A Nice Night

Things have been going pretty well in the Rhodes house. Paisley is settling in and making this her place. Our housebreaking attempts have so far been fairly successful. Since her homecoming on Saturday, she's had a total of about 5 accidents inside, which for an 8 week old puppy that's not to shabby! She loves to play with her toys and with a brown fleece blanket that has become her new best friend. She has started exercising her vocal cords and barking at us. It's the funniest sound you'll ever hear. She tries so hard to be tough and scary, but we just laugh at her.

Last night was really great. I got home from work to find her and Jason playing in the living room. I joined in the fun for a little while before making my new favorite dinner. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe for chicken picatta. It's soooooo good! I make that and the roasted onions. Below I posted some pictures because I thought the plates turned out really pretty. After dinner we settled in for American Idol while Paisley chewed on her rope and took a nap. I LOVE having a dog!

Enjoy some updated pics of our Paisley and of my yummy chicken picatta!
she loves the rope

but she loves Jason more

our dinner and paisley's treats

i'm quite proud of this shot - that's the chicken, the onions, and some leftover potatoes

Paisley

This is Paisley.
I don't have a ton of time to write as she's out and about and I want to spend as much time with her as possible. But she's perfect. The tiniest from her litter, quiet and peaceful at times, silly and playful at others, sweet and loveable always.

Her first night was a little tough. She's not used to going potty outside, but she's done it about 4 times now and hasn't had an accident all day today! She cried for about 10 minutes last night before settling down in her crate and slept through the night! We couldn't ask for a sweeter more precious girl. Needless to say we're in love. More later!!

It's happening...

An email I received last night:

Hi, Nikki and Jason--Good news from the vet! All pups in the litter
have a clean bill of health! Wayne and I can't make up our minds
between two of the girls, so I guess you will have the other, upon your
approval of course.

See you Saturday.

Best, Joyce


This means we're going to get our little girl tomorrow, yes, TOMORROW! After work we're heading out to pick up the essentials: a crate, bowls, a collar and leash, food, a few toys. I can't believe it's here - I'm getting a dog. By tomorrow night we're going to have a dog in our house that lives with us and she will be ours. Wow! I hope this work day goes by quickly.



Oh, and by the way - her name is Paisley.

charlotte staples lewis???

C.S. Lewis??? Whaaaaa?

long weekend, good weekend

This has been a strange but good past 4 days. City schools were closed Thursday and Friday which meant that my work schedule was a little looser. I went in for a whopping 4 hours on Thursday, stopped at the store for some snacks, and me and Jason hit the road. We arrived at our breeders' house just in time to see the pups waking up from a long nap. They have really grown!

it was hard to capture them on camera because they are so much more active and playful
this little boy has quite the santa beard on him...
they really are a lot bigger even though they still look like babies

All in all it was a great visit. They played a lot, hid behind the couches, yipped and barked, jumped on each other, kissed our hands, ran, slid, played tug-of-war with Jas. They have been very productive! I think which girl we will end up with is becoming a little bit clearer, too. The one in the picture above just seemed a little too skittish. She was shaking the entire time and wouldn't leave Jason's side. While that was really cute and endearing, I'm not sure if we want a puppy who is afraid of everything and everyone. I'm no expert, though.

Friday I had CPR training at work and then a Southern BBQ meeting at my house with the planning team of my church. I made pulled pork, but other menu items included Brunswick stew, cornbread, salad, potato salad, Mississippi mud cake, sweet tea...oh it was sooo good. Saturday was a semi lazy day, but my friend Biz came to visit for lunch and stayed to go see 27 Dresses with me and my local friend Natasha. It was a cute movie. Katherine Heigl is gorgeous, James Marsden is becoming my favorite male actor, and it was just a great girle movie all around.

Today I had church (thankfully didn't have to sing after a week of sickness and stress), relaxed and talked to my sister on the phone for a long time, and now I'm getting ready to make some SuperBowl treats. Namely, savory chicken wings and broccoli salad, both from my favorite recipe site. So good luck, Giants! You're kind of a stupid team, but you're all we've got!

omg! who the heck is in that coffin?? rotfl, lmao!!!1!

Anyone else watch last night's LOST Season 3 Finale "Enhanced"?

If by "enhanced" they meant "riddled with crap you already know, except probably written by a 17 year old girl" then yes I suppose it was enhanced.

We watched last night with our friend Jon, and the phrase of the evening was "What.The.Crap." Every time that little mini screen would pop up we would cringe, shocked and horrified by the extreme-0 immature text and lack of anything really all that juicy. The exception being learning that one of Jack's fellow surgeons has the same last name as Bernard. Woop-dee-freakin-doo.

Needless to say, I was quite disappointed. Here are some of my favorite "gems" from last night:

• No, Desmond is not grabbing a siesta.
• Who the heck is in that coffin?
• By the way, Kate and Sawyer have been hooking up
• Looks like Jack's in for a bumpy ride

At any rate, I'm still totally stoked for tonight's new episode, and even more excited to go visit the puppies at 6 weeks this afternoon!

diapers and orthopedic shoes: a post that's NOT about old people

Since we're getting a purebreed and since our breeders are pretty hardcore, we've been asked to hold off on spaying our pup until they can determine whether our not she will show. That's right, we're getting a potential show dog. I came into this with pretty much zero knowledge of what a show dog is besides the Christopher Guest movie Best In Show.

I know what you're thinking "Oh no, Nikki is going to wear orthopedic shoes and become this weird dog lady with an airbrushed picture of her dog on a white Hanes sweatshirt." NOT TRUE! Dog shows aren't that weird. Besides, what if our doggie turned out to be a champ? The great thing is that if she doesn't, we can spay her and keep her and love her anyway. Our pastor Roger has a champion Shar Pei, Rosie. Roger explained to me that we're going to have to get used to some things if we're showing our dog. Namely, we're going to have to deal with our girl going into heat every 6 months - our doggie will have to wear diapers. Yes, doggie diapers.

Aren't they hilarious?

So that's the news. We're hopefully heading over there again on Thursday (the puppies' 6 week birthday). That means in 2 weeks we'll be bringing home our little baby. Of course I will post new pictures, and maybe by Thursday the pups will have enough personality that we can actually pick ours out! Exciting!