"That's a real beautiful dog you got there, miss!"

People in Mississippi LOVE Franklin. I mean, really, people everywhere love Franklin, but it's different down here. Goldendoodles are all but common here (read: most people have never heard of them, thinks he's a poodle cut wrong, look at me funny when I say goldendoodle, and/or reply with "golden-what?"), and so when you combine that with his unique coloring, Franklin becomes quite the attention-hog.

Some examples: 

• Josh, Franklin and I walked past two tables of people sitting outside of a cafe. The first table stopped Josh to talk about Frank, the second table stopped me to ask about Frank. 
• Frank and I will be walking on the sidewalk, and people driving by will shout out their car windows to us. "That's a beautiful dog!!!" one lady yelled with her head strained back looking at us while she drove by. "What kind of dog is that? He's real a beautiful dog!" another man yelled as he rolled through a stop sign. 
• There's a lady down the street who is often outside when we go on our afternoon walk. "How's Franklin doin' today?" Not me, my dog. 

I'm not complaining about this, as it has proven that having Franklin seems to make it a lot easier to talk to people and get to know them. He basically serves as an icebreaker that people are incredibly interested in and obsessed with and don't mind asking you about. 

Franklin, however, is not quite sure how he feels about it down here. 

 Take the kitchen stools, for example. Every day when we eat, he insists on sitting just like this, with his body against the wall and his head and front paws under the stool. When we finish eating, he does not know how to get out. He whines, tries to move but the stool shakes and he gets scared, he whines some more, until finally (after 5-10 minutes of this), he gets the courage up to just go for it and you hear the stool wobble around and almost topple over. And yet, after 7 days of this, he still has to lay in the exact same position. Grace has never been his strong suit.

Other happenings around town:

Everyday I walk past the Coca-Cola museum (where Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time!) and every day I read the sign that says "Ice-cold Coca-Cola!" and everyday I want a Coke. Yesterday, that dream became a reality. We got our 8oz. old time bottles of Coke and it was nothing other than a dream come true.

On an unrelated note, the Mississippi River is quite high this year.

Downtown Living

Shortly after Josh and I got married, I made a list of things I wanted to do in my life. This list includes the achievement of "live in a city." While I don't quite know if this summer will qualify enough as city livin to check it off the list, it is definitely different than anywhere we have ever lived before.

The inside is a dream, with exposed brick, granite counters, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and 2 huge windows in the living room. The outside is old and bricky!

Downtown Vicksburg is an array of random shops. While there are several storefronts that have gone out of business, it seems like the city is really trying to make it a nice downtown area. There's even music piped in to speakers on the street! And as would be expected, it's always jazz. 

So Franklin and I decided to take a field trip today to get better acquainted with our new surroundings. And while I may have felt (and most likely, looked) like an out-of-place tourist walking around with my dog and camera, it was nice to get out and actually have some nice places to walk around.  

As you can see, Franklin loves modeling for me. He also loves summers in Mississippi, that's why his tongue is so long. 

 For those of you who remember our last summer in Mississippi, it wouldn't take much to make this summer better. We're hopeful that location, location, location really is everything!

Puppy Progress

Ok, so I couldn't wait to post some more pictures. Our sweet puppy has really grown up a lot in the 8.5 months we've had him so far (he's 1.5 years old now). He has come a long way, conquered a lot of his fears, and endeared himself to us forever. He is a wonderful companion, loves to be close to us, and will do anything to cuddle. Here are some pics of his time with us so far!

                                                          Frankie's first haircut! Our fluffernutter. 

Franklin went camping for the first time with us in November. He was terrified of the tent then. He is terrified of the tent now. It's a work in progress. 

He loves grass and will do a crazy dance when he gets a clump he thinks he's not supposed to have. 

 He'd rather be playing outside all day and gives great puppy dog eyes when he doesn't get to. 

He discovered stink bugs. He likes to squish them until the stink comes out and can spend hours playing with one. 

He pretty much lets us do whatever we want to him. 

 He went into a pool for the first time ever in May. As you can see, he's still pretty timid and hasn't quite mastered the art of finding the stairs to get out. It only took a few pushes and shoves to make him get in.  

Yea, so, I'm pretty much obsessed. 

I'm Baaaack! For the summer at least.

That's right, school's out for the summer, which means I have control over my life again! I have lots to catch up on, so I'm going to take it one post at a time.

 So after the marathon, we celebrated Christmas.

Longwood Gardens

We went on some hikes.

Above two: Rock State Park, MD

Kilgore Falls, MD 

Stroud Water Research Center

And we hung out with some friends. 

Delaware City

Yolicious

In the midst of all of this, we also did some schoolwork. I successfully completed my first practicum experience as a school psychology student! I worked 2 days a week in an elementary school and loved it. It was reassuring to realize that I enjoy the field I chose :) 

Stay posted for updates about....Franklin! Graduation! Ohio! Utah! and Colorado! 

Hopefully it will be as exciting as it sounds. 

Meet... Franklin!

Getting used to riding in the car

This is Franklin, the newest member of the family! Isn't he the cutest dog you've ever seen?!!! He is an 8.5 month old goldendoodle.
Josh and I have wanted a dog forrrrevvvverrrrrr, and we are finally in a situation that we can have one!
Josh found out last week that he can take a dog to his office during the day while he is working. His office is in a farmhouse, so it's perfect for a dog. Once we learned that, we started looking tirelessly for the perfect match for us. Thanks to Cesar Millan,we knew what we needed to do while we were looking and what we were looking for in a dog.
There is a dog trainer nearby who got Franklin from a puppy mill. He was 8 months when she got him and had lived his whole life in a kennel :( She rescued him and was trying to find a good home for him at the same time we were looking for a good dog!

Franklin's first run! Pooped. 

It was pretty much love at first sight. He is super calm and attentive to whatever we are doing and listens to us really well. The trainer only had him for 1.5 weeks, so he is not trained in anything, but we are working with him and he has already learned so much!

He hasn't had any accidents, can sit pretty consistently (esp. with Josh), and is very patient. He can also sit for his leash. He doesn't know how to jump (so sad!) so we are working on that. He also doesn't really know how to play or fetch, but he's starting to catch on! He acts just like a big puppy--very uncoordinated, big paws that he doesn't know what to do with, and curious. Everything is pretty new to him--toys, balls, running, etc.! It is so exciting to see him learn new things so quickly. 

 He loves his bed!

Tuckered out from us trying to teach him to jump!

We are so excited to have Franklin!! I am obsessed with him, so there will be plenty of pics. And he will go everywhere with us that he is allowed. I was a little disappointed that he couldn't come to church with us today (...ok, a lot disappointed), but hopefully that is the exception and he will be able to come [almost] everywhere else with us!