new feature: budgeting

We talk about how we save money through deal sites, credit cards, and rewards cards.  So we thought it would be a good idea to do a monthly feature on the last day of each month with a total of how much we spent on Havi.  We would love ideas on how to save more or save better!  We have had Havi for officially 6 months.  We definitely believe that we spent a lot more money than usual on Havi.  Besides her adoption fee, when she came to us she had a huge stomach and digestion issue that took four months to solve, there was no record of her having any vaccinations or a check up (this was the fault of the rescue) so we had to take care of that, and then in her first two month with us she was attacked by another pup at a dog park (we will talk about dog parks another day).  All together, the accumulation of pup materials (dog mats, bowls, food, toys) and these problems we spent a lot on Havi.  Many people told us it was because we adopted a shelter pup.  However, around the same time Law Student's mom got Mushey from a breeder and he had cystic giardia which cost a pretty penny as well to diagnose and cure.  

Around 6 months, where we are now, we believe we have stabilized our accounting with Havi and would like to share how to save money with a pup.  We got the idea from Dogtipper.com who compared costs of a small to large pup.  

Month of June

Missing Link ProBiotic - PetsTruly.com - $22.64

Evo Red Meat Dry Dog Formula 28.6lb - ProperPet.com - $59.99

Evo Red Meat Dry Dog Formula 6.6lb - Boutique Petstore -  - $20.68

Running to the Vet to find out she had puppy warts - $45.00
Dollar Store Toy - Jack's 99Cent World - $1.00

Total - $149.31

Yearly costs:

We had paid for a 12 month supply of FrontLine and HeartGuard as well as shampoo.

Gifts:

Deer Antler from Maisie and Me

Painting from Art By Elizabeth

Tennis balls from Dental Students parents

We usually don't have to buy two bags of food and have vet scares, so that upped the price this month.  The yearly costs we will factor in in January when we pay for them!

crazy weekend in the two grads home

Well this weekend seems to have been a total blur we just now are recovering from!  While Havi and Dental Student spent the day in the park and Law Student got her hair done their best friends got engaged! So Saturday was a special engagement party for two very special people.  

Sunday morning Law Students brother left to go to sleepaway camp in upstate New York.  

Camp Bus Stop!

And then Sunday afternoon Havi finally got the attention she was craving.  We reintroduced her and her Uncle Mushey, and adorable Havanese we spoke about here.  Instead of our first encounter on Mushey's home turf we walked the two around the city and even dropped by the Pride Parade.  The pups seemed not to care about each other's presence.  Which is much better than last time's aggression.  

Mushey stood the whole 1 hour drive from Long Island to NYC! 

Havi loves the action and attention of a good parade!

NYC celebrating the right for gay people to marry!

And this is why all the girls in NYC are single... 

Being a suburban pup, Mushey did not like the loud noises! 

The NYC Pride Parade goes down 5th Avenue until it hits the famous Stonewall Inn! 

We went to Madison Square Park where Havi met this "purebred AmStaff" whatever that means... 

This is Dental Student getting the owner's number.  I swear he gets so many numbers this way...

Any more tips for getting to awesome pups together?

Caption This!

What do you think Havi is thinking?!

laziness bites the dust...

Okay, I've been lazy.  But that leads to many Friday things to chat about...

Happy take your pup to work day!  Dental Student is working in the hospital's clinic this summer and I work in a courthouse, so Havi can't come with us.  So make us jealous, tell us if your pup is coming to work!  We heard that productivity increases if you bring your pup, but we think we'd just cuddle Havi all day!

We've been checking the mail everyday because Havi is expecting TWO packages!  Our awesome painting by Art By Elizabeth, that we won for being her 5th blog follower.  You all helped us pick out the best photo for her to paint...check out which photo won.  Maisie and Me had reader appreciation week and we won a deer antler, and our Ultimate Chewer is excited to attack!

We started up a Facebook page, and we're getting better at integrating it with the blog and Twitter so please "Like" us.  Constant pics and updates about a cute pup - sounds like a plan!

Law Student tried out a new sushi restaurant with her oldest friends last night.  Poke is a BYOB Sushi place on the Upper East Side that does not take reservations.  I hate when restaurants don't take reservations.  But I love BYOB.  So I consider that a wash.  The food was delicious - we shared edamame, black cod, and tuna avocado salad.  Then I had a spicy trio combination of sushi rolls.  The food was delicious, but the portions were very small.  It was moderately priced.  I would go back, but I'm not running there.  

This is Havi resting her chin on things.  I can't resist any pup resting their chin on things.  Its too cute.  

Hope you don't mind if I knock over your coasters...

