Welcome 2012

Today is a bit of a lazy day here at our house.  We got to sleep in, and have been lounging our PJs all day!  Rene's been enjoying some down time playing with his new Nintendo DS games and I've been crafting away.  Here's hoping you are having a nice relaxing and enjoyable start to your 2012 as well!

 Here's Stitch in his very dapper new collar (made by me)...

He's starting off the year on the right foot looking cute as ever!  Though I may be a little biased!  More crafty pics to come later!

On a side note, I postponed the start to my detox one day to tomorrow.  My family always had pork and sauerkraut for New Years day.  And now I've actually gotten Rene to eat it too!  So we couldn't pass up tradition.  

I looked into the reasoning behind the pork and sauerkraut tradition since in Texas and Florida no one seemed to eat it, and I just figured it was a northern thing.  Down south everyone eats black eyed peas for good luck in the New Year.  So I decided to see where the pork and kraut tradition started and why.

In looking around online I found that the tradition goes back to the Pennsylvania Dutch and New Englanders and it is said that eating this on January 1st would bring luck and prosperity to you in the new year!  

It seems the reasoning for the New Years day foods are pretty much the same.  

So are you a black eyed peas person or pork and kraut person to start off your new year?

Help Make Stitch a Star!

I would love it if you would visit Petsmart's Photo Contest and vote for Stitch!
Just click on the link above and click "vote" you can visit each day and vote!

He would love the chance to be in a Petsmart commercial! And I mean he's just so cute who could resist?

Grapefest

As I mentioned earlier today, this past Saturday Rene and I went to Grapevine, TX to attend Grapefest. It's a nice relaxing day of walking around and the largest people's choice wine tasting in Texas so that means lots of fun! It was nice to enjoy a little wine and relax away from work and school stuff to say the least. We're getting much better at this whole self photo thing aren't we?

My favorite part of Grapefest (aside from the wine of course) is that you get pick up lots of fun wine themed decorations for the house! We added this one in place of some wall decals by the sink that had started to peel.
My favorite item of the day though I must say is this little piece of art work....

Does this make us one of "those" dog people? I sure hope not-plus who doesn't love an Aussie with a glass of wine right? I mean it looked too much like Stitch to pass up!

Tuesday Morning Fail

Sometimes no matter how motivated you are your body will tell you no. That's what happened to me this morning. I had every intention of getting up at 5am today, doing some yoga to get balanced for the day, and then taking Stitch on his walk before making breakfast and getting ready for work.

I was even wide awake at 4am! However, I should have taken that and gotten up at 4 rather than trying to go back to sleep....because when 5am rolled around, I just could not make myself get up. It was a bit of a Tuesday morning fail on my part....

Needless to say tonight now I'll have to make time for the typical gym work out and yoga and then hopefully as the sun goes down it won't be too hot around 9pm to take the little man on a walk.

I think sometimes that I should go without a morning plan, maybe then when my body wakes me up I'll take the hint rather than waiting around for the alarm clock...

Feeling Productive Thanks to the Pup!

I am feeling pretty productive this morning and it's only 6:30! I must say that it's all Stitch's doing though.

With the weather in Dallas getting into the 100+ range my 11am daily and well into the evenings past 8pm it isn't ideal weather to walk the little man. However, with Rene being gone this week for work he's a little sad and no walks me even sadder :(

So this morning I decided I would start just getting up about an hour earlier than normal to take him for a 20-25 minute walk before it got too hot. After our walk I was able to enjoy my egg whites and turkey bacon, OJ and a cup of coffee before starting to get ready for work.

Starting the day off with a little mile long walk was really nice because it's super quite outside and it was nice to wake up without any real stress just yet.

It was nice to be able to check in on my email and catch up with my blogs that I follow from home as compared to during the day at work too.

By 6:30 I felt like I was wide awake and ready to go! So I guess this may be a new routine, though who knows how much Rene will like it when he gets home--oh well at least it will last for the 2 weeks that he's gone this month!

Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think. ~Chinese Proverb

Puppy Update!

Rene just gave me a call with wonderful news! There isn't anything wrong test wise with little Stitch! They think that since he had a little bit of pancreatitis 2 week ago his system is just still being very sensitive to higher fat foods. We feed Stitch Organix which is a high quality organic wheat free food so it's not like we were feeding him puppy chow but apparently his little tummy needs some more time to recoup and that should make him better! I am relieved to say the least! Now it's back to work!

Inside the box...

Sorry for taking so long to post what was inside my box from yesterday...we had a sick puppy when we got home from work last night :( so Stitch is on his way back to the vet again this morning. He even had to sleep in his crate last night which hasn't happened since last summer, it was quite sad. I'll be sure to update when we find out what's wrong with the little guy.

To continue from yesterday inside the box was a cute pair of rain boots from the private sale!

