Recap: Momma & The Boys

It was an incredible eight weeks. Simba (aka Abel) was the first to be adopted. My sweet Mom fell in love with him on day one, and adopted him as soon as he was old enough. Next was Andy, who was adopted at a smaller adoption event in Denver. Chewy, my fluffy snuggly boy, was adopted through their website next and went to a young couple who had adopted a dog a couple years earlier from the same rescue. A week later, Momma and Archie were adopted, also through the website. Momma went to a young lady with another dog about her size that needed a friend. Archie went to a cute young boy who was SO excited about getting his first dog. Somehow, sweet sweet Tony (Arnie) was not adopted. Another week went by, and LIBR asked me to take him up to Denver for an adoption event, a larger one this time. I wasn't sure I could do it. I was SO attached to that sweet little boy, and those big puppy dog eyes just about broke my heart.. I loaded him up in the car and started heading north. I stopped at my parents house, and ran into use the bathroom. As I was about to get back in my car, my brother said, "I want him." SO many different emotions were bombarding me at this point. We somehow convinced my parents that it was a good idea to have two puppies, and Drake and I headed up to Denver to get that boy adopted!! We had some minor (well, major actually) car trouble, which made for an even more emotional day, but that's a whole other story.

Drake is now the proud adopted father of Tony boy, and Tony and Simba get to play together all day long. I'd say it turned out pretty well. Also, I'd just like to point out that of the eight dogs I've fostered, I personally haven't adopted a single one ;) hehehe.

This was such a rewarding experience. I loved watching the babies grow from tiny, helpless newborns into rambunctious puppies. I enjoyed every second of puppy breath and all the sweet snuggles and kisses. It was a lot of work, and I can't even count the number of times I cleaned up their poopy messes. There were times when they would keep me up all night, and times when they wouldn't make a sound. It was so incredible watching as they changed - watching their ears and eyes open, watching them take their first wobbly steps, hearing their squeaks turn into barks and their interactions changed from just snuggling to playing with one another.

I'm sorry I didn't blog every week like I was hoping to about their changes and updates. But I am glad that I finally got these pictures up and blogged a little bit of what it was like with them.

Also - for the record - I recommend fostering. It's a great opportunity to share some love and save a life.  : )

Momma & Her Boys

Well, I feel like I'm starting the year off right - doing something new and something I love, even if it is a little crazy! I've been fostering dogs for Life Is Better Rescue since early last year. I've fostered a one/two-ish year old lab mix named Aspen, and a three month old lab/Australian cattle dog mix named Ella. I get emails a lot about moms and their babies needing fostered, but I've never had the courage to try it out (plus they usually find fosters pretty quick, so I often miss out on the opportunities). On Friday morning, I got an email saying there was a chihuahua mother and her five puppies that needed a foster home for about 8 weeks. For whatever reason, it instantly tugged on my heart, so I gave my sister a call and told her I was thinking about it. (since we live together and she and I both have dogs, I figured I better get her permission before I brought home six new dogs) She thought I was crazy, but eventually I got the "permission granted" and sent a quick reply to the email. A few minutes (which seemed like hours) later, I was responded too and informed that they still needed a foster, and if I was interested they'd get me in touch with the lady who was currently housing them. I literally started jumping up and down, called my Mom to share the news and was beyond ecstatic. I got an email from the woman who had been fostering Abigail ("Momma") with her phone number. I gave her a call and learned that the puppies had been born THAT MORNING about six o'clock. I spent all of my free time for the rest of the day researching everything you possibly can research about caring for a new mom and her babies. (quick side note, when I was 11-13 I used to go out to an Alaskan Klee Kai breeder's home and help her with babies and mommies, so I remembered some things from that - I wasn't totally clueless. I also have attended the birth of some friends puppies, and (NERD ALERT) I used to watch hours of Bringing Home Puppy on Animal Planet, haha) Saturday morning I headed up to Lakewood with my friend, Alex, to pick them up, excited but nervous and a little bit scared out of my mind. I had been praying all night and all morning that they'd be healthy, that Momma would be a very attentive mother, that I wouldn't mess anything up, etc. Over and over and over I asked for God's wisdom and guidance and selflessness as I care for these sweet ones. (still praying!)

When we first picked them up, Momma was at the very back of her kennel, curled up in a ball on top of the babies growling and scared to death. I'm so glad that Alex offered to drive because I spent the majority of the trip back peeking in at them, trying to get a glance at the babies, and whispering what I hope was comforting words to Abigail. Alex dropped me back off at my parents house just as my parents were getting home from running their errands. They'd picked up a heating pad for me, and a new pillow for my boys (since they'll be sleeping in their kennel for the next 8+ weeks instead of on my bed). I packed up all the supplies I needed from my parents' house (well, my dad and my brother loaded it all up for me), and headed home.

The last five days have been absolutely incredible. Momma and I have definitely been bonding; it took a while before she would let me touch her, and even longer before she would let me touch her babies. BUT we've gotten there; in fact, as I'm writing this she is taking a break from her motherly duties to snuggle next to me. (I may have a harder time saying goodbye to her than her babies!) She is an absolute sweetheart, and I'm already praying that she will find a great home when the time comes. I was given a list of five names that start with A to assign to each of the puppies - by the way, they're ALL boys!
 

Meet Abel - the first born, the smallest, and the only one close to Mom's coloring!

