Catching Up

Wow it has been a while but I thought I would catch up. Out house was broken into on Oct 24th and it freaking sucked. This creepy little bastard used a code grabber to get in the garage. He stole all George’s tools, my lap top, purse, meds, wallet, cigarettes, etc...We are just grateful that no one was hurt, including the boys.

The cops did nothing. I had to do all the leg work to get security tapes of this tweaker using my debit card at the grocery store. Then I practically had to beg the cop to go get the tapes because they would not release them to me. All the cops did when we called and said we were robbed was come to the house an hour and a half after we called, give me a spiffy pamphlet that explains why the city does not do jack crap for you unless it involves giving you a speeding ticket, tipped his hat and said ‘have a nice day ma’am.’ And rode off into the sunset like he saved the freaking day or something. Worthless.

I have put myself in a sort of cable news hiatus. I am tired of being the progressive representative in Colorado Springs. I am just a little tired of being constantly told I am wrong. When I watch the news I just get riled up and I am tired. So for a while I have just decided to nod my head and smile.

We refinanced the house because CitiMortgage sucks. If you have your mortgage through them or considering getting one through them DON’T! They will rip you off.

We had a great Thanksgiving with all the parents at May and Gordy’s. It was a nice day of fun, family and food.

Our oven broke which totally sucked. But Mike and Robbie very graciously bought us a new one as a Christmas present. Thank you so much!

Our wonderful friend Kristen, who is an amazing photographer, came over the other day and took tons of pictures for our Christmas card. She took pictures of us and the boys and I am very excited about that as a picture junkie.

George started his new job as a claims adjuster for USAA. It is a much more challenging job for him and he is loving it. Every day he comes home with new stories of claims that are always entertaining. It is nice to see him in a job that clearly makes him so happy:)

We are very excited about Christmas because we are going to Wyoming to see Maggie and Justin and the girls. We have not seen them in what seems like forever and it should be tons of fun:)

So even though getting robbed sucked, life is pretty good:)

Lucas

It was two years ago this month that my nephew Lucas had a horrible accident. He was burned very badly with boiling water on his head, face, neck, and chest. He was flown from his home state of Montana to Salt Lake City, Utah where he was admitted into what I understand is one of the best burn units in the country. Only Ginger, his mother, was able to come with him directly. His father had to drive. My father and I immediately jumped on a plane the next day to go be there for them in any way we could especially until Josh, his father, arrived. My mother arrived later that day from Ohio.

The hospital staff was nothing short of wonderful. A nurse was with him almost around the clock, answering all of our questions, tending to any of his needs, and monitoring him very closely as he was in an induced coma. It was an incredibly scary time especially for Ginger and Josh not knowing what the future would bring. There was a shortage of hotels in the area due to a convention going on in town and even the ones that had rooms were kind of expensive. When they first arrived the worst estimate that I heard was that Lucas could have been there for a month or more.

Eventually the hospital referred Ginger and Josh to the Ronald McDonald house which was very close. They were able to get a room there for free. I knew of the charity before this incident however I did not REALLY know what it did. Seeing how the worry of where to stay so far from home was taken away was amazing. Lucas has recovered beautifully and I rarely see him without thinking how amazing it is that he came through it all so well. Seeing him playing on the beach in Jamaica was amazing. Seeing him running around my mothers house saying 'Auntie George!' always makes me smile. And knowing that he is well now, in part, because of the generosity of others makes me want to give that gift back.

In these times of economic crisis I understand that it is getting harder and harder to give. However, this charity is one of the best ways to help a family through one of the darkest hours they could experience. I donated today because I know that another family like mine will be helped with that money. It is not only a gift of a place to stay but a gift of a little peace of mind. And in times of crisis a little peace of mind goes a long way towards healing. If you can, try to help them reach their goal. I have posted the link below. Thanks!

http://rmhc.org/

Why Do Fools Fall In Love?

When I was 20 years old I asked my Dad how he knew he was in love with Mom. My Dad, being the very matter of fact person that he is, said simply “Well we had very similar goals. We both wanted to get married, have a military life, have two kids, buy a house, and retire.” At that time I did not think that was very romantic. My mom always told me that I would know when a man really loved me because I would never be able to get rid of him. Mom worked for a factory at the time and by the time her shift was over she would be pretty dirty. But instead of going to her house to pick her up for their date Dad would show up at her job just wanting to get their dates started and not caring how she looked. At the time I thought that sounded annoying.

