Madison turns 11!

This evening we went to God's Country (Upland) to celebrate Madison's birthday. We had a great dinner and enjoyed spending some time with my parents. I took a ton of photos of the puppies since it was, after all, a puppy birthday party! ;)

Macy, Madison and MacKenzie

The birthday girl herself

MacKenzie visiting Grandma Duck

ACTION SHOT!

Where's MacKenzie?

Forget MacKenzie...where is the ball?!

Jackson needed to throw the ball this time

The worn out birthday girl

I wanted everyone to be able to hear what a "puppy party" sounds like... :)

We're FREEEEEE

We're FREE! The house is sold and we've closed. HOORAY!! HOORAY! I'll never own a home again. The selling process nearly killed me. Honestly. 

 MacKenzie had some trouble packing her toys. She had to go down to just one bin. I know. Things are rough for a little white dog.

 Amber and Jon were kind enough to help us move into our storage unit. They're awesome. We love them. They're amazing. Get it?

 We weren't sure that all of our things would fit in the storage unit but "years of playing Tetris" allowed Jackson to prevail. He was so proud.

 We couldn't have gotten much more into that unit, though.

We're not comfortably settled in at Susie's. Where to next? Nobody knows...(well, God!)

We get around...

We had a busy week last week of trying out new (to us) restaurants with friends. First we went to Famous Dave's with Shaya & Bates and their (and our new) friends Lyle and Liz. The guys all shared a "trash lid" of assorted BBQ. We thought the place was pretty good!

The next night Jackson came to Muncie to see my office (finally. I've only been there since January!) and go to dinner with our friends Kort and Heinz. We went to a place called "Amazing Joe's" which is quite popular among the Muncie folks. It was pretty good!

These two crack us up. One day maybe Kort will just admit to herself that life would be more fun if she'd just marry Heinz so we could always double date. ;)

The next night (we were busy!) we went to Carmel to meet up with Amber and Jon at a wine bar that had offered a Groupon. We didn't love the restaurant but the company was great!

Jon is from Costa Rica so he keeps us entertained with how he thinks and feels about things. We really enjoyed our week of dinner dates...my diet didn't, thought! ;)

Halloween cuties

 Oh my goodness! Is Alex not the cutest little Spiderman ever?

 I love the fake muscles.

 Poor little guy had to get up early and wasn't happy...

 Alex and Ms. Claire. Aren't they adorable?

 Too. Much. Cuteness.

 Kylie and Alex ran into Gracie at "Trunk or Treat." What happened to my LITTLE girl? Gracie is a gorgeous young woman now. TEAR.

HA! I just love the little face he makes!

Hoosier Hysteria...

was "sold out" by the time we got there (1.5 hours before its scheduled start time). TEAR!

Down 5

Well my first week of the 1,300 calorie diet is almost in the books and I'm down over 5 pounds. I'm pretty excited. I have only gotten a little grumpy a few times because I wanted something and wouldn't let myself have it. For example, on Friday I ate at Panera Bread with my two favorite co-workers, Natalie and Amy, and Natalie got to have the baguette with her lunch. I eyed it the entire time she ate it. I was a little angry that I could not have it. My morning weigh ins keep me pretty honest. I track every single calorie on an app called "My Fitness Pal" and I also track my workouts, too. Let me know if you join the club and start counting. We can be friends on My Fitness Pal and motivate one another. (Does everyone read my pleading to join me in this fight against calories? I hope so.)

Dog Shaming: Monty wins the battle

A few weeks ago Kathi sent an email with some excerpts from a blog (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dog-shaming) with a note about Montgomery ("Monty") saying, "I might have to do this for Monty’s issue.  'I bark and have started breaking out of my cage cause I don’t like my Mom’s new boyfriend touching her.'" I laughed. A lot. Monty is such a funny little dog. Then Kathi let me know that she wasn't ready for her little brother (Jackson) to meet her new boyfriend yet. I cannot imagine why. ;)

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Kathi posted this photo of Monty on a walk to Instagram.

I love that Monty was able to get John to bring him a box of treats. HA! I call that a smart puppy. Nice work, Monty. There is no shame in getting your way, puppy! ;)

**I'd also like to add that Kathryn spells her name as Kathy and Kathi interchangeably. You'll notice that her Instagram name is with a "y" but she generally signs cards with an "i" when she sends them. No, I've never met anyone else who does this either. I just didn't want my readers to think that I don't know how to spell my sister-in-law's name. I'd argue that she doesn't. HA! ;)