Flatulation or Flagellation?

When I was in seventh grade, the ELP teacher came into our class to recommend some books to us. He read a few excerpts aloud to get us hooked. In one book, he came across the word "flagellation." Giggles erupted across the room. Seventh grade boys may not know many four syllable words, but "flatulation" is one of them, and its auditory resemblence to "flagellation" was just too much to handle. Since then, the two words have always connected themselves in my mind.

The other day, when I was flipping through an issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray, I came across an amusing and possibly helpful tidbit I thought I'd share with you:

"Yep, we're going there. Look, the truth is, some of our favorite foods have gassy side effects. Add these natural remedies to the pot, and you'll save your butt.

Toss a handful of capers into tomato sauces.

Add caraway seeds to sauerkraut and coleslaw.

Boil fresh bay leaves with grains and dried beans.

Season broccoli and brussels sprouts with fresh chives."

Second-hand Cooking Magazines

I've just finished going through about a year's worth of Rachael Ray magazines, rereading them and cutting out the vegetarian recipes I wanted to try. I feel bad just throwing them away since there's so much meat left to them, excuse the pun, so if you'd like to look through some picked over RR recipes, let me know. Pretty soon, I'll also have some Taste of Home Simple and Delicious magazines that will still have some good recipes left in them, if you're interested in those as well.

Fitz: Mommy's Cleaning Helper

About a month ago, I set some goals to improve my housekeeping habits. My motivation to get each room in order and painted was to tell myself I could get a dog when it was done. Now, I have a dog! So, one might think that my house was clean and my walls were blue, green, and tan. Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. We haven't painted for over a month, and I haven't met my goals for things I wanted to make sure got done by the end of each day.

However, I realized when using a dog as a motivator, I made a mistake. "I can get a dog," doesn't keep my house clean. "I have a dog," does.

Here are some things we've learned the hard way to keep out of reach:
-Dexter's underwear
-Dexter's undershirts
-Pajama pants
-Cardigans
-Bras (these are filched from on top of the dresser--they're a great chew toy and worth the effort to get)
-Plastic cups
-Travel mugs
-Pens
-Make-up brushes
-Lip gloss
-Empty food wrappers
-Empty tupperware

One thing we DO try to leave on the floor as a distraction while we're gone is Fitz's kong. This toy is great because it's durable, and you can stuff whatever treats your dog likes best inside. At first, Fitz wasn't very good at getting the fillings out, so he'd lose interest. Then, he got better and was persistent for a really long time. Now, he's really good at getting out the big treats we've been jamming inside, so I think we're going to have to switch to filling it with peanutbutter and smashed treats to make it a little more interesting. Thanks Aunt Amy for such a fun toy!

I have improved as a result of setting my goals, however. I (usually) don't wait as long to do the dishes, and I at least have to have few enough dirty dishes to keep out of reach down in the sink. I'm even better about picking things up off the floor and wiping surfaces off since when I cook I always have a wet-nosed helper nearby. I definitely put my clothes in the hamper or closet, especially clothes I want to wear ever again.

I've even started making my bed every day because it's one of Fitz's favorite relaxing spots, and I think that between the sheets is definitely one place I want to avoid massive amounts of puppy hair. Keriann helped me meet my goal of getting each room unpacked and picked up. She coached me as I unpacked in our office, which ended up only taking an hour and a half. If I had known it would be that quick...

My new goals:
1. Do lots of little organization projects around the house so that staying picked up is easier. And so our closet doesn't look like this:2. Post (and follow!) a weekly cleaning list.
3. Paint the rest of the house!

Fitz's Pictures

For lots of picture of our first day with Fitz, view our Picasa album here.

Just for an update: Fitz was a very good boy at PetCo and has a tag with his new name and address!

Fitzwilliam Jacobs

Photo by Aunt Keriann

Gustav = Fitz

After a long and painful deliberation, we finally came to the decision that our new puppy's name is Fitzwilliam. Colonel Fitzwilliam is a minor character from Pride and Prejudice that we both really like, and Fitzwilliam is Mr. Darcy's first name. We also think Fitz sounds a little bit Irish, and he's got reddish hair. We actually liked Gustav pretty well, but we wanted him to have a name from his new mom and dad and a name that was often used in Scandinavian royalty just didn't seem to fit his personality.

He's been such a good boy all night! It will be interesting to see what he's really like once he gets more comfortable here. He loves looking out our sliding glass doors at what's happening in the back yard (like his cousin Pollyanna), and he didn't beg at the table at all during supper. He just laid on the floor like this:

At first, he wasn't interested in his chewy. His analysis at the shelter said that he ignored them. Since then, he's been gnawing on it all night.

Now, all we need is a tag with his name, and it will be official!

Puppy Preparations

After we left the animal shelter last night, we went on a date at Graze, a restaurant on the ped mall in Iowa City. I had bought a $25 gift certificate to Graze on Restaurants.com for $4, so it was a pretty decent deal. We had the Pesto Veggie Pizza, Spinach and Three Cheese, and the unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you are) named Half-A** Ice Cream Pie. We were a little too distracted by the prospect of spending Wednesday night with Gustav to enjoy much time looking into each other's eyes, but that was just fine.

Afterwards, we picked up Keriann and went to PetCo, Gordman's, and Target to get our puppy supplies, which are shown above. (I'd noticed when I went to Gordman's last week looking for something else that they had a decent puppy section.) From PetCo, we bought some Natural Balance dog food (which uses organic free-range chicken), some Bear Biscuits (which are apparently also fed to bears in zoos), some blueberry, yogurt, and almond flavored bite-sized treats (which I think might be a little too girly), a harness, a rope for tug-of-war, and puppy shampoo (which came with a free pet perfume, which I left on the shelf for girly dogs). At Gordman's, Dexter found a cool tire-shaped frisbee toy. At Target, which we realized has better prices and selection than PetCo, we got a green argyle collar and leash, a stake and spring chain for our backyard, food and water bowls, tennis balls, and rawhide bones.

We read that Gustav didn't seem to be super interested in toys, but we wanted to have a few around. We saw him bring a tennis ball into his kennel yesterday and heard that he likes to play fetch. We'll have to go play in g-ma and g-pa's backyard this weekend!

We're going to pick him up today at 4:30, but still haven't decided on a name. Pictures of Gustav at home to come!

Our Growing Family

Dexter and I will hopefully be welcoming a new member into our family tomorrow. His name is Gustav (we may change this) and he is a vizsla/retriever mix. We met him today at the Iowa City animal shelter and are sad we had to leave him there overnight as part of the application process. Hopefully, he'll be ours by supper-time Wednesday night!

If you'd like to see more pictures of Gustav or read about his agility skills, you can go to www.icanimalcenter.org, click "Adoption" on the top, "Dogs" on the left side, and "Gustav" in the center of the page.