2005 - Year End Review

As far as years go 2005 just sits as "just another year". Not my favorite year, but not my least favorite either. Though it was far from a bad year.

Some good things:
*Michael finishing his Ph.D

*Shared the joy with Anya Cano's, Nisha Vishag's, Breanna Brinsfield's, Heather Cluckey's and Jacob Syma's parents as they were welcomed into this world.

*Moved to a big fancy grown up house

*Finally able to live comfortably moneywise after about 7 years of struggles and/or just making it by between the two of us.

*Having fantastic health insurance that we are more then taking advantage of

Some bad things:
*Michael loosing his very last summer break to a stupid chip and dissertation

*Michael FINALLY having to ACTUALLY work towards a degree during the spring and summer

*Moving to a city neither of us wanted to come to in the first place and having it not grow on us

*My half siblings step dad (haha, that could be confusing) passed away

*My brother in laws sweet sister, lost her battle with cancer

*And of course the worst thing that happened in the Pate house and hurt us the most was loosing our almost 7 year old doggie, Hendrix.

Ok, well after reading that it sure sounds like 2005 was actually a pretty terrible year!! hahaha
unfortunately when I think about the thing that stands out the most about 2005 two things come to mind. Moving to Dallas and loosing Hendrix.

Tonight to celebrate who else would we be with besides Mary and Jason!?!?! We are going to their place to ring in the new year. We were invited to stay the night but they have two sweet cats that irritate our allergies to no end, so we might physically die if we stay the night there. So, we booked a hotel just down the street so we don't have to drive the hour home at 1:00 am. Normally it would be ok, but Dallas drivers are so horrible on a normal day, we don't want to be on the road with a bunch of Dallas drivers who are dumb enough to get behind the wheel after a New Year's Eve celebration full of drinking.

Anyways, Here's to the end of another year and the hopeful beginning of the next!!

Bonne Annee
Godt Nytar
Feliz Ano Nuevo
C HoBbim Гogom

And Happy New Year!
Cheers.

Back in Allen

We got back last night about 10:15ish. Our plane landed at 7:45. Thats 2.5 hours from landing to walking in our door!! YIKES! There was a bad accident on the way so we were stuck in traffic for a while.

Enough about that.... heres how El Paso was:

Nice and relaxing. We didn't do much of anything but visit with the family. This was the first time I have gone home and not seen ANY of my friends. Well I saw two (Frank and Jeremy) but only cuz they swung by to pick up my brother. Christmas was fun and we got lots of fun loot to play with us! Santa was very good to us this year. We had a very good time and like always, wherever we go, the time passed too quickly.

Michael is at work today and tomorrow then he has a three day weekend. YEA!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We got in yesterday around 10:30 and were absolutly exhausted. I suppose getting up at 5:00am had something to do with it. We got back to the house, ate and tried to stay up as long as we could but by about 1:00 we had no choice but to take a nap. So we did.

We attended Christmas Eve mass which is the childrens mass and is most of the time enjoyable to see all the 'lil ones dressed up oh so cute in their Christmas clothes. Last night however, church was horrible. Babies criing everywhere, people talking. I honestly didn't get one thing out of the mass besides learning that the childrens mass doesn't seem like something I'm so interested in attneding for a while...at least till we have kiddos, then maybe. I guess most parents just think since everyone else has little bitty kids that everyone there understand that they can't keep them quiet. Oh well. What can you do. Afterwards we headed over to my moms friends house for a little christmas party which is always fun.

Joe got to town this morning and we opened presents and he passed out shortly after. It should be a relaxing day.

Anyways, Just wanted to wish everyone a very merry and joyful Christmas. :o)
So MERRY CHRISTMAS!

4 months

I can't believe we have been here 4 months today already! This past month has gone by very quickly. It is probably a mix of that we have been out of town a decent amount and had our anniversary and are getting ready for Christmas. It seems Thanksgiving till Christmas goes by fast every year though. Not much has changed here in the past month. I think we have finally found a routine that fits us. It had been really difficult juggling going to the gym after Michael got off work and then finding time to eat and have a little time to relax in there, but finally we got it all to work. Michael has been going into work later. Usually he gets there at 9ish. When we first got here, he was getting there at about 7. He makes his way home usually between 5-6 and I pick him up from the train station and we head straight to the gym. By the time that is over it is usually about 7:30 -8:30 depending on what our workout is and we come home and eat dinner watch a little TV and hang out a little bit before heading to bed, then we start all over! :) It has made this a little less complicated now that we kind of know what we are doing on a day to day basis.

We are both still annoyed by how big it is here and honestly I doubt that will change at all. I'm annoyed that on an average day to run 2 or 3 errands it will take me usually about 5 hours. That's too much of my life being wasted on stupid things like going to the bank or dry cleaners and grocery shopping. In Lubbock I could have gotten 2 or 3 errands done in about 1.5 hours. Oh well, I'll put up with it for now. I can't even imagine how we would get anything done if we were both working. The house would be a mess cuz neither of us would want to clean it, we would probably not eat as well and healthy as we do now because neither of us would want to spend the time cooking and we'd never get anything done because we wouldn't have time to do our errands, and finally our evenings and weekends would be completely lost because they would be spent doing all the things that we couldn't get done during the week. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

So anyways, 4 months down...Hopefully only 8 months to go!! Wow, we only have to do what we have already done 2 more times! I think we can survive that! Once the new year starts rolling we will probably start getting some details of our move and we are looking forward to that!

The Doctor is in

I'm sure Michael has had about enough of being called Dr. , then again, maybe not! He earned the title and should be proud to hear it! Honestly though, I think Dr. Pate was the only thing he was called all weekend long. It was very humorous. We had a BLAST in Lubbock. My mom and her best friend came up for graduation and my brother was there, but of course, he lives in Lubbock. Michaels mom, step dad, sister and her boyfriend all came in, as did his dad. We had a wonderful time getting to see everyone, though we didn't get to spend much time with anyone because we were so busy. We spent little bits and pieces with people here and there.

