Puppy update and dinner!

Don't know if you can tell, but Woodstock is doing better after pet hospital visit No. 2 this afternoon.

He was still in a funk all morning/afternoon and I nervously had the vet's number ready to call if it got any worse. Knowing there really wasn't anything I could do, I went for my 3.1 mile run as soon as I got off work at 4 p.m. in preparation for my 5K on Sunday. P.S. Let me recommend that you don't EVER run without dryfit clothing or a bottle of water in 85+ degree weather. It was horrendous. Though I still clocked in around 27ish minutes. Well over my mark, but not terrible given how awful I felt the entire time.

When I returned home, I saw that Woodstock had some issues - I'll spare you the details. So off to the pet hospital we went. They didn't charge me for the visit since it was a lingering complication from last week's visit, but we did get him new food that he's finally eating!! YAY, and a new medicine that hopefully he won't have violent reactions to.

After talking to J.D. post interview when we returned home, I started preparing dinner for one while he hopped on his plane home.

I kicked off the meal with an easy roasted garlic hummus salad drizzled with olive oil balsamic vinaigrette.

Like my "white wine"??? Haha, that joke never gets old. Anyways, I followed the meal up with a repeat of last night's dinner (since I couldn't finish it): artichoke pesto crusted tilapia with garlic sea salt asparagus. It wasn't as good nuked obviously, but it still filled me up.

How French am I??? A Provencal tablecloth purchased in Europe, along with a set of plates I'm sure my dad brought home from one of our many times in France. (Dad, when are you going to take me again, it's been over two years?!?!)

And the meal's finale included a fruit salad I "desserted up" with vanilla honey crème: nonfat Greek yogurt blended with a drop of vanilla extract and teaspoon of honey. I topped it all off sundae style with some chopped walnuts. Something I'll definitely prepare again :)

And in true European fashion the meal ended with coffee!!! I used my French press to make a soy latte in my Paris mug haha. So fun.

And speaking of finales.... what shows do you all watch?! I've been hooked on ABC for a few years now and am kind of shocked by a few of their season finales. J.D. and I watched Grey's Anatomy last night and OH MY GOSH - every commercial break I was on baited breath (which is normal for that show and season enders), but it all wrapped up so neatly at the end, save for the random deaths. Aren't season finales supposed to be cliffhangers for several months?!

Well, Modern Family wrapped up neatly as well, but Brothers & Sisters was extremely suspenseful and is going to leave me asking questions until September!!!!

Hope all your shows kept you waiting for another season :) For now, I'm going to sip my latte and veg on some Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe and await my boyfriend's return from his one day interview trip to Malibu. Good night all! xx

Poor weenie :(

Nope, this is not Woodstock (just another cute long haired weenie dog). I don't have any good quality recent photos of him. One day I swear I'm going to use my crappy camera instead of my iPhone... or I'll use J.D.'s when his memory card gets here ;) haha nah I'll use mine, charged it all weekend.

Anyways, tangent. What I'm going to talk about might get a little gross. I might hold back, we'll see how it goes....

Woodstock has been ill with a bladder infection for almost a week now. I feel so bad for the little guy, because every since I was 14, I've had at least one or two a year. WORST.FEELING.EVER.

He's only a little baby, and he really doesn't show much of an indicator of pain, but his urine samples came back positive of an infection and we've got him on twice-daily antibiotics. I was such a nervous wreck when we took him to the vet - they took blood and forced urine samples in the back and I could hear him screetching and crying. It was a disaster. When he wouldn't urinate, they asked me to keep him there for an hour or two, so they could force it and then test the sample. So I had to go home, upset as I've ever been before, madly cleaning all of my house. I'd make a terrible mother. I always fear the worst. I'd freak out all the time. But, at least my house would be spotless then, ha.

Anyways, I don't know if he's having relapses or if the medicine just takes a while to become fully effective, but he's been having problems with vomiting and other gross things you don't want to read about on my blog. He also hasn't been eating his food during this entire fiasco, so we've been giving him canned chow, it's the only thing he'll eat. Which brings me to believe that maybe his change in digestion is related to the abrupt switching of food???

I don't know, I just want my baby to be better. I'm going to take him back to the vet if this continues tonight. At the very least, I'm going to call the vet just to see if this is normal behavior or not. I might also get a second opinion.

Told you, overly concerned mommy. For the future, now I know that dachshunds are prone to UTIs, I read that it's good to serve your puppy a bowl of vitamin C each morning to help keep him from getting further infections. So maybe when he's off his meds I'll give him a small bowl of either cranberry or orange juice diulted with water. We can have breakfast at the same time in the mornings ;)

Just need to talk to the vet about it. Please keep your fingers crossed for my little puppy!!! I'm hoping when we have him fixed after he's six months old (next month, already!) this issue might resolve itself.

And if you missed it, check out my "three day weekend," (which only ended up being one free day) recap.

What a pair we make

Yesterday a nasty combination of cramps, backaches and a gnarly headache sent me home from work around noon. This morning, they kept me from having any desire to get out of bed, so today I am home for what I hope to be the last time this week. However, it's not so bad since I'm at least able to get some work done from home.

