RIVER RATS

the mister and i went to his family place on the river this weekend. i haven't been there in a long time and it was heaven. saturday we got a little hike in, played with piper in the sunshine and got a little tan!
i love going down there. it's secluded, the river is a stone's throw away and you can relax and let your brain take a time out from the every day routine. that's a beautiful thing.
we are planning our annual trip to the russian river in the wine country (california). we are going to attempt to drive this year. it will be monumental for us as we have not had the time or resources to take a legitimate "road trip" together in the past. it's long overdue and i'm pumped. it takes about 11-12 hours to drive down there from portland so we are thinking we'll split the driving days in half...tackling oregon to the boarder on the first day then the home stretch on the 2nd. we'll be able to stay there 5 days this year and that is (again) something to smile about. we are crazy about the russian river and also crazy about our friends that invite us every year. that place is a dream; every detail from the river, the old cabin and it's screened in sleeping porch, the outdoor shower, the rickety walk down to the landing...the lazy river you can swim in, paddle down, float on...wine valley surrounding, quaint little town center with amazing shopping and restaurants. what more could you possibly want in a vacation? i don't know. i think it really is the best.
i just found out today that my parents had to put our family dog down this weekend. she was a fourteen year old yellow lab named Brylly. such an amazing dog and we loved her every day for 14 years. she was spunky and definitely a part of the family to the fullest extent. we'll miss her.
hope all is well out there in the worlds of all of you.
we had this great thunder storm last night and it reminded me that summer is not so far away after all...

mo

oldies but goodies

I talked to a friend last week that I haven't spoken to in ages. I mean literally, haven't talked to her in SO long. it was really great just catching up. i love those few friends that you can just pick up where you left off with. there's no wierdness or hurt feelings for dropping off the earth for a few months, they just pick up and go with you from where you last left. just one of those simple things in life that i really appreciate.

Piper is keeping us so busy. It sounds so completely lame and dorky, but i was naive to think owning a small little freakishly energetic pup wouldn't change life a little. i still love it, but my god does that little thing ever have enough energy to propel a small space craft...she's a bit psycho in the morning and at night. the two times mister and i are completely wiped out of our minds. got to love it. the amount of 5am energy piper puts out is cosmic.

anyway, the kiddies and my sis came to visit last weekend. those little boys really tired piper out...oh and mister. they tired him out too. ad and i were running around doing errands, going to the nike employee store, to the mall, etc. and before you knew it we'd been gone all day...meaning mister had been home with naughty girl and the two boys taunting her. that man has more patience than i could summon in my entire life. thank heavens for that!

mister has a ball game tonight and tomorrow night we're going to see our friends new little baby girl. the weekend will be here once again before i can say "visitors" with my ma, dad and brother coming into town. steven aka "bruce" is hawaii bound early next week...lucky little devil.

one last departing nugget. the next time you feel too tired to open your eyes in the morning, think about this; standing out in the frosty air at 5:30am in a robe and slippers with a dog peeing mere inches away from your tired sorry ass. then mentally stand there and wait as she proceeds to attack your legs wanting to play and whinning like hell, as you silently plead to go back in the house... all before a cup of coffee. now that's a good morning piper style.

dreamily,

mo

Introductions: Piper O'Leary, Dog Wonder

Well folks, it's official. I've recently purchased the most adorable puppy on the planet. Just look at that face.

It's been days since i've had the chance to post. Not that anyone was holding their breath...but i must explain myself. This weekend (Sunday to be exact) i finally convinced mister to let me get a dog. I've been begging and pleading with him to get a puppy for hmmmmm roughly 3 1/2 years now. one thing you have to know about mister. he's intense. the guy is not easily persuaded. nor is he rash or quick to make hasty decisions. THEN THERE'S ME. i'm just about as opposite as they come. once i get a hair-brained idea (turns out most of my ideas are of this particular classification) i have the tendency to just run with it. for expamle, there was a stretch of about 2 weeks (i'm not talking years and years ago either) when i convinced mister i was going to make a living creating homemade cards. oh yeah. right. i honestly was in my craft room (aka dungeon unfinished basement) working away for hours on end to complete a small handful of homemade cards. who in the hell would buy them is the first question (which i refused to address) and secondly i'd last about two seconds holed up in a freaking basement cutting up construction paper shapes and pasting decorations on them. that's just about as advanced as a kindergarden student...not even! preschool! was my ultimate plan to solicit my 3 and 5 year old nephews as my laborers? lastly, and my personal favorite, it would be humanly impossible to create enough crappy cards to even pay off the cost of SUPPLIES to make them!!! i would literally lose money.

i'm all about impulsive decisions...much to my chagrin.

So...turns out a 7 week old puppy is a ridiculous amount of work. no joke. i mean people kept saying "oh this is good practice before you have a baby". and i've discovered that analogy has some truth to it! never leaving her unsupervised, up in the middle of the night, feeding her, cleaning her, many trips to the pet store, figuring out how to tame her teething, taking her outside to pee every five seconds, saying "no piper" a million times over and over as she runs to chew up anything and everything in her path..oh and the lovely destruct-o mode of tearing things up if you turn your back. got to love that my house cleaning duties have increased triple fold.

ah yes, she's a bundle of puppy energy-there's no doubt about it..and i love every second of her chaos and i have to say...mister is into it. he comes home to see "his girls" after work and she races up to see him. just too cute.

my mom and sister are getting a real kick out of hearing my horror stories of her chewing this and that, peeing in the house etc. they think it's real hilarious. my little nephews are coming to visit with my sis this weekend so we'll have a good time...

sending out a little puppy love

mo