Catching Up

Okay, okay. I didn't really finish the last entry I uploaded. I'm thinking of renaming this blog to "Look! Becky has a blog that has been dumped by her husband because he's too busy playing World of Warcraft to spend five minutes writing an entry- too!" I'm not really that bitter, but Kevin can't complain about what I choose to write about. Plus, I'm doing this with an eighty pound dog completely sprawled out on my lap as I sit on the couch. I'm not very comfortable and it isn't easy typing this way.

So what's been going on...classes are back in session. I'm sitting in on a parasitology class, and it's making me very paranoid. My dad always did say that the most paranoid people in the world are microbiologists and parasitologists. Now, whenever Riley stops to sniff something or picks something up in his mouth, I freak out. "Nooo, Riley! That could be raccoon poo teeming with thousands of parasites that will eventually climb up your trachea to be swallowed back down and begin the lifecycle all over again!" We also learned about human pinworms. Eeew! I don't care how much I love my child, I am not checking for those pinworms myself. And if my child did have pinworms, I'd seriously consider giving it up for adoption, moving or burning down the house, and starting all over again. Anyways, it's going to be a fun semester. The last time I was this affected by a class, I couldn't eat cold-cuts for a year (it was a human anatomy lab with cadavers).

Things are going well for us. Almost too well. We're waiting for something to come along and rock the boat. I'm loving Notre Dame. I'm having tons of fun with my labmates. It's great just getting to hang out with them every day. We went ice skating on Saturday. Most people hadn't ever been ice skating before! It was great fun. We also saw Cloverfield over the weekend. I wasn't expecting much, but I really enjoyed it. I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't get motion sickness easily.

Kevin will be spending most of next week in training meetings in Chicago. I'm not sure how I'll survive without his help with Riley. Our neighbors have all offered to help out with him. I'll be taking them up on their offers. I already feel like a moocher. I've been getting rides to school from a friend, rides to agility classes from a neighbor who also watches Riley during the day sometimes. As for Riley himself, he's great. He's all healed up and is bouncing around with much more energy than before the surgery. He makes us laugh every day. Hope everyone is doing well! Have a good week!

Good Holidays

Wow, it's been a while since we last wrote. Our trip to Utah went well. Our flight from O'Hare to Salt Lake City was delayed by an hour, and when we finally got to Salt Lake City, we ran into a major snow storm. The runways had to be cleared, so we ended up circling around the airport for an hour. My poor sister had been waiting for us for an hour in the cold parking lot. We were planning on traveling to Ogden that night, but with the snow storm, we ended up staying in Salt Lake City with Natalie and Ulli. We didn't get to visit family in Ogden as long as we had planned because of the storm, but we managed to see my grandmas and some cousins. Christmas came and went too quickly, but we had a great time. We even managed to take a trip to southern Utah to look at Kevin's aunt's new house. Unfortunately, while we were there, most of Kevin's family got the flu. We lucked out and didn't get sick, but It's a beautiful house with a great view of red rock country. Seeing all the mountains made me miss living in Utah, but it was nice to get back home to Indiana.

Riley didn't come with us on our trip. Our neighbors took care of him while we were gone, and I was worried he'd like them better than us. They have two other dogs for him to play with all the time and he always gets spoiled when he stays with them. I was scared we would be replaced. But Riley seemed excited enough to see us when we got back and managed to adjust back to us.

New Year's was quiet. We were still recovering from our trip to Utah and didn't want to do anything too exciting. I went to bed before midnight.

Sadly, Kevin's commercial for TCU didn't win. It's too bad because I thought it was the best one there. Oh, well. I guess Kevin will have to postpone his acting career for a while.

We just got Riley neutered. I know it was the right and responsible thing to do, but I can't help but feel bad for him. He's such a mellow dog to begin with, that it didn't seem fair. But we had it done. When I called the vet's office to check on him, the nurse told us he'd been singing to them all day. I could hear him in the background howling! He's never howled before. The poor guy was very upset for two days. He kept whining and wouldn't stop. But by day three, he was jumping and running (regardless of our efforts to keep him still). And there was no more whining! He's doing great now. He'll be back up and running in no time.