Happy early anniversary to ourselves!

So Dave and I were going to spend a night at a swanky new hotel that opened up in Grapevine this year for our anniversary. We had it all planned....Dave was gonna take two days off, we'd have a whole weekend of celebration and fun. Well, one thing lead to another, and we have to cancel our reservation. So, rather then stress ourselves out with figuring out when we could reschedule our romantic weekend for two, we decided to spend the money we would have spent on something totally useless and ridiculous but a whole lot of fun. So this is what we came up with....
For those of you not familiar, Guitar Hero is....yes....a video game. But this is not your typical shoot-um-up-knock-um-down-beat-the-dragon video game. With Guitar Hero, you actually play classic rock songs with your cool little guitar like this one....

The notes are color coded on the screen and you strum the guitar while you press the notes on the neck of the guitar. Dave and I had played it several times before at friends homes, and yes, at church in the youth room. Currently we just have one guitar controller, but we have a second one on order so we can "rock out" together. Dave plays bass, I play lead guitar! In addition to this wonderful new way to have couple time, we are planning a wonderful dinner at our favorite special occasion restaurant, Simply Fondue, and Dave said I could get a massage and pedicure!
In other news....Dave and I are both sick as a dog (where did that expression come from anyway). For Dave, it is going on almost three weeks that he hasn't been able to shake a hacking cough and congestion. With me, you name it, I have it. So, to hopefully combat that problem, I have coined today Lysol Friday. Any surface that can be disinfected will be disinfected. Sheets are being washed in super hot water, toothbrushes are being changed, blankets washed, couch Febreezed (they make an antibacterial one now!). If there is a germ in my house, it has met its end today.

PS- Sorry for the shaky pictures....I can't seem to hold the camera still. Blame it on the stuffy nose.

The life of a dog...

...is so hard, huh?


And so is the life of a dog owner (well, in this case).

Plagued by distance

I live in Texas. My dad lives in Oregon. My sister lives in Tennessee (for now). My brother and his wife live in Pennsylvania (for now). My in-laws live in Arkansas. All my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles are on the west coast. I live in Texas.

When I was younger I remember not wanting to live close to family. I don't really like Texas. It's way too hot, too big, everyone has Texas Pride that I think is silly. I wanted to move somewhere with more then one season and where people appreciated the simplicity of life. As I have grown up, gotten married, and been a minimum of 200 miles from my family, I realized that distance is the last thing I want, but I seem to be plagued by it.

Not having lived close to my extended family, I never really understood the importance of family. It wasn't till a dear friends wedding two July's ago that I realized how much I missed out on not having my family close by. She has family oozing out of every seam in her house. Cousins, Aunts and Uncles, grandparents, neices and nephews. All of them no further then an hour away, and all of the intricatley involved and knowledgable about each others lives. Two days before her wedding I sat in her living room in awe of the love that poured out of thin air.
I remember envying her and wishing that just for that night,I was part of the Voorhees family.

My family lives all over the country. While that is neat on the one hand, on the other it...well...plain out sucks. We all are in the "just starting out" phases in our lives so none of us have much money to visit, and plane tickets are expensive. And to make matters "worse", my siblings can't seem to stop moving. They both will be relocating again this coming fall, and I never even got to visit them in their current homes. I also found out that my siblings-in-law will be moving in the not too distant future. Who knew the North needed churches :>).

As Dave and get closer to starting our own family (but still not for a few more years...we have degrees to finish) I think about our kids having the same lives as I did. It saddens me to think that they might not know their aunts and uncles, cousins, or even paternal grandfather because of distance. Don't get me wrong....I am hugely proud and humbled by the success of my family. I wouldn't trade their success for having them live on the next block over. But it seems like the situation won't change, and that makes me sad. Who knows, maybe a world class philosophy school will open up the same time the Concert Master position at the Dallas Symphony does and everyone will come running back to Grapevine, TX. Back to home, back to me, back to everyone. In the meantime, I continue to be plagued by distance.

