Sunshine, Scenery, Family, and Bird Poop

Ben and I took a much needed vacation to Arizona for a week to visit family, attend his cousin's wedding, and show me the wild west and the Grand Canyon. I'm not just saying it when I say I HAVE THE BEST IN-LAWS EVER! It even extends to cousins. I became very attached to them all in just the short week we were there and I know we would be very close if we lived near each other.

Here are the Sparknotes:

Friday we flew into Phoenix. Arrived at midnight that night, their time, 3AM our time. We were tired.

Saturday we saw cousin Liz get married on a mountain overlooking the city lights. Beautiful, perfect, happy, fun.

Sunday we went and watched the guys fly RC planes. I knew I loved the girls when we stopped for coffee without the guys. We also left the guys to play and we went and ran errands and prepared a cook out. As domestic as it sounds, we actually had a lot of fun. Great girls bonding day, even with Natalie driving. ;)

Monday we went to the zoo. I got pooped on by a bird. Other than that, fun day with cute animals and fun family.

Tuesday we went to a bookstore, In and Out Burger, and then traveled north through Sedona to Flagstaff. Hotel was nice until we tried to sleep. Worst nights sleep ever.

Wednesday Ben woke me at 8 AM to tell me to get up and pack. He had found us a new hotel and had already been there and checked us in. We could eat breakfast there. This was nice because the new hotel had a much better breakfast. :) We spent the day at the Grand Canyon (awesome), returned to Flag, and ran into Ben's cousin at Barnes and Nobles. We always see someone we know at Barnes and Nobles.

Thursday returned to Phoenix. We spent the afternoon at a cafe with Dan and Jodi and joined Natalie and Jacob for dinner. The weather was perfect, food yummy, and the company high-class. Perfect way to end the week.

Friday morning we caught a flight home and tried to adjust back from the 3 hour time change.

Here are a few pics and highlights. Stay tuned to my Facebook page for tons more pictures.

There were two deer at a shuttle stop at the Grand Canyon. They were 10 feet from people and didn't care. My brother would have died. He's a bit of an hunting enthusiast.

There is just no way to photograph the Grand Canyon in a way that conveys how awesome it is. When I first saw it all I could say is "it's so BIG!" It doesn't even look real. It looks like a painting.

I love watching westerns with my dad. Traveling through northern Arizona reminded me of driving through a John Wayne movie. The terrain is very different from the east coast.

As I mentioned before, I got pooped on by a bird. It's in my hair. Left temple. Little 4-year-old Emma watched with a mix of sympathy and laughter. I used the foaming soap in the restrooms as shampoo and dried my hair with the hand dryer.

Love the scenery out there. I think this is Sedona.

You Will Cry

Last week Ben and I went on vacation to Arizona. I will blog about that soon, I promise, bit first I wanted to share this video.

Catalyst 2009 is a Christian Leaders conference that I wish I had been able to go to. I found this video clip from the weekend on the Catalyst Blog.

This clip may make you cry. It's real life and it's very moving.

During the conference they shared about an awesome ministry called Compassion. They had a young man speak about his experiences as someone who grew up receiving letters and support from someone through Compassion. After he spoke, the conference surprises him by introducing him to his sponsor. The moment is beyond words.

Take a moment to watch the video. Then perhaps take a moment to check out Compassion.

The young man doesn't begin speaking until 3:45 into the video. Click on the symbol of the arrows in the square to make it full screen.

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Katydid

After a few weeks of online dog shopping, breed researching, and shelter visiting Ben and I discovered and brought home our little Katydid.

We adopted her through AARF, an excellent no-kill agency for anyone in the area considering adopting a dog. They place their adoptable dogs in foster homes instead of in shelters, allowing the foster families to get to know each dog in a home environment so they can let prospective forever owners know the quirks and personality of each dog. They set up outside of PetSmart each Saturday as a group so that you can meet all of the dogs at once and ask the foster's any questions you might have. We highly recommend them.

Katy was born an AARF puppy in a litter of 13. Her mom was a squat little hound mix, the size of a small beagle. Dad is unknown. She appears to include beagle/hound, greyhound, yellow lab, and some sort of pointer. She loves to stand on three legs and point at the neighbors cat (a good friend of hers). She's probably a 10th generation mutt because of all of the breeds she shows and she looks NOTHING like her mom.

She was adopted as a puppy by a woman who quickly returned her when she grew to her full size. I've heard that happens when you feed them. AARF found her another home with a second family, but 2 years later they returned her again. It seems they became too busy to keep her in the house with a new baby and stuck her out in the backyard. Out of boredom from being in the backyard all day, she began jumping the fence. Back to AARF she went.

A local youth pastor, Rachel, and her husband, Ben, heard that Katy had been returned. They already owned her brother and couldn't pass up the opportunity to foster her until her forever home was found. They had her for 4 months before we found her and fell in love. Katy and her brother, Mannie, still have regular play dates on the weekend at the dog park 5 minutes from our house and Ben and I have found some new friends.

When she came to us she was named Katy and being the girly girl that I am I had to give her the cutesy nickname, Katydid. Ben and I spent the first 2 weeks trying to come up with a new name for her but we couldn't agree on anything. This past Friday we considered leaving her name the same, only "officially" changing it to Katydid. When an actual green Katydid found its way into our bedroom Friday night and attracted the attention of one of our cats, we felt it was confirmation on her "new" name.

Here are some pics of our Katydid, our sweet 3-year-old mutt, courtesy of my mom. I considered not linking to her due to the dorky picture of me that is currently at the top of her blog, but I rose above.

Please excuse the drool. She gets a little excited at the dog park.

Katie and her brother, Mannie. He is standing behind her.

We got a water dog. She loves to swim. She will wade into the water and pick up her feet to doggie paddle even if she can still stand.

She was cold and shivering in the air conditioning. It was pitiful, although not as pitiful as she looked when Ben put his hoodie on her to keep her warm. She didn't like it. She prefers to snooze under the tweetie bird blanket.

Give Thanks

I don't give thanks to God enough.

So I am giving Him some public gratitude because He's been awesome to me and I want everyone to know it.

I am thankful for my husband who keeps me fed while I'm at work, sends silly text messages from his office that is only 30 feet away, and loves gracefully when I'm cranky, whiny, and/or selfish.

I am thankful for my family because they attended every dance and choir production for my 11 year stage career. They always told me I was amazing at everything- even when at 10 years old I was belting out the lyrics to Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love" without noticing even the dogs had vacated the living room.

I am thankful for my in-laws because they have accepted me into their family and shown me such love and support as I married the only boy in the bunch. I am also grateful that he has three beautiful, sweet, and fun sisters that I love spending time with. I get to enjoy this often because Ben gathers their husbands for 12 hour video game days and rifle shooting outings.

I live a blessed life in a blessed country.

Crush

There's a guy in my neighborhood who has a crush on me and I love it. Ben knows and he doesn't care. He thinks it's nice.

I went to his birthday party and his mom gave me some cake. He's 5 now.

When I was dreaming about being a home owner, one of the things that I most looked forward to was having someone to ask for that cup of sugar, someone who would invite me over for a cookout- good neighbors. I have found that with the neighbors to our right, Tanya and her family.

Tanya is a single mother of 2, a college age daughter and a 5-year-old son. Her son, Justin, is special needs. Her ex-husband rents out a room in their house and is a great support to Tanya and the kids. Tanya attends the church at the top of our neighborhood because it's close to home and is easy to attend with Justin because he travels with so much medical equipment that could go wrong at any minute.

Tanya is amazing. Remember the tree story? It was her yard where we dropped our little monster of a tree and she handled the whole thing with a grace and calm that impressed me greatly.

So tonight I went over to Justin's 5th birthday party and he made eyes at me all evening. When I tried to talk to him, he just giggled and hid his face. We all teased him for flirting with a married woman and he giggled even more. He is such a little sweetie.

Since he doesn't speak much I simply thought his silence until now was because of shyness and his limited vocabulary. After the birthday party I now realize it is because when we are all outside, I am with Ben. Justin is shy to talk to me when I have my husband around.

Ben is trying to get Justin to interact with him more so as to let him know he isn't the jealous type. He's confident in his wife's affection and is flattered that Justin has such good taste.

So the guy next door is stealing my heart, but I don't think it's going to be a problem. Trust me, if you met him he would steal yours too. He's a charmer.

But It's Ice Cream

Marriage is full of all sorts of special moments.

