Productive saturday.

So Tim and I are both guilty of getting these crazy ideas every once in a while. 3 months ago I had the crazy idea to get a puppy. Next thing you know, we are flying to Idaho and then back... with a 12 week old boxer and are absolutely, totally unprepared for puppy-parenting.

The other day Tim says to me, "So, I think that we should get a new car. Trade in the FJ."

My response, "HUH?!"

We JUST got that car a year and a half ago and it is a sweet ride. I mean, true, it gets horrible gas mileage and is the one part of our life that is completely opposite of environmentally friendly and it would be perfect for off roading which we don't really do. And Tim has an hour long commute each way thus enhancing it's crappy gas mileage BUT STILL. It's just a cool car.

So I was shocked.

And then he dropped an even bigger bomb: "I want to look at the new 2010 prius."

WHAT?! You're looking at trading in a cool SUV for a prius? Seriously? Granted the prius is very environmentally friendly but there is also a huge stigma attached which I was shocked that he wanted to associate with.

But, being the nice wife that I am, I went along with it, to humor him. Or so I thought. We went to the Toyota dealer where we got the FJ and test drove a new 2010 prius. I'm not even kidding you, these cars are AMAZING. They have an eco mode, an electric mode, and a power mode if you need it. And honestly, it probably has more space than the FJ. It has some zip too. And the new models just look cool. Plus I am a sucker for the "made from all sustainable materials" thing. And that's not even mentioning the 600 miles it gets per tank of gas. I was completely and totally blown away.

Apparently a lot of people are too. To get one, you have to put it on order. They are in pretty high demand especially in Washington because there is a law in place that says that you don't have to pay sales tax if you have the car before July 31 (only on the prius, no other car). On a $30K car, 10% sales tax- it's a pretty big chunk of money.

We were both so impressed, we decided to get one. It just makes sense in so many ways. Lucky for us, there was a car on route that would get to us before July 31 (thus the no sales tax). It had everything we wanted minus the sun roof- navigation, gray, bigger wheels, etc. I know I suck at explaining car stuff but it was one step under the highest package (which included the sun roof). We were happy. So this new little baby will be here in a few weeks.

Later in the day we decided to go on a hike and to the beach. We were talking about eco-duncan (as we are calling the new prius) and also about Winston (my 2005 mini cooper). Winston is almost at 70,000 miles and I have had him for 5 years. We were talking about how we will need to fix several thing on him in the next several months: his brakes are squeaking (new brakes/pads); he is due for a new clutch; needs a new windshield (it's cracked); needs a detail desperately.

Once we started adding everything up, we started thinking, holy crap. That is going to be thousands of dollars. We went home and jumped on the mini website (as well as Kelly blue book). Old Winston is not worth as much as we thought he would be. And the new Winston's are pretty cool.

Next thing we know, we are driving down south to the mini dealer and are ordering a new mini for me. Again, it just makes sense and I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner. The old mini is just going to continue to depreciate and we are going to have to throw so much money into it. Better to trade it in now and get as much as we can out of it and get a new car in return. Plus, by doing this, we actually save on monthly payments especially considering how much we would have to put into repairs.

So, I got a new "spicy" Winston. He will be red with a black top and I am going to tint the windows. He has the sport package, the premium package, and the cold weather package along with the souped up stereo system, blue tooth, ipod adapter, etc. Basically everything but the navigation which looks stupid in the minis because it takes up the whole circle in the middle of the dash which I think detracts from the authenticity of the mini. It basically has everything I couldn't afford 5 years ago including the dual pane sunroof which I am probably most excited about.

He is being built and will be here from England in a couple of months... now hopefully old Winston can just hang on until then. His brakes are not sounding too good....

Needless to say, it was a very exciting day. Tim and I are so spontaneous but, again, everything we did today just makes sense for us. Not to mention, it will just be fun to have two new cars!

A word on traffic and idiots. Same thing.

So Tim and I were driving down south on an afternoon where there would otherwise be no traffic. On this particular afternoon, we are SHOCKED to find traffic in an absolute gridlock. We sit there and look at each other, like, seriously? WTF.

