Bad and Worse

This would have been NO surprise had it just been Oliver; he's constantly trying to sneak a quick cat nap in on our bed. But Roxy?? Roxy is our star child. And in Dave's eyes she can do no wrong! You won't walk into a dark living room and find her on our couch. No, she's smarter than that, she waits until she knows we're at work for the day and she always makes sure she's sitting at the window waiting for us when we get home. She only gets caught because of the massive amounts of hair she leaves behind and the odd drool spot (our couches are pretty damn comfy!) And forget it if we forget to close our bedroom door! She'll take FULL advantage of our entire bed (it is the best sunspot in the house and it honestly wouldn't bother me if she didn't shed so much), it takes me hours to get rid of all that hair!

I guess I give them credit for trying! It's good to see they are so hopeful that one day they might wear me down enough I'll just say "screw it, have your nap"! It's definitely a possibility...after all that's typically how they end up napping on the couch with me. I get so tired of refereeing their "wrestling matches" that I bribe them with a nap on the couch - works like a charm every time!

I would like to thank our TV for crapping out

In the coming spring, after we put in new carpeting in the family room we were going to get the big flat screen, high definition TV that Dave wanted to get LAST year. But luck was on his side when our current TV started crapping out a few weeks ago. (It's still under investigation whether he fiddled with something I don't know about!)

It all happened pretty fast; for a few days the TV picture would freak out and have some white lines going through it and then just fix itself after a few seconds. Then it started becoming a black screen with a white line across the middle which we figured out after a few stomps on the floor the picture would go back to normal. But before we knew it the stomps weren't working anymore! Even I was frustrated at this point, it was interfering with my shows!!

And so began the start of our family room renovations. We were planning on doing them before Christmas anyway, the passing of the TV just sped things up. And after a few incredibly busy/stressful weeks at work for Dave I'm glad he can come home and watch his sports in HD (as long as one of my 5 shows isn't on!)

So we've been busy trying to figure out re-decorating and the rooms were finally ready to be unveiled this weekend! Well minus the blu-ray DVD player and wireless surround sound that Dave wants! Those are definitely going to have to wait another year or two! I want my new siding first!

The Perfect Hiding Spot

So it turns out one of Oliver's favorite places (other than on the couch or on our bed) is under our bed. I only discovered this because one day I came out of the bathroom in our bedroom to find this:

Olivers 'lil feet sticking out from under the bed gave him away!

So now I have another place to search for him when he's "missing"!

It amazed me that he could even fit under there and it terrifies me that he's going to get stuck one day because while he's smaller than Roxy he's still 30 pounds (soaking wet) with long legs and a lanky body! Then one day I witnessed him army crawling his way under and since then I've seen him army crawl his way out. He's one adventurous 'lil bugger! There are no boundaries that can stop him!

So by now I should be used to him popping out from under the bed at any given time but it still surprises/terrifies me especially when I think he is somewhere else. Last night he got me good when he army crawled out under my feet as I was getting into bed thinking both dogs were asleep on their beds in the living room (where I last saw them 10 minutes earlier). And on top of it the 'lil shit jumped over me and got onto my pillow before I even knew what was happening! And sat there like "what are you gonna do now?!" So while I was wrestling him off of my side of the bed he managed to jump right back up get under the covers and scurry as far down as he could get! If only the covers weren't all tucked in at the end he would have scurried right back onto the floor! But since he was nested all the way down at my feet I decided to let him stay until he warmed up my feet. I figured he wasn't going to last long anyway - I mean he was resting his head on my stinky feet after all! But I forgot, he LOVES his mom's stinky feet! I don't know how else to make any sense of his obsession with stealing my dirty socks!!?

Hopefully our new sleigh bed frame won't interfere with his "hiding" space. Maybe he'll even have a little more wiggle room under there!

I NEED one of these!!

I ♥ Greyhounds! And I've always wanted the white greyhound statue Joey had in FRIENDS. And I've Googled high and low for years with NO luck! Not even anything close enough for my liking until today...

Greyhound statue #1

Greyhound statue #2

Anyone stuck on a Christmas present idea feel free! I don't know if anything would make me more excited than seeing one of these waiting for me under the Christmas tree in the morning! I'm sure next time I want another dog Dave will suggest one of these, it would be cheaper in the long run!

