Emory and Me

So I don't have any pictures to go with this post, which I know probably makes it totally boring, but sometimes I have these moments where I can really relate to the movie "Marley and Me."  So if you have seen that movie, you may use the mental images you have from it to serve as the pictures for this post.

Today I got home, and Emory had been in her crate all day, so as soon as I took her out she was about ready to jump out of her skin.  I knew I needed to take her for a walk, but Chris had the leash in his car, so I was going to have to go buy one.  Since it was sort of his fault that I had to go buy one anyway, I decided to go ahead and get a leash I liked... a girly one... which for some reason Chris opposes on our GIRL dog.  Anyway, I left her in the car while I bought the leash, because she would tear up that store if she came in without one.  She always rides in the back of the car, but when I came out of the store I saw her sitting in the driver's seat looking right back at me as if I would just get in the passenger's side and let her take the wheel.  I, on the other hand, got in the driver's seat, trying to move her over, which has harder than I thought.  Since the park wasn't far, I decided just to try to drive with her in my lap... also harder than I thought.  My arms were in this terrible tangle around her body trying to control the steering wheel, straining my neck to try to see the road over her.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

We finally made it to the park, and she started playing with these two st bernards and two dogs that looked like their hair was made out of shag carpet.  All very cute, but a bit large for Emory.  She eventually  went off on her own and I thought, whew, I don't have to stress about her getting eaten.  And then... she assumed the stance... of course, I had brought no poop bags, and here were all these dog owners watching her do her business out in the grass and thinking, "I hope she is going to pick that up."  Thankfully, this sweet lady came to my rescue and offered me a bag.  Of course, Emory seems to always have diarrhea, so that was fun to pick up.  I never could find the second dropping, but at least everyone saw me pick up something, so I figured I was safe.

Then, I got into a pleasant conversation with some people, and when I turned to glance at Emory she was jumping all over this little boy.  She would never hurt him, but I think she scared him pretty bad, so I ran over and grabbed her and put her back on her leash.

We found some other dogs to play with at the end, and a woman who had brought some water for her dogs to drink (strike two against my ability as a dog owner).  Emory ran over and started drinking the water.  The woman said it was fine, but probably didn't expect her to polish off the whole thing!  

Emory's a little hard to control when there are distractions around.  These distractions could include anything from a leaf, a blade of grass, another dog, or her tail.  But now that we are home, and she is curled up at my feet sleeping, I can remember how sweet she is.

I never went to prom

We got more awesome 80's prom pictures so I had to post them.  It's kind of funny... I never went to prom when I was in highschool, so I guess I finally got the experience after all.  At first we didn't know very many people, so we stood around awkwardly and nobody danced at first (apparently similar to real prom experience), and we even got to take the classic prom pose picture in front of the tacky backdrop.  I feel very fulfilled.

Dinner Affair

So Chris and I discovered this fabulous place near where Chris works called a Dinner Affair.  Basically how it works is, you order what meals you want to make before hand from a list of meals available for the month.  We made twelve different meals including ricotta stuffed chicken, ranch chicken, italian beef croquettes, cuban pork tenderloin, etc!  It's all so good, and they had everything there for us so all we had to do was follow the instructions.  We put everything into zip-lock bags and put it in our freezer.  It's like we have a gourmet meal every night.  We went with our friends Kelly and Chrisanne.  They are both a ton of fun so that made it even better.  The only downside is that we had to wear goofy looking hats... I guess the upside is that we didn't have to wear hairnets!

Update on Emory

She is growing so fast and she is so incredibly smart!  Unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling well lately.  There was a night last week when Chris and I found ourselves awake at 2:30am- Chris was bathing the dog and cleaning poop, throw-up, diarrhea, etc. out of her crate in the freezing rain and I was mopping up the mess in the kitchen.  I thought to myself this is what we get for having a dog.  Then, friday, Chris and I took off of work to spend some time together and we watched Marley and Me, and then I cried because we have such a sweet dog.  If I'm this emotional with a dog, how will I be with a child!  Today we took her to her first day of doggy day care.  We decided she might need some extra exercise during the day and interaction with other dogs.  It was basically a huge warehouse with about fifty huge dogs running around like mad.  When I went to pick her up, I looked through the window and she was swallowed up in the sea of dogs.  It made me so sad, because she seemed really sad and stressed.  She has been sleeping all evening from the moment we got home, and she has also been shedding a lot, which she only does when she gets nervous.  Anyway, here are some more pics to show how much more she has grown, and like every dog, she loves to ride in the car with her head hanging out the window.  She can now sit, stay, lay down, and almost roll over.

80's Prom

And finally, last saturday Chris and I went to a friends birthday party.  He was turning 40, so the idea was to relive his prom (which happened in 1987).  It was so fun... I found this hilarious dress at Goodwill, and Chris wore an awesome mullet.  There was plenty of 80/s music including, of course, Thriller.

