Garland The Cowardly

Garland is a very, very, very friendly dog...almost annoyingly so. You think I'm joking but if it moves, she'll want to play with it. Squirrel, spider, trash, laser pointer, cat, small child...it moves, she'll play. I seriously doubt she's met a person she doesnt like. I find myself apologizing a lot when we have company for things like the obnoxious jumping, the face licking, the hair chewing, the talking back - yes, our dog talks back.

We have quite a bit of construction going on on the street outside our housing development and as it turns out, our dog is quite the coward. Loud bangs that not only startle but rattle the house cause her to quiver and attempt to flatten herself into the couch behind me. Oddly, our little Toto wanna be is also afraid of the guitar...who knew?

So today, while the terrible little beastie is hiding away under my desk beneath my feet and I'm listening to a quite playlist on Pandora, I'm reminded of all the relationships in my life that make me feel safe and secure. When the world around me feels intimidating or I just feel the need to hide away beneath a desk, I have comfort, safety, and security.

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie

Shiny New Toys

FedEx is my Santa Claus. Seriously, when that little truck rolls up to a stop in front of my house, I feel like a little kid running down the stairs to the Christmas tree in the wee hours of the morning.

My favorite FedEx man recently delivered a monstrous box to my doorstep. Now, if he hadnt done this so late at night when I was home alone, my mind probably would never have wondered if there was a person hiding away in the box coming to kill me. Ah yes, arent I a rational human being? Anyways, once I got over my fear that someone would pop out of the box and opened it, VIOLA!

Andrew and I have been wanting to play with some serious lighting for awhile. But since we prefer to shoot in the great and beautiful outdoors in natural light, we didnt really see the need to invest in any of these bright and shiny new toys. BUT! We were mistaken! We're having so much fun with this lighting even if it has just been for our own look-at-the-adorable-little-Garland-puppy type use at the moment. Yes, she is our guinea pig and we love her.

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie

The Modes

Our house is ruled by the modes. While we will never, ever admit it if you ask, she determines the mood of our house. This little scruffy face has two modes. Mode one: cuddle and cower. Mode two: play and chew. Mode one is usually reserved for me. While mode two on the other hand, that one comes out around 4pm when Andrew gets home from work. Garland's warm cuddly little mode one body will suddenly jerk up from under my feet, her ears will perk up and she'll start to whine as soon as she hears the garage door begin to open. This marks the beginning of mode two. Mode two will remain until close to 10pm when we finally settle into our bedtime routine.

Garland was at a play date the other day, which is code for "I'm a horrible pet owner and I have to be gone for a long time so Megan watches my dog till I can get home." I got home to unload my computer and planner and send some emails and clean before I went to pick up Garland from down the street and it hit me. My house is very, very sad and lonely with no dog!! Over the course of about 30 - 45 minutes while I finished up my to-do list, my house felt hollow.

So here's to the Olimb household...and modes one and two. Because our house without our little mode maker, well, it's just not our house.

Dwell in Possibility...

Cassie

Underwear and a Sneak

You know, I really dont get this dog. I love her to death but I dont get her. How does a dog manage to get into a closed bathroom and untangle a pair of underwear from a pair of jeans and proceed to eat them into two pieces. Two shockingly equal pieces might I add. Garland is cute and all, but really, underwear? I dont understand!

This weekend marks the 229th birthday of the United States! So while we're all celebrating with cookouts, corn on the cob, family, friends, and not so legal fireworks, I'm wrapping up my last few hours of work until Monday. I have so many images in my workflow right now that I'm literally giddy. I cant wait for that euphoric moment when they are all done. But for now, I thought I'd wet your appetite for this weekend with a session we just wrapped up last week for a couple celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. It was hotter than Hades outside but the shoot turned out amazing. More to come of Steve and Allison soon!

Enjoy the weekend and eat some icecream for me...cause I wont be indulging in too much of that. Seriously, I'm not planning on eating anything bad for me this weekend. Nothing at all! Ha! Okay so I'm totally lying there. Happy Fourth Everyone!

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie

To Make Me Smile

I love the way her little ears perk up atop her head...there's just something about seeing the tips of her fuzzy ears peaking up over the couch cushions. There's something about the way she has an internal clock that sounds snuggle time after 9pm that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm sure there's some sort of statistic that states the happiness of pet owners versus the happiness of those who dont own a pet; that extra pint of happiness is true in our house.

I always wanted a big dog. I wanted an enormous cuddle buddy that would make me feel safe and protected. And if it was one of these little cuties, I totally would not complain. So imagine my surprise when I came home with a puppy that fit in my purse {at the time}. It doesnt take much for her to make me smile...usually all it takes is me to look down from my desk and see her sitting there tilting her head to the side. What did I ever do before this dog! I spent a few hours on the living room floor yesterday just watching her roll around, beg me to play, and nap beside me...during that time I started to realize similarities between Garland and me. {dear Mr. Dallman, please forgive me if I messed that grammar up - I really was paying attention in English I promise!} First off, she puts up a huge fight if you tell her to do something she doesnt want to do. Oh, she'll do it, but she cries and barks and does it as slowly as possible...the little stinker. Second, she hates waking up in the morning. I'm not kidding, I think I stumbled across the best dog on the planet! You can open her crate up in the morning {yes, she's still in a crate..that whole potty training thing is almost perfect but I dont want to risk my pretty bed at night} and any normal dog would shoot out of there, happy to be free. Not Garland. She looks at you like "what. do. you. WANT." It's hysterical and so totally me. I love her crazy scraggly hair and that every day it pushes my OCDness a bit more. She hates the brush anywhere near her face so taming her shrewlike look is near impossible...but always fun to try. And while there are many other similarities, my favorite is how much she loves Andrew. If Andrew leaves the room, she will go to his last point of known origin and cry until he comes back. It would be annoying if it wasnt so cute...and she just does it with him. I spend all day long with the dog and she picks him over me...go figure.

And because I just know you're dying to see those cute little ears, I thought I'd give Garland a day on the blog. Because she's just so dang cute and she doesnt have to do much to make me smile.

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie

In Lieu of Flowers, Send Bones

Garland was due to grace our blog this week. My bride yesterday chatted in the limo with me about how our puppy was doing for a good 15 minutes and I thought, Garland's due for a blog appearance!

However comma...Garlands on the mend. No one freak out, she's fine now. Since she's still a puppy and hasnt got the whole staying alone in a house thing down, she's been shuffled around from house to house on days that we have weddings. Being a super people happy dog, she's loves the attention and getting to see new people every week. She had a little accident this past weekend. Over excited, she jumped onto my parents couch...which is a bit of a leap for her being that she's barely 12 inches tall at the moment. She made it up but lost her balance as she collided with my dad who was seated on her landing destination. After taking a tumble from the couch, my parents took her to the emergency vet chaching! and made sure she was okay. Since she wasnt putting her weight on her leg at all and biting at anyone that came near her leg, and x-ray was in order. Hairline fracture. Yippee.

So Garland is crate bound for 10 days with pain killers till her fracture mends itself. And she hates her crate...so this is going to be a fun 10 days. Andrew and I keep giving her a new bone every day to keep her occupied in there. At the end of the 10 days, we're going to have one fat doggie. The only plus side to all this, I get a lot of cuddle time with my puppy!

Dwell in Possibility...
Cassie