We love Colby. I promise. We really do. He's just got a couple very unique quirks that make our lives with him a little more adventurous.
For example: He is not a cooperative walker. At all. When we first brought him home he actually HATED going for walks. I didn't even know it was possible for a puppy to hate walks. He acted like he was afraid he wouldn't find his way home, even though I was with him and we hadn't even made it two driveways down.
He got over his fear and now he likes walks, but he gets VERY distracted. Like by other dogs. Or people. Or stray garbage. Or lately- snowmen and fluffy snow.
I would say that he walks at a good pace and nicely about 10% of the time, pulls ahead on the leash about 30% of the time, and I end up attempting to pull him about 60% of the time. And it's not like some days he walks well, and other days he pulls- he does an insane combination of all three modes EVERY TIME WE WALK.
And when he stops and I have to try to pull him, it's not like he complies with a gentle tug. No. He plops down in the snow bank and will. not. budge. People in my neighborhood know who we are because they see me struggling to get him to walk while he just lounges in the snow. I balance a fine line between doing what I can to get him up and going again and not looking like I'm abusing our stubborn little pup- I promise, I never pull too hard- I just end up standing around in the cold in front of random neighbors houses while they point and laugh at us and I attempt to wait him out until he randomly decides to get up and start going again. Here's a little sampling of his antics:
2.21.2010
A Valentine Weekend Get-Away
Last weekend, Hubby G and I went to White Cloud, Michigan and stayed at The Shack for two days to celebrate Valentine's day.
We were really excited to get away for a couple of days and just relax! Sister W stayed at our house to watch Colby, so we knew he'd be in good hands and we could just have a good time.
The Shack was beautiful. If we're ever millionaires, I want a log house- the wood work throughout this place was fantastic.
There was a couple pool tables and a ping pong table downstairs in the main lodge where our room was, so Hubby G and I battled it out there a few times. The best part? Complimentary giant banana splits EVERY NIGHT. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.
Unexpected side effect of our weekend get-away: we really missed Colby. We've never been away from him for more than a few hours, and we didn't really think being away for 2 days would be a big deal, but even on our first night there I nearly came to tears because I missed that little fur ball so much!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (a.k.a our house) Sister W called us and was having a bit of a (very justified) freak-out. Of course, the one time we get away from our house, something goes wrong. Our hot water heater was leaking water- and lots of it. We're talking like a couple gallons every 5 minutes. Hubby G, Sister W, and I know ZERO about hot water heaters, so we weren't sure what to do. After making a few calls and consulting a few people, Sister W just turned the water off to stop all the leaking and Hubby G and I would take care of the issue when we got back home the next day. Well, while all of this commotion is going on with the hot water heater, Colby got a little sassy. He's normally pretty sassy, but he was extra sassy because he was all stressed out because he just didn't understand why Hubby G and I weren't home. Sister W had just taken him out for a walk and left his harness on him when they got home because she was frantically trying to remove water from our leaking hot water heater. So, Colby chewed through his harness and destroyed it. It looks like I forgot to mention this before, but that's harness #2 if you're keeping track of the damage toll.
After Sister W got the water turned off we were able to relax a bit again, knowing our house wasn't being flooded in our absence. I did get a very stressed-out-on-the-verge-of-tears call from Sister W about an hour later that went something like this,"I got the water under control and Colby is laying down now, but I haven't even started my homework or eaten dinner yet and now I can't even figure out how to turn on the t.v!" Our t.v. has 3 different remotes associated with it, so it is kind of confusing. And Sister W was stressed from trying to save our house from a flood and felt really bad that Colby destroyed another harness on her watch. We gave her directions for the t.v. and told her not to worry about the harness- we definitely know how Colby can be and we probably lucked out with the fact that the only thing he destroyed was his own harness.
Other than that hiccup, the get-away was wonderful. We even got our hot water heater fixed on the day we got back for only $45. And we got Colby a new harness on our way home- we'll see how long this one lasts.
We were really excited to get away for a couple of days and just relax! Sister W stayed at our house to watch Colby, so we knew he'd be in good hands and we could just have a good time.
The Shack was beautiful. If we're ever millionaires, I want a log house- the wood work throughout this place was fantastic.
(the dining area in the main lodge)
(the whirlpool in our room)
(the beds were VERY firm- not my style at all, but it was all good still!)