Two weeks ago Law Student came home to see 4 FDNY trucks outside the apartment building.  When I came into the building my doormen informed me there was a power surge and the power has been out for hours.  All I could think was that Havi was in the apartment for 5 hours without air conditioning.  I ran up the stairs to her.  Luckily, our apartment was not affected and Havi was just a little antsy (there were firemen on every floor) but perfectly unharmed.  I made sure the building will now email its residents if the power goes out in the future.  The building management emailed us earlier this week to update us on renovations in lieu of the outage (people lost power permanently and needed appliances replaced!), and reminded everyone who lost TV's, laptops, etc when the surge occurred to submit a claim to their renter's insurance.  Thats when I said out loud "oops."  We didn't have renter's insurance!  If we had been affected by the surge (and many, many friends of ours had) we would've lost our two televisions and laptops, all bought within the past two years.  So Dental Student called State Farm and got us covered!  For the entire year we paid $130 up front for $35,000 worth of coverage.  So...not exactly pup insurance, but something to keep in mind in these summer months, and something we should've signed up for a few years ago.

Anyone doing anything fun this weekend?!

fun additions!

Today I finished A Visit to the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, this book was recommended by Maisie and Me as well as GoodReads book club.  Speaking about GoodReads, I added a widget to the side of the page!  My goal is to read 36 books by the end of the year.  I have read 13 books to date this year!  (For some reason, the widget lists some from last year)

Give me books to add to my to-read list!  What was the last book you read?!

another NYC weekend

Bidawee has a new advertising campaign to increase adoption of shelter pets, that we needed to pose in front of!

We had another fun NYC weekend! Friday night after Law Student pampered herself with a free manicure (via her great nail place's buy 10 get 1 free deal) and Havi had a playdate with her BFF the mini-goldendoodle Jax, the Grad Students ordered in an Italian feast with an AllMenus.com coupon. Then off the Grad Students went for a night on the town, leaving Havi to watch the apartment.

Saturday we woke up early for Saturday morning clean up, and a long walk with Havi. During the long walk the Grad Students decided to stop at their favorite Mexican place, Caliente Cab Co. for a quesadilla. The outside eatery is especially dog friendly, and brought Havi over a bowl of water!

Then she had a stare down with a pigeon.

Later in the day, Dental Student's parents came in to celebrate Father's Day. We decided to head over to the HighLine. The HighLine is all the way on the West Side of the city, and used to be an above-ground railroad track where the meat was shipped into the meatpacking district. The tracks had been abandoned for years, so the city paved it over and planted some flowers and art, and it makes for a nice (but crowded) walk from 14-30 streets so that you can see the city and New Jersey skyline. We ate at an outdoor biergarten under the tracks that featured Kimchi Taco Truck, Eddies Pizza Truck, and the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck. We then headed over to ChikaLicious Dessert Club. Later that night, we rented the movie Just Go With It - so cute!

This is the biergarten, the tracks are above us!

Yummy food!

Food truck lines...

Havi kisses for the guests!

Sunday we woke up to work on Law Student's Mom's Scrapbook. From an idea we got from Real Simple magazine, we make a new scrapbook page for Mother's Day, Birthday, and Hanukkah for mom. This way, her present every holiday is a scrapbook of us through the years, and not a gift she may not be able to use. We then headed over to brunch at Barking Dog NYC. You guessed it, they LOVE pups there!

Havi apparently didn't want to sit with her family in the outside garden, and found a nice shady spot.

Here she is sticking out her tongue, nice Havi.

Then we headed out to Long Island for a Father's Day BBQ where we scored Dental Student's favorite pasta salad, hamburgers, and hot dogs to take home!

Unfortunately, we left Havi alone for the longest amount of time to date, 10 hours, and she obviously got bored and a little destructive. We tend not to leave her alone on weekends, especially for this long. But in the future we will definitely have to tire her out more.

Tell us about your weekend! Don't forget to check back on yesterday's post and let us know which photo of Havi we should use. And Like us on Facebook!

we want your opinion!

On Thursday, I noted that 2BrownDawgs graciously awarded us the Versatile Blogger Award. While we were reading their post to learn about some new great blogs, they noted that Art By Elizabeth, a friend of theirs, was a having a contest. Whoever became her first five followers would win a painting! We were one of the first five followers, and won!

We decided that we obviously wanted a painting of Havi to add to our picture collage wall (which we will reveal next week). But we wanted your help! So, go over to Art By Elizabeth and check out her awesome array of talent with various materials and then pick one of these three pictures of Havi that we should turn into a work of art! Please leave your vote in the comment!

Lastly, we are working on updating the Facebook all weekend long with fun photos, ideas, and comments! We want to get to 30 "likes" on Facebook this weekend, so if you want nonstop Havi cuteness and fun NYC ideas...come over and say hi!

delayed post?

