Merry Christmas!

Here is a picture of all four of us with our presents on Christmas morning. We couldn't get the dogs to both look at the camera, but this one is kind of cute because they are both looking at the stacks of presents. We opened our presents, then had to hurry to make red herbed potatoes, spinach dip, and a pumpkin pie to take to the pastor's house for Christmas lunch. We ended up being about half an our late, but a lot more people came after us! We played games, and ended up not getting home until 10:00 at night. We were there almost 10 hours! It was really fun.

AND, December 25th can be thought of as my NEW birthday, because I was officially saved by the pastor at his kitchen table :)

~*~ Ashley ~*~

Blizzard!

If you click on the picture, it will make it big, and you can see what it is!

So I knew it was supposed to snow last night, and since I am home alone this week, I was worried about driving. I woke up every hour last night to see if it started, and it never did until around 4:30 am. When I got up at 6:00 there was maybe 3 inches on the ground. By the time I left around 7:00, probably 5 inches. Driving to work wasn't TOO bad. The highway was about 20 mph, and it took me 45 minutes to get there. As soon as I walked in the door they had already established we were closing at noon and not being open tomorrow. I thought that was odd because it wasn't too bad yet.

When I left at noon, that was another story! It still only took me an hour to get home, which wasn't bad. You couldn't go any faster than 20 mph without your tires spinning, so most of the time I went about 10. The highway had about a foot of snow on it, which makes it hard to drive!

So I get home and I am all excited like YES I MADE IT! So I turn in the parking lot and go about oh 40 feet or so, and nothing. The car is stuck! Right in the middle of the drive. I tried to reverse and forward for a few minutes, and there were like 20 guys with shovels outside, but they didn't seem to want to help. So I got my stuff and left the car there. Steve will kill me when he finds out... But I don't really know what to do! Walking from the parking lot to our garage the snow was up past my thighs! Talk about hard to walk in! Plus the wind is blowing super hard and all the snow goes in your face and you can't see where you are going. So I am struggling through the almost waist deep snow (Did I mention there were like 3-5 inches when I left this morning?!) then I FALL DOWN! Somehow I did make it thought the parking lot and into the garage. I had to take my pants off in there because they were covered...

So I put on my snowboard clothes to take the dogs out. I open the door (the picture above) and snow is a foot there! I will take some more pictures once the snow isn't so in your face outside. Needless to say, I am super stressed out now! I shouldn't be because I made it home safely, but I am because the car is stuck and there is snow up to my crotch and I have to take the dogs out for 2 days until Steve gets home! haha

~*~ Ashley ~*~

Let the Baking Begin!

These are all the things I had to get at the grocery store for all my Christmas baking. I am not going to tell you all what I am making, but just showing you my ingredients so you know you have something, a lot of somethings, to look forward to. Since Steve is out of town this week, I am going to come home from work and bake every night to keep my mind off of being by myself! Wish me luck!

~*~ Ashley ~*~

Lilliann - Large Breed Beginner Class

Last night we took Lilliann to her first class at PetsMart. We had warned Jessica, the trainer, that if she thought Tinkerbell was bad, she was going to hate Lilliann. So Steve basically dragged Lilliann through the door as she was trying to get away and see the people. Then she was freaking out like she always does when the trainer came up. We got a "gentle leader" which is a harness type thing that goes around the dogs nose and back of the head (we don't have a picture of her with it on, but above is a good example of how it fits). When they pull, it puts pressure on their head, and makes them stop pulling. So Jessica made Lilliann walk around the store with it on for probably 45 minutes, and Lilliann was definitely protesting the whole time. When they pull, you pull straight up on the leash, and it makes them sit. She would just walk a few feet, then pull so Lilliann would sit. After 45 minutes she finally calmed down a little bit and would walk like a normal dog. Our homework is to put the leader on her when people are over, and no one can talk to her, look at her, or touch her unless she is being a good girl and sitting/laying and being normal. So everyone coming for Christmas, be ready to help us with our homework! Hopefully she will calm down in a few weeks. Jessica said she is just so excited she can't keep her mind straight, let alone listen to what you are telling her to do. We are going to put the leader on her every time she goes outside, in hopes she calms down a little bit before I am alone with her for a week. She is too strong for me to take her outside, and pulls me down the stairs and all over the place. Keep your fingers crossed she gets better!

