Peace Out 2008

As we wrap up this last year and we usher in a new one I thought I would quickly wrap up the accomplishments and milestones of this year for our family.



Lily is vomiting far less then she used to and only pees on the bedroom rug when we forget to close the door.

I quit my job teaching after three years at Viewmont

Lacey and Lily stopped fighting

Brandon switched Law Firms after being at Ballard Spahr for just over 4 years

We staved off the idea of getting a kid for one more year

I went back to school starting the Masters of City and Metropolitan Planning program at the U.

I spent a wonderful month in Europe with Jason and Mom

Brandon and I saw our new president accept the nomination of the Democratic Party in Denver

We elected said President!

I helped orchestrate some great wins for Democrats in Salt Lake County

I finally installed the switch plates on the switches and plugs in our Kitchen (all victories big and small are important!)

I remodeled our backyard adding a flagstone "patio", of sorts, and brick planters

Brandon and I relaxed in Cancun and saw some places we always wanted to - some Mayan ruins.

Brandon turned 30! :-) All our friends and family were there to witness it.

Took two great trips to the Bay Area after having not been back for five years.

We went to Vegas with friends and saw Eddie Izzard Live

We spent lots of money to see Coldplay up close!

I spent another great week with my family (including the Roarks! (minus Kev :-( )) at Lake Powell



All-in-all a great year!

For the record...

So since my daily diary turned into a weekly, then monthly, then yearly, to never diary I thought I would do something in its stead.

In many ways this blog has become a record of my on-goings - minus the dramatically sad internal drama that unfolded in my diary of my early years.

So I thought I would add a new thing I may post now and then (for me maybe more than for you) of some sort of milestone or insignificant accomplishments that doesn't need much explanation, but is something of note for the time being. Things that may not require a full blog post, but noteworthy anyway.

It is called "For the record..."

I guess I envision one day being able to download my entire blog into a file that will keep it forever and this is a way to maintain the more intricate drama like in my first diary - of course without the dramatically sad internal crapola. I'll keep that for my other diary. If I ever write in it again.

For my first "for the record..." post:

1. I finally watched, 3 years late, the end of Six Feet Under and cried, as Manda said I would. I have downloaded the haunting song from the last sequence. It will be on my Ipod if you are curious. Thanks for lending us the DVD, Mandino

2. Got all A's for my first semester! (one A minus - from my class I hate, so I guess that is okay). Even though I'm mad about it. And likely will complain to him, but hey, would you expect anything less?

3. Christmas was good times - spent time in Cancun (see below) and got tickets to see Cher in Vegas in March! Thanks B - you da best!

4. STILL undecided on running for Demo Chair again or not....ugh...

The end...

The last two days in paradise...

Over the last couple of days Brandon and I traveled to two amazing places - Tulum and Chichen Itza. Both are Mayan ruins and both very cool indeed.

The tour itself on the other hand was kinda lame - mainly just the ride there and back. We had to be sold on some "original mayan" junk and were forced to "hang out" at a "contracted" mayan collective where we could and frankly "should" buy their stuff to preserve their culture.

We waited and bought our junk by the illegal vendors at Chichen Itza - so there - HA!

Anyway Tulum and Chichen Itza were AWESOME! I wish we had more time to hang out and see it more. But we were on a guided tour which was interesting - but we didn't have a lot of time to hang out. Oh well - reason to come back. Here is a collection of photos from these two places if you are interested. They are unedited so sorry if there are some dumb pictures. I didn't want to spend too much time posting - I want to be out at the pool. Adios!

Sorry...Pictures to come - Brandon is making me go to breakfast right now....and we only have 45 minutes to stuff our face with pancakes, waffles, omelets, pastries, and churros :-)

UPDATE -

Okay back from breakfast..yum...here are the pictures

Sunday - Tulum


Monday - Chichen Itza

Sorry...

So I think I offended some of you when speaking so highly of our time here in Cancun. For that I am sorry. And to show you how sorry I am I thought I would share with you the downside of our trip.

First of all there have been two salamanders who have found their way into our room. One in the shower while I was taking one and one in the bedroom after we came back to the room. Luckily Brandon saved me from them. Gross!

note: this is not what the salamander looked like - I was far to freaked out to take a picture and Brandon set it free outside before I got my wits about me. So I had to get this one from the web.

Second we have to contend with these buggers each morning as they bask in the morning sun trying to get their body temperature up.




Third the grounds of the Aventura Spa are so huge it takes us forever to walk from one side to the next in the 80 degree temperature. It is so much sometimes we have to stop for a dip in the pool to cool off. Maybe read a book at the side of the pool. But boy - all because it is just so huge.




There is also treacherous disasters just waiting for us at every turn. So we really have to be careful while we are peering over the endless ocean before us.


Our stomachs have started to hurt because we can't help but eat too much at all the unlimited food places. These crepes have really started to ruin our dinners and lunches and breakfasts. It is a really bad situation.




The Sun always seems to set really early here for some reason - so before we are ready we have to look out on the sun setting...very rude.



And it is very lonely because no one seems to be here. There are large swaths of beach without a soul on them. So in the end - despite how we try not to - we always have to spend a lot of quality time together.



So don't be jealous...things down here aren't as great as they seem. :-)

Allow me to be obnoxious

Today Brandon and I woke up late and had a nice breakfast buffet in an open air dining room. Then we sun bathed by the pool reading books

I'm reading Marley and Me (thanks to an early Christmas gift from the B)

He's reading The Conscience of a Liberal (my hand-me down book from school)



We then went in for our full body massages and hydrotherapy.

