10 things I love

10. Basketball- and not just KU basketball. I love playing basketball so much, and it's something I need to start doing again

9. Shopping. When I save up enough shopping money to do some serious retail therapy, I love it. It's funny because I used to completely hate shopping with a passion. Now that I can go on my own & I'm completely free to make my own choices, I really do love it. Online shopping also makes it easier to love to shop.

8. Driving the shit out of my car. I can't wait for summer to come again so I can put my tires back on and have some grip!

7. Spending time with friends I love. I don't do that nearly enough & tend to make excuses for not seeing the few that are still close to Lawrence. I always say, "Oh they live too far away to visit," but I just need to man up and make the damn drive to OP.

6. Learning new languages. After I just upgraded to iTunes10, I noticed a few features, like audiobooks. This lead to me find a few books that teach you Russian. I also found tons of audio recordings of Russian conversation, so I'm hoping to start picking it up.

5. Lifting weights. I find it so invigorating and I absolutely love the feeling I get after lifting for a while- when I can feel myself getting stronger. And not to mention, it's an easy way to put on weight that looks good.

4. Community service. I used to volunteer all the time and it's something I stopped doing about a year ago. I get a sense of purpose from volunteering and I'm going to start doing it again after finals.

3. Thinking up all of the wonderful outfits I'm going to wear when I a) finally get over my sweatpants phase and b) have enough money to sophisticated clothing.

2. Reading, movies, & TV. Sometimes you need a break from your life or at least a reminder of better things, and these three things are a great way to do that.

1. Our little family that we've created. Every night when we're all at home, the cats are upstairs meowing/going nuts and the puppies are running figure eights around the downstairs, Alexey and I just look at each other and smile because, at the end of the day, life is good.

What I'm thankful for...

I know that I come off as a really unhappy, negative person & I'm sure I annoy quite a few of you. Right now, I'm not at a place in my life where things are going my way, so it gets me down more often than not. However, I do have many things in my life that I'm incredibly grateful for. I was going to take the easy way out of a real Thanksgiving post, but as I was reading other people's posts, I realized I should write them down; focus on the good. So here they are:

• My man. I get way more grumpy with him than I should because he is the most wonderful boyfriend I could ever dream up. He treats me so much better than I probably deserve, and he's the best furdad ever. 
• Our love. As cheesy as it is, I'm really thankful we're still so in love. I felt like this had to be a separate point- just because you have the man doesn't mean you've still got the love!
• My furbabies. I bitch about them on here quite a bit when they do bad things, but it's complete bliss watching them fall asleep & dream their puppy/kitty dreams. Their love is truly unconditional & the stupidest things make them happy as can be. I should really take note & try to see the world like they do....minus the drool & other nasty things ;)
• My sisters. Although we don't get along all the time & they do some things I don't approve of & would never do, I have had much better relationships with them ever since the divorce. We depend on each other more now than we ever have. It's taken some getting used to, but I think I'm finally starting to understand what having a close relationship with my sisters is like. It's mostly good haha
• My house, my car, all of my stuff. Being able to have all of the crap I do is something I take for granted much too often. 
• My job. Sure, there are things I'd like to be different at work, but I have a job. In today's world that is damn lucky. I'm also thankful to work with such amazing people. They have really become friends that I'll miss when we all move to different stores or on to different places. 
• My education. School stresses me out like no other, but learning is something I really love. Once school is over, I hope I have enough time to continue taking classes. Even if I don't, I'll still be thankful for my education & all that I've learned. 
• The level of freedom I have. I was thinking about this on my drive to OP today. I drove almost an hour away & didn't have to stop at any military checkpoints, didn't see guys carrying around guns on the streets, there were no riots, etc. 
• My general health. My health is something that causes (or has already caused) the majority of problems in my life. But what I am thankful for when it comes to health is that I don't have a disease that is killing me...or at least I don't think it's killing me. I'll get back to you on that.

Today made it kind of hard to focus on everything I have to be thankful for, but this day is about being grateful for what you have, not about being upset with the shit you've been dealt. Hope everyone was able to enjoy all that they have to be thankful for. 

Good day?

I'd actually say I had a pretty good day today despite everything that happened. Yes, that's right people, I'm focusing on the GOOD parts of today instead of the BAD. Bet that was one hell of a surprise, huh?

This morning I woke up with a migraine. That sucked, but I was being spooned by my man, so I didn't really even care I had a migraine. I also got to sleep in until about 11:30! After breakfast, I decided I just couldn't stand my hair cut anymore & that it needed to be fixed. I decided I'd shower, do my hair like I normally do it & head to another stylist to show her what had been done to my hair.

A bit before I was supposed to leave, my awesome manager texted me offering me some hours tonight, so I said I'd come in after my hair cut. I headed to my appointment & was delighted when she thought my hair looked just as horrid as I thought it did :) But really, she could tell the girl just wasn't paying attention. She did an awesome job fixing it, even though she had to take a little more off the bottom.

Funny side story: we were talking about our dogs, & I mentioned Tuck & said, "He's part sheltie, part kangaroo." Her response was, "Oh really? I didn't know they could do that!" Hehe. She thought I meant he literally was part kangaroo instead of me just meaning he's quite the jumper. She was really sweet & actually listened to what I was saying! She seriously did a great job, & I feel like I can actually go out in public again.

