Since owning our pupper, he’s grown. A lot. Here’s some pictures of him at 1
He’s the best thing ever. He loves treats, the dog park, walks, and pets.
I know it’s been a while. I’m working on some things and doing a lot of waiting. I’ll fill you in when I have the energy to share.
Thanks, babbles&brains
I think I mentioned several times that during my tales of pain and suffering that I really needed a dog. Some sweet, fluffy cuddler that’s always happy to see me and wants to snuggle and play and helps me get out of my own head. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my cats, but they aren’t up for my wailing into their fur or forcing snuggles.
This is my sweet snuggle boy, Kenobi.
I didn’t picture myself with an enormous breed of dog through childhood. But I fell in love with my in-laws’ “Golden-Aussie mix” puppy that grew and grew…. and GREW (I think their dog is a Leonberger mix or Great Pyrenees mix). That dog is a wonderful snuggle pup. So I’ve been waiting for my own gentle giant. and now he is here!
My sweet boy is a Great Pyrenees, and he is exactly what we needed.
We got him at 9 weeks old in January. He is now just over 4 months old and already 50 pounds. Very much in his velociraptor/destructive stage. All the stakes that held up trees and vines in the backyard are now his outside chew toys. He’s dug several holes, chewed up an extension cord to our fountain, unearthed part of our sprinkler system, and he sheds cotton balls EVERYWHERE. But, he stays within our fence, comes when called (mostly), leaves the cats alone to figure him out, and has so much love to give.
I love him, and he is perfect.
Someone once told me that I acted as if he is a placeholder for a child with the way I presented him to friends and family. He is not a placeholder. He is a big part of my heart. He is family, and came into my life at the exact time I needed him the most. Don’t ever talk like that about my baby dog son ever again.
He is going to be an excellent big brother to our future child. Some day.
Until next time,
Babbles&brains
I love gardening. I think in general, I love taking care of things and watching things grow, which is why I teach, and why I want to be a parent. With our new house that is ours, we have a gorgeous setup for a beautiful garden where I can work on getting a green thumb.
I really want indoor plants too. However, I have to be extremely careful because of my fur children. My black cat would prefer to be exactly where I want indoor plants to be, and I really need to get them their own plants that are safe and chew-able before putting mine out. So in the meantime, all of my plants are on top of the refrigerator except for my new orchid, which is in another warm, bright shade spot protected from my cats.
So, here are some of my plants babies that I got a couple of weeks ago. They are all still alive! I have named them and have grown very attached. I cant wait to add more to the family!
I do have a couple more propagating, like a Tradescantia Zebrina that I’ve named Zeb Egg who is about 50/50 on deciding to live or die right now. She’s a little sensitive and has been through a lot (thanks to my teacup Panther, who is doing fine and is not sick from the plant thank GOODNESS) so I’m not going to include a picture.
By the way, I KNOW that some of the plants I choose to have are not safe for cats if ingested. I also know my cats, who will be much more interested in their own foliage than mine depending on placement. I have plans in the works to give them a mini field of cat grass and other edible cat plants so we can all get along.
I don’t want to stop here! I have more plant babies that I would love to treasure in my home.
This is my Plant Wish List:
Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. You definitely do not have to use them, and I will only provide links to things I personally have used and liked, but it would totally help out a little teacher blogger!
We’ve been spending a lot of time getting the house in order in the last few weeks. Here’s an update on what we have done so far.
Step 1: Removing the wallpaper. Luckily for us and this wallpaper remover, we got all the wallpaper off in ONE DAY. ALL of it. Three rooms of wallpaper GONE. And the glue residue is really easy to remove also: just a dense sponge and hot water gets it right off. The fuzzy plaid wallpapered room needs the sponge and hot water one more time before we paint, but I am extremely happy that we were able to remove all the wallpaper.
Step 2: Primer and Painting. This is something we are still doing, but we finished painting the living room walls, the kitchen, the hallways, and our master bedroom. We used mold/mildew killing primer in the kitchen and will do the same in the bathrooms. I am so excited that I now have a gorgeous dark teal accent wall in our master bedroom, and it’s going to look so nice when it all comes together.
Step 3: HVAC repair. Ugh this was a journey. Working with our city’s utility services has been a nightmare, and they shut off the power to our house while their offices were closed (fearing riots) with no clear information on who to contact and what to do the day we were supposed to get our HVAC repaired. Thankfully, we got it all sorted out finally, and a week later, our HVAC is running properly, filters have been replaced, and it cost double what we thought it would. Of course. Such is the life of home owning.
Step 4: All the little things and also moving and the big things. The second bathroom toilet flapper broke so we had to replace that. We moved out of our apartment and cleaned it thoroughly so we could turn in the keys, and brought everything to our new home. My niece came for a few days to help me unpack the kitchen and clean the old apartment, and that was such a great help. Our three cats were terrified of the new place for a few days, but are now adventuring everywhere and they absolutely LOVE all the windows.