(mirrors in the bathroom)
(One of the semi-creepy figurines in our room)
(new friend in the main lodge)
Unexpected side effect of our weekend get-away: we really missed Colby. We've never been away from him for more than a few hours, and we didn't really think being away for 2 days would be a big deal, but even on our first night there I nearly came to tears because I missed that little fur ball so much!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (a.k.a our house) Sister W called us and was having a bit of a (very justified) freak-out. Of course, the one time we get away from our house, something goes wrong. Our hot water heater was leaking water- and lots of it. We're talking like a couple gallons every 5 minutes. Hubby G, Sister W, and I know ZERO about hot water heaters, so we weren't sure what to do. After making a few calls and consulting a few people, Sister W just turned the water off to stop all the leaking and Hubby G and I would take care of the issue when we got back home the next day. Well, while all of this commotion is going on with the hot water heater, Colby got a little sassy. He's normally pretty sassy, but he was extra sassy because he was all stressed out because he just didn't understand why Hubby G and I weren't home. Sister W had just taken him out for a walk and left his harness on him when they got home because she was frantically trying to remove water from our leaking hot water heater. So, Colby chewed through his harness and destroyed it. It looks like I forgot to mention this before, but that's harness #2 if you're keeping track of the damage toll.
After Sister W got the water turned off we were able to relax a bit again, knowing our house wasn't being flooded in our absence. I did get a very stressed-out-on-the-verge-of-tears call from Sister W about an hour later that went something like this,"I got the water under control and Colby is laying down now, but I haven't even started my homework or eaten dinner yet and now I can't even figure out how to turn on the t.v!" Our t.v. has 3 different remotes associated with it, so it is kind of confusing. And Sister W was stressed from trying to save our house from a flood and felt really bad that Colby destroyed another harness on her watch. We gave her directions for the t.v. and told her not to worry about the harness- we definitely know how Colby can be and we probably lucked out with the fact that the only thing he destroyed was his own harness.
Other than that hiccup, the get-away was wonderful. We even got our hot water heater fixed on the day we got back for only $45. And we got Colby a new harness on our way home- we'll see how long this one lasts.
2.17.2010
I'm Still Here!
Sorry posting has been light lately! It was a fun and busy (and a little stressful!) Valentine's weekend and now I'm catching up with life! I promise I'll be posting soon! What did you do for Valentine's day?
2.08.2010
A Savvy and Sweet Wedding: The Dress
This is probably one of my favorite wedding planning stories to tell because it was definitely my BEST WEDDING DEAL EVER.
I went to a few different bridal salons to try on wedding dresses and I just wasn't feeling it. Hubby G and I are both inherently frugal and I just couldn't imagine paying such huge amounts of money for a piece of clothing. I have never even spent $100 on any article of clothing- EVER. I mean, I know it's a wedding dress and all and it's a special thing, but at the end of the day it is just a dress and it is something you will only wear once. For me, part of finding "the perfect dress" was finding it at a steal. No matter how pretty I thought some dresses were, they just didn't seem quite a great with their incredibly steep price tags.
So my first stop in my quest to find a deal on a dress was in a book my mom had gotten me called Bridal Bargains.
I was shocked to find that the first SEVENTY-EIGHT pages were all about THE DRESS. Good grief. I read. And read. And read. And I learned a lot. And then I came across one small part of the chapter that mentioned that most wedding dresses are manufactured in China, so if you buy direct from China, you can cut out the middle-man and save yourself some serious cash. I was intrigued. The book listed a few websites that they deemed to be reputable for straight-from-China-dress purchases, so I decided to check them out for curiosity's sake.
Enter http://1koo.com
The site has been updated considerably from what it was when I first visited, and it's way easier to navigate now and has a much more professional look. When I first visited the site, it had broken English all over the home page and said something along the lines of "Why should only rich people have nice things?" and "We sell the finest wedding dresses, formal dresses, and oil paintings". Very random. And the categories for dresses included "maternity prom". I can honestly say I have never seen that category before.
Like I said, the site has been considerably upgraded since then and you won't find any of that there now, but I'm just setting the scene for you from when I first visited. I'm sure you can understand that I thought this whole website was pretty sketchy, but I pressed onward to check out their dress selection.
OMG. They had HUNDREDS of dresses. A GINORMOUS selection (most of which began with the description "Sexy wedding dress..." this feature is definitely still a part of the newly upgraded site). And the absolutely unbelievable part? I had a hard time finding ANY that were over $300.
HUNDREDS OF WEDDING DRESSES UNDER THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!
