Puppy Drama

So last night was, um, interesting. It all actually started around 5 p.m. when Bentley started coughing. It sort of sounded like he was choking so I took him outside in case he threw up. His cough was so loud and croupy--it sounded like it echoed in the entire neighborhood.

And because I tend to think the worst in almost every single medical situation, I thought he was on his way out. And by out I mean...well, you know.

Seth talked me down from the ledge of insanity, and Bentley seemed to improve. He ate dinner and played around, so I assumed the coughing episode was all over with. But on the way to Matt and Erin's, we stopped at a rest stop and he began to do it again. And then again in the car. And when we showed up to Matt and Erin's at midnight, which is when the real fun started. It actually progressed to the point of sounding like a bull horn. We didn't want to keep him outside until it was done because it seems to be worse outside, but we also didn't want to bring him inside and wake Logan.

We ended up bringing him inside, and against my advice to take him to the vet right then to get something, we went to sleep. HA....sleep! I think God was totally laughing at us as we layed down at 12:45.

Because an hour later, he started coughing with a vengence. Long story short, this went on for a few minutes, and I finally jumped up and in my best I'm the boss voice told Seth that "I was taking him to the emergency clinic whether you're coming or not."

He didn't want to come, which was quite evident, but he ended up coming anyway. Who says pre-marrital counseling doesn't work? I think he just knew he should come, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, one 3 a.m. trip to the Ohio vet ER visit later, he was diagnosed with something or other related to kennel cough. Interesting considering he has never been near one. But I guess they can get it from other things. And the doc, who is now my hero, suggested he give him an anti-inflammatory plus sedative to ensure a good night's sleep (which at that point was rapidly dwindling). The sedative was so good, in fact, that about 3.2 minutes after getting it, he fell asleep on the waiting room floor as we paid our bill. He snored the entire way home.

One 4 a.m. stop for robitussin DM, and we were on our way home. We concluded that our "clearance puppy" is often anything but, especially when he requires emergency vet care out of state where the prices were twice what they are in Pennsylvania.

He's been going surprisingly well today, though now he has other....bathroom problems. Or lack thereof. We're pumping him full of All Bran and pureed pumpkin. Yummy, huh?

We are all very, very tired. I don't think any of us got into a deep sleep the entire night, because something happened every time we did. Erin and I managed to nap today, but the boys are unphased and have been playing video games since we woke up with a break only for meals and the bathroom.

Hopefully your Friday was more laid back! :)

Craziness...

I wish I had something to write about. But I so totally don't. My life has been consumed by work. End of story. If you can't find me, I'm buried beneath a 4 foot pile of papers on my desk.

In leui of any real posting, I will repost my "25 Random Things" posting from Facebook:

1. I am obsessed with e-mail. I leave it minimized on my computer all day and check it whenever I get the itch—which is probably 20 times a day. Come on, I know there are others out there who do this!

2. I like to read, but a book has about 5 pages to rope me in, or I’m done. If the author isn’t good enough to keep an audience for the first 5 pages, their writing probably isn’t good enough to get me through the rest of the book.

3. Almost every single time I rent a movie, it has to be strictly a comedy or a romantic comedy. I hate movies that require me to think. It’s supposed to be relaxing. And don’t even think about subtitles. What a waste!

4. I am constantly proofreading things I read—newspapers, TV commercials, anything really. Not saying I never mess up or anything because I know I do, but I’m very critical about things in print, especially professional materials that companies use. I’ve always been taught that careless writing makes for careless business. It’s good, then, that I would set a great example when I started this job, and on my very first 14,000 quantity direct-mailer project mistype the zip code of the hospital. I almost had a panic attack. Occasionally, we go to a restaurant at lunch that actually has “appetizer” and “monetary jack cheese” written in the menu. I will never order any of that stuff because since they don’t care enough to spell check the menu, they probably don’t care enough to make it with care.

5. I often miss high school and college and wish I was back there occasionally! Not that I don’t enjoy my life now, because I love it! But those years were so much fun and made me who I am today.

6. I hate things that crunch in things that are soft (raw onions in tuna, celery in chicken salad).

7. I’m weird about condiments…mustard and ketchup should NEVER touch lettuce. The only thing that should ever touch lettuce is mayo. If I have a burger with mustard, ketchup, and lettuce, the lettuce needs to be under the burger so they don’t touch.

8. I once wrecked my mom’s car on the very night she said “Don’t wreck my car!” as I was heading out the door. I had my license for all of about 3 weeks.

9. I love to go out to eat. It isn’t a lazy thing. It’s a social thing!

10. I am obsessed with “Friends.” I know almost every single episode by heart, yet still laugh hysterically at every single one like it is the first time I’m seeing it.