Monkey Bread

This weekend we took a trip up to Massachusetts to visit Kelly and Taryn and their families (2 of my good friends from college). It's become sort of an annual trip over the last few years and it's always a fun time! I'm just glad they live close enough that I get to see them a few times a year. Especially because those kiddos grow up waaaay too fast!!

And Kelly's family even grew in size. Last month they adopted Athena, the cutest, sweetest boxer mix of a dog! Of course they claimed she's never behaved so well in the month they've had her but they also don't know what it's like to have a dog like Oliver! (I swear I love my "firecracker" child to death!!) Which was the main reason Taryn and I made Kelly host our get together because we couldn't wait to meet her (and of course we wanted to see the kids and Mark - that should be assumed!)

And since Taryn offered her place for us to crash afterward I jumped at the offer because I haven't seen Walter and Winnie since they had first gotten Winnie a couple years ago (also fur babies and the coolest dogs). I think Walter and Roxy would be BFF and Oliver and Winnie would be partners in crime for sure! It would be fun to see them all together (well maybe for a couple minutes before all hell broke lose!)

Last time we were at Taryn's, she and Al had also just bought their house a few months before so it was nice to see all they've done. I may hire her out to come down and help me figure out how to decorate our house!

And honestly the reason I think she wanted us to stay over so badly again was because she had to redeem herself from our last visit. They had bought all new, nice, stainless kitchen appliances (fridge, stove) and in the morning Taryn, being such a great hostess, decided to make us Monkey Bread - which I had never heard of but it sounded delicious! So she put it together and set it to bake in the brand new, never been baked in oven and in about 10 minutes she had a good oven fire going! We can make fun of her and laugh about it now because no one was hurt, including that beautiful stainless oven! But needless to say we didn't get to try the delicious Monkey Bread! So lesson learned: you can't use an angel food pan to make Monkey Bread, you need to use a bundt pan! And this time around there were no oven fires and the bread was every bit as delicious as I had imagined it was going to be!

And of course like every other year I bring my camera and not a single picture gets taken to document the trip! So instead I will post the Monkey Bread recipe.


Monkey Bread

Ingredients:
4 cans refrigerated biscuits
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 ^o and grease bundt pan.

2. Mix white sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut the biscuits into quarters and coat each piece with the cinnamon/sugar mix.

3. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the greased pan. Continue layering until all the biscuit pieces are in the pan.

4. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the layered biscuits.

5. Bake for 35 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Pull apart and enjoy!

Devil Child

He does this:

And the reason it was only the inside of the bed to begin with was because I hadn't yet gotten around to sewing a second patch onto the outside cover! So I'll just add to the list, making a new inner piece for the stuffing!

Because he thinks he can then do this:

Which sometimes actually works because he curls up so tight and doesn't make a peep, in the dark he just looks like another pillow!

I'm still trying to figure out his fascination with destroying all things cloth...

I nearly killed him last weekend when he decided to chew a fleece sleeper I had spent the better part of a day sewing for a friend...but that's another post for another time.

Oliver Perez

So I'm a week late on the Halloween post but the pictures are too good to skip it!

Our Halloween started out with Oliver's dog training class that ended with a costume parade. And would you know our little Oliver Perez won 1st place!!!

Mainly because 2 of the judges were Mets fans but regardless I bet he would have won anyway ;-)

And since Roxy was sad she missed out I let her in on the fun when we got home!

Then our 2 nieces came over for some trick or treating which brought our grand total of kids up to 13 this year! Record breaking numbers! I was so excited for Halloween in our new neighborhood since we are close to the elementary school and tons of little kids live around us. Well apparently we live to close to the start of the hill so no one really wants to come our way! Next year I'm definitely giving out the big candy bars! And I've really wanted to "dress up" the front lawn but just haven't found anything I'm crazy about. Maybe that will start enticing kids to come down our way! There's no shame in a little bribing.

