Penny Puppy

meet Penny

Zak and I have been talking about getting a dog for awhile and on Saturday, we found our newest addition to the family!  Penny is about 5 months old and is an Australian Shepherd-Border Collie mix.  She also has a broken femur with a bright pink cast.  She was a stray that had been at the animal shelter in Lewiston for a few weeks.  We went with our friend Kandace to look for any dogs we might like and fell in love with our puppy.  She was eager, enthusiastic and friendly and lovingly licked our hands and clothes.  It was pretty much love at first site.  After debating for a few minutes, we decided to get her.  Besides, it's hard to say no to a puppy with a broken leg, right? 

After all the papers were filled out, Kandace's mom met us at the shelter with a big kennel for Penny (Kandace's parents live in Lewiston and have a little herd of dog, they are totally pet people!) and we took her back to their house.  The shelter gave us some coupons for some of the local stores for pet food, etc. so we went with Kandace to get some basics for Penny.  Seriously, Kandace and her parents were the best people to do this with, because they have years and years of experience with dogs and were so willing to help us with everything (neither Zak nor I grew up with a dog in the family).  They helped calm my worries about having a dog.

The ride back to Moscow was a bit stressful.  Kandace and I placed Penny on our laps and held her tightly, but it was night time, raining and we just wanted to get her back to our house before she peed or threw up on us.  Luckily, she only drooled on us. 

trying to get her to stay still for a picture

she loves to be right in the middle of anything we try to do

see?

Bringing her home was so much fun.  We could tell she was a bit nervous but genuinely happy to be somewhere new.  She loved us right from the start, she eagerly crawled up on my lap and licked my face.  When I left the room to clean up the house, Zak told me she whined a little.  She got excited when one of us would come back into the room.  The first few hours she was a little ball of energy, despite her broken leg.  She did have a few accidents inside (the puppy pads Kandace's parents gave us didn't seem to help persuade her at all), but quickly learned that if she went outside to do her business, she got a treat.  The first night we put her in the bathroom with her bed from the shelter. 

slightly better shot

stay still, Penny!

take 2

On Sunday, Zak had to work so I was mostly home with her all day.  We worked heavily on going outside to pee and by the end of the day, she had it down.  She's very smart and quickly put that together, we're pretty impressed with her.  By Sunday evening she started actually eating her puppy food rather than the rawhide (we figured it was stress).  She definitely needs to be fattened up a bit, she is pretty thin.  It was a relief to have her eat all her food!  We also talked with our landlord about Penny.  She is a dog person and is fine with Penny, but does want us to get a kennel for her when we aren't home (just put in new carpet before we moved in), and our rent goes up a little.  She fell in love with Penny also--how could you not?

loves her rawhide

 

playing with Zak

playing paw tag

she loves the rope, but won't play with us with it just yet..also how cute are her paws?!

happily sitting with daddy

gangsta dog

It's funny, because I have never wanted to own a dog before; I've been strictly into cats (and pigs, as of late).  But our friends have dogs, so I've had to get used to the different dogs in my life.  Once Zak told me he'd like to get one, I started really considering it.  And then we found Penny and now I am in love with her.  She is so sweet, calm and friendly.  She knows her name and knows us and wants to be loved so much.  I don't mind her licking my face or getting that dog smell on my clothes.  I'm just happy to have such a great dog and look forward to getting her cast off so we can play even more!  We are both so happy with our newest addition to our family!

Thanksgiving 2012

This year we stayed in Moscow for Thanksgiving. My cousins, Jordan & Allie came up from Rexburg to stay with us. It was SO much fun having them here! They are a blast and were very good putting up with all our crazy antics.

They drove all day last Tuesday and got here before midnight. We are thankfully having a very dry winter season so far, they only had some rain during the drive. On Wednesday I got up & worked half of the day and came home to hang out with them. We had fajitas and played the new GoldenEye Play Station 3 game. Then we played 11 straight rounds of Scattergories and naturally, Zak kicked everyone's butts. He's way too good at that game.

stuffing the turkey

Thursday went a lot better than I expected. Zak and I got up and got the turkey in the oven by 9 AM. Then we just worked on cleaning, other food and around noon Chad came over with his table and drinks and food. We put the parade and later dog show on in the background while everything was put together. Allie and I made her mom's roll recipe. She definitely has a knack for it-she knew what to do and helped make some fantastic rolls! I was pleased that the turkey came out beautifully and so did everything else. It was quite surprising.

the yeast REALLY got crazy

Allie really excited about making rolls (understandably so)

ready to put in the oven!

