home sweet home

I got home from the Philippines late Tuesday night. (more to come on that later).  Mike gets home from Georgia in T minus 2 hours or so!!   He's been at FLETC for defensive tactics instructor school.(hopefully I got that right).  He passed and graduated yesterday and is flying home today.

We used a house sitter for this trip for Boulevard and Stuart and it seemed to go really well.  Stuart didn't seem as traumatized and no kennel cough risks by boarding them.  By the way, Boulevard is completely healed from his kennel cough.  YAY!  I think the sitter left our house in better order than how we left it for her.  ;)

Ranger couldn't go with Mike so we boarded him...he's a little much to handle so we didn't want to put the sitter through that.  I picked him up from the kennel on Thursday.  Imagine if you will ~ 100 lbs of German Shepard being leashed and led by me to the car from the kennel.  Ok...let me rephrase...100 lbs of Ranger literally dragging me across the parking lot to the car, my feet flying behind me, trying to resist the pull, and yelling NEIN NEIN(Ranger's "no" command) at the top of my lungs.  I'm surprised I didn't face plant into the pavement.  Come to think of it I don't think I've ever handled Ranger with a leash and now I know why.

When Mike gets home with the computer, I'll blog and post some pics about my Philippines trip.  It was incredible trip and a great reminder of how blessed we are to live in the U.S.A. and  have the things we have.  I'm so amazingly thankful for the life I live and the great country we live in!

stressed

I've been feeling a little stressed this week.  So much to do in, what seems like, so little time.

The epitome of stressed for me is apparently brewing a cup of coffee with our keurig coffee maker but...forgetting to place a coffee cup under the brewer.  Whoops!  Luckily I noticed before the drip pan, which sits under the brewer drip, was full of coffee.  It did crack me up after I confirmed that coffee was not all over counter.  Phew!

Luckily today was a productive day at work so I'm feeling pretty good now!
Have you ever done something silly when you're stressed?  It was almost a nice comic relief moment this morning with my coffee cup mis-hap.  :)

rattle snake

I just said out loud to whoever may have been listening(Mike, pups, no one??...who knows!), "I wonder if I have any pictures to blog about."  So I grabbed the computer and started reviewing recent pictures and came across these.  Mike actually took these while he was working in a nearby area called Camel Tracks.  Mike said the rattle snake was about 3 1/2 feet long and was "sunning" to stay warm(in the first picture) but then coiled up...he/she never started rattling.  Whew!  I thought it was a very New Mexico'ish post for the blog.

Update on Boulevard - I took him to the vet on Monday and he was diagnosed with kennel cough and the flu.  He's on an antibiotic & a cough suppressant...hopefully he'll be feeling better soon.  So far it doesn't appear Ranger or Stuart are getting sick ~ thank goodness!

oh...the dogs!

I feel like it's always something with the dogs.  Let me recap the major events and then I'll explain what's happening today.

2010 ~ Boulevard has infected ears and we have to spend a chunk of change on medication.  Boulevard's ears = healed!

Spring 2011 ~ Boulevard eats some sort of rubber object and he has to have surgery.(surgery after he's already had 3 x-rays, numerous vet visits, numerous prescription, & an ultrasound)  I'm not even going to talk about the chunk of change it took for this event.
Boulevard's intestine = healed!

Summer 2011 ~ We get Ranger.  I feel that getting a third dog is quite an event and was an adjustment for all of us.

Fall 2011 ~ Ranger is diagnosed with Lupus.  He gets a cream put on his nose everyday and has to see the vet every 6 months or so.
Ranger's nose = as healed as it can be!

2011 ~ I identify a lump on Boulevard's chest.  It ends up being tested and isn't an issue.
Boulevard's lump = just a fatty mass!

June 2012 ~ Stuart has an infected eye.  Spent a reasonable amount of change to get his eye fixed.  But am told that he has a slow & irregular heart beat.
Stuart's eye = healed!
Stuart's heart = probably the same because I haven't done anything for it.