Years later when I met George I realized that they were right. George and I both wanted to get married, travel, kids were a maybe, buy a house, have two dogs, and someday retire to a house in the islands somewhere. It was amazing to have someone who loved me and who was totally on the same page as I was. It was awesome to know that George and I are going to share our lives, our hopes, and our goals together. And I could not get rid of George if I tried. I would run to the pharmacy drive through which was 2 minutes down the road and he wanted to come with me. I used to live all the way on the other end of town from work. However, when we hung out after work he would beg me to just hang out for just another ½ hour until it was 4 in the morning and I was driving desperately fighting to keep my eyes open.
To this day George will text me and call me throughout the day to tell me that he misses me. When he is playing video games he wants me to sit in his office with him and read just so that we are close. And even now that some of our dreams have come true like getting married in Jamaica, buying a house, and getting our dogs, our new goals that have come along have also grown together like knowing that we do want kids someday.

Quite a few of my friends are struggling right now with relationships ending. It has made me think about my romantic history and made me very happy that I found George. Today I was talking to one of those friends and she was thinking about what she wants and deserves from someone. And I passed along the words of my parents. “If a man loves you he will want the same things out of life you do. And you will never be able to get rid of him.”

Who does the dishes?

So like many couples there is quite a bit of give and take when it comes to chores. I am a former house cleaner; during my high school years and shortly after I used to work for a company who sent me to the most amazing houses all around town to clean. Because of this I have come to enjoy cleaning and really just kind of do it out of habit. When I lived alone I did everything myself; the cooking, cleaning, laundry, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing. So when George and I moved in together I just naturally kept doing all the chores since I was not used to having someone help me and, as I said, I like to clean. There are weeks when I will work extra hours so I can come home early on Friday night so that I can come home and spend the whole night cleaning. How much of a dork am I?

So after 4 years together and quite a bit of pushing from George I finally reach out for help and usually get it. George wants to help me and usually feels guilty when he has not. The last time I asked him to do the dishes and he forgot he bought me flowers to apologize. How adorable is that?

In the last few weeks Sophia has moved in. She is a little OCD and she LOVES to clean, especially when she is stressed. In the three weeks she has been here she has polished my flat top stove to a sparkle shine, rearranged my pantry, and cleaned out my fridge. And if there are a few dishes in the sink when I go to bed, by morning they are in the dishwasher which is really nice. But she does not like to unload the dishwasher.

Now George had 3 days off this week and I asked him to unload the dishwasher. He told me no. Now he usually will tell me no as a joke and then do it. Well three days later he still did not do it and finally I realized, for once, he was serious. He said no because he did not want to unload the dishwasher. And I get that, as sometimes I just do not feel like doing it either.

Now I do all the laundry, vacuum, shampoo the carpet (with our dogs it is a regular chore) clean the kitchen, dust, sweep, and mop. George does the yard and the bathrooms. We share the dishes and the trash. And I do most of chores not because I feel like George will not do them but because I like to and he is adoringly grateful and constantly telling me how beautiful the house looks.

I don’t think Sophia should be doing our dishes even though she says she does not mind. George kind of has two clean freaks chicks living in his house. I don’t have the right to throw all the chores I do in Georges face to guilt him in to doing the dishes. I do them because I like them. So this all begs the question…who does the dishes?

Road to Recovery

So yes I am weak. In more ways than one I discovered this week. A disclaimer before I go any further. This could make some people a little squeamish so if you don’t want to know about lady parts STOP READING. I will keep it as tasteful as possible I promise.

So our crazy weekend that I wrote about previously turned in to a very bizarre week from hell. Thursday I went back to work feeling pretty good. I felt like I was getting over whatever had been making me feel sick to my stomach the last few days. All morning I had meetings at work and then I had to run across the street for just a few minutes for a doctor’s appointment. Last year I had an IUD put in for birth control. It is a small intrauterine device that was really painful to put in but I was assured would be very easy and not painful to remove.

Well that ‘not painful’ line was a total crock. I screamed when she pulled it out and then started crying. This concerned her so she wanted to run a bunch of tests but wanted to conference an OBGYN in on this since she has never seen anyone have any pain when removing an IUD. I had to go back to work, which is right across the street, so she gave me a shot of pain killers and I told her to call me when she figured out what she wanted me to do.

