Little H Countdown

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Doggie Drama!!!!

Amidst all of our busy-ness this fall, we've been faced with some Doggie Drama recently...so I just had to share. Many of you friends have cute kiddos to blog about, well I've got my adorable dogs....

So, about two weeks ago we tried to go to the gym...however, the lame gym people were not there on time. We waited 1/2 an hour, then Justin decided to head to his work (he can work out and get ready at a small gym they have there) and I headed back home to shower and get ready for work. When I arrived, I saw that Mozart had again assisted Sierra (they are TOTALLY partners in crime, and I swear, they are communicating with each other somehow!) in getting down one of the sofa back pillows. It was totally torn into already, and some stuffing had been torn out. Plus, it was complete with yummy dog drool and teeth marks. Definitely not fix-able. Of course our so called "protection" plan, does not protect against animals. Lame! Anyhow, at least it was only $25 and Justin begrudginly bought the new pillow (and promptly charged it to the "dog" budget--haha!). So, that was episode one (there have been some others over the summer, but that was a big one).

And onto episode two...Last Friday I arrived home after a wonderful (ha) grocery trip to Super Wal-Mart. I was happily carrying in my goods when I stepped into the house and was blown away by an awful smell. I entered the living room and saw that Sierra (or we think it was Sierra) had deposited goodies for us-TWICE!! We've had her for almost a year and a half now and she has NEVER done that! Luckily it cleaned up fairly easily and my Outst spray outsted the smell =). So, one would think this was enough....but we're not even to the best part yet!!!

Episode three/four. Last Friday evening (after the "goodies" being left), I proceeded to bake a wonderful batch of my "famous" chocolate chip cookies (really, my teachers and students LOVE them and so do my small group people). What they don't realize is it's all in the pan! My mom got me a pampered chef stoneware jelly roll pan a few years ago, and they make the best, most moist chocolate chip cookie bars ever! We were having two couple-friends for dinner on Saturday, so I was making sure to have some yummy cookies available! Anyhow, I made the cookies and then Justin and I started cleaning the house. He was cleaning the kitchen and moved the cookies to our small kitchen table in our breakfast nook area (we admit, this was our human mistake!). In his cleaning fervor, Justin just left the cookies on the small table and we were off to bed. In the morning, I (of course!) realized a few things that I needed for the evening entertaining that I had forgotten. So, I decided we should walk down the road to the HEB to pick these items up, and this would fulfill our workout for the day and our need to go to the store. It was a beautiful morning and Justin agreed, so we set off (and yes, the cookies were still on that pesky table). I remember briefly looking at the cookies, but didn't really think much about it...so I'm sure you all know where this is headed. When we returned, we found my precious (yes, precious!) stoneware in about 8+ pieces, mostly in the kitchen, but a couple in the living room, complete with blood stained all over our kitchen floor. LOVELY! We're pretty certain that once again, Mozart helped Sierra by grabbing the pan (which upon falling on our kitchen floor shattered). However, after that we weren't sure, but we thought that perhaps Mozart got a few bites of cookie, and Sierra pretty much cleaned out the pan herself. Yikes! So, not only a WHOLE bag of chocolate chips, but all the sugar, etc of the cookies. Argh! I was SO mad about my pan, the fact that I could not make more cookies in it, and just that they would do such a thing (and in such a short time!). Plus, it dented our floor! Justin was pretty irate as well, it was pretty crazy. We weren't sure if she would get sick, so we kept a pretty good eye on her. She didn't want dinner, but she still seemed alright.....fast forward to later that evening when our friends had come....(oh, and Mandi and Royce had brought their cute doggie, Charlie, so the dogs had been running and chasing and having a great time in the backyard).
So, we bring the doggies inside, they get calmed down, and we all sit down for our lovely fajhta dinner...and just about this time, I hear a funny noise over by our coach...and yes, it was Sierra puking all over our (basically white) living room carpet. LOVELY! I wish I had taken a picture. It was like a basketball sized circle of completely dark liquid puke. So, Justin goes to grab the Resolve as I start to mop up the mess. The whole time I'm thinking "there is NO way this is going to come off our carpet....ah yikes!" So, Justin comes out from the laundry room and asks "Where's the other Resolve?" I respond, "The OTHER one? Um, I just finished a bottle and there should have been another pretty full bottle." Well, apparently Justin had done some carpet spot cleaning that I had been unaware of, because the second "pretty full" bottle, did not even have enough to put a dent into our stain. So, Justin hopped in the car, ran down the street to the HEB and bought some more Resolve. When he returned I was still very, very wary because this spot just did not look good. Well, we could be poster children for Resolve. It took about 8 or so treatments, but you cannot tell AT ALL that anything was in that spot (and previously, I had spilled Red Wine, and it took that spot out too, of course that spot was MUCH smaller!). So, everyone had their dessert and we had Sierra close on her leash (so she couldn't sneak off and puke somewhere else) in the kitchen. We began to see the signs of her getting sick again, so Justin rushed outside and we all stood in the kitchen and could literally hear her and the splashing puke on the grass. It was like a person! It was crazy. So, everyone headed home and Justin and I weren't sure what to do next. We certainly did not want to have her in our bedroom, where she might get sick again on white carpet. And, she wouldn't be willing to stay anywhere but with us for a whole evening. So, we realized the "safest" place to stay for the evening was the kitchen. Luckily we have a very nice Cabella's air bed that even has a frame to keep it up off the floor. So, we camped out in our kitchen with Justin holding onto Sierra's leash all night in case she made movements to get sick. In the end, there was no more puking, thank goodness, we were just treated to a not so fabulous night of sleep. As nice as the air bed is, you still wake up at any little movement of the other person. And so ends our doggie saga. Craziness, pure craziness! I sure do love my dogs, but sometimes they certainly do drive us crazy!!!!!
And so, I am patiently awaiting for my new pampered chef stoneware pan to arrive so that I can continue my famous cookie baking tradition. (And yes, it will also be charged to the dogs!!)

