The Truth About Shelter Dogs

We all know that for the last six months, I have been having a bit of a love affair with my dog.  Like the 'who needs a boyfriend when you have a dog' kind of love affair.  I have taken hundreds of pictures of her just being adorable and spent countless hours having doggie play dates, snuggling on the couch and just being ridiculous.  But what most people don't know is that my dog, Grace, is a rescue pit bull.  She's a mix of something else (probably lab) and I could have her DNA tested to see exactly what she is - but for the most part, she's a pit bull.  If you look at picture of an American Staffordshire Terrier - it's my dog.

Look how cute (and how pissed) she is. Go Seahawks!  We all wear jerseys in this house.

I've had a couple of friends lately who are looking to get dogs and I highly recommend for them to get a shelter dog.  I don't have any problem with purebred dogs that you get as puppies - my parents have always had labs and they are amazing, amazing dogs. But for me personally, I'll all about the shelter dogs.

Here are some things you can expect when you bring home a shelter dog: 

• They'll jump all over you when you come home - even if you were only gone for 15 minutes.  Dogs have no sense of time, no way to read a clock and they are just so excited that you came back.  Shelter dogs have a reason to be excited - they were most likely left somewhere and their people never came back.  
• They'll follow you everywhere and be unhappy when left alone.  Probably because they were left alone in their past life most of the time.  
• They won't take treats in a polite fashion - most likely because no one has ever given them treats before.  If they were especially unlucky - they didn't know when their next meal was coming and it will take a while for them to realize that you'll always feed them.
• It may take them a little bit of time to trust you - you don't know what their lives were like before.  Be patient.  It will happen.  
• They will be amazing dogs. Even the 'aggressive' breeds are amazing.  Any dog can be taught to be aggressive but all the pits that I've met are more likely to roll over so you can rub their belly then to growl at you. 
• They'll take over your life.  And your couch.  And your bed.  And you will probably step on one of their bones when you get up at 4:15am.  
• They will love you more than anything else in the world.  Not only are you their person, but they know that you rescued them.  And if you are lucky, they will rescue you too.  

And for the people who didn't want my sweet dog or thought that she wasn't good enough or well-behaved enough or whatever.... thank you. She's a pain in the ass.  She eats my shoes.  She's peed and pooped and thrown up on the carpet.  My cats refuse to come out from under the bed when she's around.  But she also sits at my feet when I work.  She sleeps with her head in my lap.  She licks my face when she wants to get up in the morning.  She knows all my deepest, darkest secrets and I know she won't tell.   

Seriously.  Shelter dogs.  They will love you unconditionally because you are their person. And I am by no means saying that other dogs won't - not at all.  But I just look at the animals in the shelter or in rescues and it breaks my heart.  (And yes... there is a good chance that I've been sitting at home all day feeling crappy and watching a marathon on NatGeoWild that included at least one ASPCA commercial every 30 minutes.)

A CrossFit Girl's Guide to Surviving the Holidays

Tis the season. For crazy food consumption, lots and lots of drinking, sequins and sparkles, and mistletoe (oh please, let there be mistletoe!). From tomorrow (Thanksgiving) until the second weekend in January, I will eat approximately my body weight in food (and not healthy food) and drink at least that many holiday themed beverages - come'on, red wine is totally holiday themed.  Red?  Duh. 

How is a girl to manage all the food and crazy holiday party business without putting on 10lbs of sugar/bready/non-paleo diet weight?  Good freaking question.  For the next two months, here are my general life goals:

• Make time to workout at least three times a week. 
• Pass on the bread bowl.  I'm definitely not going to skip on all of the next two months of sweets/breads/holiday goodness - that's torture.  But... I can pass on the breadbowl.  
• Social drinking only!  There are enough social events for the next two months that I'm literally running around several days a week.  (Just for clarification sake - 'social' only has to entail one other person. I don't want to set the standard too high.)

In other words - try not to do what I do every other year - gorge on sweets, drink too much, and abstain from athletic activity. (I say this as I am making candied yams.  Pretty much my favorite dish ever with only three ingredients - yams, brown sugar and butter.  Delicious.  And awful for me.  AND... I didn't go to the gym today. Winning!) 

I'm also hosting Thanksgiving this year.  First Thanksgiving in my new house.  My folks are here from MT and they brought their adorable, 8-week old puppy.  She's really so ridiculously cute and is having a blast jumping all over my dogs head.  If anyone wants to join the chaos - we'll have plenty of food (and I've got enough booze to survive the zombie apocalypse) and I can bribe you with an adorable puppy to play with. 

See?  Who can say no to this face?!

Another One Bites The Dust

So... remember the time that my cat got kicked out of the groomer?  Well.  Let's add the dog to the newest list of Molle family beauty school dropouts.  Fail.  Damnit.  She bit the groomer when she tried to cut her nails.  Duh.  I'd bite someone too if they were trying to cut my nails when I didn't want them to.  That's why I take her to the groomer to get it done.  So she doesn't bite me.

In other dog news.... this happened: 

RIP shoe. You were well loved (and very cute).

 But how mad can you be when they look like this? 

Glamor shot. 

Who runs the house?  If you guessed me, you were wrong.  It's her. 

