Two Spoiled Dogs

We had some people over for dinner last week and I made my new favorite dessert- a red velvet 3 tier cake with buttercream icing. Anyway, I know I'll get crap for this but we let the dogs lick the beaters :) There aren't any kids to give them too and the babies love it so we caved and let them try a little. I guess Norris liked it so much it inspired him to steal my 3rd tier off the cooling rack when I wasn't looking! Don't worry, the other 2 tiers were delicious!

More Snow...

I caught a cute picture of Ryan chatting with our neighbor as they took part in the all too often Michigan chore of shoveling the driveway. Lansing has a lot of good and bad pockets as far as neighborhoods are concerned and we are lucky to be in a good one with nice neighbors.

I guess the winters here aren't as bad as I was thinking they would be. They are definitely colder (usually less than 10 degrees) and we see a lot of ice and freezing rain but much less snow than Utah. I actually got excited a few weeks ago when we woke up to "Utah powder" for a change and not slushy snow.

The other difference we've noticed is they don't salt the roads here, they sand them and they close the schools all the time for baby amounts of snow. Also, it's a rare occasion that they plow the roads and when they do we are left with not just potholes but giant pits of despair! I had to have a tire replaced this week (after it blew out) and there must have been at least 10 people walk in the hour I was there to buy a new tire from the horrible potholes! Oh well, live and learn...

The Dog Park

Like I said before, we love our dogs like they were our actual babies and I do everything to make sure they are happy. Our absolute favorite thing to do with them is go to the dog beach at Lake Michigan but its a little cold for that. So we found a dog park just a few minutes from our house and the dogs love it! They get to run around and explore and meet all different kinds of dogs. Baby is so cute, she will run ahead with Norris then almost like clockwork about every 30 seconds she turns around and runs back to us to "check in" or something. We sure have a good time watching them play!

Couldn't escape being tagged any longer!

Thanks for the tag Karly (said with sarcasm)
1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:18, I don't sleep well on my days off.
2. Diamond or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw? Vantage Point
4. Who always supports you? Ryan, Mom & Dad
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Lucky Charms
6. What is your first and middle name? Stephanie (no middle)
7. What food do you dislike? Mushrooms
8. What is your favorite CD? Lately the tabernacle choir (dorky huh?)
9. What type of car do you drive? Olds Alero aka a Lemon
10. Favorite sandwich? BLT
11. What characteristics do you despise? Overly loud and obnoxious
12. Favorite item of clothing? Nice jeans
13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Brazil for Ryan, Tahiti for me
14. What color is your bathroom? Light blue, black, and white
15. Favorite place to shop for clothing? Charlotte Ruse
16. Where will I retire? You mean we're going to be able to retire?
17. What was your most memorable birthday? 21, the day after I met Ryan
18. Favorite sport to watch? football or basketball
19. When is your birthday? November 28
20. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night
21. What is your shoe size? 8
22. Pets? Norris the Airedale, Baby the Mastiff, and Eddie the Hamster plus pets back home with mom and dad
23. What did you want to be when you were little? To work at Disneyland
24. What are you today? ER nurse
25. What is your favorite candy? Sweedish fish, dove chocolate, fat licorice
26. What is your favorite flower? gerber daisy, tulip
27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? May when we can go on vacation!
28. What are you listening to right now? The computer hum
29. Do you wish on stars? Nope
30. Do you believe in Angels? YES
31. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Cerulean blue
32. Pet peeves? Chewing loud enough I can hear it!!
33. Favorite Television show? Ace of Cakes, Boston Legal
34. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Ryan to say goodnight
35. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Of course
36. Favorite soft drink? Cherry coke/pepsi
37. Favorite restaurant? Ruby river
38. Hair Color? brown but thinking about darker
39. Siblings? Twin sister and two younger brothers
40. What do you like most about yourself? That I'm such an awesome puppy momma
41. What was your favorite toy as a child? Trolls
42. Summer or winter? Summer, especially after a Michigan winter
43. Hugs or kisses? both, but depends on who I'm hugging/kissing
44. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla if we're talking ice cream
45. What is under your bed? Dust
46. Who is the friend you've had longest? My twin but friend wise that I still keep in touch with-Nicole and Shay
47. What did you do last night for dinner? Warmed up chicken helper
48. Favorite smell? Vanilla and Ryan's cologne (any kind thats on him) :)
49. What are you afraid of? My dad dying
50. How many keys on your key ring? 4 keys but too many key chains (3) according to Ryan
51. Favorite day of the week? Usually saturday when I don't have to work
52. How many towns have you lived in? Holladay, West Jordan, Murray, back to Holladay, Lansing MI
Hmm.. Who to tag??? No one cuz while its fun, I hate tagging so why pass it on?!

