I wish every day was freedom day!

I just love the Fourth of July. Christmas and Thanksgiving are wonderful but for me... Fourth of July is the bees knees. Though I love celebrating Jesus' birth at Christmas, there is a bit of a division between those that celebrate the holiday and those that don't. Fourth of July is a holiday of complete union. There is no stress of gift giving or money and you don't have to decorate your house; you just have to wear red, white, or blue and be American. I love ice cream and watermelon and BBQ's and fireworks and outdoor events and swimming and parades. I love being able to take my dogs to any 4th of July event because they are all outside... and having a dog is All-American, of course. I love softball and baby contests and sparklers and hot air balloons and the big huge bows that end up in every little girl's hair. And best of all this year? My parents came to town to celebrate with me since my sweet husband is in California for the summer. I missed riding the scooter with him but my parents were the perfect stand-in accomplices. Thanks mom and dad for coming all the way to Utah to play with me!!! And now for some pictures:

We started Saturday morning off at the Freedom Festival in Provo. I got so excited when I saw this storm trooper that I accidentally asked him to take MY picture instead of to take a picture with me and he was really confused as to how to press the button with his plastic finger:

Dad and I trying on some patriotism:

After the Freedom Festival we moved to Orem for Colonial Days. My mom loves to learn new things:

We tried to protect her from herself by locking her up for a while but she was able to get a hand free enough to smack me to let her out. Mother of the year!

Mom and I becoming colonial:
And then we went home and took a nap. Wakey wakey daddy!!!

All the while, my dad was sneaking away to do nice things for his favorite daughter. It was SO CUTE and MUCH APPRECIATED!! He fixed my car, worked on a broken light socket, sprayed down my house, fixed my lawn mower, took care of the dogs, and watered my lawn every day. A couple of cute highlights:


We took the puppies to the park to play:
And played Just Dance 2:

Had a fun All-American meal:

Went to see the fireworks at Thanksgiving Pointe on Monday. Here is the cow train:

And mom and I finished off the weekend by attending American Fork's Steel Days Local Band Night at the outdoor amphitheater last night:

I love my family and I love 4th of July. Let Freedom Ring!!

The Cone of Shame Chapter 2

I know this has turned into a Ruby shrine these last couple of days but I just couldn't leave this sitting on my desktop... Ruby's new eating technique!!

Ruby Update

"Cone of Shame"

Poor girl!! She now has staples in her tummy and has to wear the cone of shame for a week! $10 says she figures out a way to get it off by the end of the day.

Ruby

(Please click to enlarge this photo so you can see her smiling - so funny!)


At the end of February this mama decided that it would be a good idea to seek out puppy #2. I thought I was crazy but I couldn't make the urge go away! After suppressing it for a couple of weeks Michael and I were over at Jon and Savanna's house and asked them how it was to now have two dogs and they couldn't speak highly enough of the element their newest puppy added to the picture.

We started looking online that same night for a new pup to add to the family, went and visited several litters (and one psycho pug/chihuahua/shitzhu that had an eye that popped out fairly regularly and pottied on me at our first meeting) until we found our sweet Ruby (then named Tayla). We fell in LOVE with her but our limit was $250 and the breeder was asking $300... sadly, we walked away. The next day she called with news that her mind had changed and dropped Ruby off with Michael at the gas station by our house. I know that sounds sketchy... it probably was but oh well!!

Ruby has had her moments of terror but I think she has passed her 'terrible twos' phase and is now working toward her stubborn adolescence, which I love. With maturity, however, a girl's body begins to change and develop... to prevent gross stains on all of our furniture we had her fixed last weekend. They did a bad job. Picture pinching one side of the incision so that it is in a sort of U between your fingers then sewing that to a straight piece of skin. Sounds really professional right? I knew it was not good when I saw her right after her surgery for the first time but figured that it would heal up. Wrong. It got infected and swelled to triple it's size and turned bright red. I called the vet and they told me I would be wasting my money to take her in. Two days later the incision completely popped open and began to bleed and drain cloudy fluid... obviously severely infected. We cleaned it as best we could, applied some neosporin and butterfly bandages, covered it in gauze and wrapped it but it is going to need to be re-stitched. Her appt is tomorrow morning. There will be no cash shelled for the re-stitching... just ask me.

After original surgery


After stitches popped open and wound was cleaned up a bit


Sad puppy!


