Bye, Bye Petey!

Petey is officially at his forever home now.  We are really going to miss that little rascal around here.  We met his new family tonight and, MAN, is it quiet in our house now!

We have been working on some projects and making progress on the decorations in here.   We are headed to the lake this weekend and can't wait to help Gram and Gramps get things ready for the season.  I think Josh is having dreams of fishies already...

Petey the Pitbull

Josh and I have been tossing around the idea of fostering a puppy for a while now.  It started with me looking up puppies for adoption online and realizing that we should do a test run first.  

So happy to have a friend

We found Secondhand Hounds through a college friend and decided to give it a whirl.  We completed the paper work and home visit right after moving in and then sat on it for a while.  We wanted to make sure we were settled and ready to give a pup a good (temporary) home.

While we were on our way to the airport in Tampa, I saw Spud posted.  I showed him to Josh and we were both sold.  He is an approximately 4-5 month old pitbull mix.  He looks just like Petey from the Little Rascalls (so obviously we had to call him Petey).  After getting him home, we learned that he is the sweetest pup.  He is super mellow and laid-back.

His first day with us

Avery is not fond of many dogs, which is one of the reasons we wanted to do this.  She was instantly smitten with him.  After he got more comfortable (and had a bath!) they have been wrestling for about 6-7 hours each day. 

Even though Avery still has moments of jealousy, this has been a great experience for all of us.  Avery is learning to share, both Avery and Petey are learning how to “dog,” and we now know that we are not ready to have two dogs (especially a puppy)!

Terrible picture, but great summary of our lives since having Petey

Fortunately for our ear drums (and sanity) they gradually got sick of wrestling and have been spending more time playing with toys (together and separately), lounging, and cuddling (that only took a car ride together).  I think Avery will be sad to see Petey go to his forever home, which will hopefully be very soon (pending home visit).

Fab Friday

Sorry I missed last week, things have been a bit more hectic than normal around here!

5. Being able to work a few days last week and one this week from the Hamline Minneapolis campus.  Half the commute to work and so much more peaceful!

4. Avery and Petey (more on him later) finally settling down and giving us a moment of quiet at home.

3. Stopping to enjoy the feeling of sunshine on your face after days of rain.

2. Listening to the rain hit the skylight while lounging in bed.

Our new (tiny) hydrangeas!

1. The safety and health of our family.

Flying with Spirit Airlines

A while back, I started following Spirit Airlines on twitter.  Of course, I was hoping to win something at the time, but have just stuck with them.  Because of this, I get updates on their sales. When we were experiencing our second (or maybe, third, fourth, or fifth...) spring snowstorm, a sale popped up that I just couldn't resist.  $68 flights to Tampa?  I'll take it!

Now keep in mind, if you need ANY bag (besides a personal item), if you can't print your boarding pass at home, if you want to choose your seat, if you want something to eat or drink on the flight, etc. you will be paying extra.  Keep that in mind when considering the cost of your flight.

In our case, we went for 3 days so just used the personal item (a small backpack and a laptop style bag) and didn't buy any extras.  Our trip cost $275 for both of us.  That is the average flight cost for one person from Minneapolis to Tampa.  Score.

Their customer service didn't seem the best.  Honestly, because everything is so self-sufficient, you don't really interact with anyone much.  The flight attendants were super nice on our flight home.  The other thing I noticed was that there were A LOT more kids than I am used to.  I'm not sure if this was because the flights are cheaper or that we flew around Easter time.

I will definitely make sure to check their prices next time I need to fly.

Fab Friday

Even though we went to Florida for a few days this week, things have been pretty uneventful.
5. Discovering the sweet occasional shops in downtown Carver, MN.  I found the Carver Junk Company on facebook as a recommendation from a friend, and have been wanting to take a visit ever since but it always seems so far away.  We finally decided to bite the bullet and head down on Saturday.  Pleasant surprise, there are about 4-5 antique stores in the area.  Definitely worth the trip if you like refinished home goods.

4.  Our new shelf and basket from the Carver Junk Company.  Both are for our master bath upstairs.  The  shelf is a little loud (bright turquoise) but I'm excited to have a little pop of color.  The basket is from a vintage locker setup and will hold towels.

3.  Finding adorable jars for our main floor bath that resemble mason jars at Marshalls.  Can't wait to load them up with goodies.

2. Pleasant surprise of flying on Spirit.  You definitely get what you pay for, but it was totally worth it.  I will be flying with them again if we can get such a good deal!

1. Spending time in Florida.  It was nice to relax by the ocean, feel the sun, and see family.

Have a great weekend!

Easter

We had a very subdued Easter this year. My parents were out of town for Chase's spring game so we were watching Montana and headed out ourselves on Sunday afternoon.  We still wanted to celebrate though, so we made ourselves an Easter dinner on Saturday night.  We used this recipe for ham in the crock pot.  It was so good! I will definitely be making it again.  We also did traditional green bean casserole and stuffing.  We also did a twist on cheesy potatoes, using a zesty homemade Mac and cheese sauce (recipe adapted from here).  It was all delicious and surprisingly not a ton of work!

After watching The Book Thief (pretty good interpretation of the book, but I had to do a lot of explaining to Josh) that night, we had a little strawberry angel food cake for dessert.

Although it would have been better to be around family all weekend, it was a pretty decent holiday weekend.

Fab Friday

I'm coming off a serious high right now (see number 2 and 1).  Here goes the top five for this week.

5. Last weekend we went to Marshall for Josh's cousin's bridal shower and to spend some time with family.  The drive is never fun, but it was good to see everyone.

4. Even though it snowed about 5" here on Wednesday night, I was able to work from home on Thursday!  Love working from home and being able to get ALL of the laundry done over a normal work day.

3.  Yesterday, for whatever reason, Avery was SUPER cuddly.  Josh was sitting on the couch by himself with the whole thing open, but she insisted on sitting on top of my in the tiny chair.  Avery is not a generally cuddly dog, so you have to take advantage of things like this when they happen.

2. I was invited to go to a new professionals development lunch today. I have been feeling really disconnected from my field lately, so it was great to get back with some like-minded people... and to see some friends I haven't seen for a LONG time.

1.  I wrote into Mytalk 107.1 (the radio station I listen to every day) after our great experience with First Equity Mortgage in buying our house.  They advertise on Mytalk a bit, so I made it my goal to get Ben mentioned (they always talk about David, the owner).  As I was coming home from lunch today, I heard Alexis (one of the morning hosts) use my quote in a commercial! One, I'm famous, and two, goal complete!

Have a good weekend everyone :)