A new addition...

We have big news!

We're pregnant! :o)

Ok ok. That's a lie. But we DID get a puppy. :o) I'm sure I didn't fool anybody anyway!

Quite a story. Zach and I decided to get a puppy last week and spent several days looking for one. We tried to go the humane society and through adoption agencies online, etc. etc. It is so hard to get a dog these days! We saw one application that was 6 pages long!! ("Have you had any pets before, what kind, how old, what happened to them, where will you keep your pet when you're home/when you're gone, how many hours a day will the pet be left alone...") They need to call the landlord, get references, make house calls, on and on. So many hoops to jump through, we got really discouraged.

WELL... Last Saturday Zach was driving around Lehigh Acres for work and saw a guy selling puppies on the side of the road but didn't have time to stop. Sunday we decided to drive back and see if he was there again. Sure enough, Juan was there! We held some miniature pinscher puppies and they were so cute. They were smaller than what Zach wanted, but after taking into consideration our living situation we decided a small dog makes more sense. Juan was very nice but spoke limited English, and we laughed to each other when he told us she eats "Pooreenapuppyshaow" (Purina puppy chow). We were so excited to bring her home with us.

The past few days have been an experience. We felt so bad at first, she didn't play, eat or poo for 2 days and we were so worried. We haven't been able to let her out of our sight because she was so scared. Then a couple nights ago we locked her in the bathroom for about 10 minutes so we could finally have some privacy and she pooped EVERYWHERE. And thus began the potty training adventure! Since then it seems I haven't stopped cleaning up after her. When we take her outside she just doesn't get it. We bought some puppy training pads, but she tried to eat it instead and then promptly peed in the kitchen. Hmph! Any tips?

Anyway... after that long schpiel... here is our cute Roxy. (I picked the name, of course) She is 12 weeks, 4.8 lbs and a total snugglebug. She is a good girl. And sorry I don't have cuter pictures yet.

Yes, she looks like a dachsund. Contrary to popular belief, minpins are not miniature Dobermans, but are most likely a mix between Italian Greyhounds and Dachsunds. Thank you internet!

It's hard to see here but she is actually not as long as a weiner dog and isn't as big as she looks. Also minpins typically have their ears cropped but hers aren't and she is SO much cuter that way. We saw her mama with cropped ears, and we like Roxy better.

This one is hard to see I know, but the swaddling was the only way I could get her to stop whining for a couple minutes to put my makeup on.

Kiddie candids

These are two clips I took this weekend that I think are worth posting. The first one is Wyatt talking on my phone, because he is just so gosh darn cute. He actually laughs at himself when he's walking and 'talking' but I wasn't lucky enough to capture that part... still, such a little stud.

The second clip is my niece Hallie playing Wii Fit. She thinks she is REALLY good at Hula Hooping, but we think it's hilarious to watch. You can hear Zach telling her to "shake it!" in the background. Enjoy. :o)

The 'Sunshine State' strikes back

A week ago Sunday I talked to my dad on the phone and was telling him how it had only rained ONCE the entire time we'd been here. This week the heavens opened up. Every day has involved the kind of downpour where you run from the car to the front door and still get soaked. Oh the irony. We've been caught in it several times now. Emily and I went to the pool on Saturday with sunny skies, went to visit a friend in the complex and then when we left her apartment we got caught in this huge storm of wind and rain. We couldn't make it all the way home so we ran to the clubhouse and stood in the shelter of the roof for about 10 minutes until the rain let up enough to walk home. Emily chatted it up with this rude lady, while I captured the rain with my camera:






Yesterday we had to come into the office, and then make a quick stop at Costco. On the way home from Costco I had the lucky job of driving home in a TORRENTIAL downpour. It was at least as scary as a fullblown blizzard, only instead of a white-out it was a gray-out! There was so much rain I couldn't even see out the windshield with the wipers on full speed. In fact I ran over a curb. The road was flooded in spots so I kept hydroplaning, and I couldn't even tell where we were until I saw street signs! I WOULD have captured that on film if I wasn't the driver. Zach was playing Monopoly on his phone the whole time... like we weren't about to die. It was so scary. Here are some pictures of some storms rolling in last week:

At the office: {before}

{during} (my poor car)

{glorious after}



tell me that doesn't look threatening!

I like burgers, movies, and long walks on the beach.

I HAVE NO PICTURES!!! That's why I've been putting off blogging, because a blog without pictures is b o r i n g. Maybe if I warn you this way you don't have to read if you don't want! I'll post real quick anyway.

This weekend was a fun one. Friday night I spent with my sister (okay, SIL) Tashina, and Emily. We ate at Red Robin... I get THIS every time:

Although I tried to branch out, I knew I wouldn't like anything else as much, and I'd also like to note that the other girls got wraps. Not me. BURGER. Thank goodness for a metabolism. Following the delicious meal we saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

I liked it, as I do most chick flicks. Every time I see a movie with a male character who "knows it all" about women, I think of Zach, who really thinks he is Hitch. Bless his little heart. I guess I tamed the stallion!

Saturday Emily and I decided to go shopping, even though we didn't want to spend any money. It was sort of an unsuccessful trip because baby Wyatt is a little rascal and I was trying to work at the same time, through a phone and a walkie talkie. We ended up too annoyed to look around much! We did stop at Marble Slab for some expensive but tasty raspberry sorbet. Next time we'll have to go sans baby and clipboard.

