Easter

Halvorsen/Schlafer Family Easter

This past weekend, we enjoyed a nice Easter with Justin's family. Justin and I went to our church and then headed down to his parents house to have brunch and egg hunting fun. Grandma Halvorsen loves chocolate, so by the time we had arrived McKayla had been spoiled and had a bit of a sugar rush. Kind of funny. I guess grandmas get to do whatever they want sometimes =). Anyhow, we had a good time, and then headed over to Kyle and Andrea's afterwards for some more time to hang out and chat. It was during McKayla's nap time which was kind of nice, because as much as we all adore her, it's often hard to have a real adult conversation with her in the room =).

In other news, the dogs seem to be surviving each other =). Sierra has been "acting out" a little this week and destroyed her favorite bed. We informed her she is kind of dumb because she liked the bed and we are not buying her a new one...I'm pretty sure she has no idea what we were telling her, but oh well. Now that she has no bed we are hoping she does not decide to dig into something of ours. Ah, the growing pains of adding a new member to the family!

Aside from that, there's not too much special going on. I recently found out that my ten year reunion will be in June and was very excited that it was one of the two weekends that I was available this summer! So, I'm looking forward to catching up with old friends. Unfortunately, Justin cannot attend because that is his very busy time of year at work.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter and are enjoying the start to spring (not that you Northerners want to know....but it has been in the 80's the past couple of days =)!!).

The Dogs...and Spring Break

Hello All,
Well I had good intentions of posting a couple more times last week, but time got away from me. Thankfully nothing too exciting happened with the pooches, they seem to be getting along well and like each other. They are quite entertaining for us and it's been fun to watch them together. They enjoy playing the backyard, which scares me sometimes, but Justin assures me they are just having fun. I guess their idea of fun is jumping on each other and biting each other. Who knows. They are continuing to be good guard dogs for us, and often sit at the window together...though most of the time they then end up sleeping by the window (see pics below). Aside from that there only other funny issue has been their beds. We bought a new bed for Mozart...but apparently the two of them decided they needed to switch, so Sierra has taken a liking to the new bed and Mozart appears to love Sierra's old bed. As long as they both understand their beds are on the floor, and not up with us, I really don't care.

Other than being entertained by the dogs during my break, I also got to spend some time shopping with Justin's mom. We hit the outlets in San Marcos and I had a fun time snatching up bargains for all the recent babies that have been born or will soon be born to my friends and family and of course snatching up bargains for McKayla! On Saturday I got to spend half the day with McKayla and Andrea and then (it's a long story) I ended up babysitting McKayla for the whole afternoon. It was SO much fun! I LOVE being an aunt. She is too cute and though she wouldn't take a nap, we did have some good story and cuddle time. I wanted her to nap because I was going to take a nap right along with her...but unfortunately that did not work. I was "sleeping" in the hopes that she would follow suit, but instead she started poking my eyes saying "What are you doing Aunt Michelle, are you sleepy?" Ah well, we had a lot of fun, and I'm sure she slept VERY well on Saturday evening!

Other than that, I just did some lesson planning for the summer camps I'm teaching. It was a good spring "break", even though I did end up doing quite a bit of work. At least it was work at home with the TV on!

I hope those of you who had spring break this past week enjoyed yourselves, and those of you who are on break this week-have a wonderful week!
Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone!



Our Sleepy Guard Dogs

Hoping for the Best....

Well, poor Mozart didn't quite make it through the grooming process today, but he did get through a bath, so at least he smells good. He was just too scared and nervous so I had to just take him home. He has been very good for us tonight though and let us 'furminate' him a couple of times. If you have never heard of the furminator de-shedding tool and you have a dog or cat, you really need to look into it. It is AMAZING. We got so much fur out of him, and we will get even more tomorrow I'm sure. In a week or two he should be shedding much, much less.

So far, he and Sierra are doing pretty well. Sierra is extremely interested in Mozart and wants to follow him around everywhere. She basically wants whatever he has. He doesn't fight her, but you can tell he is ready to be left alone for awhile =). They did both stand as guard dogs for awhile at the window, which was just too cute. I had to snap some pictures. What we're unsure of now is 1) how well they (and us) will sleep tonight and 2) how they will do tomorrow when left alone for a little while. So far it appears they won't tear anything apart, Mozart just may be annoyed for awhile =).

Well, that's all for today, I'll post more in the next day or two about all the doggie excitement.



Our Guard Dogs..What a Pair!

Poor Mozart....

Oh Yikes, our poor newest family member has had quite a day, and it's continuing as I write. I picked up Mozart today and since he's quite furry and needs a groom I took him to PetSmart. The poor guy is apparently totally freaking out (he's "done his business" three times already). They called me and I told them he's not used to it so he's probably just scared since he is a bit of a wuss. So, they are trying to air dry him in the kennels and then they're going to try and brush him. But, and I quote, "If he exhibits any more signs of stress, you will have to come and pick him up." Well, that's fine, but I hope they don't expect me to pay full price if they can't finish the job =). I'll post later to let you all know how it went. It could be a very, very long night. He's likely not to be thrilled to be going to his new home instead of his old one as well. Yikes. But, he's just a dog-right??? He'll survive-right?? Hopefully I'm not scarring him for life or anything =). Time will tell!

In other news, Justin and I just got back from a great little weekend trip to Fredericksburg, TX. It is a very cute little town and has great wineries/vineyards all around. We went to two this time and also spent time at the Perdenales State Park and the LBJ State/National Park. We stayed at a very cute Bed and Breakfast, and had a great time. We've started a little tradition of taking a quick weekend trip each year around the time of our anniversary. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and didn't snap any pictures of the beautiful parks and vineyards, but we'll be back again sometime since it is only a couple of hours from Austin!

Other than that, I'm enjoying my spring break this week and hoping to get a little work done as well as get some r&r in order to be ready for the rest of the school year. All I can say is March 17th to June 6th sure seems like a LONG stretch of time. But, I know all too well that time will fly and I won't teach everything I plan to =). Hope all you folks up North are doing well and staying warm! Check back in a few days for a Mozart update...hopefully it's good news =).
Take care!