What Is This? A Post? Gasp!

Hello, Blog, long time no see...er, write?  Any ways, I've been pretty quiet lately.  Mostly because I've been incredibly busy.  Working two jobs has actually been going pretty well.  It's not as stressful as I thought it would be, in fact, I've enjoyed working full-time again...however, I'm about to go from two jobs to zero jobs.

Last week Peter was offered a full time, permanent, year-round position with the Black Hills National Forest based in Spearfish, South Dakota.

South Dakota?!

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when he first applied, too.

But I have good feelings about Spearfish.  Not only is it a pay increase for Peter, but the cost of living is less expensive there.  There is also a university to which I am planning on applying and hopefully attending.  Spearfish is twice the size of Gunnison and has more amenities, but it still lacks the serious mountains we have in Colorado and Utah.  I'll really miss those.  They have a few hills they call "mountains" but I don't buy it.

I got to tell my family this last weekend when both sets of parents and my sisters all came out for a visit (unbeknownst to them, their last).  When I told them Peter and I had an announcement, I think a few people were disappointed that our big news wasn't that we were having a baby.  I'll be glad when the day comes that I don't have to start every announcement with a disclaimer.

The only issue right now is that Peter's start date in Spearfish is August 29th (fast, I know), and our landlord wants us out by the 15th so that he can get a couple of college kids moved into our apartment before the semester starts on the 22nd at Western State College.  So, we have to figure out temporary housing until then...plus we have to find a place in Spearfish.  Ugh...moving is such a pain! And we would know.  This is our twelfth move in the (nearly) eight years we've been married.  Peter was once told that "to be successful in the Forest Service you must carry a briefcase in one hand and a suitcase in the other."  Boy, has that been proving to be an accurate statement!  Things are going to get pretty chaotic around here, but when are they not?  Hopefully this will be our last move for a while, and maybe we'll both absolutely love Spearfish and never want to leave.  It's hard to say what the future holds.  I certainly never thought I'd be living in South Dakota.

So, ready or not, Spearfish, here we come!

Weird...

Did anyone else lose blog posts after the "maintenance" Blogger was doing this week?  I blogged about the one-year anniversary of our move to Colorado and the post has completely disappeared.  I don't even remember everything I wrote about and I don't even feel like bothering to try and repost it.  Oh well.

Thanks, Blogger.  You fail.

On a side note, it looks like I'm going to be picking up a second job working for the Forest Service this summer.  It'll be nice to bring in a little more income especially since Peter has yet to find a new job...There are jobs out there, but the Forest Service can't fill them because they can't afford to.  I don't want to grumble too much about my incredible disappointment in the government and it's ability to govern itself, though.  I can't talk about the poor economy and lack of budget without bristling.  Any ways...I hope something comes up, but at least my additional job will help a little if he doesn't and we end up facing another winter without his income.  I dislike winter enough without that burden hanging over my head, but I digress.  I need to think more positively.  All will work out.  Until then I'm going to be working 6 days a week starting in June.  Yay.

Birthday Milestones, Incontinence, and Hairloss

I know I haven't blogged much recently, and some friends and family have asked me why, but to be honest the real reason is that...nothing has been going on.  Absolutely nothing.  We holed up for the winter (yeah...we don't really get out when it's -30) and mostly did a whole lot of nothing.  Peter was on furlough for about three months which wasn't much fun, lemme tell ya!  He was very happy when he got back to work two weeks ago, and the Forest Service promptly sent him off for about two weeks.  He was off in some little no-name town in southwestern Colorado supervising a tree planting, and then the next week he went off to Denver for his advanced cruising course which has something to do with setting up timber sales.  Why they call it "cruising" I have no idea but I keep picturing Peter driving around the woods with the windows rolled down with Bob Marley (or someone else equally chill) playing on the stereo.  I know this isn't what he actually does...he's really uh...doing something scientificy...that involves trees.  I really can't explain it well, you'd have to ask him.  Any ways, now that spring has sprung (not that you could tell because it's SNOWING) I hope to have fun outdoorsy adventures to blog about.

