Puppies!

I know Charlie's only 4.5 months old, but I really miss the days when he was itty bitty and needed me for everything, like getting up on the couch, carrying him around, letting him sleep in my lap every second of the day. And the puppy breath. :( Miss that too.

The top picture is Charlie sleeping in his bag of toys one of the first nights we had him...the second is of him when he used to fit comfortably in my lap. Don't get me wrong - he still gets in my lap...he just doesn't fit length-wise!

So anyways, the only point of this post is to have you go here. PUPPY CAM! Apparently everyone but me already knew about this link, but I love it and will look at little puppies all day!

So long, Adios and Sayonara! And HELLLOOOOO!

So I have to start off with a picture that G sent to me :) Aaaaaawwwwwwww...makes me want to do this with Charlie! Except 1. He isnt' that small anymore so we'd need a huge bowl and 2. There is NO WAY he'd stay put in the bowl like that. Well, maybe. and 3. I would not want to clean that up! So...Guess we'll never know.This also reminds me of Charlie! If you don't know what I'm talking about please refer back to the post on dingle berries :)

Anyways, long story short....G GOT A NEW CAR! AHHHHHHHHHHHH. Saturday morning we woke up and were bound and determined to go look at cars and start the shopping process. We decided to take G's car to Genie Car Wash because it badly needed to be cleaned out and he was willing to pay for someone else to do it instead of him taking the chance of catching some disease from touching the stuff in his center console. So we head downstairs and walk to his car and there was a hand-written note on the windshield that said, "If you are looking to sell your car today or sometime soon please let me know, I'd be interested. I pay cash." And it left a phone number. I was a little hesitant about it because that just NEVER happens. I mean, think about it. There was a note left on his car asking to pay cash for it the SAME DAY we were going to try to sell it. Really? Really! So G wasn't the least bit hesitant and picked up his little iphone and called the guy right away. 30 minutes later the guy shows up, drives the car and offers us several hundred bucks (cash) over the trade-in value that we had researched. AND DONE!
I decided it was a good idea to take a picture of G driving his old car one last time to meet the guy who bought it and hand over the keys :( So long Avalon - have a nice life in Mexico! (that's what we're assuming at least.)

Long story short - this left us with 1 car and about 1 hour to go look at new cars. So we decided to head over to the nearest Honda dealership to test drive some cars and get some information. So that's just what we did!

G narrowed it down to 2 cars that eveving. 1. The 4-door Honda Civic or 2. The 2-door Honda Accord Coupe. He stayed up til 4 a.m. that night and did more and more research.

Monday rolled around (car dealerships are closed Sundays, blah!) and we went to a different Honda dealership after work. We met with a nice salesman, did some talking, test drove the coupe again and then I did all of the talking from there. After some discussion I basically asked the guy to sell us the car for over $5K less than the MSRP, which was about #3K less than the invoice price. He looked at me like I was a little nuts while G looked at me like he was going to cry. (He really wanted the car at this point!) The salesman said very casually, "Well my manager is gone for the day so I would have to wait until tomorrow morning to ask him about the price.) I think he expected us to say, "Oh nevermind, lets just get it for XYZ." Nope! I said, "Ok, well then please give us a call tomorrow morning after speaking with him and let us know what he says." Then we got up and left! Poor G. We got into my little Ford Focus and drove away while G kept saying, "I just feel kinda bad..." Sigh.

Next morning G got a call from Mr. Salesman and the finance team. The deal was - they would give us the car for our price we offered IF and only IF we financed through them. G called me and told me that he thought that was fair if they matched our interest rate. I said, "No, it is fair if they BEAT our interst rate." So, G wasn't so sure about that so I told him to just tell the guy we'd come into the dealership and talk about it. That is what we did - went in there, said we wanted a lower interest rate if that was the price and they got it for us. Therefore - we own a New 2009 Honda Accord Coupe. It is pretty...very very pretty. And I think it's going to be a great car for G. It gets good gas mileage and is fun to drive - he'll have a good time having to go to Dallas now! I'm looking forward to 4-5 years! That is when we have a child and that means that I get the car that I want at that time :) The end. So as we were driving out of the lot I, of course, had to take a picture of G in his new pretty car ahead of me. He had the biggest, goofiest smile on his face the entire drive home!

