Where've I been!?

Where have I been?! I'll tell you where I've been! Everywhere! 

Just kidding. I've had a few weekend of activities and have been sick (boo!). 

My mom and I went on our Mother's Day part 2 to the Boston Ballet (Mother's Day part 1 shown below- this week we went to see Coppelia).  We volunteered at the gift shop and got free tickets (aren't I a high spender!) We drove into Boston and parked at the Boston Common garage, then found that SIP Wine Bar validates your parking if you eat there. We went back for a second round this time too! 

We had a Memorial Day BBQ and fireworks with some friends. Lucy plays well with the friend's dog (and likes to follow around their C-A-T. She did come to the fireworks though, and was more interested with the other people than the fireworks. 

Flower, one of the Paws New England fosters, came to stay with us while her foster momma is on vacation for a week. She has stayed with us a week before. I think she was shocked when she remembered who I was- and that she was going to the house with all the low riders. 

Flo isn't a huge fan of ALL other dogs, so we've been taking her (oh, I- I have been taking her) on get along walks. Emma was pretty excited about her walk (as long as she was in front). 

 

We had storms last night and all my dogs and our 2 fosters the Tweedles were fine, but the big scary pit bull was shaking like a baby. Poor girl. She did get to sleep in the bed because of it. Eric and his ladies took the couch. No Lucy, that wedding ring does NOT mean that you are married to him. 

Planting the 2013 Garden

Its May- almost Memorial Day. You know what that means (in NH at least).. gardening time! I always get a little excited in usually February and start some seedlings. Usually I forget to water them, and they die. 

This year I did pretty good. I bought a shelf and a couple lights to avoid having "leggy" tomatoes. 

Then I planted green beans, tomatoes and radishes.. Since neither Eric or I actually eat radishes I am no sure why I did that. I also planted a squishy onion I found in my onion bowl. 

Pretty soon the green beans were taking over and needed to be transplanted. 

That's abut when my dining room started to look like a jungle..

But I live in NH and you can't trust the weather- can't plant outside until Memorial Day. I also had five additional concerns about planting outside. 

Here are one through three. Lucy enjoys the buffet and Emma tries to dig. Bowser is generally oblivious and once again getting thrown in with his sisters. 

The immediate threats are four and five: The Tweedles! Don't let those adorable faces fool you, Mario actually dug most of the hole for my blueberry bush! 

So on the first hot day of the year, I got home from work and created this masterpiece: 

Starting Grad School

In April I started my first class for graduate school. I decided to take my first class on line at SNHU through their International MBA program with a concentration in Quantitative Decision making.

For my class, every week we need to post a response to a discussion topic as well as "comment" on two other class mates, write a paper or presentation, and we have an ongoing group project.

The first few weeks I did well at making sure my papers were done before the weekend, but between Blackboard glitches and work loads I have become a Saturday morning paper writer.

That is okay, Mario (1/2 of the Tweedles) thinks he can help me out.

Making a headboard

When I finished the bed frame, I had our old queen sized headboard on the king mattress.

I have been working on making a headboard based on Ana White's farmhouse headboard.
http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plans-how-to-modify-farmhouse-bed-to_09.html

It is on 4x4s, so very heavy. Finally this weekend one of hubby's friends helped to move it upstairs and here is what I have:

I think it looks a bit tall, and we don't have a wall that fits 2 night stands and the king sized bed easily without hiding the window. Oh well. Notice the Bowser photo bomb. He was clearly quite ready for bed.

What Home-ownership means..

Home-ownership means a lot of work. 

And somethings I have outsourced to my husband.

Have to put together furniture.. 

And put up new window trim.. 

Clean out the gutters... 

Hang a bird feeder... 

And of course snow blow the driveway during a blizzard... 

What? These are all photos of my husband? Well sure, but who do you think makes him do this stuff! 

Nag, nag nag nag nag. :)

Foster Pups January - May

We are very involved with an amazing rescue Paws New England (www.pawsnewengland.com). We foster through them and I also coordinate events. 

Here are our 2013 fosters so far: 

Jingles: Jingles arrived on Christmas Eve 2012. She was adopted out to a new home, and then returned. She likes to play rough with big dogs and my pups weren't so thrilled, so she went to a new (and AMAZING) foster. She is still available at http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/24884284.

Mango: Little Mango was with us for about a week while his application was finalized. He now has a yellow lab brother. I am sure he is king of his house! 

Gale: Gale was named after the Hunger Games. He was found with his buddies locked in an outdoor kennel after his previous owners moved away. He was quite the scavenger and hoarder when he first came to us- made a little nest under the coffee table. As he got more comfortable, we assured him that there would be enough food and toys. By the time he was adopted he was doing very well with sharing. He now has 3 human siblings and a huge house and yard to run in. 

Pheobe: Pheobe came to us for a couple weeks. She is about 10 years old, diabetic and set in her ways. Pheobe was adopted out and returned because she is a lot to handle with her diabetes. She came to us to get her diabetes under control, then was forever adopted by her TN foster mom. Pheobe knew when it was dinner time, and here's what the royal princess did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJECbunrBU

The Tweedles came over next. They were named Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, but since they both answered when you called Tweedle, we changed their names to Mario and Luigi. Luigi has the pointy ears and knows his name. Mario either doesn't know his name or doesn't care to show it. He loves to lay in the dirt and doesn't like coming in when called. Luigi is desperate for love. They have an application in, so maybe they will be adopted soon! (Here's Mario trying to take over a stick- 

Boone came to us for 2 weeks as well. He is a happy little guy who is getting 2 human kids to play with in his next home: 

Making the Bed Frame

We upgraded to a King sized bed in December- thank you in part to wedding shower gifts of the necessary linens, the 3-6 dogs we have sleeping with us and a generous house warming gift from Gram. I like marriage much more in a king sized bed! Haha. 

I wanted a bed with storage underneath. My dad made a platform queen sized for us, and I found some instructions on Ana White's awesome website (http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plan-how-to-modify-queen-sized-stratton.html) The plans were less than amazing- I suspect someone had a couple glasses of wine while they calculated them. If the sizes were correct, they would be great. The sizes were off on many cuts, so I decided to just intelligently wing it. 

First I had to make the 2 cubbie benches. See the box of trash bags I used to get right angles? That might have been less than ideal. I have since invested in a triangle! Kudos to dad on making the work bench for "eric's birthday" - it was Eric's birthday present, but I am the only one who has used it..

The problem came in making the foot piece with the drawers. The measurements were off, and I would have needed to go get a new piece of wood if I wanted to fix that.. so instead I decided to put my drawers on castors and have an open bottom. 

Then I learned the problems of painting in January (okay, February by the time I got to this) in New England. I moved everything inside and created a paint studio in my living room. 

The dogs were very helpful- NOT. Bowser tried to be a Zebra. Hey, I did put the Zebra collar on him, so I suppose I put the idea in his head. 

I think it came out pretty good. I've had some critiques on how much space is around the drawers. I could have squared them off, but I think they look just fine. These became Eric's drawers anyway, so they are rarely pushed in. 

And I am very excited about my cubbies. I put 2 baskets in one- one for athletic socks and one for work socks. The other I put a bin in (not pictured) for undershirts/tank tops. Eric has 2 on his side as well. A cheap laundry basket fits in perfectly, so I have 2 over there- one with our bed linens and one with his sweatshirts.