Summer Update

I have been informed it is time for an update. Very well, here is our news so far for the summer.

We traveled last weekend to Kansas for the 4th of July weekend. We stayed in Chase with my mom, stepdad, their old grumpy (but very wonderful!) dog, Toby, and bird, Ruby. Doughboy had a little trouble adjusting to the presence of another dog. He decided to mark his territory wherever he was at and permanently kept his nose in poor Toby's butt. Other than that, he utterly enjoyed Kansas: chasing rabbits and fireflies, cooler weather, steak and chops, and lots of dog-loving people.

We had a nice cook-out on Friday night with my mom, step-dad, grandparents, and step-brothers and their wives. It was so nice to see my grandparents since they couldn't make it to the wedding. After dinner, all the boys went to shoot their guns while the ladies gossiped. I just love my step-sisters-in-law, Jennifer and Amber. They are so sweet and down to earth. It was a perfect evening, Troy got to eat meat and blow up things and I got to chat with the girls. Ahhh, Kansas.

On Saturday morning, I ran the Freedom Run 5K in Sterling. I was very pleased with my time,(26.30) especially since I haven't been running a whole lot. I actually came in 5th in my age group! After the race, we walked around the festivities at Sterling Lake and watched my cousin, Jill, play in the basketball tournament. Sterling has a nice small-town fair-type celebration over the 4th, with games, tournaments, contests, booths, vendors, corndogs and funnelcakes, and fireworks. The weather was awesome and we had a great morning.

Saturday night we went to my dad's house for an all-out 4th of July celebration with my step-mom's family. We enjoyed more awesome food and the MOST fireworks ever. They must have shot off a hundred parachutes! And, they had a roll of 1500 black cats that boooooomed for about a full minute. I ate a variety of yummy desserts, which always makes me happy! The really cool thing is that from my dad's house, you can look down on Great Bend, a small town where everyone has block parties and blows extravagent fireworks. The whole sky was lit up with fireworks all evening - so cool. Everyone at my dad's was so nice, we had a wonderful time and were the last to leave (taking more dessert with us to go!)

We had such a great weekend. Thanks everyone for being so gracious and hospitable!

Next week we head to Georgetown to see Troy's family and then on to New Orleans!

By the way, don't you just love this picture of the Miller family! It is my new favorite.

A Bonding Moment

We bought Doughboy a new state-of-the-art crate. It has window shades, cushions, and a "moon roof." It's awesome. I liked it so much I crawled in there with him.

Doughboy

I dedicate this week's blog to my sometimes friend, sometimes nemesis, Doughboy. He sheds all over the apartment (even on the stove), tracks in mud, costs a ton to feed, barks and whines too much, blows doggy breath in my face, tears up my pretty decorative pillows, and gives me leash-burn on my hand when I try to walk him. Truly, the hardest part of marriage for me so far has been adjusting to living with a big dog. At times, I want to lock him in his crate and never let him out. BUT, this hurts Troy's feelings. He kinda loves Doughboy.

So, I've decided to take my own advice. I always tell people in counseling that if they need to like someone that they don't initially care for (for instance, step-children) they should "fake it until they feel it." Our feelings follow our thoughts. So, I'm putting positive thoughts into my head and creating positive interactions with Doughboy. Like right now, I rented Marley and Me for Doughboy and I to watch while Troy's at work. I'm already beginning to feel some warm fuzzies.

If only he'd stop barking at the t.v.

Partini Party

We had a few friends over this weekend for game night and a small birthday celebration for ME! It was Doughboy's debut with house guests, and actually, our's too, so we wanted to keep it small (for those of you who are wondering why you weren't invited :D). We would've loved to have a big blow-out, but since we are new to entertaining as a couple and Doughboy is new to houseguests, we just had to keep it down to a few brave souls. Doughboy only had a couple barking spells and then retired to his room. I was really impressed! Us human types had homemade ice cream that Troy and I made in the ice cream maker we got for our wedding and cake "balls" that I made (I guess cake balls are the new popular thing - I read about it in Dallas Morning News). We played Partini (another wedding gift), a game with challenges like charades, word games, ball-bouncing games, name-that-tune, etc. I think everyone had a lot of laughs and learned a lot about each other (like how much Troy likes to be the D.J. and I like to hum incoherently!)

Troy surprised me with the most AWESOME birthday gift ever. . . season tickets to Dallas Summer Musicals! Some of the shows are Happy Days, A Chorus Line, Legally Blond, Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins, and Wizard of Oz! Can you imagine a better gift for me? It just goes to show how wonderful marriage is! To spend a lifetime with someone who knows me that well and would go out of their way to make my wishes come true - it's divine.

Oh, but here's the highlight of last week . . . Somehow our marriage license was "lost." The church promises they mailed it, but the county office never received it! We had to run downtown and get a new license and have our minister sign and back-date it. We like to say we got "remarried." :D