Selfies with Blu

 

I have two German Shepherds, Holly and Blu.  German Shepherd Dogs (GSDs) tend to choose a human.  Holly chose Ryan and Blu chose me.  It's kind of like they've chosen who their favorites are and while I LOVE both my dogs, Blu holds a special place in my heart.  When we got Blu, it was a few weeks after we moved to Montana.  He is this boisterous dog who is incredibly vocal.  I had never heard a dog that vocal in my entire life.  When he was a little puppy, he used to make this noise all of the time that sounded like a bird chirping.  Now that he's older, he creates crazy noises...kind of like the whale calls that Dory makes when she's "speaking whale" in Finding Nemo.  While incredibly entertaining, it can be annoying.  I like to think it's his way of "speaking" with us.  

Last year, a lot of time, money, and energy was spent on Blu.  He has a medical condition that hasn't actually been fully diagnosed.  We thought he had a version of incontinence and we believe it's a variation of it.  Essentially his bladder and sphincter muscles overwork themselves so that it's difficult for him to pee when he's out in the yard.  He was the fastest potty-trained puppy I had ever known but he would walk around the house and occasionally drip.  It was the craziest thing.  So after numerous vet visits to three different veterinarians, we decided to take a break.  Blu was becoming super accustomed to the vet and I felt bad for our baby.  We then decided to make homemade belly bands.  I made these "diapers" out of old bedsheets and big velcro pieces.  To add an extra layer, we use a baby diaper as a protective barrier.  We basically rip off the attachments and elastic pieces and lay it on the diaper before he get wrapped up.  Last summer, he spent so much time outside because we hadn't even thought of using a diaper system and when winter approached, this method allowed him to spend a lot more time indoors.  

Due to all the time he's spent inside, we've seen his personality flourish and it's so fun!  He's so big but he likes to sit in your lap...or on you.  He also loves to snuggle and bed times in our bedroom are his favorite.  He also LOVES food and even on his first few days staying in the house, he would fall asleep in the kitchen.  He hates linoleum flooring because his paws don't have very good grip and for the longest time would only walk backwards on them.  He can now walk forward and backwards.  He loves to craft with me.  While I'm making anything, he will lie down right next to me and play with the ribbons and fabric.  Often times he'll explore the craft room on his own and bring random things from my craft tubs.

I'm obsessed and he's a wonderful dog.  I feel so blessed to have him in my life :)

Small Town Parades

   

Small town parades are so great! Great Falls is super adorable about throwing several small town parades throughout the year.  This is the first town that I've lived in that has several small parades. 

20 Things About Myself at 23 (Part I)

I'm not sure if I've ever really listed out 20 things about myself on my blog, apart from blog awards, and I've seen it in the blogosphere as well as on Instagram.  So here is part one :)

1. I got married when I was 21 to a great man, Ryan, while he was in the Marine Corps.  During that time, I experienced the end of a deployment while we were dating, and Ryan was deployed to Afghanistan for almost our entire first year of marriage.  Right now we're in our third year (2.5 years down), but we're still learning a lot about each other, our habits, effective communication, and how to be better partners.

2. I was baptized a Catholic but was re-baptized as an adult, a few months ago, at my new church home.  Declaring a church home has always been something really important to me.  Growing up, I was very much Catholic, but as I got older, I didn't really agree with a lot of the religious doctrine.  It was much more than a time of, "I don't want to follow these rules." Instead, I personally felt that it wasn't a good fit for me or what I truly believe in and support.  I came to realize this more and more as I attended other worship services and realized how much more open these services were and people developed a relationship with God far more than I saw in Catholic services.  In my Catholic family and community, it kind of felt like there was more emphasis on doing things a certain way, instead of living in God's name.  When I went to Great Falls Christian Community for the first time, everything just seemed to click and I love it there.

3. I love dogs.  I have ever since I was a little kid when I would go to the library and check out volumes of books on dogs to learn more about breeds.  One summer, while babysitting, I put together a folder of print outs of different dog breeds.  Probably around that time was when my family got a yellow labrador and it kind of made me realize that my mom and I had very different outlooks on how we thought a dog should be a part of the family.  My parents had an amazing kennel built for our dog that had indoor/outdoor access and it was pretty cool.  However, our dog never was really in the house with us and for me, that was pretty sad.  When I met Ryan and his family, it was a 180.  His mom has three labs and they all are such a big part of the family.  I knew that when Ryan and I got dogs, it would be the same.  I really love having our dogs be indoor dogs and they're like our kids.  Holly and Blu are so spoiled but I don't think I'd have it any other way.

