Weekend Projects

This weekend we were able to complete a couple of projects.


#1 Dog House

Molly stays outside during each morning until I head home for lunch. It is still very hot here and rains a ton in the winter months. I thought it would be a good idea for Molly to have her own house.
There is a spot in our backyard that I was going to use for my garden however I decided for at least the time being it would be a good place for Molly's house.

So me and the boys put the house together. Then we cleaned up the area and put down fresh bark. We need to purchase another bag of bark. I underestimated. And then get Molly a sign that says Molly's house.

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Molly doesn't know what to think of her new house. As of yet she will not put her entire body in the new house. Hopefully she will decide that she likes it.

#2 New Curtains.

I've had these curtains for awhile and I love them. The back side of our house gets really hot in the afternoon so I decided to hang these in the family room. I found a curtain rod that I liked and decided to give it a try. Tony and I pulled out the ladder and measured (twice ok really three times) marked and then used the new drill to put them up. I was really proud of Tony helping with this project. He has such a calm presence about him when doing home improvement. Just takes his time and doesn't get to riled up. I don't know where exactly he learned this quality but I am in awe and hope to learn it myself one day. :)

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Big Tree's and Thoughts

This picture is taken on tree roots. There were carvings in the tree from 1955.









On Sunday we decided to take a drive and see if we could find a good hiking spot. I heard about a big trees grove in Foresthill which is about an hour east of our home. The others are really far away and I didn't know how much the kids would enjoy walking around looking at a bunch of really big trees.
Either way after driving on a very small curvy rode doing less than 30 mph for 25 miles we found it.

It was small with only about a mile walk around it but the trees were huge!!!
During this long drive I began to let my mind drift into thought. I don't know why but I always seem to start my goal planning or reflecting when I am on a long drive.
So needless to say I was in a very good place when we began out walk. Tony grabbed Molly's leash and all three of them began running (Tony, Cameron and Molly). And that is when I realized that one of the best decisions that I have made in the last few months was the decision to buy a dog. I cannot even begin to express how much joy she has brought into our lives. The boys love her, I love her. I even think our cat Roger is beginning to love her.

Tahoe Trip Aug 2009

Well it was the weekend before school started and I was trying to figure out where the summer went. Oh that's right I bought a new house, went to Utah, dropped my boys off woke up the next morning and here we are.
So our annual trip has been to Tahoe, my boss has a beautiful house up there and he lets us go up there and stay.
It was really cold on the way up there. it almost looked like winter time and the temperature outside was only 48 degrees. It rained the first night and we woke up on Saturday with still cold temptress. So no beach, the water is cold when it is 90 outside there was no way we were getting in when it was only 68 degrees outside. Off to breakfast at the quaint little restaurant with every ones coffee cups lined up and then off to mini golf. We had a great time and have always talked about doing this but never got around to it. We tried to go to the Ponderosa where gun smoke was filmed but it was purchased by a private owner and no longer is a tourist destination.
On Sunday we decided to take Molly on her first hike. Warning, never take advise from someone who hikes daily on how hard the hike actually is. We went over rocks, hiked on the sides of our shoes, tried not to fall in the beautiful river next to us. We were told that it was about a three mile hike approx two hours round trip to the lake. Well......needless to say we hiked for four hours, never found the lake and it started to get dark so we headed back and decided to ride the tram. I don't know what happened to summer that weekend but we still had a great time.
Headed back home on Sunday night for our annual trip for ice cream. My grandma started this tradition with me, Ash, and Bry when we were in school and i have decided to keep it going with my kids.

Ms. Molly

Ms. Molly joined our family last Friday. My boys especially Cameron have been asking for a dog for a little over a year now. I kept telling them as soon as we moved into our house we could get one. Well with all that is going on in our family and losing Lucky in December I wasn't sure if I was ready for a dog.

My friend Betsey is a vet and she called me a couple of weeks ago telling me that someone had brought in a one year old black lab but that she had parvo and that she didn't know for sure if the dog was going to make it.

Last Thursday I got a call from Betsey telling me that the dog was doing great, they had just had her fixed and given her all her shots. Needless to say it was a very stressful couple of weeks for the dog.

So me and my dad went down to meet her, I think he had just as many reservations as I did. We left and told Betsey that I would need to give it some thought. Betsey I am sure knew me well enough and decided to bring the dog home from work with her the next day. I went over to her house to get the dog for a longer visit to see how it would work. Within an hour I loved her and knew that she was supposed to be part of our family. Her name was originally Missy but was changed to Molly at the vets office.
Her previous owner did a great job of training her, I think that she was originally trained to be a hunting dog. However, they could not pay for any medical care. If it wasn't for the niceness (for a lack of a better word) then Molly would have been put to sleep.
Molly and our cat Roger were both rescue animals and have been such a blessing to our family. Please, Please if you have animals tell your vet how much you appreciate them and what they do for your animals. I guarantee that they take your animals home with them in their thoughts and love them too.