Okay, I have been waiting to say this....Jimnotmike, you know I love you but a husband and a dog and a 60 hour a week job does not not equal a teenager and a tween, five cats, a dog, a guinea pig, living with all straight men and ain't none of them tidy in the least, a 40 hour a week job I am still adjusting to after five years of 20 hours a week and lemme tell you something else...there isn't any bed turning down service here nor a chocolate on my pillow!

Whew.  I feel better now.  Trust me, I will trade you for a week and you will so want your life back!  

But all in all, life is good for the most part.  The dog is settling in, not without challenges.  Today, we had to leave him alone for about 4 hours and please know that we rarely have to leave him alone for very long as he goes to work with me!  So we left him in the computer room so we could close the doors on one side and put up a child gate on the other door, much like this one:

 I went to training for work and The Brit and The Lawyer went to church for an Easter egg hunt.  The Genius was at his grandmother's house.  When The Brit and The Laywer got home, Rhys met them at the door.  Hmmmm...interesting.  In the hallway was an empty Kleenex box. Also interesting.  They came through the kitchen to the door that had been blocked with the child gate....and The Wonder Dog had chewed through one side of it in order to succeed in his escape.  From there there, he had a whale of a time shredding kleenex and paper towels in the dining room . I was most thankful they got home first and had to clean up the mess.

Rhys has definite separation anxiety but of course, we don't know his story before he came to us.  His mouthing issue has improved a lot and is rarely an issue already. Thanks to my bosses wife and her harness recommendation, walking him is much easier now. The cats are doing a tiny bit better...venturing out here and there, but Jonah is still quite vocal about his unhappiness at the dog's presence.  So we are all adjusting but for me, he is now part of the family and I adore him.
 
I am struggling with a few pounds I need to still lose and it is driving me insane.  Finding time and energy to work out while working full-time is hard.  I get off work and still have dinner to get or kids to get home to as I am single parenting a lot, and a house to keep clean (with minimal help from the males), lunches to pack, etc.  Many nights I am not relaxing until 8:30 or later and then bedtime is 11:00 or a bit earlier as the week progresses . I was walking with Rhys and gearing up to start running again but Thursday night I sprained the hell out of my ankle.  We're talking that it looked like a golf ball was attached to the side of it.  It is slowly improving and was pretty good this morning but the more I was on it today, the more uncomfortable it became again.  So this will possibly and probably mean no kickboxing this week as I'm not sure the ankle will be able to tolerate it as it is a nasty sprain.  So I am sitting on my ass eight hours a day instead of four, and having problems finding workout time!  What is the solution?  I can't get up earlier to go to the gym due to having to get the kids off to school and of course, the dog comes to work with me but can't come to the Y with me in the morning.  I had a pre-dog plan of getting up really early a few days in the summer to hit the Y before work and just shower there and leave for work.  If my kids would learn some responsibility with the dog, this could still be a option but so far, they are kind of sucking at being responsible.  The only time Rhys has an accident in the house is when the kids are in charge of his potty schedule, despite the fact that I leave them the schedule in writing.  *sigh*

So though I have sucked at updating here, let me see how many of you are still out there reading.  Two questions:

What is your best tip for leaving a dog at home alone?


And how do you fit in exercise with your full time schedule?