End of Summer Update

Even though I'm not in school anymore, and I don't have any children that go through the whole back-to-school stuff, the end of summer always feels kind of bittersweet. The summer months have a more laid back, carefree feel to them. September is when you start preparing for the busy months ahead. We have Andrew's birthday, then the State Fair, then a trip to Indianapolis/Chicago, my birthday, then our 2nd anniversary, then Thanksgiving and Christmas. Things pick up in September and all of the fun stuff we look forward to all year is finally here. But it's a BUSY time, for most people. So before all of that gets here, I wanted to clean off my camera and post pictures you all have not had a chance to see. Lots of Harley--shock. Haha.

We wanted to get Harley used to riding in the car. When he's older, we want to be able to take him places with us. He'd only ever been in the car for vet trips, so he wasn't fond of it. Then suddenly he just WAS, very soon into us trying to get him adjusted. He still FREAKS out when Andrew runs into a gas station or wherever we go on our little errand. He doesn't care that I'm still there in the car with him, haha. But he loves riding in the car now, it's cute.

We were able to have the boys over to spend the night for a couple of nights a few weeks ago. We wish we'd been able to have them over more this summer, but time just FLEW by and we were busy with Harley and lots of weekend things here and there. So we hung out and didn't take hardly any pics. But I did get some of Daniel playing with Harley. The boys are not huge dog fans, but they both were SUPER great with Harley, letting him bombard them with his kisses and lovin'.

At the end of July, we went to see the American Idol concert tour with the Top Ten from last season. It was AN INCREDIBLE show. We went with a coworker of mine and her husband. Highly entertaining, and I'm so glad we ended up buying tickets! Seats weren't too bad at all, but it was tough to get pictures. Lighting just wasn't working a lot of the time.


Here is DeAndre, who I knew had potential all season, but never lived up to it. He was the best performer of the night, no question. Amazing energy, good vocals and songs...even Andrew admitted he rocked it.

One of the three best moments of the night, Erica singing a song by P!nk ("Glitter" I think?).

Holly, Erica, and Colton

Another of the three best moments of the night: Colton's a Christian rock singer, and the song he sang that he wrote moved me to tears. UNBELIEVABLE performer this guy is going to be. Just amazing.

Joshua Ledet, my favorite from this past season...the third one in the "best moments of the night" category, singing "Man's World". He brought down the house, HE IS SO GOOD. He should have won (sorry, Carolyn, I really do love Phillip, haha)

Here's the winner, Phillip Phillips. I do adore him and wasn't mad he won. He is unique and quirky and something is just so real and normal about him. Loved him, his single "Home" is really a wonderful song.

Phillip and Elise

 Colton, DeAndre, and Phillip

Final song of the night, performed by the whole Top Ten. GREAT SHOW!!!

Needed to give you guys a Harley break, because there's more cuteness coming at you right now. We've been trying to teach him how to catch a Frisbee. He does everything right...EXCEPT catch it, hahaha. Nevertheless, he has fun:

Gotta get it from him first. He likes to bring it to you, and then swerve at the last second, making you about fall over stretching for it.

Waiting patiently for me to throw it

 Didn't catch it, but he brings it back to "try" again, haha



When he's not playing with his frisbee with me, he is content to play with it by himself. He carries it around and just bats it around, as if he were a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Too precious.

He's turning into a really handsome guy, he's going to be 6 months old on September 5th. It feels like he's been with us MUCH longer than 4 months, haha.

So when I get home from work everyday, I have a routine. I spend about 30 seconds loving on Dewey by himself, go to the bathroom if needed, and then I begin. I go let Harley out. Then I turn on Dewey's bathroom faucets (he's been locked out all day and he's frantic to get in, even though there are two other water sources while we are gone--nutcase), grab my phone charger, and wait for Harley. He makes 1-2 trips into his kennel. he brings out Rocky Raccoon for sure, sometimes a rawhide or two. He crams as MUCH into his mouth as will fit in these trips, and then the gate goes up. We go outside, he jumps all over me, and then he does his business. Then we come in, he gets fresh water with ice cubes and a scoop of food for lunch (we'd started trying to wean him off of feeding him three scoops a day to two, but he hit a growth spurt and is eating like crazy; since he burns it off constantly, we are good with feeding him lunch still at this point). Then I take off my shoes and grab a bite to eat for myself while he eats/drinks/catches Dewey coming back from drinking his body weight in water. Then it's time to sit in our chair (mine and Harley's) and watch my shows that Andrew doesn't watch with me. This is when Harley jumps on me to show me he missed me, we wrestle and practice him giving kisses, no biting. He's turning into a sweet, snuggly puppy with me, and it's nice.

When play time is done and it's time for some of my shows, Harley is not often ready to be done playing.


"C'mon, you know you'd rather play with me than watch this!"



"Don't act like you don't hear me, Mom!"

He and Dewey have more "STOP THAT" moments than "Awwww....." moments, but Harley has more energy than Dewey's ever had in his entire three years on this earth. It's tough to settle him down, they want to play SO BADLY, but Harley's just too rough for the Dewball. They get along best with a gate between them. From chasing invisible bugs (a favorite game of Dewey's that perplexes Harley) to seeming to have "let's get things straight" conversations...you really can tell they love each other.

 "Mom, I think my brother is losing it...there's no bug here."

Dewey's been ten times more affectionate and lovable to Andrew and I than we could ever have hoped for since getting Harley. He's slimmed down a lot, too, since he spends his afternoon/evenings running away from Harley, then turning around for one of his Ginga Ninja surprise "attacks" on Harley. He's just a good boy, I love my little Dewball!!

Harley waits anxiously for his daddy to get home, and then we settle into our evening routine of dinner and chatting and playing with Harley and TV before bed.

                                      

Like my blog title suggests, we live the simple life here. Not a lot excitement by some people's standards, but we love it. Harley and Dewey keep us laughing, sometimes to the point of tears. They are silent, furry comedians; and as frustrated as I get with Harley even still, he definitely was the missing piece to our house we didn't know we were missing. He's a good boy. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures, we miss and love all of you that we haven't seen in forever. Enjoy the end of your summer!!