The sick dog and a clean house

I got home from work yesterday to find that one of my kids had exploded all over the place. There was a mess on the floor in the living room, on the couch and on the chair (luckily I always put blankets down for them), on the floor in the bedroom, on the bed (which soaked thru the comforter and sheets), and on the chair in the bedroom. I really didn't know where to start. And the kicker is that on Sunday I had washed the sheets, their blankets, and the extra comforters I've had out since it's been cold. I wish they could reason because I really wanted to ask them, "Are you kidding me?"

So I threw one comforter in the wash and got the rest piled up and ready for action. And I have the most amazing pet cleaner ever! It took me until a few months ago to find it (and I've had dogs for almost 5 years!), and I love it! If you've ever heard of Perfect Glass cleaner, then you know what I am talking about. That stuff is awesome! Anyways, they make Perfect Pet cleaner. I saw it at Garden Ridge and thought, 'if their glass cleaner is so good, surely this would be good too.' And it is! It gets out stains and smells! And it doesn't leave that soapy residue most other pet cleaners do. (They also make Perfect Stainless for stainless steel stuff).

So, as I am cleaning up the mess, I keep thinking it's probably Bayla who has done this (because he has the sensitive stomach usually), when I see a little piece of torn plastic bag. Hmm...who could that have been from? Then I remembered Sunday night Josh came into the bedroom and informed me that Rylie had gotten into the guest room where I had put their travel baskets...complete with towels, leash, toys, medicine, and a ziploc full of treat bones. He caught her mid-chowdown and took them away. I went to the guest room and found a chewed up bag with not a whole lot of bones left. Little stinker! But you wouldn't know it that she was the culprit last night because she was acting completely normal! I did give her some diarrhea medicine just in case, but I'm sure it was all temporary. We'll see when I get home tonight!

Christmas Lights

I love Christmas lights! Check out his guy! He's won a national award!!

http://www.holdman.com/christmas/

Got it done!

Remember that list of things I had to do this weekend...done, pretty much all of it!!

* I made candy-coated pecans for Josh's and my coworkers, and put them in cute little Christmas bags. I wanted to include divinity, but my mixer had other plans for me. It was running for about 45 minutes when the gears locked up and didn't want to work again. Luckily, I got one batch out of it, but it would have only been enough for one piece a person, and if you've ever had divinity, one piece is not enough, you need more like 5! So now the plan is to take that batch with us to Christmas and I'm hoping that it makes it to West Texas! hint hint...it's really good! And I'm also now in the market for another stand mixer. It would be oh so nice to have one of the $400 KitchenAid mixers, however, I know that sucker is not in the cards for me. At least not anytime soon!

* I got all the Christmas cards done and mailed out. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

* I did every single piece of clothing that was piled on my floor, plus sheets and blankets. I even managed to put away all the clothes that were washed. I hate putting away clothes!!

* I managed to finish our Christmas gifts and get them wrapped. Since the dollars are tight this year, I made everyone Christmas ornaments. Some of them turned out really well! And now I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of all of them! I have a few that need to be mailed out so I'll try to remember to take some pictures of those.

* I figured out where the dogs will be spending Christmas. My mom flat out refused to take them both this year. Not that I really blame her because she has been watching them for close to five years now. And when they are both together, they can be a handful for someone who doesn't see them all the time. Heck, their a handful for me sometimes and I see them all the time! So, we compromised and she will take Rylie and Josh and I will take Bayla. They are like two completely different dogs when they are separated. Take them away from their "pack mentality" and they are more submissive and sweeter, so things should go well. I have to meet my mom for the "exchange" at the rest stop on I-10. Sometimes it feels like a custody exchange, and can be quite humorous, especially if they are on medicine or something.

* The one thing I didn't get done was the thank yous, but that is on my list for tonight. I think I may only have 15 left. Darn procrastination!

I've got some posts scheduled for later this week, so keep an eye out. I hope they actually post! Merry Christmas! I'll be back next week!

There's no way!

I just realized today that it is exactly one week until Christmas! Really? Where has December gone? Out the window as far as I'm concerned. Geez! I still have to get out Christmas cards...that I haven't even started on (plus finish wedding thank you's), make candy as gifts for coworkers, finish gifts, wrap said gifts, wash a ton of clothes that have been piled in a corner of our room for a few weeks now, figure out where the dogs are going for Christmas, and pack for a few days in West Texas. That's quite a lot to do in the next few days, but hopefully it can all get done! I can feel the anxiety-lack of breathing coming on as I type this! I guess with the stress of everything that has been going on, I haven't really been paying attention to the calendar like normal. Oh well!

