week(15) 2013

week 15, April 10 - 17

I drove out to check out the Run! Day Camp for Dogs. It way exceeded my expectations. The facility is very nice. The dogs have 15 acres to run on wherever they want. There's a creek on the property. The owner was friendly and straightforward. Abbie got to play with some of the dogs who were overnight boarding who can't be out on the acreage for whatever reason (e.g. one clearly preferred to lay on the couch; one had surgery a while ago; etc). There was a really small dog there. Abbie did great playing with her. She got down low and recognized she had to play differently with the smaller dog than the bigger dog. I was ridiculously proud of her. I'm going to have her start going once per week when her five boarding school training classes are over. --- Wednesday

health
The dog walk/jog continues to go well. I switched out the insoles of my shoes and that fixed my foot problem for the most part. My left ankle still hurts a bit, but that wasn't as concerning to me as my foot itself. I've added another set of lunges to the squat and lunge portion of the walk. Adding slowly is working. I was ever so slightly sore the day after adding the new set of lunges, but nothing too bad. Any pulling Abbie was doing (which on the daily walk/run was minimal) is now gone with putting her in a harness. Turtle still pulled like hell with the same type of harness, but Abbie responds very well to it. Sometimes I kind of have to pull her to come with me, so I don't know if that's harness discomfort or wanting to sniff or what. Ah well, these things are small potatoes in my life right now.

I'm down 22 lb from my high. I don't care much about the number my weight lands at as I feel healthy and sustainable at this weight, but it is nice to see it continue to go down despite having gotten my appetite back. I am eating way smaller portions due to choice, and eating more frequently. It makes me feel better physically. Eating the larger portions was just habit more than anything. I did have a 2-3 day stretch recently where it was harder than usual to resist sugar, but I didn't break. I had a bite or two of sweet stuff (a small chocolate egg from Easter candy), but didn't push it. I was proud of myself for that.

Depression stuff, at the moment, gets demoted to a section under health rather than it's own section. Woohoo!  I'm doing very well with this. I have situational sadness, but that's not the same (and I'm dealing with it quite well lately). I've struggled more with being mindful the past week or so, but as they say in the meditation guidance, "no one says this is easy."

job
I've been mulling over quite a bit lately, despite deciding to put this on the back burner for a while. One thing I'm pondering is starting my own home-based business targeting individuals, small business, organizations, etc who want to go paperless, or who want to get rid of a backlog of papers. I love organization and I love getting rid of clutter and I love my 25 page/minute, front-back at the same time, scanner. The appeal of starting my own business is that I would have more flexibility in hours allowing me to still walk Avery to school, pick her up, etc. It seems with all the changes in her life right now, me going back to work full-time is not necessarily in her best interests.

The other thing I've realized is that Sharepoint is more technical that I want to be. So I moved onto researching Salesforce.com. I think that is much more suited for what I would want to be doing in an outside the home job. So I'll ponder and research that for a while more to see if it feels right before moving forward with training. I think ideally I'd like to be a contract worker placed through a body shop(s). However, I think I'd need to work at least a year doing it full-time before I'd be able to do that. And probably before I feel comfortable. A lot changes in 7 years out of the workforce.

other
I downgraded the cable service to basic and dropped the landline. That saves $150 per month. I'm very pleased with that decision.

Last night a few of us went out to celebrate Christie's birthday. It was so nice to laugh so much.

The other day, I went to an obsucure movie called War Witch. I shouldn't have. And it should remain an obscure movie. Not sure what the 96% of critics were thinking. At least the movie was exploitative of the more gruesome aspects, particularly the violence.

Avery and I leave next Saturday - on a 6 am flight - for 6 days in St John. It's quite a slog to get there, but I am so looking forward to getting away into a warm, sunny location and seeing friends (Vic & Mike & Bear).

week(6) 2013

Week 6, February 3 - February 9

job search

I'm still working on my resume. I needed to strip out a lot of the technical speak and highlight my organizational and administrative experience given I'm applying for administrative assistant type jobs. D helped me write my cover letter for one position yesterday, so I think that's good to go ... cover letter and resume submitted to two companies - first hurdle done! --- Sunday

Resume is done and submitted. No calls yet. I expect it'll be a while. It's a rather odd experience dumbing down your resume. But I want a dumbed down job that I can't possibly bring home with me, so dumbing must be done. --- Wednesday

Abbie

We had a trainer from Wonder Puppy come over for an hour yesterday to help us understand how better to make Avery feel comfortable with Abbie. She gave us a lot of great information about training, as well as explained that puppies and children don't really go together, despite what we tend to think about. Kids like to bug the puppies when they're sleeping; puppies have sharp teeth and want to get close to kids' faces. So she said management is 90% of the battle. Keeping the two separate when parents are in the immediate vicinity to intervene. I've been OK at that, but not perfect, so I'll step that up. I've been really impressed with the trainers from Wonder Puppy. --- Sunday 

random

D and I tried to deviate from our date night standard last night. While we deviate, we failed miserably at our mission. The intent was to have dinner at somewhere new, then hit a comedy club. We ended up eating at a mediocre place we've been before, then unable to go to the comedy club since the show was sold out. I guess we need to do more preparation before attempting a date night deviation. --- Sunday

This coming week is jam packed for me. I have a lot of various appointments and things with deadlines. Oddly, it feels kind of good to have a full but managable schedule. I've also started calendaring even smaller things like walking Abbie. It just helps me stay on track with my day. --- Sunday

Today was a busy day Abbie, Avery, and me. After dropping Avery off at school, I headed over to my therapist appointment. Abbie waited in the car in her crate, a skill which she's grown fond of (I believe). Following that we drove home to find the housecleaners cleaning away. I took Abbie for a 35ish minute walk, then played ball with her in the garage for about 20 minutes before hitting the road to pick Avery up at school. Abbie went back in the car crate and off we went. After Avery pickup, we had a whopping 1 hour at home. Avery watched some TV; Abbie and I napped fitfully. Next was Avery's kindergarten round-up (they call it kindergarten connect now). After that we beelined it for the first of Avery's two dance classes. During that, I took Abbie for a long walk around downtown. After the second of Avery's dance classes, we headed straight for the library where Avery and Nain go to storytime together every week. --- Wednesday

week(5) 2013

Week 5, January 27 - February 2

Avery

Avery has decided that she wants to take a break from kung fu. She still enjoys class a lot, but I've noticed that she seems to need more of a break from activities than she did before. Dropping kung fu for a while means she'll have all of Monday afternoon off, which will be her only break in activities during the week. We never do classes/scheduled activities for her on the weekend, so the weekends are always breaks. 

Avery's reading progress is coming along nicely. She is more willing to try sounding out words to read them. And she'll randomly spell things for me in the car. I asked her to spell rabbit the other day. She, without sounding it out aloud, said, R A B I T. Which brings me to my question: how do I respond at this age? Do I say well done and leave it at that? Or, do I say good job, but it has another B in it? 

Avery's latest purchase with her allowance savings was a face painting kit. She loves it. First D tried to paint Avery's face when she asked. He painted the most pathetic version of a butterfly ever. She goes into the bathroom to look at it. I ask her, "What do you think?" When I get no response I ask meekly, "Are you a little disappointed?" She emphatically responds, "I love it! It's fabulous!" D and I just grinned at each other and shook our heads. That is one truly wonderful thing about having a dramatic and enthusiastic child: she LOVES everything (except when I say no, but she is a kid after all). Last night before dinner, Avery painted her own face. Then we painted my face. I think Avery must have taken lessons in how to make my nose look even bigger than it actually is. :) --- Tuesday

Avery is doing slightly better with Abbie. She's still afraid of Abbie when she comes towards her, even though Abbie typically just wants to sniff. She does a good job at just turning her back, but her body language conveys fear. I am having a dog trainer come over on Saturday to help us to help Avery get more comfortable with Abbie. 

Abbie

Potty training is finally going well. For the past couple of days we've had only one or two pees in the house. Both of those were excitement pees versus just going off and finding a place to pee. I'll take it! I'm optimistic that I might be able to schedule a full carpet cleaning in a couple of weeks. 

Walks are going great! I've been taking her daily, which is doing good things for me. I don't think I've lost any weight, but my pants fit and feel better. Abbie is a great walker. She pays attention and doesn't pull. She's not freaked out by noises or vehicles. She gets excited to see a jogger go by, but we're making progress on distracting her with good things (i.e. treats) when that happens. 

