Dogs are FANTASTIC practice for kids....and this is why!

For any of you know me, even a little bit, you know I LOVE Hansy......probably a bit more than is reasonable, but he is just my little guy and my partner in crime. We hang out all day, and I would not trade it for a million bucks.......however, that being said, I may have traded him for a shiny nickle yesterday!

This is my story:

I took him outside to go potty yesterday morning. As he is wandering around the backyard he begins rubbing himself in something. This event, in and of itself, is not uncommon. He smells strange things, invisible on the ground, and rubs himself in it. Yesterday, it was NOT invisible. I walked over to investigate what he was rubbing himself in....only to see a pile of crap.....yes, crap....as in POO! YUCK.......OH MY GOODNESS....THAT IS DISGUSTING! So I picked him up to take him in for a bath (which, mind you, had not been in my morning plans, at all). I took like two steps and was so worked up that I tripped over the bottom of my pajama pants and fell.....nearly crushing Hansy to death. Also worth noting is that I nearly fell in to a pile of Hansy crap.......oh my gosh...is this backyard a POOP MINEFIELD??? (Please note that as I am recounting this story right now, I am laughing......it was NOT FUNNY at all while it was happening yesterday, this I promise you!)

Luckily, I had NOT crushed Hansy, I had caught myself with my other arm, neither myself nor Hans was injured, thank goodness! We came in the house and I took off his harness and started an "emergency" load of laundry. Meanwhile, I had shut Hansy in the bathroom until I could get his bath started.....as I am going around the house he is barking and howling like someone is killing him......oh, the horror of being shut in the bathroom! I swear this little dog has no idea what "the bad life" is, at all!

Within a few hours.....Hansy bath-check! Hansy's harness cleaned and air dried-check! I was doing some major cleaning, and in the process I had thrown away some stale chocolates....I literally left the room for like one minute and come back in to Hansy trying to eat as many chocolates as possible.....I think he actually only suceeded in eating one small dark chocolate and I forcefully pulled a milk chocolate from his mouth. At this point I was just beside myself mad......I totally swatted him on the behind a few times and then yelled at him and called him a "bad dog" until he got in the chair and looked like I had tried to kill him. I wanted to say "I'm sorry, poor, poor baby!" and give him a treat, but I held my ground.

So this was Hansy's day of pushing my buttons and seeing how far he could get with my patience. He is fine, he still loves me....I still love him. As I am typing away, he is sleeping like a little angel here beside me. I can barely believe this is the same rotton dog from yesterday.

So to those of you who have kids, I DO NOT want to make it sound like "I have a dog, so I know exactly what it is like to have a kid....my dog is cooler than/better than your kid." This is not what I am saying at all.....all I am saying is that I think that sometimes a dog is probably good practice for when you have kids, and I think yesterday was one of those days!

Update.....it's about time, darn it!

Hello to all of you out there....which if I am counting my followers is a total of two (I love you both, Amber and Erin!) I think that some other people may follow us, but without being official "followers."

To sum up the last few weeks in a nutshell....... The biggest "event" of the last weeks weeks is that my Grampy came to visit and stayed for like 9 days.....it was awesome, fun, crazy and all that jazz, but to top it off I got a terrible, awful cold that caused me to lose my voice and feel pretty crappy. And for those of you who know and love my Bapa, you will know that he is pretty darn near deaf to begin with, couple that with me losing my voice and it was a BAD combination, but we survived and had a lot of fun.

We pretty much TORE up Indy. Nate and I may live here all the time, but we don't really get to appreciate it often due to low finances and even lower time. Grampy and I ate out (a LOT), drove all over, went shopping, and spent some time with our friends.

One of the most fun things we did all week (though it was ALL fun) was going to the Children's Museum with Marty and Micah. Grampy even bought Micah a little dinosaur toy, it was totally fun and Micah loved his toy.

