Still waiting

We are still waiting for the puppies and Missy looks like she is about ready to pop! Michael and I have worked out our schedules so that one of us will be able to be home at all times so that one of us will be there when it finally happens. I'm hoping that I'll be home since Michael hasn't prepared as much as I have. :) I got a fancy new camera for Christmas so once I figure out how to upload photos I'll post some picture of her belly.

Puppies! (plural)

Today we took Missy in to get her x-rayed to see how many puppies she'll be having. The vet tech started off by hurting her feelings (I know my feelings would be hurt if someone put a thermometer up my butt!) and so she sat in my lap and hid her face in my arm until it was time for the x-ray. Emily (our vet) said she did a really good job and didn't wiggle at all. We were able to see two puppies for sure, we could see their spine and heads mainly and Emily said that she thinks there may be a third one hiding behind the others. I won't lie, I was hoping for an answer like "you will be having x number of puppies" instead of a maybe, but now we are at least a little prepared. We only have about two and a half weeks to go so we are trying to think of names. I like the names Harley and Brutus, Michael wants to name them nerd names like MegaTron, Kal-El (superman) and any other name he can think of from a comic book or his wizard books. I veto the majority of them pretty fast but told him I'd think about naming one Bond (yeah, like James Bond). Good thing we have some time to think...

Snipped

Petree is getting fixed today. Michael dropped him off early this morning and we'll go back this afternoon to get him. They called after they had put him down and said that he still had his baby canine teeth, so they had to pull those in order to avoid problems in the future. Poor guy, he gets teeth pulled and his manhood chopped off all in one day. Missy is getting bigger every day! We only have about 3 weeks left and we find out in a week how many she'll be having.

Pregnant!!

So we took Missy in for her appointment today. Our vet, Emily, who is awesome (even though she did go to OSU), felt around for a minute and said there is at least one puppy in there, maybe two. The first time (that we know of) that they did 'it' was Halloween, so we are about 32 days into the pregnancy. Around 45 days is when the puppies would show up on an x-ray, so we are going to take her back in around then so that we will know just how many puppies to expect. The gestation period for dogs is only around 63 days and they say smaller dogs usually have shorter pregnancies. SO, we may be having New Years babies. We are excited but a little nervous too. I have been reading up on it online though, and it seems pretty straight forward. They say to start taking her temperature twice a day, and then when there is a drop in temperature of a degree or two, then she'll go into labor in the next 24 hours. So a heads up will be nice. Missy isn't the only one having all the fun, though. We are making an appointment for Petree to get fixed, probably in the next couple weeks as well. Missy will get fixed, too, probably about 2 months after she's had the puppies and they're weaned. Thank goodness we have their health plans!

Babies??

We will see! We've made an appointment for Missy so that they can check her out. Her boobs have been getting bigger but I'm hoping that's just because she's now a "woman". She has also been sleeping a lot longer than she usually has. Usually it is just Petree who is still in bed at 10am, but lately it has been her, too. So, the appointment is for December 2. I'll keep you posted.

Birthday Boy!!!

So, today is Petree's birthday, one year old!!! It doesn't seem like we have had him for a year. I will have to post pictures later, but yes, I did get him a birthday cake. And you can save your comments about how dumb it is- I am obviously not the only person who does this considering the pet store I went to had an entire pet birthday display. The cakes are super cute- I got two- one for him and one for Missy. He totally loved his birthday present and can't wait to try it out the next time we go for a walk. Petree LOVES having us throw the tennis ball for him to fetch when we go on walks BUT, Michael gets tired of bending over to pick up the ball (weiner, I know). So we got one of those cool ball picker-upper, flinger things.
On a side note- Missy went through her first "womanly cycle" these past couple weeks. GROSS, even if she did look cute in her tiny diapers. We tried keeping them apart but Petree is quick (we have pictures of that too, but I'll keep the blog PG). So we may be having some New Years babies. Who wants a puppy as a late Christmas present?! The gestation period is only about 63 days, so we should know fairly soon. For those of you wondering, there is no pee test for dogs, they go through the same hormonal cycle pregnant or not (I looked it up). The only way to tell is taking her to the vet and getting an x-ray in about a month. If she isn't pregnant then we are getting her fixed, because once again, gross. If she is, then we'll wait and do it once the hoopla is done.

A little bit of paradise...

The hot tub.

This is the entryway into the front of the house.

The "great room", one whole wall was windows/sliding doors, the view was awesome.

The pool....

The creek running through the golf course, there are a bunch of waterfalls just a bit further up.

So one of my best buds from college, Cherron, got engaged this past summer. They decided to do a joint bachelor/bachelorette party at her parents house down in Palm Springs. Her dad was super generous and paid for everyone to fly down for the weekend. We got there Thursday afternoon and returned Sunday night. It has been getting colder here so it was SO fantastic to spend a few days in 90+ heat. It was all in all a very relaxing trip, a lot of laying by the pool drinking margaritas, sitting in the hot tub at night and turning on the outdoor fireplace for smores! Their house is amazing, they just finished building it this past spring. Here are a few pictures...

