We got a puppy!

. . .


He's a Puggle (mix of pug and beagle) and is 6 months old. We’ve named him BlackJack. If you read our blog, this is the same puppy I posted a picture of back in July. Remember the one I wanted to get but couldn’t because Steve was in Houston? Well, since Steve’s been back we’ve gone to look at a few other younger puppies and then on Monday we saw this little guy was still available but had been moved to another location. We drove up so Steve could meet him and . . . brought him home with us that night!

He’s about as big as he’s supposed to get at about 20 pounds and he’s crazy! He's got tons of energy. We’re working on house training him. 6 months is a long time to go without any training so it’ll be a challenge but we knew that going into it. He’s been getting lots of attention from us and plenty of walks. He’s in the teething stage so he likes to chew on his toys, but more often our hands and arms and anything else he can get in his little mouth.

He hasn’t learned to go to sleep yet in his kennel without barking (which we won’t allow, we have neighbors and we are NOT those kind of neighbors!). He doesn't like us to leave him alone. So we’ve ended up laying next to his kennel until he falls to sleep or relaxes enough that his yelping is down to a wimper. Other than that he really hasn’t barked much, more just wimpering and weezing when he gets too excited. And he is easily excitable! He's a lot of fun, and a lot of work! But he's well worth it :)

On a breather while out on a walk with Steve.





Chewing away on his basketball toy. When we went to see him they’d given him a rag doll to play with. But he’s a boy, no dolls for this boy.


It may take a while to train him not to do this! “BlackJack, NO!”



His baby picture, around 10 weeks old.

Back Together Again!

We made it through our 10 weeks living apart and got to drive the 1100 miles back to Phoenix together. After having lunch with my coworkers Friday afternoon, we hit the road for our adventure. We drove a few hours into the middle of nowhere and stopped for the night in the town of Junction TX.

Would you believe, they actually had something called "Air Conditioning" there in town?

They were having their annual rodeo that weekend, so we got to mingle with the local folk for a while. We got some funny looks, and I don't think we were dressed appropriately to stay for the Hoe-down afterwards, but it was still good fun.

We didn't quite figure out the rules of this event...apparently your team had to put a saddle on this baby steer and get someone to ride it across a finish line, all in the fastest time. If you fell off, someone else on the team could get on, if it hadn't crossed the line yet.


I guess tail pulling is a popular tactic, not sure if it is to slow down the steer or speed it up.

This last event was a little more obvious...although the reason why anyone would do it is beyond me! In this relay race, each team had a guy on a horse and then a guy hanging onto a shovel roped to the horse. This guy got dragged from one side of the arena to the other.

Then at the other side, the guy being dragged let go and someone else had to jump on and be dragged back. It was very impressive that they were able to do this while the horse was still moving. A lot of them got up afterwards with dirt in their mouths, but they made sure not to lose their hats.


So, after 18 hours of driving, 6 gas fill-ups, a bee sting, a west Texas thunderstorm, another highway patrol warning (for tail light problems this time) and several cowboys later, we made it home and have been enjoying every minute together!



...A special thanks to Verizon Wireless and Southwest Airlines, for making the time apart bearable.

Cover Girl

Yes, that’s me on the cover of this magazine. I’m famous. I know, I know, I’ll probably never hear the end of this from my family since I’m always the one putting my hand up in front of the camera and not wanting to be photographed. But when my office’s Creative department asked me to be their “talent,” I don’t think I was really allowed to say no! Plus I got some bonuses out of it and a bit of fame and fortune at work.

The monthly Workspan magazine goes out to some 30,000 people. Yikes! The photo shoot was done at a local park at 6am one morning (to beat the Arizona heat . . . it was still 90 degrees or so). And I really am holding that frame, believe me, my arm was sore afterwards from holding it up for so long! I’ve already signed a few autographs. Just wait, some day I’ll be famous . . . and you can all say you knew me! ;)

Lakewood Church

While in Houston last weekend, Steve and I decided to check out the famous Lakewood Church. This is the huge Christian church (the center holds around 16,000) televised with messages from pastors such as Joel Osteen. You can pretty much see the Lakewood Church from Steve's condo and we thought it would be interesting to get in there with the locals and experience something different from our Mormon upbringing (most of you probably know by now we are no longer Mormon. We are not in search of a new church, we attended Lakewood just to get a better understanding of the locals and different cultures). This church had a congregation of pretty much all races and ages, which really surprised me. I guess I was expecting more of a straight southern baptist feel, but it was really very diverse.

The party before the message:



The morning started off with performances by the band and choir with the congregation chiming in and singing and dancing along. The music and words were very uplifting and it was just a happy place for everyone to join and celebrate. The way these people "felt the spirit" if you will was very different than our Mormon upbringing, and yet I have to say just as real. It was an uplifting experience for all. The televised portion of the service did not begin until about an hour in (which is when we finally got to sit down!).

Joel Osteen himself then came on stage to give the message. Here's where things went downhill. The message was just fluff, no depth really. But it made the congregation happy and feel nice things and that's really all that matters I suppose. Joel's message was about "God's little surprises." He told story after story of a single mother who...and then received...or a poor family who...and then such and such happened...or the little unfortunate child who...but then someone came along and...they were really just touchy feely stories of miraculous sounding events that, in reality, probably never happened. But again, if it uplifts people and they enjoy listening, whatever, more power to them.

Pastor Joel Osteen himself:



It was one particular thing Joel said that made me want to up and walk out (which I managed to refrain from doing since they asked us to stay until the end what with it being televised and all). Joel told of 'how one might be struggling to make ends meet and then...they receive a large tax return...one of God's little surprises!' The crowd went wild cheering and clapping. I almost threw up in my mouth. WHAT?! I'm sorry, but it does not take an accountant to know that a tax refund DOES NOT have ANYTHING to do with God. There is a mathematical equation if you will for how much tax you will owe or receive as a refund at the end of the year. It is 100% dependent on your income and the number of exemptions/deductions you claim and are eligible for. God does not change the tax tables. WOW.

All in all we were glad we went once. It was interesting to get to see how people may really believe in a religion, but from an outsider's perspective it just doesn't make any sense.