Pete ate my Valentine's Day chocolates

Last night, when BDR and I took Stella to puppy class, Peter was pretty upset that he didn't get to go. So upset that he had to eat to hide from his feelings.

That's right, he opened up my box of chocolates and ate every piece!

It's a darn good thing he has an iron stomach, or else he'd be pretty upset right now. Instead he's just laying there licking his tennis ball, happy as a clam.

This is what happened when we got home....

The rest is still unwritten

So my pal Kmac tagged me in her latest post on her ever-hilarious blog. I figured if I didn't comply, I would be officially defriended and that is not something I'm willing to risk!

So here I am on a Friday afternoon, wishing I had a window to gaze into the sunshine playing a little bloggy game in hopes of rejuvenating my motivation!

Instructions:

Answer the following questions in written format:

1. What's your name/your Blogger name?

2. What's your blog's name/URL?

3. Write "the quick fox jumps over the lazy dog".

4. Favorite quote?

5. Your Favorite song?

6. Your favorite band/singers?

7. Anything else you want to say?

8. Tag 3-5 other people.

Ok, you girls take your turn now. In case my readers want to check them out. Here's their blog url's:

Lipstick Cowgirl: http://chroniclesofawildcat-melissa.blogspot.com/

Grey House Red Dog: http://greyhousereddog.blogspot.com/

Farmer's Daughter: http://msbergkamp.blogspot.com/

The Girl on the Run: http://wanderingthroughnothingness.com/

Famous Parents

Nanny and Poppy made the I Am A Stuffed Animal .com blog!!

Check it out here:

http://www.iamastuffedanimal.com/?p=1830

I can't wait to hear all about their latest adventures!

Stelly's Belly!

Stelly's belly will never be the same. You can see the tiny little stitches in the middle of her belly from her surgery last week. They shaved much of her belly too, so not only does it look funny, but it feels all prickly too. Kinda like BDR's moustache.

And due to the stitches, she has to wear the cone of shame. Luckily, she's still really stinkin' cute.

Besides her spay, Stella also had a thumb-ectomy. That is, her dew claws were removed. I had always wished I'd gotten Peter's taken off, so I was sure to get Stella all set up. They shave a good chunk of her hands and she's got several stitches.

 She's recovering pretty darn well though. She of course has her bouts with energy and exhaustion, but that's pretty typical of any puppy. We've been trying to keep her pretty calm and make sure she doesn't wrestle with big brother too much. So far so good.

HAPPY Valentines DAY!

So BDR and I have a hard time waiting to open gifts when holidays come around. I think we both just get so excited, so Valentines Day was no exception! We exchanged gifts last night!

Here's some backstory... Several month's ago there was a prominent Kansas Citian (who has a bigtime jewelry store named after him!) that BDR helped when he wrecked his car, since then BDR has been on the family holiday card list. Shortly after the accident, BDR received a small thank you gift at the station. I was so excited when he told me a package arrived from Mr. Helzberg. I got excited too soon though, it was a box of peanuts!

He got a holiday card and most recently a Valentine's card from the Helzberg family. They have the cutest grandkids by the way! So BDR tells me that another package arrived from Mr. Helzberg, and that he couldn't wait to show it to me.

He brings home a big padded manila envelope from the Helzberg Foundation, with the Valentine's card and some "I am loved" pins inside. I keep telling BDR he needs to leverage this relationship, but of course, BDR being BDR, he says no way.

Anyway, he shows me the envelope from the Helzbergs and says, "Bummer, no Valentine's gift for you from Helzbergs."

I smile and turn around to keep cooking our delcious taco dinner, knowing that's what I should have expected.

"But there is something from Kay!" 

Beautiful white gold and blue topaz (my birthstone) bracelet! 

He said he wanted to find something to match my new ring...

Am I lucky girl or what?!?!

Seriously, I have got the best man any girl could ask for! I hope all of your sweethearts are just as good to you this year!

Off to the races!

I'm signed up for 2011 race #2 and #3 of my 11 races of 11.

 Diva Dash 5K

 Westport St. Patty's Day 4 Miler










I'm pretty stoked.

Diva Dash benefits Girls on the Run, which is always good. And St Patrick is my patron saint, thus one of my favorite holidays and seasons of the year.

