the name Kennedy spelled (Kenidi, Kenedie, you get the idea). As a person whose maiden name was constantly misspelled and mispronounced, believe me when I say it gets SO OLD having to spell your name wherever you go.  And, don't even get me started on all my awards or trophies I won that all had my name misspelled.  So annoying!

And, third, consider if the name rhymes with a four letter word or could make your child an easy target at school.  I'm a big fan of the name Tucker, but am pretty certain I couldn't go through ever naming my son that.  Of course, you can't plan your life around what bullies could potentially do to your child, so maybe this step isn't as important as the others.  But, I still think it should be considered.  

Thoughts?