The ceremony was wonderful. Michael looked all grown up and dignified especially when you saw him standing next to someone getting their bachelors degree. He walked and got hooded in the first row of graduates, then we sat through the rest of the ceremony which was less wonderful and much more boring! Everyone was so increadibly proud of Michael. You could see it on everyones faces and in their eyes. His mom definately won the "Michael's biggest fan" award for the day! Which is very impressive because she beat me by a landslide!! She was so cute, everytime Michael would look up into the stands she would jump up as fast as she could and start waving to him. He would give her a simple cute wave back everytime.



We did Christmas with his moms side of the family Saturday and went to Christmas lunch with his dads side of the family on Sunday. It was really nice for us to have both Christmas's in Lubbock this weekend, and to have Chrstmas in El Paso next weekend because we won't have to miss anyones Christmas this year. What makes it super nice, is that we probably won't make it to any Christmas's home next year and doubt anyone will come to visit us for Christmas, but don't feel sorry for us. We are already planning on a "Christmas in Vienna" or "Christmas in Venice" or something to that extent. Check out this Montley Crew!! (This is Michaels mom's side of the family)



We got to the airport about an hour and a half before our flight left and the girl at the counter was able to bump us up onto an earlier flight. As soon as we went though security we walked right onto the plane. I'm glad we were able to catch that flight. It got us home much earlier.

It was a fun weekend, now we are back for the week. Wednesday is Pate/Partney Christmas at our place and then Saturday morning we head to El Paso for actual Christmas. I think the week will go by quickly.

I have all the pictures from graduation up in our photogallery here : Graduation

Heading Home...Again!!!

We had a really nice anniversary. Though it reminded us why we never ever go out to eat.
1. It takes to long to get anywhere. We were in the car to come home for an hour. How ridiculous.
2. It takes to long to get anywhere...haha...

Michael got off work a little early and we headed to P.F. Changs. We had thought about trying something new and different and local that isn't a chain, but since we eat out usually once every month and that's usually with people when we do eat out, we like going back to old favorites. We ate and ordered cheesecake to go and brought that home to eat with champagne. yummy!

Michael sent me 2 red roses for the 2 years we have been married. The company forgot to include the vase with it, so they are resending me 2 more roses with a vase! So the flowers were like a gift that just keeps giving. I got Michael a nice set of PJs and fuzzy socks! :)

tomorrow evening we are heading to Lubbock. Michael is walking at graduation on Saturday where he will be hooded and become officially Dr. Michael Pate. It's already official, but he will get the piece of paper the proves it! WHOO HOO! Then Saturday night we are doing Christmas with his mom's side of the family and then Sunday it's Christmas with his dads side. It's going to be a very very busy weekend. We will come home Sunday night and rest for a week then heading to El Paso for Christmas. Can't believe its just about a week away.

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Wow, two years already! Time sure does fly by, it seems like just yesterday!

That's all for now!

Jack Frost Comes to Town

It is FREEZING outside. Yesterday some big "artic" (as they are calling it) storm blew through. It blew around sleet on and off all day yesterday and today left the city under a sheet of ice. Most of the school districts around here closed early yesterday and Michael started his little treck home at about 3:00 as did many others. It was the perfect night for chile so I made a big 'ol pot of that and we watched "March of the Penguins" which by the way is FANTASTIC. Today it is noon and Michael is still at home. The roads are a mess even though there is no snow it is just all ice. Most schools got the day off and up at TI, Klaus (A friend from Denmark that works up there) let Michael know there were only about 10 or so people around there. Sure Michael can take the DART (train) to work, but we have to drive 8 miles to get him there. The ice on the house and some outside started to melt earlier, but has since stopped and everything is still frozen solid.

It seems like the city as a whole takes way more precautions and was more prepared then Lubbock ever was. The thing we found funny though is that everyone was basically panicking before anything ever hit where as in Lubbock the city seems to just go on with life and waits for it to hit and then waits about 5 hours after that to do anything about it. The only thing I could come up with for the drastic difference is that there are about a bazillion (yes, a BAZILLION) more people here then in Lubbock so the city HAS to be more prepared to take care of that many more people. The only other option I have is that Dallas is filled with a bunch of pansies that don't know how to handle ice/snow storms!! So you be the judge: Well prepared because of all the people, or big pansies??

Michael may still head to work before too long, but we will have to see what the roads do. Good news is he doesn't have to take a personal day for this and is able to work from home. TI is the company that would rather have an employee working from home then a dead employee.

Drama in the Suburbs

Ah, life in the suburbs. Everyone has nice houses, kids play in the street, people walk their dogs at all hours of the day, most houses have at least one nice car parked outside, and the streets are made of concrete..yup concrete. Stereotypically in most TV shows these are the neighborhoods that have all sorts of things going on behind closed doors. While I can't say all these houses have something going on, I know at least one does. Our garage (along with everyone else's) is located in the back of the house on a shared ally. (very pretty ally might I add) The house directly across from ours in the ally is having issues. One night Michael was taking out the trash and the couple was in their driveway screaming and yelling. Michael said all he heard was the girl saying something about him hitting her. Well that ended quickly, but since, every once and a while they wake us up in the middle of the night or as we are getting ready for bed, screaming and yelling at each other again, sometimes it sounds like a cat fight, other times like kids. Who knows what's going on over there, but obviously they are having problems. So why am I telling you all of this? Well yesterday I got home at about 2:30 pm from running some errands and took some bags into the house, when I came back out to the car in the garage, there was a cop in the driveway of the house across the ally with his gun out and sticking in front of him, he was moving very slowly and never turned around to me though I was making noise. He walked up the driveway and then slipped in between the house and its neighbor. I came right in, shut the garage door and locked all the doors. I have no clue what was going on or even if it had anything to do with the problems that house has been having. I'm going to keep checking the Allen paper online to see the police reports and maybe eventually I can find out what was going on. While I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy it would make me personally feel much better if it was a family violence call and not some reported theft or burglary or something of that matter, especially now that I am usually home during the day, alone with no big black guard dog to protect me. Anyways, this is the first time I haven't felt safe by myself in YEARS. I guess I never realized the extent to which having Hendrix around made me more at ease.

