Douges Days

Screen Eater

2013-03-14T12:55:00.003+10:00

We have been contemplating getting Douges a friend recently and I have been insisting he's fine on his own and he's not bored at all. He must have heard me and decided to prove me wrong.

DIY Kitchen Chalkboard

2013-03-07T11:16:00.001+10:00

I had an old picture frame lying around that I just didn't really have room for in the house. I was working on a project that needed chalkboard paint so I got a little excited and decided to make myself a Kitchen chalkboard.

I always need to quickly write down grocery items and someone (joshua) always steals my notepads so I inevitably end up forgetting the grocery item when I go to the shops.

Who knew you could paint chalkboard paint onto glass! I didn't...

Anyway I just used some old paint I had lying around, baby blue and white, I think it was acrylic. I tried to highlight in white, don't look too closely with my impatient nature it is sort of messy, which I ended up liking because it gave it more of an old fashioned weathered look.

The frame was wooden by the way, I just sanded back the varnish so the paint would stick better.

For the 'blackboard' part I just used black chalkboard paint and did two coats. I think I could have done three. If you are more patient than I am I would leave the first coat to dry overnight and then apply the second, you will get a much smoother finish.

This is the finished product which I was quite happy with. Now I just need to make a little holder for the chalk and wallah!

Walk Please

2013-03-07T06:46:00.001+10:00

This is part of Douges routine in the morning, drive mommy insane until she is forced to take me for a stroll.

Love at First Giggle

2013-03-06T21:19:00.002+10:00

Have you ever wondered if the love at first site principle applies to only our romantic sides of life or if it can qualify for the first time you see your baby, the first time you meet your new puppy, the first time you take that sexy corvette you've been saving up for on a spin, or maybe even the first time you see your future best friend?

For me it was the day of registration for my 2nd grade year at Fresno Adventist Academy. I was there with my Mom, she was the librarian at my school so she already knew all the teachers and as my sister had gone through those doors only three years before she was chatting away to my soon to be teacher like they were long lost friends. But if I remember correctly that lady burned a lot bridges because she spanked a kid later that year. I was born in 1989 so if you do the math that is way past corporal punishment in schools being lifted, needless to say I don't think she taught much longer.

I surveyed the room making note of how many bouncy balls they had in the play bin, the playground currency at the time. I think half way through the year it switched to soccer balls.

The inspirational posters on the walls of fluffy orangoutang babies hanging from a tree that sang out cliched quotes like "Hang in there" which of course I found very humorous at the time as it was my first impression of such a clever anecdote.

The faded yellow paper ruler hanging on the wall were I presumed we could measure our heights. I noticed there weren't any counting blocks in this class room like I had in 1st grade. As I pondered how I was going to grow more fingers in order to compensate for the lack of counting blocks (I was never to good at the maths) I saw a young mother with jet black hair come in through the door looking flustered with two little Japanese girls in toe.

I immediately thought the taller of the two was the oldest but proceeded to watch as the littler one bossed the bigger one around as if she was in charge. I wondered what would happen if I talked to my older sisters like that.

"Jill no, we are in my classroom now, you can't go to class in this room. You're in the 1st grade classroom remember. Mom tell Jill that she can't go to class in here, she's trying to pick out a desk."

I noticed their matching Mickey Mouse t-shirts, or maybe they were just Disney themed, and was immediately jealous. At that time if you had one of those t-shirts it usually meant you had been to Disneyland. I had been to Disneyland when I was two years old, or so I was repeatedly told when I asked if I could go.

I finally went to Disneyland when I was 16 and got the Mickey ears and the whole sha-bang and despite what my parents told me it WAS the happiest place on Earth, just saying.

Despite my jealousy toward this little creature I took note of how patient she was with her little big sister and I knew I liked her.

My mom stopped her conversation to include the new comers, they introduced themselves and I heard her name for the first time. Jessica, her mom said it with an extra annunciated "CA" at the end, she still does that.

I find it funny that I even remember this encounter because try as I might I cannot remember one other registration day that I experienced throughout my schooling experience. And I didn't know then that this little girl would be the person I shared every thought and experience with for the rest of my life.

I guess thats where the love at first site comes in, my heart knew this little person was special and that I needed to store that memory away in a safe place so it wouldn't ever get lost.

Shortly after school started, it could have been the first day, I'm not sure, we had a rendezvous on the top of the jungle gym, which became 'our spot' and we decided or rather I decided (I was a bit of a pushy thing) that I liked this JessiCA and we should be friends. She complied.