I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
I wasn't- it was totally true. I was convinced that with the huge selection and the amazing price, I could certainly find something I would like. I searched around and narrowed it down to 2 different dresses. I really loved one of them, but it didn't have a train, and I really wanted a train on my wedding dress. The other dress I liked alright, and it had a train, which is why I kept it in the running.
PAUSE. REWIND.
So when I first found this site I did some Googling to see if the site was actually legit since it seemed so sketchy. Every review I found was positive. I found one review that said that she had picked a dress and they were able to customize the back to lace up instead of zip up- impressive.
PLAY.
I decided to e-mail 1koo.com to see if there was any chance they could add a train on to the dress I liked the best. I figured it was a long shot, but there was no harm in asking.
They e-mailed back and said something along the lines of, "Yes, we can add a train. Let us know how long you want and we will make it. It will be $20 extra. Please understand."
I had to pinch myself again.
$20 extra for a custom length train on a dress that originally didn't have a train at all? SIGN ME UP.
So, I bit the bullet and decided to make the order. 1koo.com also offers custom sizing (only $20 extra! And I'm being 100% serious when I say that) so I decided to do that also since I'm pretty tall and I was really paranoid that the dress would be too short. I made my all measurements generously because I was paranoid that it would be too small and it's harder to fix a dress that's too small than one that's just a bit too big.
My grand total for my wedding dress with custom length train, custom sizing, and shipping from China:
$278.
You read that correctly. I didn't forget any zeros. $278. I prayed that it would all turn out okay because this all seemed way too good to be true.
Less than a month after I had placed my order (I hadn't even paid the credit card bill on it yet) the then-Fiance-G and I were walking into the apartment and the mailman had a large padded envelope for us. Neither of us had a clue of what it could be and Fiance G says, "It has Chinese all over it..." My eyes got huge and I grabbed the PADDED ENVELOPE out of his hands. I knew it had to be my dress...but in a PADDED ENVELOPE? OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING?
I shut myself in the bathroom and opened it up. It was my dress, carefully wrapped up in plastic and turned inside out to protect the outside layers. It was fully lined in satin (!). I can't believe that thing fit in a PADDED ENVELOPE. I giddily tried it on and it wasn't a perfect fit, but I hadn't expected it to be with my generous measurements. The train was gloriously long. I pinched myself again.
Here I am on our wedding day in my $278 steal of a wedding gown:
Can you imagine that thing fitting in a PADDED ENVELOPE? I still can't believe it.
And that my friends, is the the story of the Greatest Wedding Deal I Ever Found.
Previously on A Savvy and Sweet Wedding:
The Introduction
The Venue
I went to a few different bridal salons to try on wedding dresses and I just wasn't feeling it. Hubby G and I are both inherently frugal and I just couldn't imagine paying such huge amounts of money for a piece of clothing. I have never even spent $100 on any article of clothing- EVER. I mean, I know it's a wedding dress and all and it's a special thing, but at the end of the day it is just a dress and it is something you will only wear once. For me, part of finding "the perfect dress" was finding it at a steal. No matter how pretty I thought some dresses were, they just didn't seem quite a great with their incredibly steep price tags.
So my first stop in my quest to find a deal on a dress was in a book my mom had gotten me called Bridal Bargains.
(source)
I was shocked to find that the first SEVENTY-EIGHT pages were all about THE DRESS. Good grief. I read. And read. And read. And I learned a lot. And then I came across one small part of the chapter that mentioned that most wedding dresses are manufactured in China, so if you buy direct from China, you can cut out the middle-man and save yourself some serious cash. I was intrigued. The book listed a few websites that they deemed to be reputable for straight-from-China-dress purchases, so I decided to check them out for curiosity's sake.
Enter http://1koo.com
The site has been updated considerably from what it was when I first visited, and it's way easier to navigate now and has a much more professional look. When I first visited the site, it had broken English all over the home page and said something along the lines of "Why should only rich people have nice things?" and "We sell the finest wedding dresses, formal dresses, and oil paintings". Very random. And the categories for dresses included "maternity prom". I can honestly say I have never seen that category before.
Like I said, the site has been considerably upgraded since then and you won't find any of that there now, but I'm just setting the scene for you from when I first visited. I'm sure you can understand that I thought this whole website was pretty sketchy, but I pressed onward to check out their dress selection.
OMG. They had HUNDREDS of dresses. A GINORMOUS selection (most of which began with the description "Sexy wedding dress..." this feature is definitely still a part of the newly upgraded site). And the absolutely unbelievable part? I had a hard time finding ANY that were over $300.
HUNDREDS OF WEDDING DRESSES UNDER THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!