Talk of a fall marathon is also brewing... Chicago's been thrown around, but I'd rather do one I haven't done before. Any suggestions for the best marathon out there? Between race, course, and location - we'll turn it into a vacation, so it needs to be an all-around good time!

Every Home Needs A Harvey

What a super super smart dog!!!

Blizzard of Oz, a doggie's dream!

This past week half the country experienced what Frankie Avalon might call the Humonga, Cowabunga from Down Unda'... Ok, it wasn't a big honkin' wave like the one that got him in "Back to the Beach" but it was a serious snowstorm. An actual blizzard. I can't remember a time when the weathergirl actually termed it a true blizzard.

So I settled down in my kerchief and readied myself to get a little stircrazy. There was no way I was driving my new ride out in this. Not when Kansans aren't sure how to drive in snow! It was just a little wet and sleety when I woke up Tuesday morning, but then it started coming down in a serious way.

I'd not seen snow accumulate on my windowsills before but it did last week! It looked like a scene from a beautiful Christmas card!

I feel pretty lucky that my dogs love the snow. And when I say love, I MEAN it! They don't care if its 30-below, if there's powder, they want to play! Look at little Belly's face here, covered in flakes after a romp around the yard, She's in heaven!

At one point, I peaked out the window in the downpour and she was just sitting out there, in awe of the flakes. Isn't it amazing how dogs just truly get it!? They can teach us so much about life and how we are just such a small portion of this huge world.

Before we knew it, darn near a foot had accumulated. This is the door to the back deck from the mud room. Its up to Stella's belly, but she doesn't mind!

And when there is that much snow, there is nothing better to do than play chase! They did laps around the yard quite a while before coming in to nap and warm up.

With this much snow, I was so glad I wasn't out working, but poor BDR was. He pushed so many people out of the snow that luckily, his 12-hour shift just flew by! TGFO. In layman's terms, Thank God For Overtime! While he was outside getting chilled, I started to wonder about the chill in the mud room. Sure enough, snow was coming in everywhere! From the doggie door to the back door, we got snow!

But of course, Stella didn't mind. She just wanted a buddy to go out and play in it with her!

 As the day came to a close, and the flakes started to lighten up. The dogs and I just waited for BDR to come home! What a view we had out our front door of the silent white night. It was breathtaking. 

On Wednesday, after sleeping in, knowing the streets were crap, BDR and I bundled up to shovel my Chevy out of the driveway. This:

is our driveway. Yep, you can't even tell. That could be the lawn for all we know. And there were pretty big drifts in it too! This one is almost up to my knees! I about bit it when I jumped in! Yikes!

About halfway thru I remembered my brother owns a snow blower, duh. Unfortunately, for us and them!, it broke that morning! So we kept shoveling and a few hours later - we had this!

Tada, a clear driveway! Combine that with a romp around the back yard with the pups and a perfect snow angel, it was a pretty good Snow-cation!

Stella's Pedigree

My awesome birthday present this year was a Doggie DNA test for our new little one, Stella. We recently go the results back and were a little surprised. When we first got her, we were told she was a Mastiff mix. As she grew, she started to look more and more German Shepherd.

Here's the results....

She is half purebred! That's a lot more than any of us American Mutts can claim anymore! I know I'm Irish, English, Norweigan, Indian, German, etc, etc, etc.

She's been living up to her breeds. It seems like anywhere I walk, she's right behind me, nipping at my calves and heels telling me where she wants me to go. What a herder! And just yesterday she popped Peter in the face showcasing her full boxing abilities!

Next week she's set to get spayed. She's losing baby teeth right and left. And she's mastering the skills we learn in her puppy class. She's up to about 25 pounds and its getting hard to lift her!

Sigh, my baby is growin' up!

Delightful Dining

So one of my besties is a superawesomeradderthanyou blogger. And she recently wrote about an amazing dining experience we had at KC Restaurant Week at the American in Crown Center.

I think you should read it. If this photo doesn't show it enough, I'll just say it. This place was Fahn.Cee.Schman.Cee. We had a great time at a place we wouldn't normally get to go.

I saw my shadow...

At this year's Groundhog Run!

I think that's a good sign, right?! Although with the Second Coming of the Snowpocalypse, who really knows?!

Sunday was the Groundhog Run in the caves at the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis.

