Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have survived two full weeks without Jason. Kind of. I'm learning new levels of frustration every day and learning just how long my fuse is before I explode.

These two weeks have not been without their highlights -- I saved my first dog, appropriately named Zoey, from animal control. Work has picked up and I am running on more cylinders than I thought I had, and I already have my taxes turned into my accountant. The dvd of our wedding and our picture cd finally arrived and I get the pleasure of reliving that day every evening. I also cry every single time. Man, I really loved our wedding and am thankful we were able to capture the experience on film.

I LOVE my couch. I love my couch so much that it seems silly. I wont ever mind being in the doghouse and "having to sleep on the couch", and neither will Jason. It's a Pottery Barn sofa that is big and plush and you can sink right into it and fall asleep in 5 minutes. Jason and I can both stretch out and watch a movie without being in the other person's way. It's a great entertaining couch because of it's L shape and how the coffee table fits into place. It's just a ridiculously awesome couch. Ask anyone that has sat on it.

My adventures in Dog World continue and today I was pushed to my limits. I left the dogs unattended for 5 minutes and when I heard them wrestling I came back to make sure the smallest dog was still alive. And instead of a dead or injured canine, I found my injured couch. My beloved (and expensive) couch had the linen slipcover shredded away on one side. Most people will say it's my fault or that I had no business with an expensive couch -- and to those people I say "shut up". We wanted nice things, quality pieces that we would enjoy sitting/laying/lounging/sleeping on. And we fell in love with this sofa. Slipcovers CAN be inexpensive but such is not our luck. It's nearly a 2 week paycheck to replace it. I saw shades of red that I didnt even know existed when I realized what the dogs had done. I learned a very important lesson -- do not leave dogs unsupervised. Not yet at least. Ours are too young and too new (to us) to be trusted alone.

The couch was the second injury this week -- the dogs also chewed up my Pottery Barn coffee table. Anyone know of a good wood repair person???

Jason's departure is allowing me to grow. To test my patience. To see just what I'm made of. So far everyone has survived but the furniture has not. I am getting wiser by the hour and the jaunt through Dog World just might be my greatest challenge to date.

another week has passed, already???

I should have blogged on Tuesday, but I was too tired to even form complete sentences by the time the night was over. And then I could have posted on Wednesday, but I was recovering from Tuesday. On Thursday life was busy as normal, Friday was dinner with my family, and that leads me to today.

I have no idea where time has gone, and I'm extremely serious. It seems like I was graduating from college not long ago (it's been almost 9 years). I began working at my company nearly 5 years ago. Holy cow. I met Jason nearly two years ago and THAT really feels like yesterday. He began his deployments overseas and time dragged on a little bit. Now he's about to embark on his third trip and I'm torn because it seems like he just came home -- 3 months ago. Today we have been married for 2 months -- the best two months ever!!!!

On Tuesday my inspired interest in helping shelter animals lead us on an adventure to Rome, Georgia. That's about 90 minutes from where we live. I had seen a posting of a huge fluffy puppy and I wanted to go meet him. Jason always had dogs, and he was eager to go and check out this little fella. After a busy and hectic day, I left a little bit early from work and away we went!! The puppy was cute. Really cute. And it was caged with an annoying other dog that bit the puppy in the face (poor little guy)! I couldn't bring myself to NOT look at the other dogs in the row of cages that lined the walls. At the end of one row I was drawn into a pair of sad amber eyes. A sweet face, curled up into himself, and those sweet and sad beautiful eyes...

The first image to run through my head was a flashback to the day I discovered Duchess -- huddled in the back of the cage, sad and piercing blue eyes, and was the only cat not to bring attention to herself. And I wanted her.

I now wanted the dog with the sad amber eyes. Jason and I debated and visited with both dogs, and while we wanted to take both of them we couldn't. Not yet at least. The amber eyed dog won out. The trip home was fun, my car smelled like a stinky dog (rightly so), a long visit to PetsMart, an hour long bath in our master bath that resulted in a clogged drain that still isn't clear, and one seriously worn out puppy dog. Midnight sneaked up on me and my alarm the next day was ringing all too soon.

Chandler is a laughable dog, sweet and affectionate, appreciative and understanding now of what love is. He and Coco are wonderful playmates and we are lucky to have found him. Coco is a handful and hyper and loves to be loved, and oh so sweet. Now I have Chandler to keep me company, along with Coco, and our menagerie of felines while Jason is away.

I have volunteered with Angels Among Us Pet Rescue and between pets, volunteering, work, and catching a nap now and then I think the time that Jason is away will pass quickly; it always does.

Tomorrow I'll post about my experience for my first rescue -- another dog that I felt a strong need to save but couldn't take her myself. It should be an interesting day and I can only hope that it' the first of many.