Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas in Wisconsin

Well, after the chaos with the dogs and the long and boring drive we did have a nice Christmas in Wisconsin. It’s always good to spend time with family and a few close friends in the freezing state of WI. When I first arrived it was so good to be around family that I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to move back to be near the fam. Even by the third day it was still on my mind. The crazy snow and ice storm didn’t even damper my thoughts on the fifth day; however, waking up on Christmas Eve to the seventh day of doom and gloom that quickly changed my thoughts. I love the sun and to go seven days without seeing it was seriously depressing. I really don’t think I could ever move back because of that. After seven days of doom and gloom I was ready to pack my bags and do the drive back to sunshine with Andy and the dogs. I only had another full day to get through and then we were to hit the roads. I was so excited to leave that doom and gloom the morning after Christmas to get back to sun and warmth. So, I learned that it’s great to go back and spend time with loved ones, but it’s not a place for me to live…at least not right now or anytime soon.

Here is our family Christmas picture (sans Captain) in front of my parent’s festive fire place. I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year as I can’t believe today is the last day of 2009. Will write again next year!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

It's A Doggy-Dog Xmas

We arrived in Wisconsin and we stuck to the same plan as last year, Madison stays with Andy and his mom while Izzy stays with me at my parent’s house. This worked great last year because it seemed they behaved better while they are apart. Since Madison was holed up in Laura’s house all week with no friends she didn’t have a partner in crime to help her get in trouble. Therefore, all week I heard how great Madison behaved. I guess she just lay around the house and also would go from window-to-door and then back to window protecting the house with a few barks here and there. Other than that Madison was on vacation too as she spent every day being lazy and playing in the snow. Unlike Madison, Izzy was not a fan of playing outside in the snow. She preferred to stay inside in the warm house.

I on the other hand was in charge of Izzy who is very much a puppy still. She was bouncing off the walls hyper from morning ‘til night as she played with my parent’s shit-zuh, Shadow. Here is a 55 pound spastic dog playing with a barely 10 pound fluff ball every day and all day. It was pretty comical.

With that said, I knew I had to keep a close eye on Izzy during the two Xmas parties my parent’s had at their house. The first party had over 40 people there and that meant a very excited Izzy. She was so excited to see all the people (especially the kids) that she could hardly contain herself. There were a couple kids there that were afraid of dogs so Andy and I really had to watch her and entertain her so she wouldn’t plow over the little kids with excitement. She did really good with all the people, but I knew we still had to watch her so she didn’t get into the food that was out all over the place. Izzy disappeared downstairs and Andy followed to ensure she didn’t tackle the table of desserts. Instead of finding Izzy face first in the dessert table he found Shadow going to town on the cake that was out. Shadow was standing on the stairs with his head sticking through the railing and on the other side of the railing was the table of treats. This gave him easy access to the cake and his little mouth was going full speed ahead. Andy yelled “Shadow” as I laughed hard. Andy scared Shadow that caused him to pee on the carpet. I thought this was funny because we were so concerned with Izzy getting into the food that nobody thought tiny little Shadow would be the one to eat the cake from the dessert table.

I was so proud of Izzy for behaving herself at the family Xmas party that I started to trust her a little more to roam around the house without keeping a close eye on her. The next day my mom was out doing errands, my dad was out shoveling and I decided to trust Izzy by herself while I blow dried my hair. Big mistake!!! Ten minutes in I got this feeling to check on her. I found her on the stairs playing with a small red ball. I picked it up and I noticed it was from one of my mom’s decorations and it left bright red all over my hand just from picking it up. I took it upstairs to see if I could find where it came from. No luck, but on my way back down stairs I noticed this red ball left a few red streaks on the ivory carpet. I was a little freaked and I went to find the Bissel to steam clean this up. Once the light was turned on I noticed the bright red streaks up and down the stairs. Looks like Izzy had a great time playing with this red ball that she slobbered over and so the ball bled all over the carpet. I was now more concerned, but my dad was pretty calm about it and he started to clean. I then noticed more streaks at the bottom of the stairs and then that lead me to a bigger area of the carpet with more streaks and more bright red coloring. This large area led me to the home of the red ball. My mom had a basket of potpourri and in the potpourri were red balls that smelled like cinnamon. I am sure Izzy thought the cinnamon balls were candy. Unfortunately her good time was noticed all over the carpet. After a couple pass over’s with the Bissel it was all clean. Thank god!

