This post is a little different than my usual blogging, but I know many of my readers are animal lovers so I wanted to reach out.

You might know that recently we brought a new dog into our home.  He was a homeless dog that was lucky enough to get picked up by Pawsibilities or Humane Society of Greater Akron.  They took great care of him, helped him put on some weight, gave him lots of love and rehabilitation and then helped match him up with us.  It was the most wonderful experience and we are so thankful to have Finn in our family.

This May, we’ll be joining Pawsibilities for their annual Bark in the Park walk.  As a nonprofit, they rely on events like this to keep going.  We’ll be walking with Finn and are aiming to raise $200.  If you would like to contribute, you can visit our team page on First Giving and make a donation.  Even $5 can go a long way to help feed and care for a furry friend in need.  It’s quick and secure.

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To find out more about Pawsibilities, visit their webpage or check out their Facebook page to see the newest lucky animals to find themselves at Pawsibilities and watch their journey to finding a forever home.  Or visit Bark at the Park if you are in Northeast Ohio and want to join us in May.

And now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.  Thanks for your support!

Well we did something…   We adopted another dog.  We have been thinking about it for a long time and this week when I get home we visited our local Humane Society (Pawsibilities or The Humane Society of Greater Akron) to take a look.  Two different dogs caught our eye.  We played with both and talked to staff about which would be the best option for our family.  They asked us to bring Logan in to meet them.  After seeing him with both we began falling in love with this little guy.

We think he’s a Kelpie/Shepard mix and is about 4 years old.  But since we was a stray when they found him (living with a small pack of dogs in an abandoned residence) we dont know for certain what his past is.  What we do know is he loves dogs, he is sweet as can be and that people are still a little scary to him.  We are slowly introducing him to new people and he quickly learned to trust us.  We had a couple of hard nights.  It’s going to be an adjustment for all of us, but things are headed in the right direction.

By the way, we are calling him Finnick or Finn.  I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of Finn here and on my Instagram.  I can’t resit taking photos of those ears.

Last night started out pretty normal, but quickly became one of the most stressful (and most hilarious) situation I have ever faced.  But we should probably start from the beginning.

Background:  In our second bedroom upstairs (which currently serves as a shared office, rec room, guestroom) has an old vent in the wall.  It’s not connected to the heating or cooling system.  It’s really more like a rectangular hole near the base of the wall that was used to feed cables and wires down to the basement.  It used to have a cover, but somewhere along the line it got lost and since then, we have just shoved the twin bed up against that wall to cover it.  A few of Logan’s toys have fallen in there, but it’s always been easy to reach in and retrieve.

Last night:  When we got home I laid down on the twin bed to take a little nap.  As usual I had my phone and checked my email before drifting off a little.  When I was getting up, I tossed the quilt aside and heard the most horrifying noise.  Something hard hitting the wall and the clattering all the way down the inside of the wall.  Jared was at his computer and immediately knew what had just happened.  My phone had fallen into the wall.

At first we were somewhat hopeful it was just a shallow hole to the op of the first floor.  With flashlights and Jared’s phone camera, we were pretty quickly able to determine this wasn’t going to be an easy rescue.  My phone is almost always on vibrate, so Jared called it and we walked throughout the house with our ears to the walls.  When I went down to the first floor I could hear it.  It was pretty clearly in the wall or the floor behind the back wall of our living room.

At this point I’m hysterical.  Like a full on “Kristen Bell meets a Sloth” melt down.  I’m sobbing and laughing all at the same time.  Of all the clumsy things I have done in my life, this topped them.  Lucky for me, my husband is the best husband in the world and instead of being mad I had just flung my new-ish Iphone into a seemingly bottomless pit, he thought it was hilarious.  Looking back, I wish we could have had a 3rd person to tape the whole thing.  We could have won a small fortune on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Back to the story…  At this point we faced a choice.  Do we attempt to go through the antique oak floors (that we spent weeks refinishing just a couple of years ago) or go through the wall.  It felt like the vibration was under the floors, but prying up those boards would be close to impossible, especially with our limited tools.  This decision took at least an hour.  Jared had his head in the intake vent (which was full of cobwebs… my hero).  We were in the basement trying to determine if it was in the vents by some miracle.  We ended up sitting in front of the spot in our wall where we were pretty sure the phone would be located with a mallet and hammer.  We also ran the risk of striking the wall in the exact place to crush my phone (heck, my phone could already have a shattered screen from falling).

When we had worked up the nerve Jared took the mallet to our wall.  We had thought it was drywall, since most of the house has been gutted at some point, but we quickly discovered this was the one room in the house that is still plaster and slat.  Great.  One more thing to get through.  When the hole got to the point where we could get a camera in there we had a break in the case.  There it was!  My phone!  The hole was a little too small to get our hands in so we had to widen it just a little.  As soon as Jared started chipping away at the hole again, we heard the phone clatter further down the hole and out of sight.  Ugh.

Lucky for us, when it settled it sounded like it settled on a piece of sheet metal.  The vent!  We ran down to the basement, buzzed the phone, and sure enough it had come to rest in our intake vent!  There was a small access panel that we removed with a socket wrench and the phone was resting just within reach.  And it was practically pristine… dusty, and a few scratches, but it could have been SO much worse.  My phone case has a few bumps and scratches, but unbelievably nothing will need to be replaced.  I broke down again (poor Jared).  I was so happy and relieved, but exhausted from the 2.5 hour ordeal.

Aftermath:  Covering the vent on the second floor has been moved to the top of our list.  Lucky for us, the hole in our living room wall is behind the TV stand, so we can avoid that patch job until this summer.  Looks like we’ll be doing a wall-patch tutorial on the blog.

I only intended to come out to Portland for the long weekend, but as Sunday quickly approached, I wasn’t ready to let go.  At the last minute I had my mom help me switch my flight.  I’m now leaving Thursday to head back to the real world.  I’m missing a little more work that I anticipated and it throws a wrench into my new work out routine, but I think I needed some time with my family.

If you don’t already, follow me on Instagram (@lostandfawned) to see photos from my trip in real time.  From a random flock of alley chickens to a memorable trip to the Schoolhouse Electric showroom I’ve had a lot of inspiration.

While my mom is at work, I’m going to try and get some blogging done.  I left my laptop at home thinking I would only be gone for a few days, but lucky for me, she has photoshop on her macbook, so I should be able to get things done.

Photo above from my family’s yard.  Now available on Society 6.