The Nut House

I live in a nut house and I love it.

Last week I had huge plans for the next 17 days. They included a lot of time sitting in my chair watching countless, bordering on inappropriate, amounts of Olympic Coverage.

Then we up and did what we are best at.

We turn our lives over and brought new pup in our house.

Why? Well, I guess we just didn't have enough going on.

There are a few truths about me.
1. I need 4 animals to fulfill me.
2. If I am not operating at 120% I feel lazy and worry I will get fat again.
3. I love my family and friends more than anything and will do anything for any of them. And I want to spend as much time with them as possible.

With all that in mind it only makes sense that we would adopt another dog, bringing us back up to four pets.

I am adjusting to 5:40 am walks so I am a bit sleepy right now. I am going to stop talking and share a few pictures we have taken over the last few days.

All of the kids (the one reading is mine, the rest are our friends and family) and Siri taking a rare nap.

Cakes and Siri wrestling while I try to watch a few minutes of Olympic Beach Volleyball

Siri flying while playing with Cakes, they get a long so well!

Shawn aka Daddy having a little cuddle time with his girls.

Needless to say, I have watched a grand total of four minutes of the Olympics but that's okay because I have been having a blast with our two new pups!

Oh, and I got to see the girls take the All Around Gold in Gymnastics tonight so that was awesome too!!

Weekend Update and What A Weekend It Was!!

I started this post on Friday night but so much happened this weekend I just deleted it all and am starting over. I think bullet points will be needed!

Friday

• I got home from work with time to hang out with the kids before they all went home for the day and had a blast watching them use Shawn as a jungle gym while Cakes slept in the rock bed.
• Heidi went to Ryan's to play with Will and Emily
• Shawn and I went for a 3 mile run with 8 hill sprints. It was killer but I was ecstatic when I synced the bodybugg and saw I had burned 600 calories!
• I parked myself on the couch and watched the Open Ceremonies. I realize people didn't like them but I thought it was pretty good.
• My new Transformer Tablet had arrived on Thursday night so I played with it while watching the ceremonies.

Piper climbing on Shawn's head

Sophia sitting on Shawn's feet, next he will launch her and she is suposed to land on her feet but she likes to land on her butt.

Saturday

• We went to Minnehaha Park to meet some dogs from Save A Bull, a Bully Breed rescue organization.  We specifically went to meet Siri, a small 30 pound girl. We talked to a lot of bully foster parents and pet a lot of bully dogs. My brother and his family joined us along with Shawn's Brother Tony and his family. It was a blast.
• UNTIL, the parking meeter ran our of time and I was left driving in circles for 45 minutes while everyone else was down in the dog park!
• My mother in laws birthday was last week so we all went over to her house with a cake and sang her happy birthday. Happy Birthday Renee!!
• My parents swung by and picked up Heidi and Emily and took them out to Build A Bear for the evening. The Heidi spent the night with them.
• Then we stopped at the booze store for a gift before we met some friends for dinner. We were looking in the beer cooler, not sure what to get but ended up with a sampler pack of Horney Goat and a 40 of Colt 45. (My bottle of water cost more than that bottle of Colt 45!!)
• We meet up with our friend Paul and Erin for dinner to celebrate Paul's birthday. We dined at Ginger Hop in North East Minneapolis. It was fantastic, I will go back for sure! 
• After a nice dinner and great conversation (and 2 glasses of wine) we headed back to the neighborhood to check out Boogie Wonderland at the Crystal Frolics. The best part of Crystal Frolics? People watching... Where the trash gets all dressed up to take their babies to the beer tent. We had a blast!

Pineapple Pork Fried Rice at Ginger Hop - LOVED IT!

