Life with a Puppy

Wondering how the impulse buy we made a couple weeks ago is doing?

He's fit in quite nicely for the most part. I think Nenya does actually like him.

She's still top dog around here.

This is my first puppy, so it's been an interesting experience with a roller coaster of emotions.

It's easy to be happy with your dog when he's being adorable sleeping on the love seat.

But when he's tearing up the love seat?

Sigh...that's a little more difficult to deal with. But I still love him.

We've had him eight weeks, and I've been doing training with him daily for the past six weeks. He's doing great at sit, lay down, stay, roll over, and has even mastered shaking. He's smart but super stubborn, so it's been a lesson in patience. He seems to be learning what's his and leaving our stuff alone, but we won't be leaving him in the house unsupervised for a few hours again any time soon. Although Adyn doesn't seem to have had any obedience training with his previous owners, one bonus is that he's completely house broken. We haven't had any accidents yet!

It was a little crazy in the beginning, but having two dogs has been good for all of us. I do think two dogs is my limit though!

The Impulse Buy

We made a bit of an impulse buy this weekend. His name is Adyn.

How did this happen? Well, I normally go shopping by myself, but this
time Nathan came with me on my Saturday shopping trip.

On our way to Meijer, we drove past Petsmart, where they had dogs out for adoption. I wouldn't have stopped had I been alone. But Nathan is a total dog lover, so we stopped.

And then something crazy happened. I was the one who fell in love with a dog.
We went on to do our grocery shopping, but I was almost crying as I
walked through Meijer thinking about him.

So along with our groceries, we brought home a new dog.

I think he was a pretty good deal though.

If you read my blog post about things I'd like to do before kids,
you might remember that getting a second dog was something we planned to do soon.

So, this really wasn't a complete impulse buy. We aren't completely crazy.

Just...mostly.

I think Nenya is adjusting well. I can't say that she loves her little brother yet, but she at least tolerates him about as well as I tolerated my little brother when he was born.

She's pretty independent these days, sometimes preferring to be left alone, so having a 9 month old attention hog come into the picture isn't too traumatizing.

Although trying to walk them together by myself the first time made me wonder if I was truly sane, this change will be good for me. Knowing I would have to crate Adyn while I was at work, I took him on a walk/jog Monday morning before 7:00 am. I'm lucky to be out of bed by 7:00 these days, let alone outside running by then.

Impulsive? Yes. But also really wonderful.

Once a Week Cooking in 2 Hours

If you read about my once a week cooking experiment last year and wondered if I've kept up with it, well, I haven't. I never tried it again after that one time. It would be rough for me to do that much cooking on a weekday (I work full time), and my weekends have been fairly busy with other things. But a couple weeks ago, I decided to try it again.

This was my dinner menu plan for the week:

Potato Bacon Corn Chowder

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Chocolate pancakes with strawberry topping (for Valentine's Day)

Salmon patties, macaroni and cheese

Pizza casserole

Chicken Fried Rice

Dinner with friends

I didn't make every dinner ahead of time since the others were quick ones anyway, but I was able to get two main dishes ready to bake and two others ready to assemble. Before I started, I listed all the tasks I would need to complete and then ordered them in a way that would keep things moving. I forgot a few things initially, so this probably would have taken much less than 2 hours if I'd been more efficient. I also didn't menu plan based on the idea that I would be cooking ahead of time. Next time, I would choose more meals that are easy to prepare ahead of time and that share common ingredients (two dishes with pasta, two with beef, etc.).

12:50 - I start cooking the rice and heating up the skillet for the bacon.

12:58 - Cover rice to simmer; still cooking bacon

"Can I have some?"

I start putting together the enchiladas (with chicken I had cooked previously). Then I remember I need to be cooking hamburger and pasta for the pizza casserole and get that started.

1:44 - Enchiladas are ready, except for the sauce. The tortillas are falling apart (they were a little old), so I switch them to a smaller dish to keep them together a little better.

1:56 - I remember I have laundry that needs switched to the dryer.
Nathan steps in to work on browning the hamburger.

After the hamburger is done cooking, I make the sauce for the enchiladas.

2:22 - Enchiladas are done and I start assembling the pizza casserole.

2:33 - Pizza casserole is done!

2:34 - Oops! I forgot I needed to cook onion for the chowder.
I chop one up (sniff, sniff) and cook that.

2:49 - And we're done! Chicken enchiladas, pizza casserole,
rice for fried rice, and bacon and onion for chowder.

I try to pretend the kitchen doesn't exist for a while,
but Nenya is happy to begin cleanup for me.

Shared at Works for Me Wednesday.