Helloooo beautiful car!

I asked G if I could drive the car to work 2-3 days a week since he doesn't go anywhere during the day. He basically told me NO so I told him that I hoped our future unborn children do not have the selfish gene that is apparently carried on his side! :)

Anyways, back to Charlie. Sigh - I love that little dog. He makes me happy all the time :) You get home from work - he's happy. You wake up in the morning - he's happy (even though you're not.) You take him outside - he's happy. You pet his little head - he's happy. You get the hint! Seriously though, I think Charlie is one of the happiest little puppies around and that makes me happy. Here are some pictures from this past week. And yes, I know I've sucked at updating. I'm giong to just try to keep up with this blog, giving up on the "every day" thing. It's too hard when you have meetings looming around you in the near future.

G took this picture of Charlie laying on top of me while eating his foot. Let me tell you - he's quite talented this dog! Quite flexible too.

Charlie has found some plants (Edit: he did not kill this one!) that he likes to chew on. There are these brown ones and some green ones around our apartment he just LOVES. It's pretty funny to watch him go at them! See - look how innocent he looks below!

You can't see Charlie that well in this picture - but I wanted to show you how the passenger in our cars has to ride if Charlie's in the car as well. He LOVES sticking his little head and big ears out of car window, regardless of how cold or wet it it. We're not trusting him to do this on his own quite yet so that's why G has a firm hold on his little little butt :)

Another long story short (I promise, last one) was the story about cleaning out G's old car. Well G and his dad were at Kinko's getting some paperwork done for selling the old car I was sent home to hurry and clean out the car. I honestly felt like crying the second I opened the trunk. I was by myself, hot, tired and hungry. (we didn't eat anything until about 4pm that day.) That's another story but I'll spare you. So anyways, I get to G's car and look in the windows - it was dirty but manageable. So I cleaned out all of his CD's and trash and coins that were ALL over the place. My hands were sticky and black and so gross by the end of cleaning out the inside of his car. So then I head around back, throw open the trunk thinking (stupidly) that all that would be in there would maybe be a blanket or soccer ball or something like that. NOPE! I almost cried. There were about 7 blankets, 4 ropes, a soccer bag full of shoes, etc that were falling out, 2 random balls, a HUGE boombox from 1988, a fold-up chair, a very large box containing a kit to "make your own beer at home," random hats, shirts, shoes and bags. I took all of that up to the apartment in 2 trips! Was I proud of myself for doing all of that? Sure. Was my arm sore the next day for trying to only make it in 2 trips? Yes. SO THEN I got back into the old car and drove it to Kinko's to meet G, his dad and the guy buying it. Yet when I got there I could not for the life of my find anyone I knew, including G. I got a little worried and called him. He informed me that he was "sorry" and that they had actually left Kinko's and were pulling into our apartment right then. He didn't think I'd be "that fast" at cleaning out his car. Sigh. Again - almost cried.

And really I just wanted to tell you that story because one of the large, random balls that was in the trunk now belongs to Charlie. He LOVES it and loves chasing it and having us kick it and he even punctured it with his fangs and can carry it in his mouth. He's so cute doing it, and yes, that makes me happy as well and makes cleaning out the trunk almost worth it :)

Look Ma...No Teeth!

So, Charlie's been teething. As in, biting our hands, furniture, all of his toys, chewing ice cubes and showing off his toothless gums. I wish I could've gotten a picture a couple of weeks ago when he had no bottom teeth in the middle...now he only has about 4 bottom teeth so there are big gaps between the "puppy fangs" he still has and the new big dog teeth he's grown in!

Aw Maaaa...not ANOTHER picture tonight!?!?! (PS. Notice the new collar!)

"OK Ma...here are my toothless gums!" And yes - Charlie smiles and shows me his gums upon request. That or I just caught him at a really good time while he was chomping on some ice...what's the difference?

