Happy Halloween!!

I really like Halloween - it's fun to have a reason to be festive, eat candy and take pictures. :)

We hung out with the Stanfill's Sunday night and Sally made delicious "mummy" dogs for dinner. Even if you don't like regular hot dogs these are worth a shot. (After all, crescent rolls with anything is pretty good)





Get a load of these two cutie pies...
It's Little Bo Peep & her sheep. :)

Hadley's costume was cracking me up because she carried a cane/staff around the whole night AND actually wore her bonnet too. She made a great Bo Peep.




My mom, being the expert shopper that she is, found this awesome pet costume. I swear when I put Mulligan in this outfit he would look at me like "You're seriously making me wear this? You have GOT to be kidding me." I'm sure there is speculation that this type of behavior is some form of animal cruelty, but let's be real - shouldn't everyone get to wear a pumpkin costume once in their life? Especially when you look this cute....




Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! :)

Mully & Me

Our little year-old pup is a mess. He's a good mess (most of the time) but he's still a piece of work. More than anything, he wants to play - he loves to run outside, play fetch, romp with other dogs and especially go swimming. This is probably pretty common for lots of dogs to crave this level of activity, but even more evident in our little guy that lives in a town home with no yard or nearby lake.


However, he manages to find ways to release this energy when he's at home. A few weeks ago I kept finding little brown pieces of some unidentifiable object laying on the floor. It would be 1 or 2 pieces every few days - totally random. I searched around the baseboards, the legs of our sofa/table/chairs, and I couldn't find the source of these chewed up fragments. One day, when some friends were over, Lindsay found 2 more brown pieces of something - she asked what they went to and I still had NO CLUE what they were. She looked around and discovered they were coming from our floor lamp. No, not the bottom of the lamp like a normal spot for a dog to chew - right in the middle, which means he would lay on the chair and hang his head over the edge to snack on the lamp. Seriously?

I usually leave Mulligan out in the mornings - it's a risk with all the trouble he is known to get into, but after watching him on weekends and when I've worked from home - this is when he seems to be sleeping the most (aka the least likely time to destroy something.) I go home for lunch several days a week and take him out, let him fetch some of his toys to exert some energy and then put him in the crate for the rest of the day. It's not a quick drive from Alpharetta to Dunwoody but it's worth it for him to not be pinned up all day. I think I'm going to die on days when I don't leave the office for lunch- can you even imagine being in a crate all day?

John Neal works too far away to come by the house at lunch, but occasionally he has the opportunity with trips or meetings out of the office. This Wednesday I was excited to know he'd be out getting his flu shot and could go by at lunch and let him out. He calls my afterwards and says "I left him out." Since he says it with some sort of giddiness in his voice, naturally I think he's kidding. He wasn't. It was noon and neither of us would be home until at least 6:30. Mulligan is a mouthy dog - he will chew on anything...I know that, John Neal knows that, probably anyone who knows us knows that. So why in the world would he leave him out for 6-7 hours? Freedom. He hated to put him back in the crate so he decided we should see if we can trust him. I love our dog, but I know he cannot be trusted. Just so you know, I wasn't trying to be Super-Mom, but merely out of concern for the destruction of our house and the safety of Mully, I drove home. Come on - I wasn't about to let him stay out for the rest of the day with kitchen table chairs, recliners, and door casings dangling in front of him for an afternoon snack. So of course I found him sitting in the kitchen looking sweet. But wait for it....not too far away were some wood shavings on the ground. Right above it, a window sill that was missing it's corner. Oh, Mully....



Which brings me to why I love doggie daycare. We started talking our little rascal in August and could not love it more. The owner, Colleen, is great with the dogs and does so much to make the owners feel like their dogs will be loved while they are at work. Not to mention they play in an indoor/outdoor facility with 20-30 other dogs and are flat out exhausted when they leave. I try and take him on Wednesday's because he'll usually sleep into the weekend after he's gone to daycare. All that playing with dogs for a full 10 hours will knock our little guy out. Colleen usually jokes that he gets dirtier than any other dog there...and it's true. We give him a bath after every daycare visit because he no longer looks creamy colored - but brown. One time I honestly didn't even know it was him. Ha.




Despite his tendencies to give Marley a run for his money as a wild and crazy dog - he's our little buddy and we love him!

Southern Odyssey

A few weeks ago, my hubby and 11 friends ran in the inaugural Southern Odyssey relay race across north GA. This had been much anticipated among the dozen runners and involved a great deal of preparation for the 200 mile/24 hour event. Each runner was required to run three different legs for a total of 10-20 miles each; meanwhile, the remaining team members were encouraging and cheering on the active runner.









Part of the entry requirement involved volunteering 2 individuals per team to man an exchange station where runners would "pass the baton" to the next runner. Lindsay, Katie, Laura & I were located at Exchange 14 in Cleveland, GA (along with Officer Steve) and we did our best to make it fun and exciting for the runners and their teams.











One of the best parts for us girls/wives, was getting to see the boys the following morning (yes, they ran through the night!) They were on their last 4 legs and were running on adrenaline after a night of little sleep, lots of running and team bonding. Most said later that this event was one of their favorite running experiences or team events due to the camaraderie and encouragement.



Scotty exchanges with Tim, the final runner!





















And just as fate would have it, Thad, a valued team member encountered an injury and had to drop out of the race. His brother finished his current leg and Zach stepped up to complete Thad's remaining leg. As if that wasn't enough excitement...this team of boys went on to win the race. :) It was a really neat experience to witness as these guys truly captured the essence of competition and camaraderie. Congrats Team Zatopek on the inaugural Southern Odyssey victory!

Sugar

Is there anything as sweet as seeing a baby smile? Reese is three months old and has a lot to smile about with big sister Hadley around. Hadley loves her little sister (or as she says, Reesie) and wants nothing more than to give her some sugar. I know Holly didn't do that to me, so where did Hadley get it? ;)

60 Years...

Sunday we celebrated Mama & Papa's 60th wedding anniversary. They were married in 1950 and have watched their family grow from 5 kids, to 7 grandkids and 2 great-grandbabies. They are such an inspiration to so many of us through their commitment to each other and love for their family.