Now we are sitting in our room deciding what restaurant to head to for dinner and what excursions to go on - the water park? the aztec ruins? the beach? Life is difficult.

What have you all been up to? :-)

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Guess who we rode on our first flight to Mexico with?

Coicidentally as we were waiting for our flight, guess who showed up for her flight to Peru?



LORI!

She took the first leg to Dallas with us and we sat by each other - it was a great time. Nice to fly with you Lori - it was great!


--------------------------------------
We checked into our hotel and it is LAVISH! We have everything we could ever want and more - pictures to come!

Also I sent off my LAST final via email from Cancun! How cool is that?

-Enjoying my R E L A X A T I O N - Peace out..

It's 85 degrees in Mexico today...

Jealous?


Merry Christmas to all and to all a cold night. ;-)

We'll see you soon.

Peace out.

The Pill

Shortly after my second to last post on Lily she got strangely sick.

Yes, more than usual.

She began vomiting the yellow bile that so many dogs tend to vomit occasionally - but this was every hour. This is also different than her normal vomit - which tends to be projectile and offensively smelly. She vomited nearly hourly through the entire night. We were very scared, especially when the vomit started to include blood looking stuff. So we got her into the vet. The Dr. wanted to keep her there over the weekend for observation and to get her on an IV. She hadn't had a drink of water or bite to eat for over 24 hours by the time we got her in.

The poor thing has had such a rough life being abandoned by who know who left to be put down - rescued by our fostering group and then transferred from foster home to foster home then put indefinitely into a boarding situation. Last year we said we would foster her for a weekend when the boarding place got booked up for Thanksgiving.

We couldn't possibly send her back to the perpetual kennel so we decided to keep her long term. She has made such great progress and many of you have gotten over your fear of her. She tries so hard to be good, but she has had a very hard life and finds it difficult to trust people. I don't blame her.

Anyway I hope the news is good on Monday - we miss our "Pill."

PS...the Pill is home and she is feeling better....poor thing.


The red bandage is where she had the IV in her...ohhhhh Doesn't she just melt your heart?

The Vet couldn't find anything specifically that made her sick but she did find a fractured tooth. Poor thing is going to have to go in and have it extracted. No wonder she gets mad at people she's got a tooth that is literally split in half.

Santa or Deformed Elf?

So the organization that we foster dogs through was short a Santa this weekend for their annual get your dogs picture with Santa fundraiser at Petsmart. So poor Brandon got roped into it for a day. He got some of the reject pictures to bring home with him.

When I saw this picture I laughed so hard I was crying. It is particularly funny because he is so small in the middle of the picture squished by larger people to the sides.

So enjoy - laughed it up and consider it Brandon's Christmas present to everyone. I know I'm happy!

Lily's New Thing

So I think that Brandon and I have finally gotten Lily's vomit under control. The only time we have problems is when she is fed things by passerby's or by workers who don't know better at her showings at PetsMart or if she eats some random dogs poop on a walk. Other than that she is getting so much better!

So now what we are dealing with is her aggressiveness towards men, strangers, other dogs, bikes, cats, Lacey, Me, and her peeing on the rug in the bedroom and the bed itself. We are on the road to recovery! :-) Well almost...

Since I've been in school and have been spending more time at home Lily has started a new thing which is oh SO wonderful that I thought I would share it with you.

So our usual routine is Brandon walks them in the morning, I feed them around 5 and walk them around then as well. Well school has altered that schedule a bit but Lily has altered it more.

Yes, they still go on their morning walk, but moments after I get up Lily believes she wants to have her food. Doesn't matter if it is 8, 9, or 10 AM and this is how she tells me...

Yes she incessantly barks at my face...over and over and over and over and over...literally she can do it for hours. Until FINALLY I give in and give her food, or walk her, or play with her.

Now if you notice in the video I show you what happens when I tell her "no." She just barks LOUDER and LOUDER and closer to my face.

I get up walk around ignoring her and the moment I sit back down she starts to bark again. It is just plain AWESOME!

So finally I just give in. To show how she is controlling my life - today she ate half her food at about 10:30 after 45 minutes of barking. She got the rest of her food at about 2:30 when I got back from a meeting I had. Then they had their walk at 3:00.

BTW - this is what she does when I finally give in and ask her what a "walk" is what she wants.

And so you ask...why do you keep her.

Because she is just so darn cute.

On our walk she got all tangled up in her leash. Precious.

The Holiday Tree...

Hi all...so normally I am 100% against all things Chris Buttars says, does, breathes, etc... One of his most recent tantrums is his hatred of the Happy Holiday stuff at the stores - because we are a better community if we make all Jews, Hindu's, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, and others feel like outsiders.

But the other night Brandon and I were at Smith's and we saw a sign that said "More Holiday Trees in Back" right next to a 5 foot tall pine tree - one that most people would refer to as a "Christmas Tree." So I said to Brandon okay that has gone a bit far - it is fundamentally a Christmas Tree - sure its history as a symbol of Christmas is sketchy at best and not does not go as far back into our history as you might guess - but for our contemporary world it is a Christmas Tree. Now I am about as anti-religion as you can get but I did think this had gone too far - until I stood corrected.

In the back of the store Brandon and I found exactly what Smith's was talking about...the Holiday Tree selection. And after searching through the possibilities we found our "Holiday Tree." It is a Norfolk Island Pine Tree not cut in a pot looking almost tropical and fern-like - just as I felt the 5 foot pine was definitely a "Christmas Tree"and I think our little Norfolk can rightfully be called a "Holiday Tree." It stands just about 4 feet tall and is currently perched, and living, on top of our dining room table all decorated up for the "holiday's."

Merry Holidays everyone...Merry Holidays :-)