Jersey and Santa

So, at the mall they have a night when you can have your pet's picture taken with Santa. I thought, "When will Jersey ever have the chance to go to the mall again? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" Jeff thought it was an insane idea to take the dog to the mall. Really, I have to agree with him on that. But, again, when will we get to do this again?

So we went to the mall last night. We arrived right as they opened and still, the line was extremely long and it took us about 30 minutes to get to Santa. Let me preface this by saying that as I arrived at the mall I thought to myself, "What am I doing? This is so stupid, taking a dog in a mall." But, I was already there...what's the worst that could happen? So anyway, back to standing in line. I thought there was NO WAY that Jersey would be able to stand in line that long and be good, but she was! I guess all those weeks of training last year paid off (at least a little!). She was extremely interested in all the people and dogs around her, but just sat there and patiently waited her turn. She was especially interested in the squeaky rat that they used to get little kids to smile as they took the picture. When we got to the carpeted area, she decided that she'd had enough and even laid down :) There was a small boy in line right behind us that kept petting her and she was interested in him at first, then decided that there were other, more important things to focus on and he took to just hitting her ear back and forth and she really could have cared less. It was pretty amusing.

Finally it was her turn and she did...OK. She wouldn't look at the camera easily and kept getting distracted, but she was really happy to see Santa! She kept turning around to see him and I had to get her turned back the right way. So, here's the end result:

Merry Christmas!

Fires and Crescent Rolls

It's been getting cold here at night, so we have been making fires. Ever since Jersey was a puppy she's enjoyed sleeping in front of the fire. She loves them so much that she will stand in front of you while you're starting the fire and wait for you to move out of her way, then will lay down and sleep.

Last night we made a fire and then I was making some crescent rolls for dinner. Jeff and I went in the other room and when we came back, she was still in front of the fire, however, mysteriously seven of the eight (uncooked!!) crescent rolls had disappeared from the top of the stove! I wonder how that happened? Here are some pictures of the (not-so) innocent culprit.

Sometimes it gets hot in front of the fire. Does she get up and move? No. Just pants a lot!

MU/KU Game

We went to the MU/KU game at Arrowhead a few weeks ago and had a great time. It was cold, but the game was so much fun! Here are some pictures.

After the win

Jersey had to stay at home, but she did her part by beating up on a chickenhawk.

The Tigers are headed to the Cotton Bowl on January 1. GO TIGERS!

Butt Pictures

I've been meaning to post these for awhile. When we were at NACA there was a butt-sketch artist. It sounds crazy, but the drawings are really cute! They are now hanging in my office :)

Josh and Tracee

Josh, Christa and Rosario

Kellen and Jill

Becca, Jamie, me and Tracee

Vegas

Last week Jeff, my mom, dad and I went to Las Vegas for Jeff's (soon-to-be) 30th birthday. We stayed at the Rio, visited the Hoover Dam and saw Penn and Teller. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Jeff and my mom, gambling

Me at the top of the Stratosphere

Jeff at the top of the Stratosphere

MGM Hotel

The lions inside the MGM Hotel

My parents

Jeff and I

The fountain outside the Bellagio Hotel, with the Paris Hotel in the background

NACA Conference

A few weeks ago I took five students to the National Association for Campus Activities Conference in Little Rock, AR. We traveled with a group from Stephens College, which was awesome. Here's a picture of our group:

At this conference, the students get the chance to preview acts (comedians, bands, hypnotists, magicians, etc.) and then select who they want to bring to the school. This is awesome because, for three days, you sit in an auditorium and watch act after act. They each get 15 minutes to perform, so it goes by pretty quickly. Some of the more notable people we saw were Amy Schumer (from Last Comic Standing), Jon Peter Lewis (from the Fantasia season of American Idol) and Kyle Cease (who played Bogey Lowenstein in 10 Things I Hate About You).

Kyle Cease on stage

Jon Peter Lewis performing

Dinner with Rebecca, the advisor from Stephens

Me and Kellen

Why dogs hate their owners...

