Tag Archives: Luna the Dog

Chapter 59: Daylight Saving Time and other things that make me happy

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Two pregnant gals

The only decent photo anyone has taken of me since I started gestating. This is my big belly at 33 weeks 4 days.

Thank you for taking a decent picture of me, Natalie! And, of course, for helping Sara and Heather to throw me the sweetest baby shower ever! If/when two babies in the bellies in this picture get married someday, we will force them to display this photo prominently at the wedding and reception.

It’s after 6pm now and the sun is still out! Under normal circumstances this turn of events does wonders for my mood. In my current (perpetual) state it’s just the pick-me-up I needed. Especially coupled with lovely warm days this Friday and Saturday followed by some much needed rain and the PERFECT baby shower on Sunday.

Friday I was able to hang out in the back yard with Luna after finishing my day of working from the couch. It has been pretty quick trips in and out lately because I hate being cold. Since it was nice out, we took the chance to get outside while Daniel vacuumed as Luna is terrified of the monster that is the Bissel. She ran around to her heart’s content while I picked up a few plastic hanging baskets and other items from last year that didn’t survive the winter and piled them up for the trash or recycling at a garden center like Lowe’s or Home Depot. I can never remember who exactly takes those. It wasn’t much but I felt like I was at least getting something done for once. I was a little sad to think about how I am usually out sweating and working hard to get the yard and garden in spring shape at the first sign of a warm day but I’m a little busy getting something else into shape and ready for a Spring debut so I guess I shouldn’t be too sad :)

Saturday morning was warm enough to open up all the windows for the first time in so very many months. I just kept saying, “It smells SO GOOD in here!” I dusted in the living room while Daniel did a ton other chores because all I could do was dust a shelf and then sit and rest for a million years, whining the whole time about being out of breath and being shocked at how tired the simplest tasks make me or holding ice packs to my feet. It was beautiful nonetheless because the windows were open and the heat was off and I was actually doing something to get the house ready for the impending baby as well as for COMPANY!  My dear  friend Becky (see the hot mama in the photo above) called me on Thursday to tell me that she and her lovely husband Paul would be here on Saturday morning to visit and come to my baby shower.  I didn’t even remember that I had put her on the invite list. 0_o THAT is some serious baby brain. You see, Becky is ALSO pregnant (My best friend Aand I are having our first babies at the same time. How insanely awesome is that?) and I had thought about just inviting her to my family “meet the baby” shower in May since she lives in Missouri so it wouldn’t be so far for her to drive. But I had also gone on to think “Well, I’ll invite her and then call her and tell her not to worry about coming,” but I apparently never got around to that conversation. Thank goodness! Becky was insistent that we have some time together before we have our babies and I’m so glad. We had a wonderful time gabbing and comparing bumps and pregnancy symptoms and just enjoying each other’s company.

I was completely exhausted by yesterday evening but it was a fantastic weekend and I feel a little recharged and ready to face the next several weeks. Things are starting to come together so I will have more to say other than “I worked from my couch all week and went to the Dr twice. As usual.” I mean to post some thoughts on our “birth plan” (those unnecessary quotes are intentional) and our doula and on the spare bedroom that looks more like a nursery than not these days.

I didn’t mean to make this into a Mommy/Pregnancy blog, but that’s pretty much my life at the moment. As much as I’d love to do other things, growing this little stinker & dealing with my pregnancy related health issues are about all I have the energy for. Everything else is definitely dogeared for now. The subtle changes outside calling out the transition from Winter to Spring give me a little clarity that I am in a certain season in my life and, like all other seasons, there will be change. This too shall pass and I will have something pretty cool at the end of this season to mark the beginning of a new and exciting one.

Chapter 52: So Close!

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And I was doing so well! Twenty days in a row is the longest into November I’ve gone for National Blog Posting Month so I’d say I didn’t do too terribly.  I shold have scheduled some posts for the week of Thanksgiving. We were so beat by the time we got to Memphis on Wednesday night that I completely forgot about a post for the day. After that it was just easy to give up for the week and visit with Daniel’s family.

On Thanksgiving Day I got up early with my little cooking schedule and cooked Thanksgiving dinner with the help of Daniel’s Aunt Jan (not to mention her brother who sent up TWO trays of homemade dressing). We planned to eat at noon and the ten of us were digging in at 12:25. Success!

Daniel climbed up in the attic and pulled down the toy box that his grandad made for him when he was little.  It needs a little bit of love to fix a few things and I had to spend some quality time with it and a bottle of Goo Gone to peel off a sticker, but we are so thrilled to be able to have such a meaningful piece in the baby’s room!

Daniel’s childhood toy box. Ready to come home to our nursery.

Goo Gone vs a 25 year old sticker

Scrub Scrub Scrub

I give up. Time to resort to the fingernails.

