"My name's Clay, wanna mold me?"

Many moons ago, I played club volleyball with (my now sister-in-law) Abbey. Discouraged by the lack of male height at Mona Shores, I asked Abbey is there were any good-looking, tall guys at her high school. She gave me the screen name (yes, this was back in the AOL days) of her friend Bobby. I chatted online with Bobby and few times and we eventually suggested a group date. Bobby had also given my screen name to his buddy Clay (who I had never met before despite knowing his parents and sister through volleyball). We also chatted a few times online. Probably very intellectual conversations considering we were very mature 15 and 16 year olds. (Riiight.)

Anywho, Bobby and I decided to attempt this so-called "group date." I brought along a few of my girl friends and Bobby with his friends (Clay included). Clay brought along his cheerleader date. Back up... I had mentioned to him during one of our chats that I didn't care much for cheerleading... didn't consider it a sport. So what does Clay do? Goes, "Hi, I'm Clay. Tell my date what you think of cheerleaders!" Charming, isn't he? He also spent the entire movie throwing pieces of candy at me. Girls, do you remember back in elementary school if a boy picked on you, that meant he liked you? Apparently Clay hadn't grown out of that stage.

To make a long story short, I went to Bobby's house, Clay informed my parents that Bobby's parents weren't home, my dad storms over, tells me to get my ass in the car, yells at Bobby and that was about the end of that "relationship." As you can imagine, calling me out about my dislike of cheerleaders, throwing things at me and then embarrassing me to no end by calling my dad.... I did not care for Mr. Clayton one bit. Hell, if I remember right, I believe I first described him to people as this arrogant prick.

Then... for some unknown reason... Clay stopped his childish flirting (including his awesome pickup line), won me over and we started dating. He asked me to be his girlfriend on February 16, 2002. Ten years later, he's my husband but still is a 16 year old boy at heart. I don't even remember what life was like before Clay and am so blessed to have him by my side. We've been through ever major milestone in life together, good times and bad, and I can't wait to take on what's next with him.

Lop eared, I love you.

These are all photos taken of us on our "anniversary" every year... xoxo

Available for Adoption: Siberian Huskies

Tonight's featured breed, my other first love... Siberian Huskies. My family rescued Miss Zayla after she was found roaming our neighborhood. We contact the owner via microchip and they came to pick her up and took her directly to the pound. Why? No clue. We visited her at the pound every day until the week long waiting period was over. She's been a permanent fixture in my parent's house ever since.

AVALANCHE: Male Siberian Husky

KATIYANA: Female Siberian Husky

SARGE: Male Siberian Husky

SELENA: Female Siberian Husky

SPARK: Male Siberian Husky

SPARKY (SNOWBIE): Male Siberian Husky

All of these dog are available for adoption. Click on the photo for more information.

Happy 1st Birthday Zora!

Happy 1st birthday to my favorite long-legged ball of fur! We adopted Miss Zora when she was only 4 months old... I can't believe time has already gone THAT fast. We're so thankful she's part of our lives and are so pleased with what an amazing dog she is!

These are all pictures taken of Zora before we adopted her

Her first night with us!

My favorite picture of her

Her CRAZY ears!

Peak!

Always eating... just like her momma.

We swapped bandanas and were each other for Halloween!

Thanksgiving

Christmas

New Year's Eve

Giraffes + babies

For some odd reason, giraffes hold a special lil place in my heart (right next to doggies). I think it's because I've had so many nicknames associated with giraffes and have been compared to them so many times in my life... it just sort of stuck. For example, my high school volleyball coach told me my senior year of high school that the first time he saw me play (back in 6th grade), he thought I looked like a baby giraffe on ice skates. Embarrassing, I know.

Anyways, I saw this nursery on Pinterest awhile back and I just knew... without a doubt in my mind... that I was going to paint my future nursery like that. No joke. Love at first sight.

Behold! Giraffe baby Mecca!

Pinterest must have read my mind too because all this adorable baby-related giraffe stuff kept popping up. Couldn't resist putting together a little collage of all it's adorableness.

Available for Adoption: Chihuahuas

Today I realized I kinda miss doing my weekly shelter dogs post. So here I am again! Instead of featuring a specific rescue group, I decided to search a specific breed in Petfinder. Tonight's post is going to feature Chihuahuas since lil Peanut was my first furry love. Also, Chihuahuas are the second most euthanized breed. This saddens me. Go forth and save the wee furry ones!

LENNY: Male Dachshund/Chihuahua mix

TEQUILA: Female Chihuahua

CHEWY: Male Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix

SHOOTER: Male Chihuahua

TILLIE: Female Chihuahua mix

GITANO: Male Chihuahua

L.T.: Male Chihuahua/Dachshund mix

All of these dog are available for adoption. Click on the photo for more information.

Football inspired snacks

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! Hosting or going to a party this afternoon? Here are some cool snacks to get everyone in the football spirit!

     

     

     

Floors, crafts and boo-boos.

