Stupid Polar Vortex...

The title of this post is the EXTREMELY censored version of what I've been saying a lot to McGee lately (there are like 3 more curse words in the real version, but I didn't want to offend anyone).  The stupid polar vortex has decided to re-visit us this winter... The low temperature today is 8 degrees, and tomorrow we're down to 3 degrees.  Plus it's super windy, so it feels even colder.  Sigh...

We received our 2nd Bark Box in the mail a few days ago (Thanks Lindsey!)!  It's so exciting to see what new treats and toys Guinness will get.  This month included a few toys, and three treats! This picture only includes two of the treats, because the third one was a beef jerky-type stick that Guinness had already claimed and was devouring while I took this picture.  The rope ball didn't last very long... Because Guinness LOOOOVES ropes, but he's extremely good at dismantling them and shredding them. That little green rubber ball though is extremely tough, and you can shove treats in those pockets so he has to work to get them out.  He loves it, and we love that it keeps him so busy!

I've been slowly but surely getting into an exercise routine... This is my first week of it, and so far so good!  I really need to start working out again, so it feels good to be back at it.  I'm doing a "Couch to 5k" program that I found on Pinterest, so it starts you out REALLY slowly, which is ideal for me right now because my cardio is terrible.  I'm thinking I should do some sort of weights, etc too... but for now I guess cardio is a good start. 

I am SO excited for the Academy Awards this weekend.  I don't know why, but I really love them and look forward to them every year. I love seeing all of the pretty dresses and picking my favorites, and I love movies so it's just fun to see the good ones recognized (and sometimes the terrible ones are recognized too).  McGee and I kinda made it our mission to see all of the Best Picture nominated films this year, and we're gonna be pretty close!  Last night we went to the movie theater to see Gravity, because we'd really wanted to see that one in the theater.  It just seemed like the kind of film that would be better on the big-screen, and we'd also heard that the 3-D version of it was extremely cool (usually I don't enjoy the 3-D versions all that much...).  And let me say... WOW.  That movie was amazing, and the special effects were extremely cool (especially in 3-D!).  Sandra Bullock did a really great job too.  I highly recommend going to see it in the movie theater if you can!!  We've already seen The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, and Her, so all we have left is Dallas Buyers Club, 12 Years a Slave, Philomena, and Nebraska.  I think tonight we're gonna watch Dallas Buyers Club at home, and we want to make sure we see 12 Years a Slave before the awards too... But I'm not sure if we'll have time to see Nebraska and Philomena.  

I'm also trying to think of some fun food to make for the awards show, but I have zero ideas so far!  If you have any ideas/suggestions, let me know! :)  

Officially a PA Resident

Well, I did it, folks! I'm officially a PA resident. It happened. I was stressing like crazy about passing the eye test (poor McGee had to hear me obsess about that for weeks...), because I'm about a year late getting my exam and definitely need an updated prescription. I stress about the oddest things sometimes... BUT, I'm happy to say that I passed the eye test (it was like a 5 second test...), and received my temporary PA driver's license. We got there pretty early this morning (about 15 minutes before the DMV opened), and it ended up only taking us 30 minutes from start to finish once we got inside. Not too shabby! And they only gave me a temporary license (it's valid for 15 days), because they have to run my picture through facial recognition software before they'll give me the real deal. I took a picture of my new license, but I cut off most of it (address, DL number, etc) because I don't really want that stuff on the internet...

I look extremely pale and washed-out (and I kind of just AM really pale and washed-out in real life...), but I'm hoping the actual picture will be a little bit darker (notice the bright red "TEMPORARY" across the card?)

After that, we ran over to the Tags place to get my title and registration (yep, you have to go someplace other than the DMV for that stuff here...), and we got that all taken care of too!  So, I have a driver's license (temporary) and my license plate and registration. Now I just have 10 days to get my state inspection and my emissions test... and then I'm all done! Whew! It's tough to become the resident of a new state, and be all legal and stuff. 

