Last Night

So, last night I had a dream/nightmare. I say that because it was awful, but turned out ok in the end. Here it is. Oh, and btw, I've always had super detailed dreams, so if you think I'm making this up, I'm not.

Justin and I are the park with Bear. For some reason, we separate and I end up by the road. All of the sudden, Justin comes running up to me telling me that Bear's hurt. He says call 911. So I do. Next thing I know, they are telling me he's in 'fair' condition. I'm crying my eyes out worried about my pup. Some time passes, and I wind up in a computer lab (? don't know why). This lady walks up to me and says, "If someone knew something about the situation, would you want to know?". I said yes! Then she told me, "It doesn't look like he's going to make it." Again with the crying, hard. They (and I say that not really knowing who 'they' are, you know how dreams go) proceed to tell me that I can go see him. At this point I've pretty much been bawling all dream long. So here I am thinking I'm going to say my last goodbyes to my sweet pup. I walk in the room and he's up on what looks like an operating table. The moment I enter the room, his tail starts wagging. The doctor walks over to me and tells me he's fine, ready to go home! What?!?!? Turns out he made a full recovery! The lady then comes up to me and tells me that she told me that cuz she didn't want me to get my hopes up. Wow.

Then I jolt awake. It's 6:56am. About 26 minutes later than I'm supposed to get up. I look over, and I tell you, it was the best feeling ever to see the dog snoozing on his bed. What a relief! But I was late. I hop in the shower and when I get out, the dog is ready to get up. He comes into the office where I was and I give him a big ol' hug. He just leans into it and starts wagging his tail. I tell you, I have a deeper love for this dog now. It's crazy how dreams can do that to you. So I leave you with this pic of my handsome guy (Mr. Fat Neck/Sighsy McGrumbles/MB/Mr. Caramel Rolls, etc.).

Note: I forgot to hit the button that allows you to choose multiple answers for the poll, so I guess you can only vote for one!

Bear and Scout

So here is Bear and his good buddy Scout playing together in our backyard. For those of you who are also on Facebook, I just posted a video of the two playing together today. I also want to draw your attention to the lack of snow we have here. Our yard has looked like that for about 3 weeks now. I'm sorry for all of you who haven't seen grass in several months.

Fast puppahs
Bear looks so vicious but he's so harmless.

They play like big brother/lil brother.

"See, it's over yonder."

I am so handsome. Oh, and I love the sun too.

Old News

Hi all! Was looking through some older pics that I hadn't posted yet, so I thought I'd share them with you!

For the Superbowl we made beer cheese soup, guacamole, and homemade pretzels. We followed a recipe from Alton Brown for the pretzels. I used my sweet stand mixer and they turned out great. They were a little bit of work, but nothing too bad! Justin helped so that made things easier. Here's a pic:

We had a nice Valentine's day at home together. We always just stay in and make dinner. Neither of us want to deal with the crazy crowds. Plus, we can make just as good a dinner at home and it's a lot cheaper! Justin also bought me some beautiful roses and delicious truffles (seriously delicious). We made, well, you can see what we made!

Here are just some random pics of Bear and his backyard buddy, Scout.

When is this silly bathroom business going to be done?

Speaking of our bathroom remodel, here is a pic of all the crap that was in our yard during the process. It's all gone now, hallelujah! Did I spell that right?

When we were in Fargo at the beginning of March, Justin stayed with some friends. Here are a few pics of Shea's dog, Ragnar, jumping for the frisbee. He's got some mad hops ;)

So it looks like cheese was the popular option on the poll! I apologize to everyone who wanted to pick onions - I forgot to put it on the list! I'm looking forward to the day I can enjoy a juicy lucy.

Stay tuned for a new post with some pics of Bear and Scout in action. They played together today for about an hour and I got some good shots.

Have a great Friday everyone and enjoy March Madness! You know I will!

My 51st Post!

I know I've been slacking; that's why I had to remind everyone that I have done 50 posts already, so I have a right to slack.

