A day without a walk...

leaves the dogs in a constant state of hyperactivity. Since Nick's first walk last week, we've been taking the dogs on a walk every day. It's usually just a short walk, sometimes crammed in when one of us only has 15 minutes to spare, but it's a walk none the less and the dogs are WAY calmer at night. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take the dogs on a walk tonight before Aaron had to go to work, so right now, they are running laps around the coffee table chasing eachother. There are occasional yelps coming from the puppy and yells coming from "Mommy" also known as me. The good news on the puppy front is that Nick has learned how to sit and shake, although he hasn't perfected it yet, because he's usually too excited.

So Aaron and I had the whole weekend off of work!! He got done mid-Friday, since it was raining, and didn't have to go back until 8am today!! I still had to work Friday night, but we both had Saturday and Sunday off. I spent most of Saturday dress shopping with my brother's fiance, Becky. It was a very fun and successful day!! Aaron and I went out to dinner on Saturday night, then came home and watched a movie together. Sunday we went to Brunch (not at the hotel!!) and then went to a movie together. We spent our afternoon relaxing, although I did have to fit a little homework in. Overall, it was a great weekend!!

After attending a few more classes, I still think I'll like all of my classes. My professor in my Race and Ethnic relations class really loves what he's teaching, gets a little overexcited, and sweats a lot, but I think it'll be interesting as the semester progresses. My Philosophy professor has a very dry sense of humor, saying things like "I went to the doctor yesterday and they poured liquid nitrogen on this thing on my forehead. It won't attack you unless you look directly at it." and then starts right into lecture without pausing. I think my listening class is going to be the most worthless, which is a little disappointing, because I was hoping it would be a good class. My Biological Psychology class is going to be the most difficult, but I also have the most friends in that class, so I should have plenty of "study-buddies" to make it through. I haven't really gotten a feel for my other Psych class, because it's only met once, but I know I like the professor, so it should be good. I might have already said some of this in another entry, but that's how I feel after attending class 4 times. I still have another 40 times to go though...

I bet you can't guess what this post is about...

Steve has decided that whatever the puppy is playing with is the best toy in the house. Even if we give them both a rawhide or a Kong filled with the same surprise, Nick's is automatically better to Steve. The one toy that they can "share" is the tug-rope. I think it's absolutely adorable (imagine that!!) when the two of them are playing with it and I was elated when I managed to get a good picture of it!!

I took Nick on his first official walk today. We went all the way around the block!! For him though, it was more like we went around 3 or 4 blocks, because he LOVED to just run circles around me as we went. I think my plan worked beautifully, because Nick took a nap after that.

Beyond the dogs...Classes started on Monday. I don't dislike any of them yet, which is a good sign. There's one more class that only meets Thursdays that I'm pretty sure I'll like, because I've had the professor before and I enjoyed her teaching. So the good news is, I think I'll like my classes this semester. I'm taking Race and Ethnic Relations, Moral Theory and Practice, Listening, Brain and Behavioral Psychology, and Social Cognition along with Psych 201, which introduces Psych majors to the professors and their research. I think there'll be a lot of reading involved, but that's far better than Physics and cherry pits (you know what I'm talking about Trishia!!)

Most of my classes have been crammed into MWF, so I'm working in the sales office at the Hotel on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Once I actually learn what all I'm supposed to do, or more specifically, what all they want me to do, I think I'll like it. I spent a lot of yesterday waiting, learning, doing something, then waiting some more. To top it all of, I got the cold or severe allergies or minor flu or whatever Aaron's been sick with for over a week now, so I felt horrible when I was there.

Overall, starting school and the new job hasn't been too bad, but it's only been 3 days, so I'll have to see where the semester takes me.

Nick's Name

I'm sure that the last few entries have made it seem as though the puppy is our entire life now, and that would be a correct assumption. Along with work, taking care of the new puppy and Steve have taken up all of our time recently.

I want to make a clarification on why we named Nick "Nick" and not "Frank." Even without counting all of the comments that my mom and Steve made at the very end of the voting period, Nick was in second place to Frank. We decided to take the first and second place names into consideration and pick out the best option. Nick seemed to fit him better, which most people who have met him will agree to.

Anyways, my third class of the day has started and it's a class on listening, so I should probably pay attention!!

Hi!! My name is Nick. Wanna play with me?!?  

This is the entry you've all been waiting for!!

...but it might not have the answers you were looking for. Although we had a lot of people voting for the name Frank, there was also overwhelming support for the name Nick. The naming of our puppy is an important decision and with strong support for 2 great names, we don't want to make the wrong decision. Stay tuned for our final decision.

