Harrison.... or should I say "Houdini"

Since we got our dog, Harrison, he has been wonderful. He is very well behaved and has had hardly any accidents, he never chews on furniture, he obeys commands (mostly), and is great with his leash on our walks. However this past weekend he discovered his inner Houdini and will not stay in his kennel. He follows me everywhere and is even hesitant to leave the room to follow Joe. At first I didn't mind but now it is a big problem! His separation anxiety seems to just be getting worse. He doesn't want to go in his kennel so we got him a Kong and put peanut butter in it when we leave. Well he eats all the peanut butter and then he really freaks out. He was in his kennel for 3 hours when we went to the New Mexico State Fair and he seemed to do fine. Last weekend when we went to Roswell he somehow got out while we were gone (we figured that we hadn't locked it properly). I had to get my hair done today and so I put him in there and was gone a lot longer and expected and who was there to greet me at the door when I came home? Houdini himself. He somehow gets the top latch undone and squeezes his body through what little opening there is in the door. On top of this he salivates profusely, which I recently learned is a sign of intense anxiety in dogs. Not only that... but half of his beef bone is completely missing. We are hoping he didn't eat it, but who knows. So there you have it. On the bright side, he didn't have an accident or tear anything up when he got out. He didn't even get on the bed. The first couple times he was out he trampled the house, had an accident in the bathroom, and tore up the trash. This time, nothing. I am wondering if

A) he can now be left out alone

B)if he was just so relieved to be out of the kennel that he didn't stress about being alone and forgot to terrorize the apartment

or

C) he had just escaped and didn't have time to mess anything up before I answered the door.

I don't know who has time to properly kennel a dog...but if you do then come on over. I know several strategies to use to get him used to it, but if they don't work then we are kind of up you know what creek without a paddle because he can escape!

I did invest in a 100% money back guarantee Thundershirt that is supposed to help with dogs that have high anxiety issues. If that doesn't work.. we might have to get medication. Any advice would be much appreciated if you have had to deal with a Houdini like us.

From all of this, I have learned one valuable lesson. Although I do like Harrison, I am totally a cat person. I never thought I'd say it, but now that I have experienced both animals I am all for cats.

Roswell... Believe!

Last weekend we visited Roswell, NM. Joe's mom is a travelling nurse and is staying there for the next few weeks. For those of you who don't know, there has been controversy surrounding the city of Roswell since 1947 when an alien space ship allegedly crash landed in a farmer's field outside of town. Now... I don't put much stock into aliens and UFO's although I have no doubt they do exist. I just kind of .... don't think about it. Honestly if I ever found out that aliens were without a doubt... visitig earth... I would be terrified. Joe, on the other hand, is OBSESSED with everything alien and everything that has to do with the universe. So naturally we went to the "UFO Museum and Research Center" in downtown Roswell.

... Now, I love a good museum. Like I said.. a GOOD museum. Haha... this was the cheesiest museum I have ever seen. But what should I have expected? It was a museum dedicated to an "alleged" UFO landing in 1947. The pictures on the walls of this museum were printed from a computer, pasted onto colored construction paper, and then laminated. The paper wasn't even glued straight!!!! They would also have testimonials coming from the most random people. "The nurse at the scene's great grandaughter told stories of what the grandmother told her mom." What? That's like saying "my brother's cousin's best friend who heard his younger brother's mom say..." So, yeah, the sources in the Roswell crash were very credible. I know I am poking a lot of fun at this...and to the museum's credit, it was only 13 dollars for three people and they did have actual newspaper clippings. AND they had a spaceship that would make sounds and light up and let out some fog with aliends surrounding it every few minutes. So that was kind of cool. They had an "all right" gift shop stocked full of alien souvenirs. Actually... just about every shop in the downtown Roswell area was an alien themed gift shop. Joe and I bought out obligatory magnet to put on our fridge (we buy a magnet for every trip we go on) and we went back home.

Here are some pictures we documented of the trip... well, Joe documented. You know how I am with taking pictures.





