Odin: God of Thunder & Bad Boy

Our new pup finally has a name that suits him. Meet Odin!

Yes, as in the God of Thunder's Dad, the Allfather and ruler os Asgard.

It's been an adjustment in the 7 weeks we have had him. Lil bro is what would typically be termed a "bad dog". He likes to be pet certain ways, he doesn't like to be told what to do. Do the wrong thing, touch him in the wrong area... snarls and growls.

It's been a huge change for our routine. Not just having a dog but, training him. Working with him. Multiple techniques in rotating series and trying to find what works. Getting him used to us, our house, our friends, and families.

I never thought I'd have a "bad dog". And Odin is I suppose what a typical bad dog would be. Snarly, growly, independent. Not used to being with people 24/7.  Having a bad boy has made me realize: bad dogs have a bad rep.

Odin is a sweet and scared little guy. When he gets scared, when he feels cornered, unsure, when we touch him somewhere that hurts (still has a lot of scabbing and sores)... he erupts in snarls and growls. We're learning, he's learning. Somehow, along the way, he lost the eye. Somehow, he picked up a split and scarred nose. Scratches under his right arm pit. Scarring on his back and rear legs.

Since he's not afraid of dogs but has a tendency to flinch and get aggressive with humans, seems the puzzle might add up to a trauma with past people in his life. Which makes me sick. Which is sick.

Having a dog that has issues has made me realize a lot of things about myself and my husband. About people and pets I had previously judged to be "bad". Bad dogs, bad owners.

There's no such thing as a bad dog. There's just dogs who need more than others. Dogs who want to please us and need to be shown how. Bad owners exist but there are also owners who are trying. Who are at their wits end and trying to work with their troubled pet.

Nothing much else is happening in our mini family! Just working to improve and learn, a day at a time. Besides learning that Odin is a stereotype bad boy with a good heart, we are also finding out some of his more fun traits and learning to recognize them.

For example: when he yawns, he looks like Cera from "Land before Time".

And how when he sees his leash he will do back flips. And pounce on his toys that look like mice.

When we adopted him, we were told he didn't like to play with toys much. Chase balls. That he was very sedentary and chill. 

Not true. Not a single thing of that was true. 

Odin loves toys. All of them. Balls and squeaks and twigs. He'll bat paper around when he's bored. He likes to play with the edges of the blankets hanging off the sofa. With our laces on shoes. With our dangling feet that seem to need bats and kisses. 

When he gets happy, he looks like the luck dragon from "Neverending Story".

He looks like Falcor when you pet him too. 

More to follow on the fam and our Odin soon! Love you all <3

"We're not getting another dog!" and Other Lies I told both Myself and My Husband

After our dog died this summer... both Esquire and I were devastated. While his solution was "another dog will make us feel better" mine involved a lot more "let's enjoy not having a dog" and "I don't think I can do this again". 

Which, after enough needling, eventually became "we aren't getting a dog until we have kids which is FAR off so, let it go, Husband!"

...and then I got lawyered. 

The Life and Times of Mack, May he RIP

Previously from my "about" page: 

"Due to 12-year old Meaghan thinking she could take care of a puppy, they own a grouchy 14 year old dog together who's horrible and adorable. Surprisingly, he shows up as a doodle even more than Esquire.

Plus, he makes a cute ewok, right?"

In the most adult moment of our lives, Esquire and I put our adorable dog, Mack, down. Mack was a lil grouch but, he was our lil grouch. I could write him an epic story but, instead I am going to simply post an epic amount of pictures and videos. Here's an album of your life, little guy. I hope you are enjoying doggie heaven- hopefully there is plenty for you to harumph about there. 

Mack Luby

1999-2014

Hello Again...The Blogger Sin

So, my blog has once again fallen to the wayside while my life tackled me with many new tasks requiring my attention.

I finally feel as though I have a better handle on things, thus the dreaded, guilt filled "here's where I've been" post. While such posts were previously usually filled with fun distractions from me ("I haven't blogged in half a year because I am getting married and things are crazy!" or "I have a new job that challenges me and caused me to move across the country!") this summer has... not been that. 

I haven't been blogging because I have been somewhat beaten down by life. This summer was... the general opposite of what summer usually is. Usually, relaxing. Long summer days, a nice pace from the bustle of fall and spring that bookend it. 

This summer has been hard. It has been busy. It has been work filled. Emotion filled. It has been a lot of feeling like a failure with new responsibilities at work. A lot of feeling overwhelmed. Pace picked up in a lot of sectors and emotional tolls were had. On top of everything else going on, we had to put down our dog. As he is 15 years old, I can't tell you guys that we were shocked. It just felt sudden. And affected both of us more than we thought. Esquire and I both spent a solid month trying to make him as comfortable as possible, as spoiled as he could be, before we succumbed to the reasoning of the vet and put him down. As I said, this summer... emotions were had. Nothing for it but to dive back into the norm. You all included.

I have missed my little world. All of you readers and fellow bloggers who support and care. I hope you can once again forgive my horrible blogger behavior and understand that this time... I was not having fun without all of you. I should have been blogging about my burdens as they were happening but, now that I am feeling lighter, and healed up, I am back to share. 

