16 Friends Biking, Cheers!

Last night Miguel and I met up with a group of our friends to participate in a fun adventure. Savannah Slow Ride is a 16 person 'bike' that is an eco-friendly way to tour  Savannah. We however, didn't tour per-say. =) They advertise, "We don't offer any history lessons on this ride, just all the shenanigans you can pack into a slooooooooowww ride"... which we completely took them up on. One of the great things about this city is the open container laws. We can walk around, or in the case bike around, with our drinks. We started the three hour tour off at a The Crystal Beer Parlor and then made a number of stops at different pubs and bars. 

Here is a video so you can sort of get an idea of how the whole thing operates:

It started off pretty fun. However, the sun was still out and the biking was pretty tough at first. Luckily, I got to sit in one of the seats that didn't have pedals. We all switched out of course, but honestly, if you were on the side with Miguel and Kyle you didn't have to do much work at all. They worked so hard. Which didn't surprise me at all, because if you know Miguel you know that he makes everything into a challenge.  I was kinda embarressed at first because all these people around town were waving at us and taking pictures. Some of us loved the attention though =) I mean I guess it does look pretty strange to basically see a table being biked around. We danced to the music and laughed a lot. It was so much fun to see friends, especially some I hadn't seen in a while. The girls and I decided that we definitely have to have a girls night out soon! We also got to meet some new friends. Both John and Jason had their families there. Loved them! 

Love Brandie!

We're so lucky to have such handsome hubbys!

The Boys: Caught Brandon mid hair toss =)

Lauren, John, and John's parents

The boys cracked me up at the end. All these engineers together just couldn't help themselves and had to try to figure out how everything worked on the bike. =)

We had so much fun! Loads of thanks to Jason for taking us with his groupon deal! 

The whole group, minus Jason's mom

If you want to check out Savannah Slow Ride go to their website! They do lots of birthdays and bachelorette type parties! 

Plants Need a Place to Stay Too

Miguel and I recently purchased some plants from our local farmers market. The patio is the only part of our yard that gets any sunlight because of the huge live oak trees. So the plants we've already been  accumulating along with the others we bought at the market have been getting placed on the patio floor. I don't like them sitting on the ground, especially with the dogs playing outside... particularly Jack whose favorite past time is eating grass. So I've really wanted a plant rack for our back patio. I wanted one that looks something like this one below:

source

However, most plant racks like this cost anywhere from $100 and upwards. That isn't in our budget right now. So today I perused some furniture thrift shops. I found a couple of options that might work at some of the stores, but the price point was still too high. Then at the last store I found the perfect option! I found a three tiered plant rack/bakers rack for only $18!! Score! It was white and a little rusty but it was the perfect size for the space I wanted to put it in. It folded up and fit it in the backseat of my car.

Obviously I wasn't going to leave it looking like that. So I picked up some Rust-O-Matic spray paint from Home Depot. I chose an antique brown color that has some texture in it. The great thing about this particular paint was that it can be sprayed directly over rust and also helps prevent rust in the future. I'm all for products that let you skip steps! Double Score! I purchased two cans for just a little over $5 each. So in total this project only cost me a couple dollars short of $30! Much better than the online options! Triple score! =)  I gave the rack a good spray and let it dry.

Ugh, I forgot how much spray painting hurts your fingers. I'm also sporting a nice mark on my feet and a now ruined pedicure. =)

After the rack dried in the sun, I filled it up with some potted plants. I'm hoping to get some more herb plants in the near future and move some of the potted flowers, like the mums, somewhere else. But right now I'm extremely happy with the way everything turned out! 

... Loads of Fun

I hate doing laundry. What's more is that our laundry room has no windows which makes it really dreary. This isn't an original idea of course, but I thought it was a cute saying and an easy way to perk up a room I really dread going into.  The photos are a little washed out (har-har, no pun intended), the bubbles are actually a little more blue than they appear here.  Only took me a couple of hours with spacing everything out and doing a couple of coats. Easy Peasy! You can see it when the door is open and that makes me smile. I don't think this will really change my attitude towards doing laundry, but it makes me more willing to go in the laundry room. =)

This photo makes it look lop-sided, but it's not! I used a level, promise ;)

What A Doggone Mess!