As I was leaving I get a text from my friend Amanda (whom I mentioned in my last blog entry as my friend who is having marital problems with her husband Jim). The text says that she needs Georges help to ‘go get Jim’. Since I have not spoken to them since she moved out on Tuesday night I had no idea what was going on. So I called her and she explained that the night she went home Jim had gotten very drunk on an entire bottle of Scotch. His friends called 911 and the EMTs placed him in the county detox which is where he has been since Tuesday night.

I was frazzled so I called George and asked him to just handle it which he did. When I got back to work my doctor called. I had her on speaker phone and all of my coworkers were standing around my desk as they could see that something was wrong. My doctor, who is quite a bossy and blunt person, proceeds to tell me that I need to come back right now for another pelvic exam, then I need to go over the urgent care for blood work and ultrasounds. She then says “you will just have to tell your boss that this is more important and they will have to live without you”. My coworkers took a vote and decided that they do not like how bossy she is and they say I needs to get a new doctor.

I got back over and she tells me that when she removed the IUD she thinks she ripped one of my lady parts. She also thinks that I have some sort of infection from the IUD along with an ovarian cyst which I have a history of. She then tells me that if this infection has moved from my uterus to my tubes that she is going to admit me to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics for a couple of days. If the infection is not gotten under control I might need a hysterectomy. Great.

Long story short she was right about ALL of it other than the tubes. So she had me go down to oncology and get antibiotics administered through an IV the next day but she said I did not need to be admitted. So for the rip and the cyst she loaded me up on painkillers. So now I have enough drugs to take down a horse running through me.

In the meantime I am trying to keep George in the loop who is freaked out that I might need to go in to the hospital. When I finally get home I get a phone call from Jim who is out of detox and wants to know if he cans stay with us just for one night. Once again being the caretaker (sucker) that I am I could not say no. So I told him that under no circumstances could he drink while he was here and it would only be for ONE NIGHT. He agreed.

So he came over and George and I did our best to counsel him on how to better handle this situation. This involved a little tough love but I think it was good. Hopefully they can both learn how to function as healthy adults so they can be there for their son.

Then Amanda showed up so Jim could see their son while she went shopping. When she came back she hung out for a while and then Sophia came home. Sophia was very confused as to why they were all here as she had not been updated on the situation. Then my friend Aimee texts me and asks if she can hang out for a while. I said ‘sure! What is one more person in the nut house?!’

The next day Jim left and we have not heard from him since. We wish them both well and hope they can figure out what makes each of them happy.

And now I am lying around trying to keep any food down as the meds make me feel sick. But on a brighter happier note I have caught up on a lot of TV. And I get to go back to work tomorrow. I need another vacation!

Crazy Weekend

People of Earth,
George and Laura's House of Healing has no vacancies...unless you REALLY need a place to stay and then I will probably say yes:(

Good golly Miss Molly. I cannot remember the last time we had a crazy weekend like this one. So here it is. A couple friend of ours decided to split up. I got a phone call from him (we'll call him Jim) and he asked if he could stay with us for a few weeks. I got a vote from George and Sophia (our roommate who just moved in two weeks ago) and they gave a thumbs up. The Jim called me back and asked if instead of him moving in could his wife move in (we will call her Amanda). I felt a little hesitant because I think Jim might have wanted George and I to convince Amanda that she should take him back. Which we were not going to do. I will give you a bed to sleep on, an ear to chew, and a should to cry on but I am not going to try and sway a person in to a decision one way or another. So George and I made a very clear NOT OUR BUSINESS Policy. So she moved in. The next day she moved out because Jim said he is going to live with his parents. So he was gonna move in, I moved all the furniture out of my office so he could stay there, she moved in, and she moved out and we have not heard from them since. I hope they are going to be okay and I wish them luck.

On top of this I went to Mom and Dad and help them move furniture on Friday, I talked to an old friend and got some shocking news about an old friend who recently passed away, Saturday I helped George all day with tests, I worked Sunday and scored 30 calls (which kicks major butt), I called out sick on Monday because I caught some sort of bug during all this, then I had Tuesday and Wednesday off, but ended up going to work on Tuesday to score calls for calibration, and then called in to calibration for an hour and a half this morning for work, George and I visited Georges parents house to see the nieces since they were in town but we missed them because they were at the pool, and in the middle of all this dealt with all of this craziness with our friends, and today George seemed to catch some form of what I got sick with...and now I am going back to work tomorrow. I think I need a vacation from my weekend! Good grief!