As you can see, there are some new sections on the ol' blog that I have just started to populate and play with. Let me know what you guys would like to see, what's working, what isn't. 

I'm glad to be back :)

From Start to Now: My Life in Quick Sum

Once upon a time, I had a rather perfect childhood in a small Pleasantville-like suburb outside of Chicago. I had a great high school experience with great friends followed by a great college experience with some equally great friends and have continually had an amazing family throughout the whole ordeal. I count myself extremely lucky that way. Then in 2010, like so many other 20 somethings, I graduated college and didn't have a clue what I was doing with myself. After the graduation confetti fell, I moved back in with my parents and was promptly dumped by the long distance boyfriend who had been talking rings last I knew. Cue the quarter life crisis. To my name, I had a 6 month old cooking blog (this guy!), a super useful creative writing degree, a grouchy 11 year old yorkie, Mack, a 5 year old fish (RIP, Bellini, seen in all my headers), about $1,000 in my student checking account, and no solid prospects. I began to rapid fire apply for everything. And I mean, everything. From copy editing to bank telling to teaching English in China. If an english degree was something even somewhat applicable, I applied. 

And with fall came the miracle. A job. A corporate job that seemed, sure, less than creative but none the less, super fantastic. This really fantastic job brought me to Washington, DC- a city I had never been to before and was suddenly moving to before labor day, ha. I borrowed money from my parents to AFFORD the move across the country and began the beautiful adventure now known as my early 20's. 

I met a lot of law students who became a my DC family. I went from living in my first grown up apartment with my long time BFF (who moved with me across the states for essentially the same job with the same company) to living in a chaotic, drama filled, colorful Virginia mansion (seriously, a multi million dollar mansion we found for rent on craigslist for way too cheap) with 3 law girls, my bestie, and a crazy but not serial killer crazy math geek who we also found on craigslist (and we came to consider charming, not crazy). That's 6 people. Plus a few more who we rented to during summers. It was a blur of humans and fun. 

There were fire pits, movies, marathons, and a heck of a lot of wine. I mean, A LOT of wine. There were cocktail filled blurry nights and greasy hang over cure mornings. There were videogame all nighters, paper chain crafts, and out of control Halloween parties. There were board games, drinking games, and crazy games of hide and seek through our monster of a house. There was an inordinate amount of antics and cupcakes. And cupcake antics. There was chaos and lazy nights, pinched budgets and crazy splurging, and in general, being a young professional living in a ridiculously fancy house with 5 of your best friends. There was essentially living the teenage dream you come up with when you're 13 but so much better because this was real and had chocolate chip pancakes and gossip.

At some point within our alcohol and drama infused years at the mansion, I met Esquire. Another law student who came to mean a lot to me.

He ended up moving into the mansion (AKA, my personal "Real World DC" backdrop) and proposing January 2013. In short order after that night, life threw us a lot of curve balls. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I got a new job in Chicago, a job that not only fit my career dreams more but would bring me home to my family and mom. Esquire and the rest of the brood I had come to care about so much in DC all graduated law school. The timing clicked. We made the leap and decided to move, packing up everything we had each collected through the years and the still grouchy Mack and making the 14 hour drive to Chicago. We bought a house. We saw my mom become a survivor (WOOHOO!). Esquire took the bar exam. We planned a wedding. On September 21, 2013 (date picked due to this song) we threw a big party and tied the knot. 

And then life continued on! We've flipped that house, gotten a new house we are now in the process of flipping. We have two adorable kiddos who keep us busy. Between working my dream job in book publishing, managing kiddos, and trying to find time to fix up our new place room by room we are busy but enjoying each chapter of our life more than the last. This site is where you can read about those ongoing journeys! 

Our Proposal

For our anniversary, while I was upstairs getting dressed, my soon to be fiance' was downstairs, working on filling the entire first floor of our house with candles and flowers. 

As we got ready to "go get the cab" and I walked down toward the stairs, I didn't think anything was unusual until I hit the stairs landing and saw EVERYTHING glowing and vases of flowers filling the scene. I immediately started to cry and squeaked out "NOW?!" To which Esquire began to crack up as he led me to the family room.

He then launched into a truly lovely speech about the impact I've made on his life, how I'm the only one for him, etc. etc. While I was rapidly starting to cry MORE, our dog (Mack) decided he wasn't getting enough attention and started to bark- kind of killing the crying and intensity...

Instead, both of us started cracking up. Esquire composed himself first and continued his truly amazing, heartfelt speech and turned on the TV. Written on the main Zelda screen was a simple "Marry Me".

The perfect proposal for us, a pair of sentimental geeks. The emotional moments continued when Esquire revealed he had letters from our parents, supporting us from afar as they don't live local to DC and couldn't celebrate in the moment with us. While we called them to cheer and exclaim later, the letter reading happened first and in that moment, several happy tears fell. 

 

Our proposal story is pretty straightforward, but for us-  it was exactly perfect. Every moment before and after has been an adventure that we wouldn't change for all the world. We can't wait to celebrate the love we feel for each other with all of our loved ones and remember how it all began with moments such as these.

 

*Photographs courtesy of our wonderful "hidden" photographer throughout the proposal, Em Skow