Dogs & Big T

When I found out I was pregnant I was nervous about having a baby around our dog Spartacus.  Not because he is vicious or mean, but because he is stupid and overly excited.  I was scared he would not pay attention at all and sit or knock Big T down.  I wasn't nervous about Lucius, our husky, because he loved babies and is much more aware of his surroundings.

Big T came home and Lucius was as I suspected, curious.  He was gentle with him and somewhat protective.  Spartacus surprised me, he pretty much ignored Big T and when he did check him out it was one huge kiss and then he walked away.  We did have to teach both dogs some boundries but I figured we would.

As Big T got older Lucius wasn't as curious about him or as protective, he stills "drops by" to say hello though.  Spartacus has been the most surprising for me. He lets Big T climb all over him and pull on his tail, and when he has had enough he just simply leaves and lays down somewhere else. Of course sometimes Big T crawls to Spartacus and then Spartacus has to move again, usually by that time Big T gives up.  Lucius doesn't stay put and allow Big T that much play time with him.  He will  let him for a short while, but not nearly as much as Spartacus and definitely not with the face.

I am very, very pleased that both my dogs are good with Big T and with other children.  There have been some knock downs , but I have also knocked down Big T and other children, so I can't complain.

There are lots of people who don't like dogs around their children, and I respect their views, but for me personally I want my children to be around dogs.  When they start walking and playing outside I know that my dogs will be perfect companions and will protect and watch over my children, like my childhood dogs did.

Your Mind

Have you ever played those game where you are supposed to say the word and the word says red, but the color is orange.  I wonder what it would be like to have grown up or been taught that an "orange" is a "green" or that a banana is red and not yellow.  It is so crazy to me. Our whole life is full of colors and we associate moods with them, how different would our life be if the names of the colors were different? It probably wouldn't be any different if we were always raised in that alternate color world, but to be thrown in to it would probably make us go insane.  At least me.  I never realized how important and how much meaning colors have in our life!
Coach also told me that he can't eat something if it is the "wrong" color.  When I was a little girl on Saint Patrick's day my dad would put green food dye in our milk, or on Valentine's Day our pancakes would be in the shape of a heart and pink.  I'll have to admit the milk was hard to drink because it wasn't white.  I haven't done it for Coach yet to see if he will drink green milk, but I'm guessing he would put up a little fight in his mind. ( Also my dad would put strings in our cereal on April Fool's Day. My oldest sister "Jean" ate her whole bowl and no strings were left in the bowl.)  I just LOVE my Dad!
       Have you ever thought about color in such a way?

Summer

I love the Sun and warm weather.  I don't always realize how much the weather effects my moods.  Now that it is warm out I get to go on more walks with Big T and the dogs and I feel better about myself.  I feel I am not down on myself as much lately, and I don't know if I should attribute it to the nice weather or the fact that I have been with Family a lot in the last couple of weeks.  It is probably both!  I love my Family and have been so fortunate to spend time with them two weekends in a row.

I also love this warm weather so we can have BBQ's.  We bought lawn furniture this weekend and a couple of weekends ago go a little fire pit thing that you can move around.  My goal is to  have tons of BBQ's this summer (when we get our gas tanks filled of course) and invite over couples and families to get to know them better.  That also scares me.  I am a wussy when it comes to inviting people because I'm afraid of rejection or they came and don't have a good time.  I don't want to come off desperate for them to be my friends, even though inside I might feel that way.  I don't know if anyone knows what I'm talking about, but it really is scary.  My goal is to invite over one family we don't know that well before the end of this month.  Wish me Luck! :-)

Mother's Day Weekend

This weekend we went to my parents in Idaho for Mother's Day. I wanted to surprise my mom, but Coach slipped-up on facebook. :-(  No worries though, we still had a great time and got to enjoy being there!
Coach was able to get his bike up and running and the oil changed in both of ours.  They are now home with us for the summer...yeah! Hopefully I will get a chance to ride.  Coach also helped feed the cows with my dad and grandpa, his overalls were a little short. He finally got to experience the itchy feeling of the hay all over in your shirt.
We got to see some of Big T while we were there.  Grandma just loved him and they had lots of fun together.  He took to grandpa better, but that is because they have a special bond.

I love the spring when there are baby animals everywhere! This weekend Big T and Coach were introduced to baby lambs!! I just loved them, they were so small and a hoot to watch. They would jump up and kick their back legs and jump on each other. Such young spirits!

I was a huge fan of these twins they were the smallest ones in the bunch.

We caught, well my mom (Grandma) caught the black twin so Big T could pet him. Coach and I wanted to as well.

The little guy was such a big sport for letting us hold him!

Coach and I fed the yearlings on Sunday, well Coach fed and I did other things.

As a little girl I would wait until all the cows were eating and then i would run by them and scare them all away.  It was cool to see them all jump back and I loved the sound of them pulling their heads out of the gate and running through the muck all at once.

 I thought I needed to give it another try to see if I still enjoyed it. 