McGee and I also ran a bunch of other errands, and were quite productive today! I also got a menu planned out for most of the week and we got groceries, so hopefully this week we won't resort to getting takeout like we have been doing a lot lately. Now, it's still pretty early, and we're all done for the day! We're treating ourselves to some movie-watching and drinks (Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA for McGee, and a rum-based mixed drink made by McGee for me!). We're starting our evening by watching Cool Runnings (confession: I have NEVER seen it... McGee was quite shocked and disheartened), and then after that I think we might give the show House of Cards a try, since EVERYONE seems to be obsessed with that show right now! 

And, just so you have something cute to look at, here's ANOTHER picture of Guinness sleeping. Happy weekend, everyone!! 

Sleepy puppy

We've been able to take Guinness out to the yard quite a bit (at least a few times per day), and he's loving it. It's kind of EXTRA exercise for him right now, because the snow is so deep that it's really quite a workout to try to run in it! McGee and I get exhausted even just trying to walk around in it. And I'm so awkward in my winter boots that if I try to run in that deep snow, I end up just tripping and falling! I don't know how Guinness runs so well in that deep snow... We're loving that it makes him oh-so-tired though!  It's really great. He spends a LOT of time napping now, and he's so gosh-darn cute when he sleeps! I thought I'd share some pictures of our little (big) guy doing his new favorite activity.

Please excuse the mess in this one!  We're still working on unpacking everything and getting organized. Having dog toys everywhere is quite normal for us though... That part won't change anytime soon.

We're supposed to get MORE snow tonight - another 1-3", which at this point is nothing. Last year that 3" would have been about half of our total for the season... But this winter is just ridiculous. And it really feels like all McGee and I have done since we moved into this house is shovel snow and ice, because our neighbor (who we share a driveway with) doesn't believe in shoveling. He says he just prefers to drive over everything. So, as a result of him driving over all of the snow and ice all season, we had at least 3 inches of solid ice and compacted snow that we've had to break up and shovel over every square inch of our driveway (and it's a long driveway that leads to the back of the property where we park). Yesterday, McGee was a beast and somehow broke up the ridiculously thick ice that was at the entrance to the driveway (it met up with the street). It was a huge speed bump of slick ice that you had to try to get your car over. We were the only house on the block that had that "speed bump" though, because every other house would just deal with the ice and snow after each storm hit, but we had a whole winter's worth of ice and compacted snow to try to battle. I think now that we're all caught-up on shoveling, we can try to get some more boxes unpacked!  

This weekend I tried to (finally) get my PA Driver's License (yes, I was technically supposed to do that like a year ago... ), so that I can register my car in PA (again, yes, a year ago would've been the appropriate time to do that...). However, the stupid DMV decided to take Saturday off so that they could have an extra-long holiday weekend. Lame. So now I'll have to do that sometime this week (I wish they were open today!) or I'll try again next Saturday. I always dread the whole Driver's License and Car Registration state switch... I've had CA, MD, DE (my DE registration expires in March...), and now I'll have PA. It's never a fun process... But I'll be sooo glad when it's done and I don't have to worry about it anymore. 

I hope you're all doing well, and I hope you have today off from work too!  

We survived the crazy storm!

Well, that storm was nuts. I did not enjoy myself... McGee went to work even though it was snowing like CRAZY in the morning, and so I spent a good portion of my day trying to keep the sidewalk and driveway properly shoveled.  My back muscles are definitely feeling it today!  The weather today seems a lot better, but I heard that we're supposed to get MORE snow tonight or early tomorrow.  Have I mentioned that I'm over this winter???  Here's a graphic I saw on the news BEFORE this crazy storm hit (so you'll have to add another 12-18 inches to that total for this year so far.

Kind of ridiculous when you see it like that!  I knew it was a really bad winter...

