Summer (and my 50th post!)

Hello friends!

I finally feel as though summer has started. My husband and I returned home last night from a 5 day camping trip. Oh, it was heavenly. It was our first excursion of the year and it was beautiful. We made the five hour trip to a campground just north of Bayfield, Wisconsin, right on Lake Superior. The Apostle Islands were in sight.

This trip marks another first for our pup, Finnegan (whose "grandpa" likes to call him "Finnian"). He did remarkable well, and learned quite a few new tricks. Like opening the pocket doors of my in-laws' motorhome (we can't use their bathroom as containment anymore!) and using his nose to open the door of a pop-up camper (yup, pushes right on the black handle of the door!). He learned that his K-9 uncle, Kirby (a black lab mix) has no patience for puppies-Finn's nose may have been "nibbled" on more than one occasion.

During this trip, I earned the "Crappy Wife of the Year Award" for the second year in a row. Upon leaving home for our trip, I was certain that something had been forgotten. I just couldn't put my finger on it. Like in Home Alone, when the mom knows that something is missing. Like her, it took me awhile to figure out exactly what it was. An hour and a half into the drive, I realized it. Mr. Husband's birthday present. The sad part? The same thing happened when we were on our honeymoon the year before. Whoops! Next year can only be better, right?

I did give the gift to him upon our return home (I also made a cake for him, but messed up the homemade frosting).

Needless to say, we had a wonderful vacation. We spent long days navigating the waters of Lake Superior, stopping on the many islands for lunch on the sandy beaches. Scuba diving (Husband) or snorkeling (me) near shipwrecks, watching fireworks in Bayfield, and being able to see the show over on Madeline Island.

Yes, after a wonderful vacation, it finally feels as though summer has begun.

One tired pup on the way home

Not Everyone Likes a Milkbone

I can't tell you why, but Finn does not like Milkbones. At all. In fact, we tried to use Milkbones as a way to get him into his kennel at night, and every morning we have seen them hidden away in his crate. Wouldn't he eat one or two if he liked them? He doesn't like treats!? What? That's ludicrous. Being that he is a puppy, treats are kind of a "big" part of training. Well, not super big, but big enough.

Since he is as cute as he is, I decided to make some treats for him... and it was very easy. I only needed a few ingredients (5!) and a super cute cookie cutter to make these treats. I can't tell you where the recipe was found, I found it in an old recipe box that was given to me (which was pretty neat, by the by).

Here is everything you need:

I forgot to take a picture of the milk!

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey

First, mix the flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, peanut butter and honey until it is well combined. Once that is well mixed, add the dry ingredients. Mix this, too, until it forms a nice dough. Roll it out on a floured surface to the thickness of about a quarter inch. Use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes for the biscuits (I used an old aluminum pan to make a bone shaped cookie cutter).

Needless to say, Finn loves these treats! I even gave some to my K-9 sister (Mad) and my puppy nephews (Duke and Louie). They liked them, too!

Life with a Dog

Oh my, how life has changed with our "addition." It's true, it is just a four-legged addition, and not a human one, but it sure is a lot of work! I am so blessed to have a break at work that is long enough to get home to let the boy relieve himself. I am so blessed to have a husband that is nice enough to let me use his ear muff type head phones ear plugs in order to fall asleep at night. Finn is one loud dog, holy cow! The first night with him home, we went to bed at 10pm. We were woken up at 12:15am. Again at 3:30am. And yet again 4:30. Then I was up for the morning. Night #2 with Mr. Finnegan? Repeat of the first night. Horrible. Needless to say, it has gotten better as Finn has spent more and more time with us, in our house, in his kennel. We get woken up around 5:15 each morning, which is fine during the week, but a pain in the butt on the weekend! Can I be like a mom with an infant? We weighed the boy. He is up to 9.5 pounds at 8 weeks. That's up an entire pound since we brought him to the vet. He's still a tiny boy, though! Okay, one more thought about the pup, then I'll be done. We brought him to the lake today, just to check it out. We had no intention of putting him in the water. We want him to love swimming, so we didn't want to scare him by forcing him into the water. My parents-in-law's dog came down with us and loved jumping off the dock to fetch a tennis ball. Finn was very excited about running around the shore and picking up sticks. The boy did fall in the water. Twice. He hid for a few minutes after the first fall, but the second didn't phase him a bit.

Finn!

Yesterday, we brought home this guy! Sorry about the picture quality..I blame it on the iPhone.

Finnegan

Fletcher & Floyd

As mentioned in a previous post or two, my aunt gave my husband and I two bearded dragons. It was a stressful gift to receive, I have to admit. Here's the scoop:

My husband and I were boiling sap from our maple trees to make syrup when I received a phone call. My aunt was on her way into town and had lizards (and all the gear) for us. I had to meet her at my grandparents' house when they arrived to take the stuff home and get everything set up. I left my husband to boil the sap by himself and headed to get these two animals that I knew nothing about.

I brought them home. I set everything up. I put the dragons in their new terrarium and waited. They didn't drink their water. They didn't eat their crickets. They didn't move. Did their flight kill them?

They moved, one ate. They were alive. My husband and I started writing a list of all of the things we would need to purchase to keep these dragons alive. We picked up a book and read it cover to cover. We scoured the web. We learned that they shouldn't necessarily live together. But what could we do? It was late in the evening. We left them together, in the one terrarium, with 15 large crickets.

                     Fletcher                                 Floyd









Ahh, the things we have learned since that first night. Bearded Dragons will nibble at each other's toes (especially if they are both male). Poor Fletch. He received the brunt of the toe-nibbling incident. We learned that, while living together, one will make it so the other doesn't get enough "sun" or enough food. Again, poor Fletch. We learned that in no way should either of those two Bearded Dragons have been eating large crickets (rule of thumb: no food bigger than the space between their eyes).

As you can tell, Fletch kind of had a cruddy beginning to his life. Eventually, we realized that we could no longer house both Fletch and Floyd. Fletcher was not growing (he did shed his red color, though). He was hiding and wasn't enjoying life (or so it seemed). I did my research online and came across the Herpetological Society. We decided to give Floyd a new home so that we could care for Fletch. My heart just broke for the little guy (I know. He's a lizard).

Today, we are headed to the pet store to get him a new basking branch. We are also headed up north to meet our puppy (oh crap, we're going to have a zoo) and buy a few needed items for him...