Back to School

This time it took almost 3 weeks into the new semester before I started to feel overwhelmed with it all... My other semesters have been pretty easy - minimal homework - etc, so I started this semester really optimistic.  But something about three intense classes that are pretty important - Pathophysiology, Advanced Physical Assessment, and Pharmacology - all at the same time is making me start to feel overwhelmed.

My lawn needs to be mowed, house needs to be cleaned, dogs need to be walked, and I am finding time to put school first.  I guess that's what matters the most right now, and I get the dogs out as often as I can.  The rest cleans up fast when I have a little downtime.

I finally picked the fruit and veggies from the garden today, and got 4 zucchini, 6-ish tomatoes, 2 green peppers, 4 eggplants, and a LOT of strawberries!  Such a blessing to have the garden...I hope I can keep up with it!

Thoughts while gardening...

So this year I planted my first real garden ever. Why? Because the home I'm renting has planter boxes in the back yard. It really is that simple. One of them is filled with the best strawberry plants I have seen, which produce the sweetest strawberries ever! They are so popular among the wildlife, that I had to build a creative little lid (out of chicken wire) so the birds don't eat them all. Since the chicken wire lid is a nuisance to remove, I have let that box go for the last couple of weeks, making much of my initial weeding and prepping efforts appear to have been in vain. Last night, the crab-grass and vines which had been under control were starting to grow taller than the strawberry plants, and I could no longer peek through the chicken wire and see the ripe strawberries to be picked. Clearly it was time to weed!

As I was weeding and picking strawberries, I realized that the process was a metaphor for my life. The other two boxes are beautiful and growing like crazy. I water all three every day, and often pick lettuce and peas out of the other two boxes without difficulty. Those are also easiest to weed, and have more purposeful plants than weeds growing in them because I am good at tending to them...they are not particularly difficult to get to. The strawberries, however, are in a larger box so the task appears more daunting, and are covered with the chicken wire, making them harder to get to. I usually scratch myself at least once while trying to get in. Consequently, I don't keep up on the weeding as much, and I don't always pick the fruit when it is in its prime. While I still water it, and pretend I have a great garden, that part is often forgotten when I just don't feel like I have the time or energy to deal with it.

I find the same difficulties in dealing with certain problems in my life. Tending to the easier areas in life gets done more frequently and those areas often look fantastic! However, some things just seem painful to deal with. I don't feel like I have the time or energy, the task seems more daunting, and sometimes I get hurt getting to it. It is easier to ignore those areas, or let them go and think no one will ever notice. But when looking at the overall picture, it is worth taking the time to occasionally clean those areas out, or make peace, so the overall product can be thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes without tending those areas, we miss the sweetest fruit!

Yes, I'm still alive!

Ok reading back over this made me laugh at so many of the things that were happening a few years ago! While much of my life has changed, some things are still the same, and I love it! I have been thinking of blogging again, but when I saw that Vlad was working on his again, I knew I had to start too! So while I don't have much to say this morning, I will be watching for the fun stories to post again soon!

What a crazy walk!

Yeah, so while working online this morning on my laptop for less than 5 minutes, one of the pups (Addie) somehow got one of the keys off my keyboard and was chewing it up. I didn't even notice it was gone until I heard her chewing on something hard! I decided it was time to take them all to the dog park if I'm ever going to get a nap this afternoon before I work night shift tonight... So we all headed to one of my favorite parks... Tanner Park in SLC.

They were so excited to go, and I was ready for a nice walk... if only we could get down the ice-covered hill on-leash so they can get to the off-leash area and run...

After getting pulled on my butt for part of it, I decided it wasn't worth it, and let them off leash at the top. Yes, I hate it when people don't keep their dogs on-leash in the on-leash area, but I just couldn't do it today down the hill. We had a great walk and they ran and ran and ran! They did much better on-leash going back up the hill.

And now... time for afternoon naps with 3 big dogs taking up half my bed...
Sounds fun huh?

And then there were three...

I don't know how, but my sister Polly seems to get me into everything! So long story short, I had one dog (which she found for me last year), and we are happy living our lives...she's a little spoiled and a little chubby now, but we are happy. Well, somehow Polly talked me into fostering this sweet Roxie. I didn't want a black dog, so I knew I wouldn't be keeping her, but she is sweet and needed a home for a bit until she can find a permanent good home... but she is black. I didn't want a black dog.


Roxie


Sadie


Sadie sliding down the hill in the snow


Sadie and Roxie



So to make things easier on my dog when Roxie got adopted out to a permanent home, my roommate (last minute of course) found another lab/golden retriever mix for free and we got her (Addie). My thought is that my dog Sadie will bond with both of them, then would still have someone around who she knows and loves when Roxie left. I would keep Roxie, but I don't want a black dog because of the hair issue... am hoping to keep the dog hair all one color. :-)

Sadie and Addie (the new pup)



So now there are 3 dogs, we love them all, they all get along well and play so well together, and I am (almost) considering just adopting Roxie myself and keeping them together...


Addie Sadie and Roxie




What do you think?

Summertime...

Just have to say that I LOVE the summer! As I walked out of work this morning at 6:05 a.m. and realized that it was still warmer outside than it was inside all night, my heart smiled. The sun was not yet over the mountains, but the birds were singing and the air was fresh. It is supposed to be over 100 degrees today, and I will be sleeping through it all, trying not to get too hot. In spite of it all, I still love the summer over any other time. Spring runs a close second for me since it is the prelude to summer! My only near-regret is that I'm not able to spend the next 10 days or so in the Pacific Northwest, which is the best place I've ever been in the summer!

A Visit to Manti (UT)

Last Thursday, July 3rd, Heather and I made a trip down to see my sister Polly and head up the canyon to barbecue for dinner together. Sadie loves to go to Polly's. First of all, that is the general area she is from, as I got her from a farm in the next town over. Also, Polly has a great yard for her. These are a few of her favorite things:

Moe the cat, who has all the other dogs (and people) completely intimidated, is actually careful around Sadie. She is no respecter of cats, and attacks them all equally. Here he is hiding from her.


She loves the yard...there is always something to stalk... What is it this time?


The ducks! She is definitely a bird dog.


We had fun with our bbq before we almost got rained out. Sadie and Hershey (the brown border collie of Polly's) finally found a stick that they could share! There's not many toys or sticks they have ever been able to share. It was hilarious! Sadie tried to pull Hershey into the stream a few times with it, as they were playing tug of war.




Polly had just spent the last few days helping herd cattle through the town and up the mountain for the summer. She has two border collies that are great at herding cattle, and they live for it! They work together really well and know what they are doing. So we decided to drive up the canyon a little further to see what areas were left to camp in. As we went, we passed a lot of the cows that they had herded up there. Some of them were a little too close to the top fence, so just for fun, she let her dogs and Sadie out to herd the cows back down just a little ways. The two dogs (Hershey and Cuma) immediately took off barking constantly and running behind the cattle in a criss-cross pattern to herd them. Sadie, in an effort to fit in, ran after them to "go get the cows!". She had no idea what she was doing but made a good effort to do what the other two were doing. We about died laughing when the other two stop barking and start heading back, we all hear this big deep "WOOOFFF!" and Polly said, "That wasn't one of my dogs", then Sadie comes running back with them, all proud of herself! She's not much of a barker ever (which I am so thankful for!), so the fact that she barked at them once was pretty funny! We headed back down the canyon road and came upon a few more cows, so again, for fun, we let the 3 dogs back out to "herd". This time Sadie had a bit more confidence as she took off with the other 2 dogs. This time though, she ran straight for the cows, barked a couple of times as she ran AROUND it and nearly INTO it instead of BEHIND it like the other two dogs, then she came running straight back to us, very proud of herself again! She was trying to hard to fit in and do what they were doing! It was hilarious and we all got a good laugh out of that! And she was tired! This is a great picture of all of them in the truck together a few months ago.


It was a surprise to all of us that my youngest sister, Brenda was headed up to Salt Lake City for the weekend from Vegas. She came out and visited with us for a bit. Sadie got to run with her favorite "cousin", Baby, who is part blue-heeler. They love to run and play together!



After all of the fun an excitement of the day, Sadie was wiped out as we were packing it up and getting ready to go. She does not believe in expending extra energy sometimes...


And finally at home, once she got to her bed, she didn't move for hours!!