Hello!

Why hi there... I bet you're wondering where I've been... nowhere really... I have to admit, even having a dog doesn't make my life all that exciting. More painful, but definitely not more exciting. Let's see what's gone on in the last month...

My pup has grown, she's now about 12 pounds and a little monster. Olive will sit if she thinks she is getting a treat, sometimes will lay down on command, and is now playing "which hand?" with Ben, although she's not too good with it. Still some piddle accidents inside when she doesn't let us know she's got to go, but she does great on the leash and really likes to jog with me. We're starting puppy classes Wednesday at Petsm@rt so hopefully she won't be known as a little monster any more.

This weekend my Grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. 50 years... incredible to me. It was good to see my family, but a little strange since I really hadn't seen much of them since I started Tech. I talked with the people that were important and if I make it to the family reunion I'll be sure to get around to some more people that weren't at the party.

Wow other than that, we have a few busy weekends coming up. Ben is having a few friends over for this weekend (my first opportunity to play hostess to friends), next weekend is Kristin's wedding which I'm super excited about, then Ben's parents are coming to visit and the weekend after that I have a few hours to work on Sat and maybe Sunday.

Here are some pics of Olive.... and after those check out little Sonya... can you see any resemblance?

Facts of life...

My little girl is Olive, sounds like the fruit. I really like the name olivia, but a guy in my hallway at work named his little one Alivia or something like that and it didn't feel too appropriate to have my dog with a name that sounds exactly the same. So Olive it is... Ben even gave in on the name Sophie, but by then I felt really bad and Olive is really cute. Or at least that's what everyone at the vet said and the people we hung out with at Millers the next day.

so now to the facts:

-Olive can now sleep through the night!!! Thank you!! only 5 days where she whined quite a bit.. she does like to play at 5 in the morning, but hey, a least she doesn't get up at 1, 3, 4. 5...

-Olive doesn't like wet grass so she has a tendency to leave "presents" on the stepping stones and rocks right in front of the stairs from the deck.

-Puppy bites and scratches heal quickly, the scratches and bites I get today will be gone tomorrow and replaced with a new set.

-I'm super excited for Kristin's bridal shower tomorrow, and the fun night after! I'm bringing my pup to the wedding but she has to stay home this weekend... so she knows where home is :)

Announcing....

OLIVE!!!

So here the little girl is… we picked her up friday night, and rode all the way home in my lap. She was 6.2 pounds when we took her to the vet the next day, super tiny, much smaller than I thought she would be. Which meant on Friday we needed to stop at Pe1smart to pick up a new leash, collar, and a few more toys. On Saturday we picked up a dog bed for her, another toy and another crate so if we go anywhere she can have a home if she'd like. It's much smaller than the one we have at home, which will accomadate her full size so it's much to large to take with us everywhere. Ben's parents are going to buy it from us for their cat once we outgrow it which makes it nice for us. The whole reason we didn't want to get a smaller oneis that she should out grow it in a month or so.

Olive went on her first road trip to Clarkston on Saturday. She got to meet and pick on Winston, who was a great host to the little girl. He's kinda lazy so he let her play all over him and even eat the hair on his tail. Such a nice playmate :) Sunday was a day of rest mostly. She sleeps really well during the day but doesn't sleep so well at 3 in the morning. A great deterrent for wanting children for sure. Yesterday she sleep under the deck while Ben broke up the random slab of concrete in our backyard. She slept better last night and even walked with me on a leash last night and this morning. I'll work on getting video of her, but that takes a lot of sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out what I'm doing so I'll try that a little later. There are some pictures of our adventures below… Enjoy!!!

Holy wow!

Oh my, I just rode 24 miles on Ben mountain bike... it was on the road mostly on the Pere Marquette rail trail... not much in the way of hills or really even bumps in the road but I'm exceptionally impressed with myself. It took about 2 hours and for a girl about 30 pounds overweight I don't think it's bad... The coolest thing is that I rode more miles than Ben golfed today.. :)

Little girl

I just thought I'd put another pic up of my little babe... a week from today I should have her home and probably watching her sleep :)

Nothing but Nets...

