Freedom No More

The other night, my Aunt Judy told us that Awesome has been running around everywhere and that she was surprised he hadn't been hit yet. That meant it was time to get him on the shock collar. Back in May we had dug an underground fence to keep Bob in. I love it! I can go to work and not be worried about Bob running around the neighborhood or have him tied up all day. When Bob was first shocked by the collar he did a back flip and then ran and hid. It took us forever to coax him out. We put Awesome on the collar last night at the same shock level as Bob. The first time he was shocked he didn't do anything! So we put him at a higher shock intensity. He yelped and kept on walking. Bob is a wimp. Awesome is just plain awesome.

My Personal Prince Charming

So here's my story. It has all the fixings of being a fairy tale: there's a damsel in distress, prince charming comes and rescues her, and then they live happily ever after. James and I were camping in Spencer on Memorial weekend. It was snowing and raining on us plus 3/4 of our camp got sick and went home early. There were still snow up in the hills where we were riding at, but it wasn't too bad. One afternoon Jana, Ryan, Leslie, Jana and Ryan's kids, and I decided to go for a ride. They were all on fourwheelers with me on my dirt bike. We got to a certain place on the trail where you could keep going up or get off at the road and go down. We decided to get off at the road and go down. We started hitting snow patches on our way down. At first they were small and then they started to get bigger and deeper. Finally we hit a patch that there was no way any of us could get through without going over the cliff or get stuck. All of sudden a bike appeared out of nowhere. My Prince Charming came and saved the day. He took the four wheelers and bikes over the snow and off we went. And then yes we lived Happily Ever After.

We're Alive!

Wow it's been so long since my last post and so much has happened. James and I have now been married for a year. Yipee! It really feels like it's been longer. Being married to James has probably been the best thing for me. Which I know my family will second that. I've now been to Sea World, swam in the ocean, drove a truck in spud harvest, drove a tractor in grain harvest, gone dirt bike riding up trails I never thought I'd ever make it up, bought a home, stayed up till the early hours of the morning painting...all of this and much much more because I was set up on a blind date. My husband has given me the courage to do things that I never dreamed I could do. Mostly the only reason I do it is because I think,"if he can do I can do it." Plus the huge grin he gives me once I've done it is always nice. I love you, Babe.

So I got to drive truck in spud harvest which I loved! Except for driving over the huge hills and thinking that I'm was going to tip over. I alternated between three trucks. Sky, Big Red, and I think it was the White Chevy. I would drive Sky until it'd break down and then go to Big Red until it'd break down and then I'd go to the White Chevy until it'd break down and then by that time hopefully Sky was fixed and the cycle would start all over again. But it was definitely fun and I loved driving! Funny enough my family was very scared that I was driving truck. They weren't scared for me, but for the other drivers on the road!

Last October before we moved back to Shelley we found Bob. I talked...and begged James to let me get a dog which was crazy, because the apartment we were living in didn't allowed dogs. We looked and looked everywhere, but couldn't find a dog we liked. We finally found Bob at the Rexburg Animal Shelter. Say hello to Bob.

Bob was six months old when we got him. He's about a year and a half now. He's an Australian shepherd mix. The greatest thing about Bob though is he doesn't bark. It's so nice! When he does bark you know that something is wrong. Luckily we moved into my grandma and grandpa's house a week later to house sit until the family decided to sell the home. So James' brother-in-law took care of Bob for that week and then we were able to bring him home. It's so crazy living in my grandparent's home. I wasn't sure how it would be since I was here for both of their deaths. I was worried that I would have nightmares about it or feel like I was an intruder in their home. It's been the complete opposite though. As soon as I walked in that door I felt welcomed. It felt like my home. I've often wondered of what grandma would think of the changes we've made to this house. I think she'd love it because I love it.

Back in April, James and I decided to buy the house. Which I was very surprised James' wanted to since the house is right by my parents. When we were first married James told me that we would never leave closer than a couple miles from either of our parents. Haha. Yup that didn't happen. We're now about a quarter of a mile from my parents. But it's been so nice. Whenever we need to borrow something or I forgot to buy something from the store we can just run down to my parents. Now all we need is for Jess, Danni, and Stephen to settle in down here and Woodville will be over run with Sparks'!

So it's a very bad thing for me when I'm bored. I start looking on petfinder.com for a new dog. Poor Bob has been so lonely and so I figured he needed a friend. James decided that before we got another dog we needed to put a shock collar fence in and wait until he finished this semester. Well the shock collar fence was put in...but I found the perfect dog before James could finish his semester. Say hello to Captain Awesome (FYI I'm not the one who names these dogs. James is the one to blame. Poor Bob. He got the short end of the stick).

