11 days and counting

We are counting the days 'till we get home, 11 days left. We are trying to sell the travel trailer, but not having much luck, stupid economy. We are getting a lot of offers for $4000-$4900, but we paid $8000 and put a lot of money into it, but what is there to do but take the best offer? Oh well, it served its purpose for the last 16 months.

Scott's parents will be here next week for graduation, and my last day at work will be Monday, December 13th. We will be leaving on the morning of the 14th, and we will be home just in time for Matt and Diana's wedding!!

...been a while

I know it has been quite a while since I posted...what can I say???

There really is not a lot to talk about, things are pretty much the same. Scooter is still doing very well in school, he is now Harley certified and has a 3.9 GPA. I am very proud of him.

Tobey is doing pretty good, we now give him benadryl for his allergies instead of that expensive vet stuff. I called my vet back in MN and he told me it is fine, pretty much the same thing. Seems to work well for him, and saves me tons of money!!

I am doing alright also, still working and my health is getting better. We have not gone anywhere interesting lately, although we did go to the state fair here. It was very disappointing. I took the camera with because it is advertised so much here and they talk for months about how big and great it is. Well, it is not even as big as the Steele county fair. It took 1 1/2 hours to walk the whole fair, I mean in and out of all of the buildings, all the way around the whole thing, up and down all the aisles. We went on the day they were having a "bike show". Some show, there were about 10 bikes there, and nothing too special. I did not take a single picture. :( They did have a wiener dog race there and we watched it. It was about 40 seconds. They put hot dog bun costumes on 5 dogs and they ran around a track just 1 time, and that was it.
Anyway, I looked at it as a day out of the house...

That's about it, nothing much else to report. I can't wait to see everyone again!

Well let's see if I can blog today. I have been having a lot of computer problems lately. Anyway, When I was back in Mn I wanted to see rain, and I got to see it. It seems I brought the rain back to AZ with me, because it has rained almost every day since I have been back. We had a Monsoon last Thursday. We got 1.52 inches of rain, and everything was so flooded that it took me an hour and a half to drive the 9 miles home from work. Yep, everything was so flooded that streets were closed. It is amazing how a little rain here floods everything. Luckily we managed to survive with no damage.

I can't tell you all how much I appreciate my parents bringing me home for the wedding. It meant so much to me to see everyone, even if it was only for a short time. I can't wait to see everyone again.

Well it is another day of hot, sunny and dry here in AZ, but back in MN things have not been so calm. Last Thursday night there were a few storms that hit the area I am from. There is a lot of damage, 3 lives and a lot of homes were taken by the tornadoes that came with the storms. The house I own there had basement flooding, but minor thankfully. Others were not so lucky. These storms produced 36 tornadoes, flooding and very strong winds, up to 125 mph. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families that were affected. Normally I would have relished the opportunity to be out "chasing" the storms, but I think even I would have been hesitant to be out in that kind of storm. Although they are very interesting to watch, I do not think I would have been out with that many tornadoes, and they were not just the run-of-the-mill twisters, they were colliding and splitting, making these storms even more dangerous. I think I would have been exited and devastated all at once.

Poor, poor weiner

My poor little weiner has been sick. He has allergies, and that caused an ear infection. He has lots of medication now, and he seems to be feeling a little better. (He has decided lately that he needs a pillow like people do!)

Just look at that little face!!!


It seems that the Arizona climate is not good for either of us. We have 6 months left, then Scooter will be done with school. I can't wait to see how Tobey reacts to the winter in Minnesota again.
Everything else is the same, still working, Scooter is still doing really well in school. It is getting hot again, in the 100's. I am not looking forward to the next couple of months. I guess we will just keep plugging away!!!

CSI

Last Saturday we had quite the scene around here. There were a lot of police, and a while later the coroner and the crime scene investigators. Yep, the show CSI was right in the back yard. We still do not know for sure what happened, but our 53 year old neighbor was found in his trailer, and they think he was in there for a few days. The investigators and police were over there from about 4 in the afternoon until about 2 in the morning.

Other than that it is pretty much the same old same old here. It is getting hot here again, it was 112 yesterday. Not fun!!

You know when you use a card to pay at the gas station? Well, I will be making the cashier take the card and swipe it on the register from now on. Yes, someone got my card umber and tried to rack up $3000. I am very glad that my bank is watchful, as they declined most of the charges and called me. The card has been deactivated and I am disputing all charges on the card. I had to call my credit card companies and put them all on hold. It really makes it hard to do anything with my own bank accounts. The state of Minnesota is also working on how someone could apply for unemployment in my name. Whoever these people are that steal people's identity and bank accounts should be prosecuted and punished enough that they do not do it again. To hell with "rights" for these people. What about the rights of the people that they stole from??? I am outraged and disgusted that the law does more to protect these thieves than the victims.

