The Love Doctor

More than likely you've heard of the book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I have heard people talk about this for years, but never looked into it until last night. I read the first couple of chapters, but was so anxious to find out what mine and Tom's love languages were, that I skipped to the questionnaire in the back. It's basically telling you how you like to be loved and what you respond to the best. The 5 languages are: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.

Surprise surprise, Tom and I are complete opposites.

My number 1 love language is Words of Affirmation, followed closely by Quality Time and Physical Touch.
Tom had a tie for his number 1 love language with Receiving Gifts and Acts of Service, followed by Physical Touch.

If you haven't read the book, I would recommend it. Usually you try to love somebody in the same way that you like to be loved, but that's not necessarily how they want to be loved. It's interesting stuff, and it could really improve your relationships. Looks like I need to buy my husband more presents...

Here is a pic of Tom and I from this weekend. We were invited to a fundraiser Valentine's dinner put on by a church youth group. It was pretty good. Here we are on the "Streets of Italy"...

Yeah we like to cuddle. So what?

There will be many more of these to come.

In My Next 10 Years

With the new year now in full swing, I've thought a lot about this past decade. I heard people on the news saying that these past 10 years had been extremely difficult. For me, probably some of the most significant moments of my life took place in this last decade. From 2000-2010, I:

graduated high school
got my first job
lost 2 friends to car accidents
went to 3 colleges
graduated college
got married
became an aunt (twice!)
bought my first house
got my first dog
lost my first dog
moved twice
started a program for teens with disabilities
got hit by a drunk driver
worked in what will probably be the hardest job of my life
bought my first car
and many others...

We'll see how these next 10 years pan out. I think they're gonna be great. And I'm really pumped for the adventure of it all.

Joy

We have always wanted to have 2 dogs. After Clive died, we were even more convinced that we needed 2...just in case something happens to one of them. And also, it's nice for a dog to always have someone to play with. Our thought was that they would wear each other out all day and then crash. So in December, we added another pup to our family. Grizz. I wasn't too keen on the name at first, but when Tom said it could short for Griswald, I was sold. We also like to call him Grizzly Bear...you'll understand when you see the pictures. About 10 minutes after bringing Grizz home and introducing him to Red, Tom said, "I immediately regret this decision". It was CRAZINESS. Things are getting better now, but having 2 puppies is quite a handful. They can get in to some trouble, and there is a lot of yelling...but they can also be really sweet and are of course the cutest little guys in the world. More than anything though, they bring joy to my life.

This is how we found Red after he had been outside on a rainy day. He had a grand ole' time playing in the mud puddles.

Starting Over

Meet Red.



We have had him for a couple of weeks now. He's about 13 weeks old and he and Clive have the same dad. Red is proving to be very smart, but also fiesty and stubborn...but he's growing on us.

Man's Best Friend

On October 31, 2009, we lost our beloved dog Clive. He was not even two years old. He had surgery on his left hip on Sept. 10 and after that he had a new complication every week. They did another surgery to remove some dead muscle and put in drains. The vets worked hard to keep the infection down, and Clive remained at the hospital for the last 2 weeks of his life. His white blood cell count went down and things were looking up. On the morning of Halloween we were supposed to go pick him up and bring him home for the weekend. The vet called us and said that Clive had taken a turn for the worse overnight and they needed to amputate his leg in order to keep the infection from spreading. They went into surgery around 11:30am. About an hour later, we learned that Clive had gone into cardiac arrest on the table and they were unable to save him. He had been through so much over the past few months and his body just couldn't handle it. He had also begun losing muscle in his front right leg, which leads us to believe he had some sort of muscular/joint disorder. I know that he is at peace now, but that doesn't make it any easier. I miss his sweet spirit around the house. I miss seeing him on the back porch when I pull into the driveway. I miss him putting his face on the side of my bed in the morning. I miss him running to the door when I get home from work. I miss his sweet face. I miss my friend.