So I have never watched American Idol... before this season. Ben actually doesn't mind watching it, so we have been sucked in. So tonight they are doing their "tele-a-thon" which is great since aren't we always asking people to use their good fortune to help others. Well they just did a piece on malaria, which reminded me of another person who used his connections as a writer for Sports Illustrated to encourage others to purchase mosquito nets. Rick Reilly is far and away my favorite writer. This is part of the reason why. Normally you only see the initial article and no follow up. Well again here is another article that tells of all the good people are capable of doing.
I'm intrigued to see how well this "tele-a-thon" works. Oh and one of my goals this year is to make a significant donation to a good charity that serves my area...
Oh and please read the articles I've linked, I know he's from a sports magazine but he writes so well and its quite touching... here's the link to the charity also... Nothing but Nets

This week

So this week I am living alone since Ben is in Houston doing training. I'm having trouble getting motivated to do stuff around the house.. including making dinner. I don't know if you guys remember my dinner skills in college, but I'm reverting back to them. That can of corn/package of frozen corn is looking great right now. Ok so I'm really not going to have just corn, I think I'll call out for some pizza...

Otherwise we did quite a bit of demolition in the yard this weekend. We broke up a slab of random concrete in our backyard, although it's still there since we have to get a dumpster to dispose of it... There were also two hideous bushes in the front yard that took up half the yard. They once probably looked really nice, but they had since overgrown so much that they created a circle 12 feet in diameter. Way to big, and it started out as an easy job, just a few scratches on the legs here and there but cutting the branches off went pretty well. Then we got to the enormous stumps and tried to use a chain and Ben's truck to pull them out but it ended up being harder than we realized. In the end we had a few neighbors over trying to help and we managed to finish the job. We now have a birch tree with a 12" circle of dirt around it in the front yard... I'm sure our neighbors love us (especially since we really don't have a plan yet to fill it.)

So that entire process took about 5 hours outside and since I didn't expect to be out so long I didn't put any sunscreen on... BAD IDEA!!! I'm so burnt, and itchy... besides aloe, do you guys have any ideas for me?


Oh and updated puppy countdown: 11 days till she gets here. The breeder wants to keep her another week, which is fine with us, we want her healthy and ready to go when we pick her up. We did spend a bunch of money on her things this past weekend, we now have her kennel, dishes, some food, a food storage container, leash, collar, clippers, a few more toys, and my favorite - potty bags for picking up after her! I'm so excited!!!

Houghton

I tell you what... I love fishbowls... especially when you get to enjoy them with a great group of people :) Unexpected though when we got to Houghton I just dropped Ben off at the Triangle house and went to the hotel. no hanging out, no dinner... so instead I met up with Jer and we drank at the ambo, then the dog where we saw Shaggy and tried to hook-up with Bailey and Marco, but no luck. We wandered down to the Triangle house where it was packed and I felt exceptionally old. Not just because I didn't recognize anyone, but because I remembered how much I hate being in that house... it was so dirty. Jer and I did see little Richie's little brother so that was kinda funny... he was trying to remember my name and was coming up with an s... then so... then finally I let him know he was on the right track and he comes out with it. It was pretty funny, then sad to find out he is a junior.... So OLD!!!
On Saturday I got my hair done at Regis so I didn't' have to worry about it once we got to copper harbor. It only cost me 30 bucks... that's what I pay to get a hair cut... I love Houghton.
We got pizza at the ambo for lunch, after Jer and I met up with Marco at the Delt Sig house. We tried for Bailey again but she had a meeting all day. So sadly we didn't get to see her at all.
The night was a lot of fun. dinner was ok, the drinks were a Mariner normal, cheap but weak so I didn't get as intoxicated as I wanted but I did play several games of photo hunt... not the dirty kind though - they didn't have it. :)
Sunday was a horrible drive home, the weather was great but I was so tired! And yesterday I was doing some work in the labs and basically looking down all day (which I have to look forward to doing all week) so today I went out and bought those heating pads to help me not hurt all day... pray that it works for me!

