Dog Sitting

Since Josh and I like to use the blog as basically a journal with photos to keep track of our lives, I will now attempt to chronicle what has gone on in this past busy month in my next few posts.

Saturday, Septmeber 17, was the first day of our dog sitting fiasco.  Word to the wise: don't ever think that you can take on two dogs in a tiny one bedroom apartment.  Maybe to some people that is common sense, but Josh and I thought it would be a cake walk.  We had been doing so good with Zino!  Josh has a friend from work who, like us, is married and lives in southern California with no family down here.  They also have a dog and love to travel.  They usually put their dog in an expensive kennel but Josh and I had a great idea, we would offer to watch their dog and then we could watch eachothers' dogs whenever we traveled. 

Everything went well over the weekend, aside from a couple accidents, and we were quite pleased with ourselves. Then came Monday when we had to go to work.  Josh goes home for lunch to find we have a complaint on the door and apparently the dogs were having a hay day barking together non-stop!  Oh-boy.  Josh tried separating them but when he got home that night we had ANOTHER complaint! We were stressing!  You can even get fined for dog barking :/

Thankfully Josh's friend, Shannon, happened to be home on maternity leave and had a nice backyard where she watched the other dog for us the next couple days.That saved us from getting evicted! Oh and did I add that Josh got a speeding ticket while taking the other dog to Shannon's one morning? Ya, it was hell.  And we still had the dog til the upcoming Sunday, so we had to constantly be home since they had proved they couldn't be alone together, grrrr. Moral of the story? We will not be able to be dog-sitting buddies until we have a house and a yard.  We really need to get on that one.

Here are a couple pics from the nicer moments:

Breakfast

Today I had a day off work and decided to eat something different for breakfast than my usual oatmeal with peanut butter that I have been having for three months straight!  I love oatmeal because it keeps me full and guarantees that I eat at least one healthy meal in the day ;)  So today I used my love of oatmeal and turned it into an Oatmeal/Blueberry/Banana Shake and I was quite pleased with it.  This is what I did...


Take 1/2 cup oatmeal and put it in a microwave safe bowl, then pour milk over the oatmeal till the oatmeal is almost covered... I'd say about 3/4 cup.  Then microwave for 1 1/2 minutes to soften the oats. 

Dump the oatmeal mixture in the blender

Add Blueberries and bananas (or any fruit you like)

Add about 1/2 an ice tray and blend

Add milk to thin if needed... I did


This made my tummy happy, but I would only recommend it to oatmeal lovers.  If you're looking for a new idea, give it a shot!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we took our puppy boy to the vet for his booster shots.  He handled it like a champ :)  We have been struggling with a name because we got so used to just calling him "puppy" during his first few nameless days.  We tried Oliver for a bit after having my sister and one of Josh's co-workers say h looked like an Oliver, but it didn't stick. Now we are trying Calzino, Zino for short.  It was a name Josh originally liked.  It means sock in Italian which works because he has three brown legs and one white leg that looks like a sock :)

We also went to downtown Long Beach for a Latin Festival and parade.

And we did lots of hanging out at home and going on plenty of walks.  We also found out that the puppy dog doesn't like it much when we give attention to anyone other than him... so we had some fun messing with him ;)

It was a very mild weekend and I loved that after the last month and a half of action packed days.

Chase's Visit

Friday, September 2nd, I met Josh's sister, Marnie, in Thousand Oaks so that I could take our nephew Chase home with me.  We had a nice time at the mall there including a trip to the Cheesecake Factory--always amazing-- and a stop at a tea shop where an overly eager employee made us all feel a little awkward, hehe.

I took Chase back to Long Beach and then he immediately left with Josh to go to a USA soccer game.  They went with some of Josh's co-workers and all had fun.

We went to a Greek Festival Saturday and tried some yummy homemade Greek food and chase played a carnival game where he won a very squeaky blow-up sludge hammer ;)

That night we watched some movies and had fun just hanging out and eating mac n'cheese with hot dogs (I'm an amazing cook ;) The boys stayed up a little later than me but everyone was asleep around 1 maybe 1:30am.  Around 2am we were all startled awake by the fire alarm going off in the complex.  It was intensely loud and not only are there alarms going off in the halls outside the apartment but inside the apartment as well.  Josh ran out to make sure there was no real threat and found nothing.  We were all screaming at each other trying to communicate so we, like many other residents, decided to head way downstairs in our pj's to get out of the complex and the noise.  Our doggy was freaked, his poor little ears didn't like that either.  It probably took 15minutes before the fire department arrived.  We watched them drive past the place a few times before they figured out where we were, not very comforting if it were a real emergency :/  Then another 10 minutes to secure the place before turning the alarm off.  And the sprinklers turned on while we were sitting on the sidewalk, but don't worry, they only got me.  After that we were wide awake and watched another movie... I think it was 5am before we slept for good.

