31 Little Joys

For the month of December, I decided to look for something every day that brought me joy. While some days it was hard to choose just one happy thing, other days were more challenging (cough drops? gatorade?)!

I think the best two were when we filled out an application for Avalanche and then when we met him and decided to adopt him; his status on the FOHA site went from "available to adopt" to "pending adoption." 

snuggling under a Dachshund blanket

holiday drinks from Starbucks

candy cane cookies and cream ice cream

veggie burger from Habit

cute magnets for my car

putting up the tree

hanging out with C

my favorite hour every week -
my Challenge 24 Club

a holiday concert with framily

a holiday concert at The Kennedy Center

my favorite Christmas movie

peppermint cupcake cookies

toasted Chelsea on her birthday with
coffee - we miss her terribly

evening announcement about
school being closed the next day

"available to adopt"

found this gem at a used bookstore

"pending adoption"

was very sick and cough drops
were my best friend

still sick and drinking what felt
like gallons of gatorade

peppermint milkshake and all
Christmas episodes of The Office

finally watching Andor

loved this so much

found an adorable Valentine Dachshund
blanket while Christmas shopping

Avalanche's new rainbow leash arrived

one of my favorite gifts -
Eric Carle bombas socks

I am completely in love
with my nephew Max

a short road trip meant multiple
stops at Tim Hortons

awesome veggie dog at Portillo's

stuffed spinach pizza at Giordano's

The Bean
in Millenium Park in Chicago

Primanti Bros.
(the number set only went up to 30,
so I had to make my own 31!)

This little endeavor really helped me to focus on the good things happening every day, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant! Highly recommend!

Happy Tails to you!

Dog Parents Once Again

This is Avalanche! He is 11 years old and the newest member of our family!

It's been almost 15 months without a dog.

That's a long time. Too long, but I wasn't sure I was ready.

I'd been looking at rescue sites and shelters for the past few months, and I sent a few inquiries about various dogs, but none ended up being a good match. So I kept my eyes open and was hoping to find a older dog that just wanted a family to love them and when I came across Avalanche's profile, something felt different.

Our eight Dachshunds were small, brown-eyed, short-haired girls, and now our ninth dog is a Husky and the complete opposite in every way: a tall, long-haired, blue-eyed boy!

Fun Fact: my very first dog was a Husky when I was a baby!

The timeline for how all of this came to be:

December 14 - perusing the Friends of Homeless Animals site, I came across his photo

December 15 - C and I filled out an application for him

December 17 - we went to meet him and quickly decided we wanted to adopt him

December 20 - we had our home study/interview and got our final approval

Due to family - and in particular, B2 and S2's two dogs - visiting for Christmas, as well as us traveling for a few days after Christmas, we decided it would be in Avalanche's best interest to stay with the rescue until January 1 so he could come home to a quiet house in order to ease the transition for him.

We've really enjoyed buying supplies for him - new dog beds, bowls, collar, leash - because I donated most of what we had when Ginny passed away (the dog beds would have been too small for Avalanche anyway!).

A sweet coincidence...remember the Betty White challenge back in January - make a donation to an animal charity in her honor on January 17 on what would have been her hundredth birthday? After much deliberation, I chose FOHA, having always admired their work, and exactly eleven months later, on December 17, we were at their facility, meeting our dog!

He's 11 and we know that means we won't get to love him for as long as we would like, but we are going to give him the best life possible! We had Chelsea for almost 17 years and it still wasn't enough time. It never is. But we have a real soft spot for senior dogs and five of our eight Dachshunds were seniors when we adopted them: Molly was 14, Gunni was 12, Duchess was 15, Sadie was 12, and Riley was 10. I cherished every moment I was lucky enough to share with them. I know the same will be true with Avalanche.

I've thought so much about this quote since we lost Ginny:

"Once you have had

a wonderful dog,

life without one,

is a life diminished."

- Dean Koontz -

We are so excited to be dog parents once again and I have no doubt that our eight gals at the Rainbow Bridge are wagging their tails in approval! I will always, always, ALWAYS be a Dachshund mom, but now I'm a Husky mom, too!

this was his official pic and
I was immediately smitten...
very Paul Hollywood-esque :)

note the date

his new bed - the pattern is Crater Lake

his new name tag - a little nod to
our eight gals at the Rainbow Bridge

Happy Tails to you!

2022: A Look Back

It's hard to believe, but here we are at the end of another year. 2022 was not great. Were there awesome, happy moments? Of course. But overall, I really struggled. Under the weight of endless worries and responsibilities. Never feeling like I was doing enough. Always feeling like I was letting people down. In so many ways, I am fortunate and privileged, and I don't want anyone to think that by sharing when things aren't amazing, I'm looking for sympathy, because I'm not. I just think it's important to acknowledge that life is more than the perfect highlight reel most people see. So my real life share is that this year was really hard for me.

That being said, it was incredibly cathartic for me to go back through the year and revisit all the happy times that too often felt buried under the not-so-good times.

We were very lucky to take several trips throughout the year, and they were each incredible in their own way. Our favorite, though, was the rafting trip on the Colorado River. Our other trips included: WDW in January and again in April; a Disney Cruise in April and another in September; Puerto Rico in May; Dominican Republic in June; Las Vegas in July before the river trip and California in August after the river trip; a day trip to NYC in September; and a road trip to round out the year.

We also went to some fun events throughout the year: a Harry Potter exhibit; two Steven Page concerts; a Miami Marlins game; a New York Islanders game; a St. Louis Cardinals game; a Lantern Fest; a Chinese Lantern Festival; The Office Experience; Columbus Zoo Wildlights; and a Detroit Red Wings game. My best friend Dan also visited for a week during the summer and we went to lots of historical things together.

As for the aforementioned not-so-great things, C and I both got COVID over the summer and then we had to cancel trips to Toronto, Denver, Chicago, and Austin this fall. The biggest challenge of course...all that my mom went through this year, coupled with everything that followed when she was finally discharged from the hospital. This continues to be something we deal with every day.

When I was deciding what pictures to include in this post, I decided to choose a few of my favorite selfies and a few of my favorite travel photos to remind myself of the good times in 2022. I don't know how I would have gotten through this year without C; he is a great partner when things are going well, and an even greater one when things are not!

What a year; let's hope 2023 is filled with more joy and happiness than despair and grief! We definitely have some things we are looking forward to over the next twelve months, including trips to places we've been anticipating for a long time, as well as something wonderful tomorrow to kick off the new year!

Happy Tails to you!