I Am Thankful For...

As usual I'm late with my posting. Eh - y'all will get over it right? I like Thanksgiving. It's such a relaxing holiday. This year especially as it was just me and Scott and my parents. We had a really nice day...other than in the morning when Scott and I decided to tackle my parent's Christmas lights. Surprisingly no one fell down, there were very few cuss words and the majority of the lights worked. I'd say that's a success.

Anyway, since I neglected to do the daily thankfuls on Fb I thought I'd do a blog post. Sorry if you get bored. You're welcome to quit at anytime.

I'M THANKFUL FOR...

*My handsome, nerdy, understanding, patient, funny husband. I can't even explain how much he means to me and how much I love and adore him.

*My smart, funny, handsome, playful dog. I don't know what we'd do without him. He has brought us so much joy. We are obsessed with him.

*My parents. After Scott, my mom is my best friend. I know I'm too old to be so attached to my mother and need her, but who cares? I'm a Mamma's girl :) Oh and Gary - he's ok too. Just had more tests and is still cancer free. Woo hoo!

*Sue & Scott, Sean & Melissa, Scott & Cecily. They're a lot of fun to hang with and I learn a lot from them.

*Mark, Brian, Kylie, Brady, Cade, Olivia, Lincoln, Lleyten, Taft, Eden, Jaz & McCoy. They are adorable, funny and make me so happy.

*Mom, Dad, Missy, Mel, Ryan, Tom, Tony & Nate. My in-laws are the greatest. They are such wonderful and caring people.

*My friends. I love you and am grateful for you. You make me laugh, you go to lunch with me, and you don't make fun of me (to my face) when I do stupid stuff. So thanks!

*My Savior Jesus Christ. I've felt his love and I know he cares about little ole me.

*The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I haven't always been grateful for it or even cared about it. But I know where I'd be without it and No. Thanks. The Church isn't always popular; it's not always 'politically correct', it's not always easy. But it's real. And it's true. I'm so thankful for the gospel in my life.

*Our temple sealing. What a wonderful peace it brings to me. If I didn't know my family could be together forever, I don't think I could have survived losing two babies. I know they're waiting for us!

*Our jobs.

*Our apartment. Yeah - we had our heart set on a place of our own, but we have a cozy roof over our heads and a/c in the summer so we're good :)

*Scott is almost done with school. Can't. Wait.

*aspen trees and waterfalls. They make me happy.

*blankets to snuggle under.

*learning experiences. Trials suck. But I'm grateful I've been able to step back and learn from them.

*Zoloft. I'm just gonna throw that out there. Oh - and Priolsec. Yeah. Totally grateful for both of those.

*Hair color. Seriously. I'm already so unfortunate looking so to add gray hairs to that is just so not fair!

*Scott's financial geekiness. Sometimes I want to smack him; but the majority of the time I'm so grateful that he's so organized and analytical about finances. It's so fun to be 6 months ahead on a car payment and know that if something comes up we don't have to pay it. Also great to have a savings account.

*Brita water filters. I'm a pansy and have to have filtered water but I don't want to add to the bottled water problem.

I know there's more but I need to sleep now. Nighty-night everyone!

Never Again!

Dexter went to his forever home on Thursday. I can't believe how attached we were to him so quickly. I will NEVER AGAIN rescue and foster a dog. It's too painful. While we are happy to take him from a horrid situation and place him in a great one, it was so sad. He was a total sweetie. We are sad; however, I couldn't be happier with the family he went to. We'd gotten several calls about him and had appointments set for people to come meet him. But when this man called I had a really good feeling about him. (Sadly, I can't remember his name!) An older gentleman and his wife and a 17 year old daughter. They'd had Dachshunds in the past and knew just how to care for them. It was such a relief not to have to worry about explaining how to care for their backs or how to pick him up.

When this nice man came over, Dexter went right to him, tail wagging like crazy. It's like he knew and he was letting me know that "hey! I like this guy!" The man picked him up and Dexter gave him kiss after kiss and snuggled right up to him. I teared up because I was happy and sad at the same time. I couldn't be happier with his new family. And Chewy couldn't be happier that he doesn't have to share our attention with anyone else. He did like playing with Dexter, but boy was he bitter when Dexter curled up on Scott's lap! I mean, how dare he! ;)

So now I've done it. I rescued a sweet boy, nursed him back to health, and found him a forever home, and figured out that I don't have the nerves to be a doggy foster mom.

Dexter & stuff

Normally if Petsmart is doing and adoption outside their store, I hold my hands to the side of my face and look straight ahead so I can't see all the cute dogs that need homes. A couple of weeks ago I ran over to Petsmart by my work to grab some food for Chewy, and there he was. A little, tiny Dachshund in one of the cages. Against my better judgement I went over for a closer look and saw that he was emaciated and shaking, and my heart just broke. Again, against my better judgement I asked one of the women outside who was with the shelter that brought the dogs about the little doxie. She said he was an owner surrender and that he's refused to eat and been really depressed since being in the shelter. She dumped him because he liked to chase her cats. My heart broke a little more.

After buying Chewy's food I got in the car and called Scott...and now he's home with us. Our brains told us no, our hearts wouldn't hear of it. Turns out the little guy was not only way too skinny, but had an upper respiratory infection. But now he's neutered, over his infection, and slowly starting to fatten up. We adore him. Chewy adores him. My parents adore him. We wanted to name him Han Solo, but he already answered to Dexter and we didn't want to confuse him. But he's still the Han Solo to our Chewy :)

Our adoption benefit went SO amazingly well. We were completely blown away by the love and support we received. We thought we'd be lucky to get $300; we would have been ecstatic to get $500. We were totally overwhelmed when the tally reached a little over $1700!!! That's a little over half of what we needed for a birth mom so we're thrilled.

Next up in the process is meeting with our assigned case worker, where we smile and nod and try to exude confidence that we will be okay parents. Wish us luck!!