DOGGY SUCCESS!

Ladies and Gentleman, we have success!

THE DOG IS IN THE BED!

Oh, this was no small feat. It took nearly 30 minutes to make this happen. Why, you say, do I want the dog in the bed? Simply because my dog is lovable and it's fun to sleep with a dog. You might think that my dog would jump at the chance to sleep on a bed. You might think I'd say, "Wanna go to bed?!" And she'd run upstairs, hop on the bed, and take up all the room.

You don't know my dog.

My dog has a whole slew of phobias. She's afraid of rivers and of shiny floors and slippery floors and men with hats..... and... the biggest fear of all..... STAIRS!

If the stairs are not carpeted, there's no way she'll escalate them. She'll demand to be carried.

If the carpet is a little uneven or needs to be straightened, she'll look at you until you address this problem.

Our stairs are wooden, but we keep a run of carpet on the stairs so that the dog may travel from the first floor to the second floor as she pleases. This strip of carpet is so essential for her survival, that we travel with this carpet. We bring it with us so that, should we encounter any stairs, we can roll out the carpet so that the dog can get up and down.

I told you you didn't know my dog and her phobias. It's all pretty severe.

So, let me lay out the scene:

Dog is sitting on incredibly comfy couch in the family room. I want to go to bed, and want the dog, whose name is Bucket, to come with me.

Me: Bucket! Bucket! Wanna go to bed?! Bucket, let's go to bed! (no movement) Bucket! Bucket... yeah, good girl... Bucket, I love you... let's go to bed; let's go!

No movement.

ME: Bucket there's a squirrel in my bed! Wanna get a squirrel!

No movement.

Now I need to tell you something else about Bucket. Normally, when you tap her on the head and say, "Duck, Duck, Duck.... Goose!" she starts running on "goose."

ME: Duuuuck.... Duuuck.... Duuuck..... GOOSE!

No movement. She's so comfy on the couch that she cannot be convinced.

Something else about my dog. Normally if you hide, and somebody else says, "Go find [Insert your name]" she will go and find you. So, I crouch down to hide.

MY SISTER: Go find, Laura! Go find, Laura!

No movement.

None of the tricks are working tonight! So, we must resort to peanut butter. My sister hands me a spoonful of peanut butter. I tempt her with the peanut butter.

Bucket looks up. Ears perk.

BUCKET: Hmmmm... peanut butter or couch, peanut butter or couch, peanut butter or couch?..... Peanut butter.

Bucket gets off the couch, and follows me as I lure her to the stairs, holding the spoonful of peanut butter.

And then the trouble starts up again. We get to the base of the stairs. Bucket looks up all those stairs. looks at me, looks at the stairs, looks at me.

BUCKET: I don't know if I can do it.

ME: You can do it, girl! Come on, one step, you can do it.

Bucket puts right paw on step, tests it out... no good, takes her paw off, looks at me, looks at stairs, looks at me, looks at stairs.

My sister and I straighten out the carpet perfectly for our dear dog. Bucket manages to get one step up and freezes. looks at us. And backs down. This scene plays over and over and over again. Bucket makes it up a few stairs, freezes, and runs back down all the stairs.

My sister holds the carpet in place, while I crawl up the stairs on all fours, trying to demonstrate to my dog how it is done.

My dog just whines, feeling scared and helpless.

(Bucket is a big dog; I cannot carry her up the stairs).

We straighten the carpet again. By this time my whole family is surrounding Bucket, acting as a cheerleading squad

MY FAMILY: Let's go girl! That's right, baby gir! You got it! Come on! One more stair! You can do it! It's okay, girl! Buck-boo, we love you!

And when the dog finally feels enough lovin' from the Family Cheerleading Squad, she sprints up to the top of the stairs, after which she is rewarded with the spoonful of peanut butter.

ME: Bucket, let's go, get on the bed! (I say as I pat the bed).

But, Bucket is so worn out from the TRAUMA of making it up the stairs, that she just rolls over and pants on the ground.

ME: Bucket, watch me! (I run and jump on the bed).

Bucket walks to the bed and puts her paw on top of it.

You'd think she's 90. Nope. She's just a scaredy cat (or... scaredy dog).

My sister and I join forces to lift Bucket on to my bed, where she currently lies!

Success!

Here's the girl, Buck-a-boo:


and here she is, in bed with me. You can hardly see, but it's the only picture I have of tonight:



-----OTHER NEWS:-----

Good day. Highlights were:
-Walking to the mall with my friend
-Walking to the fro yo store with my mom and dog, having a deep and good conversation with my mom about life and future and priorities and my gramma (the one who recently pased)
-Overhearing the laughter coming from my sister and brother while they made dinner for the whole family.
-2 enjoyable cups of coffee
-Being productive: called a few places I've been needing to call to deal with some annoying red-tape things, plus wrote a cover letter, and just a couple other things on my "to do list" that make me feel relaxed for having done them.
-Helping my sister with her freaking hard spanish homework for a couple of hours this afternoon. She's overwhelmed by the subject right now and behind... so here I am, to the rescue in the department of Spanish homework. This seems to be my full-time job for both my brother and sister.

Emotions of the day were:
-Very energetic
-Happy, lots of laughter
-Feeling good and productive
-Dreading is too harsh of a word... but already not looking forward to going back to my home. I love my family so much.
-This is the first day I didn't cry or have some kind of momentary meltdown in a few weeks.

Food of the day

Thoughts: I didn’t count calories, nor did I desire to. I just really tried to focus today on letting myself eat every time I was hungry. Tracy sent me an email saying to try to keep up with my appetite… so I tried. I feel okay about this. I hope it’s okay to feel okay about this. Tomorrow I see Tracy.

Breakfast: 2 slices of whole wheat cinnamon raisin toast, each topped with a spoonful of PB (so 2 spoonfuls total)

(I was hungry when I woke up. This hit the spot and was good. I have no thoughts of cutting back on lunch like I have had other days)

Lunch: In a bowl that holds a smidge more than 1 cup, I filled half of it with brown rice/lentil/pea/carrot/onion mixture and the other half with kale/sweet potato/carrot/red pepper/celery/corn mixture. And I topped it with a few thin rectangular slices of low-fat white cheddar cheese. Then I had 3 squares (like the size of Hershey squares; not the size of ghiradelli square) of dark chocolate because I craved an “ending” to the meal.

(I was hungry for this and satisfied after.)

Exercise: walk 6 miles with friend

Snack: a container of nf yogurt with half a banana

Snack a cup of fiber one with a spoonful of peanut butter, vanilla soy milk and about 5 almonds (I was hungry. I was fine with eating this. I did think I'd probably be less hungry for dinner. Even after eating all of this, I still wasn't even all that full...)

Dinner (Despite the fact that I had been responding to hunger all day, I was so hungry for this and I was starting to get shaky. I kind of feel like a bottomless pit today!) 2 nacho chips with non-fat refried beans, chicken, cheese on them; a teeny bit (1/2 spoonful?) of cinnamon raisin peanut butter; 1 homemade whole wheat roll ( ½ with smart balance spread on it; ½ with low-fat cream cheese spread on it. )Then, in a bowl: spinach, broccoli/mushrooms/tomatoes/kale/corn/sweet potato/carrot/celery/onions (originally cooked in a vegetable broth, but drained) heated up. I ate about half of the bowl and then I got full and stopped (it was easy to put the food down. I felt satisfied)

Exercise Walk 3 miles with dog and mom