Oops, forgot my Wednesday post...but Ill make up for it. One day.

Today I wanted to thank Rescued Insanity, Life With Sophie, and 2BrownDawgs for awarding us with the Versatile Blogger award over the past month. Then My Life With Flyball Dogs awarded us the Inspiration Award. Its so cool that we started this blog to keep our family and friends updated, and chronicle the beginning of our life together and now know that so many people read and enjoy our blog!

Im going to combine the rules of both awards. First of all, seven things you may not know about us.

1. Havi sleeps on the bed. Yes, all 65 pounds of her.

2. Havi was a spur of the moment, best idea we ever had, decision.

3. We watch the Today Show every morning as we write these posts, hey Matt!

4. We just discovered Modern Family - where have we been?!

5. We are overly organized, its scary.

6. Havi actually only knows three tricks...but you're gonna help us change that!

7. We're huge Dave Matthews Band fans!

Now to pass it on to 11 other blogs that either inspire us or that we think are very versatile in nature...

1. Pauley James Foster Dog - Their blog started in order to get Pauley adopted, but they foster failed! Now its Pauley's story of how he gets the new foster pups ready for adoption. He's just too cute not to want to read each day, and his parents are awesome for fostering.

2. Kate at Twenty-Six to Life - WHERE HAVE I BEEN?! She is AWESOME. She reads, she exercises, she DIY, and shes a crazy dog lady. How did I not read this blog? Why are we not friends?! Talk about versatile.

3. A and A Friese - She lives in Alaska. Done. No seriously, shes super cool and has a great summer to-do list you should follow. Starting with the awesome headboard she just made that I'm stealing.

4. Maisie and Me - Maisie is Havi's doppleganger. Anyone wanna fund a trip for Havi and me to Chicago so I can meet Maisie's mom and share a bottle of wine?! She's awesome, her dog is TOO CUTE, and she knows so much about pups...she's also doing an awesome contest this week and was featured on Pet Blogs United this week. Can you tell I heart this blog?!

5. CowSpotDog - Just a seriously pretty sheltie and an amazing owner and their everyday adventures.

6. Identity: V - She has a cute pittie and she's a dog trainer that knows A LOT. She saved Havi's tummy, and named her pup Elli after a punctuation mark.

7. (Com)passion for Pits - One of my fellow NYC bloggers. And she is the biggest advocate for pitties out there!

8. Midtown Lunch - This is a NYC blog about the best places to eat and great deals in NY, if you're visiting, check it out!

9. Pitter Patter - You send in a pic of your pups, they add a cute caption. I wish I was this creative!

10. In Black and White - Her pup Bilbo is a little TOO CUTE. And now she has a foster. And shes from England. Need I say more?

Thanks again for reading our adventures everyday, your comments, and your all around love!

Havi's tummy

When we rescued our million dollar puppy, she had major tummy issues. She went from a Animal Care and Control in Georgia, to the Humane Society, to Second Chance Rescue in NY, to foster home, to foster home. Having not stayed in more than one place for a long period of time during her first year of life, no one was able to tell that Havi's tummy was more than just the stress of switching foods.

When we rescued her she was perfectly potty trained. In fact, after two days of living in our apartment she was able to figure out she needed to hold it down the long hallway, in the elevator, and out the service entrance. However, she was pooping (for lack of a much more scientific word) four times a day, very loose bowel movements. Additionally, she would wake up around 1AM and relieve herself on the floor as she cried. I spoke about the details of this event here. After $2,000 and 3 months of the stress of not knowing waht was wrong, may of you suggested she just had a week stomach. Ximena over at Identity V suggested trying Evo, in lieu of our fear of going raw. Although it is still kibble, it is chicken and grain free. And, because its only 1 cup twice a day, it iss the same cost as all the other options we tried. About a month in we added the probiotic Missing Link for its fiber and acidophilus. Now, Havi only goes twice a day and never in the house!

Havi's BFF Jax's mom was shocked that after all that money and time, the blogging communtiy was what saved Havi's tummy! Lately, we have added one Milkbone a day for a snack, due to its mild nature. So when we took Havi to the vet last week for her puppy warts, and she hopped on the scale - we were shocked to learn she is now 65 pounds! Thats 20 pounds in the past 6 months! We have a happy, healthy, Havi!

So now we thought we'd ask you...what tummy problems have you had? Also, are there any viatmins you think we should add to her diet?

monday meanderings

Well this weekend was Atlantic City centered, not NYC. Dental Student headed down to the Shore with his college friends for some gambling and yummy eats. AC is a 2 hour car, bus or train ride from NYC and a nice get-away. I stayed home with the Havi-nator and crossed things off the to-do list. Which is about to lead to a spattering of meanderings...

