New Family Member...

As we came to the end of the week last week Dan and I began to realize the house just wasn't the same without Buddie. It was way to quiet and actually kind of boring. Every night last week we tried to keep busy running errands or doing this doing that, but there was just something missing. We agreed it was a dog. We love spending time together and doing little projects or going places, but we also love having something that's OURS to enjoy. Dan has wanted a boxer ever since we have dated. His friends in college had them and he loved them. I really want another beagle. I did a little research and found that both the Boxer and Beagle breeds are great family dogs, they are very loyal and great with kids. This needed to be considered before we even think about having kids as these dogs have a long lifespan. Dan wanted a reverse brindle, male. You would think that would be easy as the brindles aren't a very popular choice for owners, usually people want the fawns. My mom happened to find one a couple hours away that was just ready to be taken home. Oh, yes, I forgot, we also already had a name picked out for him...Tyson. Well, wouldn't you know, this new babies name was Tyson. This all happened late Saturday night, my mom emailed the breeder, by Sunday afternoon we were in the car to go take a look at him and the breeders place (no puppy mills for us!)


Meet Tyson!! :)

Tyson, is 9 weeks old and AKC registered. He has 9 siblings, and he comes from Ft. Dodge, Iowa. He is pretty quiet and laid back...reminds me a lot of Dan. How, you may be asking. Well, Dan when I first met him seemed to be very quiet, shy, and pretty harmless. Tyson was super quiet the first night, and he is still pretty shy, however, when he wants something or in his case doesn't want something he will make it known! :) Dan and Tyson will be great for each other, Dan has this little sparkle about having Tyson around. Tyson loves his Dad! I will have to update more photos later of his first night home.

We are excited to have a new member of our family!

Love from the Buchholz House!

It's Not Good-bye...Just See You Later...

Well I guess you could say a lot has happened since July 1st, the last post I made. Let's start on the first weekend of July. We had a great 4th of July weekend spent with family and friends, went to a wedding in Davenport, and had a fun 3 day weekend away from work! The following week even though it was only a 4 day week, seemed super long, so we spent the nights just relaxing at home, having family time.

Then comes the weekend of the 10th. I decided I wanted to paint our bedroom, I mean we have at this point almost been in the house a year and it needed to be painted, so Dan and I took the afternoon (after he got off work) and went and picked out paint, then headed home for me to start triming while Dan mowed the lawn. Buddie just laid in the room and watched me most of the time. Then last Saturday we get a call from my mom, my cousins condo was on fire. Well if you know my family at all sometimes little things turn in to BIG things as they come down the grape vine, kind of like a bad game of telephone. She said, "go over to Uncle Kevins and turn off the grill." Right away I thought to myself Uncle Kevin is in California so why is their grill on? My cousin was staying there for the weekend watching the dog, and they left in a hurry to go to their condo to see what was going on. Dan and I headed over to turn off the grill then to see what everyone was talking about. Sad to say the whole building was a loss. To make things worse, my cousin bought his condo the same time we bought our house last year, and redid the whole inside, just to finish most of it up within the last two weeks, and his girlfriend had just moved in with him. So all around a very sad story!

A happy detail from that weekend however, a friend of ours had a baby girl, so Sunday after my 2nd cousins 2nd birthday party we headed to the hospital to see her. She is so beautiful! Now here comes another sad part. We get home Sunday about 8:30 or so, my dad takes Buddie outside to play for a bit, he does about one run to fetch his toy then he's ready to come inside. Which we knew he couldn't play as much but the fact that you could tell he really wanted to be able to play just tore me up inside. Later that night we notice Buddie's eyes were really red, we chalked it up to having been outside after Dan mowed the lawn. About midnight that night his eyes start to look funny and he couldn't really open them. This has happened before and they were always fine the next day.

Come Monday morning, not fine, not at all. They were probably worse, Buddie woke me up so he could eat breakfast then he went right back to bed (not like him at all). I stayed home with him on Monday...he laid in the same spot all day long, and didn't hardly open his eyes. I cried pretty much all day knowing that he was probably not going to get any better. We decided it was time to put him to sleep. Tuesday morning Buddie ate his last meal and was excited for the car ride. Little did he know this would be the last time for a while that he would be seeing us. Dan and I tried to hold back our tears but at this point there was no luck in that. We took him in and at 8:45 he was pain free. He was really the best first dog we could have ever asked for. I still cry myself to sleep, but I believe it's better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all. We know we gave him the best life, spoiled him like crazy, and gave him all the love possible. We are going to miss you Buddie, eat all the ice cream you can, and say hello to those we have lost. We want to thank our family and friends for being there, you guys are all amazing we are very blessed.

We love you Buddie! 12/15/2007-7/13/2010

Love from the Buchholz Home!

Happy July..... 1st....

Happy July! I can't believe I am saying that already, does anyone else feel as though it was just Christmas time and we were shoveling snow..(at least for those here in Iowa)?? This summer is flying by and we have not a thing planned...fun to do...that is. We have little weekend things like weddings but no fun get aways...I think that should change ASAP.