On a happier note, I do have some cute pictures to post (and a video, if it works). The pictures are of Mozart, and his version of "hugging" us. Every time Justin and I hug, Mozart comes over, gets on his hind legs and puts his paws up with a very sad puppy look. We have interpreted this to mean "I want a hug too, please". So, if we bend down to him, he puts his paws on our shoulders, promptly licks our face, and gives us our hug. We were crafty enough to snap a few pics of this the other day. IF the video works, it's Sierra and Mozart having some fun in the backyard. The best is at the end when Mozart gives up and Sierra starts dragging him with the rope toy. Gotta love 'em!

Alright, that's all for now. Hopefully there's no more doggie-drama to post about, for awhile at least! We're looking forward to a fun weekend as my brother and Katherine will be visiting from Dallas, we're finally getting them to Austin...it's only taken almost FIVE years (but to their credit, they did live in MN until just a month ago!). Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!


Mozart in the "Please, Hug Me Too" position (it's a little blurry, but you get the idea)


Me Getting My Mozart Hug



Justin Getting His Mozart Hug

Friday, September 12, 2008

School and all it's madness has begun...well three weeks ago....

Hmmm...so I'm just now getting caught up again...I'm not too great at this blogging on a regular basis thing. I think it's because I don't have adorable children to share stories about =)...at least I'll use that as my excuse for now!

Here's what going on in the Halvorsen household....

Justin is finally slowing down at work, and only has about one more "bad" week left, then he can start taking some time off! This week he has been in on numerous (and I mean NUMEROUS) interviews as part of the interview committee to add another staff to his dept. This is good because they really need another person, but apparently sitting in on lots and lots of interviews is quite boring since they ask them all exactly the same questions, and most of them give almost exactly the same answer. Today was going to be the worst....straight line up of interviews from 8am-4pm...YIKES! I guess that's one thing I don't have to deal with as a teacher!!! Aside from that, Justin is very thrilled (as am I) that the football season has finally begun! We have two fantasy teams again this year, and we think we should be competitive in both leagues. Some of you may laugh...but honestly, it's fun and I enjoy watching the games so much more if I know one of "our" players is playing. I am totally hooked! Anyhow, keeping up with our teams and watching the games definitely keeps Justin busy on Sundays...which is good since that is when I do LOTS of studying!

My life right consists pretty much of work and studying for my masters classes. It's a little overwhelming trying to prepare for and teach SIX different subjects, but so far I am surviving. Thank goodness I seem to have really, really good students this year, and they are not even beginning to drive me crazy. They (for the most part) do their homework, participate in discussions, and have really awesome questions about all things science related. So, on that front, it should be a good year. I'm also having fun with our pretty much totally new academic bowl team. We have only one returning member, so we're in a bit of a re-building phase, but we still have high hopes for the team. They are all motivated, and really good kids, so it should be fun. I'm not sure if traveling to Wisconsin in Feb. for our tournament will be wonderful, considering it will probably be very, very cold, but at least I'm still a Northern girl at heart and I can totally handle it =). My masters courses are also starting to ramp up and I'm freaking out...just a little. Whenever I look at the calendars and syllabi, I have to take a deep breath and tell myself that I really can accomplish everything on the assignment list...right? Sure, I can! Ha! At least I have the best, most fabulous husband in the world who is EXTREMELY supportive and is even willing to clean the house while I sit and work on projects, research, and reading! He even does with mostly a smile on his face =). Other than that, I don't have much going on, since TSD and my master's program pretty much eat up all of my time.

In other Halvorsen/Long family news....

Justin and Katherine are fully settled (well pretty much) in Dallas! Yay! They were supposed to come visit this weekend, but hurricane Ike put a little wrench in all our plans, so hopefully they'll be able to come in another week or two. It's taken almost five years to get Justin to visit me here in Austin, so I guess I can wait another week or two!

Justin's sister Andrea and her husband Kyle are doing as well as can be expected after bringing the twins home a couple weeks ago. McKayla is still adjusting, but we are all hoping that soon she will love the babies as much as we all do. Right now they are still a little foreign to her, and she doesn't quite understand why they have to cry so much =). We got to visit on Labor Day, and I hope to be back soon for some more baby holding time!

Well, that's all the time I have for this round. I'll try REALLY hard to update this more than once a month...for those of you that kindly read it =). And, I may not have kids to share pictures of...but watch for some new Mozart and Sierra pictures soon. Justin was able to snap a picture the other night of Mozart "hugging" me...which is my favorite part of coming home each day (aside from hugging Justin of course!!!).