our Memorial Day Weekend

I have had such a good Memorial Day weekend and it's not even Memorial Day yet.

Friday night after work I went out to dinner with a great friend. Much needed girl time! Then John and I tried to watch a movie together but both ended up falling asleep in the middle of it. Ooops.

Saturday we woke up, lounged for a little bit, I skyped Lizzie Doll, took Duke to the dog park for a while, brought him back home then John and I went out to lunch, then it was off to a mini golf date. Mini golf brought back so many memories of when we started dating. I was working at a mini golf course at the time, John would come visit me at work and I'd let him have free games.....sometimes I'd get off work and we'd play a round together. We used to go mini golfing quite a bit but haven't been since we moved out here. I loved it! I had a blast :) We made a bet on who would win....if I won I got a massage (a legit massage) and if he won he got...well, something else. Let's just say we both won in the end hahaha

Today we did some house work, I worked out, we went and looked at a daycare (that's not going to work out), then went out to lunch, came home and went on a walk with Duke, and then we went to a dinner at Tina's with the boys and our cousin Chelsea who is in town from New York.

I feel like I've been so busy this weekend and so active, I love that feeling!

We'll see what tomorrow has in store! :)

Happy Memorial Day everyone! And thank you troops for all of your sacrifices!! <3

Puppy Birthdays

Today is Duke's second birthday.

Here's how we celebrated:

birthday boy bandana...super cute!!

 

  puppy safe cupcakes with yogurt frosting and carob cookies

 new toy- the everlasting treat ball

And lots of loves from mom!

Happy birthday baby boy!!

Photo Story Telling

Our 2012 Family Vacation to the Oregon Coast and Camping Trip in Central Oregon
 

 

Ending the Week Right

After the week I had I decided to take today off. Off from everything.

I didn't clean. I didn't cook. I didn't study or do homework, laundry or run errands. I didn't even answer my phone.

But you wanna know what I did do?

I slept in.

I Skyped Lizzie Doll and hung out with her for about 3-4 hours (I lost track).

I ate Captain Crunch for dinner.

I took Duke to the park and we watched the baby ducks swimming across the pond. Duke tried to chase them.  And then we sat some more, relaxed in the sun, smelling the fresh cut grass, and watching two kids try to fish in the duck pond with just a stick and line.


It was a pretty damn good day.

Today is a Good Day

Today has been a really good day.

John and I got some good news today :o) I can't share it just yet, but hopefully I'll be able to tell you more in a couple weeks (no, I do not have a bun in the oven although that would make this a super, fabulous day). The day started off great, and then this afternoon we got the previously mentioned good news, and Duke is doing a whole lot better today! Did I tell you guys about his newest accident? I swear that boy is an accident waiting to happen. I don't know how many times he's been hurt in some random way in the year and a half that we've had him. But here's the newest injury....

Friday night Duke was outside like usual, I opened the door for him to come in from the backyard and he ran in for a treat (yes, we bribe him with treats to get him to come inside it's whatev). While he was patiently waiting for his treat I looked down at the floor and there was a trail of blood following him. After taking a closer look at him I saw blood all over his paws, and then I started to panic. He could tell that something was wrong with me, so he started freaking out and started running all over the house not letting me anywhere near him all the while more blood is trailing behind. I finally got him to sit and shake, but that didn't last too long once he realized why I wanted him to shake. I had blood all over my pants and my arms and he took off running again. Not knowing what to do I called John while at work (in hysterics) and he told me to wrap it in a wet towel. He clearly didn't realize that Duke wouldn't let me near his paw. Then I called my mom who knows tons about dogs and she told me that I would need to clean it to see what exactly was going on with his paw. Pretty logical, right? You'd think I could come up with that all on my own but I was too busy freaking out to think things through. Even then that would take him actually holding still and letting me near it. After a half hour of this I started to cry. I got myself together and called Tina and asked her to come over and help me. Thank goodness she's only 5 minutes away and was willing to come over so late. Her and Dave showed up a few minutes later and Dave held him still so I could look at the paw. I rinsed it in a bowl of warm water and then I could see it, somehow Duke had slashed open the pad of his paw. It wasn't terribly deep so it doesn't need stitches. Tina and I got neosporin, put that on a band-aid, then padded his paw with napkins and wrapped it. We made due with what we had at the time. After that Duke was pretty tired and slept the rest of the night.

