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!