Kodi :(

Yesterday I had a pretty rough day.  After a lot of thought, Chris and I decided that it would be better for all involved if we brought Kodi back to Stray rescue and ended our trial adoption with him.  He was such a sweet boy but had some bad habits built up that would be hard to break considering his age.  It was hard for me to take him back to his foster mom because I had gotten attached to him after only a week but with having Gypsy and the potential for having kids down the road we decided that he would be better off in a different home.  The positive about stray rescue is that they are a no-kill shelter so we know he will be happy with his foster mom until he is able to find a new home to call his own.  She promised me she would let me know once they found a home for him so that I didn’t worry about how he is doing.

On my way to meet Tina to drop Kodi off, I drove over something on the interstate and blew a tire.  I have no idea what I drove over as I did not see it but I definetely heard the tire go.  It was already a drive I was having a hard time with so to throw that into the mix made for a pretty craptastic evening.  Thankfully an IDOT emergency road assistant was not far behind me so he pulled over about 2 min after it had happened and changed my tire for me.  He was really nice and my safety was his greatest concern.  He was a hero to me last night and got me on my way in about 10 minutes.  I personally have not changed out a tire since behind the wheel training when I was 16 so it would have taken me a long time to figure it out.  Plus, I was just outside of East St Louis when it happened which is not the safest area around so that made me a little uncomfortable.  I had called Chris to come help me but the emergency assistant got there so quickly, he didn’t end up needing to come out.  Once the spare was on, Kodi and I were on our way again and we met up with Tina to take him back.

After a long evening, I came home and cuddled with Gypsy to get my dog fix.  She was looking for Kodi when I got back and seemed confused that he wasn’t with me at first but she quickly adjusted to enjoying every minute of her first quiet evening in a week.  I think she will like being the queen bee again without having to share her people and space with another friend.

On a happy note, I have my first golf lesson today after work.  I have always wanted to learn how to play and Chris is a pretty avid golfer so I asked for golf lessons for my birthday in June.  I have gone to the driving range with him a few times between last fall and this spring but want to be properly taught how to play before I step onto the course.  I golfed once in Jr High and shot a 99 on a 9 hole so I really have nowhere to go but up from there.  I am aiming to beat that score and then some. :)

Until next time,

-Bessie

Mexico!!!!

From mid-May to this past weekend, life has been a little crazy in the Malone household.  I will try to give you all a quick recap of our summer so far.

Chris and I left on May 23^rd for our wedding/honeymoon trip to Mexico.  We had a wonderful time on our trip and were really glad we made the decision to do a destination wedding.  We had 23 family members and friends join us and we were grateful they were able to make it down to celebrate with us.

The wedding turned out beautiful.  The ceremony was held in a gazebo by the resort and the breeze from the ocean helped keep it a little cooler although everyone was pretty hot by the time it was done being we had the 1 pm time slot.  Our pictures turned out awesome.  I don’t have them with me at the moment so I will have to post them another time.  After the reception, we all decided we needed to cool off so we went to the pool and hung out there the rest of the night.

Besides a lot of relaxing by the pool and the ocean, we went parasailing, snorkeling in a cenote (underground river), zip lining, repelling, toured the ruins in Tulum, and Chris went deep sea fishing.  The zip line was my favorite by far.  It was so cool flying above the trees in the jungle.  Chris’ favorite was the deep sea fishing with the guys.  He caught a sail fish that was about 100 lbs and around 8 ft long.  He was so proud.  The picture has been gracing his fb page since we got back.

Mexico was so beautiful.  I would recommend taking a trip there to anyone.  The area of Riviera Maya and Cancun is still pretty safe even though the rest of the country is having some safety issues.  We even went into Playa Del Carmen one afternoon and not once did we feel unsafe while there.  The all-inclusive resort was a great option as well as once we were there we didn’t have to worry about a thing.

Since we have been back we had 4 weddings (attended 3), had our marriage blessed by the church, had a wonderfully lazy 4^th of July weekend, and are in the middle of a trial adoption for a second dog.  So far it is going well, just want a couple more days to see how Gypsy is doing with having another one around.  He is a really cute st Bernard/terrier mix that is about 55 lbs fully grown and about 3 ½ years old.  He is very sweet but has a lot of training to do so if it works out to keep him we have a lot of work ahead of us.  If he was an only dog I would have already said we would keep him for sure, but with having Gypsy we are trying to balance making him feel welcome with continuing to give her the attention she deserves as well.  I will keep you posted on how it is going.

On the home front, the painting has taken a back seat until this fall.  I was hoping to get our bedroom and the guest room painted before it got too hot out.  When we left for Mexico it was in the 70’s and we returned to 100 degree weather so with that said, the thought of painting upstairs in that heat just wasn’t going to happen.  It will be a good fall/winter project for us.  We have instead focused on our yard.  The landscaping at our house was nice but it was all rock and no plants so in the last few weeks we have added three trees, bushes in the front, and flowers in the front and back.  It has added a lot more color to the yard and we are pretty happy with how it has turned out.  We have a couple things left that we want to do in the yard but we are getting close.  I will post pictures when we are done with that as well.  I think my blog is lacking from a picture standpoint so I am going to try to do better at that.  With that said, I don’t have any pictures with me at the moment so they are going to have to wait for another time.

I hope you all have a great weekend!  We are going to focus on doggie daycare and determining if it is going to work out to keep Kodi so I will have updates soon about that.

-Bessie