Fun With Wylee

You're the One

Quick wrap-up:

How could I forget to write about Emmitt Otter?????? Jon and I finally watched it on New Year's Eve day. How is it possible we've found each other and that we both love this movie?? It was meant to be, as Hanz said during our ceremony. We sent one to Hanz and Family for Christmas, but haven't heard a report back on it. I'll have to make a phone call...

We redeemed our voucher for free Penn and Teller tickets and last night was our show. We had a great time, and who can beat free???? Something different, lots of laugh. Great show.

I do realize I love TV. I watch too much and get easily addicted to new shows and have a slew of shows that I "have to watch". Well, my life just got a little simpler. We finally got a DVR!!!!! Okay, let me rephrase - we finally got a DVR we could get to work!!! Heather actually got me a TiVo last year, but we could never make it work at our place because we don't have a home phone number. Soooo.... since Cox offers one at only $10/month, it was a must to have as the new TV season starts up and I start school at the end of the month. Woohooo!!! Sooooo exciting. Well, for me at least... but I think Jon will love it once he gets to watch all of his games and Discovery shows whenever he wants.

And one final item. Don and Jane gave us a fun puzzle of Las Vegas in our batch of Christmas goodies. We finished it in a couple days - 3 sessions to be exact. Pictures of our progress below. It has led us to purchase 2 more puzzles mostly because they were on sale. I'm not sure we have the time to dedicate to any more right now since our lives were basically put on hold while we were working. Kinda sad.

Apple Cake!

The second try at Nanny's apple cake this year was successful. Enough so that I made two of them! And as good as it is hot right out of the oven, Jon says it's always better the second day after the apples' juices have a chance to sort of permeate through it. I have to agree with him.

Whispering

We've decided to use some of the Dog Whisperer's techniques in trying to get our dogs a little bit more respectful in some areas. Of course Sarge is pretty much the perfect dog except when it comes to OTHER dogs. He can't stand them and it's always a struggle on walks when we encounter other furry friends. Wylee is not exactly the most friendly pup either, but will submit a lot easier than Sarge will. Not to mention the fact that Sarge is 5 times bigger and 3 times stronger (yeah, Wylee's pretty strong :) ).

It's been a little difficult for them - and us. But with plenty of practice and consistency, we're sure we can make it happen for both of them. It basically comes down to them becoming submissive and realizing we are their pack leaders. And it also involves US realizing we are their pack leaders. Not as easy as it sounds, but we're confident we can make it happen!

Here's Sarge looking at us and seeming to say "oh yeah? We'll see who the pack leader is around here!!"

A whole lotta nuthin'

The past few days have been WONDERFUL for Jon and I. I had a 4 day weekend after deciding to take Friday off for what I considered a much-deserved break. Jon had Saturday off, so we've spent the past 3 days just hanging out with nothing to do.

A huge blessing for myself has been that the pain and discomfort I've been experiencing due to indigestion has all but gone away. The only explanation is that it was due to stress at work - and there's been plenty of that for me the past 8 weeks or so. Jon had me start a cycle of Prilosec and I tried my best to stay away from spicy or acidic foods for 2 weeks. I feel 100 times better - I am SO thankful! It's been the perfect medicine this weekend to have a whole lotta nuthin' to do. I have no idea what to expect out of work the next few weeks, but nothing could be as bad as the last 2 in particular.... right????

Friday I accomplished the only goal I had set for myself for the weekend which was to take down all of the Christmas decorations. I was correct in my prediction that I was READY to have all the stuff gone as soon as possible after Christmas. It was enough. I went to the movies and did a ton of laundry. Nothing too exciting, but wonderful to have time to do on a day off.

Saturday Jon woke up and took the dogs for a run. He's gotten into the habit of taking BOTH dogs and assures me that Wylee and his little legs do just fine on the longs treks. Jon's already lost a bit of weight and is happy to see his pants fitting easier. He loses weight so easily, it's sickening. We treated ourselves to a fun lunch at Islands but pretty much did nothing for the rest of the day except continue to clean the house. Texas played that day, and though it wasn't a guaranteed win early on in the game, Texas came through, which allowed Jon to be in a great mood. Our neighbors came over for a visit that night and she helped me work on my admission paperwork for the University of Phoenix. My class will start January 31st! I just need to decide for certain on a major.

Sunday we woke up and watched Harvest online. We have to get out and start looking for another church but it's hard to get motivated. We took yet another day to do as little as possible except for watch a few movies and get In-n-Out as our last meal of 2006. We watched the Times Square celebrations, then switched over for local Strip coverage. We love where we live because it has allowed us to go out the past two years to the sidewalk in front of our unit and watch the fireworks go off from at least 4 of the casinos. Fun stuff. Oh yeah, and I beat Jon at Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture 2... AGAIN. :) He put up a fair fight, though.

Today Jon made a great big breakfast which was such a treat and very very yummy. And a tradition in my house growing up was always the Rose Parade. I'm a little disappointed in the options for coverage where we're at - all the networks just want to plug their shows and constantly show commercials. I miss KTLA!!! Thankfully the Travel Channel showed an extensive pre-show done by KTLA along with the same broadcast and hosts I'm used to seeing. Even though it was the encore broadcast and I still had to put up with commercials... it was better than nothing. Love the Rose Parade. And we took the opportunity of our day off to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and use our gift certificates so we could buy our new pots and pans. And man, are we glad we waited! The set Jon wanted offered a free $50 pan with purchase and with our coupons, store credit and gift cards, we were able to buy a few additional items and only paid $1.47!!!!!!! We love it when that happens!!!!

Currently, we are sitting here watching USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. It's the 3rd quarter and I have every confidence in my team. My USC sweatshirt should probably be laid to rest very very soon, so it would be nice for this season to go out with a bang. Then I can treat myself to a new "Rose Bowl Champions" sweatshirt! (And maybe Wylee, too!) :)

Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of 2007 - whew, time has flown!!! We had quite a year! I'm planning on writing a belated family "Year in Review" letter to send out in a couple of weeks - anticipating some news in mid-January that will kick start that letter. But before that, here's a list of just a few things that happened in 2006:

1. February - Jon and Sarge picked up and moved to Las Vegas! Of course, the road trip on the way was half the fun of getting here. 24 hours of driving was not the highlight, but Holly was most excited to stop in Winslow, Arizona on the way!

2. May - We're engaged! Jon asked me to marry him and we promptly set a date to be married in Las Vegas 10 weeks later. Just enough time for everyone to make their plans to come into town. We didn't get too many complaints, though since we had changed our minds and scrapped our original plans to elope ALONE in Antigua.

3. July - We're married! We had the perfect small backyard ceremony. Low in stress, high in fun and friends. We felt so blessed God had brought us each other and had the perfect day to celebrate that.

And PLENTY of other big news along the way, including Jon's college football team (University of Texas) beating Holly's team (USC) in the championship game at the beginning of the year, a few illnesses, a trip to the emergency room for both Jon and Sarge, a lot of fun shows and concerts, and best of all lots of laughs.

What a year 2006 was. We're not sure how we can top it in 2007, but we're sure going to have fun trying!!!