11. I absolutely love to travel, especially to the Caribbean. I pick something beach-related, especially the Caribbean, for almost every single vacation idea I have.

12. I’ve been to the following Caribbean (or Caribbean-ish) locations: Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Grand Cayman, Turks and Caicos, St. Lucia, Mexico, and Haiti (it was gorgeous!). I loved every single one of them and would absolutely go back to any of them again.

13. I love to nap, especially on Sundays. And have Seth and Bentley right there to cuddle with me. Those are the best Sundays ever.

14. We have the most adorable boxer of all time (though my sister’s come in close), Bentley. He is….um, energetic.

15. Jon and Kate Gosselin’s sextuplets were born at the hospital where I work. Because I work in PR, I got to meet them one time when they were here filming an episode for their show. It was fun (and my supervisor is mentioned in her book!).

16. I despise lazy people that go far in life.

17. I am obsessed with celebrity gossip sites like Perez Hilton, Bricks and Stones Gossip, etc.

18. Sometimes when I am in large crowds and there are germs everywhere or I get overheated, my hands begin to itch and swell. So weird…

19. When I’m stressed in general, my head, arms, and hands get itchy too.

20. I used to be scared to death of roller coasters. Then, in 7th grade I went to Cedar Point with my friend Staci, and she made me get on them. I’ve loved them ever since!!

21. Iced tea is my all-time favorite drink. I don’t like soda, and the tea I prefer is the restaurant unsweetened stuff.

22. I’m going to be an aunt to twins in a few months! And probably broke because of it…

23. I want to have 2 kids. One of each gender. And if I have two boys or two girls, I’ll try for one more in hopes of getting the other gender. But then I am absolutely having no more. Because I’m not risking 4 of one gender. No way…

24. I was completely oblivious the night Seth was going to propose. I didn’t even think that was what he was up to when he 1) told me to dress “cute”; 2) took me to the park where we had our first date in the middle of March; 3) wouldn’t let me walk on the right side of him all night (because the ring was in his pocket); 4) was worried about the precise time the sun would set; and, 5) when he acted a little odd and nervous all night. Not until he got down on one knee did it even cross my mind, and I think even at that point, I might have said “shut up!”

25. That was way too many random things about me!

How You Know it has Been a Long Week.

Today when I got home from work, I was watching TV and kept hearing a chirping sound. It was just a single chirp and did it every 2-3 minutes. I just ignored it because I knew it was the smoke detector. I figured Seth could get them down when he got home and we could replace the batteries.

But while I was making dessert for tonight when our guests come, the chirping drove me insane. I washed my hands, climbed up and got the one in the hallway, and took out the batteries. We just put the other one up last night, so I knew those batteries couldn't be dead yet. But as I went back to stirring, it chirped again. UGH. Great, they sold it to us with dead batteries.

So I climb up and get that one down too, and removed it's batteries. Finally some peace!

Chirp.

WHAT?!?!? We don't have any more smoke detectors!

As I stand there figuring out what it could possibly be, my purse chirped. Yeah...the chirping sound was my work pager going off. For three hours.

Good thing it wasn't an emergency. And good thing I now have two unassembled smoke detectors to put back together.

My House is Worth WHAT?

I am a little, teensy bit obsessed with that show on HGTV, My House is Worth WHAT?. I find myself watching it, crossing my fingers for the people on the show, hoping that their improvements will make them money in the end. And when they suffer a loss, I'm feel bad for those strangers.

Well, over the last year and a few months since buying our house, we have put a lot of work into our house. (Not just Seth and I, of course. We have had help from parents, friends, siblings, neighbors, etc!) It seems like at any given point, we were always doing something.

Other than the hobby room, every single wall in the house has been repainted. All of the bedroom carpet has been replaced. We've finished the basement into a great room by knocking out unnecessary walls, put all new flooring down there there, installed solid wood doors throughout the entire house, put new hardware on the doors, remodeled the master bathroom, updated electrical, did yardwork, etc. It looks like a completely different house!

And tonight, after a year, our realtor and her husband (who happen to be family friends) are coming over for dinner and a tour of the work we've done. Even though the economy is sort of tanking right now, especially in terms of housing, we're hoping that our house has sgnificantly increased in value. So we'll have to ask her that famous question: our house is worth what?

*Crossing our fingers!* :)

The Joys of Life!

If you remember, I got a promotion a few weeks ago. It's been a learning process, and I've handled it pretty much in stride. I have some tough to handle days, but that is to be expected when you work in PR. And I've also had some easy days. Today was probably 50/50.

