Nappy

I need total darkness to sleep well and also enjoy a day time nap so I've purchased more than my fair share of eye mask thingies.  Every one has had some flaw but I finally found the perfect one!  It totally blocks out light (it has a great little padded part under the eyes) and it is comfortable. It is a suede-ish material so I call it my "blue suede snooze". Props to Bed, Bath and Beyond for helping me sleep a little better. 

She's thrifty

I freely admit that I am a cheapskate.  I have a real aversion to paying full price for stuff.  If something, anything, is over $20, my brain sees it as expensive.  Except with little things and/or groceries.  Then I want everything to be under $2.  Obviously, not everything is under 2 or 20 dollars but in my head, that's the threshold for how much I want to part with.  Of course, I am often forced to go over that threshold but I'm not happy about it!

So, I went to Old Navy the other day & got 2 skirts (one is even corduroy, my love for which is deep & possibly unhealthy) for under $10.  TOTAL. 

This is what my heaven would be: constantly finding things I want for super cheap that other fools paid full price for.  (Plus all the pizza & ice cream I could eat, of course.)   My husband is well aware how lucky he is that he married such a thrifty gal.

Sewing

Who'd a thunk I'd ever be excited about thread?  But it's so pretty!  

It is going to look so cool if I ever start actually working on my quilting projects!  I have one all cut in pieces but not sewn.  Another, I've bought fabric for but haven't started cutting.  The third is all still in my head.  I'm really trying not to put pressure on myself since that takes all the fun out of it... but I really need to get started!  I'm pretty sure the problem is that I don't want to start free motion quilting & then fail at it.  I occasionally don't do things purely because I'm not good at it or don't think I will be & I don't want to fail.  

I'm fairly certain that my desire to see these projects through will win out over the fear of failure.  Besides, if I do fail, so what?  I know I can hand quilt so I can just do that. Plus, I get to give these quilts away to people I love, which is awesome! 

Cat

Although she really isn't one any longer, I will probably always call Samoa a kitten (I called her predecessor "baby kitty" for 16 years).  Her first birthday is Monday.  I can't believe she's a full grown cat already.  I remember picking her up & stopping on the way home at Petco to get her a collar with a bell.  She was so tiny, we wanted to be able to find her, I guess.  That's not a problem, though.  She doesn't hide & is so terrible at stalking (she seems to think that simply crouching makes her invisible) so I took the collar off yesterday (it was getting a tad small anyway).  So, my girl is all grown up & doesn't need her bell anymore.  Here she is right after we brought her home & put the collar on.

I love the pink with skull-and-crossbones collar but I think Sammy is enjoying the unobstructed neck scratches even more.

Sunday

Just got back from taking the pups to the dog park, which we try to do at least once a weekend.  Fortunately, the pond has thawed & Kaycee was able to get her swim fix.  Unfortunately, that means we have a damp & dirty dog.  But, she's happy & both dogs are now asleep on their beds.  Sleepy pups are so cute!  Here's me with Bella & Kaycee at the park.

And after...

I woke Bella up taking the picture.  She was snoring seconds before this.  She's a cutie but man, can she snore!

Back to it

I finally started work on my next quilt project.  It is actually two quilts, one for each of my cousin's two super sweet kids.  Sarah likes horses & her favorite color is blue.  Finding fabric for hers was a cinch, and I even steered clear of stereotypically "girly" flowery prints. Feminine, maybe, but only one could really be called floral.

I'm really in love with these patterns & excited to see how it all comes together.  I just hope Sarah likes them as much as I do.  

Isaac likes Star Wars, the Clone Wars cartoon series.  Yeah... nothing at the fabric stores.  So, I found a twin sheet set & am going to cut that up.  Isaac's favorite color is also blue so I want to find different fabrics (so its not all matchy with his sister's), in the blue family, that have a touch more masculine theme.  This, I've found, is not that easy.  

I don't want just solid colors but I also don't want cutesy theme fabric with tractors or cowboys or robots (those are easy to find, incidentally) just cool, basic theme-free patterns.  This is my quest and I shall succeed (hopefully without too much plaid)!

Brilliant!