We also went to the International Street Fair in Old Town Orange.  They do it every labor day weekend but this was the first year we have actually been in town to go.  It was pretty cool and pretty crowded.  They had different streets that were themed to different countries.  We tried a Hawaiian pulled pork sammy, an Irish banger (which is pretty much a sausage hot dog with grilled peppers and onions), Native American fry bread (my fav), American buffalo wings and monkey bread.

After that we headed to downtown Disney and Chase wanted to check out the Lego shop.  Chase found a lego set and went to buy it.  When he came back he seemed a little out of it... I was trying to ask him what he got and he just said he was ready to go. It was kind of hot and muggy in there so I could see why.  When we got out he started walking ahead of us and next thing we knew he dropped his lego bag and staggered over to a bush.  We were concerned and were asking if he was okay when the vomit came.  We were so surprised because he hadn't mentioned not feeling well but immediately after he puked... twice... he says "okay, I'm ready to go now" lol! Just like that he was back to normal!  Now I don't have kids so maybe this is how it works but after he puked I was thinking "oh no, he is sick, how bad is this? will we need to carry him? we should call his mom"... but no, he was fine.  I couldn't help but laugh... that's it?!

We had a very eventful weekend.  We loved getting to spend time with Chase, we don't get these chances that often.  He is such a fun, entertaining, smart kid :)

We met Marnie and Ciera in Santa Barbara and were able to spend a little time together at La Cumbra Plaza before heading back from another great weekend!

PUPPY!

August 28th we went to the Downey Animal Shelter to "look" at some dogs and came home with this:

We had been thinking of getting a dog for a while but had a few concerns.  One of which was wondering if our little apartment would be a good enough home for a dog.  Then we found out about the Downey Shelter and how they start euthanizing dogs after 6 days because they are so over-crowded.  We knew that our little place was much better than death so we took a look and fell in love with our little guy.

He was a little sick when we first got him so we had to give him an antibiotic for a week, but within 15 minutes of being out of the shelter he was perking right up.  He had been sharing a cage with some hyper puppy that was jumping all over him and another dog when he just didn't feel good... no wonder he looked so depressed!

We have been giving him lots of walks... which has been good for us too, and he is just as happy as can be.  A little needy, but happy :)

 Our "Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus" pose

Brian Wilson and the Boys

My dad, David, and Jamie came down August 26-28 for a Brian Wilson Concert (leader and main song writer/composer of the Beach Boys).  My dad is a huge Beach Boys fan... like big time... and he wanted to make sure he saw this concert since Brian Wilson is 69 years old and may not be performing any longer.

They got in Friday and I was able to spend the day with them.  Of coarse we hit up Cafe Rio... a must when they are in town :)  We also went to the movies that night... Dad and I saw Columbiana and Josh took David and Jamie to Captain America.

Saturday, while poor Joshy was working, we went to Seal Beach for a walk on the pier, then took a drive down PCH to Newport Beach, and hit up Sanchos Tacos in Huntington Beach on the way home.  We all agreed that Sanchos had the best fish tacos we had ever had, so flavorful and delicious! I need to go back :)

Saturday evening we ate at Elbows (that gourmet mac n'cheese place) before heading to the Cerritos Performing Arts Center for the concert.  The venue was so nice and our seats were really good!  David, Jamie, and I enjoyed knowing the words to all the songs courtesy of our Dad playing them over and over growing up ;) 

The trip was short but lots of fun.  We have enjoyed having all these family visits recently and look forward to more in the future!

Grandpa Visit

Thursday, August 18, I went up to Santa Maria to spend some time with family and see my Grandpa Cragun.  He had been diagnosed with bladder cancer... again!  Apparently it is a very common cancer to reoccur.  He had already been getting chemo and radiation therapy for a few weeks and I wanted to see him and show some support.  Grandpa was handling the treatment so well, even the doctors were impressed with him :)  He is such an amazingly strong man and we have all been so blessed to have his influence in our lives.  It was so nice to spend some time with him and with Grandma... even though I don't think she will remember it :(  I don't get up there enough and I was happy to have had the time to do it.  About two days ago I found out that Grandpa had a PET scan and two of the three masses were gone and they are confident that the last one will be taken out by his last treatments.  They also found no cancer cells!!! It was great news!  I am so proud of Grandpa for fighting so hard, and so happy to have his battle almost over.  We love you Grandpa!