Overall, I would definitely say... if you're going to get a dog, consider getting two. That may sound crazy but it is wonderful. They play all day long and have so much fun together so that by they time we get home from working all day they are ready to play for about an hour, eat some dinner, then crash. And they are inseparable friends/wrestling partners. It is darling.

Mr. and Mrs. Mountainman

This weekend Michael and I squeezed the very most out of our time! We went out to get some wonderful frozen yogurt and see Super 8 on Friday night (boo super 8 x 2million). Went to a SUPER FUN baby shower for Jessica Draper, stopped in to see sweet Merrick and her very non-chipmunky cheeks (she got her wisdom teeth out on Friday), went to our little cousin's dance recital, enjoyed a couple of hours at Stake Conference then headed for the hills to do some high quality camping with the puppies. We haven't ever taken little Ruby on an overnighter with us so it was really fun to have both puppies running around. (More to come on Ruby soon. She is actually doing pretty poorly right now, sad girl!!)

To make a long story short, the campground we were headed for was full when we arrived so we ended up parking in a non-camping zone, hiking until we found a clearing and pitching a tent... all by the light of the moon.

Hope this isn't too passionate for ya...


Michael roasting a marshmallow with matches on the end of his knife... No campfire = no need for roasting sticks.


Michael cleaning his marshmallowy knife by putting water in his mouth then swishing his knife around in it... I know, I know... super sanitary...


Enjoying the masterpiece


Puppy Love


More puppy love


Bell boy


Tent time!!

30 Day Picture Challenge: Day 21 - Retainer Disaster

Day 21: Something you wish you could forget


The other night I decided to be a good girl and wear my retainers to bed for the first time in about 2 years... Well you know how that goes... Serious pain. In the middle of the night I must have popped it out of my mouth because the next morning I was retainer free! The only problem... where had it gone??? Much to my dismay I found it in the middle of my living room floor several hours later. I don't know if it was Tank or Ruby but either way this is going to take some serious sanitizing...

30 Day Picture Challenge: Day 7 - The Puppies

Day 7: A picture of your most treasured item


I was thinking about that whole scenario people tend to throw at you: 'If your house was burning down and you could only grab X number of things what would you grab?' I figured I would yell for Michael but that he could probably handle getting out of the house himself. Then I would grab these sweet little ones (Tank and Ruby)!! So I guess that makes them my most treasured 'item'. I would also make sure to preserve the necklace my dad gave me for my high school graduation, my saxophone, Michael's computer, and my grandmother's silver. I hope everything else would survive... especially my printed photos and things like that... but if they didn't, they are replaceable.

Life's Biggies Lately

I have neglected to publicize a couple of the Murdock family biggies lately! So... WE ARE PREGNANT!!! Just kidding - no we're not. Mom, stop crying.

1)Our little fish named Feast died about 4 weeks ago... then mysteriously came back to life like 6 hours later. We found out later that he had an air bladder infection and that all he needed was a good dose of frozen peas rather than his fish food. We gave him the peas and he is as good as new!

2) We bought a house!! We moved on October 30th (with the help of so many wonderful friends!!) into a home in American Fork that we didn't actually get the keys to until November 1st... but all is well that ends well, right!? We didn't get caught or thrown in jail for breaking and entering so I think it was the right decision. We absolutely LOOOOVE the house and the change it has brought. I love having a family next door with 8 kids to play with and neighbors that actually care that you moved in. We have just felt so much love and support from our ward and neighborhood. Everyone keeps telling us that the Harbor 2nd Ward is how a ward should be - like a giant family - and I believe it wholeheartedly. We should be getting new callings this coming week. AAAANNNDDD it gives me a legit excuse to buy things from DI that I can intend to paint/refinish/reupholster. It is wonderful. I'm pretty sure that I have decided to focus my decorating on a sort of french country feel and I feel really good about it! Who doesn't love wrought iron and hydrengias??

3) Nick got engaged. Kinda crazy I know! He and his fiance met here at the Y. She is from Vegas so it's nice that they have that common ground. They haven't chosen a date yet.