Sunday

• I woke up at 6 am to excited to sleep! Why? Well, I needed to get the house picked up because we were having visitors...
• Shawn and I took Cupcake to the dog park near our house. She loved it and wanted to be a part of a pack of very large Golden Labs. She was exhausted by the time we left and went home to pass out for a bit. I think she was exhausted by our little game - she needed to be walking in front of me at all times. We were walking single file, I would get in front of her, she would sprint to get in front of me and slow down, I would get in front of her, she would sprint to get in front of me and slow down... repeat 50 times.
• Our visitors! Save A Bull brought Siri over to visit us, check out our house, and meet family! They were there for four hours just chatting while Siri and Cakes chased each other around the back yard. I will tell you all about the visit and Siri tomorrow. That deserves it's own post. But it went well and SIRI MOVED IN WITH US!
• Heidi went to a birthday party during part of the visit and when she got home Ryan, Jess, and the kids came over and Erin brought Sophia and Piper over for a bit. Our house was crazy and Siri got a real taste of what our house, and her new life, will be like.

Siri Anna, our new Pit Bull!!

Sunday Night

• Siri and Cakes slept in their crates, one or the other cried all night but that was expected.

Monday AM

• I took Siri for our first walk while Shawn and Cakes had some cuddle time on the couch.

I am beyond ecstatic! We have TWO dogs now, I got my new Tablet and it's AWESOME, and it's Olympic season. I could not be happier!

Hasta Luego,

Kara

Happy Olympics!!

I don't have a lot of time for a well thought out post today and while I wanted to link up for Friday Letters like last week I have not had coffee yet and my brain is not firing on all cylinders yet. So, today will be some randomness!

This is been a pretty exciting week, here are a few of the highlights.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just love pictures of Peter sleeping on pillows.

Last night I went to Skyrobics with Erin and dare I say, we rocked it! The Bodybugg tells me I burned 475 calories over the 445 from my first time. I was also excited to see I had logged well over 10,000 steps for my day yesterday. Oh, and no injuries this time, just me not being able to get up after situps so I laid on my tramp causing the instructor to ask Erin if I was okay. When he realized I was dead and not broken he was happy. You can die in Skyrobics but you can't get hurt, injuries cause to much paper work.

I ordered and received my Asus Transformer Tablet! It arrived via Amazon yesterday and spent the night charging. I plan to play with it while I watch...

The Opening Ceremonies Tonight!! I am so excited!! After work I will sneak in a quick run then I will plan my butt in the purple chair with my new tablet and watch the Opening of the Olympic games and I will not feel guilty about it one bit because this happens once every 4 years (well, 2 really because I love winter Olympics too).

Last night in the car Heidi asked if we could go to open swim tonight. I said "Well, I really, really want to watch the Opening Ceremonies..."

Heidi said, "Mom! It sounds like watching the Olympics is more important than my showing you all I learned in swimming this week!!"

I replied, "hmmm.... Well, it only happens once every four years..."

She didn't talk to me for the rest of the drive. Sorry, Heidi! I have never told you I would not be active with you because I wanted to watch TV. Even when I was fat I didn't say that. So get over it kid!!

Other exciting news, Erin and I spent a day planning out the year for our Girl Scout Troop. I am so excited to have 1st year Brownies, I can't even stand it!

Um, and August? Is there anyway we can move August out by like three weeks? I think I totally missed July.

And finally, it was the first week of acting in my new job and it flew by. I am really excited about the new challenges it will bring.

A look ahead at the weekend - I plan to watch a lot of Olympics, swim with my dad on Saturday morning, trip to Minnehaha Falls Dog Park with Cupcake Saturday afternoon, birthday dinner for my friend Paul on Saturday evening, July release for work Saturday night, lazy day and more Olympics on Sunday. Somewhere in there I will clean my house, get in at least one more run, and hopefully read The Kite Runner (I know, I am 10 years behind the times on this one but what can I say?!)

Happy Friday everyone! And Happy Olympics!

Hasta Luego,

Kara

Book Review: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I read a brief write up of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain in Real Simple magazine one month and I thought it sounded interesting. This is the story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, The Paris Wife, Hadley. I find Hemingway to be an interesting person and plan to read more about him in the future but I thought it would be nice to start with this novel about his relationship with Hadley.

