What a mess!

This is the mess I came home to Thursday night. We let Max tear up his toys like this because we don't want him to tear up our stuff. I hope that is not teaching him anything bad. He is still a puppy who likes to chew. My friend sent an email while I was gone and told me the following. "I called the house last night and forgot that you were gone. I talked with M for a bit and he said Max was sitting on the couch, staring at the door, waiting for you for 30 minutes. When we were talking, he started to do it again. I thought that was so sweet, that he was missing his mommy." That brought a smile to my face. Max met a friend while I was out of town. M took him for a walk and came across another black lab about the same size as Max. He was 1 1/2 years old and his name was Will. He said they played together about 30 minutes or so and had a good time. Maybe we'll run into him another day.

Friday afternoon I took Max to the vet. We have noticed him limping just a bit and wanted to make sure everything is alright. Our neighbors who had a yellow lab a month or so older than Max had to put their dog down because he had hip dysplasia. When that happens, they can't do surgery until the dog is full grown which is at least one year old and sometimes older. Their puppy was whining everytime he walked around so he would have been in pain that whole time. Ever since then, I have been hoping that won't happen to Max. It is common in labs. Anyway, the vet doesn't think we have anything to worry about for now, but he recommended giving Max fish oil to help with his muscle and tissue development. He said sometimes the socket is more shallow than the bone. He also said this would be almost fully developed between 8 and 10 months so we just need to watch him to see if we see any other signs. It's hard to know because Max hardly ever yelps about anything...even if you step on him by accident. When we got home from the vet, I took Max for a walk. He has started running at you and will run into your legs if you don't move out of the way. This is not fun. So on the walk he started running toward me. I tried to move out of the way but was not fast enough. One minute I was standing up, the next I was lying flat on my back. I hit my head and my back. Falling is not fun as an adult...it's a long way to the ground even for someone only 5'4". I am glad no one was around because I am sure it looked funny. I expected to have a bruise the size of Texas on my bum, but I just have a tiny little bruise. It is definitely sore though. I need to work on my reaction time I guess.

Saturday we went bowling with some friends from M's work. It was their anniversary so we then took their 1 1/2 year old son home with us so they could go to dinner alone (they have 4 kids so this is a rarity). He was only with us for about 3 hours. She told me when she came to pick him up that we were his first babysitters outside of family. She had wanted to call us multiple times to see how he was doing. He is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen so we had a good time. Max did so well around him, too. He really wanted to eat the boy's peanut butter sandwich and crackers which were on a blanket on the floor, but he minded very well and left the boy and his food alone. If we ever have kiddos, I think Max will be a great dog around them.

Even though we mentioned the time change at least half a dozen times Saturday, I forgot to change our clocks back and we missed church this morning. It was a pretty lazy day, but it was nice. I think I needed the extra sleep because I slept until about 9:30. Losing an hour seems to make a huge difference. I guess at least that's out of the way until next year. This is a picture of Max from this morning. No matter how small the amount of space, he thinks he will fit. Isn't he a cutie (That cannot be said of me. How do I even do that with my chin?)?

Book/Author Reviews

Someone asked recently about a couple of the authors I've read.

Nicholas Sparks - You are probably aware of this author from the movie The Notebook. He wrote this book as well as some others. His books ALWAYS make me cry. I really enjoy his books, especially The Wedding. I would recommend you read that if you haven't already.

Harlan Coben - I would say this author's books are of the mystery genre. They remind me some of John Grisham's books. The main difference in my mind is that Harlan's books involve less legal verbage in the text. They are enjoyable to me.

Daniel Gottlieb - The book I just read by this author was a bit disappointing to me. It was letters from a grandfather to his grandson about life and love. The grandfather became a quadriplegic in his adulthood and his grandson has autism. It was a nice book, but the author's "religious viewpoint" bothered me.

Karen Kingsbury - A good friend recommended these books to me. I have never read much Christian fiction before and didn't know if I would like it or not. I loved this story. It continues in several more books that I can't wait to check out. I read this book in just a couple of days which hasn't happened much recently.

