A Life I Could Get Used To

This past weekend, we made the short trip down to Lake Blackshear to dog/house sit for my Mom and my stepdad. Now, house sitting for some people might be a drag, but for people who live on the Lake and leave the cooler full and the boat gassed up, NO PROBLEM! We headed down on Friday after work with our two dogs and Munson (our current tenant). We arrived on Friday evening just in time for a short boat ride and some fishing. It was a great way to unwind after a hard work week.

The purpose for our visit was to dogsit for Daisy (chocolate lab), Molly (maltipoo), and Amos (golden retriever). Amos is an outside dog who rides on the truck with my stepdad. He’s an awesome dog, and a miracle I might add. He is 17 years old and going strong. Molly and Daisy are inside dogs, so we had five dogs to keep track of in the house this weekend! I think I got a glimpse of what it’s like to have a lot of small children. If it’s anything like this weekend, you’re doing constant head counts…one, two, three, four, where’s number five??? “Joe, where’s Molly?” “Joe, is Daisy over there?” “Joe, have you seen Charlie?” We made it through the weekend without anyone getting hurt or lost, so I consider that an accomplishment!

Saturday morning, we got up and went to the golf course to play 9 holes together. We had a very enjoyable time on a beautiful morning. The only bump in the road was the snake that Joe ran over with the golf cart. He didn’t see it, but don’t you worry…snakes DO NOT get past these eyes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him in time, so we ran over the dirty little fellow. No worries, he wasn’t harmed, just startled. (As much as I hate snakes, it still makes me sad to think that I could hurt one.) I ended up pretty well in Joe’s lap. And, his comment was “Wow, you really are afraid of them.” like I’ve been making it up all this time…I’m no damsel in distress. I don’t have time to play those games. Oh, and of course, “It was just a rat snake.” They always are, honey :)

I finally recovered from the snake incident about the time we arrived back at the lake and were greeted with a thunderstorm. Luckily, we aren’t the type to let a little rain get in the way of a good time. So, when the rain died down, we loaded up the boat and headed out for a three hour tour, a three hour tour. Ok, so it was actually more like an hour and a half, but we had a fabulous time. After about thirty minutes on the water, the clouds cleared out and made way for a beautiful afternoon. What a great weekend…if anyone has a beach house and needs a dogsitter, please keep me in mind because I could get used to this! I’ve included some pictures from the weekend below.

Champ and Mom

Molly the Navigator

Boat rides are old hat to Daisy

So much better than a car ride :)

The fearless captain.

Introductions

So, I'm taking the plunge and starting a blog! I've been reading blogs for a while now, and I've been toying with the idea of starting my own blog because I love them so much. But, I'm really not sure if I'll be good at it or if I'll even have anything worth writing about! But either way, here we go!


I'm a civil engineer. I absolutely live in a man's world! Most of the time it's great but sometimes I miss the female connection. I work in one of the quirkiest offices you could imagine. There's a lot of singing, dancing, and just all around unique and interesting discussions...these are not your steriotypical engineers - and thank goodness for that! I enjoy what I do well enough to keep at it until my dream job comes along. And, since I'm not even sure what my dream job would be, I'm not expecting that anytime soon. I always think it's pretty sad when I find myself saying, "If I wasn't doing this, then what else would I do??" But hopefully I'm not alone in that! I work with some really great people that I look forward to hanging out with each day, so I guess I can't ask for too much more than that. Now, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my fam...


First, there's the husband. We've been together for 7 years and very happily married for nearly 5! Hard to believe...it's gone by SO fast. We have an amazing time together, and apparently, my love for dogs is contageous because he now loves them just as much as me. He's a great catch...I'm not sure how I got so lucky! He sells insurance, so we're a good balance because (1) I don't know a thing about insurance! and (2) I can't sell ANYTHING nor do I want to!

Then there's my pride and joy, Champ! Champ and I have been together for 8 years, so Champ was my main man before Joe came along. Champ and I have been through a WHOLE lot together. And guess what...he loves me and understands me probably more than anyone! One look into those eyes, and I feel complete peace. As you can tell, he's starting to show his age, but I'm not worried because I've made him promise to live until atleast age 20. AND, he still acts like a complete puppy a lot of the time! Champ loves nothing more than being petted, and he alerts you to this fact each time you stop petting him by clocking you with one of his paws.

Our more recent addition is Charlie, our 4 year old female black lab. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She's our sweet little timid lady who still stays in a crate because she lacks the ability to control her jaws around my furniture! We've replaced more furniture than I care to list here. But, she's absolutely worth it (and that wasn't even said through clenched teeth!). She's pretty neurotic. Champ is just laid back and goes with the flow, but Charlie has certain things that she loves that make her obnoxious! For one, she absolutely loves to eat more than any dog I've ever met. Second, she loves to go for a walk. If I even put my tennis shoes on, she starts whining and running for the front door...it's quite annoying when I'm putting my tennis shoes on with another task in mind! And, she's totally a daddy's girl. As much as I try to win her over, she's having none of it! You may also hear her referred to as Choo Choo, Chewley, Nugget, Pickle, etc...she just one of those dogs that you HAVE to nickname.

So, that's my family. Sometimes I think about what life would be life without the pups - an extremely clean house, nice furniture, the ability to wear white articles of clothing, etc., but you know what, nothing on this planet sounds more depressing and lonely to me. The sacrifices that we make to have these two in our lives are overwhelmingly worth it...without question! Hopefully some day we'll have some biological children, but until then, we are loving every minute of the time we get to spend with these two dogs.