For some reason, I wanted beanie-weenie today, yet I had none of the ingredients.  This prompted me to wonder if there's a restaurant where I can get beanie-weenie.  Then, I thought I could open a restaurant with all kinds of comfort food and stuff you had when you were a kid & crave sometimes.  But my restaurant wouldn't be all hoity-toity & try to make a fancy version of beanie weenie. I wouldn't be putting weird ingredients in it and making you feel uncool because you've never heard of the South American tribe who's women have grown the beans for 12 generations in soil rich with diamonds that blah blah blah.  Nope.  We'd just open a can of beans, cut up the dogs & heat it up.  And it would be delicious.

Yeah, so, I made breaded flounder & steamed veggies for dinner.  Tasty... but I still want beanie weenie.

And here's some non sequitur cuteness:

Sick

I've been off the grid for a few days now because I've been sick.  Not totally sure on a diagnosis, I just know I've slept a lot and felt like shit while conscious.  So I've missed 2 days of work, which I really didn't want to do, and still don't feel 100% again. 

Now I'm trying to get to sleep and I'm suddenly feeling super anxious and jittery.  Xanax hasn't kicked in yet, hoping it helps.  Why am I anxious? Wish I knew.

So... a few bad days for Candy, fingers crossed for brighter days very soon.

St. Patty's

I am not even one little bit Irish.  I love Irish food, I enjoy an Irish accent (although Scottish is my fave) and I would like to someday visit Ireland but I can't claim any Irish heritage.  I am German, Polish & Norwegian but, unfortunately, there don't seem to be any holidays in the US to celebrate any of those by wearing a pre-specified color.  Ah well, I wore green anyway.

Clean freak

My hubby is in St. Louis until Sunday morning & I've been using the solitude as an opportunity to clean the house like crazy.  I cleaned the kitchen first & am quite proud of how clean it has stayed.  The red curtain you see in the pic hides our laundry area which is also pretty darn clean now.

I'd like you to take note of my tea kettle.  I cannot express how much I love it.  I'm odd, I know.

On a completely unrelated subject, I have had good luck with store brand foods.  I am in love with Safeway Select pasta sauces, for example.  Tonight, I tried Target's Archer Farms risotto.  I'm no risotto expert, but it was mighty tasty.  

I paired it with some grilled flounder fillets & felt a little fancy while I ate it. 

Hairy fishies

One time when I was little, we went to Pantera's pizza and my dad ordered a double anchovy pizza.  The kid behind the counter said "do you know what those are?" and my dad said "yes, and I want a lot of them".  My brothers & I wanted to try it and my dad let us, assuming we'd hate it.  Instead, we ate all his pizza.

 Today, my dad would have been 65 years old.  I ordered an anchovy pizza in his honor.  I wish I could have shared it with him. 

More baking!

If you aren't from Missouri, you may not have heard of gooey butter cake.  This is a good thing for your waistline but a bad thing for your taste buds.  The yumminess and sinfulness of this stuff is seriously undescribable.  The legend is that some baker made a mistake while trying to make something else & ended up with this:

I made this one to give away & will hopefully be able to control myself and have one small peice at the most.  I can't give you the recipe because it is a family recipe & is used by my cousins at Park Avenue Coffee in St. Louis.  I'm really proud of them!  They competed on Food Feuds on Food Network and won plus they just opened their second location. 

Go to their website & order one.  Now.  I mean it.

Baking

I never buy bananas at the grocery store except to let them get brown so I can make banana bread.  I bake a couple loaves every couple months so you'd think I'd have the recipe memorized by now but I don't.  The recipe is easy to find in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (a book I think everyone should own).  I just flip to the pages that are crinkly from so much use & various ingredients getting dripped on them.

So now I have 2 perfect loaves of banana bread.  My favorite part of making it is how much my husband likes it.  

I just love giving people presents that they like, even if it is something as easy as banana bread.

Well done

The tip of the middle finger on my right hand hurts from pushing a needle (yes, thimbles, I know)... but my first quilt is finally done!

There are lines of stitches that look like I was surely drunk while quilting.  The binding is a little wonky in places.  I need a lot of practice to get the corners right.  But, all in all, I'm proud of my first effort.  The perfectionist in me will always see the mistakes but I'm trying to concentrate on the parts I did really well. 

My favorite part was putting together the quilt top and I think I'm pretty good at that.  I'm really excited to start my next project... but I might wait until my finger stops hurting.

