My Dogs Are Not Invited to my Wedding

So, if you know just one thing about me, it's that I'm pretty much obsessed with my dogs. You also know that I think Winnie is damn near perfect and Annabelle's soul purpose in life is to cause trouble wherever she goes.  Needless to say the first comments we got after announcing our engagement was whether or not the dogs were going to be in the wedding. Specifically we were asked if Annabelle would be the flower girl and if Winnie would be the ring bearer. 

No. Just, no. (Although I must admit they both look pretty awesome in clothes)

Reason #1? Annabelle would eat the cake. And probably run away. 

Reason #2? Winnie would put her tennis ball in everyone's lap. Gross. 

I should probably be honest here and say that if I wasn't going to be wearing a white dress and if I really had my way, Winnie would totally be invited. But I'll be wearing white. She's not compatible with white clothing. Black hair + tennis ball dirt + slobber = Disaster.

We have decided that instead of having our dogs ruin be involved in our wedding, we will try to incorporate them into our Save the Date cards. You know, once we actually have a date and all. I hear that's pretty important to establish first. 

Anyway, I had some ideas about how I wanted to have them involved... mainly that I want the card to be a picture of them rather than of us. I don't want my face on someone else's fridge. No way. So obviously I consulted Dr. Google to see what others have done. 

Here's some examples of ones I like:

This one is my absolute fave. Only we would have to have either one dog on each side, or both in the middle. How we'll get them to sit there I have no idea. Someone will just have to hold a ball in front of Winnie. She'll sit like a statue for days. Annabelle? Gah, I have no idea. Cooperating isn't really on her agenda so we'll see...

via

This one might be easier to accomplish. Only, I don't want the boots there. Just a cute sign in between them. 

via

This one is also super cute and potentially doable. The signs are from etsy - I love them. 

via

So, there ya have it. My dogs are mostly terrible creatures who will absolutely not be invited to my wedding but I'm still totally obsessed with them and will involve them in some way. I mean, to be honest, so much of our time is spent yelling at playing with them that it seems only fair they get to play a role ;)

Head on over to the Tall Tails link up to see other people who are obsessed with their pets!

This Weekend I Learned...

1. I am far too old/lame to stay up until 5am. In my defense I was in bed at 2:30am, but as per usual I was the first (and only) person in the house to go to bed. We had some people over and they were up until 5. Which meant Annabelle was in & out of bed until 5. And I was up until 5... with a few cat naps in between. And I paid for it dearly on Saturday when I slept til noon, dragged myself downstairs for water & food and promptly went back to bed until almost 5. Eesh. College me would be SO disappointed. 

2. I also learned that when you're the first person to fall asleep on the couch (which is always, always me) Annabelle will join you. This is good because then you can pretend you're not the loser on the couch by yourself, you're just sitting there cuddling the dog. This is bad because despite being a terrible dog, she's a champion snuggler and you have no chance of staying awake once she snuggles up next to you. (also, spell check says snuggler is not a word... I disagree).

3. Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce. Mix some of this bad boy with some nonfat plain greek yogurt and grab yourself a bag of Fritos scoops. Your life will be changed. Someone who came over Friday night made this and we've made multiple batches since. I can't stop eating it. There's some in the fridge right now and we may have gone to the store to buy more chips tonight. Plus, the dip itself isn't bad for you... and if you eat it with something healthier than Fritos I suppose it would be almost good for you. At least the greek yogurt part ;)

4. I can't stay on task when in World Market. We went in so James could grab some coffee for his coworkers. I got distracted within 0.5 seconds of walking in the door and ended up wandering around the picture frame section. And maybe I bought one. But I need to bring it back & exchange it for a bigger one so it doesn't really count (that's how that works, right?). Luckily I didn't see the giant clearance jewelry section until we were leaving. But I do need to go back to exchange that frame...

I Hate People Who Put Their Dogs in Clothes...

Don't You?!?

Well, OK, I do. But my dogs may have worn an outfit a time or two. Mainly Annabelle. It's possible she has a vast wardrobe complete with outfits for nearly every holiday. In my defense (is there any defending oneself in this situation?!?) I didn't buy most of them myself - they were gifts. You see, despite how incredibly terrible Annabelle is, she seems to have gathered quite the fan club and as a result has received plenty of outfits as gifts. And sometimes when I get lost in Target I just might end up browsing dog clothes. It's a possibility.

And in case you think Winnie managed to escape all the torture...

So there ya go, don't judge me too harshly. Although you gotta admit - it's pretty entertaining :)

Head on over to the Tall Tails link up to see some cute pets who probably aren't wearing clothes. (but i'm sure they totally wish they were...)