Christmas Eve was the second family party we had and I was more confident that Izzy would behave herself after the last family get together; however, after the red ball incident I knew I still had to keep an eye on her. Of course I had to go through the same hyper activity as everyone arrived one-by-one. Once Izzy calmed down she was pretty good the rest of the night. Everyone was in the basement opening presents and I noticed Izzy haul her butt upstairs where nobody was, but food was still out and in easy access for her. I decided it was best if I follow her to make sure the food would be safe. As I get to the top of the stairs I noticed Shadow on top of the table face first in the red velvet cake. There was a birthday that day so my grandmother brought over a cake. There were seven pieces left that my mom put on a plate to eat for later. Well, of the seven pieces five of the pieces were completely cleaned of frosting and three of the pieces had huge chunks taken out of them. I yelled at Shadow and he just started going full speed at that cake. I grabbed him and put him on the ground. There was Izzy staring at me with the look of “When is it my turn?” I noticed Shadow got on the kitchen chair that was pulled out and then hopped onto the table. According to my mom Shadow had never done this before. Well, again, after Shadow pulled the cake stunt I wasn’t as worried with Izzy. It was just funny how I was so worried about Izzy misbehaving and getting into the food when all along it was Shadow we all had to worry about. Not long after the cake incident my aunt was packing up her stuff to leave. She put one of her kids large chocolate bars in her purse and then set the purse on the floor. Shadow proceeded to go in the purse and take out the chocolate bar. It’s a good thing he only got one bite because chocolate is so bad for dogs. After this night everyone was exhausted from the dogs.

On Christmas Andy and I took the dogs up to his family Xmas in Wautoma and I was very happy with both dogs behaving themselves. Izzy was just so excited with all the children and the other dog there. Things were going smoothly and then Madison decided to get on the counter and take a bun. She got almost the whole thing. Once she realized what was up there and how to get at the food she had a one track mind. She was constantly trying to get food off the counter. This made for a very exhausting night of guarding the food so neither dog would get at it and get sick.

It’s the morning that we are leaving town and it’s all quiet in the house. I warned my parents that it won’t last long because Andy and Madison were on their way over to get us. Of course as soon as they got there Izzy got so hyper that she tipped over one of my mom’s plants. The moist dirt was all over the white carpeting. Again, the Bissel gets dragged out of the closet to clean up another one of Izzy’s messes. I swear that Bissel got the most use ever during the week that Izzy and I were there.

The girls had a great Xmas in Wisconsin, but they were also very excited to get in the car and make the long journey back to warm Arizona. I am sure my parents are happy to have their house back to peace and quiet.

Monday, December 28, 2009

The Drive

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I have been really busy with the holidays, family, travel, etc. Ok, so I basically have been lazy because I could have posted while on vacation in Wisconsin, but when I am on vacation I am pretty lazy and don’t want to do much. So, I have a lot of catching up to do and one post just won’t cut it so to update everyone on our Christmas vacation it will take two or more posts. I will start with our drive.

Yes, we drove again this year. I know we said we wouldn’t do it again after last year’s drive, but we did, and of course it sucked again. The important thing is that we got to spend the holidays with our families and our baby girls, Izzy and Madison. We left the house on December 17th at 3pm and arrived in Madison at 8pm on December 18th. Again, we drove straight through and it took 28 hours for a 26 hour drive. Between the two of us we did it no problem. We probably could have done it in the normal 26 hours if Madison didn’t take her sweet time to go to the bathroom at every pit stop.

