Wonderful Thanksgiving

Ali and Shane (my twin and her husband) came to visit for Thanksgiving for 4 days. They got in late late Monday evening (around 1:30am, which makes a 2.5 hour drive back home REALLY long), and left early Saturday morning. It was SO nice visiting with them. I have been fortunate to see my sister three times this year. She moved to Florida after she and her husband got married 2 years ago. She was able to come out for my wedding back in March, and then Jake and I got to visit on our trek across the country and see where they live. We spent a day and a half with them and loved it! Wonderfully, they were able to come up for Thanksgiving and it was great. We did a whole lot of nothing for the most part. We had a Harry Potter movie marathon, watching 2 movies a day (which is A LOT, even for us Harry Potter fans!), and did a little bit of sight seeing. We also ate at the yummiest little place on the river named Eagles Nest. I had never been there, but I SO want to go again. It had the best fried chicken burger I had EVER had. And the lady gave me extra pickles.. I love pickles. :)

On Thanksgiving day we went to Jake's parents house and had dinner with his family. Lots of members were missing (two sisters, one brother) so it was a pretty quiet gathering (even though there were still 3 other sisters and 11 children) all things considered. The food was amazing. I had some of the best home made rolls I think I've ever had. DELISH. It was fun going out to their pond and throwing sticks on it seeing if we could make the ice break.. we could. Haha.

The day after Thanksgiving threw a surprise our way!

Snow! I woke up around 8am to big, gigantic snowflakes falling quickly and I quickly woke up Jake with very excited noises. He just about grunted and rolled over. I guess snow isn't so exciting to someone who has lived in Maine the last 22 years of their life. :) But I woke up Ali right after and she and Shane were able to take part in my excitement. It snowed about 1.5 inches throughout the day. I know that's not a lot, but it was SOO exciting for us. It snowed a little bit over the next day, and the snow is still on the ground, but just barely. It should all be gone in the next few days. BUT! It might snow again this weekend and a few days next week! It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. :)

Birthday Progress

This past Monday was my 22nd birthday. Jake had to work so I wasn't expecting the day to be filled with much. We were, however, lucky enough to receive some money so we could go out to dinner that night! Wahoo! So, I was planning on spending the day cuddled up with a blanket and my Harry Potter book, and just enjoying the simplicity of it. Turns out, I wasn't bored at all! My mother-in-law called and asked if she could take me out, so we went shopping, had lunch, did MORE shopping, then she dropped me off at my house around 2pm. I got to pick up Jake from work that day too and left to pick him up around 2:30. When we got home he jumped in the shower, then we left for a super yummy dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I LOVE THEIR ROLLS. Yum.

Jake made me a mint chocolate chip and Oreo ice cream pie. Unfortunately, Jake got food poisoning that night (so sad!) and we didn't end up eating it for my birthday. Finally, however, last night we were able to sink our teeth into it. AMAZING. I've been meaning to take a picture of it, just because it's so beautiful. Hopefully I'll get around to that today.

Yesterday I finished up book 6 of my Harry Potter-a-thon, and started up book 7. I am hoping to be done by tomorrow. I get to see the movie on Friday night and I don't really want to be reading the book the day I go see it. When that happens, I tend to be disapointed. So I wouldn't mind one day for my head to clear before I go see it. I can't wait! I'm going with Jake (of course) and our friend Sam. It should be lots of fun!

Well, I am contemplating spending some birthday money on new clothes. It probably SHOULD go towards important things like, paint for the walls in my livigin room. Right now it's all primed, and very white. I would love to have it painted before Ali and Shane arrive!

That's right, Ali and Shane (my twin and her husband) are arriving 5 days from today!! WAHOO!!

I know I'm a geek!

As I'm sure lots of you know, the final Harry Potter (part 1) comes out next Friday, the 19th. I am beyond excited. My birthday is on Monday and tickets to the movie are the only thing I have asked for. I am not entirely thrilled at the fact that they are splitting up the movie in to two parts. HOWEVER! I am pleased that, by doing this, they seem to be putting in lots of the book in to the movie, so that the viewers do not miss out on too much. Book number 5 transferred to a movie was AWFUL! Not a bad movie, but if you hadn't read the book (as my dear husband hadn't), you're just left with lots of questions. Anyway, I digress.