Hmm...what else exciting happened today? Well, I went to work and G came out with Charlie while I was leaving and I noticed G talking to some random guy in the parking lot. Random guy=someone G went to UT with in the same college and this certain someone works at a really awesome software company in Austin soooo G of course got his number and they're going to get dinner or something sometime and hopefully this random guy that G knows will get him an awesome job here in AUSTIN! If not, it's off to Costa Rica we go. Kidding. Speaking of which, I told my Dad today that I was in a rut and thought that G and I should just up and move our little family of 3 to Costa Rica and open a restaurant or gift shop. My Dad's response, "You know I would be really upset with that right?" Me: "Why? Because I'd be wasting my education and how far I've gotten at TMA?" Dad: "No, because that's really far and I'd miss you!" [Insert awwww here] So that's it. We're not moving to Costa Rica :)

So...then on the way home I got bored in traffic and decided to snap some pictures while driving. They already made texting illegal, I've gotta find some way to spend my time - besides singing at the top of my lungs to Rascal Flatts of course!

Beautiful Austin while the sun is setting...ahhh..isn't it peaceful? Ugh.
Yes, thank you for noticing my artistic abilities in this photo. I think I've found my calling...

So anyways, back to Charlie. We got him a new collar last night that I think is quite handsome. Therefore my night consisted of walking Charlie for a long time, eating left overs, walking Charlie again, trying to get pictures of his toothless gums, taking Charlie out to poop and getting pictures of him in his new collar! So below is a handsome profile of my baby. He's starting to get light brown hair coming in under the black hair on his neck. It's really pretty and makes me wonder if he's part shepherd...you can kind of see it in this picture, but it's more noticeable when you're petting him. Wow - almost an entire paragraph on my puppy's neck hair. Sigh. I need some hobbies.

Did someone say hobbies??? I have been reading this blog and it makes me really want to go to Goodwill, buy an old piece of furniture and paint and reupholster it. Seriously. I also want to make some hanging art for our walls like they did in their bathroom using wood, paint, a paper picture they printed themselves and Mod Podged the stuff. Holy crap! What a concept...I'm so inspired. Then I remember that I'm in an apartment and really don't want to do anything spectacular right now with our stuff because I'm not sure how it will fit into our future home one day.

Speaking of homes - I'm thinking we're gonna put that off for a while. 1. We need to save more money. 2. G and I are hoping to reside in Austin permanently but it's hard to think about buying a house right now with the situation G's in with working from home for a Dallas company and 3. we're going to go look at cars for G this weekend. Out of left field, I know. But G's car is old, not doing great, needs some repairs and his reasoning is "why spend a ton of money (thousands) on this old car when a new one could be bought instead." Anyways. Long story short, we're going to go test drive a bunch of different cars before making a big decision. I'm very excited! OH- and I've decided that the next car I'm going to get is going to be an SUV. G said that we can get one some day when we have a kid. I might replace the birth control with sugar pills. Jk. Volkswagon Touareg..mmmm.

AND with that I think it's time to go to bed. ADIOS! And Goodnight :) (I have a lot of fun google-imaging my signing-off terms...think it's a new tradition)

Happy 9 Years!

Today is mine and G's 9-year (since dating) anniversary! We've come a long way :)

Love you G, can't wait to see where the rest of our life leads us. I love where we've been and who we've become and now love our little family more than ever :)

Long time no post...

I'm not doing very well with this posting every day plan. But I guess that happens when you're gone for 4 days to a meeting and backed up with planning your own meeting at work. Sigh.

For some reason I can't get my pictures to upload right now so I've decided to just add pictures later instead! This past weekend I had a meeting with a coworker, it was her group and I went to just help. I just love being in Galveston for some reason, there's something about being near the ocean that I absolutely love. And I snapped a few pictures of our ship, the Voyager on the way off the island! I told G that I want to pack everything up (including Charlie) and just move to Costa Rica and open a gift shop or something on the beach :) It's weird to think about how we actually could do that if we really did want to...I don't think G was too keen on the idea!

Anyways, meeting is over. I got home from Galveston and Charlie was so happy to see me! I hate being away from him and even hate being away every day at work but getting to come home to a little puppy that's always just so happy to see you really does brighten up your day. I don't think dogs have a sense of time - he probably thinks every day I'm just gone for a little bit and thought the same thing this past weekend when I was gone 4 days. Oh well!

