BlackJack Peed My Pants . . .

and more tales from the puppy who’s taken over our lives!

Ok, I promise every post is not going to be about the puppy. But these stories just must be told!

So we’ve been working on house training BlackJack and he’s been doing pretty well. He had gone 11 straight days without an accident until last night. After work I decided to take him to go play at Tempe Town Lake. I don’t usually do this on a weeknight but I was feeling bad about his nose that he cut on his kennel while trying to drag his bedding out that morning. Anyway, he had a long walk, several potty stops and we came home. An hour or two later I got up to pee. Sorry if this is graphic! I left the bathroom door open so he didn’t freak out being alone. He followed me in through the bedroom and grabbed a pair of my panties and took off with them. This is not unusual. He’s taken a liking to my panties and bras. Any clothing really but panties seem to be his favorite. He’s definitely a BOY. I yelled for him to stop but figured I’d take care of business first before going after him. As I’m peeing I thought it sounded kind of loud or like there was an echo or something. When I’d stopped peeing I was still hearing peeing! So I yelled at BlackJack to stop! I jumped off the toilet and arrived at the crime scene. Not only had BlackJack had an accident, he had it RIGHT ON my panties he’d stolen! They were soaked and the carpet underneath it was too! I didn’t know how to stop laughing long enough to scold him! BlackJack peed my pants! I’m chalking it up to noise. He heard me peeing and it made him have to go. So he’s still 11 days and counting in my book . . .

On a sidenote, BlackJack can swim! We took him on a playdate last weekend to a friend’s house. They have a 4 year old Beagle named Archie. The two of them didn’t get along wonderfully. BlackJack would chase Archie and try to jump on him and nip at his ears and Archie would howl in protest at the annoying puppy that wouldn’t leave him alone. Anyway, later that night BlackJack was outside in their backyard by the pool where some of our friends were learning how to scuba dive in full gear. BlackJack was next to the edge of the pool and apparently just kind of decided to jump off the side and join them. BlackJack went under and then came back up and frantically swam to the side. But then he couldn’t get out so Steve reached in and picked him up. We need to teach him to swim towards the stairs! But I guess it’s true, they don’t call it doggy paddling for nothing!

BlackJack Update

We've had our new puppy 2 weeks now and he has kept us on our toes! The house training is coming along and accidents are becoming less frequent, but we've still gone through almost an entire bottle of rug cleaner. We're also finding out which types of toys he likes, and which couch corners he prefers to chew on. That would be all of them.

BlackJack is so well-behaved in public one would never think he has an hour or two each night where he goes crazy at home chewing on everything and nipping and biting at us when we try to stop him. We're practicing Cesar Millan's techniques on being a calm-assertive pack leader. It takes patience, but it's very fascinating stuff.

BlackJack had his first vet appointment Friday where he received antibiotics for a respiratory infection. Poor guy, he's had it since we got him but the vet kept rescheduling our appointments. Now he's medicated and he can finally get the last of his shots next week.

This morning we took our weekly outing to Tempe Town Lake for a long walk. We tire him out so when we get home we have a few hours to get things done around the house. He's a little bundle of energy and when he's out of his kennel we have to watch him every second to make sure he doesn't a) have an accident b) dig up the carpet or c) chew up the furniture. In that order.

BlackJack is fascinated with grass. Seeing as he doesn't experience it much here in Phoenix, when he does he goes to town. And by that I mean he tries to eat ALL of it. Here he is with a blade of it stuck between his teeth. (click on the picture to maximize and see the grass)



And here I am trying to get it out of his teeth, not very successfully.



Focused on a passerby:



Running. Look at those ears flop! And I don't mean mine . . .



After the walk we took a trip to PetSmart so BlackJack could sniff out other dogs and we could have fun shopping for toys and dog treats. He's a pretty scary puppy as you can see . . .



Here's BlackJack when we got back from a potty break to find Steve vacuuming. BlackJack was freaked out and ran as fast as he could from the door to behind the couch where he could still see the monster vacuum but was at a safe distance so as not to be eaten. Hmm, perhaps we could work the vacuum in as a part of the discipline process . . .



One of his favorite toys: an innocent white teddy bear he is determined to shake the life out of. He moves so fast we have a hard time getting still shots.



Rawhide . . . the puppy pacifier! He'll chew on these for hours at a time. Also referred to as our "wit's end" toy.



Typical BlackJack when we're cooking in the kitchen. He likes to be wherever the action is. I have to be careful he doesn't stick his head in the hot oven when I open it, he just MUST see where the smell is coming from.



And finally, his favorite playing position. Watch out, this is PG-13. Just when we're fed up with him he goes into this playing position and we can't help but laugh! He's so funny!

We got a puppy!

. . .


He's a Puggle (mix of pug and beagle) and is 6 months old. We’ve named him BlackJack. If you read our blog, this is the same puppy I posted a picture of back in July. Remember the one I wanted to get but couldn’t because Steve was in Houston? Well, since Steve’s been back we’ve gone to look at a few other younger puppies and then on Monday we saw this little guy was still available but had been moved to another location. We drove up so Steve could meet him and . . . brought him home with us that night!