After 40 minutes of this nonsense, we have made it about 2 miles and we find the culprit. Traffic is stopped because presumably some asshole ran out of gas and he is sitting on the freeway in a lawn chair READING A GOD DAMN BOOK. On. the. freeway. Are you out of your mind, dude? Not only are you retarded because you could get killed sitting there (why not read in your car?) but you seriously just wasted 40 minutes of my time in which now I have no feeling in my left foot from riding the clutch so hard going 5 mph in stop and go traffic.

But of course the logical thing to do is for everyone to stop and gawk so maybe I shouldn't blame this idiot entirely.

Pancreatic blah blah blah, what?!

So we were told that we would have an answer in 5 days about Bella's tummy problem. Only a few days pass and we get a message. Unfortunately we were out to dinner on a Friday night and it was from an unknown number so I didn't answer my phone. I call her back on Monday and here is what she tells me: She wants to run another $300 test to determine if Bella has pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. A disease, which, if she happens to have will have a $200 price tag for treatment. FOR EVERY MONTH for the rest of Bella's life. I do not mind the price so much, it just brings me to tears that she would have to be on medicine forever.

I just can't believe it. I mean, seriously. Are. you. kidding. me.

I mean, part of me thinks that maybe we should also test for brain tumors while we're at it. For all we know, her brain is just screwed up. Isn't diarrhea a symptom of everything? I'm sure we have at least another 200 tests we could do. I mean, hell, maybe she has cancer. Let's test for that! We'll biopsy her leg because maybe that's giving her diarrhea.

I know I'm making light of the situation but COME ON!

It's just getting ridiculous at this point. I did my research on the pancreatic insufficiency. Basically it's a disease in which the pancreas doesn't produce the enzymes that help to digest food. The symptoms are "cow pie" (lovely, I know) type diarrhea and extreme emaciation/weight loss (both of which Bella has). BUT the diarrhea is chronic and doesn't go in cycles like Bella's does. Also, this insufficiency is most common in breeds like German Shepherds, not boxers. In fact, it is rarely ever seen in boxers and it's mainly genetic. Seems like that would be a consideration.

Sigh. It just doesn't seem to really fit. Not like the boxer colitis or food allergy seem to.

What we don't understand is why we have to run all of these (ahem, expensive) tests before treating. I mean, seriously, we could rule everything in the world out by a million different tests but why not start with the disease that is most common in boxers (BOXER colitis). Treat her for that. If the treatment works, we know that's what it is. If not, THEN go to the next item on the list. And test. There is no harm in the treatment (it's an antibiotic). It just works or it doesn't. Seems like the best option.

Not test, test, test, until we hit. That is expensive and it doesn't make the puppy any better in the meantime.

So we are frustrated. This "specialist" is just seeming to be going down the checklist while meanwhile costing us thousands of dollars while promising to "find the cure" and telling us to "consider returning the dog to the breeder since she is a defective puppy." (At this point you should imagine me sitting in front of her with both of my middle fingers pointed at this stupid vet. SHE is the one charging us literally at least $2K for trying to FIND what's wrong. We just want the puppy we love to be better. Return her?? Eff you, man).

She is just being ridiculous. So we are calling our original vet to get her second opinion. If she concurs with this specialist, we will have the tests done through the original vet. Since the "specialist" is really not doing anything special there is really no need to stick with her. Anyone can shoot darts in the dark. And if that's the case, we'll go back to the first vet that we know and love.

The first of the bunch for this wedding summer...

There are about 6 weddings this summer that I know of, right on track with the amount of weddings that have happened every summer for about the past 6 years. As many of my friends are entering the baby zone, I thought originally that this summer would be lighter for weddings. But nope, does not appear to be so. We are going to definitely two of these weddings, possibly three.

