It has been way too long since I blogged last. We've been all going and going this summer it seems. Exhausting though it may be, it is also really nice to be able to see family as often as we have this year. :)
It has been HOT here, averaging in the mid-90s and the Eastern Washington breezes I have been counting on seem to stop in the middle of the day. :( The house has no air conditioning, and all we have (which really has saved my life) is a small window air conditioner that Josh and Amber are letting us borrow. Even with that, however, the house stays roughly around 85F during the day. I have been fighting a constant battle against puffy ankles and am currently sitting here with my keyboard on my lap so I can have my feet elevated. I tried on my shoes for Brynne's wedding, again, and found that they are now too tight. Tim and I will have to either return them for a bigger size that I will likely never wear again after this pregnancy or go buy something at Walmart. Nuts.
It's really weird how much my body has changed...I always thought that, unless you gained a lot of weight during pregnancy, your body would stay pretty much the same and all you'd have is a big tummy and breasts (and extra padding here and there - in my case my hips and butt! :). Boy was I wrong! Boney places on me have even expanded - like the balls of my feet are now wider (thus the non-fitting shoes), my actual knuckles are thicker, and my ribcage has spread. I can still feel my ribs just as easily as I always have so I know that I haven't gained weight around there, but I might have to go up a bra size from a 34 to a 36 'cause I'm on the last little clasp and it's starting to get snug! Very odd. I hope my basic structure goes pretty much back to how it was or else I'm going to have to get all new shoes, rings and bras lol.
The nursery is pretty much complete. All I need now is baby clothes. We have nothing except a few jammies and lots of onsies. I'm hoping to be able to pick up a couple bags of clothes at Brynne's wedding - then I'll feel a lot more relaxed and ready. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff I need, and I'm sure I need more of some things and I probably have way too many of others, but I figure that we'll just wait and see what we end up using and go from there.
We have been continuing to work with Rain on meeting people in a sane way. She is slowly making progress. I think what we need to do now is hire someone to come over and ring our doorbell, come and go through the door, sit in our living room, etc. while we work with her. The problem has been that when we do have guests we want to focus on them and make them comfortable while all the while Rain is having a minor melt down at their feet or jumping up on them. It is getting very irritating and it's time for that to STOP.
On another Rain topic, we have run across a pretty big problem here in good ol' Washington state. People here are extremely prejudice against Pit Bulls and any dog that appears "pit-like" - such as Rain. From all the research we did before we got Rain, we knew there would be some prejudice and fear, but nothing as bad as what we're finding here in Washington - the land of labs and cow-dogs. In Georgia, Rain was practically worshipped and we couldn't bring her anywhere without feeling like we were walking with a celebrity. Pretty much every kennel there accepted her without question, and all was good. Now that we're here in Washington, we get dirty looks just for having the audacity to actually own one of "those dogs" - no matter that she's walking nicer on the leash then any of the other dogs around currently, or that she's being sweet and cute to us.
The latest saga is that we finally found a reputable kennel which accepts unaltered dogs, and we were hoping to board Rainy there for Brynne's wedding. They said on their website that they don't accept Pit Bulls and "some Pit Bull mixes", so we thought we'd be safe and call to make sure they would accept an American Bulldog. At first they had no problem with it at all - then they must have looked ABs up on the internet or something because we got a call back and said that they don't, after all, take AB's because they LOOK like Pits (they had originally thought we were talking about a dog that looked like an English Bulldog). They even said they would still not consider her after the personality and social evaluation they give all the dogs that come to their kennel, and would, under no circumstances, allow her to socialize with other dogs.
We were a little put off by the fact that they were turning her down for no other reason then her appearance without so much as considering her actual breed (AB not Pit) or HER as an individual, so we got in contact with the owner to find out what the deal was. He said that he, personally, has no problem with Pits or ABs and that "they make wonderful family dogs and can get along just great with other dogs." The problem lay with the owners of the other dogs who would call and complain - threatening to remove their own dogs from daycare - whenever they let a dog that looks the slightest like a Pit out to play. As I mentioned above, ALL the dogs that go to this kennel are individually evaluated, and the owners that complain know this but STILL have a problem based purely on appearance alone. It has passed the point of breed "racism" to now ANY dog that has a wide jaw, heavy musculature, etc. is a "killer dog" in their opinion. It's like people being scared, first of all, of any African Americans because there are some who are gangsters - and then not only that, but now throwing in ANYONE who has a dark tan and some black features. It's stupid.
People need to do a bit more research in their spare time. Heck, maybe they should actually read about Pits and ABs and not just the few Pits that make it onto the news - maybe they should look up the statistics on which breeds actually do most of the attacks on humans...They should maybe do some research on the problems facing Pits as far as being tortured and used as fighting dogs, then left to wander neighborhoods where kids are playing.
