Tuesday, October 30, 2012

This Time of Year

I love this time of year!! Fall is hands down the best season of them all...unfortunately we don't live in a place that has seasons!! It's the worst! Bladdy Blah, there could be worse places to live and we live in one of the most beautiful places in the country - WHATEVER! It's been a year and a half of no real seasons! What is this nonsense? I still like this area, but I'm getting more and more ready to just get out of here!  Luckily, everything pumpkin still tastes good, and all my favorite tv shows are back on.  Silver lining!

Tomorrow is Halloween and since we actually live in a house I'm hoping that we get Trick-or-Treaters this year!  We've got good candy - Sour Patch Zombie Kids, mini Snickers, M & Ms, Twix, and mini Reese's! No eggs on our house ;).  Can't wait to see some cute costumes!  I wanted to get Archer a costume, but I think I'll put him out back so he's not barking when kids ring our door, and scaring them away!  I'm planning on doing a Harry Potter marathon...excited!!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sometimes

Sometimes I laugh when I think about how a year ago I was contemplating having a baby.  Or, that we would have a baby after we moved to the next duty station.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  LOL!  We are so not ready to be having a baby, and I am definitely not ready to give up even more of my freedom.  Some days I still get baby fever..usually after someone I know announces their pregnancy.  I get ideas of a little Jacob/Robin hybrid...and then I come to my senses!  No sleep, lots of crying, even less money.  I still want kids so badly, but man! right now is not the time.  Teehee! Hormones sure can be crazy!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Birth Number Two!

My second client had her baby!  Out of respect for her privacy, I won't post many details...but I will say that it was my first vaginal delivery, and it was amazing!  I'm still really really new to this, so I needed some help when it started to get really intense.  Luckily I have an amazing mentor who was able to come in for a couple of hours, and really give me some hands on guidance.  I feel so much more confident now that I've seen her work and been able to emulate the things that she does.  You can read all day long about things to do, but actually watching someone do them in person is so much more instructive.  I'm not a religious gal, but birth is so incredibly miraculous!  Seeing it in person is just incredible!  I'm really glad that I was finally able to see a vaginal delivery, and it was so amazing and beautiful!  I'm excited about my next birth!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Heh.

So yesterday I went on and on about how wonderful Archer is now.  This morning I woke up and it looked like a hurricane had happened in my living room because SOMEONE decided to tear up 2 paper towel rolls and SOMEONE decided to steal a bag of craisins too.  BAD BAD DOG!  :)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Search and Rescue

Let me start off this post by saying that while we love Archer dearly, I don't think that either of us realized what we were getting into when we brought him home!  'I love dogs' turned into 'my friend has a friend who's had GSD puppies - can we just go look' turned into 'OMGWENEEDTHISDOG'.  I've always loved German Shepherds, they are truly amazing animals...but holy hell is Archer high maintenance.  Anybody who is thinking about getting a working class dog should really really think about whether they actually want the responsibility of making sure that dog is mentally stimulated (which I've found is much more difficult to do than just tiring a dog out every day).  That being said, having Archer has been kind of a 'blessing in disguise' even though I really hate that saying! *Now, imagine me saying this in a Julia Child voice* He has turned into something for me to DO!  I've had a lot of time since I have not been working that much...and I have really put a lot of time and energy into training him.   Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Search and Rescue!

Part of Archer being a working dog is that he has an incredibly high DRIVE.  He needs something to do, or else he is just a freaking nightmare!  Part of the problem that we were having was that he really needed a job, but we just didn't know that!  I'm not sure what gave me the idea that we should look into SAR, but once I did, I was glad!  The group that we're part of directed me to a new obedience trainer (she's the president of SAR group, but also has an obedience school) and that change has been AMAZING! This new obedience school has made him an entirely new dog!  Basically all of the problems we've been having are now gone!  Wednesday nights we have obedience and Sunday mornings we do SAR.  We are in the early stages of training, so it's all about teaching Archer 'the game'.  Archer having that insane drive has been instrumental in teaching him the find game, because he wants to do it, and he wants to please me!  Sometimes they have to actually try and teach the dog to have a higher drive, but Archer's already got it, which I've been told will make training him to do this easier!  What happens is, someone goes and hides (not very far away) behind a tree or bush or something.  While that person is hiding, you're saying 'oh, where are they going, are you going to find them?' over and over to get them excited about wanting to follow that individual.  Then, you point them in the right direction and say GO FIND, and they run off to go find that person!  Once they do find them (usually they're a straight shot away) there's lots of praise and treats so they know they just did what you wanted.  It's so fun, and Archer just has the best time ever on Sundays!  Plus, because of all the mental stimulation, he's usually exhausted when we get home :).  One of the trainers even said that she thought he must have been made for it!  It's been so interesting and really a lot of fun.