Vail, Colorado

Friday night after work, we packed up the dogs and drove about two hours to Vail, Colorado. The main purpose for going was to see a Counting Crows concert, but I added in celebrating six months of being married so we could make a weekend out of it!

We went to bed around 11:30 pm, and were rudely awaken at 2:45 am to the nice sound of a fire alarm. It didn't sound like any fire alarm I have ever heard, so we were not really sure what the noise was. There were no strobe lights in the room or hallway. Every one came out of their rooms and stood in the hall, but no one was really sure if it was a fire alarm or not. Some people went out to the parking lot, but most just stayed in because we didn't feel in danger. Finally after about 15 minutes the alarm went off. We started to go back to sleep, then saw that Tinkerbell peed in the bed from being scared of the noise. Luckily we had 2 beds in the room!.

On Saturday we got up at 9:00 to have a "Continental Divide Breakfast" which wasn't very good. They didn't really have much to eat there. Then Steve got ready for snowboarding, I drove him to the slopes. I came back to the hotel and cuddled in bed with the two dogs until 1:30, then I went to pick Steve up. The plan was for Steve to board in the morning until about noon, then I would go and join him. I ended up not going because he said it was really icy and I wouldn't like it, and I was happy not to go! We went back to the room and had some snacks and watched TV for a little bit. Then we took a shower and got ready for the concert! I wore snowboarding socks, 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 2 coats, a hat, and gloves!

We drove to Vail Village and ate dinner at Joe's Famous Deli Sandwiches or something like that. It was pretty good. Then we walked to the concert. We got there about 20 minutes before the gate opened. We stood in line, then when the gates opened, I walked as fast as I could to the stage. It was general admission tickets, so whoever gets there first gets the good seats. We were the third row back, right in the middle. I was really happy! Usually I am too short and can't see anything, so it is not as fun. The opening act was a DJ, and it was cold and no one really cared what he was doing. So we just stood there forever being cold. All of a sudden I got really hot and dizzy, so I told Steve and took off my hat and one glove. The next thing I know a cop is carrying me to an ambulance! I guess I passed out and Steve caught me and put me on the ground, then everyone started ripping my clothes off because I was really hot. I can vaguely remember someone yelling "I know CPR! I know CPR!" and being worried I was going to loose my hat that I took off, and not worrying about my other glove. Then I started crying because we lost our seats... They put me in the ambulance and did 2 EKGs, 2 blood pressure tests, and a blood sugar test. Everything was normal. The blood sugar was a little low, but not really. I felt fine after that, so they said I didn't need to go to the hospital.

We went back to the concert (the DJ was STILL playing) and had to stand to the side of the stage about 20 people back. I could see for most of the time, but not nearly as good as when I was in the third row. For the most part we were not very cold. The first to get cold was our toes, then our fingers. Everything else stayed warm though! We ended up dancing the last hour or so because that was the only way to stay warm! My fingers were hurting so had I thought they were going to break off. When it was over and we were walking back to the car, I couldn't even tell if I was lifting my leg up high enough because my feet were frozen!

We went to Denny's by our hotel, but didn't end up eating very much. I was still feeling bad, so I went to sleep as soon as we got back. I think Steve watched TV, but I'm not sure! I woke up at 10:00 this morning, but Steve had been up since 7 with the dogs. We packed up the car and started home. There is a big horned sheep look out on the way, and we stopped there for a few minutes. We saw 4 sheep - 1 ram and 3 ewes. It was really cool. They have 4 telescopes you can put a quarter in, but the Wildlife Foundation was there with a bunch of binoculars and 2 telescopes, so we didn't have to pay. Plus they told us a lot of cool things about big horned sheep. If those people weren't there, we probably wouldn't have seen any!

We are home now and unpacked. The night holds lots of fun things like laundry and grocery shopping!

~*~ Ashley ~*~