There are days when we can't even handle two dogs, and I am on the verge of giving one of them away.  I hope I never want to give one of my kids away...even though I am sure it is a good possibility.  Having the dogs gives Brady and I a little taste of what it will be like to have a baby...even though we won't just kick our baby outside in the snow to take a dump =) 

But in all seriousness, dogs are a huge responsibility!  You have to feed them - make sure each dog is eating his own food, bathe them - this usually consists of me in the tub with Gus wearing a bathing suit and Brady playing defense on the outside of the tub making sure he doesn't jump out, give them toys to chew to deter them from eating things like blinds, furniture, and doors - yes Gus has destroyed all those things, give them flea, tick, heartworm meds, get them a babysitter when we are out of town...yada yada yada.

Well now with our newest addition to the family comes another challenge...doggie potty training.  Gus was trained when I got him and I didn't realize how amazing this really was.  Dale is pretty good but he still has a few accidents in a week...and they are always on the carpet! 

So on to the part about why we aren't ready for kids...this weekend Brady was out of town with his man friends and I was here in good ol Sharpsville, IN with my girlfriends.  Brady and I both had super fun weekends with our old college buds but after a couple days apart we were really missing each other and couldn't wait to be reunited...for multiple reasons =)

Well the girls had all left and after a little snooze on the couch I was up and trying to get everything spic and span so my hubby could come home to a stress free, clean house just like he left it.  Well Dale crapped on that plan when I was napping...literally.  I walked into the dining room and there was a little goldmine just waiting for me in there...ugh.  So I showed it to Dale, yelled at him, smacked him on the nose, and put him outside.  Then I proceeded to clean up the mess.  As I was cleaning it I didn't notice that Dale left a secret little turd a couple feet away from the original crime scene and I stepped in it...on our nicest rug, wearing my favorite slippers. 

Fast forward a couple hours...Dale has just been outside with Gus running and playing in the snow for about 40 minutes...so surely he has gone to the bathroom right?  Wrong.  He came back in the house and five minutes hadn't passed and I see him squatting on the same nice rug starting to take a huge crap.  I picked him up while he was in the act, did the yelling/smacking routine, and was livid!  Not only did he crap on the rug twice in one afternoon...but he interrupted my TurboFire time with Chalene.  As Stephanie Tanner would say, "How rude!" 

At this point Brady was less than an hour away, and my excitement to see him had been replaced by feelings of murder towards Dale.  So of course I texted Brady to tell him how mad I was, how he better get here soon before Dale gets turned into a puppy bomb (Krista, Megan Erica, Brittany, Chelsie...hope you read that, haha), how if Dale isn't a perfect dog just like Gus then we are getting rid of him in a month, etc. 

So what I did was let Dale's crapfest, turn Brady's homecoming into a crapfest.  There was no passionate kissing and or can't keep your hands off each other sexy time becuase we have missed each other so much moment...there was stress, silence, and angry feelings towards each other and Dale.  

I can see how easy it is to make mistakes raising kids because I have made plenty just being a fur baby mama.  I have a favorite dog...*cough cough* Gus.  And the biggest thing I see is that when either dog does something bad it adds stress to our home and puts strain on the marriage relationship. 

Needless to say we all kissed and made up, we forgave Dale and decided to be better trainers for him, and we did have our can't keep your hands off each other sexy time later that evening.   

Until next time,

Dale is a little puppy dog who showed up at our house a couple of weeks ago.  Brady  wanted to get a puppy and had been begging me to get a JRT (Jack Russell Terrier) for about 6 months now.  I kept saying no...hello have you seen the dog we already have?  He is practically a horse!  In my opinion, one horse dog was enough.  But clearly God had other plans, He practically plopped the cutest puppy on our doorstep one day and He knew I woudn't say no. 

I was working one day from home and Brady called me and said that someone had dumped a couple puppies in the old cattle lot.  Calvin, our hired hand on the farm, found them and took them into his home.  His daughter took one puppy and Calvin and his wife were going to take the other one.  Well Calvin and Donna already have two dogs and they decided that three was just too much.  Needless to say, Brady saw the puppy and immediately fell in love, he then brought the pup home for me to "look at" and the next thing you know I was feeding him and we were calling him Dale. 

Well what really happened is a little different.  We heard the other puppy that Calvin's daughter took home looked exactly like a mini Gus (which he does), so Cole (Brady's cousin) looked her up on Facebook to see if she posted any pictures.  Well she did, and we found out some interesting information from her page.  Someone had asked her where she got the puppy and she said "From a lady in Sharpsville, he was free and came with all his first round shots"...WHAT?!!  This is where the digging started and it wasn't too hard to find out where our little Dale came from considering the population of Sharpsville is 607 people. 

Turns out that Calvin's two daughters played a trick on him and they were the ones that put the puppies in the barn in the middle of the night!  One of his daughters lives at home and one doesn't, and the one who lives at home wanted one of the puppies but knew her dad would say no.  What better way to get your dad to say yes to getting a dog than to save a homeless one!?  Well, he still didn't say yes and now we have Dale =)

Brady talked to Calvin's daughter who kept the other puppy and we got all the information about where they came from.  I went and talked to the lady that day.  She has the mama dog and the daddy dog is MIA...she is a single mom and she sleeps around.  Dale's mom is a purebred Walker Coonhound and from the looks of Dale it seems that she got it on with a Boxer. 

Dale has been a good puppy so far, he has had a couple of accidents but otherwise has been very good about doing his business outside.  He can sit, he loves to snuggle, and he is a great little play buddy for Gus.  She still has three puppies available and they all look exactly like Dale, if you are interested just get a hold of me and I will give you all the contact information.

“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” Dean Koontz

We had one in our garage!  A mountain of insulation that is...weird things like this happen in a home when you are constantly renovating, fixing up, and remodeling.

One of the million reasons Brady is an amazing husband is because he is such a hard worker...sometimes too hard even.  Being a workaholic comes honest to him though, it runs in the family.  Let's look at some more examples of Brady working.

As you can see a common theme in our marriage is Brady likes to work, and I like to take pictures of him while he is working.  One of the many reasons we are a match made in heaven =)