Being home isn't too bad when you have good company:

Roll over, Woodstock!

He's a good listener.

However, Mr. Stinky (what a loving mommy I am for calling him that on a regular basis) woke up feeling in a funk as well. He hasn't been eating a whole lot over the past week and I arose this morning to find him with crusty puss all over his *ahem* male part. So I made an appointment to get him to the vet this evening and get him back to puppy shape! The two of us have been cuddling up on my bed and the couch all afternoon. It's nice have a puppy with whom I can commiserate.

So in the meantime, taking a break from getting my work done I gathered up a bit of an appetite. Who's hungry after hearing about puppy male parts now?!?! After living in France a few years back, I grew accustomed to quinoa meals. Remembering that, I went and purchased some at Trader Joe's the last time I was there. Today seemed like the perfect chance to dig up a recipe and use my quinoa.

Warm Quinoa + Spinach Salad Recipe with Grape Tomatoes
(taken from Gluten-Free Goddess Recipes, which has also provided the following photo)

It was a fairly simple and tasty recipe!

Basically follow the directions on the quinoa box (two cups water + 1 cup quinoa, boil, cover then simmer 10-15 minutes until all the water is gone)

When that's finished, heat up a pan of olive oil and essentially toss in whatever you'd like to go with your quinoa!

I chose to chop up asparagus stalks, heirloom grape tomatoes, walnuts/almonds and tossed in a little fig balsamic vinegar. Then dress it however your little heart desires: standard is a pinch of salt and pepper. Her recipe calls for fresh herbs, I think basil would be to die for in this. But, being the South of French girl at heart that I am, I went with my go-to seasoning: dried herbes de Provence!

For the final touches, with the burner still on, toss in 1/4 of your quinoa, mix it all together and voilà - lunch is served!

You could really take this in any direction, add meat, cheese, fruits, etc. It was so light and delicious! The perfect warm salad for a cool, spring afternoon (that feels like autumn, what's with this weather?!?!?) Desperately hoping for summer, I paired mine with Minute Maid light pomegranate tea. Mmmmmm, and I'm still pretty satisfied/full nearly an hour later.

And hey, if you haven't checked it out yet, see what I was holding out on you with my "teaser" post earlier this month! Back to work now, I suppose.

Puppy Update: Four Months

Woodstock has two major milestones in his puppy life this week:

His puppy training classes at PetSmart begin today! And he's starting to lose his razors baby teeth! I wouldn't have actually known about that, except walking around my living room barefoot yesterday, I stepped on one. I thought it was a small rock from outside that either he or we had tracked in, but when I picked it up, I realized it was the smallest tooth I've ever seen! Complete with roots and everything.

Working through the biting, I finally was able to pry open his mouth only to realize he's just got his front teeth and the molar equivalents left (don't know what kind of teeth dogs have, besides canines... har har). So I'm hoping the ridiculous biting will stop being a problem in the near future!!

This probably explains why he's been waking up so early crying in the mornings. We usually could feed him at 6 a.m. and keep him in the kitchen where he'd go back to sleep. Now, he barks and cries and cries and cries at about 6:15 and won't go back to sleep upstairs in the bed. Instead, he runs around like a maniac biting everything he can sink his little teeth into. It kind of hurts.

So the past few days I've been waking up between 5:30 and 6 a.m. to try and either occupy him, or make him sleep. So far, we've gone on several morning walks and I'm able to stretch in the mornings and make breakfast! Yesterday I made my own oatmeal with lemon curd and craisins, today I had an egg and bacon sandwich with pineapple cottage cheese on the side. Yum :)

The stretching part's a big deal because yesterday I partook in Running Tuesday, wansn't that big of a deal. I ran around my neighborhood, past a local park and down the Delta water path for a total of 4.01 miles in 38ish minutes. Like I said before though, I'm still trying to get back on the running kick, so my pace per mile will only get better with time. I'm glad my start time is under a 10 min/mile though, so that's a good place to begin.

I also did yoga for about 25 minutes last night and took Mr. Woodstock for three total walks on the day. All in hopes of him learning to go potty outside... I'd say 20 percent of the time, if I make him, he'll go out there. Otherwise, he's strictly paper trained. And I can't seem to wean him off of it. Hopefully the people at PetSmart will help with our training in the ways of his crying and lack of potty training. Wish me luck :)

Oh and, Happy Cinco de Mayo ;) Enjoy a margarita for me. I'll be too busy with the dog and house stuff tonight to go out and have anything fun.

Big Boy!

In honor of Mr. Woodstock being three-and-a-half months old this week, I figured it's time for another puppy update!

Sometimes having a baby is extremely frustrating. But I think J.D. and I are getting there..... we finally purchased him a crate and when I go to work in the mornings I put him in the crate for a couple of hours. I make sure he's eaten and done his business first, of course. The reasoning behind crate training is that they're like a den which is totally naturally for dogs in the wild. Puppies like to have their own special "rooms" too, and wouldn't dare going where they sleep. Unless they have accidents... but the way to ensure accidents don't happen is by limiting the number of hours they spend in there until they're old enough to control the bladder for several hours.

