Blood, Sweat & Tears

  Yep, that pretty much sums up the summer so far.  The blood from John when he, against my warnings, decided to jump off the dock at Innsbrook into very shallow, rock infested water.  He scraped up his back pretty bad.  Luckily he had about a six pack's worth of beer in him so the pain was minimal :/  More blood might be spilled if John keeps it up with his creepy monkey.  He's taken to randomly putting it in places to scare me.  Wow this sounds really bad.  This morning I wake up and open my eyes and the monkey is staring at me.  John was very pleased with himself.  Still not sounding any better.  Refer to the Drennen Family Weekend album on my facebook page to see the monkey.  That damn thing ended up in more pictures than I did.  And scene.

  The sweat portion is obvious as we have had a never-ending heat wave upon us, which honestly I rather enjoy.  It makes me feel like I live in some tropical paradise.  I like to pretend there is a beach nearby but like most locals of tropical cities I never get to see the good stuff.  Too busy surviving day to day life to get to the lush beaches that all the spoiled tourists overcrowd.
 
  And lastly the tears.  Shamefully, I admit I've shed a couple this summer.  The frustrated kind.  Two words: Potty.  Training.  No, I don't have a toddler that I'm gently introducing to the notion of using a toilet.  I have a puppy that I am using guerrilla war tactics against to potty train.  Does anyone else think of Captain Ron when they hear the word guerrilla?  "You said GOR not GUER, there is a very big difference!"  Anywho, recognizing him as the enemy was difficult as he does not wear a uniform but instead an adorable costume meant to trick us into thinking he's innocent.

Know thy enemy.

 

 

   Leading the charge with Cesar Millan and the Monks of New Skete and armed with plenty of paper towels and disinfectant, I finally emerged victorious.  Actually I'm being a bit over dramatic.  Shocker.  Aside from that one day where I could swear he was doing it on purpose, its been a pretty easy process.  From the day I brought him home he has always been very good about letting us know when he needs to go out.  Any accidents that happened were our fault for not listening to him.  So in reality, he trained us.

  This 30 lb. evil genius is named Bauer.  He is a black lab/english mastiff mix and he will be three months old tomorrow.  He learned to sit in less than 5 minutes at six and half weeks old.  When he grasped that so quickly we began teaching him other things.  He can now sit, stay, come, lay down, roll over, shake and hi-five.  We are very impressed.  Clearly I'm bragging right now.  To be honest, he generally won't do these tricks unless treats are involved.  We are working on weaning him off the treat dependency.  Although I'd sure want a treat if someone asked me lay down and roll over.  Hahaaa.  Too much? 

So yes, the summer is chugging along and I couldn't be any happier.  John and I have been married for 9 months now and we're about to celebrate our six year anniversary.  I really can't believe I've been with this guy for SIX YEARS.  I know to some folks that's just a blink of an eye, but to me it means everything.  We both have the same outlook on life, albeit mine through rosier colored glasses, that we should live in the moment and have as much fun as possible every day.  And that's just what we've been doing.

Tah tah for now,
Tina

ps. I'm getting back into the soap making business, stay tuned for upcoming posts about my progress!