Looking for Suggestions

Ok, so our 3rd anniversary is coming up in May and I am more than ready for a trip. I don't have any destination ideas and thats where you come in! I want to be somewhere with warm water, a sunny beach, and where we can snorkel. Open to any ideas outside of the Tahiti/New Zealand range :) Please let us know places you have been and recommend! Thanks!

Poor 4Runner

We are sad to announce that Ryan's pride and joy whom he calls "Elias", his Toyota 4Runner that ran like a charm is now decommishioned. Last Sunday we were on our way to church (late) and drove seperate cuz Ryan stays after for meetings. Well we pulled out of our neighborhood and I got through the first stop light and he didn't. Well after standing in the church lobby for 15 mintues wondering where he was I decided I better drive the 15 minutes back home to make sure he hadn't been in an accident. Well...he had been :(

I came home and found him under the covers in bed still in his suit with the dogs asleep on the floor next to him. He told me he slipped on the slushy, icy roads and subsequently did a 360 then slammed into a telephone pole! He hit his head on the window and didn't have his seatbelt on (we know, we don't need more lectures) and looked kind of weird to me so off to the ER we went to make sure everything was still alligned. Thankfully it was and my staff was great to get us through quick. Unfortunatley the 4Runner isn't doing so well. We don't know all the damage yet but you can judge for yourself from the pictures. Notice the chunk of telephone pole in the bent tire!

So the moral of the story is...don't be late for church! Lol, you thought I was going to say wear your seatbelt or be careful on icy road huh?

"The Back Stretcher"

So let me explain this picture. Ryan has been obsessing over getting an inversion table or "back stretcher" as he calls it for at least 2 years. Anyway, he finally found one and brought it home (conviniently while I was at work :) ) and called it his Valentine's present. Most of you have met Ryan so you know he is no small man, he's 6'6" and I was really concerned he was going to flip back and hit his head on the ground but he has about an inch of clearance. Anyway, it's hilarious, every time he flips back on this new toy the dogs have no idea what to think. So as you can see, Norris ran right up and licked his face! Happens every time! He may have strange interests but dang it I love him so whatever makes him happy :)

This one is for you Karly!

Ok ok I know its been a long time since a new post and I'm sorry for being such a boring blogger. This stuff is harder than I thought to figure out but I'm getting there. So anyway, sorry Miss Mellen :)
So for all you nurses out there, I need to share my difficult week at work. To make it brief, a few nights ago I had a 60ish year old patient with difficulty breathing. He had been there 5 hours when I got on shift and was okay but definitely needed to be admitted. So a few hours later just as we got a bed he took a bad turn (tachy, increased work of breathing, states "I'm getting tired" which is never a good sign). So I picked up the phone and called the admiting doctor and updated him and told him he needed to come see this patient now to which he replied "We are too busy up here with critical patients (on a medical floor?)." Anyway to wrap things up, he never came and when I got the patient to the floor he crumped and died a few hours later. I've had patients die before but this really haunted me because I tried to help and the doctor didn't listen. Not to say things would have worked out different if he did but you know...
I promise I will try to update more often, thanks for checking on us though! We love you guys!