Category Archives: Bonnie

Jun18

Frankenpooch update

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Frankenpooch update

Good news: Stevie got his stitches out Saturday!

Bad news: He’s been tearing around the house like a fiend now that he doesn’t have annoying stitches and staples cramping his style.

Good news: He hasn’t managed to hurt himself more yet!

Bad news: Regardless, he still looks a bit mangy.

So, what looked like this:

Now looks more like this!

Big improvement, though, yes?

Speaking of news, Bonnie got to visit the vet last week, too. She apparently thought that Stevie was taking up too much of the attention around here and started to have some very concerning back problems. Every time we would try to hold her, she’d yelp. It got to be that Thursday evening she could barely walk, and even laying down or getting up on her own in her crate was making her cry. She couldn’t bend over to eat her food out of her bowl, even though she was hungry (not much is more pitiful to watch than that dog circling her food bowl, occasionally pawing at the kibble, trying to figure out some strategy to try and get the food to her mouth!). I ended up having to hand feed her for a few meals.

Anyways, vet said she’s probably got a deep muscle tweak or a very minor disc issue and sent us home with some doggie muscle relaxers and pain killer/anti-inflammatory, but said it’s nothing to be too concerned about unless it gets worse. Bonnie is loving the excuse for extra peanut butter and is pretty much back to her normal self.

We just cannot keep up with their crazy shenanigans and medical bills as we quickly approach the Baby Boothe birthday arrival, so both dogs are on probation from having too much fun until further notice.

Since this means mostly sitting with me on the couch for hours on end, they don’t seem to mind.

Dec17

The Bonsta Monsta

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The Bonsta Monsta

Don’t let this cute little pose fool you.

This dog has a wicked streak to her.

In the past week, she is on her third collar. This little 11 pounder has a vicious chewing habit, and it’s not the first time that she has destroyed items before. Actually, collars are some of the cheaper things she’s managed to get a hold of and destroyed, so I guess we should be counting our blessings, right?

So we decided that if we got a collar that fit her personality a little better, we might get it to last a little longer. This time, it was “Daddy’s” choice:

Definitely more appropriate for this little slice of terror, don’t you think? 🙂

Oct8

There’s an app for that…

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There’s an app for that…

Jared has this habit of looking at apps for my phone. (He got me the good phone first, and so he’s constantly suffering from phone envy. Here’s hoping that he gets his own awesome smart phone soon…) So, he’s been looking at all sorts of things that I can download for my phone that he wishes that he could have on his own.

The other day, he came across this app called “Paper Camera” that was Amazon’s app of the day recently. Meaning that you can download the app for free when it normally costs money. He told me that I should check it out and see if I wanted to download it to my phone. I didn’t really have time to “check it out” but it sounded intriguing, so I went ahead and downloaded it (after all, it was free, right?).

What it does is takes pictures, but instantly converts them to different styles. Case in point: My classroom.

This is Comic Book style.

Neon Cola style- takes the colors and turns it into neon-light sign style.

Going simplistic- Con Tours style.

You just select the method, and it immediately shows in real-time what the image would look like BEFORE you even take the picture. Sweet, no?

Still not sold? Just check THIS out!

Jared and the pups in Con Tours mode.

Jared in the family room- Sketch Up style

And if that doesn’t melt your heart, what normally looks like this:

 

Turn into this:

Okay, now you’ve got to admit it- that’s pretty dang awesome. And the subject matter therein is pretty much the dictionary definition of adorable.

Oct4

It’s been a week…

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It’s been a week…

You know that there’s something wrong with you when you look at your blog and go, “Wait! Why is that the top post?! Did it not save my latest few posts?!” and then realize: “Nope. I had a lot going on it my head, but was too busy to do anything with it.” Yes, I really did have that train of thought run through my mind.

Anyways, this past week has been insane. It was the end of the first grading period, and it almost did me in. The whole past week, I have had 7th grade papers as my constant companions. When I wasn’t grading, the thoughts of what I needed to grade haunted me. Poems, book reviews, and miscellaneous late work fluttered around me… and it was horrible. Even with these two hanging out with me as I tried to work hard:

Thanks for your patience with papers being all over the house (and pets), Jared. I know that was rough.

On the flip side, to balance out the misery and chaos created in my life by grading, this weekend was General Conference weekend for Church. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I was triple booked this weekend (between grading, my CTWP conference, and an amazing book festival going on within a hour of here) along with General Conference. And they were all important and/or meaningful things for me to be involved with. I had to make a conscious choice to choose Conference.

I always seem to enjoy the Saturday sessions more. And this year I was not disappointed. Within the first two hours of Saturday morning, I had several talks that felt like specific parts were addressed directly to the struggles and discouragement I have been facing. This year has had so many things go wrong, and I have never felt so hopeless or discouraged, even when I have tried so hard to focus on the good around me.

General Conference touched me and reminded me that all these things will pass. These issues and doubts that have plagued me are temporary, and that I can rise above it. I feel so lucky to have such easy access to inspiring and good people sharing simple truths about how to live our lives.

That, and the fact that grades have been officially submitted, make life a much happier place to be.