our siberian runaway

this guy is a runaway. he's the most daring and adventurous little brat dog. zeus has gotten out a time or two before, but the first time a nice lady picked him up while he still had his tag on, and the other time he got out,  he just explored around a bit then came to the front door of our house to just sit and wait for us to come find him.

but yesterday when we went to pick him up from what we call "doggy daycare" at my parents' house, there was no zeus. there was diabla (my parents' cane corso/zeus' best friend), and there was a hole big enough for zeus to crawl out of under the fence.

quick side note: one thing about zeus is that he loves to dig holes. these holes don't necessarily have to be big, but they are in fact numerous, and they are all over. that being said, we weren't too surprised that he had dug himself out of doggy daycare, but since he was there all day while we were both at work from 8 to 5, we had no frame of reference of how long he had been out.

so tyler and i both jump in our cars and take off through the neighborhood calling his name, whistling, and lurking up to the good people of the world to ask if they had seen him. none of them had, of course. but after a couple hours of searching, and after the sun had gone down, we went back to my parents' to make fliers. once we realized kinkos was closed at 9pm (since when??) we regretfully retired our efforts for the night.

it was strange coming home without a pup, and it was strange waking up without one too. but what may have been worse was dreaming about finding him, then waking up to nothing. yet my heart was so warmed by everyones efforts in helping us find our pup. our friends jessica and kyle helped us search around the neighborhood, and were kind enough to offer to help hang fliers and do whatever it took to find him. several of my friends posted on facebook trying to get the word out about him missing, and several other people shared the post. once we found the post on craigslist about his whereabouts, a few of my friends texted me to share, or told me on facebook which made the whole situation seem much brighter! that there are eyes and ears and other puppy parents out there trying to find our dog.

there i stood waiting by the door when the craigslisting neighbor brought him to my parents this afternoon, and we were completely overjoyed and relieved to have him back with us. i think i was halfway expecting some huge tail wag or hug of endearment when zeus saw me, but he didn't seem to care at all about where he was or what was going on... and here he is now, throwing himself against the floor like he's lost all energy from his journeys, and occasionally trying to jump into my quilt covered lap on the couch. things are back to normal around here, and my heart couldn't be more at ease!

homemade laundry detergent

for quite some time, i've had this 4lb, 12oz box of borax sitting in my laundry room waiting for this very project - making my own laundry detergent! a friend i used to work with told me of how simple it was to make your own and i was instantly intrigued. it took much research, but i finally decided powder detergent would be best for me and my washer, but i finally did it yesterday.

i found a recipe from ask anna, someone i stumbled upon in my research, and felt pretty confident in her recipe.

things you'll need: 

• 1 (4lb 4oz) box of Borax
• 1 (3lb 7oz) box of Arm and Hammer super washing soda
• 2 (5.5oz) bars of fels-naptha laundry soap
• 5lbs of Arm and Hammer baking soda 
• Essential oil (I used lavender)
• a big bucket for mixing all of this together (mine was 2 gallons)

 what to do: 

before mixing all of these items together, you want to make the fels-naptha soap look like little tiny balls of cheese. to do this, simply put the bars into your food processor and leave it on for a while. they don't like to get much smaller than the size of a bb. other recipes i found suggest cheese grating the soap, but that takes too much time and effort.

Zeus really didn't know what to think about all the smells. 

 

once the soap is grated, add the soap, along with the rest of the dry ingredients into your big bucket. you want all of this to be mixed thoroughly, and the most efficient way to do so (in my opinion) is with your hands. make sure all the clumpy parts are broken up, and that the whole mixture is consistently polka-dotted with the fels-naptha soap crumbles. 

after mixing, move about half of the mixture into another big bowl. put about 20 or more drops of oil into each half of the mixture. after stirring it well, combine the mixture back into your big bucket and mix some more.

[warning: at this point, your nose is going to be so full of so many different pungent smells, that you might need to take a breather outside]

but that's it! you're finally done. now you get to funnel your powdered detergent into air-tight containers for storage (because you're inevitably going to have detergent coming out of your ears for awhile).

fortunately i have an endless supply of jars from our wedding.

and even put some in tea tins to give to my friends!

midnight update:

Currently cramming all the information into my brain that I can possibly fit for my physiology exam tomorrow morning, and truly needed a therapeutic break. So here I am.

Finding time and commitment to write lately is something I've been struggling with. A lot has changed, well, sort of. There are new things around, like new bowls I bought for much cheaper than I think they should be (I'm a sucker for tiny floral print...).

There are my new little herb children, as I call them, of whom I am so proud! I grew them from tiny little seedlings in tea tins I salvaged from the cafe where I work. I've always known myself to actually have a black thumb. For example, I killed my best friend Charlotte and I's love fern back when I was like 14... we named it and everything, yet somehow it died under my not-so-watchful eye. I also killed my aloe vera plant about three years ago that I brought back from Florida with me. I went through the trouble of packing it in foil to smuggle it onto the plane in my backpack for the trip home, but it soon died when I left it out in the winter storm... so needless to say it's really nice and encouraging that my little herb children are thriving here in my window sill! Not to mention I have several other plants that just love to grow tall and new around the house. Our little bungalow is full of life and good energy!

I enjoy how proud he looks of his fence here :)

There is also our new fence for our garden that Tyler built himself. He completely surprised me with this. I went to work one morning, and after eight hours returned to him proudly standing by his new masterpiece! He's tilled up the ground, and has this whole garden planned out. There's even a place for a table and chair for my hangout area, he claims.

Zeus loving the snow that surprised us in Oklahoma

Baby Zeus leaving the breeding grounds

Lastly- our newest Freeman addition! We got Zeus in December from a local breeder, and we were so in love with him from day one. For the first few days home with us he would cry and whine like huskies do, I learned. Although it was really cute, I felt bad for taking him away from his cute little siblings left back at the breeding grounds (? that was the first thing that came to mind haha). It was hard adjusting to his crying in the night, but thankfully that only lasted a few weeks...and admittedly Tyler got up in the night much more than I did. I developed some intrinsic "sleep-thru-our-annoying-dog-whining" thing during this time period, and that's quickly faded away, for now he wakes me up at 7:30 each morning.


It's my last semester at OCCC, and I am so thankful for that. However, it seems just when I get used to it, and get used to the type of people in my classes it's over. I'm still waiting back to hear from the two schools I've applied to, but I'm assuming it should be soon...right?

not perfect, but getting there

 My New Year's resolution is going wonderfully! I have never really made any sort of commitment to a "resolution" because why can't any day be a day for change? But talking around the table with my family on NYE got me settled on a few. One in particular was to yoga at least two times a week, three if possible. I've stuck with it! Except for a week when I didn't stay in OKC for the evening, I procrastinated my studies, and in turn punished myself for it and locked myself away with my books... But other than that! It's going well. I'm finally feeling stronger and more confident in my practice. It's wonderful to finally find something that fits my desires and needs so well. My mom and I have been going together when our schedules align, which makes it that much better. I love having someone to keep you accountable, and we get lots of, "aw, mother/daughter practice!" comments which is fun too.