Puppy Talk

Hi friends, in case you've missed the picture, we got a puppy!  Slightly spur of the moment for us, but we've talked about getting one for at least a year now and had really been waiting until we felt more settled to dive into puppydom.  It helped that our 1 year anniversary is coming up next weekend, so I've been told this is my happy anniversary present.  I'd also like to especially thank those of you out there who recently got puppies (or already had dogs), this is what I think really pushed Whitney over the edge...so thanks!

A little blurry, but it's from the camera on my phone people.  It's Bulleit--appropriately named after a brand of bourbon by my husband.

Let me say, house training is nasty.  DT told me that house breaking a puppy was harder than having Whitney as a baby--and he didn't sleep through the night until he was 12.  I'm very nervous.  However, all you dog people keep telling me it's worth the pain of puppy training to have an obedient dog.  So I'll take the bad now for the good later.

Oh, there's one other slight problem with the whole situation, kitty isn't the happiest right now.  Well, she's not unhappy, she's just making sure the pup knows who is still queen of the house.

The Fireplace

Yesterday I pulled out all of my Christmas decorations because I couldn't resist the temptation any longer.  Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year, and I normally pull all of my decorations out early then count down until it's "acceptable" to have them out.  I might make an exception to this self-inflicted rule this year because I'm so ready for Christmas.  I blame this Christmas craziness on two things:

(1) My grandmother could be Santa himself if she weren't a woman.  I know of not one person in the world who loves the holidays as much as she does, and
(2) Given my little wedding/new job/moving escapade at the end of 2009, I didn't get much time to enjoy the holidays to their full potential a year ago, so now I feel the need to make up for lost time.

There is one slight (ok, major) problem with my Christmas plans this year.  It revolves around this thing (hint, it's on the left side):

Here's a closer view of it once the walls were painted:

Yes, the fireplace--or what's supposed to be a fireplace.  Is it heinous, or is it heinous?

Kind of hard to decorate for Christmas with that thing looming in the corner.  Kind of hard to decorate at ALL with that always starting directly at you.  We have great plans for it--put in gas logs, build the mantle and surround, put a tile surround on the front of it--we are just scared to tackle this thing.  We haven't been scared of much in this house, but this thing scares us.  Today I decided to pull back the board that's over the actual opening to the fireplace to have a peek at the inside again.  I'd looked at this when we took all the paneling down in this room and quickly covered it up because it was so scary.

Like I said, super scary.  And yes, that would be dirt on the floor in it.

This is after I pulled out the shop vac and cleaned out the previously mentioned dirt.  There's still some bricks missing in the back, so there's a sandy substance just chilling at the back of this fireplace.

We are at a total loss for how to tackle this thing.  We aren't even sure what type of professional to call about looking into fixing the fireplace to make sure we CAN put gas logs in there.  I've scoured the internet looking for options on how to fix this, but nothing gives me a straight answer.

So now I have no cover over this gaping hole in the middle of our living room and stockings that need to be hung by the chimney with care in the next 6 weeks.  I am open for ideas from anyone...because if not, I might try to tackle this scary project by myself.  Help!

Happy Election Day

Today is seriously one of my favorite days.  I know it seems crazy, but I love election day, and I always have.  I get all dressed up in my red, white, and blue and now that I actually live near my polling station, I get to go and put my card in the slot, cast my ballot, and wear a peach sticker claiming that I voted--except today, where I went first thing and the polls actually weren't working (little Sylvania made the news!)--so I didn't have my sticker on all day.  Some may blame a certain class I took in college called "campaigns and elections" on my insanity around election season, and yes this experience did add fuel to my fire and make me well aware of my political views.  But I truly have done this my entire life, so really I have my family to blame.

You see, one of my earliest memories was the Presidential election of 1988.  Yes, I was 3, and yes, I do actually remember it.  My grandparents had an election party for George Bush (Sr.) and I remember sitting around the large console TV with a room full of adults, cheering for election updates and waiting until they declared George the winner and the champagne was poured (I had ginger ale) and we ate cake.   I also remember having a conversation with my grandfather that night about why Ronald Reagan couldn't be President any more, and why we even had to have an election to get a new President, because as I told him "I just want Ronald Reagan to be President forever". 

It's a little scary how exposed I've been to politics.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love how informed I am.  I love how engrossed I get in the political process, learning about the candidates and their issues and what new referendums are going to be passed.  I wouldn't trade it for the world (although my husband might).

Happy Election night!