Now for the July 2012 event:  We are 99.9% certain that Boulevard as kennel cough, likely from the most recent boarding visit.  Ugh!  We are very regular and consistent about getting our dogs vaccinated, including the kennel cough vaccine.  But I have read that the vaccine doesn't necessarily keep the dog from getting kennel cough.  It's interesting timing since I'm interviewing another dog/house sitter today for some traveling we're doing throughout the rest of the year...guess it's even more of a reason to have a dog sitter instead of boarding the dogs at a kennel.

I'm waiting for the vet to call me to see if they can prescribe something without seeing Boulevard.  They should create a frequent vet visitor card or something for as often as we're there.

Guess I'll go work off some steam by running my 6 mile run today.  :)

Bearizona & the GRAND CANYON!!

Grab a glass of tea and get comfy 'cause this could be a lengthy post.

We went to Sedona, AZ for my birthday(see previous post) and took a day trip to the Grand Canyon, with a stop at Bearizona on the way.  Bearizona is like Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs.  :)  You drive through the first section in your own car with a GPS-driven verbal guide through the various "pens" that animals were in.  The second area is more of a zoo-type set up in which you walk through to see all the animals.  There was some construction occurring so it seemed like it was a fairly new attraction.  I'd be interested in going back in a few years to see how it's developed.

All the animals we viewed from our drive - we often had to wait for the animals to cross the road...yes, if you rolled down your window, you could reach out and touch them if you wanted.

White Buffalo

When we got to the bear section, we were reminded and instructed to keep our windows rolled up and if a bear approaches our vehicle, that we are to drive slowly away.

As you can see by the glare in the picture below, we abided by the "leave your windows up" rule.  This one cracks me up - a bear...just chill-axin in the shade!

Then we got to the walking area where we watched these little bear cubs for about 20 minutes.  They were so funny to watch, playful, and so cute!

Then we got to the "petting zoo" area.

He looked like he need a scratch behind the ear.  :)

After Bearizona, we ventured to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  I'm not exactly sure what I expected but...whoa...completely amazed!  The pictures don't really do it justice.  They have it set up so nice so you just park and then a shuttle takes you to all the overlooks and hiking trails.

You can see the Colorado River way down in the canyon...

We took the South Kaibab Trail and our intention was to go 3 miles down and then the same 3 miles back up.  However, they had these groups of kids going about 1.5'ish miles down and back and I witnessed too many of them crying their eyes out so it totally psyched me out.  I told Mike that we should probably turnaround at the 1.5 mile mark, making it a 3 mile hike.  Afterward, I completely wished we would have gone further ~ I definitely could have made it!  It's hard to judge because going down is the easy part...it's hard to imagine how tough the return back to the top may be.

Mike at Ooh Aah Point.

Resting and getting a snack at our turnaround spot.

Quite breath-taking!

I would definitely go back to the Grand Canyon and spend more time there.  I think it deserves an entire vacation of it's own.  We could check out more trails, maybe hike to the bottom, camp, and then hike back up the next day??  Maybe hike down and raft out?  I can't tell you how many signs said, "No Day Hikes to the River!!"...so I will certainly abide by all the rules and ensure we're planned and prepared.

If you've never been, please make sure you put it on your bucket list!!

P.S. Yep, I've been blogging a lot lately ~ I was a little behind but, more importantly, we got a new laptop that actually doesn't make me want to throw it out the window.  Thanks for reading and allowing me to do a little catch-up on my "scrapbooking."

My first VLOG

We recently got a new computer so I'm trying my hand at VLOG'ing. (aka video blogging)

Here it goes...hopefully it works after I select Publish...cross your fingers.  :)

If you have any running necessities, please share in the comment section.

Kleptomania

Per Wikipedia, "Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value.  People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or not significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape."

Ok - I wouldn't define myself as a klepto(the hubs may have a different opinion) and I can resist but I do occasionally, when at restaurants, take more straws than I need for my one drink and use them at home.  Mike doesn't usually use a straw so I usually bring his allotted straw home also.  It's just one of those things I guess...I have this big mug that I fill a few times a day with water so I need just the right straw that fits my mug.

My straw of choice??  Definitely Wendy's straws!!

Might I add that Mike even brings straws home occasionally just for me.  :)

Am I the only one that has an odd quirk like this??  Ummm...let me help you out...the correct answer is "No Kirsten, that's not weird at all!"  :)