It's been a really long time since I've posted. I turned 31 a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty uneventful. That also means that Henry and I have now been engaged for a year. We moved out of our house on Memorial Day weekend. It was a long and difficult process, taking up every waking hour of three days. We're still in the process of unpacking and organizing. He moved back in with his parents, and I moved back in with mine. We'll both be closer to our jobs, so hopefully less stress, but neither of us relishes the idea of living back with the 'rents. This spring has been really cold, wet and dark, and I'm really ready for some summer weather. I haven't been taking many photos lately; I'm trying to get back into that. Below are a few random shots:

Me loving sleepy Rocky

Rocky fell asleep in my arms. He never does that!

My Birthday

Christmas

Christmas Eve we went to my parents' house. Shadow and Rocky had a blast playing with their cousins. Here they all are, waiting expectantly for scraps from dinner:

After dinner we opened stockings. The dogs got theirs first. They were pretty excited:

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Rocky helped Henry open a gift:

Shadow was actually a really early Christmas present from me and Henry to ourselves. We just decided that if the right dog came along, we wouldn't wait until Christmas and let the opportunity pass us by.

My parents got me and Henry snowshoes, which is pretty awesome because mine are really old and Henry doesn't have any. Now hopefully we'll get a chance to go soon. Henry still needs snow boots to wear with the snowshoes.

When we got home, I decided on a whim to put up some last-minute Christmas lights. It was really cold outside and I froze my butt off. The wood stove helped out with that. Note our stockings hung by the fire. Henry got me a hand-made one with Tinkerbell on it.

We stayed up late drinking cocktails and watching Elf. Henry made popcorn for the movie, but we can't make popcorn in the kitchen because the popcorn maker always blows a fuse, so he made it in the bathroom:

Christmas morning we opened presents at home, which was really nice. Our first Christmas together in our own place. Henry got me Sketcher's Shape-ups, and I got him a Blu-Ray player. He also got me a beautiful blown-glass necklace. Then we headed to Henry's parents' house where we had Christmas dinner and even more presents. After that, we headed to the bar where Henry works because his bosses were working and we hung out with some of Henry's co-workers while his bosses waited on us for a change.

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The Dogs

Life in the Country

It's been interesting living out in the Sticks of Shoshone... We don't have central heating, so we've been relying on our wood stove to keep us warm. We haven't been able to make a firewood run, so we've had to make do with scrap lumber received through a personal connection. So far so good, but it hasn't been incredibly cold yet. It's been interesting standing on the porch late at night and sawing up long scraps to fit in the wood stove. There is a wild kitty that comes to visit me while I do that. I've been feeding him because our landlord trapped and moved his mother and siblings, and I worry that he's lonely and hungry. He is not afraid of the saw and often gets right in the middle of what I'm doing. I call him "Kiki." I think he's maybe two months old. The box is his little house so he can get out of the elements. I'm thinking about taking him in to get him neutered and vaccinated since I've started feeding him and sortof become responsible for him. The other night when I was cutting my wood, another kitty came out of the darkness, and it appeared to be pregnant. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do about her if she keeps coming around.

It's nice to have animal company on these late nights when the fiance is working. In addition to Kiki, we've also added another canine to our menagerie. We thought Rocky was getting lonely having moved away from my parents and their dogs, so we thought it would be a good idea to adopt another dog. A local shelter was having a Halloween event to promote vaccinations and show off their dogs, so we went to check it out. We ended up taking a juvenile German Shepard/mix on a trial basis to see if he and Rocky would get along. Rocky actually hated him at first, but now they're getting along pretty well. Shadow (new dog's name) is much more of a puppy than I thought, and he peed and pooped in the house and has been chewing everything. I think he's already getting close to being house-trained, though, which is great! He's also a super-sweet mellow teddy bear. I think he will fit into the family just fine, and we've already decided he's a keeper.

Rocky (left) and Shadow (right)

Rocky and Shadow keep me company all night, which is nice, except that Shadow wakes me up every hour or so wanting to play.

We finally got some basic channels to come in on our TV after much research and about $100 spent on an antenna and a converter box. It's really nice to just have the babble of the TV in the background while I'm futzing about the house.

We got a dryer but still have no washing machine, so it looks like I'm going to make the trip into town tonight to do some laundry. Unfortunately, the washers there are a little rough and have ruined several items of the fiance's clothing already.

My Dad discovered that Rocky likes to ride in the basket of my bike. Those are my worried hands on the right.
Rocky is happy with my Mom at the wheel.

Rocky and I are both nervous when I'm driving.

Rocky loves to jump!

My Mom made this wind chime out of Rocky out of clay for my birthday.

She also got me this really cute treat jar.

Beautiful Spring Day at Galena!

It was a gorgeous sunny Sunday and I was getting ready to waste my time procrastinating about doing chores as usual. My Mom asked if I wanted to go up to Galena to snowshoe while she skied. I really hate last minute plans, and I almost didn't go, but I decided that since I rarely get to hang out with my Mom, I'd regret it if I didn't. I'm glad I changed my mind! It was great to get outside and be in the sunshine with the blue sky and the sparkly snow and get my blood pumping and see my Mom smile. The dogs had a blast too! Pictures below:

"Oh boy! We're gonna go play in the snow!!!"

My Mom with Galena Lodge in the background, and Hank (brown) and Lucky (black).



Mom skiing.


Me and Rocky getting ready to go snow-shoeing.


The day was so incredibly sunny and beautiful. The shattered ice on the creek looked really cool, but didn't translate well through the photo.


Some local history. Cabin shown below.

Historical cabin at Galena.

You may think my Mom is quite the rebel from this photo, but Rocky was one of probably 12 dogs on the deck at Galena Lodge.

Worn out dogs on the way home.

Train of thought with an ADD brain:

I wanted to look up photos for inspiration for a tattoo that I want, and I want to possibly incorporate some kind of cowgirl pinup/wild west idea, so I googled cowgirl pinups,













and then I remembered this really cute picture of Elizabeth Taylor twirling a lasso, so I googled that,













and then I found out that it was taken on the set of a movie called "Giant," so I googled that,









(it also has Rock Hudson and James Dean!)
and then in the process of looking at photos from Giant I found another picture that was taken of Elizabeth Taylor on the set with a cute little doggy,













so I googled Elizabeth Taylor and dogs, and I found that there are many photos of her with dogs and that she seeems to be quite the dog lover, so I decided to amass a collection of these photos of her and dogs. I also decided that I've got to see the movie, Giant, because it looks like quite an epic with some attractive actors and old-westy scenery.

Pictures of Elizabeth Taylor with dogs:

I was really touched by these photos, because you can see that she has had a love for animals her whole life (there were also pictures of her with a cat, a horse, and a chipmunk). Though some of them may be posed, I believe that at least some of the dogs are her pets and I feel like you can really see her affinity for them in the photos. I love the fact that she's got a doggy in her lap, even when she's in a wheel chair.

Here are images from Giant:

And I will leave you with some final cuteness before I end my Elizabeth Taylor obsession for the day. Is she not freaking adorable?!

P.S. I pulled all of these images off of Google images search. None of them were taken by me.

Sunny Winter Walk

Happy Boy: