Not always an angel

Last Thursday when I came home from work, I didn't see anything I expected. I found a dog waiting for me by the garage door, and pieces of chewed up whoknowswhat.

Somehow Aspen escaped from his area. We had a gate blocking him from the rest of the house. A 29'' gate, but apparently he learned how to jump it, and decided he was going to enjoy his free time. After eating about a quarter of a bag of chewy sweetarts, 4 dental sticks for dogs, parts of 3 different shoes (maybe one shoe amount total) and a half a bag (a big bag) of skittles ( including the actual bag ), he got sick. And he threw up multiple time around the house. I found 6 piles of puke, 4 pee spots, and 1 pile of poop.

We through away three pairs of shoes, but we're just grateful he didn't destroy anything MORE valuable (like furniture or computers).

Needless to say, we were not very happy with him. And poor thing felt awful because we scolded him (and because in a few hours he ate more candy then I would eat in a week). So we decided to get a new gate (41 inches tall - a foot taller!) and a shock collar (not just for this reason, but for when we're playing in the front yard and he runs after other people).

Here's some evidence of the destruction.

The only real question is - Did he learn his lesson? Did he learn that eating all of that makes him feel like crap for the next few days? (Unfortunately, probably not)

Utah Lake

We went out to Utah Lake with Aspen twice this weekend. The first time it was raining (so I got cold pretty quickly) but Aspen didn't seem to mind. We even got him to (voluntarily) go in the water, to fetch some sticks and a water bottle.

We're so happy that Aspen likes the water. In fact, he really loves the water, and we can't wait to take him swimming with us in the summer. He was so happy fetching the bottle (which worked best, because it floated) and he wanted us to keep throwing it for him.

What a cute pup!

Sick Day

Sunday I was incredibly sick- I literally could not keep any liquids down from early Sunday morning until late Sunday night. Doesn't sound like that long but when you are losing liquids like crazy (as I was) you need to stay hydrated and I just couldn't.

I laid in bed and the couch all day long- and my wife took care of me. She went and got me some saltines, nausea medicine and gatorade. I may have given up the ghost without her (probably not, but maybe!). It really does boost your spirit having someone you love take care of you and likewise it boosts the physical as well.

I am writing this Wednesday evening and I am still not 100 percent but getting there. I lost 8 pounds as a result of Sunday's happenings and even when I eat now it still doesn't feel quite settled in my stomach for a few hours more than usual.

I was hoping to get through this winter without getting sick but I guess that hope went down the drown (pun INTENDED). Aimee and I both have a 3 day weekend coming up and I am also looking forward to when Dain comes out for a few months sometime soon.

Advice- don't get sick.

Valentine's Day

Last year Nate and I got engaged (2 days before Valentine's Day), which was a total surprise for me. And then on Valentine's Day Nate managed to surprise me again. After an evening of doing who knows what, he walked me home and I found my room was decorated and I was left with flowers and chocolates.

So I thought, how would this year be able to top last year's Valentine's Day surprises (I mean, getting engaged is a pretty big deal!) Well it did. Because being married made yesterday so much more special.

Although Nate was sick Sunday (with the flu or food poisoning) and he was still weak and malnourished, he told me he was going to make dinner for us. And I couldn't help. 

So after work I came home to a box of chocolates and a beautiful dozen of red roses. Then he made a four course dinner (some of it was pre-prepared food from Target, but their stuff is so good)

appetizer: cheese bruschetta that we dipped in spinach dip

soup: cheese and broccoli

main course: steamed asparagus and ham and cheese stuffed chicken

dessert: peanut butter and fudge stack

It was absolutely delicious. And the room looked beautiful with my roses on the table and candles spread around.

And after dinner we were going to wait to open presents, but Nate was too excited. So he opened his presents first. I got him some treats (for when he feels better), a game, and a shirt.

But then he put the topping on the cake with my gift. a sewing machine.I am so spoiled. I told him I wanted a sewing machine for my birthday (not till August) but he decided not to wait. And to rationalize spending more than our budget, it was a congratulations gift for getting my second job. Either way, he is a wonderful husband.

I am so grateful that he is mine.

growing up

Whenever I get home from work, the first thing I do is to go see the pup. If he's in the house I make sure to let him out right away, to avoid any accidents from happening. Next we walk to the mail box together. If you haven't been to our house, we live at the end of a pipestem, so our mailbox is at the beginning of it, next to the street. Aspen is so good at staying pretty close to me, and coming back to me when I call him, he never runs in the street either. I check the mail box and if we have some junk mail I give it to Aspen to carry back to the house, I carry the other things that I don't want to get drool on. Today there was no mail in the mailbox.

So today, on the way back to the house I told Aspen we were going to race to the house. We started running and as he was one step ahead of me most of the way he kept looking back at me, and running sideways for a second. I think he did this to prove to me that even running sideways he can still run faster than me. (Of course I wasn't sprinting or anything.) He did, however, beat me to the front door.

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By far, his favorite toy is the soccer ball.