The first was our good friends, Holly and Justin, on June 20, 2009. Tim went to school with Justin which is how I met Holly. However, Holly and I became good friends during the year that Tim and Justin were in school and she lived/worked over here in Seattle. Now they live east of the mountains in Wenatchee, Washington. We decided on their wedding day that we would go over earlier in the day to explore Wenatchee. Plus, it was a rainy day in Seattle (the first in about a month) and typically east of the mountains it's hot and sunny so we thought it would give us ample time to get out of the rain and enjoy the sun.

Here's a shot of the mountains just after we went over Blewitt pass. To get to Wenatchee from Seattle, you cross two mountain passes: Snoqualmie and Blewitt. Both were gorgeous on this day.

Tim drove to Wenatchee, I promised I'd drive us home. He had to get up for work at 4:30am Sunday morning and the wedding ceremony didn't start until 7:30pm so we knew it would be a late night. The thought was that if I drove, he could get some sleep on the trip home.

Just getting into Wenatchee. I had never been here before. Strangely, it reminded me of a weird hybrid cross between the midwest and Phoenix. It was small like the midwest and everything was "mart"... (Wal-Mart, Bi-Mart, K-Mart, etc) but the terrain was much like Phoenix (aside from the huge river flowing through the middle of the city).

AND... we made it! Who knew it was the apple capital of the world? Not I.

And another sign. I think they like to make sure you know where you are. Even though there are no other towns of this size even remotely close (thus also reminding me of the midwest)...

We found a little park by the river that was great to walk Bella through (yep, she came with us- she is a great car rider!) There was a little sculpture garden/trail that we wandered through. Right before we headed to the wedding we spent a frustrating 30 minutes here trying to get the damn dog to pee. She would not. Stubborn.

One of the sculptures that Tim took a picture of. It's overlooking the river and in the background is East Wenatchee.

And another sculpture...

There was a HUGE fire that day in town. It looked like a 3 story brick building had burned to the ground. I was fascinated. You would think Tim would have been, but nope, it was me that was totally enthralled. The streets were shut down around the fire so all I have is just one of the ladders shooting water onto the building (there were about 6 water ladders total coming at the fire in all directions).

The wedding was on a golf course in East Wenatchee so here is the bridge as we crossed the river from Wenatchee to East Wenatchee en route to the wedding.

The beautiful bride and her dad, getting ready to walk down the aisle.

Getting married... It was SO windy out. And usually Wenatchee is warm but it was FREEZING on this day. Like 60 degrees. So cold. At least it was sunny!

And one more picture of the bride and groom. Of course after this, we all headed to the reception... where I proceeded to take no more pictures. We didn't stay long at the reception as the wedding got over around 8:30 and we took off about an hour later so we could get home in time for Tim to get a couple of hours of sleep (it's about a 2.5 hour drive).

After we left the reception, we decided to take Bella pee. She was going NUTS. She did not know what to make of the blowing wind/dust. It was HILARIOUS. I was sitting in the car taking pictures of T and B because I was freezing my ass off.

Tim and Bella with an awesome backdrop. All in all, it was a great day. It was fun just to relax and explore and have some time in the sun. And of course, it was awesome to be able to be there for Justin and Holly on our wedding day. We love them and think they are a great couple and their wedding was absolutely gorgeous. It was a great start for the beginning of wedding season 2009.

The beginning signs of aging... or something.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I have two very large wrinkles between my eyes that as soon as I turned 27 became MASSIVE. As a sidenote, this was ridiculous. It was as if on April 29, these two crater wrinkles came to life and said, "Ok-she is now in her late 20s! Let's go! Out, out, out!!" And there they were. I kid you not. It's as if they are trying to be a picture of the crack in the grand canyon on my forehead. It's pretty cool other than the fact that I don't care to look like a walking postcard of the grand canyon. And makeup? It does nothing.

As I've mentioned before as well, I spent quite a bit of time in the sun as a teenager. This could be part of my problem but STILL. I think this is ludicrous. Even if I was showing signs of sun damage, how does it have any right to just pop up on me like this? It should be GRADUAL... and the full effects shouldn't show until I'm 40. This is stupid. And it gets worse everyday because they are the wrinkles formed by my "thinking" face... or "squinting" face... so every day at the end of the day, the crater grows just a little bit more. Totally lame.