In other news, Peter turned the big 30 this week!  He got to spend his birthday riding around on ATVs and getting paid to do it.  Sometimes his job is pretty awesome...when he's actually working.  Speaking of his job, now that he has career status he's been busy looking for a new job.  Hopefully we'll be moving towards the end of the year.  I feel like we're both stagnating here in Gunnison, and it's definitely time to move on, though I will really miss some of the friends I have made here.

Because Peter is now an old man, you may think he is the one suffering from incontinence and hair loss...but no, it's not him.  That would be our dog.  Natasha has recently developed urinary incontinence which is really not fun.  Not fun at all.  She can hold her bladder like normal...unless she gets really excited, but when she gets tired she has a harder time controlling her little sphincter muscles and she starts to dribble which makes her lick herself clean and then she gets bladder infections.  It's all because of a hormone deficiency because she's spayed and isn't producing enough estrogen.  This type of incontinence usually happens to female dogs between the ages of 3 and 5.  Natasha will be 4 this year.  So, to treat it she has to be put on a hormone treatment.  Right now Peter and I are just trying to decide if we want to medicate her on a daily basis or twice a week.  There are pros and cons to both, but I won't bore you with it all.

As for the hair loss...it's spring and Natasha is blowing her winter coat.  I've been waiting for this to happen for the last few weeks as the weather started getting warmer.  I've read about it, but I've never dealt with it...and now that I have...I can tell you that it's pretty epic.  I was absentmindedly petting Natasha this evening when clumps of her hair started coming out.  So I pulled out our Furminator brush (by the way...I highly recommend it for anyone who has a dog that sheds) and after a short brushing session this is what we pulled out of her coat.

It's pretty much a small dog...and this is one reason why huskies are not for everyone.  For me, I find it amusing, and thankfully this only happens once a year (she does shed more noticeably in the fall too, but not quite as much).  So, Natasha's just one big ball of fun right now.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all the fur.

Maybe I should take up knitting.

It's Cold in Gunnison...But We're Still Alive!

I rely on Facebook and blogs to keep tabs on friends and family, because I'm not much of a phone conversationalist (to be honest, I have a hard time understanding people over the phone).  Though, recently I haven't been very good at updating my own blog.  I guess I just don't have a lot to talk about right now...and I'm sure people are tired of hearing about my dog (I can't help it!  She's just so cute!).

So, to catch up...not a lot is different.  It's been four months since I last blogged.  I'm still working as a receptionist for Natasha's veterinarian...and Peter is, well...he's actually not working because he's on furlough, but he should start working again sometime in March.  We're gettin' by for now, though it's certainly tough without our main source of income.  Christmas was a lot of fun, but I wish we could have spent more time with family and friends.  Natasha was a little nervous, but she did really well considering she met a lot of new people including three really little ones.

I don't even remember what we did for New Years...I think I made dinner and we watched a movie...yup...we're officially boring.

So, let's see what else have we done...well, I went cross country skiing for the first time.  We drove up to Saratoga, WY and met some friends of ours there.  We stayed at a Forest Service cabin one night and soaked in some hot springs the next day.  It snowed the entire time we were at the cabin and it was so picturesque and beautiful.  Natasha had a BLAST!  I think next time I will get her a sled and a harness so that she can pull all my stuff in, that way I don't have to.  Here are a few pictures of our trip.


I love how the road signs are nearly buried because the snow is so deep.



Natasha hates her backpack, but she looks so cute in it!

We met Nick and Kelly the summer of 2009 when we were all working for the Evanston district of the Forest Service.  Nick and Kelly started dating that summer and it was fun to watch their relationship grow.  Now they're getting married this summer, and we couldn't be happier or more excited for them.  I'm so glad we still keep in touch and get together for fun adventures even though we live in different states.

That's pretty much all for us.  We're trying to get through the rest of winter, and I think we're pretty much past the coldest bits.  I have survived the winter in Gunnison, but it hasn't been easy.  Poor Natasha went weeks without getting walked because there was a serious risk of frostbite if we went outside for extended periods of time...-30 will do that to you.  Temperatures have been in the upper 20s and 30s this week and it has been an immense relief, but even though it's been one of the coldest winters I have ever experienced, I have seen the sun more often here than I ever did during the winter in Utah because we don't get the icky inversion that they do.  That has actually been pretty fantastic.

I hope you all are doing well and surviving the winter.  Hopefully the groundhog's prediction was correct and we'll have an early spring.  I sure hope we do!  I'm itching to get outside!

