Tessaroos

On August 12th we lost our dog Tessy. Ryan called me while we were swimming at Deseret Peak during my Mom's visit and asked where the dog was. I realized I never put her in her kennel before we left, but she wasn't around. She must have snuck out while we were all loading cars to leave.

2004- The first week she joined our family

This isn't the first time Tessy has run away.We've been lucky in the past, one time she just happened to be recognized my a family friend. We've learned that she usually sticks the sidewalk and ends up on the street behind ours. This time Ryan and I both drove around for a quite while, but couldn't find her. To add insult to injury, she didn't have her collar on that had our contact info. Any dog owner knows how noisy those tags can be... I usually have a piece of material wrapped around her collar to keep the tag from jingling but it had recently broke, so I just took off her collar until I could fix it again. PLUS... she does have chip, but it's not registered with us because I don't know the chip number.

2005

2006

I posted her picture on facebook and asked for help finding her. A friend from High School told me he saw the police loading up a dog like that just down the street from where we lived. I called dispatch and sure enough, they had picked up a beagle that night but we wouldn't be able to check with the animal shelter until Monday.

2007

2008

Needless to say the weekend was a little tense at our house. Even though Ryan said he didn't blame me, I sure felt guilty that I had lost his dog. To top it off, it was his birthday that weekend, so that wasn't exactly the best way to celebrate it!

 2009

Monday morning I was heading to the shelter as soon as I could. As I was loading Andrea, the shelter called and said "we do have a beagle, but she had a blue and white collar on and no tattoo under her ear". I was feeling really discouraged, but headed down anyway to see for myself. When I arrived the attendant said "I think I was looking at the wrong beagle when I called". When she brought Tessy out, I couldn't help but cry. Seeing your dog, is like seeing your child, there was no doubt it was her.

2010



She was filthy (with urine) and her stomach was pretty bloated. I took her to Ryan's parents because I was heading to the zoo with my Mom and brother's family, and I really didn't want to put Tessy in her kennel. Gary helped me give Tessy a quick hose bath outside and we were off. When I came to get her that night her stomach looked worse and she couldn't really walk. Ryan and I were really scared, we didn't know if she was hit by a car, or was starved all weekend, but turns out she just needed to "relieve" herself. After a much needed potty break the next morning she was back to her old self.

2011- New Collar

 Now you'd never know she left... she tells us when it's dinner time, follows Andrea everywhere, and still tries to run away when she is in the front yard. I've now got her a collar with her name and phone number embroidered on it from gotags.com, so no jingling! Plus, the shelter was nice enough to scan her chip for me so we can register her in our name. Her little adventure gave Ryan and I a glimpse of what it will be like when we have to say goodbye to our dog, and I don't think either of us are ready!

Mom's Visit

Last weekend my Mom came to visit from Texas. It was really nice to see her again since it's been almost a year since she moved. She spent three nights at our house, and two night's at Eric's. We set up a double bed downstairs in our theatre room and not only did my Mom seem to enjoy it, Andrea loved jumping on it!
My sister-in-law Amy and I had discussed some fun activities to do with the kids while she was here and everyday we got to do something different for the kids. Friday (the day after she arrived) we went swimming with the kids at Deseret Peak. Saturday Ryan and I were having a date night for his birthday so we opted out of the activities, but My Mom went to a movie at the Clark Planetarium with the other grandkids.

Sunday we had a family dinner at our house where the kids got to enjoy the playhouse and bubbles. It was night to have everyone together. Since it was Ryan's birthday, his parents and Grandma also joined in the fun.

Eric tried teaching the kids crochet but I don't think they paid attention!

Monday we all went to the zoo. I hadn't taken Andrea yet this year so I was excited to go, but it was just too hot!

They had some new animated dinosaurs at the zoo, and it may sound evil, but I loved watching my nephew Roland scream and cry. He hated those dang dinosaurs. Of course my little Tom Boy wasn't bothered at all by them.

We didn't stay too long because of the heat, but we got all the important stuff in there... train, carousel, giraffes, monkeys, and elephants!

Tuesday my Mom headed back to Texas, I'm so mad at myself for not getting a picture of her and Andrea! I hope she enjoyed her visit as much as we did!

My Man

Some of the many reasons I love my husband:
*He is the hardest working guy I know. He always ignores the pain of his crohnes disease to make sure his family is taken care of.

*He has such a weakness for Andrea. I could buy that little girl anything I want and he wouldn't say a word.

*He treats me like I am the most beautiful woman in the world.

*He has such a great sense of humor. He comes up with quirky come backs that I never would have thought of.

*He dreams big. He loves talking about our future and all the things he wants to accomplish (I just wish more traveling was part of those dreams)

*He is so smart. Whether it's a house repair, car repair, or computer repair. Ryan can fix it! And then answer most of the questions on Jeopardy while he's at it.

*He always says "love you" at the end of each phone call.

Ryan's birthday was on the 14th, his last year in his 20's. I am so lucky to have this guy as my eternal companion, he's a great Daddy and I know he would do anything for us. Happy Birthday Honey!

Flower Pillows

Saw some adorable flower pillows on a friend's link and loved them. I felt Andrea needed something on her bed so it would look more "made" than just pulling up the covers. Mine and Ryan's bed has 10 pillows when fully "made", so I definately needed something on hers. They turned out ok, they photograph a lot better than looking up close.

They really were as easy to make as the website said, and I thought they were fun to do. The only think I don't like is that the petals are really floppy, so I have to fix them when I "make" the bed. The red one was made with thicker fleece and I liked working with that better. Also, I used felt for the middle yellow, instead of fleece. I just figured it was easier to purchase a couple of sheets of felt for such a small area.

This project did come with a few injuries. First, a blister from the hot glue on my thumb as I was folding the center pieces.

And as I quickly removed the material from the thumb, it ended up in my armpit (don't know how) and I figured I better let it stay there and cool before I do more damage. When I did remove the piece it took off some skin, so I figured now Andrea will know that I really put a part of me in these pillows for her :)

Andrea loves the pillows, one night when I carried her to bed she asked "where's my flower?" and then snuggled up against it. For those of you interested in making these pillows here is the orignal link http://cometogetherkids.blogspot.com/2011/03/fleece-flower-petal-pillows.html