four months with trixie.

We have had Trixie for a little over four months now, which seems crazy! Some days feel like we have had her forever and some days I am reminded that she is still new to the pack and I shouldn't expect her to act otherwise. Either way, things are a lot different from when we brought her home. She has come out of her shell and learned to trust us, get more comfortable with the other two dogs, and really begun to flourish. Every day I love her even more than the last - she is such a sweet, gentle dog with a soulful personality who loves to play and snuggle.

my subscription addiction quarterly co. box

As someone who loves subscription boxes and reading blogs about those who share my interests, My Subscription Addiction is like the Mother Ship of all subscription box blogs.  Liz Cadman, the amazing woman who writes the blog, subscribes to approximately every subscription box ever known to man (aka one gazillion) and basically lives out a Christmas morning version of Groundhog Day every afternoon when she opens the door to her mailman's arms weighted down with boxes full of delightful surprises.  Those of us obsessed with subscription boxes all wish we could be Liz, or at least be one of her close friends, so we could have the privilege of being invited over to browse her enormous discard pile.  That being said, when she announced that she had been working with Quarterly Co. to release her own curated box, everyone signed up so quickly that the box quickly sold out.

a day at the dog park.

i was feeling pretty good when i woke up this morning, and it was beautiful weather outside!  the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and it was almost 60 -- a delight for new york in april.  so my boyfriend and i decided to take the dogs over to the dog park and hang out for a while.

i have had zoe (my min pin/pug mix) since she was a baby, so she is very well socialized and has a friendly temperament.  she gets along with every human and dog she comes across and is especially fond of babies and small humans (maybe because they are more her size).  she rarely if ever barks at people or dogs, and i don't ever have to worry about having a problem with her at the dog park.  i let her loose in the small dog area -- though she would prefer to be in with the big dogs, because she is convinced she is the size of a labrador! -- and off she goes, running up to everyone to say hi, and running in circles around the penned area.  she is going to be six this year, but you would never guess it by seeing her at the park.  she runs at full speed around and around and around, towards you and then zooming away at the last minute, only to come up behind you and flop down on her back, panting and begging for a belly rub.  she's so adorable and is exhausted by the time we leave.

our other dog, hendrix (the jack russell), is not the same at all.  we adopted him two years ago from a local rescue and he was abused before we got him.  we think he was about two years old when we got him, making him around four, and he isn't your typical jack russell.  he does have the hyperactivity at times and he definitely has the tracking/chasing skills, but for the most part he is a pretty chill, happy-go-lucky little guy.  he blended extremely well with our family and we had no issues with the two dogs bonding.  it was like they had been together all along, and now they are inseparable.  however, we don't know the exact circumstances surrounding his abuse, but because of the way he acts around certain things, we have been able to guess that he was left confined in small spaces for extended amounts of time and that he was allowed to be bullied by other, larger dogs.  because of that, he is pretty scared of other dogs.  he started out being really scared of other people too, but we worked with him and were able to break him of that pretty quickly, and he will now go up to almost anybody with his tail wagging, and lick their hand and say hi without much prompting.  but, we still can't get him to like other dogs that much, no matter what we do.  we take him to the dog park as often as we can tolerate, but we know that it's stressful for him because he gets so upset, and it's not really fair for other people who take their dogs there that do play nice, so it's a difficult situation.  either way, he loves the hiking time afterwards so it ends up being a win-win for zoe to play with the other dogs and for hendrix to enjoy the long hikes and things to sniff afterwards.

we went on some new trails this time and i found some cool things to photograph.  we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked, and i can't wait to go back the next time the weather is nice again.

i hope you all had a great weekend too!

let me introduce myself.

hi everyone, and welcome to my blog.  i wanted to start out explaining a little bit about myself and why i wanted to start this blog, so here goes.

my name is gabbi and i am 27 years old.  i live in upstate new york, and have all my life, though i can't wait to move down south.  i have a wonderful boyfriend who is in the army, a great family who is super supportive including a mom who is my best friend, and two amazing & goofy dogs who are the loves of my life.  i have a small but growing jewelry business on etsy that i have recently started and am really enjoying working on, as well as other various crafty projects.  i love drawing and am slowing working my way into painting as well.  i also crochet, make paper cards, work with clay, and will try basically any craft project at least once!  i love taking pictures and exploring new places and being outside as much as possible when i can.  i also like trying out new foods, especially looking for new, healthy ways to get the vitamins and nutrients my body needs, as diet is very important.

my dog, zoe.  she's a pug/min-pin mix.

my other dog, hendrix.  he's a jack russell.

me! :)

almost two years ago, i was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease characterized by inflammation of the lining of your bladder which results in inability to empty your bladder completely, pain when peeing and also just all the time pain, sometimes blood in the urine from irritation of the lining, the feeling like you have to pee all the time, and a variety of other symptoms.  i was taken out of work for what we thought was a few months, in order to heal.  i loved my job more than anything -- i worked in the operating room as a surgical technician, assisting the surgeon during operations -- and having to leave my career indefinitely is one of the things i have had the hardest times coming to terms with.  over the last two years, i have been diagnosed with a slew of other disorders, diseases, and abnormalities, resulting in me taking about 25 pills a day and being somewhat confined to my apartment.  most of the things i suffer from are considered "invisible diseases," meaning that i don't "look sick".  it is very hard for most people to understand or be sympathetic to why i am as sick as i am when i appear to be normal and healthy.

throughout these past two years, because i have gotten many negative responses from people regarding me not looking sick and therefore not truly being sick, i have mostly kept what has happened to me private, sharing with a few friends and family and an occasional facebook update here and there.  it is embarrassing to be such a young person and be so severely sick, so unable to do things people my age are doing.  it is also extremely frustrating, since it seems like every time i go to the doctor, i get yet another medication added to my list, another test that has to be done, or another ailment added to the list of things that are wrong with me.  it's difficult to process and deal with on my own, so i figured nobody else would want to know about it, either.

but recently, after reading some other blogs online about those living with chronic illnesses, i have realized that that's not true.  it's nice to read about other peoples' struggles and know that i'm not alone.  more importantly, over this journey, i have gathered a ton of information about my diseases and helpful tips and hints that the doctors don't tell you -- things that you only learn through trial and error -- that would be selfish of me to keep to myself.  i also want to give others hope, to show that just because i have all these illnesses, i am still trying to make the best of my life and do the best i can with what i have.

so i have decided to start this blog.  it will contain information about my illnesses, hints and tricks i've learned along the way about them, updates on my progress and how i'm doing, and also regular, real-life things -- beauty products, movie reviews, tv shows i'm watching, trips i take, and fun stuff like that. hopefully you will enjoy reading my blog and get something out of it, and we can help each other along the way!