2013 Book 1: A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

I'm declaring now that re-reading books is definitely fair game for my 2013 book list. I read the entire series of Game of Thrones books last year, in pretty quick succession. It was my first serious experience with fantasy books, and it was awesome.

Anyone who has read fantasy knows the differences between fantasy and other fiction. I tend to be pretty introspective, and as a result I love character-driven pieces (although, to be honest, I don't think anyone really dislikes character-driven stuff). Anyways, I get so caught up in characters, and these books are definitely not an exception. Within the first few chapters of the first book, I had my favorite characters picked out. As the series progresses, my perception of certain characters has changed a lot. My favorites and least favorites (by definition) haven't changed, but my appreciation and intrigue with specific characters has changed a lot which has been really exciting.

Because I read this book before I decided to write about what I was reading, I don't really have any specific thoughts about this one. Plus, I'm already halfway through the next book, and so everything is blurred together, and I'm completely focused on the plot of book 4.

I'd definitely recommend these books to anyone who is willing to take on a challenge - they are beefy books, and there are a ton of characters (I still kind of wish I would have done a character map), but the storyline and the characters are extremely well-crafted. Its one of those series that is very easy to get into - within a sentence or two, I'm completely immersed into this other world.

One down, forty-nine to go!

"There is creative reading as well as creative writing."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, personal journal

its time to light the lights

I'm sure you have all been waiting for an update from puppy parenthood [and my "new" life in general] so here it is....

Last week was exhausting, stressful, busy, and took forrrrrevvvvvvvverrrrrrrrrr. I thought the week would fly by because of how much stuff we had to do, but every day seemed longer and I felt more tired.

The big plan was to move things over gradually throughout the week, and have my dad help us with a big move on Friday when we had a trailer. On Wednesday we found out that the parking lot at the old apartment was going to be closed all day Friday into Saturday for re-paving - aka we weren't going to be able to move anything during the day on Friday. Luckily Ben had rented a moving van for Wednesday. Ben and Zach moved most of Ben's stuff during the afternoon, and by the time I was done with work we were able to get a lot of our stuff moved in the van. (We were mostly concerned with furniture.)

Friday morning we ended up having my parents meet us at 7 AM to get the last of our furniture moved out before the parking lot was closed - that meant two days in a row where Zach and I had approx. 2 hours of sleep. So we moved most of the morning - we just had the last of the furniture and then all of my storage unit to move. I bought mom and dad lunch, and then Zach and I spent the rest of the day/evening unpacking and trying to get as much done as we could before puppy.

Saturday morning was a bit of a mess - all of my own fault. At that point I was severely sleep deprived. I had some more things to finish on Saturday morning before we went to pick Abe up, so I set my alarm for 6:30 and we had plans to leave at 8:30. And... I woke up at 8:39. Ugh. So we had to rush to get out of town and we still had some other things to do before we could leave [all of them because I dropped the ball...or several balls]. Anyways, we left like an hour and half later than expected. BUT everything was okay because, we came home with a puppy!

On the way home

When we got home, we had both of our families over for a housewarming/puppy meeting. Zach and I made chicken and beef enchiladas (which we've been raving about to our families for awhile now) while everyone played with the puppy.

 Uncle Sam playing and cuddling with Abe

 Zach's Mom and Abe and his fat puppy belly

 Abe and Rooster taking puppy naps

[Abe loved Rooster - he followed him everywhere, but Rooster 

did not seem too enthused to have a little shadow with him]

Abe pooped after all the visiting. Look at his little tongue sticking out!!

Abe in the lovesac. He looks so tiny in it!

Abe as a puppy hat

He pushes all the food to the back of the bowl, and then has to put his front paws in to reach the rest

Agh! That face!

Tickling his belly. Doesn't he look like he's laughing?!?

Snuggled in his blankie

So far everything has been going pretty well. The first night at bedtime he whined for less than a minute, and Zach cleared his throat loudly and Abe was quite for the rest of the night. Sunday and Monday night were a breeze. We've been having to get up after about 3 or 4 hours because he needs to go outside, but we feed him and play with him a little bit and then go right back to bed. 

The housetraining is going fairly well also. He's going right away when he gets outside, and there have been a few times where he goes to the door or starts to bark or whine when he has to go out. In the meantime, he has some of the strongest dog farts I have ever smelled, but he's so goddamn cute we can't help but love him. 

He's got a lot of personality - he's pretty fiesty, but he calms down pretty well. Today he was just full of shenanigans. He discovered that he can fit underneath one of the loveseats, so he keeps trying to crawl under there. 

Abe vs. Mirror

We've also gotten pretty settled into the new place. We've still got some unpacking to do, but we've got our den/office where we can store stuff that we don't have time to unpack right now but need to keep away from Abe. 

Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow. Definitely not looking forward to it, but I guess I have to. So I should be off to bed, since I won't get to take any naps after being up with Abe in the morning.

and everything is going to the beat

Whew. Two days of this week complete, and I'm exhausted.

Zach, Ben, and I got the keys to our new apartment today! We will be spending the entire week moving, so we didn't get too much done today. Zach and I met Ben at the new place at 1 today to get the keys, and we had each loaded up our cars so we unloaded the two cars before work this afternoon. After work tonight, Zach and I took another load over. [I'm sure some of you out there are thinking we're crazy for moving at 1:30 in the morning, BUT the weather is soooo much more bearable at this time so I much prefer it.] I think we're going to try and get a few more loads in during the week before my awesome dad brings down a trailer on Friday.

