Wordless Wednesday: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Throw Back Thursday: How It All Started

In honor of Throw Back Thursday (and because I didn’t get a chance to finish my post about Sarge!) I wanted to share one of my very first posts, before most of you even knew M&M&NK existed. I hope it helps you understand our beginnings with Nola and why we started the blog (plus, there are cute puppy pictures of Muffin). Enjoy!

This is the face that started it all. We had been talking about getting a puppy for months. Then we found Nola, who at the time was called Camilla, and our journey began.

It was the day before Halloween. She was being transferred from a shelter in Alabama (like so many others), so we met the transport truck at a park and ride in New Hampshire. Of course we were the first in line, because as you’ll come to find out, I am a little bit of a worrier and like to be prepared. As she was handed to me off the truck the barrage of kisses began, and they haven’t stopped since.

Nola was our first dog ever. My family had a dog when I was little, but sadly she was hit by a car before I was old enough to really remember her. I have always been an animal lover, but my brother was allergic, so we could never have pets in the house. Jim’s family never had pets. We really had no idea how to train and take care of a puppy, but as stated above, I am a worry wart like to be prepared so I did all sorts of research before Nola came.

There was a point a couple weeks in when we thought we were over our heads with her. We were DINKS (dual income no kids) so having our schedules revolve around something other than ourselves was a tough adjustment. But, we figured it all out. We took training classes, learned all the places to go on and off leash, made mistakes, called the vet hundreds of times, and asked for advice from everyone we knew with dogs. Through it all I took tons of pictures and told all my colleagues at work every little cute, aggravating, silly and naughty things that Nola did.

This blog is a way for me to chronicle the trials and tribulations of Nola and everything we will go through in the future without having to bore my co-workers anymore. (To be fair, I work with pretty much all women, and the majority of them have kids. Telling my stories about Nola is really the only way I can relate to all their boring interesting stories about their children.) We have learned so much from her, not only about how to train puppies, but about how much we both love dogs and how much an animal can change your perspective on love. I consider blogs picture books for adults, so I promise to keep posts relatively short and focus on the photos I’ve taken of our adorable pup. I am excited to have a place to remember Nola’s puppy days (she is 18 months old now) and to write about all the new and exciting experiences we will have with her. I hope you all enjoy and fall in love with Nola as much as we did!

Trick? Or Treat?

image: http://www.wired.com/insights/2012/10/byod-trick-or-treat/

It’s not a trick, we actually have a post! It’s been eerily quiet around M&M&NK lately. So quiet in fact, it’s spooky. Did the mere presence of an actual post scare you? I bet you didn’t expect it! While I haven’t been blogging much lately, I have been spending lots of QT with my two adorable pups. But, I couldn’t bare to let a holiday go by without a themed photo shoot. The Mr. doesn’t like when I put costumes on the dogs, so I went for a more subtle Fall theme. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween from Nola & Sarge!

Oh, and the pups got LOTS of treats while taking these photos!

Nola Muffin Monday: I’m 3!

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since Mom let me write my own posts, mostly because I don’t have thumbs so she has to do all the typing. She also told me to apologize because she was a ‘slacker’ last week and didn’t post a single thing! I didn’t mind though, it meant that she was spending more time with me!

Anyway, last weekend I turned 3 and Mom and Dad had a party for me! I’m going to tell you all about it. Besides all the hats Mom made me wear, it was a good day!  Mom didn’t go to work so she could spend all day with me! We went swimming in the morning at the lake. Mom brought my life jacket this time and I loved it. It makes me feel so much more confident and I just swim around exploring instead of always just swimming out and going right back in. I even swam out to the float and climbed up on it and sat in the sun with mom for a bit. When I was ready to swim some more, I jumped rihgt off and I didn’t go under! I love my life jacket.
Then, later in the day Memere, Pepere and my Uncle Derek and Aunt Liz came over for a barbeque. I love when my family eats dinner outside, they always give me yummy parts of what they’re eating. Mom always says it’s a bad habit, but her and Dad still give me some when I stare at them long enough.
I also got a ton of presents, like a new collar and a hide-a-bird toy. These toys are my favorite, I also have a rabbit in a hat and a hide-a-squirrel I got for my 2nd birthday!

My favorite present was my bone. It took me an hour to eat, but it was yummy!
Oh, and the cookie, that was yummy too.
Birthdays are so much fun! Toys, bones, cake and all my favorite people….can’t wait for next year!

Hanging Around

The Mr. has been wanting a hammock for a while now. I have had my eye on an L.L. Bean one, but when you add the stand and shipping costs, it had a price tag of over $400 and I just couldn’t pull the trigger. As luck would have it, a couple of weeks ago when the Mr. took his mom to Christmas Tree Shoppe (not his favorite place to go, but he’s a good son!), he found one with a stand for only $99! After we set it up and tried it out, Nola decided she would like to test it too.
Turns out, it has now become her favorite place to lay. It takes a little bit of work to keep the hammock still when she gets up, but once she settles in, she falls right asleep!
I think she also likes that it is high off the ground, which means Sarge can only get so close.
Of course, we only let her up on the hammock when we are around to supervise. We wouldn’t want her to get hurt jumping on or off!
I was never a big hammock person, but after sharing one with my favorite pup (shhh, don’t tell Sarge), I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a summer afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday: Stuck Between a Couch Cushion and a Hard Place