The Vet

So yesterday I took Dexter to the Vet. He was due for some shots and an exam, and we got a coupon in the mail for a Vet office nearby offering a free exam for first time clients. I thought this would be perfect. Not only did Dexter need some shots, but I wanted some extra info on how we could make him more comfortable with his allergies. His previous owners had given us all the medicine that they used for him, and we were continuing it faithfully, but he was still itching too much for my comfort level. A few times he would break the skin on his chest and I knew that it hurt him.
So yesterday we packed up and went to the Vet. On the drive there, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that I was nervous. What was I nervous about? Dexter going to the vet? Me going with him all by myself? The possibility of a huge bill? Then I began to realize even more that, while I had pets in high school, this was the first time I had actually accepted full responsibility for an animal. I mean, lets face it. As much as I loved my little dog Jake, my parents fed him, took care of him, paid the vet bill. I didn't do much but play with him when it was convenient for me. I am embarrassed to say that the latter years of his life were spent outside without much notice from me on a day to day basis. As I sat next to this wonderful little dog I have come to adore so much in a few short weeks, I guess I was nervous for the both of us.
At the Vet Dexter was nervous too. He was on the table and kept backing up more and more till he almost fell off a few times. The vet was very knowledgeable. She told me all about allergies, how to control them, how they affect most dogs, etc. I have to say, it was pretty interesting. She recommended changing his diet to help control his food allergies. We had kept him on the same brand of dog food as his first Mom and Dad, Purina, but not necessarily the same type. I wondered if that was the reasoning for his increased scratching. The vet told me aaaaaaaalllllllll about dog food, how it is manufactured, produced, the recipe, etc. After a good 10 minutes of discussion, I decided to take her advice and put him on a dog food made specifically for dogs with allergies. It was FDA approved...Dave and I could eat it if we wanted...and the only ingredients in it were salmon and potato (Most dogs are allergic to beef, wheat, or corn, or all three!). So, after deciding to change his food, getting him some heartworm meds, fresh eye drops for his eyes when they flare up, a flea and tick treatment, and a 17 pound bag of human food made for dogs, we left the vet.
On the drive home, I am embarrassed to say, but I had so much pride in what I had done for my little friend. Even though the bill was pricey(but considering all we did, not too bad in my judgment) I had made all the decisions on how to best care for our puppy in his new environment. He was vaccinated, violated (if you get my drift), had new food, medicine, and even a free bag of allergy free dog treats. Then it hit me....this is actually what the phrase "Take care" means. You take something, whether a dog, a baby, or something else of value, and you make the decisions required to keep it safe, healthy, comfortable, and happy. It kind of puts everything in perspective. From this standpoint, it is easy to take those hard decisions and make them easy ones. Could I have continued on the cheap dog food that would cost us less? Yes, but would that really be "taking care" of Dexter? If he itched all day and gave himself scrapes from it, I wouldn't be taking care of him. A while ago I read my cousins blog about taking her new son to get shots and how she could tell from his tiny disposition that he wasn't too happy about it or with her. While she knew that decision would be uncomfortable for her son, momentarily, she knew it was the right decision in order to "take care" of little Henry.
So now I think I know why I was so nervous. Making decisions on "taking care" are an important deal, and I think I know now not to take anything lightly that has to do with the well being of anything I love, including our little dog :>).

uh oh....

So I have officially become one of those people who takes their dog with them everywhere. I guess it's not a bad thing. If it weren't for Dexter, days would go by where I wouldn't have any interaction with a living thing besides Dave. And he's so cute too....can you blame me?

And on another note....how come no one in my family blogs anymore. Once upon a time, they begged Dave and I to get a blog so we could join in on the fun, and now one of them is on a blogging "sabbatical" and it seems the others just abandoned it all together. Hmmmmmm....I wonder if there is something I am missing here.

Childhood dreams

When I was little, I dreamed of having a horse. I would always tell my parents that instead of a car when I turned 16, I wanted a horse. When I turned 16, the horse came in the form of a red Honda Civic that cost me 150 a month after my parents put the down payment on it. When I would talk about having a horse, I would always tell my parents I would ride it to school, tie it to the bike racks, and at lunch I would go feed it some hay. I was going to rig up some kind of cart for the horse to pull on our rides home and give all my friends rides. It was going to be awesome.

Yesterday I skipped out of work about 30 minutes early. I turned down the street with Dave's school and instantly became annoyed. Not only was I fighting the school speed limit of 20 mph, but there were also millions of mini vans waiting to turn into this one small driveway for child pick up. As I waited patiently for my turn to to pass, I looked at all the kids outside running to their cars, anxious to get home for the weekend. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it....

There was a dad dressed to the nines in his Ranglers and Cowboy hat perched high 0n top of a beautiful chestnut brown horse, waiting for his child to come running out of school for the ride home of his life. That kid instantly became the coolest kid around. I can just see other kids climbing into their minivans in their plush seats with their DVD players installed in the ceilings saying "Mom, Bobby's Dad picked him up on a horse!". I am glad some kid got to live out my silly, but sweet, dream of cowboying it up on the way home from school.