My Love Returns!

Jake has been in Indiana for the past week.  He's finally back in town and I'm so happy.  I missed him.  I don't like sleeping alone anymore.  I love my snuggles with my love.

Got me thinking how hard it is going to be on his future deployments.  This was just for a week and I missed him.  I've never missed anyone before.  I've always been somewhat self contained and independent.  Emotionally, I suppose I've been closed off before.  I truly never though I would fall in love.  Then BAM!  Here he is.  And had to be an army guy.  Never thought that I would mind being with someone who was gone a lot but now I realize that it is going to be hard.

I guess I just have to keep in mind that as much as I miss him when he's gone, the home comings will be all the sweeter.  And I have to keep myself busy.  I went to the Ren Fest today to keep my mind busy because I was so excited he was coming home.

Muah to my love.  Promise to wait for you and be here when you get back.  I also promise to be independent and strong enough to maintain myself through as well as supporting you.

Terror-Dactyl Riding!

So Cave of the Winds, one of my favorite Colorado Springs attractions, has a new ride.  Sarah called me and asked if I wanted to go do this and I admit, at first I thought this was going to be lame.  I wasn't sure what the Terror-Dactyl was but I thought it was a slow zip line and I didn't really want to do that.  Sarah insisted so I looked it up online and saw that it is much more than a slow zip line.  Here's the video:

Terror-Dactyl Ride!

And from afar:

From Afar!

I think that I have a pretty good scream.  I love things like that and it was such a rush that we did it a second time without holding on.  I was calling Sarah my adrenaline rush friend because she's always up for stuff like that.  When I was 19 we went skydiving.  Next on the list is to find somewhere to do bungee jumping.

Now watch those videos again.  I love my scream!

Crazy Colorado

Okay I don't know about you guys but it seems as though Mother Nature is a bit miffed at us.  Used to be that Colorado was the place to live weather wise because we didn't get those dangerous extremes.  Then the drought happened.  Then fires.  Then floods.

This year the rain seems to have come back a little.  When I was a kid I remember thunder storms almost every evening.  That's somewhat coming back but some of these thunder storms are a bit crazy.

Facebook Video

That was at work the other day.  I felt like we were in the middle of a hurricane.  Hail, wind and cascading rain was something behold.  Our building has a huge skylight and it was so loud in there.  In the video, you hear me go "OW!" near the beginning when I'm standing at the open door.  I got hit with a piece of hail on my stomach and it bruised me!

Then after this crazy downpour we had blue skies and sunshine.  Colorado be crazy!  Or that's proof that there is bright skies after a storm if you just wait it out.

But if you're taking a life lesson from this weather then you're in for a bumpy ride because after the clear skies we had another huge storm.  By the end of the night I was exhausted because the wind was blowing the rain in the store and flooding everything while knocking things off the shelf.  I had to run back to Shay and call for more towels and spent much of the evening mopping all the water off.

Colorado, can't you just cool it and stop having these mood swings?  Have some chocolate or something...

Puppy makes three... I mean four...

Depending on when you ask me, I either love having a puppy again or wonder why I wanted to do this again.  That answer is mostly dependent on how much I've slept.  Some nights Jeanine is a champion sleeper.  Other nights I want to choke her until she stops barking.  Good thing she's so cute huh?

I've really enjoyed her.  She's exactly what I want in a dog.  Good temperament, easy going, playful but also loves taking naps and chilling out.  Smart too.  Oh and it's weird to have a good natured dog again.  I don't have to worry about her biting anyone.  It's lovely not to be on my toes constantly scanning for children or stupid people who invade her space like I do with Whitman.