On Sunday we were voted in to the group (but we won't be official members who pay dues until after our 3 month probation period is over).  But, we're in!  It's pretty exciting!

*I think if we had kids, Archer wouldn't need a job as much as he does now...because watching over the children would be his job!  Lots of GSD's are 'nanny' dogs and take it upon themselves to make sure that no harm befalls 'their' kids!  Isn't that just so cute?  Since we're currently childless, we've been able to find another outlet :)

And, here's your cute cute picture for the day!
He's getting pretty big, right?  We went and hung out at the local non-mall as part of his training.  He needs to learn how to be okay at other places!  He got compliments, pets, dog treats, and more compliments...good day for him!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Mary Kay

I have my own Mary Kay website! SO COOL!  Not sure if anybody actually reads this blog, but if you do, check it out!

Robin's Mary Kay website

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Holy Crap, it's been a while!

So, I'm almost positive that the only people who view this blog are my family members...which is kind of understanding because as far as a blog goes, it's not that exciting, entertaining, or funny!  More like...a way to keep in touch with relatives who I'm not facebook friends with. Anywho, here's a brief update of all the things on my plate!

1. I definitely stopped doing the Beachbody stuff.  The workouts (while fun) were hurting my knees, and the dog stopped getting walked.  However, since I have stopped doing the workouts, the dog gets walked most every day....so my weight loss has continued!  The last I checked, I had lost 9 pounds, and I still have about 10 to go.  My goal weight is roughly 125...but there's always so much fluctuation throughout the month that I understand I won't weigh 125 every single day.

2. Archer and I started going to Search and Rescue Training!  I'll do another post soon about how cool Search and Rescue is and what a great fit it is for him...along with some updated pictures!  He's getting really, really big.  Basically, just know that now he's a working dog not only in title.

3. I GOT AN IPHONE.  It's totally awesome, and I take about 100 pictures a day of all of the animals, because it's just so dang convenient.

4. I got another Doula Client :).  She is due this upcoming Friday...!

5.  As of January, I will officially be in school again.  There are programs to help military spouses finish Associate's degrees, so I will be getting an Associates of Science in Small Business Management.  I want to learn more about how I should run my Doula Business.  I'm pretty excited to get started!

6. Since I ditched Team Beachbody, I wanted to come up with another way to make a little extra money.  SO...I turned to some products that I use daily!  I love everything they make, so it sort of seemed like a natural jump for me.  As of last Saturday, I'm now a Mary Kay consultant!  It really seems like a better fit for me.  Let's face it...I'm not a workout junkie.  I'm soft, not toned...and I'm fairly curvy.  But, I do love makeup, and I love their skin care.  And, I've already had more success doing it.  So, YAY!

Back to the soft, not toned thing.  It's pretty neat - since I started working out more often and trying to lose weight, I started really looking at other women's bodies.  I'd look and think, do I really want to look like that?  The ideal that I had in my head of what I wanted to look like - when I really thought about it, I realized it wasn't what I wanted to look like at all!  Yes, I want to lose about 10 pounds.  But, I like the frame that I've got.  I like being curvy, and soft.  It makes me feel like a woman.  If I had the body that I thought that I wanted...I wouldn't be happy with it!  Being too skinny just doesn't seem sexy to me.  So, I had a dose of reality, and it really gave my self confidence a boost.  I still have my fat days, and my I need to love weight moments...but they're not really what I worry about all the time.  It feels nice to feel more comfortable in my skin.

7. My best friend is moving away.  Their time here has come to an end, and while I'm so happy for her and her family, I'm sad for me!  I'm starting to make an effort to make new friends.  Has anybody else noticed how after you grow up, it's like a million times harder to make new friends and connect with people?! I mean, as a little kid, you just sort of click and instantly become friends, but that's only happened with like, 3 people since I've gotten out here! And now they're all gone! Frack.

Here's a cute photo :


....okay.  That was 3 cute photos!