A Loss at Christmastime

Sofi has proved that she has a sense when something is wrong with her parents. After Kristi had an emergency salpingectomy on Saturday, Sofi has insisted on sleeping right by her feet. Even when Kristi is reclined in the LazyBoy, Sofi will curl up on the end of the footrest. Through this time of sadness, this pup has given us something to laugh about.

We appreciate all of your prayers and are especially grateful to those who have called to check up on Kristi. This was her second ectopic pregnancy and her situation was a little more dangerous than last time. We are so grateful for the advances in science and for a doctor who was willing to act quickly. Kristi is healing well and will be back on her feet in no time.

We are looking forward to the holidays which we will be spending in MN with Kristi's family. Some may think this is an unfortunate time for this to happen. However, we are grateful for the distractions of the holiday season and the chance to spend time with family and friends.

Infertility is for the Dogs

Sofi had her "snipety snip" surgery yesterday and came home with a huge incision, a saucer for her neck and a certificate of sterilization. Yes, sadly she will never know the joys of motherhood. (Ha! Maybe her and I will have that in common.) I actually cried at the vet when they gave me her certificate. I guess I am mourning for the grand puppies she will never bear.

She HATES her saucer and understandably so. (Take note of her downward facing tail. Beagle enthusiasts everywhere will attest that a downward facing tail belongs to a sad, upset dog.) The satellite look-a-like medical device prevents her from her daily scratching and licking and makes it hard to eat her food or play with her toys. At least we can get a few laughts out of it all as she constantly rams into walls and then staggers for the next few minutes as though we slipped a little somethin' somethin' into her water dish. Unlike most dogs who have major surgery, she has as much energy as usual. And we are supposed to keep her "quiet" how????

Back in the Saddle Again

Much to my surprise, I was called to work in Young Womens program again yesterday. I had long ago come to peace that my days of working with youth were over for a season, especially since I had been given two other small jobs in Relief Sociey (for those who are not familiar with the LDS jargon, Relief Soceity is the women's organization in our church.) And, to keep up with tradition, I am working again with the 12-13 yr. old girls as the Beehive Advisor. Teaching comes very easily to me and I am excited to teach lessons every week.

Good news

Lance passed the bar exam.
Whew! Taking it again would not have been very fun.

Newport Beach

Lance and I decided that we need to explore more. Today we drove to Newport Beach, hoping to expose Sofi to the sand and ocean. The temple is in Newport Beach but it is far away from the tourist locations so we haven't seen much of the ocean or the beach. We unfortunately learned that dogs can not be on the beach or boardwalk between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. It was about 2:00 p.m. when we went. Sigh. Just our luck!

With our restrictions, all we could really do was walk along the Balboa pier and stop to get a famous "Balboa bar" (an icecream bar, dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles) and a frozen banana (dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts.) As you can probably already guess, I got the banana, Lance got the Balboa bar. Our camera stayed at home this trip. . .But thanks to the world wide web, I was able to find a picture of this icecream novelty.

Sofi had fun terrorizing the pigeons and charming many of the tourists. She slep, snoring loudly, the whole way home, exhausted from her outing. I am going to finally read the CA book David gave us last Christmas and make a list of places we need to visit.

Four Legged Bandit

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Sofi helped Kristi hand out candy to the trick or treaters. We had quite a few kids come. Sofi was especially interested in sneaking some candy for herself and we caught her stealing when she thought we weren't looking. After 8:30 pm we shut off our outside light and went to Chili's for our annual Halloween dinner. We started going out to eat on Halloween night our first year of marriage and now it is a tradition. We figure most of the kids going out after 8:30 pm are too old to trick o' treat anyway.

Sofi the Lobster

Like most pathetic dog owners, we decided to dress our puppy up for Halloween. Her costume was a lobster. She HATED it immensely and we could only get her to pose for a picture before she ripped it off.