Tonight we have another training class. We're supposed to be working on "wait" this week, but we haven't done it at all I don't think. Charlie's going to be the laughing stock of the whole class. I think he's definitely the youngest, but he can hold his own with sit, shake and lay down! Those other dogs have nothing on him :) I'm just hoping he doesn't crap again today. Seriously - every time we're at PetsMart (at least the past 4 times) he has taken a poop in the room where we do the training. This class is even an hour later than the old one and he still waits until we're in that room. Really pisses me off - it's G's turn to clean up the turds tonight though so we'll see if Charlie does it again.

OH - speaking of turds. I am so tired of Charlie getting dingle-berries! I swear we clean and vaccuum our apartment! G just IM'ed me to let me know that Charlie peed inside today, he hasn't done this in about a month, and then when he went outside to crap he came back inside with a dingle berry that G had to PULL OUT! Ugh. So gross. I feel bad for G - usually there are 2 people there to work on the dingles...G holds Charlie and I'm the puller. It's sick. Sick. Guess I need to vaccuum every day and we need to keep a closer eye on Charlie to make sure he's not finding some secret stash of hair that he's eating. Again, Sick.

Next weekend (the 29-30) we're heading up to Chicago to visit a friend - it's actually a surprise! I can't wait to surprise him on his birthday, I absolutely love doing stuff like this! And the best part (well, not really) is that I don't even have to use any vacation days for this trip! I have comp days that I'm saving from this past meeting that I will put towards it. Hooray! I'm very sad to be leaving Charlie all weekend but I'm sure he'll have a great time over at Aunt Courtney's house :)

The night before I left for Galveston I decided to pose Charlie's toys in a "stupid" position. The below picture is Charlie looking at them confused....it was pretty funny at the time but kind of childish now that I'm talking about it....

Huh?

And 2 nights ago Charlie had a GREAT play-date with Bailey and Shiner, another dog friend. Shiner has a crush on Charlie (apparently) and wanted to do nothing but hump him all night! Poor little Charlie was definitely the light-weight of the evening all night compared to the other dogs...he kept getting taken out and was always picked on! However, what the big dogs didn't know was that Charlie still has several of his sharp little baby teeth and would bite the heck out of their back legs! Go Charlie!

Poor Gracie, my parent's Greyhound, is missing a chunk out of her ear! Yes - my mom keeps blaming my dog, which it could be true...we don't know, but somehow at some point something

went a little "Mike Tyson" on poor Gracie and took a chunk out of her ear. You can see a little band-aid on her little bitty head in the picture below. And if you look closely you can kind of tell that the tip of her ear is missing....sigh. I'm still not so sure it was my sweet baby boy....

We gave Charlie another bath after his play date (Shiner was teething which gave Charlie more red war paint on his face) and Charlie did so well! He just stood there and actually seemed like he kind of enjoyed it! I'm always afraid he's cold after baths though (even though it's been close to 70 here...in JANUARY...70...le sigh) so I covered him in an old, dry, fluffy towel and kept him warm. Awwwwwwww...so cute :)

Anyways, I'll try to update more often now that I'm back and getting de-stressed and back into the schedule of things. Later taters....(side note, I google-imaged "taters" just for the hell of it and this is what came up...kinda creepy if you ask me but I had to include it!)

Rain Rain Go Away...

I'm currently staffing a meeting in Galveston for the Texas Society of Pathologists. I absolutely love Galveston, however, it's been a torential downpour the entire time we've been here. The waves are actually lapping up over the seawall! It's pretty cool to see. I imagine this is how it was during Ike...maybe not!

I have some pictures of Charlie that I want to upload that are pretty funny from the past couple of days but the computer we have at the meeting is a little old school and doesn't have the slot for the picture card so you'll just have to wait :)

Learned something at the meeting already. Go to youtube.com and search for "Drinking out of Cups." or just click on this link! You have to watch it a couple of times to really think it's funny, but the back story is: Some friends locked their friend that was high (I think on acid) in a closet and then just tape-recorded what he said while he was in there." The video makes it what it is, but it's just pretty funny to listen to it and imagine a guy locked in a closet talking to himself about all this crazy stuff. AND, just picture yourself getting mad at a walkway, etc. Sigh. This is what keeps me entertained at meetings!

Courtney and Justin are on their way down here - I have a feeling it's going to take them about 5 hours to get here from Austin because of the rain...feel sorry for them. We're supposed to go eat dinner at Casey's so I'm really hoping it doesn't take that long. We don't get good seafood in Austin so we definitely take advantage of it while we're in Galveston!