This is one of my all-time favorite events. If you can handle the rotten-egg fart smell at some points on the course, you'd love it to. Its your only chance to run in 70 degrees in the middle of winter in Kansas City.

My race buddy had something come up and wasn't able to race with me, so I was a bit bummed. Luckily with a plea on facebook, I found a buddy to take her bib and join me in the caves!

Pre-race, I ran into my Girls on the Run pal Jackie and got to catch up while we waited for the 5K to end.

Here's my race buddy Mike, me, Jackie and Mike's friend String Bean Dean - pre-race. You can see the cave looking stuff that proves where we were running in the background!

So, the race story. Well, first off, if you've been reading for a while - you know I've been a huge winter slacker and have been doing pretty much Jack for a while now. Needless to say 6.2 miles was going to feel damn near like a marathon!

We started at the back of the pack, just after the gun due to the portapotty line. This is my favorite place to start a race, because then I get to be the passer instead of the passed. I actually felt pretty decent for the first lap, and I knew we were keeping a decent clip. Probably right around 11:00s. I was hoping to negative split, like I usually try to do (though I don't always succeed). We walked the aid stations and in the second lap took a couple other walk breaks. With Mike's encouragement, I kept pushing long after I wanted to.

Keep in mind that Mr. Encouragement is the same guy who on Saturday did the Polar Plunge in a Speedo and a Superman cape. He did raise about $1000 for Special Olympics though. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Anyway, Superman kept me running and pushing and huffing and puffing around every bend in the caves. Once we hit the 6 mile mark and I could see an end in sight, I picked it up as best I could and tried to out sprint him to the finish line. Maybe that's why my knee hurts a bit today...

Anyway, here's us afterwards, all sweaty, with Gus the Groundhog in the background. I give this race a big thumbs up!

My official time:

95th in my AG

1:06:42 total time
10:44 average pace.

Not too shabby.

Afterwards, I took a rest on the back of the ambulance waiting for the rest of Superman's firefighter crew to pack up and head to the Ameristar for brunch. Here's us with a big Gus on the way out....

So far, a wonderful morning. My favorite way to spend the weekend. That is, until we got to the smoke infested casino and I got sick! I completely cleaned out my system in the casino bathroom and told Mike we needed to hit the road pronto. As we found the on-ramp to the highway, I made him stop so I could continue to puke in the snow. Ugh. Seriously, not a fun way to enjoy your post-race high!

But I got home, showered and cuddled with my puppies for the rest of the day and woke up Monday feeling great! Phew!

Our Winter FUNdraising Efforts!

Its the middle of winter and we're all bundled up, trying to make it through these brutally cold nights and dreary days. So what do BDR and I do? We give back.

Ok, in all fairness, we ask you to give back! We do the work, you reap the reward aka laughing at us when we look rediculous!

I've written before about my fundraising efforts. I'm training for the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon on April 2 and raising money for my local Girls on the Run Chapter. I need to raise a minimum of $262 by that date. I would be so grateful, if you would visit this site, and make a donation. Any amount is wonderful, appreciated and will be put to good use!

Here's the more entertaining portion of this blog.

BDR is growing a moustache.

Need I really say more?!

I'm hoping that he starts to look like Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck or George Harrison. But who knows how it will turn out. It could end up being a bit more "Rollie Fingers".

His police department has challenged its officers to grow a moustache for the month of February and raise money for its favorite cause, Special Olympics. They do other regular fundraisers including the Torch Run and the Summer Games. But this one is definitely the most fun!

If you are willing to sponsor BDR in his quest to grow the most righteous stache, please contact him at reedy.us (at) gmail. Any amount counts. And really, if I have to see that flavor savor every day for a month, I hope he can really raise some good money for it! Come on, Its for the Kids!!

Here's your sponsor agreement:

"I agree to Sponsor BDR's Stache in the name of charity for the Special Olympics. I understand that my pledge is only due upon successful completion of the event by said Stache growing participant until February 28^th, 2011. Should the participant shave said Stache, I am released from all Sponsoring liability and will mercilessly ridicule them for bailing out on their fellow participants, not to mention the pledge they just lost for Special Olympics."

I hope you feel you can undertake these responsibilities and help me get through the next whiskery 28 days. I promise to document the growth throughout the month, so you can enjoy it too!

And just for reference, here's the starting point after Day 1.