A Bolt Update

Thursday, April 20, 2017


I realized the other day that I did a post about Bolt back when we first got him, but haven't done one since :(  I'm a bad doggy mommy!

When we picked Bolt up, he was 1 year and 2 weeks old.  Now he is 1 year and 8 months old.  I can't believe he's been in our lives for 8 months, but I also can't imagine life without this guy.    Since we've had Bolt for 8 months, and because I love nothing better than a good list, here are 8 things about our little guy.


1.  Bolt LOVES the snow.  It's the cutest thing ever!  He goes outside and hops through the snow and eats it and shoves his head into it, and just has a ball!  He probably would have spent hours playing at the dog park if I would have let him.  He would also go into our back yard and just lay down in the snow for as long as I'd let him. 

2.  When we adopted him all we were told is that he's a shepherd mix.  He's definitely too small and his hair is a bit short for him to be German Shepherd.  After doing some research we think he is Australian Shepherd.  I tried to get a close up of his muzzle but it's not going to happen, but if I were able to you'd be able to see the markings that are characteristic of Australian Shepherds.  We also believe he has some Husky in him.  His hair is much thicker and longer than it looks in pictures, and he talks.  We all know the videos of the huskies "talking back" to their parents.  I was watching one of these one day and Bolt started doing the same thing!  He also does it when he wants attention.  We're planning to eventually get one of those DNA tests done on him to see if we're right, mostly because we're curious. 

3.  Bolt LOVES other dogs.  He cries if he can't get to them, and he practically rips my arm off if he see's them when we're out walking.  The dog park is his favorite place and he makes friends with just about every dog.   We even picked a new boarding place that would allow him to play with the doggy day care dogs instead of going out by himself.   His best friends name is Buddy and we're super sad that buddy is leaving soon.


4.  He is a super picky eater!  Any other dog that I've ever had would basically inhale their food as soon as it was in their bowl, and would eat whatever food dropped on the floor.  Not this guy!  He wont eat his breakfast without an egg and eats his dinner when he feels like it.   I've tried feeding him foods I know are OK for dogs, such as carrots and apples, and he wont eat them.  He'll eat a banana if I mix it with PB and put it in his Kong but wont eat it plain.  He does love his pigskin rolls and dentastix, so that's something.   I've never in my life met such a picky dog.  I even asked the vet if his teeth were OK because he doesn't seem to like dry food too much, but his teeth are fine.

5.  His favorite game is "chase".  We can literally run around the kitchen table for 20 minutes and he is super happy about it.  I, on the other hand, end up getting dizzy and end the game.  He will then come over with whatever toy he had and sit in front of me and stare until I decide to play again.  His second favorite game is "tug-tug", which usually turns into "chase" after a while.

6.  He is super high energy!  We go on two walks per day (or trips to the dog park) and play chase several times per day, as well as working on his training ... and he still has energy after all of that!  My friend always sends pictures of Buddy passed out after him and Bolt have a play date, but Bolt still wants to play.  I call him my little energizer bunny!


7.  He is a cuddle bug - so much so that my nickname for him is Bug.  He loves to be scratched in his "arm pits", and then turn around and literally sit in my lap, then he'll lay down across me and cuddle.   He also likes to cuddle up in my bed with the covers.  He always arranges them in a certain way and it's so cute.   If you are on the ground or in the bed, that boy is cuddling with you whether you like it or not.

8.  He is a super smart boy.  He catches on to commands in no time and definitely outsmarts me sometimes.  He's doing really well with his new training program and catches on to everything really quickly ... we're still working on pulling when we're on walks, but hopefully he catches on to that soon, too.


One Month Down

Tuesday, April 18, 2017


I sort of disappeared from this blog for a bit.  I really needed a break and I really needed some time to sort out some things going on in my life.  During this time, I missed the one month mark of this deployment, so....

1 month down, who knows how many more to go.  When Josh left for basic, it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did.  This time it's not so much that things are going wrong like that, as much as in my head.

We had another snow storm right after Josh left.  If you recall, we had a huge snowstorm in MD right after he left for basic, so I guess this is the norm for us.  This storm was pretty bad.  We got a few feet and I had to call out of work one of the days, which was not ideal.   Bolt loved it though, so I guess that's something.

I started a new job right before he left, and I hate it with a firey burning passion.  The only reason I'm keeping it is because it looks good on my resume.  I did have them take me down to part time so I can get more hours at Fridays.  Friday's my not be ideal but I love the people I work with and I am actually busy while I'm there.  I also love all of my managers at Friday's, which isn't something that happens often.   This has also been a good move financially which is something I'll write about in my next Debt Free update.

