A Lesson In Patience

We've had Lucy now for almost a week. It has been a trying time, but also such a fun time. We're so in love with her! One of the things I struggle with most in life is patience and having Lucy has most definitely tested that. I know she's a puppy, but for me when I tell her "NO" and give her a little swat to confirm that, I would think she would catch on right away. No one wants to get there nose or bottom swatted, right?!! For Lucy it doesn't work quite like that. Last night was the first night in a few that I didn't cry as I was going to sleep. As I would lay down I would think about the day with Lucy and all the things I could have done differently and how tired I felt having her now in my life. Thinking those things would make me sad and then I would start to cry. In the morning when I come down and see her looking at with me with excitement for the day it makes it all worth it. Now if only we could get her to go to the bathroom on command life we be perfect.

Never a Dull Moment

Life has been nothing short of crazy the last month. It all started with a doctors appointment for me, which lead to surgery a week later, and now has resulted in us having a puppy! I'll start from the beginning. More often then not I was having stomach and abdominal cramping. I've had it for years and thought nothing of it. Blake calls me a special person; and I don't think in the nice way. I finally decided to get it checked out and learned I have endometriosis. The doctor said he could do surgery the next week and it was outpatient so I could go home the same day. The word surgery wasn't what I exactly wanted to hear, but I figured if I could be pain free, and maybe have an easier time getting pregnant (yes-we've been trying for quite some time with no luck yet) it was so worth it. We did the surgery the next week, 4th of July week so I would have the holiday as an extra day to recover. (Did I mention that I found out in my preop appointment that my doctor who was going to be doing the surgery was LDS. It actually made me feel so much more at ease going into the procedure). The procedure went well. It gave me a new prespective on what women must feel like after having a baby. My stomach was so full of the gas they put in you so I looked like I was about 5 months pregnant, my muscles were so sore from the laser going through them to get to where they needed to be, and I couldn't wear pants that didn't have an elastic waistband because they wouldn't fit. Everytime I moved from the sit to stand position it hurt, and especially when I went to lay down. After the 3 days of recovery, which mostly consisted of going to several 4th of July barbeques and functions when I should have been in bed resting, I figured I would be ready to head back to work. It was an outpatient surgery so of course I would up to it. SO NOT THE CASE!! I went to work on Tuesday and was in a constant state of haze, discomfort, pain, and a fever. It was the hardest day I have ever had at work. I decided that the next day I was definitley going to be staying home and recovering in bed. So Wednesday I stayed home and slept most of the day because on Thursday Blake and I were headed to Ensign Ranch for 3 days to be chaperones for 11 youth at Youth Conference. As we pulled out of the driveway that morning tears were starting to stream down my face as I was reminded how sore I still was after my procedure. Nonetheless we went to the Youth Conference and had such an amazing time. We had such a great group of kids, met a lot of really nice people, and had some great testimony enriching activities. Now this brings us to this past weekend. Blake and I have talked so much about getting a golden retriever puppy. We've talked about the pros and cons and I think we would have had one months ago, but I was a little hesitant. On Friday I was looking online at puppies in our area and came across a listing for some 10 minutes from our house. So I suggested to Blake that we may want to check them out. We went there to look, and everyone knows you don't really just look. So at about 9:30pm we became parents to our 12 week old golden retriever we named "Lucy." We love her so much!! We've only had her with us for 2 days but we've learned so much about her already. She's a 5:00am kind of girl, which will be great during the week but rough on the weekends. She loves being outside in the grass. My lawn will never look the same again but she is so happy to just be laying or running outside in the yard. She does love to eat leaves or flowers off my plants so we've been working on that with her and I think she's starting to get the hang of that. Potty training has been a little challenging. She knows where the door is to go outside, but because she's outside so much we don't know how often she's actually going potty so it's hard to make her go if she maybe already has recently. She's loves attention. She will be fine playing all by herself and then start to whimper if she thinks your not paying enough attention to her. We've tried to get some pictures of her but haven't been too successfull at that yet. We will take some more and post them later.

Before and After

After about 2 months of hard work, our yard is finally coming together. We really like the results. Drumroll please...

BACKYARD BEFORE



BACKYARD AFTER



SIDE BACKYARD BEFORE



SIDE BACKYARD AFTER



FRONT FLOWER BED BEFORE



FRONT FLOWER BED AFTER



OUR SMALL GARDEN



FRONT FLOWER BEDS



FRONT OF OUR HOUSE



Our Backyard Just Got a Touch of "MANLINESS"



So this was pretty much the hardest project that I have ever completed in my life. Sheena and I will probably be spending the next 12 months or so in physical therapy. Wish us well.