This past Thursday evening Ben surprised me with my favorite Chinese food take-out from my favorite Chinese restaurant. I pigged out on kung pow chicken, chicken fried rice, spring rolls, egg rolls, and fortune cookies that told me to have a nice day.

Side note: why do they tell me to have a nice day? Didn't fortune cookies used to tell you that you were going to have a nice day? Now I don't believe the fortunes mean anything, but if you are only going to send best wishes in cookie form, why bother? Just give me a higher quality of cookie without a well-wishing fortune message and I will be more likely to have a nice day as a result. I digress.

Ben and I ate ourselves miserable and then proceeded to complain to each other that we had eaten way too much. I usually blame him for these situations ("why did you let me eat so much?") We sat on the couch and watched old NCIS episodes and life was grand.

I got up and went to the bathroom. On my way back I passed the kitchen and noticed there was some activity occurring near the refrigerator. Upon a second glance what did my eyes see but my very own husband making himself a heaping bowl of ice cream and sprinkles.

Remember the large amount of food we consumed for dinner? Remember the sitting on the couch and complaining part?

I asked him what he thought he was doing.
He said "getting a bowl of ice cream."
I said "I thought you were miserably full."
He said "But it's ice cream."

The more I live with a man, the more I am convinced that they are not as simple and straightforward as their gender markets.

"But it's ice cream."

So does that mean you no longer feel miserably stuffed and so you are ready to eat again? How did this happen in the 3 minutes since you last mentioned your misery?

Is ice cream a magical food that doesn't take up any room in your stomach and so you will not be adding to the uncomfortable amount of food already in your digestive system?

Why is the fact that it's ice cream going to change the fact that when you eat this heaping bowl of goodness you will be even more uncomfortable and may never be able to move from the couch again?

But eat it he did, and stuffed he was. He ate himself into such discomfort that he still didn't feel good the next day. Friday morning we woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. I asked him if he had slept well the night before. He said no and he thought it was because of something he had eaten the night before.

I looked at him incredulously.

"But it's ice cream," I said.

Bow Chicka Bow Wow

If you clicked through to this post based on the title then I'm sorry, I may disappoint. Focus on the Bow Wow part of the title, not the suggestive meaning of the title, but how often can I title things like this?

Ben and I are thinking of getting a pooch. Next month will be our 3 year wedding anniversary and we realize we have been putting this off for quite sometime, making the excuse "we just can't right now because we don't have time." But we can make time. Life is never going to slow down unless we slow it down and make it what we would have it to be.

So we have decided that we want to be dog owners. And super-heroes. But that second is a little more difficult to make happen.

Last night on our weekly date night Ben and I poured over dog breed books and researched the personalities, health problems, and temperaments of every known breed on the planet.

Here is an exert from our conversation:

Ben: I like Great Danes.

Me: Yes, but they are expensive, gigantic, and have a lot of health problems. I like Basset Hounds.

Ben: Yes, but they have a lot of health problems, bark a lot, and have the "hound smell." What about a Greyhound?

Me: We don't have a fenced in yard and it wouldn't be fair. Also, I think they look funny. What about a Pitt Bull? They are really such sweet dogs.

Ben: Yes, your brother has a sweet Pitt, but I just don't trust them as a breed. I'd be scared we would get a bad one. What about....

And so on.

Of course neither of us really wants to go through a breeder and we know we will probably end up with a mutt. We don't think there is anything wrong with breeders, but we each had great experiences with rescue dogs when we were growing up and we would like to adopt a rescue dog. After doing a little research we have found that there are A LOT of great options for dogs to adopt in our area.

So we went on the websites for AARF and RAL, two local no-kill shelters, and we browsed the doggie listings. Please check out the sites and share your vote for the new Doggie Dillenback.

We are looking for:

• A friendly dog with us and strangers- we have no need for a guard dog.
• Not too gigantic, but definitely NOT a small dog. We do not like little dogs.
  
• Playful but not too high maintenance on the energy level. We don't have a fenced in yard right now, so he/she would need to be able to spend a portion of the day crated. Ben leaves for work later in the morning and I get off at 5.
• Good with cats. Pup has to get along with the kitties.
  
• Reasonably young. Two years old is a bit on the old side, but this is not set in stone. We prefer a younger dog.

Thoughts? Suggestions?