Can you explain...my Shih tzu, Frankidini?

So my mom and I were chatting this evening and she brought up the fact that my adorable, lovable Shih tzu Frankie is crazy. It's true. This dog is insane. Not only is she passive-aggressive (she once peed on one of our guest bed pillows because my mother-in-law, who she loves, left after a weekend visit and apparently had not given a proper goodbye). But Frankie is also an escape artist.

We have tried everything we can think of to keep her caged during the day. We would love to let her run free but Frankie not only has bathroom issues when people she loves leave after a visit, sometimes she will choose to tinkle on the floor inside after weeks and weeks of pretending to have established potty-trained habits. So we've tried crating her, but she has literally escaped every crate we've ever tried to keep her in, so I'm at loss and curious if anyone out there in cyber-land can explain my Shih tzu to me?

Here are the crates we've tried and the subsequent escapes by Frankie:

1)The traditional wire crate:

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This is a cool crate and I'm sure it works really well for most normal dog owners. In fact it worked really well for us when we crate-trained Rocky (our other adorable pup). Unfortunately Frankie is too smart for this crate. She uses her little Dr. Seuss*** paws to finagle the latch open on the bottom and sneaks through.

I once even came home to find her collar still inside the crate...How the heck did she manage that? Needless to say we have not put her in this crate again. I was worried she'd choke herself on this beast.

2. The pretty blue crate:

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This is where Frankie got her nickname Frankidini. This crate boasts multiple entry ways. One garage door type in the front, the traditional side entry, and the top opens up too. I came home from work one day to Frankie waiting patiently for me by the front door. My first thought was to freak out, "who the heck is in my apartment and letting Frankie out?". I walked over to the crate and all three doors were closed but the latch for the top entry was slightly busted. Frankidini had worked her magic on it. We tried her a couple more times and within a week Frankie had completely destroyed this crate. (This is a 11 pound dog we're talking about).

3) Collapsible soft crate:Source

This is our most recent attempt. Frankie unzipped it the first day we put her in it, but we figured we had put her in it upside-down and that gravity had been against us. Next we tried her in it (this will sound weird) in the bathtub. Sounds crazy I know, but the bathtub is Frankie's favorite spot in the whole house. I think it's because it's cool against her fur.

Once we kept seeing Frankie pace back and forth across the floor with her dog toys. Three or four times this happens and Beau and I get curious. We walk into the bathroom to find this:

Frankie has also figured out that water comes out of the faucet in the bathtub and as a result paws at it to let us know if she is thirsty in the middle of the night. Cute the first couple times, annoying at 3am on a work night.

So we decided to put the soft crate into the bathtub thinking that the cool of the tub could be felt through the vinyl crate. We came home to the crate outside of the bathroom and around the corner (meaning that she had managed to hop from the bathtub inside the crate out of the bathroom and around the corner before escaping. Frankie next ripped a whole in the side of the crate. This crate lasted approx. 3 attempts.

So can you help me out? Can you explain my Shih tzu to me? Any ideas you have for crate-training a reluctant pup are welcome.

***Dr. Seuss paws: This is what I call Frankie's pawsies because when they get wet the curl up at the end like a Dr. Seuss character...see:

Oh and here's a picture of my other puppy love Rocky...I don't want him to read this later and get jealous that he was only mentioned in passing.

Triple Falls for Triple 10

Yup...I turned 30 recently. It's been an amazing birthday month! Beau got my birthday off to a great start by making me breakfast in bed! We decided a great way to celebrate the big 3-0 would be to hike up at Triple Falls. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely on our top five list of places we have to take folks to when they come up to visit.

Here is our list of top five places to visit in WNC-Beau and Jolie edition (no particular order)

1. Visit Lake Lure (and if there is time, eat lunch at La Strada)

2. Drive up to Jump Off Rock (pref. at sunset)

3. Triple Falls!!!

4. Walk around downtown Hendo (America's #1 small town...maybe I made that last stat up :-))

5. Biltmore of course!

Here are some pictures from the hike...

What I can only describe as a tree chair....

Happy Anniversa-brie and fun dog pics

So as you may know, it was our anniversary last weekend. Since we went leafing on Saturday and brunching on Sunday, we decided to stay in on Monday (our actual anniversary) and eat a yummy home cooked meal. We had, my favorite appetizer, baked brie to start. Salmon and twice-baked potatoes and some yummy chocolate fondue for dessert.

Baked brie is so delish and it's super, super easy to make. You really almost feel guilty for the lack of work you put into it. I didn't follow a recipe this time around, but basically all you do is this:
You'll need
-Puff pastry sheets (found in freezer section by pie shells)
-A circle of brie
-Egg
-Whatever veggies, fruits, or bread/crackers you want to use to serve it
1) Let one frozen puff pastry sheet thaw. While you wait, preheat oven to 400.
2) Take the the puff pastry sheet and wrap it around the brie, trimming off and saving any excess. Be sure to pinch the edges shut.
Optional step) Take a cookie cutter and use excess pastry to put a star, heart or other shape on top.
3) Beat the egg and mix with water to form egg wash. Brush egg wash over surface of pastry-wrapped brie.
4) Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
5) Serve with raw veggies, fruit and bread or crackers.

Enjoy!!!

Oh and as a fun bonus. Here are some silly/adorable pictures of those sweet pups of ours :-)



Finally...coming soon (like this week) a super easy, DIY version of the Lady Gaga Grammy that you can make just in time for Halloween!

Snow day and puppy love

Here are a bunch of pictures from our snowy morning with the pups. Our part of town got around 3-4 inches of snow which is definitely random for dear old Atlanta. It's even supposed to snow again on Monday.

This morning we took the pups out and decided to do a little bit of box sledding. It was just a bit after 9am but I was still surprised that no one else was out enjoying the fresh snow. I guess they'd all rather be inside watching it on TV. No wonder America has an obesity problem.


We heard on the news yesterday that this was the first time in years that there had been snow in 49/50 states. Hawaii being the only state without. Crazy that there was even snow in Florida. I know my family down in FL is enjoying the winter weather. It's cold but it's a nice break from the awful summer heat which was enough to make me high tail it to Georgia at my first chance. It's still hot up here in the summers but they are nothing compared to those FL summers.



So just in case your curious...the new puppy is fitting it really well into our family. We've had Rocky for a little over a week now and it's getting to be like he's already been here. Beau and I have both been really strict about potty-training and it's paid off. A couple accidents but what do you expect with small bladders?

The first night he woke us up a lot to go potty. The second night was around 2-3 times and now after only a week with our family he maybe wakes us up once per night.

We didn't have Frankie when she was in her whiny puppy stage but Rocky is definitely there. We've managed to curb much of that as well and now usually only hear Rocky cry when he wants something (food, bathroom, etc.).

All in all he's a great puppy. This is it for us for now. We've always seen ourselves as two dog people. Three just seems like a lot of work. The next big adventure for us will be kids and that won't be for awhile unless God has other plans for us :-)

Happy weekend everyone!