Paintings and Pugs

This summer has certainly been busy and exciting so far. Time goes by so quickly, I often find it difficult to find a moment to reflect on everything that is happening around me. I'm finding myself growing so much as a person and taking on more responsibility in so many different areas of my life, I'm afraid to blink for fear of losing my concentration.

One of my biggest life adjustments lately has been as a husband. I often don't realize how Erika's life truly affects mine until it's right there in my face, and I have to roll with it. In recent months, Erika has become much more encouraged to take her love for painting and artistic expression to a new level by getting involved in the local art community and showing and selling her artwork. She's beeing doing both First Thursday and Last Thursday, and has been receiving a lot of great feedback from the community. She even recently got invited to show two of her paintings at a gallery here in town.

While this has been very exciting for her, I've found myself taking a much more supporting role in the relationship which has been good for me. I've needed to get better at it, and Erika has been having great opportunities I don't want to miss out on.

The other big responsibility has been the latest addition to our dog family; Yoda. He's a small, black pug with a tuft of white fur on his chest making him very Yoda-like. We picked him up about a week and a half ago, so as of now he's about 10 weeks young. He and Winston have certainly been keeping good company together, though they have their moments of aggressive sparring. Yoda is quite the aggressive puppy, but it's nice to see that he holds his own against Winston, who is large for a pug. By large, I mean tall. The vet and the groomer have both confirmed now that Winston is not fat, he's just big-boned (seriously).

Looking after two dogs now has felt like looking after one, though, because Winston has grown to become a very perceptive dog, and is very mindful about how he conducts himsefl around the house. Yoda has just had bladder holding issues, but every day he get's a little bit better. Yoda is learning fast. He already knows his name, will come on command, and will immediately cease any disobedient activity once I change the inflection of my voice. I can only hope he stays that way, and winds up being easier to train than Winston was.