life with the Barkers

Another day at home. At home. Ah.
We couldn't even mess around in the yard today it was so cold. That's not been the norm for a while. Just a couple days ago, we were working in the foot gardens in t-shirts. Man, that was nice. It's friggin' cold now. So we were really trapped in the house. That and everything was closed for New Years. I'm dying to get out I think. I'm going stir-crazy. Most of it has to do with the fact that I don't have a car. I can't just go when I want, when I need. Corey has to take me where I want to go so I haven't been to Goodwill, I haven't been to any antique shops to find cool old treasures, I can't just go to places when I want. It's driving me a little nuts. When my sister was here, I got to drive and it felt SOOO amazing. These roads around here are like the ones I grew up on- curvy, wide lanes, no cops in just a "woody" place cuz there's nowhere for them to sit on the side. O man. I was having the time of my life. Not having a car is hard. I can't wait to get one. I'll never be at home, haha.
So anyway, back to "another day at home", we did some laundry, and mainly watched "Bones" (a Christmas gift) and "Arrested Development" (a graduation gift Corey got himself), and I did some sketching in the studio (ahhhhh!) and you'll never believe this, also today, I spent 4 hours playing a video game. Yeah! I found out by v.g. genius Corey Barker that you can play Gamecube games on the Wii so he hooked everything up and I played my favorite game in the world, Scooby Doo and the Night of 1000 Frights, on the Wii for 4 hours. Wow.
Corey said it was one of his proudest moments, his wife sitting in the floor in front of the TV with a v.g. controller in her hand. :)

We're having some trouble with Milo. It was really frustrating but I think we are getting closer to figuring things out so it's not as stressful. He's not been listening very well. That's the gist I guess. And he would run from us instead of come and/or do as he was told. But after a couple of nights, we realized that all this rebelling happened at night. We would let him out to go "do his peeps" before coming upstairs to "go to bed". We would tell him "do your peeps" over and over because he was just stare at us or he would head back to the basement door or he would lay down in the grass. Not last night but the night before, he actually ran and hid under one of the buildings in the backyard and we couldn't get him out. So he doesn't pee and a couple times Corey has had to carry him up the stairs into the office where his kennel was so he would "go to bed". So every night, me and Corey were going to bed pissed off and so so confused, cuz he's not done this before last week. He's always been so good at commands. And now all of a sudden, he plays dumb. Man o man. We were on the verge of calling his foster mom and asking if we could bring him back. Well, yesterday it hits us that first of all, all this happens at night. He's the greatest dog in the world during the day. So maybe he didn't want to "do his peeps" because he didn't want to "go to bed" and maybe he didn't want to "go to bed" because of his irrational fear of the upstairs (the heat vents in the floor freak him out). And he's been so freaked out that he's not been sleeping which is why he sleeps away most of the day. FRIGGIN' LIGHT BULB, DING DING DING! So we take him kennel and his food and water bowl downstairs and set it in the studio in an used corner. He immediately started eating better. Relief. We've made progress. So last night around peep time, Corey puts him on his leash (no dunkin' under the building this time, buddy!) and he does his peeps fairly easy. The fact that he does them at all is a huge success. Then he goes straight into his kennel. Actually starts heading that direction before we even say the command. Man, that was such a great feeling. .....He whined all night long....... So today, we figure, we've still made progress. He's eating and he came upstairs today during the day which is indicating to us that it's no longer a negative space for him, at least not as negative as before. Also today, we thought that while we were at my parents house over Christmas, he had to stay in our room. He slept all through the night and had less naps during the day, almost none. So maybe, he is just lonely. At his foster moms, he may not have slept in their room, but he slept in the same room as his brother and at least 2 other dogs. Him being as young as he is and going from sleeping surrounded by other dogs to in a room by himself, I mean, it makes sense. So today, we kept the bowls downstairs and moved his kennel into our room. During the day, it'll be shoved in a closet but at night, we'll bring it out and let him sleep in our room. Dear Lord, please PLEASE let this work. I want to sleep through the night with no more two hour wake up calls from a whining dog.

Enough about us. So how've you been?