The Kids

Charlie split open his paw, so we had to bandage him up. He did not enjoy walking on the bandage, Maggie did enjoy chewing on it though.

Been a while...

So people keep informing me that Rick and I have not updated in quite a while. Since October to be exact. Life has been a bit busy. Time has flown really. January and February always seem to be the longest months of the year to me, and so it is hard for me to believe we are already half way through February. So here we go, I will try to catch you all up on the last couple of months.

November:

Thanksgiving was nice, we celebrated at mom and dad's house. I had to work Thanksgiving day and so we celebrated our Thanksgiving the Sunday after. As usual we had more than enough food and a pie for each of us. And as is tradition in the Flower family we had to watch Christmas Vacation after dinner.

Charlie had been out of his crate at night, but found himself back in after a night of eating three pillows and a blanket from the living room.

December:

We were able to get a Christmas tree this year as Charlie is a bit bigger, although still likes to eat the plant life. We just figured we would not be able to leave Charlie alone in the living room with the tree. He tried to enjoy the tree water as most dogs do, but we let him know that he had his own water even though it might not be as tasty. Rick and I had a nice Christmas together with a few nice gifts. We kept with Rick's family tradition of having cinnamon buns with orange icing made in the shape of a Christmas tree. We had Mom, Dad, the girls and dogs over for Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts at that time. December kept us pretty busy and seemed to fly by more quickly than anticipated.

January:

I don't think I even remember January it went so fast. I had a new grad orientee start with me at work. She is still with me and will be for the next few weeks. We started talking about future plans again and buying a house. We just feel like so much time last year was devoted to trying to buy a house that we did not want to "waste" as much time on that this year, worrying, saving, going to the bank, etc.

I did get to go skiing with a co-worker. It had been about 5-6 years since the last time I was able to go, and the slopes here are quite a bit more difficult than back east so it was an interesting experience. But very fun and I can't wait to get back out. I keep trying to get Rick to go, maybe someday.

Rick was dying to see Avatar, me not so much. But we finally went to see it after it had been out quite a while and both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Much better than I thought it was going to be. Enjoyed the 3-D as well.

February:

We now have a new addition to the family. Maggie, a border collie. Charlie needed a friend because the fact is that we may not always live near my parents and so Charlie will not always have Lola around. Maggie definitely wears Charlie out. Charlie is now out of the crate again we have baby gates up in the kitchen and he stays with Maggie in there while she is in the crate. Maggie is a little terror at times. A lot more mouthy than Charlie was. We are constantly fussing with her to stop chewing on anything and everything. But she has her moments and can be very affectionate as well. We have had her for almost three weeks and she has already doubled in size. We are pretty sure she is going to be a little bit bigger than Charlie. She is almost the opposite of Charlie in every way at this point. Charlie is mostly black with some white, Maggie is mostly white with black. While Charlie is afraid of quite a bit, she seems fearless. It will be interesting to see how she develops into an adult and how her character changes.

Rick is still in the search of a better career. He plans to fill out has FAFSA information with this tax return and hopefully will be able to start back to school this year. He has been working extra hours and the Sundays that I work so we can go on our vacation in March to southern Utah. We are both ready for a vacation. We plan on camping down in Arches, seeing Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. We are going to spend a day in St. George and go to the spa, on the way back we will stay at a bed and breakfast in Provo, UT and then do some outlet shopping, something we both have missed since moving here.

Work is going well for me. For the most part I enjoy my job, I enjoy my co-workers. I do charge nurse about one weekend a month, sometimes more if they need me too and am orienting my second nurse. Work has been giving me more responsibility and I enjoy it. Doing charge nurse is a nice change every once in a while from being on the floor.

The weather here has not been too bad. More cold than anything. We have had a few good bouts of snow from time to time, but nothing that really sticks for a long time. Not like back east. Although the snow is totally different here than back east, it is a powder like snow here.

Well between church, work and home life we have been pretty busy. Hope you all have had a wonderful start to the new year. We miss all of you and will try our best to keep you up to date on life here in the big sky country.