The Past 21 Days Through My iPhone

Yesterday I filled you in on why I've been missing for the past 21 days. In those 21 days a lot has changed/happened. I have also been trying to keep myself busy other than going to work and class in order to keep my mind off of all the stressfulness that comes along with trying to find a new place that will allow a 70 pound puppy. So here's what I've been up to in the past 21 days, as seen from the iPhone camera.

I went to two different Cardinals games because Cardinals, duh. The first one was a day game and they lost so that sucked, but we got some cool jerseys even though mine went straight to my Dad since they were only handing out one size. Oh, and you had to be 16+ in order to get the jersey so when I walked in and stuck out my hand to take one of course the guy said "uh how old are you". Really? -_- Anyways, the second game was a night game and it was Star Wars theme night. I've never seen the movies but Ben and Ethan love them so they really enjoyed all of that. Ethan even got to meet Darth Vader which he thought was the coolest thing ever. Going to a game with him was seriously so fun. We had a yelling competition, he decided that my favorite player is also his favorite player (Matt Carpenter), and his favorite thing to say when someone got a hit was "Yeah baby!". Adorable.

I jumped on that #Shareacoke bandwagon and found my name and Nick's name. It's super rare that I find just Becca and not Rebecca so obviously I had to get it. I tried telling Nick these were not for drinking but his ended up gone that night. Mine is still sitting on the counter because I refuse to let him drink it.

The 14th was Amy's birthday and we went to Texas Roadhouse as a family because Carrie gets a 30% discount so where else would we go? Amy really enjoyed getting on the saddle thing and having our server yell her name and her birthday for everyone in the place to hear. Our server was one of Carrie's friends and one of the guys who lived on my floor freshman year so he made sure to make Amy extra embarrassed. It was cute.

My cousin Amber and her husband Brandon moved back to the STL after being in Chicago for the past four years so I headed over there to see their new place. It's amazing. It's a super awesome apartment in downtown and you can see Busch from their patio. Seriously, I'm extremely jealous. But when you're a doctor and have worked your butt off for the past million years in school I guess you can afford that kind of stuff. We went over and ate at Bailey's Range Burgers and Shakes and it was amazing. It's all homemade, even their ketchup and cheese sauce. I got the mac n cheese burger and I want to go back right now while I'm writing this to eat one. Their cheese sauce was to die for as well. If you're ever in St. Louis, I highly recommend checking them out. 

Sunday we had family come in that I had never met which is really surprising. But these were my Mom's cousins and they live in different states so it's kind of hard to meet some of them. It was fun though because we all just relaxed by the pool and hung out and ate more than I should have ever eaten in one day. But that's what happens when my family gets together. We eat. A lot. This is also the only picture I got and because Ethan loves me so much he made the cutest face for the camera.

So other than moving and figuring out life itself, that is what I've been up to. Hopefully now that things are beginning to settle down I'll be around these parts more often. My classes end August 6th and I will be starting my internship sometime in August. And then hopefully finding an actual job where I make big girl money and can afford things other than mac n cheese and cereal. Joking, kind of.

I'm Still Here

Last time I talked to you I had just left Luke for what was suppose to be a month until Nick and I found a new place. But Luke had other ideas. He decided after about two weeks that he had had enough and it was time to come home. Nick had left that Saturday with his family to go to Florida, including his Aunt who we had left Luke with. So after she left he started being a brat and by that Wednesday night I was told it was time to take the drive up to Chicago to get him. So Thursday morning I woke up early and drove 8 hours there and back to bring the little brat home with me. To say he was happy to see me is an understatement. He did the little cry that dogs do when they are excited to see someone and even though I was frustrated that I had to go up and get him, it made my heart melt with how happy he was to see me.

He hadn't been eating well while he was up there and when I got him home he was doing the same thing. He would barely eat and his poop was awful. I'll spare you the lovely details of all that, but it was the worst I've ever seen it. The next morning we got back in the car and drove to meet Nick and his family a little over an hour away. When we got home we tried to feed Luke and he still wasn't having any of it. So for the first few days after he was home, this is how we fed him. He is such a spoiled brat.

Monday we found out that our new place was hopefully going to be move in ready by Friday, which was a super nice relief because we were once again hiding Luke at our old place. He has started eating like his normal self, and drinking like his normal self as well. Which means spilling food everywhere and putting water into his mouth and just letting it drip all over the place. When we got the okay on Friday that we could move into our new apartment we were so excited. So Luke got to go spend Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa's while Nick and I moved our entire place by ourselves. We rented a two bedroom house U-haul and couldn't even fit our two bedroom apartment into it. But we did a pretty good job of getting almost everything packed away in it. I couldn't even walk the next day I was so worn out and sore from moving everything.

