let the worrying start

I think my middle name should be non-stop and my last be worrier. That's all I've been able to do since Garner has come to stay, that and not sleep from his crying all night.
I'm so glad I have John around, he never worries so he keeps me stable...well kinda.

Just take deep breaths and relax, Nikki, everything will be fine!

update: It's happening!

After more stress and hair loss, the flight is booked!
The male that is breeding with Enna is arriving in Utah at 1:50 PM on Friday.
How long he stays...not sure. His name...I forgot. How he gets back to Texas...no clue.
But he's coming!!! Truthfully I never thought this was going to happen!

Update!

Look at this handsome boy! Enna's hunk of burning love for the next week or so. His name is Garner and I think I'm smitten. He's on his way to us as we speak, John will pick him up at the airport while I stay at work (not really getting any work done because I'm too excited to see him!)

P.S. I was sneaky at work and got this picture to load...a lot of work though (don't worry, I didn't do anything bad, I just had to use the "free for all" computer) so I really need to get my own lap top STAT!

Dana, your room is done!

I really wish I could load pictures of the guest room. It came out better than I could have imagined! I doubted my design genius for the first time in ages while we were putting it together, but I'm glad I kept it to myself (besides the bedspread issue) and forged forward. Awesome, awesome, awesome I say! In fact, I want to change bedrooms now even though it's red and in the basement.
It's not totally done yet, we still need to take out the white door and window casings and replace them with pine, but that will wait until after Dana comes to stay (FRIDAY!!!).

The cabinet doors and drawer fronts are also on the bar. John did a fantastic job top coating them and I'm in love (with the doors and him, he's so handy!).
He's been a busy beaver the last few days, I gave him a list of things I'd like done before Dana comes. Install new shower head - check, fill all holes and dings in stairway - check, fill holes in bathroom with sheetrock - check (thanks for coming Dana so I can finally have that done, a year is too long to look at the innards of your house), reinstall light so it's not hanging from the ceiling by just the wires - check. ahhh, so nice to get my house back in order!

In other news, I'm 93% sure that Enna is starting to go into heat. My breeder will probably be sending the male to us a week or so after I inform her of Enna. So no more trip planning which is nice since we can spend the money on the house instead. Of course Enna had to pick now to think about going into heat so the little stinker can't come with Dana, Kumo, Makoa and I on all our off leash adventures.

*I may sneak over to some one's house to load pictures, the guest room is the bomb and needs to be shared* 

If we won the lottery

Since its John's turn to drive up to Idaho for Lotto tickets (he's in a group at work) I decided that I'd write about the list John and I have if we won.

If we won big in the lotto we'd (we talk about this often):

• Pay off our house and do all the remodeling work that we'd like done.
• As crazy as that sounds, John and I wouldn't move to a bigger house. We actually really like our house, property and neighbors. We would extend out the whole back of the house (top and bottom floors) 10 feet to get a bigger kitchen, a master suite and a bigger laundry room. We'd also add on a garage and re-landscape our yard.
• Pay off John's truck
• Buy me a Chrysler M300
• Pay off all debt (that's just dumb if you don't)
• Give some money to John's and my parents
• Pay for an awesome trip for our immediate families to go on.
• Invest the rest of the money
• Still work and not live frivolously.

As you can see we'd try to not get too carried away, that's how people who win the lotto lose it all. Of course we'd buy some nice things, but we'd make sure to invest the rest of the money so our assets will grow. Truthfully I don't care about owning the best of the best, the money would just be nice so that we'd never have to worry about bills or retirement.

What's your Lotto List?

The vet visit that started okay but then ended in chaos

Enna needed her breeding exam done and Makoa needed shots. I asked my brother in law to come with me to the vet so that he could hold one of the dogs while I was working on the other and then drive them home while I headed off to work.
That Friday finally came, I got the dogs and Ben came to my house early so we got to the vet in plenty of time, everything was going smoothly.
The vet wanted to give Makoa his shots first so I handed Enna over to Ben and plopped Makoa up on the table. The first shot went smoothly, but then came bordetella. Makoa did NOT want that up his nose and started throwing a fit, I wrapped my arms around him and tried to hold him in place while the vet grabbed for his nose.
In the middle of this whole episode I glanced at my shoulder and noticed a pretty big spot of blood, Ben then saw blood in my hair and thought I was bleeding. He searched through my hair but found nothing, I then looked down at my shirt and I was covered in blood, Makoa blood. The vet had nicked a capillary or something while giving the first shot (happens all the time and really isn't that big of a deal) and in the bordetella ordeal it became splattered all over my white shirt. There went my chances of going to work right after.
I then let Ben take over (I'm not sure why I didn't have him hold Makoa in the first place) so that he could cradle Makoa making it easier to shoot the bordetella up the nose. By this time we were all stressed and Enna wouldn't stop whining so I knew her exam would be difficult.