The ball started out being pretty deflated (as it is in this picture) so he could grab it pretty easily with his mouth. We decided to pump it up and see what he would do. It was so cute he was trying to get it so hard, and would start to come back to us to help him, but then would go back to the ball because he didn't want to leave it. He finally figured out how to grip his mouth just right around the ball that even with it full he can still carry it. Its just a little more difficult to pick up at first and to hold on to for a long time. --- He loves the soccer ball so much, its so fun to try to steal it from him and see him chase after it. He'll bring it to us when fetching, but if we chase after him to get it, he'll run away so he doesn't have to give it up.

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Aspen is getting so big lately! I haven't weighed him in about a week, but last time I think he was 48 pounds, or so. Its crazy to think back on when we first got him and he was only 18 pounds. This last week he started to look a little chubby, and we don't want a chub-pup so we gave him a little less food and tried to make sure we were exercising him and giving him as much play time as possible.

Like Nate said, he is still such a snuggler. Even though he's getting a little too big for it, he still loves to come and sit on your lap and be as close to you as possible. I hope he continues to cuddle with us even when he becomes a full grown dog -- ps. I can't believe he'll probably gain another 40 pounds! At least he's finally growing into his body and doesn't look quite as awkward :)

A beautiful day at Utah lake.

What a handsome pup.

New old car

We bought a 2001 Toyota Corrolla a little while ago after shopping around the area quite extensively. We wanted to get a car with good gas mileage and a reliable engine and that's exactly what we got.

I lost my faith in the (usually reliable for an insanely long time) Honda Accord. My 1996 Accord wasn't atrocious but did not come close to my expectations for performance. That is the risk you take when you buy a used car.

We bought the Corolla at a pretty nice Lexus Dealer just down the street- it was a trade-in. It has about 90k miles on it which should be around half-life for a Corolla. It had one owner and they resided in Arizona. Apparently engines in Arizona don't take a beating as much aesthetically as in other states due to no salted roads and little to no humidity. This shows when you pop the hood- the cars internals look a few thousand miles old. The interior is a little grandma-y but there is no shock there considering where it is from. The owner did ALL scheduled maintenance- including the minor ones that aren't even that big of a deal. I felt great about buying it and still do.

We are hoping this Corolla stays around for another decade- initial impression is that it isn't exactly a Maserati but it gets us from A to B and makes me feel calmer knowing Aimee has a way to get to me, the hospital or anywhere else she needs to in a hurry (not to mention the more expected job of getting to work). It smelled insanely of lemon until about last week- I was hoping that it was just a good really deep clean of the car and not a tobbaco-masking product. We lucked out and the owner previous owner was NOT a tobacco smoker (at least not on the GO).

So far so good- lets hope it stays that way. The Berrett and Garrett clans have had quite the car change in these last few months.

P.S.: I will post a picture of the Corolla when I can take one of it (too dark right now).

Catching Up

Alright- I have a LOT of catching up to do and I won't do it in one post. I will be posting for the next few days to catch up with what has been going on. I am SO bad at remembering to write down what is going on to this blog- it has become more the Aimee blog and not the Berrett blog (not in a bad way other than I have been failing miserably at writing down what has been going on in my life as well).

I will start with an update in regards to our dog Aspen- he is getting BIGGER and BIGGER every day! It was enormously stressful when we first brought him home- I was scared we wouldn't be able to get the attention he deserves. After 6 months of having a new member of the family he has been above and beyond what anyone could expect a new best friend to be.

He is about 99 percent potty trained- he NEVER goes inside of the house UNLESS there is a random visitor and he gets so excited that he has an accident (maybe he is giving his owners a hint: don't be so boring all the time, when I see a new face I pee with joy).

He is a blast to play with! He is so fun to wrestle with and he never plays too hard. I love coming home to my wife and Aspen- I love getting on the floor with him and he is so excited to see me that he goes crazy if I am not petting him or holding him. He still acts like the small puppy we brought home months ago and I love it.

More catching up posts to come!

Two jobs

On Friday we went out to dinner to celebrate. 'Celebrate what?' you might ask. Friday afternoon I finally received a call from Heritage (which is where Nate works) to offer me a part time job as a front desk administrative assistant. So I'll be working about 18 hours a week... And I may be able to get more hours in a couple months when another girl takes maternity leave.After applying for 2 other full time positions and not getting hired, I was very excited to get the call.

And it works perfect with my teaching hours. I teach Tuesday through Thursday from 9 to 12:20. I've been teaching for the past month, a level one grammar class and a level two integrated skills class. There are five or six levels total, so the students I have are pretty beginning. I've lived teaching and I'm so happy to be working in a field that I actually studied in college. Over the month I've already seen the students progress some, and it's such a gratifying experience. However I already feel so attached to them and it makes me sad when they leave my class for various reasons. I am glad if they leave my classes to move to a higher level, cause that means they're learning lots.

Anyway, although haven so much free time was sometimes nice, as a whole I was pretty bored throughout the day. I'm excited to have these two jobs, and I still think I'll have enough time to clean, cook, do crafts, browse and whatever else I might need to do around the house. I'm also excited that we'll be able to save a good amount of money every month for whatever accidents or problems come about or to eventually pay a down payment on a house.

I started training this week at heritage, and the hours are 3 to 8, which will be pretty awful come Friday night, but its paid and they feed us dinner, so hopefully it won't be too bad.