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!