The Amazing Sugar

Well, people demanded blogs... and blogs is what they got! We're on fire! Some of you may remember these pictures.... but it's time to see Sugar's growth again.

The first week we got her (2.5 months old):

4.5 months old:

September (5.5 months old):

Now, in September we wrote about how giant Sugar was.... well, I don't think we had any idea what we were in for. We took the following picture today... she's not even 1 yet! She is really giant....Madelyn could not pick her up today, I had to pick her up and set her in Madelyn's arms to take this picture. I think she's nearly 75 pounds:

Hate it here...

wow... 3 posts in 3 days... I think that may be a new record!

With Madelyn gone two nights a week and studying most other nights it's hard finding time to spend together. Also, because of her new schedule, I have taken a lot of the "household" duties... but, it's well worth it to witness Madelyn go for a big goal! I'm so proud of her for the amount of work she's putting into this program. I'm completely amazed at her ability to go to work full time, go to school two nights a week, and keep up on her 200+ pages of reading each week. Still, that doesn't mean it's not hard and sad sitting at home by myself without Madelyn.

As you know, I'm a HUGE Wilco fan... and they have a song that Madelyn and I both think is great because it captures exactly how I feel with Madelyn gone all the time...

Luckily, unlike the song, Madelyn comes home eventually! I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we have...

Crazy Dog Post

Look! Two blogs in two days! It's easy to write blogs when you have these two dogs...

You might think we're nuts, but I know everyone is at least somewhat interested in our dogs.

Yesterday it was 88 degrees... I know... in February. So, after work I threw on some shorts and flips flops and went to the local dog park. This dog park is awesome because it has a stream going through it and the dogs can play in the water.

Here are the pictures I took of the big outing...

On the way to the park... they know where they're going...

Here's Sugar enjoying the water...

For whatever reason Sugar discovered that she enjoyed putting her entire head in the water. The lady next to me said, "Well that's odd, I've never seen a dog do that". I couldn't stop laughing.

Wrestling in the water is much more fun...

This is Madelyn's favorite picture... small white dog vs huge white dog.

Action shot!

Mr. Rocky swimming. He LOVES to swim.

Wet dog...

Too busy to stop for a picture...

Sugar drying herself off...

Rocky looking handsome...

We're way behind...

(Seriously, where have we been?)

Alright, I've now been told my multiple people that our blog sucks...

I have completely let it die... mainly because we are so behind the thought of catching everyone up is overwhelming, so here comes the update in 1 blog.

Overall, things are going well. Madelyn is still working hard on her classes to become a certified financial planner (C.F.P.) through the University of Texas. The classes are two nights a week, and with her full time job she's studying almost every night. She will be in these classes until the fall. I don't know how she's doing it... but it's pretty amazing.

(I'm falling down on my picture taking duties lately... this is one of the few pictures I took in Vegas. With my camera phone)

I've been busy with a little side project... with my previous work experience in the concert business I was asked to start managing (or friendaging) a band... right now I'm focused on booking and setting up regional tours and lending an opinion on band direction. Earlier this month I went to Las Vegas (and SLC) to have a meeting with the band and some industry professionals (and visit the family). It's really fun to be working with music again, and I've realized how much I've missed it. Some of you may have heard of this band.

(This one was named Sawyer, the other was named Jack. If you don't get it then you probably don't watch Lost)

In a previous post Madelyn and I talked about foster puppies... well, we did it again. This time we took two puppies who were on the euthanasia list, we nursed them back to health, got them used to human contact, and then they went up for adoption. Madelyn and I went to pick them up after an adoption day and got there just in time to watch one of them be adopted. Watching a puppy that was scheduled to die two weeks earlier and who was completely afraid of people be adopted by a nice family was definitely the highlight so far this year. We're doing it again, but after two weeks of 8 week old puppies in your house it's time for a break!

Other then that we've just been trying to go out with friends while we can...

Madelyn hosted a "Flight of the Conchords" tea party while I was in Vegas, which I hear was a big hit.

We hosted a last minute Oscar party at our house last weekend.