Incomplete

Well, I didn't get my quilt completely finished.  As if taking up quilting didn't already make me feel a little bit like an old lady, I had to stop because my back was starting to hurt.  At least I'm smart enough to know my limit & realize that I'd be in hella pain if I didn't stop.  But the quilt WILL be done tout suite.  Oh yes, it shall.  With or without Sammy's "help".

Last stitch

I'm still awake at 2 am and posting to share a proud moment.  About 10 minutes ago, I put the last hand quilting stitch in my very first quilt.  

The white plastic you see is the handy dandy quilting frame I have.  The blue line on the yellow gingham is from a wonderful marking pen (that washes out) that kept my lines straight.  I am so close to being done!

I have my binding (the edge part) all cut and sewn.  The next step is to trim the quilt, iron the binding & then sew on the binding.  The quilting on this one is almost all hand stitched.  For my next project, I'm going to try free motion quilting, which uses the sewing machine.  I've never done this before so I decided to make a pillow to practice on before moving on to a quilt.

I just sewed together scraps from my first quilt.  I'm dead set on at least getting the first quilt done tomorrow (today, Sunday, whatever).  It feels so good to complete a goal!

Big spender

I got myself a present today that cost a whole dollar.  It's a good and useful present, too.  I've been collecting remnants and different fabrics for quilting projects.  They've been sitting in various bags on my supply cart.  Now I have a plastic bin to put them!

At some point I'll probably organize by main color (I'm OCD like that, you should see my closet) but for now I have them grouped for 3 projects I have in the planning stages and then fabric I just thought was pretty & bought. 

I'm a little (pleasantly) surprised by the amount of creativity involved in quilting.  It isn't just squares of fabric that "match" like my grandma did. I have so many ideas, I'm excited to get started! 

Fun cube

I've been told that my cubicle at work is fun.  I like to think so and I hope that's a reflection on the cubicle dweller.  On my monitor riser, among other things, is a mini transformer my brother got me for Christmas.  Sometimes it's a jeep, today it is a robot.

Hump day

The stress I've been under was compounded by (or caused?) some tummy issues that kept me home from work yesterday.  Not at all fun but the scale says I lost 5 pounds.  Trying to look on the bright side!  Back to work craziness today but I like my job & love the people I work with so I'll put up with a little craziness every now and again.

I have nothing deep or cool to say at the moment.  So here's a kitty.

Hippo birdy to you!

February 28th is my hubby's birthday (along with his twin brother, of course).  We celebrated on Sunday, the 27th, by watching movies & getting some take out.  John wanted Jack-n-Grill & I happily obliged.  John got this massive burger, called "the Dezz" (the bun was as big as his hand!). 

I got enchiladas which were excellent but not nearly as epic to look at.  I also got him Ben & Jerry's then later made some kick ass soup & focaccia.  I was going to share a pic of the focaccia (which I was quite proud of) but this is what's left:

A pre-birthday filled with fattening food... that's how much I love my man.

Clean slate

There's something about a clean house that makes it easier for me to function.  It clears my mind & makes me calmer, somehow.  I put off cleaning for too long & I get anxious & cloudy.  I was glad to finally have a few solid hours to get the house clean this weekend.

One of the first places to get re-messed is our dining room table.  We don't use our dining room or the table for "dining" and it is pretty much the first available surface upon walking in the door to lay anything down.  So, my purse always falls there.  Usually the mail ends up there & anything else that needs to be moved out of the way elsewhere in the house.

Moving or getting rid of said table is out of the question, however.  The table, which we call the Al Capone table, is very special to me.  According to my dad, the table was found in the basement of one of the houses his family occupied in Chicago (where he lived the first 14 years of his life).  The story is that the table came from a bar that was either owned by or frequented by Al Capone.  The heavy, cast iron base was designed so that the tables couldn't be thrown in bar fights.  This table came with my dad's family when they moved from Chicago to St. Louis & then came to reside at the house I grew up in.  I'm a sucker for old stuff, especially when attached to my family, so I got it next.

I'm also in love with the table cloth, an antique not related to my family, and it is a shame that it always gets covered with stuff.  The doily is related to my fam (mom crocheted it) and I made the ceramic bowl on it.  So, let's all enjoy a brief moment of clean table-ness (with help from Sammy).

Paws

I love paws, of all types.  Here's some kitty paws.  So cute.  That is all.