Mother's Day. I am not a mother but I still got the chocolate at church! We had delicious sandwiches for lunch, courtesy of yours truly. (Mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, and turkey. For some reason it is seriously a mouthwatering combination! I think it's the onions.) Later we went for a long walk on the beach at sunset... how romantic! It was really beautiful. I think the tide had just gone out and we spotted a starfish on the beach. At first when we walked by I thought it was an octopus or a squid because the tentacles were so long and skinny, but no, it was a starfish! It looked like this, except if I remember correctly it did have 8 arms:

Zach managed to flip the starfish back into the water with his sandal. Hopefully the little guy wanted to be rescued. I wished I had my camera! Silly me for letting my manager borrow it indefinitely, but hopefully I get it back before we do anything else worth blogging about.

Just jumbly scatterbrained old me.

When I started this blog I had a lot more to say but it felt like a journal entry. I decided it was maybe too personal to be sharing with the blog world. So I've narrowed it down to a few thoughts. I've been feeling sort of out of sorts lately and don't know if I can put it into words. It's just one of those times in my life where coasting isn't working anymore and I realize I have some serious self-improvement to do.

Just to list some of my scatterbrained thoughts and feelings: I never realized how far I was from perfection until I got married. What a humbling experience. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's hand in my life and the influence that is guiding me when I'm not looking. I'm grateful for literature. If you haven't read The Secret, you should. It's funny how sometimes lessons in our lives can come as a total affirmation to the same thing we learned somewhere else. When all things work together for your good like that, and you see the same message in your life over and over again various ways, you can know that Heavenly Father is trying to teach you something.

I guess that sums up my feelings for now, though I feel like I could probably go on for hours. I still love life in Florida, despite the medians. I posted some pictures on facebook but maybe I should post a few on here:

Here's us. Zach is such a poop about pictures sometimes. I think it's cute when he smiles... he doesn't. How this is cuter? Beyond me.

Here's the Wilsons. Nick is one of our reps that's been friends with Zach for a few years. I just met Emily and she is basically my only friend out here! She stays home with baby Wyatt so she has lots of time to hang out with me. I don't think she knows what she's gotten into.

Here's baby Wyatt. He is probably the happiest/easiest little guy I know. He loves to hear himself make noise, even though he can't talk yet. :o)

And here is a little picture of everybody else, sans Nate. Behind Emily is Sunny, new bride of Lloyd (in the black), and Mark is in the blue. Nate is Emily's brother and somehow he missed the pictures. All these peeps are awesome. And there you have it... Florida in a nutshell.

Road Rage, literally

Alright- I've discovered my first (and only, thus far) pet peeve with Florida.

Medians.

Everytime you want to turn left, out of any parking lot, shopping center, or street, there is a median preventing you from crossing the road. So what do you do? Turn right, and then go to the next light to flip a U-ie (or a B, whatever you want to call it).

But THEN! You get to the light, and you see one of these:







Grrrrr!! Suddenly, I am obligated to turn left at the signal since I am already in the turning lane. I have to wait for the light to turn green. Then I have to travel down THAT street and find a way to flip around there, so I can go back to the signal, turn right, so I can finally be going the direction I wanted to go when I pulled out in the first place. The whole process has taken me up to about 10 minutes. Now WHY would you put a median in the middle of every road? That doesn't even make sense! Whoever is in charge of planning Florida roads, you suck, and I'm calling your mother. This is especially a problem for the chronically lost (ie, ME) because if I ever want to turn around I've got to drive halfway around town to do it.

Thanks for letting me rant and rave. :o)

Crusty old people

So this is the full detailed version of my nutshell post below. I was just writing an email to Mauri and thought, I ought to just write this all on my blog and update EVERYONE and kill uhhh... a few more birds with one stone.

Florida is great. One thing though is everybody is either tan or sunburned, and it's actually pretty gross. I think probably half the nation's cases of skin cancer occur in Florida. (rough estimate) A lot of these cancerous people are old, and as I was telling Mauri, I see them and I swear they are going to die because they look like the crust of bread. I tried to look up an image on Google similar to what I am talking about, but they grossed me out so much I couldn't bear to post one on my blog, so I will spare you all the gory details and let your imagination do the work. I did find this though:

Haha. That's about as gross as I'll go here today!

Our apartment is actually really great. It's a one bedroom but gosh it must be twice the size of our first apartment, in Utah. It has tons of windows, really open and airy, big living room and big tub in the bathroom with a walk-in closet! We like it. I just finally got MOST of our things unpacked today, and am dreading the thought of having to pack it all away again in a few months.

So ours isn't decorated this nicely... but this was the best picture I could find on the website. Not bad!

It was so frustrating trying to fit all our belongings into our two teeny little cars. Then at night, when we stopped at rest stops for a few hours to sleep, we had to move everything around between cars just to recline the seats back. Then move it all back again to drive. Thinking about it makes me shudder... it was a long, long, loooooong drive across the country. We each got one ticket... for following too closely. A. Zach was behind a truck/trailer who was trying to pass a semi, so they were both going slower than us, and B. Of course I'm following my husband, we're traveling TOGETHER! It was pretty bogus, and I'm honest when tickets are warranted, but he could have given me a warning and told me to back off and it would have had the same effect. Now we have $222 in tickets to pay to the state of Colorado since we obviously can't make the court date... last thing we needed! I don't want to think about it. Luckily that was the worst of our trip.

Back to something positive! The pool is really nice, and there are a couple of big pond water features in the community with fountains so when you're at the pool you can hear the water splashing peacefully behind you. Very relaxing. I finally went today for the first time, for 35 minutes with SPF 8 and yes, did not get any color. I'll try 45 mins tomorrow. I do not want a sunburn! Just a healthy glow and I'll take my time to get it. I don't want to be crusty.

Here's our pool, you can see the fountain slightly in the background on the right.

I am finally getting the hang of work. It's really not a hard job, I just haven't got the routine down yet. And the nice thing is I do have a little computer time here. Here's a picture I took of the sunset from my office door yesterday.