Stomachaches Suck

This is the new cabinet my mom got me for my miniatures.  I'm having additional glass shelves cut, so I'll post more about it later:

 I love sunsets on cloudy days:

I've had a stomachache since Friday morning (as of yesterday, I've dropped 4 pounds since Friday - I have a call into the doctor, so we'll see if/when I can get in to see them).  I was pretty useless on Saturday; I only got off the couch a handful of times.  This picture shows just how useless I was..."how useless?", you ask??!!...  I held my arm over the couch and took a picture to see if Ruger was sitting at the door waiting to be let in - he was!  You can see his floppy ears in the shadow on the ground:

I played with Ruger Sunday morning and when I threw his ball for him, he turned quickly, smashed his face into the wall and kept running after his ball.  He never missed a beat, but he broke the wall:

OUCH!!  He was pretty mellow the rest of the day; we're not sure if he had a headache, concussion, missed Gigi (we took her home Sunday morning), or if he was catching up on sleep.  Crazy dog.

We dropped Gigi off on our way to hear our oldest nephew, Jake, give a farewell talk before he heads out to New York for his mission in a few weeks.  He did a great job and we're very excited about his accomplishments and growth over the last year.  He has changed from a quiet boy, who would hide out in another room, to an intelligent young man who's apparently ready to take on the world!  It's hard to believe he's (almost) 19 already!

Adventures in Puppy-Sitting

Lots of puppy pictures:

 Chasing each other for the same ball/rope toy:

Ruger impatiently watching Gigi chew on one of his bones:

 Ruger took the bone, so Gigi decided to hang out with me on the stairs:

 Resting while Ruger the maniac chews on the bone:

Getting a drink - Gigi got in the tub, so she could get a drink too.  I just missed them drinking at the same time:

 Stealing Ruger's bed just because she can:

 Starting to cuddle a little:

 Tug-of-war from different sides of the table:

Gigi always wants attention - Doug had a foot up on the table and one on the floor, so she squeezed her head under one leg to get petted:

 Yep!  We caught them cuddling!  Ruger looks guilty!:

 If one of them farts, there could be a small explosion!:

Christmas Meal

Here are the pictures from Christmas dinner at our house:

Christmas

I didn’t take a bunch of pictures, but we spent the day with my parents, my “Uncle” Marty and “Aunt” Debbie and Jeff and Nancy.  It was fun to be silly and spend time with them.  We were going to do Christmas with them last year, but it didn’t work out.  We reminisced about the good ol’ days and when we gave the chicken pox to Debbie when we were little. 

Jeff and Nancy took a few pictures, so I’ll add those at a later date.  I didn’t put my mom’s stuffing or the turkey in the oven to heat up, so we ate a little late.  I set the table and then we started adding tons of food. 

I didn’t want to take up the entire table, so we cleared off the china hutch to hold more food. 

“Uncle” Marty is left handed and the hot cocoa pitcher we used to pour the gravy was meant for a right handed person.  He had to stand up to pour the gravy without making a big mess – it was such a crack up!

After our dinner, we headed down to Doug’s parent’s house for dessert.  We spent time with the family and Doug shared his Texas work stories. 

We picked up GiGi on the way home – we’re doggie-sitting  for a few days. 

Ruger was pretty crazy when he saw her; he immediately started to wrestle around with her and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.  I laughed and laughed while she sprinted around the house because he couldn’t catch her for a while and started running under tables to cut the corner to catch her.  GiGi was pretty much done playing with him, but he kept bothering her.  They finally calmed down enough that they laid down; we took them straight upstairs to bed.  I didn’t want Ruger to take a quick nap and then wake up ready to run around again downstairs. 

Last night was like I expected it to be – crazy dogs running around most of the night.  GiGi stole Ruger’s bed, so he didn’t know what to do with himself.  Doug brought up the sleeping bag bed and he slept on that.  When Doug left for work, they started getting crazy again.  I took them out to go potty and then GiGi stole the sleeping bag bed.  Ruger settled for the floor, but then realized he could sleep on his bed, so he got up and moved.  They were up and crazy a couple more times during the night, but thankfully settled down fairly quickly.  They played musical beds:

 

Christmas Eve

A couple pre-Christmas pictures… my parents and I went down to my grandma’s for an early Christmas gathering with my Aunt and her boyfriend.  It was great to see everyone!  My grandma made her annual towels for everyone.  I’ve started stashing these away because I know my grandma won’t be around forever and I want to enjoy these towels for many years to come:

Ruger bit Doug’s ear!  He was trying to sniff at Doug and then I said, “Help me Rugie! Help me!” and he bit him. HAHAHAH WHOOPS!!!

I’m living vicariously through the decorations at work because we didn’t decorate at home – I hope Ruger will calm down enough that we can decorate next year.

 

I picked Doug up from the airport and after we got home to a super excited puppy, he took a quick nap.  It was a quick nap because if Ruger isn’t sleeping, no one is sleeping. 

Doug and I prepared foods for Christmas, vacuumed and did other random chores.  We decided we didn’t want to cook dinner since there was going to be a lot of cooking on Christmas, so we ordered from a local restaurant.  While we waited for the order we drove around and looked at Christmas lights with Ruger. 

 Ruger enjoying the wind on his face:

We ate our dinner and then watched a Christmas movie.  We didn’t buy Ruger any presents because he gets stuff all the time and I need to cut back spending money on him (I justify it because all the crap I buy him saves our furniture).  Instead of buying Ruger toys, antlers, or bones, we let him lay on the couch with us.  He was pretty excited!!  He kept climbing around and turning circles and crushing us, but he finally got comfortable and ended up lying upside down. 

He fell asleep SO quickly and snored through most of the movie; then Doug fell asleep and snored through the rest of the movie.

Doug’s Trip

Doug was flown out to Texas to help his company get a grasp on the holiday season.  Turns out there were over 1000 of them flown to Texas and they were delivering 2.5 million packages per day!! HOLY CRAP!  I really missed having Doug around, but Ruger sure kept me busy as you can see in the last post about my sidekick.  My cousin Sabrina and her boyfriend Drew were able to come for the night while Doug was gone; it was nice to have their company and get to know them better!  This is not a great picture because it was 6:30 in the morning and our hair was still wet from taking showers:

Doug flew home on Christmas Eve, so I had him back in time for Christmas!  He sent me a couple pictures of his room at the Hilton…yeah, he was roughing it HAHA: 

While Doug was gone, I detailed the front cabin of his truck.  I don’t think it’s been cleaned since we bought it and I was going to pay someone to do it as a Christmas present, but I bought him a package of 3 massages instead (for his birthday and Christmas).  This holiday season has been so crazy and tough on him, so I figured he would get more out of massages than a clean truck – AND I can clean the truck myself.  Here are a few pictures of before and after cleaning:

 He spoiled the surprise by putting his work phone in the truck when he got home.