I finally took matters into my own hands. I had my yearly skin check and asked my dermatologist about these wrinkles and about laser hair removal (a different story entirely). I am referred to their in-house person in charge of these areas so I make another appointment with her.

I go to the appointment and this lady is a total nut job. She proceeded to compare my face to a laundry mat, a factory, and a car. And as she is describing how in the world my face possibly relates to these things (still don't understand her analogies), she has her eyes closed and hands lifted almost as if I'm listening to the word of god or something. It was almost as if she was speaking in tongues. Maybe she was. Who knows. And the analogies she made about the laser hair removal! And the pat on the ass I got on the way in along with the comment, "You're so small and cute, I don't know how people manage to just not eat you up!" I spent the whole time trying not to just lose it and crack up. The amount of self control I exhibited will make me proud for a very long time.

Once I got past her little quirks, I realized she did have some valid pointers. Laser hair treatment= expensive but definitely worth it. I got sold on that. The craters= she told me I qualified for botox (ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I'm still only 27!!) I am not saying I'm totally against botox, I just think I might screw myself if I start that at 27 so no thanks. And I'm not totally sold yet on the injection of poison in my face. Since I wasn't completely buying that, she gave me little vials of acne treatment to spread over my wrinkles. Huh? Seriously? She said that the area would look like total shit for 2-3 weeks at first (red, cracking, peeling) but then, it would just be glowing and the wrinkles would be much less prominent.

I started using the stuff a couple of weeks ago and holy crap. She was totally right. I still think she is psycho in saying that I need botox or that my face is a laundry mat but OMG but wrinkles are literally vanishing before my eyes. And this stuff is basically like concentrated vitamin A so it's making that skin look amazing. Of course the process of red, cracking, peeling skin is not so awesome but it's getting rid of the grand canyon that was on my face so I'm happy as a clam. I'm actually considering using the stuff all over my face just because it's made that little area of skin look so much healthier.

Below is a picture pre-wrinkle, vitamin A cream (click on it to see the grand canyon on my face up close and personal). I haven't taken a "post" picture yet but hopefully I will soon so that there is a good before and after comparison. I apologize for the vain-ness of this post but I dare any one NOT to be vain when they have craters in the middle of their face!

Seriously?! Seriously??

Yesterday Tim was working so I had puppy duty. I noticed that she was licking at the inside of her leg quite a bit. I look.

OH MY FREAKING GOD.

The inside of Bella's legs and her tummy were absolutely COVERED in a huge red rash. Shit.

Since she had just been at the dog park with Dallas the day before and they were running through tall grass, I figured that the grass had irritated her and she was having an allergic reaction. I throw her in the car and run to Walgreens to buy baby benadryll.

I give it to her and it seems to make her feel slightly better. Of course the stuff just knocks her out so I'm not really sure she feels better, just too tired to care.

A few hours later, I look again and it looks worse. These red bumps have turned into big whiteheads- like pimples. GROSS. Additionally, I've noticed that over the past few hours, her eye has gotten increasingly crusty and goopy and she has a little cough. And her nose is running.

SIGH.

At this point, I know I have to call the vet again.

So a week later, we are back there.

We find out that even though Bella was vaccinated against Kennel Cough (basically puppy flu), like the human flu vaccine, it doesn't protect against ALL strains so she probably came into contact with a dog that had a strain she wasn't protected against and since her immune system is weaker as a puppy she got this. "This" involves: pink eye, an ear infection, runny nose, and cough. Additionally the spots on her tummy are a skin infection, which is very common in puppies. Apparently puppies have lots of illness that are "common" and our dog gets every one.

So another $300 later and another bag of loot including MORE antibiotics, skin wash, eye drops, and ear drops, we are done with another day of being raped by the vet. Tim has a dentist appointment so I drop him off there and run home to give Bella a skin bath before I head back to pick him up.

We are exhausted after all of this. We still have no resolution about the tummy issue. The vet has promised that we will hear something back from her on that in 5 days so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Sigh.