90 what degrees?

Yesterday, December 3rd, the high temperature was yup, 90 degrees here in Allen. Now I guess I could understand that if we were in like in South Texas but we are in North Texas and it is 90 degrees in December. That is just insane to both of us. We were in tank tops coming out of the gym and it was still hot. Today is much better. I suppose a cold front came through overnight and we are looking at a high in the 50s todays. Our friends from Dallas weren't kidding when they told us to expect a very mild winter compared to what we are use to up in the panhandle. I guess next year will more then make up for it so we should enjoy the mild winter and next year freeze during the nordic winter. :o)

We are off to get a Christmas tree now!!!

Survived the First Month

Yesterday (November 1st) was the one month mark from the day we had to say goodbye to Hendrix. It's very hard to believe that a month has passed already! It seems like it was yesterday, but at the same time it seems like it has been forever since he was here with us. We still have our bad moments from time to time, but they are becoming further apart. Everyone keeps offering us puppies or dogs or asking if we are getting another one anytime soon.

Our answer: absolutly not!!

Why?
1. For now, we aren't ready to get attached to another dog and get our hearts broken again

2. Life for us currently is going to be much easier without a dog (Don't get me wrong, we were willing to make things difficult if Hendrix had still been with us). Moving Overseas wasn't going to be easy having him, but we wouldn't have had it any other way.

Thats my thought for the day...

Fun Girls Day

Yesterday my AWESOME friend Mary treated the two of us to 9-step facials from Georgette Klinger. Her mom gave her a "hefty" gift certificate she wasn't using and was enough for both of us to do the facial's and chemical peels. The girl that did my stuff told me I had a great friend if she was willing to share her gift certificate. I had to agree!! It was a wonderful place. We each had a private dressing room with keys to leave our stuff in and to change into robes. Our treatments each lasted a little over an hour and when we were done we got the best lemon water I've ever had. The whole expirence made me want to go back to the place in Costa Rica where the four of us (Mary, Jason, Michael and me) lounged around in hot springs and got massages at the hot springs spa. We walked a few doors down to a really cute place for lunch where we had salads and mimosas. YUM. After lunch we walked around some shops in the shopping center and then drove around the "rich" part of Dallas looking at the big fancy houses and making fun of the tasteless and tacky Christmas decorations. When we were done I had enough time to go sit at the TI parking lot and read a book for a bit waiting for Michael to get done and then hit the gym at the TI he works at for a couple hours. We came home, ate, sat around for a bit and went to bed. In short, it was a good relaxing day!!!

Allen, Texas...Take 2

We made it back safe and sound. We had an excellent Thanksgiving and it was great to be home for a few days. Okay okay, I know El Paso should be home and it is and always will be, but Lubbock will be home too. It's been home to me for 6 years and been home to Michael since he was born, so it's home too! It was busy, but relaxing at the same time. We saw lots of Michaels family and my brother and that was good for us.

The weather was so beautiful and autumn feeling with colored trees and cool crisp air. It felt like Thanksgiving. Yesterday though the weather got nasty with lots of wind and that lovely farm dirt covered the sky with a blanket of dirt. Ah, home.. The place where the skies are brown and the smell of oil and feed lots fill the air! Sounds heavenly huh?

Now that we are back we are going to hope and wish and pray that this time around in Allen, we don't have as many bad experiences happen as our first three months here. The only thing worse that could possibly happen is if Michael or I got seriously hurt, sick or worse. I can't imagine anything as bad as loosing Hendrix will happen so hopefully we have overcome the worst of our time here. If that is the worst thing that does happen, our last 9 months will be smooth in comparison. Like I said previously December will go quickly since we will be out of town for so much of it and have Christmas, New Years and our two year anniversary in there.

Hub City...Here We Come

Well, we are just about ready to head outta here to head back to the South Plains of West Texas! YIPEE!! All I have left to do is pack up my computer (because we are both geeks and can't leave town without them) and check everything around the house, oh, and wait for Michael to get off work too. I don't think he would be so happy if I left without him. We should be getting out of here about 2:00 (it's only 11:30 now)

I baked us a big ol' loaf of banana nut bread to snack on while we are on the road and we will grab some Starbucks on the way out. We are taking back a bunch of Christmas presents so we don't have to lug them on the plane when we head back for Michaels graduation or to El Paso for Christmas. My mom will take those back to El Paso for me when she comes to Michaels graduation.

The saddest part is we left Lubbock with 3 of us in our little family, and now there is only 2 which really just makes us a couple with no family :( We packed up all of the stuff that was Hendrix's that we don't need anymore. We had just gotten him a new 20 lb bag of top of the line dog food, and new dog dishes that we only had about 2 weeks, he still had tons of treats of multiple sorts, and a new big bottle of vitamins. We have some older stuff too an electric water dish so the water doesn't freeze in the winter, a fancy ccontraption to brush the undercoat off of him... Well now that we don't need any of this, we have tons of people in Lubbock with doggies and thought we would share all this stuff with them. Hopefully it will all get good use. What ever is not used we will probably donate to the Allen Animal Shelter. Of course there is still stuff we are keeping. All of his old Collars, Leashes, his two favorite toys and a water dish he has had since he was a pup.

Well time to pack this thing up and finish around here. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Don't forget to take a moment tomorrow to think about everything you are thankful for. No matter how bad life can seem sometimes if you look deep enough, you'll see there are blessings hidden everywhere.

