Flora and Gromit

It's been almost a month and both Flora and Gromit have been getting along fabulously!  It didn't start out that way, but things have definitely smoothed out and they've been playing together every day.

A week after we got back from Portland, we thought things were going well, so we put them together in an enclosure for about an hour.  We came back to this:

Flora had bit Gromit.  Well, we waited a few days and his eye started getting swollen, so the vet made a small incision above his eye to let some of the pressure out.  We were mean and made him wear the cone for a few days while it healed.  Even the vet wondered what he could have done that pissed off Flora enough to bite him.  Flora was very sorry and even tried to lick the wound to make it better for him. 

They both love to cuddle on the couch with me.

And the other day, I even caught them playing together!

We are just so happy that they're getting along, even if they got off to a rough start.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Eric and I traveled back to Portland for Thanksgiving weekend to visit our family and friends.  But before we were allowed to have any turkey, I decided to run the Give 'N Gobble 5k in Sherwood.  Eric, Andrea, Jessi and my Dad walked it together.

 They gave us these cool turkey hats that we all wore on the course.

 The siblings.

Here we all are finishing! (Note: Not in finishing order)

 Doesn't Dad look like he's dancing a little bit?

 My picture was faked since I finished like an hour before everyone else.  Ok, I'm not that fast, but I finished 20 minutes before everyone, so there wasn't anyone to take a picture.

So after the turkey trot, we headed over to Eric's parent's house and had dinner with his Grandparents and Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  The food was amazing, and since most of us did the 5k in the morning, we burned off enough calories to have seconds!  Right?  RIGHT?!?!?

At the end of the weekend, we got to finally bring my dog, Gromit, back to Tennessee to join Flora.  We had to get a special sized soft crate so we could carry him onto the plane with us.  Of course, no doggy flight is complete without a little bit of doggy downers (my favorite part), and he was nice and calm the entire day.  I wonder if you can use these all the time?

 Everyone kept coming over and saying hello to him and he was a perfect gentleman.  Gromit was wonderful as well!

We are so happy our little family is complete!

Sorry, its been a while...

*Turns around* Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you sitting there - for 6 weeks - waiting for me to put up a new blog post, because, you know, my life is so awesome.  :)

Well have I got a few posts for you to enjoy!  A lot has happened in the last little while, so I will be doing a few posts today so you can see what I've been up to!

Purple Heart

I apologize for kind of slacking on my blog duties.  I know you all are anxiously awaiting an update from me, since my life is so interesting.  haha

Anyway.

For those of you who don't know, my husband, Eric, was shot in both his legs while he was deployed in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday.  What a great Easter that was.  NOT. 

Long story short, he earned the Purple Heart.  It's awarded to American soldiers who are wounded in combat.  It took them 6 whole months to finally give it to him.

Eric didn't want a big to-do when he was awarded the Purple Heart, so only his Company, and Yours Truly were invited.  A Lt. Colonel presented the award to him.

Thanks Eric for blinking during that picture!

For those of you who have never seen a Purple Heart, its the award on the left.  The other two awards were presented to other soldiers, but Eric has also received them.  The one in the middle is called an Army Commendation Medal.  You pretty much get it for deploying.  The award on the right is called an Army Achievement Medal.  Eric's Company earned it because they won the Itschner Award, naming them the best Engineer Company in the entire US Army.  It was pretty exciting!

100,000 miles is a long way to go!

I hit a huge milestone last weekend.

I finally ran 10 kilometers.  For you Yankees out there, that's 6.2 miles.  It may not sound like a lot, but it DEFINITELY feels far while you're running it.  Especially the last .2 miles or so (as evidenced my the look on my face...or lack of one).

I didn't quite make my goal of 1:10, because of a ridiculous hill that I had to run TWICE, but I was within a few minutes of my goal, so I'm ok with that.

Besides, since it was my first 10k ever, I PRed!  For those of you who have no idea what that means, PR = Personal Record.  So it can only get better from here!

Now, I know what you're thinking...Marissa, does this mean you've finally run 100,000 miles?  Um, no.  Not even by a long shot.  I'm about 99,800 miles away from that goal.