Countdown to puppy (with no name still): 9 days!!!

Is she not the cutest puppy ever... excluding of course all of your guys' puppy!


Up to Houghton tomorrow for Triangle formal, I'm really looking forward to seeing Jer and hopefully Bailey at the wonderful Ambassador for Fishbowls and pizza. See you back here on Monday!

Weekend

I'm pretty excited for this weekend. Ben's parents are coming for the weekend, they are leaving tonight from Green bay and stopping in Manistique for the night. They should make it here by noon tomorrow after which we should be shopping at Birch Run and going to dinner at Uno Chicago Grill. We need help with a few things around the house and so they are bringing lots of tools for us to use and are offering their services. They will be leaving on Monday after Ben and I go to work, so we get two full quality days and a reason to clean the rest of our house.
Well I hope everyone has a great Easter and I'll let you know how the weekend goes.

I just read Crystal's blog and I have to say that I'm super impressed by how life is turning out for everyone. It's inspiring to read how Jer is almost done with her Masters, Crystals embracing her new situation even writing for a online magazine, and of course the cutest kids (great playdate pics by the way). All of you give me so much to look forward to...
Thanks guys!

So since I don't have internet access at work, and it's too much to do
this at home I tend to write my blogs in an email and then paste them
into the website after work. So if the formatting is off I'll try to take
care of it, sometimes I don't catch it though.

We went to see Blades of Glory on Friday. I'm really not sure how to
rate this movie. Yeah it was funny, I had to look away a few times
when it went a little far. There was a plot though it was exceptionally
far fetched and a lot of the acting was mostly obnoxious. However, I
obviously expected such things before I got there so it did live up to
my expectations. It didn't hurt that I had a few drinks before
watching it.

We watched a few other movies at home this weekend too... Stranger
than Fiction, and Night at the Museum. It was pretty relaxing. And
when we weren't watching movies we raked. I finally started to take
care of my yard! And now I've sadly heard that there is a possibility
of snow this week... poo...

Puppy news, no name yet. I think I should be a bit more open to the
fact that Ben doesn't want that name, I don't need to be quite so
stubborn. We did a little price shopping at PetSmart, and my pocket
book cried. I think we will be buying our crate online. It's half the
price to get one that's selling on Ebay for the exact kind we want...
that'll cut the overall price in half thankfully.

Other news, the job is going well. I'm finally getting out of my office
a few days a week. However I'm not sure what to do when I don't
have things to do outside my office. The person I should be watching
has other work that I won't be involved in so there isn't a point to
watch that work and it's hard to track down others to watch (the
buildings pretty big and I hate using the PA). So I'm still trying to
work on writing goals, do more online training and read more
procedures. Or really read the procedures again. I'll be honest they
really didn't make any sense in the first place. Otherwise the people
are nice and the atmosphere is pretty good.

Ok, so since I'm doing this at work and feeling kinda guilty I'll write
again later!

I'm a mommy!!!

I picked out my puppy this morning!!! She's a few days over a week old, a brindle with a small white marking on her neck and face and a white chest. I'll get her around the middle of May which should give us plenty of time to puppy proof and get all of her stuff ready. We won't decide officially on a name until we pick her up, or until Ben decides to go my way!



On a bad note, I have had awful sinus headaches the last few days. I've been taking Claritin-D and that had been helping, but it must getting worse outside or something cause it's really killing me. If you guys have any ideas for over the counter medicines that help you let me know, I need something or work is going to hurt for a few months.

I'm here

Well I'm back... there hasn't been much going on in my world, just learning a new
job, and being slightly overwhelmed by it in the process. I'd tell you more about it
but some might be offended so if you really want to know send me an email at
skparsha@school email.