I remember I was a super trooper last year as I drove my half. I don’t believe I quite made my goal of driving 50% of the time. I will have to guess-timate that I put in a solid 9 hours on the way there. I do want to comment that Andy pretty much took over the driving and every time I asked if I could drive he said he was fine and kept on going. I wasn’t about to complain, but it was nice to drive because it was pretty much the only thing that entertained me in the car.

The drive there went pretty smoothly, except for Oklahoma. On the way there Andy woke me up at 5am to tell me he was getting pulled over. I asked how fast he was going and he informed me that he was going 76 in a 70mph zone. I was shocked to see he was getting pulled over. Andy roles down his window and proceeds to get his wallet ready for the officer. The officer got on his horn and ordered Andy to step out of the car with his license. Then tells him to walk toward the patrol car and get in the passenger side. At this point all I could do was laugh uncontrollably. I wouldn’t have laughed if I thought he would get a ticket, but I didn’t think that would happen for only 6 miles an hour over. I could see Andy in the patrol car plain as day because we were parked under a street light and the red and blue flashing lights were also pretty bright. The sight of Andy in a patrol car was pretty hilarious. He came back to our car with a written warning. It was interesting that the written warning didn’t say his speed, but instead said he was speeding. I thought that was a bit odd that he didn’t say six miles over. Andy said the officer asked him what he was in a hurry for. Andy was a little shocked by the question and had a smart ass comment for him, but decided that was not the best route to go. The officer also asked him if he owned his vehicle and then told him to slow down before letting him out of the patrol car. Too funny! Apparently on the speed limit signs it says 70 Minimum 40 No Tolerance. I guess they really mean no tolerance, or this bored officer had nothing to do in his po-dunk town in OK when he saw out of state license plates and decided to entertain himself.

Our drive home wasn’t too bad either, that is until we hit Oklahoma again. Oklahoma received 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve and they don’t have the resources or knowledge to know what to do with that amount of snow, so they decided to do nothing. Two days later as I am approaching Oklahoma at 8pm I completely hit big chunks of solid ice. Approaching the ice it looked like slush or big piles of snow, but as soon as I hit them I realized it was frozen solid. The whole interstate was like this. It was insane. I couldn’t believe a state would let their roads go for two days like this. It was extremely dangerous and I was freaking out as I was driving. It would be clear for a bit, and then all of a sudden I would hit giant areas of covered ice chunks. Good thing we had Andy’s Jeep because my car probably would have been completely damaged or we would have joined the many other vehicles in the ditch as we slid across the ice. I approached Tulsa, OK and I was feeling relieved thinking the city should have better roads and maybe we can exit so I can take a break from the crappy interstate. Boy, was I wrong. Tulsa was just as bad, if not worse, as what I was experiencing. On top of the chunks of unplowed, now frozen, snow I had to deal with glaring ice. I could feel Andy’s Jeep just slide, tires spinning and his car was completely out of control. I was only going 35mph in some areas, but other areas I was slower than that. I couldn’t even exit to switch drivers because all the exits were not even plowed so it was a foot of ice I would have had to drive over. I was not about to chance that so I kept on going as I gripped the steering wheel. The first chance I got to pull off the road I did and we switched drivers as I calmed my nerves. I drove in that crap for two hours. All I have to say is Oklahoma sucks. They pull drivers over for their entertainment purposes and they do not plow or salt their roads after a snow storm.

