Our latest trip to the mountains (it's a cute pic)

A little update

Good morning all,

Thought I would pop in and give an update. We had our 2nd training class with Porter last night and he did well. I think we need to get him into a playgroup or to a dog park soon though; he's so excited to be around other dogs that it's hard to keep him focused. Maybe we could get another big dog for him to play with.......
Oscar is less anxious this week and we seem to be settling into a normal rotation cycle between keeping them both in the house. His stitches will come out this week and thankfully the cyst was benign so he's a cancer-free pug!
Marathon training continues...I'm up to 8 miles on my long runs. I'm finding fundraising is the most difficult part right now and it's a bit discouraging. We hosted a fundraiser this past Monday that was well-attended for a Monday night and we've got a couple more in the works. Once again, if anyone is interested or knows of anyone would be interested, the website is
http://www.active.com/donate/tntwnc/StaceysEverest.
I had a great interview with a non-profit this week but I'm being superstitious and don't want to jinx it so I'll have to share it later. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Hope all is well!

Update on Miscellaneous Items

Good morning all,

I've decided to stop waiting for big events to write and instead start updating on the everyday small events that make up our lives here in Charlotte. Keep in mind that I tend to work in list mode.

Porter Update

Porter continues to grow everyday but with his sweet temprement, we're more and more happy that we decided to keep him. He and Justin are forming quite a bond and spend most of the night playing fetch (or trying to), chasing each other around the house and wrestling around. Porter took his second trip to the vet yesterday for more puppy shots and was kind enough to go to the bathroom in the vet's office. (note to readers: don't try to be a hero and take a pug and a five month old puppy to the vet at the same time. ) The vet said he's a healthy happy puppy!
We've also started basic obedience classes with him. The first class was last Tuesday night and Porter was over-stimulated by the amount of activity, smells and dogs around him. Justin practically had to wrestle him to the ground to calm him down long enough to sign in for class. We learned the list of words not to use around him and keep surprising ourselves with how often we use the wrong words to train. Porter did well in his first class and we're excited for our second one!

Oscar Update

Poor pug is still kind of unnerved by the arrival of Porter. He's got some attachment issues we're working through and we expect his clinginess will go back to it's normal pug level soon enough. He did not have as good a visit to the vet as Porter did yesterday. Not only did he have to have a worm check and a nail trim (his least favorite thing) but we decided to remove a cyst from his belly that had grown big and red. So he was a pretty doped up little pug yesterday and now he has four stitches in him too. We're spoiling him in compensation this week!

Wedding Update
Still trying to decide on colors - going with more of a Tuscan theme - kind of wishing I had gone with my original plan of having it in a vineyard but we should be able to make it work at our location. EXCITING NEWS - My Mum is coming to visit in March to help me make some decisions, look over the wedding location and go dress shopping with me!! She has incredible taste and understands what I'm talking about when I don't know how to describe something well and I'm very excited for her visit! I think we'll get a lot done while she's here and it'll be nice to have some mother-daughter time as we rarely get that living so far away from each other!

Marathon Update
I learned the hard way last week that a venti soy latte is not a good recovery drink after a long run . I couldn't walk for most of Saturday and am getting more focused on the nutritional aspect of marathon training. And I'm very happy that the number one recovery drink for runners is chocolate milk - that's a diet I can stick to! Fundraising is going slowly but I have my Merlot Marathon at Dolce Vita next week and I hope that brings in a lot of people. Don't forget to check out my personal training website at http://www.active.com/donate/tntwnc/StaceysEverest!

Justin Update (so he doesn't feel left out)
Good man - continues to be good man - we're figuring out how to communicate better as we're both incredibly stubborn, independent people - he gave me a neck rub last night without my having to ask for it - bonus points for Justin!

A few experiments

So for Valentine's Day I got Stacey some tulips and sunflowers. Friday she was commenting on the intersting lighting through the blinds in the living room and I though I would try a few pictures. I want to go back and redo a couple but these few so far were not so bad.

Let me know what you think.

Justin

Hello, My name is Porter

I was walking in a parking lot by I-85 last Monday and saw a bunch of really nice people going into an office and I went up to say hi and jump on them even though they were wearing their nice work clothes. So they made me stay outside until they noticed me running towards the interstate and then they tried to keep me in a back room at their office and finally one sweet girl put me in her car (even though I was really smelly) and took me to a cute little brick house with a side porch. The guy that was there cleaning stuff off the floor was a little disgruntled so I just sat and wagged my tail and was a good puppy.

Later that day, the nice lady came home and told me that she couldn't have me sleeping on the side porch since it was getting chilly and that we were going to see someone called vet....so I hopped in for another car ride. The vet person was very nice and told the lady stuff she needed to know about me like the fact that I was a lab/husky mix around five months old, that I had more than likely been loose for longer than the weekend as I was skinny and my fur was very matted. I began to like the vet guy a little less when he gave me a worm test (nobody should be sticking anything up there....ever!) and some shots and then they clipped my nails and gave me a bath and called me wiggly worm and loved on me a bit.

I went back to the brick house that night and continued to charm the grumpy guy with my ability to sit and my general cuteness. And they kept talking about getting more exercise and how it's a good thing so I was thinking that I was going to like it here. The sweet girl and the disgruntled guy (who I was kind of starting to like) kept saying they'd wait a while to decide where I would live and then yesterday the girl said she loved me and called me their dog. Tonight they named me and started making plans for classes and beds and other stuf I'll need.
They even keep talking about a fully-fenced in yard but then the guy gets this little twitch in his eye......

SO it looks like I have a new home and new owners and there's even this funny little chew toy with bug eyes that moves!!! It's the greatest thing ever!!! They call him Oscar....