Hope everyone is doing well...so far since I wrote the last post...brace your self...Buddie has made a turn around and has been doing AWESOME! He has been playing, he's happy, and back to barking like crazy! Ohh the things you miss when you think they are about to be gone for good! It has been wonderful to see him so happy again. Part of me thinks it has to do with his new canned food. Yes, it's like real steak, gravy, and veggies...like really? For a dog? haha, but he loves it. In fact he loves it so much that he wakes me up about 6:00 every morning, not because he needs to go out side or he doesn't feel good, but because he is ready to eat at that time. He will get down off the bed come over to where my face is, put his front paws up right next to me, and whine until I finally get up. My question to him is, why me, why not Dan? He's closer to the door! I know, I know, I will miss it, I just laugh at him and eventually roll my booty out of bed.

Here is Buddie with his favorite summer snack... ICE CREAM from DQ...

As for Dan and I, Dan as always is working his little booty off, everyday. He did finally take a day off last Friday to play some golf with my cousin, but he had to work Saturday so he still had to technically work a "normal" work week. I, on the other hand got up and ran as soon as Dan left for work on Saturday (it always makes for a better day) you just feel 10x better after a good run, as I was pulling my hair up to go for my run I noticed my roots, yes, they were about an inch grown out and nasty looking. Since my mom was out of town (she usually does my hair) she did hair for about 20 years...I called Jenna to help me out, we have a wedding this weekend and last Saturday we had a retirement party we had to go to, so I needed to get it done ASAP. She did a great job, and I felt great! There is just something about looking your best and then you feel your best. Next was on to some shopping, a new store opened up here Francesca's! It's a chain but a boutique, and I love it! They get new shipments everyday, and they only have about 2-3 sizes for each item, so you don't have to worry about everyone around you wearing the same thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to have my comfy AE stuff as well, but for nights out or special occasions it's nice to have something different! Dan was thrilled let me tell you :)

Saturday we went to the retirement party, it was fun to see all my old coworkers, I miss them! Then I had a late dinner date with some of my girlfriends! I always enjoy a great meal with great friends PF Changs is our place :) Then after dinner we headed back to the retirement party, then out with some family and friends to one of the local bars for a drink before heading home. Sunday was great! I love Sundays!! I think Dan would agree, even though he sometimes has to work on the house, we did get him Tiger Woods 2011 for PS3 so that was his thank you gift for helping me...with what you might be thinking...

My parents are redoing their house, starting with the living room so they got all new shelving and what not, so they gave us their old shelf and DVD racks. I cleaned the living room and moved things around, let's be honest, nobody really likes to clean, however, I like to rearrange so in order for me to do that I always feel like I need to clean while things already look messy. I find it funny that we find Buddies toys hidden behind the couch or under it. Yes, I mean hidden, he walks around with toys in his mouth, whining trying to find places, it's comical!

Dan put the shelf up and put all the electronics on it, and got all the DVDs put into the stands, it really made the room feel complete without having to use my coffee table to hold everything :) Speaking of the coffee table. I purchased a candle bowl thing at Big Lots, for those of you who don't shop there....you should! AMAZING! If you can't find what you are looking for go there, they have just out anything you can dream of, and super cheap!! so, yeah, I bought this candle tray, to make a candle garden for a center piece...and I absolutly love it! I also found some inexpensive throw pillows (hello..those things are so freaking expensive) I got them for $8..Bargin!! hmm...I'm trying to think if I got anything else there...Oh yes, the outdoor mat. Those things can be outragiously priced as well, we got a perfect one for our front door...$5...yep that's it! Then I got the candles (12 of them) and like 5 bags of rocks at the Dollar store and I only spent $11 dollars!! Golly I love deals!!

After I got the living room the way I wanted it, I had the bug to keep going! I chose the "Office" because we had gotten another shelf from my parents that they bought and never used so they said if we wanted we could have it because they couldn't take it back. I put it all together and cleaned up our mess of an office with papers and old bills, and who knows what else all piled together. Then moved things around. We also took down Buddie's kennel, which Dan tell's me Buddie is still confused. It has been over a month now since Buddie has gone in his kennel during the day or at night, and he still sits in that room when Dan gets ready to leave for work. Oh Buddie you're a funny one. Either way without the kennel and with everything moved around the room seems 10x bigger. I love it. Let's see how much I love it come this fall when I have to spend every night doing homework in it right!? For now I love it!

Those are the many updates for today. Work is insanly busy right now for my Dad so the phone has been ringing off the hook (I wont complain about that). This weekend I'm running a 5K with my sister and my cousin (she's not my cousin yet) but she is part of the family. Then Dan and I leave at 10:00 or so for Davenport for a friends wedding. We will be back to Sunday to spend the day with friends and family, even though I will say and Dan has had to listen to me all week, about how I'm sad to be missing all the fun stuff (parade, carnival, family grill outs, street dance/concert) for the second year in a row. Urbandale has one of the best 4th of July Celebrations, so I just hate to miss it. I guess there is always next year, so for those reading this DON'T plan anything on the 4th of July weekend next year, cause we wont be joining you! Haha (kind of) Either way everyone please have a safe, fun, relaxing Holiday weekend! God Bless the USA!!

Love from the Buchholz 3!