I'm used to having to clean up after the dogs. Our floors look like this daily:

Jack sheds more than ANY dog I've ever been around. I feel like I am CONSTANTLY bending down to pick up these large tuffs of his hair! But, I remind myself that that is part of having a dog. Dogs shed. Okay. Fine. At least the floors are hardwood and that is easy to clean up. Plus we have the Dyson Animal so it's really not that awful and I shouldn't complain. However, thanks to the constant rain over the past week... my floors are looking like this:

Trying to catch the dogs and wipe their paws when they come inside is quite the adventure. I am SO ready for the rain to go away! Hyper and muddy dogs make for a dirty and crazy house and perhaps maybe a cranky dog-mom! ;)

You Glow, Girl!

My sister definitely has that "glow" right now! Here she is at 21 weeks! Isn't she beautiful!? That bump has definitely turned into a baby belly!!!

Ughhhhh hurry up January! I want to meet my niece! =)

Bop on the Nose, Oh No!

The dogs and I had quite an adventure last week when I was visiting my mom in Atlanta. It was very chaotic with four dogs in one house. At the beginning of the week the dogs were all stressed out from the new situation. When Emma and Jack were playing something happened and they got in a real dog fight. It was really scary. I tried to break them up (which is apparently something you're never supposed to do) and Emma actually bit me too. I know it was an accident, but still, ouch! But I didn't get the bad end of it... unfortunately it was Jack's nose that got the most damage.  I didn't notice it was scraped until later that day. It looked like it hurt but Jack seemed fine. However, Friday night I noticed that his nose has swelled and he was sporting a rather large bump.

BEFORE

AFTER

I started to worry that maybe the scrape had become infected. So Saturday I took him to the vet. He was really excited to be there. He LOVED all the smells and meeting new people! The vet came in and they made me hold him while they shaved the hair down on his nose. Once they did that it was pretty scary to see how deep the scratch was. You could literally see the tooth mark. Ouch! Poor puppy! I also hated having to hold him while he squirmed and cried. In the end they gave him some pain meds and antibiotics. They told me if the swelling didn't go down he needed to come back and have some x-rays taken. Luckily, the swelling has gone down and it looks like we won't have to go back to the vet. Which is good news for Jackson, because it turned out that going to the vet was a very traumatic experience for him...

BEFORE being examined

AFTER being examined

Anyways, I'm just happy he's feeling better and I hope Emma doesn't ever snap on him like that again!

Park? Yes Please!

Look at that tongue!

Chaos Has Arrived!

Always looking for someone to play with!

Emma, Jack, and I have arrived at my parents house for a week long visit! My parents have two dogs, Bailey, 11, and Luke, 5. Adding two "puppies" into the mix with Jack, 9 months, and Emma, 16 months, we seem to have created quite the chaotic storm in the house!

Emma and Jack have bundles of energy and are constantly ready to play. Bailey isn't very interested at all. She has already snipped and yipped at Emma and Jack and told them what was up. They got the message. Luke enjoys playing but seems much more confused and concerned that his toys are being played with and that his people are showing attention to other dogs. He also seems stressed out by all the pandemonium. He has started hiding under the beds. Jack and Emma think this is great fun.

Where'd Luke go?

Jack says, "I found you!"

Haha. It's going to be a long week for my parents, their dogs, and especially the cat! Thanks for letting us come "play", Mom and Dad! We'll be gone soon, but don't worry, I'm sure we will have left a long trail of disaster and dog hair to remember us by!

We Will NEVER Forget

09.11.01

We will never forget.

Thank you to all the brave people who have and who are willing to sacrifice their lives and to those who work to protect our country and our freedom. 

God Bless America.

My Favorite Niece!

To say I am excited to have a niece may be a bit of an understatement! I have been mentally dressing Baby Ray every time I'm in a store that sells baby clothes and I'm so excited to finally be able to pick out gender specific items! I may be just a little bit bias, but I think baby girl Ray is already beautiful! Look at that profile! Oh my goodness! Just too precious! 

Congrats Sarah and Jared! Your baby girl is already very loved! Can't wait to meet her at the end of January!