He’s about as big as he’s supposed to get at about 20 pounds and he’s crazy! He's got tons of energy. We’re working on house training him. 6 months is a long time to go without any training so it’ll be a challenge but we knew that going into it. He’s been getting lots of attention from us and plenty of walks. He’s in the teething stage so he likes to chew on his toys, but more often our hands and arms and anything else he can get in his little mouth.

He hasn’t learned to go to sleep yet in his kennel without barking (which we won’t allow, we have neighbors and we are NOT those kind of neighbors!). He doesn't like us to leave him alone. So we’ve ended up laying next to his kennel until he falls to sleep or relaxes enough that his yelping is down to a wimper. Other than that he really hasn’t barked much, more just wimpering and weezing when he gets too excited. And he is easily excitable! He's a lot of fun, and a lot of work! But he's well worth it :)

On a breather while out on a walk with Steve.





Chewing away on his basketball toy. When we went to see him they’d given him a rag doll to play with. But he’s a boy, no dolls for this boy.


It may take a while to train him not to do this! “BlackJack, NO!”



His baby picture, around 10 weeks old.

Back Together Again!

We made it through our 10 weeks living apart and got to drive the 1100 miles back to Phoenix together. After having lunch with my coworkers Friday afternoon, we hit the road for our adventure. We drove a few hours into the middle of nowhere and stopped for the night in the town of Junction TX.

Would you believe, they actually had something called "Air Conditioning" there in town?

They were having their annual rodeo that weekend, so we got to mingle with the local folk for a while. We got some funny looks, and I don't think we were dressed appropriately to stay for the Hoe-down afterwards, but it was still good fun.

We didn't quite figure out the rules of this event...apparently your team had to put a saddle on this baby steer and get someone to ride it across a finish line, all in the fastest time. If you fell off, someone else on the team could get on, if it hadn't crossed the line yet.


I guess tail pulling is a popular tactic, not sure if it is to slow down the steer or speed it up.

This last event was a little more obvious...although the reason why anyone would do it is beyond me! In this relay race, each team had a guy on a horse and then a guy hanging onto a shovel roped to the horse. This guy got dragged from one side of the arena to the other.

Then at the other side, the guy being dragged let go and someone else had to jump on and be dragged back. It was very impressive that they were able to do this while the horse was still moving. A lot of them got up afterwards with dirt in their mouths, but they made sure not to lose their hats.


So, after 18 hours of driving, 6 gas fill-ups, a bee sting, a west Texas thunderstorm, another highway patrol warning (for tail light problems this time) and several cowboys later, we made it home and have been enjoying every minute together!



...A special thanks to Verizon Wireless and Southwest Airlines, for making the time apart bearable.

Cover Girl

Yes, that’s me on the cover of this magazine. I’m famous. I know, I know, I’ll probably never hear the end of this from my family since I’m always the one putting my hand up in front of the camera and not wanting to be photographed. But when my office’s Creative department asked me to be their “talent,” I don’t think I was really allowed to say no! Plus I got some bonuses out of it and a bit of fame and fortune at work.

The monthly Workspan magazine goes out to some 30,000 people. Yikes! The photo shoot was done at a local park at 6am one morning (to beat the Arizona heat . . . it was still 90 degrees or so). And I really am holding that frame, believe me, my arm was sore afterwards from holding it up for so long! I’ve already signed a few autographs. Just wait, some day I’ll be famous . . . and you can all say you knew me! ;)

Lakewood Church

While in Houston last weekend, Steve and I decided to check out the famous Lakewood Church. This is the huge Christian church (the center holds around 16,000) televised with messages from pastors such as Joel Osteen. You can pretty much see the Lakewood Church from Steve's condo and we thought it would be interesting to get in there with the locals and experience something different from our Mormon upbringing (most of you probably know by now we are no longer Mormon. We are not in search of a new church, we attended Lakewood just to get a better understanding of the locals and different cultures). This church had a congregation of pretty much all races and ages, which really surprised me. I guess I was expecting more of a straight southern baptist feel, but it was really very diverse.

The party before the message:



The morning started off with performances by the band and choir with the congregation chiming in and singing and dancing along. The music and words were very uplifting and it was just a happy place for everyone to join and celebrate. The way these people "felt the spirit" if you will was very different than our Mormon upbringing, and yet I have to say just as real. It was an uplifting experience for all. The televised portion of the service did not begin until about an hour in (which is when we finally got to sit down!).

Joel Osteen himself then came on stage to give the message. Here's where things went downhill. The message was just fluff, no depth really. But it made the congregation happy and feel nice things and that's really all that matters I suppose. Joel's message was about "God's little surprises." He told story after story of a single mother who...and then received...or a poor family who...and then such and such happened...or the little unfortunate child who...but then someone came along and...they were really just touchy feely stories of miraculous sounding events that, in reality, probably never happened. But again, if it uplifts people and they enjoy listening, whatever, more power to them.

