Wishlist Wednesday

I thought I'd start a new tradition here that I have seen elsewhere. This will be especially good for me since we are still trying to save money, so buying things on this wishlist will be a rarity.

I would love to own a DSLR camera. I know eventually I will. I really like the Nikon D5000. I have always loved Nikon cameras and this one has a similar swivel screen as my current non DSLR which is great in many situations.

A new car. I still haven't decided what I want, but def something that we would be able to put Baxter's travel crate in the trunk area and have the back seat free for passengerss(children in the future)

I would love my husband or I to finally have a fully permanant job. We both have long term contract jobs, however, it still doesn't supply the stability that we really need to move forward with big decisions like buying a house or having children.

Finally crossed another barrier

It's Olympic time again. I so much enjoy anything and everything relating to the Olympics. I love both summer and winter, however, being from cold climate, I love watching the Winter Olympics.

It was unfortunate the way these games began with the death of a young Georgian luger the afternoon of the Opening Ceremonies. I detest how the media covered this incident. To show this young man's death over and over is horrible. Not to mention they played it at the beginning Opening Ceremonies when families are watching with children. I hope by the time I have my own children this is not something I have to worry about when we want to sit and enjoy the Olympics. I do feel so bad that it took the death of this young man for the creators of the sliding hill to fix the problem that caused this boy's death.

The games continued with a beautiful Opening Ceremony the displayed the wondrousness that is Canada. Such a beautiful country and they did a wonderful job of capturing the variety of the land and its people.

The first day of competition was great and ended with the US winning silver and bronze medals in the men's 1500m speed skating race. It was a great race with lots of suspense. The US also took home a Gold in the women's moguls from Hannah Kearney. It was a great opening day.

The second day was great and I got quite into the spirit of the games. There are two events that the US have never won a single medal of any other in; the biathlon and the nordic combined. Both are sports that have been dominated by Euopeans. The biathlon will continue to elude the Americans, however today was our day for the nordic combined. American Johnny Spillane finally earned us a medal. He won the silver in the normal hill 10k race.


The race was quite suspenseful until the end. The lead changing many times. And although it was not a gold medal in this competition, it was A medal. It shows that we are making progress in this sport and I cannot wait to see the future for this sport.

I will continue to watch as much coverage of all the sports as the games progress. I am inspired by the Canadian people who not only support their countrymen, but also show wonderful support of all the other countries and Olympians competing. Good Luck to all the athletes in the events to come, and Congratulations to all the winners so far!

Happy Adoption Day Baxter!

I am a day late with this post, but I feel the need to post it anyways. Two yeas ago, we adopted our amazing dog Baxter. We were both first time dog owners, and really had no idea what to expect. We had originally intended on getting a small-medium sized dog. We lived in an apartment at the time and didn't think a larger dog would work for us. But the minute we met Baxter, we knew that he was the dog for us!

Baxter was about 1.5 yrs old when we got him. We had plenty of challenges with him (he had food aggression, was not socialized with other dogs, and loved to get into trouble). The first night we brought him home, he got into a garbage can and ate something he shouldn't have (something he still loves to do if we aren't careful he'll eat all of the dirty tissues he can find). We called a 24hr vet who told us to induce vomiting to make sure whatever he did eat, didn't end up getting sick or with an obstruction. A month or so later he slipped his collar and went running through the golf course we lived on at the time. It took us almost an hour (and some pepperoni, doggie treats and endless frustration) to finally get him to come to us.

We spent many hours working with a trainer going to both individual sessions as well as group sessions with him. We worked with him at home, and spend months with him at home on the leash in the house to help him learn that we were his family and that he needed to listed to us. It was July of 2008 when things started to turn a corner. We had left him quite suddenly at a kennel to attend a funeral out of town for Josh's grandmother. When we returned as we got out of the car to go pick him up we heard him barking and saw him jumping in his kennel. We could tell that he was finally seeing us as part of his "pack".

This past year has been wonderful for him. We are in a house with a huge backyard for him to run allover and play all day during the summer. In the winter he can bound through the snow to his hearts content. We live close to a park that we frequent often. Both days this weekend we spent at least an hour at the park playing with many other dogs in the unofficial "dog park" area of the park. Though he plays with other dogs and has fun, he constantly is looking where we are and coming back to "check in" with us.

I don't remember what our life was like before Baxter, and I hope that we will eventually adopt another dog for him to play with and become part of the family.

Here is a picture of our "family" the night we brought Baxter home.



Happy Adoption Day Baxter!!!