Babies, babies, and more babies.

As we have just embarked on the journey of puppy parenting, a HUGE majority of my friends and people I know are on the journey of real parenting. This weekend a couple of awesome ladies gave birth to beautiful new babies: My cousin, Anne, had her baby boy (Connor) and my friend Jill had her baby boy (Brody). Anne, however, was about a week and a half past her due date and Jill was three weeks early. Anne's baby also weighed almost 10 pounds- big boy! I have never gone through the whole experience but I would think Jill was the luckier gal in this scenario at least in the birthing respect... both are totally blessed with handsome little boys.

Also, over the course of the past couple of weeks, I have found out that SIX, I repeat, SIX couples that I know are all expecting babies this fall. And there are a couple more that are expecting this summer.

When one of my best girlfriends from college, Wish, had her baby boy in March, I remember thinking how crazy it was that we were at this baby stage. I mean, friends had had babies before her but she hit close to home because we were the same age, similar paths, etc. So at this point I felt like we were past the wedding phase, on to babies (although, I swear, I still feel like there are so many weddings this summer!) It's kind of crazy to be in the baby stage. I do not feel ready at all yet but it sure is neat to watch my friends as parents, to see pictures of their beautiful kids and to hear all about their adventures into this crazy, foreign land called parenting.

Quick Trip to Eugene, Oregon

I actually can't really believe that my cousin is already graduating college. It makes me feel so old! I was old enough when he was younger to remember when he was a baby and everything about him growing up. So the fact that now he is a college graduate is just nuts! He graduated with a degree in psychology and a minor in business. I'm proud of him! We got into Eugene at about 3pm on Friday and then headed to the campus around 4pm. It's a really pretty campus. Eugene is a pretty cool town too. I was surprised actually. I didn't expect to like it that much, nor did I expect it to be as big as it is. But I think that coming from Lamoni, I always expect college towns to be smaller than they usually end up being.

The drive down was pretty uneventful and did take us around 5 hours. Since Tim didn't have much sleep, I drove the whole way. Man, was it boring!! I was fine until Portland but Portland to Eugene is about the same as driving through Kansas- BORING. Anyhow, we made it and caught up with all of the other family in town (my aunt, uncle and other cousin from California, my cousin's other aunt and uncle from Phoenix, and their grandma from Missouri). Below are all of the pictures:

Patrick standing in line waiting to receive his diploma.

And almost on stage... As everyone graduated, tons of people in the audience quacked duck quacker things (because apparently the mascot of the school is a duck). It was awesome.

After the graduation, there were photos (of course!) Here's Tim and I... finally a picture of us!

My brother and I.

And a group shot of everyone there.

And again. I think this one is clearer but I am too lazy to delete the other one.

A shot of the sign in the middle of campus.

At dinner after the graduation ceremony (Tim, me, my cousin Kristyn). I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant. It was awesome!! It was really close to campus... we walked to it. We had our own little room for our party (the wine room) and my aunt and uncle brought their own wine and champagne for everyone. Delicious!

The next morning we had to be up fairly early for another ceremony. Patrick got inducted to the honor society so we went to that for him. Tim looks sleepy still.

After that was over, we dropped Jon off at Pat's and said goodbye to everyone. Jon doesn't fly out of town until Wednesday and is flying out of Portland so he can spend some time with Pat. We were going back to Seattle to pick up the puppy who had her first overnight stay. It was with Gina, Brad, and Dallas though (her best buds) so she was happy as a clam the whole time. That night Tim and I went out with Gina and Brad and had a blast. It was a great weekend!

Brother in town

My brother Jon got into town on Tuesday night. He flew into Seattle to spend some time with us first and then today we are all heading down to Eugene, Oregon to my cousin's graduation. We have had a pretty low key week. Unfortunately, I was really busy at work so I was working on and off the whole few days. And Tim worked Tuesday/Thursday so he was kind of in and out too.