But my car has driven that far as of this week!

Yup, in almost 6 years, I have driven over 100,000 miles in my little Civic (aka Mabel).  That's a lot of driving!  I think it was all that driving between Vancouver and Portland.  Each one of those trips was at least 700 miles!  Damn.

Clarksville Never Fails to Disappoint!

A few days ago, I took Flora to her first vet appointment.  Don't worry, nothing's wrong with her.  I just wanted to make sure, in case something's wrong, that they know her history and everything.

Well anyway, I was talking to the vet about walking her and she told me about the Clarksville Greenway.  It's a newly opened park on an old railroad line.  It's mostly shaded and paved.  The best part?  It's about 3.5 miles in and 3.5 miles back.  I instantly thought, "OH!  I can run there, instead of running in the middle of the street in my neighborhood!" 

And I guess I can walk Flora there. 

She just spent about 5 months on a farm in Indiana at a foster home, so she's not really used to a lot of car and "city" noises.  Not that I'd call Clarksville a city, but you get the idea. 

The Greenway would be perfect for her, since its super quiet with almost no noises.

I decided this afternoon that I'd take her there to check out the area for a short walk.  Obviously, I'm not going to take a 15 pound Boston Terrier on a 7 mile walk.  I'm not cruel like that.

So we pulled into the parking lot and there was a little hut with bathrooms.  There was even a doggy water fountain.  You push the button on top, and water comes out of a fountain into a bowl at "doggy level."  It was awesome!

Then we started walking on the paved path.

And I was thinking we'd walk about half a mile in, so it didn't make for too long a walk. 

Just past the quarter mile marker (there was markers, 5 points for the Greenway!)  I noticed this:

I thought, hm, that's weird.  There weren't any signs indicating that the path was closed at the parking lot?  What the hell? (-10 points for the Greenway...for those of you keeping score, that's a total of -5 points.)

How could there be construction?  This path is only a year old!

I was going to come here for a run on Sunday to switch up my super hilly, no sidewalk neighborhood, but those dreams have been dashed. 

I looked at the Clarksville City website and it doesn't even mention a closure.  Apparently it had been closed for 6 months or so over the winter because of a storm knocking a tree into a bridge on part of the trail.  Wouldn't it be finished by now? 

I'm disappointed, Clarksville.  Why must you always give me something that seems awesome and then take it away?

Flora the Explorer

For the last few months, my husband, Eric and I have been looking for a dog to adopt.  We decided before we officially started looking that we would rescue a dog, rather than get a new puppy.  One of the reasons we wanted an older dog is because of our dachshund, Gromit.  He just turned 5, so it was important to find another dog that is at the same activity level as him.  Another reason is because puppies are a lot of work and it would be nice to have a dog that already knew the basics, like walking on a leash, basic commands and house training.

Well, we have found that dog.  Her name is Flora and she is a 7 year old Boston Terrier.  Flora hasn't had the easiest life.  She has lived most of her life in a puppy mill in Missouri.  In May, she was voluntarily surrendered to the Southern Cross Boston Terrier Rescue group.  She was spayed and put into a foster home, along with a few other dogs. 

She is very sweet, and quiet (the complete opposite of Gromit).  She hasn't had a lot of human contact, but she is slowly warming up to us. Yesterday, we drove up to Terre Haute, Indiana to pick her up.  Then, we had a 4 hour drive with a nervous dog back to Clarksville.  She was pretty calm in the car and even fell completely asleep on my lap for a minute or two.  We stopped several times so she could stretch her legs and go potty, and we noticed she was very inquisitive and curious about everything.  We decided we would nickname her Flora the Explorer.

Last night, after she had calmed down, she made herself comfortable in my favorite blanket.

This morning, I discovered that she REALLY likes squeaky toys, and she would chase it down the hall and try to squeak it.  It was so great to see her play, since she had been very skittish yesterday after we picked her up.

All in all, we are very excited dog-parents, and we are looking forward to her opening up a bit more and becoming an awesome pet.  We are excited for the future!