Rub a Dub Dub 2 Doggies in a Tub!

Anyone who knows me knows I love my pups! And anyone who has dogs know that they needs baths from time to time. I'm pretty lucky because my dogs don't require any extenisive grooming, but sometimes they smell, well, like dogs. So, today it was time to bust out the shampoo and fill the tub.

A bath is in her future.....

My dogs are smart, really smart. Somehow they know when I'm filling the tub for them and not myself. Honest! I even try to trick them by not bringing out their shampoo and towels until they are in the bathtub, but it doesn't matter. As soon as the water starts, Sam gets a nervous twitch and Daisy lays on her belly and hides under the bed. After dragging Daisy out and coaxing Sammy into the bathroom we are ready to begin! First I just plop Daisy in the water and she kinda looks at me like "Get me outta here!" Even though she can probably jump out she doesn't tryand either does Sam as I lift him (all 60+ lbs of him!!) into the tub. Now of course, as a proud dog mamma, you know I have to snap a few pics They humor me for about 30 secounds before Daisy starts whinning. 

"Maybe she won't see me under here"

After that, I get down to business. Shampoo them both, cream rinse to make them shiney and finally rinsing them clean and watching all that dirty dog water go down the drain. I tried to dry them as fast as I could to keep them from shaking water all over my bathroom.

Isn't she adorable?

 For some reason my dogs get absolutely crazy after then get out of the bathtub. They run circles around the bathroom and bark and try to jump up on me. I swear they are smiling! Jason says it is because they are happy to be clean. I know it's because they expect a nice piece of pupperoni after they endure the bathing ordeal. So it's off to the kitchen, where they are already waiting.  Pupperonies devoured, now they are curled up sleeping at my feet dreaming of later tonight when they can run through the woods and roll in the mud.

Somewhere out there....

Earlier today I came upstairs to find my five year old dog, Sammy staring out the window. I just stopped and watched him for a minute. I wondered what he was thinking about. What was he looking at so intently and why?  We live at the end of a cul du sac and there is only one other house on our road so there isn't much but a lot of trees. I think maybe he was looking for the fat groundhog we regularly see eating a mid morning meal, or perhaps he was searching for the deer that pass through every now and then. While I stood and watched him,I starting thinking how small his world is. He has our house and an acre of invisible fenced in yard to roam. That's it. That is absolutely everything to him. Sure, he goes on walks, boat trips, the occasional trip to  "grandma's" house for a cookout and, of course, the vet. But truly, Jason, Daisy, the cats and I are everything he has. It made me start thinking of my own life it terms of size.  The world is bigger than I could ever imagine. Millions of people with millions of life stories with millions of ideas, friends, families, pets, etc. Everyone with their own life and trying to do their best to follow their own path. I mean, just think about it, as I am here in my kitchen, sitting here typing this life is going on outside. Babies are being born, pictures are being taken, tears are being shed, hugs are being shared, hearts are being broken, people are falling in love and others are saying goodbye. I have been thinking about his all day. Wondering why I am me, what am I doing here and what should I be doing. They are questions I have been contemplating a lot lately. I feel like maybe I am a little closer to the answer than I was before, but maybe not. Maybe there are no answers, maybe we spend out whole lives looking for something that doesn't exist. Perhaps Sammy was just stopping to take a breath and enjoy the moment, or maybe he really was just looking for that groundhog.

My first post

Why this blog? I honestly don't know. A few of my friends have blogs, and I like to write so I thought I would give it a try. We'll see how long it lasts :). I'll apologize upfront because I am somewhat "technology impaired" so even though I have great ideas about this blog it may seem a little lacking in the beginning.

Everything in my life is totally upside down right now.  I recently lost my job in April. I worked at the worlds largest telecommunications company for over eight years before I was let go along with many of my close friends and people I have worked with for years. I still have mixed feelings about it. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad to be away from that job you can't even imagine! It's just I had no idea what being unemployed was actually like. Like I said, I had a full time job for over eight years. I figured that having all this time off would be like an ongoing vacation. I imagined getting caught up with things I had put off for years. My house would always be spotless. I would undoubtedly drop weight like crazy now that I had all the time in the world to exercise. Sadly, that isn't what happened. It's weird to have a purpose for eight years and wake up one morning and be faced with the decision "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?" It was so much harder than I could even imagine. For the first couple of days we kind of just detoxed, relaxed and got everything in order. After that, things just go weird. I became so depressed and just lost. I got further and further away from my running that I so desperately loved last summer, and work started piling up around the house. I had no energy and began to get depressed. I realized that my job hadn't been what was taking away all the things I wished I could do and accomplish. It was just an excuse. With my excuse gone, I had to face real issues in my life and I couldn't. Now I am starting to want to face things and work them out rather than avoid them. I am still not really working. I have my real estate license but the market is horrible and, to be completely honest, it is really hard! Another sad part of losing my job is I did not lose the weight. In fact, I gained back most of what I lost last summer. I kept it off until the beginning of this Summer and then most of it came back. I feel absolutely horrible about it. Even though I am trying to run again, I do have nearly the drive or determination I had before. I really hate dieting and talking about weight, but it is so frustrating to be caught up in the vicious weight loss cycle again. UGH! I signed up and paid for the Akron 1/2 marathon and it is 7 weeks away so I hope that motivates me to get my run on! So we shall see how that goes. I plan on blogging about some of my runs in the future.
Even though there are some very serious things I need to figure out I am glad to have the extra time to cuddle with my two favorite dogs, Sam and Daisy. They are my babies and I love them so much! I am grateful to have them in my life.  I never had dogs growing up, and always figured myself more of a cat person, but once I got my dogs it was love at first sight! I guess that is enough for now. I'm sure my upcoming posts will be more exciting! I hope someone actually read this far!