(Jessica and Madelyn at a CD release party)

(Me and Madelyn at a party... theme: Best T-Shirt. That is my dad's 1981 Rush concert shirt that he cut the sleeves of of... because it was the 80's, and people didn't wear sleeves)



(see how bad we need grass?!)

The biggest news of this month was GRASS... it's coming! Madelyn have picked out the landscaper, we have the quote, we're just waiting on Uncle Sam to deposit our money! So, there will be plenty of blogs about that in the future.

Why everyone needs a dog....

Dogs might be a lot of work... but coming home and seeing your dog extremely happy to see you, no matter what kind of day you've had, is an amazing feeling. Today I decided to record the greeting I get from my dogs when I come home from work:

Go adopt a dog! They need homes!

Weekend Project...

I inherited three old (retro) outdoor chairs from my great grandfather. My grandma got them to me last week and I spent the weekend restoring them back to their original glory!

They look awesome...

These things were seriously rusted. I think they've been outdoors for years...

Superbowl Party...

This year we decided to throw our first Superbowl party, so we called some friends, made some food, and played some games. I would say the "First Annual Super Bowl Party" was a success!
First, the food...

Sliders (tiny hamburgers)
Chicken Nachos (black beans, red and green peppers, onions, salsa and cheese)
Dip (4 layers? 5 layers? I can't remember, but it was delicious)
Queso (with Cilantro, finely cut BBQ brisket, and guacamole)
Amazing Macaroni and Cheese
Brownies
Cupcakes
50 piece chicken McNugget.

Since many of our party guests wern’t your usual football watching people, we created a game to make it more interesting. Each bet was 1 dollar, and I had an entire board of things you could bet on. For example, first team to score a touchdown, first team to throw an interception, first commercial going into halftime, etc…

After a night of stuffing our dollars in envelopes everyone came out with about the same money they put in… but it still made the game a lot more interesting.

Heidi was nice enough to stop and get us the 3D glasses you needed for some of the Superbowl commercials...

It was a nice enough February day that we could have the doors open to the brand new porch!

House Upgrade: Porch!

Madelyn and Cody's backyard mission, "turn a dirt pit into a grassy oasis" Phase 1: Porch

Completed! Next step: Grass.... beautiful, beatiful GRASS!

It only took 5 full weekend days for our amazing porch to finally be produced. With the amazing mind and carpenter skills of Kevin we were able to pull it off! I honestly was just an assistant to this whole project... the real credit goes to Kevin (my step dad/moms husband/porch builder), he drew it out, put a lot of thought into it, and spent 5 of his weekend days making it happen!

It looks amazing and we're so happy with it!

Check out the progress:

The outside before the porch.... yawn.... not inviting whatsoever.

Cleaned the porch off for the first day of building...

Half the beams are up.... it's starting to look like something.

All the beams are up. The structure is starting to take shape...

Here we are in the middle of the roofing project. Both Kevin and I both decided we could never be roofers... it sucked super bad.

After we finished roofing (part of it was in the dark because we were working so late) we had tar everywhere. I had to clean my hands with gasoline to get it all off!

Structure and roof complete... but no ceiling at this point.

I didn't take good pictures of the process but the ceiling is installed but not painted. Installing the ceiling was almost as sucky as roofing.... it's a toss up.

We're still working out some kinks but I have started to paint...

Electrical gets completed and all fixtures installed! All lights are controlled by separate switches... we got some complicated wiring going on!

Ceiling still not painted....

Madelyn picked out this really great yellow for the ceiling.... and it looks fantastic! She's really amazing at picking out colors.

Furniture back in just in time for our Superbowl party!

It looks good in these pictures but they still don't do it justice... it looks even better in person.

A picture of the cut-out we had to make for the trees... all that hard work payed off, because it looks great.

A special thanks to...

Kevin, of course, for giving so much time and thought into this process. People might congratulate me on building this... but I really deserve no credit! It was all Kevin!

My mom, for giving Kevin up for 5 weekend days to help me although they have plenty of projects of their own!

Madelyn for being helpful when we needed an extra hand and getting us much needed lunch!

The Weather, seriously, it's freakin' Feburary and we built a porch in short sleeves! Hooray for a warm climate!