If you are reading this I hope you are well!

George and Laura’s House of Healing

George and I have a new…roommate. My wonderful friend Sophia has moved in to the guest room for a little while. We rented the room out to Marcus about a year ago after his long term relationship ended. He moved in with us and he was really struggling to get over his breakup. After many hours, days, and months of long talks, tears and laughter, cocktails and pool games Marcus moved out and was a different person. He came broken and he left happy.

Now we have Sophia moving in with us. It is a rough time for her and we are hoping to be there for her like we were there for Marcus. So George and I are going to get a sign to hang on the door that says “George and Laura’s House of Healing” or “The Human Society for Abused Hearts” or “Bring Us Your Broken Hearts…We’ll Fix ‘Em”.

Comcast-Pitchforks and Torches

So I really have enjoyed my Comcast service. But alas some relationships are just destined to fail. And the stars aligned today to make it end very very poorly.
George and I have been trying to streamline our finances lately in an effort to prepared to expand our family (someday-not that soon though!). So to that end George called Comcast yesterday to try and figure out how to lower our bill. They gave us a promo package that actually lowered our bill by $50 a month and UPGRADED our internet speed. In order to implement the faster service we had to go pick up a new modem. So today we ran a few errands and stopped by the Comcast building downtown to exchange it.

When walked up to the building there was a huge sign the said ‘FOR ALL EQUIPEMENT RETURNS AND EXCHANGES PLEASE FOLLOW THE ARROWS’. So we followed the signs to another building that turned out to be quite a far away. However, when we get there the lady in that building said ‘Oh yes we exchange all the equipment OTHER than that.” So now I am little annoyed but the woman offers to walk us over to other building where we started and get us served ahead of everyone else, since it is such a quick change out, for the inconvenience, which was very nice. So we walk all the way back over and I was really grateful she did come with us as the line was a little out of control.

We stood off to the side for a while until an agent became available. A few seconds after the woman began helping us another customer walked over. She was an older lady with her hair in curlers wrapped in a scarf. She started yelling at us in a thick Brooklyn accent “Yous guys in cames in after all of us! What makes you so f$%# special that you get served first?! We were all here first and we all think this is bulls!$%!” I was so shocked I blanked for a second. Then I look over and see all the other people in line nodding and/or yelling at us! Then the woman starts yelling “I have a spinal problem and I don’t need to be standing all day just for you to come in thinking you should get special treatment over me you brats!” Finally the women who walked us over says ‘I work here ma’am it is ok.” Like this is going to make it all better. She then tries to explain over this woman yelling that this is a quick change out and it will only be a moment. “I have a spinal problem and these little sh!*^ just walk in like they own the f%^$#@! place!” And she is just enraging everyone else over in the line and I have this image of these people chasing us down with pitchforks and torches. Finally I jump in because I have had just about enough of being publicly humiliated. Plus if I did not say something I knew George was going to and trust me…you would rather have me yell at you rather than get George mad enough to yell. So I said “Excuse me, I am not here for service issues, I am here for an equipment exchange. This should be done at the other building but because Comcast is stupid I had to come over here. They have another location for equipment to make it faster, but since we had to come over here they are letting us jump the line for 30 seconds. I understand you are in pain. But I did not make it so that there are only two people working 7 desks. If you wanna yell, yell at them.” She looked a little stunned and then said “Well we are all pretty upset that you think you are special but I understand why you would take advantage of system and make a cripple person be in pain longer.” Ok so now I had enough of trying to act like a lady and calm this woman down. “F#!^ you.” I said and turned around. So she just stormed off. Then I look back over and I see the guy in line in front of her talking and I hear him say “Well that was not their fault these people can’t get their business straight. Did you really have to curse at them and call them names first? You were kind of asking for it.” I could have kissed him. So she starts yelling at him about her back and crying. Then a young woman walks in and tells her to go wait in the car and she will wait in line for her and will call her on her cell phone when she gets to the front (I guess this is her daughter.) And all I could think was WHY DID THIS GIRL NOT WAIT IN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THIS IS SUCH A FREAKING ISSUE?! So the woman storms out and took her curlers with her. And oh by the way, while this has all occurred this woman is now 2nd in line and when we walked in she was 7th. So calm down Brooklyn Brawler.
Then I focus my attention back to the woman behind the counter who is telling us that this modem is the exact same one we have. So I ask if the one we have was working fine then what are we doing here? She looks at me like I am idiot and says “I have no idea.” So George argues with her saying we should be getting something different since our internet has been upgraded. She looks at George like is he retarded and says “No you are exchanging this because it was broken right?” I finally looked at George and told him I had to wait in the car or my head was going to explode.

