A Dog

So once upon a time I wasn't a dog person. My sister took this picture and emailed it to Raymond last summer titled, "Why Julie doesn't need a dog."Everyone that knows me knows that I don't do dogs. But as soon as Raymond and I were serious, he talked often about having a dog. So it wasn't a mater of IF we would get a dog, it was a matter of WHEN.

Well, the time has come...

Raymond heard about a guy at his work whose dog just had puppies. When he came home to tell me about them, he was very excited. We heard of opportunities to get a dog before but I always had an excuse. Like half of our backyard not having any grass. I didn't want a muddy dog. As soon as he could, Raymond quickly fixed that problem. I still had lots of reasons why we didn't need a dog, but this time I sensed that I really couldn't say no. It did take me about a week to finally fully agree. As soon as I was OK with it, I even got a little excited...just a little.

So last Sunday we went to Walmart.

And picked out a name...Harley.

And Monday was the big day! We told the guy who had the puppies that we wanted a girl. So we met him at Grahams (I guess it was halfway) to pick from 4 of the girl puppies. We didn't have a hard time choosing. Harley came to us immediately and was so loving while all the others just huddled. It was love at first sight for Raymond...I was still working on it. Although I knew that I would love her.

Check out her blue eyes!

Welcome home!

At her previous home, she had always been outside so she was a little cautious to come in.

She was worn out! I finally would hold her after she had a bath.

So it has been an interesting week. There have been a couple of times where I wonder what I was thinking! My mom thinks it would be fun to be a fly on the wall to watch me with her. She now sleeps almost all through the night without crying and up until yesterday I thought I had a pretty good handle on the whole house breaking thing. It has been interesting to see how Raymond and I are so different with her. I'm calm, he's not. I don't let her get away with anything, he does. I wonder if that is what it will be like when we have kids. I can promise that you will NEVER see me on the floor playing with her!

I prefer her to be at my feet. She is really into being close and squeezing between anything to feel cozy.

Overall it has been a lot of fun, and I'm a fan. Only of her...not of dogs! :) I feel like a new mom and have taken a ton of pictures. I'm sure you'll get bored hearing about her on here, but I have to keep her Aunt Jamie updated!

Spontaneous Get Away

My fabulous husband had the great idea to go out of town for my last night of summer. (I report back to school tomorrow morning.) When I asked where, he responded with anywhere! That was hard because I would have preferred a plan. We decided to go to Tulsa...not too close but not too far. As soon as he got off work Saturday night, we drove up to Tulsa. Even the drive was fun. I found some bubble gum in my purse and we had a bubble-gum blowing contest. We checked into the Doubletree Hotel downtown, and had a late dinner at a Mexican restaurant with fried ice cream for dessert. Yum! We then came back to the hotel and sat in their hot tub, watched the Olympics, and enjoyed cable TV. I loved that we could both sleep in with out having to be anywhere. It was much needed rest for Raymond. After lunch we drove back home and did some shopping. The whole time was perfect and relaxing. (Sorry I didn't take any pictures!)

I love the Olympics!

And I love China! So when you put those two together, I get pretty excited! Two years ago when I was in China you could already sense the excitement for the Olympics there. Even in the city where I was which was quite a ways away from Beijing I was told that athletic stores started popping up once they got the bid.

All over Beijing you could find countdown clocks. I was in Beijing 739 days before the Olympics started. Good thing they were keeping track! :)

I bought a shirt and with the emblem just like what is on the picture below and proudly wore it Friday when the Olympics started.
My favorites to watch are gymnastics, swimming, and diving. I'm not as fond of team sports like volleyball and basketball, and I was so surprised to see water polo this morning. I didn't realize that was a sport in the Olympics. I look forward to the endless hours of the Olympics that I will see in the next 2 weeks. GO USA....and go China!