Category Archives: Stevie

Dec29

Spoiled, much?

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Spoiled, much?

Evelyn’s first Christmas with us was absolutely lovely. I know she won’t remember it in the future, and she doesn’t understand what Christmas is, yet, but I still wanted it to be a great day for her and us. We weren’t disappointed!

She almost slept through the night, which was wonderful for me. When we both got sick over Thanksgiving, she went to getting up every 1-2 hours during the night again, and so we had to work on getting her to sleep in her room once she was well because I just couldn’t swing that schedule again. She’s gotten better and even slept through the night a few times, so it was overall a good night for her.

Of course, opening gifts for/with her was a blast. This little girl got SO MANY GIFTS. I would say that this almost-six month old girl owned at least 2/3 of the gifts under the tree, and most of those were from our relatives! 🙂 She doesn’t know how lucky she is to have so many people love on her like they do. I hope she does know it some day, because I am in awe of everyone’s generosity towards her.

To give you an idea, here’s Evelyn’s piles of Christmas loot she got this year:

I couldn’t get all of them into one picture very well, but I tried.

So to everyone who sent Evelyn something, THANK YOU! Everything was so adorable- I don’t think there was anything that we didn’t like. I can’t even name favorites because everything was so great! She was old enough and curious enough to want to grab at everything and play with it for a minute or two until the next toy/object came along… at one point, she was surrounded by 4-5 objects and you could tell from the look on her face that she was confused by having so many choices to play with!

Jared had a great time holding Evelyn and showing her all her gifts.

Both Jared and I were quite satisfied with all our gifts as well. He’s going to go to a car racing class in a few months, and I got a dehydrator and will be attempting to learn knitting and crocheting. (So far, so good on the knitting front! Crochet project is a little more complicated… hopefully I’ll figure that out, too!)

Even the dogs got in on the Christmas fun!

(The dogs got their pjs just in time, too! We had a cold front roll in later on Christmas day, and they were able to stay warm in the freezing temperatures.) 🙂

Once again, thank you everyone who thought of us and helped make our Christmas that much better.

I hope everyone else out there had a wonderful Christmas. Anybody get a favorite awesome gift? 🙂

 

Nov27

Foster Child

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Foster Child

Okay, so apparently something inside me felt like I didn’t have enough on my plate, because a month or two ago, I finally got involved with trying to be a foster home for rescued Italian Greyhounds (that’s what Stevie and Bonnie are, in case you didn’t already know).

I have been interested in doing it for quite some time, but working as a teacher wasn’t exactly conducive to the hours needed to help with an Iggy-in-need. Now that I am at home most of the time (and now that Evie is starting to be less crazy when she is feeling well!), I can spend more time with the dogs throughout the day.

So I contacted my local chapter of IGCA Rescue (Italian Greyhound Club of America) about two months ago after seeing that they were getting a lot of dogs needing foster homes until they could be adopted out. It’s a pretty hefty process- they do actually call your references and there’s a few applications you have to fill out.

Evelyn does make things a little more complicated, however; we can’t foster a dog that has too many unknowns. It has to be able to handle a rather vocal and growing infant and be relatively calm and friendly.

Enter Selena:

This sweet little girl was saved from a puppy mill. She is about 8 years old, and a tiny little thing! Rescue was pretty sure she was in a real home at some point in her life, because she is so good about going potty outside and LOVES to snuggle with people, but somehow she landed in a Oklahoma puppy mill. While there, she developed some awful cataracts and a horrible case of glaucoma in her eyes, and so she is almost completely blind. The glaucoma was so bad, they thought she would have to remove her eyes, but this sweetie has been reacting so well to her medication that her eyes are no longer swollen and you can tell she is feeling so much better.

As I said before, she LOVES to snuggle. She is seriously the sweetest, easiest foster dog in the world. We feed her, and then she just wants to snuggle on the couch or on a doggie bed all day. We interrupt her cuddles to take her out for occasional potty breaks, or feed her, or remind her that she should drink water, but she has been so sweet and perfect. And that little tail of hers does not stop wagging when she hears you talking to her or when you are petting her. She LIVES for loves!

