Christmas Present

Recently I've been talking a lot about how I want to start dancing again and how I eventually want to be a dance team instructor. Last week Travis told me that he needed to put in a wood floor at a client's house for an exercise room. He had me help him pick out the wood to use because he said he needed a "woman's advice." I picked out the floor that I would have liked and thought nothing of it. Then I left to go to Utah for Pat's funeral and Trav had to stay and work until Christmas Eve day. He kept calling me and telling me that this client was really demanding and since it was Christmas time, all his union employees would have to be paid over time so he was having to do a lot of the work himself. Again, I thought nothing of it and was just anxious to have him home with me for Christmas. On Christmas morning he told me had a present for me and that it was nothing big. It was an envelope with a card and these pictures.

This is the spare bedroom in our house! There was no client at all. He was putting in a wood floor to build me a dance studio! He'll be putting in mirrors soon too! He's such a sweet man and I'm so lucky to have him!

Mele kalikimaka!

While Las Vegas had it's biggest snow storm in over 30 years I was in sunny Hawaii this week! I was a little sad that I missed the only snow storm of a lifetime basically but I quickly forgot my woes as I sunk my toes into the warm sand in Maui! Our friends in Vegas kept texting us pictures of the snow and we kept texting right back with pics like these!

I'm mad at myself for not taking more pictures. I was too busy relaxing!

We had a great time. Thanks Renee for such a great Christmas gift!

Week of Giving

I realize I haven't posted in a while but I do have a good reason! This week was our "Week of Giving" at work and every day I had an event to manage. The biggest project was our Adopt a Family program. We adopted 17 families, all employees in need. We had an event on Wednesday where we wrapped the gifts and also painted toys for Happy Factory Toys. Yesterday we had a Holiday Party for all employees. I was there from 7am to 10pm last night! Then this morning (SATURDAY!!!) I was back at work at 8am to deliver all the gifts for Adopt a Family. Most families came to our parking garage to pick up the gifts. Others needed the gifts delivered to their homes so I had a volunteer dress as Santa to deliver the gifts. It was a very humbling experience to see all the families in tears as we loaded boxes and boxes of gifts for their families. One family didn't have beds for their kids to sleep on so we had RC Willey deliver bunk beds. Once they found out about what we were doing, they volunteered to deliver and set up the beds for free. It was a great experience!

This is me with my hot chocolate cuddling up to the curtains. The wind picked up and it

got very cold!

Its Christmas at my house!

I spent the weekend decorating my house for Christmas. Next weekend I'll put lights outside and we'll be set! My nativity scene hasn't' arrived yet but my Original Christmas Gift has. Here are some pics of our holiday home!

I haven't forgotten Thanksgiving however! I told Trav's fam I would bring 2 pies on Thursday so I wanted to practice making the crust this weekend so I was sure it would taste good. I turned the crust into a chicken pot pie and it is SO DELICIOUS! Trav and I have been eating it non stop! I'm confident now that my sweet potato pie (Trav's favorite) and pecan pie (my favorite) will be perfect for Thanksgiving!

Christmas!

Okay, okay. I've finally given in too! I'm always so sad that the Christmas season is over so quickly. I'm usually always also so upset that stores start shoving it in our faces in October. But I've decided to ignore the commercialism and just focus on bringing in the true Christmas spirit as early as possible this year. So since I really don't have very many Christmas decorations at all, I got online tonight and finally ordered the Nativity set I've been wanting for 2 years! Here's a picture.
I also ordered a mini version of the gift I gave mom last year. It's the original Christmas gift, Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

I decided that I would also secretly find a way to sneak in the true meaning of Christmas at work this year too! I've come up with a "Week of Giving" where each day during the 2nd week of December there will be opportunities for our employees to give something back. The activities range from a blood drive to assembling toys we can ship over seas to kids who've never had toys. We're also doing "Adopt a Family" within our property and will wrap and deliver the gifts that week too. Because we won't be able to give the employees the kind of party and gift we usually do, I'm hoping that they'll feel so great after the "Week of Giving" that they won't be upset by not receiving anything grand like in years past. Wish me luck!!

November!!!

