Miss Daisy The Corgi

Phew! This weekend has been crazy! We got our puppy, Daisy!

We drove out around 4:30am because I didn't want us to drive home tired in the dark. 

***This is another long post! But don't worry there are tons of puppy photos!***

Day 1

It was pitch black when we started our trek. For some reason we kept talking about serial killers. I had taken a criminal law class in high school and learned about this stuff. We would watch gruesome documentaries in class and learn about John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Ed Gien. I've always been intrigued by criminal/medical mysteries. I also took a forensic science class and anatomy in high school and really liked that. I thought about being a Medical Examiner but once I failed chemistry, I knew it wasn't the right path. We kept joking with each other that a hitchhiker would come out and want a ride from us. 

We also drove through some wine farms. Wayne really liked the tall trees and wanted me to take a photo.

AHHH! SO EXCITED!

We got there about 15 minutes later than we expected because it was raining really hard. But Cindy, the breeder was waiting and okay with it. It's so crazy how much bigger they are! So cute!!

We got inside and the breeder gave us the paperwork and saw Daisy. My heart melted seeing her! We were really happy that we found Cindy. She gave Daisy a kiss goodbye and even gave us, a purple harness and a little bag with toys and dog food! That was so thoughtful of her!

The car ride wasn't that bad. I held her in my arms for a bit to get her to calm down. Then I put her in a huge Amazon box we had. I didn't want to bring the crate. It was massive and made for a 20b dog. Which obviously, Daisy isn't (yet.) This was the look she'd give me...I don't think she quite trusted us yet.

Sniffing around...

But when I talked to her, she'd start to smile. Again, my heart just melts when I see this face!

She pretty much slept 80% of the time. It was quite fascinating. We thought we'd have to stop every hour to take her to the bathroom. 

Such a sweetie.

We all were happy to get home. Daisy explored the apartment and all the toys we bought her. 

She's responding to me really well. I think Wayne was a little concerned at first that she didn't pay attention to him. I told him though he was driving the whole time and was "Miss Daisy's" chauffeur. Get it? Driving Miss Daisy...Anyway, that she needed some time to get to know him. Since she was in the back seat with me for 4.5 hours. 

Puppy parent selfie!

Mr. Big Puppy & Daisy

Snoozes next to Mama.

Snuggles with Daddy.

We got her a "Bark-ati" Bottle toy. She fell asleep next to it like this. LOLS. She looks like she's passed out with alcohol. 

When we were ready to go to bed. We put her stuffed animals around her. Before we left Cindy's we had her Doggie Mama and litter mates run around with the toys. We think she's homesick. I slept out on the couch to be near her. She didn't cry or whine a lot. We've been using our outside porch and pee pad interchangeably. She had a few accidents in the house, but they were our error. We didn't react fast enough. I've noticed she's pretty smart. She perks up to her name after one day. 

Day 2

Daisy woke us up around 3:00am and wanted to play. She's a little fur ball. 

Mama! Play with me!

We both cashed out after playing around 9am. This puppy is adorable but a little exhausting! Totally worth it though.

We found she really likes napping near the couch.

LOLS! I brought her up on the couch with me and she fell asleep. I think she just wanted to be with someone. 

Just woke up and all smiles!

We took her out for a walk. There was glass on a large portion of the sidewalk. So I carried Daisy in my bag for a little while. We found out that she likes being held in my arms instead.

Smiling after a walkie.

Daisy and her Daddy

Chewing a fresh bone

Snoozes

I flipped the camera on my iPad so she could see herself. I don't think she liked it.

Bone chewing and hung out in the cage!

We put the caged gate near our bed. She wasn't happy to look upwards at us but eventually got over it. She was able to sleep after hearing our voices and breathing. 

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Emma

Soy Sauce Marinated Ribs

I realize I could never be a full time blogger. I get too busy and then forget to write a post. There's just been so many things going on.
***Just a heads up, this will be a long post!***

About a month ago we went out to Oregon and met with a breeder. We're excited to say we're getting a puppy! So, how did we magically decide we wanted to get a puppy? Well, we knew we were going to get a dog together sometime. Wayne grew up having a Boston Terrier while I grew up having a German Shorthaired Pointer. I would absolutely love to have another GSP but they're bigger dogs and need a backyard to play around in. I know some people keep big dogs in the city but I would feel bad not having a yard and safe area for the GSP to play in. Boston Terriers are nice dogs, but we were both drawn to corgis because they're cute as hell.

We also realized that there will never be a perfect time in life. We wanted to get a dog but then we moved to Seattle. Then both of our siblings were getting married in the same year. It was a lot and we both didn't want to bring a dog into our lives only to keep it kept in a cage while we had prior commitments. So, we decided after Wayne's sisters wedding to adopt a dog and finally bite the bullet.

I did some research on breeders and found most of the local Washington ones had a waitlist. We weren't willing to wait around so I looked outside of the state. I didn't want to have a dog shipped on a plane to us and luckily I found a breeder on the border of Oregon and Washington. I was happy when I talked to her because she was prompt in getting back to us and asked us if we'd want to see the puppies in person. I took this as a good sign because I wanted to talk to the breeder, see the momma dog's temperament and see where they grew up.

The trek out to meet the breeder took us 4 1/2 hours. Most people wouldn't do this for a dog, but we're not like most people.  :)

There were actually a lot of wine farms.

It was kind of neat to see all the farms and trees. When we pulled up to the Breeder's ranch she greeted us and showed us the first litter.