He currently weighs about 9.5 ounces.

This is Andy, cute little guy, who is only slightly longer than Abel but weighs about 11 oz.

I apologize for the quality of these pictures - they're from my phone and taken on Snapchat/downloaded because my phone memory is currently full - haha.

This precious face belongs to Amos - who has a pretty chocolate coat.

Amos loves his food and usually has a big ol' belly; he weighed in at 11.1 oz. this afternoon.

This is Archie - one of "the twins." He is a little bit lighter than his brother, Arnie, but they both have white blazes on their chests. Archie weighed 11.4 oz this afternoon.

And last but definitely not least is Arnie, the other "twin" who has a little bit darker coat, and a much bigger white blaze on his chest. Arnie weighed 11.2 ounces this afternoon.

 Momma is definitely very attentive and has been an excellent little mother so far. She's very protective of her sons, lets them nurse all day long, and snuggles with them in the sweetest ways.

Long story short, I'm in for an exciting eight weeks, and I'm (so far) loving every minute of it! This has already been an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful to my family and friends for their support/advice/and help! 

This photo is from day one - I can't believe how much they've grown and changed already!

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

Fweeeeeeeew. Made it through the crazzzzzzzzy holiday season. Seriously, I'm pretty sure October-December is lived in fast-forward. I loved every second of the last three months, but (for possibly the first time ever) I am excited to get back into a routine and start putting my plans into action.

Speaking of plans.... here's what I've been working on.

Organization:

 **Taylor and I took a day and a half of solid working hours and went through our main level and did some deep cleaning. We got rid of a bunch of stuff we don't use/need, and we cleaned things we've not cleaned in the whole three and a half years that we've lived in our house (um...GROSS). Here are a few pictures of our progress.

 The big challenge is going to be tackling our basement - which has become a dumping grounds for everyone, and is piled high. I'm also slowing working through my bedroom. The idea I'm trying to keep in mind as I go through this process is:

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." William Morris.

This has been really inspirational for me as I have started going through and getting rid of - a process that I should have started many years ago.

**I bought myself a planner, and I've started writing down my goals instead of just having the idea in my head.

**I have written down some of my January goals in my pages: exercises, meals. I also posted in my thoughts on starting fresh :)

When You Fail To Plan, You Plan To Fail

If there is one thing in this world I'm terrible at, it is organization. Growing up, my idea of "cleaning my room" was stuffing things in drawers, under my bed, in my closet, anywhere out of sight so that my room looked clean and I could play. I'm also a bit of a hoarder. I have SO much stuff that it's overwhelming. I don't need/use/enjoy 95% of it. And I have finally decided that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. It is time to clean out, it is time to get rid of, and it is time to organize my life. This, my friends, is going to be quite the journey.

Simultaneously, I'm taking a big step towards "fixing" my health. By today's standards, I'm quite a healthy person. But in reality, I'm not doing everything I KNOW I should be doing to give my body what it needs. You truly have to change what you believe before you're going to get results, and I've been so stuck in my ways that I haven't wanted to change what I believe. I like food a lot. I am a HUGE bread and sugar indulger. But my body doesn't want all the garbage in there, and I BELIEVE it is time to give my body what it deserves.

Help me along the way. Keep me accountable. Journey with me.

Sore Throat Remedy

My sister Taylor and I bought our first house three years ago this summer. What are an eighteen year old and a nineteen year old doing buying a house, you may ask? Well. It seemed like a good idea, and I'd have to say so far it has been. We have a three bed, two and a half bath home on the east side of Colorado Springs. It's in a really great location, in an adorable neighborhood, and we fell in love the moment we walked through the door. We love doing home improvement projects, and in the last three years we've done quite a few. Some of the bigger ones being replacing the carpet, and laying hardwood floors. We have painted almost every wall at least once, added brick to the back wall of the kitchen, and spent countless hours working in our yard. We LOVE being homeowners.

 (thanks to my parents and good friend Chris we've got beautiful hardwood on most of our main floor)

My Dad (who happens to be the greatest man I've ever met) has been a continual blessing as we've hit snags (broken toilets, broken washer/dryer, strange bugs, ceilings bubbling up, etc.) and wanted projects done that exceeded our skill level. We definitely couldn't have survived the last three years without him. Or my Mom, for that matter, who has also been a huge blessing and has tons of knowledge including how to clean things I never thought about cleaning before. I'm so blessed.

ANYWAY. I tell you all of this simply to say that the one upgrade we've yet to do is installing A/C. So, throughout the warmer months of the year, we open our windows through the night in hopes of coaxing a cool breeze into our home. Sometimes this works great, sometimes we lay under our fans and sweat.

I've been sleeping with my fan on me and my windows open since late April. The result being that I wake up with a dry throat every morning(apparently I breathe through my mouth when I sleep..yikes). The last couple weeks it's been getting unbearably sore, and so I decided to ask my fave DC for some advice. "Gargle liquor." Two words I never thought I'd hear used in the same sentence. Yeah.... Well, I finally got up the courage to give it a shot, and it's just as unpleasant as it sounds. But it's been helping. It not only kills bacteria, after it stops burning it has an almost numbing effect for a while. I'm only on day two of this, but I'll keep you posted for how it goes. I'm also all stocked up on my vitamins (d, fish oil, b, zinc, probiotics) and will probably start taking garlic before bed.

thanks for reading.