And now as a forever side affect I can't pass a set of Mickey Ears without smiling.

Littler Nerds - I think about 7 or 8

Big Nerds - Day before my wedding in Aus, age 22

The ranting post that everyone hates including me

2013-03-05T20:18:00.000+10:00

So I am feeling ridiculously unmotivated when it comes to writing as of late.

I think of incredible things to write about on my walks with Dougsie and then by the time I get home I remember the washing I forgot to put out or the fact that I haven't finished the 2nd season of Shameless, both equally important.

When I do feel motivated to be creative I usually spend that time making something that I can actually use, unlike words on a page (or webpage) which just sit there in cyberspace not really adding or taking away from my creative library.

I used to love to write, I would sit for hours thinking up little poems or funny stories that I just had to document because of course they were pure brilliance! Or so I thought.

I soon arrived at college all excited about where my new found joy in writing would take me. I had high hopes of becoming a journalist and reporting on the war on terror. (which I might add, I do not know how we can wage war on terror, it isn't a person) And after a few months there I wanted to write for a international aid agency, reporting on all the outstanding progress they were making overseas.

However after about one semester I realised I wasn't the writer I thought I was. I even struggled in poetry class which as I said before, I thought I was brilliant at.

Amidst all of that realisation and then devastation I did find something that clicked for me. It was the one class I actually enjoyed, actually responded to.

Funny enough I can't remember what it was called, but it was learning how to write literary non-fiction. For those that don't know literary non-fiction is literature that is about true events but you get to describe those true events in a very flowery and graphic way. Not poetic license but you definitely get to let your senses do the leading.

I loved it. Did I pursue it? No.

I quickly realised more often than not if your dreams don't make you money they can be very hard to follow, mostly because you won't eat. I applaud those that laugh at common sense and do it anyway, we can thank those looneys for all the artistic contributions in this world.

There really isn't a point to this particular rant, just wanted to share my frustration for my lack of motivation in writing. I want to enjoy it again and seek it out instead of looking at it like something I 'Should' do.

Maybe the whole idea is to 'make' myself do it and eventually it will be a joyful habit.

If so, here's to making this annoying rant the first of many. Sorry to those that actually read this blog, this is the beginning of a lot of nonsense.

Douges acting out my creative laziness.

Dougies Dance with Death

2012-11-20T10:39:00.000+10:00

Well it has been quite a while since I have written anything here. Much to my dismay but as life is slowly getting into a routine and Josh and I are now the only two humans living in our house, I am finding time for all of my much neglected projects.

However an abundance of time is not the reason I was compelled to write.

Yesterday while Josh, Douges and I were visiting the farm where my parents are staying while visiting Australia we all went on a lovely walk around the property.

During this walk our little explorer gave a flying leap into the big pond at the base of the property. He does this every time he goes by it so we all thought little of it. However, Dougie hates water in his ears, I mean hates!

He loves water however, so he refuses to get out and instead starts violently shaking his head while in the water which subsequently causes even more water to slip down his big floppy ears. Normally this is comical to watch.

As I was laughing at his sillyness I realised he was beginning to panic, his head started shaking more and more dramatically as he tried, in vain, to shake the water from his ears. And then he started that typical splashing that we all do, human or K9, when we are distressed in water.

By this time we are all yelling and whistling to try and snap him out of his panic. And then his head went under…

That is when I lost it, mind you I didn't go diving into the slimy pond right away but my heart jumped into my throat and I had to force my feet to stay on the ground and not panic. I knew jumping in to save him right away would probably be bad for both of us as I am not a strong swimmer and he has claws the size of Texas that would very easily scratch me to death as he tried to get to safety.

Then I noticed Josh and Dad at the waters edge preparing to save Dougie if he didn't come up. Of course he resurfaced and then finally snapped out of it and whatever evil pond creature had curled around his leg had released him. I know his short little life flashed before his eyes, needless to say he stayed close the rest of the day, soaking up the affection and concern of his humanoids.

I know this seems like a complete over reaction to a silly little "almost drowning" experience, but I think God has sent this dog to us to prepare us for kids.

Yes we may not have to wipe his bum, but we do pretty much everything else for this dog. We constantly try to manage his insecurities and reassure him that he is safe and loved. We try to balance fun time with learning time. We try to be fair and consistent so it is not confusing for him. I know he is just a dog (not that he knows that) but this pup has seriously changed our lives over the last year and half and I know God put him in our path for not only his happiness but our growth.

Happy almost birthday Dougie! Please don't jump into ponds and try to kill yourself again. Maybe it was a cry for help.

The below link is a weird thing I found on preparing for the type of situation we were in yesterday. Useful info for dog owners.

Rescuing a Dog from Drowning

DIY PillowCase Lamp

2012-05-10T10:47:00.000+10:00

I'm annoyed that I didn't take more photos of this project as I went along but there was a movie on while I was doing it so I was a bit distracted.

Anyway it isn't rocket science so you should be fine. I got the inspiration for this idea from Tater Tots & Jello but she cheated because she used pre-ruffled fabric. Just saying.

So in order to do a project such as this you will need:

Lamp

Scissors (preferably fabric)

Glue Gun

Pillowcase (preferably with a ruffle trim, it makes it easier) or some other fabric

Start by cutting your chosen fabric into inch wide strips, make sure your fabric piece is long enough to wrap all the way around your lamp. I was only using a little lamp shade so I didn't have to worry too much about this. You can vary the width of your strips depending on what type of look you want, I wanted a textured look so I made mine fairly close together when I applied them.

My $10 lamp from Kmart. I'm sure you can find one at an op shop (thrift store).

A pillowcase my boss was throwing out.

Next you can start hot glueing your pieces of fabric around the lamp starting at the top and working your way down. Be sure to keep the strips taught as you go around if you want a "Mummy" type look. I wanted mine to be flat but if you want more of a "ruffled" effect just don't be so pedantic about applying it smoothly. While applying the strips you can go perfectly across and make straight lines or you can be a little messy and make them go up and down a bit, I chose the latter. J suggested I make them straight and even, but the lamp is on my side of the bed.

Once you are finished wrapping your "mummy" strips around the lamp you need to cap off the top and bottom to give it a finished and neat look. I used a nice even piece from my strips for the top and just hot glued it over the top of the other strips.

For the bottom I used the left over ruffle pieces from the pillowcase. I hot glued it on as a whole piece (wish I had photos) and then trimmed it down so it just barely hung past the edge of the lamp. J liked it with the long granny ruffle but I didn't because it looked like a jellyfish, apparently that is what he found appealing about it.

The ruffled edge from the pillowcase that I just cut down.
I made it uneven because I like the roughness.

I love it lit up, it looks so much more textured.
I had to use my phone for this photo so it isn't the best image. Sorry.

Adds some nice colour to my bedside table
(an old box that I covered with a vintage tea towel (kitchen towel) from J's mom's house.

I am currently trying to find a pretty ribbon to tie around it to just finish it off. But for now I am happy with my funky little lamp. I think it adds some much needed colour to our bedroom.

Free couch

2012-05-06T09:17:00.000+10:00

J and I saw this little beauty on the way home from church yesterday. With a big old FREE GIVEAWAY sign next to it. I wish I had got a before shot but pretty much it just needed a good clean and it was like new! We now have a beautiful music room couch. Isn't God awesome? :)

Can't wait to decorate this little room :)

Douges and Trip can't figure out why they aren't allowed
to lay on this couch. (it isn't leather)

Brenner Birthday Bash

2012-05-01T08:59:00.000+10:00

Yesterday J and I went down the coast to visit the fat one (our niece) and her parents for her mum's birthday! We went to the Max Brenner there in BroadBeach I believe it was, anyway here is a map to it.

View Larger Map

For those of you who don't know and honestly I don't know how you can't know what Max Brenner is, it is a Chocolate Bar. I remember my first encounter with 'The BaldMan,' it was during my first year at Avondale College and I was out late with my sister (a chocolate Lover) and her friends.

The Bald Man himself, I always pictured him black...
for some reason.

One of them suggested we go to Max Brenner, and during the thirty minute drive to the place I got a complete review of how incredibly amazing this place was. To be honest I did love the atmosphere and the look and the chocolate of the place, but it was over crowded and expensive. Since then I have been back when I wasn't on a college budget and I enjoyed it quite a bit more, but it is still expensive.

Yesterday half of us ordered the Babka. I think that is what it was called, anyway it is essentially a tower cinnamon roll, just replace the cinnamon with chocolate and ad a little shot of dipping chocolate on the side. It is really quite delicious.

The Babka

I had the Mocha, which was very nice, very very sweet but very nice. And the birthday girl got a white chocolate Chai Tea, and she seemed to enjoy it.

Needless to say we were all on a chocolate high. Even little Faddi, she is pulling her chocolate face below.

Half the fun of Max Brenner are the funky cups and mugs they have made special for their store. One of which is called the "Hug Mug" It just goes to show a few simple details can take a store a long way.

All in all this is one of the best Max Brenner's I have been to, the service is quick, which is rare for a MB, the it is not over crowded and has a lovely outside seating area. If you are looking for a special afternoon delight, this is the place to go. And they even have a few things on the menu for non-choclate lovers. J's favourite is the 'Pink Granita' (passionfruit and strawberry smoothie) even though he says it is a girlie drink.

Of all the Max Brenner's I have been to I recommend this one.

Douges's Cousin

2012-04-29T11:18:00.004+10:00

The last couple of months J, Douges and I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his cousin Trip. She will be semi-permanently visiting us for the next 6 months or so.

Douges nervously waiting for his new best friend.
Even got on his favourite scarf.

Trip is a sweetie but like most dogs she is not used to the amount of love Douges has to offer, and the amount of love he forces her to accept.

She arrived last night and although she is still telling him off when he gets to close, Douges has not given up and is taking her assaults as playing hard to get. It is cute to watch.

The below photo pretty much sums up their current relationship....Trip looking away and trying to ignore Douges and him desperately trying to catch her eye. I think Douges would like them to be kissing cousins, little creep.

This sums up their relationship so far.

My First Park Review

2012-04-27T14:15:00.003+10:00

I know I have been saying that I would start writing more.....we all know how that has been going. So I have decided to start giving my silly opinion on things instead. And then when I have time, I will write for the sake of creativity.

So here is my first go at a review. I plan to make a regular occurrence of reviewing parks for Big Dogs.

Alexander Clark Park

View Larger Map

This park is a bit of a cop out for my first review because J and I go there quite regularly with Douges, but that being said I would say I am an expert on it's facilities.

Although, when I went to take pictures today I discovered some new additions to this parks awesomeness. It also has a beautiful walking path that runs along the Western edge of the park, along the river (I pulled out my iphone compass for this one so I am sure it is that Western edge)

This pretty little path wraps around to the far end of the park.

I counted four little gates that lead down to the water. Very safe for the kids.

Segregation.

Alexander Clark Park is near our house and quite conveniently has the largest dog park area we have visited with Douges. There are two parks, one for the little fellas and one for the big fellas. The larger park has quite developed obstacle courses for those smarter pooches. Douges....not so much, although he does enjoy running up the doggy ramp and standing on top as if he is the king of the park.

This is one of Dougies favourites, really it's the only thing he 'uses' there.

Obstacle course for the smarter breeds.

The grass is well maintained here and there is a lovely shaded area for owners, although we always find it a bit unfair that the "little" dog park owners have a lovely gazebo to sit under, while we only have two benches, but beggers can't be choosers.

The 'small dog people' gezebo.

The main area for the big dog folks, there are
several more benches scattered around the area.

The beauty of this place is even when you strike out and come at a time of day when there are no big dog owners, there is almost ALWAYS a little dog to run up and down the length of the adjoining "little" dog park and give your big dog some exercise while they chase them.

Sometimes when this happens I feel it is a bit torturous for Dougie because he wants sooo badly to make friends with the little dog, but it wears him out none the less.

There is also a tidy rubbish bin for their dirty little deeds and they also have an ample supply of poo bags on the post next to it. We go there all the time and both the bin is kept clean and the bags are kept refilled.

The tidy bin on left and the bag pole on right.

The regulars here are all very sweet, we often find that with a dog as big as Douges some people get scared he will hurt their dog when it is a little smaller than Douges (and let's be honest, that is most dogs) but here they are all relaxed and don't mind a bit of rough play which makes it easier to relax on our part.

Outside of the dog park this place is gorgeous, the Logan River runs around the edge of the whole park and makes for a very whistful atmosphere. There are several different play areas for kids and tons of picnic tables for afternoon outings.

This playground is located at the end closest to the water.

This is a strange thing J and I often play on, but his legs are too long.

The main playground located closest to the entrance.

A look out along the Logan River path.

There are many old trees at this park, it is so beautiful. If
by some fluke there are no empty tables, you can always
throw a blanket down and have a picnic.

This is a very dog friendly park for big dogs and little dogs alike and even if we move someday we will always come back to visit. Check it out for yourself if you live in South Brisbane.

And if you're lucky you'll visit on the Beagle Club day, I will post a video of when Douges got to meet the Beagle Club, it was insane!

Douges with his new haltie. He's still not sure about it.

Lobster Back

2012-02-04T07:07:00.009+10:00

I am up at 6:30 am on a Saturday. . .

This may seem ridiculous because I have no reason to be up this early, we have no kids, Douges sleeps in, and we have no prior commitment to get up early and go hiking or something.

In order to answer the Why? question I have to go back a few days, it all started on Wednesday.

Josh and I decided. . . . actually hang on it started on Tuesday!

Alright so on Tuesday Josh and I went to work at the office, leaving adorable Dougsie all by himself for 8 hours. With nothing to do but think up ways to piss me off.

When we came home from work there was a Douges sized hole in our gate and one of our awesome neighbours had barricaded him back in. Now in his mild defence it had been raining for a week and when I say raining I mean hurricane weather, and no for any Australians reading this I am not exagerating, you guys are just used to disaster weather being the normal forecast, anyway the wood on the really old fence was completely saturated so the planks popped off like they were held on with sticky tape. Douges has gotten out before but this was a winner!

This is what we came home to the second time he broke out. Yes he did it more than once, I blame the rain. And his rebellious teens.

I later spoke with several of our neighbours one of which is an elderly woman and she told me he spent most of the day standing in the middle of our culdisac watching her weed her garden. Now I find that humorous, but apparently to some a 45 Kilo (roughly 100lbs) dog starring at you and drooling can be disheartening.

This is his grumpy lip face. This face is usually preceded by a drawn out sigh or low pitched or high depending on his mood whinging noise. This particular shot was taken from my bed where he likes to do his said noise and then stare at me and breath on my arm until I either notice him and tell him to get lost or invite him up. Needless to say I rarely tell him to get lost.

Anyway the reason I am telling you this is because it directly relates to what happened on Wednesday (by the way we boarded up the fence and put everything we could think of in front of that gate, the perimeter is secure . . . for now).

So of course all day the following Wednesday I was fretting and worrying that Douges would get out again and cause havoc to our neighbours, one of which I'm pretty sure thinks he is neglected (I am taking her baked goods this morning to let her know we're nice people that don't neglect our dog, I mean who do you know that bakes for fun that is a bad person right?). So I worried all day and then when I talked to Josh on my lunch I was worrying some more to him and as I do I was thinking ahead to the worries of the weekend. You see, Josh and I have a little BBQ get together we were going to on Saturday night, and Dougie especially loves to cause trouble at night time when he is left alone.

So even before I expressed that concern Josh suggested that we have the BBQ with our friends at our house instead of where it was going to be held because it would be easier for everyone, plus it would be our first "couple" hosted get together and there's the added bonus that Douges wouldn't be left alone. So of course I said YES!

Now here's where the story starts to tie together, because we were having people over to our house and because it had been raining non-stop the week before I decided I HAD to mow our ridiculously long grass on my day off on Thursday. Josh told me not to but I was of course determined. I spent all day weeding the flower beds, mowing, and I even left the catch on . . . oooo the catch, I have to share a story about the catch!

Douges making himself extremely helpful while I mow the entire yard!

I have only mowed our lawn about two times since we moved in because Josh is a good husband and generally tries to squelch my desire to do it cause it hurts my back. But I don't like him doing it on Sundays. Anyway I am not too familiar with it's mechanics, so when I go to put the catch on I just can't seem to get the little latch to hold it in place. No matter how hard I hit it onto the mower it just won't stay. I am just about to give up when I realise that I am putting it on completely wrong and all I had to do was lift the lip over the top of the mower so that it hooked on . . . sooo easy and I spent half an hour trying to figure it out. I even called Josh and he was like "Babe it's really easy I don't get what you could possibly be doing wrong." My first blonde moment for that day.

I spent five hours doing the outside work, taking my time to make the yard look great. About hour three I was starting to notice that I was beginning to get a little burned but I thought nothing of it because not even the Australian sun seems to get me too burned.

When Josh got home that night and I proudly met him and Aaron at the door to greet them with all my news of my awesome accomplishments I was met with two "OOO woah hahahahaha". Apparently I was a little bit more than sun kissed. Mind you I had been gardening in my bikini.

The Burn. Skin Cancer anyone?

This finally leads me to why I am up at 6:30am on a Sabbath morning. I have been tossing and turning all night from my itchy and burning skin and keeping Josh up and Douges even I think. And despite their patient understanding I have decided to get up instead of driving them crazy with my thrashing.

There are no pearls of wisdom to go along with this post other than maybe to wear sun screen, just me sharing my silliness with you. Here's to BBQing, in this case, my skin!

My extremely well done mowing job : ) I was proud even despite the sunburn.

The Rambo Syndrome

2011-12-23T10:53:00.000+10:00

This last Wednesday I was feeling very motivated. I wanted to ensure that on my husbands up and coming break from work we would have plenty of time to spend together instead of having to do yard work and house work.

So for the first time since we moved in beside that one time when Josh went to get a drink of water, I mowed the lawn all by myself. Despite my capability to change my own oil, fix general odds and ends around the house, mowing the lawn is the one thing Dad never taught/made me do, thus I have always shied way from the big grumbling machines in fear that I would break it. Or it would break me.

Anyhow that is not the point of this story, I just wanted to emphasize the fact of how much I don't like and don't know about lawn mowers. So I managed to mow all the lawns (in my bikini no less, so I got a fantastic tan) even though I had to turn off the mower every time I emptied the catch because I was afraid my hands would get pulled into that perpetually angry motor. Which come to find out it, is impossible to do because they make a safety guard or something, Josh explained this later.

Once I had finished my incredibly awesome lawn mowing job and I was feeling extremely accomplished, it had only taken me half the day (It takes Josh about an hour). I decided I shouldn't stop there, I should weed the over grown flower beds as well.

I got about half way through the flower bed when Aaron, my brother-in-law who lives with us, came home. He was impressed with my efforts for the day and after I was done gloating and being proud of myself I went back to weeding, while Aaron put the lawn mower away for me, because every time I tried to put it in the shed it would roll backwards on top of me.

As I reached down to get another weed, my back (still in my bikini) brushed against one of our little mini palm fronds, and there was instant pain.

This is the little fella who stung me I am presuming, because he is the little guardian.

They're busy rebuilding the nest.

Aren't they kind of cute. I wish I had got a photo of the nest before I destroyed it :(

You wouldn't even know they are there. The middle one is their home.

My brain immediately jumped the worst conclusions, perhaps a mini Australian snake I hadn't heard about had bitten me and I was about to die! or maybe it was one of the MANY poisonous spiders that could paralyze me in seconds. Of course as I was calmly thinking all of this through I was yelling and screaming at Aaron to check if it was one or two dots. ONE OR TWO DOTS AARON! I needed to know if I had merely been stung, because as far as I was aware there weren't any stinging insects that could kill me, but this is Australia after all.

So as my life flashed before my eyes Aaron assured me it was one mark and I informed him to take me to the hospital if I started acting loopie in the next hour.

As I walked back to where I had been weeding I began to investigate who the culprit must have been, a big Green Ant (that apparently only hurt me because I have American blood that isn't immune) or perhaps a bee, which definitely seem bigger in this country.

Then I saw it! A little wasp nest hanging down from the palm frond. They were these tiny little wasps that i had never seen before, all black and almost cute! There were some tending to the nest and some standing guard, there could have only been about 10 wasps in total.

Of course after seeing the little creatures and knowing they weren't going to hurt me again I decided to leave the alone, right? WRONG! I wanted revenge, I quickly called one of my muscles over (Aaron) to finish off the job. He used his sandal to swat the nest down. While the desperate wasps buzzed around in confused despair I justified my actions in my head by thinking, well I couldn't leave them there to sting Douges, that just wouldn't be right. Even though I'm pretty sure those bugs had been there a lot longer than Douges had.

Now here is the point of this rambling story, I went out to have a look at where the wasps nest was yesterday and to my surprise the little fellas were rebuilding their nest. This was their home and they wanted to stay there.

It got me thinking, that we are just like those little wasps. We stay in our own little world, we build, we stay close with those that are close to us, while others work silently beside us. Then the minute someone new tries to reach out and touch us we hurt them before they can hurt us. I'm sure that not everyone does this, but I know I do. I have tried (whether on purpose or not) to shut down people that are threatening to change my world before they even get a chance to say hello. And then by natural human reaction, just like us react like I did and want revenge for what you've done.

There are a million other metaphores I could have got from this like risilience and having faith that God will help you rebuild and blah....but I think this is what God wanted me to take away from my little wasp encounter. So as I itch the little welt on my back I remember that God can use anyone to disrupt our lives to get our attention and whether or not I try to sting them before they even get close out of fear or I welcome them with love is my choice.

Douges decided to do a photoshoot for you all while I was getting photos of the wasps.

Looking BAMF as usual.

He took some posh tips from Marley.

Ignore his Penis and this is a cute photo.

He got tired of me taking photos and tried to eat the camera.

Moooooom stop taking pictures, I'm shy.

I'm in love with these eyes :)

Snuffles

Bitter Beer Face

Happiness.

