Up North Mommy

Sweet Sarah is getting so big

I swear I can see her growing everyday. This was Sarah when we first got her:

Here's our Sarah today. Keep in mind she's just 15 weeks old.  Take a look at the size of her paws.  She's gonna be a big girl.

She's still doing pretty well behaviorally but she still, as all puppies do, has her issues.  Just yesterday, when my 5 year old came into the house, Sarah jumped at him and started biting his clothes in much the same way she bites at Sammy our Golden Retriever when she wants to play.  We yell "no!" in an effort to keep drilling it into her head that that behavior like that is simply not allowed,  but she's got that puppy brain still and she forgets. My husband even went so far as to spank her.  We're taking her to weekly obedience classes on Thursday nights, so we think that will help quite a bit. She also gets the chance to meet customers on almost a daily basis, so she's getting quite a bit of socialization.  On the whole, she's doing well.

Happy Anniversary, Honey

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.  It's been a fun, wild, and crazy 10 years but I wouldn't  trade them for the world.

Thanks for a wonderful life, Steve. I love you.

Thankful Thursday

Today is the first time that I'm participating in Life Doesn't Suck as Much as I Thought Thursday hosted by Mrs. Fussypants. There are so many things that I'm thankful for, but today I'm going to focus on my husband in honor of our 10th wedding anniversary tomorrow, July 4th.

Steve is a very hard worker and takes on a lot to support me and our kids.  He travels to and from Toledo every week  to maintain his law practice 2-3 days so we can continue our lives up here in Northern Michigan. On top of that, he opened up a law practice here, and he runs our canoe livery when he's home, which is 4-5 days a week.  He's a very busy man and takes on a lot of stress just for us.  I'm thankful for his dedication to our family.

Another hit recipe

I made a new dinner tonight that was inspired by this recipe at allrecipes.com.  I say inspired because the original recipe was too much work for a quick meal, so I simplified it and used chicken instead of tuna steak.

1 16 package of angel hair pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, mined
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed or soaked in oil
3/4 cup sliced marinated artichoke hearts
2 teaspoons Thyme leaves (honestly, I don't know how much I put on the chicken.I just sprinkled it until I liked the aroma.)

Boil water for pasta.   Cut up the chicken.  Add olive oil  to skillet on medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add chicken and cook until almost done.  When water is boiling, add pasta and cook for 8 - 10 minutes.  Add thyme and stir until the chicken is coated.  Add sun-dried tomatoes (Do not drain) and cook for several minutes. Add artichoke hearts (Do not drain).   Stir until the chicken is cooked completely through and the tomatoes and artichokes are hot.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and coat with olive oil to keep pasta from sticking together.  Toss pasta and chicken mix together and serve.  It's really delicious. My husband also packed up what was left for his lunch tomorrow.

Ability Tuesday

Little Miss Throwsafit can't speak but she has the ability to steal your heart nonetheless.  All she has to do is flash her sweet smile and your heart is all hers for her to do with what she wants.  For example, we went to dinner a few weeks ago and I ordered her spaghetti for dinner, one of her favorite meals.  Well, she made a terrible mess, on purpose mind you, but I couldn't get mad at her when she gave me that sweet smile:

What a doll face. I could just eat her up!

We're leaving in a red '99 TA convertible

As a surprise for my birthday, tomorrow, and our tenth anniversary, July 4th, my husband booked us a room at the Grand Traverse Resort just outside Traverse City.   I'm very excited about heading out there since it will be a chance for Steve and me to be together alone, something we haven't done in a long while. I'm looking forward to doing the things we did before we had kids: drink a vodka martini (just me - Steve prefers Manhattans), smoke a cigar, gamble in a casino, and have a quiet dinner.  Not in that order, though.

I am planning on taking a nap today, at least I hope I can take a nap, otherwise, tonight's plan of martinis, cigars, gambling and dinner will not come to fruition and our anniversary night will not be very anniversary-ish, if you get my meaning. I also want to get over to West Branch and see if I can find something sexy and fun to wear tonight. I have an image in my head of what I'm looking for, but I'm not sure I will be able to find it at the small, but nice, Tanger Outlet in West Branch.  If I were looking for a Coach purse, not  a problem. West Branch had the only Coach outlet in all of Michigan for a long time.  Then Birch Run put one in, but theirs isn't as nice.

