Silent Sunday

Daisy watching me in the kitchen.

Silent Sunday

Napping in the sun.

Silent Sunday

Daisy keeping me company while I did some writing.

Throwback Thursday Stories: Daisy's "Before" Photo

I thought I would like up with Jessica from The Mom Collective again this week. I love getting to share some of my older pictures and share the story behind them.

This is Daisy the day we met her for the first time at the SPCA in June 2011. I never wanted a dog, we always had cats growing up and I knew that when I got married I wanted at least one cat in our home. J wasn't opposed to a cat - but he wanted a dog too. So when we got married I promised him that when we bought a house we would get a dog. I think I thought that day would never come.

But it did come. And as soon as we put in an offer J was online looking for dogs. We decided that we wanted to adopt, we wanted to rescue a dog who needed us. J wanted a german shepherd or a boxer and I wanted a pug or another small breed. We checked out lots of local rescues like the East Coast German Shepherd Rescue and the Atlantic Small Dog Rescue but we had adopted our cat, Sydney, from the SPCA so we decided to see if they had a dog that was just right for us.

Daisy was the first and only dog we walked at the SPCA. She really was perfect for us. She wasn't too big and she wasn't too small. And the sweetest little pup I had ever met. This little beagle has been part of our lives for almost three years now and I can't imagine my life without her in it. She is spoiled rotten, and not particularly well-trained, but she's my baby. I'm glad I let J convince me that I could be a dog-person and a cat person.

Have a great day!

Weekend Update

I'm posting my weekend update on Tuesday again because it was a long weekend and I was off for three whole (glorious!) days.

Friday night started with a potluck dinner at my parents' house. We wanted to have a potluck so we could take part in the #PotluckChallenge. It was a good night, even if most of my friends couldn't make it. We got to spend some time with my family and we ate a ton of delicious food. See that little clown on my cake? My grandmother bought that for my very first birthday cake. I went through those years where I was too embarrassed to use it, but now it comes out for every family birthday. And I'm so glad my mom held on to it for all these years!

Saturday morning we got a bit of a late start, but I'm not complaining. I think we both needed the sleep. It's so rare that Daisy lets us sleep in that getting up at 9am was a huge treat. We took a run to Tim Horton's for breakfast and they were giving out free birthday cake donuts. It's like they knew I was celebrating my birthday this weekend. (Or maybe it's because the were celebrating their 50th birthday...)

We got on the road around noon to head out to the Seaside Adjunct. It's a little over a 2 hour drive and we were a little worried about Daisy but she handled it like a champ. It's worth it too, so beautiful. You can read all about our day here, but the long story short is that it was totally amazing and just what we needed.

Sunday was the usual. Sunday school, church, and a delicious dinner at J's folks. I chatted with J's sister, Rachel, for a bit. She's coming home next month and we can't wait to see her. Hoping to get to do lots of fun touristy things while she's home. (Hopefully cross a couple things off my Summer Bucket List!)

Yesterday we decided at the last minute to head to the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park with J's brother and his fiance. We've all been there before, but it was still nice to get out and do something a little bit different. The weather was supposed to be pretty gross but it actually turned out not too bad so we stopped for ice cream on the way home. Of course I had to try the confetti cake blizzard! (Delicious in case you were wondering.)

Unfortunately when we got home we had a bit of a scare, we found a tick on Daisy. Unfortunately it's a holiday so our vet isn't open. We called the Metro Emergency Animal Hospital and they told us how to remove them. We've kept them so we can take them to our vet to have them tested for Lyme disease. I'm a bit of a wreck right now. Crossing my fingers, I've read that most ticks don't actually carry diseases so hopefully the one we found on Daisy was safe.

Other than the whole tick thing our weekend was pretty fantastic. Hope you enjoyed yours too!

'H2O' On The Go

Trying to take a selfie with Daisy in the car. :-)

Daisy was three when we adopted her from the SPCA. Prior to coming to live with us she had been used for breeding. The couple who owned her were retiring so they surrendered her to the SPCA. It was obvious that she hadn't really been a "pet." She didn't know how to play, she wasn't completely house-broken (which is why we're in the process if replacing our flooring...) and she had major separation anxiety. She was also scared to death of water - pools, lakes, streams, everything.

Gradually she got more comfortable with us, and she even plays with her toys now. She doesn't fetch, but she loves chasing you and playing tug-of-war with one of her stuffies.

