Things Duncan Has Eaten

Hello, friends. As many of you know, we absolutely love Duncan, our son/dog. He is crate-trained and spends his days while we work (and until recently, nights) in the crate. Of course, Grandma Jaye comes over and plays with him regularly (especially on our long-days), so he is not caged up all the time.

He recently celebrated his 1 year birthday, which for us meant it was time to take his crate-training in a new direction: free reign training. This, of course, means that we are training him to be a free reign doggy... one who is not destined to be in the crate unless by his own choosing while we are not at home. He will have access to his toys, not have to drink out of a hamster water-thingy, and, of course, can sleep on the sofa all day long (his preferred activity of the weekends).

Until recently, he had been on steroids for his allergies, and with the frequent overnight accidents, our training was delayed. We did, however, get him a doggy bed outside of the crate with the anticipation of beginning training when the sickness cleared. He has since been doing great with sleeping outside of the crate, and aside from a few bizarre incidents where I wake to find him licking my armpit from the side of the bed, he spends his time on his bed until we wake up in the morning.

Now, with free reign doggy training, we have been leaving him for short times outside of the crate, typically while doing errands such as getting the mail, running to the store, taking a tree stump out of our yard, etc.

Duncan had been doing great with all of it until recently... I am not sure which was the first to go, but here are the things we have so far noticed:

1. Puzzle pieces. This actually occurred while I was downstairs doing laundry. I have been working on a marble puzzle, which is perhaps why I did not notice it immediately. So far we estimate he has pilfered about 100 pieces.

2. A camping chair bag. We knew by little blue pieces of fabric left next to the chair, which interestingly enough, was left intact.

3. Many pieces of my... ahem... lady laundry was pulled out of the dirty clothes hamper and hidden at various locations around our house.

And here's the big one...

4. Jeff's glasses. Duncan somehow managed to get them off the middle of the table, and left us chewed up lenses (but not broken, much credit to LensCrafters and their "no-break guarantee") and a long piece of wire.

Needless to say, the free reign training has taken a few steps back. Perhaps, one day (most likely when we pay off the extra pair of glasses), we will begin again, but it is still a work in progress. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

Exam

Well, guys, here's something that's been keeping my time quite occupied.

My clinical supervisor asked me awhile back (read: about a month ago) to take my Clinical Licensure Exam. I immediately dived in to the intense studying, often working many hours a day and coming home to study until it was time for bed. The reason for the time crunch is that this exam was only available for me to take until the end of this month; due to changing regulations, I would need to wait until the end of my clinical supervision (around 2 years) to be eligible once again to take this exam.

Jeff, bless his heart, was patient and understanding, even though we came to a mutual decision that THIS SUCKED!

Flash forward to this morning: I set off, confident, towards the exam center. As I drove toward the testing location, I had plenty of time to mentally review key points of my studies (thank you, road construction). A pan-handler in the parking lot threw off my concentration some, but I was still determined to pass this test.

As the test began, I quickly realized the questions were MUCH harder than I had studied and prepared for. My confidence began to wane the farther I went into the exam. Per exam software, I was able to "flag" questions I was unsure of the answer to and that I wanted to go back and review. At the end of 170 questions (and 2 hours), I had flagged all but 12. As I began to go back through the questions, my confidence continued to decline and my anxiety began to increase. I had passed the practice test offered online (for a fee) and the knowledge of this is probably what helped me to stay in that room. I went through the flagged questions, and another hour had passed. I only had 1 hour left. Now the number of questions remaining flagged totaled around 20. As the timer continued to count down the minutes, sheer panic overtook me. My eyes were beginning to cross and tears were beginning to form.

Finally, with 10 minutes left (and the timer now blinking red), I sat staring at not more questions, but at a button on the screen asking me if I was sure I was finished. Was I? Did I get enough correct? The last month of intense review, hours with my family lost, and the fear of admitting failure to those dearest to me weighed on me like concrete blocks. I kept asking myself: Was it all enough???

