This is how we found Red after he had been outside on a rainy day. He had a grand ole' time playing in the mud puddles.

Starting Over

Meet Red.



We have had him for a couple of weeks now. He's about 13 weeks old and he and Clive have the same dad. Red is proving to be very smart, but also fiesty and stubborn...but he's growing on us.

Man's Best Friend

On October 31, 2009, we lost our beloved dog Clive. He was not even two years old. He had surgery on his left hip on Sept. 10 and after that he had a new complication every week. They did another surgery to remove some dead muscle and put in drains. The vets worked hard to keep the infection down, and Clive remained at the hospital for the last 2 weeks of his life. His white blood cell count went down and things were looking up. On the morning of Halloween we were supposed to go pick him up and bring him home for the weekend. The vet called us and said that Clive had taken a turn for the worse overnight and they needed to amputate his leg in order to keep the infection from spreading. They went into surgery around 11:30am. About an hour later, we learned that Clive had gone into cardiac arrest on the table and they were unable to save him. He had been through so much over the past few months and his body just couldn't handle it. He had also begun losing muscle in his front right leg, which leads us to believe he had some sort of muscular/joint disorder. I know that he is at peace now, but that doesn't make it any easier. I miss his sweet spirit around the house. I miss seeing him on the back porch when I pull into the driveway. I miss him putting his face on the side of my bed in the morning. I miss him running to the door when I get home from work. I miss his sweet face. I miss my friend.

Gag Reflex

This is hilarious.

Wouldn't It Be Nice

In honor of my 4 year wedding anniversary tomorrow, I'd like to dedicate this post to the Beach Boys who so perfectly put in to words all the feelings I had in the 7 years Tom and I dated before we got married:

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was neverending
Wouldn't it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

Speak to Me

Do you ever hear a song that just speaks to you or pulls at your heart? I love music, so this happens to me fairly frequently. Most recently, it has been this song by Casting Crowns. The song is called Praise You in This Storm. I think one of the reasons I like it is because the bridge is one of my favorite scriptures. Funny enough, the reason it's one of my favorites is because it's what the Mother Superior says to Maria in The Sound of Music, which I use to watch multiple times a day when I was 5 years old. It also happens to be my favorite movie of all time. Check out the song on itunes. Here are the lyrics that for whatever reason, have really affected me:

I was sure by now, God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say "Amen" and it's still raining.

As the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you".
And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands
And praise the God who gives, and takes away.

I'll praise You in this storm, and I will lift my hands.
You are who You are, no matter where I am.
And every tear I cry, You hold in Your hands.
You never left my side,
And though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

I remember when, I stumbled in the wind.
You heard my cry to You and raised me up again.
But my strength is almost gone.
How can I carry on if I can't find You?

As the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you".
And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands
And praise the God who gives, and takes away.

I'll praise You in this storm, and I will lift my hands.
You are who You are, no matter where I am.
And every tear I cry, You hold in Your hands.
You never left my side,
And though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

I lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

I'll praise You in this storm, and I will lift my hands.
You are who You are, no matter where I am.
And every tear I cry, You hold in Your hands.
You never left my side,
And though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

Double Trouble

For the past week, we have been watching a 10 week old puppy for some
friends of ours while they were at summer camp. She is a yellow lab
too, so she and Clive look super cute together. Her name is Roy and she
is very fiesty. She and Clive had a grand old time running around the
house, tunneling under the house, and using the bathroom in the house
(okay the last one was just Roy). It was fun for Clive to have a
playmate for the week and it made us appreciate him being out of the
"puppy" phase. We managed to capture some sweet moments for your
enjoyment:

Before and After

Obviously by the lack of posts, you can assume that life has been busy. One thing that has taken place is that we finally got cracking on the inside of this house! We painted the living/dining room a couple of weekends ago. This is the room that you first walk in to when you come through the front door. I think the new paint color looks much more "period" to our 1940's home. We have more plans for this room, but this was a great start. Here are some before and after pics. The color is called Farmhouse Blue.

Success and a sneaky dog...

Tom finished the fence! Yay! I helped him last weekend to finish up the gates and a few odds and ends. It is wonderful. I am so proud of my husband. Take a looksee:





About 3 days after the fence was finished, Tom came home from work to find that Clive was missing. Oh but he did not escape through the fence my friends...he busted through the screen on the screened porch. That dog is dying for an adventure. So we had to put some wire up on the bottom half of the screened porch to keep him from getting out. As my neice Kyleigh would say, he's "neaky neaky!". Here's the wired up porch as well as our neighbors nice well-behaved, non adventure seeking dog, Casey. She's a sweetheart.

