Koda and the screen door

This video was taken awhile ago, but I just had to share it. When we first screened in the porch, we knew we wanted a cafe door. My parents' dog Lily goes in and out of their screened in porch herself, and we knew we didn't want to have to open two doors to let Koda out -- how lazy can we be? First world problems, huh?

Well Koda, from very early on, realized that doors only open one way. The doors in our apartment, and all three doors in our house, have to be opened one specific way, in order for her to go out. She's observant like that!

So the cafe door must be the same. You can only walk through it when it is pushed a certain way! Which means -- heading outside, you simply push straight through. Heading back in, though, is a more complicated maneuver. Take a look:

If it doesn't play, try this link here. And we have since stained the new wood to match -- in case you were concerned.

Over a year later, this is how she gets in and out of this door. Every now and then she gets too excited and runs straight through. At that point she stops, looks all around, amazed, wondering how she could have ever made it through. She usually doesn't try it again for awhile.

One day she might learn, until then, we just think it's cute!

Thursday, Thursday

I have a few random pictures on my phone that I wanted to share. They aren’t in any particular order, so this will be somewhat of a random Thursday. A themeless Thursday .. if you are into alliteration. I am not.

We went for a family walk the other night as the weather is getting cooler.

Barefoot. Just the way I like it.

Koda did a lot of this.

And this was pretty much my view. Lovely, right?

The crepe myrtles are still in bloom and I love them. Plus the deer and bunnies don’t eat them, and that is rare around here.

Speaking of animals eating. Dan and I have a huge muscadine vine that grows on an arbor on the right side of our porch. It is beautiful and helps block the view of the neighbor’s backyard. Last year the muscadines never turned purple, and we learned that we have to cut it back each year if we want edible muscadines. We never cut it back, but also noticed that we weren’t getting many muscadines this year. One night while watching TV, I saw this little guy out the window, enjoying a little midnight snack.

I only got this one with my phone. When I went to grab my big camera, he ran away. I’m sure he will be back – and I’m glad we solved the mystery of the missing muscadines. Alliteration again. Darn it.

I have to share. Sorry Dan. He goes “what kind of animal was that?!” and I said it was an opossum. Dan starts googling and goes, “Kelley, we don’t have a possum, ..I think we have an oh-possum.” …… really?

To his defense, Wikipedia says that in Australia there are animals that are simply “possums” that look just like our opossum. (This is all very weird to type out, by the way). I just started cracking up. Hey - he’s a numbers guy.

And speaking of eating. I made my friend Shannon’s pan fried okra. Which I tried to comment to tell her I had just bought okra from the farmers market, and didn’t know what to do with it, and was super excited to try this recipe, and it was perfect timing. But alas, it wouldn’t send. Blogger must have a thing against rambling.

DELICIOUS. Make it. Read her blog. Do it.

And lastly, I have no transition on this one, except for the word “lastly,” this was the sky on my commute Tuesday morning. 

Absolutely lovely. Always fun to start the morning off with something pretty.

A weekend in Greenville

This is a little late, but I wanted to do a quick update on my weekend in Greenville. Friends Shelley, Grace, and Rachel were all coming to Greenville. Kylie and Blair live in Greenville. Dan was out of town, and it had been too long since I had seen these girls. And Tricia decided to leave the husband to his own accord for one night (can you say pizza?). Instant girl’s weekend.

Kylie had family in town, so we were only able to see her for brunch. But still very needed. I hadn’t seen her new bling in person, or hugged her neck since she got engaged.

We all stayed with Blair, including 4 dogs. She is crazy for saying yes super accommodating.

We had a dog there—we will call her Karen, to protect her identity. She had a non-dog name just like Karen. A few times we lost Karen, and it became the joke (I think per Rachel) that it was our drunk friend Karen who we couldn’t keep track of. “Oh no! Who let Karen outside?!” “Karen is taking a nap, she just needs to sleep it off.” “Did Karen just throw up in the bathroom?!” At one point, Brett looked at Karen and said “shots?!” and Karen went ballistic like we had said “treats?!” It made for lots of laughs.

You know those weekends where you are having so much fun, and so glad you went, but you almost wish it were ending soon, because you are exhausted, haven’t been home in a while, and just need to get stuff done?

It was nothing like that. I was exhausted, I hadn’t been home in a while, I needed to get stuff done, and I didn’t care one bit. I didn’t want the weekend to end. We went to the pool on a cloudy day, and I don’t think anyone noticed. When it started raining, we grabbed our stuff and ran under the covering. Then, one-by-one, we set our stuff down and ran back into the pool, hardly noticing the rain.

Photo courtesy of Blair .. I didn't take many pictures.

We went to some of our favorite bars from college, as well as new ones that had opened since those days. We stayed up until 4 am. We sat at brunch as long as was socially acceptable. We dragged our feet leaving Blair’s house. And secretly hoped we would be snowed in.

Unfortunately, it didn’t start snowing, and all good things must come to an end. Therefore, Sunday allowed for cleaning, unpacking, laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping, etc. And, on 2.5 hours of sleep, I think I did a pretty good job!

Thanks Blair for a wonderful weekend. So wonderful, in fact, that I might show up on your doorstep Saturday. Don’t worry. I’ll invite Karen.

Our baby has a cold

No really. Our dog has a cold. Who knew dogs could get a cold? She has been sneezing like crazy, and looks up at us with these tired watery 'sick-eyes.' I love her. Is it bad that she's cuter like this?

Look at those sad eyes! I'll have to hug her and kiss her and spoil her rotten. Check.

The vet said to 'coax' her into drinking her water with chicken broth. She never needs coaxing--this puppy drinks like a camel. But, because she's super cute, we gave her chicken broth anyway. Spoiled rotten? Check.