The next morning John came home from work and we took a closer look at it. Part of his pad looked like dangling skin...but it wasn't bleeding as much so that was a good sign. John bought some gauze and more bandage wrap and we put more neosporin on it to keep it from infecting. We've been changing it at least once a day since. Poor boy is pretty sore, he's hopping on three legs right now and won't put any pressure on his paw, but maybe that's a good thing? It looks like the cut is slowly starting to heel and it's not bleeding at all anymore (at least not since his newest bandage). Yesterday he slept all day, but today his energy is back and he's acting like his normal, hyper self...just with a little hobble. I've been calling him Hop Along...I laugh, but it actually makes me pretty sad to see him hopping on three legs :/. Anyway, all that to say that he's doing much better today, which makes our day better too.

I'm in a really good mood today and can't wait to see what's in store for us in the next few months!

Friday night. Poor boy's worn out

First Hike of the Year

Today is another beautiful, sunny day! That's two in a row now!

Yesterday I took advantage of it by going on a nice run, today I took advantage of it by going on a hike with Tina and Duke. We went to a place called Peavy Arboretum just outside of Corvallis. The trail wasn't as challenging as I would have hoped, nor as long, but we hiked the 3 miles in a little over an hour and it was really pretty. I know I say this just about any time I go hiking or camping out here, but I just can't get over how green and beautiful everything is.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be cloudy here in the Valley, but John and I are going to the coast which is supposed to be sunny. Three days of sun in a row? Say whaaa?

Here are some pictures from our hike today

Mr. Duke getting his exercise for the day

 Ah, I love all the moss

Take I of trying to get a photo op with my baby

 Take II- there we go <3

Apologies For My Absence

Whoa guys, I'm incredibly sorry for my absence. You see, I've been pretty busy lately with the flood, and health issues, and dog training, and that whole job promotion thing I was going for. Let's recap shall we?

First of all, as you've probably already guessed, I didn't get washed away from the flood. But it got close! Corvallis (where I work and where John parents/grandparents live) got completely flooded . Look at this

those used to be roads

yeah that really happened

it was madness. They're still recovering, but luckily the rains have stopped. The river behind our house never came up on land, surprisingly, because it got way too close for my liking.

Then I got really sick. Not to get into all the gory details but I was having some, erm, women issues, and it was making me really sick. I went into urgent care and they did a bunch of tests, one of those tests was a blood test and they said my liver enzymes were high and my white blood cell count was low; they wanted me to go to my doctor a couple weeks later for a check up. I went for my check up and they're still worried about my liver because it shouldn't be as out of whack as it is, they're having me come back in a couple weeks to get more blood drawn and if it's still high then I'll be sent to a specialist. The weird thing is, that isn't even why I went to the doctor in the first place. They just happened to find this in the midst of everything else. The reason I was having problems initially is because the doctors think (but can't be sure) that I had an early miscarriage. I'm not sure how accurate that is, I mean...the doctors aren't even sure how accurate that is because they simply can't tell. So I'm not really sure how to feel about it.

Well the day I went in for my check up I got sick again. But with something totally different from any of the things above. I felt like I was getting the flu- my body ached, my throat was sore, I just felt crappy. By the end of the day I had a fever, my throat was so sore my ears were hurting, my body hurt.....that's lasted for about 5 days and now here I am. Most of it's gone, my throat still hurts a little, but that's about it. I should be back to work tomorrow.

Speaking of work. I was going for a promotion (I'm sure I told you about it); it was a full time, lead day care position at work. Our last lady quit unexpectedly and the position opened up. I was working my butt off for it too, but in the end I didn't get it. My boss decided to hire outside and they found someone "more qualified". I'd be lying if I said I was fine with their decision. I hate that excuse about not having enough experience. I may not have manager or supervisor experience, but if companies only  hire people who've held those positions how are we expected to gain that experience? Oh well. Such is life.

But on the bright side, we started Duke's obedience training. In 5 weeks he'll be one obedient pup...hopefully. All I really want out of it is to be able to walk him down the street without it feeling like he's going to pull my arm out of the socket. That'd be grand.

Until next time guys.

Duke and Down Payments

Duke is doing much better. He's been my shadow ever since this whole raccoon thing happened, I think it really freaked him out. He's been a little needy and if he wakes up from a nap and I'm not in the living room he'll search the house for me- it's actually pretty cute and I'm not gonna lie, it makes me feel good. The antibiotics are working and the infection is cleaning out. It looks a lot better, thank God for that! It doesn't look like there will be any surgery for Mr. Duke anytime soon.

