Baseball, lots of laughs and LOTS of rain!

On Saturday, I had an alumni event in DC and I invited Rob, Kelly and Rich to join me. We had an amazing time that day! Our evening kicked off with an alumni reception at Red Porch (restaurant inside the DC Nationals Stadium), followed by the DC Nationals vs Baltimore Orioles game. During the early part of the game, a huge rain storm hit and we got soaked! The game continued on and we found shelter in another section closer to the field. No one checked our tickets, so we invited ourselves to better seats :-)

To Rich and Kelly's disappointment, the Orioles lost 6-7. After the game, the boys bought us "build a bears" and we grabbed a bite to eat. Check out our photos below and on our online gallery.

Adventures from the dog park...

One of our favorite activities includes taking the girls to the dog park about ten minutes from our house. It is a beautiful park with two or three fenced in areas where you can unleash your dogs and they are able to run free. The girls just absolutely love going and their personalities really shine during their time at the park. Porscha does not want to be bothered by any dog and would rather meet and greet the humans. She is a loner and will just run by herself far away from any dogs. Lexi on the other hand is the social butterfly/bully of the group. She tends to run in a pack with 4-5 dogs and will find a "bff" and stick by their side the whole time. She has also developed a very bad habit which Rob and I are trying to break. She will chase the other small dogs and bite their butts. We find this so funny and amusing to watch, but we also get nervous because some humans get a little miffed when Lexi nips their dogs. This past Saturday night during our trip to the park Lexi got in a bit of trouble and made some "humans" upset when she was chasing the dogs and to slow them down would bite their butt. I never thought our sweet Lexi would be the bully of the school yard!

Enjoy some photos below of our outing :-)

Rob the "dog whisperer"

Click here for photos from the doggie egg hunt this past April.

And then there were two...

Lexi

About one to two years after we adopted Porscha, I became very eager to adopt a second one. After months of searching online at shelters in the area... I became convinced that I found our perfect second child. After the joy and laughter Porscha brought us over the years, I was ready to expand our family.

In September 2007, I contacted a local foster puppy mommy about a puggle named Maddie. Maddie was tan, small and looked cute as a button! I could hardly wait to tell Rob the good news! To my disappointment, he didn't share the same enthusiasm as I did. Instead, Rob wanted to wait another year until we were married. At this time, we were in the midst of wedding planning and he thought it would be in our best interest to wait. If you know my personality, than you would understand that I couldn't take 'no' for an answer- and couldn't let this opportunity slip away. So I continued on in my mission and made arrangements to meet Maddie. After work on a Friday afternoon, I met Maddie along with her adopted brothers and sisters. She was definitely a cutie- but I didn't feel the bond between us. With Porscha's adoption, the love was instant. When I held her- I just knew. With Maddie, it was a bit stiff and forced. I thanked the foster mommy for her time and she encouraged me to stop by Petsmart the next day for their adopt a thon. I went home and told Rob about Maddie and showed him photos. He was still convinced that the timing wasn't right and we should wait.

After my work event on Saturday morning, Rob and I discussed what our afternoon plans should include. Being the exciting couple we are...we decided on Petsmart (food for Porscha and I could secretly see Maddie again! yay!), Walmart (household items) and a trip somewhere for dinner. When we walked to Petsmart, the Academy should have handed me an Oscar. "Oh my gosh Rob- look, there is Maddie, the dog I met yesterday!" Little did he know that I really knew the shelter animals and Maddie would be making an appearance that day. I took Rob to introduce him to Maddie and could see a smile on his face. I knew if I wanted Maddie- I could make it happen. Rob decided to visit the fish section and I wanted to meet the other adoptable animals. That is when I saw her! Curled up in a tiny ball, I saw this adorable face staring back at me. I asked the shelter staff information about the dog. They said her name was Ci Ci, she was 2 1/2 and a chihuahua mix. When I held her, my heart melted. I started shaking and called Rob via cell phone. He came over and I think his heart melted too because he was happy to hold her when I started to fill out the application. Ci Ci's adoption proved to be a bit longer than Porscha's. They informed me that Porscha would have to meet her and the shelter manager would review our application. The next day, we took Porscha to meet her future little sister. We made the long drive to Red Lion (about 45 minutes) to visit the shelter. Rob must have thought I was nuts because the whole time I was telling Porscha she better not be rude and better be nice to Ci Ci. When we arrived- Porscha and Ci Ci sniffed each other for a few seconds and I exclaimed, "they like each other, we're good!" Rob and I even took Porscha and the chihuahua on a mini walk to get a glimpse into what our life would be like with two.