I clicked the button, as mentally prepared as I was ever going to be. In a terrifying moment where I began to second guess my answers and wanted to go back, the screen changed. A testing location survey appeared in front of me. I laughed as tears rolled down my face. A short reprieve while I answered the survey questions. Again, I had to summon the courage to state I was finished with the survey questions and ready to see the test results. A lump formed in my throat and my body became weak as I clicked "Yes, I am ready."

So, was it enough??? Did I pass??? Stay tuned for the next episode of this crazy rollercoaster ride, same Bat time, same Bat channel!!!




























JUST KIDDING!!! I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long Time

WOW LIFE IS CRAZY!!!

Hopefully, we'll be able to update soon! Hope all is well with you and yours! :)

Catching up

As with any vacation, the arduous process of re-entering the life you previously had begins with sudden force... typically occurring before you are ready and taking you by surprise. "Why, yes, of course I know it is Sunday, and here are the plans I have made to be ready for work tomorrow..." and so on and so forth. HOWEVER, I am certain that anyone can attest Sunday is a restless night, Monday morning deadlines appear out of nowhere, and you are left wondering how in the heck you dealt with all of this madness in the first place.

Now, I began this process last week. All of the pre-planning in the world could not have assisted in the transition from waking up to a mountain view to begin my day of non-planned activities to seeing clients, making phone calls to various professionals, and catching up on the world... we have also missed the news the last month or so, and it has been fascinating on learning all of the things of significance that have and have not happened.

Jeff will begin this process tomorrow. As I am typing, he is snuggled in bed preparing for the week ahead. I shudder to think of how his week of video games will transition back into the "real world."

On the plus side, we were able to have some friends over this weekend. The weather deemed it necessary to rain out our cook out, so we were reduced to inside dinner ideas. We decided to have "build your own Chipotle burrito night," complete with veggies, rice, meat, tortillas, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, and salsa. They were pretty good, if I do say so myself (and I will: They were pretty good). :) It was an excellent opportunity to catch up on the happenings of life (can you believe things have been happening to other people, too?!), see some friends, and reminisce about the old times (most of which I was not present for but enjoyed listening to anyway).

Now bed is calling, and I bid you goodnight. Know that I miss everyone and think of you often, no matter who you may be. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Vacay

Hey all! Yes, we made it the 2 month mark without blogging! WOO!... (I am writing that in the hopes that you will think our break from blogging was intentional... did it work?)

We sure have been busy (NO, NO BABIES YET). The month of March flew by as we got settled in with our new car, new furniture in main living room, cleaning out plumbing lines, and working working working! I am sure some other stuff happened, too.

April was filled with visitors, auctions (we got 1/4 of a cow!), visiting others, and working working working!

We decided to take a vacay to rest from our exhausting lives. First up was Oklahoma City (Jeff's cousin was getting married). Our arrival in OKC was certainly notable. We decided to take Duncan with us on our 10 day whirlwind tour of the midwest, and our hotel in OKC would not allow pets. We had to drop him off in Doggy Daycare... the only problem was everything had been booked online and took us by surprise when we arrived in OKC. For instance, I probably would not have selected that particular daycare knowing that windows would be barred in the neighborhood, or knowing there would be that many broken down and busted out cars would be sitting there. In any case, it was a tearful goodbye as we left him in the garage of a shady looking establishment. I spent all weekend making Jeff call them to ensure he had not been sold, had all of his teeth replaced with gold or silver, and that they were actually taking care of him.

When I finally was able to stop crying (mostly) upon arrival to the hotel, I promptly locked our only set of keys in the car. Welcome to the first day of our vacation.

As we were checking in at the hotel, me with tears still streaming and Jeff looking upset because of the car issue, Jaye mentioned we were in town for a wedding and the clerk began looking at me as if to ask if I needed assistance in escaping from a kidnapping. All too funny.