The good news though, is that with the massive accumulation from yesterday, it covered all of the sticks, etc that were still in our yard, so we were able to let Guinness run around for the first time!  He had such a blast, and now he's obsessed with going out there.  He's almost constantly whining to go out now, and he used to only whine to go out when he had to go to the bathroom!  I'm hoping he'll calm down about it soon (but still love it, of course).  Here are some pictures of him enjoying the yard!

Look at his ridiculously curly tail!  It's so weird and cute. 

There he is running!  You can get a better idea of how big the yard is now.

McGee was throwing snowballs for him.  It's the best game EVER, because we never run out of snowballs, and Guinness can never find them! 

He had to do this funny bouncy kind of run, because some of the snow was so deep!

Still bouncy running! 

They both look so happy!  And Guinness is looking tired!  Yay!

Winter is coming (still...)

So, this title is partially in reference to the fact that I just saw the trailer for the new season of Game of Thrones, and I am SO excited!

But mostly, the title of this post is in reference to the massive snowstorm that is predicted to hit starting tomorrow night.  I am SO over this winter... The number of snowstorms has been ridiculous.  I was in Maryland for the winter of two blizzards within one week (they called it Snowmageddon or Snowpocalypse), but this winter is SO much worse than that!  It just doesn't stop.  You barely have time to dig out from one snowstorm before the next one hits.  And this next one is supposed to be the biggest snowstorm that this area has seen in years.  Yay.... (And by "yay" I actually mean "ugh").

Right now, the predictions I'm seeing for our area are saying 12 to 20 inches.  That's quite a broad range... The really scary part is that they haven't over-predicted for even one storm so far this winter.  They've actually predicted way under the actual accumulation amounts.

Another big negative of this next snowstorm hitting so soon is that the tree situation at our house hasn't been resolved yet.  Some tree guys came by and sorta kinda chopped down parts of the tree with the biggest problems, but a large portion of the tree is still up, including the big branch that is hanging precariously over the parking area.  And, they didn't pick up any of the limbs/branches/etc that they chopped from the tree.  Our yard is just littered with tons of sticks, logs, and branches.  I'm quite sure that Guinness would badly hurt himself if we let him in that yard area.  And I don't even know if we can let him back there once everything is cleaned up, because two areas of the fence were damaged!  One area of the fence was damaged by the tree falling, and the other part was damaged when the tree guys were working on taking another part of the tree down (their safety practices were non-existent... it was quite scary to watch).  Here are some pictures of our yard right now:

This is the tree in the back of the yard that still has a branch dangling over the yard (it's going to fall... it's just a matter of time...).  And you can see the sticks, etc that are littered all over the yard.  

Here's one of the parts of the fence that was damaged.  And you can see the logs, etc that are in the yard, as well as the ones that are in our parking area.  It's such a disaster... 

I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope your weather is cooperating more than ours is!  

We're in!

Well, we officially moved in!  We still have a few things at our apartment that we need to get and bring to this house (including all of our food...), but we're pretty much in!  Our first night (last night) was a blur, because we were SO exhausted.  By the time we got home from picking up Guinness from McGee's parents' house (they were nice enough to take care of him for our moving day!), it was about 10pm.  Guinness was really freaked out by the new place, and I don't think he slept very well last night (neither did I!) because of all the new noises we have to get used to.  I'm hoping that all 3 of us sleep really well tonight.  We really love the house though!!!  It's so darn cute.  It'll just take a bit of time to settle in!

The one bummer about the house is that the most recent ice storm we had broke one of the big trees in our backyard area... There's currently a few tree limbs dangling precariously over the parking area (so we are NOT parked there...), and there's a huge tree limb that's completely broken and laying in the yard (and hopefully not damaging the fence).  There are a LOT of trees down in the Philadelphia area though, so the tree guy hasn't been able to come to our house to fix our situation yet.  I think I saw him today looking at the tree, so that's a start!  I think now he has to give an estimate to our landlord.  We're sad that we can't take Guinness in the backyard yet... We've really been looking forward to it!  But hopefully in the next few days the tree guy will help us out.  Here are some pictures of the backyard, and they're all taken from the 2nd floor of our house (so you can see how tall that tree is!):

In this first one, you can see a huge limb towards the top of the picture that is cracked and dangling down... This is over our parking area, so we don't feel safe parking there or even walking there.  