We said goodbye to Ci Ci and waited nervously for our phone call. By 10:30AM Monday morning, my patience was up and I called the shelter. I think the director may have thought I was nuts for checking so soon. She informed me that the process may take up to a few business days and she will let us know. Wednesday morning I returned from a work meeting to a voicemail on my phone. The shelter called and Ci Ci was ours! We just needed to arrange a pick up date/time and fill out additional paperwork. (I still have the voicemail saved in my phone to this day). On Saturday morning before we left to pick her up I remember petting Porscha and asking Rob if we made the right decision. We formed a quick bond with Porscha and now we would be bringing a "stranger" to our house- would they get along? Would we like her?

We made the long drive out to the shelter again. When we pulled up, we could see Ci Ci in a large crate with a young girl playing. I suddenly became a bit nervous with the process. Unlike Porscha, Ci Ci was older and her background was unknown. She was found as a stray in the City of York walking the streets. We spent some time filling out paperwork, discussing her spay and paying the fee. I picked up Ci Ci and we drove towards home. Keeping with the "car theme of names" I picked Lexi. Rob's dream car was a Porscha and mine was a Lexus- so it seemed to fit quite well. As we were driving home, I remember screaming for Rob to pull the car over. As I was holding Lexi, I could see about five or six black bugs crawling in and out of her fur. Lexi was in the shelter for about a month and they kept all dogs outside. As soon as we pulled in to our house, we didn't even let her and Porscha meet again. We took her straight up to the bath and tried to get her as clean as possible. Lexi's first day with us proved to be very interesting...after her first bath she ran downstairs and took a poop on the carpet, fell into our outside fish pond by accident and snapped at Porscha for stealing her toy.

Over the next couple of years, Lexi quickly grew into the "princess role." She prefers to sleep in bed with me, will steal all of Porscha's toys and will hog all of your attention. Porscha and Lexi have also formed a nice sisterly bond. Lexi has her back and will bark at any dog who tries to sniff or lick Porscha. Poor Jack (Porscha's boyfriend) can't even say 'hello' without being traumatized by the Lexi monster.

Fun Lexi moments throughout the years...

1. Lexi is also a trash can picker and will actually carry the trash to her bed or crate.
2. Lexi loves toys! Her stuffed animals can be found all over the house and she doesn't know how to share.

3. Lexi's nickname is Houdini. She can get out of any crate and sneak out out of our backyard (which is fenced in) in a matter of minutes. She can often be found taking herself on a walk down our sidewalk. *Don't worry, she is put in time out for this.
4. Lexi has made one trip to the animal ER after she snuck into my purse and ate several pieces of chocolate easter candy.

5. Lexi will also rummage through my purse and eat gum, lip gloss and my checkbook.
6. Lexi snuck into our dining room where I had a basket filled with coffee and tea and ripped open the bag and dumped it all over the family room.
7. Lexi is quite the social butterfly at the doggie park. She usually runs with a pack of 3-4 dogs at any given time. She has also developed a bad habit of biting the dogs in the butt and running away. It is actually quite funny to watch.
8. Lexi is our little love bug and will sit and cuddle in your lap all night.
9. Lexi has this trick of standing on her legs and begging with her two front paws when she sees treats or her food container.
10. Lexi is Porscha's protector and will get very defensive when dogs go near her.
11. Lexi is our little fashionista and absolutely loves wearing any type of clothing.

Picking Lexi up from the shelter

Porscha and Lexi meeting for the first time

Christmas 2007

We will name her Porscha

Porscha (October 2005)

So I thought it would only be appropriate to be honest about a few things before I write additional posts. When I created this blog, I knew that the majority of my posts would be about the two loves of my life, Porscha and Lexi. So now that the gates of honesty have been opened- I must confess I didn't always love dogs. In fact, I was terrified of them!

In October 2005, I got the "itch" to bring a furry friend into our household. Since Rob is deathly allergic to cats, the obvious choice would be a small dog. After some "researching" on petfinder for our perfect roommate, I came across a collie mix named BINGO. He was so cute online and I knew we just had to meet him. So on Saturday, October 29, 2005, Rob and I made an hour drive to a small farm in Lancaster. When we drove up to the shelter, I suddenly had a sudden rush of panic. What the heck are we doing here? I never liked dogs and this was such a big investment....are we doing the right thing? So Rob and I went inside to meet our new roomie. The shelter staff were very friendly and excited to hear about our interest in him. They took us downstairs where we were greeted by many, many excited dogs. If I thought I was having second thoughts before I even entered the shelter, you should have seen my face when I actually went down to where the dogs were housed. Growing up in a household without animals, I was certainly not use to loud barking, getting licked and most importantly being jumped on.