Cha cha cha cha changes...

Living in the Allen area has given us some first hand proof that this area is growing at a very quick pace. In just the 3 months we have been here there has been so much that has changed in just the small neighborhood we live in. When we arrived there were two large empty fields on the west side and south side of our neighborhood. Now we only have one. The one to the south has become a huge construction site for a new neighborhood. In less then 1 week it went from a pretty field to dirt with roads. They are now to the point where there will be houses going up any day now.

One of the main roads to get to our house use to be a four way stop with stop signs. Last week stop lights went up. They don't work yet, but any day now I'm sure they will. Also at the entrance to our neighborhood was a really old lookin' house. Now the house has been put on a truck and I'm sure any day now the entire house will drive away. A block away there is a new elementary school being built. It has gone from a frame to almost a complete building already. It won't open until next fall, but it is already being projected that it will be at capacity immediately. I read today that Allen is in fact the fastest growing segment of the DFW area with a growth rate of an estimated 11.50%. Look at these population numbers:

2000 =43,554
2004= 66,341

Ok, enough with the Allen facts and figures. Just thought it was kinda interesting.

Our weekend

Wow, what a busy and fun weekend we just had!!!

Friday: As most people know, we do holidays with Mary and Jason and switch off. Well Friday night was our early Thanksgiving at their place in Ft. Worth. It took us forever and a year to get there because of traffic but we were greeted at the front door with mini bottles of Champagne with straws. (How does it get any better then that??) Dinner was spectacular, juicy turkey, yummy dressing and the best sweet potatoes we had ever had. The trick? They didn't put any type of sugar or anything on them and they were sooooo good! Michael normally doesn't like sweet potatoes but he had seconds on these! After dinner and dessert we played around on a new electric drum set that they acquired and decorated the Christmas tree. We had a lot of fun. On our drive back to Allen we got caught in traffic at 1:00 in the morning! ! Now that's just insane. Stupid big city!

Here we are with our mini champagne!!

Saturday: Our friends Indu and Vishag were in town from San Marcos to pick up Vishags parents from DFW coming to visit for several months from India. This is the first time they met their grandbaby, so everyone was excited. They swung by our house for about 15-20 minutes to see our place and we could see each other. Nisha has gotten so big! It seems like just yesterday she was born. When they left Michaels high school buddy Blake and his friend Ashley came by. Blake was in town from Upstate New York where he is in the Navy. We watched the last half of the Tech/OU Game and oh man, what a game. At one point, Tech wouldn't score at the very end and Blake threw his glasses across our living room. It was quite hysterical. With only 4 seconds left Tech BARELY made it across the goal line as the clock ran out to win the game. FANTASTIC!

That evening we went to the Moscow Ballet's performance of the Nutcraker. They were phenomenal. We had box seats and a TON of room where we were sitting. Our own chairs that didn't share arm rests and a great view of the event. We got there had a glass of wine and took another in with us to the performance (because we could). It was much fun and we got home in time to catch most of Saturday Night Live.

Sunday: Finally a day to relax. We hit the gym in the morning and bummed around the house the rest of the day.

I got up pictures from our Halloween with the Partneys.
Check them out in the photo gallery at: www.mnp8.com

I hope to get our early Thanksgiving pictures up soon as well.

Almost 3 months

Ok we are a few days shy of our 3 month mark, but don't know if I'll get a chance to post again around the 20th.

Well, for obvious reasons (puppy) our 3rd month here SUCKED!! Not only did we deal with Hendrix getting sick and then loosing him, we had some tire problems and had to get a new tire, dental problems and at work, Michael has been worked to the bone because they are up against a deadline and so things are getting pretty crazy down there and it is stressful. Hopefully things will calm down soon.

I should also probably clear up the fact that neither of us really HATE Dallas as I seem to notice that is the attitude we are giving everyone. It's more that, we haven't grown fond of it yet and we would rather be somewhere else (as my brother Joe put it about Lubbock). I can see why so many people love it, but I can also see why so many people swear they will never come back. For us, and our lifestyle, it really isn't a great match. Dallas seems very busy and bustling and we are more laid back, quiet and calm people.

We are looking forward to getting away for a few days at Thanksgiving to get a breath of fresh air in someplace we love. While most people despise Lubbock. I think we have much more there then most and that's why we enjoy it there. You know that little thing called, "family" can make a HUGE difference in any place you live.

We have had a decent amount of people asking us if we are still going back to Denmark. The answer....You must be on drugs if you think we would say no after being here!! Just kidding, of course we are!! We think that being here for a year, is really going to help make our transition back to Denmark easier. We will be going from somewhere we are "putting up with" to somewhere we love. We will have already been out of Lubbock for a year so we will have already gotten over any homesickness that might have occurred from being in Lubbock before here. So start making your plans to come and see us over there. We LOVE visitors!

I think from now until January 1st will be much better.......Because we will be out of town for 13 days of it!! hahaha... :o) (Thanksgiving, Michaels graduation, Christmas)

Nothing Exciting

We had a great time with Michael's grandparents. We took them to P.F. Changs and to Panera Bread and they enjoyed them both. Other then that, we pretty much sat around and talked the rest of the time. Oh, and of course we watched the Texas Tech/ A&M game and watched our boys destroy those aggies! GO TECH!!! It was refreshing to have some more familiar faces from home here to visit.

Besides that, nothing exciting at all is going on here. Its been a week yesterday that we said,"goodbye" to Hendrix and we are sadly getting use to not having him around. This past week seems like it has been SOOOOooooooo long. Hopefully the weeks will start passing quickly once again. We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow for Lubbock and are very very excited. I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks. The weather feels like it should still be September!!

Gotta Get Outta Here!!!