After my hair cut I raced home to shower & get ready for work. I took the dogs out right as I was about to leave, & what happens? Tuck has diarrhea. AWESOME! When we got inside he also started dry heaving, so that was great. Usually I wouldn't think very much of this, but he ate poo at the dog park yesterday that I could clearly see a worm in when I went over to get him away from it. I did NOT want to spend Thanksgiving home, taking him out every 5 minutes, so I called the vet. Yeah, apparently they all closed really early for the holiday.

Because of that I had to take him to Banfield in Overland Park. He made it the whole way there, all the time in OP, and the whole way back without making a mess so that was freaking amazing. The vet was actually really good & they were super quick! Something Banfield never has been. Tuck actually liked it. After the vet, I stopped by my mom's house to introduce Tucker to the family dog, Mandy & they got along pretty well. Mandy doesn't like other dogs at all, so that was  huge.

As I was leaving OP, I called back my friend Brian to see what he had called for earlier. I ended up going over to his place to hang out for a bit since I haven't seen him in way too long. Did I mention how much I love catching up with good friends? Let's just say I'm feeling completely refreshed & that's probably the reason I'm being positive tonight. Tuck behaved pretty well after his initial freak out because of meeting a new person & being in a new place.

Now we're finally back home, Tucker is medicated, & Koopa & Tuck are reunited again :D

My girls....the nut jobs

My cats are pretty much insane. They chase each other up and down the hall all day, make panther noises when they're acting especially nutty, and do things like this:



No, we didn't put her up there. She likes to do the strangest things. Things like that, obviously, but lately she has taken to doing things like this: (note: sorry for talking weird to my cats in the background, but I've already admitted I'm a cat lady so it shouldn't surprise you)

 

That's her rolling around in Tucker's smell. The end of the video clearly shows that she's pretty much terrified of the dogs- she jumps every time she hears them & thinks they're coming upstairs, but apparently she loves them enough (secretly) to want to crawl into their crates & roll around in their smell.

Having 5 animals can be quite a headache sometimes, but it's mostly just moments like these that make me laugh & scratch my head. :D

No words

I don't even have words to describe this right now. But you better believe I had them when I walked in the door at saw this. Let's just say I'm going to have two very well-behaved dogs for a while...you know like an hour more or so :/

Yawn

I'm getting slightly bored with posting every day. I usually don't remember to post until about 10 or 11pm, so they come from a very groggy me.

That makes for pretty worthless posts. I'd like to say that I'll try to start posting earlier in the day when I might actually care about writing (um...typing?) a good post, but I've got a couple of busy weeks ahead.

The two things I can say about today are that a) I bought a perfect pair of jeans- the only ones I've ever had that are long enough to drag the ground and b) dogs REALLY like to eat things they shouldn't. My two ruined a perfect day at the dog park trying to eat things they shouldn't. Well at least I thought they ruined it. They probably had the time of their lives trying to get around me to what they wanted.

Update on Tuck

I just realized that I haven't posted an update about Tuck...actually I don't think I've blogged at all about him yet! I was pretty surprised the other day to find out that a few people I work with didn't know that we'd gotten another dog. This was for an obvious reason- we had been hiding it from everyone!

Once people found out about him, they thought it was silly that we'd been hiding it, but we did it for a good reason. So many people already judge us for having as many animals as we do & we just wanted to be happy with our new dog instead of worrying about what people thought about us having him. We thought it'd be much easier for someone to find out on their own, say, "You got another dog?! How are you going to handle that?!" and for us to be able to reply, "Oh, we're handling it just fine, thank you, and have been for the past 2 months." It definitely was easier that way.

Now when we first got him, I wasn't sure. He was a very independent dog & we'd always find him in another room sleeping alone. He and Koopa just didn't play all that often, so we thought...ahem...I thought it wasn't going to work out. But as time went on & he got more comfortable with us & Koopa, we all fell in love. All of the things that I'd been worrying about vanished & it's really been great.

He and Koopa play all day except for when they're sleeping or eating. They do a very good job of entertaining themselves so we don't have to keep Koopa interested as often (not that we'd mind it!). Koopa now eats two times a day instead of nibbling all day long. They take naps together, they clean each others teeth, and now they have another dog to play tug with.

Tuck is also an incredibly smart dog. He has learned so much in the couple of months since we got him...he's even better at Koopa on most commands. My favorite part about him is that he is so attentive. Koopa has no problem completely ignoring us, but Tuck almost seems like he's waiting for us to ask him to do something. Every time we move, he looks up and makes eye contact like he's saying, "What can I do for you?" It's awesome.

I do have some complaints obviously. My first one is actually kind of humorous. I have two very noisy dogs. This doesn't change when they're playing; actually it's worse when they do. And they play all the time. They slam each other into walls, grab each others legs and drag the other around by them, and whine/make Chewbacca noises while they play. Most of the time it's downright funny, but sometimes when I'm studying I just can't take it! We're definitely working on decreasing the damn noise. The second complaint is that they like to play too much! When I take them out to go to the bathroom, they do their thing, but on the way back in they start playing. This normally wouldn't be a problem except that they're ON LEASH and -worst of all- attached to me! I bet this really cracks the neighbors up seeing me get dragged around by two nutty dogs.

But really, I'm just so incredibly happy to have 2 dogs & 3 cats that are happy and so loved. They improve my life so much & I really hope that we do the same for them. Now before I get too sappy, here are some pictures of my boys and even a video so you believe me about Chewbacca.