In other news, the CEO of my company started a intranet blog. Yeah he did... in 6
hours there were 130 comments... Now to me that seems slightly ridiculous, but he
did start it this morning so it could just be the initial congrats comments. I'd
like to see what he'll get in the coming months, or whether they think it'll take up
too much time of the employees.

Amanda Levitt and her boyfriend were in town this past weekend and I had them and
Christine over for dinner and drinks. This was my first hosting opportunities and
I'd say that it was a success. Even while cooking we were able to hang out and talk
and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was great seeing Amanda, to see that she
was doing well in Omaha. I also hadn't seen Christine in a while, even though we
live maybe two miles from one another and I used to pass her house on my way to
work, so it was nice to have an excuse to get together.

On the puppy front, I found a breeder that I'm going to go with although it means I
won't have a puppy until June. That is a bit longer away than I wanted since a main
part of it is me having "someone" to hang out with while Wilmer golf's after work
everyday (and at least 18 on Sat. or Sun). But the breeder looks reputable and the
dogs she is breeding are both brindle so I have a good chance at getting the color I
want. So unless I see a puppy I really want (which by the way is almost all of them)
that's in the right age range I'll not get a dog till June. Oh and the name thing
was pretty much split, so I guess we'll see what fits when we get her.

New Job

So I start a new job today. It's with Dow, same as before, but this time I'm an actually employee instead of a contractor. I didn't sleep for anything last night. I even took some of Ben's ambien and that didn't help. Normally I'm out in 10 minutes with that stuff but last night was awful. I have paper work to go over and after lunch I'll be in my new building. I dropped my stuff off there on the 1st and everyone was really nice but I'm still super nervous.

Ok, well off to work... Wish me luck!!!

Puppy

So Ben has finally agreed to let me get a puppy! I am super excited! I've always wanted a boxer, Ben wants a female so she'll be a bit smaller, and hopefully less like to mark around the house.
So I've been checking for breeders who don't want too much for a dog. I've honestly seen a puppy for sale at 1700 dollars. I was shocked to say the least. Having thought about this for about 7 years I really know what kind of look I want the pup to have, brindle in color with flashy white markings. However at this point I'll be thrilled with whatever color of dog I can find. The breeder I'm interested in getting a puppy from will be having a litter in early April, so in June I should be bringing home a pup. While I'd much rather have one in a few weeks if I can get the kind of dog that I want with health contracts and from a responsible breeder, I can live with an extra two months.

So on to what I need from you guys...

I have thought of a great name for the puppy. At least one that I love, along with one that I like. Ben likes one of them but won't budge on the other. Personally I feel if I'm buying the dog and paying for all of it I can name the girl whatever I'd like. But since I have to appear to compromise on some things, he thinks I should ask you guys and see what you come up with, so here are the two names. I won't tell you what I like (so he doesn't think I'm biasing you in anyway)...

Nyx - Greek origin meaning "night". I've also seen it as "lively". We could lengthen it out to Nixie to sound better when calling.

Sophie - Greek origin meaning "wisdom". Sounds nice when calling a puppy.

OK so I'm looking for feedback. Either name is good, and if you have any other names that would sound nice, let me know.

Also if any of you know of a boxer breeder in the Michigan area, let me know, I'm up for checking as many as I need to so I get the best dog. :)

hmmm...

I wonder how class would have been if this was around during college... no more flasks for me!

For AJ

So for those of you who don't know Ben/Wilmer here's a pic of us from two summers ago.


My hair has grown out a bit... but otherwise we're the same... fun right...

Finally!!!

Oh my, I am finally back online. The saga involving the Internet hook-up at our house would take me quite some time and would frankly get me all worked up again, so I'll summarize -
AT&T decided they weren't sure if they could get us DSL at our new place, they take a week, still no decision, we decide to go to charter. Day before charter comes AT&T says "sure we can give you DSL" you'll get it in two days... Yeah!!! Day comes, no Internet. Problems arrived from starting cable Internet request, AT&T cancels things without letting us know, Ben yells at a few people, Internet in a few days, day comes, problem with the line. Honestly, completely frustrating. But they fixed it finally and I now have Internet. Thank you AT&T....

