Some fun times lately with Nashville :)

Well hello there blogland.  This post is primarily for the benefit of the lovely folks who helped connect us with our wonderful pup Nashville.  I hope you guys enjoy this update and know how much we appreciate what you did to help bring Nashville to us!

He is still doing amazing and we love him to pieces!  He's up to 44lbs and still growing!  My husband and I always remark that he looks like a little man-dog.  He's still little to us, but his face looks so grown up.  Here's a picture of Nashville doing one of his favorite things, staring out the window.  He looks so big in this picture, I just had to show you!  As you can also see, we have snow on the ground here.  It turns out that Nashville LOVES the snow!  He loves to sniff it, eat it (if we don't see any yellow), and jump in it.  He even keeps mom company on her runs, which is good because I lose motivation pretty easily when it's so cold out there!

Over Thanksgiving, I (Carissa) ran a Turkey Trot, and my sister was kind enough to bring Nashville so he could cheer for me.  Here's a picture of us at the start line.  He made friends with some little girls and their dad, they really liked Nash's name and kept saying "Nashville, sit," it was cute!

At the 3 mile mark of the race, I saw Nashville and my sister on the sideline cheering and decided to take Nashville across the finish line with me, since he's such a good runner.  When we got to the finish line, the little girls we met before the race started changing, "Nashville! NASHVILLE!"  You better believe he loved that!!

A couple weeks ago, I had to go away for a few days for work.  When I'm away, Nashville spends more time in his crate, since typically I'm home all day.  He's gotten pretty good with his crate, but he definitely gets a little angsty when he's in there too much.  When Taylor came to pick me up at the airport after the trip, I went to get him out of his crate and found that he had torn his leash to pieces!!!  Here he is displaying his crime:


A few days ago, Nash had to have a bath, and apparently that made him really comfortable with the tub because the next day, I found him doing this:



There comes a time in every puppy's life when his parents do the right thing and chop off his...well you  know where I'm going with this.  That day for Nashville came last Wednesday, December 7th, when mommy took Nash to be neutered.  He has done a great job recovering, and he seems to be well on his way.  One thing he is NOT a fan of is the cone:

Look at that face!

And here's a video of him "learning" to walk with it :)


Finally, we've often said that Nashville would make a great reindeer, with his beautiful coat and long legs.  So when I found these reindeer antlers at Target for $1, I couldn't resist.

So here he is, our little man in all his glory, wishing you a Merry Christmas!  Remember to travel safe on those roads, whether or not you have puppies in tow!

Thanks again!

Carissa, Taylor and Nashville

P.S. Here's a link to all of our photos of Nash, we update this a lot!

Nashville Pup!

30 Before 30: Buy a car that I love

2014 UPDATE: Now that we have both a baby and a dog, it was time for an upgrade to a larger, safer, more reliable car.  And as much as we really do LOVE our little Altima and will always remember it as our first car together, our 2014 Ford Explorer has displaced her as my favoite car.  In February 2014, we leased this beauty.  I think it was my gift from Taylor for all of the time when I was the only one working, and I do love it:)

I am obsessed with the Sync system and the touchscreen interface in the Explorer.  It has so many features that I love, like Bluetooth, Sirius radio, Navigation, you name it.  I feel so fancy and spoiled in this car.  And even though it's a lease, we are not in danger of going over miles at all, even with a trip to NJ and back (about 1,200 miles), so that's nice.  The main issue we have is that the car gets TERRIBLE gas mileage, but there's not much we can do about that.  It does take E85 gas, which can be up a $1 cheaper than regular gas, so that helps.  Here's a photo of Nash in the back of the Explorer for our trip to NJ.  I'm just glad we have a car that is big enough to bring everything we need and the dog and Eli :)
 

Nash, not so sure about his downgrade from business to coach class for our road trips!

So when Taylor and I moved to Ann Arbor, we needed a car, of course.  We started looking a while in advance, keeping an eye on used cars that we might wan to call our own.  My dad looked at quite a few for us (thanks dad), but none of them really caught his eye at first.  When, in late July, he went to look at a 2006 Nissan Altima and, while his report was not stunning, it was pretty positive compared to previous ones.  Here are the stats:

Stats:
2006 Nissan Altima
80,000 miles
Charcoal grey
Previous lease that the owner (an early-20s kid) had bought after his lease term

The Good:
Because the car was a lease, it had been regularly maintained for the first 3 years (oil changes and the like were free).
The owner was selling it for less than he owed because he was leaving the country for a year
The interior was in excellent condition
Engine in good working order
New brake pads*

The Bad:
4 different tires (this isn't in itself a bad thing, but it says something about the owner; ie. he didn't replace all the tires at once and probably cut corners on other things too)
Some scratches and dents on the exterior - none major
Needed a new batter (we found this out after we bought it, actually)

We managed to negotiate the owner down about $750 under his asking price and bought the car on August 1.  Because of a series of unfortunate circumstances mostly the fault of the seller, we did not actually receive the title and license for the car until September 7, but that's all well behind us. 