One of the most favorite calls was from one of our media contacts asking me if the hospital has had an influx of babies with the name "Barack" or "Obama." Are you kidding me? I checked, and not only is there not an influx; there are none. Shocking, I know. Because everyone gives some good, long thought into naming there son Ethan Barack Smith or Jason Obama Miller. :)

And top top off the stress, I've been rocking some sinus pressure and headache with a side of temporary peripheral vision loss thrown in for good measure. I'm convinced all of the headaches and eye issues are due to stress, because for as long as I can remember, I've never had one on a weekend. Only at work. Go figure. I'm going to give it a few more days before I get it formally checked out. I tend to be a little bit completely over the top about illnesses, and the thought of having a brain tumor has seriously crossed my mind more than one time in the past few days. Let's pray it's just stress.

AND luckily I made it to work today because I was almost in a really bad accident on the way to work. Good thing someone invented anti-lock brakes. I'm just sayin'.

Phew.

But, in fun, completely stress-less news...it's just a little over one week until we take a little weekend trip to see Matt, Erin, and Logan! Seth and I took off the Monday after the Superbowl so we could stay a little longer. We're looking forward to visiting them!

And I'm talking to one of my absolute best friends right now about our spring break trip to Florida in 2005, and I am laughing so hard. She knows how to break the stress. Here we are on the trip:

Now, to really top off the de-stressing, I'm going to curl up with my new book, make some tea, and chill. And not check work e-mail the rest of the night.

Hope your night is stress free! :)

My Thoughts

I'm not really into politics, and I knew I wouldn't be able to watch much inaguration coverage at work. But, my friend and I went to her house over lunch to watch some of it so we felt like Americans, especially since it was an historical election.


Of course, I didn't see nearly all of it, but here are my general thoughts of what I saw (in bulleted form because work has my mind in a whirlwind of craziness and bullets are just easier):

1) Laura Bush is always so "put together." She is as cute as a button and just looks like a first lady. Michelle Obama is also a cute woman, and seems very genuine. But, oh, that outfit. Moving on...

2) George W. Bush seems like such a gracious man. I think I may have gotten a little teary when him and Laura walked up into the helicopter and waved good-bye. My friend and I decided that he probably sat down, cracked his knuckles, and let out a long sigh while saying "So long, suckas..."

3) And the Obamas were standing there waving and thinking "Oh boy, here we go."

4) Obama's speeches are generally really good content-wise. Sometimes, the inflection of his voice when delivering them makes me crazy, but the content is usually great. Imagine my shock when I found out that his speechwriter is basically my age--I believe he is 26. That's so cool...imagine his resume!

5) I missed the oath part, which bothered me. That is what I wanted to see. I'm thinking I'll see it 1,982,983 more times tonight though.

6) The amount of people that were in attendance made me a little crazy, even through the TV. I don't know how those people handled that in such tight quarters. I would probably have a panic attack (or my hands would start itching because that is the weird thing that happens to me in large, germy and crowded areas).

And finally...

7) The benediction. What was up with that weird, racially toned "prayer" for our country? Someone needed to remove him from the stage. I'm just wondering what he was thinking when he wrote that prayer and why, oh why, he thought that would be fitting for a day when we speak of unifying the country. Even though it was based on an old civil rights chant, I'm thinking that many people besides me won't think it was very funny. I figure he'll be the top story tomorrow on the news.

That about wraps up my coverage until 2012. ;)

What were your thoughts??

Wishful Thinking

Boy, when you wake up and it is -1 degrees out there and doesn't get much above 10 degrees or so all day, it really makes me want to take a little vacation to someplace warm. Like, oh, the Caribbean! That was so nice 2 years ago leaving to go somewhere really warm when it was so cold here. I was bored today, and was going through pictures and came across our honeymoon. And now, I'm all nostalgic and want to go back! Let the saving begin! :)

Murphy's Law

Remember when I shared my Murphy's Law baking fiasco? Well, today, Seth and I got to experience the Murphy's Law home ownership fiasco. And only 15 days into the year. Super!

Ever since we got that sleet and freezing rain last week, our heat pump outside has been a little weird. A nice little mix of noise and inefficiency. About 2 days ago, it looked like a big giant block of snow, which was completely inhibiting the air flow through the unit. I knew something wasn't right but I like to live in denial when it comes to home repair.

So Thursday night, when the unit sounded like an army helicopter from inside, I did what any good money saving housewife would do. I bundled up, grabbed a flashlight and wooden spoon and went to work. (Yes, I said wooden spoon. Go-to google said that when scraping the unit, do not use anything sharp. I figured it doesn't get more blunt edged than a wooden spoon). I scraped off what I could but decided that to really clear it off, I would dump hot water on it. (What?! Like you wouldn't try that!?) I was so pumped when I realized it worked and instantly quieted the machine. SUCCESS! ON! MY! OWN!