First of all, Havi and I decided to utilize my degree in Public Relations and Social Media and expand the blog a little more. We started a Two Grad Students and a Pittie Facebook Page. We only uploaded our information and some pics so far, but please "like" us and well work on expanding and making it fun all week, seriously - were the only Like so far! I know I promised a while ago we'd fancy up the blog, and Kate at Twenty-Six To Life is quite the inspiration. It's definitely on the to-do list. We love CBS Sunday Morning in this house, and they inspred us as well, because they did a segment on blogs yesterday, especially our (okay, just mine) favorite wedding blog, Style Me Pretty.

I just finished reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah with the Best Friend. I loved it. It was a well-written tale of two unlikely best friends. I usually don't like airy, light reads, which I assumed this was. However, it was very well-written with great detail, and I found that I couldn't put it down! I also favor stories of friendship over romance, and this certainly appealed to that. Feel free to friend me on GoodReads, which I have chatted about before!

I saw Midnight in Paris this weekend. I know what you're thinking - how many movies have we seen?! Well, since finals ended four weeks ago I've seen Something Borrowed, Bridesmaids, Hangover 2, X-Men: First Class, and now Midnight in Paris. I can't help it - I LOVE a huge Diet Coke and a big screen. Especially with LivingSocial Fandago deals where you get two tickets for $9.00 (it is usually $15.00 for one ticket in NYC)! I loved Midnight, it was totally vintage Woody Allen. Owen Wilson's character loves Paris in the 1920s and magically gets transported there. Rachel McAdams plays a quite unlikable character - which is a nice change for her! The only warning is you need a bit of classical literature and art knowledge to appreciate some of the references.

Lastly, I use a 2-year-old Nikon camera to take pictures for this blog, Facbeook, and my scrapbooks. Dental Student is in the market for a camera for his Dental portfolio. I was thinking of giving him mine, and getting a new one. I really want to start taking higher quality photographs and am in the market for a new camera. I need suggestions for a reasonably-priced camera for a budding photog. I know so many of you are amateur photographers - so I need your help!

I think that's everything I had to say, my head is a very busy place!

Here comes Monday...!

Havi's new leash!

Two Saturday's ago we had a special Saturday post in honor of Sarge's blog, Sarge Speaks Out. Sarge had a contest called Peeps on Parade, where everyone was supposed to write about the people behind the pups. We wrote this post about the Two Grad Students, and some things you may not have known.

Last week we found out that everyone who participated got placed into a contest where a winner was chosen at random - Havi was that winner!

We won a new collar from Clara's Collars. We had such a hard time picking out the right one, and asked you for help. A and A Friese helped us pick the PERFECT design and we changed up the collar scheme and picked our favorite design, Summer Paisley. We really like bright girly collars, because people always think Havi is a boy!

Well, on Wednesday, the collar came!

Havi has NEVER gotten mail before!

She was so excited to see what was in the package...

Okay, maybe I was excited as well

She sat patiently as we revealed the present...

That came wrapped SO PRETTY!

Ta-da!

Wait, CLARA AND SARGE suprised us! It is a collar AND a leash!!

And a fun little treat!

We were amazed by the fabric, which was soft and durable, unlike her previous collar. Additionally, the leash really jazzed up her walk. So today, we tried it out!

Havi even met a new friend, named Kara, a Boxer - who wasn't scared of her at all in her bright summery get up!

She was extra smiley this morning!

Now we are going to need to head over and get a Rubit, that Two Pitties in the City always chat about so we can change up her collars!

A few quick NYC type items...Law Student tried out Zengo and Cafeteria this week, two fun restaurants in honor of friends birthdays. Zengo is a Richard Sandoval restaurant (all over the US) which was a Mexican and Asian fusion. Cafeteria was a Sex and the City favorite with amazing mac and cheese! We also bought $20 tickets to the Yanks-Red Sox game in order to check out their new Stadium via StubHub. It was a busy week for the Grad Students, can't wait for some weekend fun!

silly Havi

Does your pup ever just make you laugh? Yesterday, Dental Student and I decided to beat the heat around 3PM and ordered Yankees-Red Sox tickets for $20 on StubHub.com. When we came home from the hot, sticky game, Havi was EXTRA excited to see us. Dental Student grabbed a Gatorade for the walk. As we walked down the hall, Dental Student dropped the Gatorade by mistake and Havi grabbed it. And would not let it go for the rest of the walk! This is what ensued...

At one point in the hallway, she took a break to finally breathe!

You can see Dental Student chasing her...

What has your pup done lately that has made you laugh?