We haven't posted in a while, so we went outside to take some pictures this evening. It is so amazing here in Texas, warm sun and a cool breeze. Bugs havent started to take over yet and the humidity is still below 50%. Ray looks so muscular and tough with the sun gleaming off his coat.
I asked Raider where his friend Ranger was and this is his response: I tried to get Raider to play fetch, but his real desire was to play with the neighbor (which he is not allowed to do), so his attention was on the back fence the entire time. Him and the neighbor dog (a full blooded German Shepherd male) love to run back and forth along the fence. Raider has made a path and hole from running so much, so we don't let him anymore. And we are back to having the sprinkler system on so the yard is pretty wet. A wet yard means the fun task of wiping feet before coming inside and I just dont have the patience to do that a million times a day. I heard something over there:
Raider's surgery went well. They called me at about 1pm and said they got the tooth and root all removed. It was worse than we thought when they got in there, but Dr. Cole packed it with antibiotics and stitched him up. He was very out of it last night. He wouldn't sleep when we got home, he just laid on the floor whining under his breath. I think he was woozy from the anasthesia. When I had my wisdom teeth out, I dont remember the entire evening, but my mom wouldn't let me go to bed until 9pm. So I can't imagine what a dog feels in that situation. He wouldn't even eat, which is miraculous for him. I had to employ mommy techniques to get him to swallow his pain pill. But this morning I woke up to the normal pounding of his tail on the wall, the second he saw me roll over. We really need a bigger bedroom. He is fine today. Still a little tender, I am not letting him play with his toys. But he wolfed down his dinner and I gave him some of my dinner (cheez-its). So he is down to only left side canines. The bottom one is actually broken a bit also, but nothing serious. I am not sure he will get back into my car anytime soon, or even go into the garage for that matter. He's no dummy!
Raider is all ready for his tooth extraction tomorrow. It is the bottom right canine, he broke it back in the Raider vs. crate battle in 2007 (see post). The vet didnt want to take it out when he was neutered, they only took out the top right one then. I was pretty mad to say the least. So its going to cost me several hundred dollars tomorrow for it to be taken out. I will be worried about him all day long, but it will be nice to be able to clean my house, blankets, bed, his bed, his toys and give him a bath and keep the stank away for good. The rotting tooth is really making him and anything he touches smell soooo bad.
I finally painted something last week. When we moved in, I went a little crazy and painted the guest bedroom, 2 bathrooms, the office, kitchen and living room. Its been over a year since I did anything else, so it was time. I picked out new colors for the living room (with the help of Tamara) and was going to buy them when one day I was sitting in the reading room and it dawned on me that one of the living room colors would go pretty fantastically in the master bathroom. So, the living room has not been painted but the outer room of our bathroom has! There wasn't enough paint left to do the toilet room, so I am still devising a plan for that. It is the same color that will be the new fireplace accent, when I get around to repainting the living room. I forgot how much work it was, or I have grown old since painting last, but this was harder than I remember! Pics!
And - my next project is replacing those lights. Stupid homebuilders and their cheap fixtures!
We went to Galveston on Saturday for the Lonestar Rally. It is our third year to go. This year, we decided to go with some friends to Stubbs HD beforehand and ride in the police escorted ride down there. It was so amazing! They stopped traffic on the freeway. We were the only people out there. Galveston still needs much prayer and help. It was really sad driving through it. We went down one residential street and every person was out on their porch waving to us. This rally is the biggest event in Galveston since Ike, it was intended to boost the economy. They sure do need it. It was so sad. Here are a few pics. There were a lot of boats in parking lots along one of the streets. A marina had been on the other side of the property and when the water went down, the boats landed in random places. People dont have the money to move them out, so they are just dealing with it I guess. The Flagship Hotel is the only building remaining out over the Gulf. Every other building was destroyed, leaving only pilings. There is significant damage to it though. And the ramp driving up to it is gone, so any cars that were there are still there.
I know so many pregnant or new mothers it is insane. I was just thinking today, this must be a sign. So I have to make a list. Rest assured, I am still on the pill. For 2 months at least. Maria - March 25 - see baby blog link! Jen (coworker) - couple weeks Jen (church) - June 27thish Emily (IL) - June 17th Tamara - July 3rd, 6th or 8th
Several others trying very hard to become PG! You know who you are!