Well after all thats been going on and the heartache and headaches that Dallas has given us, we decided we needed a little break. It didn't take long to make the decision to go back to Lubbock for Thanksgiving. We hadn't planned on it, mostly because it was more difficult to get away for a longer amount of time with Hendrix to take care of. Both of us have had it up to here (Picture my hand up to my head) with Dallas and just want to escape. We figured Lubbock would give us a breath of fresh air and it would give us a chance to regroup and help make it through till 2006. We are heading there for Michaels graduation December 16th-18th, but that is still 6 weeks away where as Thanksgiving is just 3. Also over graduation we will be pretty busy and won't get a chance to relax. So anyways, we are looking forward to getting out of here for a long weekend.

Michaels grandparents are coming to visit us today and we are looking forward to that. It will be nice to see them.

We are hanging in there. Each day gets a little easier. We got a card in the mail from the animal hospital. The card itself had a nice little story, if you will, written on the front that was so sad, but so comforting at the same time. If you have ever lost a pet, this might choke you up, but I'm going to type it anyways:

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven lies the Rainbow Bridge.

When a beloved pet dies, it goes to the Rainbow Bridge. It makes friends with other animals and frolics over rolling hills and peaceful, lush meadows of green.

Our pets do not thirst or hunger. The old and sick are made young once more; the maimed and the ill become healed and strong. The are as healthy and playful as we remember them in days gone by.

Though happy and content, they still miss someone very special, someone they had to leave behind.

Together, the animals chase and play, but the day comes when a pet will suddenly stop and look into the distance...Bright eyes intent, eager body quivering. Suddenly recognizing you, your pet bounds quickly across the green fields and into your embrace. You celebrate in joyous reunion. You will never again separate. Happy tears and kisses are warm and plenty; your hands caress the face you missed. You look once more into the loving eyes of your pet and know you never really parted. You realized that though out of sight, your love had been remembered.

And now, you cross the Rainbow Bridge together...

~M.A. Preston

Inside the doctor told us he was very sorry for our loss and all that good stuff. I thought that was very nice of them. We are still waiting to hear if Hendrix tested positive for something called "Leptisporosis" because apparently it is possible to transfer it from animal to human. Not that either of us have it, but so that we are aware of it for the future. There is a small chance he had it but they are convinced he was simply born with bad kidneys. We are interested in the results.

Bad Gone Horribly Horribly Worse

Last night was completely not what we expected. The doctor called us in the afternoon to let us know Hendrix's progress and unfortunately his the levels in his kidneys had not dropped much at all. For example, one of his levels was at 120 when we took him in and yesterday afternoon it had dropped to 90. Well it should have been down to 20. Not good. Apparently they believe Hendrix was born with bad kidneys and this was pretty much a long time coming. They doctor let Michael know they were going to intensify the therapy (IV) and they would keep a close eye on him over the night because they were going to go at it so hard if not monitored correctly it could cause some lung problems and/or pneumonia. He also told Michael they would keep treating him as long as we wanted to and it was all our call. We could take him home if we wanted to, but within days or a week or so he would get real sick again and we would be there doing the same thing. When we took him on Saturday the doc told us that if his levels didn't drop in a couple days that that was probably all they could do.

Visiting hours started at 7pm so after Michael got off work we sucked it up and headed to the gym to pass an hour and then headed to the hospital. We arrived to find the most awful sight we could have. Hendrix looked HORRIBLE. It was like he gave up and didn't have anything left to give. Honestly he looked as if he went backwards 200% from when we took him in on Saturday. He did wag his tail a little bit when he saw us so that was nice. We took him outside so he could use the restroom, which he did, but afterwards he came and sat by us and just laid down on his side. He was shaking and honestly looked like he was crying. You know how when people cry their bodies kinda move around and shake, well that's what he looked like. I am sure some of it was depression and not happy about being caged up in a strange place with strangers around and us there just for a little bit each day, but the bottom line was even if we brought him home and he perked up, his bloodwork was still bad and he would continue to be sick. Michael said the second he saw Hendrix when we got there, he knew he didn't have anything left to give. Neither of us had the heart to let him suffer overnight and couldn't leave him there looking like that and knew it was probably best to have him put to sleep. Michael had to carry him in he was so limp, he couldn't even hold his head up. We talked to the technician for a while and they gave us a private room where they laid a fluffy pillow on the ground for him to lay on and we could talk. We had about 30-45 minutes with him in the room before the doctor could come and do anything which was nice and we got to say our goodbyes. I told Hendrix that he would be growing little wings soon and of course scratched his belly and his foot shook like it always did. Both Michael and I believe he probably would not have lasted through the night. We left as soon as the doctor came in with the shot so we didn't leave him in the room alone before it happened. As we walked out the doctor kneeled on the floor and was petting him and I heard him say, "Hey buddy, how ya doin?" So I know the doctor was nice and comforting to him. I know by the time we reached the car he was already following us in spirit happy and ready for the car ride home. We were at the hospital for a good 2 hours or so, just to give you an idea how long we were with him before we left. Pretty much this has been a really crappy weekend and start to the week.

As for us, we are O.K. , as good as can be expected. This was and has been and will continue to be honestly one of the most difficult, horrible and saddest things either of us have ever had to do. He was our first dog. Michael gave him to me for Easter the first year we were dating (6.5 years ago). So really he has been a part of our lives almost as long as Michael and I have been in each others lives. He gave us nothing but wonderful, happy and funny memories and he will be missed.

