All the leaves are brown....

It's fall ya'll! I love fall. If there could only be one season all year for me this would be it! The colors are beautiful, the air is crisp, and it is finally cool outside. I would much rather it be cold than hot, this is bearable to me. Nick and I went to the apple orchard last Saturday and it was a little disappointing. There wasn't much to pick from. I guess there was a lot of hail damage this year. It was odd the ground between the trees was covered with apples, but the trees were full of bad ones. We still managed to pick a peck of apples, which is a lot. So time for me to find some new apple recipes. I still have to make that pie too!

Lazy Sunday

Sundays are my favorite! Nick and I rarely leave the house on Sunday. We stay in our PJ's ALL day. Nick usually makes us a huge breakfast and we read the paper. Another treat I get on Sundays sometimes is tea (I am not really a coffee person) from Starbucks. Usually I am a Chai tea kinda girl, but not today, it is fall! This means I get a pumpkin spice latte! Yum-O!

Other plans for our lazy day. We are going to make an apple pie! From scratch! Go to my parents for my favorite meal, meatloaf, and probably watch at least 3 movies on TBS:)

I LOVE SUNDAYS!

p.s. Nick I am sorry about the pic:) If you could just keep your eyes open!

Our Little Diseased Puppy:(

THIS IS VERY LONG....Sorry venting was needed!

I plan to eventually give an introduction of my small family. So far it is just myself, my husband Nick, and our new puppy Mia! So lets start first with our newest edition!
Mia is our almost 4month old puppy. She was born June 5, 2009. We would like to think that we saved her! Nick and I had been back and forth about the idea of a new puppy for awhile. The main reason being our new carpets! We just bought our house this past April and the first thing we did was replace the carpets! With new puppies comes potty training, never good for a new carpet! We finally decided we both wanted a puppy. Maybe we needed a little excitement. We had gone to both the shelters in town a few times, but no luck. I really wanted an older dog that was a little more mellow and hopefully trained! Nick wanted a puppy that he could call his own and raise from a young age. Well guess who won that fight!

So there we were August 29th looking through the paper there was an ad for small, wormed, Jack Russell Terrier/Brittany Spaniel mixed puppies. They were described as "docile". We called the lady said we could come out the next day around 11am she was located near Brookings. So Nick and I woke up the next morning just knowing if we drove all the way out there, we would probably end up with a new puppy. Thankfully we had at least agreed on the sex, female, so we had one decision made. We get there around 11:30am and call the number again, this time the husband answers says his wife is waiting at the KFC parking lot. This is right off the Brooking exit, so, convenient. However, I really wished we could have met the parents, that way you kinda of get a feel for what kind of dog you are getting.

We arrive and there is an old beat up Buick waiting in the lot with a kennel full of about 6 puppies. Two were girls. One black and white, one brown and white. Nick liked the black and I liked the brown. The black one looked more like a Jack Russell and the brown more like a Brittany. We put them down on the ground and the black one was much more active. She at least moved around the other just laid down. They did not look healthy at all, covered in dirt, probably dehydrated and sickly. We will never know what kind of care they had. I knew it wasn't a good idea to take a sick puppy, but we fell in love and let our impulse buying kick in. She was only $25! If we only knew:)

We were now proud owners of our new puppy MIA! (like Mama Mia). As you can see in the picture Mia is black and looks more Jack Russell than Brittany. As soon as she jumped up on Nick the decision was made. She chose us! Later on I read that you should not pick a puppy this way, it is better to pick the laid back ones, they are much easier to care for! We bring Mia home and spoil her to death. She does great in her new home. She had a little trouble with separation anxiety at first, but this was probably her missing her siblings. She was doing amazing at potty training! So we set up her first vet appt. for the following week!

Once at the vet we find out immediately Mia is going to cost a little more than $25. First off she looks kinda skinny, and isn't very active like a puppy should be. The vet checks her for Parov ($49) a very scary disease that 50% of the time kills puppies. Thankfully, that test comes back negative. Then we find out that Mia is behind on her shots, so we get that taken care of. The check her out, trim her nails, administer the shot, and she is good to go. We are told to just keep an eye on her. Not knowing what type of care she was in before leaves a lot of possibility as to what could be wrong with her. The vet asked us to bring in a fecal sample sometime that week.

Here is where the problems begin. We bring in the sample, they test it ($39). She is positive for Giardia, which usually does not show up in a normal fecal test, but because her levels were so high it did. This is very scary news for me because it is one disease that is also able to be contracted by humans. However, you would need to somehow ingest your dogs fecal matter, so as long as you practice good hygiene when handling you are fine. We start her on antibiotics ($18) for ten days, take in another sample when they are done ($49), and she comes back negative! It's gone woo-hoo!