First of all, I'd like to apologize to my mom and Clay for the insane nervous breakdowns I've had this week. I'm sure my mom was slightly hesitant to pick up the phone during the noon hour when I was heading back to work. It was pretty much a for sure thing that I would be sobbing like a lunatic carrying on about how I fail at life. (Sorry mom.) Between the ever growing to do list, Zora's sad infected toe and upcoming household projects.... I'm thinking I either need a week off from everything else or a entourage of personal assistants.

On a happy note, our new floor is being installed tomorrow!!! I'm sooooooooo tired of scrubbing carpets, I could scream. Thank you original owners for putting white carpet in the dining room and in front of the sliding door. Our solid mud backyard and Zora's feet thank you. Although the super heavy-duty carpet scrubber was the best investment ever, I think it's a tad extreme that I use it more than my vacuum. The new floor that's coming in is a solid vinyl tile and will be consistent from the entryway, laundry room, kitchen, dining room, hallway and main bath. Zora and I are spending the day with my sister in Muskegon so Clay and his buddies can work on the floor uninterrupted. (A huge huge thank you to Jason and Eric for spending your Saturday helping us out!)

Adios crappy flooring!

Really!? Where else on the property did they hide ivy!?

I made another emergency trip to the vet before closing time today. I took a picture of Zora's gross toe to send to my mom and the way the flash hit it or something made all the nastiness really stand out. I'm hoping that it just looked that way because the Neosporin was drawing the infection out... but to be on the safe side, I had the vet fill me up a prescription for some heavy duty cream. I'd rather be safe than sorry at this point. I need pup to keep all her piggies. :(

This makes me sad... and a little queasy. 

In other news, Ashley and I are going to apply for a booth at the Mona Shores holiday craft fair this year. So we're in the process of figuring out displays, making product, etc. It should be really fun. I'm a little nervous that I'm setting myself up to fail, but we'll see how this goes. I'll confirm whether we are given a booth or not, but if we are, keep an eye out for us!

I think that's about it for now. Better get some shut eye since Clay's supposedly getting a very early start on things tomorrow. Stay tuned for photos of our new flooring in the upcoming days and keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for the guys tomorrow! 'Night!

MDs, DOs, OB/GYNs, NPs, PAs and DVMs

I'm come to the conclusion this week that I'm going to start referring to myself as Andrea Archambault, G.D. "What does G.D. stand for?" you might ask. Graphic designer. No, I don't have some Master's degree or anything that would make me acronym worthy, but I feel like if I have to Google every other profession's initials, hey, why not.

I've been in the process of looking for a new doctor over the last couple weeks. I really like my current doctor (the front office being a different story), but Muskegon is too far of a drive... especially when they have such screwy office hours. My goal is to find a doctor that understands pituitary adenomas, understands the effects of my tumor medication on my SOMEDAY pregnancy (not any time soon mom and dad), deliver my children and serve as their doctor too. Yes, I know, a rather long list of requirements for so very distant needs... but I only want ONE doctor to deal with. I'm so tired of having multiple doctors try to diagnose my condition, having their own medication suggestions, etc. etc.

Unfortunately, Holland has very few to no female MDs in my Priority Health plan that do deliveries, have pituitary adenoma experience/knowhow and that are accepting new patients. Soooo frustrating!

In other medical news, Miss Zora had to go to the vet tonight. [Insert BIG sad face here.] Last Sunday, she cut up her foot pretty bad. How? No clue. Somewhere outside. It took almost 6 hours for me to get the bleeding under control. Part of her pad was ripped off and the entire side of one of her nails is exposed. It's a meaty mess. A week later, it just keeps getting ripped open when she walks and I can't stop her from licking it. The vet made me feel like a bad mom tonight. She started to wig out a bit on how it's so infected that if the antibiotics don't help, she'll have to get her toe amputated. I feel like the worse person ever. I've been cleaning it daily, TRYING to keep gauze and Neosporin on it, but apparently it wasn't enough.

The vet gave me two options to keep the licking under control: (A) cone, or (B) dog boots. So I went and bought both. The cone made me feel even worse. She was completely paralyzed with it around her neck. Just stood there and shook. Plus I am scared she'll hurt herself with it on when she's in the crate all day tomorrow. So we tried the dog boot. I was skeptical since I couldn't keep a sock or bandage on it at all last week. Surprisingly, she hasn't tried to take it off yet. However, she's mentally exhausted right now from the vet and cone, so who knows.

So yeah, it's been medical madness the last few weeks. Times like these make me miss being a kid. This adult crap sucks. :/

DIY: Hutch improvements

So there's this little hutch that resides in my dining room. Initially, I thought it was going to be the death of me. I had to repaint and touch that $%&#@! thing up so many times after we painted it black... I was ready to rip it out of the wall. For a while, I called it good enough. However, where the hutch meets the wall, the edges are pretty rough. It especially stands out against a white wall. So I came up with a quick, easy and cheap fix to make this hutch-of-death a little more refined looking.

I purchased two 8' pieces of this decorative corner round at Lowes for roughly $3-4 each. Painted them all black, couple quick zips on the miter saw, ta da! It's not much but definitely cleaned up the edges.

Lower part of the hutch - BEFORE

Lower part of the hutch - BEFORE

Lower part of the hutch - AFTER

Upper part of the hutch - AFTER