John's new car

After realizing last week that John's car was going downhill quicker than we originally thought, we went out car shopping yesterday and traded it in and wound up with a great deal on a new car instead! 2009 Ford Focus. Kinda hard to tell from the picture because I took it with my phone, but the color is a really pretty ice blue. And as John would tell you (and I agree) the best feature by far is the SYNC system.

...it's just too bad I don't get to be the one driving it every day...

Oh - and because of the sync we of course had to update the playlists on our mp3 players. One of John's friends recommended legalsounds.com to us and if you're looking to buy music I would highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already. It's only 9 cents per song and when we registered on there and put a little money in our account, we ended up getting credits for 50 free songs on top of that.

For Aunt Nancy

You definitely win for the most dedicated blog checker, seeing as how we didn't have anything up since August! But yes, this is the house we're in contract on - set for closing in early April. It's in Galloway which is just next door to Grove City. 3 BR 1.5 bath with a finished basement and privacy fenced backyard, which was the #1 priority for the dogs! I think they will be much happier with us when they have room to run around. Oh, and a 2 car garage which I was really wishing for the past few months with those subzero weeks...

Hopefully in a month-ish you might be seeing some more pictures of the inside. In the meantime, here's one from the dinner and I'll see about maybe getting some more up soon.

The house

Probably pretty self explanatory, but top to bottom: deck, basement, middle sized br, master br, backyard, kitchen, family room, back and front.

Graduation

Sure, Quinn is cuter in a graduation cap, but I think Halo did ok for himself.

I feel like I live at PetSmart

So, I am no longer at the movies while John is at training.. On top of that, I have a really quiet house this evening because both dogs are sleeping (for 2 totally different reasons). I just picked up Sydney from her day at the vet where she got her nails trimmed, microchipped - in case she ever decides to run again - and her dreaded dental work, which included having 3 teeth extracted. So now she has pain meds and antibiotics to take twice a day. Luckily that starts tomorrow because she's really loopy tonight.

I couldn't get the other pictures to load but Halo is curled up behind me on the chair and Sydney is downstairs really out of it. Since she had the anesthesia today they said she would be a little disoriented for 12+ hours and that I should keep her away from stairs and keep Halo away from her. Luckily he's tired too. When Syd first laid down when we got home, her tongue was so far out of her mouth that it curled under her mouth and she was laying on it.. looked really sad so I had to bug her long enough to fix it and convince her to drink some water.

On the up side, Halo is having a fun week, going to doggie day camp while I work and he is exhausted from all the playing. That's going to be a big plus tomorrow when I take him to his class. Anyways, they tell me he loves it and I get a "Pawgress Report" each day when I pick him up and so far so good. I scanned the first day's report in but I'm not sure how much you can read. Funny that both days so far say he has lots of energy and loves to play chase with the other dogs. (What makes me happy is that they say these comments like they are a good thing). And on top of that, at nap time he sleeps like a champ.

So compared to the days they've been having, my days at work are a little uneventful.

to the movies

So, we have a new favorite movie theater (Thanks Des for the tip). There's this place called Movie Tavern and most of them are in Texas where they started out -- so to my Texas family, I suggest checking it out if one of the cities is near you. But there is only one in Ohio, and happens to be right nearby in Hilliard. Anyways, it's a full service restaurant mixed with a movie theater. Nice leather chairs and tables in front of everyone. And you even have little lights in case you need something in the middle of the movie and need to get your waiter's attention. And you can get anything from typical concessions food to appetizers to dinner and/or dessert.
So, we've been there the past two weekends and are heading back tonight for IronMan.

FYI...John now knows how to foil a bank robbery. He competed in his first defensive pistol competition yesterday and can't wait for the next one. He had to complete four scenarios as a part of the competition to test his accuracy, speed, and proficiency with his pistol. He said it was fun because they were given practical scenarios such as defending unarmed children from gunmen on a playground on Easter Sunday or shooting from behind a phone booth while gunmen hold your wife hostage in front of the bank and other crazy situations.

And this came just a day after pure exhaustion from chasing the dogs for about 3 hours Friday. Meanwhile, I was at work to miss all the excitement and didn't hear about it until later... which is probably good because everyone was back home by the time I knew. Here's the story as I heard it:
The cable guy showed up around noon to set up our Internet. He came to the front door instead of the back (like we had asked on the phone) and for those of you who don't know... the front door has no screen or storm door to block the dogs in. Sydney, who must have been waiting for this moment for a while now, ran under John's leg, knocking him down, and giving Halo an opening to get out too. They both ran around to the back and split in different directions. Halo being the new puppy, and probably easiest to catch, became the first priority. Luckily, Halo is too trusting with strangers and ran into a neighbor's house a few buildings over while they were moving in. John was able to get Halo back pretty quickly. Sydney was another story. By now, she was about two blocks away, and not as willing to be caught. He caught her within the first hour with the help of a neighbor as a distraction, but not wanting to go back in, Sydney bit John and broke from her collar. After another 2 hours of chasing back and forth, for what seemed like miles, he had just enough energy to "herd" Sydney into a fenced backyard and closed her in. When she tried to bite John a second time, his reflexes kicked in and he ended up flipping her onto her side, which caused her to finally give up and reluctantly be walked back home. Needless to say, John and Sydney weren't really on speaking terms Friday night and Sydney kept her distance while John slept for a few hours. At this point, John figured it would be ok to cancel the short run he had been planning for that night.
So... if you ever visit, please come to the back door.