FINALLY!!

We think that Harley may have gotten past his -waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to play- phase. When we first got him he was three months old and we expected it, but then he grew out of it around six months, then it came back... and it lasted for several weeks....the long nights included:
-Scott sleeping through Harley whining (Scott is an incredibally deep sleeper, I am an incredibally light sleeper, I can see that hurting me and only benefiting him in the future.......)
-me shoving Scott until he woke up:) (only when it was his turn to watch him)
-me waking up pretty much every morning to find my husband sleeping on the couch(sad)
-absolutely no snuggle time-(that is also partly because it is so HOT in our house)

So overall we are very happy, this morning I actually woke up before him! There is nothing cuter than a sleepy puppy!
I have taken quite a few pictures of him lately so I will be sure to put them up, he is growing like a weed!!!


REMINISCE
These last 8 months of having Harley have really shown me the importance of being ready for things, and all the work that it takes when you are responsible for a living breathing life form!
When we got him I was soooo ready (I thought), I had been waiting to take him home for two weeks and I just wanted to get him out of that shelter. I loved him the moment I saw him and picked him up.
The first 3 days were soo hard!!! I had a bit of a breakdown, I have a hard time with adjustments and it all hit me at once. He was sad and in pain and it hurt me to see him in pain.
Also, the sleep deprivation did not help. From the moment we brought him home he was ours, everthing we did from that point on had to include him. Our schedules had to be cooridnated so he would never be alone too long. Our house had to be puppr proof-ed, and still does every day before we leave the house! "Did you feed him, did you walk him, did you on and on......) Every time I go somewhere my thoughts are never far from him, if he is okay, if he misses us, if he is getting into mischeif...... the best part of the day is coming home and seeing him come around the corner of our house. He crouches down and waits to spring up and chase me, he is always happy to see us. If he is sad or bored he comes in our room at night and cries until I get out of bed, he never wants to be too far from us.
One of the cutest things about Harley is his willingness to please and his need for us to be together. He is most happy when Scott and I are together. If one of us is in the bedroom and the other in the living room, he will first bring the toy to one of us, then the other. He has never favored one of us more, and when Scott is gone I can always tell that Harley is just waiting for him to be home.
Harley loves us unconditionally, so even when he annoys me, I will remember that he would never get tired of me, leave me, hurt me, or talk bad about me. He is our little baby all grown up now and we sure do love him!

I love all the joy and happiness Harley has brought to Scott and I, and we have grown up a lot. I have realized that if a puppy is a ton of work, what will a child be like!! Yikes!
But I have learned that when you embark on something new, like getting a puppy, you have to take the good and bad and the responsibility. The bills, the time, the energy. It is worth it when I see him sleeping contently having his puppy dreams. He is so inncoent and he has already had a really rough life, I can't believe that there are people out there who are so horrible that they abandon helpless puppies, but their are.
Being able to give one animal a happy healthy life is more rewarding than most people realize. :)

The sad Truth.....

So long my old friend.......................

I loveee cool whip, I mean love it like I eat a tub a week, by myself. It is weird because normally I am very good at knowing what is in my food, but for some reason I had never read the ingredients for cool whip. I always just looked at the fat content, shame on me.

Well as I was enjoying some cool whip the other day I did read what was in it....crap! And that is what is in it too, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut oil (basically the worst thing ever), and more suger. I was so sad because I had used cool whip as a substitute for more fattening desserts, turns out I have not been doing myself any favors.

So, no more tub-a-week for me, although I am still going to enjoy it, I will enjoy a lot less of it!

Job Anyone?

So I recently got a job in June working as a server at a country club. It has been good so far, just another college job right? Except that I graduated last week...... so right now I am in that limbo stage that seems to be lasting forever, but only because I have been looking for a full time job since January.

I grauduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology, which means I can do a lot of things but finding something specific is really really hard. And trust me I have tried, I have had interviews and networked and spent countless hours online searching, but this is Utah and pretty much everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone is a recent college graduate, everyone is qualified and everyone is looking for work. I have a lot of interests, I love working with people and have a few specific things that I really enjoy and would love to work in:

prevention of childhood obesity

educating of new mothers

therapy-with young children or adults, no teens!



Right now I am doing an internship for Welcome Baby, which I am really enjoying so far and am learning a lot. But I feel hopeless when I think about the future and finding something permanent.

Anyway I know networking is huge, and even though I am sure not very many people have ever even glanced at this blog, If anyone has any job openings where they work or hear of anything you think would interest me, please please let me know! I would truly appreciate it! And it does not neccessarily have to be realted to those three things, any full time opportunity would interest me:)

you can always e-mail me too, etitensor@gmail.com

THANKS!!



Other news: Scott and I honestly come home now every day and just stare at Harley, he will not stop growing. All we can say is "Oh my gosh he grew while I was gone!" When he stands up on his back legs his head touches my chin! He is still our baby though, trust me. He is doing so much better now since we started feeding him Science Diet, he never gets an upset stomach and he eats all his food.