Out with the Officeworks in with the Awesomeness

2011-12-21T17:12:00.002+10:00

I kept promising my loved ones that I would continue to write (for fun) once I was done with Uni, then once I was done with Uni I promised I would start writing (for fun) once I found a inspiring career, then when I found an inspiring career we needed a little extra money so I started working at Officeworks and there went my time for fun writing.
So here I am, 10 months into marriage and I now have no excuses. With my nine to five jobs and supportive husband who helps me around the house, the excuses are gone.

One of my most favourite photos from our wedding :)

2011 has been nothing short of incredible for me and mine. It started with a trip to America for my incredible fiance to meet my parents, finally getting to see them not as blurry images via Skype but in person.

Good times with Pau.

Then after meeting the folks we all quickly filed into planes and made our way over to this big lovely island I now call home (Australia, for those of you who don't know).

Tigresses.

My best friend Jessica, was able to join us and Josh's best friend Dion made his way over from London. Why on earth we BOTH have our best friends living on different parts of the planet is beyond me.

Happy

Despite the fact that I still refuse to admit that I wanted a wedding, I have to admit that as weddings go it was a pretty fun occasion, obviously I was too excited to be getting married to the love of my life to notice if everyone was enjoying themselves but it looked like they did. (Thanks Jarred Martin for the awesome photo booth that kept everyone entertained)

Since then I have had three jobs, Officeworks, working at Lightning Brokers with Josh's family, and now working at Women's Network Australia.

This is what happens late at night on a VERY cold camping trip!

Officeworks lead me to meet some odd people, some angry people, and some incredibly lovely people. Despite the fact that that working there was obviously not living up to my communications degree that my parents sacrificed so much for, I truly believe that is where God wanted me. Considering working there is how i met my current boss, serving her at the register. She said "Honey, why the hell are you working at Officeworks?"

Douges First big trip in the truck.

I know God lead me there because of the people there, I prayed every day for opportunities to show Jesus love to those Nutty people and I think, not by my own efforts that is exactly what happened. When I left there was hugs and kisses, flowers and chocolate and so many "we will miss you"s.

So here I am now, about to embark upon a new year working a few days at the office with Josh and a few days at WNA (Women's network Australia).

This year I have started keeping a prayer journal and although I am not always on task with writing in it, it has drawn me closer to God in so many ways.

Looking back through it I can see how God has answered every prayer I have prayed not only this year but last year, I prayed he would save me from myself and by golly he has :)

One of the many things we acquired this year :)

But I find it ironic, when you have everything you want you finally realise you had the one thing you desire the most all along, and really the ONE thing we need. I love Josh, I love my Dougie, I love everything about my life, but I wouldn't enjoy any of those things without my Lord. And if you don't know what I am talking about then you haven't found IT yet :) But don't worry you will.

This year has been one of tears, adjusting, laughter, yelling, stomping, jumping, dancing, singing, did I say laughing?, biting (douges), baby taradactle voices (ask duncan), and illustrious Happiness.

If next year is half as good as this year I will be one lucky (blessed) girl.

Here's to keeping my first New Year's resolution: writing!

Happy New Year Everyone...

Basket Bits and the Bed Biter

2011-05-30T11:59:00.000+10:00

Douges has been such a gem lately that we decided he should stay in the laundry room while we were away at a dinner party on Saturday night.

Our bragging about what an amazing dog he is had definitely clouded our better judgment. We set up a potent cocktail for our furry friend with the following ingredients:

1. Fear of being alone
2. the dark
3. Mommys Laundry basket (that apparently tastes good)
4. our trust
5. and a giant puppy

Josh and I came home from the outing and walked into the house. Josh went to let Douges out and I hear "Baaabe...come here"
I walk around the corner and there are a million little blue plastic pieces scattered all around the laundry room door. Neither one of us wanted to open the door for fear of what laid on the other side.

We finally opened the door and there is Douges wagging his tail and stretching as he greets us....underneath him is a pile of blue bits of what used to be a laundry basket.

We immediately check the walls for damage and find that he has mostly just attacked the door handle, which is easy to replace.

We instantly get angry with him and he looks at us with confusion as to why were upset.

Douges spent the majority of the rest of the evening sitting at the back door looking at us with sad puppy dog eyes while Josh and I cleaned up his ridiculous mess.

While cleaning I even found blood everywhere from his ridiculous chewing frenzy. I hope it hurt him.

An interesting note, Douges didn't destroy any of HIS personal belongings, only mommy and daddy's belongings. The only thing he hurt of his own was he ripped the tag off his bed....which I have told him not to do on many occasions. I am guessing he decided he was already going to be in trouble so he might as well go for it all the way.

