We're back

So it's been a long time since I posted pics and updated everyone. Couple of things prevented my blogging. One of course Marbs. It was very painful (and still is) to sit down and try and be clever, witty, funny, you know all the things I usually am. The loss was very hard on our family. I still cry when I think about him. The worst is going in the back yard. I spent 13 years worrying about stepping in poop. I never thought I'd miss it. Brad and I did plant an oak tree for Marbie right along the fence line that he loved to walk by. Elias and I are going to go and get a garden stone and put Marbie's name on it so it can go under the tree. It's next to the other tree Marbs used to eat all the time. So Marbie's got his own little grove in the back yard.

I thought I'd want another dog right away but I don't. I miss Marbie too much and I think I'm not ready to move on. Brad and I joke that when we do get a dog that poor dog will constantly be saying to itself, "who the hell is this Marbie guy and why do they keep saying, Marbie would never do that! Jeez!" Like licking. Marbie never gave kisses. Well if you had some meat on your face maybe, but otherwise no kisses. In a way we always wished for kisses but it really wasn't too bad. He didn't lick people. I think he didn't want to lower himself to that ;

Also our laptop died. We lost everything on it and it took a couple of weeks to get up and running. It's not too easy to tie yourself to a desktop long enough to post.

Anyway, I didn't post any pics from Vermont, Halloween or anything so here's a quick recap. Vermont was fabulous. Beautiful, relaxing, and all around fun. It was so great to see our nieces Shelby and Sophie. Shelby is a pre-teen, or as the kids say tweener. Ah it brings back the memories of me at that age. Reading, sulking, sleeping, and making fun of people. Well, I still kind of do that. Sophie is your typically two-year-old, full of energy, smart and too cute. We loved visiting.

Then this weekend was Halloween. Of course we really didn't trick or treat but had to put Elias in the obligatory laugh-at-your-baby-costume. He was a skunk and surprisingly he didn't mind the costume too much. He kind of melted down at the Great Grandparent's house but he had just spent three hours in the car (most of it not sleeping) so it was warranted.

We also went to my cousin Cory's wedding this weekend. He married a wonderful girl, Hannah, and the wedding was beautiful. Elias was very talkative during the ceremony but was very good at dinner. Our friend Katie came over and watched Elias sleep while Brad and I enjoyed ourselves at the festivities.

Finally, daylight savings time is a bitch. Trying to push back a nine month old's bedtime is hard. Elias is now waking up at quarter to five, yes that's right 4:45 a.m.! Not cool. Tonight I actually got him back to 7 p.m. It was a little dicey at time's but we prevailed. On that note, Elias is crawling, commando and now regular, he pulls himself up on everything, he eats everything, he has two teeth and smiles all the time. He is just the greatest and this pictures proves it!

Go vote, or you'll be left with your pants down!

Vote, Tom Cruise says so!

Update

As you all know our beloved dog Marbie was laid to rest on Saturday. It's taken a while for me to able to talk/write about it without crying (still not successful). Marbie had been having a lot of trouble walking. We know he had been in a lot pain. This was the hardest decision Brad and I ever mad. We agonized over it. In the end we know it was the right decision to make. It was all very peaceful and Marbie fell asleep in my arms (here's where the waterworks start again).

Our house is very quiet without him, except for our now crawling, cruising, yelling nine-month-old. But there is no barking when we get home or when the pizza guy comes. No clicking on the hardwood of his nails and no shaking of his ears.

Marbie touched our lives in a way that we know no other dog will. The next dog will be a family dog, Elias' play-mate. Marbie was our first baby. Brad and I raised him from 7 weeks old in a small apartment in Madison. He moved with us four times, two states. We called him Fuzzball, Stinky, Buba, Mr. Pants, Louis Leekey, and Monkey.

Marbie will be missed every minute of every day. I miss his bed, food, and crazily enough his smell. I just finished a book The Art of Racing in the Rain where the dog believes when he dies he'll be reincarnated as a human but first his soul gets to play. I hope that Marbie's now running through fields, swimming and eating everything in sight. Hopefully he'll come to me in my dreams to let me know he's okay and I hope I'll get to see him again one day.

Marbie Mufasa

We'll always love and miss you Fuzzball.

My arm, my arm

So the reason we haven't posted in a while, besides enjoying ourselves in Vermont, is because our laptop died. Yes, dead. I feel like my right arm has been cut off. We don't know why it died, Windows Vista (yeah that is probably your answer right there) just refused to start up. Dell said that they could reload Vista but that means we LOSE EVERYTHING. All my pictures, all our emails, programs, everything.

Thankfully nowadays there is Geek Squad. Those little, tie-wearing, dark glasses geeks should be able to come to our rescue. If we bring our laptop in they should be able to put our hard drive on to an external hard drive therefore saving all our information. Once Vista is reloaded we can then put our hard drive info. back on our laptop.

So people you're going to have to wait for the beautiful pictures of Vermont, my gorgeous nieces and handsome son. Of course unless I get off my butt, walk upstairs to our laptop and actually download the pictures at the speed of molasses and then post them on the blog. If you wait long enough that might actually happen.

Talking Little Man

I've had this song in my head since having Elias.

Another day, another cold

So since we've have kids it seems like I've gotten more colds. I mean I know how I catch them from Elias, all the kisses. Seriously how can I stop giving him kisses but I thought I wouldn't catch anything from him. They say kids in their first year of life get 8-12 colds. Well parents must get at least 1/4 of them.

Elias came back from Texas with a cold that turned into an ear infection. If we weren't flying to Vermont this weekend the doc wouldn't have worried but we didn't want any ear issues on the plane so she gave him some antibiotics. For the past week Brad and I have been fighting what we assume are also sinus infections. They're not bad enough to take off work but nagging and persistent sinus issues. This comes after a cold a couple of months ago that put me out of commission for 3 work days.

Before Elias Brad and I had not gotten sick for two years! We both take vitamins and eat well but alas we're still getting sick. I have to say though, all those kisses are worth it! Have other parents experienced the same thing?