She knows two commands consistently: sit and look.  Look came about because I have tiny treats I use on our walks. I often toss them on the ground because it's too hard to feed her from my hand while still walking. Because they're small, she'd often miss seeing me throw it on the ground. She'd look at me waiting for me to throw it. I kept having to bend over and point to it. Pain in the butt. So I started saying look while tapping my foot next to the treat. It took a few days of doing it, but she now knows to look towards the ground and search for a treat, usually near my tapping foot. I haven't worked on any other commands. I think she knows what crate and bed mean (that we want her to go to those locations), but she doesn't follow the commands without a treat being guaranteed. 

Abbie has gained 7 lb since her first vet appointment (20lb --> 27lb). She's growing so fast. Most people we see out and about comment on the size of her huge paws. Avery says "her little paws are adorable." She's free feeder and typically doesn't eat the whole bowl at one time. The exception to this is when I put salmon oil on her food. I bought it to help with her coat and the small amount of dandruff she has. She LOVES it. My strategy now is to put it on a cup of food. Then put more food in the bowl without the oil. This prevents her from chowing down on all the food and will hopefully enable us to continue to free feed.  

The puppy in her is out, loud and proud. She's testing boundaries all over the place. Jumping up to eat scrambled eggs off my desk; jumping on the bed and knocking over water glass on the night table; D's lost three socks and I've lost one; the living room carpet has been further damaged with pulling of it up a bit; the cheap rugs in front of the doors in the kitchen will need to be replaced once she's fully potty trained. I'm still head over heels in love with her, so all this just makes me smile. 

Me

I've known for a while that I do best when I'm on some sort of routine, but not so strict that I want to rebel against it. It's a balancing act. With daily dog walks back in my life, it makes establishing a routine easier for me. I've implemented a few "rules" for myself to make my mornings more productive. First, no computer time until after Avery's been dropped off at school, the kitchen and living room have been cleaned, and Abbie has been walked (assuming the plan is to walk her in the morning versus a planned afternoon walk). I'm also doing my best to keep on top of clutter in the house so it doesn't build up. Discipline in these areas is not a strength (shocking, I know). So far so good. It's been a week and all is going well. 

I am obsessed with Scramble and Seinfeld reruns at the moment. I can watch Seinfeld reruns and play at the same time since I don't have to pay full attention to the episode to know what is going on. 

I'd forgotten how special the relationship with a dog can be. Abbie and I have truly bonded. I love seeing her, I love feeling proud when she learns a new command, I love that she wants to be with me. I just love her I guess. I'm also talking about Eddie and Turtle all the time as a result of her arrival. She reminds me of all the wonderful things about Eddie in particular. It has always been easier to remember Turtle's great traits since the end came so quickly for her. With Eddie, I needed time to forget the last couple of years that just go progressively harder. 

Job

I've decided to get a part-time job. I don't want it to be stressful or at the level which I was previously working. The salary is unimportant to me, as is status. I just want something that is outside of the house and which gives me some sense of myself aside from mother and wife and CEO of CdT. Somehow I think that last title will not get me a job. I've found a few jobs to apply for, though I expect it'll take a while given how long I've not worked. I'm working on my resume now and hope to submit it to two different companies later today. While I don't relish the idea of a job search and interview process, I am excited about this change. --- Saturday

As far as what will happen with Avery's schedule, clearly that will depend upon what hours I'll be working. I asked Mom if she'd be interested in taking over some of the functional duties of Avery care such as driving to and from activities and sitting at times when I'm at work. She said yes. We have to pay her because neither D nor I would feel right not paying her for regular childcare and nanny-type duties. Mom managed to negotiate her hourly wage lower than the original offer. That woman has some skills! 

Random

I'm having a new deadbolt put on our front door. The current one just gives us so much trouble that I figured I'd just put on a new one. At the same time, I'm having retractable screen doors installed on both the front door and the door to the patio. It'll be nice to be able to keep the doors open in the summer while Avery is outside playing. Plus the benefit of fresh air. I'm more likely to open a door than a window for some reason. 

I'm obsessed with Diet Dr. Pepper at the moment. 

The day we picked up Abbie from the breeder (oh the guilt that I bought a dog from a breeder, but I wanted a GS damn it!) my navigation system failed me. We got lost in the vicinity of the house, but were basically driving in circles around the house. Anyway, whilst doing that we saw a camel just hanging out in this front yard. A camel. Last night at dinner, a coworker of D's was talking about driving somewhere near Canby when he saw some woman walking a lion. You leave Portland and you never know what oddities you'll see. Full face tattoos have nothing on walking a lion along a road, imho. 

Whale vomit. Who knew?