Monday Puppy Update

Michael got a call from the doctor this afternoon with the results from the bloodwork. The three levels that were really high are going down, but they are not going down as much as the docs were hoping. He let Michael know that this wasn't bad news, it was just news and that they are still positive about the situation. Apparently some dogs take a little bit more time for these levels to drop signifigantly hopefully that is the case now. The docs are waiting for the results for some other tests they are running for different diseases to see if one of them hits the mark. We may call up there later to see if they have them yet. I went to see him today and he seems to be doing well, but I think he noticed quickly that Michael wasn't there. He is honestly like our kid. To him, I'm mom, always there and always ready to snuggle with him, but Michael is dad and is like his hero that he plays with so he usually shows a little more excitement when Michael's around. Anyways, he was walking around a bit easier and quicker. Last night he apparently got a "mighty dog" score on his eating, which they told me means, he ate alot, so thats GREAT! He also seemed to be more curious of his surronding while we were walking and even stopped at his neighbors cage (A boxer) and looked at him for a bit and then they sniffed each others noses. Yesterday he didn't even care about the boxer in the cage.

On a happier note (because everything is happier then a sick doggie) I'm tired of this giant city. It's just tooooo freakin' big!!!! While I'm glad that there is a great place for Hendrix in Irving, the drive there is very stressful because people in Dallas SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED ON THE ROAD!!! They are dangerous and insane. I could rant for hours but I'll spare you.

Hope everyone has a very happy and safe Halloween!!!

Pet Hospital Update

We just got back from visiting puppy in the hospital. (Gosh, we've always thought people who put their dogs in the hospital or even just gave them an IV were crazy but we have realized it's totally different when your in the situation and you have to make a decision and you look at your dog with an IV pumping in him already looking at you with puppy dog eyes that look like they are saying, "Please make me feel better." I think I understand now why people go through so much for their doggies. Now for many people we know, we will be the crazy people who actually put their dog in a hospital for 3 days, but I sincerely hope that everyone reading this never has to find out for themselves that you would do the same thing)

Anyways, we left with much more positive attitudes then we did yesterday. He looks great and his attitude has improved a whole bunch. He ate a little while we were there and that's a huge step for him. He has three levels that were really high on the charts and they are going to do more blood work tomorrow to see where his levels are at. Hopefully they will be waaaaay down. The doctor told us today that he didn't want to paint us a rosey picture but that everything is looking terrific. He assured us that assuming his levels go down that whatever has caused this will be either curable or manageable. They aslo let us know that he is probably not actually having kidney failer, but just kidney problems. (which is a good thing) We are still anxious to see how the bloodwork results come back, but after seeing him today we are both more calm about the situation. Still keep your fingers crossed that he comes out of this ok!! While we were there we got to take him out of his cage and walk him around outside. His tail started wagging as soon as he saw Michael and he jumped out of his cage just as fast as he could, which was a huge improvement since he hadn't wagged his tail in days. So I think he was happy to see us. :o) His nose was freezing cold again which is also TERRIFIC. It is still real chapped but it is also getting wet again.

The doctors at this place are amazing and we feel confident they are doing everything in their power to help us and him. Here's a few pictures of him today.

Taking Hendrix on a walk around the vet building

Hendrix's IV in his leg

Hendrix's living quarters
You can see a cord hanging down, it is the cord from a radio
that is always playing music for the dogs in this area.

Halloween Horrors

Oh man, what a god awful Saturday yesterday was.
Friday night Hendrix's little nose was turning very chapped and he wasn't looking so good. He hadn't been wanting to eat for the past three days and so we decided on Saturday morning, he needed to go to the vet and we took him. The first place we went to comped our exam and sent us somewhere else because he looked so bad. So we drove to a pet hostpital in Irving and much to our surprise and horror his blood work came back that he was having kidney failer. Both of our hearts sank into our chests. He is in the hosptial right now with a shaved leg and an IV pumping liquids at a very fast rate into his little body. The Dr. told us they are basically flooding his system to wash out the toxins in his kidneys. They basically told us if we hadn't brought him in, he wouldn't have made it much longer. Theyalso told us that he has a great chance of getting though this, but it will all depend on what the underlying cause of it is. We should have an idea of his progression today. When we left they let us go back and see him. He was on a big huge comfy pillow looking thing with a radio playing above him, and in the three hours we sat there he had already started to look a little more perkey. He will be in the hospital until Tuesday. Get this, the hospital has visiting hours. If we get some spare time we will try to go see him today. So please keep your fingers crossed and say lots of puppy prayers that our little fuzzball comes out of this ok.

We have had a Halloween party planned with Mary and Jason for, well, since last halloween actually and they told us several times they understood if we weren't up to it, but we were. We both thought it would be a good way to keep our minds off of Hendrix so made them come over. We had a wonderful time, we always do, but it was extra nice to have stuff to laugh at and people to laugh with after a really bad day.

We are all kinda dorks and dressed up even though it was just the four of us eating dinner.
Jason was "Self Absorbed" Mary was "The Dark Mark" (From Harry Potter) I was a Flapper and Michael was a Frat guy going to a toga party. Hendrix had a costume too. He was going to be a baseball player. I think he actually decided to get sick so he didn't have to wear the costume all night long. :o)

Finally Fall

Oh my gosh, has fall finally arrived here in Allen? Its about damn time!! After all it is almost November. A cold front came in last night and the temperature dropped to 58 degrees from humid upper upper 80's. It feels fantastic and Hendrix couldn't be happier about it. Speaking of Hendrix, we got a flea collar and it seemed to solve the flea problem, thank goodness. We have been putting him out when we leave a lot more since it is cooling off and last night he spend his first night outside again since we moved here. We hadn't planned on making him sleep outside just yet, but he wouldn't come inside, so we just left him out. I'm sure he is just enjoying the cooler weather.

Not much else is going on. We STARTED to watch the Tech/UT game yesterday and couldn't watch anymore about half way through the second quarter. We started so good and then just fell. Too bad too, it had potential to be a great game.