Also, big exciting news, John and I put an offer down on a house last night- a cute, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a fireplace in the living room and a huge backyard. We'll know by the end of the day if the offer was accepted, if not then we'll start counter-offering with the people but hopefully we'll both come to an offer where we're all satisfied. If we get this house we'll be in our new home next month. Happy birthday to me! How exciting is that? I feel so grown up right now...talking about home buying, mortgages and all that jazz.

At times I feel like I'm dealing with things far beyond my maturity level though. Don't take that the wrong way. It's just that sometimes I look at my friends and they're still living the party life in college, and then I look at my life and I'm 22, married, and trying to buy a house. Then I tell myself that those friends are still searching for the person they want to spend their life with- I found mine a long time ago; they couldn't buy a house even if they tried...I'm so damn blessed! Turns out, I'm not dealing with things beyond my maturity level after all; I'm just taking it all as God brings it to me. Who says 22 isn't old enough to be married, buy a house and start a family anyways? I'm doin it, and we're doing just fine.

Duke Vs. The Racccoon

We took Duke to the vet this morning.

I noticed that he kept licking a certain spot on his body, it was a spot on his right front leg that he kept gently licking over and over again. The vet took a look at him and I showed her the spot where he kept licking; she took a closer look and saw something. She shaved part of his fur (his beautiful fur) and sure enough, a bite mark. It was very red and (sorry for the grossness) very pussy. It was already infected. She took a syringe filled with an antibiotic and put it into the wound. He was obviously in a lot of pain because he was crying, which he never does.

John and Duke at the vet. My poor baby :( I feel so bad for him

She gave us some more antibiotic to give him twice daily until it's gone, and she gave us a general antibiotic pill that he needs to take twice daily for a week. We  also need to take a warm washcloth and hold it to his wound twice a day. My poor baby :(

That damn raccoon obviously had some kind of disease because the bite mark became infected very quickly. Like I said before, luckily Duke is caught up on all of his vaccines (rabies, distemper, etc) so he'll be okay as far as that goes. I'm just hoping that we started the antibiotics in time. If it's working we'll see improvement in a week. If not, the infection will create an abscess and we'll need to take him in for surgery.

Duke seems to be doing okay. He's really exhausted (it's been a long 30 hours for him). He doesn't want to go outside (which is super weird, usually it's hard to get him to come back in from being outside), I don't know if he's scared or if it's part of the exhaustion. He hasn't tried to play all day (also extremely unlike him, he's usually very playful and really hyper), but all he's done is slept or if he is awake he just lays on his blankets or at our feet and chews on a bone. He is eating and keeping hydrated which is good. I just really hope he's back to his normal self soon and that the antibiotics kick in and beat the infection.

I'll Keep You Posted

Today John and I went to look at a couple houses. We've been looking for a few months now and I think today we may have found one that we're going to try to put an offer on. I'm hoping it works out, but we need to discuss it a bit more before any action is taken.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Later today John was exercising Duke and Duke got loose and ran into our neighbors tree grove. Yes, our neighbors have a tree grove that is filled with hundreds of trees (no idea what kind though). Anyway, Duke got lost in there, John ran in after him and called me and told me to come out to help. I ran in there and tried to find them but the sun was setting and it was getting really dark. Finally I heard a yelp/cry and I ran over to where it was. Duke was fighting with a raccoon- a nasty, diseased, filthy, mean raccoon and my baby was fighting it!

I don't know if the cry was from the raccoon or from Duke. When I got there Duke had jumped off of it and was standing a few inches away from it just starring down at it. The raccoon wasn't moving. It was hissing, but it wasn't moving. Duke pounced on it again and the raccoon still didn't move. I mean, it moved in the sense that it was scratching, but it didn't get up at all. Every time I tried to take a step closer to get Duke the raccoon turned to me and hissed. Finally after about half an hour John and I got Duke. I'm pretty sure the raccoon was dead. By then it was dark and I couldn't really see, all I could see was a black figure on the ground but after a while it stopped hissing and it still wasn't moving.

Well, knowing how filthy and disease ridden they are I'm freaking out about Duke. Our pet clinic was closed so we have to wait until morning to get him in, and animal control was closed too so I couldn't have them come and get the nasty critter. Duke seems to be ok. I'm sure that the raccoon did something to him (scratch, bite) and that's worrying me. We can't see anything- he's not bleeding, he's not acting like anything hurts, he has so much fur we can't see any scratches or bite marks...but there's no way that Duke left that fight unscathed. He is all caught up on his vaccines (rabies included) so I'm hoping that prevents anything like that from setting in, but God only knows what other diseases that thing had and if they were transferred to Duke through a scratch or bite.