I have given myself a challenge for the next week. I am going to re-read the 6th and 7th Harry Potter books before the movie comes out. I am beyond excited. That is 1411 pages in about 7 days, or 201 pages a day (give or take a few). I will not be reading on Saturday or Sunday because my husband is home and I won't neglect him, no matter how much I love the books! Also, he gets off work around 3:30 these days, so I will have from around 10am - 3pm to read.

Of course, I can't neglect my wifely duties either. The house will have to stay clean, the dog will be walked, and the kitties litter shall be scooped (as I speak, she's throwing it all over her room right now. Waaahoooo.....). And of course, the husband shall be fed. And I guess I will shower sometime in there too.

What a waste of time this is... but it's gonna be great!

Dogs vs. Babies

So I guess the title doesn't quite reflect how I feel. Babies are WAY over dogs in my opinion.

What am I talking about??

I was emailed by someone in my family who's baby was just bitten by their family dog of over 5 years. They were shocked, upset, and scared. Of course! Who wouldn't be? they asked for my advice on what to do in that situation.

I gave them my advice and while doing so I realized how much being a dog trainer for GDA has shaped my attitude towards dogs. I do not want to go into too much detail here. I have to protect GDA's reputation (which is still quite intact!), and I don't want to to cause a huge controversial discussion. but I was surprised as I was writing down my advice. I spoil my dogs like no one else. Fala is SO ridiculously spoiled, even Belle is spoiled, and they know it! They know Mom spoils, and Dad trains. I am the "fun" one.

Since when??? I guess I just feel that owning a dog and training a dog for guide/service work are two completely different things that can allow for different training methods. However, my basics are still the same. Fala disobeys, she gets corrected, followed by praise. I'm just so much more relaxed about it now!

Now, my cousins situation is very serious. The baby, thank goodness, is perfectly fine. But action does need to happen. They are not even thinking about re-homing their dog, which I think is great. But they know there are steps that need to be taken in order to re-establish a healthy balance in the little family or not. And whether or not the dog likes it, she is bottom of the totem pole!

Babies win!

HOW cold??

Well, this post is mostly to those people out there who complain when it reaches 60 degrees Farhenheit... *cough cough* Erin *cough* ;)

This morning, driving Jake to work at 5:15, Bangor reached a chilly 23 degrees.

TWENTY-THREE DEGREES!!!!!

When I was 12, I went up to Mammoth in CA for a church winter group thing. It was 19 degrees then, and the coldest time of the year. It is just the beginning of November here!

I love it! I really do. Feeling the semi-frozen ground under my feet, scraping ice off my car, looking at all the ice on the grass... it's so much fun! Of course it WON'T be fun when the ice is dangerous to drive on. But that's for another post, I'm sure. For now, I am loving this totally-differen-than-CA weather I am experiencing.

On a sober note, today is my would-be 2nd anniversary as a trainer for GDA. Words don't describe how much I miss it.

Halloween Happenings

Jake and I don't really celebrate Halloween. Actually, we don't celebrate it AT ALL. When I was younger I would go trick-or-treating at my church. Jake's family just had a nice dinner at theirs. So we were never much into the festivities. Plus, this year, we have no children. So, all this to say, we woke up Halloween morning with nothing too incredibly exciting planned.

Jake took Fala to the bathroom around 8:30 in the morning and came back saying, "WOW, it's cold!!!!" According to weather.com, it was 32 degrees, but with the wind chill it clocked in around 25. BRRR!!!!! I had been hoping all weekend there would be snow. There was rumors of snow. But when we woke up, no pretty little white stuff to be seen.

We go to a church up in Lincoln, which is about forty-five minutes north of us. It only took us about 20 minutes of driving before we were completely engrossed in snow!!! It was everywhere, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I was so unbelievably excited. Of course, I didn't have my camera on me. SO sad!!!! But I so enjoyed it. I felt like all the little kids at church. Their parents weren't excited, but the kids were running around making snowballs. I didn't make snowballs, but Jake did. Just for me. :)

When we got back to Bangor, weren't we pleasantly surprised to see just the tiniest dustings of snow on lawns, cars, and driveways. I had to take pictures. It's really very little, but enough for this Californian native to be beyond herself with excitement!

This is Belle. You can't tell how small she is in this picture, but she is right around 3 pounds, and around 5 months old.. Maybe closer to 4. I'm bad at remembering these things. :)