Puppy sitting

Meet Lily...my mom's 3 mo.-ish blue heeler / cocker spaniel puppy.  I wasn't looking forward to watching her this weekend bc she seems to be the dumbest dog in the world, but as I have gotten to know her a little better, she melted my heart and she's really grown on us.  Luka looks at her like she's a dim wit and doesn't really entertain her constant need to play (he takes himself very seriously and often forgets he is a dog), but occasionally he lets the facade fall and gets crazy with her doing laps around the yard and using her as a puppy-soccer ball.

Luka will be glad when we take Lilly back home tomorrow and he is an only child again, but at least we completed the "2-people / 2-dog family" trial run and are open to finding Luka a sister.

       

and I taught her to sit...miracle in itself.

Ba Ba Ba B-day - Another year older...almost.

So it's not yet my birtday... but some of my greatest friends precede me by just mere weeks, and every year I am given fair warning that here comes the ol' B-day, another year older.  Usually I am not much of a numbers/age girl (if you ask me how old I am, 9 months out of the year I just guess in the 23-25 range), but THIS year, I am very coherently turning Twenty-Six Years Old, and I'm very pleased with this number.  Not yet 30, but no longer in the carefree college 20's.  Like hey, I'm 70% grown-up, 30% clueless.  I could really care less about the number because age should be based on how you feel, right?

Ok so there's the problem.  I feel like I'm 50.  Life is good, but the body is slow and creaky.  Metabolism is coming to a halt, everything more than ten feet away is a blur, I find it hard to concentrate and remember things from moment to moment, joints are cracking and popping, I have a mean thick gray hair that keeps growing at the very top of my head, and I'm developing a bad case of vertigo / car sickness / heights phobia.  Oh God.  I eat pretty healthily (minus the occasional fast food splurge) and could use to exercise more, but I guess it's time to put in a little more effort. 

Here is to getting a headstart on 26 and making more meals at home, taking my vitamins, walking the dog EVERDAY, using my lunch break to actually breathe fresh air, reading more books (watch less TV -- it's poisoning my mind), stop chewing my nails, AND (here comes the big one) getting glasses.  Yowzer.  Not too hard right? 

Well step #1 begins tomorrow when I wake up early to help my sister with her garden, go out to breakfast with D and order a light meal instead of a massive Omlette-con-colesterol, and then he is taking me to my eye doctor appointment to pick out some bomb frames and get my ojos dialated.  yarg.

Hopefully, a month from now when I turn 26, the ol' body will also feel 26.  :)

Mission Accomplished

Family camping weekend went off without a hitch. No flat tires, dead car batteries, twisted ankles, or family fights.  Here is proof:

high protein breakfast

boys trying to figure out their tent

San Gregorio Resevoir

testing the waters

 

Mr. Luka discovered he can swim!  He was so happy when figured it out and would take off to go swim by himself

he was a very wet happy dog

Favorite things - September

#1 -- Pretty sure that I would look forward to going to work if I had one of these.  When the phone won't stop ringing, got all kinds of chaos, and I'm working those late nights...little fishies just glub glub glub.  I'd name em something festive of course...News and Nizzle, 2 and 11, Jack and Ginger... all things on the mind while working.  Hopefully they will be able to survive the stress, no?

#2 -- Gray nailpolish:  slightly emo, goes with everything, is the color of the majority of my t-shirts.  Love.

 #3 -- Collapsible food and water bowls from REI.  Luka gets super dehydrated after every car trip because he drools his babas all over the place and tries to lick his way through the windows.  When we do get out of the car he is really thirsty but all I have to offer is the water I can pour into my hand.  Lame.  Now he has his own little bowls, but is still Lester the Molester. 

#4 -- the smell of roasted green chile mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  It's definitely a sign that fall is here and makes me wonder if I can find some space for an extra freezer to store the green gold.

Fresh Start

So excited about my NEW tent and NEW sleeping bag. I feel so grown up and bonified. I've been waiting to feel like this for so long. Who knew investing in camping gear would do the trick? Still on the list to attain full adulthood: new hiking boots, camping stove, camping pads, and a little fit-together pots/pans/utensils/mess kit. I plan on using all of these things for the rest of my entire life...such a commitment.

Why is it that here at the end of the summer, I am just now getting geared up for camping? There isn't much time before it gets super cold in the mountains and my camping window is almost closed so I am following up last weekend's friendly camping trip, with a family camping trip this weekend. This family trip will test every patient bone in my body. Not only will Dave be absent and I will have to be the woodsy, fire starting, mountain girl, but I will also have to keep everyone's tempers at a cool 60 degrees.

Eventhough this is my last outdoor-sleeping trip of the year...I may still pop the ten in the living room, just to get my money's worth and make sure we really are meant to be life partners :)