Week Recap

1. Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have a confession to make....I am obsessed with Homeland! Seriously, so good. Everyone told me how good it was and that I had to watch it, so I've finally done so. It's addicting! I've watched 8 of the first season's episodes this week. More TV than I've ever watched in a week for sure. But I can't help it! So good.

2. What else is going on over here? Well, I kept up with the Best Body Bootcamp as much as possible. This week was tough for me. Not exactly physically, more mentally. I had the HARDEST time getting out of bed early for workouts. With the colder weather, all I wanted to do was stay curled up under the covers for an extra hour. I have got to get over that, night workouts just don't happen that often for me.

Like I mentioned last week, I am loving the longer cardio intervals. It certainly makes me feel like I'm back in shape. And I've done more pushups in the past 4 weeks than I probably did the rest of this year. I am going to be JACKED by Christmas. Just kidding. :) But seriously, these arms better be real toned. Tina tweeted recently about burpees next week. Ugh, I'm going to die. Is it sick that I'm kind of looking forward to that exhausting feeling after a great workout? It's just so satisfying.

3. The biggest purchase of our new dining set is getting delivered today. I can't wait to see it!!! Thank goodness J works from home when needed because they gave us a 4 hour window. Seriously?! Originally they were supposed to come Monday but J has been traveling quite a bit so I asked him to make Friday an office day. You know they're going to come at the end of the 4 hours too.....when do they not? I'll share details next week!

4. Because this post is otherwise picture less, here's one of my baby boy. He's back into neighborhood watch mode. It's hilarious. I catch him up there all the time now, even first thing in the morning. When J's out of town for the night I just love this. I tell myself Tucker is keeping me safe. Such a sweet boy!

Do you like my faux Roman shade? I have one more to make....made this one a year ago (oops). So maybe someday I'll share my method with you.

Ok fine, twist my arm...here's 2 more pictures of Tuck. Sorry if you're not a fan of dogs. This little guy is my spoiled rotten child, and will be for the next year or two. He hates the vacuum so he moved to the kitchen while J vacuumed the living room. But then J took too long, and Tuck had to get back to napping so the hardwood floor in the kitchen had to do. #whatafreak. #beabull_love

Sorry if I just waisted 5 minutes of your day filling you in on a whole lot of nothing. This week seemed to fly by!

Have a great weekend!

Photo Dump!

It has been quite a week over here. I am really ready for the weekend. And I am really ready for my new iphone! Yes, I am FINALLY joining the rest of civilization with an iphone. The iphone 5 is being delivered to me at work today.

And before I get too excited, switch over to my new phone, and loose everything on my old one - I spent last night saving all 300+ pictures from my phone. Oops. :)

Here are a few memories from the past 2 years -

 Baby Tucker (16 weeks)

The first bed we had for Tuck was given to us by J's parents who have a 20 lb dog. Tuck fit into it perfectly at first....but quickly outgrew it. He LOVED it though

 Ready for his first Winter in New England! He's about 8 months old here. And this is what his first winter looked like....ugh so much snow.

Celebrating my 25th birthday at Foxwoods

Occupy Boston interrupting my work day

Painting our bedroom Moonshine by Benjamin Moore, November 2011

Last day in public accounting, December 2011

Somebody found their wedding dress!! This was such a fun day. :)

I have the BEST parents and in-laws ever. Hands down. My children have some great genes coming their way thanks to these two lovely ladies.

Derby outfit for Meg's shower!

"What? Am I not allowed up here?" Spoiled boy!

J&A Bridal shower

Golf date with the ladies

This past weekend we saw Two Door Cinema Club at the House of Blues in Boston. And it was awesome. They put on a GREAT show.

I love looking through old pictures. They usually bring back some great memories.

Have a great weekend!

Tid Bits

Things I appreciate this week - 

Beautiful flowers to cheer-up my day

My best batch of peanut-butter banana ice cream yet. 

Snuggling with this fella while J was away for work. 

PS - like the new mirror I finally hung up? I think I have had this sunburst mirror for a year already...whoops.

It's the little things really.

Doggy Days

With no recent trips out of the state/country, you lovely folks get to see our trip to a new park! Ironically, it happens to be the park closest to our condo yet we've always walked farther to the more specific dog parks.

In the 2+ years since J and I have lived in our condo, I have never ventured to this park! Shame on me, as you'll see momentarily it has amazing views of the city.