Good day

It's been a hectic week (work, boring) but today was a nice break from it all.  I have to work 4 hours Saturday so I only worked half a day today.  John and I went to see our buddy Thor at Celebrity Tattoo in Lodo so he could put the color on a tattoo he started on me before Christmas last year.  Thor is an incredible artist and all around cool guy.  Here we are (pics of the tattoo to follow at some point).

Ode to a Moon Pie

I am a Midwestern girl, through and through.  I was born in St. Charles, MO, grew up in Cottleville, MO and have only recently lived outside the Midwest.  I love that I grew up in (what used to be) rural Missouri.  I love that I grew up around farms and have stories that most people can't relate to.  We gardened, butchered, hauled hay... I've milked a cow (her name was Valentine).  I've got a little redneck in me, but I embrace it.  I had an amazing childhood with my large, close Catholic family.

When I first went away to college, I went to NMSU (now Truman State) in Kirksville, MO.  One night, some friends & I were driving from Kirksville to Columbia.  We stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere for snacks.  One of my purchases was a Moon Pie.  The only other person in the store, besides the clerk, was a disheveled looking dude holding a huge bag of dog food while talking loudly about how his dog just died.  We quietly and hurriedly made our way to the checkout, trying to stay under this guy's radar.  No such luck.  He looked at my items and proclaimed "Moon Pies are an institution here in the Midwest!".

I think of this every time I have a Moon Pie.  I don't have them often but if we make our way to Bass Pro, I have to buy them.  For whatever reason, Bass Pro stocks a variety of moon pies (I always go for classic chocolate) and they sell them 2 for a dollar.  I just can't leave without buying two.  Fortunately, they aren't exceptionally fattening... because I ate one on the way home & just now had the other one.

They really are an institution... a tasty tasty institution.

Something blue

When I was little I liked to play with my mom's jewelry (like most girls, I'm sure).  "Play" may not be the right word, though... I mostly just liked to look at her jewelry.  We weren't rich; she didn't have loads of diamonds & strings of pearls or anything.  There was some inherited costume jewelry, her high school class ring & a few nice presents from my dad.  It was all beautiful to me, though.

One of my favorites was a simple necklace: a tiny diamond atop a blue star sapphire.  Before I got married, my mom gave me the necklace.  It was my "something blue" for my wedding.  I don't wear jewelry often, although I still love it and occasionally purchase some, but today I had the urge to wear my star sapphire.  I doubt anyone else takes much notice of the small pendant but I sure feel special wearing it.

 

a very Thursday Thursday

Today was nearly completely filled with work.  I like to stay busy and, boy, was I!  The day went by fast even though it was longer than it should have been.  All this leads to Candy being tired & not at all in the mood to be all bloggy.  So, enjoy this video of Kaycee and Sammy being adorable in my messy bedroom.  If nothing else, skip to about 30 seconds from the end.  You are guaranteed a LOL.  And I bid you adieu.

Cute delivery

I didn't blog yesterday because I wasn't vertical very much.  I had to call in to work because I was up all night with pain & it didn't go away most of the day.  I slept a lot, which was nice, I guess, but I wish I'd been at work & pain free.  It has been one of those weeks.  But, no use complaining about it, right?  What's done is done, this too shall pass, tomorrow's another day, etc. 

So today I was really glad to be back at work & relatively pain free.  The highlight of my day came in the form of a little manila envelope on my desk.  I got my delivery from my friend Jen's etsy shop!  You should really go visit her here because her stuff is super cute!  You'll thank me later.

I got a reversible cloth headband and some button flower bobby pins:

Would I look really stupid if I wore them all at once?  Probably.  But they are so cute! Even my kitten wanted them!

Shortly after this picture was taken, kitten took a pepper off my plate of chinese food.  I think I've got a kleptomaniac on my hands... one with a potentially fiery butt in her future.

VD

My husband & I are both among those who believe that Valentine's day is just a money-maker for greeting card & chocolate companies, nothing more.  Going all out and spending a bunch of money on February 14th is silly.  It is the little things, the sometimes wordless daily proofs of love, that really matter.  Unrelated to the "holiday", I had one of those days where all the little problems that are easy to deal with one at a time decide to gang up all at once.  I was stressed by things I can't control, exhausted & in pain (also beyond my control) and didn't feel like dealing with anything more complicated than sitting on the couch.  