The feast was fantastic, and we had tons of leftovers! So much so that I dubbed our house 'Leftover City'. We all stuffed ourselves, had little food comas and then enjoyed pumpkin and lemon meringue pie for dessert. We also were able to Skype with everyone back in California for awhile--that was so much fun! It was nice to see everyone and talk with them for a little bit. It felt almost like we were home! I was blessed to have some great helpers, who washed dishes and put things away from me. I think I went to bed around 9, I was incredibly pooped!

basting the turkey

beautiful!

mouth-watering delicious food

Zak cut off our heads, but this is a cute picture!

family!

a nice one of me & Zak

food comas

We decided to go Black Friday shopping...around 11 AM. None of us were willing to get up super early for shopping. Allie and I braved the mall, which wasn't that bad. I found some good deals at Old Navy, but couldn't find any shoes for the wedding next month, which was my main goal. Oh well. After an hour or so, Zak & Jordan picked us up and we went over to Chad & Bryan's place in Albion (5 minutes from Pullman) to meet their pets and go shooting. They have recently adopted a new dog, who was so sweet. We then went shooting a few minutes away. It was pretty cold and windy, so everyone ended up shooting each gun only once.

teaching about the guns

go Jordan!

Allie's turn!

Saturday we had a nice, lazy day with leftovers and video games. In the evening we made pizza and then went to hang out with Kandace & Gabe. We played Mario Party 8 and had a really good time. On Sunday they packed up and headed out before noon. It was sad to see them leave, but it was so great to have them around for the holidays. I am much more confident that I can pull this off again next year, so hopefully we'll be able to do it again!

Updates!

Sorry I've been bad at updating the blog, life has been crazy lately! Here are some updates:

-Zak now owns three guns. He bought a rifle that was on sale (so he claims) the other day; he came home and said, 'Good new/bad news: good news: I don't have any more guns I want to buy, bad news: I bought a gun.' At least it was significantly less expensive than the first gun (the second was a gift from his grandpa). And it's actually super fun to shoot. We've gone shooting a bunch in the last few months. We even took my old Twilight books and shot them with Kandace & Gabe. It was immensely fun and satisfying. I did make Zak pinkie-swear to not buy any more guns for five years. I will hold them to that.

all the guns

shooting the rifle, it's pretty fun

we really destroyed these books

proper reaction to shooting our friend Gabe's AK-47. it was POWERFUL and fun

-I have been with Digilent for three months already! I just had my three month review and it went really well! Everyone really likes me and is impressed with how awesome I am. I now get health care benefits, retirement plan, paid time off and a 20% raise! Oh and stock options or cash at the end of each quarter if we make a profit (which we have been doing...pretty much since the founding of the company). Anyways, I'm loving it and everyone loves me and things are going so well. It's such a relief to have a job I love!

-Zak has been doing well in school. He is doing some ride-alongs with the forest ranger a few times a month (he got the school to count it as an internship) and loving it. His classes are going well and will officially be a Senior next year. Three more semesters after this one and he'll be done!

-Fall is finally here and we are enjoying learning all the quirks of our new places during this season.  Because we live in a kind of basement, that means we will be more prone to spiders, basically my arch enemies of the bug-world. The other day while we were moving stuff around our living, we killed not one, but TWO big spiders. We think they were probably the notorious brown recluse spider. *Shudder*. Zak smashed one & I vacuumed the other. We are planning on buying spider traps or something. The joys.

-Holiday plans have finally been finalized! Compromises have been made and it will be a busy few weeks for us, and me especially! Zak & I will be spending Christmas with his family in Connecticut. We're flying in a few days early and spending a day with his best friend & girlfriend, who live in Boston. I'm getting really excited to experience some of the traditions Zak's family does; last time we were back there for Christmas was the same time as our open house, so it was a bit crazy. I will fly to California on the 26th and spend a few days there. My cousin Sasha is getting married on the 29th and I am one of her bridesmaids. I just bought my dress and now can properly get psyched for the wedding! I'm turning 25 on the 28th and while I'm bummed Zak won't be there to celebrate, at least I'll have my family with me; and we'll be sure to celebrate together with our friends when we are back in Moscow. We both fly back to Spokane on the 31st with enough time to celebrate New Year's Eve! It will be a whirlwind, but I know we'll all have lots of fun. We can't wait!

-That's about all I can think of for the moment. Zak and I are working on a running program, but I'm going to wait until we've finished to post about it. So that's all for now!

Zak's Birthday Weekend

*note*: sorry I have been so bad about posting this--I keep meaning to and then life happens!

Zak's grandpa Terry gave him the gun on the left (9mm..?). So now he has 2 handguns. He's happier than he looks.

Well, I think Zak had a pretty good birthday weekend!  He wanted to go camping, so camping we went!  Bryan & Chad were out of town (in Italy, lucky ducks!), so our number of buddies shrunk, but we managed to have a pretty fun time.

delicious, delicious quiche

Friday night I made Zak a birthday dinner quiche--it was really good!  Caramelized onion, bacon & tomatoes, so yummy!  On his birthday Saturday, I got up & made blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  My favorite part was after we were done eating, Zak said, 'I have syrup in my mustache...that's how I know I had a good breakfast.'  My birthday gift to Zak was an hour-long massage at the newly opened massage therapy place at the U of I (it was easy because Zak came home a few weeks ago w/a flyer about it, said he wanted that, so I made it happen), he said it was very nice and relaxing & that he'll make sure to get me in there sometime soon.

campsite...ours is the smaller tent, haha!