Sorry you can't see this one too well!  The reflection of my phone is making it blurry... But you can see where the HUGE limb broke, and is laying across about half (or more) of the yard area.  It's kinda hard to see the fence, but on the right side of the picture, the tree is laying on the fence.

Guinness is feeling better we think/hope... He hadn't thrown up for a few days, but then last night he threw up all of his dinner.  We're thinking/hoping that we just gave him a little too much at once, because his stomach has shrunk over the past week or so.  We never heard back on the tests that the vet did, because our veterinarian's office is one of the many buildings in this area that has lost power... So they couldn't even look up if tests were performed, or what.  We're hoping that they did the tests, and that they just can't access the results yet... A few days ago, I got a few cute pictures of him when he was feeling really sick.  He jumped up on the couch (which is a BIG no no in our house usually...), and he immediately put his head on my arm and closed his eyes.  I just didn't have the heart to make him get off the couch (I'm such a sucker sometimes!), so Guinness slept like that for quite awhile.  Here's my sick boy sleeping on the couch on my arm:

 I hope everyone is doing great and staying warm!!  I am SO ready for this winter to be over!  We're supposed to get more snow this Sunday, and more snow next week too.  Ugh!!

Not a good day yesterday... But Guinness did turn 1 year old!

Yesterday was not a wonderful day... so I'm hoping the week gets better.

First, here's some happy news: Guinness turned 1 year old yesterday!  We were excited about that.

But, he'd spent the evening before, and the middle of the night, and the morning of his birthday getting quite ill. We spent a good portion of his birthday at the veterinarian's office. They're not sure what's going on, but we have him on a bland diet, and they're doing some tests. They also gave him some antibiotics that are good for most bacterial and protozoal infections, because odds are that he ate something that has now caused a problem. We're not sure what it could be though... Please keep your fingers crossed that he feels better soon! He definitely has us worried.

I also had a migraine for most of the day yesterday, and it was getting REALLY bad during the evening. I tried all of my techniques to get rid of it, but nothing was helping. I'm sure a big part of that was the insane snowstorm we're getting hit with today (stupid Groundhog!!  I'm so mad at Punxsutawney Phil...)... Weather systems seem to affect my migraines a lot. Here's the picture I just took from our window:

I'm sure part of the migraine was stress (the upcoming move, Guinness being sick, and my friend's son - next paragraph for that one), and I'm sure part of it was that I'd only had about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before due to Guinness getting sick. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better today though! I wasn't able to enjoy the Super Bowl much though... Partially because of the migraine, and partially because the Super Bowl was just awful. What in the world happened to the Broncos? That game was not even slightly entertaining. And I didn't even like the commercials much (there were a few good ones though...). I thought Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers did a great job at halftime though.  

And the biggest reason why yesterday was awful... One of my friends from AFDIL lost her son yesterday. She adopted him last year, and he was 3 years old... Saturday night he lost consciousness and stopped breathing... and late last night he passed away. I spent all day yesterday worrying for her and her son and her family and sending as many good thoughts as I possibly could... It's just beyond awful and heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what they're going through. There are no words.  

I don't want this post to be a downer, and I'm really sorry... It was just an awful day yesterday. BUT, here is the SUPER happy thing that happened yesterday, that was definitely the bright spot to focus on:  My parents got a puppy!! Her name is Maggie, she's adorable, and I can't wait to meet her! Here's a picture of her to end this post on a happy note:

Maggie - The newest addition to the Bishop family.