Not for long. The following week Mia has some vomiting and her tummy was making some really odd nosies, in fact, it sounded like she was going to explode. Being new puppy owners we become very worried. She then the following day has more "bathroom issues" so we decided to make another appointment, and bring in a fecal. The vet says it could be just stress but she would send the sample out again to test for Giardia, and she wants to start her on the antibiotics again just in case. Also she discovers that Mia has a yeast infection in her left ear, which means more meds. Total visit ($120) and two very discouraged puppy parents.

The next day Friday Sept. 25th, test results are in. She does in fact have Giardia (for some reason the last sample that came back negative maybe did not have it in there?) AND she has round worm, hook worm, and Toxocara. She now needed to be on two more meds! We felt like such horrible dog owners. We then went to the vet that night to pick up her new meds and get her second set of shots. We had a long conversation with the vet, she let us know that it was not our fault and in fact, Mia probably got all of the worms from her mother when she was breastfeeding. She also let us know that we probably did save her, because we are helping her to get rid of all of these parasites which the person we purchased her from probably would not have done. So we get her shots and meds, third trip since being new owners, to the vet is over ($85).

Mia is a very playful, and happy puppy! Once we get this stuff kicked we hope she will be even better! Then we will be able to take her many more places without worrying about her infecting other dogs! So I will keep you all posted when all of the meds are complete (about ten days) on her status!

My advice to anyone looking for a dog, cheap does not necessarily mean lower cost. Our initial $25 purchase has so far turned into $320!!! That's not including food, toys, crate, bedding, and other fun puppy accessories. THINK BEFORE YOU BUY! Despite all of this, we still love her, and would not have had it any other way!

The Beginning...

Well, I have been back and forth about starting a blog for awhile. Finally decided to take the plunge! There were a few reasons I had against it (time consuming, privacy, judgers, fear that my life is just too boring to blog!) but several for it (fun, hone in on my writing skills, sharing news/events with family and friends).



So here it goes, I really want this to be a "fun" blog. I really have no expectations of becoming a major blogger with lots of followers. I think I would even be okay with zero, well maybe at least one! My hubby, of course:). I plan to use this NOT as a platform for my ideals and opinions, but more as an online journal/scrapbook. I guess you could say I just have a lot going on up there and I need somewhere to write it down in somewhat of an organized manner.



In fact here is a list of things I have been thinking about using this blog for:

• My tales of being a newlywed (August 1st 2009)


• My tales of being a new puppy owner


• Photographic evidence of my cooking attempts


• Actually doing the 30 Day Shred w/ Jillian Michaels and tracking my progress


• Sharing my "maybe a baby" thoughts


• Step by step directions of my crafting attempts
• A reminder to myself of what I have accomplished in the last year.

So here we go.........

When I am finished I hope to print and publish this into a scrapbook keepsake!

Wish me luck! Hope I have enough excitement in my life to keep you entertained.

About Me

Since I never did it on Facebook. I will do it here...

25 Random Things About Me!

1. I was married August 1st 2009
2. I wanted destination wedding...that didn't work out so we had one here. It was stressful, but we were glad we could share our day with EVERYONE.
3. 2009 has been a very busy year for us! New House, Marriage, Surgery, New Puppy and hopefully more to come!
4. I grew up all over the U.S. (Army brat) once we hit HS my parents settled in the mid-west. My dad found a job here, we had no family here at all. Slowly they have moved this way. It's exciting to be surrounded by family, but takes some getting used to.
5. I have always wanted to go to Prague. We will someday too!
6. My hubby was ready to propose in June 2008, but we had to play the waiting game until November 2008.
7. Speaking of the hubby, we met in a bar. I never wanted to meet my husband this way, but it worked out. At least he was the bartender and I was a customer.
8. I graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. I miss the city everyday!
9. Before there is organization there must be chaos......this would explain the state of my house as of recent.
10. I hate laundry, thankfully I have lots of clothes so I can go at least a month without doing it! This is sad I know.
11. The baby cravings have started however, I want to be 100% finically able to support a child just as well, if not better than my parents did for me.
12. My favorite meal of all time is my mom's meatloaf. I don't know what she does to make it so good, but it's delish.
13. Our puppy's name is Mia. We agreed on the name right away, I don't think it will be this way when it comes to babies.
14. I can cook, this is not a secret (really), but I prefer not to since I met the hubby. We do enjoy cooking together tho...
15. I might have a mild case of OCD. I am a freak when it comes to germs, especially hand washing.
16. I am a pretty stressed out person, it's just in my nature. As of recent I have been working on this. (This blog is part of project clam down)
17. I am half Italian, my grandma is slowly sharing her family recipes. It's hard to catch on because for her cooking is a full-time job and for me it's hobby. Probably why hers always taste better.
18. I love to travel. "The more places you go, the more you know." I have a feeling we will not be living in the midwest forever either, but we will see what happens.
19. My mom is my best friend. She is still my mom, but I feel truly blessed to have such a great relationship with my mother. I can tell her anything!
20. Now I see why I never did this on Facebook, it feels lame trying to think of 25 interesting things to say about yourself......To be continued..:)