Lately....

Rich and I have been busy lately!

We had a great Christmas. We were outrunning Blizzards like you wouldn't believe. We made it to Minnesota about 3 hours before the snow started falling. We then were able to spend a few days with Family and Friends. As the snow did not quit, we Celebrated our Savior's Birth with family on December 25!

ON December 26th we made the trip to Michigan to visit family and friends. We celebrated Christmas and got to see some friends while we were out there. It was great to see friends we hadn't seen in a while.


Starting on New Years Eve we were able to be in Detroit for the Red Wings Hockey Game! We got to see a great game against the Colorado Avalanche!

Since then, Rich and I have both been back to work. Right now we are both working at schools, I as a preschool teacher and Rich as a substitute. We have enjoyed having the same schedule. We have even been able to enjoy 2 snow days together!

We have both been busy with coaching again! As that takes up most Saturdays! Both of our teams continue to do well.

We have also become Aunt and Uncle to Addyson Josephine. Rich's sister Meredith and her husband Justin had a baby girl on January 5. We have been so lucky as to see some beautiful pictures of her. We have not been lucky enough to see her in person or to hold her which makes Rich and I very sad. Its hard to live so far away! But we are really looking forward to meeting her the weekend of Presidents Day in February for her Baptism!!

This past weekend has been exceptionally Busy:
We had Rich's Parents come for company this weekend! They arrived Friday evening and stayed until Sunday Morning! It was great to spend time with our loved ones that we do not get to see much! While they were here we were able to enjoy some down time at home, as well as A Harrisburg wrestling meet, and good food.

Sunday deemed an exceptionally interesting day. I feel that this day has aged me at least 5 years! We got up early to say goodbye to Rich's parents. Then went to church. After church we did a few things such as get a few groceries, Rich got a hair cut, went to Target and some other stores. While we were at Target we experienced the first of our interesting encounters.....we were backed into while in the parking lot. Luckily neither car had more than $10 worth of damage. We have a few little scratches and her car was worse....broken tail light. The good thing was that she came out saying it was her fault!! Since there was just minor scratches neither of us called the insurance companies!
Later that day we were able to enjoy spending time with our friends Brandi and Tom at their new home in Harrisburg. We were able to see the house with furniture all moved in, all the hard work they had spent painting and their new dog Greta the Great Dane! She is such a cute puppy! (only about 5 times bigger than Macey! :) )
When we got home that night we had decided to do some revamping of our home. We painted a wall in our bedroom! (there will be pictures up soon!)
While we were trying to keep Macey out of the paint we had shut the bedroom door and this is when our night got scary! Macey decided to dig a package of Orbit Sugar Free Gum out of my purse. She continued to eat at least 5-7 pieces of the gum. When we found out we were alarmed but didn't think much of it...we didn't know the consequences until I asked Rich to Google what happens to dogs if they eat gum. That's when our night turned into a tailspin! We found out there is an ingredient in sugar free gum that is TOXIC to dogs. Xylitrol is a sugar alcohol that lowers dogs' blood sugar and can make their livers shut down. This scared us as we read one testimony that said 13 grams of this did liver damage to a 65 pound dog. While we have a 6 pound dog and found that she ate at least 4 pieces as we found 4 wrappers on the floor, we realized that she had gotten 4 grams of the toxic ingredient in her system. We called the vet and had to take her in. They got her to vomit but there was no way they could be sure that she got it all out of her system! We had them keep her over night to monitor her blood sugar levels. She did well throughout the night but her levels did drop to the lower normal scores. We were very nervous but found out this morning when we got her that she was pretty much back to her normal self as she didn't sleep much at the vet. We found that her blood sugar may have been low as she was STARVING so we dint think she ate much between 11:30 pm and 7:30 am. Luckily we have been able to be home all day to monitor her further today. We are making sure that she eats very regularly and drinks fluids as well as stays somewhat active!

We are lucky to have her and I have learned my lesson to put my purse away or zip it up! I do not know what I would do if she would not have made it through the night. By reading through our Sunday I'm sure you can tell what an emotional Roller Coaster Ride our day was. Its always hard to say goodbye to family, church was particularly good that day making me think a lot about the choices I am making, Spending time with my wonderful husband was great, being hit in the parking lot left me in my first hysterical fit of the day, seeing friends in their new home with their new puppy was a great high point of the day, painting our room was another high as it was a fun project to do together with Rich, and then ending the day in another hysterical fit, which left me scared, and nervous, as well as getting very little sleep worrying about our little baby!

I know whenever the time comes that we start to have kids I am just going to be a mess....what good training a dog can be for that! i am learning great lessons on picking EVERYTHING up and keeping things in puppy safe places.

.....thanks for listening......stay tuned for some updated pictures of our newly painted bedroom!!!
Love you, and hope all is well!