*So regarding the brakes...it turns out that while the brake pads were new, the previous owner had definitely bought the cheapest brakes and gotten them installed at the cheapest possible place because what we thought was just incidental squeaking in the front brakes because the car hadn't been driven for a while actually turned out to be incessantly, infuriatingly squeaky brakes that are the reason that this post is delayed since August.  For the first 3.5 months of our car ownership, the brakes squeaked every time I hit them and made a grinding noise every time we slowed down.  Because we were so busy, we never really had time to get them checked out or fixed until Thanksgiving.  This is when my dad informed me that new brake pads were almost certainly the answer to all of life's (ok, our car's) problems.  He also informed me that one can buy $35 brake pads and install them yourself (ok, not everyone can do this, but with the help of David Lucyk, I can).  So, the day before Thanksgiving, I stopped at O'Reilly Auto Parts and purchased some mid-grade ceramic brake pads and that afternoon we had some father-daughter bonding time where Dad taught me to change the pads.

Then, I got in the car for a little spin around the block and............

ahhhhhh...silence, for the first time.

Which is why I can only now (ok, 2 weeks ago, I'm late with this post) say that I have purchased a car that I love.

And as a result of that love, I spent some time the day after Thanksgiving giving my car a little TLC, including a cleaning inside and out, so that it was ready for this photo shoot :)

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Another 30 Before 30: Make Thanksgiving Dinner!

So, while my 30th birthday seems far off, I realized a couple weeks ago that I need to start paying attention to things that only happen once a year.  I'm 28 now and take Thanksgiving for example, I only have one more while I'm in my 20s!!  Crazy!

As you probably know, my beloved Grandma Lucyk passed away in February after a stroke.  We all miss her terribly, especially around the holidays, when she was always there and so much fun to be around.  My mom especially had lots of traditions with Grandma, including Black Friday shopping.  Ok, I know I know, you all judge, but then I see you all at those stores!!  Don't lie, you do it too!  So anyway, my grandma was always the earliest riser I knew, thought Black Friday was just a regular day and never deigned to keep my mom company as she searched for deals.  Originally, Taylor and I had planned to spend Thanksgiving in New Jersey with his family, but as the holiday drew nigh (I'm already in the Christmas Olde English spirit), I started feeling a strong desire to stay home with my family, especially for my mom.  So we decided early in the month that I would stay and that Taylor would go.   When I told my mom, she immediately said "Oh, great!  You can complete one of your 30 Before 30!"  And so it was :)

We got to work planning right away.  I basically wanted to make the same meal my mom always makes, with a couple of my own touches.  So the first step, of course, was to plan the menu.  We had 9 people at dinner: Me, my Mom and Dad, Garett, Taryn, my Grandma and Grandpa Hooper and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Shari Lucyk (oh, and Nashville, who helped with the leftovers, of course!).

Appetizers: Sweet-hot relish and crackers and Crostini with Gorgonzola, Honey and Walnuts (Aunt Shari made this one)

Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole (My mom made this one, considering it her contribution to the meal, but I helped)

Relish Tray

Cranberry

Pistachio Jello

Dessert - Apple a la mode and Pumpkin Pie (supplied by Grandma Hooper)

Drinks  - (Wine, Beer, soda, water, etc)

Step 2: Shopping - God Bless Meijer and Michigan, all the ingredients were only $70!!!

Preparations on Wednesday:

Boil the sweet potatoes:

I also prepared the Sweet-hot relish appetizer and made some delicious pumpkin soup on Wednesday, both of which I served in the afternoon before we ate Thanksgiving dinner.

I don't have any photos of the Pumpkin soup, but I do have these photos from the last time I made it, when I didn't realize that filling a blender with hot liquids could result in this:

Luckily we have a cleaning crew!

Then, on Thursday morning, I got up bright and early to prep the turkey:

Cleaning the turkey!

All ready to go in the oven:

No one told me about this part...

You might have noticed my nice bright shirt in the middle photo above.  The reason I got up before daylight on Thanksgiving was that I actually had plans to run a Turkey Trot 5K at 9am.  This isn't on my 30 Before 30 list, but it was something I've always wanted to do:

A little blurry but you get the idea.  Taryn was kind enough to bring Nashville to cheer me on!  I did fairly well, 25 minutes and 30 seconds, which is about an 8 minute and 15 second mile.

After the 5K, I headed home to do the rest of the Thanksgiving cooking.

Stuffing and potatoes boiling:

Putting together the green bean casserole:
Whipping the potatoes:
In goes the Turkey (did I mention I have a camera crew?)!

And out comes the Turkey!

Me with the full spread:

Close-up:

One place setting:

A decidedly messier place setting (my Uncle Jeff's)
I would be amiss if I didn't mention that my mom was a TON of help and I could not have done this without her patient guidance.  Thanks, Mom!  Love you!