back at blogging

it's been a long 2 weeks.....
here's our kansas stay in a nutshell:

friday (19th):
dallas, who has been gone for 3 weeks, gets delayed 3 times back from ND. apparently they are notorious for blizzards up there

sat (20th):
dallas gets in at 2:30 and we leave 45 min later.
to: CO springs for Christmas with the burnums
TTTTD: (total travel time to date): 3 hrs

21st:
dallas gets first phone call for work at 8:30to CO springs for nephew's 1st birthday party
TTTTD: 6 hrs

22nd:
dallas and i buy new shoes for Christmas. he's not a fan of the extremely flattering free sample panty hose at the shoe storecaravan to u-town (ulysses).
ez is a trooperTTTTD: 12 hrs

Christmas day, the 25th:
my grandpa decides that he'd like to go to heaven for Christmas. this was a hard cookie to swallow and difficult to accept but he's in a much better place now. we'll miss you grandpa!

23-26th:
we had a really good time hanging out with the Burnums for the holidays. it was fun seeing what kind of stuff they come up with for kids and being with the family. randy, dallas' dad has 2 memory cards full of hi-def pics but somehow i have none

we go to atwood; TTTD: 15 hrs

28th:
travel to Manhattan ks
it was surprising to see how the landscape has changed a bit since we last went to schoolTTTD: 20 hrs

29th:
celebrate my grandpa's life
get coffee at radina's with cammie, just like old times

30th:
take ez out for a walk around campus and play ball before the car ride home
it was extremely nice of mr wefald to let us play ball on his lawnTTTD: 25 hrs

up to date:
celebrating the new year with my family, and headed back the 2nd
ez found out he loves milk, wears himself out on the farm and goes to bed by 7:00
consider this picture our Christmas card as i'm not sending them out this year
don't worry willie--- we're coming back for you!

we have a fat cat, as everyone knows

willie loves his food (obviously) but so does ezra, thus the cat food dish is stored on top of the washer and dryer. unfortunately william is so fat that he cannot jump up this far to get his food so every time we go downstairs we have to lift him up to his food dish

my question: by lifting willie to his food dish, am i helping the fat one or am only the enabler for his ever expanding girth?

who knew...

crisco freezes!?

every mother's dream...

when your children voluntarily get along

if you were my neighbor, today you would have received the burnum Christmas cookie platter that looks like this:
included are:
ruth's top secret cookies with kahula instead of chocolate syrup
chewy gingerbread chocolate chip cookies
chocolate crinkles
spritz
and rum balls

when andi is away the cat will play

i had thought that william has been relatively good with the christmas tree and ornaments this year until.... i was digging under the chair for one of ezra's toys

apparently william wants coal this year

it's cold outside!

after it got done snowing today ezra and i went out to do the usual snow duties of shoveling the sidewalk and cleaning off my jeep. he doesn't really like the freezing cold but his little snow jacket helps.
when i do snow duty i like to wear dallas' cowboy boots. i realize that i look extremely ridiculous wearing these (on the outside of my jeans) but they do keep the snow from going over the top of my shoes and making my feet wet and cold(er). what is more ridiculous than the way i look is the fact that over 5 hours later the boots are in the garage and still have snow on them. maybe this year's project is going to be insulating the garage

hey dallas!
guess who else likes "your" chair?
it's not just williamalso, ezra thanks tom and melissa for the great doggie santa hat
not much new at the house here. we spent most of the day walking, playing fetch, and deep cleaning the basement. (it was scary down there!)

Christmas nightmare!

it's been a long year and i've forgotton how much william LOVES curling ribbon until we were wrapping presents todaywilliam loves being a part of gift wrapping but this year's catch, unsurprisingly, is that he doesn't want ezra around to participate in the festivities. between cat hissing and batting at dog and dog wanting to lick the wrapping paper it was quite the process. so if you get a present from us this year, please don't be surprised to find a little animal hair somehow attached!

william has found a new purpose in life:
guarding his precious curling ribbon

a little extra energy

today was cold and snowy..... so ez didn't get a lot of outside time. thus, everything dog related in the house is demolished. today he got a new soccer ball and mr. mouse stuffed squeaker animal.

his new soccer ballwhat is left of the soccerball lining and mr. mouseplaying hockey with cammie

since dallas is still up north with santa i took my own date, cammie to the zap Christmas party. cammie is one of my great friends from school and is awesome to have around

good "book" ez!

i am sure that you can only imagine how hard this picture was to get. so after going thru the whole "cat hates dog but dog likes cat but needs to sit looking toward the camera and the not cat" process i hate to admit that this might be the best one, as awful as it is.

dallas we miss you!!!

dear everyone---

i know i have not blogged for 2 days (eek! my record!)
here's my happenings with no pics, sorry:

1) doggie boot camp (this takes a lot of time and walking)
2) new art project
3) eat out with my college air force buddy and he pays for it with his per diem. YES! my tax dollars hard at work
4) go support bobbi and hang out!
5) get a surprise text message from one of my old college buddies and go to nuggets game (starts at 8:30---whew late!)
6) today cleaning out house (it's getting bad) and bowling tonight

hoping to get motivated to go Christmas shopping one of these days. it will be by myself since dallas won't get back until the 19th. :(

have you ever wondered what your husband's parenting style would be?

get a dog

so before dallas left, he tried getting extra brownie points with ez. you may have to take a double-take at this pic because it is so ridiculous. this is dallas, yes, tucking ezra in for nap time on the couch
since he is such a softie someone has to take care of the disciplinary aspects of dog-motherhood. this is why we are doing doggie boot-camp while dallas is gone: so that we don't have any extra little distractions (named dallas).
currently we are working on:
being awesome on the leash, me leading
patience
and balancing a book on your head. (we are at 5 sec)
that's right ez.... you can sniff but cant have.... at least for a little bit longer

interesting blogging about william has kind of came to a stand-still,
probably because the following is how interesting william is all day

10:00AM12:00 PM2:00 PM4:30 PM

dallas is leaving for another 2 week stay up in the arctic tomorrow. last time he came back he was complaining of a problem called "baggage confusion." apparently there are other people like us out there that prefer to buy the cheapest bag possible thus everyone's bags look the same at baggage claim.

tonight we hopefully cleared up some of that traveler confusion with a VERY elaborate, expensive and most of all, professional looking paint job

dallas and i decided to decorate our yard for Christmas this year by adding some decorative bows. to be more cost effective we decided to make them ourselves. apparently this is something neither of us practiced in our former 4-H years

happy thanksgiving!

top things i'm currently thankful for:
1) my family
2) ezra
3) aunt sylvia's stuffing
4) 7 layer salad
5) pumpkin cookies
6) wii fit

also now that the big meal is over with my mom can now start with the Christmas stuff. she has hired some VERY professional decorators along with a live faux reindeer.
she has us all suckered inyes, very exciting

oh yes, thanksgiving in ludell ks. this is becoming an annual tradition since this has historically been the only time there are enough bodies around the house to get the ridiculous amount of Christmas lights up in a single afternoon.

it was a long day for everyone

headed home

today the (good attitude-ed) boys (which includes dallas and ezra) and i are headed back to ks for thanksgiving break. this leaves our kitty home alone. misery loves company, so if you are alone at home now, or over Christmas and would like to have a scrooge to hang out with i have thought of a great new company for some side income:
RENT-A-WILLIAM

yes, all you have to do is clean up hairballs, pretend that you don't like him (because he doesn't like you back), keep his food bowl full and give the little guy some whisker likins' treats when you use the restroom.

easy enough, right?
who's first?

men and their dogs

not a lot to report....
after last night, i decided that i should never be a professional bowler. unless of course, a score of 74 gets you a big time contract
other than that.... here is jon and bailey. bailey is a weird dog.
ez has some serious nails and so dallas decided it was time for a manicure. i think ez likes it

dallas is coming home today after his glorious 2 week stay in ND. last time he came home i cut almost 1.5 inches of hair off his head. we decided at that time we should see what he would possibly look like if he started losing his hair so i trimmed the top and left the sides longas you can tell this was very thrilling for him and we're hoping genetics are good and he gets to keep all of it

for my mother

many of you william lovers out there are most likely asking, "what happened to the fat cat?!"

let me assure you that william still has 7 of his lives and is perfectly fine. his first meeting with ezra was anti-climatic and extremely disappointing.
william's current activities include:
greeting me right out of the shower for extra attention
sniffing grass, rocks and other organic matter in back yard
and sleeping on top of chair

additionally he has started purring. we didn't know that this was possible but apparently he's hard up for some of the attention he lost 2 weeks ago

to each their own

since dallas has been gone for a while and is coming home this weekend, ezra wanted to make sure that he wouldn't get confused with the treat jars.

thus, ezra insisted that they be labeled just in case

before we got ezra i had several people tell me that having a dog was like having kids.

today i had both a dog and a kid and let me tell you-- they are NOTHING alike, although,
i have found a few similarities:
1) both drool
2) both like taking naps (sometimes)
3) both put everything in their mouth
4) both have similar dookie bagsafter spending an afternoon babysitting i have concluded that i am very happy with only my dog and will only consider kids in maybe 5 years

we had our spaghetti party last night. getting ready for it was a bit crazy since i didn't get home from the store until noon! yikes! here are a couple pics to sum it up:

jen and i made a saying on each of the bibs. here she is modeling #25 pre-party

poor lynn drew the mixer beater

and we concluded the night with a little twister.
bobbi has mad twister skills
by the end of the night ez and i were done for