"Cleaning is what I do best."

I was half-joking when I said this to Michael.  Then the thought hit me..maybe I was partly meant to clean houses!  I know house cleaning is NOT the only thing I am good at but I do enjoy it to an extent, kind of a stress reliever in a way.  Which led to another thought…I could start a house cleaning business!  I know it’s not what I went to college for but due to the lack of meteorology opportunities there are back in Columbus that I would enjoy doing, I thought maybe I would have a better chance of helping people clean their homes who would actually pay someone to do it…and there are a lot of people who joke, at least, about paying someone to clean their home.  Who better to do it than me? J

(Writing about this thought is helping me to seriously consider doing it for real…)  I would need to invest in cleaning supplies, put my name out there, on base, in the community, maybe Craigslist.  I would probably also want to find someone who loves cleaning as much as me to be my “partner in crime”.  It is kind of weird going to someone’s house for the first time by yourself, and someone to share the load with would be nice, especially if I have more than one house I have to clean (haha, wishful thinking, but maybe!). 

What’s my experience?  I started out as a personal assistant in college, which was mostly cleaning the lady’s house.  I run a tight ship at home (so Michael would say), or try to.  And right now, of course, being a housekeeper 5 days a week doing everything from inside laundry to outside yardwork and pool maintenance. 

What are my chances of finding a job back in Cbus that I’d actually enjoy going in for?  Working the hours I want to work?  Flexible for when I show up to work and getting time off?  Making someone else’s life better and seeing my progress at the end of the day and knowing I did a good job?  I’d say all of these things are important to me.  I couldn’t think of a better job! 

Well, I’m glad I wrote this down because it just might motivate me to follow through.  I’m one of those people who, if I dream up a vision, it would take a miracle for it to materialize, or just another person to externally motivate me.  Which God knew this, and so placed Michael in my life!  He is so encouraging and understanding in how I operate and patient enough to help me look at something from all angles until it clicks or dissolves.  He thinks this sounds great but knows I need a lot of encouragement if I want to actually put this desire into motion.  So, I guess we’ll just see if anything comes of it…here’s to hoping! 

Indiana Jones, Our "Golden" Boy

A long overdue post about the newest addition to our family...Indy.  Saying our lives have changed a bit is an understatement and makes me rethink children in the next year or two (having heard that a new puppy is somewhat good preparation for children), but I don't think I would go back to before having him.  It's been an adjustment but he's the cutest puppy in the world, and though we love our cat, Miley, there's nothing like having a dog to love you unconditionally and be faithful and happy to see you continuously!

So, on our way to go float the river, one of our weekend rituals, our friends, the Poyser's mentioned seeing a family selling puppies in a parking lot.  Michael and I have been talking about getting a dog for a while we just weren't sure exactly when we would get one and we wanted to educate ourselves ahead of time to be ready for when we actually brought one home.  Well, that is until we went on a detour to see these puppies that were the cutest balls of fur I have seen, gorgeous Golden Retriever pups and I knew once I held one I couldn't just leave it.  I have always said that if I could choose what dog I could have it would be a golden.  I was just hoping Michael felt the same way.  He's never owned a dog and I really wanted the one we got to be the perfect dog for his new experience.  Fast forward to actually bringing "our" dog home that same day, we went to get all the necessities to get us through the next few days, including a book on how to potty train puppies and info on Goldens.

I must say, that first week made me question, "What was I thinking?!" and "Is it too late to find a new home for him?"  This is partly where raising a child is different cause you can't just give the child back!  A lot had to do with the lack of prior planning (not having the 9 months to prepare yourself mentally for the changes).  I also tend to get stressed out easily and I don't know how to raise a puppy.  I'm expecting him to know that after I say "no" about nipping my fingers or going for my face a few times that he's going to just know what I'm expecting of him and do it.  I didn't really realize the amount of patience and diligence it takes in training a dog.  You actually have to work pretty hard with them in the beginning so they turn into that enjoyable, well trained dog who listens to you on your first word and is pleasant to be around.  What a concept I'm learning!

It's been a learning curve.  But all in all, we love him dearly.  We get SO many complements on how cute he is and how smart these types of dogs are.  He is learning fairly quickly and is close to being fully potty trained in just 3 weeks!  Watching him and Miley interact has been quite entertaining.  I do feel slightly bad that she was queen of the house until he got there.  But she's a little instigator!  He'll be happily chewing on his toy or falling asleep and she'll come meow right near him to get him to chase her which he also happily does but then she turns around and hisses and swats him on the nose and then we tell him to stop barking at her.  I think she secretly enjoys when we intervene and he gets the brunt of our commands :)

He started puppy training this last week which was more training for us than for him.  I do appreciate learning more positive ways to train him instead of just falling to instinct of losing my patience and trying to force him to obey (which just leads to him being afraid of me rather than joyfully obeying because it pleases him to please us).  It also helps Michael and I get on the same page of how we want to train him so he doesn't become confused by our different methods.  And it helps Michael because he hasn't had too much interaction with dogs in the past to know how to be with them.  Again, just in the first one hour session, he is learning at lighting speed and I'm pretty excited because once we're done with this class I'm hoping we'll have a fully compliant dog...here's for hoping!



I could go on and on about him but don't want make this post a book.  So that's our little guy in a nutshell and our first adventures of being new puppy owners!