Zak & Gabe with their (very useful) headlamps

After the massage, we packed up and went off to camp with Kandace & Gabe.  The place we went was only about 20 minutes away, past Troy, at a place called Spring Valley.  It was nice, and we had a sweet little campsite that was secluded.  It would've been nice to have one by the water, but the seclusion was nice.  We had a fun evening, complete with s'mores, hot dogs and the greatest invention by Zak: s'mores hot dog: hot dog + bun + toasted marshmallow.  It was seriously better than you'd think!  And we got the huge marshmallows so it was quite messy!  I had a few giant s'mores and at one point just ended up with a huge handful of marshmallow-chocolate mess and laughing.  There were lots of cute little chipmunks running around, threatening to take our food.  One had successfully ripped through the bag with the chocolate-covered raisins in it!  We put out a giant marshmallow for them, and a few minutes later, saw one eating this huge marshmallow, slowly but surely.  It was pretty cute.

about to try the wonders of hot dog + toasted marshmallow!

survey says: not bad!

my giant marshmallow mess

how cute is this?!

We had a really fun night, despite the cold.  The next morning we got up and decided to go to brunch.  We went to the Best Western Sunday brunch, complete with free drinks, omelets, crepes, all kinds of pastries, meat dishes AND a chocolate fountain!  We had a great time and stuffed ourselves appropriately.  Kandace and I then went to get pedicures because despite scrubbing my feet for 10 minutes in the shower, my feet were in bad shape.  We had a lovely, relaxing hour being pampered.  A few hours later we met up again, with the addition of friends Margret & Ian and had birthday cake: yellow cake with peach puree and raspberry frosting.  It was good and we had a fun time.

birthday brunch!

Kandace & Gabe

this picture is cute

my (lack of) decorating skills

birthday!

Oh yeah, so Zak got a hammock with some birthday money. He's in love. He loves it a whole lot and practically lives in it now. One night he even slept outside in it...voluntarily! It is really comfy, now I want one!!
 

so cozy

ah yes, relaxing is wonderful

Piano!

thrilled!

This month, after a few years of looking for a piano, we finally found the perfect one!  And it's all thanks to Zak's amazing Craigslist skills!  I've seriously missed playing the piano regularly and my skills have severely diminished, and I had all but given up hope of getting a piano anytime soon.  Zak tried to convince me that a nice electric keyboard would be a better investment for now, but I wasn't thrilled about it.

But then Zak found this piano online and contacted the lady about it.  It was in good shape, in the family for awhile and was the right price!  It seems like every other piano we've inquired about either was in ok shape or too expensive, too far away, but we could hardly believe what a great deal this was!  We went over one night to check it out and I fell in love, it was beautiful, and kept in good shape and the lady was really concerned about the buyer being someone who would take good care of the piano because it had sentimental value, etc.  I could hardly believe my luck!  We went home and decided we'd check with moving companies to see how much it would be to move it to our place.

Zak contacted them; it was going to be almost as much as the piano and that meant it wasn't likely we'd be able to get the piano.  I was really upset.  He talked to the lady, but she was convinced that, with the help of a few guys and some moving equipment, we'd be able to do it; she needed the money and the piano out of her house.  I texted my guy friends and asked if they'd be willing to help us move the piano in that weekend.  Bryan texted back about using a moving company and before I knew it, a few texts later, he was insisting that we let him and Chad pay for the movers as an early Christmas/birthday gift--it turns out they were planning on getting me a keyboard anyways, so they wanted to do this for me.  I cried a bit at work, I was so blown away by their generosity.

A few days later we were able to move the piano into our place.  The moving company I contacted were very nice, professional and quick.  I was so thrilled, I played for about 2 hours straight that night!  Since moving it in, I have been gathering lots of piano music and trying to get back to my 'old piano skills'.  It's been rough, some things are coming slower than I'd like, but at least I have something to practice on every day!

I am seriously so happy right now.  I'm so glad Zak found this piano, and that Bryan and Chad helped us out with it.  What great friends they are!  (When Bryan came over with the cash, he gave me a hug and a kiss and said, 'Don't you know you're family by now?')  I wake up, walk out to the living room and look at my beautiful piano.  The next step is to get it tuned, I've emailed a few local piano tuners in the area, but I need to save a little before I can do it.  It's a very nice piano, the keys don't really stick, the wood is nice and the stand for holding the music is really beautiful--all cut from one piece of wood.  It's a Baldwin Acrosonic, which dates to the mid 50s or 60s, I believe.

hard to see from the flash, but it's really nice

Anyways, that's the story of my piano!  It's wonderful and I'm a very lucky and thankful lady!

complete w/a globe she gave us--it's made from stones and gems, it's crazy cool