Joe and the aliens

Joe and his mom.... and the aliens

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Joe was inspired on the way down to Roswell by all of the abandoned gas stations and hotels. On the way back to Albuquerque we stopped at some of the spots so he could take pictures. This is an abandoned Motel. If you notice, all of the doors to the rooms are open and the windows were all broken out. He asked me to come out with him and look inside... I think not. I stayed in the car with my guard dog... Harrison!

Some were really cool!

Custom order

I got my very first custom order this week. It was inspired by my owl cookies I made for the Animal Shelter. She asked me to make lions and cookies that said "Phi Mu <3". They are going to a very lucky sorority girl! In order to make the lion cookies I had to mix up orange, yellow, and pink. So I figured... I might as well finish the Sugar Skull cookies I had intended on making over a week ago. There are just so many colors to make with it! I also decided to go ahead and make cupcake cookies since I had so many colors at my disposal! I found the cupcake cookie cutter at Walmart this week. Pretty darn cute if you ask me. I spent literally then entire day decorating sugar cookies... so my consequence is spending literally the entire day today studying for my Insurance License. Boo... at first I didn't mind going back to my college days, but now I am reminded what it's like to just sit and read... and read... and read. On the upside... at least I can have the tv on (muted of course) and I can get up and go whenever I please. And believe me... I find many excuses to get up and go. I can list off several right now...

"The dog needs a walk"
"The dog wants attention"
"I should get a drink"
"My stomach sort of rumbled... better eat"
"I'm cold"
"I'm hot"
"I'm going to look on Etsy"
"I'm going to check facebook"
"I'm going to post a blog"
"Better take pictures of my new sugar cookies"
..... The possiblities of procrastination are endless...... and I have a creative mind. :)

Cupcake cookies!

Sugar Skulls

Lion Cookies

 

 

My FIRST Custom Order!

Animal Print Cookies

It was Joe's mom's birthday today (Happy Birthday, Deb!) and so of course, I made cookies for her! Joe suggested doing something I really wanted to try, and I thought what could be girlier than pink animal print?!

Brady and Alex Letters

Brady and Alex... just want you both to know I got your letters and my letters to you will be in the mail tomorrow! I was so happy to hear from both of you! I miss you guys and your other classmates very much. You'll have to tell them that I said "hi" tomorrow when you go to school!

Other students.... do not forget... if you would like my new address email me at

misswheeler1986@gmail.com

I hope to hear from you soon!!

How Joe and I Met

So... I know a lot of people do know this story, but more people do not. It's kinda fun so let's get started. When I was a freshman in college it was my last day living in the dorms and I was getting all packed up to go home for the summer.  In order to get to my car which was parked in a lot very far away, I had to take the cambus to get there. I remember walking up to the bus stop with my suitcase in hand and ipod in my ears and while I was there I was scoping out the other people who were also waiting for the bus. Then I saw Joe. He caught my eye because he was wearing a black shirt, black dress pants, a Hurley belt, and Converse shoes. I thought the combination was pretty unique. When I got on the bus he was sitting pretty much across from me. I caught him looking in my direction a couple of times, but thought nothing of it. I reached my stop and went on my merry little way. I drove back home to Des Moines, got settled in, and popped on the computer to check my facebook. (Facebook was new the year I went to college and it was still a novelty to me, but 7 years later I'm still just as addicted to it as I was then.) I had a message waiting for me when I got on. A message... from the boy I saw at the bus stop. WHAT THE HECK?! HOW DID HE KNOW WHO I WAS?! well .. the message is long since gone but I do remember the gist of what it said...

"Hi, my name is Joe. I've been seeing you around campus and I think you're really cute. I hope you don't think I'm a stalker or weird. I just wanted to say hi and I was wondering if I could take you out on a date sometime."

Now... as I look back on it I should have been more like "Um, that doesn't explain how you know my name. You are weird. Thanks but no thanks."