Speaking of Whitman, he's getting payback for being such a butt to Gerani.  He hates Jeanine.  I keep reminding him that Gerani hated him when I brought him home but they turned out to be fast friends.  I don't think he believes me.  At least he's transitioned from being openly hostile to either ignoring her or guarding things from her.  He's such a grouchy old man.  She was licking his face at work once and he did bite her for it, which I let happen because she needs to learn that's not going to fly.  I swear to God it was like the world was ending.  She screamed and ran and screamed and ran.  Eventually I actually checked her to make sure she wasn't hurt.  Whitman has great bite inhibition but you never know.  No, she wasn't hurt.  Just being very dramatic.

That hasn't changed the fact that she loves Whitman.  Someday he'll warm up to her and they'll play or snuggle and that will just be the cutest thing known to man.  Until that day she'll just have to be content with Shelby, Ryan's new puppy who is three days younger and looks like she could be Jeanine's littermate.  It's cute how much they love each other.  They play and play then nap together.  Very sweet.

I was a little worried about how Jake would take the puppy but he loves her.  And I mean loves her.  He talks to her in this cute little voice and she just lights up when he's around.  I swear I might as well be a part of the wall when Jake is around.  She's a daddy's girl for sure.

I know she's going to grow so fast but what I wouldn't give to keep her little like this forever.  Oh and whoever figures out how to bottle puppy smell is going to make a fortune.

Daddy's Girl! 

Champion Napper!

Trouble to the third degree!

CCI #4- Jeanine!

Welcome to Jeanine, my new CCI puppy!  She's so freaking cute and reminds me so much of my first lab, Jonas.

Since the world is now without the three wonderful dogs I raised in high school, I figured I'd do another CCI puppy.  I hope that it isn't a crazy decision because I know it is a lot of work and I have so much going on right now but my experiences with CCI 10 years ago were such a big influence on my life that I couldn't let that go without doing at least one more.

Can't wait for all of our adventures!  Plus she's stinking cute...

I picked her up in Denver without a hitch this morning and brought her straight to work.  First thing Ryan did was take her from me.  I think she has a bit of puppy fever.  Jeanine is handling everything so well.  This has been a big couple of days for her.  She was taken from momma yesterday, tattooed, then put on a plane early this morning to come to me.  That's a lot for a pup that's not even 8 weeks old yet.  Luckily she's so well bred that I hope her temperament will be right on for a service dog.  Here's to getting a dog through!

West Coast!

Jake took me to Portland to meet his family.  Very exciting.  I missed a family reunion with the crazy Hastings clan, which is really too bad because I so love those crazy people, but it was worth it to spend some time with my honey and meet his family.

He's from Portland so we jetted that way.  His dad is very sweet.  I don't know why Jake was so worried about me meeting him.  Jake's friend, Jake, had me a little worried that his dad was all big and mean looking but I found him enjoyable.  Conversation was guns and dogs.  I can cover half of that with no trouble so I think it was just fine.  It was really nice of him to let us stay with him.

After a few days in Portland seeing the city and Jake's friends, we took off to Bend to see his sister.  I drove thank you because someone was a little hung over... a lot hung over.  We spend the 4th in Bend and it was really great.  I love his sister.  We could be friends just fine I think.  She's wonderful with Samuel, he was there a whole two weeks before us I think, which I really admire.  She has some horses so she took me riding which was wonderful.  I miss riding so much.  If I had the cash and the time I'd own horses.  My dream house has always been out a little from town with a pack of dogs and some horses, which is exactly what she has.  Jealous.

The 4th was great and we celebrated with some poppers and sparklers.  Great fun for all but it's especially fun watching kids enjoy those.  There's nothing like the joy and innocence of a child is there?  We watched the fireworks from far off and then hit the hey.  Can't ask for anything more.

Then we returned to Portland and had a full day to go hiking and play in a creek and see a waterfall.  That was the best part.  Warning: mush alert!  I have to say, I really felt like a little family.  I am more in love with Jake than ever.

PICTURE TIME!

Dashing!

Can't believe how much I look like my sister here...

I love water and green things!

Tough crowd...

Gone riding!

Aren't we cute?

Beautiful Oregon coast.

Panorama!