When George came out a few minutes later and I thought flames were going to shoot out of his ears he was so mad. We left with the same modem we came with. When we got home I called Comcast to try and figure out if there is another piece of equipment we need or if the guy on the phone sent us down there for no flipping reason. I get a rep on the line and when I explain the issue to him and he flat out tells me “well I am not versed in how our products work so I am going to have to get you over to technical support.” Wow. I would die if I heard one of my reps say “I really do not know anything about or products so let me get you to someone else.” Then he transfers me back to the BEGINNING of the automated system. He does not transfer me to tech support directly. He transferred me back to fight AGAIN through the automated system to talk to someone. Grrrr!

I FINALLY talked to a person with a brain that was still communicating with their mouth. She informed me that the person who set up the work order set it up wrong and we need to go BACK to the service center to get the right modem. I flipped out and told the lady the whole ordeal. She was really sweet and offered me a credit which was nice. So now we have to go back. Let’s see if we actually get attacked physically this time!

So George and I called Direct TV and got a really great deal with them to lower our bill even more and get more services. So I call back to cancel Comcast. The woman asks me why I want to cancel and I tell her how horrified I am with the service that I have received today. I tell her the whole story and she pauses and says “Well why did you not just go through the line and avoid all of this ma’am? Does not sound like our fault you got yelled at.”

So to recap we walked all over creation, got yelled at by other customers because Comcast cannot deal with them in a timely manner, got talked to like we were retarded children, had to fight with the automated system, talk to stupid reps, and still are in the same place we started out this morning with the SAME MODEM WE HAD! Thus concludes our relationship with Comcast.

Our 1st Anniversary

♥1 year married and 4 years together as of today:) Best decision we ever made was to spend the rest of our lives together♥

Can-TANK-erous

I, like some other puppy parents, assumed that since my first child was perfect that my second one would be perfect as well. Benders story began with us in August of 2008 when, on a total whim, we picked up a Thrifty Nickel and saw an ad for boxer puppies. George had always talked about wanting an English bulldog. Ever since he was a little boy and saw the Ben and Jerry cartoon with the Bulldog named Spike it was his dream dog. But that was way out of our price range. But George loved the bully breeds so we settled on a boxer.

We came to the front door of the house and were greeted by 5 little adorable bundles of really happy puppies. We played with each one for a little bit and then asked the sellers which one they thought had the best personality. They pointed to the one with the little white spot on the back on his neck and said ‘Chomper’ which is what they called him. We cuddled with him for a little bit and George held him in his palm up to his face. The little puppy licked his nose and it was love. We named him Bender after the alcoholic robot from Futurama. We took him home that day and quite honestly I can’t really remember what life was like before him.

The first few weeks were the hardest as Bender was very frightened and did not like to be away from us ever. Kenneling him was an absolute nightmare. He would scream ALL NIGHT. Not just for an hour or so…ALL NIGHT. So George and I would carry him around in one hand everywhere we went. We had issues with him chewing on shoes but we got past that pretty easily.

George and I spent two and a half years planning our wedding in Jamaica. It was a long process and in the end totally worth it. However, it was a little all consuming and I know quite a few brides who have felt a little lost after the wedding. It is so much work and over so quickly how could they not feel a little sad. I was a little different as my wedding was kind of five whole days instead of just a couple of hours. Plus I was really happy that it was finally done. Life could now get to some kind of normality.

However, there was still a little emptiness. I needed a project of some kind or something to baby. As we were not ready for kids yet I wanted to get another dog. I also felt like Bender really needed a buddy. Sometimes he would just look at me like ‘Really? You are tired? But I am not done playing yet!’ after we had taken an hour walk and thrown the ball around the yard all afternoon. So began the search for a brother.

