Piggy McFatterson

That's my dog.  Kojak.  A.K.A. Piggy McFatterson.  I was looking through my phone and realized I had several pictures of him that I haven't blogged about, so this is a post all about him.  Anyways, he acquired this name because he has no self control.  He eats all of his food, hardly ever leaving a single piece, and even if he has just finished off his bowl, he will finish off the neighbor dog's food, his love/hate relationship girlfriend's bowl (even though technically, they are dog cousins since Lola is Ashley's dog), or any object on the floor resembling food.  Last vet visit, he had gained 5 lbs.  Apparently, that is not good at all for animals (we have had to cut his food back).  Me...heck...I can put on 5 lbs. in a day:/ #womanproblems.  It doesn't help, either, that my mom loves him and feeds him popcorn, and chips, and scraps from cooking, and says that he looks good with a little weight on him..he super duper loves her.  Aaaanyways, now that I have explained the reasoning behind his nickname, Kojak has been the best dog we have ever had (besides my childhood dog, Abby, who lived to be old and feeble, and faithful to the last day).  He has such personality, and makes us laugh.  A lot.  He thinks he is human.  And he thinks he weighs 10 pounds.  Add about 50 more to that 10, buddy.  He really wishes he was a lap dog.  And he tries to be.

 

After this late-season cold front moves out, and it warms up again, he's getting shaved.  We leave his fur long for winter, and while I love him furry and think he's so cute with lots of fuzz, I hate. HATE. the fur cleanup.  I vacuum up fur pretty much every dang day.  J has gotten better about brushing/raking him, because it's his decision to leave him furry in the winter (My vote was to keep him shaved and buy him sweaters.  My vote was vetoed.), so therefore it is his job.

 

This was last week.  We get this much fur everytime we brush him.  I do not know how it is physically possible for him to still have so much!

 

See, even Kojak is shocked at the amount of fur!  This picture gives you a better idea of just how much fur comes off of him, as you can see it is the size of another dog.  And no, it's not actually another dog.

Another thing you should know about Kojak, is that he thinks his sole purpose in life is to play fetch (and to follow me everywhere, and eat, and try to herd cats--that always goes well--and children, but you throw a ball, and everything else no longer matters).  His favorite toys are his rubber ring, and his ball.  The ring is for indoors, the ball is for outdoors.  Although, he frequently tries to tote them everywhere.  He can only have rubber (the kong type of rubber) toys because we have yet to meet another toy that can survive him.  I'm just glad that destructiveness has never been shown towards our house or furniture.  He is so stingy with his toys, and J loves to annoy him.  This particular night, he was wearing his ring as a hat, or a halo..but that's not very fitting;o)  You can just see the spitefulness in his face...

Kojak..not pleased.  He did not stop staring him down, and when he didn't throw it for him, he stalked him.

 

And stalked him.  This went on for a good while until he became really annoying and wouldn't stop circling, whining and grunting.  Spoiled brat, he did finally get what he wanted.

 

And we wonder why he is like he is...

 

 

What A Week..

First, I want to say how blessed I am that yesterday marked mine and J's 8 year wedding anniversary.  It came and went, and wasn't the best one, but it is not just about the day.  It's about everyday of the past 8 years.  I have found my true love, and I was fortunate enough to be able to marry my best friend.  Not everyday is easy, not everyday is fun, but I wouldn't want to do it all with anyone else, and we work at it, we love, and we keep God in our marriage, and for that, I feel we have been blessed with such a wonderful and strong relationship and bond.  He is always, without fail, there for me.  He's my rock.  Growing up, I saw that firsthand with my parents.  They supported each other, and my mom could always depend on my dad.  They were each other's biggest fans, and nobody could come between them..they were always united, and from then on, I knew I wanted that.  Needed that.  It took some time, and there were a few frogs before I found my prince, but just like the song says, "God blessed the broken road".  A lot of times, daughters with good dads look for men like their dads, and I found one.  Jason is funny, smart, driven, brave, strong, not afraid of hard work, a provider, and so durn handsome.  I am so thankful for him and for our marriage, and I look forward to the rest of my life with him, and what our future together holds.