This week is bringing lots of changes. Most people would agree that change - even when it is welcome - is always a little bit hard. We're making so many positive changes this week, but I still get that slight unsettling feeling. You're excited for the new things to come, but for a moment you almost second-guess yourself, and think it might just be better to keep everything just as it is. The move I am 100% ready for, and despite my loathing for moving, there's nothing to second guess there.

We're also getting a new [to us] car this weekend. I found out a few months ago that my car is going to need some big, expensive repairs pretty soon. Considering that the repairs I had to do in April and the upcoming ones that would need to be done cost more (pretty substantially more) than I actually paid for my car, I decided to get a new car. So Zach and I have been looking into getting a new car. After much searching and discussion, we decided to buy my parents car. We're getting an excellent deal, and they're being super awesome and trading cars with us before we actually get all the paperwork and everything worked out. On the one hand, I'm excited to have a nice, dependable car [with air conditioning!]. On the other hand, Shelby (my car) and I have had some pretty good times. The driver's seat is molded just right for my butt! All the settings are just right! Yeah, I sweat my ass off every day without air conditioning, and she makes some funny noises sometimes....but she's all mine! So a little bit of second guessing there. ;) Le sigh...

I don't know if you've heard (wink wink  - I know everyone is sick of me talking about it), but the biggest change is the new addition to our family - Abe! Only 5 more days until he is home and all ours. We're clearly excited. We've been waiting for nearly a year, and the last three weeks have been especially painstakingly long. But we needed to find a good vet, and we needed all kinds of dog supplies, and we're still searching for a good dog food, and we just want to be awesome puppy parents. We've done our research, we've read books, watched shows, talked to breeders, etc... but its a lot of pressure to take care of another living being (still, a pressure that we are glad to take on). And now that the puppy will soon be in our care, I just hope that everything will work out and we'll have a happy, healthy wrinkly puppy.

So that's what is going on in my head. Lots of preparation - most of it exciting, some of it daunting. Between making moving arrangements (including storage unit, trailer, helpers, getting the keys, forwarding mail, setting up cable/internet, etc etc), looking for cars and figuring out auto loan and insurance stuff, and getting everything ready for the puppy, I'm ready for some relaxation  - especially since its all happening in pretty much one week.

Luckily, I was just approved off for a few days next week. Primarily Zach and I wanted to spend some quality time with Abe when he first comes home, but I think it'll be nice to get settled in to the new apartment and to have some downtime after this crazy week.

I'm guessing this will be the last post until after the move, so keep an eye out for new posts with lots of pictures!

almost there

Just an fyi....the countdown until puppy time is in the single digits now!

9 days!!!

ready and waiting

Ugh....these three weeks are going incredibly slow. Although we'll be crazy busy the next two weeks, I think Zach and I are both looking forward to it in hopes that it makes the time go quickly. In the meantime, here are some more pictures from when we met Abe! 

Daddy and puppy!

Mama and puppy!

Today we spent the day getting supplies for Abe. Just two toys, first aid kit, shampoo, brushes, nail clippers, bed for in his crate, and a soft blankie to be all snuggled up. (The super cute moose is from Zach, and the blanket is from me.) 

Dear Abe - 

We got all this stuff for you! Please come home soon!  

Love, Amanda and Zach

the luckiest

BIG AWESOME FANTASTIC AMAZING SUPEREXCITING NEWS!
As of yesterday, Zach and I are officially puppy parents!
We have been saving up for a puppy, and planning and reading and researching, for almost a year now. Zach has wanted an English Bulldog since he was a little boy, and after reading and looking at tons of pictures, it didn't take much convincing for me. We found an apartment where we could have a dog and saved, and now that our move is coming up we started to look more closely at breeders. We found a breeder we really liked about 2 1/2 hours from here. He had two litters, one that was about a month old and one that was about two weeks old and at least 8 adult bulldogs, so we were surrounded by dogs!!

We made an appointment for Saturday to meet the breeder. We set it up on Monday and had to wait until Saturday which meant we had nearly a week of agony trying to keep ourselves sane and calm. In all this time of preparing, we had kind of put together an idea of our ideal puppy - male, mostly white, one dark ear, and maybe a spot over one eye. So we went there, we met the breeder, he was awesome and enthusiastic and super informative. When we first walked in to the room with the two litters, Mike (the breeder) was saying, "I've got this male left..." and as he turned around, we saw the perfect puppy. He is mostly white, with one black ear, a black spot over his eye, and a black little puppy butt. Zach and I looked at each other immediately, and there was an unspoken statement that this was our puppy. He is adorable and perfect and wrinkly and we are already in love with him.

So without further ado... 

Sir Aberford Undertaker, of House Porkchop, 

the First of His name. 

(Abe for short)

Snuggling with his new mama

So tiny!

He has very soft jowls.

He likes to lay like this.

He looks extra cute in his daddy's arms!

Giving his daddy beard kisses.

We are so excited! The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy though. We will be moving soon, with a move in date of July 13th. We were thinking we would be getting a puppy from the second litter, because they would be ready to go home around August 1st which would give us a couple of weeks to get settled into the new place. Abe is from the first little, and even though it will be a tight timeline, we'll be bringing him home on July 14th!!! Only 20 days! So now I'm going to try and work out something to get into the new apartment a little earlier so we can get things at least a little bit set up before puppy comes home. My apologies if blogs slow down between now and then. Speaking of which, I should be packing and making lists and planning and freaking out.....

Look forward to TONS of pictures of our new baby boy! =]