As I said, I'm hoping to get to West Branch to find something sexy and fun. I'll let you know if I have any success.

Littlest One, he has much to say

Littlest One had so much to say yesterday.  He spoke of politics, love, and life. He's so philosophical that way.

Look at what Little Man and Hubby made

Little Man loves dinosaurs. Did I ever tell you how much he loves to watch Jurassic Park because he thinks it's cool when the T-Rex eats people? I'm told it's a boy thing and that I shouldn't worry and that he won't turn out to be a serial killer because he liked to see dinosaurs eat people when he was five years old.

Whew.

So Little Man loves dinosaurs and when my husband is out of town he brings home surprises for Little Man, Little Miss Throwsafit, and Littlest One if they're good.   

When my husband got home today, he presented the kids with their surprises, and Little Man got to work on his immediately. After a couple of hours and some help (just some help - Little Man did most of  the work) from Hubby, this is what Little Man made:

Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

So we have a miniature Sue sitting on our dining room table right now. Little Man says the dining room is his museum and that the T-Rex comes to life at night and chases after its own rib bone. If you've seen Night at the Museum, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Lots of excitement at the Priestap home.

I'm so proud of Sarah

I like to go to bed earlier than my husband. When the middle of Greta's show comes around, I head off to bed and lay there watching TV until after the weather forecast comes on the 11:00pm news. 

My husband, on the other hand, stays up later. When I head off to bed, he likes to pop in a movie - the kind I'm not so interested in seeing. The other night he rented Reservoir Dogs. I saw that one at least fifteen years ago and have no interest in seeing it again.  It's gratuitously violent as far as I'm concerned. 

That means Steve is the one who lets Sarah out to go potty at 12:30am or so.  With Steve out of town for a couple of days, I really wasn't looking forward to doing that. 

So last night I took Sarah out at around 10:30 to do her business and she did both of them.  I put her in her crate, hung up her lead, and went to bed expecting her to start whining to go out at 12:30 or so.

I woke up with a start a few hours later, looked at the clock, which said 1:30am, and jumped out of bed.  I was afraid that I missed Sarah's time to go to the bathroom.  I rushed downstairs with the lead in hand and peaked into her crate.  And there she was, all warm snug, curled up in a ball.

"Do you have to go outside?" I asked her, expecting her to get up and wait at the door of the crate.

She didn't even lift her head to look at me. It was obvious she didn't have to go out. She wanted to sleep, and I didn't blame her one bit.  I went back to bed, thinking that I would probably hear from her in a couple of hours.

Get this: I didn't hear a sound from her all night long. She let me sleep until  6:45 this morning. 

She's such a good girl!

Mastering the walk and other puppy issues

Today I took Sarah out for an official walk. Prior to today, we did some training in the front yard, simple things like sit, stay, come, etc.  Primarily, the purpose was discipline. On the whole, she's doing a good job, but boy does she have a stubborn streak. By the way, she did a great job of sitting and staying for me to snap this picture today.

On her walk today, she had two speeds - reverse and full speed ahead. I knew that teaching her to heel would be hard, and I was right. After a half hour walk, my hands are sore from constantly pulling her back to my side. After rereading Cesar Millan's dog walking technique online, I realized I didn't make sure Sarah was in the right state of mind before we left for our walk. I'll be sure to try that on our next walk.

In addition to the walk, there are a couple of other behavioral things I really want to get her to stop doing: chewing on wooden furniture and doors in our computer area and treating my son like he's her chew toy. 

At this point, I've been using the "NO!" technique every time I've caught her chewing the wood, and I've gotten mixed results. She's got a bunch of chew toys that she enjoys playing with, but I also read that getting a ribbed nylon bone and smearing peanut butter on it should distract her from the wood. And then there's the sour apple, hot sauce, and vinegar spray techniques as well, but I'm not sure if I want my wooden furniture smelling like sour apple, hot sauce, or vinegar.  I think consistent walks every day will help relieve some of her energy, which is no doubt contributing to her chewing in addition to her teeth. 

No matter what, though, I'm getting in touch with an obedience trainer for some help in these areas, so hopefully we'll make progress soon.

On the whole, she's a very good puppy, but I'm really looking forward to the docile Great Dane I've read and heard about so much.