Well, Woody isn't there yet, but he's been doing really well with the cage. He's not quite comfortable sleeping in it still, so I keep letting him in my bed. But now that he's perfected the whole sleep for nine hours thing, it's ok. And he's cut down on his nipping habits.

....Which is due to the ginormous bag of rawhide chews we purchased for him. While he used to have horribly bad habits of chewing on the wall corners, table legs, rugs, and worst of all - my hands - he's almost cut that down by 75 percent just from gnawing on rawhide throughout the day. I'm thinking about upgrading him to pig's ears in the near future - more meaty and tasty (for dogs, I think they're repulsive).

But he is doing well. He's a good boy. He's learning to go outside and sometimes barks to be let out. It's slow, but it's a process. I just love him to death though :)

Here are some pictures from our walk yesterday - when we ran into the largest beast of a cat I've ever seen in my life. It's some special 30-lb. breed and apparently cost the woman who bought him $2,000!! Who likes cats that much?!?!

Woodstock sure didn't. Freaked him out. Bear in mind he's more than half of his full-grown wight. At seven pounds, he's very close to the 12 pounds his daddy weighs. It's ok though, he's a little sissy boy :)
"Mmmmm, lunch." Woodstock can't even look at Big Boy (the cat's name), and instead is shunning him.

Me and my little Bubba :)

It's always so hard saying goodbye to this little guy every morning when I go to work!

Puppy Update!

As frustrating as the past few days have been (I knew raising a puppy was going to be a lot of work, just never imagined what it'd be like running on an average of 3 hours of sleep per day), I think Woodstock might be settled in our house!

Two nights ago, he slept in his bed around 8 p.m., and I thought we had acclimated him to his new home, but at midnight started (baby) howling, crying and yapping. So I gave in and let him sleep in my bed a second night - at 4 a.m., I'd rather sleep than train him good habits.

But last night, J.D. was on puppy duty, since I had to broadcast a baseball game at Stanford at 5:30 p.m. I guess the little guy was trying to lay on all our blankets, so he gave Woody his puppy blanket and he was out like a light! He didn't even cry at night. He just slept on his blankie and when I woke up in the morning, he was even snuggled up inside his "carrying case" bed. I'm really proud of him! I think the separation anxiety (as many puppy training literature have called it) might be over. He's probably realizing now that even though we leave during the day, we come back to him and play with him at night and he's not going to be neglected.

...Or maybe it was the spoonful of peanut butter I gave him in his bed yesterday at lunch that made him accept his new bed and not mine ;) Alright, I think I've blogged about my puppy long enough now, I'll try to get back to interesting topics! And I'm hopefully going to get back to at least 6-7 hours of sleep a night.

Being a puppy mommy is exhausting!

First off, let me say that I am in love with my dog! He's so tiny and so cute and warmed up to us really quickly. I feel bad though, because he whines when I'm not in the same room as him and whenever I'm around, has to stand right on my feet so I won't leave him. This is something having to do with him being uprooted from his family and is probably sort of in shock. I would be too if someone bigger than me took me away from my home.

But he was a really good boy all day yesterday! On the drive home he cuddled up with me and slept part of the way or licked me the other part. The entire hour drive he did not once get car sick or cry.

When we made it home he passed out and napped for a bit, but I didn't want him using up all his sleep in the day instead of at night. So I coaxed him out to play a little later and the little guy wouldn't stop! Woodstock was 2-for-2 when he ran halfway across the room to use the puppy pad several times to relieve himself! So I know that he's paper trained at least, but I can't for the life of me get him to go outside. This morning as soon as I woke up I took him and for 10 minutes he did nothing but run around and play, or lay down in the dirt. As soon as we came back inside, he went on his pad.

But the biggest struggle, and this will come with time, was sleeping. He won't sleep in his bed. He cries when I'm in my bed and he's on the floor. I tried to let him cry it out, but it kept getting louder and louder. Everything I've read says to let the dog cry because he'll learn soon enough that he has to sleep on the floor. If you pick him up, he'll come to expect it. So I would let him snuggle with me for 15 minutes until he got sleepy, then I put him in his own bed. That would last for about 45 minutes before the cycle repeated itself.

But I had to work this morning and I was up until 4:30 a.m. and decided f-it, I needed to sleep. So I let him in bed for about two hours. I'm thinking about keeping his bed in the bathroom tonight and ignoring the cries this time (I know crates are an option, but they're $100+ everywhere I've looked! I don't know if that's worth it for the few weeks/months of training).

My other problem is that he won't eat. I thought maybe the bowl was too big for him, but that's not the case. He won't take treats (reward for going on the puppy pad) and he won't eat crushed up food. I'm hoping this, too, is due to anxiety/nervousness about the move and that in a few days he'll be back to eating again. Today's Woodstock's first vet trip, so wish me luck!

Is it nap time yet...?

Meet Woody!

Woodstock comes home on SUNDAY!! And since no one else is going to request to see more photos of a dog that's already been sold, the breeder sent me all the photos she's taken of him.

He's so tiny and adorable! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! :)