So Jeff decided to dress Jersey in a t-shirt. I don't know why. I didn't think it would be funny, but it totally was. She was really complacent about it, but definitely did not enjoy the experience. It was funny to us, though! Notice the awesome Mizzou BSU shirt. Glad that it's getting some use :)

I do not camp...

I have to go camping tonight...*sigh*

Dog

I've never used this blog to vent, but tonight I am going to. Each night I take Jersey out for a run and almost inevitably our neighbors' dog is out -- loose. I like this neighbor, so I have never said anything (which I should, I know) but they let the dog roam the neighborhood. The dog doesn't hurt anything, so that's fine, however, when we are running, this dog runs along with us (usually on the other side of the road) and makes Jersey jump and pull on the leash, which I hate.

See, we have spent countless hours in doggie training class, and at this point I have Jersey trained pretty well on how to run on a leash. Left to her own devices, she does a fairly good job. However, upon the arrival of this neighbor dog, she goes INSANE. It becomes fairly impossible to keep her under control. On top of this, I really value my running time (even though I HATE to run --- how does this make sense?) and don't want to be bothered with trying to make her heal, so I loathe the effect this dog has on Jersey.

There, OK, I have said my piece and I won't worry about it from now on. Maybe another route is in order - one that doesn't go past this dog's house? I don't want to have to change my route, though. I value order and really like the route we take now. Hmm....things to ponder.

Welcome, Tiger Tailgating

This Saturday officially kicks off Tiger tailgating season. Mizzou's first home game will be at 1:00pm against Western Michigan. I love tailgating for several reasons:

1. We get to hang out with our friends, the Rau's, who are super-busy important people and we don't get to see them much of the year.
2. We get to spend the equivalent of a full work day at Faurot Field, cheering on our favorite team.
3. After the game, even if we lose, we stand around in the parking lot and tailgate for at least two hours after the game, which means we totally avoid all of the traffic. How can you argue with that?

If I am counting correctly, this will be our seventh year straight as season-ticket holders. Wow - doesn't that make you feel old? Well...it makes me feel old, anyway.

GO TIGERS!

Weekend at the Courics

So this past weekend we visited Katie, Greg, Lily and Norm in St. Louis. We also kicked off the beginning of the Mizzou football season by watching them beat Illinois on Saturday. Here are some pictures from the game:

Katie and me

Jeff and Greg: Too cool for pictures

My dad and Nick

Lily: Didn't make it to the game, but she did wear her Mizzou gear in honor of the Tigers

On Sunday, we attempted to go to the St. Louis County Fair airshow to watch the Blue Angels. Apparently, ALL of St. Louis had the same idea, so we decided to bypass sitting in a long line of cars for watching the show in a parking lot. On the way to the parking lot, we stopped for some Ben and Jerry's.

What's cool about this picture is that Jeff is actually holding Lily up

Here we are at the airshow:

Lily wasn't too happy at first about how loud the planes were, but then she decided to take a nap

Here's a video of the Blue Angels flying over

On Sunday night we played some cards with Katie & Greg and Lou & Sarah. This was great fun because the guys decided to cheat, but we didn't let them. They were penalized and we had to start the game over. Although the guys won in the end, the total score for the weekend ended up being, Girls: 2, Guys: 1. Bring on the rematch!

Orientation

I love this time of year. Seriously. I think most people in my office dread the new students coming to campus but I really enjoy it. It makes for some really LOONG days, but that's offset by the good times that we have.

Last weekend we took 44 students to St. Louis for a day trip. We saw the zoo, the arch, the City Museum and ate dinner at Charlie Gittos. It was a great time. Here's a picture of us going up in the arch.

And a picture of the baby elephant at the zoo.

On Wednesday, we had comedian Eric O'Shea come to campus. Here's a picture of the Student Activities Commission with Eric (he's in the back with a blue shirt that says, "A#1 Grandpa").