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of good company and excellent food. Mine was very quiet, but I enjoyed it. It was just me and Peter this year since we didn't have time to make the drive back home. I thought it would be fun to do something different for the holiday this year other than the traditional turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, etc., but Peter didn't really like my idea, so I ended up making all of the usual suspects for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Almost everything turned out pretty good considering I had normally made only one of these items at a time before to contribute to the Thanksgiving table; I'd never made them all at once. It was a good lesson in time management for me. The only thing that really didn't turn out was the stuffing. I did the "in bird" style, and the recipe I used asked for chicken or turkey stock for the stuffing, but even though I cooked the turkey fully, the stuffing turned to goo. There must have been too much moisture. Next time, I will omit the poultry stock. One of the best things about Thanksgiving this year was that I got to use my wedding china which rarely sees the late of day considering I don't entertain all that often.

All in all, I think I did a really good job, and I'm pretty proud of myself. Dinner was great and Peter and I enjoyed a nice quiet holiday together, though I did miss my family. I'll get to see them all for Christmas, though. The only downside, if you could call it a downside, is that we've been swimming in leftovers for days. I'm kind of getting sick of turkey sandwiches...so tonight I'm making turkey chili to use up the last of it.

As I mentioned in my last post I have a bunch of fall photos of the Gunnison area. Peter took most of them which is a change since most of the time I'm the one taking photos. Fall certainly didn't last long around here, but it was beautiful while it lasted.  They're mostly pictures of aspen because that's what we have in abundance around here, other than conifers, but they don't change colors...unless they're dying which is kind of depressing.  So please enjoy the sunny, golden colors.

Blog Neglect

So...yeah...November.  Where has the time gone?  I swear it was May last week and I just moved here.  Now summer is over...fall is practically over...but at least Peter's job isn't.  He finished his project up on Sergeant's Mesa about a month ago and I was looking forward to having him around a little more often, but the Montrose district was really struggling to finish their big project, so Gunnison shipped him off to help them out.  I'm really getting sick of the whole back and forth thing.  Peter and I have spent more time apart than we have together since we moved here, and when he is gone we have absolutely no communication whatsoever.  I feel like a single woman living on her own, most of the time.  Although we have done this kind of thing before, it hasn't been for this long.  It really sucks.  Hopefully he has only one more week of field work left and then he will be working out of the office for the rest of the winter (if we're lucky).  Thank goodness I have Natasha to keep me company.

When Peter is home, I try to cook nicer dinners than normal.  Mostly because I've missed him, but partly because when he's gone we both don't eat very well.  Most of Peter's meals are simple fair that he can pack around with him in the woods and heat up in his Jetboil, and I hate cooking for just myself, so I eat a lot of cereal and sandwiches.  By the time the weekend rolls around we're both craving better food and elaborate meals have kind of become my new thing.  Peter jokes that when he cooks he uses only two or three dishes, but when I cook, I use every appliance in the kitchen.  It's kind of true.  The kitchen is usually a mess by the time I'm done with it, but I've been learning how to make some fun things.  One morning I made pumpkin french toast stuffed with blackberry-caramel mascarpone, and last night I made one of my favorite Indian dishes, chicken saag.  Natasha likes to hang out with me in the kitchen while I'm cooking (I think she's hoping that I will drop something), and one night as I was making French onion soup for dinner, she discovered my kitchen timer.  I had purchased a new one because my old one had stopped working and apparently she doesn't like the beeping of the new one.  She will whine and howl until you turn it off.  She does the same thing when our alarms go off in the morning, too.  We got some video of her reaction, but I have been struggling to upload it anywhere.  I guess my camera's video is in a format that doesn't play well with others.

All of my cooking will be put to the test this Thanksgiving.  It's the first time in my life that I won't be spending the holiday with family, and though I've helped make a turkey dinner before, I've never made everything myself.  I've debated whether I should cook a whole turkey or just cook a couple of Cornish hens.  I'm thinking of making other non-traditional Thanksgiving food or "variations on a theme", to use a musical term.  I better figure it out fast, though, since Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away.