How quickly our boys learned to love eachother!!

Okay, so "love" might be a strong word, but how cute do they look??

I had the day off today, so I spent my day watching the puppy, taking him outside every hour or whenever he ate, and playing fetch with Steve. I honestly think I played fetch with Steve for about 6 hours straight and played with the puppy at the same time. It was great and a few hours into it, the boys were peacefully drinking out of the same bowl and napping side by side.

Stay posted to find out the puppies new name!! Whatever his name may be, he sure is a cutie though, isn't he??

We got a puppy!!

We got a puppy today!! We stopped at the ARL on our way to the fair, then took Steve down when we got back so he could meet the puppy. We made it there right at the cutoff time (thanks to Aaron for speeding just a little for me...), so we got to bring him home tonight!!

We can't quite decide on a name for our little puppy though, so we decided that there would be a vote!! You will have until midnight (CST) on Friday, August 19 to place your votes. Each person may cast only one vote. Votes will not be accepted after 12 PM and will be considered null and void if coming from a fake name.

The choices are:

A.) Chris

B.) Lance

C.) Frank

D.) Willy

E.) Nick

Make your votes quickly, before time runs out!! The results will be posted Saturday morning, August 20.

4/7 ain't too bad...

So the good news is, the odds have improved and 4/7 employees showed up for Brunch yesterday, up from 3/8 last week. I ended up serving again, but not making nearly as much money as a couple weeks ago. Either way, it wasn't too bad and I had an okay time. One person who wasn't there got fired the night before when she was caught stealing wine. The other two were no call-no shows. The excuse from one girl is classic. She was just too darn tired to come in. If that was a valid excuse for not showing up, I don't think I'd ever show up for a shift!!

I definitely wouldn't have shown up on Sunday. Aaron and I were out until 3 AM hanging out with his sister and brother-in-law. We ended up sleep deprived, but we (or at least I) had a good time. We also saw them Saturday morning for a few hours before work, but I mainly just played with Emma during that time. It was a weekend full of family, because my stepdad's brother showed up from Tennessee last night with his new wife, so we were over at my parents house to meet them and see a lot of his family that I haven't seen in years.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. Aaron and his dad are waiting on some supplies for a job they're doing, so he's able to take a day off and go to the State Fair with me!! I used to go every year with my family, but it's been probably 3 years since I've been, so I'm very excited. I also think it will be fun to experience the fair with Aaron for the first time. If a day at the fair isn't good enough by itself, we're also going to pick out a puppy!! I was looking at the Animal Rescue League website today (again!!) and there are 3 lab puppies that are 9 weeks old that were just brought in. There names are Arnie, Henry, and Rex. We like all of them, but we think we'd like Arnie or Henry best, because Rex has the same coloring as Steve and we want a dog that's different. You can go look at them at www.arl-iowa.org if you want to!! I'll keep you updated on his possible arrival!!

I think that pretty much summarizes the last few days. Oh, except for the lawn mowing. And believe me, I realize hos pathetic is makes me sound that I'm excited about this... I saw a flier at the post office about a kid who mows lawns, so we gave him a call. He only charges $12, so we thought we'd give him a try. Well, he came riding over on his push lawn mower, pulling a trailer behind him with a push mower, weed wacker, and leaf blower. He gave our lawn the royal treatment!! And we did the dishes, made and eat dinner while he was doing it!! It made for a very happy Aaron and Blakely.

My feet already hurt!!

Nothing too exciting has happened this week. I've worked every day this week, except Wednesday, when, I'll admit it, I didn't really accomplish much. I'm still on the search for a puppy, although I don't know if Aaron's still sold on the idea, because I've been getting Steve the dog into trouble to past couple days. Sometimes I just can't say no to him, because he's so cute. Oops!! I had renewed hope when Dana told me that my puppy I want in IC is still there, but I'm guessing he'll be kind of expensive and I don't know when I'd have time to go to IC soon... :-(

Work was crazy today and is going to be even crazier today. We have 3 big weddings tomorrow, one of them being a cater at Reiman Gardens, and another couple small events. With it being so close to the start of classes, a lot of the staff has quit and we're very short staffed, which is going to make tomorrow very difficult!! The bad news is, I'm already tired and cranky after today. Hopefully it will all end up going smoothly....although my years of experience tell me otherwise.

