ICE, ICE BABY!!

Well, thankfully I survived the crazy ice storm we got this past weekend. On Friday I prepared myself by making a trip to Wal-Mart (with everyone else in Rolla) to stock up for the BIG STORM!! They were calling for a lot of ice, which could possibly mean power outages. I bought a book, a puzzle, snack foods, and bottled water. I also rented 5 DVD's (in case the power didn't go out) and checked 3 books out from the library. After all that I hurried home to buckle down for the storm. I spent my entire weekend watching movies, reading 2 books and completing this puzzle:

I actually finished this 1,000 piece puzzle in one day...which is probably not something I should admit because I'm sure it makes me sound like a pathetic geek! :) But oh well, I suppose sometimes I am. My power went out Friday night, came back on Saturday around 11:00a.m. and then went out again Saturday night, but came back on around 4:00a.m. on Sunday. I am hoping that this will be the end of the power outages, but there is a whole lot of ice on the branches and power lines so if we get any sort of wind tonight I would imagine the power may go out again. While I was at work today I took these pictures of all the ice. It was quite a sight for me to see - I don't think I've ever seen that much ice on tree branches before. I'm truly surprised there haven't been more power outages.

While the cat's away, the mice (or mouse in this case) play! :)

Well last night Brent arrived home to quite a surprise...he hadn't securely latched Ziggy's kennel door shut. And that can mean only one thing - Ziggy went from looking like this:

to behaving like this (but worse):

I was on the phone with Brent as he pulled into his driveway. He notice that his t.v. was on and commented that he must have left it on all day. Then, as he got out of his car, Ziggy's little head popped through the curtains very excited to see that Brent had finally arrived to play. As soon as Brent saw Ziggy in the window he said - "oh my gosh, somehow your dog got out of his kennel..." He opened the door to his house and all I could hear him say was - "OH MY GOSH!!! OH MY GOSH!!! YOU'RE DOG HAS DESTROYED MY HOUSE!!!" At some point (I'm sure very early on in the day - while Brent was at work) Ziggy managed to push his way out of his kennel, and then began his party! He destroyed all of the following...if not more:

Brent's rubber hunting boots, all his remotes (thus the reason for the t.v. being turned on), his friend's Notre Dame hat, an X-Box controller, all his pillows, and worst of all - his COUCH!!! And to top it all off he left piles of urine and poop all over the house for Brent to clean up - including a pile of poop right on Brent's bed!

I will say I truly understood Brent's anger...but what could he expect. He left Ziggy (a one year old puppy) all alone for over 12 hours! Poor Ziggy didn't even know he had done anything wrong. When Brent walked in the door he just wagged his tail excited to see he was home! To him he had just had the funnest day of his life!

So once it was all said and done and Ziggy was locked up in his kennel for the night, this is probably what he had to stare at all night long...

POOR ZIGGY!!! He definitely received no love from Brent last night. (but he should probably be thanking his lucky stars that he's still alive) :)

car ride

I had to add this picture from our trip home to Indiana. Ruthie and I packed my Escape about as full as you could - and then decided to bring along BOTH our pets! Thank heavens they love each other so much. At one point Lulu (ruthie's cat) was licking Ziggy's ear - he didn't seem to mind at all.

Christmas

Well I just got home yesterday from spending about 10 days in Indiana for Christmas. It was a MUCH NEEDED vacation. I hadn't seen Brent for about 6 weeks and missed my parents like crazy. I had a pretty good visit, but for some reason I don't feel very rejuvenated. I think I spent too much time working on wedding plans and making time to see all of my friends.

Our Christmas was nice - but I really hate growing up! Christmas just never seems as fun and exciting as it did when I was younger. First of all, we draw names for gift giving in my family and NO ONE can keep who they have a secret. In my opinion the best part of gift giving/receiving is the surprise. Second, ever since Rachel has been married we have had to share her (thus changing our Christmas traditions). It really sucks because I always loved waking up early on Christmas morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven. While we waited for them to bake, we would open all our Christmas presents (most of which were SURPRISES). Next we would sit down to a wonderful breakfast consisting of cinnamon rolls (or pecan rolls) and warm grapefruit with little cherries on top. (I personally hate the grapefruit, but it's just not Christmas without it on the table!) Now Rachel doesn't come until Christmas night...TOTALLY ruining my favorite traditions! :)
Well this year I decided I was going to bring back at least one Christmas tradition...Santa's Cookies! I painted this plate at Pottery Bayou in Winona Lake and decided it is going to become the new "Santa Cookie Plate."

Anyway - Ruthie, Anna, Otto, Kali, Squeaky, Lulu, and I all left Santa some milk and snacks along with a note! And the next moring we woke up to a Christmas miracle - Santa wrote us back! :) It was pretty fun...but part of me is really serious about the importance of Christmas traditions. It will be nice to someday have my own family to carry on the Christmas traditions with.

It was very hard to come back to Missouri, I really miss Brent, my family, and my friends a lot. May can't seem to come soon enough! I left Ziggy at Brent's house for the next three weeks. I am planning on packing a bunch of my stuff in my Escape to take back to Indiana with me when I go back on the 22nd. I didn't really realize how lonely I would be without him. Last night it took me a while to fall asleep because I couldn't get warm. I am used to having Ziggy sleep next to me, and he wasn't there. Then I woke up this morning and rolled over to hug him and once again, he wasn't there. I got out of bed and walked out to the kitchen, and he wasn't there to follow me! I thought I was lonely before, but now with Ziggy gone it is EXTREMELY lonely. I caught myself almost crying each time I'd think of him or look at his food bowl or toys. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have actual children and they aren't around! :) But obviously by the looks of this picture, Ziggy probably doesn't even notice I'm gone!