And it really doesn't seem possible that there will a New Year here in 2 weeks!

Happy Birthday Bayla!!

Today is Bayla's 4th Birthday! I didn't get him until January of 2005, but it's so hard to believe it's been this long. He's definitely a handful, very needy sometimes, and he is not much of a sound sleeper at night, but I do love him, even when he's waking me up in the middle of the night to get under the covers. I got Abbie in early 2004 and I immediately said that the next Jack Russell I got was going to be an all white male named Bayla. I happened to be at the mall on a Saturday after I moved to Lubbock, and I went by the pet store and there he was. I knew it was meant to be, so I got him. His name comes from The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood. It was the name of one of Sida's siblings. The first time I heard it, I knew that would be a pet name. So, here's some pics from the past 4 years.

His first day

He still likes to sleep like this!

He's so tiny!

Poor baby with his broken leg!

Abbie and Bayla

Trying to get her food

Don't feel too sorry for him! He made it around just fine!

So cute!

His first hunting trip to Black Gap!

He still likes to hide in the covers

Hanging out in the sun with Abbie

checking out what's going on outside

Trying to figure out what the heck that is...one of his babies!!

Scoping it out again

He never really got used to having them around

Such a poser

Basking in the sun

Lounging

Lazy boy!

He loves to work on his tan!

This is favorite place to hide during a storm or when the surround sound is on

Where else, but in the sun!

Absolutely pathetic!

Hanging out with Josh

My sweet, cuddly Bayla-bear!

You better watch out!

This past weekend was full of fun and excitement! Dad came into town Friday night so we could take our Concealed Handgun Renewal class on Saturday and then the range on Sunday. We got up early Saturday and got to class. There had to have been at least a hundred people there. The place was packed! You could tell that a lot of people were probably because Obama has been elected President and they think he's going to outlaw guns or something. And then there were the girls who were there that you could tell were dragged there by the boyfriends or husbands. Very diverse and interesting crowd. The instructor was great. Very funny guy who works for the DA's office with juveniles. We only had to stay til about 10:30, but it probably would have been interesting to stay all day just to see what he had to say. I'm so thankful we were only doing a renewal because a new license was lasting until 4:30 or so. That is way too long to sit! After we left class, we picked up Josh, ate some lunch, checked out some model homes, and then headed to The Rim so Dad could fix his bluetooth and go to Bass Pro. We ran some other errands and then headed home to get ready to go to a reception for Josh's old roomie Kurt and his new wife.

But before we could get ready, we had to clean the gun so it would be ready to shoot for the next day. You wanna talk about funny. You would have thought we had never seen a gun before in our lives. Neither dad, nor Josh, nor I could figure out how to disassemble the dang thing. We pretty much knew what it was supposed to do, but for the life of us, couldn't figure out how to get it to where we needed it to be. It got so bad, I was banging on the little pin that needed to come out with the head of a nail and a hammer. Finally, I told Dad that I was going to google it to see if Smith and Wesson had their manuals online. Well, they had them, but not for the model he has. On Yahoo Answers, somebody had posted about how to clean a gun and someone responded with, "If you don't know how to clean it, you probably shouldn't own one!" I couldn't agree more, but geez! I could feel the posters pain! Finally, I spotted a You Tube link with how to disassemble a gun, and lo and behold, it was similar to Dad's!!! Who would have thought that YouTube would be our saving grace? We had one small oversight that prevented us from doing anything with it. Thank the Lord for YouTube and Google!

This brings me to Sunday. We head out to the range with Josh. There were quite a few people there already. We helped them set up the targets and then we got ready to shoot. I let Dad go first because I was pretty nervous. Until that day, I had only shot his 9mm twice...once almost 5 years ago when I first qualified, and the second the weekend before when I went home to practice. He did really well, and was probably one of the best in his round of 20 people. The guy that was next to him kept ogling at how well dad was doing and just couldn't believe it. He asked dad where he learned how to shoot, and dad just kinda laughed as Josh said, "on the farm." It was too funny. This guy then said that today was his best grouping ever and his shots were all over the place! His wife was shooting too, and her gun had a laser sight on it. Oh my gosh! That laser was jumping all over the place! I really don't know how she made it onto the target! I just kept thinking, 'She is going to have a license and a handgun?'

