Crate Training

I know I write about Marley a lot but she takes up a LOT of time. We are currently crate training and it seems to be going well, we have yet to actually lock her in her crate, we put her bed and toys and treats in the crate and just leave the door open. She seems to like it, and yesterday we were gone for three hours and we came home to her laying in her crate and a house not destroyed. There were no packing peanuts on the floor, the garabage had not been raided. It was lovely. Today we are going to trying closing the door while we are gone for very small amounts of time. Hopefully it helps. Have a good weekend everyone!
Love
Kelsey

Breaking Blogging Rules

So I know that blogging twice in less than 30 min is lame but I remembered something I had to say. I was sitting in English on Thursday and it 2010, of which there are about 30 sections all with different writing topics. You can take writing about baseball, shakespeare, satire/humor. Well I ended up in Writing about Sucess. This class is a rah-rah motivational class. We talk about Tony Robins (he's a big motivational guru my father owns many of his tapes) on a weekly basis. The teacher even has similar handwriting to Dad. It is creepy. But on Thursday we were watching a video blog that Tony had but on and he was talking about how to actually make your New Years resolutions come true. For most of the video I sat there thinking... this is a Family Home Evening lesson we had once. But his last "tool" I thought was interesting was to "Give more than you Receive" So if any of you, like myself, at times find yourselves stuck in a rut, or get down on yourselves or maybe can't seem to stick with your goals. Maybe stop thinking about them so much, stop trying to figure out a hobby to fill your time with so you feel less useless, and focus completly on someone else. See what happens.
And yes, I struggled to come to terms with the fact that the rah-rah I have mocked for years has valid points.

Last Night

Last night Brian and I slept on the floor in front of the bathroom, with the door about a foot open. Why? Because Marley was sick...again and after throwing up and going to the bathroom in the house three times in 2 hours. We decided to put her in the bathroom. BAD idea. She howled, she cried, she scratched and it didn't stop for almost 20 min. So I went in there with her which helped her calm down and curl up on her doggie bed. But if I left she cried, so Brian and I slept on the floor where she could see us but still be in the bathroom from about 2-7 last night. The things we do for the stupid dog. She is just so darn cute I can't help it.
Also if anyone ever wanted to invest in property now in Cedar City would be the time to do it. Brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath town homes are currently selling for less than 100,000. Just thought Id pass the word along.
Other than that nothing is going on here, school and work. Hope all is well with your worlds!

Improtu...

So on Saturday we were supposed to go to St George and hang out with Brian's friend Jay and his wife Julie. But our plans fell through, so at 3:00 pm on Saturday we go in the car and drove to Salt Lake. Now when I called my mother to see if they wanted to dinner when we got into town. She asked if there was any particular reason why we wanted to go to dinner and were coming up. I told her nope we were just bored and thought dinner would be nice cause we could hang out and talk. She translated this into... Brian and I have an announcement and of course the only thing we could possibly be announcing would be a baby. We got to Mom and Dad's in Sandy and within 2 min of walking in the door my mother can't take it anymore and asks if Im pregnant. Which I am NOT. But it was funny. Dinner was fun we got to give Mom and Dad a hard time about some of their dating stories. (According to Mom necking in the 70's was standing and hugging... or of course the classic Dad and the gum on Mom's date) Then on Sunday after church we headed up to Brian's parents and had dinner at his grandparents house. It was a fun night. I took a nap while Brian played ping pong with his parents. This morning we woke up early and headed back to Cedar for work and a mountain of homework. It was a fun weekend though and it was really nice to get out of Cedar, even if it was 30 degrees colder in Salt Lake.

A bad idea.

So in case you are ever sitting in a class, lets say Art for Elementry school teachers. And you are supposed to be drawing the fruit that is in front of you and the shadows to learn about "value" and shading. And you happen to HATE drawing, and hate sitting there. And the teacher comes around to see how everyone is doing. And she asks you how things are going. Do NOT tell her that you are frustrated and that this is your own personal Hell. Do NOT tell her that you have an art learning disability. Do NOT tell her that in 7th grade your art teacher finally told you to put anything on the paper, she didn't care what, and turn it in. Even if you think she is only the sub for this week, and she will just roll her eyes and walk away. This is all a very bad idea. It results in her sitting next to you. Trying desperatly to prevent you from doing it wrong. Trying desperatly to tell you how to make the stupid shadow. (Yes thank you I know it should be an eliptical shape...) Until eventually she quietly realizes what so many before have realized, you really are disabled and she stands up and leaves you alone. But you can tell that she is a little disappointed... her life theory, that everyone CAN do art if they are taught and encouraged rather than judged, that all eveyone needs is a little self confidence has been challenged. All because you had a really bad idea... You could have just kept your mouth shut, smiled, said everything was great. But you didn't. Maybe it was years of frustration at being forced to do art and failing miserably, or the fact that it is 5:00 pm and you are still at school, or the fact that you vowed to teach art in a different way rather than simply drawing what is put in front of you. Whatever the reason it probably isn't good enough to justify this very bad idea. Just in case you ever had that thought...

