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?

Okay, Okay

So forty hour a week job, church activity, husband on the road at least every other week, two kids, house, five pissed off cats and one new dog who nips when he gets wound up and ya'll wonder where I've been?  Can't imagine.

Things are going pretty well with Rhys though a few bad habits are being uncovered.  He does get wound up and mouthy, as they call it, and I am trying to break it.  Asking around to people who have been there and am hoping to get with my big bosses wife to ask her.  Pat Miller has written a few books on dog training, five I believe, and has traveled to places such as Australia to teach dog training.  She also has a business and website called Peaceable Paws, so check her out.  Anyway, she is teaching a class at work this week so I am hoping to tag her as well for advice on Cutie McNippy.  Rhys is a great dog 95% of the time but there is a lot of puppy still in him.  According to my Executive Director, about 3 or 4 years of it.

At work, Rhys is an angel.  He plays with his toys and dozes and at lunch we take about a 40 minute walk.  He knows "Sit" and "Down" though at times will play a stubborn card and not want to do it, though I wait until he does, even if I have to push his rump down to achieve it.  The cats still hate him though a few of them are starting to stick up for themselves.  Micah spends most of the evening hiding though I believe he comes out during the day when Rhys is at work.  I feel guilty about this because they were my first babies but everyone keeps telling me if takes about a month for things between the cats and dog to calm down.  

We took him on Saturday to Central Dawgma and the Dawg Wash which is a car wash for your dog.  I plan to bathe him myself most of the time but it was fun outing for us and Rhys was very well behaved for the bath.

In non-dog news, The Genius has a girlfriend.  She is a year older than he is and so far I really like her.  I just have to be careful about the possibility of him sneaking off to see her.  Last night he told me she wanted him to meet her at 4:00.  I reminded him he had track practice and I know had that not come up, he would have ditched practice.  So we had the conversation about doing the right thing.  I am not sure I am ready for dating but the choice is not mine really.  Ugh.


Work is still good but I am so busy right now.  Our Spring mailers are coming in with a vengeance which is good, but I have about 100 letters to do at this point.  I am also getting things ready for a Volunteer Appreciation dinner on Wednesday and for a complete system conversion.  I went from looking for things to do a few weeks ago to now knowing how in the hell I am going to get it all done.

And I think I am coming down with another cold...which I really don't have time for.  I'll try to update more regularly but time gets away from me.  If someone would like to take my kids once or twice a week, I should be able to be more timely ;)

Can it get any better?

I am in one of those seasons of life where things are going so well that I am waiting for something bad to happen.  I have an amazing new church, a job I love and this...

 coming on Thursday!

Yes, The Brit finally not only agreed to the dog but fell in love with this guy!  Is he not adorable?  This dog actually picked The Brit as this was not the dog I intended for him to see.  We had a purebred Golden Retriever come in last week...my favorite breed.  On Friday, I tried to find him, but couldn't.  I found this guy though and tried to convince myself this was the golden.  He had some attributes of a Golden and they had him listed as a mixed breed so I thought maybe though the girl assessing him thought he was purebred, the animal care folks disagreed.  

Saturday, we made a trip out to see him.  Well really to show The Brit where I worked and we ended up perusing the animals.  He found "Max" and was drawn to him.  When we went back out front, C asked me if I showed him the dog and I said yes.  I figured that had to be him as he was the only dog that looked anything like any sort of Golden on the adoption floor and C was asking me about him.  She tried to get The Brit to fill out an adoption request, but he needed to think about it.  He told her it was expensive and C, being quick, came back with "You cannot put a price on love."  

Well, Sunday morning, The Brit was looking up dog names and Sunday afternoon he was putting in a pole and zip line in the back yard.  Today, he went in and filled out the application.  When he left, the girls in the lunch room were asking dog he was adopting (I can't technically adopt for 90 days but my husband can!) and  I told them Max.  Shortly after, C was asking me what dog I was adopting because Max was not the same dog!  Copper was my Golden!  I went back to see Copper and sure enough.  He was in the stray holding area and not on the adoption floor, where both C and I assumed he was!  But, The Brit had already decided, so it seems that Max picked us!
 
I am so excited! Not sure the cats will be though!