Do you see why I'm freaking out?

I'll have to keep you posted on this too.

I was going through some old pictures tonight though and found some puppy pictures of Duke.

Look at that face, guys.We had had him for about 2 minutes when this was taken

My itty-bitty baby :o) too freakin' cute

Yes, bask in the cuteness of my baby boy <3

From 2011 to 2012

2011 was a truly fantastic year...most of the time; however, the times that weren't so great were really hard.We've survived our first year here in Oregon, and it's from our move that the best times and toughest challenges came.

We visited the coast more than ever. We went camping and crabbing in the same month, sometimes in the same week. We visited a couple lighthouses, made new friends, lost some too. We got our baby Duke and learned the challenges of owning a Husky. We had people from back home come visit us and hotel Merrigan was full for 2 months straight. We went to and were in multiple weddings. We were able to go back home twice this year. John started out in a job he hated and found the Lowe's job which has been a blessing. We searched for a home church and finally found one we feel welcome in. I finally found a job in my career field and got out of the worst job on my resume' to date. I flew out to NC to reunite with Lizzie who I hadn't seen in 11 months. My brother moved to Oregon and announced his move to LA all  in an 11 month time period. My great grandma passed away and I couldn't go out for the funeral. Kevin & Jaici announced their pregnancy. My little sister got a boyfriend. Tina, Dave, Karen and Mike all moved out of Utah to Oregon.

I'm sure that's not all of the major events that happened in our lives this year, but those are the ones that stand out and had the most influence. The best part of this year to me was Duke. He's made our lives so much better, maybe a little harder too, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. The worst thing that happened was the passing of my great grandma. There was nothing good about that. I'd do anything to have her back.

Who knew one year could bring so much change. Our first year as a married couple and as Oregonians has passed and I'm ready to see what this next year brings. I know for certain I'll start school again; I know I'll become an aunt, and I hope maybe a mother as well.

I've decided not to make a new year's resolution. But I've decided to pick one word that I want to describe this new year. I've thought about this word a lot, and I want my word for 2012 to be: productive. I feel like during the day while I'm at home I'll do some laundry...I'll clean a little....and but I sit online and I browse pinterest far more than I should; I "have" to watch my tv shows; I "have" to check my facebook, but none of that results in me having a productive day. So, 2012 will be a very productive year. I want to be productive in my daily routines. I want to be productive in my marriage. I want to be productive as a pet owner. I want to be productive in my schooling and in my job. I want to look back on this year and think, "Wow, look how much I did". I guess that is kind of a resolution huh? Either way...2012, let's get to work!

Must Love Dogs

I took this guy to the vet today. He's gained 7 pounds since our last visit about 2 months ago so he's now 51 pounds. 51 pounds and very "fit" according to my vet. He's fit, but he's also skinny. I was talking to her about switching him from puppy food to adult dog food; I asked when she recommends switching over and she said she usually recommends it at 6 months (oops). But she said even though he's 1, she thinks the fattiness from the puppy food would be good for him. Looks like he'll be on it for a little bit longer. Also, she said that Duke is the "sweetest" husky she's ever met. Apparently Huskies don't like being handled by vets (the shots, the sprays, the etceteras), but Duke handles it like a champ every time and gives them kisses. I love hearing how good of a boy my puppy is and how healthy he is, even if he is on the skinny side.

 look at that face. I can't even stand his cuteness right now :o)

Reader Input: Dog Owners

Duke has crazy amounts of energy. This dog can run and play all day long and still want more, it seems as if he never gets tired.

I exercise him daily. We go out to a little open area behind our house and play fetch and he runs and runs in circles until he needs to take a 30 second breather and then he's at it again. I feel bad though, because it seems as if no matter how long we stay out there to play, he comes back and he's bored and still full of energy.

Thankfully he's not at all destructive when he's so bored. He's only ever chewed up one thing and that was a pair of shoes when he was 4 months old. So he doesn't chew things up; he doesn't get into anything he's not supposed to...we're really lucky in that sense, but I feel bad.

How do people with super hyper/active dogs keep them entertained all the time? We'll put him in the backyard to play and run around, but he eventually gets bored cuz there's no one else out there. I do exercise him every day, but he hates it when we have to come back inside. I play with him inside the house too, but I can only play so much before I have to get work done.

