Sunday, April 1, 2007

Weekly spending:

Monday: Melaleuca (2 cans of protein powder, herbal tea, tea tree oil, and 2 massive bottles of detergent, plus tax and shipping) - $78.61 (my SIL sells this and I wanted her to get her bonus)

Tuesday: Brunch - $28 inc. tip (Darnit - I feel guilty about this. Entirely unneccessary.)

Wednesday: Stamps and shipping for nieces' Easter package (not the hand-knit lambs I'd planned on...) - $11.85, Two advance 3-day passes to Bumbershoot - $120 (haha -OOOPS! Guess I won't be meeting my goal this month...)

Thursday: Pet food - $32.00, Target (Easter gifts for Nick and Eli, kitty litter, contact solution) - $21.73

Friday: Our half of Indian food (I have decided I don't love Indian food - it's just too ugly!) - $23.00

Saturday: $0

Sunday: Lunch - $26.00 inc. tip (third meal out this week! SHAME!), Solar Clothing (2 really cute tanks off the sale rack - I did NOT buy the shoes, hat, or earrings that I liked - go me! Kinda. Could've lived without the shirts too.) - $10.74, Tiny yet delicious latte - $1.00


Total - $352.93!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Went over my $250 monthly goal by, ohhh, $196.)

Oh my, this week was out of control!!! I have only one thing to say: PMS. Yet another reason why every 28 days I should be locked up like a werewolf, to protect myself and others. ;-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just got a new puppy!! He is a one pound Yorkiepoo, so adorable! His name is Max, I put pics up on myspace, check em out if you have time. Any puppy training tips or advice you could give me would be appreciated. We had two accidents today, I need some direction for potty training...? Yikes! :)
xoxo

Carly Fay said...

Congratulations! That's funny, I was fawning over a tiny Yorkie today (Matt wants one)! So cute. I'll check out your pix next time I go on MySpace. I only check it from the library now b/c our computer started freaking out right after I went on MySpace for the first time in months, it killed Dani's laptop, and the guy at Geek Squad said it happens all the time! Eeek!

Ohhh potty training... Tink was a nightmare to potty train. They say Italian Greyhounds are almost impossible to train AND she's from a puppy mill (which I didn't know at the time, I feel so bad about that) so we had a lot working against us!

What our trainer told us is to establish routine as early as possible, so your pup knows he'll be taken out at certain times and will wait rather than just go when he feels the urge. Small breeds have teeny bladders, so they need to be taken out every two hours. We rewarded Tink with treats when she would potty outside, which was mostly a good thing except sometimes she'd fake it so she'd get her treat and come in out of the rain, then she'd potty inside! :-/ Of course, Tink is sneaky like that. Also, watch Max like a hawk (especially when it's almost potty time) to see what his "signals" are when he has to go potty. Some dogs are great and will go stand at the door or come whine at you or whatever. Tink just looks nervous when she has to go, so it took us a little while to catch on. I've heard if you hang a bell from the door you can actually train dogs to ring the bell when they have to go out! Our trainer also said if you rub their nose in their "accident" they interpret that as you telling them to eat it, so, in time, they will. EW!

Tink's favorite part of training was learning "come". Matt and I each had treats and we stood at opposite ends of the hall (the yard would be good for this too) and Matt would say "come!" and once she made it over there (slow at first, haha) he gave her a treat, then I'd call "come!" and when she ran to me I gave her a treat, back and forth. She was so excited! That was by far the easiest training we did. :-)

The main ideas are basically: Consistency is the #1 priority - they can only give you what you want when they know what you expect. If you give a command and they ignore it, if you let that fly they'll keep ignoring it.

Dogs love routine, especially something as important as potties. If a potty break gets skipped and the pup has an accident, it's the owners' fault. We wouldn't blame a baby for having a dirty diaper.

When a dog misbehaves, if more than three seconds has passed before you respond they will not know why they are being punished. Scolding must be done immediately or not at all, because they've forgotten what they did and it won't do anything but damage your pet's trust in you.

Treats and praise go a loooong way in a puppy's training.


We did the training at PetSmart - it was $100 for eight weeks and pretty good.

I wish you lots of patience and love in training Max! It will be worth it. :-)

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh....last night, our first night with the little guy.....we are trying to "crate" train him and last night was not a good start. We tried putting him in his crate and he started to cry and bark, we didn't want him to wake Faith so we let him sleep with us (not a habit I want him to have!). He also doesn't get it that "outside" is a place to pee. He goes out there and just walks around...we get inside and he pees! :) Nice. I'm hoping he will pick up on the outside is for potty thing soon! :)

*Dani* said...

I just wanted to note- bumbershoot is almost a bill, don't you think??? It's recreation, but man, that could totally be counted as a bill : D

I'm lookin out for ya ;)

Just a little fyi- I don't love the text on here!!! My smilies look goofy.

Carly Fay said...

Ann -
Crate training did not work for us except to put her in it while we're gone. Tink's slept with us since the beginning, but we love it. :-) Just keep consistent and eventually Max will catch on.

Oh, and thank you so much for the card and photo - so cute! Did you make the card yourself? I love it!

Dani -
Part of me is tempted to count Bumbershoot in August, since we won't be using the tickets until then... ;-) But then again, I'm sure we'll be spending plenty this Summer - I am DEDICATED to having lots of fun this year to make up for the last couple Summers. :-)

I don't superlove the text either really... Maybe I'll change it. I want to change my whole layout but I'm waiting for a good one to come out. :-)