In the end, Duncan was returned to us in perfect condition. He even smelled better! And the grand total for Doggy Daycare for an entire weekend was the same as our KC Doggy Daycare fee for 1 day: $22.00. I am still grateful we were able to get him back before he was sold.

The next leg of our trip included a journey to Western Kansas. Spearville and my folks are great and it was wonderful to spend time with them. Duncan enjoyed the football field next to the house and spent much of the time chasing tennis balls and pondering the meaning of life... or something. He just seemed really happy. I also got to see some of my friends from high school, spend the afternoon in the park with my niece, and beat my Mom in Scrabble a few times. :)

Liberal, KS, aka my birthplace came next. We have been trying to get my baptismal certificate updated since August. Jeff and I decided that we would arrive at the parish of my baptism and remain until the certificate was updated. Boy were we wrong. They would not update it with the materials I had available, and I was not able to get the "necessary" items while there (did you know that a marriage license, even though signed by a priest, would not work as proof of marriage?!... and in fact, neither would the paper mailed from the Archdiocese at the time of marriage indicating that we WERE MARRIED?!). So we spent all to brief a morning there and still dead-ended on getting the certificate completed.

On to Colorado! We spent a wonderful time with Jeff's family in the Denver area, had some wonderful home cooked meals, and even got to see a movie. We met with my cousins 1 evening for dinner and saw the prettiest sunset I think I have ever been privy to.

We then loaded up the car and prepared for a LO-O-O-O-O-O-O-ONG trip home. Overall, I calculated we spent 30 hours in the car simply driving from KC to OKC to Spearville to Liberal to Denver and back to KC. I can't imagine what the total would be if we were to add in all the driving we did while in these locations to go to the wedding, sightsee, and visiting friends and family. I am sure it would probably double!

***Rant alert*** On a connected note, I do believe that when we travel Jeff and I will start holding visiting hours at a public location. For instance, if we are in town from Sunday night to Wednesday, we will be at a restaurant on Monday from 4-8 and Tuesday from 9-2 (maybe not even the 2nd day). Anyone who wants to see us can stop by, and if they are not able to make it we will be happy to see them next time. I became pretty frustrated with the amount of driving to see others. People who lived out of town and drove through where we were could not be bothered to stop, but we were expected to then drive out of town to see them, tacking on an hour in additional travel time (and time away from our family). Yep, I do believe we will be letting people come to us in the future. We spent waaaaaay too much time traveling during our travels to spend time away from our families for people who would not take the time to stop and see us (other mama in dodge: this is not about you).

In any case, we love all of you, am glad to be back from vacation, and can't wait to see what the future holds. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

DMV-tastic

As with buying a new car, there comes the wonderful trip to the DMV to change over tags, register the vehicle, etc. I thought I would share with you experience #1 at the DMV (as I did NOT stay today and will need to go back at a later date).

I was almost hit in the parking lot, both while driving and then while walking. I do believe this could be one of the most dangerous places EVER!

Now, I want to preface all of this by stating that I have intentionally done some annoying things to speed up the line in the past (a rousing few rounds of the song "BINGO," anyone?). However, even my tricks could not have held up against what I faced before me.

I stood in the "check in/information" line for several minutes. I declined going to the 2 open kiosks for checking in because I had a few questions for the DMV Lady (as it has been several years since my last car purchase... DMV Lady will re-appear later in the story, so keep your eyes peeled). When it was finally my turn, I began asking my questions. As I am talking (and I am not even exaggerating or kidding in the slightest here), an arm REACHES around me to begin typing on the kiosk. I quickly survey the empty space surrounding the other 2 kiosks before I turn to confront the reach-around-er. "Seriously? You couldn't have gone to the other one? Do you mind backing up a little bit?" Because I turned slightly to confront the other woman, this apparently opened up an unidentifiable but pre-requisite amount of space at the counter telling the woman I was finished. She began asking questions over my head (because I was still standing there, after all). The DMV Lady began to answer them over my head! After this example, several people followed in suit doing the same thing. It was as if I was not standing there, and was booted to the back of the line even though I was at the front.