Image from Amazon.com

I love the book; it was well written and felt like a memoir written by Hadley while it was actually a novel written by McLain.

While reading the book (or listening to it on my iPod via audible.com rather) my mind kept circling back to how real these character were. I often wondered how McLain could write such a book after both Hemingway and Hadley were deceased and therefore unavailable for interview.

With just a quick search on Amazon.com I learned that McLain used the numerous letters written between Hadley and Hemingway to learn the intimacy they shared and to develop her story. I assume the rest was rounded out with details McLain polished in her vision of this famous couple.

Hemingway and Hadley meet through a mutual friend one week in Chicago. Hadley has had a volatile life that McLain does a wonderful job piecing out to the reader in the first chapters of the book. As the reader, you may find yourself rooting for Hadley straight off.

Hadley has found herself to be a 28 year old woman in 1921’s Midwestern America. Almost a spinster, she is giving up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest and while very cautious she is intrigued by him. They spend months exchanging letters until she finally visits him again in Chicago. Within a short time they are engaged and then married and trying to figure out how to get to Paris where Hemingway is told he will meet people who will inspire him and mentor him.

The novel follows the years of their courtship, marriage, child, and eventual breakdown of their relationship after the Hadley learns of Hemingway’s affair (not his first but the first she knows of!)

I truly enjoyed this novel and will have to continue to remind myself that while this was well researched, it was in fact a novel which gives the author a lot of creative license. Ms. McLain, I believe you used that license very well. Very well indeed.

So You Want A Cupcake...

Two Cupcake posts in two days?! I know, I know but she is consuming my life right now.

I bet you are asking yourself, what does it take to care for a Cupcake day to day? Is this something I could do?

Well, lucky you! I am here to tell you!

First it takes not one but two collars.

And it helps if one is pink with a zebra striped tag. One is for identification and is to be warn at all times. The other is for walking and easy lifting.

For sleeping you will need a large crate but to keep her from peeing in it every.single.night block it off with some old packing boxes. If your husband used to work for a moving company you probably have a ton of these laying around.

Any extra blankets you have laying around should promptly be claimed by the Cupcake as backup blankets in the event she poops in her crate and uses her blanket to cover it up.

She will need at least 3 nylon bones, a crinkle Spiderman, a kong, a Tupperware bowl, and a red ring chew toy for chewing. This is in no way enough entertainment to keep her from chewing on the cup holders or seat belts in the van or everything.Heidi.leaves.on.the.floor but it's a start.

She will need not one, not two, but four rope toys. If you count the red ring, it's 5. These are for playing tug and being drug around the house by the kids.

An Angry Bird Pig/Bird toy for chewing and cuddling in hopes your Cupcake does not decide to eat any of your 7 year old's stuffies. (I cannot even begin to explain how horrible it would be if Cupcake ate Heidi's stuffies... oh, the horror...)

You also need two leashes, as many poop bags as you can afford and store, a pooper scooper, lots and lots of puppy food and training treats, a food and water bowl for the house and another set for the camper, something for your water dog to dunk her head in, and many, many balls in a variety of different sizes.

It's best to have 6 adults, two teenagers, and as many 6 and 7 year olds as you can find to entertain this Cupcake. She will still have too much energy but it's a start.

Make sure to do your best not to let her nap to long during the day or she will have you up at 4 am for a potty and play party. It's best to take her every where you go to keep from leaving her in the crate where she will sleep to much and again, get you up for that 4 am play party.

But most of all, have a wonderful husband who has taken every.single.night shift since she moved in just over 4 weeks ago.

There you have it. All the information you need to decide if having a Cupcake is right for you!

Hasta Luego,

Kara

20 Pounds of Mocha Swirl

If I had to describe Cupcake in one phrase and it could not be naughty or bitty it would be People Dog. She just loves people which is good because people just love her.