Finally we got our tickets to Lubbock for Michaels graduation and we can't wait to get back there. It will be hard to leave again. We got the tickets for about $50 total because we had some free vouchers. We also got out tickets for El Paso for Christmas which also cost about $50 total because we had more free vouchers and Michael cashed in his miles. We had planned to use the vouchers and miles to go on some big trip somewhere, but oh well. Graduation and Christmas are waaaay more important, especially because we are in the last 10ish months in this country before we head out indefinitely. Wow, only 10 months left in the US... Crazy!?!?!

Check out our photogallery. I'm about to put up some pictures from Fort Worth and from my cousin came to see us.

Cow Town

Finally, we went to Fort Worth to see Mary and Jason's place. While they don't live in the best part of Ft. Worth their building is adorable. They are living in a historic 100 year old red brick apartment building and the inside is so charming, cozy and warm that it hurts. Mary is one of those people that decorating comes so incredibly natural to her that it makes you sick. I'm sure people would pay her bookoos of money for her to come fix up their place. We've already informed her that when we move back to Denmark She's coming with us to fix up our place so its cute.

Anyways, back to Ft. Worth. We had a blast. Immediately we could tell that the pace of life was much much slower there then in Dallas. It was a pleasant escape. More tourists and tourist places, less insane business people and way less people that seem to only care about the way they look and never felt the "keeping up with the Jones" attitude that is on every corner of where we live.

We went to lunch at the best Mexican Food I have ever had outside of El Paso at Joe T Garcias
( http://www.joets.com/ ) Really this place was so good that it would give some of the best Mexican restaurants in El Paso some amazing competition. It tasted like home and now every time we find ourselves anywhere near Ft. Worth, we are gonna have to go. Oh and the magaritas were to die for. Probably one of the best ones I have ever had. It wasn't the extremely sweet tasting margarita that you get at every Tex Mex place, but a real true margarita. YUM!

After lunch we headed to the Historic Stock Yards, a Log Cabin Village, the Botanical Gardens and Downtown Fort Worth for dinner. So finally I found a place in the Metroplex that I really enjoy.... Fort Worth! The city itself seemed to fit both Michaels and my personality better then Dallas ever has. It was also the first time since we moved I wasn't stressed about being in the car or driving in fear that I was going to die. Why's it got to be an hour away?? Stupid giant metroplex.

Fleas, Fleas and More Fleas

I hate ticks. I hate fleas.
Hate is a strong word, and I really mean it when I say, "I hate ticks and fleas."

We finally learned how to control our ticks in Lubbock and how to keep them off of Hendrix and how to prevent them and treat them. When we had everything under control and had a tick free summer we picked up and moved here.

(Enter the fleas)

When we got here one of our good friends had told us that in Dallas it's not a matter of if your dog gets fleas, but when. So they have arrive and are driving poor Hendrix absolutely crazy. I've bathed him, sprayed him with flea stuff and its not helping. I think today we will go get some frontline and see how that works. If it doesn't fix him it will be time to take him to the vet. He has little scabs all over from where he has been bitten. We both feel so helpless and sad that he is uncomfortable right now. Cross your fingers this frontline will get rid of the ones on him. We'll give it a week and then head to the doctor.

I'll say it again... I hate fleas!

Almost 2 Months...

Well we have been here ALMOST two months. It will be 2 months in about a week. So far, well I'm not learning to love Dallas at all. In fact, I'm learning to dislike it even more then before we got here. If it weren't for two things, I think I would be going absolutely crazy. (besides Michael and Hendrix of course)

#1 - Our house. I love this house, wish I could pack it up and move it wherever we go. It's big, it's pretty, it's new, and it doesn't look like any of the other cookie cutter houses in the neighborhood. Everyone has red brick around here, but we have grey. I've never been one to follow the crowd and have never liked doing what everyone else is so this place is perfect. I love this house!

#2 - Mary. If Mary and Jason were still in Lubbock and hadn't moved to Fort Worth I don't know what I would do. Sure, we know lots and lots and lots of people in Dallas but everyone is so spread so far apart that we never get to see any of them. While Mary and Jason are further away, Mary finds herself in this part of the Metroplex often with some work she has been doing so I hop along with her and keep her company. Its a little strange that she doesn't live 1 minute away anymore, but at least she is closer then she will be next year this time. :(

So in short, I'm living in the armpit of Texas known as Dallas. Which is really bad since I'm from El Paso!! Ok ok, Houston is the armpit of Texas.
How about this: Dallas is the right armpit and Houston is the left.
Only 10 more months!! THANK GOD! :o)

Cousin comes to visit

First, sorry its been a while since I updated this thing. Got several emails about it and I guess I didn't realize it had been so long since I wrote anything here. Oops!

My cousin Russ came in town last Thursday and left yesterday. We had a really great time. Did some shopping (spent about 4 hours in IKEA) and hit six flags, southfork ranch (where Dallas was filmed) and did more shopping. Michael loved that there was someone that wanted to go to 6 flags with him because he never gets to go because I am not a roller coaster fan. It's not that I'm scared of them or that they make me sick. I just don't like them. When I was younger I use to, but now, I just don't. Mary and Jason and Klaus went with us so we had lots of great company. Southfork Ranch is located literally right down the street from us. Its about a 5 minute drive, if that. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. We had a great time with Russ and by the time it was time for him to leave, it felt like he had just gotten here. Hopefully he will make it down here again before we move. There was lots we didn't hit that he was interested in doing. Lots of people out there are usually glad when they have to bid the relatives farewell but both this time with Russ and when Michaels mom and crew all left we wouldn't have minded them all to stay even longer.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday I turned 26. Now I'm closer to 30 then I am to 20.. yikes, that's scary! I had a nice relaxing day and didn't do a thing until the evening. Mary and Jason met us in Dallas for dinner and then we grabbed some coffee. It was nice of them to come all the way here just for my birthday. They told me they wouldn't miss it for anything though.

The weather is suppose to start cooling off today with the rain we are getting from RITA. We have still been in the 100's with humidity and its been just horrible. The rain should put us in the 80's which will be much more pleasant.