Travis and I went to Lowe's this morning to get some trash bags and vacuum bags. We started wandering around the store and 1/2 hour later we were home planting all the flowers we bought! They were really cheap and it was 75 degrees outside so I figured we couldn't loose. I mean, we might actually loose the flowers when the cold weather finally does hit but it looks nice for now. The colors we added are very fallish so it's nice.

I'm hoping these will spread across this whole space.

Trav's also trimmed back the flowers we had that were taking over the yard.

It's Halloween!!!

The night before Halloween Travis and I carved pumpkins and sang the Halloween song. I'm not sure if you can tell but on Trav's pumpkin, he didn't carve the eyes all the way out. He just scraped off the skin so the eyes would glow. It was very spooky!
I got back last night from a fun family Halloween party in Richfield! We made the long drive to Richfield and back in one day! But we got to see all my siblings and all the cute nieces and nephews. It was a great time!

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There is beauty all around...

Well, there's sort of love at home! It's weird, no matter how many times I sing that song to Jane and Tuck, they won't stop fighting! :) This is the closest we've come to having peace in our home for several weeks. Yes, unfortunately those are muzzles the dogs are wearing. We found it's the only safe way to keep them in the same room together while they learn not to fight. It's day 4 of muzzle training and I think we're making a lot of progress! For the first time since the epic battle Jane and Tuck are sleeping by each other. I know it may seem silly to all of you who have actual children but it's been a huge sense of anxiety for me thinking that I won't ever be able to have my dogs in the same room together anymore. I've been sick thinking about them always fighting. I'm feeling a little better after tonight.

I do want to make a statement to all the doctors and scientists who always say that dogs don't have memories and can't remember things they do or things that happen to them. I'm going to have to call bologna! Tuck still runs and hides under the table every time Jane runs into the room. And every time Jane gets near Tuck, she looks under his leg to see the damage she caused. Granted, she may just smell the wound but still. I don't for a second think that they just "forgot" what happened. They're 100% not the same dogs as they used to be. But like I said, it's getting better. Keep them in your prayers. :) Is that anything like Mom praying for Dr. Brady on Days of our Lives?

I think Jane looks a little bit like Hannibal Lector with her muzzle on!

What a week!!!

So a lot has happened with my dogs since my last post! After the first fight between Jane and Tuck, Travis came home and I was giving him the details. Then all of the sudden, they started going at it again! Only this time, Tuck rolled over on his back and was crying while Jane was tearing at his leg! It took all of Travis's strength to get them apart. We had to take Tuck to the Emergency Vet because he had a huge gash in back his leg plus several other bites that they shaved and cleaned. The Vet put 4 staples in the big cut and gave him a huge bottle of antibiotics and pain pills.

So that happened on Saturday night. Since then, we've been keeping Jane and Tuck in separate rooms. Tonight, I took Jane for a quick walk. Since the room that Tuck was in was kinda warm, I cracked the window a little. When I got back from my walk with Jane the neighbor boys ran up to me to tell me my other dog was running around the neighborhood!! Tuck had ripped his cone off, pushed the window open and jumped out! Luckily, he was just as scared as I was and as soon as he saw me, he came running towards me. His eyes were all red and he was panting like crazy for an hour. I think he's just really traumatized from the whole fight or something. So I've got him calmed down with his cone back on. Parenthood is going to be a piece of cake after this!

Sibling Rivalry

So last night as I took my last pair of flip flops out of Jane's mouth and threw them away, I decided that in the morning I would go to petsmart and get a bunch of sturdy toys and dog bones. I really couldn't be mad at Jane because I hadn't given either of them anything to chew on in a long time. I brought home tennis balls, a squeaky toy, a rope and some raw hides. I spread them out on the floor and they immediately started playing and chewing. As I was putting away the groceries I had also bought, World War III broke out in my kitchen. Jane and Tuck had a full fledge dog fight that ended with me wiping blood off the walls! I finally got them separated and determined the damage. It looks like they both got it pretty good. They both have a gash on their snouts. Jane has one near her eye and one on her lip. Tuck has 2 on his leg. I was just trying to make their day a little happier with some new toys and look where it gets me! My camera died after I took the picture of the flip flop so I'll spare you the gruesome details of the wounds their now in their respective corners of the house licking.

Crazy 8s

My friend Sheri tagged me with this one. Surprisingly, I didn't have to change too many of the answers after I copied them from her page!