Wednesday Jon and Tim went to Seattle and Pike Place market together. We then introduced Jon to our favorite Thai food place in town. It was amazing, as always. We then dragged Jon to a puppy play date after dinner. I'm sure he loved it. Since we had to get up at 4:30 on Thursday morning we were an old married couple and went to bed early.

Thursday I was at work at the ass crack. I put in a few hours and then came home. Jon and I then went to the best sushi place in Seattle for lunch (Wasabi Bistro on 2nd ave- if you are ever here and you like sushi, try it!) We then went up to the Ballard locks. It was really neat. All of the salmon were swimming upstream from the ocean to the lake and there were huge yachts that were coming in and out when we were there. After that we, along with one of my friends, headed to a new martini bar in Kirkland that I have frequented several times for happy hour. We switched it up mid happy hour to go to a dive bar close by which has a good pale ale beer on tap which the guys always love. I think he had a good time.

Today we are embarking on the 5 hour drive to Eugene as soon as Tim gets off of work and gets changed. The graduation starts at 5pm and we are leaving here around 9:30-10 so we should be in great shape. Hopefully I will actually take pictures while we are at the graduation since I took zero while my brother was in town in Seattle.

Poor poor puppy.

Another puppy post! Who's excited?!

Today we had a scheduled trip to the vet to get Bella re-checked to make sure that she didn't still have a bladder infection. So we have to carry her in with a full bladder (interesting). The vet then pokes a needle into her tummy to get urine out of her bladder.

She comes in and says, "Oh, I couldn't really tell if there is still an infection there. I'll have to send it off to the lab." GREAT. Cha-ching.

Then we start talking about her poop issues which are no better at all. The doctor wants to start her on more meds (aka anti-diarrhea pills, etc). Cha-ching again.

We have done research and talked to Gina (who had these issues with Dallas) and just want to try her out on the medicine that typically helps boxer colitis that he was on. The only missing symptom that Bella doesn't have though is blood in her stool so the Dr is hesitant to start her on that medicine. BUT from talking to Gina, Dallas didn't have blood in his stools at first either.

She then tells us that perhaps we should see an internal medicine specialist. After I get on the same page with all of the medical related people in the room who use big words that I can't understand, I start to see that an internal medicine specialist sounds very expensive. So I say that. "That sounds expensive."

And the docs response: "Yes, the first visit is a consult where he/she will look at all of my notes to determine if we are on the right track. And then they'll decide whether to give the meds or do a colonoscopy."

Me: "How much is the consult?"

Doc: "$300."

Ok. That is about two pairs of jeans. Or a purse. Or a multitude of other things. FOR A FREAKING DOCTOR TO READ NOTES AND NOT TELL US ANYTHING WE DON'T KNOW ALREADY! I can only imagine what the colonoscopy would be.

Not to mention, I don't get why we are going through all of this when we could just spend $70 on the medication. If it works, great. If it doesn't, then explore other options. Sigh.

So the doctor then tells us SHE will consult her network of vets to get second opinions. Free for us. Why wouldn't she have mentioned that in the first place? And by the way, you have to remember that this doctor IS the "specialist" we were seeing. She isn't our normal vet, she just has experience with boxers and this specific condition which makes seeing an internal medicine specialist even that more ridiculous.

So we walk out with no formal resolution STILL on her tummy issue. But she still somehow managed to rack up a $300 tab for us. Cha-ching.

$#*&)$#

SO FRUSTRATING!!!!! I would totally not mind if we were actually solving the problem but we are throwing money down the tube without having ANY resolution.

I cried the whole way home. I just want our baby to be better.

The latest in the puppy adventures.

I am on a roll for taking pictures of the puppy and posting. Unfortunately aside from work, that's really the only thing I've been taking pictures of so sorry for the overkill of puppy posts lately.

The other day Bella was bored and I was thinking of taking her to the dog park for the first time. I texted Gina (Dallas' mom) to kinda get a feel for how Dallas did at the dog park when he was Bella's age. She responded by telling me that they were going later and we could all go together... sweet!

