School SUUUUUUUCKS.

Most of you know that I have returned to BYU to finish my degree; what you may not know is that I have reached the point where I am over it. The major I am working on is English Language, which is almost identical to a linguistics major. I remember loving this major and thinking all the classes were so interesting, but I no longer feel the same way. I am so bored of and uninterested in my classes now; I am not sure why this shift took place but I know I do not care to learn ridiculous concepts about syllable structure and theories about etymology and word formation anymore. It just no longer interests me. I would like to learn something more concrete and real, I guess. Or just do aerobic dance everyday for the rest of my life because that crap is fun. Haha. I know, I am a negative nancy, but I feel so bummed about this major. But I only have a year left so I guess I will stick it out then run away to Disneyland w/ C-money and the pup. :)

Cair Paravel

Over Christmas break I drove down to Standardsville VA to visit my long-time friend Brendan and his wife Mia at the farm they are living and working at. The farm is called Cair Paravel and Mia's parent's own and run it. They have sheep, geese, chickens, ducks and goats and rent out a Yurt to vacationers! It is GORGEOUS down there. The farm is on the side of a mountain with ridiculous views.

See? Ridiculous.
So anyway, it had been a few years since I had seen Brendan so I was very excited to go down there. I visited with him and his wife and her parents, we made pizzas for dinner then talked until we were falling asleep (at 10 pm! We live on the EDGE!). I spent the night and in the morning Brendan and I went out to take care of the animals. It was so fun! We fed everyone, I met the beautiful barn dog Aslan and then Brendan showed me how to milk a goat! I was not very good at it, Kikki really didn't like it but it was still fun! I had an amazing time at Cair Paravel and can't wait to go back! And if you are in the VA area you should seriously consider renting the Yurt for a night; just look at the Cair Paravel blog for info and pictures!


The chickens


The sheep


What a cutie-pie


Brendan, the milking champ

Finger knitting and train shows

Over Christmas break I finger-knitted a few scarves using this tutorial:
http://www.sheblogssheblogs.com/2011/12/finger-knitting-its-going-to-be-huge.html

And here is picture of my final product:



This weekend I took Miles (Chevon and James' boy child) to the Model Train Show at Thanksgiving point! We me up with my friend Becca and her little boy and husband. It was fun, but I didn't get any pictures. :). But here is a picture of Miles eating at Cold Stone after the train show!

Christmas 2K11

This Christmas we went to VA to spend the holidays with my family. It was the best Christmas ever. All of my siblings were there for the first time in 2 years so that was really fun. It was a full house! My younger siblings are getting so old and teenager-y: Aaron is driving now! Sarah is wearing makeup! Dallin is so funny! Justin is staying busy with friends and taking care of biz-nass, Grant and Stephanie are both hard at work with school and jobs in Idaho and my older sibling Natalie and her husband Darren are having a good time living in VA being hard-working teachers to America's unruly youth. It was a nice to visit with and catch up with everyone. We were even able to go play 3 games of laser tag one day, all 12 of us kids! We had the place to ourselves, it was SO FUN. Thanks Rackham Family for such a great Christmas!

Bogus Disney Weekend 2012

We stayed at the Castle Inn & Suites. It was neat.


This past weekend Charles and I flew out to Anaheim to participate in a mini Bogus Family Reunion at our favorite vacation spot....you guessed it, DISNEYLAND! Whoo. We arrived Friday night and walked around Anaheim a bit before hitting the sack. The next morning was an early one! We were up at the crack of dawn so we could be first at the gates for Disneyland (of course). Seriously, that is the best way to do it, it is so much fun! Haha. After a few hours in the park we met up with the rest of the Bogus clan (who had come to the park later or who had just flown in that morning) handed out the shirts Charles and I had made and hit up some rides! Disneyland still had all their Christmas decorations up so the Haunted Mansion was still Nightmare Before Christmas themed! IT WAS AWESOME. Seriously. We all then headed to the Grand California Hotel for lunch, where we met up with some more Bogi! Charles' cousin Jenny came, and he hadn't seen her in ten years or so; it was great to meet her and her husband and see her parents Mary Ellen and Dennis.


After lunch we hit up the parks some more then got some dinner at Tortilla Jo's in Downtown Disney for Eric's (and Emily's, Cris' and Elaine's) birthday! That place is delicious. They gave us a crazy private balcony room and the awesome mariachi band came and serenaded everyone with a birthday song! It was such a fun dinner.
Dinner ended pretty late and Charles and I were beat but we HAD to keep going. Our original plan was to stay in the park 'till it closed at midnight; we didn't make it, haha. We did last until 11:30 though! Seriously, this was the best trip to Disneyland ever. We can't wait until Bogus Disney Weekend 2013!!



This is the only picture I got of everyone. Nailed it.

Graduation!

Asher has been in a puppy training class at Petsmart for a few months now and he recently graduated! He did great in the class, learned a lot and made some new buddies. He still needs a lot of work with "leave it" and "drop it" but he excells at hide and go seek, "come" and the sit, stay, and shake commands. Asher will be starting the intermediate class in January and we are excited! We would like to train him to be a search and rescue dog and think he would do a great job! He already follows peoples' trails when we are in the woods and at parks. He rules.



Wink!

The day Asher almost died

Well I don't think he almost died, but he looked close to it. Yesterday, Charles and I arrived home from work to visit Asher on our lunch break and opened the door to find Asher looking like a mutant. We were terrified! His face was so swollen and bumpy! He seemed to be happy, wagging his tail and walking around like he was fine, but we didn't fall for it and drove him up to the vet as fast as we could. The vet said he had been bitten by a spider. ACK I HATE SPIDERS. He gave Asher a shot in the rump and sent us on our way.

The shot seemed to help immediately, as we noticed the swelling was down a bit by the time we got back home. I stayed with the poor guy the rest of the day. Poor Asher couldn't relax because his face was bothering him so much; he kept rubbing it with his paws and rubbing in on the couch, so I just kept giving him treats to help him feel better. We eventually got some Benadryll and he ate it like a champ and was finally able to rest. By bedtime his face looked almost normal! He is a trooper :)

I am so glad it was nothing serious at that the little guy is doing well!

Here is poor Asher at the vet.



So yeah, you can understand why we freaked out, ha. His right eye was swollen shut and the left was getting close. He had a HUGE lump sticking out of his right cheek (where I am guessing the spider bit him). I hope he gets lots of spider-free rest today! :)