4) Michael (I'm not supposed to make a big deal about this but you have to be excited along the way!) got called back for a 2nd interview for an internship with Pixar!!! His first one went really well - it was here in Provo when Pixar came down to observe the animation department. The next one will be done by the hiring manager over the phone in the next couple of weeks. He doesn't know when it will be yet - he just got an email last night letting him know that the secretary will be calling to schedule a time with him. He is conservatively thrilled... he doesn't' want to get ahead of himself. I... well I'm just excited for the 2nd interview. My Michael - he is a talent! If he does end up getting the spot it would be from January to June up near San Francisco working on Cars 2!! I'll keep you posted.

5) I applied to graduate school at the University of Utah. I am not positive as to why I applied or even if I will go if I get in but I felt very strongly that I was supposed to apply - so I did! And had lots of WONDERFUL support along the way as my application was due the day after we moved! My mom even surprised me and flew down to help with the packing and cleaning so that I would have more time to write my application essays. What a blessing to have such a wonderful wonderful supportive set of parents!

6) We got Tank back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He LOVES American Fork and having his very own backyard

Whew!! I think that is it!! Lots of wonderful and exciting changes and developments - hopefully not too overwhelming!! I am not so great at posting pics but I'll try!!

Getting Organized

I don't know what happened there friends! I loved looking at everyone else's blogs for like 6 months but didn't really have much to say here... Well - the times have changed. As an update, Tank was graciously taken in by my mother-in-law and family and is so happy running around their California ranch all day! Unfortunately he recently got a little bit too liberal with his boundaries and wound up with an appointment to get his you-know-whats removed... I guess we won't be having any baby Tanks in the future! He will be back with us as soon as our contract is up at this apartment and we move somewhere that allows dogs. I miss him dearly but I am so happy that he is so loved over in Porterville. Michael... still feels like he has lost his right arm... but this too shall pass :-)

As for life in general I am on an organization overhaul kick. First I spent a couple of hours at the beginning of the week fixing up our budget so that it is back in working order. I don't know if it will work because we've never done anything like this before but let me give you a little overview of my vision. I first looked at our online banking system to see what categories they naturally give us with their budgeting tool. I then looked through our recent months' expenses and figured out what was practical and doable for each category, making sub-lists of what actually fell into each category. This allowed me to pull up Excel and make a little pie chart of my own that has all of our ideal spending amounts by category. I was so excited! Until I realized that once a month is over there is nothing you can do to improve or stay within your budget... So I got a little bit more detailed and made little pie charts for our ideal spending each week. Now the real excitement! Sure it took me a couple of hours but we are all about simple here in the Murdock house and I think that printing off one pie chart a week and comparing it to our ideal chart shouldn't be too hard! And this will give us room to fix things before the end of the month comes! Is it going to work?? I seriously have no idea - but I see potential. I was so jazzed, in fact, that this led me to another planning sesh to organize a menu for the next two weeks, go spend my allotted grocery money and prepare homemade breakfast and lunch foods that we can grab on the go! For all of you wonderful homemakers that are waiting for the climax... you missed it. That was all. I'm SO EXCITED!

Tank

If you’re not a dog lover this may not be the post for you… In January we drove through Cedar City to follow up on an ad on Craigslist for a darling teacup Chihuahua… After 5 minutes of play time and a little money exchange we drove away with this:



As hard as my mother has tried to convince me that dogs are stinky, hairy, loud animals, I fell in love. How could you not with that face! Tank has been our little pride and joy. He is bright, curious, happy, and SO FUNNY! He thinks it is great to knock his toys under the oven when you play fetch with him because then he can jump on your back when you lay on your stomach to get them dislodged. He is a crazy little ball of energy that will calm down to: eat, snuggle, or stay up with Michael all night when he has work to do.

That being said, the other night I went grocery shopping and, as per Michael’s request, left most of the groceries in the trunk for him to bring up when he got home 5 minutes later. It was a gorgeous evening so in waiting for him I left the front door open with our little doggie gate blocking the doorway so that Tank couldn’t get out. As expected, 5 minutes later Tank heard Michael’s voice as he approached our apartment and started barking excitedly for Daddy to get home and play with him… Unfortunately Michael was talking to our landlord at the time and we are not allowed to have dogs in our apartment complex (we have been hiding him since January). The landlord looked at Michael with a confused expression and Michael hurried up the stairs. Last night we got a call letting us know that Tank had to be gone by Sunday. They could have evicted us so we are grateful that they didn’t… but we are heartbroken. Poor Michael is so worried about him. We will be able to have him once our contract is up in 9 months but until then… we’re not quite sure yet. I’ll keep you posted.