I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
I wasn't- it was totally true. I was convinced that with the huge selection and the amazing price, I could certainly find something I would like. I searched around and narrowed it down to 2 different dresses. I really loved one of them, but it didn't have a train, and I really wanted a train on my wedding dress. The other dress I liked alright, and it had a train, which is why I kept it in the running.
(This is the photo of the dress I liked the best. You have to look past the ridiculous random living room in the background. Here's a link directly to this dress on the site.)
PAUSE. REWIND.
So when I first found this site I did some Googling to see if the site was actually legit since it seemed so sketchy. Every review I found was positive. I found one review that said that she had picked a dress and they were able to customize the back to lace up instead of zip up- impressive.
PLAY.
I decided to e-mail 1koo.com to see if there was any chance they could add a train on to the dress I liked the best. I figured it was a long shot, but there was no harm in asking.
They e-mailed back and said something along the lines of, "Yes, we can add a train. Let us know how long you want and we will make it. It will be $20 extra. Please understand."
I had to pinch myself again.
$20 extra for a custom length train on a dress that originally didn't have a train at all? SIGN ME UP.
So, I bit the bullet and decided to make the order. 1koo.com also offers custom sizing (only $20 extra! And I'm being 100% serious when I say that) so I decided to do that also since I'm pretty tall and I was really paranoid that the dress would be too short. I made my all measurements generously because I was paranoid that it would be too small and it's harder to fix a dress that's too small than one that's just a bit too big.
My grand total for my wedding dress with custom length train, custom sizing, and shipping from China:
$278.
You read that correctly. I didn't forget any zeros. $278. I prayed that it would all turn out okay because this all seemed way too good to be true.
Less than a month after I had placed my order (I hadn't even paid the credit card bill on it yet) the then-Fiance-G and I were walking into the apartment and the mailman had a large padded envelope for us. Neither of us had a clue of what it could be and Fiance G says, "It has Chinese all over it..." My eyes got huge and I grabbed the PADDED ENVELOPE out of his hands. I knew it had to be my dress...but in a PADDED ENVELOPE? OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING?
I shut myself in the bathroom and opened it up. It was my dress, carefully wrapped up in plastic and turned inside out to protect the outside layers. It was fully lined in satin (!). I can't believe that thing fit in a PADDED ENVELOPE. I giddily tried it on and it wasn't a perfect fit, but I hadn't expected it to be with my generous measurements. The train was gloriously long. I pinched myself again.
Here I am on our wedding day in my $278 steal of a wedding gown:
Can you imagine that thing fitting in a PADDED ENVELOPE? I still can't believe it.
And that my friends, is the the story of the Greatest Wedding Deal I Ever Found.
Previously on A Savvy and Sweet Wedding:
The Introduction
The Venue
2.07.2010
Colby's "Marley Moments"
Colby loves Sister W. I think he thinks it's cool that she's short and when he jumps up on her he reaches above her waist. He also loves Sister W's shoes. Colby likes almost any shoes, but he seems to have a certain affinity for any shoes specifically belonging to Sister W. Sister W gave me the idea for this post today while I was showing her some of Colby's latest handiwork- I totally destroyed book. Her idea was for me to post about Colby's "Marley Moments" (the dog from "Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" by John Grogan- I love this book and the movie by the way). So here's the list so far:
- He really likes shiny things- He nearly snatched my necklace that Hubby G bought me to wear on our wedding day right off my neck. Luckily it stayed on my neck, but it was in his mouth for a hot second.
- He stole Hubby G's wedding band when he had taken it off to clean it- we had to pry his mouth open, but fortunately it didn't get any further in the digestive system than that.
- We have a trolley system in the backyard to hook him up to that runs from a tree in our backyard up to our deck so that he can run a bit further. He took off and pulled a whole rail out of the deck. Twice.
- Ripped a page out of a book my mom had lent to me to read- I pieced the shreds back together and scotch taped it all so it was read-able.
- He's snatched Hubby G's bluetooth for his phone more times than I can count. Including earlier this morning.
- He's stolen DVD's off the shelf and put a few holes in the case for the movie "Up" while he was gripping it as Hubby G tried to chase him down.
- We had bought this new hardcover book less than a month ago and earlier this week Hubby G woke up to it looking like this:
- And the case for his Blackberry looking like this:
- And his actual Blackberry looking like this:
Yeah. That was a particularly bad morning.
