Meal planning and bleeding dogs

Now that I'm following the (very boring) elimination diet, I don't have much desire to meal plan but here's what we have going on for the week:

Monday- left overs (chicken and rice, sweet potato fries)
Tuesday- roasted chicken and vegan butternut squash risotto (bn squash, chicken stock and rice)
Wednesday-chicken
Thursday-chicken
Friday-out to dinner with the family (probably chicken)

As you can see, I'm eating A LOT of plain chicken, sweet potatoes, squash and rice. I also eat almonds and smoothies with almond butter, almond milk and banana. We are hesitant to say this is making a huge difference at this point but I'm going to stick it out for the 10 days and then evaluate. Chris isn't following the diet so he is adding spices and condiments and extra veggies to his meals-lucky guy!

Spring has finally come to Cleveland! We've been enjoying lots of walks with the dogs...until yesterday when Lila was bitten by a Great Dane who wasn't leashed. I didn't notice her injury until we got home and found blood around the house....and then more blood right as our first nanny interview started. It's a small wound on her leg so we aren't taking her in to the vet unless it isn't healing properly (don't worry, I called the vet to find out what to do). Here's a photo of Henry on the walk, pre-dog bite and our injured puppy.

City Living???

My happy, wiggly morning walker.  She gets
so excited for her walk she can't stand still,
hence the blurry photo!

Our neighborhood backs right up to both a railroad track and a park which makes for a lot of wildlife sightings in the city!  I think I've seen more deer (with nice racks, for all you hunters) in the 4 months that we've lived her than my 18 years growing up in the country.  We also have an abundance of squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits to torment Max and Lila in the back yard.  For the first couple of months we had a giant raccoon that liked to dig around in our trash cans until Chris bought a more secure can...this guy was huge, like 20-25lbs, and bigger than both the dogs!  I was concerned the raccoon would get trapped in the garage and attack but thankfully, we haven't seen him in a while.  But of all the wildlife we've seen, yesterday morning while walking Lila, was my most terrifying experience.  Lila and I usually head out around 6:30-6:45am for our morning walk, covering between 2-3 miles and expending some of her energy and getting some much needed exercise for myself.  She loves these morning walks and enjoys sniffing around and chasing cats and squirrels as far as her leash will let her (Max, on the other hand, is still in bed and has no desire to get up to join us).  So Lila's doing her thing and sniffing around when she goes after what I think is a cat in someone's shrubbery.  Let's just say this black and while creature was the size of a cat but certainly wasn't a friendly feline, that's right...she went after a SKUNK!  The skunk was startled and scurried up the driveway and I yanked Lila's retractable leash to pull her back toward the street.  Thankfully, we escaped unharmed (or un-sprayed in this case).       

Cuddle buddies

Max and Lila, cuddling in my office!

Part-time model?

Apparently Lila has a part-time job modeling for Valentines day greeting cards?

Wishing you all a happy valentines day!

PS. Our V-day was pretty low key as I had class. C gave me a yoga mat and towel for hot yoga and I gave him a blazer and new coffee mug :)

Lila's new sweater

Finally had a few minutes to tackle a project that's been on my list all winter- a sweater for Lila.  Our little pups have a hard time keeping warm in the winter (and it FINALLY has turned to winter in Ohio, we've got snow and temps in the teens).  Max has a few sweaters (including one my grandma crocheted for him) already but Lila needed something of her own (and a bit more girly).  I roughly followed a pattern I found on Pinterst (I'm addicted, by the way) but our long dog required a few modifications:

Lila in her new sweater, not to happy to be modeling:

Our 8lb Guard Dog

In December, we re-arranged the living room furniture to make room for the Christmas tree in front of the bay window (normally, the couch is nestled in there) and it's been Lila's favorite look-out spot.  When we come home, we see her nose pressed against the glass and she's usually barking.  She is, no-doubt, our guard dog!  

2011 In Review

We've had a very blessed and busy 2011!  Here were the highlights:

In January we flew to Colorado to meet up with our NC friends and to ski at Vail.

In February we added a new family member, Lila.

In March Chris ventured to Brazil for spring break.

In April we ran a 10 miler with Brittany.

In June we spent a week in the OBX with family and friends.  Shortly after, Chris started making the weekly drive to Cleveland for his internship.

In July we participated in our first adventure race..which ended in a broken hand.  And had our first guest blogger, Brittany!

In September brought Chris home again and the start of school at OSU and the start of football season.  But not before I made a trip to Cleveland for a visit.  We also hosted a baby shower for Danielle and Tim's pending arrivals.

In October we welcomed our first nephews Luke and Logan.  Chris ran is first (and only) marathon and I was so proud of him.

In December we finished out the year by spending the holidays with family and a few sunny days in Sanibel Island, Florida.

What were your favorite parts of 2011?  What are you looking forward to in 2012?  We've got some adventures pending so keep in touch!

Is it spring yet???

It's been a cool, rainy day here in Ohio...Max and Lila aren't enjoying it.  They've spent the whole day cozy in their beds, together as you can see to conserve body heat or cuddled up under blankets!  When November comes, we'll have to break out their winter coats!

Attack of the….Squirrels

Our little garden (which you can read about here), specifically our tomatoes, has been under assault recently. First there was the day that Lila decided that a fresh-from-the-vine-tomato sounded delicious for breakfast. Yep, our DOG actually took a tomato from the vine and ate it…when I saw her all I could do was laugh and take this photo:

Then shortly after, the neighborhood squirrels noticed our bumper crop of fresh tomatoes and the temptation was too much! They are courageous little guys (um, not exactly the words we have been calling them but this is a family friendly post) to brave our two ferocious attack dogs to get to the garden. One morning when I let Lila out there was a squirrel sitting on the back deck with THREE tomatoes that he was enjoying and he took off with all of them. Every time a tomato starts to turn a nice red color, they would get snatched by, once again, these courageous little guys.

Our tomato jungle, yeah, I don't know what happened either but they are OUT OF CONTROL:

We’ve received many suggestions on how to keep our tomatoes safe:
• Leaving the dogs out all the time (there would have been some unhappy campers)
• Surrounding the plants with human hair
• Rodent control (example: traps or other methods)

In the end, we went to the hardware store and bought cherry tree netting and stakes. We gathered all the plants together and staked the netting around the plants. I’m happy to report that, thus far, it’s working!

Gathered and netted tomatoes:

Finally, a few for us...well for Chris as I don't even like tomatoes.

Best Buddies

Had to share this photo of our two pups...now best buddies :)

Max and Lila

Just hanging at home...being used as a pillow :)

And then there were two

Meet Lila, Lila Bug as we call her :) She's a two year old red mini-dachshund and the newest addition to our family. After much back and forth with the local dachshund rescue society (applications, interviews with our vets and home visits...this process took months!) she came to stay with us in January. Even though Lila and Max are the same breed, they certainly have their own personalities! She is, as we like to call it, a bit more vocal (aka barky). Lila also has some skills in the vertical leap, she can jump into our bed! She also is an early riser and early to bed. Max is the opposite, he prefers to sleep until noon and stay up late. They do share some favorites, burrowing under blankets and chasing squirrels in the yard and they both DISLIKE baths and nail trimming.

Lila, ready for a walk:


Lila, in her kennel:


Max, ready to play ball:


Ditto (unfortunately, she does not share his passion for the game of fetch):