She’s also getting along well with Stevie and Bonnie. We were worried they’d be too rough on this little girl, but now that the novelty has worn off, they tolerate her really well (she occasionally wants cuddles and invades their spots, and they are really nice about it) and only need to be reminded occasionally to be gentle because she can’t see them. The other morning I walked downstairs to see this cuteness with Jared and the three dogs:

This picture is Iggy heaven in a nutshell.

Anyways, we are really enjoying this little girl. It’s going to be hard to let her go whenever that time comes, but whoever ends up with this sweetie pie is going to be a really lucky person, because Selena has A LOT of love to give. I am excited about this opportunity to give a little extra love to a dog who hasn’t had enough of it in her past. She is a real T-R-E-A-T!

Oct11

Bonsta Monsta strikes again!

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Bonsta Monsta strikes again!

Bonnie is up to her old tricks. I learned awhile back that most valuables should not be left alone with her because she likes to chew on things (see here and here if you need reminders!). And so far, she’s been pretty good about not being the mass destroyer since Evelyn has arrived.

I mean, look at this girl:

Does she look like she is capable of mass destruction of items Elisabeth likes? (No, obviously not. I am MEAN and making this all up. LOOK AT THE GRIN IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS!)

Yesterday, Evie was showing signs of being tired (which involves a mass amount of being cranky as she tries to fight of sleeping… Sleeping is for all those WUSSY babies out there. TOUGH babies don’t need naps…), so like the good mother I am attempting to be, I went and put her down. And I actually got her to sleep in about 5 minutes, which is pretty good for her. I walk back into the family room where the dogs reside, and VOILA.

 

THE BONSTA MONSTA STRIKES AGAIN!

The sandal at the top is what both should look like. The shoe on the bottom is what happens after Bonnie had 5 minutes alone with the sandal.

Fortunately for Bonnie, they were only $10 sandals that we bought purely because of pregnancy-induced feet swelling, and most likely I can work some fix-it-up magic with a hot glue gun, but still. THAT DOG IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

Don’t worry–no dogs were injured in the de-making of this shoe. I did a close comparision between sandals and all the beads were still there. She just had fun pulling it apart without swallowing pieces… though if it had been 10 minutes alone with the sandals, who knows?

AND- speaking of injured dogs- Remember back in June when Stevie and Neighbor Dog tangoed and he somehow ended up in the E-Vet (TWICE?!) ? Yeah, fun times. The good news is that ugly wound is hardly noticeable anymore.

Can you see it?

No? Here’s a closer look!

Barely there! How awesome is that?

So life really is great. Bonnie DIDN’T swallow anything from destroying my footwear, Stevie looks like a handsome mansome dog again, and Evelyn slept the entire time I wrote this post and is only now starting wake up. I can’t complain!

Now if Jared would come home from work at a decent hour again… 😉

 

Sep25

Adjusting

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Adjusting

Both Bonnie and Stevie got put down a notch on the totem pole in the household when Baby Evie showed up. They are our “Furkids” and we still love them lots, but the baby has taken up most of our energy.

Both of them had a hard time with it at first; not necessarily with Evie herself, but with the fact that “Mom” no longer could spend as much time with them, or sit with them for a hour, or play with them as much. Jared did what he could, but sometimes, they wanted me. Stevie went on a hunger strike for a month, where he ate about half of his normal intake. Bonnie decided to leave messes on the floor (even when we had let her out minutes before to do her thing outside!).

And then there was the fact that whenever Evelyn cried, Stevie would howl like a banshee. And developed stressed induced colitis 2 days after Jared went back to work full time and left me on my own with our three “kids”. (I won’t tell you the details of how we learned he had colitis, since it’s pretty gross, but I will admit I panicked.)

Anyways, so with all that said, things seem to be getting back into a rhythm. Evelyn is calm enough that we can spend some time with the dogs without her crying, and the dogs are calmer now that the baby isn’t such a novelty and so they don’t jump up as much on her. (“Oh, what’s that in your arms, Mom!? (Bounce) Did you bring us a TREAT?! (Bounce) Oh, no, it’s the mini person that hasn’t gone away yet. (Huff, slowly go back to wherever they were napping) Whatever.”)

Yesterday was a good reminder of the pattern that is emerging from the chaos. Everyone wanted loves, and everyone figured out a way to coexist on the couch together, where I got THIS picture:

It’s moments like this that I remember: Life is good.