So I should probably explain how Captain Awesome got his name. James and I love the show Chuck. In Chuck there's a guy named Devan and his nickname is Captain Awesome mostly just because everything about this guy is awesome. So James had to make sure that the next dog we got would be able to handle the name Captain Awesome. Wow. Rereading what I just wrote...we're so weird, but hey in our defense what else do we have to worry about? Captain Awesome is 6 weeks old. He's a pure breed Siberian Husky. The best thing about this little guy is he doesn't bark either! We're so lucky with our dogs! Although Awesome does whine when he's alone. We had him tied up at first so he would get used to his surroundings and not run away. He hated it. Especially when Bob wasn't near him. So Awesome would whine until Bob came back to him and then start to whine again when Bob left. After a couple days of that James and I just kept him off the leash. Awesome follows Bob around everywhere. He's like Bob's little shadow.

There's so much more I could say, but I'll leave it for another post. I do want to thank my family for helping James and I with this house. If it wasn't for them we'd still be painting and cleaning...

New cure for bad days!!!!!!!!!

So my friend, Lori, showed me this website today. BEST MONDAY EVER! The website is mylifeisaverage.com. They're just little comments about people's day. For example:

Today, in one of my classes, a student's phone rang. He answered the phone, yelled "What? I'll be right there!" And then ripped off his clothes, revealing a superman costume he was wearing underneath. He then left the classroom, leaving our teacher so confused that she didnt finish teaching us the lesson. MLIA

If this doesn't make you laugh I have no idea what will. Enjoy.

Rain Rain Don't Go Away!!!!!

Well it rained yesterday. It rained a lot! Wahoo! I am so excited, because it means I have a date tonight!!!!!!!!! James told me he was going to surprise me....I don't know if that means that he doesn't know what we're doing yet or if he really does have a surprise for me. He also made me breakfast this morning. It was so sweet. He got up early and made breakfast while I got ready for work. I love my husband and I love rain!!!

Dumpy old motels....

Well the weekend came around and James was still cutting grain. I booked a room for James and I for Friday night. There was some kind of Indian get together going on and so all the hotels/motels in Blackfoot, Pocatello, American Falls, and everywhere else was booked. I was lucky to get the last room at the Hillview Motel in American Falls. To give you an idea of what this motel is like you can drive by it on the freeway and you'd think it was deserted. It's a rundown, very ghetto motel, but it served it's purpose for us. So James finally got through cutting at eleven and we drove to our motel. We went to check in at the office and the clerk came out wearing lingerie. Dead serious. James and I weren't sure what to think. We waited until we were outside to burst out laughing. Needless to say the woman did not look good in what she was wearing. I think that's what made it so funny. The bed and the pillows were like rocks! I ended up using James as my pillow. On Saturday we went out to go cut more grain and it started to rain. James was so disappointed, but I was jumping for joy. Even if it rains just a little they can't cut grain until it dries. So it rained enough that James and I got to home. We spent the rest of the day being lazy. I love having him home.

So this is a picture of the four combines they're using to cut the grain. Sorry it's such a terrible picture. James wouldn't stop so I could take a picture plus it's raining.

Here's a better picture. You can see three combines with the tractor pulling the grain cart.

Another story. About two weeks ago, I drove up to American Falls with James and his Dad to go pick up the combine. At the start of the drive they asked me if I wanted to drive the truck home or the tractor. Thinking they were just joking I said I wanted to drive the tractor. I've never driven a tractor in my life! The biggest thing I've ever driven is my Dad's pick up! Well finally I figured out that we were going to be driving a combine, a tractor, and the truck. Hmmm....three vehicles and there's only three people in the car. I didn't want James' dad to see that I was scared out of my mind to drive the tractor and there was no way I was going to drive the truck since it had to pull the header behind it. So James gave me a two minute crash course on how to drive a tractor. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.


It's been a while since I posted pictures. This is Austin cutting tile for the house Alise, Austin, Danielle, and James were redoing. Austin cut all the tile. He did a great job on it.


James (my James) redid the basement for them. At first it was just one big huge room that wasn't finished and had posts in random places. Oh man it was awful! I forgot my camera the first night and so you can't see what it really looked like. Just imagine that the wood planks aren't there. In the picture you can tell that there is a huge post and then right behind it was a smaller post.

This is just a different view of the basement. In this picture you can see all four of the random placed posts. It was decided that James would build an enclosed family room, storage area, and a hall. It turned out really good.

The Bogey Man

So grain harvest has come and I now never see my husband. It hasn't been a fun week. We both weren't looking forward to Monday since it'd be the first night we're apart. That night James told me that he'd call me after he'd taken a shower. So I decided to take a shower too so then when he called I could go straight to bed. By the time I got into the shower it was eleven at night. James and I live on the second floor and I always have the chain on the door when I'm alone (it's really easy to break into our house otherwise). About five minutes into my shower I start to hear noises. It sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. I started to get scared. My co-worker at work has been telling me about this t.v. show that features stories about how people survive through some horrible experiences. A lot of them had to do with people breaking into houses and beating them up. I was trying to convince myself that it was the people who lived downstairs and that no one could get in through the balcony plus the chain was on the door. The bathroom door was half way closed so I couldn't see out into the hall. All of a sudden someone walked into the bathroom and I lost it. Poor neighbors. I'm surprised we didn't get the cops called on us. I was screaming so loud. James had decided to come home instead of staying at a motel. He felt so bad for scaring me...it took a while for me to calm down. I think he learned his lesson though.