On April 15^th, tax day, Tank was born…and 16 weeks later to the day we brought him home. And our adventure began. Tank was a 100% different personality than Bender. Bender is a 60lb lap dog. He will just chill in bed or on the couch. Tank is a 60lb ball of need. He constantly needs to be pet. He cannot just lie next to you or in your lap. He needs 100% of your attention or he is not happy. Bender got over his shoe fetish pretty quick. Over a year later Tank is still on the constant prowl for my flip flops.

In the first few days when we brought Tank home he got a hold of one and looked up at me for permission to take it. I started after him and his eyes got wide, he lifted his head as high as he could (because if he did not he would have tripped on the shoe while running away) and took off in to the living room to munch on his treasure. When I entered the living room he dropped it and then proceeded to do a belly flop on the carpet directly over it with all four legs spread eagle. He looked up at me like ‘What shoe? There is no shoe here!’ and I immediately busted up laughing. Over a year later…it is getting old. He destroyed the heel of one of Georges dress shoes a couple months back and I thought he was going to be on Craig’s List before the day was done.

But the chewing is not limited to just shoes. Oh no! Our coffee tables upstairs and down, our couch, all four corners of our recliner, the handle on the recliner is a gnarled remnant of a handle now, and our rug in the living room is getting demolished strip by strip. He also ate one of the corks out of a bottle of wine that was on the wine rack in the kitchen. And of course it does not stop there. Anything extra he can get a hold of he will chew like nail polish bottles, socks, bath mats, q-tips, hair ties, purses, Georges knit caps, George’s baseball caps, and slippers. And my little angel Bender has become his partner in crime. He has corrupted my other baby to help him! There is no way Tank could get stuff off the kitchen table as it is very high. However, Bender gets it for him and then hands it over to his little brother. He NEVER did this before Tank. And I am not sure what Tank told Bender to get him to do this for him but I hope it was worth it. Maybe he promised him his share of food one night or something.

Then there is his rock fetish. He is constantly eating rocks from the landscaping in the back yard. I woke up one morning and found 3 rocks in his kennel the size of my thumb that he had eaten and made him sick. Along with the rocks he loves weeds and grass. And now he and Bender have taken to digging holes. On Mother’s Day Tank hit a line to the sprinkler system and was a drowning mud puppy when he came in to the house.

Now one of the reasons we call him Tank is because of the fact that his is about the least graceful dog you have ever seen. He just charges in a runs everything over. And if something is in his way that he cannot move…he flexes on it like ‘I’ll show you who the big dog is!’ He has several arch nemeses consisting of inanimate objects. He hates the broom and vacuum but I think that may be because when I am cleaning it is time I am not paying attention to him. He will bark for hours at the umbrella in the back yard, he hates the industrial broom in the garage when it is just sitting there, and don’t get me started on the mail box. And for each one he crouches down and growls and snarls and jumps around and barks like these items have just ticked him off to no end.

Just yesterday Tank and Bender ate my digital camera that Bender retrieved off the table. Then we had the neighbors over for a late Memorial Day bbq and they brought their kids. I was so proud of Bender and Tank as they were very well behaved with the kids. It has been a fear of mine that they will not be too happy when a baby comes home. But they played and did not get to rough. The little boy was playing tug with them and they did not pull to hard. At one point the boy laid in the grass and Bender and Tank pulled him all over the yard. It was very entertaining and good to see that they could behave. Later that night George told me that if they eat another camera we can put ‘Good with Kids’ on their Craigslist ad.

Then we have this morning which took the cake. I was on my weekly conference call with work and I hear Bender out back barking like something is really wrong. So I send George out to investigate. Come to find out the neighbors got a new dog and Tank was so anxious to meet him that he ran head first in to the fence and busted through a board to the other side. The neighbors were out there when it happened and said it was the funniest thing they have ever seen. The neighbors were very nice about it and we talked about possibly replacing the fence because clearly it needs it.

So clearly our 2^nd baby needs a lot of work. I would not trade him for the world…but there is a reason we call him can-Tank-erous.

Our Lives Our Way

George and I met in 2006 and started out our lives as a married couple on June 13, 2009 in Jamaica. We have two dogs, Bender and Tank, who are our pride and joy. We are certainly a couple that marches to the beat of our own drum. This blog will be the events, thoughts, opinions, hopes, dreams, and musings the make us who we are. So enjoy!