Our new family member (and my defense of poor blogging)

Sorry about the lack of posting the past 10 days. My life has been crazy-busy. We traveled, we have a new family member living with us permanently (see below), and my work was insane last week because it was the last week of the fiscal year (we met our goals!).

We went to Michael's sister's graduation in Evanston the weekend before last, which was really fun. We are very proud of Amy for graduating from Northwestern and it was great to spend time with Michael's family.

On our way home, Michael and I made a special pit stop near Green Bay, WI. Please say hello to Winnie, our newest family member!

Michael and I have been talking about getting a dog for over a year. We've tossed around a lot of ideas about what type of dog we should get - husky, lab, golden retreiver, Airedale. Michael wanted a hunting dog, but our tiny house is just not conducive to a hunting dog.

Winnie is a Welsh Terrier. I don't remember which one of us suggested a Welsh Terrier. Welshes look like mini-Airedales. Technically, Welshes were originally bred for hunting rodents but not so much anymore. Still, as a terrier, they are a feisty breed who love to play, sometimes a bit aggressively.

Winnie will grow to about 16 inches and will weigh around 20 pounds. I love her long legs and rectangular face. She's has hair, not fur, so she won't shed. My favorite feature on her is her coloring, though she will lose all of the black on her face. I just love the black and tan look of her now and am a bit sad she will lose it.

So far, she has been a great addition to our family. She's a great cuddler and has a sweet and fun personality.  She's very playful and loves to explore. She rarely whines or barks. She's very friendly with people and other dogs, hardly ever being afraid. She loves children.She loves the cabin and is particularly fond of eating grass :-)

At the same time, she is a handful. We have to pretty much watch her all the time if she's not in her kennel. Potty training was improving throughout the week and weekend, though today has already had it's fair-share of accidents. She wasn't eating much until yesterday, when she decided to eat all her food super fast and then act like she was starving later. She's learned how to dig and started some nice holes on the beach at the cabin last weekend. She's in a nippy/biting stage and only wants the things she can't have.

Still, I have no regrets about getting a dog. I'm looking forward to many, many years of having her as a member of our family. More pictures to come!