The Vacuum

First of all I would like to say that the cheesecake was not a disaster. Never have ever followed a recipe as exactly as I did with the cheesecake. But it worked out really well.
If you find yourself in the market for a new vacuum. I would like to suggest the newest Hoover 5 cylinder vacuum. It is cheaper than a Dyson but works just as well if not better.It has a retractable cord, . It has unique, slick orange trim that makes it look fit for the space station. AND if your husbands are anything like mine you will never actually use the vacuum yourself. He will use it on a regular basis and find things to vacuum so that at least one of the extra tools is used. It is a brillant plan. So if you hate vacuuming, or even if you dont (I don't mind it) you will never do it again if you buy this vacuum.
Note to any husbands, fathers, brothers: You may read this and think that you may be exempt from the power of the vacuum. I think not. It is a very manly vacuum... something about it draws guys in...

Happy Birthday!

Today is Brian's birthday, sadly he works today from 1:30-10:00pm so it is limiting the amount of birthday fun that can be had. We were going to go out on Saturday but Marley was really sick so we stayed home. However so far today we had Lemon Poppyseed muffins for breakfast, and opened presents. Now I am going to attempt to make cheesecake so that tonight we can have that. Hopefully that cheesecake works... I will update later on how disasterous it was.

A Problem Solved

Yesterday I wanted to kill Marley. Okay not kill but someone could have come and taken her away and I wouldn't have cared. I was done. She was acting HORRIBLE. At around 11 ish she stopped listening, started going to the bathroom (like 5 times) in the house, chewing on EVERYTHING, Bitting, I could hardly keep up with her. Then at noon, she crashed fell asleep, an hour later woke up and was WONDERFUL. Then something dawned on me. Everyday at around 11 ish, and then again around 6ish, I want to kill the dog. Then I thought well she is a puppy and part Australian Shepard (aka I have lots of energy dog). Maybe she gets so much energy that she is literally not capable of controlling herself. A memory came to me of Jonah's "puppy fits" except she doesn't have a big cirlce house to run in... So today at 11:30 after taking Brian to work we went on a walk/run. We went for a half hour. She came home and was WONDERFUL. Tonight we will go on another walk/run and then maybe just maybe she will not have so many problems. Because she really is doing well. She sits, she comes, she has to be reminded but she doesn't bite, she goes to the bathroom outside, she stays, she goes to bed. Except for 2 hours a day.
In other news, if anyone would like to total our car, feel free. It has developed ANOTHER problem. Now in addition to: the engine light being on, exhaust in the car when you start it, a clanking noise. All of which no one seems to be able to explain or fix. The break lights don't go off. But just the breaklights. Yesterday the car died while I was at work. So today we jump started it and took it to the Dealer who sold us the P.O.S. car to see if they can figure it out. We shall see what they say and how much it will cost to fix it. (Good thing I just got a 3,000 refund check for finacial aid).
And lastly (sorry this is such a long post): Yesterday I stayed awake in ALL of my classes (I had drugs of course). This means that I stayed awake sitting for 3 hours in the morning and then for another 3 hours from 2:30-5:30. It was amazing! I love Ritalin :-).
We will be seeing the Sandy family this weekend! We are excited.

First Days Back

It has been a long 2 days. Yesterday I had only one class at 8:00 am. Then it was off to run errands, and head to training for my SECOND job. Where I watched 2 videos: 10 things every child needs, and How to Calm A Baby. LAME and it took three hours. With no drugs in my system it made for a long three hours. But then I got to go home and do some homework, and take care of the dog. Who is either the stupidest animal ever, or extremely smart and slightly stubborn/Spiteful. Im going with the second and I'll tell you why. She knows that she is supposed to go outside to go to the bathroom, she goes to the door, she will even come and get you if you don't notice that she needs to go. Now she is a puppy so sometimes by the time I see her she has gone by the door but she is getting better. EXCEPT for when she doesn't get what she wants. This usually means that I take something away from her like the WII remotes, my car keys, Brian's waterbottle that she opens and drinks out of, etc etc. It seems that after taking things away from her and telling her no. That she likes to go to the bathroom in the house. And I am convinced she does it on purpose. She never goes and hides to go the bathroom like she used to, oh no she does it right in front of me. Where ever I am. The beast can wake us up and tell us she needs to go to the bathroom and can wait while we put on shoes to take her out. But conviently whenever she doesn't get her way she suddenly forgets to go outside. She is a brat. But very cute.