Should we not laugh when Tuck is exhausted from hardly running around? Oopsie

 Crazy tongue

 What a view!

My boys <3

Hiking the Hills

As I mentioned yesterday, our date night had a part two. For the second part of our date, I decided to take J & Tucker hiking at Blue Hills Reservation.

Although Saturday morning was a little rough after a couple martinis and glasses of wine Friday night...oops....I pulled it together and we got on the road as soon as we could. We took Tucker to the hiking paths at Blue Hills when we first got him in the Fall of 2010 and sadly, haven't been back since!

Tucker- October 2010

And after our shopping spree the weekend before, I wanted to do something fun & free.  It was the perfect opportunity to take the boys hiking. It was also a great opportunity to keep Tucker off his leash for the majority of our hike. This is the first time we've done that and I was definitely nervous at first. But Tucker was awesome- he came if we called him, and never went too far ahead, we were never out of his sight. Even when other dogs came by, he stayed right with us (thank goodness!).This could just be him being a big baby and scared to leave us, but that is just fine with me.

Loving being outside. Kicking up some dirt.

Anyone who's met Tuck knows that his tongue is abnormally large. He's a freakshow, what can I say?

Thankful for his Gulpy

Couldn't have asked for better weather!

Freak.of.nature.

J told me he was bouldering....

Final destination on our weekend journey, frozen yogurt at Pinkberry! Peach yogurt with raspberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, and waffle cone for me.

Kiddie original for Tucker

A family that eats frozen yogurt together, stays together :)

Overall, I'd say our weekend together was a success. We tried a new restaurant, got some exercise outside for ourselves and Tuck, ate frozen yogurt, and continued the great weekend with quality time with family and friends Saturday night and Sunday. I am definitely looking forward to another weekend like this one.

Furbaby Lessons

Warning, if you don't have a dog or don't want to learn a little something about furbaby gland issues, stop reading now....

Yup, we experienced our first anal-sac problem with Tucker this weekend. More like it's the first time we realized what was happening....imagine my face slightly embarrassed and guilt ridden right now.

Don't look at me like that. It's not that I wasn't on the lookout for signs that Tuck may have this certain anal gland issues, I was just looking for the wrong ones!

A friend who also has a beagle/bulldog mix dog had asked us at one point if Tucker ever gnaws on his backlegs/glute muscle area. And no, he hasn't. He also has never scooted his butt across the floor. He HAS though, licked his butt incessantly. Not only was Tuck going to town on his behind Friday night, it stunk like a dead fish. I know, how did we NOT get the picture?! Instead we started calling him stink butt, and the name has since stuck...oops. :)

As part beagle, Tuck's hound nose is crazy when we take him for walks. Nose is to the pavement the WHOLE TIME.....so it wouldn't have been surprising if Tucker had picked up something bad on the street....We do what we can to take things he's picked up from him, but he certainly gets a few past us.

Friday goes by, Saturday goes by, and Sunday while EVERYONE is over, Tuck gets a little freaked out by someone entering from our deck door, howls, and must have "released" some butt juice. Oh yes, it was quite a lovely scent.

And the minute we all got a whiff of it, our friends with the Beabull mix like Tuck told me exactly what it was. Ugh, how did I not see the signs Friday. As they say, hindsight sure is 20/20.

J had the pleasure of taking Tucker to the vet last night to get these glands released. I'm sure Tucker is feeling so much better know, poor guy. According to the vet tech, they were full. I am a terrible fur-mom!

Not having dealt with this before, and missing a few important signs, I figured I would educate you as well in case your precious pup has this exact issue in the future. You can thank me later.

What to look for:

• Scooting across the floor
• Incessant licking of the behind area
• Swollen or inflamed tush

 What to do:

• Have your vet express their glands
• Have you vet teach you how to express their glands (yack!)
• Add fiber to their diet to increase the chance this doesn't happen again
• Soak their bum in warm water and Epsom salt

While we waited for our vet appt, we stopped feeding Tucker any wet food. And limited the water we put in his dry food, hoping that extra roughage would help the guy out.

Although Tucker is already on a grain-free diet, we will certainly be looking into high fiber options to help him out. And why increase fiber you may ask? Well apparently, a dog's glands normally get expressed daily when do their business outside. But if their stool is too soft, it's not going to happen....