So I'm sure most of you are aware of our big bathroom remodel that's in the works. If you haven't already, check out Justin's blog for some pics of the progress so far. The tile is amazing and since it's a small bathroom, it wasn't too expensive. We will have brushed nickel hardware and a granite vanity top. Our walls will be a burnt almond color. Tomorrow and Friday they should be able to wrap everything up. They still have to paint, seal the tile, put in the vanity and cabinets, and finish the custom-made closet. I'm so excited! But it's been crazy - we have crap everywhere in our house and there is a fine layer of dust over everything! Never before in my life have I been anxious to clean until now. It will be so nice when everything is back in order. Bear doesn't really know what to think of it all. Yesterday he sat in the dining room and barked at the debris. We will post some more pics when it's done!

Saturday I'm going on a Summit Brewery tour with some girls from St. Mary's. It'll be Amanda Simone (Fricke), Patti Snustad, Jenny Brummer, and me. I've never been on the tour before, but it should be a good time. We invited a couple others, but they couldn't make it.

Melissa and I enjoyed a very nice weekend together in Fargo. We didn't do much; we just hung out, but that's what we like to do best together! The weekend went too fast as usual. Mel's wedding is in 2 months! I can't believe it's so soon. I'm working on planning the bridal shower now, which is in less than a month. Everything should be a good time!

So our weather here has been cold the last 2 days, but I really can't complain to you Bismarckians. We had about 2 inches of snow on Tuesday on top of some freezing rain. We had 50 mph winds last night and below zero temps. Today it was about 5 degrees, but it's gonna warm up soon. By the weekend, it will be in the 40s and they say near 50 next week. Hopefully this is the start of Spring with no looking back!

Oh, I am super pumped for the ACC tourney this weekend! I'm DVRing the UNC game on Friday morning. I have to say, though, that the ACC is a good conference and I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of those teams put up a good fight. I relished in the sweep of Duke this year, which worries me slightly because a 3peat is tough if it comes down to those two in the tourney. Anyway, GO 'HEELS!

Alright, there's your update bitches. Have a great rest of your week everyone!

Warning: Not for Young Viewers

Just watch'em. It's not what you think. Hilarious.

Play Buddies

Happy Birthday, Bear!

It was Bear's birthday yesterday (he turned 2), so I wanted to dedicate a post to him. Not that he doesn't get mentioned in any of my other posts, but this one is especially for him. The pup is getting mellower in his old age and he's quite the pumpkin sometimes. He has a new friend too. Our neighbors behind us got a new puppy: a 4 1/2 month old Aussie named Scout. He's about the cutest thing ever and he and Bear adore each other. What's really nice is we have a gate in between yards that we can open up and just let the dogs run around together. So here are a few pics of the two romping around together (taken with J-wad's sweet ass new SLR).

His right eye is half blue.

This pic is just a cute one of him laying in the hall. I don't know why he lays in that crazy position, but it's adorable.

It's been tough with these cold days cuz we can't get him walked, so it is nice that he has a bud so close by to play with. His walks have improved dramatically since we got a gentle leader. I actually enjoy walking him again and he is much calmer, relaxed, and he seems like he's enjoying it too. I can't believe what a difference the gentle leader has made. It makes me feels much more in control and he can sense that. The other thing we have been doing on walks is feeding him little pieces of roast beef when he sees another dog. The dog behaviorist we had here told us it's all about taking the emotion out of seeing another dog, cuz he would get so worked up. Now, the moment he sees another dog, we just feed him the beef and then he's fixed on us and doesn't get so crazy about the other dog. It's a slow process but we have already seen a change in him. It sounds wrong, like you are feeding that excited state, but it's really not like that. She also told us that a dog like ours needs 2-3 hours of mental and physical stimulation a day. One way you can do this is make him work for his food. So we bought two little kong like things that you put his food in and he has to roll them around to try to get the food to drop out of it. It keeps him busy for like 15-20 mins instead of him scarfing down his food in less that 2 mins. And he loooooves to work for it! So all these things we've been working on have really made a difference in him. He's learned some self-calming skills (which were desperately needed) and like I said, he is much calmer now. We still have to work on his greetings at the door and reactions to the doorbell, car doors, etc. He starts an obedience class on Monday, Feb. 16th. He is a work in progress, but such a sweet boy!

So here's to Bear and many more happy years in our family! I leave you with a pic I know you've seen before, but I love it. So sweet and innocent (deceptively hiding the Bearcifer that lurks inside).