Itchy Dogs

After 15 months of living with 2 itchy dogs, I finally caved and had them allergy tested. Here's a rundown of what they reacted to. Expensive little turds...

Kona
foods
barley
beef
beets
corn
egg
potato
venison
wheat
yeast

trees, grasses, weeds
box elder/maple
cottonwood/poplar
bermuda grass
bluegrass
brome grass
daisy
dandelion
dog fennel (chamomile)
kochia
russian thistle

molds, insects, indoor
alternaria tenuis
fusarium
T. putrescentiae
moth (the flying insect)
cotton linters (yes, my dog is allergic to cotton, which basically means she is allergic to everything including clothing, carpets, bedding, probably her collar...you get the picture)


Hyside
foods 
beef
lamb
oats

trees, grasses, weeds
box elder/maple
bluegrass
brome grass

molds, insects, indoor
aspergillus
cladosporium
fusarium
grass smut
helminthosporium
pullularia pullulans
T. putrescentiae
moth

I have, in my hot little hands, a list of 10 types of dry dog food that they can both eat. Not many. I hope they like them. The treat list is longer, lucky for them!

Also, Hyside decided to get pancreatitis, so he's hospitalized. (Interesting that the article specifically mentions mini schnauzers as being prone to developing pancreatitis since he's part mini schnauzer)  Hopefully he'll be better by tomorrow and can come home. My poor little man! Kona misses him. This is the first time they have been apart for longer than 15 minutes since the day Hyside came home! Wow! Sad.

Project Pet Slim Down

Kona and Hyside are both fat. This is, in part, due to my lack of reading the feeding guide on their new food and continuing to feed them the same amount of food I was feeding before, when they were eating a lower calorie food. Oops. Guess all I can do now is work to correct the problem. They are now part of Project Pet Slim Down, a weight loss programs of sorts for 4-legged kids, set up by Purina. They just started last week, and are doing well so far. If nothing else, they really seem to enjoy meal time now that they are getting less food (and hopefully a little more exercise). They are gonna be the talk of the dog park once they are trim and fit. Oh yeah, and Kona says she is going to be a supermodel. I guess we'll see! :) Wish us luck!

Fall Colors

We took a little drive up to the ski basin today to check out the aspens. Beau-ti-ful!

Someone with lots of Spare Time

Check out this great MSN Video: 'Miracles' musical mash-up

Less Wisdom

There may be some of you who don't appreciate this and are even grossed out by it, but I had my wisdom teeth surgically extracted back in July and they are HUGE! So huge, in fact, that I decided to post a photo of them. These are the top 2 (notice the hook on the top of the one on the left). The bottom ones were even bigger and had to be cut in half to remove. The pieces just won't stay together long enough to get a decent photo of them. I highly recommend getting them out when you're younger. I imagine it would have been a b!t$h to do it in 10 or 20 years. I'll warn you that even with dental insurance, it will cost you. So start saving your dimes now. Well, I guess that's it for now.

Montana Vacation!

Sadly, the whirlwind that was our Montana vacation is over. Luckily, we came across some photos to remind us of the good times had and not just the days spent driving!

It started with a 16+ hour drive to my parent's house in MT, followed shortly thereafter by an 8 hour drive to Whitefish to watch miss Shelby get married. She looked absolutely stunning and luckily the setting was almost as beautiful. We used to refer to one another as "soulmate" but I guess I got bumped out of that position! I'm okay with that, though. Rob and Shelby look so happy together!

While in Whitefish, I got to see some of my BBT and choir friends from college, which was great! It had been far too long to say the least! We spent the evening walking around, drinking, and sharing stories old and new. Love you guys!


Another 8 hour drive took us back to my parent's house, where we spent most of our time gorging on Flathead cherries, scolding the out-of-control herd of mutts, and hanging out. Jared and I continued our traditional vacation he-runs-while-I-ride-along-on-a-bike outings and even did some fly fishing with the fam. (It should be noted that I caught 5+ fish to each of Jared's...but who's counting anyway?)







The dogs also had an amazing time playing in the water and practically demanded their own section of photos.






From MT, we cruised down to Jackson Hole, WY for a quick get-together with a couple of my roomies from college! The drive through Yellowstone Park, while beautiful, was as slow as molasses and took us 7.5 hours. Needless to say, I'm afraid we didn't arrive in the best of spirits. I believe that I demanded a glass of wine immediately upon exiting the car! We did get some pretty rad photos, though, even taken from a moving car.


When insanity starts to set in, the only thing left to do is take pictures...so that's what we did...


And just when we thought we couldn't take it anymore...we saw this...




The rest of that Friday night in Jackson is a blur of sushi, wine, dancing, shooting pool, and laughing so hard my abs hurt and I almost wet my pants then laughing some more!

I love these ladies SO much and can't believe it had been 3 years since I'd last seen them!

Sadly, this is where vacation took a turn for the worse. Not only were we totally over being in a car, but I woke up the next morning with some sort of stomach flu, (which ended up lasting about a week. ugh). The girls and their guys went kayaking for the day, while I stayed in bed and watched the Food Network. It was still beyond great to see them, and I'm glad we made the trip!

Fourteen hours of driving later, we arrived home.

While I'm sad that time passed so quickly, some time away gave me the much needed break from the ordinary and hope for a future filled with laughter, mountains, room to breathe, and good company!

In conclusion:
3,700 miles +
2 dogs +
a handful of old friends +
family +
the great outdoors =
AWESOME!