New babies: (really new, several friends have less-than-1-year-olds) Asher - Dec 15th Tristan - Dec 5th Lauren - Nov 27 Roman (coworker) - 4 weeks ago Kristin (coworker) - 3 weeks ago
It snowed today. Normally, in the winter this is not a big thing. I grew up in Illinois. I had a snowsuit. The whole thing. We live in Houston, Texas. Christmas Eve 2004 was the last snow here. Children here never get to build snow forts in their backyards. Never have to shovel driveways. They think a handful of snow once every 4 years is the greatest thing ever. I am pretty perplexed by it myself. It is almost 10pm as I type this and I can hear children playing in the street. Crap, I didnt bring in my prized plumera tree. I hope it survives the cold. Some pics for you: Raider sees snow for the first time and wonders why he can't smell out the potty anymore. Our idea of accumulation: the neighbor's roof at 6pm And again at 9:30pm. Remarkable!
I had this great idea that my family and my in-laws should drive to Table Rock Lake, Kimberling City (near Branson) for Thanksgiving. We all met up Wednesday night after LONG days of driving. 7 hours for my family, 12 hours for us Texans. I rented a house for my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and us. My in-laws and their friends got a condo down the road. It was really fun. Thursday we cooked the full Thaknhsgiving dinner. We had wayyy too much food. But it was yummy!
Friday we shopped at the Branson outlet mall. Never having been in Branson, we went to the wrong one first. It was deserted and we were freaking out. The acutal Tangers outlet though was really great. I think Houston's is still better though. This is our discussion of stores to hit. Here is the whole crew. Howells, Harkness', Jenna/Adam, Me/Scott, Spencers And, um no there was no drinking at all. None whatsoever. This was our reaction to mom making us eat leftover turkey sandwiches. We didnt want one, but she was insisting, so I said fine, we'll split it! And we did. And yes we are watching the Grinch in the background. Every time they said 'Grinch' we had to drink. It was way too much fun. The whole rest of the trip, we would randomly yell out 'Grinch!' and everyone had to drink. (the pictures look blurry to me on here. if you click on them, they will open bigger and more clearly. cause i know you want to see me up close. LOL)
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Oh dear. I am horrible at wrapping. Gift bags all the way. AND the person can re-use it next year. see, im really thinking of others. My mom wraps presents at Von Maur if you need a professional. Shes really good.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial all the way. real ones are way too much work. and I sure do love that my entire guest room closet is the Christmas storage. One bedroom lost. Thanks stupid homebuilder.
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving of course. but this year I was out of town, so we did it the Saturday before. of course it helped that Oklahoma kicked our asses, so Scott went upstairs and got the tree himself and set it up. remarkable!
4. When do you take the tree down? If I had my way, February. Scott will probably get sick of it by the 2nd week of January and make me take it down. I don’t have normal decorations, so the house is super scary and bare the rest of the year. Someone come help me decorate!!!!
5. Do you like egg nog? oh hell no! my father-in-law microwaves it before he drinks it. puke.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I dunno. My memory sucks. My bikes were probably the most widely used gifts I got. I loved board games too.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Everyone. I am the world's worst gift giver.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Scott b/c I gave up. He gets his own Harley parts.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? I do. The nice brand in the blue box. I forget what its called. Something with an F?
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I would love to email. I haven’t gotten Raider a santa hat yet though. I have some mail ones left from last year. We’ll see what I feel like. Obviously I am not on the ball this year.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Probably something scented. Im really picky about scents. I can usually exchange them though.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? THE GRINCH
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 20th
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, I have tremendous amounts of guilt.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies are way up there....
16. Lights on the tree? White I guess. I think all red would be cool but that is way too much work. The tree came with white. Im not into colored lights. Tthe neighbors have some that look purple. Weirdos.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Mary Did You Know is a good one.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. if you want to see me, happy travelling. we have a guest room.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? of course.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel. lowe's special.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? morning. how can you open presents before Santa comes???? dumb question!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Shopping, driving to shop and ppl in IL asking if Im coming up there. NO it is retardedly cold there. I'm staying here where it was 74 degrees today. You people are all nutz!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love my texas tech ornaments, anything red and of couse our matching ornaments from my mom every year. adorable. Oh, raider has a cute ornament too.
24. Favorite dessert for Christmas dinner? pecan pie. mmmm
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? a red ipod. money. gift cards. and a partridge in a pear tree.
The living room. Where we spend a lot of time. It is not complete, but slowly and painfully coming together. Here is the progression: November 2007 - new TV and stand November 2008 - new tables and lamps Watch for new paint - coming soon!