So that's Colby's damage toll so far. I'm sure there are a few things I'm forgetting, but I'm sure I'll have more to add to this list as time goes on. Don't get me wrong, we love Colby and can't imagine our lives without him-
he just has his "Marley Moments"
2.05.2010
Swedish Furniture Name Generator
I ran across this today and it made me smile:
If I were a piece of Ikea Swedish furniture, what would I be?
A bedside table apparently. I'm totally digging the name. What would you be? Click here to find out!
2.03.2010
A Savvy and Sweet Wedding: The Venue
Hubby G and I looked around at just a couple of different venues before settling on one. It was important to us to find something that really fit 'us'. We ended up deciding to have our wedding ceremony at the chapel on the campus of the college where he and I met and where we graduated from. It was perfect for us. It's got a contemporary design and lots of windows on one side. And it was the perfect size for the number of guests we had in mind. And I won't lie- the fact that we got an alumni discount when reserving the chapel didn't hurt either!
We decided early on also that we wanted both our ceremony and our reception to be very close to one another- preferably in the same place. I knew it was 'our' wedding, but I guess my personal feeling was that if our guests were traveling to share in this day with us (and some of our guests traveled quite far) a lot of the wedding planning logistical decisions should really be made with them in mind. I think it's because if I put myself in their shoes as a wedding guest, that's what I would want. So even though it was all about 'us' on our wedding day, we really appreciated all of our guests being there with us, so during our planning, alot of it was actually all about them- and that's the way we liked it :)
So with that in mind, we decided to have our reception just one building over on campus. The room was plenty big enough for our guests and had a large dance floor ready to go. It wasn't anything fancy or particularly beautiful, but we were going to make it work! I just kept in mind that on the day of our wedding, sure, a beautiful room would be amazing, but it was more about the people in that room that we got to share our day with! PLUS- additional alumni discount, definitely a perk!
Blog Motivation
I was just thinking yesterday and again earlier today that I really enjoy blogging, but at the same time, is it really worth it? I mean, of course it's worth it if it's something I enjoy, but the part I enjoy about it is sharing my thoughts and my life adventures with others- which can be really hard to gauge. I recently discovered the awesome-ness of Google Analytics which allows me to see the number of hits I get here on Savvy and Sweet, the number of unique visitors, how long people stay on my blog, and tons of other information. That encouraged me for awhile, but it's so analytical (duh) and faceless, it wasn't exactly the motivation I was looking for. I'm not saying I needed much, just something to encourage me and let me know that people are actually reading Savvy and Sweet.
Today I got my motivation back on track thanks to Genavee. Who's Genavee? Well, to be completely honest, I don't really know. What I do know is that she read some of my posts here on Savvy and Sweet today and left THREE COMMENTS. It makes my day when I get one comment, and as my Blackberry kept cheerily blinking not for one, not for two, BUT FOR THREE comment notifications, well, let's just say I had to bust out a happy dance.
And Genavee got me thinking too. This is going to sound painfully obvious, but stick with me for a minute. When I get comments here on Savvy and Sweet it totally makes my day, but I rarely leave comments on the blogs of others. Why don't I? Well that's what Genavee got me thinking about. As I thought about it more I realized it's because I think that many of the blogs I follow have large followings and get tons of comments everyday. In reality however, that's not always the case. Sure, it's totally true for some blogs I follow like Dooce and Young House Love, but there are plenty that I follow that are much more obscure. AND who's to say that those blogs that already get tons of comments don't appreciate every single one of them?
So. Today I resolve to leave more comments on the blogs I follow. And Genavee's blog is totally going to be one of them.
Today I got my motivation back on track thanks to Genavee. Who's Genavee? Well, to be completely honest, I don't really know. What I do know is that she read some of my posts here on Savvy and Sweet today and left THREE COMMENTS. It makes my day when I get one comment, and as my Blackberry kept cheerily blinking not for one, not for two, BUT FOR THREE comment notifications, well, let's just say I had to bust out a happy dance.
And Genavee got me thinking too. This is going to sound painfully obvious, but stick with me for a minute. When I get comments here on Savvy and Sweet it totally makes my day, but I rarely leave comments on the blogs of others. Why don't I? Well that's what Genavee got me thinking about. As I thought about it more I realized it's because I think that many of the blogs I follow have large followings and get tons of comments everyday. In reality however, that's not always the case. Sure, it's totally true for some blogs I follow like Dooce and Young House Love, but there are plenty that I follow that are much more obscure. AND who's to say that those blogs that already get tons of comments don't appreciate every single one of them?
So. Today I resolve to leave more comments on the blogs I follow. And Genavee's blog is totally going to be one of them.
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