Any suggestions? He just looks so bored all the time :/

Dog Safe Cake Recipe

For those of you who love your puppy as much as I do and would like to bake a birthday cake for them, here’s the recipe I used for Duke’s cake (thanks Lizzie for sharing!):

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup shredded carrots

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup honey

1 egg

Mix flour and baking soda together

Add remaining ingredients

Pour into an 8″ round cake pan, bake at 350 for 30 minutes and let cool

Now for the frosting: Lizzie made her dog a cake with cream cheese icing, but since Duke goes crazy over peanut butter I used peanut butter to ice it. Then I used strawberry yogurt to write out his name. I also put pupperonie treats on top of it. Lizzie put a bone on top of her puppies cake, but Duke is pretty picky when it comes to treats so pupperonie sticks it was.

I cut it in half and gave him half of the cake, just because I didn’t know how his stomach would handle it (he has a sensitive tummy). So far so good! He devoured the cake and tried to “hide” some to save for later, but he went back and ate the rest of it a couple minutes after hiding it haha.

There ya have it dog lovers! Enjoy!

Duke's First Birthday

One year ago today my baby boy was born.

He was just one small pup in a big ‘ole litter.

We got Duke from a breeder in Oregon City. Last January John and I decided to get a puppy. While we researched different breeds John mentioned that he would like to have a Husky. I had never really considered having a Husky, just because I didn’t know much about them. So I started doing my research and then I looked to see if I could find any puppies for sale near us. I had been looking for a good month (not just for a Husky, but for other breeds that we had considered as well) when I found an add in the newspaper from a guy selling 3 month old Husky puppies.

I called the number in the add and spoke to the breeder who’s name is Jay. Jay grilled (ok..maybe not “grilled”) me for about 40 minutes asking me tons of questions on why I wanted a Husky, if I knew what I was getting myself into, he told me how countless people think they want a Husky but so many of the Huskies end up in pounds because they are too much to handle for the owner, and he told me how he didn’t want that to happen to his puppies. After convincing him that I had done my research, that I wouldn’t put a puppy in a pound simply because I didn’t think I could handle it, and that John and I were perfectly capable of handling and loving a Husky he told me that he had two left. He told me that one husky was a beautiful black and white pup and that he had a dominant personality, he played with the others but he was individualistic and liked to roam by himself. Then he told me that he had another husky pup who was auburn and white with ice blue eyes and this pup wants to be everyone’s best friend. He’s loving, he always likes to be by your side…he told me that he was tempted to keep this puppy for himself because his personality was so different from any other husky that he had bred. Then he asked me, out of the two of them, without seeing them, which one would I be interested in? I told him the auburn one that wants to be your best friend (duh. what a silly question). Then Jay told me that he was going to have one person come look at the puppies the next day and that I could go look at them after the other people, and that he would try to “save” the auburn/white one for me.

When we got up to see the puppies the other people had bought one, luckily it was the black and white one. The other people said they were indifferent to which one they took home, so he told them he had another buyer interested in the auburn one. I saw Duke and it was love at first sight. He was the cutest little fur ball that I had ever seen. For some crazy reason he was the last to sell. I think it’s because when he was younger he was really shy, and when people go look at puppies they aren’t as interested in the super shy puppies, so he got looked right over. And thank God he did. February 5th, 2011 we brought home our baby boy, and we named him Duke.

 

ook how tiny he was! this was about 30 minutes after we bought him <3

Duke has been one of the biggest blessings to me. People think it’s a little ridiculous how much I love my dog  but Duke was the perfect companion at a time when I was very lonely. He filled that spot that needed to be filled and he’s been my best bud since the day we brought him home. He loves John and absolutely LOVES playing with John. He gets so excited when John walks through the door, but Duke would do anything to protect me. He doesn’t like it when John even gives me a hug, Duke gets jealous and protective- he’ll literally wrap his little paws around my ankles until John lets go. He snuggles with me (which he doesn’t with John)…I don’t know how to describe it but he’s so extremely loving and gentle with me.

Because Duke is so special to us, I wanted to do something special for him on his birthday. So I baked him a  puppy safe birthday cake. It was a total success; he loved it!

Happy 1st birthday baby!

 

decorated with peanut butter frosting, strawberry yogurt icing, and pupperonie treats

 

Duke and his brand new rope