Scott has been doing two-a-days for the BYU football team, working as a football mananger, so we have spent very little time together lately:( He sure does love his job though... wish I could say the same.

Also, I am going to be 23 on Friday! It seems old but I don't feel any different so whatever, maybe when I am 25. We'll see.....

What I Love

I love:

The Lord and everything he has given me

My husband

My famliy and friends

My sweet puppy

My job

My health

And all the opportunities and experiences I have had throughout my 23 years of life.

Happy Thoughts

This month of August is going to be a busy one for us, we've got a lot happening.
On Thursday my little sister Leila is coming to visit! I get her all to myself, which never happens, for three days! I haven't seen her since Christmas and most likely will not go home till Christmas again this year, so I was sooo happy that she had a chance to visit.
Also, next week Sherri (my mother-in-law) is coming for education week, I went one day with her last year and had a great time. Seeing her is always so fun, and makes me not miss home as much because she brings the Texas vibe with her.... hahha
I am starting my internship next week too, I am really looking forward to it.
And..... I am turning 23! Woo-hoo, so overall a busy month.

As a side note: Harley seems to have become a rebellious teen overnight. The last few nights he has woken up around 2 or 4 and just wanted to play, which was NOT happening.. he is also biting a lot more, even though he is playing he knows it is wrong, but he is just set on testing us. I came home yesterday and a book that has been on the coffee table for forever was shredded(just the cover). But it is so weird that he had not interest in it before. We have noticed though that once we leave him longer than about 6 hours, bad things start to happen.
Yesterday morning we woke up to find his whole snout area swollen, it was curved up like a bird beak, he looked so funny. Anyway we took him to the vet and she said it was most likely a bug bite...really... well there goes $40 for a exam that did nothing. He weighs 62 Pounds now, and he is not stopping. We switched him over to Science Diet because he has a really sensitive stomach, so I am hoping that this food will help him feel better. It does cost a bit more but you actually feed them less because it has more calories and fat so it is not that bad.
It is a good thing I am writing this and keeping a record of Harley's growth and development, I am sure I will make myself read it before we decide to get another puppy! As bad as we want a playmate for our little guy, we are not ready for another tazmaniam devil child!
But I will say this, for all the stress and irritation that Harley brings, he brings 100 times more love and satisfaction:) What could you want more than a sweet little puppy running up to the fence to greet you when you come home! When one of us(Scott or I) are gone, he feels that separation, he is always looking outside waiting for the other to come home, he knows who his "Pappa" is, and he knows what our cars look like too, (we park alongside our house, so he can see us pull up)! So cute!!

Why I won't miss Utah

Today I had the lovely priveledge of going to a Otolaryngologist, or however you spell it. An ear, nose and throat doctor. Now for all you skeptics out there who think I am a hypochondriac, screw you! Haha just kidding, but seriously don't judge, I have honestly not been able to breathe through my nose for about six months. Yes some days are a little better than others, but overall by the end of every day I am about in tears from the stress of a constant swollen nose and throat. Just ask Scott. Anyway, in the beginning when it started(around February) I thought it was just a cold, a really bad cold that would not go away. Then as weeks and months went by I realized that I was not sick, I just could not breathe. My throat started to feel swollen, making me swallow constantly and irritate it further. Anyway I was just so puzzled about why this was happening, because I have never had allergies or problems like this. Well when I went to see this doctor today he examined me by sticking various instruments up my nose, one of which was so long it extended down into my throat. Yes, it was just as fun as it sounds. But it was really good that I went because I found out a lot about myself that I was unaware of. One thing that is unrealated is that I have tiny tonsils. Anyway, after looking at me the doctor said my adenoids were huge, he compared them to a five year olds (Did not mean much to me), he also said that my right side has a deviated septum. I knew that I had more difficulty breathing through my right side, but when he showed me the images I could actually see that my right side had about half of the opening compared to the left. Crap!! He also said that the cause of my swollen throat is reflux, which is hard for me to beleive because I have no symptoms apart from my throat. He showed me the specific part of your throat that is mainly affected by relfux, mine was red and inflamed, he said on a scale of one to ten my throat was an eight, yeah tell me about it....
Anyway the reason for the "Why I won't miss Utah title" is becasue I am convinced that the horrible pollution is a main reason for my problems. Don't get me wrong I love Utah, but the combination of dry air(after living in Texas), and the horrible pollution has not been good for me. He said it was very likely that they were the main contributors. So now for the next month I will be shooting nasal steroids up my nose, and I also have to by one of those Grandpa foam wedge pillows that will help me sleep upright. I am not trying to be a whiner but I am praying that this is not a temporary thing. Sorry about the complaining, if anyone has had similar problems let me know, I am always looking for advice. I know nobody probably reads my blog but o-well!

Here are a few pictures from our last four months with Harley! They are not in any order, but you can see how much he has grown! We love him so much!