Ok, I will stop ranting and raving now.

Monster (AKA Crelo)

Monster. That is his nickname. He is our kitty, or cat, or more truly our Monster. I miss Monster. He is a crazy little dude, but I miss him none the less. Just look at how cute and innocent he looks (key word looks):



This is more like it:


Glowing crazy looking eyes, looking ready for action, that is him!!! He likes to chase and bite. I know you all think I'm nuts for missing that, but there was never a dull moment with both him and Tobey around!! I wonder what it will be like when they see each other again. I bet they miss sitting in the window together, just look at the view:



And what a view it is!!! Silly animals!!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!!!!

First I have to let you all know that today is Tobey's 7th birthday, so happy birthday doggie!!! This is pretty much how he spent his birthday:
Sleepy dog!!!
He spent the day with our friend Dre, who was nice enough to come and doggie-sit so we could go to the Out of Africa park today. Talk about up close and personal. You get to ride in "bush buses" through the park with some of the animals in free range. We fed a giraffe from the bus, and here he is licking Scooter's hand:


Then we have zebras:



and bears:


And a tiger:


This is the "tiger splash" show that we watched. This white tiger's name is Chalet. The lions and tigers are not trained. There were a few moments when the other handlers had to come running to help.

And this lioness is Kumba. Both Kumba and Chalet are 22 months old. They are young enough to play, but also know how to hunt, so the handlers have to be careful. The male lions are all at least 5 years old, so they do not get human interaction anymore because they are too territorial and predatory.

The toys are to play with the animals ans also to distract them in case they forget that the people in there are "friends", not meals.

Then there is Boom Boom, the 38 year old Rhino. He did not move all day, he just slept, and he snores rather loudly.


Then it was off to the birds. One of them talked a little, but they mostly made a lot of noise.


I have never seen animals so close. There were other animals and more lions and tigers, but I can not put them all on here. It was a very good day. This park is amazing and I would highly recommend going there if you ever find yourself in AZ. It was a beautiful day, about 80 degrees. I brought a sunburn home with me today, of course! But otherwise it was wonderful.

Road trip

So, yesterday we went on a road trip. We went to the Hoover Dam. It is huge and an awesome sight to see.




This is the Arizona side. About half way over it you enter Nevada, so then we decided to go to Las Vegas. Yep, we went to Vegas. It was really kind of disappointing, but we did see some pretty neat stuff. This was the highlight of it for Scooter:



Otherwise we did not get to see a lot because we had Tobey with and you can not carry a dog in Vegas at all, so we just drove through. That was fine though because it wasn't all that we had hoped for. Then we decided what the heck and we went to Laughlin.



This is the Tropicana. We tried to stay at a hotel in Laughlin, and we did get a room, but it was not at all clean and smelled like pee, so we got our money back and left. We got home at about 3:30 this morning. It was a lot of fun and now we can say that we have been to Vegas and Laughlin. We even left with $10 more than we went with. Hopefully we can go back before we come home!!

We also went through a Joshua tree forest. Yep, that's right little brother, there are Joshua trees and boy are they weird.


I am definitely going back to this forest to get more pictures before we come home.

I'm back....

Sorry it has been so long, but someone thought it was fun to hack my blog. I'm back now, so we shall see how it goes now. Things have not changed much since last I blogged, Tobey is doing much better, and we have moved to our new location.



As you can see we have a fenced in yard, and we bought an enclosed trailer. Our new yard is much bigger, and we do not have to pay extra to have the trailer and it fits inside the fence. Tobey enjoys the fenced in yard too, because during the day he can be outside without a chain. Here he is sunbathing:

It's a dog's life!!!

In other news, Scooter has passed with a 99%!! He has now started the Harley only part of class. This means that we are down to 8 months left!

Poor Doggie

We took Tobey to the Vet yesterday because his back feet have been swollen and he has a hard time walking and he can't jump. I have to say that the Vet here was nothing at all like my Vet at home. The Vet at home is caring and gentle and explains what is going on and how to treat the problem. The Vet here is supposedly a world renowned Vet and is supposed to be so good, but I was not impressed. He did not give any explanation as to what is going on, and prescribed a bunch of medication without any real instructions. I called my Vet at home today, adn he had some explanations and gave me instructions as to how to administer treatment. He believes, as do I, that Tobey has an allergy, but the medication that this Vet gave me is not for allergies. I guess I will be getting my money back and finding a new Vet here. My poor little doggie, he is just not himself.