Progress

A while back, Clive figured out how to get out of the fence in the backyard. It was the fence that was up when we moved in; just a 3 ft. high, flexible, wire fence. When we moved in, we knew it was only a matter of time until he figured out that he could just jump over it. Well he's been getting cabin fever from being in the house so much now that he's started to chew things up again...like my WORK CELL PHONE. It was in about 10 pieces. Fortunately, they did not make me pay to replace it, but rather laughed and told me to feed my dog more. So that kind of sped up our new fence plans. Last weekend, Tom's parents came to visit and Tom and his stepdad dug all the post holes and then cemented in all of the posts for the fence. Here are some pics:





We bought all of the rest of the wood that we would need this week, and then yesterday, Tom and our friend Ryan (thanks again Ryan!) started putting up the runner boards and really got the fence going! Tom worked on it some more today. It's gonna be so awesome when it's done! Here's how it looks so far:




While Tom and I weren't looking, Clive snuck inside and brought his duck back outside. You know how little kids often have a favorite stuffed animal or little blanket that they always want with them and usually sleep with? That's what this duck is like for Clive. I just had to snap a few pics.

Reason number 4,085 why my job is CRAZY

Today, while working, I got peed on by a dog. INSIDE A HOUSE. Here's the scene: I was at this house investigating a new CPS report. I had just sat down at the kitchen table with the two adults in the household. I set my (very nice) briefcase/purse down next to my chair. Shortly after, 1 of the 3 small dogs in the house ever so casually lifted his leg and proceeded to pee on my bag. I grabbed the bag up quickly and the woman apologized and wiped it off with a towel. She advised me to not put my bag on the floor because "he does that". So I put the bag on the back of my chair and continued my discussion. About 2 minutes later, that blasted dog lifted his leg again and peed ON MY LEG. Thankfully I was wearing long pants, but it got all over the bottom of my pants and my shoe. DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN? WHAT!? SERIOUSLY?!.....I'm speechless...

Snow on the Pamlico

What a beautiful day all around. A new President that brings hope for the future. A tasty venison stew cooking on the stove. Excited for a fun night of college basketball, American Idol, and The Biggest Loser. And the snow is still coming down here in "Little Washington". Here are a few pics.
Our cute little house all covered in snow.
Cliveman checking out the scene.
Downtown on the boardwalk.
The frigid river.
Lots of snow!

Back inside, trying to stay warm in his chair.

A Favorite

In light of college basketball season really getting going now, I've
decided to post one of my all time favorite YouTube videos. I'm not
lying when I tell you that this video makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE
TIME...of course I'm not biased or anything...

That's a Good Boy

I realize that I blog a lot about my dog, but we don't have kids yet, so cut me some slack. So we went to Goldsboro for New Year's Eve this year to hang out w/ our friends, Bryan and Lindsay. Well of course we had to bring Clive and they are always
gracious enough to let him play in their backyard w/ the other dogs. They have 2 labs and a giant St. Bernard. While we were there, I casually walked over to the window to check on Clive and totally caught him having an intimate moment: Clive was laying down and the St. Bernard was licking him as if he was bathing one of his pups. Clive was LOVING IT. I didn't want to make them stop so I snapped some pictures through the window (hence the blurriness). It was so stinking cute...and kinda gross at the same time. Note how my 70 lb. dog pails in comparison to this beast. Here are the pics plus a little video of Clive playing fetch for his mama.

The Visions In My Head

We bought this house about 5 months ago. I had big plans. I still do. I'm just realizing now that this is going to be a looong process. Literally every day I think about the things I want to do to this house; paint colors, furniture, window treatments, additions, etc. We haven't got to any of those yet, BUT...we have begun to tackle the yard. Fortunately, we have some family members with very green thumbs who were gracious enough to help us rookies out. When we moved in, there was a huge tree right in front of the house. The first picture is right after we had the tree taken out (it was dying and a hazard) when there was still lumber all over the yard. The other pictures were taken after we had done some work. Everything we planted is really young and small right now and probably won't look that great for another year or so. You can also see where we planted a new maple tree in place of the tree we took out.