the bell

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I know my door looks dirty, but it's just dingy and old. :(
Since we got Abe in the middle of May, we have continually had a problem with potty training. More recently we've only had accidents 2 a week or so (thank god for all hardwood floors :)  ). But that shouldn't still be happening. We are both pretty frustrated with.

Well, about a week ago, we went to the store for more dog food and came across this bell. We had both heard from other people that if you have a dog that won't bark when it needs to go outside to get a bell for them to ring on the door. We both thought it was silly and didn't think anything of it.....but as you can see we bought this bell, and IT'S WORKING!! :) How it works is we ring it every time we are about to take him out and say "potty!", and then we go out. So at some point he will just be ringing it every time he needs to go out.

He's only rang it on his own twice now, but he's had to go; and we haven't had any accidents (knock on wood!) this whole time.

I know this may be boring to the non-dog owners, but this is a huge step for us and I couldn't be more excited! I'm so glad we found something that works for Abe.

fire duty

Sunday, October 3, 2010

So I went a whole month without blogging....sorry guys.....

It was just a really busy September. After going back to Indiana twice and then having a pretty uneventful (but lovely) anniversary, we are now in October. I can't believe it! This year has flown by and I know if has no intentions of slowing down. ugh.

Here is a little news in our lives right now - Mike is out on FIRE DUTY! We got the call last Friday night about 8:45 pm and he left a 10 am the next day. phew! We don't really know when he will be back, but he can only be out for a maximum of 18 days. He was shipped to Virginia; I guess they had a really dry September. He was really excited "because no one ever goes east, babe". :)

That was a crazy night; trying to get him packed, figuring out how to get him there, and our minds racing with thoughts of what's going to happen (like how do you put gas in a lawn mower???) I have never mowed in my life - big shout out to my Dad and Mike for always doing it. Mike did, however show me how to pull start ours about a month ago, but that's it. So the morning he left I asked him how to put gas in it. I know that may sound stupid, but I didn't know. :) Mike laughed a little and then suggested that I just hire someone for a one time job. Let me remind you, next to my father, and brother in law, Mike is the cheapest man I know ( I think this and being Harley men are the two things they all have in common). I told him a can do it! I know I can; and I haven't tried yet so I'll let you know how it goes.

He's been gone a week and I miss him like crazy. Abe has been a life saver, I'm glad there is still someone to come home to. It's been pretty quiet this week and future is looking like it will be a quiet week ahead....

On the plus side, I'm organizing! I bought a lot of Rubbermaid totes and labels to organize our storage. It's kind of boring, but it's something to do and it needs to be done. Our basement isn't a completely dry basement so I want to put everything that's in boxes in those totes just to be on the safe side.
Anniversary