I have an aunt and uncle here in AZ, so we are making plans to get together on Sunday. I am excited. We moved last Saturday, so there are a lot of things going on here. I will get some pictures of the new place as soon as I can.

no title

We witnessed the worst thing we have ever seen today. Scooter picked me up from work tonight and on the way home we saw an explosion right in front of us on the other side of the road. There was a van stopped engulfed in flames and a jeep careening out of control, also on fire. We could not see if there were more vehicles involved, but the thought kept going through my mind that if I had chosen to work late when asked today that could have been Scooter. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever seen. The explosion was huge. I called 911 and just as I hit send there was an officer coming up to the scene. Amazing timing for the officer to be driving up at that time. I told the dispatcher that there was an officer on scene. I just can not get that image out of my head. Scooter is shaken up too, I think it take a while to get over. It just keeps playing over and over in my mind. My heart goes out to the families of those people.

Anyway, we still do not have water. We thought it was fixed, but when Scooter got home from school yesterday he came home to another flood. Luckily someone came by and shut the water off while we were gone. The lights in here seem to be going out systematically, so we do not have much light right now. We are going to do as much home "fixing" as possible this weekend after I get off work. Then my glasses broke, and, well, you know, it's me, so......it never ends. Oh well, it could be a lot worse! I am just thankful for the good things in life. I can't tell you how much I miss being home.

Enough

Ok, enough is enough. Last night we were awakened by Tobey barking hysterically. At first I was annoyed, but then he had that tone-the one that says "somebody is here." He was right. It was 12:42 am, and someone was knocking. I jumped up to see what was going on, and I no more than reached the bathroom floor when i was rudely greeted by cold water on the floor. Yes, our water pipes burst once again. Someone was walking by when they heard the water rushing out of our camper. I am so grateful that they decided to stop and knock, or we would have slept until 5:30 without ever knowing. The bathroom, kitchen and living areas were completely soaked. The carpet may be ruined at this point. We will be spending our weekend working on this once again. Yay.
On a better note, a friend is on her way down here right now, and I can't wait to see her. She will be 3 hours away, but after work Saturday we are going to make the drive to visit. At least I have something to look forward to.

counting blessings

Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work, and I hard a loud explosion and then the power went out. I thought a transformer blew, and went outside like most of our neighbors. One of the neighbors was out on his morning jog and came running up to me. He was frantic. The sound and power outage was not due to a blown transformer, but a plane crash. A small plane crashed right across the street, luckily is a small section in between two other parks. There were suddenly sirens blaring and rescue personnel all over. They blocked off our street. The pilot was alone in the plane and did not make it. So sad. The story right now is that the engine died and that is what caused the crash. No one heard any engine sounds before the crash. We are all so fortunate that he managed to maneuver the plane to that spot. I like to believe that he did his best to guide the plane to a spot where there were no other people would get hurt.

I am thankful for all of the blessings in my life. I have the best family and a few good friends, and of course, my crazy and lovable animals. I have a home and a vehicle that runs, I have a job. Sometimes you just have to look at what you have an appreciate it.

We survived

We survived the storms all wee without too much damage. If you saw the weather down here then you know that we had 2 tornadoes - yes, TORNADOES -here in AZ. We had high winds and a lot of flooding this week. We were lucky enough to not live in the flood zones. Our street was blocked off Thursday night just beyond our driveway. The only damage we really sustained was that our camper leaks. We had to bring in the slide-out. One more thing that was supposed to be new on this camper that isn't. We were really lied to when we bought this camper. Life, right? We are still counting our blessings, though.
How about them Vikings? We should have had that game. I guess now we have a whole post season to discuss if Favre is going to come back. There is some serious depression in this house right now. Well, lets go Colts.

Missing Home

So today was our annual family "winter get together". I missed it this year. I called and talked to several people, but it just isn't the same as being there. While I have decided to make the best of being this far from home it is hard to not be able to be there to see everyone. I do not miss the harsh Minnesota cold, but the holidays just aren't the same without snow and being surrounded by loved ones. At least I have Scott and Tobey to keep me entertained. If only you could see them fight over the couch. It's a game that Tobey plays (he's doing it right now). How many people have seen a 12 pound dog push a person off the couch?! Ahhh, they keep life interesting. Anyway, I miss you all and I can't wait to see everyone again.

The Grand Canyon

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

First of all, I have to say how much I loved having the moms here for a week. We did as much sight seeing as we could, there is never enough time. First, we stopped in Sedona, which is beautiful, and then we took that mountain pass up through Flagstaff. It wasn't snowing this time and there were some neat little Native American stands at the top of the mountains.

Next our journey took us to the Grand Canyon. We did manage to get some pictures, take a look:





I never knew that it gets that cold there. I snows, obviously, and it was only about 6 degrees when we were there. It was a gorgeous view none the less. That night we stayed in a hotel in Flagstaff, then we came home for the rest of the week.

The time went so fast, I wish we had more time to just be together. I have a new job that didn't provide us with much time for the rest of the week, but I am grateful for the time we had.

So, my New Years message to everyone is to cherish the time we have, I know it sounds cliche, but when you don't get to spend time with the ones you love every moment means so much. I miss you all. Love and Peace in the new year.