Then it was my turn to shoot. There was a girl numbering targets and what number did I get? Lucky #13! I told her that if I did bad, I was going to blame it on her! Well, #13 turned out to be pretty lucky for me. I did really well! The guy next to me kept commenting on how well I was doing, although he didn't do too badly himself. And then the instructor's wife caught site of my target and started saying, "Everyone look at #13!!" Oh my gosh! I was so embarassed!! Below are pics dad took with his phone.

From 7 yards

Watching the guy next to me and his jamming gun

From 15 yards

My target with the middle blown out!

My target and me!!

The guy next to me said I should get a sticker made for my truck that says, "Stay out of my way!"

It's been awhile!

I know I have been horrible about this blogging thing. The lack of blogging stems from the fact that I can't figure blogger out when it comes to posting pics. It posts them backwards from how I select them. So far, all the trouble-shooting I have done has not resulted in anything. If anyone knows what the heck is going on, please let me know because it is irritating the crap out of me! On that note, I am forgoing posting anymore Vancouver pics because it takes too much time and energy to get them all on here. If you really want to see them, let me know and I'll email them to you or something. They are all posted on Facebook and Myspace as well for all to enjoy.

These last few weeks have been pretty good. Thanksgiving was fun as always. This year I made Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes and then I iced half with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing, and the other half with homemade whipped cream. Either way, they were delicious. I’m excited about the upcoming holidays because I can do some baking! I’m thinking lots of divinity and Cream Cheese Sopapillas! Yum! I can’t wait.

This last week has been a little ‘eh.’ With the economy the way it has been, work has been very slow. It picked up quite a bit around Labor Day, but has since slowed down again. On Monday they told us that we were all going to have a pay cut and cut our hours down to 32 hours a week. The good thing is that I still have my job! So keep your fingers crossed that I can keep it! If something should happen, I’ll probably end up at McDonald’s or Bill Millers!

Just today I found out that Sara, the secretary at the LA Department while I was there is not doing well. She has cancer and has been in hospice care for a while now. I got an email today that there is not much time left. She is one of the nicest, most genuine people you could ever meet. I loved going to work and talking with her and Sharon, especially when we would mock one of the former secretarys!! I can do it right now! And they would love to get a laugh at my expense on the very few occasions that I would show up hungover. Man, they would get a kick out of that and not let it go! I’m so glad I was able to see her in March when I went to Lubbock for Jean’s funeral.

It still doesn’t quite feel like Christmas to me! It’s probably because I don’t have my Christmas tree up yet! But I blame that on my mom! She decided that she wanted to downsize her tree, so she gave me hers and I got her a new one. Well, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Dad came to put in our new back door to replace the crappy sliding glass door that was there. As soon as he got to the house, I started bugging him to get the tree out of his truck so I could put it up while they put the tree up. He finally obliged and I got busy unpacking it, putting all the branches in their respective color piles. I’m working away, and I get to the bottom of the box and realize that there is no tree stand!!! Yeah, what am I supposed to do now? I called mom, woke her up, and told her that she sucks at sending me trees. Well, it wasn’t quite that harsh, but I did wake her up and tell her that the tree stand was missing. I thought, ‘Ok, when the guys go to Home Depot, I’ll get them to see if they have one that I can work with.’ They make their trip to Home Depot, but they don’t have any. They have their trees in stands, but do not sell any. What the heck is that? So, I decided that after lunch I would brave the crowds of Black Friday and head out to Hobby Lobby, Target, or wherever I had to go to get a tree stand, because my tree was going up one way or another! Mom called me back right before lunch to inform me that she, Ms. Check and Doublecheck everything, went upstairs after she talked to me and lo and behold, there was the tree stand. But that’s not all folks! Oh no! She then says there was also a bag with branches in it. One full layer of branches. My hopes and dreams were dashed in 30 seconds because I realized that even if I could get a tree stand, it would have a huge gap! Ugh! The rest of the afternoon was spent plotting ways I could get the stand and limbs to SA for the least amount of money and putting up the rest of the decorations. So, I was planning on going home this weekend anyway, and it ended up as my only option to get the rest of my tree. It really sucks, but Josh has already offered to help me put it up. It’s a pretty massive tree and takes a couple of hours to do. I know what I will be doing Sunday evening when I get home!

I promise to be a little more vigilant about updating. I’ll have to get creative and figure out a way to fool blogger into letting me post pictures correctly!