There is a lot we want to accomplish with our new home, but we did move in a week ago and I’ve got the unpacking to deal with for now. More pictures will come once we get settled. Thank goodness it’s the summer so I have a little more time to unpack and organize!
We definitely purchased a project home, and have a lot of things in store, but I am so happy to make this place my own with my husband. I am SO HAPPY. Only a week living in our new home and it has been the BEST.
Sincerely, Babbles&brains
I was too busy Monday to update, but I’m here now. Things have happened…
Great things! Appraisal has already been done and is just a smidge over our offer (exactly $250) that was accepted, which means we get to continue to go through with our loan.
The home inspection and a pest inspection was done. I was so worried that with wood siding that there would be termites or dry rot and other creepy crawlies. Currently, the AC isn’t working so we’ve requested the sellers to get the HVAC system serviced to be up to standards. Now, this is a house from 1953, so it’s got some character, and it does have other projects that need doing eventually, but we can pretty much get those completed without breaking the bank. so with a few things, this home will be ready to move into!
I am so excited we are moving forward in buying our first house! Our lender has been very efficient also in helping us get to closing.
I’ve already decided what colors to paint the wallpaper rooms!
I can’t wait to host a wallpaper peeling party to get rid of the fuzzy wallpaper. And a gardening party to get the plants under control. Hopefully we can do social things safely and soon. I can barely wait to enjoy hosting family and friends.
I AM SO HAPPY and SO EMOTIONAL. Soon, we will have a home of our own!
After five wonderful years, we are finally ready to buy a house. In the midst of this pandemic, we’ve been very cautiously keeping tabs on houses we like and with a realtor we’ve toured a few with covered faces, gloves, and disposable booties. I fell in love with a gorgeous 1950’s house and GUYS!!!!! It’s so precious I can’t wait to share about it but it’s still not ours. Yet.
After negotiating, our offer was finally accepted. We’re in a process. There’s inspections, discussions, escrow (learning about this all as I go), paperwork, closing, and then MOVING. I’m stressed that nothing about this process is in my control except being able to pay for it. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep in two days waiting to hear if our offer would be accepted on this precious vintage home. So I’ve been basically crawling in my skin all day from anxiety and forgot to eat breakfast this morning with coffee so I’ve been extra pacey hoping that the powers that be will let us get a house that is imperfectly perfect for us. There is a LOT more things that have to happen, and I need to CHILL OUT.
We’ve lived in a nice apartment for four years. I wanted a garden so badly, but nothing grows in our little yard in this apartment. Not enough light.
But this house! This house has so much natural light and its charming and so calming and I can’t wait to get out there and garden in that beautiful yard with adorable fruit trees and native plants and collect ALL the succulents and maybe a puppy (that’s MY plan if we don’t get preggo this year, hubby gives me eyebrows about it, but I need something to take on walks to get excess weight off, and he won’t let me take our cats). Also, if we are still quarantined, I would LOVE to work from home there, it would be so nice.
Anyway, I digress. We’re in the process of buying a house. It’s exciting, its stressful, it’s unknown. I’m taking you guys with me on the wild ride. As you can probably tell, I am emotionally invested in the house we put an offer on, and that’s a big “no-no” because all of the things that could fall through. But my heart and my hormones just don’t listen to reason right now. Hopefully it’s a sign that this cycle is a good one to conceive…
Monday is when we are getting the home inspected. Since it’s built in 1950, there could be plenty of things wrong with the house, and some things could definitely force us to not even have the chance to buy it. Or, give us the chance to get the house for cheaper than we offered. So that’s neat.
“Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear,” is the quote I wrote in my bullet journal for May. So I’m trying to not be too optimistic or pessimistic about the whole ordeal. It could go any way, and I can’t do a thing about it. It will teach me something about houses in the end.
Does anyone know how difficult it is to take off fuzzy FLOCKED wallpaper (WHY does it exist)? There’s some interesting wallpaper choices in this house we need to get rid of, and I’d like to get it done and painted before we move in, because I just CAN’T do the fuzzy wallpaper. It’s a brown and mauve plaid, and they even put it on the closet door. I love soft things but that wallpaper…. Gross!
I’ll update you on Monday evening if I’m not in excessive tears.
Sincerely, babbles&brains
Hi! I’m Tiara.
I am really excited to start my blog up with absolutely no focus, just life stuff and what I like.
A babble about me: I’m an English teacher at a brand new, really cool school program. I teach middle school and high school children (I know, a lot of people say “God bless you for teaching middle school,” and I have something to say about that soon). I’m in my second year of clearing my teaching credential, but I’ve been a teacher for five years. I LOVE my job.
I also roped myself into working toward an administrative credential and Master’s degree. AND my husband and I are trying to start a family. I’ve been through so much in life already and I am only 28. I bullet journal to keep my life from overwhelming my already cluttered thoughts and feelings. You can actually find my bullet journaling page @babblesandbrainsbujo.
I can hardly wait to get started. See you later!
babbles&brains 