I went home at the end of March for a few reasons, but mainly because my friends from Arizona came to town with their little one, who I had yet to meet.   It turned in to one of the busiest weekends ever, but it was just what I needed to get out of the funk I'd been in all month.

It started out a bit rough.  First, I left my debit card at work and had to stop by there on the way to board Bolt, which took us a bit out of our way.  Next, I was trying out a new boarding place for Bolt because this place allows the boarding dogs to go out all day with the doggy day care dogs.   Bolt loves other dogs and is super high energy so this was perfect.  He had a great time and we'll definitely be back.  However, I had to take Josh's car down to MD for an inspection, and for some reason his car tends to make Bolt sick.  The boarding place is about an hour south of my house so I was a bit worried and brought an old blanket to put over the seat and down onto the floor just in case.  We were literally less than half a mile from the place when he threw up.  But did he throw up on the blanket I brought?  Nope, he leaned over to my side and threw up all down the side panel in about the hardest spot for me to reach.   The lady at the boarding place gave me some paper towels and it took me about 30 mins in the rain to clean it up.  I ended up moving the blanket over to my side just in case I missed something; I didn't want to be touching it.

The drive down and the rest of the trip went great!  As I got farther and farther south the weather cleared up and warmed up!  I was able to put the windows down and open the sun roof!  Saturday night, I had dinner at Chili's with my two favorite co-workers from my old job and spent the entire time in tears laughing!  I miss those girls!  Sunday was my busy day!  I woke up and headed to my friend Vicky's house where all of my friends were gathering to hang out with our Arizona friends.  It was so great catching up with everyone and meeting two of the little ones for the first time.  We also managed to get a great group photo!  My friend Kristin, who was visiting, recently started selling LuLaRoe and brought some of her stuff with her.  I said I'd never buy any of that stuff just because it's way over priced .... yeah, I totally walked out of there with a super comfy and super soft classic-t.  After getting my LLR lesson, I headed straight for Glen Burnie to David's Bridal.  My friend Laurie is getting married in September and I was really sad that I would be missing a lot of stuff due to living so far, but when she heard I'd be in town, she made her dress appointment around that!   I'm so happy I was able to be a part of that!  Laurie and I grew up together and she was in my wedding, and I'm so happy to be in hers.  


After the dress picking, I headed back to my Mom's for spaghetti dinner since I felt like I'd hardly seen her even though I was staying at her house.  After dinner I headed back out again!  I had gone to my Dad's house the night before but he was headed to a meeting.   He told me he was going to my Granny's house at 8 on Sunday after his Sunday meeting and that I should go and surprise her.  Surprising my Granny was great!  And an unexpected bonus to this trip as I wasn't expecting to see her at all.   We all talked for a few hours before heading out since my Dad and I both had early mornings.

Monday morning, I left when my Mom left for work, got Josh's car inspected and headed straight back up to NY.  Unfortunately I had to find something to do before picking Bolt up because I couldn't get him until 330 and I made it back up fairly quickly and would have gotten to the boarding place at 2.  I ended up finding a McDonalds and getting some reading done.   Bolt and I made it home around dinner time and spent the night chilling and watching Hawaii Five-0

Our financial situation totally sucked this month, but I'll go into that more in my financial update that in my next Debt Free post.  It was a huge stresser for me this month, though.  I am happy to say that it's definitely improved since then!

I really struggled mentally this month.  It wasn't really about Josh being gone, but him being gone and not really having anyone to talk to didn't help.  My new job was a big part of it and struggling to feel productive was a big part of it.  I think there was also a bit of seasonal depression mixed it with it.  March was cold and rainy, and there was no sign of spring at all, which really had me down.

I'm happy to say that April has been a lot better and I'm glad we're almost another month down on this deployment.  I can't wait to have my husband home!

Book Reviews: March

Tuesday, April 11, 2017


Once again, this was not a good month for reading :(


I really wanted to like this book.   At first I did like it, the fact that Fort Drum was prominently featured made it a bit more relateable for me.  I also like that she didn't gloss over some of the harder parts of being a military spouse.  However, as I read more I felt like I was reading less of the wives stories and more statistics.  I also felt like she spent half the book insulting the military.  I started skimming through a lot of it about 60% in.  This book just wasn't for me.

I gave this book a 2/5 on my GoodReads.


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