Food Lovers

For all of you food lovers out there I have found a website that will soon occupy many hours of your time. I am always looking for new recipes and different things to cook which is when I stumbled across this little gem. I made the Raspberry Swirl Cheeseake Cupcakes (and they were simply delightful) a couple days ago and my menu for the next two weeks is comprised solely of recipes from this site.

The website is called Annie's Eats.

It will change your life. Seriously.

Moving?

Our lease at our current apartment is up on September 3rd. We have known this date was coming and also knew there was a possibility that our rent would be going up after this date. This fear was confirmed two days ago. If we stay where we currently are rent will go up $120 a month. Geeze! Needless to say, we will be moving. That means that we have 35 to find somewhere to live and move all of our stuff there. All of this on top working our normal days and having a 5 day San Diego vacation. It is going to be a CRAZY 35 days. haha.

Wish us luck!

Puppy Humor

These last couple weeks Ameya's little personality has really started to come out a lot more. Since we are all she has now, it would seem that she has put all her effort into showing Hunter and I just how much she loves us. Let me tell you, she is a very adorable little puppy. Here are some highlights:

-She is sooooo excited to see us after we have been away if only for half an hour. The second she sees us her not so little ears will go flat to her head, her tail will wag just like a windshield wiper, and she will run and jump and shiba scream/whimper because she can't quite contain her excitement. You can't help but love her.

-Because she is a puppy and sleeps a LOT, we have the opportunity to see her wake up quite a few times a day. Whenever this happens she will run up to either Hunter or me in the same fashion as mentioned in the previous bullet point and lick us until she is 100% certain we know she is there and awake. haha.

-Whenever she is the least bit scared or even when she just wants to be close to us really, she will run up to us and jump in our laps, pressing her little body against ours.

-She is very particular about what she eats. She mostly only likes meat and meat related things. She will only do tricks for certain treats. If I try to get her to sit or lay for a piece of say, watermelon, she just looks at me like "Really? You think that is an adequate reward for all that effort on my part? Hardly." haha.

-We have also noticed that she has acquired quite a few "Jimmerisms" as we like to call them. Every once in a while she will do something very out of character for her, but something that Jimmer did on a regular basis.

She is such a funny little puppy!

Yesterday morning she did quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen her do. Oh, how I wish I would have caught it on camera. I will try my best to describe it in words but I'm sure it won't even begin to give the visual justice.

She was playing with one of her toys that we put milkbones in. She got half of one and put it in her mouth in such a way that I couldn't actually see the treat, but I could tell there was something in her mouth because it was opened awkwardly. She then ran back and forth between our couches like she was looking for something. After about three rounds of that, she jumped down onto her bed and started frantically digging at one of the edges. She then very carefully extracted the bone from her mouth and gently laid it down where she had been digging. After inspecting to make sure of I don't know what, she scooted back and pushed her nose forward as if burying the bone (with the dirt she had just dug from the hole? haha). She did that about 5 times before stopping and running on her merry way. What? haha. It was seriously hilarious. I really wish we had a collar like they do on UP so we could understand what exactly is going through her mind.

Yesterday was just a weird day for her in general. We got her a couple new toys to play with because her taste in toys is slightly different than Jimmer's and all the toys we had were tailored to Jimmer's liking. When we let her play with them, she whined almost non stop. She seemed to be enjoying them, but kept whining. We aren't sure what to think about it. Again, if only we had one of those collars. haha. If there are any dog whisperers out there who know whats going on, please feel free to enlighten us.

It All Ends

More specifically, it all ends tomorrow starting at 6 pm.

Even though we are going to be road tripping to Denver all day and have a busy weekend planned, we had to make time for Harry Potter! We couldn't stop our tradition of seeing the movie the day it comes out. Same as when the last one came out work schedules prevented us from seeing the midnight showing, but lets be honest here, I don't last very long past midnight no matter how badly I may want to.

We have had our tickets for a couple weeks now and we can't wait to see it! Here's to hoping part 2 is as good as part 1 was!

Puppy Class

These last few weeks I have had the opportunity to participate in Puppy Class with Ameya. Since she could be an unruly little puppy, we decided it would be best if we had help in training her. It was definitely a good decision. Because of puppy class she can sit, lay, stay, and we are still working on shaking. She know that when she sits or does other things as requested, she is rewarded with food. Food is a very good motivating factor for her.

Because of her little attitude, she always had everyones attention. All the other puppy owners were so surprised at her spunk and feistiness. Jimmer trained her well.

Last week she graduated from puppy class! I'm not really sure exactly what that means, except that she is probably an awesome little puppy. haha.

We got to wear graduation caps and everything!

This was most of the class. There were a few that were there some of the weeks that didn't make it to graduation, but this is a good sampling.

We start the Intermediate class next Tuesday. We'll see what other cool tricks Ameya can learn.

do blondes really have more fun?

I had all these great blog posts planned coming into the month, but in light of losing Jimmer they all seem a little meaningless. However, in an attempt to continue life as normal I will post at least some of them. 

Almost 2 weeks ago I went blonde! Well, not entirely blonde, but more of a honey or caramel color. The goal was to go as light as possible without destroying my hair and this is the result:

Very few people knew I was making this drastic change. My goal was to surprise my husband and my family, which is why I hadn't posted this earlier.

As far as having more fun, I'll have to have a couple more weeks to decide but I'll get back to you on that one.