When I finally grew tired of waiting in the middle of conversations, it was time to wait the hour for my turn to register my vehicle. During the five minutes I actually waited, I was asked by three separate people where the restroom was located ("Do I LOOK like I work here?!" I wanted to ask, but politely answered "Further down that way, I believe.") I'd had enough. I went back to the DMV Lady to ensure I had the proper materials and that my waiting would not be in vain (my previous question that had been abandoned).

I noticed there was nobody standing in the 6 foot deep area allotted between the information check in kiosks and the back wall, so I took my chance. As I was standing asking my questions, I felt something jostle against my back. In turning, I saw a middle aged woman who obviously felt the clothing on us was an appropriate amount of space to stand and wait in line. I requested she ALSO scoot back. I got a sweet smile and no movement. I handed my ticket to the DMV Lady (who also saw nothing wrong with this scenario) and told her I would try again another time. She also just smiled sweetly.

Ah, the DMV. Another world that makes my mental health training go into overdrive and want to do social skills with anyone available.

Hope all is well with you and yours!

RIP Gracie Lou

Well, as you may have guessed by the title, Gracie Lou is not of our world anymore. She's definitely a part of SOMEBODY'S world, and I'm fairly certain that somebody is cursing our existence right now... tee hee. We'll get to that.

First, as many people know, Jeff likes to research cars on the internet. As he's been driving Gracie Lou for the past month or so, he's been on research OVERDRIVE. We've talked to people in California, Minnesota, and the eastern coast discussing the finer parts of different vehicles. Finally, he found one at a nearby CarMax that he wanted to take for a drive.

Let me preface by telling you the first time we looked at our now-car, it was way past my bedtime. Jeff got a phone call as I was falling asleep on the couch, and he helped me put on my shoes as he loaded my sleepy butt into the car. The saleslady was not impressed when I told her I wanted to drive it during the day so I could tell if my view was truly blocked or if it was the "goofy $^%#" they put all over the windows.

We decided to do another test drive on Friday while the sun was still up. Well, as typically happens in our lives, we ended up having plans on Friday that we had forgotten prior to driving the car. We arrived immediately before closing (and very close to the point in time where the saleslady went into stalker overdrive trying to get the sale). We test drove it again and decided it couldn't hurt to have Gracie Lou appraised.

Well, Jeff and I have come the agreement that it was dark, near the end of the evening, and the worker did not feel like appraising Gracie Lou thoroughly (or even possibly at all).

Let me back up and tell you about Gracie Lou's recent rapid descent out of our lives. First, I'm fairly certain everyone knows about the cosmetic damages from when I ran into a pole in the parking garage, and the cracks in the window from passing dump trucks... oh, and the smell. What was that smell, really?! However, I'm not sure everyone knew of the leaking coolant (even after spending hundreds of dollars to repair it), heater gone out in the dead of winter, and the check engine light which would come on at least once a month that typically meant more hundreds of dollars down the drain. In addition, Jeff hit a pothole that led to bubbling of the tires.

The appraisal process were supposed to have been very thorough. He was supposed to have driven the car, taken it to a well lit garage, and checked it over. We have reason to believe he did none of these, because the appraisal came in WAAAAAY over what we expected and took less time than it usually takes to start Gracie Lou. Needless to say, when we saw the numbers we quickly signed anything put in front of us and giggled to ourselves on how upset CarMax would be come daylight.

We hadn't planned on it, but we ended up driving a white 2005 GMC Envoy Denali home that evening (actually, around 11 that night). So far it has treated us wonderfully. Best of all, no check engine light on and the heater works. :)

Hope all is well with you and yours. :)