Much Better

My second night in Utah was not so bad. I definitely felt more comfortable in my room alone and slept much better. (By the way, I spoke to a girl I work with who stayed at the same hotel - I had no idea she was also there. She also thought the place was creepy. I'm not just paranoid afterall.) While in Utah, I finished two books and started a third. I also pampered myself by painting my toenails (which I hadn’t done since the Christmas party for M’s work). This used to be a biweekly event for me so it is nice to have pretty toenails again.

I experienced two new things at the airport security in both Denver and Salt Lake City. They now have three different signs for the security lines. One is for the expert traveler who travels often, one for the casual traveler who is aware of the TSA rules, and one is for families with children. I believe the purpose of these distinctions is to allow those who are quick to get through security to not have to wait on those that are not quick. I am not sure how effective this is, but it was interesting. The last time I flew was toward the end of January, and this was not in place at that time. When I left Salt Lake City yesterday, I had to walk into this booth and stand still for a while. It shot air all around me. It is to check for explosives. This machine was only at 2 of the 4 security lines. M said he had seen this before at the Denver airport, but I’ve never noticed it there.

Alone

I used to have no problem being alone. I lived alone from the time I was 21 until I was 26. I had no problem with it at all. Then I got married. Once you’re used to being with someone, it is really weird to be alone. I know this sounds corny, but for me it’s true. Every now and then I think about how fun it would be to have a day to myself to do whatever I wanted…take a nice bubble bath, paint my toenails, organize the closet, read magazines, work on craft stuff, etc. You get the point. This week I flew to Salt Lake City for work. I used to think it would be so fun to travel for work. Now I know better. There are parts of traveling for work that are enjoyable, but mostly I would rather just be home with M and Max. I traveled alone this time around (which is normal for my work). I am fine with eating in a restaurant on my own. I am fine with flying alone. However, I do not enjoy staying in a hotel alone…and that is an understatement. I get creeped out when I stay in a hotel alone. If I was staying somewhere fancy like the Ritz, this may not be the case. But I generally stay somewhere that is really cheap. This time around I am staying in a place where you have a little living area and a small kitchen. I have stayed at this hotel before, but this time I have a second floor to my room that has a loft area with another bed and bathroom. The place is ridiculously big for one person. And every time I go in there, I have to open all the doors and look behind everything to make sure I am alone. I am not sure if I have become paranoid or what. Maybe it’s all the mystery books I’ve been reading… It’s funny how I look forward to this kind of alone time but am not enjoying it much (even though I did finish a book last night and started another). Anyway, I am looking forward to when I get to go back home and be with M and Max. Maybe this is another example of not knowing how good I have it until "it" changes.

March 2008

Here's my March calendar. It looks a little goofy, but I wanted to make sure I included St. Patrick's Day as well as made it springy since Easter is also in March.

Happy March!

3/3 New Recipe

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken with brown rice and roasted broccoli for dinner. The recipes below were pretty yummy. I especially liked the thickness of the sauce on the chicken. It was pretty easy to get the meal together quickly, which I appreciate a lot these days. I hope you will enjoy this as well. Click on the name of the recipes to find them online.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Cooking Light April 2007 p. 240

Broccoli with Red Pepper Flakes and Toasted Garlic
Cooking Light March 2007 p. 238
Rather than cooking this in a skillet on the stove, I put mine on a cookie sheet under the broiler. I should have cooked it longer. We both like it when the broccoli is a little crunchy.

the Hanging Log

We went to our first couples retreat last weekend with a couple of communities (Sunday school classes) from our church. The location was beautiful, and it was so nice to get away from everyday life and talk about marriage. Our pastor spoke and we got to visit with several couples which was really nice...we got beyond the small talk. The meals were not superb, the matresses were hard (on the twin beds we slept on), and the shower was tiny. But we had a great time and had a lot of laughs. Saturday night, the staff at the place we were staying hung a log from the ceiling and put matresses underneath it. You could sit on the log with another person and have a pillow fight. M and I both did this although not with each other. It was hysterical! There was also a hill for tubing. M did this a couple of times while I took pictures. I should have gone down it myself.

Max stayed with our neighbors while we were gone. They spoiled him so I'm sure he had a good weekend. We were told he spent a total of 3 hours from Thursday night until we picked him up on Sunday afternoon in his crate.