The vet did his examining of her bones, hips, eyes, ears and lungs, but when it came to her heart he gave me an uneasy look and listened intently. He then told me that Enna has a heart murmur. I starred at him in disbelief, she'd been checked multiple times and I had never been told this before. He then wrote grade 2 heart murmur on her sheet. I wasn't all too pleased by this. At that moment I knew I'd be going somewhere else getting a second opinion. She passed the rest of the exam with flying colors.

I called another vet we had used the next morning and they got us in right away. The other vet checked Enna out and said that he didn't believe she had a heart murmur. Enna shakes when she gets stressed, nervous or excited which accentuates the song of her lungs making it sound like heart murmur. If I pet her head while he listened to her heart the shaking would stop and so would the sound. He wrote a letter explaining the situation for our breeder and we thanked him over and over.

I haven't gotten a clear answer from my breeder but I think from her emails that she believes that Enna is still able to breed. I might get the final answer once I send her the actual exam in the mail, but I haven't gotten to that yet. So for right now I think Enna still has the green light on breeding. She's showing signs of going into heat (not until AFTER Dana comes Enna!) so we might be making puppies soon!

Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chim-Caroo!

We got our chimneys cleaned last night since we use the downstairs fireplace religiously and I was fairly convinced that our house was going to burn down because the flue was full of soot.

The guy that came to do it reminded me so very much of John's uncle and I kept wanting to call him Steve. Truthfully, I'm not even sure what his name was.
I was sad because there wasn't any roof top dancing or singing, but both my chimneys are now spotlessly clean and we got commended on our good fire burning that kept our basement flue in such good order.

I guess unknowingly we are good fire people. We burn only hard woods since that's what John brings home from work, which burns cleaner and hotter so soot doesn't build up. We also burn our fires for very long periods of time which makes them extra hot (like burn all the hair off your body if you stand closer than 3 feet in front of it, hot) so it produces less soot. So I guess our house wasn't really at any risk to burn down because of soot build-up, but now I can burn fires knowing that my chimney is clean.

The upstairs fire place never gets used, but it got a good scrubbing too. I guess it was filthy, shame on you past house owners! My master plan is to eventually change that fireplace to gas (leave the one downstairs wood burning because I love the smell and popping sounds of burning wood) when we rip out the 1960's brick and update it to the 21st century.

Sooo...the pine paneling isn't done yet. Sigh. You would think that since John's life is wood he could actually measure, but I guess not (I will never admit to him that I said that so don't even try). We're half a wall short of the moldings and paneling. I REALLY don't want to glaze anymore so we've been procrastinating buying more, but I told John it has to get done this weekend because I don't want Dana to die from paint fumes while she stays with us.
The paneling that is on the wall, John's brother and I did while John was at work (I even used the nail gun, be proud!). We are very proud of ourselves because it looks freaking amazing! I'd post a picture but I don't have a computer that will let me. I guess you'll just have to wait until the finished project to see it...that is if I can find a picture allowing computer...

Brad Paisley

So the crook stole our Brad Paisley tickets that was scheduled for the next day, which I could have lived with if it was just John and my tickets but I had bought some tickets for my cousin and sister (they were going to pay me at the concert so I'm out $60 unless my insurance will reimburse me).

I had to send Mary, my sister, a text letting her know, I even added a frowny face to express my sadness.

Brad Paisley would have been the little glimmer of happiness in the darkness that was our life.

Luckily my parents are wicked awesome and bought John and I new tickets and they were up grades from what we had bought.

My totally rad cowboy boots. Love, love, love them.

 Mary and Kelli waiting for the concert to start, I'm so glad we had seats so we didn't have to get there at 2:30 and wait in line until 4 to get good grass seats.

 I tried to sneak in John pictures, he hates to have his picture taken so I'd make up stupid reasons why I had the camera pointed at him. "I like the way the light looks through those trees behind you" "I'm making sure the lens is clean". The food in John's hand took a 40 minute long line to get, I hope it was worth it John, I hope it was worth it!

 People say we look alike, I don't see it ;) A girl asked if we were twins when Mary was in Jr. High. I'm so glad that her and I are friends now, all it took was not living together.

I wasn't pleased that the cotton candy was sticking to my fingers and they weren't even wet.

 The concert was promoting getting clean water to all 3rd world countries around the world, Mary would freak out every time Brad came on to talk. I had to keep reminding her that it was a recording.

 Justin Moore singing...he's really hard to understand in person so we (meaning the girls) just danced and goofed off while he sang.

 The girl in the white hat and pink shirt was a riot, she would have made a good drinking game. I don't have a clear picture of her doing it but every other word of the song she'd lift her right arm in the air and point at the stage.

 Brad Freaking Paisley, nuff said.

