I'm Thankful For...

So many things.

 I am an unbelievably lucky person and I could not have made it through this past year without the love and support of everyone around me. When I think of where I was last year and where I am today I am so humbled and so grateful for everyone around me who has given me so much. I can't possibly thank everyone in the space allotted to this blog post but I do want to acknowledge how much I appreciate everything that has happened over the last year. To my Princeton friends thank you for being there through the stress, the tears, the laughter, the distance, and the best Monday nights of my life. I couldn't ask for a better set of friends that I know will continue to be there for me for the rest of my life. To my grandparents, thank you so much for coming to graduation and supporting me. It meant the world to me to have you there even though I know it was a long ways from home. Also to my whole family thank you for the couch, bed, rug, bedroom set, armoire, knives, pots, pans, dishes, tables, buffet, fridge artwork, baking utensils, love, and support without which my house would not be a home and I would most likely be camping out on my living room floor.

Jake and Maddie thank you for being the best siblings and friends I could ever ask for. I am so glad I've gotten to see more of both of you in the past six months and I am so proud of everything you're doing. Finally I could, at this point, write an entire blog about how thankful I am for my mom and dad. From taking me to my job interview last thanksgiving to watching Lola while I went to the East Coast to see Craig for this one, I am so thankful to both of you for supporting me in whatever I do and encouraging me to live my life on my own terms in the way that will make me happiest. I know that you are truly exceptional parents and I am the luckiest person in the world ... well maybe one of the three luckiest people. I can't think of anyone else who would help me with anything from driving across the country to building an impenetrable fortress for my puppy, even when the idea of taking that drive or getting that dog seemed crazy. So thank you to everyone and I love you all so very much.

And oh yeah.... before I forget....

I'm thankful for Lola.

Dog Warts are not like Hogwarts

But if they were Lola would probably be a prefect of Gryffindor house.

Yep! After another trip to an emergency vet (let's pretend I just really want to socialize Lola with as many veterinarians as possible) we've discovered that Lola most likely has a form of canine papilloma virus. aka warts. Apparently in many dogs this manifests as warts in their mouth which can cause some problems if they get big enough that they interfere with the dog eating but Lola has a more unusual form where they are on their feet. On the plus side this is common in dogs under two years of age and she will hopefully grow out of it as her immune system strengthens. On the minus side she has a wart on each hind foot which we may or may not have 'traumatized' when we took her for a really long walk yesterday. oops. Also I learned that Pitbulls are known to be very 'stoic' dogs and can handle a lot of pain. This is consistent with Lola who has never yipped, squealed, or whined despite being stepped on, running through barbed wire fences, and having bleeding paws from these wart things after the walk. So I will have to keep an eye on her in the future for any very subtle signs of stress. The vet yesterday said he once saw a dog who had a broken femur for four days because the dog only had a slight limp so the owner didn't know to bring him in to the vet!

But it's ok. Mom knows how to make everything feel better:

The weekend on the whole has been excellent however. Mom was here until this morning which was wonderful as always and I'm so glad she was there to play with us all weekend. Yesterday morning we took Lola for her long walk (which eventually led to the vet visit... oops)  and then we got lattes and took Lola to Petco! Well I think we were the three happiest creatures in that building as Lola got THREE new toys and a lovely winter coat. It's starting to get really cold here (freezing actually) so much that Mount Hood opened this weekend! I've been worried about Lola being cold so she's got a new coat. And some excellent booties. You all know how much I love shoes and hopefully they will protect her little paws from the ice and snow. Also we got some great holiday clothing which you will definitely see in the coming weeks. The highlight of the visit however, was the 'migratory waterfowl' toy that Lola picked out. We think it may be a pheasant but the jury is still out as the thing has blue feet. It goes on the list with the green weiner as ugliest toys Lola has chosen and also makes a really great honking sound. And when I say 'great' I mean 'somewhat frightening'. Anyways except for the vet we all had a very wonderful day full of Lola and some of the most exciting regular season football I've seen all season! It's always great when Mom is in town.

The Update!

Well Hello Everyone! Yes - I find it appropriate to refer to the readership of this blog as 'everyone' because after homecoming I've established that it is more people than just Mom and occasionally Maddie that are following the illustrious life of Lola! So thank you everybody!

This past week was so much fun but both Lola and I are truly exhausted! If you don't believe me here's Lola on Monday:

Starting the Friday before last, Lola went to the Scooby Shack, Sarah's house, my house (where Mitchell was house/puppysitting), and then back to the Scooby Shack and Sarah's house! While she was doing this I went from PDX to Vancouver Canada for my layover on the way to New Zealand! Then drove around New Zealand, back through LAX and into EWR to go to Princeton for Homecoming! And then finally Lola and I were reunited Sunday night. Sarah and Mitchell did a great job with her and I am so thankful that she was so well taken care of when I was gone! I was equally well taken care of, however, and I'm so thankful to Jake and Mom and Dad for having such a wonderful time in New Zealand and to everyone at Cap and Gown for making it the best weekend ever.