In other other news, I don't have any hot water and can't use any appliances.  Thank you Puget Sound Energy for making this week AWESOME.  Somehow wires got crossed at PSE and my account was never set up.  This is something like how the convo went: 

Me: I talked to you back in August when I moved into my house.  The exact words were 'you are good to go, Ms. Molle.'
PSE: We are showing that we talked to the gentlemen on your account.  Is there a Mr. Barnette on your account? 
Me: Ummm... 
PSE:  We talked to him on blah-blah-blah date and shut off service at your prior address.  
Me:  Ummmm... 
PSE:  But it doesn't look like it was ever transferred to another location.  
Me: Ummmmm... I think there has been confusion.  

After I explain to the customer service rep that there is no way that they spoke to someone who passed away almost two years ago, the obviously flustered man asks me this: 

PSE: Okay Ms. Molle, we've got you all set for your new location.  Would you like to keep Mr. Barnette as an authorized signer?  
Me: Ummmmmm... 

This is my life.  

Fail. Total Fail.

My puppy is regressing.  This is what I came home to today... 

Busted.  This is the shame face.  Bad dog.  Bad bad dog. 

She's been so good lately.  But this is the definition of 'not good'.  She even ate $20.  Not adorable at all. 

Ummm... what else?  I've had just about the most random week so far.  A couple of highlights from the week: 

• I actually had to use the sentence 'If you are going to say 'swingers', please whisper it so the class doesn't hear it.'  
• I got matched with one of my guy friends on my online dating profile.  Nothing is more hilarious and unexpected than opening up your email to a picture of your friends face announcing your daily perfect matches.  Of course we're 96% compatible - that's why we're friends.  

On a CrossFit note: they announced the first two workouts for The Bacon Beatdown.  First off, ear-to-ear pullups are not a real thing and I hate them. It's not pretty when I try to do them.  It's actually really ugly.  I flail.  On the positive side - my mom was super encouraging and told me that doing one was awesome (thanks mom!!!).  Unfortunately, I have to do six before I can move on to the next movement.  And that's only one round.  

WOD #1: 
9 min AMRAP
6 ear-to-ear pullups (eeeeffffffffffffffffffff...)
12 kb swings (Russian, 16kg)
15 goblet squats

Well.  I may get thru one round if I'm lucky.  

WOD #2 was announced tonight and this one I'm actually feeling good about:  

5 mins of thrusters at the weight of your choice: 75/95/125

Score is total volume: reps x weight -- so I've got to figure out what my best strategy is - lower weight, higher reps?  Or higher weight, lower reps??  At least I'm strong.  So... there's that.  

Only 4 more announcements to go.  

The Scariest Word in the World

Wow... I have officially started three separate blog posts over the two weeks and haven't been able to get them done and actually posted.  So today, I decided to delete them all and start over.  I've had multiple comments about why I haven't been posting lately.  Well... honestly?  I've just been really busy and when I have time to relax, I really just need to shut off my brain and not think.  Which bring us to today's blog topic: CHANGE. 

Oh yes... one of the scariest words around:  change.  It seems like all of my friends are going through huge changes right now: getting married, having babies, buying a new house (oh wait! that's me!!!), moving, breaking up, starting a new relationship, moving in with a significant other, getting a new dog (oh wait! that's me too!), all sorts of things.Today I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (yes. I read the Wall Street Journal.  I know.  It's shocking that I read things besides the CrossFit Journal.  But I do... sometimes.)  This article was about how major life events (death of a loved one, divorce, getting fired from your job, moving, etc.) affect your sense of self and how we deal with those changes.  It really made me think - how do we actually deal with change?

I, for one, am terrible with change.  I about had a meltdown when Victoria's Secret stopped carrying my favorite underwear.  True story.  (Too much information?  Possibly.  But still a true story.)  But I also acknowledge that change is a fact of life that we are unable to avoid so why do we fight it?  Because it's hard, that's why.  Perfect CrossFit example??? Coaching. When I instruct people to change their squats or pushups (or really anything for that matter!), their usual response is 'but it's harder that way'.  Yes.  Yes it is.  But eventually it's going to get easier because you are going to get stronger and you'll be doing it correctly. 

Next week, I am moving into a new house.  One that I bought and will be paying for over the next 30 years of my life (seeing a payoff date of 2043 was more than intimidating). And I hate moving - it's hard.  I lived in a shoebox sized mother-in-law apartment for almost four years because it was easier than moving into a bigger place.  I've already taken the easy way out with this one and hired movers to get my crap out of my three-story rented townhome, into my new three-story townhome (apparently I REALLY like stairs).  I know I have at least a six-month learning curve ahead of me in trying to figure out where the hell I put all of my things and I know that some things will just completely disappear forever. 

Last week, I got a dog.  Her name is Grace and she is adorable.  AND a ton of work. Getting up 30 minutes earlier every day to make sure she gets a decent walk in before I go to work is hard.  

Isn't she just so damn cute?  She's a pit bull/lab mix. Or as I like to call her 'purebred pound puppy'.

What's my point?  Change is hard.  And it usually has a period of time where it sucks, even when the change is for the better.  Even when you know you are doing the right thing - it's hard to face the unknown.  What if my new furbaby never stops chasing my cats around the house?  What if I don't like my new neighbors?  What if something breaks and I have to spend all of my money on a handyman instead of at Lululemon?  What if my blonde dog continues to shed on all of my black clothes and there is suddenly a shortage of lint rollers in the world??  

Whether it is changing the way you squat or your job or your boyfriend or where you live - it's all the same.  There is going to be a time where the change feels weird.  But it's going to get better - you get stronger - you get used to it.  You build on the change and pretty soon it becomes the norm.