 He had so many guitars and switched them out in between songs. He even had one with a paisley print on it, pretty funny. If you don't know what paisley print is, hang your head in shame and go google it.

Towards the end of the concert he walked out to a platform just mere feet in front of us to "sing to the cheap seats" it was awesome!

The concert was so much fun and it was nice to be able to get away from the home robbery and just enjoy ourselves. I'm glad my sis and cousin came along because to be honest going to concerts with John is kinda lame (I never said that). All he does is stand there and sing whereas I like to goof off, dance and sing at the top of my lungs, I liked having people with me who'd do it too.
Brad, your shows are always a good time and you have the best stage graphics (next to RUSH).

So productive

Last night John was bit by the productive bug, before I got home he had put away the laundry, mowed the grass, replaced the outdoor light bulbs and fixed the carport door (the thresh hold was coming loose so whenever you opened the door it would rub across the floor making the most awful sound, I had been on him for weeks to fix it).

When I got home I helped him put in the coolest electrical switch. We have a fan in our bedroom and I like to sleep with the fan on in the warmer months, but that would mean you'd have to use the pull chain to turn the light on or off. Pulling that pull chain was really difficult for me since it's about a foot taller than my arms reach. I hated that pull chain and would always groan loudly when I flipped the light switch and only the fan would turn on. (I was also fairly certain that a creeper was hiding out in my dark bedroom and had just the opportunity needed to pounce while I was straining to turn on the light.)
 We bought this really nice (and expensive!) switch that controlled the light and fan separately back in July, I didn't want to hound John about putting it in, but I REALLY wanted it done. Last night without me even asking he opened the box to the switch and I threw a little party in my head. I dusted the fan blades and light dome while he installed some of the do hickeys and then I held the fan above my head (what I'm best at) while he wired it back together. I then spent a good hour just messing with all the settings and loving that I could actually turn the light on without straining and tippy toe action.

But wait! Even more was accomplished last night! We finished glazing the panels, too bad we're not done glazing though, we have to finish the trim :( I'm so tired of glazing, just too much wood!
Hopefully (which I keep saying) the guestroom will be completed by this weekend or early next week.

It's only been 13 months!

So on the 23rd of September I came home to a robbed house...again. We were robbed last August so it has only been 13 months.  It was just fantastic, let me tell you.
I opened the side door expecting for the alarm system to say, "beep, beep, beep, disarm system now" and I'll I got was, "beep, beep, beep, garage door". I thought, "Da** it! Not again!" and looked over at my kitchen cabinets, all wide open and stuff pulled out.
I walked into our bedroom as I threw my keys and swore up a storm, it was thrashed. Everything was missing (except the dogs). John's phone had died so I couldn't call him and he was planning on running errands after work so I knew he wouldn't be home for some time. I called the next person who came to mind, my dear father. Then I called the cops and calmly explained the situation. This time around there were no tears (until my dad came) and no worries, I was just furious that it happened again.

They broke a basement window to get in the house and at the time we had nothing monitoring the basement so they scurried up the stairs to the kitchen not setting off any alarms. When we first got the system we thought the key chain remote was a fabulous idea, but we never used it because I was always worried that it wouldn't set the alarm so we stashed it in a kitchen drawer. In hindsight that was a sh**y idea because that's how our system was disarmed (needless to say we no longer have a remote) and had their way with our house.

They stole a lot of valuable things and things that had a lot of memories. My engagement ring, all the jewelry John had bought me, our Brad Paisley tickets (that ends on a happy note though) and my laptop which wasn't even a year old. sucks, sucks sucks. Oh well, this time instead of just talking about making our house more safe we're actually doing something about it! But I can't tell you what because then it wouldn't be safe anymore.

Some of my tips so that this kind of crap won't happen to you:

• lock all your doors and windows, even if you're home.
• Charley Bar your sliding glass door, the lock alone won't help. (that's how they got in the first time)
• back up all pictures on a CD or USB drive and store them in a safe place or off the premises. Or put them on a free picture website. I have now lost most baby Sophi and Enna pictures. Luckily with my blog and facebook I still have quite a bit.
• Store valuable jewelry in a floor MOUNTED safe. Just having the safe isn't any good if it's not hard mounted somewhere, they'll just take the safe and crack it open later.
• Make copies of all important documents (taxes, social security cards, birth certificates etc.) and store the copies in the safe. Store originals off site in a safety deposit box. Never store any in just a filing cabinet.
• Shred all paperwork that can compromise information. John and I shred every paper that comes to our house with our name on it.

I wouldn't wish this on anyone...except maybe the guy who broke into our house...it sucks cleaning everything back up and trying to put a list together of what they took.

p.s. We REALLY amped up our security system now and have plans of getting a man eating dog so that this will never happen to us again.