Moving into the house was fun. It's been two full weeks and the place is still a mess. We managed to paint the family room, and the trim and Stanley Steemer just left, so we almost have a normal place to hang out now. I'll put up pictures when we finally get our desktops set up and download the 100 pictures stored on our camera.

Something incredibly funny to me though is all the service people we have coming to the house calling me the wife or asking for my husband. It's hard to correct people so I try to spell out dating before married comes up, but sometime it's unavoidable. And since I'm not one to correct people, like pronouncing my name incorrectly or spelling it wrong... it's SonYa not SonJa..., I tend to just let it go. But it makes Ben so uncomfortable... which is funny.

Anyway, I'm off to move stuff around the house, and do a little shopping :)

Working Out

So I enjoy working out. Yet I can never get myself to go without some else telling
me to. Once I'm there, I love it, I feel great, and I'm very happy that I went. So
why can't I just go?

I think it's because I know I could sit on my couch and take a nap instead, which
honestly.. Doesn't that sound so much better. So if any of you have some good
motivational tricks to get yourself to the gym, let me know. I need it!

Weekend

So Friday night I had a work recognition event at a bar in Bay City. There was an
open bar and the food was pretty good. I managed to take full advantage of the open
bar, but luckily left before way drunk and embarrassing Sonya came out. We had a hypnotist for our entertainment, and while not as good as the guy that comes to Tech, he was pretty funny. I think it helped that people from our table went up, and that it wasn't me.

Saturday we got free
tickets to the Pistons. We stopped to pick Miller up and have a drink at his
house. We then proceeded to game and had a few more drinks at the bar
before taking our seats. Sadly as we climbed to our seats I became winded.
I like to assume I'm kinda in shape, at least able to jog a bit, but climbing
up a flight of stairs... can't do it. The game was fun but we spent a lot of
our time in the bar, which was also fun. We met up with Havey and a few
Sig taus, we decided definitely on a house warming party, not sure when.
Jer if you have a good date let me know, it needs to be after the second
week in March. Driving home stunk though, as the boys feel asleep in the
back while I tried to stay awake. Ben was a bit intoxicated and had a
rough Sunday, but we just sat around and started packing.

Well it's off to the gym for me....

The Office

I'm a huge fan of The Office. We make quite the night of it, our friend Josh comes over, we make dinner, then watch My Name is Earl and The Office. I wasn't a fan of it at first but now we get so excited about one night a week. It's nice to have a routine, it's also nice to know that I only have one more day of work.

So next Friday we move to our new house! I've got some pics. It's 1500 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 700 square feet finished in the basement. We are only painting the basement family room (It's slightly hideous, with green leaves sponged on the walls) so that shouldn't be too horrible.



Our kitchen is mostly new, but it does have a black sink and brass faucet. We love all the room and cabinets. I might actually cook... yes let the laughing begin...

Our back yard backs up to a park that is enclosed by the other houses in the area, very cool for the summer. We are so excited to hang out and put up a volleyball net and throw around the football.

Alright well I am off to bed!

ok ok...

Well I was told to do this months ago and here I am finally... Really I'm only doing this so I can post on Jer's page, but I'll update you guys since I'm here anyway.

So I'm living in exciting Midland these days, working as a contractor for Dow Chemical shacking up with my wonderful boyfriend Ben/Wilmer (depends on how you know him) and mostly enjoying life. Ben bought a house and we'll be moving in about 3-4 weeks (a birthday present for me... hehe...) I'm so excited to be getting out of our apartment, mostly so we can heat our house without having all the air go to our cathedral ceiling. I'm also excited to have a 2 car garage so I can park my car inside and not feel bad about taking Ben's spot.

Well it's past my bedtime so off I go. I will probably continue to update along the way, maybe even post pics of our new house.