So I will try to update on various things in a somewhat intelligible way!
Puppies:
Our boys have continued to grow and learn over the last year. Well, that is to say that Watson has grown, and is now roughly as big as Cooper! We had some rough bits as Watson is a bit of a chewer...he has destroyed a kitchen rug, a prescription pill bottle, numerous socks, sticks, toys, a spray bottle, and was bold enough to steal Bruce's steak off of the counter one evening...an act which I am pretty sure has not yet been forgiven entirely... It's a good thing he's cute!
The boys have become the best of friends, and love spending time together, whether it be cuddling, playing, play fighting, chilling with Bruce and myself, or playing with their other friends. Soon we will be adding Murphy back into our little family, and we are excited to have him back and introduce him to Watson, since they have never met. We are officially those crazy dog people!
The house:
We have now been in our home for a little over a year, and it has been a whirlwind! After dealing with flooding last winter, we put gutters on our house, because for some crazy reason, it didn't already have them! Just adding the gutters made a huge difference!
I painted the kitchen, nook, and basement to match our living room and dining room, which is a light grey color that I simply love! It gives such a fresh and clean feel to everything. I also painted our bedroom a pretty navy blue color, which will look beautiful once we finally get around to putting up curtains, buying bedding, and getting a headboard...which I still have yet to do!
We later learned that our entire roof needed to be replaced, which turned out to be a large expense that we had not been planning on, so we are basically paying to literally keep a roof over our heads in more ways than one!
We also built some raised garden beds, and planted some fruits and vegetables last summer, and it was so fun to actually have things grow! Perhaps I don't have s black thumb after all!
We also had our driveway replaced right before the weather turned in November, and we LOVE having concrete rather than dirt and gravel! So much nicer! Now we just need to do something fun with the sides of the driveway to make it look more finished. We do also need to reinforce some areas on our fence, as it is painfully obvious that parts of it are strongly sagging one way or the other.
In January, we also needed to replace our sink in the upstairs bathroom, which turned into replacing the vanity, tearing out the tile behind the vanity and adding new back splash, removing the side mirror and the night light, repainting the bathroom, and adding more storage.
This past week, we also got together with our neighbors and decided to chop down the tree that is on our mutual property line, since we both think it is an eyesore, and we were sick of the squirrels chucking chestnuts at our respective dogs, so now that has been taken care of, and everything is looking up that we will avoid those sneaky squirrels this year!
Our Lives:
We've made some good friends in our ward, and we have loved spending more time with them and getting to know them better, which is something that we have missed with other friends moving, and with all of our own moves throughout the years.
While we don't get to see some of our older friends as often, we are always super excited when we are able to get together with them once more and catch up on our respective lives! I get to spend some time with Kelly in the next few weeks, and will be with her over her birthday, and I am super stoked!
Bruce:
Bruce and I went to his 10 year high school reunion this past year, and were able to see some of his old friends, which was fun. He also attended a healthcare conference this past autumn, which he enjoyed.
I was able to surprise him this past Christmas with a homemade Xbox Onesie, courtesy of my fabulous mother's sewing skills, which I am pretty sure won Christmas!
Bruce will be graduating with his MBA this coming Saturday, and we are going up to Seattle for his graduation ceremony! He has worked long and hard for his degree, and we will be taking some time for a small vacation while we are up there.
His clinic was also acquired by Bingham Memorial Hospital this year, and he has accepted a new position with them as a Clinic Informatics Specialist, which allows him to travel to various clinics owned by BMH, and help them solve some of their issues surrounding their systems.
Lisa:
Among all the house projects that were undertaken within the last year, I also resolved to get healthier, having once again gained more weight than I was comfortable with. While I was not at my heaviest weight ever, I continued to struggle with it, and made the determination to get some help and work harder to get rid of it. As a result, I have successfully lost 60 lbs in the last 10 months, which is such a relief. While each day is still a struggle, I know that success is possible!
I am also restarting my grad program in July, so that should be fun as well! I am hoping to be done within a year, but we will see if I can stick to that goal, since it is a little ambitious.
Oh, we did also recently purchase a second vehicle, since I will be needing to travel down to Salt Lake on occasion to train new employees, and since Bruce also needs to travel more with his new job, it only made sense for us to get another car. The new one is also larger, so we will be able to drive the (soon to be 3) dogs around much more easily!
Well, that is the recap for now, hopefully we will both be better about posting a bit more regularly than we have in the last year! Fingers crossed!