8 TV shows that I love to watch:
1. The Office
2. Monk
3. So you think you can dance
4. America's Next Top Model
5. Saturday Night Live
6. American Idol
7. The Soup
8. Saved by the bell....(it's on in the mornings when I get ready for work. Don't tell anyone!!)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Z Tejas (it closed 6 months ago but every Friday I tell Trav that's where I want to eat)
2. Mamma Jo's (we found out on an anniversary that it also closed...dang economy! I can't support it by myself!)
3. McDonald's (yep, I said it.)
4. BJ's
5. Island Burger
6. Paymon's Mediterranean Cafe
7. Mimi's Cafe
8. Bleu Gourmet

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Went to work
2. Gave my boss a ride
3. Talked to Trav about the 3 Quail he shot on his first hunting trip ever
4. Prayed that no ghosts would haunt my house while Trav's away
5. Let both dogs sleep in bed with me to protect me just in case the ghosts came anyway. :)
6. Made myself an old school college dinner-pasta with sauce and cheese
7. Caught up on all the tv shows I had stored on tivo
8. Caught up on all my friends/fams blogs

8 Things that I am looking forward to
1. The holidays (I get to see my family!!!)
2. Trav coming home tomorrow
3. Watching conference
4. Having babies!!!
5. Seeing my new born nephew Jack for the first time
6. Watching SNL tonight
7. Feeling like I'm good at my job
8. Cool weather

8 Things on my wish list
1. Teleporting (don't make me explain)
2. A new wardrobe
3. Being an audience member for a taping of SNL
4. Living in Utah again
5. Being 100% healthy
6. Having a better memory
7. Having a great ipod play list
8. Having grass that doesn't die when my dog pees on it

Fall

Ahhh... it's finally Fall. My favorite season of the year. It starts getting cooler, the leaves turn to reds and oranges and it's the time of year that I get to see my family every few weeks! This year will be even better because there will be Mike's wedding, Halloween, Thanksgiving then Christmas. And I'm sure I could find another excuse to go back and visit my fam in St George since its so close.

I had a great relaxing weekend to clean my house and unwind again. Every morning my dogs wait for my eyes to open then they both crawl on either side of me and lay their heads on my chest and cuddle. On normal days I can only do this for a few minutes before I have to get up for work. But on the weekends, they get tons of cuddle time!

We have this tiny little cat door in our garage door that Jane and Tuck like to stick their heads out of and watch us come home or to make sure no one is trying to break in through the garage. Yesterday Jane fell asleep with her head hanging out of the door. She's a guard dog to the death!

Catch the Gobbler

The first year Trav and I were married we ran a 5K race on Thanksgiving morning called "Catch the Gobbler." It was and still is the longest distance I've ever run! I trained for a few months since I'm really not at all a runner and it felt great! Plus I didn't feel quite so guilty gorging myself on Thanksgiving day after having run the longest race of my life! I know, I'm making a 3 mile jog sound like the Olympics! But I skipped 2 years and decided that this year I want to run it again. So I started my official training today. When I got home I set my odometer to 0 and drove around my entire neighborhood to measure the distance. It's only 1/2 a mile. So since I can't walk both my dogs at once, I put Tuck's leash on first and we ran about 1/4 a mile before I had to stop. I like to tell myself that Tuck was too tired but it was really me! Then I switched dogs and Jane really isn't a very good runner so we only ran a few blocks before she was stopping to smell everything. So all in all I probably ran about...1/4 plus an 1/8 of a mile...math is not my strongest skill either! I'll know I'll get better (at running, not math) just in time to Catch the Gobbler!

Finally Shelves!

So, I bought some shelves to put in our bedroom about 6 months ago. They've been sitting in our closet being ignored. Finally, I convinced Trav to help me put them up. (When I say "help me" I mean he did everything and I just told him where I wanted them.) But I love them! Trav did such a great job.

My absolute favorite part and something that will stay forever in the "favorite memories" part of my mind is when we were going through our house trying to find stuff to put on the shelves. I gathered the candles and picture frame and Travis came back from the office with this stack of books.

There are 2 reasons I love this so much!

1. Because Travis had the idea all on his own to go to our office and find all the littlest books he could. I can just picture his thought process!

2. Because I'm amazed that we had so many miniature books in our house already!

It was a fun day! I've also included some pics of how our entire room looks now that it's complete! Hurray!