Curb Appeal?

It's been really hard trying to make our lawn look nice. We have a very large live oak tree in our front yard, which we love, but the shade it creates makes it very difficult to grow grass. The heat hasn't helped either. We have big plans for the yard but we are waiting for cooler weather before we attempt a major overhaul. In the meantime, I started looking for an inexpensive way to dress up the dull looking front door. 

I knew that getting some potted plants to flank the door would give the entrance a little more pop and I decided I wanted to go that route. Never having gardened before I thought it'd be best to go to a gardening store and get some advice. Due to the amount of shade and my lack of desire to take care of a high maintenance plant, I took the suggestion from the plant store people who recommended ferns. The ferns at this particular store were very beautiful. They also had a plethora of ceramic planters to choose from. However, when I saw that the small planters started at around 45 bucks a pop, I decided to look somewhere else. At $20 for each fern and two planters on top of that... I really wasn't looking to spend anywhere near $130 just to add a little something to our front door! I ended up leaving and finding ferns at Publix of all places for a little under $6 each. They were hanging baskets, but they were easy enough to replant. I got the planters from Target on sale for $9 each and picked up some potting soil for $3 there as well. I spent around $30 for the whole project. Less money than I would have spent on the ferns alone at the gardening store! I'd say that is a win!

I placed the ferns near the front door and hung up a fall scarecrow my mom had given me in the past! I'm sooo looking forward to fall and he is helping me get in the mood! 

I also hung up Miguel's Georgia Tech flag. It is football season after all. =) Little by little our house is becoming our home!

Well, I'm 'Shocked' To Say...

Well, I'm shocked to say that we got an electric dog fence for our yard. Miguel and I explored lots of fencing options and when it came down to it, an electric fence was the best solution for us. I was against an electric fence from the start because my general perception was that they were cruel. I was also worried that our dogs wouldn't be fazed by the shock and still run out of our yard. Furthermore, I recently read that dog snatching is on the rise and I didn't too much care for the idea of the dogs running around outside where someone could easily take them away. However, after researching options we chose to install an electric dog fence.

The previous owners of our house had some really strange fencing going on in the backyard. First of all our driveway extends past the back of our house by quite a few yards. With the exception of the driveway, the rest of the backyard is fenced. Then there was this really strange fencing going on in the middle of the back yard.  So when Miguel and I bought the house our original plan was to tear down all the fencing and replace it with a tall, wooden privacy fence. However, as it turns out, the current fencing on each side of the yard belongs to three of our different neighbors. So that x-ed out the privacy fence. We thought that would look strange to have it flush up against our neighbors chain linked fence. Next we discussed building an electric gate to span the distance of the driveway and to act as a barrier for the dogs to keep them in the backyard. However, we couldn't agree on a look and decided that if we were going to spend the money on an electric gate we'd rather have it match the surrounding fence and we didn't want a chain link gate. All of this led us to make the decision that an underground, electric dog fence would best suit our needs.

The invisible fence creates no visual clutter, mismatched fencing, or obstacle for our cars when parking. It also proved to be far more economical than building a fence or gate. We ordered the electric dog fence online and had it delivered to our house. As an added perk we were able to install it ourselves, which also saved us some cash. Miguel researched electric dog fences (which I will call "EDF" from now on) and we decided to go with PetSafe's Stubborn Dog In-Ground Fence. This system came with 500 feet of wire, the boundary flags, and one collar. We picked up an extra collar from Home Depot for around $50. This EDF system is good because it has lightning protection as well as for different levels of shock and a vibration only mode.

Emma modeling her new collar

The EDF arrived late last week and Miguel and I tackled the project of installing it over Labor Day Weekend. I say "we" liberally, as Miguel did most of the work! First we had to determine where the boundaries were going to be. We decided that we wanted the dogs contained to the backyard. There is a small part of the front yard where the dogs can go, but they are currently unaware of this. The line crosses over our driveway through an expansion crack. After we laid the line in the expansion crack we filled it up with concrete sealer (I'm sure there is a more exact term to what we used but I have no clue as to what is was) as well as some sand and dirt. For the front yard we used an electric yard tool to dig a small trench to lay the line in and then filled it back in with dirt. In the back yard, Miguel just threaded the line through the existing fence instead of trying to fight the thorn bushes. It's not really noticeable and not even really necessary since there is a physical fence, but the line needed to be a loop. We placed the boundary flags in the yard and we were done!