Today we are going to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor! Six Flags was the first "real" job that I ever had and I loved it! So, I really enjoy going back there for the memories, mostly, but also for the Screamin' Eagle.

Breckenridge

So, this is late getting posted, but it's the most exciting thing that I've done in the past few weeks (work, work and more work, anyone?). I went to a conference in Breckenridge, CO! It was so nice there - the weather was cool and crisp and a little chilly at night, but that doesn't bother me. The conference was good, not spectacular though, because I would have rather been outside! But, as far as conferences go, I have no complaints.

Each morning (well, two out of three counts, right?) I would go running, however, Breckenridge is at about 9,000 ft and the altitude was so noticeable. The hotel I was staying at was somewhat up a hill (you could go farther up, but if you went down, that was toward the main town). So, I would run down to the main town area, which, at 6:00am was so still and peaceful - it was awesome (especially since I was rockin' to my ipod tunes) and then I would turn around to go back and have to sloooowly run...then walk...back to the hotel. How embarrassing - I don't feel like I am that out of shape, but that altitude totally kicked my butt.

Here are some pictures of the mountains behind the hotel and the rivers that run through town. I am definitely going to try and convince some people at work to let me go back again next year :)

Six Years

Today Jeff and I have been married for six years. Apparently we don't have any pictures from our wedding on this computer, otherwise I would post one since it was soooo long ago!





On the other hand, our friends Jordan and Chris got married today! So, we will share an anniversary date with them. It was a really pretty ceremony. We are very excited to have these new friends and look forward to spending a lot of time with them, especially tailgating at Mizzou games in just a few weeks!





Congratulations Jordan and Chris!

Craziness at the Mall

I don't know about you, but it's been a long time since I was at the mall at 1:00am. The last time I can remember was sometime when I worked in retail in the summer between years in college and had to stay late to do inventory. I remember staying so late that when we left the Panera people were just coming in to bake bagels.

So, when my friend Alicia told me she was thinking about going to the mall to get the new Harry Potter book, being the HP fan that I am I told her I would join her. We arrived at 10:30pm and were there to watch a real-life chess game, see people dressed as Harry, Hermione, Myrtle and more. Very strange, indeed. We both kept saying to each other, "I can't believe we're doing this."

After the countdown at midnight (very "Happy New Year"ish) we were afforded the opportunity to stand in line (albeight the wrong line at first) for not 30 minutes, but a whopping 63! As one high school guy in line next to us so aptly put it, "I feel like I'm losing brain cells by the minute." We still could not believe we stood in line for an hour when we probably could have gone to the super Wal-Mart down the street, walked in and picked up a copy. Ahh...but the experience was worth it (maybe...). When we walked out, some guy was trying to bribe the B&N employee guarding the door with $10 (serious cash!) to let him in to buy a copy. At 1:00am!!

So now, I am the proud owner of the final HP book. Happy reading to me!

Jersey

This is Jersey when she was a baby - only 8 weeks old

This is Jersey in front of our fireplace -all nice and warm

I thought I would introduce Jersey. She's 1 1/2 years old and is a major handful! She has more energy than any dog I have met. After 8 weeks of puppy kindergarten, 8 weeks of level 1 training and 8 weeks of level 1+ training she is about as trained as she is going to get (which, needless to say, there's still lots of room for improvement).

On Monday I took her swimming at Rocky Fork Lake and she is SO scared of swimming (if only the couch were a big swimming pool....maybe she would be too scared to get on it!) but it's awesome exercise for her and she does a good job. I think mostly she doesn't do well swimming because she has NO body fat (practically). She has a pancreatic deficiency that keeps her from absorbing food well and lost a lot of weight before we figured it out. Now she's back up to a good level, but won't ever regain her normal weight and won't ever be "fat" - if only it were contagious!

First Post

Well, I am jumping on the bandwagon. I enjoy reading other people's blogs, so I thought I would start my own. Happy first day of blogging to me!