Pumpkin Patch

I got these adorable pumpkin hoodies on chewy.com for Momo and Noah and now we have a little pumpkin patch of our own.

Speaking of pumpkins, we'll be carving 7 over the weekend. That's 7 for me, Yangkyu, Momo, Noah and our three across the rainbow bridge, or who we like to call the Sunflower Gang - Piri, Bartles and Lady. We actually plan on carving a sunflower to represent them and while it looks perfect in my head, I just hope it turns out looking like a tall sunflower. We picked out jack o lantern carving patterns for the rest of us and I just can't wait to have it out in the backyard like we do every year (even though our backyard is currently a hot mess right now and decorating it hasn't even crossed my mind. It literally looks like a big dump).

I can't believe this will be our last weekend of our break before we have guest dogs again (our next weekend break comes right before Thanksgiving). We hope to take Noah and Momo out to a short outing. We don't get to do this a lot with them and so it's been harder to establish an outing routine with them. We're also trying to figure out what's best for Noah as he isn't the biggest fan of riding inside cars and so we don't want to stress him out by taking him out all the time. I realized that with Piri he was the happiest when he was going places with us and so we adjusted our lives to do everything with him. With Noah it is the complete opposite and so we'll just have to condition ourselves to say it's ok to leave him home alone and even take just Momo with us so that she can start to get used to going places without Noah (she is so dependent on him though and does so much better when he is by her side). Definitely a tricky puzzle for us to figure out as a family but we'll find something that works for all of us.

Lately we have been terrible about working out, cooking at home and including vegan meals and so we hope to jump start all that starting this weekend. Fingers crossed it doesn't fall off our plates again.

Happy weekend! 

Life lately, according to my iPhone

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to the people who don't understand."

 -- The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams

Five Red Apples jumping on the bed One fell off and bumped his head Momma called the doctor and the doctor said No more teddy bears jumping on the bed!

Last weekend, we packed up our hatchback and drove about an hour to a dog friendly pick your own fruit called Mackintosh Fruit Farm. Momo and Noah are still getting used to walking on a leash and being out in public places but I see them improving each time we are out. The weather was a lot cooler but we still made sure Noah was hydrated before making the trip out - making sure he got 100 cc of sub-q fluids and also his morning helping (about 4 oz) of Answers Fermented Goat's Milk (it's important for dogs with chronic kidney disease to stay hydrated. The sub-q fluids not only help with hydration but it also helps flush toxins out of the body, something the kidneys can no longer do properly). 

Both our dogs are also nervous passengers in cars and so we gave both CDB oil, which completely calmed Momo down (she was incredibly chill in her brand new car seat riding shot gun) and while Noah was still nervous he wasn't shaking like a leaf like he usually does. We buy our CDB oil from Dogs Naturally Market, although the brand we use is no longer available. We have also used Charlotte's Web. 

Fuji and Golden Delicious apples are for picking the day we arrived and we got a bucketful to take home with us. We always try to save some to make a pie but we go through them so quickly that there is never enough leftover. Noah also loves apples too but Momo could care less about them. She takes after Lady so much in this way (only meat for those girls).

Mackintosh Fruit Farm is completely dog friendly, which is great, but I did find dog poop here and there that owners didn't bother to pick up (this completely gets me annoyed by the way - pick up after your pet)! There is also an eating area and a market place. While we enjoyed their grilled cheese sandwich, chicken nuggets and hot dogs at one of their many picnic tables they have available, we also picked up their apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake to take home and the only regret I had was not getting more of their pumpkin cheesecake (so good).

We recently got these leashes from Ruffwear for Momo and Noah. I already have a leash from Found My Animal that can be worn at the waist for a hands free experience (I got it for Lady and me) but the one from Ruffwear has stretch-webbing that gently pulls them back and not a sudden jerk. Momo and Noah are both notorious for constantly moving and roaming even when we are sitting down and while  we'll be trying to mat train them for future outings (thank you for the idea Pearly's mom!) we hope the stretch-webbing will be a bit gentler on them as they continue to explore their surroundings.

I used to always dislike fall (summer was my favorite season). I couldn't describe what it was but I had a hard time emotionally transitioning from summer to fall (I later learned other people had this as well and there is actually a name for it - Seasonal Affective Disorder). I would have these bouts of sadness and the thought of evenings getting darker faster was something I wasn't looking forward to at all. Even fall foliage, which is beautiful was sad to see. But then two years ago I stopped having these cycles of depression and I couldn't wait for fall to come around. It completely surprised me because I have had this difficulty transitioning for most of my adult life. With Noah and Momo, I feel like a completely different person this season and have fully embraced fall. And our home is currently decked out in Halloween decorations (since end of September), which normally hasn't been the case around here.

We still have pumpkin carvings and Thanksgiving day celebrations left for this season and I look forward to them all. 

 // 2014 apple picking at Stribling Orchard 

 // 2013 apple picking at Homestead Farm