Inspiration

Sometimes it comes from weird places. So I had Paige and Rory over yesterday while Chad was bowling and Kayte was at work. We took the dogs for a walk, but "only for one hour", per Rory's request (he has been dying to finish watching Spiderman II at our house). After they left I made some popcorn and got a soda. It was "SmartPop" and diet orange soda, for the record. I was flipping through the channels and found a show on TLC called "So Young to be So Fat", it was about morbidly obese teens. Apparently there is a special school where you can send your super fat kid. Half of the show was about two kids at the school and the other half was about a 340 lb. 16 yr old who wanted lipo really bad. I won't get started on bad parenting vs. bad genetics, lets just say these kids are really fat. The girl wanted lipo, but then got 'grossed out' by a simple steak and salad dinner that her mom made while commenting "i've never had a meal like this". Then when they went on vacation with a cousin to a casino, she was complaining about how much she wants to lose weight while eating plate fulls of fried food and desserts at the casino buffet (while her mom was off gambling all day). Anyhow, the two kids at the school actually did really well, they were on a diet and exercise program along with counseling and it really seemed to help. I sort of see myself in the girl, I will bitch about being too chubby and wanting to lose weight and then turn right around and ask Michael to bring me some fries when he comes home from work. The ending shot of the show was of the two boys at the school on a group run. SO, my new mantra is "if the fat kids can do it, so can i". Needless to say, I am off to go on a run.

New stuff!

Sitting in their favorite spot- in the sun.

Petree loves our new couches- it makes it easy for him to look out the window.

Ten dollars if you can find both puppies... We got these couches not too long ago, love them! Way better than the old one!

Our farm...

So we were at Target the other night and found some Halloween costumes that we just HAD to have. I don't think they agree though...

Missy is our little pig...

Old and Moldy

That is what I am now, old and moldy. My birthday was this past Saturday and I'm now 25. Which I suppose won't be all bad, now I can rent a car without paying a ton of extra charges, and my car insurance should go down, too. Because apparently I matured leaps and bounds the second I turned 25. Since Michael had to work Saturday afternoon we did my birthday dinner on Thursday. I was going to do sushi, but we're trying to save money so we made our own hot wings, they were so good. I knew I was going to 'cheat' for my birthday so I didn't feel bad about eating them. For dessert we went to Outback (I got the fudge brownie w/ice cream). It was all really good, but I think I'm glad we don't eat like that any more. Eating all that just made me feel gross. So I only had the one cheat dinner and I'm back on the program now. I updated my weight loss tracker after I last weighed (before the cheat dinner, of course), I'm over 16lbs now. So now my birthday resolution is to work out alot more. I am going running after work today and made plans to go on a 10 mile hike this weekend. I will try and post some pics from the hike this weekend if I get any good ones.

Twelve Pounds!

Today is end of week two of my "experiment" with NutriSystem and so far I have lost 12 pounds. I have gone from weighing myself everyday to just once a week. I was starting to get too obsessed with the scale every morning, so I moved it to the bathroom downstairs (out of sight, out of mind). The awesome part is that I only worked out a couple of times this past week and still lost weight. So this next week my goal is work out at least 4 times and we'll see what kind of difference that makes. I still have not cracked and 'cheated', although I did have a work party this past Monday (bbq/pool party) and did eat a few tortilla chips and a bit of salsa, but I steered clear of the cake, hamburgers, etc. I am however planning on eating out next weekend, it's my birthday on Saturday and I really want sushi, which is actually really healthy, so I am not too worried about it derailing my diet.
I do have some friends coming to town this weekend, so we will see how it goes with them wanting to eat out and such. I can still stay on the program when I eat out by ordering smart, I just know that I have zero will power when I go out to eat. :)

Week One

Today is the end of week one on NutriSystem and so far so good. I was slightly skeptical at first because when the box arrived and I unpacked everything it seemed like the food portions were really small and I figured I would be starving a good part of the time. But, I'm not. The way the program works is you eat their food and add in certain extras, depending on the meal. Like for breakfast I eat one of the meals (scrambled eggs or the granola cereal are good!) and add in a dairy/protein serving and a fruit serving. It's five small meals spaced throughout the day, so I am never stuffed full but I am never really hungry, either. And I can drink all the diet soda and crystal light I want, so that is a plus. It is really fast and easy, most of the meals are ready in a couple of minutes, which is awesome. On NutriSystem online I can plug in everything I eat in a day and it will give me my calorie count, so over the past week I have been eating between 1,100 and 1,400 calories. So far I have lost almost 8 lbs. I know I won't lose that much every week (lame), but it's a good start and I'm happy so far. I have also been working out every day, I usually go in the evenings once it's cooled down a bit. I haven't felt the urge to go "off diet" yet, but it has only been a week. And since Michael has been in Portland all week we'll see what happens when he gets home. I plan on doing the program for at least three months and depending on the results I get, I may do it longer. I figure I've got about 70 lbs (62 now!) that I can lose.

Puppies

They love to snuggle together.
Two little pigs!
Missy sleeping- looks like Petree is trying to bring her back from the edge.
They're not big fans of baths...

I know, it has nothing to do with my chub, but they're so cute!

Trying something new...

So it has been awhile since my last post, but not much has changed. Yep, still chubby. It wasn't so bad in the winter when it was freezing, but it has been pretty hot here the past couple weeks. Fat and heat don't mix. That and it was totally dissapointing to not fit into any of the clothes I was wearing last summer. We have still been working out as often as possible. Walking the dogs, running, etc. I was riding my bike to work everyday, but I haven't for awhile now. SO, I decided to try something new and I signed up for NutriSystem a couple of days ago. It is $300 a month for an entire month of food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/desserts). It seems like a lot but when I look what I spent last month on food, which was $500 on eating out and $300 at the grocery store, it's a fraction of that. It seems like a pretty easy program and it will be easy to take meals to work, etc. Part of my problem is that when I get hungry I think of everything that sounds good, which is everything I shouldn't be eating. With this program, meals will be right in front of me, so I won't have time (hopefully) to dream about what sounds good. I should get it within the next week, I'll let you know how it tastes!