Rosie Update: 6 days in her new home

Rosie has been with us for almost a week now and I'd say she's almost acclimated to her new home. She only has one or two major experiences left to face - staying at home by herself for about 8 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of the semester, and traveling home to SC with us in the car for 8 hours.

Rosie is just a little sweetheart - she loves to cuddle on the couch and sleep next to us during the day. We haven't heard her bark yet, she just groans like an old man when she stretches and repositions in her sleep - it's the cutest thing! She loves wearing sweaters and her coat to go outside and her leash behavior is improving. When we got her on Tuesday she weighed 12.4 pounds. I weighed her last night and she's 13.4 - she's gained a pound! She's still finishing up her medicine to help fix her gastrointestinal issues she had two weeks ago resulting from worms, etc, but she's doing great now.

Some of Rosie's favorite things are:

-cuddling under her fleece blankets to stay warm
-tucking her nose in any little crevice while sleeping to stay warm
-playing with her squeaky ball
-playing with her kong toy
-laying on her dogbed
-going for walks & dashing up the stairs as fast as she can go
-meeting new people
-meeting new doggies
-chasing leaves tumbling in the wind
-peanut butter & pupperoni
-going to Petsmart to see other doggies and be petted by adoring shoppers
-getting her face washed at night
-having her belly rubbed
-a good massage behind the ears
-being held and carried
-watching TV
-listening to Christmas music

You may not be able to tell, but I'm no bigger than a cat!

I love my fleece blanket!

This is how I spend most of my day.

cuddler

in my new coat ready to go outside

She's getting pretty good at sitting on command, giving her toy when commanded to "give," and she will "wait" for her food to be placed in her bowl outside the kitchen and come when we say "ok" to enter and eat. She definitely understands the meaning of "no" and will stop doing whatever she's doing (wrong) when we say it sharply. She also knows to stay out of the dining area when we're at the table eating instead of sitting by us waiting for anything to drop from the table. She's going to be a great dog!

Rosie experiences her new home!

she loves her new bed!

she's spent about an hour in this posture watching tv and snoozing in Carlyle's lap

@~>~~ *Rosie Jackson* @~>~~

In case you haven't heard, we're getting a 4-month-old puppy this Tuesday! Her name is Rosie, and she's a twelve-pound tri-color beagle. We're so excited to bring her home! Carlyle & I keep looking at each other and saying "I'm thinking about Rosie, how about you?" We think and talk about her so much that I can't even imagine what it will be like when we're expecting a baby!

Carlyle picked out her bed, and it came with the bone-shaped squeaky toy and the red blanket on the right. We found the bone-print fleece at Target along with a rope toy. Her leash is a slate blue with pale pink and polka dotted ribbon.

We have a brush, claw trimmers, shampoo & conditioner for sensitive skin, and a puppy tooth brushing kit.

I don't know why this isn't rotated... but this is the kibble we got for her. 

Autumn & Redecorating

Last weekend Carlyle's parents came up to see us and we all had a great time together. The leaves were still hanging on and pretty vibrant still, so it was nice just driving around Bowie and Annapolis and DC seeing the leaves. Saturday we tried out a little seafood dive (well, I guess it was a little nicer than a dive, but still very home-style) in the middle of nowhere in Annapolis. It was called Cantler's and was at the end of a point on the water (some mouth of a creek I think that dumps into the Chesapeake). Carlyle's dad and I had been wanting to try Maryland-style crab cakes, and they were wonderful! 

The view from our porch a few weeks ago

the pumpkin we never carved lol...

beautiful flowers my husband brought me just because! 

Carlyle's mom helped me to recover my dining table chairs with new fabric that I bought. I'm in the middle of making new pillows for our couch that are from the same fabric family as the ones I bought for the chairs, so I'll post some of those soon, too. I've been super excited about sewing and making things since I bought a sewing machine a few weeks ago! I love it and I'm looking forward to trying new things. I look for excuses to sew - I've been checking all of our clothes for little holes or anything I could possibly mend so that I can pull it out and sew. :)

chairs before...

chairs after

one pillow made from the new fabric

The other fabric that will soon be made into pillows

Stuffed Pork chops we made one night - stuffing and apples and sage inside with honey-mustard on top - yum!

I tried making sugar cookies with royal icing on top. Some of them turned out okay, but they tasted great. It's just another medium of bakery art I'm trying to acquire...