4. I am addicted to Instagram.  Hands-down, it's my most favorite of social media outlets.  I love seeing a snapshot of people's lives, especially awesome people who love to craft, or are awesome parents, or just create really beautiful photos.  The Instagram accounts I follow always inspire me, either with crafting or spiritually in developing my relationship with Jesus.  I need to put together a list of awesome Instagrammers to follow ;)

5. I have been compared to Leslie Knope, and I love it.  In case you don't know who Leslie Knope is, then we can be best-friends.  I'm just kidding...sort of.  She's Amy Poehler's character in the show, Parks and Recreation.  She is hilarious and Mindy Kaling confirmed that she is awesome (she is a writer/actress in The Office).  Leslie Knope has the type of spirit and energy that is intoxicating and contagious- it just spreads to everybody else.  Awhile ago I wrote a really long, really depressing blog post about how I greatly disliked the town that my duty station is located in.  All I could see were the problems and what it was lacking.  Now I can't ignore those things, but I can definitely spin an alternative outlook on it and so I've started thinking more positively.  I try to be an influence for good at work, with my friends, and at home.  I'm enthusiastic about life and I try to bring that to other people to brighten their day.

Part II is coming up!

If you liked this post, share it with others! If you feel particularly moved by it, leave a comment because I love feedback and discussion. Social media links are provided below and thanks for reading!

Oh hey summer heyyy

 We got a new grill! It's our first one, compliments of the Exchange and we grilled chicken on it for the first time last night.  We also picked up a kiddie pool for the dogs so they can enjoy this gorgeous weather.  All we need is some outdoor furniture and we are set to enjoy Montana's beautiful summers.

 Blu recently went to the vet for a check-up but he also has a staph infection, poor little guy.

I swear he will eat anything and it's incredibly annoying.  Holly sheds a lot and so we're constantly patrolling Blu to make sure he's not munching on her hair.  He acts like we don't feed him!

This is one of his favorite spots on the yard.  I don't know how he figured this out or why he likes to sit on it but he does and we call it his "throne" as he watches over his backyard kingdom.

His recent vet visit had him weighing 48 lbs and he's only 4 months old aka he is going to be humongous!  Right now the pups are running around outside, enjoying the wonders of a backyard lawn sprinkler.

How is summer looking in your parts?

Favorite Things Friday

 I have been loving magazines lately.  My favorite thing is getting them in the mail, because if I haven't already set it, getting mail is like Christmas morning.  I absolutely love getting letters, magazines, packages, etc.  It's probably 80% of the reasoning on why I have an Amazon Prime account...free two day shipping.  Living in Podunckville, CA (not really the name), I have become more obsessed with online shopping than ever before.

Speaking of Podunkville, did I tell you all about my salon experience?  I got my haircut this week.  I didn't actually ask how much hair was cut off but my ends are right about at the end of my ears and my hair was more than halfway down my back.  I'm guessing a good 12+ inches.  I had my hair cut about this length a couple of years ago and I hated it.  I was home for a break or a weekend and I had already joined ROTC.  I was also an avid moped rider on campus and we most definitely had to wear helmets.  Well combine helmet hair and a military bun and you've got yourself one messy hairdo.  Walking around in a blues uniform with messy hair is never fun so I decided to cut it off.  Well back in 2010, the hairdresser epically messed up the inverted bob and it didn't look right to me.  When I got back on campus, I had one of the Aveda salon school students (yep, the students) fix it and it was significantly better.  I literally lived across the street from the Aveda school my senior year.  My hair always looked nice due to the trip to the salon being a 5 minute walk away.

But back to the story, it was a bad time to get my hair cut short because of course, I wanted to do all of these hairstyles which required long hair.  I started using extensions again, etc. and couldn't wait until my hair could fit properly back into a bun.

