Speaking of Swine

With all this swine talk in my home I figured now would be the perfect time to introduce the blogging world to our neighbor.

Not the dog...

IT'S A PIG!!

Our back porch looks down the hill right into our neighbor's yard and it just so happens that they have a dog and a pig! I don't think I'll ever get used to sitting outside enjoying nature and watching this big old fat pig going in and out of the dog door.

One night I was startled awake by this unnatural scream. It sounded like a pack of wolves was attacking a small animal right outside our window. I was debating about waking Sean but I just decided to snuggle up with Bella and wait for the horrific sounds to end. I was sure that I would find a carcass outside in the morning. When I told Sean about it in the next day he said that it was probably raccoons. I guess they can get sounding pretty vicious. There was no blood or animal parts outside our window so I decided that that must have been what it was. A few days later I was talking to our neighbors a few doors down who also have a balcony that overlooks the pig and the dog. Somehow we got talking about them. They asked me if I had heard them fight in the middle of the night yet. All of the sudden it hit me. That horrible scream must have been the pig! And I could definitely see wolf like sounds coming from a dog like that. The mystery was solved. I haven't heard it since but it does make me feel a little better that there will not be blood and carnage out side of my window in the morning. Who knows, maybe one day I'll just wake up to the smell of bacon instead...

Swine Flu or not Swine Flu...

That is the question. So I have been super sick the past few days. Sean has decided that I have swine flu. Who knows, maybe I do. Here are my symptoms:

1. Fatigue - I have NO energy. All I do is lay on the couch or bed all day barely moving. Going up or down the stairs is enough to completely wind me and make my heart pump so hard that it feels like it is going to pump out of my chest.

2. Body aches - this is probably one reason I don't want to move. Even moving my wrist is painful. Sitting on a chair is like pushing on one big bruise. No fun.

3. Loss of appetite - It's a good thing Sean is home to make me eat because I probably wouldn't if he wasn't here.

4. Temperature - I am always running a low grade temperature that seems to spike every now and then.

5. Diarrhea - enough said...

6. Sore throat - so I know this is supposed to be a big tell tale sign or the swine flu but my throat has never been horribly sore. Every now and then it starts to sneak up on me and I think it might gets worse but it never does.

7. Runny nose - this is another come and go symptom but when it come it just drips.

8. Hard to breath - my body is so sore that breathing is painful. I feel like I can never get a lung full of air because it hurts too bad.

I think that's it. So all you Dr. Mom's out there, do I have swine flu? Sean has not let me leave the house so I don't contaminate anyone else. Not that I complain too much because I can't move very far as it is. I do need to go back to work at some point though. Is is something I should just suck it up and work through or am I justified in staying home so I don't get anyone else sick? What is the general consensus out there?

On Ice

Last night I experienced my first ice storm ever. I know I am a rugged Canadian and all but freezing rain is crazy! I went over to my one friend's house here in Eugene (thanks Erin for being my friend) and I was very grateful that she lives in the same complex as us because driving would have been impossible! All I had to do was walk up a small hill to get to her house and at one point, as I went sliding back down the five steps I had just taken while trying not to loose my balance, I really thought that even walking up that hill might not be possible. Going down it at the end of the night was kind of fun though so when Sean needed a study break I jumped on the opportunity to get him out of the house and playing on the ice with me. We decided to try our luck with plastic bags sliding down the same little hill. It was actually pretty fun, even if it was slightly gheto. I was all for sitting on the Walmart bags and sliding down even if my bum did get a little cold. Sean on the other hand found it amusing enough just to try to walk up the impossibly slippery road. It sure was a fun little break to get to spend some time together in the middle of Law School Finals. :)

Just call me Shepherdess Amy

To kick off the Christmas season our Relief Society put on a play called the Women of Christmas. It went through all the women that may have been involved the night that Christ was born. True, it was mostly all based on speculation but it was still pretty fun to be a part of. There was Mary, Elizabeth, The Shepherd's Wives, The Wisemen's Wives, The Inn Keeper's Wife and Anna the Prophetess. I was a Shepherd's Wife. I probably had the easiest lines of the group but of course I cracked under pressure and missed two whole sentences! Oh well :)
Ok, I was debating telling this story but I will just hope that the chorister does not read my blog and get offended. So the play was kind of short and the Sister who was putting the whole thing on suggested that we sing a few Christmas Carols to start the night off (mind you this just so happened to be the same night that the biggest football game in Oregon was going on and we were all very anxious to get home). So the Chorister gets up and says:

"There are 14 Christmas Songs in the Hymn book. We just sang one for the opening hymn and we will sing another for the closing hymn. That only leaves 12 left so I thought we could sing them all."

We all laughed a little, thinking that she was joking, but then we got singing. Oh did we sing. Rather then saying page numbers for the next hymn she would just say "Ok, now turn the page." I could not believe it! No one could! I could not help laughing. Every time we started a new hymn I would giggle at how crazy it was that we were really going to sing all verses of all 14 carols tonight of all nights and miss the Civil War game! This got everyone else around me going and all the actresses were all giggling in disbelief the whole time. You should also probably know that there were singing parts in the play we were about to perform. It was all fun and games until about 40 minutes strait of singing and only being half way through the Christmas carols. By this time people just plain started getting annoyed and stopped singing all together. The women who had solos actually left until we were done singing because they were starting to loose their voices. I lost my giggling mood and finally some one stood up and said that this would have to be our last one. It was kind of an uncomfortable situation but we were able to preform even with our raspy voices and we all laughed about it afterward (everyone but the chorister that is). Hopefully this story doesn't get me in too much trouble but it was really funny

Because I was all dressed up we decided to take some pictures.This is me - Shepherdess Amy!This is me and my trusty sheep dog.
And this is me and my sheep!

Bella's Graduation

Today was Bella's graduation from Puppy School! She is an official good dog now. She can sit, lay down, come when called, stay and even spin! We are still working on shake a paw but she did not have to know that to graduate. We had such a fun time in Puppy School that we decided to sign her up for Intermediate classes. Here are some of her graduation pictures from today.
This is her graduating class. There was another boy Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in the class (on the far right). We decided they were boy friend and girlfriend. There was also a girl Cavalier mix. Our teacher decided that they were sisters. They were best friends and she will be continuing to Intermediate classes with us. Last, but not least, there was a Silver Great Dane puppy. Believe it or not, this puppy was only 4 months old! It was always so excited to play with the other dogs but they were so afraid of him that they would hide under our chairs during play time at the end of class.
This is Bella looking into the distance as she contemplates all her "good girl" moments thanks to this class and looks forward to many to more even better behaviors to come...