I talked to G earlier and he said that Charlie missed me last night. Usually I'm the one that picks Charlie up and lets him into bed at night because I'm a sucker :) Anyways, G said that he gave in last night because Charlie was whining and picked him up into bed. When he did this however, apparently Charlie walked around the bed for a while Looking for me and then laid down. He said that Charlie seemed to not be able to get comfortable at all last night, made me laugh picturing little Charlie walking around knowing that something was missing and trying to figure it out. Poor thing! I miss him a lot....and G :)

I'll try to post again but we're not gonna have any picture action before this weekend at the earliest. Lo siento. (again, I'm fluent.)

New Name!

Yesterday was horrible/exhausting! Well, from 8:13 a.m. - 12:57 p.m. it was terrible! Those are the hours that I spend at the DPS, driving to the wrong place that I thought was social security and then actually going to the SS office. Sigh. I left the DPS around 10:30 a.m. Got to the SS office around 10:45 a.m. and didn't leave til almost 1 p.m. Let me just tell you, going to either of those places gives you a lot to be thankful for. I don't know what 99% of the people were in the SS office for, but from the 1% that I overheard talking - wow! There are some odd people in this city that I live in! In fact, I think this cute couple was in there when I was.

I did come up with a really good idea while sitting there for 2 hours; a really good idea I'd never do. It would make a very interesting blog to go sit in the SS office for 2 hours a day and then write about your experience and the people you meet and stories you hear. Not sure if that's legal, but it would make for a great read. By the time I got to the little cubby hole to change my name my eyes were tired and my head hurt and I just wanted to leave and go to work - tells you how bad it was. So I get to the cubby and the guy is uber-friendly (sarcasm) and then laughed when he read back my new name. Yes, I get it, it rhymes. But I didn't have another choice that I wanted to go with and I have always been a fan of Dr. Seuss....I wanted to tell him that I actually really like my new name and then say something else but I held it back. :) I just don't understand how people change their names 2 or 3 times and go through that process each time. Ugh. Maybe it just sucked bc it was a Monday, who knows. What a coincidence...THIS cute pair was right across from me as well....

Ahhhhhhhh. Just kidding about the 2 couples. But there were tons of people that definitely looked like them! Minus the wedding dress.

So last night I went home after working for 1/2 the day since that's all that was left and Garett wasn't feeling well at all :( I took Charlie for a walk by myself, met some friendly neighbor weiner-dogs that were really cute, let Charlie run around the big hill by himself for a while and then did a whole lot of nothing that included watching the Bachelor...again. I swear. This show gets worse and worse each season (because it used to be sooo good!) and yet I still sit there and watch it. The bachelor is such a *good-looking* loser. I honestly can't imagine someone being that NICE. Kind of sad. And then last night was the big reveal that some porn model girl that was on there for Jake had slept with one of the crew members. Now in the news she's saying that's all made up and didn't really happen. Who cares? Why am I even talking about this right now? I think because it's TV crack.

Speaking of crack........American Idol starts tonight! I'm not afraid to admit that I still watch that show occasionally (usually not until the singers get into the top 10ish and they're actually talented.) It'll be weird without Paula. That's all I have to say about that.

Charlie. God love him. Last night, as I mentioned, G was not feeling well and the only thing that sounded good was hot and sour soup. So...we went and picked some up. Now, I'm not blaming G or anything but Charlie 1. spilled the soup that was in G's hands all over the arm of the couch and 2. somehow crawled across G's lap, ended up being 1/2 on G and 1/2 on the arm of the couch and knocked the 1/4th full LARGE container of hot and sour soup all over the carpet floor. I think G was a little into 'Chuck' at the time of the accident...but again, not blaming him! Now I have a partially eaten TV stand and some crusty chinese carpet to go with it.