Too bad that when Seth came home at 10 p.m. and I went to show my handywork, the unit was no longer enclosed by snow, but it was enclosed by a block of 1 inch thick, unscrapable ice. Crap.

Anyway, the home repair man is here right now. He told me I have two options. One, replace the defrost something or other as well as this frickity frack thing for $1040 and two, because the unit was getting old, replace the entire indoor and outdoor unit for the bargain price of $10,000. I may or may not have said "or use an electric blanket for the remainder of the winter." Whatever, I picked option 1. Because at $10,000, that thing better be bedazzled in diamonds.

Now I realize that $1040 for a major heat problem isn't that big of a deal. Except, my friend, that Seth and I decided that we would not renew our home warranty this year because why would we pay $500 a year for something when we didn't even use it last year?

Yeah, you get my point.

The Terrible Twos of Bentley

I think Bentley is in the "terrible two" stage that kids go through. He never used to destroy toys, but has been a lot lately. In the last week, he has eaten two toys and has um, rid himself of them in the middle of the night.

And he's been a little whiney and a little sassy.

On Saturday, he wouldn't stop whining by the back door to go outside.

I started saying things in a funny high pitched voice to get his attention and to get him to come into the living room and step away from the back door for one.single.second.

And I was beyond shocked when, while laying on the couch in the living room saying "where where is is my my bubba?" in a silly voice, Bentley casually and quietly walked into the room, leaped up and sucker punched me in the face with his paws, knocking my glasses off and scratching my face, and casually walked out.

I was absolutely speechless, but a few minutes later secretly cracked up laughing.

I guess he just had to pee and was sick and tired of me tormenting him with a stupid voice.

Oh the joys of puppies. :)

My Not-So-Resolution Resolution

Oh it is so on. And by "on" I mean getting back to the healthier eating, going to the gym multiple times a week, and all around trying to be...better. The holidays were bad, bad, bad, but my co-workers and I decided as a group we would not sabatage each other anymore and would work together to make it happen.

We wanted to start a Biggest Loser competition in the marketing and PR department like HR did, but we know we'd be the only 4 to participate anyway, so we'll do it as a side challenge for ourselves.

I don't make new year's resolutions because I think they're silly, but let's just say if I did, I would totally be cliche and say "my new year's resolution is to lose weight and be healthier this year."

Seth already sort of jumped on the high fructose corn syrup train--ahem, Ran boys :)--so tonight I bought organic ketchup as the first step. I guess someone told Seth that if you want to eliminate HFCS, the biggest culprit is ketchup, and turns out, we needed ketchup. Little steps, people, little steps.

And apparently, everyone in central Pennsylvania also thinks it is a good time to join the gym and work out. I could hardly get a machine at the gym it was so insane. Not to worry, the regulars say they'll quit by February.

I haven't been to the gym in a few days weeks, so it was especially hard tonight. In the words of one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Big Mama, "I spent the first 10 minutes on the elliptical thinking I was going to die, and the last 10 wishing I would."

Amen, sister! Here's to eating fruit and carrots and needing your husband to help you into your pants because you can't move your lower body!

A Short Explanation

I really haven't been the best about posting lately. It was so nice to enjoy some time off from work to get some things done, spend time with Seth and family, and relax. Yesterday, I got back into the swing of things at work and have been super busy.

Plus, now it seems I have come down with some mysterious headache/backache/stomach ache plague. So, in the interest of getting better quickly and not being miserable (or making those around me miserable), I have been doing some major relaxing laying around doing nothing whenever possible.

I am well enough to read other people's blogs right now, just not well enough to write things on mine.

Blahhh.

Awesome giveaway!

The Secret is in the Sauce is giving away one of my new favorite things: the Keurig Platinum Brewing System. I don't really drink that much coffee but my sister-in-law told me they make hot chocolate K-cups and you can just do hot water for tea too! I'd be super, super pumped if I won this.

Enter the giveaway if you want a chance to win one too! :)

First Rule of Puppy Ownership

Like children, if they are too quiet for too long, they are probably getting into something they shouldn't be.

Lucky for him he's cute.

Happy 2009!

I've never really been that into New Year's festivities. To be honest, I sort of think they're overrated. I'd be more than happy to sit at home in my pajamas watching Friends on DVD. Seriously, a person can only deal with so much Kellie Pickler on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (or whatever it's called) before they want to poke their eyes out.

Seth isn't really that into it either, so it works out well.

However, he must have gotten into it a bit more this year because at 3:00 a.m. this morning, he shouted--yes, shouted--in his sleep "GOODBYE 2008!"

I kid you not...we almost had our first ER visit of 2009 because I was thisclose to falling out of bed and hitting my head on the dresser he scared me that bad.

So, goodbye wonderful 2008. Seth will miss you.