The Adventures of 1162

 Natalie's new house!

Heather, Danny & Natalie: Roomies!

October 10, 2007- I bought a little house in St. Paul and my brother Danny, his girlfriend Heather and I moved in together and the adventure began.

We didn't know anything about living on our own, so we learned to cook, grocery shop, clean, and survive together. We sat down for dinner every night, played board games, ordered take out food, and in the early days before we got cable or internet, we all crowded together to watch fuzzy tv and DVDs.

We frequented the hardware store and learned how to care for a house from 1924.

We raked leaves together, shoveled snow together, put up a Christmas tree, explored the neighborhood, and transitioned from college students into real live grown ups with full time jobs.

I don't remember who brought up the idea of a puppy- it wasn't me, but it became a nightly conversation for months. My friends Nate and Jodi had just gotten a puppy and when we got the chance to puppy-sit for a week, we were all super excited.

It was December and brutally cold. By the third day of walking Kobie along the poorly shoveled, very slippery sidewalks, not to mention getting up early to feed him, I was OVER the idea of a puppy. I don't even like dogs that much.

As the Director of a resident camp, I live onsite from May- August. In May 2008, the first summer after buying my house, I left my roomies behind and headed to the wilderness. I missed my roommates terribly and was desperately homesick. The Executive Director got fired, leaving me in charge and I spent much of the summer overwhelmed, exhausted and imagining myself packing my car and running away in the middle of the night.

In my free moments, I started googling pictures of bulldogs. I have always thought they were adorable and their hilarious, squishy faces made me happy in the midst of the stress. Pictures led to breeder websites, which led to exchanging emails and before I knew it, I was dreaming of becoming a bulldog mom.

Camp ended and I headed back home. My bulldog research intensified as I met with breeders, read everything I could about bullies and obsessed over how much I wanted a puppy. Danny and Heather were excited and we were ready to add a new member to 1162.