With all of that said, this week my sugar britches has what the docs think is E. Coli.  SHRIEK!  You hear so many bad things about this mess.  It's true.  We are waiting to hear the official results of the tests hopefully tomorrow, but he has all the signs and symptoms.  It started Sunday night, and here we are on Wednesday still battling it.  We think it may have been from the sushi he ate over the weekend.  I stay away from that stuff like the plague (plus I think it's nasty), and hopefully he will from now on too!  He has been soooo sick. Yesterday, he tried so hard to feel better, and he did for a little bit, he even tried to go to dinner (against my warnings), which ended in to-go boxes, and rushing home.  Without too many icky details, it's been like the worst stomach virus you can imagine.  Add on top of that, horrible cramping, fever, and dehydration resulting in IV fluids today.  Who knew symptoms can come and go...he thought he was on the mend yesterday, and then he started all again last night.  Being in the military, you can't just call in sick (dumb, if you ask me), so he had to go report in and go straight to BAS (the base doc), but now he's home again (he insisted I stay home and not drive him because he was feeling some better this morning, and I didn't sleep but maybe 2 hours..I still feel like a bad wife for that).  I am sitting here typing this as he sleeps on the couch.  I feel so sorry for him, so helpless.  Plus, I'm pretty sure he's ready to throw his bottle of Gatorade at me if I tell him to drink one more time, he'll thank me later.  Maybe.  He's feeling better today than he has yet, and no more throwing up today (crossing fingers!)..he has extremely low energy, but his appetite is coming back.  He was starved when he got home, and so I researched the best things to try and made him some toast and scrambled eggs...so far, so good.  It settled and that has been about 1 1/2 hours ago.  Please pray that this is the end, and he can recover.  We are supposed to celebrate our anniversary with a few days at Myrtle Beach starting Sunday, and hopefully he will feel like going, we are really looking forward to a little getaway.

This is where Kojak has been every minute that J has been home.  Right by his side.  And when he's in the guest room, he's outside the door, and when I go in to check on him or help him, he is hot on my heels, crying.  He does not like when one of us is sick, he is super intuitive.  Last night, I was watching t.v. when I heard a bang/boom noise, and thought chalked it up to the nearby ranges doing bombing drills last night, but then I kept hearing a strange noise I wasn't sure of.  Kojak, who was surprisingly laying by my feet last night, got up, went to the bedroom door, and just stared and kept sniffing at the door jamb.  I got up with the quickness then, and J had fallen out of bed and was throwing up.  Thanking my lucky stars that I put a trash can by the bed.  J said he is our modern day Lassie;o)  

So, Kojak and I are holding down the fort.  I'm ready for this week to turn around.  But, I will uphold my part of the vows, and this is definitely putting that "in sickness" part into practice!

This Week's Highlights

Jason is in between having classes on deck, so he has normal working hours again, and has weekends off!  Well, 'til the end of the month anyways.

We finished building the lean-to off the back of our shed last night!  Thank heavens.  It looks great, J did most of the work, I was just the assistant.  We just have to make some shelves and hang them, buy a few hooks for tools, and put some gravel inside for the mower, oh, and decorate it.  I'll post pictures soon!

My fall stuff is coming out.  Today.  I hope.  J has to dig it out from storage for me.  Because I'm afraid of spiders.  And lizards.

Our friends, Brad & Ashley came to visit last weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  We went and saw the Battleship in Wilmington.  First time for us, and we've lived here for almost 7 years.  It was toasty though, I think we will probably go see it again this fall or winter when it's cooler.

Kojak got a haircut!  Yay! 

J and Brad got the engine back in the Eclipse.  Another yay!  Can't wait 'til that car is up and running again.

I fashioned a blanket basket for the living room to collect all the stray blankets in one area.  The basket doubles as a photography prop sometimes, but it is also the perfect blanket holder.  I used some scrap wood to make a rustic sign with left over paint.  I roughed it up and made it look shabby.  I used letters from my Cricut to stick on after the first coat of black, then sprayed the off white over top.  Roughed it up with sandpaper and a paint scraper, and peeled off the letters.  Then I just attached it with some twine.

We occasionally check out the Big Lots here to see if there are any deals.  It's across town, and definitely not the nicest one I've even been to, but it's worth a quick peak once in a while.  They had citronella lanterns on clearance for the end of the season.  Real metal ones with glass globes.  And for only 4.00 a piece!  Score.  I took the citronella candles out, and will be replacing them with fall scented candles.  But first, we will take them apart and paint them black.  I have a really cute idea for them.  Can't wait to show you!

Our bi-weekly date night is coming up tomorrow (it will be more like a day this time).  I really look forward to these.  We've enjoyed finding creative ways to "date" without spending much or any money.  For just the cost of gas, and probably a cheap meal, we are going thrifting and window shopping in Atlantic Beach.  I'm lucky to have a fella who will do those things with me.  And actually enjoys it.  He's all about some DIY stuff.

J and I were able to take a walk the other night.  It was the coolest evening we've had in a long time, so we took advantage.  It was nice to breathe in some fresh (not so horribly humid) air, and enjoy the breeze coming from the rain showers that we had on and off all week.  We did some scouting for some nature themed decor.  Can we say free!  We found some small dead trees that had the perfect type of branches for floor vase fillers.  They will get a coat of paint soon.  And, I've started collecting some pine cones for the fall and Christmas decorations.  Now if we could just have that cool weather back.

OH!  I just found out this week that HOBBY LOBBY is coming to Wilmington.  Yeah, it's about 45 minutes away, but up until now, I didn't have a Hobby Lobby within driving distance.  The closest one is about 2 1/2 hours away.  You can't even imagine how happy this makes me!

Enjoy your weekend, I plan to:)