Mystery and intrigue

You're probably wondering what the heck Cody did with his hair. Well, in an attempt to fit in the the more casual dress of Denver University he decided to go back to his teenage roots. What do you think?

Don't worry- I'm just kidding! Cody and I did a dinner mystery dinner with some LDS Law students and their wives and the theme was eat, drink and be married. I was the blushing bride with Cody and the rebellious bike gang member who, against my fathers wishes, was going to marry me. My "dad" was the murdered fellow after he stormed in, trying to break up the wedding (thanks for not actually doing that in real life Dad!) so we had tons of fun dressing up for it. I'll have to post more pictures from one of the other people there who has pictures of everyone. Anyway- it was a total blast and we're so happy to have such a fun group of friends here already. In other law news Cody has joined a group that runs mock trials to teach them how court proceedings work and they are going to do a practice run this Sat and need an expert witness so i get to be Cael "Crash" something and be crossed examined and stuff. Cody and I are going to prepare tonight so he and I nail it in court. The case is over an accident and who's fault it really was- the possibly intoxicated girl or the sleep deprived doctor on his was to the hospital for an emergency. I'm the accident expert supporting the doctor and Cody with be examining me so I really need to know my stuff when the other side cross examines me. At least the law students will probably be more scared than I will. :) So exciting!
In other news I have recently adopted about 10-15 neighborhood kids that all run around in a pack together and one day asked to play with the puppy. So I agreed, not knowing that I would be having a mini day care after school everyday. They are the sweetest kids all between 1st grade to 7th grade and they love my unfinished basement cause they can run and play and hide in there all they want. It's been great with the puppy cause they almost run her dead playing everyday and the little girls love to hold and play with Gage so he's getting some interaction there too. It's so nice to be able to be around kids again. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with this one.
Gage is being pretty grumpy with his two new teeth . I feel so bad for him but we all had to just tough through it so I guess he will too. We're also trying to move to a two nap a day system and also get used to a new puppy so really it might be all those things together. I have to use an "unhappy" voice when Tipsy is being naughty and if they're anything you need to know- Gage is very sensitive to any sort of yelling. Once Cody was impersonating a teacher of his that spoke with a really loud voice and when he finished talking Gage just burst into tears and couldn't calm down for at least a minute. Poor kid. With the puppy and the neighborhood mob he doesn't have the same calm life he used to. Oh well. It'll be good for him. Anyway- I need to start studying my testimony and evidence so I'll write next time and say how the mock court trial went.

Puppy!!!

I would not have guessed yesterday morning that I would be a dog owner but... surprise! We got a puppy! She is a Rhodesian Ridgeback/ Labrador mix. So the ridgebacks most distinguishing feature is that along their back/spine the hair grows in two different directions so they always have a Mohawk on their back. This breed of dog was originally (and still is) used for lion hunts in South Africa so they are extremely fit dogs that show extraordinary devotion to the family's that own them. The locals take them out in packs of 20 and by the time the catch up with the dogs they've cornered the lion and kept it at bay till the owner can shoot it. Not a bad herritage. And the great thing about it is that they aren't violent dogs. Very friendly and gentle in fact and then you throw a half Lab in there and we think she'll be great. Cody served in a town in Russia called Vtipsk and for some reason he always wanted to name a dog after it (go figure) so we decided to name her that and call her Tip or Tipsy or Tips (depending on how much trouble she's in at the time). So far she has barely even so much as whimpered and drum roll please... hasn't even had a accident in the house! I know! Potty trained at 3 months! Who would have guessed? She is doing great with Gage except that she doesn't know her limits with him yet. She can be a little rough and then he cries which makes her lick his face all over to make him feel better which only makes him cry more. Oh- funniest story of the week! So I took Gage and Tipsy to grab some free couches and something you need to know about Tipsy is that she is terrified of driving in the car for some reason. So I loaded up the car and walked away for a few minutes just to talk to the homeowner and when I came back I discovered that Tipsy (in her terrified state) had climbed up in Gage's car seat with him and was curled up on his lap. Now Tipsy isn't a small puppy at all! She was almost totally covering him and poor Gage was in hysterics. No doubt Tipsy was trying to calm him by attack licking his face the whole time. Oh priceless! It took me 10 minutes just to calm Gage down but it was worth the 30 minutes it took me to stop laughing. Anyway- the story behind Tipsy is that the home she came from only owned her for two weeks and decided to give her up instead of the 30 pound, 10 year old, bright orange cat. Turns out Tipsy's lion hunting instincts had taken over and she was constantly "herding" and "cornering" the cat (who, in Tipsy's defense, strongly resembles a lion). So the owner decided that their pet of 10 years deserved to stay over the dog. And the best part is that for just $25 they gave me a huge bag of food, a dog bed, tons of toys and treats and a $30 pooper scooper. What a deal! Plus when they got her from the store two weeks ago they paid $75 for her so we got a great steal! And I can already tell that she is going to be pretty easy to train. Both breeds are known for their intelligence and I can already see that in her so she should learn her lessons very quickly.Both breeds are also known for their size (75 + pounds). Yikes! Poor Gage just has to survive till then. So without further ado here are some cute pictures of her.

before and after

Ok- I'm going to attempt in some way to actually finish this blog post even though Gage is due to wake up any minute from a nap. So this one is just going to show some before and after pictures or a couple of projects I've been working on. There are endless more but I'm happy to report that at least these ones are good enough for public opinion. One is my living room where I painted the brick- took some shelves down- and gave the two alcoves on either side a pretty light jade color. Cody and I couldn't stop starring at it for days. PS brick, it turns out, is incredibly time consuming to paint. But well worth it. I also painted the fish tank stand that used to be an ugly damaged wood. The other picture is of the tiling job that my mom in law and I did. She is such a wonderful women to share her knowledge and help with me! Cody and I found a very retro surprise when we pulled up the carpet. Turns out linoleum was there but not the best design. So there you go! The projects continue!