Anyway, off my soap box and rant :) I'm off to go switch the sprinkler. <3
It has been HOT here, averaging in the mid-90s and the Eastern Washington breezes I have been counting on seem to stop in the middle of the day. :( The house has no air conditioning, and all we have (which really has saved my life) is a small window air conditioner that Josh and Amber are letting us borrow. Even with that, however, the house stays roughly around 85F during the day. I have been fighting a constant battle against puffy ankles and am currently sitting here with my keyboard on my lap so I can have my feet elevated. I tried on my shoes for Brynne's wedding, again, and found that they are now too tight. Tim and I will have to either return them for a bigger size that I will likely never wear again after this pregnancy or go buy something at Walmart. Nuts.
It's really weird how much my body has changed...I always thought that, unless you gained a lot of weight during pregnancy, your body would stay pretty much the same and all you'd have is a big tummy and breasts (and extra padding here and there - in my case my hips and butt! :). Boy was I wrong! Boney places on me have even expanded - like the balls of my feet are now wider (thus the non-fitting shoes), my actual knuckles are thicker, and my ribcage has spread. I can still feel my ribs just as easily as I always have so I know that I haven't gained weight around there, but I might have to go up a bra size from a 34 to a 36 'cause I'm on the last little clasp and it's starting to get snug! Very odd. I hope my basic structure goes pretty much back to how it was or else I'm going to have to get all new shoes, rings and bras lol.
The nursery is pretty much complete. All I need now is baby clothes. We have nothing except a few jammies and lots of onsies. I'm hoping to be able to pick up a couple bags of clothes at Brynne's wedding - then I'll feel a lot more relaxed and ready. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff I need, and I'm sure I need more of some things and I probably have way too many of others, but I figure that we'll just wait and see what we end up using and go from there.
We have been continuing to work with Rain on meeting people in a sane way. She is slowly making progress. I think what we need to do now is hire someone to come over and ring our doorbell, come and go through the door, sit in our living room, etc. while we work with her. The problem has been that when we do have guests we want to focus on them and make them comfortable while all the while Rain is having a minor melt down at their feet or jumping up on them. It is getting very irritating and it's time for that to STOP.
On another Rain topic, we have run across a pretty big problem here in good ol' Washington state. People here are extremely prejudice against Pit Bulls and any dog that appears "pit-like" - such as Rain. From all the research we did before we got Rain, we knew there would be some prejudice and fear, but nothing as bad as what we're finding here in Washington - the land of labs and cow-dogs. In Georgia, Rain was practically worshipped and we couldn't bring her anywhere without feeling like we were walking with a celebrity. Pretty much every kennel there accepted her without question, and all was good. Now that we're here in Washington, we get dirty looks just for having the audacity to actually own one of "those dogs" - no matter that she's walking nicer on the leash then any of the other dogs around currently, or that she's being sweet and cute to us.
The latest saga is that we finally found a reputable kennel which accepts unaltered dogs, and we were hoping to board Rainy there for Brynne's wedding. They said on their website that they don't accept Pit Bulls and "some Pit Bull mixes", so we thought we'd be safe and call to make sure they would accept an American Bulldog. At first they had no problem with it at all - then they must have looked ABs up on the internet or something because we got a call back and said that they don't, after all, take AB's because they LOOK like Pits (they had originally thought we were talking about a dog that looked like an English Bulldog). They even said they would still not consider her after the personality and social evaluation they give all the dogs that come to their kennel, and would, under no circumstances, allow her to socialize with other dogs.
We were a little put off by the fact that they were turning her down for no other reason then her appearance without so much as considering her actual breed (AB not Pit) or HER as an individual, so we got in contact with the owner to find out what the deal was. He said that he, personally, has no problem with Pits or ABs and that "they make wonderful family dogs and can get along just great with other dogs." The problem lay with the owners of the other dogs who would call and complain - threatening to remove their own dogs from daycare - whenever they let a dog that looks the slightest like a Pit out to play. As I mentioned above, ALL the dogs that go to this kennel are individually evaluated, and the owners that complain know this but STILL have a problem based purely on appearance alone. It has passed the point of breed "racism" to now ANY dog that has a wide jaw, heavy musculature, etc. is a "killer dog" in their opinion. It's like people being scared, first of all, of any African Americans because there are some who are gangsters - and then not only that, but now throwing in ANYONE who has a dark tan and some black features. It's stupid.
People need to do a bit more research in their spare time. Heck, maybe they should actually read about Pits and ABs and not just the few Pits that make it onto the news - maybe they should look up the statistics on which breeds actually do most of the attacks on humans...They should maybe do some research on the problems facing Pits as far as being tortured and used as fighting dogs, then left to wander neighborhoods where kids are playing.
Anyway, off my soap box and rant :) I'm off to go switch the sprinkler. <3
July 6, 2008 at 1:26 PM
How frustrating about Rain! I think its ridiculous that they won't take a dog because it might somewhat resemble a Pit. Do you guys have another option for her?
The body does weird things during pregnancy doesn't it? It surprises me every time!