                                 I did :-)


 Big T and I checking things out and getting some exercise

Photo #5 Lucius

Lucius first came to us in March of 2007. We picked him up at the airport in Billings, which was delayed so we were there waiting until midnight and he was supposed to arrive on the 6pm flight.  Poor guy!
He was such a shy little Husky puppy when we first saw him, but soon found out he was kinda ferocious.
Lucius the Ferocious!
As a puppy he would attack our other dog Spartacus as he was trying to eat.  Lucius would hide under our bed and attack Spartacus as he was trying to sleep.   It was really quite funny. The nature of his breed was already coming out; to rule the roost. Huskies are always the dominate dog and he was hust letting Spartacus know, at a very young age.  Needless to say I don't think Spartacus would mind if he just disappeared. In fact I think he tries to get rid of him!  One time they were running along top of a hill
( cliff like) and Spartacus just kinda cut him off and basically tried to push him down the hill.
Even though they try to get rid of each other and act like they hate one another, they cuddle a lot!

Lucius loves the snow! What Husky doesn't?  It is so fun to see him out in it, especially when he hasn't been able to play in it for awhile. Montana loves Lucius, it gives him snow 9 months of the year!!
P.S You can't really see his ice blue eyes because he is cross-eyed :-)

Photo #4

Coach Miller started playing the guitar in high school to get girls. I'm not sure how many girls he got in high school, but he got me on it! I have to admit I was attracted to the guitar.  However, I thought that a person that knew how to play an instrument would also have enough rhythm to dance. I was apparently wrong. Coach Miller doesn't know how to dance...at all!!
Anywho, Coach Miller played the guitar a lot when we were dating and first married, he even taught me a little bit. In fact he first taught a lot people how to play and they have now exceeded his talent. That is one of his many "coaching" qualities. Coach Miller has not really played for about 2 years so I decided to pick up one of his 4 guitars, one of the acoustics, and play.  I learned Where Have All The Flowers Gone, but poorly. There is a duet part in it and Coach Miller plans to learn it so we can play the song together... eventually!
 I really just wanted to get him back into playing, but I don't mind learning either.  I realize that with school, work, being a father, and a husband he doesn't really have much time left over. He is very talented and hardworking so this photo goes out to him and how amazing of a guy he is!!!

Photo #3

When I was growing up I was scared of the dark.  Mostly I was scared of what could be in the dark.  I shared a room with my little sister Lavessa who is 6 years younger than me. So to save face I told my parents that my Lavessa needed a night light or to leave the hall light on for her, so she won't be scared.
I think that my scared of what is in the dark is the result of my Mother getting her laughs for the day.  She would hide behind any door, or in the closet, or worse in the trees when we would be out feeding the horses! ( For some stupid reason I always waited until the last moment to feed them and it was always dark at that time.)  My mother was a pro at scaring people!!

This is a fiber optic UFO light that given to me by one of my older sisters Lyn.  She knew how important it would be for me. Lyn also has some "dark" issues. :-)

Photo #2

Just to clarify, I am a portrait photographer. I enjoy, well love, taking photos of people. I specialized in college as a commercial portraiture, and although I enjoy taking photos of many other things, I believe I am better with the people photos.

Today is laundry day! I personally can go awhile with out doing laundry, at least lately, but my husband (Coach) and Big T can not. Therefore I rarely get to their laundry before Coach has to tell me he really needs some clothes washed!  And well, we don't let him do the laundry so it is up to me.

Tuff Stains

I was complaining to my mom about Big T's blow-out diapers and how they stain his clothes and she told me to spray/scrub them with Dawn dish soap.  It totally worked!! You can use Dawn with other tough stains like grease. Thanks Mom! :-)

Photo of the Day

So I've decided that to help me get back into the flow of photographing, I will post a new photo that I've taken that day. Ever since Big T was born I've been out of the game so to speak and I'm trying to dive back in.
Of course my first Photo is of Big T. It is amazing how those little eyes of his pierce right through me!!
His eyes are my favorite thing about him. They are sort of light brown in the middle, with blue around the edges. They aren't really brown and they aren't a vibrant blue. Most people think they are brown because they are so dark.
This photo doesn't represent them the best, but it was a spur of the moment decision and this is what I got!

Let me know what you think!

Spring Cleaning

 I've been doing spring cleaning in the house and it feels great!
It has been a little challenging with Tristan, he ate a poem I was given in college. Mostly he just finds new treasures he doesn't want me to put away or throw away. Keeping me on my Toes!!
I am so anxious to do a lot more cleaning, but when I start something I like to finish it. As a mother that is no longer a realistic idea. Tristan gets bored, hungry, or anything else that calls my attention away.  I'm learning to take on smaller projects and relax when they don't get finished within my set time limit.
I am happy that today I got the utility closet cleaned and arranged better, plus a load of laundry! I also cleaned out the drawers of random papers and stuff next to my bed. I put them in piles of where they needed to go, so I really just added more work for another area.  Now I just need to get everything a little more organized and probably try the scrapbooking. Organized mess always makes me feel better! :-)

I also  want to decorate Tristan's room...finally! He is almost 7 months and all that is on his walls are 2 of his dad's guitars. They look good for sure, but I want to do a little more, but still keep it simple!