The Chore Schedule of a Working Wife

Okay, I promise cleaning the stove is not one of Nenya's regular chores. However, this photo is a pretty good illustration of what kind of a homemaker I am. I don't always clean the stove after I cook. In fact, sometimes the stove gets so bad that I jokingly tell Nathan we should just put Nenya on the counter and have her lick it off. And one time he actually did (but not for long, and he was right next to the counter the whole time).

Occasionally I'll come across another woman's chore schedule, and invariably it involves much more cleaning than mine. Cleaning the bathroom sink every day? I could never do that. And vacuuming every day too? I don't even vacuum; Nathan does. Everyone's situation is different, and there's no need to compare. But if you would like to see an example of a chore schedule of a newly married wife who is gone at least 10 hours out of every weekday, here is my list. I've changed things around since I first developed it.

Sunday
 • Laundry

Monday
 • Clean inside of microwave
 • Clear off desk
 • Water plants

Tuesday
 • Clean bathroom sink
 • Hand wash delicates
 • Clean bathroom mirror

Wednesday
 • Clean bathtub
 • Dust bedrooms

Thursday
 • Clean toilet
 • Sweep and mop (entry way, bathroom, kitchen)

Friday
 • Plan menu
 • Dust living area

Saturday
 • Grocery shopping
 • Food prep
 • Brush Nenya

Nathan's (Usually) Weekly Chores
• Vacuum
• Take out trash
• Clear off desk

This is what works for us right now. I don't always keep with it perfectly, but I usually manage to get almost everything done on a weekly basis at least. My most often neglected chore is sweeping and mopping the floors, even though I have just 3 tiny sections of floor that need swept. There aren't any chores that get done on a daily basis. As I've written about before, although I take care of most of the chores right now since Nathan is busy finishing up his MBA as well as working on computer certifications, I'm blessed with a husband who does not consider any chore "woman's work" and who would be willing to take on more chores if he ever becomes the one with more free time. Sometimes he helps me haul the laundry and get it started, which rocks my socks off.

Do you use a chore schedule? What is your least favorite chore?

Nenya After Bath

Ah, baths...they make a dog so clean, so fresh, so soft, yet so uncomfortable!

Fondue Date Night

Nathan and I try to have a date night one night each week, usually on Saturdays. Sometimes we'll go out to eat or do something like bowling, but often we just have fun at home. The main point is to spend that time focused on the other person and enjoy each other's company. With so much of Nathan's time devoted to classes, we aren't able to spend a whole lot of quality time together during the week (although living together in itself is still pretty awesome).

For our most recent date night, we used our fondue pot for the first time. I'd only had fondue once previously (with my friend Carly, who gave us our fondue pot for our wedding), and it was a new experience for Nathan.

This was the spread we had had for our first fondue feast.

I made the cheese fondue based on this recipe, but I decided it had too much garlic. This led to several more additions, and I think we ended up with four different kinds of cheese. Amazingly, it was still good. I guess you can't go wrong with cheese.

We had cauliflower, Granny Smith apples, French bread, and summer sausage. I had read that Granny Smith apples were really good with cheese fondue, but I thought they were just okay. Nathan didn't even try one. 

Nathan had the idea to boil red potatoes and eggs to dip in the fondue. The eggs kind of fell apart and had to be fished out, but the red potatoes were excellent.

 Taking the first dip

 

Nenya got in on the action too.

I had originally planned this as a fondue and game night, but we ended up spending so much time preparing everything that Nathan had to get back to reading by the time we were finished eating. We still had lots of fun just with the fondue, and we're looking forward to trying chocolate next time!

Our Amazing Guard Dog

We don't know what other breeds our corgi mix has in her, but we know she isn't a hunting dog!

Wedding Recaps: The Honorary Flower Girl

Although we didn't think it would be a good idea to have Nenya walk down the aisle, the venue coordinator was nice enough to let her stay in the men's changing room during the wedding so she could be in photos.

When she first saw me the morning of the wedding, she didn't recognize me. She was interested in me, but she didn't get excited and whine like she normally does when she hasn't seen me in a while. After Nathan and I had our first look and we went back inside to take photos with Nenya, he told me to put my hand down for her to sniff, and then the happy moaning began. It was a really great moment. Apparently all the layers of fabric that didn't smell like me threw her off.

The Family

We brought her outside for the family pictures after the wedding as well. She was pretty well behaved, considering how many new people and smells were out there.

But she did manage to get distracted...

And eventually got bored and sick of wearing a bow.

She spent some time with my uncle John, who also took care of her during our honeymoon.

I'm really glad we were able to have her there. As I wrote about previously, Nenya has been a part of our lives almost the entire time Nathan and I have been together, and she's definitely important to us.