G went to Dallas this morning at 3 a.m. so of course the second he leaves, Charlie is in full on play-mode. It consisted of him bringing me every toy he owns and wanting me to throw it for him. Come 4:00 a.m. I was done. Period. I hopped into bed, played a game of brickbraker on my phone (which is a superstitious thing I do every time G goes to Dallas - don't ask,) then called G after I died on the second level and started to fall asleep with my Charlie in bed with me. :) This morning came realllllllll quick. Charlie woke up 1 min before my alarm was supposed to go off, he has a talent for doing this. Then we played for a while & went for a walk. Charlie stepped right into his own big 'ol pile of steaming poop. And yes - it was literally steaming in the cold weather this morning. He hasn't done this since he was about, oh, 9 weeks. Yet he chooses to do it the morning I'm alone and already a little late for work. I hate washing poop off of his toes first thing in the morning. Sick.

Anyways - I'm very sad today that he's in his crate by himself. I went home at lunch and played fetch with him and took him for another walk to hopefully tire him out. Guess we'll see how rested and nutso he is come 5:45 when I get home!

I don't think I took any pictures of Charlie yesterday :( so here's one this past month of Charlie with his new favorite toy. If only we'd known he'd love hangers as much as he does we would have saved quite a bit of money on toys!

El fin. (I'm fluent.)

Burrr...it's cold in here!

We had a great, relaxing, COLD weekend this weekend. We have had record lows in Austin this week/weekend. It's been chilly but I really actually kind of enjoy if since we never get it! Friday night we went out with my sister and Justin to TX Land and Cattle for some dinner and then came home and just hung out with Charlie dog. G played some video games, Charlie and I fell asleep on the couch...it was a successful evening! Minus the fact that Charlie chewed off a corner of our TV stand. Sigh.

Lounging on the couch...getting very very sleepy....
And he's out.

Charlie's always been into "hiding" his bones all over our apartment. He loves to hide them in the most obvious spots too, which makes G and I crack up all the time. Ex: corner of the living room where everyone can see, under the blanket on the couch, on the bookshelf. So anyways, Saturday was a lazy day at the Madole residence and as I was sitting on the couch Charlie decided to hop up and hide a huge bone in his mouth. Lets see if you can find it in the below picture...

See it?

Here's a closer look :)
See? Sometimes just to piss him off we pull the bones out of their hiding spots when he's looking...kind of mean but pretty funny to watch his little face!

What else did we do this weekend?? Saturday evening we went over to the Davis house for some football watching/C's birthday night celebration. The boys had a lot of fun playing the new Mario game for the Wii so today G and I went out and got it. It actually is a ton of fun - too bad G's studying for his LEED certification class right now and can't play it all the time! We also went and signed Charlie up for the 2nd training class at PetsMart that we're going to put him in. It's the "intermediate class" and we're hoping he's not the dumbest one in there :) Guess we'll just have to work really hard with him up until then so that he doesn't make a fool out of himself. (and us!)

Charlie's also started to love playing fetch with the new tennis ball (and really anything else) that we'll throw to him. He's still getting the concept of "drop" down when he brings it back to us but he'll learn that with time.

Sometimes I think he rolls it under the coffee table just so we'll come over and get it out for him!

Did I mention that Charlie has mastered "shake" now? :) I'm pretty proud. Now if he would only master "come" and "stay!" But we're working on it and I think he'll get it pretty soon...

All right - off to bed for me! I'm officially going to go change my name tomorrow morning! I'm pretty excited about it but also a little sad to see the maiden name go. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to keep it somehow. We'll sleep on it and see...

Proud to be a Longhorn!

Sigh. What a game...that's really all I have to say about it. Oh, and that I can't wait for next year and for college football to start back up!!!! Hook 'Em.

We went over to my sister's for the game with a group of people - despite the horrible loss it was still a really good time. We were screaming quite a bit (sorry neighbors) and Charlie wanted nothing to do with it. He stayed under their couch the entire game...he's almost getting too big to fit under there anymore. It used to be his safe haven when playing with Lexie!

Charlie and Lexie playing one of the first nights we had him...he was so small!

Charlie under the couch last night!

Blah, anyways. Not much else to say about the game except I'm so glad I dont live in Alabama!

HOOK EM!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the most important thing I have to say today, is "GET YOUR HORNS UP!!!" UT is playing in the National Championship game tonight against Alabama and I can't wait to see them win another title!

I'm so excited, nervous, anxious all of the above! OH - and it's my brother in law's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN :)

Now Hook 'Em and get your burnt orange on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS. watch this - http://tinyurl.com/ydeuxo8