Good Dog, Bad Dog

Oh Bentley! I feel like "NO" is the most word in my vocabulary. I love the dog to death, but he goes a little to far sometimes. He is very smart, but sooo sooo sooo stubborn. I am trying to break him in on not eating shoes. I will take the shoe from him tell him "no" and put it back, once I turn away he runs right back and takes the shoe again. After being stern with him and he still takes it...then I beat him with the shoe (ok not beat him, but you know a spankin doesn't hurt) but he still goes back and gets the shoe....I don't understand. I have lost 2 shoes in the process and brad kind of lost one pair but they are still usable, so I wouldn't call that a loss. But thats not the only thing.... he loves to read books, which I can't even count how many he chews up. He ruined a cd a picnic table cover (which had never been used and a wedding gift in our camping package), the remote to unlock and lock the doors to my jeep, and I am sure there are other things that I am not thinking of. Needless to say he has done some done some damage. But when he meets me at the door and shakes is non-existant tail so hard that his bottom shakes too, or when he just can't get close enough to you that you can't breathe (like the second pic), or when he pins you down and nibbles on your ears, and everything else he does that makes me laugh........they erase all the things that he has done that makes me want to scream and becomes the best dog we could ask for. I mean how could you not love that face. He might jump, bark when you don't want him to, put his toy up against you until you pay attention to him, take something you don't want him to have, and run away from you when you call him........but he is a puppy and I wouldn't want him any other way. He's Bentley!

Update: Everything under the sun......

Well this school year has started off and I am so glad it is my last year. It seems weird to me that most of the people that I entered my first year with are now gone and working full time jobs and all the underclassmen look like they belong in middle school. They all look so young. This year will be a little difficult with some tough classes but knowing that this is my last year makes me want to push harder. But I know that there is no way I can get through this alone, besides the support of my amazing husband, God plays a great role in my success.

As many of you know, Brad currently works at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse as a manager. He loves working there and the people that he works with, but he doesn't like his hours (usually 2p-2a). I also strongly dislike his hours as well because I am usually sleeping on the couch and completely out of it when he comes home so I usually go to bed when he gets here and then when we get up he usually leaves for work in what seems like only a few hours from when we wake up. So basically I only get to spend a few hours a day with him, not to mention he works practically everyday he is lucky to get a day off. Not to mention the fact that it is making both of us stressed out cause we don't get to spend very much time together. If you know Brad at all, you should know that he is always looking to better what he does. So he started looking for a new job. God provided him with a new job shortly after he started looking. He job a job as a sales representative for a company called Cintas. He will be working a 9-5 job YAY! We will be back to a normal life. We are so excited that God has answered our prayers to get us out of a situation that was not healthy for us. God is Good!

So some of you might have known that Brad and I bought our second house in January. It was another foreclosure so there was a lot of work to be done. We basically replace everything from floor to ceiling. Everything is basically done except a few minor things other than the bathroom. Brad and I decided to completely strip the bathroom down to nothing and start over. We didn't like the way they had it set up so we made it our way and decided to build our own shower and then put a drop in tub off to the side. Well we have had the tub area done for quite some time, but we are still working on the shower. It has taken so long mostly because brad works way to much and I work and go to school so we don't have a lot of time to work on it and tiling is a process. So since january we have been either taking baths or going to either brad's parents or grandparents house to take a shower, and let me tell ya after doing that for 9 months I am ready for my own shower.....i was really ready for my own shower after a few weeks. But finally we will be finishing the tile on the shower in the next day or two so I am super excited. Then when we thought we were coming to an end on working on the house we discover our refridgerator leaking and it got through the tile to the floor boards and made them swell. We now have to replace some floor boards and about 30 pieces of tile. :( It seems like there is always something.

The last thing I will update on is transportation. We own 3 cars and only 1 is currently running. Let me tell ya if that isn't stressful I don't know what is. Brad works in Granger and I work in Elkhart, he works evenings and I work evenings......which means we need 2 cars, thankfully we have a wonderful family that has been so kind in helping us out with our dilemma. Boy will I be thankful to have 2 cars again, which should be tomorrow. We are getting so close to living a somewhat normal life.

Now that I have written a book and update you all on everything going on right now, I think I am going to close. Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the holiday weekend.

Night,
Hollars