I hesitantly reached out to pet BINGO and was absolutely appalled when he had the nerve to jump on me. Rob on the other hand was loving it- he was much more of a dog lover and thought BINGO's friendly licking and jumping was just great. After a few minutes of trying to "get to know BINGO" Rob and I decided to take a stroll upstairs to the other section of the shelter and that is where we saw a tiny gated area with two tiny puppies (one was actually in the process of getting adopted). I reached in to hold the last puppy who was tiny, black and adorable! The volunteers were not sure of the breed and all they knew was that the puppies came from a shelter in West Virginia. Holding the puppy was a true breath of fresh air- she didn't jump, didn't lick and would just sleep in my arms...I was in love!

Rob and I suddenly became very, very confused. We drove out expecting to adopt BINGO and now I had fallen in love with this tiny creature. The shelter was gracious enough to give us a "good deal" if we adopted both and instantly I said YES! Perfect solution to our problem. Rob (being the voice of reason in our relationship) said absolutely not and said lets walk outside to discuss our options. After a lot of back and forth we went back in to finalize the adoption process (still not 100% sure on who would be coming home with us). So we decided to start filling out the paperwork and hoped we could reach a decision while we worked on the papers. After they told us they would only accept cash for the adoption fee (you are talking to two people who rarely even have $10 in cash at any time)- Rob quickly left to find an ATM. As he left, they brought BINGO upstairs and they even had given him a bath. I think they were trying really hard for us to take him knowing that the small puppy would not have a problem being adopted next week. As Rob left for the ATM, to my horror, BINGO was going through the trash! Ewwww! As soon as Rob stepped foot in the door, I said decision has been made. "HE was going through the trash...absolutely not! We will be taking the puppy (who was still sleeping in my arms!)"

Rob and I told the shelter staff, the tiny puppy and who's breed we weren't sure of would be joining us. We handed over the $200 adoption fee, signed the papers and left with our new puppy. We got into the car with the puppy in my lap (who was still peacefully sleeping) and we both gave each other this look/smile. Kind of like- we know this is exciting, but what the hell did we just do. With a coupon in hand from the shelter to buy some new pet items we stocked up on things like dog shampoo, leash, collar and a dog crate. The entire drive home from Lancaster to York we went back and forth on names. All of a sudden, Rob said, "how about Porscha?" It was perfect. It was the name of his favorite car and I thought it sounded cool and current.

We drove home and were excited to bring her into our home. After walking in the house, I suddenly heard Rob go, "Uh oh, she peed already on the carpet." Welcome to the world of doggie children :-)

As I write this post and I can't help but smile and laugh. For anyone who hasn't had the honor of meeting Porscha, she is certainly a jumper and use to be quite the handful! Any new person she meets, she will lick, bark and definitely jump. (Hmmmm do those traits sound familiar?) Hours into Porscha joining our family, she quickly became the love of my life. I also grew into quite the dog lover instantly and the rest is history!

Loveable Porscha moments throughout the years....

1. Porscha has gone through our trash more times than I would like to remember.
2. Porscha is quick!!! Up until age 3, she would "escape" out the front door of our house. During a holiday weekend in 2006, Porscha and I went to visit my family. As my sister and I left the house, Porscha flew out the door and sprinted around our neighborhood for about 30 minutes. It took about 10 neighborhood children and my family to finally catch her.
3. When you sit on the couch, Porscha will literally jump behind you and put her paws on your shoulders (similar to a child looking for a piggy back ride).
4. Porscha gets more excited to meet people than dogs.
5. Porscha's boyfriend is Jack and they have been a couple since 2006.
6. Porscha has the kindest soul and is the most lovable dog I have ever met.
7. If you drop something or even raise your voice, she will run upstairs and hide underneath the bed.
8. Porscha will whine when Rob drinks Yuengling and will stare at him whiles he holds it.
9. Porscha HATES wearing any type of clothing and even putting her walking harness on. She will completely freeze up and not move.
10. Porscha suffers from a tiny bit of seperation anxiety. She will cry and run circles around the house when you see suitcases being packed in the car.
11. Porscha is terrible at fetch and will just stare at you when you throw the toy. She will also always let Lexi (who you will meet later) win when they race for toys. She's such an excellent big sister.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog and our first post! To practice, enjoy some fun photos from our wedding (August 2008) and a video of our two little ladies getting treats from "daddy."

Check out our two loves getting treats from Daddy...