Long Time

Well, here it is the end of July and I haven't posted in a while. Life has been crazy. Work is stressful. I never realized being in a higher position at work would be so challenging. It seems co-workers don't like it when you move up a position and they have no shame in telling it to your face. I need to develop a thick skin and I'm working on that, in the meantime it sucks.

In other news. Lava was fun. On Friday, a group of us got there early and had a community dinner and then sat around and talked till really late. It got really cold that night, colder than usual. We hit the low 40's. I forgot a jacket, socks and only had one blanket. Usually that is enought, but this time I almost froze on Friday night. Saturday, we slept in and then made breakfast. A bunch of people went down the river and to the pool. I hung around the campsite visiting and then went to town with a bunch of them. That night after dinner, 4 of us ladies, decided to ditch the men and go to the hot springs on our own. It was really hot, even the mildest pool was pretty hot. We had a lot of fun just chit chatting with each other. We didn't get back to the campsite till after 11. Needless to say we were not cold that night. On Sunday we left early and headed home. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we do this every summer.

Not much else is happening. Mike and I have been house hunting, but haven't found what we are looking for. We are not totally sure if we will move or just fix up our house.

On the 24th of July one of Mike's aunts died suddenly of a heart attack. She was on of his dads sisters. A very nice lady. It was sad to hear she died.

That's all for now. Next weekend Mike and I are headed to Idaho to see my parents and to go to the open house of the Twin Falls Temple. I'm really excited to see it. I'll post pictures of the temple later.

Isn't He Cute!

Today is Fred's birthday. He is 10 years old. This is the most recent picture of him. It was taken a couple of months ago at my parents house. He's still as cute as ever just a little grayer.

It's hard to believe we've had him for that long. We had quite an auspicious start with him. Mike and I decided one day that we wanted to get another dog, we already adopted an older bassett from the Humane Society. So one day Mike saw this cute bassett in the window of a pet store and convinced me to go take a look. Of course he knows what a huge animal lover I am and knew that I would want him. Sure enough as soon as I saw him I was in love. He was 11 weeks old and so cute and tiny(hard to believe he was ever tiny). I thought he was perfect and it would be a breeze to add another dog to our clan. Boy was I ever wrong. Fred was the dog from hell. I had no idea puppies are like babies. They have their days and nights mixed up and they aren't potty trained. Not only that, but they bite everybody and eat everything. We went through more shoes, belts and pillows than anyone would ever imagine. Our older dog was not happy to have Fred, Fred wanted to play with him and he was too old to play. They never did become the best of friends.

Fred and Mike bonded immediately, in the pet store. Fred and I had to learn to like each other. When we got Fred I was a college student and was home most of the day. So of course most of his care and training fell on me. I had no idea how to train a dog. I tried to be super nice to him so he would listen to me. That did not work. I would tell him to not do something, he would stop, look at me and then go back to doing whatever it was he wasn't supposed to do. Now if Mike told him not to do something he stopped immediately. That used to make me so mad. I wanted to take Fred back to the pet store at least 20 million times in that first year. Eventually we hired a trainer to help us (he flunked puppy preschool, no surprise there). Now 10 years later Fred has become a momma's boy and never leaves my side. It's really cute.

Things I've learned from Fred:

1. Dogs are stubborn. Since Fred had his days and nights messed up and I wasn't getting any sleep I thought it was a good idea to bring him to bed with us each night. I tried leaving him in his crate at night and he would just howl all night. Not kidding, all night. Sleeping in our bed worked well because he was too small to get down and get into anything so he learned to sleep at night. The bad part is that it takes years to reverse the dog of that habit once they learn it. Fred would rather sleep with us than anywhere else.

2. Puppies bite.

3. Potty training a dog can take 9 months no matter how strict you are.

4. Dogs are the best pets. There is nothing like coming home from work at night and your dog is waiting at the door for you with a toy in his mouth. He does it for me when I get home and then repeats it when Mike gets home. It's so cute and heartwarming.

Wow, this is a long post. As for the rest of life. I'm finally feeling normal again, it only took 8 days of antibiotics. Mike is enjoying the great golfing weather we are having. I'm getting the hang of my new job and am really enjoying it. I'm off to Lava Hot Springs on Friday with my friends, Russ and Adawna. We go every year and it is a blast. I will post pictures next week. Mike won't be going because he hates to camp even it's only a day or two. He gets to stay home and take care of the creatures.

Happy 4th of July

It's hard to believe it's July already. This year is just speeding by. Not much is happening at our house today. Mike has to work till 6:30 and then we are going to have dinner and watch the fireworks from the baseball field. Not too exciting. Usually we go to Huntsville for the day, but since Mike has to work this year we decided to skip driving up after work. I'm just going to hang out at home with the boys and finish reading the third book in the Twilight series. I've been putting off reading this book, but the new one comes out next month so I've got to get it finished. I'm also going to spend a lot of time sleeping. I've been pretty sick this week with a sinus and ear infection. It has knocked the wind right out of me. I manage to make it to work and that is it. My house looks like a tornado has hit and I haven't made dinner since Monday night. Not good.

Last Friday, June 27th, I had the opportunity to go up to Idaho Falls and see my friend get remarried. It was a beautiful and simple ceremony and reception. It was good to see her so happy again. It's been a tough year for her and I'm glad she met someone who obviously loves her very much. It was kind of a long day, I went to work in the morning (4 1/2 hours), drove up to Idaho Falls (3 hour drive), went to the wedding and reception and then drove home again (another 3 hour drive). Thank goodness for Mountain Dew. It was a beautiful drive home, the sunset was incredible. Congratulations Jillea and Andrew!


That's it for now. Have a Happy 4th of July.