Snow White (Caroline) and the cutest 'lil bumble bee I've ever seen (Emily)

After the swarms of kids left we headed over to my friend Missy's place for a Halloween party. Costumes were optional so Dave opted to not dress up but since I love dressing up I couldn't resist. Halloween may be my favorite holiday, well no that would be St. Patrick's day and then Halloween follows closely behind. But since I was so last minute this year I liked my costume but I wasn't super excited about it. I was hoping to be something else that I couldn't find to my liking at the stores so now I know for next year and I can plan ahead and make it myself.

Me (Raggedy Anne), Missy (Little Red Riding Hood), Beth (Rainbow Brite)


Lucy, one of Missy's 2 Yorkies - sweetiest little dogs ever and I'm a BIG dog person!



***************************************************************************

And this weekend before I had a chance to put it away Oliver found his little Met hat on the kitchen table and ....

I guess I kinda deserved that one!

A Class Act

This past Sunday, Meb Keflezighi, made history. Not only did he run a personal best AND win his first marathon ever, he became the first American to win the NYC marathon in 27 years. 27 YEARS!!! I can go on and on but really I just wanted to share this article that a friend of mine shared with me.

Keflezighi posts an historic NYC Marathon win for a fallen friend
Author: David Epstein
Source: SI.com

If you're 34-year-old Meb Keflezighi, what tribute could you possibly come up with that would be a fitting honor for your friend and training partner Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died in November 2007 during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York City?

In a news conference before the 2009 New York City Marathon, you could ask for a moment of silence in his honor. Check.

Or, just as you turn into Central Park between miles 23 and 24, you could break away from Robert Cheruiyot, the four-time Boston Marathon champion from Kenya, en route to becoming the first American to win in New York since Ronald Reagan was settling into his first term 27 years ago. Check.

And then, less than a mile later at the bottom of Cat Hill, now that you are solidly in the lead with the television cameras -- and the eyes of the world -- on only you, you can make the symbol of the cross on your chest as you fly by the spot where Shay, a Notre Dame grad, fell. Even though Shay's father, Joe Shay, isn't watching the race -- there are too many faces he painfully recognizes -- he might say afterward that you are "one of the class acts in all of sports" and that your gesture is "just so significant." Check.

And just to make it all more meaningful, perhaps it can come after a year-and-a-half of rehab following that terrible November day two years ago, when Shay died and when your body fall apart. When you got sick days before the race, cramped up because of dehydration during it, and ended up crawling around your hotel room on all fours because of the pain in your legs. When, for days "you practically couldn't get up and walk to the bathroom," according to your wife, Yordanos. And when, months later, a doctor would find the stress fracture in your hip that had you thinking about hanging up your racing flats for good.

You could go through all that and then return to New York in 2009 to run a personal best and win a marathon for the first time, well after people were beginning to "write you off" because of age and injuries, as Ryan Hall, the most-hyped U.S. marathoner who finished three places behind you on Sunday, put it. Check.

That would be even more perfect because, instead of retiring, you would have struggled back to health and all the way back to the starting line in New York, where you could force yourself to forget that nearly all the two million spectators lining the New York City course expect an athlete running for Ethiopia, Kenya, Brazil or Morocco to pass first. Check.

That last part shouldn't be too terribly difficult, given that you already banished the naysayers when you took silver at the Olympic marathon in Athens, the first medal for a U.S. man since Frank Shorter took silver in 1976. And even before that, you joined a generation of American distance runners, like Shay, who knew that Americans could run with Africans, and who were resolved never to let there be another time like 2000, when the U.S. qualified only one runner for the Olympic marathon.

And maybe you can make sure, on race day, to be the only runner out there wearing a USA singlet, so that it will be that much more unique when you enter the last quarter-mile slapping the letters on your chest and remembering how Shay took personal offense when people said you weren't a "real American" even though you've been here since you were 12. And so that it will be that much more special when, in post-race interviews, you recite the exact day you came to America -- October 21, 1987 -- from Italy after your family left Eritrea as refugees; and when you mention how much you loved going to school at UCLA, and how grateful you are for the opportunities, in school and in sport, that America gave you, and how proud you were to become a citizen in 1998. Check.

And then, when you cross the line in first, you can let the tears of sorrow and the tears of joy mix as they flow down your cheeks. Check.