Okay, okay, I know this is by no means original, but I couldn't resist.  I am so excited about my early birthday present... a new MacBook!  I had to take the obligatory funny pictures which is one of the coolest things about a mac.  We've been talking about getting a new computer for me for a while.  I had finally talked myself out of it and resigned myself to my old HP, when Chris called me at work and said we should go pick up my new MacBook that evening!!!  I was so pumped!  Apparently he had been thinking about it for a long time and talking to different people about it and finally decided that was what we needed... he couldn't wait any longer.  So I have been having fun with my new "toy" and spending way more time than I should on it at work.  Which reminds me, I'm at work now and I should probably start doing things productive.

as a side note:  I feel like I've joined some kind of elite group of mac users... when I ask people how to do things that I used to do on my HP and I want to do on my new mac such as delete forward, two people have responded this way, "I don't know... that's a PC thing, I have never wanted to do that anyway."  Come on... wouldn't you rather delete forward than use the arrows to move forward and then delete backwards?  Give me a break.

another funny side note:  Chris usually calls me baby and Emory girl, but sometimes he gets mixed up and it comes out like this, "Hey will you get me a glass of tea, girl?"  haha, not very endearing.

The Chorus Line

Yikes, we havn't posted in almost a month, I guess we're still getting the hang of this blog thing. So I have to brag on my precious husband who bought us tickets to go see The Chorus Line this past weekend... it was a total surprise! For those of you who don't know, this is a broadway musical, and it was playing at the Fox theater in Atlanta. If you ever get to come to Atlanta to visit us, you have to try to see something at the Fox... it is the most beautiful theater I've ever been in (well, the theater in Vienna where we saw the Symphony was pretty amazing, too). But it really makes the shows even more exciting, and this one was amazing. How you find so many peope that are so incredible at both singing and dancing is beyond me. Anyway, we had a great time... and sweet Chris let me get all dressed up and he even put on a tie for me (if you know him at all, you know that this brings him no pleasure at all-he only did it for me).

We took Emory to the dog park for the first time on Saturday, too, and I didn't have my camera!!! I was really mad at myself because she was so cute playing with all the dogs. The funny thing is, she didn't interact with the dogs nearly as much as she did with the children there. She seems really drawn to them and they love her. This makes me really excited because of course I want her to be so sweet with our kids. After the park, she was so exhausted she slept the rest of the day. We took some pictures of her later on that day, so you can see how much she has grown in just a month!

She really is so sweet and you will love her as soon as you meet her!

Wilmore, KY

So I totally dropped the ball on taking pics this past weekend, but thanks to Chris we have a few. I count it my own fault that there is only one extremely unflattering picture of me, below.

However, the lack of pictures does not reflect the lack of a good time. We had so much fun hanging out with Anna, Don, and the boys and checking out their new town. We got to take Emory with us, too, which I think the boys really enjoyed. As you can tell by the picture below, she has not mastered walking on a leash yet. If me and her are both attached to the leash and I am the one holding her, who is really in control?

Chris and I stayed in a bed and breakfast about 1/10th of a mile from Anna and Don's house. For any of you planning to go visit the Caulleys, the cost of "the homeplace" b and b is 50 dollars a night, and 52 if you want a queen bed instead of a double. So, as Chris would say, we splurged and got the queen. What the heck, you only live once, right?

Saturday morning, Carol fed us a delicious breakfast of french toast with berries, bacon, fruit, juice, and coffee, and we ate with Carol and her husband, Art. Following breakfast, they taught us some Jewish folk dances, and then we were ready for the day. We walked with Anna, Jon David, Luke, and Wendy (Don's mom) to go see campus. We met up with Don and ate at the one Mexican restaurant in town, which was surprisingly good and authentic tasting. I guess with a name like Jose you have to make good Mexican food. I would definitely recommnend it to anyone visiting Wilmore. There's also a really cool coffee shop (ahem... dad).

Mostly, it was just really nice to be with family and hang out. Anna and Don have some really cool neighbors, and I can already see God helping to build a network for them while they are there.

Overall, Chris and I thought that Wilmore was a really neet town. It's small, but the people there are not backwards, they are just simple. They live simply- which is surprisingly not easy to do, especially in Atlanta. The seminary in town gives the whole place a very Christian feel. It was a breath of fresh air.

Emory

Last Thursday, January 29th, Sarah and I got our new puppy Emory. Emory is a 6 week old Labradoodle; half lab and half standard poodle.I am not sure if it's because she is ours, but Sarah and I think she is cuter, smarter, and more fun than any other puppy we have ever seen or has ever been born. We have had very few "potty" challenges the past couple of days. Sarah especially loves how much Emory loves to cuddle. Emory will play for 30 minutes to every 1 hour of sleep. We realize this behavior is short lived so we are really taking advantage of it.

The coolest thing about Emory is...SHE DOESN'T SHED! Because of the poodle in her, we don't have fur around our house or on our clothes. I am not sure how big Emory will get but her mom was 75 pounds and her dad was 70. I was of course hoping that she would grow to be 90 lbs but I guess 75 is okay too.

I wish I had some fun stories about Emory like...

the other day Emory was so excited that she ran through the yard, kicked a football which hit a boy with a broken leg and knocked him down when all of the sudden she saw an old lady being mugged by... well a mugger... and Emory ran over, scared the bad guy away and was the hero of the day for saving the old lady...the next morning we ended up on the Today Show where Emory showed Matt, Meredeth, Ann and Al all of her tricks....

But for now she is still a very young puppy so all she does is eat/drink, play a little, pees/poops, and sleeps. We are sure the fun stories are soon to come however.

Below are some pics of me giving Emory her first bath. I don't know if she liked it or not but she did convulse so probably not.