One of the best "investments" we made when it comes to pet supplies was buy a Gulpy. We bought ours at a local pet store for around $10 and it is so handy. It's basically a waterbottle for your dog, and it has a built-in bowl. You squeeze the water out into the resevoir for them to drink. J clips it onto his built when we go hiking and it's always available for Daisy if she needs it. It's such a simple thing, but it really makes life a lot easier.

Do you have any pet supplies that you can't live without?

PS: This post wasn't sponsored or anything. We just really like our Gulpy and I wanted to share one of my favourite products. :-)

An Afternoon by the Atlantic

This weekend is a long weekend here in Canada, and two small miracles happened. One, the weather yesterday was absolutely amazing and two, I'm off! I'm off for three whole days and I couldn't be  more excited. J and I have been really busy with work the past couple weeks and haven't had a lot of time to spend together so having three days off together is just what we needed. After writing about how much I loved the Seaside Adjunct and how perfect our day was there the first time we were there we decided that's where we would take Daisy.

The weather was absolutely perfect, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. We spent a couple of hours roaming the beach and climbing the rocks. I took a ton of pictures, though I don't think any of them actually do the area justice. We basically had the place to ourselves which made for an extra peaceful afternoon.

Daisy absolutely loved it. I really wish we could let her off-leash but with a beagle who wasn't trained as a puppy it's just not something we want to try. She still enjoyed all the smells and all the new places to explore. She didn't seem to be overly fond of the waves though!

We saw seals too. Lots and lots of them. I love getting to see wildlife when we're out on our adventures.

The best part of the day was just that we got to totally relax. I left my cellphone in the car and we spent a couple hours just talking, laughing and catching up. I really think that's crucial to making a marriage work.

Daisy was exhausted by the time we were on our way home and actually slept most of the drive home.

It was pretty much the perfect Saturday. Hope you had a great Saturday too!

A Very Good Friday

Whenever I have a "bonus" day off I like to make sure I take advantage. The store was closed today and so was J's work. J's brother (David) and his fiancée (Tracey) both work for Sobeys too so we thought it might be nice to do something with them since days that all four of us are off are super rare. 

We ended up deciding to visit one of our favourite parks, Long Lake. And instead of it being just the four of us two of Tracey's sisters came and of course we brought Daisy. :-) Long Lake is one of our favourites for a few reasons. It's beautiful to start with. It's close to home too, it's only about a twenty minute drive.  But once you're in the park you can't tell how close you are to the city. It's also one of the least developed parks in the area. The trails are a little more rugged and not marked well, so you really feel like you're exploring.  After our hike we headed back to our place to play a game and then have a barbeque for supper.

Other than deciding we were  going to do something today, we didn't make any plans until lunch time today. Usually I'm all about planning things in advance,  but it was nice to play things by ear for a change.

Hope your weekend got off to a great start!

xo,
Sara

A Walk in the Park

I don't get a lot of Saturdays off. Most of the time it's not a big deal. I like having my day off to myself through the week. I can do house cleaning, try new recipes, run errands, or spend the entire day on the couch with a book. Basically, I can do whatever I feel like doing and that's a nice feeling. Sometimes working every Saturday sucks though, especially since J works Monday to Friday. We are both (usually) off on Sundays but it's such a busy day with church and family dinners that we don't get a lot of "us" time. So, when I do get a Saturday off we like to do something.

Now that it's officially spring I got it into my head that I wanted to start taking Daisy and going back to some of our favourite parks for walking and hiking. I was pretty disappointed when I woke up yesterday morning to grey skies and heavy looking clouds. We made ourselves a big breakfast and lounged around on the couch catching up on some TV for the morning but around lunch time noticed that the rain seemed to have stopped. It was still grey, and not exactly warm, but we decided to throw Daisy in the car and head out anyways.

We chose to head out to Sandford Fleming Park even though there are places we like closer. One of our first "dates" was a walk there, it's also where J proposed and where we had our wedding pictures taken. I think maybe we were feeling a bit nostalgic. (It's also one of the first places we took Daisy after we adopted her.) They're in the process of doing some restoration to the park like paving the walkways and replacing the retaining walls, I can't wait to see it when it's finished. Usually when we're there it's packed with people and other dogs but it was pretty quiet today because of the weather. I think I liked it better that way, and I know Daisy did. :-)

Hope that you had a great Saturday, no matter what the weather was like!

xo,
Sara