But there was just something about him. After doing some picture stalking of my own, I decided "why not?!" and I told him yes, I would go out with him. Well he lived in Iowa City still so he drove ALL the way to Des Moines to meet me one afternoon. It didn't last long. I met him in a parking lot. We drove around... went to Sonic. That was it. Nothing special. No sparks. Haha. I tried it out a couple more times but I was just young and didn't know what a good guy was. So eventually Joe and I just became friends. Sort of. We didn't really talk much. Soon after he died his hair black, pierced his lip, wore Blink182 shirts, and dated my roommate. So... no, we weren't friends at all.

(4 years later)

Joe and I hadn't talked or even seen eachother for a really long time. For some reason, one day he passed through my mind. I decided to hop back on facebook (afterall, isn't that how you keep in touch these days?) and see what he was up to. I saw someone I didn't recognize. Someone with a military hair cut, muscles, and fatigues for the US Air Force. He was practically unrecognizable. Now, Joe has always been good looking, but the past 4 years had been good to him!

So I re-added him, and literally minutes later he messaged me. Now the story gets EVEN BETTER from there. After about a week or two of talking every day... he told me that he was going to be home for a week before he got deployed in a month. He asked me to go on a date. This time I drove to Iowa City and met up with him. This time we met in the Ped Mall... had sushi.. and stayed out having drinks and talking nonstop. Now here is the REALLY amazing part. Joe was wearing both a necklace and a watch that I really didn't like. (I'm not particular on guys clothing but I'm not fond of their jewelry usually) Well while we were sitting and talking... his necklace just broke and fell to the floor. A little while later, the button on his watch popped off. Then I realized. THIS IS A SIGN. I joke and say that God was really working in Joe's favor trying to get me to like him. Haha. Well all that didn't need to happen for me to take a liking to him. He looked different, but he was the same nice, funny guy I remembered.

Before he left for Georgia he invited me to come to a wedding with him so we could spend a little more time together. I did and it was so much fun. We danced and had such a great time. Such a great time, in fact, that when he asked me to come visit him in Georgia literally days before he deployed to Bahrain, I did. That is totally not like me. I would never fly all the way to Georgia to spend a weekend with someone who a) I only went on 2 dates with in the past 4 years and b) was being deployed for 6 months.

To my parent's surprise, and my own, I flew down. Had a great weekend, and from there we have been together. Although we had really only been talking for about 6 weeks before he was deployed, we stuck together the 6 months he was gone. I have a box FULL of letters and cards. We skyped frequently and he called me when he could. That is how we truly got to know eachother. And this time, I knew he was a keeper.

So here we are, 2 years later and I'm living in Albuquerque with him. Every day he makes me laugh and I couldn't be more thankful. I know that was a long story, but wasn't it a good one?!

(ps... I later found out that he knew my name because he lived in the same dorm as me and he found out which floor I was on. I was on 12 and he was on 11... and he knew where I was because when we would happen to be in the elevator together I would stay on when he got off. He "searched" 12th floor Slater" on FB.. saw a picture with me tagged in it and VOILA.. found out my name. Very interesting and kind of creepy how the internet works. I then asked him why he never said anything to me on the bus.. his perfect opportunity. His response? "You were listening to your ipod! I wasn't about to interrupt you!")

THROWBACK! This picture was taken a couple months after we met (2006)

 

 A picture I took from Skype when he was in Bahrain (2010)

 

In January when he came back (2011)

Fall of 2011.. our first Iowa game

 

 



Us now! 2012

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you like chocolate chip cookies that have a crunch on the outside and are gooey and soft on the inside... these are the cookies for you.

yummy!

They stay soft... NEVER get hard, even when you accidentally over bake them slightly. Joe almost never requests me to make junk food... but these puppies get requested on a regular basis. The secret ingredient you ask? ... PUDDING! If you wanna give these a try... here's the recipe.

1 cup butter, softened (sometimes I melt it too)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add pudding mix, eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by Tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 to minutes or until lightly browned.

 

The best part of this recipe? The combinations are endless! I have also used white chocolate chips and cheesecake pudding and those are very good as well!