Success! The leftover rectangle is even kind of a sweet reminder of Tiny Daniel.

What better toy for a kid than the best dog on the planet?

Now we just need to find someone to fix the joints and the bottom.  The toy box isn’t put together with nails, it has something like tongue and groove joints on the edges holding it together, which it neat, but a few are pulling apart. There is a missing brace on the bottom as well so it doesn’t sit evenly right now, but once we get those fixed it is going to be the perfect addition to the nursery. The room is still the guest bedroom full of junk right now but that will be changing next week in Week 2 of our Simplicity Experiment.  Can’t wait!

 

Chapter 46: Do I see a light at the end of the tunnel?

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I’m so impressed with my productivity this evening!

Tonight I made Luna some dog treats using pumpkin puree that I made myself last week and froze several bags of the puree for later use. I got the recipe HERE. Except I didn’t have rice flour so I used whole wheat flour. I did have to use a lot more flour than the 2.5 cups called for. So far she hasn’t refused them. We’ll see if she gets excited about them i the next few days.

I don’t have a bone cookie cutter so ours are just rectangles.

THEN, I made a new batch of laundry soap.  We have been out for a few days and the laundry was piling up so I really had to get some soap made. I use the powder because the liquid takes up a lot more storage space. This was my second batch. I really loved the first batch I made and thought it did a great job at cleaning our clothes.  I used a free Purex gel tablet the other day since I was out of my soap day and I thought the smell of the clean laundry was overpowering. I had gotten so used to our laundry just smelling nice and clean.  This time I used THIS recipe and added a 1/2 cup of OxyClean for a stain fighter.  It only made enough to fill one mason jar so I’ll need to make some more sooner than last time as I guess I doubled the batch then and ended up with two jars.

This is the recipe I used this time

I’m taking it as a good sign that I had enough energy to do TWO projects after work today! I was really congested from allergies today but the nausea was notably lower. Hopefully my energy levels will be returning soon and I’ll be able to dig in and get a lot of stuff done!

Chapter 34: Goodbye, Daylight Savings Time. I will miss you so.

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Today  was a nice lazy day with a few moments of productivity. We stayed in bed until around 9 or so and only finally got around because neither one of us could breath. Stinking allergies. I have found that my best mornings are Saturday mornings.  Getting lots of sleep and getting to wake up when my body is good and ready definitely gives me less nausea.  So today has been a pretty decent day as far as that goes. Hopefully the extra hour of sleep tonight will help me out tomorrow. As much as I hate to see Daylight Savings Time go and it depresses me to drive home form work in the dark, at least I’ll get a little extra sleep tonight.

We made a run to our local healthy pet food store to get dog and cat food and found that they aren’t carrying Luna’s dog treats anymore. All of the ones they do carry are pretty expensive since they are made with high quality ingredients and are considered “specialty” treats. Part of that is just that the demand isn’t high enough for them to be making huge amounts like the brands they sell at Walmart so they don’t get the bulk production cost savings and part (probably most) of it is that people are willing to spend more if they are the type of people worried about the ingredients in their dog biscuits.  I’m definitely worried about our pets’ food and treat ingredients but, as we all know, I am also a giant tightwad. So I decided now would be a good opportunity to try making homemade biscuits for Luna.

As it turns out, you can make them from pumpkin and it’s really good for dog tummies. Luna is kind of a barfy dog AND we had a Cinderella pumpkin getting soft that needed to be used.  Win/Win. So I baked up a pumpkin today and tomorrow I’ll be making some dog biscuits from scratch.  If it ends up not being too much of a hassle and Luna likes them it will be much cheaper than buying them from the healthy pet store and healthier than buying them from Walmart.

Wish me luck!

Chapter 26: Weekend Update

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We have had pretty eventful weekends for several weekends in a row.  Several weeks ago Daniel and I decided to finally bite the bullet after two years of talking about it and we bought ourselves a couple of kayaks!  The only way I could get myself to do it was to call it our 1 year anniversary present, PLUS my birthday (this month) and Daniel’s birthday in the Fall.

Our sweet friend Grace gave us the car rack for a wedding gift last year. Thanks, Grace!

Luna was very concerned about Daniel out on the lake testing a kayak without her.
If she had stayed in the kayak with Daniel she wouldn’t have been soaking wet and she wouldn’t have had to watch from the shore. That’s where she swam to when she dove off the boat.

So this weekend we finally got the chance to try out the kayaks as well as Luna’s new doggy life-jacket on a float trip with my family.  The river I grew up floating on is about three and a half hours away so we decided to camp too. My uncle and two little cousins camped with us and we had a wonderful time telling scary stories (Hayden promised to “Scare your face off”) and making banana boats. Banana Boats=Banana+chocolate+marshmallows+whatever else you have +tinfoil+campfire.  So fun.