So we get there and Bella is of course going nuts for Dallas. We let them off leash but I think we did it a little bit too early (and too close to the entrance) because right by the entrance there are tons of other puppies and Bella just was in puppy heaven and went nuts trying to befriend them (while ignoring me). I put her back on leash until we got to more of an open field where they could run without her being so close to the parking lot. From then on, she did GREAT. She listened to me, she would run ahead of us and then loop back to us, she would come when she was called, and she pretty much stuck by Dallas the whole time. It was awesome. I was SO impressed by how well she did. We were there for a long time too. About an hour or so in, Lindsey (the gal who owns Burton, another buddy of Bella's) wanted to see if we were all available to play. Gina told her we were at the dog park and to come on down. By the time Burton and Lindsey got there, we'd been there almost 2 hours. By the time we left we had been there for THREE HOURS. Crazy for her first time at the dog park!! Needless to say, she was a tired pup.

I wish I would have had pictures at the park but I don't. I do, however, have pictures of the bath she got when we got home. She was horrendously dirty. And did not want a bath. After that, I'm pretty sure she passed out for about the next 15 hours straight.

She is still small enough to give her a bath in the tub. Won't be for much longer!

Soapy puppy. I think at this point she was practically falling asleep standing up.

And Calvin the kitty... thinking how sweet it is that he gets to miss out on all the bath mania.

Best buddies

Bella has a best buddy named Dallas. He is also a boxer and I have talked about him before. He also had similar tummy problems to what Bella is having. He and Bella get along amazingly well... we have talked at lengths at how much they love each other. And it's good for us too- we love Dallas' parents so while the dogs play and get tired, we just hang out and talk. It's good all around. There is also another buddy- a burnese mountain dog named Burton- that is also a great friend of theirs (and ours) but he isn't in these pictures. Below are pictures that capture a pretty typical night:

Bella and Dallas running and running and running. She is going to be so fast. Even when he's booking it she can keep up with him. And when she gets tired, she gets smart enough to cut him off. If she doesn't cut him off, he'll play with her until she starts to chase him again. It's great.

Yep, they love each other. When they aren't running full speed they are ALL over each other.

And again....

And once again....

One of Dallas' favorite toys is his soccer ball which he has mauled so that it isn't smooth at all anymore. He's trying to play with it while Bella continues to nip at his lips (something that she loves and he tolerates).

You would think we live in Cali and not Seattle...

Because it's been so nice here since, um, memorial day (seriously!) we have been spending a lot of time at the beach, as I have mentioned previously. Since it has been so nice, we have even been getting into the water at the lake. Surprisingly, due to this mild late spring weather, the water is even decent. And like I have also said before, we have been taking advantage of this to teach Bella to swim. Pictures tell the story best:

Daddy and Bella getting ready to hop in. Notice how she is burying her head...thinking maybe if she cuddles enough, she won't have to swim.

And off we go! Look at those ears! Maybe one day she'll grow into them, even though I kind of hope not. They are too cute.

HELP ME! HELP ME!! This picture absolutely cracks me up. She needed to be in deeper water to really be able to swim better.

And she's doing it. Quite a bit of splashes at first while she tries to figure it out and Tim is holding up her tummy to prevent sinking. The first time we ever tried to get her to swim she sunk like a log.

Look at that paw. She still hadn't quite figured out that the doggie paddle is easier with the paws under water.

Figuring it out more here... she was trucking right along. Her little face is so cute and determined.

And here she REALLY had it going. Tim was calling her and she would swim to him. It was great.

Another picture that just makes me laugh. How's that for an exhausted puppy after swimming?

A day later we were at the beach but had no swim time because it was cooler and cloudier out but still felt nice to be outside. And yes, this beach that we go to DOES have sand so it is technically a beach but we like this little grass part.

Dozing in the sun.

And since we have a million pictures of the puppy, we figured we would get one of us. And it's a kissing picture at that! Actually there were a couple of non-kissing pictures but I recently have developed two deep wrinkles between my eyes (which is a different post entirely) and even though people keep telling me they don't exist, I now have pictures that prove it! That sounds totally vain but I will post more about that later.