Also, many of you know Grampy spoils me...quite a bit. When I told Nate about Grampy buying Micah a toy, Nate's response was...."Oh boy, I bet that is how it all started for you too.......it started with a $5 "My Little Pony" toy, and 20 years later it has escalated to Coach purses"......lol!

I think that is it for this post.....I will follow it immediately, but in a separate post with my HILARIOUS Hansy story from yesterday!

In a way, you really can't go home again!

This post may be a bit sappy, if it is I am very sorry, but I feel the need to write it anyway.

You know the saying "You can't go home again"? I used to think it was a crock of crap, but I am beginning to think it is part of the way true.

Middlebury will always be my hometown, just as those areas around there will always be my old stomping ground. Nate and I have been married for four years now, and began our lives in a new town once we were married. North Manchester was home for three years, but it was still close enough to Middlebury that we went "home" often and saw things changing.

Last May we moved to Greenwood to start a new chapter of our lives. When we got here, I was scared and thought it was the city. The house we bought it great, and it has our "stuff" but it wasn't home. It wasn't until just a few months ago that I came to a realization. I was in the middle of the miscarriage when we went to Middlebury for a wedding. I told Nate, "I want to go home, now!" and it suddenly dawned on me that I meant Greenwood. At this point, I guess home is really where your heart is. My heart is with Nate, but Indy is our life now. There is no bed like your own bed in your own room with your own pillow. Because of some of the friendships and connections we have begun to establish in Indy, we have more of a community and surrogate family than we ever had in North Manchester. I know the roads and how to get where I need to be. I love having Meijer three minutes from me open 24 hours to grab things if and when I want them.

Perhaps even more hard for me to swallow, though, is the fact that Middlebury/Goshen/Dunlap/Elkhart/South Bend are all different than they were when I left four years ago...well I guess 5 if you count first year of college. Middlebury now has a new school, which stares at me every time I come and go from Grandma and Grandpa's house. There is a CVS. CR 17 in Goshen looks like an alien land. Dunlap doesn't even look like the same place, there is now a Petsmart and IHOP, as well as a Starbucks, all blocking Meijer and Target from the road. The spot that almost brought tears to my eyes was UP Mall, the promised land of my high-school. It looks so different and the Marshall Field's is now gone. The reason that there was an element of sadness was just due to all of my memories at that Marshall Field's!

I guess time marches on, life moves forward, and this is the way it needs to be! Nate and I are 23 now, we are not the 16 year-old lovebirds we once were. The funny thing is that we have both said that we don't feel any older, just the 16-22 year olds look like babies and the children we have known grow older and more adult like! It is important to realize that our pasts have shaped us, and to be grateful, but to embrace the future and the present.

Another really funny thing that I often times think of is that for four years Nate and I have been the odd-balls out being married. Now, more and more of our friends and family are joining us in this club. We are now the ones that people look at in awe as the "old married couple!" I can't say I mind, but it just drives home the fact that we are different, but in a good way.

Sometimes life doesn't go exactly as I may have planned or demanded.....but it goes on and things fall in to place as they need to. It is a great place to be and I am so glad to share it with Nate! This being said, I hadn't really put anything on the blog about our anniversary, but here it is!

Bug- I love you, I am sorry my sanity comes and goes depending on the hour of the day. I love our life and sharing it with you! You are my better half! And by the way, I still have a crush on you!

Mr. and Mrs. Chris Thompson!!!

My good friend Robyn got married and I got to be a bridesmaid! This post could go on forever......Robyn has been my friend for what seems like as long as I can remember. I guess actually it has been since about my freshman year in high school.

Robyn is awesome and the queen of popularity. I remember when I first met her she was pretty, a cheerleader, two years older, and friends with everyone. I never thought I stood a chance to be her friend, and then she liked me! The friendship has clearly stood the test of time. At this point, although we live pretty close to one another, we don't really see each other that often. She is still cool and fun, and I am old and boring! Well not really, but you can take from that what you want to.