This was the most organized we were going to get for a group shot. That’s my kayak in the front. Isn’t it pretty?

Luna’s 2nd time camping.  She slept without her crate for the first time ever and did great in the tent!

Luna is a great car-rider. But she worries when Daniel is in the gas station.

I don’t have any photos of Luna riding in Daniel’s kayak or mine because our waterproof case broke for the still camera :( We’re hoping we can glue the broken piece back together.  I did take the Flip video in its waterproof case so I’ll post the video once I get it edited.  Luna did SUCH a great job for her first float trip!  We all came home exhausted and looking forward to doing it again next weekend for my birthday.

Chapter 24: Jonah Day

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It has been one of those days. Actually it has been a couple of those days. I had a conversation with God on my commute home today (and some of you know the significance of that for me. Never mind actually talking about it publicly.) The results being many thoughts bubbling in my brain and heart that I can’t really articulate yet. Maybe/ hopefully soon. We’ll see.

Last week was Daniel and my 1 year wedding anniversary. I have had a post brewing for a while since I never did do a wedding post but it will have to wait for a cheerier day.

Instead, please enjoy some photos from the iPad.

1) I can’t believe how sweet and little Luna was in November.
2) I thought the tomato sprouts I stuck in this pot would never survive. Boy was I wrong!
3) Strawberry harvests are a few at a time right now but they are perfect sliced up with a banana in a bowl of homemade ice cream.

I leave you with a quote from my dear friend, Anne Shirley and I hope I’m not botching it from memory because I’m too tired to double check it.

“Tomorrow is a new day. With no mistakes in it, yet.”

Chapter 22: Couch to 5K

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I started running the Couch to 5K last week and I finished the first week of the plan today.  I’m pretty impressed with myself because I have never been much of a runner, but this is a very simple program that tells me exactly what to do and works me up to my goal of running a 5K very slowly. 

The goal is to run the Run to Remember in July benefiting the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation .  Hopefully running/jogging/walking 3 day a week will give me the added benefit of a few pounds going away so that I can fit back into the stack of summer clothes I have piled up that are too small for me!

The easiest way for me to do this program was to download an app on my phone to help.  I got This One.

I play my own music and a nice lady tells me to run and after 60 seconds she tells me “Good job! Now walk.”  And I get to walk for 90 seconds.  I want to ask her to marry me when she tells me to walk.  She is my favorite person in the world at that moment in time.  Next week I’ll have to run for more than 60 seconds.  I might curse her on my next run.

The best part of all is my wonderful running buddy!

We have a quick hitch lease that can expand a big loop at the end to hitch your pup to a post or a tree or what-have-you.  It also has the handy ability to make a BIG loop that will go over my right shoulder while Luna walks on my left, leaving me hands-free.  And she is doing an AMAZING job walking and jogging along with me on a loose leash.  I’m so proud of her!  We highly recommend obedience training at the Canine Connection to anyone who will listen!

Chapter 19: iPad Blogging Step – Blogger

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Trying out the Blogger Application. It’s showing up all tiny on the screen so I’m guessing it’s really an iPhone App. The keyboard is way too small to type much comfortably.

So this one is probably not going to be my first choice but it IS free. It also looks pretty easy to post photos that are ON the iPad. Let’s try it and see!

Chapter 17: Luna Lovegood–In the fur

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My husband is allergic to cats. Generally speaking, they make his throat close up and his nose stops working and he ends up asking someone to please just saw open his head. He failed to mention this to me for a very long time when we started dating. You see, I have a cat. A gorgeous, talkative, fetching (as in: she plays fetch) Siamese mix.

Isn’t she pretty?

She is not a particularly social cat so I was quite surprised when she was suddenly doing a “My Boyfriend is here! My Boyfriend is here!” dance when Daniel started to come over and hang out. I mean hardcore. Like, forget I even existed-why the heck are you looking at me-don’t pet me I’m with my boyfriend right now–levels of love there.

When I first got her as a tiny little kitten at the shelter I had planned for years to get a Siamese and call him/her Suay (pronounced S-way). It means beautiful in Thai and Siamese are Thai cats. But when I got her I just felt like she needed a book name. I like to name my animals after book characters. So Nymphadora Tonks aka Tonks she became.

We like to have a bit of a theme for animal names around here. The Geckos are all named after characters from a show called Firefly except the one we recently adopted from some friends and she already had a name. So when we started discussing possible puppy names we new we wanted a literary character name to match the other mammal pet. We threw around names like Lucy from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe but ultimately decided to stick with Harry Potter. Thus–Luna Lovegood. We ended up picking that because even though she is adorable and looks like an Ewok now, she will be totally Wheaten and blond once she grows up.

I attempted to upload a video but it’s not quite working so here is a picture of our Luna on her trip home with us. I’ll post some more updated pictures soon. She’s at least 3 times this size now.