They were so tiny and adorable! We were taken aback by how cute they were! The breeder said she has been raising corgi's for 12 years and that only a few female puppies were left. The momma corgi of the first litter was a bit cautious near us. She would let us touch her puppies but she kept a watchful eye on them. I also noticed the puppies that were available weren't really responsive. The ones that were responsive were the ones that were already taken.

This little gem, was called Lexi. She was all over me when I walked in. She was very friendly and wanted to be petted. We then asked the breeder if we could see the second litter (Lexi's litter.) I was drawn to her temperament as she was very calm but friendly towards us. This is her smiling.

There were only two females available. One was the runt of the litter and the other one was the puppy we went with. I wanted to take the runt just because she was so small, but the breeder said she wasn't sure how she would be health wise. Plus, I noticed the runt wasn't really responsive. We decided it might be best to take the other female. The puppy we chose is the one with the white diamond spot on her back.

After we gave the deposit, we drove off and felt pretty good. It was nice knowing the breeder wanted to meet us and make sure the dogs were going to go to a home with nice people. She also mentioned one of the puppies was going to California and had to be shipped via air. She was a bit stressed about shipping such a small puppy. I would be too if I had to do that. The farm was nice too. She kept the dogs in the house with the air conditioning. She said she usually would keep them outside but it had been 90's and higher that past week and didn't want them to get too hot. It felt reassuring that she cared a lot about these puppies. 

Now, a year ago, Wayne and I made a bet. I wanted a female puppy while Wayne wanted a male puppy. I am a Detroit Tigers fan while he's a Chicago White Sox fan. So we made a bet whomever did better than the opposite team would get to chose the sex and the name. Wayne wanted to name the dog, "John Wayne the corgi" whereas, I wanted to name the dog, "Clementine the corgi." At the time we decided to get a dog, the Tigers were doing better than the White Sox. So we went with a female puppy. It actually worked out perfectly that the breeder had female puppies available. Once we met the puppy though, I realized that Clementine didn't fit her. If she had been caramel colored it would have worked. But since she'll be a tricolor corgi, we had to choose a new name. Wayne wanted "Diamond" but it didn't really roll off the tongue quick enough. We finally came up with "Daisy." 

In the past few weeks, we've gathered some puppy supplies. We found it hilarious to get her sheep stuff since corgis are herding dogs. 

Here's her dog collar and dog id tag.

I found this stuffed corgi on amazon and had to get it! Omg, about died laughing when I got it in the mail. It's so huge! It'll be so much bigger than Daisy! 

My new job is going well. So far, I like the people and my boss is really nice. It's a bit stressful since things are as structured. The HR Business Partner's want me to help with a lot of things on their side while my boss wants me to help her with compensation/benefits stuff. We're kind of waiting till the Director of HR comes back from vacation to align us so hopefully it will be a bit smoother. 

 Last weekend we went to Chicago for Wayne's sisters wedding. Right when we got off the plane, we had maybe 30 minutes to relax in the hotel and then were whisked away to go to the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal was held at Medieval times. I never heard of it. But apparently, it's the cool thing to do in Illinois... It pretty much is a big tacky white castle in the middle of the suburbs. You go in and have a meal and watch a jousting performance. The meal was chicken legs, corn, tomato soup etc. while the entertainment was  like...think WWE jousting style. It was okay, but it was kind of felt like it was made for middle school kids. But his little sister and fiancé looked really happy - which is all that mattered.

The next day after the rehearsal dinner, we then had to go to a family luncheon. Then Saturday was the wedding at 10am and lasted till about 5:30pm. Wayne has a huge family, so I mainly hung out with his cousins and Wayne's older brother. I was kind of nervous we would get put under the gun about when we were going to get married. But luckily only a few family members asked! I guess to them it's weird for a couple to be together for 4 years without being engaged.

One good thing is my parents got invited. I got to see them a little which was nice. I wish I could have hung out with them more, but they'll be coming to visit Seattle in September. The wedding ended around 5:30pm and then, after the wedding they had a big family bbq. It was nice to hang out with his cousins. They're really chill people and fun. So in short, the trip was long and exhausting but it was a nice time overall.
**Phew! Almost there I swear!** 

Then yesterday, we went hiking on Bandera Mountain. We left pretty early the sun was slowly rising. This was a pretty rough hike. We both felt pretty out of shape and weren't mentally prepared for it. We ate a lot of food during the weekend of the wedding.

He looks like a gangster-wannabe that secretly enjoys hiking. LOLS!

All ready to go!

Pink mountain heather flowers - thanks to my mom for helping me figure out what these were.

I think this is a Scarlet Paintbrush Flower. 

After our hike we relaxed a bit and made ribs for dinner.  I grabbed the recipe from Sauver magazine.  They are Hawaiian-style pork ribs and are like a sweeter version of kalbi. 

Here are the ingredients:

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp. sesame oil

1/4 tsp red chili flakes

4 cloves garlic

1 2" piece of ginger

3lbs pork baby back ribs

3 scallions

The baby back ribs were huge. So we had to cut them in half. 

We then mixed all the ingredients together and marinated the meat for a while. After they soaked a bit we baked them in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Then, I boiled the leftover marinate and basted the ribs. After, I basted the ribs we then baked them for another 15 minutes. 

Photo of the ribs just out of the oven. They looked delicious and were yummy.

Ta-da! The finished product. I also added some rice, and steamed broccoli with blue cheese dressing. You can find the recipe here. Stay tuned for more adventures and the arrival of Miss Daisy!

Emma