I had been looking at boots like these (just because I think they are cute, and functional) for a while now, and since the "deal" that I got was about 75% off the original price I couldn't refuse!

Stitch's Snow Day

As promised I decided to post a little video of Stitch enjoying his time in the snow. This is the first time he's seen it since he was a tiny puppy about a year ago...sadly today the sun came out and the snow is almost gone, but he did enjoy it while it lasted!

Someone is ready for Christmas!

I somehow have let the entire month of December fly by me without making any posts about Christmas or the holidays! It's just been busy with finishing up the semester and of course (story of my life) work.....

Nonetheless, little Stitch is very excited about his first Christmas at the Blanco house!

He and Nala have been sniffing around the presents for the last couple of days after we finally wrapped everything up and put them under the tree.

I promise that over this weekend I'll try to post some more of the little Florida vacay and Christmas with the Blancos.

No Puppy Party :(

It makes me sad to have to write this post because we were not able to have Stitch's birthday Paw-ty this past weekend...

We had a death in the family so Rene, Stich and I traveled up to Ohio last week. We were gone for the past week so as you can imagine we are trying to catch up with everything....school and work are pretty much taking up my life right now, and Rene of course is working until after midnight....

While it was nice to see family its always sad when the reason for everyone being together is one of a sad nature.

I promise to post some of the pictures of our adventure up north though (photos taken from the car so not really great) and of Stitch's first road trip!

The Invites are Sent!

It's official, the invites were sent out this morning for Stitch's first birthday party!

Now I just need to find the time to make some doggie gift bags and the menu!

Have a great Monday!

We’re planning a Paw-ty!

That’s right we are getting ready to plan little Stitch’s very first birthday party. Rene thinks that I am a bit crazy but I figure why not? We are looking to have a little 2 hour puppy birthday party with his little doggie friends (and their owners of course).

It won’t be anything too big but the place where we board Stitch has patio areas that we have rented out for a Saturday late afternoon and they also have a wine and beer bar so that the adults have something to enjoy while the puppies play.

Now I just need to finish up the invitations! (the start of the invite above) And of course make sure that the peanut butter puppy cake is ordered….let the party planning begin!

Stitch is Off to the "Hotel" Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first time that little Stitch will be going to the kennel overnight. I must admit that I am a bit worried/scared and wish that we didn’t have to leave him for a full week. I know that we would be doing the same thing in about a month reguardless because of our trip to Florida but nonetheless I still hate to leave him.


The one good thing is that I will be able to watch him in the “open play setting” from 7a-10p every day online. This is one of those issues that Rene and I knew would happen when we got the little man but he is just too cute to want to leave behind! I’m sure he will do fine but I can’t help but want to count down the hours that I’ll have between tomorrow at 8am when I drop him off and Friday at 5pm when I can pick him up.


The one good thing is at least I don’t generally have to travel as much as Rene and we can usually coordinate so that I am not out of town at the same times as him. It’s off to Columbia Maryland tomorrow morning for the week for some coporate training with the rest of the managers. If only I didn’t have homework and a group paper for my class and there was not a 40% chance of storms the entire time we are there it might even be enjoyable, then again I highly doubt it….

At least I get to look forward to the fact the I get to see my puppy and Rene on Friday, and Rene won't be traveling again for a little while at least.

The Graduate

We could not be more proud of little Stitch!

Yesterday he graduated from puppy training class. A star pupil if I do say so myself (but I may be biased).

The next challenge is that we have decided we are going to start doing agility training with him after watching the Purina Challenge on ESPN yesterday....

It's Almost March--Why are we getting snow? In Texas nontheless!

OK so yes I understand that March is a little over 2 weeks away but still...do we really need to wake up to the snow covered ground this morning?!? Add to that it isn't going to stop until around midnight tonight!

On a side note at least little Stitch enjoyed the fluffy white stuff he found outside!

Getting Ready to Ring in the New Year--With a New Addition!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Did I mention that Dallas had a WHITE Christmas for the first time since 1997!! Here is a not so great picture as we were heading to church on Christmas Eve! And the snow kept coming down all night and we woke up to about 1-2 inches Christmas morning. Of course it was gone by the 26th but still a nice novelty.

Our Christmas was wonderful, we spent all day in our PJs and enjoyed being able to relax, watch movies, and just hang out without having to worry about work.

Then on Sunday we added an exciting new member to our family!

Allow me to introduce Stitch Blanco! He is a pocket Australian Shepard born on October 20th of this year. We couldn't help but take him home from the pet store when we met him. He is quite a handful and now we are getting to work on the house training but he is love able and energetic and a perfect way to round out the Christmas holiday!

It is hard to believe that we are getting ready to start another DECADE isn't it?! Does it really seem like 10 years ago now we were all worried about Y2K? Well all I can say is that I am ready to start off 2010 and enjoy everything that comes along with it!

Up next back to the wedding recaps!