Tall Tails!!

You guys, I am SO excited for the new Tall Tails link up with Adriana and Katie. I mean seriously, like I needed even more of an excuse to ramble on about my dogs. 

I have two dogs. Winnie and Annabelle. Winnie's the good one and Annabelle... well she keeps life interesting I guess you could say. I already talked about Winnie when I proclaimed last Wednesday Winnie Wednesday. If you want to read about the most perfect dog ever, go check that out. She's kinda dumb, but super lovable and always tries to do her best to be a good girl. Today's post will be dedicated to Annabelle. A former pharmaceutical research dog who wiggled her way into our lives and has kept us on our toes ever since!

Yeah, that's right, she's wearing a princess dress.

Remember how I just described Winnie up there? Well Annabelle is the complete opposite. She's ridiculously smart, is generally just annoyed by everything, and does only what she wants when she wants. Everyone who sees pictures of her thinks she's just the cutest, sweetest thing they've ever seen.

Who, me?

I'll admit, she's certainly got cuteness on her side. But don't for a second confuse cute with innocent. Cute she is. Innocent she is not. If she's not snoring away on the couch or the bed then there's a 95% chance she's getting into trouble somewhere. The other 5% just means she's looking for something bad to do but hasn't found it yet.

It was already open, I just found it like this. I swear.

Main offense #1 - the fridge. Yes, she can and will open the refrigerator and help herself to a little snack. All 12 pounds of her will climb right on in there until she finds something to her liking. Major damage so far? 1 pack of hamburger buns. 48 ounces of chocolate in 24 hours. An entire loaf of banana bread including the bottom of the foil pan. So much dog food that she could barely breathe. Literally. Oh, and once she ran away and apparently ate out of a dumpster for ~8 hours. When we made her vomit she weighed 3 pounds less afterwards! 3 pounds! When you only weight 12 pounds that's impressive!**

This is what it's like to eat dinner with Annabelle around.

Food isn't her only vice. You need to watch your drinks, too. She's quite the boozehound. She loves cheering on the Tarheels with us, but I think it's mainly because she likes wearing her jersey and trying to steal our drinks. James says she's like a sorority girl - she'll flirt with you & kiss you, but she's really just hoping for a free drink.

Yeah, we put our dog in a 12 pack. Don't judge us, PETA.

We don't take Annabelle many places, she's not really a fan of most things. We did try taking her to the beach once. And only once. 

I'm sure you can tell by her face how much she loved it. She's more of a homebody really. It's better that way. For everyone.

She is also remarkably talented at injuring herself. This one particular incident we were all upstairs and heard that lovely beagle scream coming from downstairs. We ran down to find bloody little paw prints all over the floor and one of her toenails hanging halfway off. No clue how she did it. Good thing I can provide a little at home vet care.

I have to say though, despite all her faults, she is the world's BEST snuggler. I mean, this dog can curl up and nap with you like no other. And she's more than happy to snuggle up to you allll day long. Great when you're sick, bad when you need to be productive and get things done. 

Want to read about more cute dogs?!? If your answer is yes (which it should be!) then head on over to the Tall Tails link up and check out some other dog-centric posts!

**I work in veterinary medicine so no need to warn me about the dangers of dogs eating everything under the sun including chocolate. I already know all about it and Annabelle is treated appropriately each and every time.**

Mid-Week Recap

Playing Catch Up...

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend! Winnie and I were busy farm sitting all weekend and then I worked until just after midnight on Monday and the 'normal' work week started yesterday so, once again, sleeping has been my #1 priority recently instead of blogging. Thankfully I'm headed into work a little later this morning so I've had some time to catch up on reading and decided to share some of my favorite sweet moments from this weekend since I don't have a recipe ready to share quite yet.

There were 6 horses, 14 baby chickens (so cute!) & 3 dogs at the farm. This little chicken actually loved to be held and every time you put her down she'd hop right back over. It was the sweetest thing. Winnie had the best time running around like a food all over the property and swimming in the pond. Oh, and of course eating horse poop. That was probably her favorite part of all. Disgusting.

This is how we both felt at the end of the weekend. Tired but happy. It was perfect weather to spend time outside.

And here's how Annabelle spent her weekend. Lounging in the sun on the deck and taking long naps because her life is just that exhausting.

So, there ya have it. Way more pictures of my dogs than anyone really ever needs to see. But they're cute & sweet and who doesn't need a little cuteness in the middle of the week? 

New recipe coming soon - a healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookie!