What Do Duct Tape and Socks Have in Common?

Elvis had his stitches removed Thursday. We were thrilled because we thought we could finally let him live without his cone hat. The vet told us to duct tape socks on Elvis's legs so he wouldn't lick the wounds that weren't quite healed yet. He was NOT a happy camper when we did that!

So he got his stitches out and he's wearing the socks, why did he still need his cone hat?

He started chewing through the duct tape, so we had to put the cone hat back on to protect his feet. You have never seen a dog so happy as when he finally did work around his cone hat enough to chew through the duct tape and remove the socks yesterday.

The Fruits (and vegetables) of Our Labors

Let me preface this post by saying, we bought the COOLEST house in the ENTIRE world! When we first looked at the house last January - it's hard to believe it's been an entire year - we fell in love with the backyard. It's not huge, but it came equipped with an extended patio with a built-in grill, counter and sink.

In addition to the great grilling area, there was a tree in the backyard that was growing two, TWO, different kinds of fruit...on the same tree! WOW! When recounting this story to my family, they explained that this type of tree is called a cocktail tree and is actually a fairly normal occurrence - apparently they graft branches of one type of tree into another type of tree and it grows more than one fruit (who knew?).

Our cocktail tree grows grapefruit and tangerines. The tangerines aren't ripe yet, but we've been consuming grapefruit for the past month or two. I've never cracked up over grapefruit, but there's something about wanting a piece of fruit, going to my backyard to pick said piece of fruit and then walking inside to eat it. I now LOVE grapefruit! There was more grapefruit than we could possibly eat before it went bad, so we picked it all off of the tree yesterday and gave it away to family.

Grapefruit on our cocktail tree

We also have what we lovingly refer to as our lemon bush (because it looks more like a bush than a tree) that has yet to grow any fruit - hopefully we will have lemons next year - and a plum tree that has fruit in the summer.

I know you're asking yourself right now, "you mean their house has an extended patio, built-in grilling area, cocktail tree that grows TWO kinds of fruit, lemon bush and plum tree...how could it get any better?"

But wait, it can...There is also a built in planter box along the back fence, with shade already attached! Now, Wil and I are not gardeners by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, if you ask my family and friends, my thumb is not only not green, it is actually a shade of brownish-black. Aside from one plant I've had since my freshman year of college (yes Dani, I still have the cute little tree-plant you gave me for Christmas that year), I tend to kill just about any plant that finds its way into my care. However, we saw this lovely little garden box as a challenge and an experiment waiting to happen.

Our garden box - with shade!

In September, we mixed some potting soil stuff from Home Depot in with our garden box dirt and planted rows of seeds...we planted carrot seeds, pea seeds, spinach seeds, lettuce seeds and other seeds that I can't seem to remember. We were really smart when we did this, so we put a rock in the box at the beginning of each row of seeds, because we wanted to remember where we planted them. The only thing we didn't think of (duh!) was to figure out a way to show what we planted in each row. We currently have plants growing in our garden box, but we're not sure what they all are...also, we're not sure how we will know when the vegetables are ripe and ready to be picked (for instance, how do you know when carrotts that grow in the ground are ready, if you can't see them)...any suggestions?

We think this one is peas because the flowers seem to be turning into this...

Which sort of looks like a peapod...maybe?

I'm almost positive the plant on the right is lettuce...I have no idea what the plant on the left is...maybe green onions?

I'm thinking this is either spinach or carrots?

As you can see, there are also sevearl spots where we planted seeds that vegetables are not growing...either we haven't taken care of those seeds the way we should have, they were dud seeds and didn't grow or we thought they were a weed and accidentally picked them - oops!

Sundays

Can you believe it's 10:15 a.m. and I am finished preparing my Sunday School lesson already? Wil's at his mom's house installing flooring - it's amazing what I can get done in an hour when the house is quiet and there aren't any distractions.

Now, I'm moving on to my next task for the day, which is catching up on my blog. Generally, I prefer to spread out the entries and not post a ton of entries on one day. However, I'm super behind and have a lot I want to post, and considering that the real reason I'm keeping a blog is so I can print it out at the end of the year and have a book of memories, I will be posting several entries today. You are under no obligation to read them all...I just want to make sure I get them written.

Editor's Note: I'm a primary teacher at church - primary is the children's group for ages 3-11. I teach the 10 turning 11 year old girls and I'm loving it. Last year I taught younger kids, who were fun, too. But, it's really exciting to have older kids who bring scriptures with them to class and know how to read! It makes coming up with activities for the lesson SO much easier!

Elvis is in the Building

We brought Elvis home Monday. The vet gave him his booster shot, neutered him and removed his dewclaws all at once. Ever since, he's had to wear this lovely surgery collar/cone hat.


We didn't really think the whole neutering him before we brought him home plan through because he is absolutely hating life at our house with this cone hat (the real logic was that if we got his booster shot when we got him neutered, we wouldn't have to pay for an office visit at the vet). I'm pretty sure he would much rather live at the lady's house with the mean dog (my grandma and Oscar) or the house with the big yard and lots of playmates (my aunt and uncle's).

I took Elvis for a walk last night and tonight to try to bribe him into liking our house (don't worry, I didn't make him wear the collar on his walk; the neighbor dogs might make fun of him). We're even letting him lay on the couch and every once in a while we let him sleep on the bed for a bit... I'm not sure what's going to happen when we decide he's better and it's time to enforce the rules.

On another Elvis side note...I taught him how to sit this morning. I said sit and he sat, three or four times. I tried to get him to sit when I got home tonight...not so much. Maybe he'll be in the mood again tomorrow morning! :)

Walking Elvis, sort of

After we (and by we, I mean Wil...although I still maintain I'm the best assistant he's ever had) finished installing my grandma's microwave on New Year's Day, we decided to take Elvis for a hike. Unfortunately it was starting to get dark by the time we picked him up, so we took him for a short nature walk instead.


I use the term walk loosely...as you can tell from these photos, most of our walk consisted of Elvis sniffing around and us trying to get him to walk. We still had fun, though.

Elvis is quickly becoming a much better walker - although sometimes his nose still gets the best of him!

My Husband, the Maytag Repairman

Our New Year's was uneventful...but the time off of work was wonderful! While we spent our days off for Christmas busy playing and enjoying time with family, we spent our time off for New Year's working hard. Luckily, we still got to play at night and ended up feeling like we had accomplished a lot, had fun and almost ready to go back to work...almost!

My grandma got new appliances on New Year's Eve. She is extremely proud of her new dishwasher, flat-top stove, microwave and refrigerator! A local resort was remodeling their casitas and sold the appliances that were barely used for $25 a piece...which means my grandma got a whole new kitchen, in white (she used to have creme) for a grand total of $100. I'll bet if you ask her, she will tell you it's the best $100 she's ever spent!

Wil installed the fridge, stove and dishwasher on New Years Eve.

My grandma and Wil with her newly installed appliances!

When he told us the dishwasher was leaking, I thought he meant he didn't connect it right. Nope, turns out someone at the hotel had put dish soap in the spot where you usually put Jet Dry.


We weren't sure what to do or how to get the dish soap out of the Jet Dry area, so we put a towel down (well, after I snapped this picture of course!) and let it bubble. It bubbled and foamed for three or four rinse cycles. It was kind of fun...I've heard about dishwashers doing that before, but I'd never actually seen it!

Wil installed the microwave on New Year's Day, and it took almost as much time as the other three appliances combined! But, if you ever need to know how to install an above the stove microwave - Wil is now an expert!

Balancing Act

Elvis is living at my aunt and uncle's house until Monday - when were are taking him to be neutered and get his second round of shots. We can't wait to bring him home; he's SO cute!

I mentioned before how well he balances on his back two legs. Here's a video of him doing just that with my cousin Andy. He's after a piece of dog food Andy has in his hand.

You will have to turn your head to the side...I thought I could take the video tall ways and make it look right on the computer, but apparently you're only supposed to take video normally on my camera.