Life with Birdie and More

Hello Hello!

Here's what I've been up to. I apologize that this post will feature a lot of Birdie, but I'll try to mix in some other things too.

I took all of last week off to be home with Birdie. She mostly played, slept, and went to the bathroom a lot... and I watched her like a hawk. It was a lot of work to keep up with her! Here are some of the pictures I took of her. My phone is FULL of Birdie pics now. :-)

Look at my sweet angel face!

Someone discovered sticks and now cannot resist them.

We took her to the public market. Everyone LOVED her, but we will never take her again as it made shopping nearly impossible. Anna was so patient. :-)

She also discovered bark. And leaves. And rocks. Everything goes straight in her mouth. And then I fish it out.

She went to the liquor store.

She taught her first clarinet lesson.

And she took her first car trip to Buffalo. Someone was very sleepy!

She has also received many gifts!! Thank you to Anna, Will and Rose, Lani, Nancy, Andy's parents, and my parents!!!

Ok, thank you for indulging me. Onto other happenings!

Our friend Ran stayed with us for 5 days. We were all students at Eastman and have kept in touch ever since. He's a good guy and very good house guest. He taught us a card game that we played several nights, so that was fun - I always love games.

When we went to the public market, Andy and I bought some different herbs. Now we have our own little garden!

I also spent some time reorganizing the kitchen. Check out the beauty of this drawer.

For Father's Day, we went to Buffalo to see Andy's family. My dad was hiking Mt. Rainier with my mom - I'm so jealous!!! But our trip to Buffalo was nice, and Andy made an awesome rhubarb pie.

On Monday night, Andy and I went to Anna's to watch the US Women's Soccer game. I hadn't seen Poco and Otis since we had gotten Birdie. After being around a 2 pound pup for a week, her cats looked mammoth!!!! Here they are showing off their feline fun house. :-)

And there you have it! I went back to work on Monday and Tuesday, took Wednesday off to hang out with Birdie girl while Andy went to Toronto, and now I'm back to the grind again. I can't wait to get home!

BIRDIE GURL!!!!!

Puppy girl is all ours!!!!!!!!

We picked her up on Sunday morning at 11:30am. I was so excited/nervous on the drive out to get her. I'll admit I felt very guilty taking her away from her mom and litter mates, but I guess that's just a part of life.

She took the car ride home like a champ. I'm soooo glad she does well in a car. Our dog Cookie would throw up every time she had to ride in a car. Phew! Glad we won't have to relive that!

I have a gajillion pictures I want to share with you guys, so I'll try to be brief. I'll be honest I don't really know what is normal for a new puppy, but on the whole I think she's doing pretty well. She seems to be picking up on her name. She has definitely accepted Andy and I as her new pack. And she seems pretty smart in terms of learning the stairs and walking on a leash. She's not eating very much, but I imagine that will change as she gets more comfortable. She also WAILS when she is first put in her crate. Andy is not exactly enforcing the crate rules, so I'm sure that plays into it. She already has him wrapped around her little paw. :-)

Ok picture time!!

So there she is! Our little Birdie Gurl. :-)

Final Days of Freedom

Hello! We have Birdie gurl now, and life as we know it has turned upside down. I'll get to her in my next post, but for now I thought I'd share with you the last few days of life before puppy.

I wrapped up Job #1 (before now having this week off) with a board meeting presentation for the Rochester Philharmonic League - a group of volunteers I work very closely with. It was their final meeting of the season, so they had a cookie cake! Cookie cake is something I never really had growing up. It still seems a little strange to me, but I must say I enjoyed it.

One of my coworker's dogs also paid us a visit at Job #1. I met Chuck the beagle when he was a brand new puppy. He sure is a lot bigger now!

And I also went in for a physical, just to have one since it had been a long time. I ended up getting a tetanus booster shot :-( and was told I have a mole that I need to have looked at. I'm falling apart!!! Here is a picture of the suspicious mole. You are welcome.

On Saturday I worked Job #2 and then ran off immediately to make it to Andy's cousin's wedding. The bizarre thing about this wedding is that Andy's cousin (the groom) was marrying my coworker's (Job #1) brother's step-daughter (the bride). Did you follow that? What a small world!

Austan and Gloria got married in a church in Chili, NY. Austan's dad (Andy's uncle) is a reverend, so he preformed the service. I thought that was pretty cool.

They had the most beautiful day for a wedding. How come I didn't get weather like that?!

We had an hour or so to kill between the ceremony and the reception, so Andy's side of the family all headed to a nearby sports bar for drinks and appetizers. It was pretty fun!

We weren't sure whether or not there would be alcohol at the wedding, so as you can see, Greg (Andy's cousin) did a good job of making sure it wouldn't be needed, lol.

The reception was at a banquet hall called, "The Diplomat."

It turns out... there was a bar!

The food was actually really good. It was typical wedding buffet food, but it was reaaaally tasty! And of course they had wedding cake, which I always look forward to.

One of the bride's sisters did a dance to honor their father who had passed away. I can't imagine getting married without my dad. So sad.

The bride and groom seemed to have a really good time, which is what it's all about. And I had a really nice time with Andy and the rest of his extended family. It was a really fun night!

Next up.... BIRDIE GURL!!!!!

One Busy Wednesday

Hello Friends! I thought after my busy weekend of work things that my week would be nice a calm. Not quite... Monday wasn't so bad, but Tuesday was long as always (both Job #1 and #2) and yesterday was PACKED.

First I had Job #1. Then Andy picked me up and we headed straight to Buffalo to have dinner with his family. It was his brother's birthday so we all celebrated together. Happy birthday Chris! The big 2-8!

We left Buffalo around 8:00pm, so you'd think we'd head home and go to bed like normal people. Nope! Will's mom was visiting from Texas, so we headed over to their place to meet her and hang out for a bit. Rose had made a delicious rhubarb pie, so that was a bonus!

We didn't get to bed until midnight. Not exactly ideal for a weekday for sure. Anna headed for Omaha this morning, so my day today began extra early with a trip to the airport. I know it sounds weird, but I love taking Anna to the airport!

When she got in the car she presented me with a bag full of Birdie presents. Auntie Anna is so nice!!! Along with treats and toys was this...

She is going to look ridiculously cute!!!! Thank you Auntie Anna!

I'll be honest. Birdie's impending arrival is occupying 75% of my thoughts right now. I've been hurrying to finish my puppy training books - I even read out loud to Andy on our drive to and from Buffalo yesterday. Here's a video that I received of her playing with her littermates. I have probably watched it 30 times at this point. :-) 

The other 25% of my brain is occupied with thoughts of my Mema. Her health is declining and she's going in for a procedure this morning. Hopefully all will go well and she'll feel better soon. :-)

And that's about it! Today is less busy but still not a walk in the park. After Job #1 I am going to participate in a market research study. I love doing those - getting money to give my opinions?? Sounds like my dream job!!!