It all fit together perfectly, actually.  All I wanted was to drown my sorrows in pizza & ice cream and be with my sweetie.  He got the Ben & Jerry's, I ordered the Pizza Hut.  It was just the evening both of us wanted and that I needed.  Plus, my kitten, displaying that innate ability all animals seem to have to know when you are feeling down, decided to cuddle with me... even after I was done eating pizza.

The pictures a dark but I didn't want to disturb her with the flash.  Kept it relaxing for us all.

I hope everyone had just the Valentine's day they wanted... whether it was filled with flowers & sweets or quiet & solitary or ignoring the day all together. 

What a wonderful world...

My wonderful husband, who normally likes to annoy me out of bed EARLY on the weekends, let me sleep in on Saturday.  Then we had to get outside & enjoy the beautiful weather after having endured some super cold & snow (but not enough for a snow day, unfortunately) lately.  We drove up to the area of St. Mary's Glacier (located here, see my pictures here).  It was a beautiful drive although the brutal wind & deep snow kept us from hiking to the actual glacier.  We'll have to go back again when it is warmer.

Today was even nicer but we stayed in the lower elevations.  We took the dogs to the dog park, a must for Kaycee especially whenever possible.  The girl loves to run.  I wish we had a yard for her but frequent trips to the Westminster Hills dog park will have to suffice for now.  On the way home, we washed my jeep which completely confused the pups.  Once we got home, I started on laundry & dishes and did some quilting while John went for a motorcycle ride with his friend Dennis.  It was nice to have a little alone time.

Kaycee and Bella decided to cuddle with me on the couch:

And here's what Sammy took this opportunity to do:

 I think that she thinks she's a dog... a big dog.  She's delusional but I love her.

Tasting

I joined the ranks of android phone users on new years day and I freakin' love my phone (T-mobile G2)!  This post is a test of the Blogger app.  I doubt I'll do much posting from my phone but I thought it was neat (and free).  Supposedly I can upload a pic with the post so let's see if this works.  BTW, I love flamingos.

First things first..

The first few posts here (below) are copy/pasted from my old blog (eatheregetgas.bravejournal.com).  Bravejournal doesn't allow exporting of entries so I'm going to do this the old fashioned way.  I'm only going back as far as my renewed interest in blogging (a few weeks now) so if you want to see super old entries, feel free to go back there & check it out.

Oops

How many days can I forget about my blog until I'm cozy in bed, trying to fall asleep?  Current count is 3.  What makes this worse is my complete lack of short term memory.  I'd like to tell you what I've done the last few days but recalling is taxing my tiny (blond AND Polish, as my mother will tell you) brain.  I can tell you I worked, ate and slept.  These things I know.  I bet I watched some TV, made some high price real estate deals and fought some crime too.  You know, the usual. 

Today was a good day.  I caught someone in a lie through my superior record keeping & investigative skills.  Evidence makes me happy.  I should totally be a private investigator.  I did my usual work, blah blah blah, boring.  On my lunch, I did some shopping.  Here are my super cute new socks over the top of my new purse (which is what I initially went shopping for).



I got a delivery from Amazon.com that I was a little too excited about.  I am epically bad at math and this book has tons of charts that do all the math & measuring for me.  Next to it is a "free motion" quilting foot for my sewing machine.  This will allow me to do fun designs on quilts & to quilt a million times faster than by hand. Is there such a thing as a quilting geek?  Because I think I could be their leader.



Finally, once I got home, I made some truly awesome soup.  It is a creamy potato with carrots, onions and cheese.  I can't even tell you how impressed I am with myself.  I usually want a recipe which I follow faithfully but this was my own invention.  I did start off with the first couple steps of another creamy soup but the rest is all mine.  It turned out so good!  So good, in fact, that my husband invited a friend over & now the soup is all gone.



And that, my friends, was my hump day in a nutshell.  Now I shall lay in bed & cuddle with my kitten while playing mahjong on my laptop.  The excitement never ends.

Confinement

I didn't take any pictures today.  I didn't leave the house today.  I didn't get out of my jammies today.  It was a great day.  We cooked some good food (pulled pork and rotel dip with fritos scoops), I took a nap for the first half of the Superbowl (I only watch for the commercials, anyway), got all the laundry done and cleaned the kitchen & one bathroom.  It was a productive day although it didn't include taking even one picture.  Oh well, you can't have everything.

Snowy day

Friday night, I got home from work and immediately went to sleep.  It was nice because I haven't gotten a good night of sleep in quite a while.  It was also really not nice because I initially laid down because my tummy was super unhappy (no idea why) and then I slept until Saturday morning.  That's a lot of sleep (and also the reason I didn't post yesterday)! 

So today, my hubby John and I went on a little photo safari.  Basically, we like to drive & get lost looking for interesting stuff.  This time, we headed towards Denver.  As I've said, I love snow... but it put quite a damper on my safari!  About an hour or so in, it started snowing lightly and then it really started coming down.  We went home earlier than we'd planned because the weather made it tough to get good photos but we had fun all the same.

My favorite picture of the day was from the Richthofen Castle.  It's probably called a castle because it was modeled after a castle in Germany but I'd call it a huge mansion.  It is really cool, anyway... and apparently for sale (if you've got $4 million in your housing budget).



Here's a shot of another building on the castle's grounds that shows a little more clearly the type of snowing we were dealing with...



We stayed out for a few hours then decided to go to the grocery store then home.  I made chili & it is just about the best chili ever.  No lie.

A Thursday evening

There's a reason I didn't post yesterday and its a really good one!  Okay, not really... I got lost in a Flickr photostream filled with great pictures of St. Louis.  Lots of awesome urban shots.  It inspired me to go on an urban photo safari here in Denver.  We've taken so many trips up into the mountains, and it is beautiful, but we've neglected our city.  I love urban landscapes too and will hopefully have the opportunity to get some good shots this weekend.

For now, here's a couple from today.  Nothing too exciting, really.  First, at a stop light on the way home from work.  What I really like about this one is the reflections on my hood (which I didn't notice until I looked at the pic at home).  I'll have to try this again & aim down a little & maybe after I get a car wash.



My favorite thing about snow is the way it sparkles.  My inner magpie loves shiny things.  It isn't easy to get that to represent well in photos, though.  Here's a semi-successful one I took while walking from the garage to our door.



The next 2 days are forecast to be really nice.  A little warmer & sunny.  Normally, I prefer overcast days for color photography but it has been too long since I've had a good photo road trip & I'll enjoy the warmth while its here!

Samalama ding dong

Introducing our third furry child, a 10 month old barn cat (really, she was born in a barn in Missouri).  Her name is Samoa (like the Girl Scout cookie) but we never call her that.  She's Sam, Sammy, Crazy Kitty, Cuddlebug, etc.  She is absolutely nuts and completely adorable.  I recently started quilting and here she is "helping" me.

I'm sure I'll post some pictures of the quilt soon.  It is my first one, so it's far from perfect, but it is turning out pretty cool.  Pet hair included, free of charge.

Brrr!

Back home in Missouri, they are bracing for a "snowpocolypse".  Apparently, they've declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard.  Here in Denver, we've gotten only about 2 inches of snow so far, but it is supposed to snow all night.  I love snow but the temp is the real problem.  The HIGH tomorrow is -2 degrees.  Two below zero Fahrenheit.  I can't remember the last time I've seen a temp like that.  Here's what we've got going on right now, according to the handy dandy outside thermometer I got the hubby for Christmas:

9.9 degrees, people. Where I come from, that's cold.  The "max 19.4" reading is the warmest it has been over the past 24 hours or since 8am or something.  Either way, its pretty darn frigid.  They've closed some schools already but I'm not holding my breath for a snow day.  But it would be REALLY nice to get one.

Two for one

I've been sick with what I'm pretty sure is a sinus infection and it sucks.  A lot.  So I missed posting my photo-a-day yesterday.  So today you get two!  My husband has this thing where he makes me leave the house when I don't want to.  I feel like poo and he decides its the perfect time to take the dogs to the park.  Today was the last warm-ish day for a while (if we can believe the weather people) so we did need to get the dogs out for a run... but I really didn't want to go.  Now, don't tell him, but the fresh air was good.  The walking was good.  I didn't feel like a million bucks afterward but I did feel a little better. 

Speaking of dogs, let me introduce you to ours...  This is Kaycee.  She's a 3 year old retriever mix of some sort.  She loves to run and play in the pond at the park (when it isn't frozen).

  

And here is Bella.  She's an 8 year old Corgi Chihuahua mix.  She hates the water but will lick you forever.

.

There will be many more pictures of our furry kids to follow.  So, if you don't like animals, don't come back.  Seriously.