She let me know that she and Chris had gotten engaged last year, and I really didn't even let myself even dream that I might be in the wedding. She had been my maid of honor, but I have no friends!!! Well, mjuch to my astonishment, she called and asked if I would like to be a bridesmaid......UMMMMMMM, YES! I was one of nine bridesmaids, and it was super-spectacular! It wasn't just a few hour wedding, it was really a whole weekend extravaganza of fun! I got to meet a lot of new people and see a few people from my past! It was just so great and I was so glad that I could be a part of it!

I wish I had pics, but I didn't have my camera with me for the weekend, it was MUCH to busy! Nate and I even danced and had a great time. It was so beautiful and Robyn and Chris are now married.

To top it off, I even got to take them to the airport yesterday to deliver them for their honeymoon! I painted the car windows and made muffins and orange juice, I am pretty sure they thought I was crazy, but it was AWESOME! Also worth noting was the fact that I left my house at 5:10 am to get them to the airport on time, it was so worth it!

So to Robyn and Chris, I love you both and wish you the most happiness! You two are awesome together! Just to Robyn, thank you for being my cool friend and thinking I am cool, I am not sure how I have fooled you for this long! I will never forget this weekend!

Do not promise to give something that is not yours to give!

This blog is going to be a tiny bit myserterious..... The reason for this is the fact that I don't think my "baby-brother" knows about this blog or has access to it. I just could not reveal all of the story and risk him finding out all the details.

That being said, I am calling the moral of this story "Do not promise to give someone something that is not yours to give...." From this you can take from the story that I had tried to get Mike something, the person involved had promised it to him, I promised Mike a HUGE surprise (thank the Lord I did not tell him what the surprise was going to be!) only to have the person say that what she had promised to give had actually not been hers 100% to give.......SOME PEOPLE!!! Don't they teach you that lesson in like pre-school.

Well, as you may imagine it left me in quite a pickle to provide a "HUGE" surprise to Mike! I brainstormed all day and the whole drive to Middlebury. I decided to give him a few things I had wanted to give him anyway, and then took him out for a special dinner at Hana Yori, a Japanese restaurant where they cook your food at the table and took him to Notre Dame's campus for a few hours. We had chocolate ice cream on the way home, and I succeeded in my mission.

He was thrilled, he had his HUGE surprise, and he was none the wiser about what had actually happened. I sure love that boy, he is just awesome and we had a great evening!

Nate is in the 18th Grade....

On Monday the 17th Nate started his second year at IU Med School. We are grateful to be here and thankful. It was also a grumpy time for me. As I have spoken about with many of you, this leaves me with the question "What about me, what is next for me?"

Actually on Saturday the 15th I had spent the afternoon with a friend at her apartment complex pool. I decided sunscreen was not for winners, and I am a winner, so no sunscreen for me! Nate told me twice before I left "wear sunscreen!" Rachel told me twice while I was with her, "you look a little pink, you sure you don't want sunscreen?" I thought it would be fun to have a kiss of color!

It was nearly the kiss of death. Within a few hours the "pink" had turned to "boiled-lobster, fire engine red" It led to about three days of fever, peeling, blistering on my shoulders, and wearing only underpants and a t-shirt. By Wednesday Nate had invited a friend over and it required me re-introducing myself to a bra and pants, even if they were of the pajama kind.

I'm Back!!!

Well, I guess to be correct, I was never actually gone, just on a vacation from blogging. I will just mention a few of the highlights of the last few weeks. On August 14th Nate and I met a few of our friends from college in Broad Ripple and saw Steve Krider's band play. It was SUPER fun and a really good evening. It was also quite enlightening as to the fact that Nate and I probably do not belong well in Broad Ripple. Turns out that bars just serve alcohol......lol! Thank goodness for Eric and Mike having some drinks and not making Nate and I stand out so bad!