Sunday, September 25, 2011

My Baby

I love my baby.  My sweet, sweet 7 1/2 month old Siberian Husky named Koda.  I have posted about her many times before.  But it's been a little while since I've shown how much I really love that girl.  My hell that dog can be such a pain though, and she makes me so angry! Especially when she decides she is going to somehow get away from me and take off down the street, and then turn it all into a catch me if you can game.  It's super not funny.  Or when she decides she is going to turn the water fountains in the backyard into chew toys that she later is going to dig a giant grave for in the garden.  Okay, to me that one is a little funny.  But to my parents who pay for that fountain, again, super not funny.  

However, that cute little crap can be so much fun too!  Like when we go to Dog Lake up Millcreek canyon, and she jumps and plays in the water with the other dogs.  Yet, she doesn't want to go too deep where she has to swim, so she runs around splashing everyone and intently watching any dog that goes deeper than she would prefer.  I know she'll be out there too one day.  Or how she absolutely loves to look at herself in the mirror.  She's not dumb, she knows she is looking at herself.  She just wants to look at herself.  Or look at me through the mirror, because that is so much better than looking at me in person.   Or how when I have to get ready to go somewhere, I make her come downstairs with me to get ready.  And now, she has learned that when I go in the bathroom and get ready and then go into the bedroom to change, that after that usually comes the cage because I have to go.  So now, instead of me telling her, when I go into my room to change, she automatically walks herself to her cage and plops herself inside and waits for me to close it.  

I love how she has learned certain words.  Like walk, oh my, she gets real excited and runs to the front door.  Or food, she goes to the garage door and sits and stares at it because she knows that's where her food is kept.  She knows cage, obviously, and is so good at just walking right into her cage when I tell her to.  She also knows bedtime now, and knows when I say that, that it is time to go downstairs and go to sleep.  She knows car, and knows that when I say car, that usually means we are going to see Cody or going to the dog park, which are her two favorite things.  She is also pretty good at leave it, especially when it comes to my 16 year old poodle in the house that she wants to play with so badly.  She has learned now though that anytime she gets close to Gidget, we say leave it.  She's not allowed to touch her.  Well, of course my little Koda found a way around that one.  She wants so badly to bother Gidget but knows that if she touches her she will be in trouble, so what does she do?  She runs and jumps OVER her.  Then looks at me like, "What? I didn't touch her!"  It's super, super funny.  But so, so naughty.  

I love that dog.  She is my everything.  She is a whole lot of work to take care of, but I wouldn't trade it all for the world.  We have a long life ahead of us together and I could not have a better dog to look forward to that all with.  Yep, she sounds like a significant other or something.  Well, I just love her that much! She is my baby!  :) 


Well, she may be scared to swim in the water for now, but she absolutely loves sprinklers and any other water source.  This day, the garden was being water and she decided to... help.


This is her favorite stuffed animal that she always steals from my little brother's room.  It happens to be a stuffed husky... you can tell I am mad at her for stealing the toy in this picture, haha. 


Another day playing in the garden, I believe she was either stung by a bee or bit by a spider.. hence the ginormous swollen nose.  Yes, I had to put benedryl cream on her nose after this. 


My baby girl, Koda.  She's getting super big.  Last month at the vet she weighed 41 lbs.  I would be willing to bet she is over 50 now.  She still has her one blue eye and her one brown eye has now turned half blue also.  She's the most stubborn dog I know, but I love her.  And so does everyone else, we still have yet to go out somewhere and not have someone say how beautiful she is.  I know, I know, she got her good looks from me, right?  ;) 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Attitude

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tries to be a tattle tail (sp?).  But even worse, when that tattle tail is in a professional work setting.  I mean, come on! I am dealing with drama, as you can tell.  Sometimes, most of the time, I feel like my life is one big soap opera.  Work has been the main event for me lately.  I wish I could go on and on and just let everything I have been feeling about work out right now, but you never know who is going to read this and I don't want to get in trouble with the wrong person for what I say.  So I'll just leave it at, holy drama.  

Next, my dating is life more complicated than it can possibly get.  I am dating an amazing, wonderful, GREAT guy that I am absolutely crazy and in love with.  Think that should be the end of the story right there, right?  Wrong.  My missionary comes home in one month and twenty days.  My relationship with him before he left was as strong and perfect as a relationship can get.  So yes, while I know how strongly I feel about the guy I am dating right now, it is very difficult to allow myself to forget completely about my missionary when there was that huge connection that really never ended.  Sending a missionary off isn't like breaking up because you don't have that confirmation that things will not be the same anymore.  When you send a missionary off, you are basically saying, I love you, I want to be with you, but I know I can't so I'll see you in two years and we'll see where we both are at in life and how we feel.  Personally, that is such an unfair place to leave a relationship at.  How is someone supposed to completely move on and love again when there is that dot, dot, dot to the last relationship they were in?  You don't ever want to move on and then always wonder what would have happened.  Dating while my missionary has been gone has been the best decision I have made.  Yes, it has made everything a million times more complicated.  Yes, it has caused a lot of stress and extreme worry in my family, and all other families involved.  And yes, sometimes I wonder what the heck I have gotten myself into because I don't know where to go from here.  BUT.  I have enjoyed myself and learned.  I have made mistakes and learned from them and because of them, I am stronger in myself, my testimony, and have gained more confidence in myself and what I want for my future.  I know there is pain ahead in dealing with and figuring out a solution to the choices I have ahead of me, but I can't worry about it because it will work out in the right time and there is no need to fear what I have ahead of me.  I read a quote the other day and I wrote it down and hung it in my bathroom so that I can see it every day I get ready.  I really like the quote because it reminds me that no matter what goes on around me, or what happens in my life, it is up to me to decide how I want to handle it and how I want to feel regardless.  Here it is:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude to me is more important that facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break an athletic team, company, organization, church, or a home.  The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change the regrets of the past nor do we need to fear the events of the future.  Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of the thing we have control over, that is our attitude.  We need to learn to go into the arena every day with a winning attitude and enjoy the challenges it brings.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you ....... we are in charge of our attitudes."  -Charles Swindoll