A little of this...A little of that...

Saturday, October 28, 2017

I love our new refrigerator art from the grandgirls in Maryland & Delaware!
Thank you, Olivia and Waverly!


Stu's new sign he wanted.
Thank you to our good friend, Pauline, for showing us the one she bought.
She got a steal, we paid full price. LOL


The #2doods tried out their backseat hammock in the pickup.
It worked out well and they had a great day at doggy daycare (who had adorable decorations out).



And last but not least, here are a couple of photos of Cooper in his natural sleeping position(s). LOL!




Oops, can't leave out Murphy...

Yes, they are very different. Both are smart but in different ways, and of course, Cooper is at the rebellious teen stage right now. Their looks are similar from when Cooper was this age but their coasts are quite different now. Cooper is definitely 3/4 Poodle with curly hair and no shedding. Murphy is half Collie and has a double coat of fur. We use a slicker brush on both and just added an undercoat rake for Murphy. Murphy has more almond-shaped eyes and a thinner nose, whereas Cooper has round eyes and wider snout. Murphy is calmer and more well behaved in general, Cooper is a total wild card. We love them both and get so much enjoyment out of watching them together.

Ciao for now!

A little more furry fun....

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

When we first got Cooper, I joined Chewy.com and set up an account. They asked for a photo of Cooper and I willingly sent one. I had heard that some customers got portraits of their pups. Several months later, that's what we got in the mail. We loved it!


Fast forward to adding Murphy and I wanted a little portrait of him as well. Because there was no way to add another pet to our account, I went searching to see what I could find. Thank you, Google! I found a gal who does some of the painting for Chewy and I sent her an email to ask about getting one of Murphy. She quickly responded to my email and now we have....Murphy!

Contact Lauren for custom paintings

To add to the paintings, I found this fun sign on Etsy. Now to find the perfect wall to display them all.


They still get along wonderfully, they love playing and their favorite game is ZOOMIES! Murphy is smart, he knows how to wait for Cooper to race around the table and Murphy waits. Murphy has also learned to grab Cooper's tail to slow him down. Too funny to watch.

Here's a photo from the other evening...the only way to tell there are two dogs are seeing their collars!



Here is what greets us when we are in our bedroom...often Cooper's nose is stuffed in the gate. LOL!



Ciao for now!

Fantastic couple of days!

Monday, October 23, 2017

We've been busy the last couple of days. Last weekend I escorted some friends out to our property to stay for a few days. We met them years ago but hadn't run into them again. They got wind of our property for sale and after a fair amount of research wanted to see it and visit the area.

Stu got home on Tuesday, we got caught up on things on Wednesday (like laundry...LOL). Thursday, Stu took some folks from PA out to see the property and he got to meet and chat with the first folks. When done, he visited with our neighbors.

Thursday afternoon we had our friends over for a late lunch/early dinner. A simple meal, burgers - potato salad - chips. They brought several bottles of wine. One from their home area as a gift, and several others from local wineries they had visited this week. While we are more beer people, they managed to find some we both liked. By the time the evening was done, three bottles of wine were done as well.

Friday morning Murphy went to his second vet appointment. He had gained weight to 25.5# - WOW! He now weighs more than Cooper did at the same age. But he is definitely finer boned and has the more almond eyes of the Collie as well as the longer nose. Cooper wins in paw size with his bear paws.

We had made plans to meet our friends that afternoon to visit the local Mennonite community, Muddy Pond, just down the street from us. What a great afternoon. We visited several stores, bought a few things (some delicious cinnamon raisin bread that became French Toast this morning, cinnamon buns that were yummy and a sweet pepper relish that is very reminiscent of my grandmother's picalilli relish from growing up in New England). We had a wonderful lunch at The Country Porch. Here are a few photos - there are more in our SmugMug album.

These two signs welcomed up on our first stop at the Muddy Pond Variety Store.





Inside and out, there was, as the name told us, a wide variety of items. We all loved roaming the store.









Outside, I had to snap a couple of flower photos.




From there we continued on to the Muddy Pond General Store. They had a nice deli, a lot of baked goods, but we all fell in love with the rocking chairs.







From there we browsed the neighboring leather shop (there are three, we only visited one this time around).



Getting hungry we moved up the road to The Country Porch where we had lunch. Delicious sandwiches, free WiFi, too. A wide variety of items for sale. This is where we got the items I mentioned above. They had tables and chairs outside and we sat there for a bit after rescuing our friends' pup who decided to vacate their vehicle unexpectedly.









