Ode to TonyDanza!

Sheri sent this to me and I had to share! This post is R rated!

Stuttering Cat - as explained by a grade 4 student ...
A teacher is explaining biology to her 4th grade students.
"Human beings are the only animals that stutter," she says.
A little girl raises her hand. "I had a kitty-cat who stuttered."
The teacher, knowing how precious some of these stories could become, asked the girl to describe the incident.
'Well', she began, 'I was in the back yard with my kitty and the Rottweiler that lives next door got arunning start and before we knew it, he jumped over the fence into our yard!'
'That must've been scary,' said the teacher.
'It sure was,' said the little girl.
'My kitty raised her back, went "Ffffff!, Ffffff!, FfffffF,"but before she could say F#$k the Rottweiler ate her!'
The teacher had to leave the room.

365 days later...

I look back and exactly 365 days ago I started this blog. It’s actually been nice to capture the year in my brief thoughts and pictures. Some things haven’t changed and some have. The obvious don’t need to be mentioned but my favorite should…so I have compiled a list of the same and different…in no particular order:
Same: house, town, TonyDanza, job, family and some friends, car,
Different: Lola, Elvis(here then gone), bathroom, friends, painted walls, assistant at work, Pampered Chef Consultant, and maybe a few more!

I’m looking forward to a new year, a new decade, new stories, … This is a time to reflect on the past…and-
"may auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!"

Some times you have to deal.

This post is hard to write…

The wedding has been cancelled and Dan has moved out. This has been a long hard week full of questions with little answers. Please keep both of us in your prayers as we are not in the highest of spirits.

We have split up the family…2 cats = 1 dog. Not only did I have to say good bye to Dan but I also said good bye to Elvis. TonyDanza didn’t seem to mind and I’m sure the mailman isn’t feeling my pain.

Things will be different in our worlds for awhile.
But right now, I miss my best friend.

Slow week...AT HOME!

So…I’m sick…and I hate it! A nice weekend, with sunshine, and a Friday off for all the extra hours I put in this week…and I smell like Vic’s and have the taste of lemon-honey cough drops and airborne seeping through my pores! Byuck! This was the first weekend, we’ve had a chance to be home for the most part. I was going to clean and organize…all I did was organize my DVR! Ugh!

This week was busy with Field Day and the Innovate ND Kickoff. Our day was a success, Julie and I were very happy with the ending results and the amount of people that came and some of the conversations that took place. There is always room for improvement but we feel that Field Day has a great starting place. We will probably build it into next year’s budget!

I realize that I haven’t brought up much about the animals lately, probably because we have hardly spent time with our constant running around the county side. This past week, I have noticed a few things about our little herd. Lola has learned how to knock. When she feels that her presence should be made, at 3:42 am, she will set to knocking on our door to alert us to the fact that A.) she knows how to knock and B.) she wants to be let in. First time was cute, after that the novelty wore off. TonyDanza has been very conscious of plastic around the house and feels that it is his duty to clean each plastic bag with his tongue. We aren’t sure if this is a mineral deficiency or what exactly, we thought this habit would break but so far, no so much! Elvis-who continues to hate the mailman, now serves as Dan’s alarm clock. When Dan’s alarm did not go off for 3 days this week, it wasn’t a worry as the barking and whiney from below our window served as an alarm for both of us. It’s great during the week, but we are not sure how to educate Elvis on the difference between work days and weekends! All in all, we continue to be amazed with our herd, but have decided no more additions will be made ANY time soon!

Dan has been busy with work, but has run into trouble with Northwest Tire in Dickinson. They changed his oil this past weekend, but forgot about the transmission fluid when they finished. That left him in Grassy Butte trying to find a tow truck at 8:00 on Sunday morning. We’ll see how his manager does with finding him a new truck, until his can be repaired.

He spent some time with the boys this weekend. Korey will be leaving for National Guard basic training and AIT in 2 weeks. It hasn’t quite hit Dan yet that he’s going, but Dan said it might be a long winter! We are proud of Korey for following his dream of joining up and wish him luck and a quick return! We received a postcard from Chris in the mail this week. He was in Germany, based at a previous concentration camp. It was exciting to hear from him. These guys make me think of my sister and hope that she is preparing well for her future.

We had a guest this week, Alexis came on Wednesday night and we entertained her at Sanford’s and spent some of the night talking. It reminded me of high school—except a lot of things has changed! We are all grown up, well physically; I am still a whiner when it comes to being sick!

Little Getaway to the Hills!

We just had a great weekend in Rapid City-the purpose was to go down for Alexis’s wedding. She had a beautiful ceremony and it was an honor to be part of her day. She looked beautiful and the day was wonderful! We are excited to see how the photos turned out! We figured that we have 7 weddings to go to (at least) before ours so we are watching and getting ideas from others that we think are cute. I do have to admit, Dan cleans up pretty well so I’m very excited to see him in a tux!

We decided to stay a long a little longer to enjoy each other and the hills. We even had a little time to windowshop and play a bit!

Elvis even had an eventful weekend. We took him with us to Rapid and dropped him off at Safe Haven Pet Resort. He spent a couple days hanging out in doggie daycare-they told us he was really well behaved when we picked him up. Dan and I had a pretty good laugh on the last day though. We picked him up and decided to go down to Bear Country with him. On the corner of Mount Rushmore Drive and Main, there is a statue of President Taft bent over. Elvis took one look at him and growled! Good thing that bronze statue didn’t give us a second look-otherwise Elvis would have taken him out!

One of the best things that we did this weekend, besides eating at IHOP for the first time, was go to Bear Country. It was definitely worth the time and money to go and visit. Elvis really enjoyed it; he was staring the bears down and keeping his eye on all 180 of them! He was tough until he got nose to nose with the bronze statue—not so tough then! We loved the bear cubs…they were SO cute!

After leaving Bear Country, we took a drive to the Faces and through the hills on the way back home. It was nice to drive talk and see scenery that we are not used to at home! One thing that would have made the day is if the weather would have been decent!

Cuts, Caging, & Combining!

Well-the week started off a bit dicey- Dan cut his finger slicing up watermelon. We had to call Nancy to make sure we didn’t have to take him into the emergency room or take him behind the garage and shoot him! He’s healing up but it hurt for a couple days.

We have caged the beast! Elvis officially has a fence! It is making the mailman feel a lot better. Dan built this all by himself-well him and Elvis. Last week at the rummage sale, we used the basic structure of the fence to hold clothes. Some people thought I was pretty ingenious! I thought it was resourceful!

I went home for the weekend to help harvest. Dad’s crop is pretty amazing—I even slugged the combine-something that I’ve never done! Not only is it thick…but it was the heaviest he’s seen. We started piling the oats on the ground! He’s almost done combining and we hope that he’s completed by my birthday!

Elvis-inspired Joke!

A burglar enters this ‘empty’ house and begins to survey the scene. All of the sudden in a small voice he hears, “I can see you and so can Jesus!” He jumps in surprise and looks around. No one is there—“I can see you and so can Jesus!” He looks all over again and in the corner, half-hidden, is a mangy parrot, “I can see you and so can Jesus!” The burglar rolls his eyes and says “What are you really going to do, you are nothing but a stinky parrot,” The parrot says, “but Jesus is a Rottweiler!”

Saturday, In the Park…Think it was the 4th of July!

What a great weekend! The weather and sun were perfect…in fact, I got a little too much sun and developed some a burn so that I looked like an American flag with my blue shirt on.

On Friday, Kim, Aunt Janice, and I went out to the Gladstone school to see the craziest rummage sale I’ve ever been to. We have been to the house before; it is where we got our bookcases and picnic table from. They had every room in the house filled and it’s the Gladstone High School and its only one couple! Dan and I wish them the best of luck in their move to New Jersey.

Saturday…My family came to spend the 4th and take in some of Roughrider Days! We took in the parade with a few local Dickinsonians (Janice, Jerry, Kim, and Ed). I was surprised at how long (and loud) the parade was!! I even got some candy for Jerry! Then the whole family went to the Arts Roundup at DSU Campus. It is not as big as the Mandan Arts in the Park, but it was a nice little showing of Dickinson. Dan's main motivation for going was reward of Kettle Korn!

We had a little cook-out with hot dogs, hamburgers, scotcheroos, and vinegar/cream salad. It was a great day, filled with fun and family and ended watching the firework show in the park!
Many times I have this let down with holidays—especially New Years Eve, where you get excited for the day and it actually comes and your mind plan was much better. This was very different, I actually couldn't have planned such a good day!

I helped out with the Stark County Fair this week. It was fun to see the differences in how the counties operate. I judged Beef Showmanship in the Livestock Round Robin and Ceramic and Drawing & Painting at the Static Achievement Day. I remember how much these two events meant to me when I was in the 4-H’ers shoes and all the prep that was put toward the outcome.

Odds and Ends: Elvis has "the cone" off his head and we owe Christa and Jeff a new cone! I visited Williston and Beach this week for work—both very differentreasons and results. If you are in Beach, stop at La Playa Mexican Restaurant! My assistant, Elena, started at work this week—she has a great sense of humor! Our corn in the garden is not knee-high, but the peas are! Below are pictures of Elvis and Lola "getting to know" each other, the lilies in my garden, and Daniel dusting...I couldn't resist candids of any of these!

Edge of North Dakota

Well…I traveled to Nowhere North Dakota, which is 17 miles on gravel from Amidon, which is the smallest county seat in the nation. Bowman County officials decided to use their HTC dollars, which is part of my job to come together and build their county strategic plan. They held their meeting at the Logging Camp Ranch, which can house 40 people at once and has a great view! The Ranch hold the only forest of Ponderosa Pine in the state. Getting there was the hard part…I even had to shuuuu a few horses off the road.


Elvis has retired the cone, well we hope! He messed with his stitching and swelled so that he had to wear the cone-o-shame since Sunday. Christa and Jeff borrowed Kota’s to us, well after Meathead Elvis has gone through his kennel door, we owe them a new cone. We need to work on bringing him in the house!


We are having decided that our House Warming Party will be August 1. We are looking forward having friends and family over to celebrate! Hopefully we’ll have a few more projects completed!

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

This past week we saw a lot of highway miles! I went to Minot for the Economic Developers North Dakota Conference. I had time to check out a few old friends! It was great to see Kelli and Amy and catch up. I miss laughing and fooling around with them. I was surprised at how much the city changed…they have a BWW, a CVS Pharmacy, some ripped down buildings, and some construction on the campus just to name a few. The thing that hasn’t changed are the bar regulars, I sat at the Blind Duck and saw how many people haven’t changed in 5 years. The same people that I served when I worked there are hanging and closing the place—only they look much tougher.

I got back and had interviews for my assistant position. Elena is starting on the first of July! Hooray for hiring! I think we will work really well together. She is originally from Russia and speaks 5 languages…I think I have that many too…English, Canadian, Pig-Latin, Un Poco Spanish, and ____, hmmm so only 4….But maybe those don’t count!!!

Dan and I road tripped this weekend, with Elvis! We stopped Friday at Mom and Dad’s to install Dad’s birthday/father’s day gift…the gift of Dish TV. They have 1000% more channels now then when I was living at home! I also helped trench a water line in, they brought Grandpa up to help and finally were able to dig, 6 inches of rain kept them from working!
We went to Fargo to spend time with the Livermonts. We spend two nights there and they took us to Lake Elsie. Christa and Jeff have a nice little spot with a camper and a picnic table. Elvis took 1 jumnp off the dock and that was enough for him. Jeff took Dan and I tubing with Alyssa. I’m finally not sore, I still have the bruises but what can I say!! Elvis got along great with the girls and Kota, what a relief!

We'd like to put a great pic of Alyssa on the blog, but she had the biggest zit/growth and we told her to keep covering her face! Poor Girl!

On Sunday, we spent Father’s Day having supper with both Fathers. It was great to get everyone around the table. When Debbie and Dan are cooking, I can’t complain!

It was another great week, but it’s nice to be home. I’ve started cleaning up and FINALLY got my pots put away from when the dishwasher went in!

VH1's Best Week Ever!!

This week has been FABULOUS!! It FEELS like last Sunday was forever ago.

Well Dan one-upped me and had to get something more than bronchitis, he found out on Monday that he had pink-eye and an ear infection. This had him staying home a couple days from work because he was contagious. He’s fully recovered!

I will preface this paragraph with the mantra that I listened to growing up…when you have a house of your own, _______________. SO, On Tuesday morning, after getting an email from Kim and Pet Project, we visited the city pound. We fell in love with a 2-year old Rottweiler puppy. He was supposed to be euthanatized on June 6 but the bought a little time and allowed us to talk about the pros/cons of the situation. Elvis, as we have named him, was found very malnourished and we are working on upping his mass. He weighed 97 pounds on his adoption day.

Because we decided to rescue him, Dan had to build a kennel. When I got home from work on Tuesday, he had the outside kennel done and was starting on the inside kennel. With help from Jack, the indoor kennel was finished on Wednesday night. Those boys did make me laugh!

Thursday, we brought Elvis home…we are still working on introducing him to the cats. We’d rather take it slow then have anyone hurt! Also on Thursday, I started interviewing for my administrative secretary position. It’s exciting to see the community development project taking off. We had some great candidates apply and hopefully we will fill it this week!

Friday, Kim and I took Jack and Dan through the high ropes! It was great to have practice our facilitation skills, but it was VERY exciting to see how well they worked to complete the course. They worked better then anyone we had seen so far. Including, getting to the top of the dangling duo and swinging from the bar of the power pole! We took in a meal at the Boots Salon and Grill, which used to be the Iron Horse.

Saturday, Dan and I were all over the place! We took Elvis for a walk, helped the neighbors lay concrete, went to Medora for a YP meeting, and went to the most interesting house for a pre-rummage sale ever! A couple that works at the college is moving to New England—and not the city south of Dickinson, to live with her mother and are selling practically all their possessions. This is unique because he had aspired to set up a gift/collectors shop and they have a huge range of artifacts, statues, collectibles, plants, ALL sorts of things, My mother would have gotten claustrophobic! It was amazing to browse at the diversity of things. They are having their second rummage sale on July 3 and 4th and we plan on going!!

Today, was Uncle Randy and Aunt Denise’s grill party! It was the perfect end to a busy week. It was nice to see family and how much Carstyn and Kemma have grown! The party worked out so well, Randy was the star for sure by grilling so well and helping show off the Pampered Chef spices!

And to top it off, We ripped the kitchen apart and brought in a contractor and had the dishwasher and garbage disposal put in...Hooray!! We haven't officially used them yet, we are still in awe that it actually happened!

This next week won’t slow down much either!! I’m going to need some downtime soon!