Anyway needless to say....Lesson learned. Douges is now always outside when we are not home and we are working on his abandonment issues.

Photos to come.

Douges Disaster One

2011-05-27T08:52:00.001+10:00

Well I said the reason I started this blog was to document all of Douges shenanigans, but frankly I didn't think I'd be able to post a story so soon.

Yesterday was Douges first day spending time alone. Aaron and I tied him up out the back (just in case, because apparently he had a history of running away, cause he was neglected) gave him kisses and said good bye. He was great the whole time Aaron was gone! When he came home Douges was waiting patiently for him. Success!!......or so we thought.

See there is something about Douges that we weren't aware of, our dog is afraid of the dark. We didn't know this was possible, maybe it's the night noises, we're not sure.

When Josh left for squash, he tied Douges up, even though he was only going to be gone an hour. When he got back he walked through the house excited to see his Dougie! As he got to the back he noticed that something was off with the back door screen, it had a giant hole in it.....hmm how could that happen if Douges was tied up....

Hole One

Hole Two

Douges feeling very remorseful.

He continued outside to find Douges walking up to him with his chain still attached as well as half of the patio chairs dragging behind him. In his panic he had managed to rip the chain off the, probably too old hook in the fence, and tangle up the chairs, they were his new sled. Maybe we should take him to Alaska!

Anyway needless to say Douges was very relieved to see Josh and they picked me up later, and Josh shared his story, all things considered it was a good first disaster, the screen will be cheap and easy to fix the only bad thing was that Josh didn't get a photo of him and his chair sled.

Now the little ratbag is laying on my arm snoring as I type this, we may work on the fear of the dark thing tonight :)

Yeah veeery remorseful.

JK-47

Douges Missing his Dad

2011-05-26T12:34:00.000+10:00

Douges Misses his Dad very much. He grunted at the door and paced the living room looking for him for a good fifteen minutes after Joshua left. Someone loves his owner :D

Becoming a Barton

2011-05-26T08:41:00.000+10:00

I think it is fitting that our Douges (prounced Doooges) came to us on this day of all days. You see yesterday was State of Origin, for those of you who don't know this is a very important day to all Queenslanders and New South Wales residents. It is when their NRL all stars go head to head in a game that only two of the Australian states get to be a part of. I'm assuming the rest of the states don't get to play because they don't like NRL (rugby league) but either way it baffles me a bit that two states can have tons of teams with players from both states playing for their rival state the majority of the year and then once a year for three games they both drop everything, return to their own sides of the border and have it out. It is definitely the equivalent to the super bowl in this part of the world.

Anyway the reason I even bring this up is because when Josh went to pick up our Dougie he just happened to pick the middle name Lockyer (Queenslands ultimate NRL player who retires this year) for him.

So his official name is Douges Lockyer Barton. You may be wondering where his first name came from, well that one was an easy pick for Josh and I...as we were driving home from our first encounter with Douges at the RSPCA, when we fell in love with him, we started picking out names even though we both knew the chances of us being able to get him (we're renting) were very slim.
I like to name animals after their personality and Douges is very lets just say, chill. So we started naming wild animals that could represent this image, we started with wombat, whale, hippo, rhino, tiger (that was Josh's), lion, and the list went on and on, eventually we got stuck in the water creature category and Josh said Doogon (spelling), a Doogon is basically a manitee only I think it looks a little plumpier.

And instantly I said DOUGES! and we didn't suggest one more name after that, it was the one.

When Josh went to pick up Douges from the Noosa RSPCA (if any one is looking to rescue a pet, check this place out they are really sweet and put up with our constant calls about how he was doing with his Kennel Cough), Douges knew immediately something exciting was happening. He did really well on the ride home, no sickness, no whinging, other than sooking to Josh every once in a while for a pat.

Mean while I was sitting at home trying to work and being completely distracted with anticipation, would he be a ratbag? would he love me right from the start? would be be too big to handle?

My worries quickly dissipated when a big floppy eared dog came lumbering toward me.

Douges and I had a great night to ourselves laying on the couch together (the boys went to the game, which I did not mind at all), and although I think he likes Josh better because of the whole alfa male thing, I know he has an extra soft spot for me. But he is currently curled up with Aaron in his bed so we will see who wins the affection race.

I am the one that feeds him :)

I'm hoping this blog will eventually be filled with all the funny shenanigans that Douges gets up to, and document our journey with him. This is the beginning of a new adventure for us and we are all excited.

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JK-47