let's play a game.

this game is called "where's juliet?" it's kind of like "where's waldo?" except, in this version you aren't looking for a weird man in stripes, but for my sweet julie-boo!

ok. so here it is. can you find her?

ok. so it might be dumb, but i'm amused. it seems i am quite easily amused by my animals, though. austin recently told me that i talk to the animals more than i talk to him.

i like to think that's because the animals have better responses.

just kidding {i think}.

lava and sabotage.

remember when i told you that juliet was afraid of the floor?

so we used to have a nice rug on our living room floor, but someone {ahem, dinger} has started clawing at it, so i took it up for now. since then, juliet has been afraid of the floor. she wants as little contact with the hardwood as possible... most of the time her running start to get up on the couch ends with her faceplanting into the side of the couch and running away with shame. poor thing. but it's funny. but i try not to laugh.

on to another note, not much has been happening around here lately. austin's been working, i've been nanny-ing, and juliet & dinger have been holding down the house {which means sleeping, of course}. we did make a little pizza dinner the other night. and apparently, austin decided he was going to go pro by tossing the pizza dough into the air. secretly, i was hoping that disaster would ensue, but i suppose it's a good thing he kept it under control, or else we would have had no dinner...

we've also had some minor setbacks on our gardening. after all the growth we had, things started to go downhill. all our little seedlings started to look droopy {even though they were well-watered} and some even shriveled up completely.

and now...

pretty much nothing is left standing. it looks like the only real survivors are my cucumber plants. i've been baffled. why was everything going so well and then the sudden change? well, ladies and gents, i've figured it out...

we have a saboteur.

and his name is dinger. i started piecing things together around the time he chewed on my big new houseplant {which i found out is actually posionous to cats} and my indoor daffodils... then i noticed the flag plant markers were mostly uprooted. that darn cat. fortunately, we've got plenty of seeds left, which we plan to plant directly into the garden. it may take a little bit longer, but fingers crossed we'll still be eating homegrown vegetables all summer long. and i've got this weekend off from nanny-ing, so we hope to get the garden planted this weekend. let's hope for good weather!

finally finished something!

it's been quite a while since i've had a finally finished friday. but alas, this week i have actually completed a few things {just a few, don't get too excited}.

finally, i finished my letter cube project for my shelves in the living room. so now where it used to just say "the heards" on the one shelf, it says "est 2010" on the other shelf. yay!

finally, i found {so i finished looking?} a food and water bowl holder for juliet. it's cute and bone shaped.

unfortunately, she's terrified of it. so now she grabs a piece of food and runs away from the bowls to chew it. but that seems about right.

finally, i finished hanging our beautifully framed diplomas.

ok. so they're hanging in the {heinously decorated but not my fault} kitchen.

not really the most normal place for diplomas, i agree. but gloria got them matted and framed and they look so nice. since we don't really have an office there isn't a "normal" place to hang them. so for now, the kitchen will have to do. at least they're on display somewhere, right?

and finally, i finished having to wait for all my daffodils from mom's garden to bloom {it's a stretch for finally finished friday, i know. get over it}. aren't the little ones pretty? and they smell fantastic.

who knows how long it may be until my next finally finished friday, so enjoy it! can i blame the lack of progress in the house on having started "working" again? meh. i'll take it.

peanut butter.

yummmm. juliet loves peanut butter in her kong. since she usually doesn't stay in her crate anymore, she hardly ever gets peanut butter these days. but every now and then i like to give her a little treat.

and she's occupied for hours.

she's so cute. and looooves her peanut butter.

{and after this picture, i'm for sure calling the vet to schedule a nail trim. look at those talons!}

tricks.

two christmases ago, austin bought me a little handheld video camera. i've got a ton of short clips recorded on it, but never really knew what to do with them. but i think {i hope} i figured out how to upload them onto here!

and, of course, most of my videos are of juliet...

here's two videos of my cute juliet doing some of her tricks with mom back home.

and here's juliet being afraid of a greenie. she's so silly sometimes.



sometime soon, i'll get a video of juliet being afraid of the floor. yes, the floor. she must think the floor is lava. it's pretty funny.

{yes, i know these videos are probably stupid boring to most of you. but i don't care. i love my juliet and i think her tricks are fabulous. she's the smartest puppy ever. the end.}

nellie's big fish road.

this weekend, austin and i got the chance to get away from chattanooga and spend some time with the heard clan and nature, too. bright and early saturday morning we said goodbye to dinger and gwenny {they don't really travel well} and piled in the car with juliet in tow to head for blue ridge, georgia. we go to a cabin there a few times every year or so so the boys can fish and juliet and i can take big hikes. and lots of pictures, too.

all the boys did lots {and lots and lots} of fishing.

austin.

and ben.

and steve.

and austin caught big fish.

and ben was sad that he did not.

{just kidding, ben caught a big one, but i wasn't there to photograph it}

and then we hiked.

and fished some more.

and then we hiked.

and found many beautiful signs of spring.

and pretty scenery all around.

once everyone was tired of fishing and hiking, we retired to the cabin for cooking, guitar playing {and singing} and a big trout dinner {none for me, thanks}.

oh and austin caught steve and gloria dancing in the living room. it was really funny!

after dinner, we played a few games of spoons. and taylor threatened us if we grabbed a spoon before he did.

and lastly, pictures of the pups on the shore while everyone was fishing.

so glad we got to get away for a little bit, even if it was only one night. we had a great time and juliet was absolutely worn out.

oh, and happy spring, everyone!