New Zealand was a very beautiful country and I think we got to experience a lot of the really cool things about it. The first day Jake took me to Christchurch and the botanical gardens and then we drove to an extremely oddly decorated hotel in an industrial town. However we figured we were ok as there was a sign at the welcome desk that said "The Prince of Wales was Conceived Here". The next day we got up and had our first encounters with pies and then headed to the Moreaki Boulders (which I really wanted to go to). They eat pies there as a breakfast food and it's really quite genuis. They're handheld pies filled with everything from meat to apples and raisins. Needless to say they became a staple of my New Zealand diet and I think Mom and I will soon be making pies of all sorts for all occasions. Opening a pie bakery or rather a food truck that sells pies is quickly becoming a viable career choice. After the boulders we went to Dunedin and picked up Mom and Dad. Dunedin is where we started to see lots of creatures and the diversity of wildlife was pretty awesome. That is also where we began drinking copious amounts of beer. It's spring in New Zealand so not only did we see tons of baby lambs and cows (I wanted to steal one. Jake said no) but we also saw seals and all sorts of birds including wild parrots and Albatross and PENGUINS! The penguins were adorable. Click on the link for proof of the cuteness of the little blue penguins . And you must watch that video until you are at least 23 seconds in to hear the very cute little penguin noises. If anyone is interested I do an excellent impression. We also went to the Speight's brewery and went on a tour and drank a lot of beer. The beer was really good and the tour was really interesting! They grow a ton of hops in NZ that are shipped all over the world and they are very proud of their beer. Mom discovered that she likes dark beer, I discovered I like most all beer produced in NZ, and Jake and Dad discovered that they should probably not take Mom and I to another brewery anytime soon. Anyways we had a wonderful time and if Jake ever posts pictures (hint hint) hopefully those will show up online sometime soon. After Dunedin we went to Milford Sound which was truly incredible and fairly indescribable and then on to Queenstown where we went for a hike and ate one of the largest and most delicious burgers I've ever eaten in my life called a Furgburger. or Fergburger. either way it was unbelievably tasty. There are a ton of other things about New Zealand that were unique and interesting but this post is incredibly long and I haven't even made it to New Jersey yet! For more information on political correctness in NZ (nonexistent), the Occupy New Zealand protests (lame), the legalized prostitution (questionable), or Jake's Nissan Bluebird (Excellent) you're just going to have to give me a call!

On to New Jersey - where homecoming was also amazing. I missed everyone so much and it was great to be back at Cap and having fun with all of my friends who graduated with me, graduated before me, and are still at Princeton. It's a pretty magical place and I'm really lucky to be able to go back. Also I'm really sorry to everyone there because my only answer to when people asked the inevitable 'How are you doing?' was 'Good! I got a puppy! I love her. Want to see pictures?' and then I made the poor unsuspecting friend look at 5-10 pictures of Lola being adorable. Similarly, I'm just going to assume that if you all were seeing me in person right now you would ask, 'So Haley! How was your week? How was all of the travelling?' And I would reply 'Great! Seeing my family was amazing and New Zealand was so incredible and then going to Homecoming was the most fun I've had in a long time. I really missed my friends and it was great to see everyone. But I also really missed Lola. I love her. Want to see a picture?'

The Case for the Conventional Mousetrap

Lola and I are so sorry for the long hiatus from posting!

There is a ton to catch up on so instead of trying to do it in one post we're going to start from the beginning. Which takes us back to 10/27/2011 when Maddie and the Stanford Women's Soccer Team was visiting Oregon! It was so much fun to have the whole team at home and so I drove down after work to partake in the festivities! I also got to see both sets of grandparents and I left Lola for the weekend so that I could take the FE in peace on Saturday. Rachel Quon who is Maddie's year and on the soccer team made an extremely excellent video about their road trip and there's some great footage of my house and My llama! So check it out: http://www.ourgamemagazine.com/?p=2145

Fun fact - when Mom had to catch Icicle so that the soccer team could pet a llama, she managed to do so by outrunning him. We have a pretty big field and I think that this could be an excellent way to train for long distance running competitions.... Llama catching. I think this could really catch on!

It was so great to see Maddie as always but I had to leave after dinner to go back up to Vancouver so that I could take my exam. The exam was awful. It was very long and very boring and asked a lot of questions that I did not care very much about and found very irritating to answer. Very unpleasant Saturday. However! I drove back down to Corvallis to see Maddie's game against the Ducks on Sunday and to pick up my lovely puppy who spent the weekend at home!

Unfortunately while we were packing up, Lola got into some Decon which required an emergency trip to the puppy ER. Apparently the way Decon works is that it stops the production of vitamin K which is a clotting factor in the blood. Without this, creatures will die of internal bleeding. Lola had to go to the vet and they induced vomiting and now she's taking vitamin K supplements until December. On the plus side the people at the vet fell in LOVE with Lola and Lola seemed unaffected by the induced vomiting and was perfectly happy to have the full attention of the vets and lab techs. Also she had to be weighed when admitted so I can proudly report that Lola weighs 41 lbs! On the minus side... I think it's obvious. And once again Lola's tab this month is far longer than mine! Thankfully mom and I were both there and saw it happen so we got it away from her quickly and were able to take her to the vet with no harm done. This was a complete accident and Lola is totally fine but I know mom felt really bad that there was decon around and that for some reason Lola chose this time to stick her little face in it. Which is why I'm making the case for a conventional mousetrap. Or a cat. SO! If you are considering getting a puppy.... or a baby.... or really anything that indiscriminately sticks things in its mouth I would highly suggest considering an alternate form of rodent extermination because anything that kills you by causing serious internal bleeding is a little frightening!