Orange is her color

If you remember here, I talked about treating Bella's tummy issues with new food, meds, etc. Well, a couple weeks after we started her on this new regimen (including antibiotics for her bladder infection- yep, that came back positive), she started to not eat a whole lot. This was partly because she wasn't a huge fan of this hypoallergenic food since basically everything from her diet is eliminated in effort to rule out food allergies and partly because the antibiotics for the infection don't make her feel too hot.

We were getting kind of worried about her because she wasn't eating a lot and was acting pretty lethargic. So we took her back to the vet and the vet gave us some cans of soft food which is basically white fish (apparently an ok protein if there is a food allergy) and she also recommended that we add canned pumpkin to her food to entice her to eat.

So we did.

The below pictures are the first day we tried pumpkin. And holy CRAP. It was a RIOT. She went nuts for the stuff. She tried to lick it off of every kibble of food instead of just eating the food. So there was food thrown everywhere. We had an orange pumpkin mess in our kitchen. And a puppy with a bright orange face. It was adorable.

YUM! I love THIS. Why didn't I know about this orange goodness before??

Sitting on the floor. I was taking pictures at first and then Tim came down even though he was trying to sleep after a work shift of not sleeping just to check out the pumpkin madness.

We tried to get a shot of her orange face post eating but none of the pictures we got really show how truly awesome it was. This is a pretty good one... notice the orange hanging out of the sides of her mouth. She also had a bright orange nose but we couldn't totally capture it. It was priceless.

Heat wave!

For the past three days it has been almost 90 degrees here in Seattle. I will repeat that because writing it, I almost don't believe it myself... it has been almost 90 degrees here in Seattle. 90! Ninety! 9-0! HOT HOT HOT! And, at the beginning of June at that.

I cannot believe it.

Two years ago on May 30, 2007 (see here), Tim and I started our trek up to the pacific northwest via the California and Oregon coastlines. The second we crossed the Washington border on June 4, 2007 (coincidentally two years ago today, exactly), three things happened:

1) Winston hit 50,000 miles exactly.
2) It started pouring.
3) The temperature read 50 degrees.

YUCK. I remember I spent that first week up here in the cold and rain thinking I needed to invest in some sweaters and FAST. I also remember thinking that perhaps Tim should have moved to Arizona because 120 degrees at the time was much better than freezing my ass off and trying to find sweaters when all the stores only had summer clothes (cruel, cruel joke) and all of my sweaters that I had even kept and not given away in Arizona were buried at the bottom of my moving tubs (brilliant). I spent that June wrapped in about 10 layers of clothes. If you would have asked me, I would have told you it was -30 degrees outside. But then again, I was also the person who when it was "hot" throughout the summer here at 75 degrees, I was STILL wearing a couple of layers. That first summer here was hard to adjust to, climate wise. Well, I guess everything was a pretty tough adjustment at first if I'm being honest.

The following year- last year- in June it was colder than Siberia (which I posted about here). I had adjusted surprisingly fast over the year to the northwest climate and was probably only wearing a couple of sweaters last year at this time. I know there were many people who still had their winter coats out and on though.

So this year, when the weather people predicted nice weather for memorial day weekend, I was skeptical. A nice weekend in May? Ha. But it happened. AND I WAS IN A BIKINI ALL WEEKEND!

When they continued to predict nice weather, I was still a bit skeptical. BUT, it has been nice here for almost two weeks and this week it has been totally sunny and we have hit at least 85 degrees consistently. I am LOVING IT (understatement). Of course most people here are complaining about how hot it is and how they are going to melt but I am seriously in heaven. I am hoping that this isn't all of our summer and that the rain/cold days don't return but I think that we are off to a good start and am hopeful we are in for a nice, warm, long summer.

As a sidenote: I have turned into a Washington girl. Even though I love the heat, I did make the comment to Tim that about 10 degrees cooler is perfect because of the house temperature. It's still hot and nice outside but when you go inside you don't feel like you are stepping into an oven. I would have never made that comment two years ago when 85 degrees still felt like "cold" weather.