Going back to Natasha (I know, I know...I talk about her a lot), her training is coming along very nicely. I think we've gotten past the basics and are moving on into the more advanced obedience training. I've been working extensively with her off-leash training and she's been doing very well. If she gets too far away from me on a trail, I tell her to "wait" and she promptly sits her little butt on the ground and waits for me to catch up to her. When I tell her to "come", she turns around and comes running back to me. She will sit and stay in one spot for a pretty fair amount of time, too, even if there are other people and dogs around.  She has her rebelious moments, but it's teaching me a lot about patience.  In addition to her training, she has also lost ten pounds and is quickly getting back on track to being sleek and trim.  She can still stand to lose five pounds or more (I'd really like to get her close to 50 lbs.), but I'm pretty proud of the progress she has made.

I know this post is mostly just me rambling, but I hope to put some pictures up here soon.  Peter took a ton of photos of the woods and mountains in the fall and I need to wade through them all and find the best ones to post.  I also hope to post some video of Natasha up here when I figure out how to convert the format.

Enjoy the last tid bits of fall as it seems winter is banging on the door!

September Already?

I haven't had anymore wheels go flying off my Jeep, so I haven't really had anything very exciting to blog about.  Life keeps moving along and I can't believe that fall is upon us.  It's weird not being back in Logan this time of year.

Natasha is coming along and has made great strides in the 2.5 months we've had her.  She's lost seven pounds and is about five pounds shy of her ideal weight.  She's very talkative and makes all kinds of funny noises.  She doesn't just bark or whine like dogs do; she has a whole vocabulary.  It's really quite hilarious.  She does this thing we call "the silent woof" where she just makes this very quiet "hooah" sound.  She typically does it when she wants our attention, but we're really closeby so she doesn't feel the need to do a full on bark.  One of these days when I come home from work, I need to have my video camera out because she'll follow me around and "talk" to me for several minutes like she's telling me all about her day.  Again, it's not barking; she makes noises that sound like, "Roo roo roo" and "wah wah wah wah".  It's hard to describe, which is why I need to record it, but it's very funny.

Natasha's training is coming along as well.  She will now sit and lay down on command without bribes or hand signals, and she's starting to understand the concept of stay.  When I take her for walks and I tell her to "wait", she will stop, look back at me, and then sit down.  We're also working on the recall command, and that too is only starting to sink in.  Peter and I love having her around, even though she's a lot of work.  She keeps us very entertained, and she does these silly little random things that we can't help but find incredibly endearing.

Natasha usually hangs out under my chair...

...or under Peter's.

I love these two

Natasha loves nomming on a good stick

My sweet girl after a long day of hiking

My job is going well, but some days I feel overwhelmed.  Working in a doctor's office is not easy.  Things get busy and I'm trying to check in patients and answer questions or concerns while every phone line is ringing off the hook.  It's days like those where I just have to take a deep calming breath and take it one step at a time.  It is rather fun to work with animals, though.  Even though most of the time they're coming in because they're sick.

Peter's job is winding down a little.  He's lost most of his crew to school, but I think he kind of enjoys working alone.  He's still gone all of the time, and I'll be glad when he's back at home again.  We've been told that he'll have work through most of winter which is good.  I like being able to pay rent and eat food.

We have had some fun little excursions this summer, like a trip to Moab with some friends of ours.  We kayaked a stretch of the Colorado River and we also went to Arches National Park, which is something I will never do again in the middle of the summer.  It was way too hot.

Peter and Nick

Kelly and Me

The four of us at Delicate Arch

Ute indian rock painting

Me, Nick, and Kelly at Landscape Arch

Last weekend for Labor Day, my parents came to visit and we had a lot of fun showing them around Gunnison and Crested Butte.  One of the things we tried to do was take a picnic on "Gunnison Beach" out on Blue Mesa Reservoir, but it was so windy that day that we were being pelted by sand.  Even Natasha, who is always excited to go outside, was content to stick nearby and use us as shields from the wind.

In other news, we had an opportunity present itself to us this last week that could change a lot of things around here (and no, I am not pregnant).  I can't quite talk about it yet, but some big changes could be happening soon...or not.  It's all up in the air at this point, and merely speculation.  I know that's terribly cryptic, but I'll post more about it when I know more as well.  That's pretty much it from us.  I hope you all enjoyed the summer because it's going to be cold and snowy before we know it!