This is the first weekend in what seems like forever that we don't have any plans! It will be nice to play it by ear and not worry much about everything we have had going on. Next Sunday Michael is heading to New Hampshire for 2 days for another conference. We floated the idea of us both going up on Friday and making a long weekend out of it, but decided against it. It's probably better that way anyways because its still so hot, we aren't able to just leave Hendrix outside yet like we usually would. Please Dallas, please cool off....

House Guests

Well Michaels family came and left. It was great to have them around for the weekend. They were excited to come and check out our new place and city. We had a full house -Michaels mom, stepdad, sister and her boyfriend. It was really great that our place was big enough to hold all of us very comfortably. Hendrix also enjoyed all the extra attention he got. We celebrated 3 birthdays. Michaels moms, sisters and mine. They gave me a crock pot which I have been wanting for some time now. Funny thing is, I didn't think of a crock pot when people started asking what I wanted for my birthday. Apparently, they were talking to Nana (Michaels grandmother) and she said, I know what Nichole wants, and told them a crock pot! I was so surprised. I think next year, I'm going to be asking Nana what I want because she always does that kind of stuff. I swear she knows more about Michael and I then we do ourselves!

The weather here is just awful. We are still in the 100's and will be for the next few days. I am really anticipating fall. I just love autumn, but it doesn't seem to want to come yet. It is predicted to get down into the 80's next week, but I am not holding my breath for it.

Carpe Vino

Wine festival was fun. We got there at 10:00 and stayed till about 4:30. While it wasn't like the other wine festivals we have been to in the past it was still pretty neat. It felt more like a street festival then a wine festival. You actually had to go searching for the wine here. Others we have been to, it was hard to see anything BUT wine!! I suppose it had to do something with that it wasn't taking place at an actual winery and just in a town. It was great hanging out with Mary and Jason. We did some shopping, some eating, some drinking, more shopping, more eating, more drinking.... Good times :) We realized on our way out there, every wine festival but one we have been to with Mary and Jason. I guess it just wouldn't be the same without them there. Heres a few pictures:

Who will we see next?

I forgot to mention this to I think everyone! Michaels third day of work his boss to him to lunch to some BBQ place. Before they arrived he told Michael that Ross Perot use to eat tat this place all the time. When they got there and got seated, sure enough Ross Perot was sitting two tables down from him. Crazy! Then we went to the gym a couple days ago and guess who was working out at our gym? Carly Patterson, the girl who won the gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics last year. Makes sense, since she is from Allen and 24 hour fitness is the official gym of the Olympics. At the grocery store last week I saw what I think was one of the players on the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He looked similar to one of the players but I'm not 100% sure it was him or not. This guy was a GIANT! He must have been at least 7'0!!! (I checked online to see a picture of this guy, and sure enough the guy I thought he was is 7'5) I literally wasn't much taller then his stomach!

Tomorrow we are heading to a wine festival in Grapevine with our friends Mary and Jason. We are looking forward to it and to spending sometime with our best pals since we haven't hung out much since they left Lubbock to go to Fort Worth a few weeks before we left.

Missing Denmark

Michael is home and is already wanting to go back to Denmark. We experienced that when we came back the first time and he's going through it again. For I awhile I was thinking he wasn't going to come back!! The trip was perfect and the conference was great. He said it was a surreal experience to be back there again and loved every moment of it. While I wish I could had gone also, its probably better that I didn't because he would have had to drug me to get me on the plane to come back here!! I think this excitement will help give him the drive and motivation to get us through our year here. Hendrix and I were glad to have him back! He passed out about 7:30 pm and slept sound all night long. Here is on of the few pictures Michael took. This is the castle in Hillerod in the town that the conference was in and that we spent a lot of time in while we were living there.



Yesterday we found a gym that we love so got a membership. They don't do contracts which is super nice because when we renewed our phone contracts it ended up costing us more because we weren't able to sign a two year agreement. We thought about it and currently Michael has 4 gym memberships and I have 3!! YIKES! We each have one through Texas Instruments, 24 hour fitness in Allen, Bodyworks in Lubbock and Michael can still use the rec center at Texas Tech. Bodyworks will run out at the end of this month though, it was cheaper to let it run out then to cancel and pay the fee. So anyways, it will be nice to start getting a schedule and a routine for our days now that we can start really getting settled here.

Also I got pictures of the inside of our house posted in our Photo Gallery.

Our New Blog for Our New Home

Well, now that we have completely removed ourselves from ALL of our family, we figured our website needed a little more information on it to keep everyone updated constantly. So, welcome to our new blog. For those of you that don't know what a blog is (and I know there are some of you out there) it is basically an online journal where we will write about what we are doing and you can check in, read all our thoughts and chime in with your own opinions and comments.

We picked the name "Learning to Love Dallas" because as most everyone knows, neither of us were very excited about the move. We both wholeheartedly hope that within the one year we are here, we will grow to love it and enjoy our short stay. Hence the name, "Learning to Love Dallas." Worst case senario, we don't love it and we deal with it for a year and then get the heck outta here!!

Our move to Allen was smooth. We have been here two weeks and are getting use to the area and the horrid traffic, long driving distances and the crazy fast drivers. Michael is currently in Denmark giving a talk at a conference. He left Hendrix and I in this new town all by ourselves, but we have kept ourselves busy.

Here is our new house:


We are enjoying our new house and are slowly getting everything where we want it and organized and trying to make it home and not simply a house.

We have already had our first overnight guests. Scot, Michaels dad came down for a couple days and my friends Mary and Sara stayed the night also. We have a guest room with a new comfy bed. Now, we are ready for guests...So come and see us! :)

I hope you will continue to check our ramblings and our adjustments to big city living. It will be an interesting year... Also please feel free to leave us comments on our postings so we know this is being read! To leave a comment just click the link under each post that says, "comments"