Life with Skofeild

Skofeild is almost 6 months old. He's grown so fast and physically, he is so big that most people refer to him as a dog rather than a puppy. Life with Skofeild is interesting, at 2 months he knew how to sit, shake and lay down. We were so proud of him, we would show off his intelligence at any chance we received. At 6 months he has regressed, he rarely makes an effort to please us with obedience unless we have a treat. Lately Skofeild has been having "Potty" accidents in the apartment (although he was pretty much house broken at 2 1/2 months). He has either broken or destroyed our most treasured possessions...well my treasured possessions. When Skofeild ate my glasses I didn't get too upset, I figured it was my fault for leaving them in an accessibly range. When he pulled down Derek's Apple laptop by its cord, I figured it was my husbands fault for rough housing with him but when he ate my shoes I was furious. I gave him a good spanking, similar to the ones I received as a child; the kind that I know were done out of anger rather than love. I felt bad later, for the remainder of the day Skofeild avoided me by running into the bathroom and jumping into the tub. It's funny to think that his behavior resembled mine after I received a spanking from my wicked step-parents. I really don't plan on spanking my kids for that reason. Skofeild really is preparing me for parenthood. I get so frustrated but I know that I need to stop humanizing him, but he lives with us, he's indoor 99% of the time I tend to feel bad when I don't give him enough attention.





The other day was my breaking point. I had returned home to pick up my drivers licence before taking my mother to the airport. When I saw Skofeild with his little sad puppy dog face, I felt bad that he had spent nearly the whole day in his cage. I decided to let him out although I would be absent for some time before I returned. I picked up everything that he could possibly get into before I left. Upon my return, I opened my bedroom door and there was tissue, ripped pieces of cardboard scattered everywhere. I scanned the room trying to figure out what it was and it turned out that he had found a hidden Christmas present that my husband had hidden underneath the bed. I boiling! Not only did Skofeild rip through the bag and the two boxes, he got to a brand new pair of boots! I was so ticked I called my husband in frustration, I said " I love my boots too bad theres bites marks all over them!" The worst of it all is that they don't fit, what normal store would take them back? So for any of you interested in some way cute boots size 10 ( not true to size, more like a 9 1/2), come and get them! (As long as you don't mind bite marks on them).

p.s The pictures above are not the boots I was supposed to receive for Christmas, I'm still depressed about them so I couldn't post pictures of how ridiculous they look now.

WorkaHolic

I've been working a lot. I didn't think anyone would notice my lack of posts but after a concerned email from my buddy Jolynn, I guess it's time for an update. I'm a full time employee at CDC and a part time employee at Youth City. After a 12 hour day the last thing I want to do as look at my computer. I guess I could blog at work, but I'm way too busy getting billions of phone calls from distressed people who are about to lose their homes. At my evening job I'm too busy trying to keep the teenagers in line. I've had a lot of fun adventures that I plan to post in the future.

Melissa's Bridal Shower

Make a Smilebox greeting

Home Sweet Home!

NOVEMBER 18-21, 2008
I didn't do much but go to my training while I was in Los Angeles. I'm not big on walking the streets of downtown L.A after dark. The top questions I received in Los Angeles from my fellow colleagues and random people on the streets:

1. "Want to go out for drinks?" No thanks I'm good...after inviting me day after day, my colleagues realized that I'm not one to go out for drinks

2. "So where are you from? ...There are BLACK PEOPLE IN UTAH?" ...many of the brown folks in Utah are bi-racial like myself!

3. "How much do you get paid?" Not enough!

The perks of an overpriced hotel. My review of the Biltmore Millenium Hotel of Los Angeles.
-Internet usage $10/per day or $1/minute in the Business Center
-A slamming Magnabox big screen t.v
-$10/day for a refridgerator

-A hot tub so big the maximum occupancy is 3 people! When a hairy old stranger decided to get in the hot tub with me, I felt as if we were sharing a tub!
-Long scary hallways
-Sweet sounds of screaming drunks and loud cars all night long

Don't get me wrong, I did have some fun though. I hung out with a few buddies and ate really well but by the end of the week I was ecstatic about meeting up with my hubby in San Fransisco.

NOVEMBER 22-24, 2008

On Saturday my honey bunny planned to go to the South Embarcadero Mall and walk through the Piers on the shoreline. We got a little lost in downtown San Fransisco (in the GHETTO) and nearly got into several accidents due to the severely steep hills (our car rolled back ten feet! good thing there was no one behind us!) We finally made to the Embarcadero, Derek was so excited to get a plate of sea food. We walked through the farmers market and the indoor food market. I was impressed by their specialty cheeses, mushrooms, breads and even flavored olive oils for dipping the bread. My husband has definitely introduced me to the finer things of life when it comes to great food (Nia you definitely would have loved it!).






We finally got around eating the long awaited sea food. Derek was disappointed when the waitress brought out his $25 dollar plate of 3 prawgs, 6 oysters, 3 clams all RAW! Errg even my stomach turned at the sight of it. I played it safe and got a smoked salmon sandwich but even that was served uncooked but I ate it anyway. Derek was a good sport and ate it all ( he smothered them in sauce and just swallowed).

On Sunday we went to back Hayward, the last area that I served in as a missionary. We went to sacrament meeting and it was so good to sing the hymns in Spanish and listen to the talks in Spanish. It made me so happy to visit with those that were recently baptized when I was a missionary, still faithfully attending church. I taught Marcos Funez when he was a little 11-year old and now he's 16. He's taller than me and has a voice so deep I bearly recognized his voice when I spoke to him. His grandmother, mi abuela cooked some amazing Carniasada...mmm I ate sooo good as a missionary.




We later visited the temple (we convinced Marcos to come along). I have so many memories there, we took all our investigators there. I love that temple. We walked around the temple while Marcos told us about his plans to serve a mission, return and enroll into school to become a fire fighter and eventually get married in the Oakland temple. That little boy has his whole life planned out. Derek and I just listened to him in amazement.







On Monday the weather was great again and we hit up the second hand thrift stores. California has the best thrift stores, I bought a lot of name brand dress pants for work and jeans. We of course found better sea food and ate ...and ate... and ate until we had to board the plane to come home to Utah. Brrr it's so cold outside.

"I'm goin...goin back to Cali...Cali"

The quote above is actually a rap song, by Tupac...I thought i'd mention that in case you were wondering.

My job is sending me to another training for a whole week, this time in Los Angeles, California. I'm a Bi-lingual Housing Counselor, if you haven't noticed by all the news, foreclosure is on the rise. It's predicted to be worse next year so my company is gearing up early. I hate leaving my husband, (and now my puppy Skofeild too) but I guess that's life. I enjoy my job, hopefully my experience through it will help me get a job (wherever we end up moving for medical school) or help me get accepted into graduate school.
At least my company tries to compensate me by putting me up in a snazzy hotel and paying for all my food...but that still doesn't make up for sleepless nights with out my husband by my side.



The great thing about my trip to California is that I get to visit with my long lost friends. I attended a pre-graduate program at UCLA during the summer of 2006 so I'm excited to catch up with my UCLA buddies.

I also planned to visit my mom in San Fransisco and if everything goes as plan my hubby will meet up with me and I get to take him back to my mission in Oakland! I'm so excited!!

Irksome Things

We’ve all had our experiences with homeless people at one point or another in our lives. I guess I can say that I’ve had quiet a bit since I decided to work at the YWCA for a whole year (a battered women’s shelter) right after I graduated from college. I must say that my perspective has changed dramatically after working day after day for people who were 90% ungrateful and oblivious to the services meant to improve their lives to the point of self-empowerment and eventual self-sufficiency.

Last week my husband and I went shopping at my favorite store, the Desert Industries thrift store. Out in front of the entrance sat a young homeless man. I have no problem ignoring those that ask me for money but I have an excessively kind husband. The conversation went something like this,

Homeless guy (he put on an especially sad face to gain more sympathy): “Hey do ya got any money?”

My husband: “Sorry, I don’t carry cash”

Me: Thinking ‘is he really begging for money in front of the D.I and why the heck does my husband feel obligated to tell this stranger the reason why he can’t give him money?’ “Hun lets GO!”

Homeless guy: “I bet you guys have a fridge full of food!”

Me: Half way between the open door thinking, ‘ so does the Road Home, The Crossroads center, The Salvation Army and the Bishops Storehouse…you’re downtown the Mecca of free services to the homeless!’

He managed to ruffle my husbands’ feathers (which by the way aren’t easily ruffled)
My husband: “Yeah because we WORK 40-60 hours a week!”

Me: Motioning and calling to my husband to come inside already ‘do we really want to spend our time arguing with this stranger?

After purchasing the items we were looking for, we headed towards the door hoping the homeless guy had sought out a better destination to beg for money. He still sat there staring, as we walked by he said “Back to the Suburbs”.

I have issues with people who don’t want to work. Sure, I have my days when I don’t but I do it because it’s a necessary means of survival. I can go on and on about how I feel about the socialized programs that our new president plans to implement but I’m sure we are all tired of hearing about politics.

FYI: I received several “congratulations… someone of color like yourself has been elected to the highest office in America!” phone calls. Yes, history has been made in America by our first African-American president. However, I did not vote based on race, but who would get the job done. Now that Obama is our president, I support him I hope that he will make good changes in America.

Family Halloween Party

We finally got a chance to enjoy Halloween! My brother and his family decided to have a party and invite our 1st cousins.




Derek & I finally had a reason to dress up this Halloween.I wore my sister Christinas' old prom dress and Derek wore an old suit that he bought from his mission in South Carolina.



This is a slide show that isn't functioning properly...I'll figure out what I did wrong and fix it later.




We played our own version of Pictionary/Acting.




We played doughnut on a string with the kids and the adults, it was so funny to watch.