Unfortunately, since I was done driving shortly after Tulsa this put me in the worst shift of 2am to 7am. I don’t know how Andy has done it before because it was tough. I did it and we made it home safe and sound. Again, just like the drive there Andy took over so I did not do my fair share of the driving, especially not after my OK experience. I would guess that I put in another solid 9 hours of driving on the way home.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Xmas Shopping Is Finally Finished

Well this past weekend was exhausting! Prior to this weekend I only had about 20% of my Christmas shopping done; therefore I did 80% of my Christmas shopping in a matter of two days. In prior years this wouldn’t be such a big deal because I always did my shopping online. Not just because it’s easier to get presents back to WI because I have been doing all of my Christmas shopping online for the past nine years. To me, online shopping was the best thing invented. I do not like holiday crowds, dealing with lack of parking and the long lines to pay. If I see a long line at a store the chances of my turning around and walking out are 100%. I do not find Black Friday a good time. I find it pure hell. Normally from Black Friday through New Year’s Day I avoid all stores at all cost. So, what brings me to actually shop in person like the old days before there was internet shopping? Well, I started to think that I wanted to cut back on my spending this year. I worked my numbers on an excel spreadsheet and I really couldn’t see how I could either cut anybody out of my list or cut back on presents. I like to give gifts so I don’t want to be cheap. I then figured that if I did the leg work and went out shopping I could cut back on my holiday shopping by eliminating shipping charges. Of course I had to ship a few things based on the size and not being able to get them in the car to get them back for Xmas, but other than the few gifts the rest was all done by sweat and tears. I realized that after this weekend that money I saved on shipping probably was not worth it. Come Sunday I was completely exhausted as I reflected on the weekend and came to terms that next year I will go back to my roots of online shopping!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Trying To Get In The Holiday Spirit

It’s really hard to get in the holiday spirit when you live in Phoenix. No snow, warm weather and the Christmas lights are lacking the sparkle without the snow. It might also be because we have no tree and no decorations in our house. This is not because we are scrooges, but because we are gone for 10 days over Christmas and because of two girls, Madison and Izzy. I could just see spending time putting up decorations and then those two tearing them down when we look away. This lack of Christmas spirit has put a damper on the holidays just like it has the past five Christmas’. This weekend was the first time it felt even remotely the month of December with a possible Christmas holiday coming up.

On Saturday we had two holiday parties to attend. The first one was put on by a lady that I work with and let me tell you, she puts my mom’s Christmas decorations to shame. This woman had her house completely decked out in Christmas trees, snowmen, lights and even one of those villages. Her village was so big she said it took her 30 hours to put up. These decorations were in no way tacky, but instead really neat and festive. She also had s’mores set up outside around the fire and holiday music playing throughout the house. We only could stay for an hour because we then headed over to our other friends house for holiday fondue. This would be the second annual holiday fondue party that the Campbell’s hosted. It was a very good time because it was all of our closest friends eating fondue and having plenty of drinks together. The hostess is crazy because she is nine months pregnant and still put on her fondue party. She has been a trooper throughout her whole pregnancy, but this probably tops it again. I don’t know if I could have set up a party for my friend’s just days before I am going to pop out a baby. Baby Ella was also in attendance and she was completely adorable. I brought her a little gift to open and it was actually enjoyable to watch her open it. I am thinking I have been around her enough that she doesn’t scare the crap out of me as I am finding her to be super adorable and I even held her quite a bit. It wasn’t that bad either. Her favorite part about my present was the bow…of course. I told her mom just to buy her bows for Christmas because toys are not necessary.

We didn’t leave until after 1am and didn’t get home until 2am which means the dogs were alone for nine and a half hours. On the drive home I was just imagining what we were going to walk into when we got home. Of course we couldn’t come home to two dogs who behaved themselves all night long, but instead we walked into a disaster. Remember the dog bed they tore up last month when we went for a walk up the mountain without them, well now they tore up the replacement bed. We replaced the torn up bed with an older bed that we had stored away and now they tore it apart and had the stuffing everywhere all over the kitchen. We were too tired to deal with it so we let them out to go to the bathroom and then put them to bed. We, meaning Andy, cleaned up their mess in the morning.

Well, it’s starting to get chilly here and it’s making me scared for two weeks away when we will be back in Wisconsin for the holidays. I was pretty cold this weekend, and so was Andy, which means we are going to be complete wimps when we head back. Our bodies have completely acclimated to this Arizona weather so now when there is a high of 55 degrees it feels freezing to us. Going to freeze our butts off in less than two weeks!