In case you didn’t know…

What a nice annonymous message on a package I received at the office this morning!

Mission: Search and Destroy

Zoey’s personality (and the fact that she’s part collie…we think) requires that she have a mission or job in life. Zoey’s mission in life is to play. Since we can’t possibly play with her all the time, we have supplied her with several ‘alone’ toys. These are toys that she must play by herself with…Josh and I will not throw them, or play tug with them or anything. She has a few standard alone toys that we always have, mean kitty, lobster, and busy bee. I can usually find the identical toy at Target or Petco and just swap it out when one gets worn out.

One of her staple toys, when new, comes with a squeeker and lots of stuffing. Goal number one for Zoey is to find the squeeker and destroy it. Don’t worry, she doesn’t eat the stuffing or squeeker, but violently pulls them out and tosses them to the side. This doesn’t take that long and some don’t even survive the initial destroy phase. The two pictures below are from very weak toys that didn’t make it past the destroy phase.

Once stuffing and squeeker are gone, these beloved ‘alone toys’ look like this-close to death-for quite a while:

These 2 are currently referred to as 'Mean Kitties'

She’ll play with them forever, or until we throw them away and replace it with something new. It’s like torture for dog toys.

My mission, and my mom has joined the fun, is to find a Zoey-Proof toy that she can’t obliterate. Hasn’t happened yet, but we’ll keep trying!

The Pioneer Woman strikes again

My friend CB surprised me last week with a children’s book, but it’s not just any children’s  book. This one is by the author of one of my favorite cookbooks, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

In her children’s book, Charlie the Ranch Dog, Ree Drummond writes about the life of her cute dog Charlie. Charlie is the subject of many of her blog posts, always a part of her Saturday cooking show on the Food Network, and even sneaks into her cookbook. Such a cute book and I laughed out loud through much of it.

I can’t wait for her new cookbook to come out in Mid March so I can add that to my collection!

 

New Cookbook!

 

*Thanks, Amazon, for the pictures!

Too much excitment for a Thursday night

Last night Josh and I watched a great victory by our Hawkeye men’s basketball team, sweeping the Wisconsin Badgers (condolences go out to my few friends that are Badger fans) for the first time since 1995 AND the the fourth victory over top 25 teams this year! We beat them earlier this season in Wisconsin.

It was great to see Carver-Hawkeye Arena back in action and full of electricity, the student section was filled and helped create a great atmosphere. A much deserved celebration for students and the players!

After that kind of win, Josh and I both had a hard time settling down to sleep last night.

Done….

A couple of weeks ago while my mom was over for a visit she asked Josh and I if the house was done and we had it where we wanted it. Almost simultaneously he answered ‘yes’ and I answered ‘no.’ I thought we were on the same page, but apparently we’re not!

He looked at me surprised and said, “what do you mean, we have furniture in all the rooms.” What more do you want?

I was shocked too at our lack of agreement and started rattling off my mental list of things that I want to do to the house: new flooring throughout, new bathroom light fixtures, dining table, dining room chandelier, sectional for the basement, organized and functional office area, chair and lighting for the living room, bedroom nightstands…I could go on.

He shook his head and walked out of the room with the ‘aren’t you ever happy’ look on his face.

It’s not that I’m not happy, I love my house and the way everything is coming together bit by bit, creating a story for each new piece we add. I just don’t think I’ll ever be finished with our home until I can walk into any room and love it just the way it is.

So no, we haven’t reached the finish line, but I’m okay with that…most days!

What about you? Do you feel like your home is finished?

I Want to be Here: Riviera Maya

Spring break has been the big topic of conversation the last couple of weeks as friends and co-workers gear up for the big holiday with their families coming up in March. Hearing everyone talk about vacation makes me want to go on vacation too!

I’m thinking the Riviera Maya is calling my name…I wouldn’t mind looking like the lady in this picture either!

Surprise…candy corn!

Yesterday my friend surprised me with a package of Valentine candy corn! I love candy corn and am always disappointed to see Halloween go because I know that’s the end of my candy corn. What a pleasant surprise that they offer it for Valentines Day!

Thanks for making my day CB!

Pool Time

Took a break for the normal morning work activities to volunteer as a back-up timer at the Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving competition in Iowa City.

I was a little nervous having never been to a swimming meet let alone timed anything this important. But after my training I realized I had nothing to worry about, no one was depending on me!

Per NCAA guidelines, each lane (there are 8 lanes) has three back-up timers that are responsible for starting their stopwatch, then standing at the edge of the pool, stop their stopwatch AND an electronic timer (plunger). If the ‘pad’ under water that the swimmer hits doesn’t activate or malfunctions, then they average the ‘plunger’ times, and if the plunger times don’t work, THEN they use the average of the stopwatch times. So really, we’re just the third line of defense.

Because we are right on the edge of the pool watching for the swimmers hand to touch the ‘pad’ there tends to be some splashing. On the last heat of our volunteer shift, I got soaked, REALLY soaked!

soaked from the knees down!

The experience was great, saw some amazing races, and now I’m ready for my volunteer slot next week at the men’s championships.

Wisdom from Morrie

I’m almost* finished with Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I thought I had read it several years ago, but as I’m reading through it, I don’t think I have. So glad to add this to my library, the book is a wonderful reminder on what is really important in life, to savor each day and be thankful for that day. It’s one of those books I’m sure I’ll read through over and over again. Here are a few lessons from the book that I just love:

On love and marriage – “There are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: if you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don’t have a common set of values in life you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must  be alike. And the biggest one of those values…your belief in the importance of your marriage.”

On money and the meaning of life – “Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. You notice, there’s nothing in there about a salary…If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will only look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.”

On feeling and trust - “Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you  can trust them, too-even when you’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling.”

Tension of Opposites – “Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted…like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somwhere in the middle…like a wrestling match…which side wins? Love wins. Love always wins.”

*by almost finished I mean that I started to get a little teary at the end and had to take a break. I’ve got about 20 pages left.

 

Officially Licensed

It’s official, Josh and I received our foster care license in the mail today!! Now we just continue to prepare the house, accumulate some of our needs, and wait for the phone call.