A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...

Ok, so I've babysat before, but Bryan and I never have together. Kyle snagged two tickets to the April 28 Blazer game, so he and Kari went up to Portland while we stayed at their house with Isla. We had a good time, mainly just watching T.V., attempting to feed her rice cereal, and watching her giggle in her swing. It was fun times. If Isla could talk, she would be saying " 'sup dawg? " in the above photo. Isla loves her uncle Bryan.

Like any one-year-old pup, my Labrador mix Macie requires constant exercise, thus the highlight of her day is her walk. We are blessed to live on a secluded patch of property where she can freely frolic under our supervision. She chases birds, cats, and the occasional rock we throw, always coming back to check on us with her tongue hanging to the ground covered in dirt and grass seed. Looking out the rain-streaked window last Saturday, I didn’t want to take Macie for a walk. She was getting bored, I could tell. She had already chewed up one of my flip flops that morning, and now she was batting at my husband while he attempted to work on his laptop on the couch. If you yell at her, she stops for about three seconds. If you give her the evil eye, she gets nervous and barks in your face. The only solution was a walk. Begrudgingly, I jabbed my feet into my mud shoes and pulled my coat off its hanger next to the door. Macie exploded out of the house when I opened the door, giddy with intox...

This post is a bit late, but I've been swamped at work, so better late than never. So going back 6 months, my mom's dog had puppies. Each of the 12 pups sold for $400 or more, and my parents named them after what they wanted to buy with that specific $400. For instance, one was named Sony, to fund a new TV for their house. Another was named Blaze. The money made when Blaze sold (for $800) went to buying Blazer tickets for our family. My parents bought ten 200 level tickets for the last game of the Blazer's season, against the Denver Nuggets (April 15). So last Wednesday, we piled into the family van, stopped at Jackie and Ed's (Tigard) for dinner and then went to the game. Who went? My parents, Uncle Ed, Bryan and I, Steven, Shane, my cousins Jacob and Blake and Blake's girlfriend Ashley. My mom painted Jacob's face and I painted Shane's, and we all had a great time cheering on the Blazers to a near-30-point victory. The only mild annoyance to our happiness ...

Last night Kyle and Kari took us out to dinner and a movie for my birthday and so we (obviously) left Macie at home on her dreaded chain. When we left, she sat down and wouldn't even go to her dog house. When we got home, it had poured down rain, but she was still sitting in the exact same spot soaking wet. Her dog house is literally two feet away from the spot she was sitting. This morning we went to chain her up again and she wouldn't even come outside into the back yard; Bryan had to carry her! She is just so deathly afraid of the noise the chain makes scraping along the concrete! We tried to acclimate her to the noise by walking her with it dragging, but whenever we hook her up, she just freezes so the chain won't move. We pushed her into her dog house so she would understand she could go in there with the chain, but she just stood in there shaking and staring at us. We aren't getting home until late tonight (because we are going to the Blazer game - yay!), so we w...

Over the weekend we discovered Macie knows how to jump over the mini fence in our back yard. It was only a matter of time, since it was meant for little tiny sissy dogs and not a one-year-old Lab with mad hops. So for the last few days she’s been terrorizing the neighbors (I hope I’m kidding) and having a grand old time chasing after birds and my cousins’ dog. We figure we will eventually buy the electric shock collar for her so she can at least run around our big yard, but for now, we have to chain her up, much to her chagrin. As you can see from her face in this photo, she was not a very happy camper this morning when I hooked her up for the first time. She just went and sat in the grass and wouldn’t even come over to get a bone I left her. Poor Macie. Her free-wheelin’ days are over.

So what would you think if you looked out your window and saw this not even 100 yards away? A little freaky, right? Well that's what we could see out of our window Tuesday night. We went to investigate, and found out that my uncle (who is also our neighbor) was burning brush, stumps, and garbage in this huge pile back by the pond. We had always wondered where our garbage went (they come and pick it up in a truck, but we don't have actual garbage service we pay for). Apparently, they had gotten a permit to burn on Tuesday, and were technically supposed to quit at 6 p.m., but they were still going at it when we went to bed around 10:30 p.m. In the picture below, you can see my uncle (in the tractor on the left) dumping a scoop of trash into the inferno. The tractor on the right apparently broke down midway through the job, so they had to use the smaller tractor. All the white stuff in front of the tractors is our garbage. I can't really describe how big this fire was. It wa...

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my birthday celebration, including God for giving us all a sunny day! My day started at church, where the girls surprised me with a homemade cake! We all ate it out in the grass, enjoying the sunshine. Then Bryan took me up to Portland to see the final showing of Wicked! at Keller Auditorium. All of you who went to see it, you know what I'm talking about...it was awesome!

So the other day Bryan and I were getting ready to eat a meal which included salad. Bryan went to get the ranch and apparently the lid wasn't screwed on tight because when he shook it, the lid flew off and ranch went everywhere! I didn't grab my camera quick enough to capture the ranch on Bryan's face, but I did catch Macie cleaning up after him. Macie also got nailed in the butt! As you can see, Macie enjoyed the salty ranch!

We went over to watch Slumdog Millionaire at Kyle and Kari's house on Tuesday, and got to hang out with Isla too. Bryan had a great time holding her while we tried to make her smile. Isla the bully: "You better not steal my Easter chocolate, punk."