Once it was all installed it was time to teach the dogs. I was so anxious about this part. You never, ever, ever want to see someone or something you love be in pain. So, of course Miguel and I tested the shock level of the collars on ourselves first. I was relieved to learn that it honestly doesn't hurt. It really is much more just a shock... like a shock you would receive if someone came up behind you and grabbed your shoulders. It's more startling because you weren't expecting it rather than a shock because of a sharp pain. We did everything the EDF training manual said do to. We took both the dogs out on leashes and walked them to the boundary edge line while speaking encouragingly to them. My tender heart almost shattered to pieces the first time Emma got shocked and jumped back! The training is supposed to last a couple of weeks at minimum, but one shock was enough for Emma. She won't even go near the section of driveway that is parallel to the house. She also instantly made the connection that the flags were connected to the shock. She really is one of the smartest dogs I've ever known. And then there is Jack.

We set Jack's collar on training/vibrate mode (Emma's didn't have that since we purchased it separately). Jack was more than willing to walk over the boundary line, let his collar vibrate, and then come back to "Good boy, Jack!" and a treat on the other side. Completely did not faze him. So we upped the ante and set his collar on shock mode. At first he seemed more curious.  It took him a few more times than Emma to realize that crossing over the flag line meant a shock for him. But, luckily, it didn't take him too long to learn not to walk towards the end of the driveway. We made this progress through multiple, short lessons during the day. I think it really helped that there is only one part of the yard that they cannot cross without getting shocked since the rest of the yard is already fenced. I think the training would have taken a lot longer if they had to learn the boundaries of a larger yard with only the flags as their visual markers. 

It has been SO nice to be able to go outside and let the dogs out too without having to leash them or worry about them running away! Miguel and I played volleyball together the other night and the dogs just chased each other around and we didn't have to think twice about where they were. It's also so nice to be able to just open the door to let them out, especially first thing in the morning. And I know I'll appreciate this even more when the weather gets colder. Emma is also much quicker to do her business when she has free roam and is off leash. The dogs are loving it even more than we are! They are just bounding around the yard with the biggest smiles and widest tail wags! They are constantly finding sticks (which Jack always tries to bring in the house) and chasing each other! 

When they play like this I always think of Lion King and the slow motion fight at the end between Scar and Simba!

Unfortunately, Emma's habit of digging holes at the dog park has found its way into our backyard as well! She loves to dig and always does so with such tenacity, determination, and purpose! I know it can be a really bad habit, especially when we get around to landscaping, but she is just so cute to watch dig! Watching Jack explore Emma's work and then attempt to dig too is also just too freaking adorable as well!

The only snag we have come across in this whole process is with the dog who lives in the yard directly behind ours. We share a fence with those neighbors so their dog and our dogs have sniffed each other and have run along the fence with each other in the past. However, they can no longer touch noses due to the EDF. Emma wont get close, but Jack is finding it really hard to resist the urge to bound over to his friend. They also have small children and Jack just can't stand it when they come up to the fence. He goes over to get some pats and just takes the shock I guess. He wags so I assume it doesn't bother him that bad...

Cute dog next door neighbor!

Checking out the neighbor's dog from a safe distance

Jack really wants to get closer!

All in all I'd say I'm very happy with our decision to go with an electric fence! The dogs seem happy and I feel like they are safer than before. While we were at it, we also started to take down that ridiculous half fence too. Miguel did the majority of the work as he had to dig huge holes and wrestle the concrete blocks and poles out of the ground. We still have one little section to take out (see the 'gate' below), but just having the middle section out makes the backyard feel larger and allows the dogs to run around more freely.

I had a little shovel =) 

What we've removed so far

Please keep this gate closed....

Since it leads to an open area....?

I also just want to end this post by quickly saying thank you to my Gramma for the housewarming gift of the EDF and also to my daddy for giving us the yard tools we needed to install it! Yall are the best!