Flash forward to a couple of days ago and I'm back with short hair!  The difference this time is that I had an awesome stylist.  I looked up reviews for salons in Podunckville and one salon came up with five Google reviews.  I thought, "well that's better than nothing." I thought it was well worth the effort to at least check it out.  I walked in and the seating area had plastic chairs, the kind you use at your neighborhood block party.  I definitely was judging the salon, but I think I was within good reason.  If your trusting someone to cut your hair, especially the length that I was going to, then they need to know what they're doing.  The salon had a bad paint job, cracked tiles, and some of the hairdressers were questionably on something other than the fumes of hair products.  Maybe that's a little rash, but this salon seriously needed a heavy dose of Tabitha's Salon Takeover.  This is when you ask me, "Kim, why did you trust them with your hair?"

I can't give you an honest answer to that.  I have no idea why I trusted them.  Probably because I was there, already sitting in a plastic chair and wanting to get my hair cut.  They failed to inform my hairdresser (whom I had never met) that they booked her for a 2:30 appointment, while she was gone on lunch.  This probably added to my dislike of the salon more.  Don't set up your co-workers for failure, ya know?  Well in walks the sweetest Asian lady I have ever met.  I think she kind of reminded me of my mom and then all of a sudden, everything got better.  I know it sounds strange. But she was amazing.  She explained every aspect of what she was going to do to my hair and did it exactly how I wanted it.  A couple of days later, I went back in  to make sure the back was trimmed up to military regulations (above the collar) and she did it for free! She was awesome and I'm not joking about that.  I really appreciated that she listened to exactly what I wanted and just had excellent customer service. 

We have some exciting news....

We're expecting....

A German Shepherd Puppy!

Haha did we fool you?  I thought it would be a clever play on an adorable Pinterest idea.  But we are actually getting another German Shepherd.  Right now, he is known as "Puppy C."

 

Have you seen anything more perfect?  After attempts of working with over five rescue agencies in the past year, it became obvious that for whatever reason- our age, being a young married couple, or being in the military, were actually deterring factors in rescue agencies working with us.  Which is actually incredibly frustrating since we have the financial means to add another dog to our home and a ton of love -- Holly is one spoiled pooch and we would love to have another dog.  After a recent attempt to get a dog named Max, it just didn't work out.  We went to the dog park to have Holly and him visit and he was a couple years older than her.  They didn't have the same energy level or drive to play, which is understandable due to their age, and one of the foster parents just didn't want to seem to want to give him up.  Fostering animals is hard, as I've heard, because you get attached.  It was such an awkward meeting as it seemed like the male foster parent was attempting to play devil's advocate, when in reality he was on the brink of just being rude and the female foster parent was doing the complete opposite.  It was a basically a hot and cold meeting that resulted in them not responding to an e-mail explaining that we have lousy reception and we would like to schedule a phone call and then we heard nothing back.   

I think it was irritating for us in working with these rescue agencies for several reasons but mainly for that feeling that we just wasted a lot of time.  Numerous applications, visits, phone calls, e-mails, and physical meetings have taken their toll on us and we finally just said, maybe another time.  I was constantly disappointed and willing to try another rescue agency to see if something else might work.  I love rescue agencies and all that they do for animals, because I love dogs, but each organization is different.  

Finally we just decided to get a dog through other means and we found a reputable breeder in Montana and we're getting that adorable little guy.  Ryan is going through a few name ideas, including "Blue," "Oden" and "Wilhelm." I'm excited to have this little guy around and for Holly to have a little GSD brother.    

Those were probably my two most favorite things of the week, but what about the interwebs?

 

This article from Feministing actually doing a review on how another article was trying to slut shame Beyonce.  Now if you didn't know, Beyonce's my girl and I won't stand for folks trying to slut shame her or anyone for that matter.  Not only that, but Beyonce is one helluva confident woman and business savvy.  She is iconic and going to rock the stage at the Superbowl halftime show.  She knows exactly what she's doing and in case you missed her performance of "I Was Here" for the United Nations World Humanitarian Day, you need to watch it. #loveher  

Speaking of iconic, amazing people, how about the couple from Young House Love?  I mean they're not as iconic as Beyonce, unless you love DIY.  John's recent post covered a leg of their book tour and I just love that they blog as a couple.  I really want to get their book and I wish I was somewhere close to one of their book signings. Grrr.  Neverthless, they're adorable and with a free download from them.  I was able to make our new calendar for this year.  I made it after I had a tequila shot and glass of White Zin...so it's a little bit sassy.

 

  

And December just wants to hang out over there --->

So that was my pretty awesome week thus far.  I have friends visiting from Camp Pendleton this weekend and a big upcoming test.  Wish me luck and thanks for reading!