Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I know, I'm a few days late. But, honestly, did y'all really expect any different from me? :)

Husband and I celebrated on Saturday (the whole "holiday during the the week" thing should really be eradicated) by going to our traditional restaurant. He's brought me here every year since we were officially dating (he lucked out the first year as we were seeing each other, but not official on Valentine's Day). Dinner was, as always, delicious.

The actual day wasn't anything spectacular. I surprised him with cards and chocolate from both me and Mister. They were laying on our key table when he left for the morning. He had a card and chocolate for me when he got home from work. Curiously, we both exchanged chocolate with puppies on the boxes...I wonder why we were thinking dogs? ;)

As I mentioned last time (last month...same thing), not a lot of things are getting done around the house. We did spend a lot of time in the office last Saturday and started brainstorming. We're now going in a totally different direction.

Instead of building more bookshelves, we're taking two that we have and turning them on their sides. Before you scratch your head and say, "Huh?" allow me to explain. I've had these shelves since I was little. My daddy built them for my books and toys, so they have many different sized openings, most of which are perfect book-size, regardless of which way they're turned. As fate would have it, they also measure exactly the same for the wall we want to put them on (either side of the window). The plan now is to build a base drawer for them to sit on. The shelves will only rise about 4 feet, so I'm going to build 2 drawers (one for each side), about 1.5 feet high and just over a foot deep. One will house my picture albums and scrapbooks and the other will become the new file cabinet. The futon will either stay where it is, go where the shelves are now, or go away entirely. We're not quite ready to write up a post for Craigslist just yet, as the futon was handy during the holiday season. We'll see what it looks like when we make the other changes first.

The desk will most likely end up on Craigslist, though, in favor of a new, smaller one to be placed on the wall where our dedicated bookshelf is (which will also likely end up on Craigslist).

We plan to put up shelves over the desk to house my crafty stuff (now that it all has pretty storage anyway). I'd also like to build a table for my sewing machine, since it's a pain in the butt to drag out and put back. Husband has grand plans of getting a treadmill or exercise bike and work out in the mornings. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one ;)

The Puppy Dog

I have been remiss. Oh my goodness. How I have let this drag on for so long, I have no idea! A little while (ok, like 2 posts and 3 months ago), I mentioned we adopted a four-legged bundle of joy. We're almost 3 months into this whole dog-parent thing (don't be surprised when I refer to him as "puppy." He's not. He's just too cute to not call him my puppy) now and that lone post remains the only evidence of Mister in our lives :(.
We've had an...interesting time so far! We've had to deal with separation anxiety, so if y'all have any tips, let them roll! Consequently, we've been working with a behaviorist. Becoming confident leaders has been tough, but he's catching on to not being first and not getting attention because he's asking for it. We still struggle with his constant barking when he's in his crate and I'm gone (I'm the one he's attached to), though. Our trainer keeps reminding us that "Separation anxiety is a marathon, not a sprint." The goal is to have him be able to stay home after Christmas when I head to Ohio for a wedding and Husband stays home. That gives us 3 months. Sigh. Start praying now!
Don't get me wrong! When we're home, Mister is the sweetest thing. He loves his weekend belly rubs and ear scratches. He never barks at other people or animals. He's perfectly content to lay around and sleep all day. We're in love and we're trying our best to help him understand he's a keeper!
Enough words though. This little boy is too cute to not post a zillion pictures!
















Our first family portrait, while on vacation in Canada












Helping Dad play his video games













"I love having my neck and belly scratched!

Enjoying the back yard


Naturally, as Halloween approaches, we will have super-adorable pictures of Mister in his costume. Not sure what he'll be yet. Husband has his heart set on Batman, but Target was sold out in stores and I don't really want to pay shipping for it. I might have to DIY Batman.

Someone Forgot to Wake Me

Long time, no write. Sorry about that. We've been a little on the busy side. Nothing spectacularly special. Husband got a big promotion at work (yay him!) but ends up staying a little longer every day. The flu has hit school and I've been subbing the past 2 weeks in the kindergarten class. Luckily, our principal shut us down Thursday and Friday since 3 of our 4 teachers were either sick or at home with sick kids. The students have managed to stay relatively healthy. I've been suffering from allergies + exhaustion. We had a very difficult student start when my subbing started, so staying a step ahead of him completely drains you anyway. I slept at least 10 hours Thursday night, took a 2.5 hour nap Friday, and then slept another 12 Friday night. Whew!
We had a fun Halloween weekend. Thursday night, we went up to Georgetown for a haunted house. It wasn't what I was expecting. The website made it sound like they'd tell ghost stories of the house, but they actually did interpretations of famous Halloween tales and movies. Very poor interpretations at that. We hoped no one was a theater major at Georgetown College. We had fun making fun of it and some girls that were in our group. Chicken zombie will forever be my hero!
Friday, we went downtown for a party one of Husband's co-workers hosted and met up with other friends for a recreation of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. It's an annual Lexington tradition that grows every year. This year over 500 zombies participated. Anyone can be a zombie if you come to at least one rehearsal and staging practice. I ended up sick for the actual event, though. Bummer.
Saturday we stayed at home (except for a trip to Husband's work so he could finish a project and so I could get my car) and watched football and passed out candy to Trick or Treaters...all 3 of them. I didn't expect many, though. We're off the main road and our street is so new, there aren't street lights up yet. Hopefully next year we'll get some more.
Husband is on vacation this week (yay him!), but I *fingers crossed* should be back to normal this week. I'm not sure how it got to be November. September isn't even over!

Week (not -end) Update

I have so totally fallen down on the whole "Cleaning Challenge" the icon on the right suggests. I just haven't fallen into my rhythm of getting home/picking up and cleaning/not laying down for a nap. I've undertaken a huge project at school, which keeps me relatively late and by the time I trek across the county, I'm pretty worn out and ready to veg. This weekend is grocery weekend though, so I'm hoping while Husband is taking care of that, I can get things cleaned (I may even get CRAZY and decorate for Fall...not quite Halloween yet though) and be on track to start up Monday.
We've otherwise had a pretty low-key week. We ate most of our meals at home to make up for all the eating out we did last week...our checking account thanks us this week. Husband's potential promotion finally posted, so he got all his info in for that. Cross your fingers. He's got a ton of people putting in good words for him with solid examples of how he can fulfill what they're looking for. All my students were pretty good this week. The kindergartners crack me up though. They came in for Library today and since everything has gotten rearranged (my big project), they were pretty excited. One little girl even said, "It's so pretty!" There's no end to their funny quotes ("Do you have a son?" "No." "Well, do you have a hunny?") so I'll stop there. Fall Break is in sight!