Teach Me How to Jimmer

As you may have already heard, our little Jimmer was in a fatal accident on July 6th. It is a terrible loss for us and we are still struggling to adjust to life without him. We were lucky enough to catch most of his little quirks on camera. Looking at them helps us to remember how happy he made us instead of how sad we are that we lost him. We want to share some of the pictures that embody just who our little Jimmer was.

More often than not, he sat awkwardly like a human. This became even more funny when he learned how to shake and would try to do so when sitting like a human - it normally ended up in him falling over.

He certainly loved his sleep and would usually do so curled up in a ball of some sorts. He also liked to sleep somewhere close to us whether on the couch right by us or on the floor beside the couch.

He didn't particularly love baths, but he put up with them really well. He put up with pretty much anything, really, as long as it made us happy.

The first few days we had him, he was terrified of pretty much everything and wouldn't go more than 5 feet away from us. This got better with time, but he always was a very cautious puppy.

Speaking of cautious, his first few trips down the stairs were quite an endeavor. His leash quickly became something that empowered him. Whenever he was afraid to try a jump or go somewhere unfamiliar, he was much braver when he was on his leash.

He LOVED other dogs - all shapes, sizes, and breeds. Although he was only 10 pounds on a good day, he acted like he was just as big as the biggest dog around. Size was not an issue for our Jimmer.

He was a very good traveler, however, he didn't really act like a dog in the car until the last month or so when he found out how great it was to stick his head out the window. He would run from one side of the backseat to the other so he could see and smell everything.

Sometimes he pick the most awkward spots to fall asleep. You can't help but think this is absolutely adorable though.

A lot of the time he was a quite cuddly puppy.

He was always eager to please.

True to the Jack Russell he was, Jimmer loved to dig and he was GOOD at it! He practiced almost every night on his bed (more on that later) to perfect his skills. 

After he was neutered, he was a little confused due to the anesthesia and ended up sleeping under his bed instead of on it.

When we got Ameya, they quickly became inseparable. On of the things they loved doing was sharing the same toy. They had lots of options for toys, but they always had to play with the same one at the same time.

We didn't see him pant until we had him for at least 3 months. Doesn't he look so happy?

We got him in the winter and he was prone to being cold. He was always pleased when wrapped up in a blanket.

...or laying on our heating pad. I don't think either of us used the heating pad after we got Jimmer. He quickly claimed it as his own.

One night while digging in his bed, he ended up getting stuck inside of it. I was so confused when I woke up to him wearing his bed as a diaper.

As awkward as he was sometimes, he also had a very regal side.

This is one of our favorite pictures of him and his calm temperament.

Two of his favorite things were digging and playing in the grass. When he was actually digging outside he didn't mess around. If given the chance, he would cover every inch of his body in grass - including his head which is buried here in a fresh hole.

Also true to his breed, he could be very focused when anything seemed out of the ordinary. He would pay rapt attention and lift his little foot as if he were hunting.

He was also a very accomplished wrestler. Most of the time he would let Ameya win, but every once in a while he had to prove who was stronger.

He had no problem getting comfortable just about anywhere. He particularly liked it when he had a pillow to work with.

When we first got Ameya, he would not allow her anywhere near the inside of his crate. It was a big moment when they were able to share one for the whole night.

Again with putting up with whatever we wanted him to do. If we put him in between the cushions, he would stay there until his body weight dragged him down. He was very good at humoring us.

It was a rare occurrence for him to do anything belly up, but the heating pad helped him get out of his comfort zone a little. He seriously hated being on his back. Even if we tried to scratch his tummy, he wouldn't have it.

The first few days we had this bed, he thought it was a huge chew toy and struggled so hard to drag it all around the house. Once he realized it was a bed, however, he used it to practice digging which was almost always followed by a power nap.

 When Jimmer would dig, man would the dirt fly. Depending on how soft the soil was, it would fly feet behind him. We had to give him his space so we didn't get a dirt shower. No good dig was complete without his white paws turning brown because they were so caked in dirt.

He was such a loyal dog. He would follow us around the house no matter what. If he was sleeping and one of us moved he had to know where we were and what we were doing. He would even follow Tiffany into the kitchen or bathroom despite his severe dislike of any sort of hard floor. We could always count on him to be right on our heels. 

Hunter loved to take Jimmer with him to frisbee. He got so much attention and got to play in the grass for hours at a time. After playing so hard and having so much fun, he would pass out in the car before they could make it home.

These two loved each other so much. We often joked that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. But really, he was like a big brother to her. This is one of the rare moments when they weren't playing/wrestling with each other.

Jimmer loved the sun. Even when it was really hot outside and he had just come in from a walk his spot of choice for a nap was wherever the sun was. He also really liked to be perched on things. If ever he had the opportunity to be on something (pillow, blanket, etc) he would take it.

He struggled so much with potty training. What makes it even better is that he would know that he did something wrong after he pottied inside. Whenever that happened, he would go to the edge of the carpet as far away from Tiffany as he could because he knew he was in trouble. I think it was his way of trying to apologize.

 He loved to lay his head on our legs when taking a nap. That way he could be close to us and rest up.

If they were in the car together, they would battle over who got to sit in the drivers lap. Hunter handled it much better than Tiffany did. They often fought for attention in general. If one was getting more than the other, they made sure it was quickly corrected. This picture was taken just hours before his accident. 

Because the accident occurred at Tiffany's parent's house, we were able to give him a proper burial and have a little funeral. This is our little Jimmer's grave. Poor Ameya still isn't really sure what happened to her big brother. At times, she walks around the house whining, looking for her partner in crime.

We hope this gives a sense of what made Jimmer such a special and unique dog. We love him so much and he will always hold a special place in our hearts.