When she sees someone new she does the bulldog full body wiggle which is just to stinking cute.

She is now approaching 14 weeks and boy has she grown since we brought her home at 9 weeks old.

At 9 weeks she weighed in at a whopping 11.5 pounds. At 10 weeks she was 14.3 pounds, 12 weeks she was 17 pounds, and at her vet appointment last night, 13.5 weeks she was 20 pounds!

Her feet are like dinner plates and she is growing faster than Daisy Mae (our old Bullmastif who topped the scales at 120) ever did.

I am not saying Cupcake will be as big as Daisy Mae. No way. But I am starting to think she is going to be closer to 60 pounds than 45!

For milestones, I would say she is about 99% house trained. She doesn't pee in the house, she goes to the door to be let out, she hasn't pooped in the house in over a week. We made her crate smaller so she will not have an accident in there and our nights are much better.

She does okay on her leash but she still doesn't like to walk long distances (anything more than a block is long to her) but it has been so hot we don't push it too much.

She changed up her puppy food and she is way less stinky.

She loves Pete, the big orange cat. Her favorite thing to do is lay on him and bark in his face.

She is terrified of Eddie, the old man cat. If Eddie is in the room Cupcake tenses up and will not go near him.

She is bitty and naughty and yesterday she grabbed a bowl of paint the girls left on the table in the playroom, got it on her foot and ran around the house. My brother in law Ryan and I proceeded to scrub pink paint off the hardwood floors for the next ten minutes while Shawn took her outside to get cleaned up.

Overall she is a good pup and everyone is happy to have her. And of course she already has a million names - Cupcake, The Cakes, Cakes, Cuppy, Big Dummy, and Mocha Swirl.

Hasta Luego,

Kara

A Little Work Week Family Time

Every year our office has a picnic in July at Minnehaha Falls. I work for a very large corporation but my office is made up of about 50 people so it's intimate and every one knows everyone.

And the food line is never long.

We all take about three hours out of our crazy busy schedules, ride the train a few miles over to the park, and enjoy lunch and a badminton tournament.

This year there was a scheduling conflict that arose at the last minute and caused half of the office to have to stay back. It was sad they would not be able to join us but the planning committee ended up inviting Shawn and his little daycare.  I think they just saw it as a way to meet Cupcake. But I got to spend a summer afternoon in the park with my family and that's awesome!

Shawn joined a badminton team and had a good time bonding with the people I spend 50 hours a week with.

The girls, Heidi, Sophia, and Piper (or H/S/P as I have started to call them) spent the afternoon playing on a stage near our picnic area, playing bean bags and ladder golf, and tossing the badminton birdies around.

Cupcake spent the day sleeping on my best friend Shannon's lap.

Before I had to head back to the office we took the girls over to see the falls.

When we are in a drought the falls can be down to a trickle. But we have had a high rainfall summer so they were rushing and are so beautiful.

Sophia and Piper have been here with their dad before but I think this was Heidi's first time. They liked leaning over the wall to see below. I was having a heart attach and kept pacing around behind them. It's amazing this photo is not blurry from all my shaking!

They were also looking at this awesome snapping turtle hanging out on the foot trail on the other side of the wall. And Shawn regaled them with his stories about two snappers they caught as kids and brought home to live in a bucket outside their house. I think they were Henry Hissinger 1 and 2.

The girls love hearing stories about Shawn's childhood and all the unsupervised adventures they went on!

We had a great time but after a bit I had to get back to work so we piled in the van and headed back downtown they dropped my off at my office. Let me tell you, it is extremely hard to go back to work after hanging out at this beautiful park with me awesome co-workers and my family all afternoon!

But on the bright side, I only had to work 2 more hours and then I was off for a 3 day weekend!

Hopefully I will post about our very wet weekend at The Swamp tomorrow.

Hasta Luego,

Kara