December

What a month.

As it draws to a close, I decided it was about time I got my own blog.

Thanks to all of you for following our blog for so long- so if you are interested in keeping up come on over to my new blog and keep up with all the happenings.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Lots of Love,

Lanie

the socks

First I need to say, I love my dilly's. I treat them pretty much like my children. Yes, on an occasion I have dressed them up but never regularly and always as a joke. Zira has a coat for when its really cold outside and she wears it outside, only when its cold out. I can honestly say I never thought there would be a day I would actually consider buying boots for my dog.

Let me explain, Nico likes to be outside. She likes sitting by the fence, in the dirt, ALL DAY. For what you ask? For the 19 seconds every few hours when the wiener dogs that live next door come out into their yard and go to the bathroom. When those wiener dogs do come outside, she goes CRAZY. Like in some sort of trance and its impossible to get her out of. I can occasionally lure her in with an abandoned from breakfast leftover waffle but its still tough. Once those dogs go back in, she waits, until they come out again. Yes, it's obsessive and frankly we don't know what to do. But what I do know is when she is barking at those dogs she runs up and down the fence, in the dirt, which usually contains mud. Every time we bring her inside we have to wash her feet of and I am tired of it. Enter boots.

I decided rather than washing her feet every time she comes in we get her some boots. I initially was hesitant that she would immediately rip them off so we did a trial run with some of my nieces socks and well it went pretty good. They eventually fell off and she was happy about it but really did good and I think after Christmas I am going to buy her some boots.

Oh Nico and your tube socks....

The other day Chris and I came down to our bedroom to find Nico snuggled in bed. It was quite hilarious- she is snuggled up with Chris' body pillow.

Here is Brownie. She is the Jensen's dog but she loves to hang out with us down stairs everyday while we are looking for jobs. She likes to sit on top of the couch cushion its so funny.

Tis the season

The tree is up.

Its not feeling as Christmas-y here as I would have thought.

We don't get a whole lot of snow just little skiffs.

Its just ridiculously cold and windy.

I think I'd rather have the snow....

All I really want for Christmas at this point is a job.

Although all my laundry is done and everything is clean

my OCD is feeling satisfied- so now I need to get a job!

The Re-do

In all the hustle and bustle of moving to Colorado I completely forgot to post about our

"Re-do Cruise".

Or "The Splendor Round 2- This time it's personal."

First off- we had T-shirts made. What started as a joke became reality thanks to my boss' husband who is a graphic designer. After hearing a little bit about our story this is what he came up with:

Which we of course all loved. We got them printed up and they looked so good! Little would be know that MANY other people would be on their re-do the same week as us.

I still have a hard time imagining this- we got a FREE cruise, go anywhere within 2 years and we got a dollar for dollar match of what was spent. And so many of us chose the SAME BOAT and the SAME WEEK as last year?!?! Are you all crazy???

Yes I believe so.

So for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about right now .....

Google Carnival Splendor November 2010 for some light reading to catch up....

Anyway... everything turned out fine. It was really strange that first day walking back onto the boat and just walking around the boat again... in the light.

All and all it was a good time and we had a lot of fun. Once we woke up that next morning and we weren't being run out of our rooms by smoke a lot of the nervousness went away.

Here we are in the airport getting ready to fly to Long Beach so we can get on the boat. Don't we look so thrilled to be going on a free vacation???

So last year we spent oh.... 90% of the cruise sitting at this table. There is one emergency light that worked right above the table so we all huddled around it and played endless amounts of card games and just sitting.....

Our first day off the boat we spent in Cabo. We got to go to a really nice resort and spend the day on their private beach and eat lunch there. It was really fun and the food was great. (WAY better than eating the lunch buffet on the cruise)

Chris was not wanting to sit by me because I wanted to be in the shade and he wanted to get tan or something.... I don't know.

After 2 days in Cabo we went to Puerto Vallarta. This was where Chris and I went on our Honeymoon so it was fun to be back there and see it again. The water isn't nearly as clear as Cabo but I liked it more. We went to a private beach for the day. It was really fun. They had kayaking and paddle boarding, we all had a lot of fun. Oh and, mom was a little slow with the picture on this one so we had all turned around besides Telden.

So one day we are sitting in Bingo and I see this older couple a few rows away and I can just barely make out their T-shirts and I was dying of laughter. They were obviously on the boat last year as well and so my mom went and asked if she could take a picture of their shirt... It's kind of hard to read but this is what it says:

Top 10 Things that should never happen on a cruise ship:

1. Opening your cabin door to and seeing crew members running down the hall in life jackets and they were "300% sure it's not an emergency"

2. Using an ice bucket for a toilet

3. Taking a cold shower in the dark (I can relate, it was SO cold it sent you into shivers for an hour)

4. SPAM for breakfast, lunch and dinner

5. Cocktail hour is a mini-bar scavenger hunt

6. Blackhawk helicopter food drops

7. Entertainment is squeezing 20 friends into a cabin

8. Hear the words "Fireless Smoke" (that one really made me laugh)

9. Also "There has been a delay, the rescue tug boat has broken down."

10. Oh and "Your cruise has officially been terminated" on day 2 of 7

Of all the T-shirts we saw theirs really cracked us up. It was so funny because there were literally times we would be walking around the boat and one of us would say hey I recognize them.

Gotta love the towel animals. The elephant was my favorite.

This was the last formal night, Friday. We had gone to the lounge afterwards to see comedians. Overall the entertainment was Meh, one night there was a prop comic and he was hilarious other than that pretty lame.

But all in all is was a good re-do and it was nice to be with the family and see everyone before I went off to Colorado to be with Chris.

Honestly, I would be just fine to not go on another cruise ever again.

Just sayin.

freako

Just had to share I finally successfully lured Nico (or Freako) into the house during a barking frenzy in the back yard with a chip.

Pretty excited right now.

Colorado

Well its been... 4 days since I arrived here in Colorado. I actually really like it here. Only downfall- its getting cold! No snow yet since I've got here (I guess they don't get a whole lot???) But I like it. I've managed to get lost driving....every time I go anywhere. Multiple bloody noses... apparently coming from the Utah desert didn't prepare me for how dry it is here... and probably the higher altitude. But other than that all settled in!

A few pictures to see our new little apartment.....

Family Room

Hallway between family room and bathroom
Bedroom- good old humidifier trying to prevent more bloody nose incidents....

Between my clothes and Chris' clothes the built in closet was NOT enough room. So I required my own stand alone from IKEA. Not a bad price and with a little pairing down I was able to fit all my clothes... my shoes on the other hand... are shoved everywhere!

That's all really going on now. Just looking for jobs and getting ready for Thanksgiving. Can't believe the holidays are coming already!

that face

too bad she has grown up to be a JERK.

But Nico I forgive you, look at how CUTE you were. Your first day home with us.