Aaron's sister, brother-in-law, and niece are in town this weekend. If all goes as planned, we should get to see them tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it very much. We haven't seen them since the 4th of July weekend and I'm sure that Emma has changed dramatically in that time. And plus too, I just love playing with kids/babies!!

Wish me luck with the crazy weekend!!

I want a puppy!!

I have been on a kick lately where I want a puppy!! It got even worse last week when I went to a petstore with the Cramers in Iowa City. I have been looking at the animal shelters websites and the ads in the papers. Today, Aaron was wonderful enough to take me to the Story County Animal Shelter and the Animal Rescue League in Ankeny. We saw some really cute dogs, but I really want a puppy that is only a few months old (3 at the most) and we didn't find any. We're thinking a lab or a beagle or a mix involving a lab or a beagle. We haven't found anything so far, not that we've been at it too entirely long. If anyone knows anyone who might know someone who knows anyone...with puppies please let us know!!

Surprise #1: Backyard Camping

I am planning a surprise for Aaron tonight, and of course, he couldn't let it go unchallenged. Lucky for me, he planned a wonderful surprise!! I worked for a while last night and we knew I'd get out at a decent time (around 10pm instead of midnight or later). Instead, I got done at 8:30, which messed up his timing a little, but he still pulled everything off wonderfully. I got home and was immediately instructed to change into some comfy clothes. I knew something great was up, because the dog was very excited and kept running towards the back door. Aaron led me outside and I saw our brand new tent set up and a fire ready to go in our fire-pit.

(View of our tent this morning, with our house in the background.)

We spent our evening making s'mores, grilling hot dogs, and enjoying the fire. Steve the dog spent the evening outside with us and was very well behaved. We repeatedly refilled his Kong with special liver paste that's in a can like EasyCheese, as well as marshmallows. He was amazingly well behaved, which makes me beam like a proud parent :-D

(Steve attempting to get melted cheese out of his Kong a few days ago)

We slept in our tent, with the dog, all night long. It was great and, once again beaming, I was thoroughly impressed with the dog!! There's a separate little room in our tent (which can be seen on the right hand side of the tent in the picture) just for pets. We didn't close Steve up in there, but we did put his big pillow in there and he slept there all night. All we had to do was say "Bed!!" if he got up and started wandering around and he immediately went back to bed.

Enough about our wonderful dog though...This morning I woke up to Aaron making me a campsite breakfast of pancakes and smokies wrapped in bacon, along with an apple juice. The best part was, he had all of the food outside with us all night. He made it like we were really camping!! I am thankful that he let me go inside to use the bathroom though, being that our neighbors are in very close proximity ;-)

Even though I have a great surprise planned for tonight, it's going to be tough to beat a night/morning as wonderful as this one!!

I guess most people choose "Not to work"

Friday night, when I got done working, some of my co-workers invited me over to one of my co-worker's (John's) to get "wasted." I turned them down, much to their dismay. The next day at work, they were all complaining about how hungover they were, but upon leaving that night, decided to go back over to John's to get wasted again. The next morning, as I was getting ready for work, Aaron called me and told me I might want to bring my serving gear, because 5 people didn't show up for work. (Background info: Normally, on Sundays, I cashier at our Sunday Brunch. We also have a host and 5-6 servers.) Given that 8 people were supposed to show up for work, 3 people showing up is not a good percentage. I happened to calculate it and only 37.5% of the staff showed up yesterday.

Now, I don't want anyone to think that this is a 'poor me, I had to work so hard' entry, because yesterday was great!! I got to work with my boyfriend and one of the few people that I actually like at work. The three of us worked really well together and helped eachother with our tables. We each made over $100 in tips and I never once felt like complaining about the people I was working with!!

My biggest problem with the whole situation is that 3 of the people who didn't show yesterday were what we call "No call, no shows," but the only punishment they got was a 3-shift suspension. What kind of a place lets people who just don't show up for their shifts keep their jobs?!? I have a feeling that this is just going to create a whole slew of people who just don't show up or show up late, and they'll get away with it!!

If anyone can explain to me what goes on in the mind of a "No call, no show" that makes it okay to that person, please, enlighten me!! Also, if you're in the Ames area or planning on being and would like to go out to a nice dinner at Audubon's Steak and Chop House, the restaurant at the hotel where I work, let me know and I'll get you a business card that'll get you a free appetizer. It will also help me win a contest and get tickets to the Iowa vs. Iowa State game. (Just a little plug for my own sake!!)

I'm off to be arts-and-craftsy now. I plan on making myself a gold star to wear to work tomorrow. (Yes, I'm serious!!)