Meet Rylie!

So Jarrod and I decided to expand our family this week with the addition of Miss Rylie Hughes. We picked her up on Sunday from the SPCA and she just turned 3 months old on Wednesday.

So we've only had her for 5 days now, but wow has it been a lot of work! We've both had puppies in the past, so we're well aware of how much work is involved and we went into it knowing it wouldn't be easy, but I swear you forget just how much is involved until you actually have a puppy peeing all over your formerly clean and nice-smelling house. I haven't been this exhausted in a while because every moment once I walk in the door after work I have to have my eye on her. There's no time for napping! or really just relaxing in general. And yes, I've already had a nervous breakdown and shouted at the sky, "what have i done?!" but we're learning and I can proudly say that yesterday we were officially "accident free" for the first time! And like I said, it's both of us. She's learning what she can and cannot do, but I'm also learning better how to keep an eye on her and making sure that she gets outside VERY often.

 

And she's been a lot of fun so far, as well. She definitely keeps me busy once I get home and we've been taking walks through the neighborhood and I've already met a couple of neighbors that I'd never talked to before. Plus, it's encouraging me to get up and get outside and get some exercise.

 

I'm excited about the coming weekend and having all 3 of us together at once, because during the week that's not exactly possible. But that's a big reason why we decided to go ahead and do this now. We have a unique opportunity for someone to be with Rylie almost all the time, so she doesn't get cooped up all day while we're gone. This way, if Jarrod's or my schedule ever change, we've already made it through the toughest training part.

 

I feel like I'm already learning a lot from her, like patience and not sweating the little things, such as not getting any sleep all week or the fact that my house is a wreck and I haven't had a chance to clean it. So I'm also working on better time management and trying to not let messes pile up before I get to them. It's going to be quite an adventure, and I'm so excited to be doing this with my husband. And I'm getting my mommy-skills in check!