Since Texas Tech is finally getting national attention, I thought Raider should have some nice pictures made.
I did my best. He loves looking out the window in the office while we are working. He lays with his head on the ledge and just watches. He is genuinely concerned for every man, woman, child, car, dog, cat, bird, bug and leaf that goes by the house. If there are kids playing in the street (stupid kids!), he will sit up, watch and whine under his breath. Raider stats: We have had him for one year! September 22nd was his 1-year anniversary with us. He is about 200% calmer than when we got him, much more confident, loves our daily routine (I am so anal), listens to us and loves to play with his 2 toys (we have only found 2 he cannot destroy). His allergies are still an issue, but nowhere close to the extent they were a year ago. His little paws are so pink (a sign of doggie allergies), we are doing our best! He is onto our nail-clipping routine so we have to be creative now. It takes both of us to get it done and we are exhausted afterwards. He hates it. He still loves his food, he scarfs every piece down within 5 minutes. He hasnt reached 50 pounds yet though, he his steady at 48. Seriously, I need to have a kid already. This is becoming ridiculous.
Storytime! July 2nd, 2005 we moved into our house. Yaay! Had to buy a washer/dryer. Were young and poor. Went to Lowes, walked to the back (where the cheaper ones are) and bought the cheapest set they had. Oh boy! I really hate doing laundry. I always forget about it in the machine and folding it is like having to cut off my arm. So I only do about 2-3 loads a week. Those of you with kids, keep your statistics to yourselves, I cant handle any more loads than that. At least while I have a job.... Anyways. So the dryer decides it doesnt want to dry. It gets really HOT but the clothes are still wet. So I put it on tumble with no heat. Still not dry. This goes on for hours, sometimes days. Last night I finally had it. I hung up towels and jeans to dry around the house. It was entertaining. Then I went online and searched for a new washer and dryer. I looked at a lot of different consumer reports websites, blogs, etc. Wrote down the top models. Went to Sears, Home Depot, Lowes and Best Buy's websites and compared models. Overwhelming at first, but I trudged through and narrowed it down. Decided Sears was the best bet. All day today at work I was chatting about it, emailing Tamara and Erika for advice, etc. Stopped by Sears on the way home to see how it would all go down an walked out with a new credit card, filled with my washer, dryer, pedestals and delivery charges. They are being delivered Sunday. I hope. I feel bad people have to work on Sunday, but hey I work all week and I cant sit around waiting for them to come. So, if you know of anyone who needs a washer, mine is fine and used and for sale for $200. Call me. In the meantime, here is a pic of my newest toys:
Well, as with everything the media says, you can't ever believe where a hurricane is really going to go. It is a fun game to listen to all of the predictions and people freaking out two weeks ahead of time. As Ike nears Texas, however, a somber mood has come over Houstonians. We are weary of hurricane watches, sick of the freeway billboards flashing "Storm forming - fill your tanks" and so over evacuation procedures. No, if one is going to hit us, we are going to sit right here and take it square in the face. Now, the rain we could use. But how much of it Ike is going to present will be interesting. And I am pretty sure any wind over 60mph will seriously dismantle my Mexican-assembled roof vents and such. It would be nice to have a day off to mop floors and Clorox countertops in my pj's however. Oh, and take a nap with my Raider Dog.
Well, Raider will be staying at his Pet Resort for almost a week, starting Tuesday the 26th. I am flying to IL early Wednesday morning. Scott is coming up Friday afternoon, and we are flying back together on Monday (Labor Day). I am having a party/happy hour/bbq at my parents house (dubbed The Spencer Ranch) on Friday the 29th. My mom is going to do bbq, hopefully we can have a bonfire and EVERYONE is invited! I hope a lot of you can make it, I would LOVE to see you and your kiddos and catch up with you all at once.
Well, I know everyone has been coming to this blog daily waiting for an update. WOW summers are insane when you work at a church that is top 5 in the country for attendance and run the largest VBS in the country. 1,500 kiddos have been keeping me pretty busy! I havent taken many pics of RayRay lately, but here is one from one afternoon a couple weeks ago. Scott came home and was changing and well, we were in a silly mood so Raider got to try on Scotts t-shirt. Of course the first thing he did was try to bite it.
Well, it was very hard to leave Raider and Scott for 5 days, but I did! I left Wednesday morning and got back Sunday at midnight. The wedding was at Carillon Beach Resort in Florida, near Panama City Beach. Here are a few pics from the weekend.