Pastor Joel Osteen himself:



It was one particular thing Joel said that made me want to up and walk out (which I managed to refrain from doing since they asked us to stay until the end what with it being televised and all). Joel told of 'how one might be struggling to make ends meet and then...they receive a large tax return...one of God's little surprises!' The crowd went wild cheering and clapping. I almost threw up in my mouth. WHAT?! I'm sorry, but it does not take an accountant to know that a tax refund DOES NOT have ANYTHING to do with God. There is a mathematical equation if you will for how much tax you will owe or receive as a refund at the end of the year. It is 100% dependent on your income and the number of exemptions/deductions you claim and are eligible for. God does not change the tax tables. WOW.

All in all we were glad we went once. It was interesting to get to see how people may really believe in a religion, but from an outsider's perspective it just doesn't make any sense.

I'm in love!

My sister Becca was in town for a few days and we did a bit of exploring and had fun hanging out and talking like old times. Then I dragged her to a pet store in the mall to look around and we found my new puppy!!! They brought him out to play and he was so cute and frisky. When I held him he just kind of snuggled up on my shoulder and lay his head down, it was the cutest thing. I never thought I'd be a dog person . . . until I saw this little Puggle puppy! He's actually almost full-sized now at 5 months, they don't get much bigger than this. And for those wondering, a Puggle is half Beagle/half Pug. These pictures are all of him, including the portrait up top, it's from the website.

Now I've just got to convince Steve he wants a puggle too. I'm working on it. Meanwhile, I've been back to the pet store twice since Saturday to see my puppy. Steve warned me not to get attached. But how can you NOT get attached to this little thing?! He's already my desktop picture at work . . .







While Beck was here we decided to go out to dinner and get some red meat. We realized neither of us eats much red meat when our husbands are out of town. So off we went to Claim Jumper for a hearty meal. And hearty it was! We ordered the big platter for two of barbeque baby back pork ribs, barbeque beef ribs, and barbeque chicken. YUM! Best babyback ribs I've ever had. We just had to have our server capture the picked bones on camera to prove our carnivorousness. Is that a word? We were very proud.

Photos from Houston NOT on Facebook

I took a Saturday to explore downtown Houston, just wandering where ever the streets looked safe and interesting. Downtown is pretty dead outside of the work week, but I did find some interesting things worth photographing.


An artsy view of ONE of Chevron's buildings downtown. I don't work here, but I get free parking on the weekend!


The downtown has its older buildings that give it some character...


...and ever increasing newer buildings to fit everyone in as small an area as possible.


I knew there was a dog jumping competition thing going on in a park, so I figured I would stop by. It was surprisingly entertaining...I ended up staying longer than I expected.


This guy looked like he was new to the whole concept of jumping in the water. It took him a couple passes before he finally got the courage to take the leap...for a total of 4ft (vs competitors jumping 14-18ft)


I really would have expected some of the dogs to be better swimmers. It looked like some were really struggling to stay above water. Maybe they were amateurs.


This is about how I felt by the end of the day, but drenched by the humidity instead of the stagnant dog water.

Happy 10th Anniversary Babe!

It was 10 years ago today that we shared our first kiss . . . and look where we are today! I could not be happier, I love you!

Back to Houston . . .

I flew back to Houston for the weekend to spend some time with Steve now that he’s settled in a bit. We did a lot of driving around again, getting to know the area.

We also of course visited my new favorite restaurant, The Buffalo Grille! Their whole wheat pancakes are amazing! We got up Sunday morning and headed over there (it's actually within walking distance of the condo, now that's trouble). We got there just in time for Sunday brunch hour and the line was out the door. But it was well worth the wait, YUMMY! Steve took a nice picture of me stuffing my face. I plan to do it every time I go out there for a visit. (Houston is well known for EATING. There are so many restaurants to choose from, it's trouble!)



We also visited the Space Center and messed around with a few of the exhibits. The American astronaut was especially sexy.





Steve and the cute female astronaut . . .



Some neat pictures from inside the actual astronaut training center.







A real live Texas Longhorn. And who would have thought we’d see one while taking the NASA tour tram?



When we'd had our fill of the Space Center (or rather, when we were fed up with tripping all over the kids and people everywhere) we went down to the boardwalk for dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant. Neither of us ordered seafood.

Apparently the only picture Steve took was of me stuffing my face. But you can see the cool aquarium in the back. I swear I don't stuff my face all day every day. Just on vacation : )



After dinner we went outside and got our pictures taken with the cool shark. Funny how we never get pictures of the two of us . . . because there's never anyne else around to take the picture! At least we brought the camera and took pictures at all, right?





You gotta love Steve’s shirt. What has his MBA program turned him into!



All in all, it was a great weekend together and I can't wait for the next trip to Houston . . .