Luke had to get every toy out at Grandma and Grandpa's but because Grandpa had taken him to the lake that day he was too tired to play with any of them. When Luke finally made it to our new apartment he had no idea what was going on. All of his stuff and all of our smells were in the new place but it wasn't his old home. He inspected everything, at least three times each, and finally decided that he approved of the new place. It's all hardwood floors so he's having a difficult time adjusting to running and trying to stop but it makes for a hilarious time for me.

We just have a few things left at our old place and I still have to clean it all, but we are pretty much all settled into the new apartment. The best part is that Luke is allowed there. Coming in a close second is the fact that this place is brand new, with all new appliances and a washer and dryer. I think I've already done like 10 loads since we moved in on Saturday. I can't wait to start decorating it. I had to pick out a shower curtain because our last place had a door for the shower and picking that out was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. But it made me want to totally decorate the bathroom and every room in the apartment. Hopefully I can actually do that and post pictures instead of saying I'll do it and never doing it so never having any pictures to post on here. Hashtag fail.

So that is where we are at on the home front. We have a new place. No Internet or TV. But we have a place that Luke is allowed to be. Seriously, he is so spoiled. We just totally up and moved into a new place just for him. I hope he appreciates it. :).

This Really Sucks

Last week Luke got out of the house and started barking at two men walking down the street. His bark does seem pretty mean, so I understand if these two grown men were afraid. But Nick quickly ran after him and apologized to the two men and they went on their way. We thought nothing of it except that we really needed to start getting Luke into training classes so he doesn't do that anymore. But on Wednesday we got a phone call from our landlord that someone had called and complained that we had a pit bull on our property. Obviously it was these two men because no one else has ever said anything. Because of this the landlord told us he had to be gone that day. No 24 hour thing, no one week thing, nothing. It had to be that day. Thankfully we were going up to Nick's parents that next day so we just decided to leave a day early. But we couldn't bring Luke back with us unless we found another place to live so we started searching. 

We haven't found anything permanent yet except for a small place in my hometown which is about 40 minutes from where we both work and where I go to school. So that would be super inconvenient but it would work if it meant we could have Luke with us. I have called 10 different places that allow big breeds around our area but the discriminate against certain breeds and because Luke resembles a pit bull, no one will allow us to have him. We have found a place that we are going to look at tonight that allows big dogs like him so hopefully this works out. 

In the meantime we had to leave Luke up north with Nick's aunt. It is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. He is my baby. He's like my child. And you all know how much of a crazy dog mom I am. And he has the worst separation anxiety of any dog I've ever met. So that made it so much harder. 

So from Wednesday night until Monday morning we soaked up all the time we could with him. He had no idea what was going on, obviously, so he was probably just enjoying all of this extra attention he was getting. Not that we don't give him an ungodly amount of attention already, but this time it was different. If he did something bad I would just simply tell him no, instead of saying it in a stern voice. If he wanted to cuddle and I was working on my laptop, I would move my laptop so he could have all the room he wanted on me instead of telling him no, I'll cuddle later. He got some extra treats though out the weekend, and he got to run a lot more because we were at Nick's mom's who has a fenced in yard. 

Driving to Nick's aunts house with him was so hard. He was so excited, just like every other time, to be in the car and to be able to stick his head out the window. Again, he had no idea what was going on. When we got to her house he was so excited to be able to run around. She has so much land and another dog who loves to play despite being 11, so Luke was in heaven. But when it came time for Nick and I to leave he wasn't in heaven anymore. He tried getting out with us and when I ran back to put his leash with his food I could hear him scratching at the door and just whining. It broke my heart. We both cried on the way home and last night when we went to sleep. Luke is usually always right there in between us cuddled up when it is time to go to bed. So it really sucked last night. I want to constantly be in contact with Nick's aunt asking how he's doing but I know that would be insane so I'll just keep to about 10 text messages a day. Kidding, kind of.

Hopefully we are able to find a place soon because I don't know how much longer I can take being away from him and it's only been a little over 24 hours. I never knew it would be this hard to leave him but I grew attached to him the second we brought him home and he's been attached to my side ever since then. Giving him away wasn't an option we even wanted to think about so we are doing whatever we can in order to get him back as soon as possible.

You may all think I'm a crazy dog mom, and I will totally agree with you. But Luke is like our child and we love him with everything we have. We would do anything for him and even though he doesn't realize what's going on, I hope he knows how much we love him. And I hope he calms down and just enjoys this little vacation he's going on.