Normal Saturday

Sometimes life isn't an adventure ... sometimes it's just normal, and sometimes normal is fantastic.  It's been a busy week at work for me, and I wanted nothing more from this weekend than to relax and catch up with all the aspects of my real life that seem to be ignored between Monday and Friday.

I particularly love Saturdays in fall.  Crisp, cool air and crunchy leaves when we walk the dog ... wearing sweaters and scarves ... and college football on TV.  I thought I would sleep in this morning, but woke up at 7 like usual ... Chris tried to convince me to go back to sleep while I tried to convince him to wake up ... of course he woke up right as I fell back asleep.  Finally we both got up to discover that the Northwestern game was actually being broadcast, so we put on purple shirts and watched them BEAT Iowa!!  (and then Wisconsin scored 83 against Indiana ... EIGHTY-THREE?!)

The rest of the day will most likely involve cleaning the house, running some errands, and hopefully catching up with some friends on the phone.  I also plan to make cookies for a church bake sale tomorrow, and may read a book.  I know my life is boring right now ... but it's wonderful :-)

Alphie's Adventures

Hello, blog readers ... if we have any anymore (or perhaps readers via facebook is more accurate). 

The Stahl household is doing well - and has grown by one!  We got a dog :-)  His name is Alphie the ALPHA dog (the dorm we live in is called ALPHA, and we thought it was a funny/cute name).  He's a golden retriever mix, about 5 years old, 30 lbs - he kinda looks like a golden puppy, but he's full-grown!  After finding him on Petfinder we adopted him through Golden Retriever Rescue.  He was staying with a foster family for a few weeks, and we LOVED the experience of adopting from a foster family.  Instead of a quick visit to the pound or humane society, the first time we visited the family we spent an hour hanging out with Alphie, walking him, playing with him, and talking to the foster family about him.  They really knew his behavior and wanted us to wait a week or two to think about it while they were on vacation, so after they got back we went to visit again and got to bring him home :-)  They called to check up on us for the first few weeks and helped us trouble-shoot whatever issues were going on. 

Alphie investigating the apartment

 His favorite spot to get attention

So far it's been really fun and he's a great dog.  He's fantastic in the house - he's completely house-trained (no accidents!), doesn't mess with or chew on things, and seems fine being home alone.  He already knew how to sit, stay, lie down, and go to bed, and we taught him to stay in certain rooms of the house.  So far the only major issue has been his barking - he's rather inclined to bark at people who startle him as well as bicycles, skateboards, and other dogs.  It was rather rough the first couple weeks as students wanted to pet him and we live right at the busy center of campus.  Luckily it's been getting a lot better - he has a relapse here and there, and we may still talk to a behaviorist, but we know he is capable of really good behavior.  He's such a silly, fun dog around the house - he amuses us, and as Chris says, is probably amused by us as well ;-)   

Look at that face!

Sleepy puppy