We came back to the house and chatted some more - and the big news - they are purchasing our property. Well, we broke the wine back out and enjoyed a couple more hours of getting to know each other better.

Saturday was another day of perfect weather and we took a nice motorcycle ride up to Jamestown for breakfast at the West End Diner. From there we headed home, we were expecting overnight company and I wanted to clean up the house a bit. We had another enjoyable evening getting caught up on her latest news and all crashed early. Sunday morning Stu made French Toast with the cinnamon raisin bread we had bought - thick slices of heaven! We will be getting more for sure.

So all in all, a great week! Good thing we got out and enjoyed the weather - this is what is headed our way. Eeek! Stu is going to winterize the RV in the next couple of days out of necessity.



Ciao for now!

A little ketchup, err, catsup, umm catch-up!

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Stu headed out on his motorcycle trip on September 22nd. All goes well, he'll be back home later today. I doubt he took photos, but I know he enjoyed his time with family and firefighter friends. But more than three weeks is long enough to be gone. [smiling]


Yesterday the #2doods went to doggy day care and got groomed as well. Cooper is a bit short, but it will last longer that way. Murphy is still a fuzzy mess but only had his head, feet & hiney done. He'll get a real trim next time around, after all, he's only 3.5 months old. He has his next vet visit on Friday and he has met his 15 day waiting period for Healthy Paws insurance. I don't foresee anything being wrong, but glad to have it. Cooper already met his deductible and we've gotten our first refund check. We highly recommend it [click here for the family & friends discount]!

While they were occupied, I ran all the usual errands: Tractor Supply (dog food), breakfast at McDonald's, Petco (of course), TJ Maxx (for me & the dogs), Sam's Club and Walmart for groceries. By the time I picked them up, I was exhausted.

Ahhh - McDonald’s, always entertaining. It's where you come to charge your phone, make calls about jobs and low-income housing, discuss the movies you want to see, talk about the hot girls on Craigslist, oh, and maybe eat something. LOL. Such interesting conversations flowing around me.

Then Walmart - I didn't take a photo of the 180#, 5' 8" 20-something girl slipping into one of these. This photo was disturbing enough...Facebook friends keep reassuring me they are Halloween costumes. Um, they were on display in sleepwear. LOL!


I may have mentioned that Murphy is a chowhound - no more freefeeding for Cooper. Little Murphy scarfed his food down so quickly and one of the first recommendations from the Doodle groups was to feed him on a baking sheet, even adding ice cubes to keep things sliding around was mentioned. Well, that worked but he isn't slowing down much and after over two weeks of eating this way, he was still getting done way before Cooper.

So I bit the bullet and ordered a slow feeder bowl and used it for the first time at lunch today. WOW! Cooper was actually done first, by a couple of minutes. This thing works wonderfully! I read a lot of the reviews, there are multiple bowls in many different patterns. The flower pattern seemed to do the most to slow the dogs down, so that's what I ordered and it works!


I love my Kindle e-reader...but it seems as though I've neglected it for the past few years. This morning when I went to charge it and see how my uploads were doing, this message greeted me. INSUFFICENT SPACE Oops! See...I've been saying I need to take time to read more.


Last but not least, here is a cute video of the pups playing Chase Me with each other.



Ciao for now!

A day in the life of #2Doods

Thursday, October 12, 2017

A little pictorial showing a typical day in the life of Cooper and Murphy, our #2doods.

I woke up to this...



Then it's time to eat...Cooper in the kitchen and Murphy (eating off a cookie sheet to slow him down) in the utility room.



Then the zoomies hit - no photo of the zoomies but it's when they race from room to room, inside and outside and back in, around the room and back out. This is what the bed looks like after an attack of zoomies.



Then it's time for some calmer play...



Or maybe a little wrestling...



Played out (for now), they assume this position...



Soon it's lunch time and then back outside.

Maybe a shared toy...



Maybe some cow chasing...



Or maybe a little mass destruction!



Don't they look sweet and innocent?



An afternoon treat...this one is homemade (not by me) pumpkin bars...yummy! Murphy finished first and is eying Cooper's...



A little more play (yes, that's Cooper's infamous tongue)...



Then an afternoon nap...



Before dinner - play - zoomies - and then bedtime. And tomorrow it will all happen again!


Ciao for now!

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