How to Give a Dog a Bath When The Dog Doesn't Like Baths

You will need:

• One large dirty dog
• Dog shampoo
• Large cup or mug
  
• Peanut butter
  
• Spatula
  
• Large towel
• Bath tub

Begin by filling the bath tub with 4-5 inches of warm water. Once the tub has enough water, use the spatula to spread the peanut butter on the walls of the tub. The peanut butter should be slightly higher than the level of the dog's nose. Use the spatula to entice the dog into the bath. Once the dog is happily eating, use the cup to pour water over the dog until all the fur is wet. Apply shampoo. Lather. Rinse, using the cup again.
Once the peanut butter is gone, the dog will loose interest and exit the tub. The idea is to time the bath such that the clean dog coincides with a clean shower wall.


Use the towel to dry the dog.

beaUTAHful

This past weekend, Rob attended a medical course in Salt Lake City. Being unable to pass up the opportunity to see friends and family--all while staying in a swanky hotel--TJ and I snuck into his suitcases... Okay, we didn't really hide in the baggage. Even though TJ would fit, I doubt he'd much enjoy the ride.
We kept busy while Rob was at his lectures. TJ and I made the rounds, and visited alot of family. It was great to catch up and see everybody.
Once Rob was done, we took advantage of the hotel's pool, met up with some friends, and watched TJ cautiously splash about.

After working up an appetite in the pool, we joined some friends in cooking--and then eating-- a fabulous Thai dinner.


We then drove to Provo to surprise Rob's grandpa Compton. He had not yet met TJ. This is a picture of his face as he came around the corner and saw Rob standing in Katie's kitchen.
TJ had a good talk with his great-grandpa-- although the conversation did tend to be a little one-sided. I'll let you guess who did most of the talking.



TJ was even nice enough to let his Aunt Katie tend him while Rob and I went skiing. We had a great time, but were relieved to lay TJ down in his own crib last night-- albeit LATE last night. He tolerated the severe disruptions to his schedule like a rock star. We kept him out partying (ooo, here I go admitting to what a bad mom I am) until almost midnight on multiple occasions, and he only had one melt-down the entire trip. He did choose to have said melt-down in the Patagonia Outlet, but I think Rob is secretly thankful for this as my shopping spree was brought to an abrupt halt and probably saved at least a couple hundred dollars.

This morning as I checked Chasqui out the kennel I think I heard an audible sigh of relief. Now we just have to get him to forgive us: Chasqui has spent 23 of the last 35 days at the kennel. He is not impressed. And thus our travelling streak comes to an end. Utah was TJ's 7th state (he's not yet 4 months old!), last night he was on his 15th airplane, and his mother feels 5 years older than she did at the beginning of December.

We are happy to be home for a while.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Returns

So a few days ago, I got a letter from Avis car rental. I dropped it on my kitchen counter, didn't open it for a few days, didn't think much of it.
Yeah, it's an accident form, wanting details of how the damage to our rental car occurred. I called Avis, really confused, because there was no accident. The accented, bored and entirely unhelpful, somewhat rude phone attendant (who in all fairness has no reason to be all that excited about her job and probably makes minimum wage) told me just to fill out the blanks on the form. When I told her that there had been no accident, she said "just note that on the form, and we'll take it into consideration during our investigation".
Avis is claiming that there is damage to the front hood and bumper. Seeing how the rental car spent the weekend parked facing in at the Houston Plaza Hilton parking garage (yeah, remember the part of the story where I thought I had locked myself out of the car because I had forgotten I told Rob to drop them at the front desk? Hence I sat in a hotel lobby frantically calling locksmiths instead of perusing the Galleria Mall as planned-- I'm still crying in my rootbeer about this), I'm more than a little confused about how that could happen.
I can't help but wonder how long this trip to Houston is going to haunt us...

Christmas pics with TJ

All too often, there is no reason at all for a picture... other than that he is SO CUTE!!!

Check out our little Dino baby, comlete with stegosaurus spines on his hat.

We spent our Christmas holiday in Idaho with Mel's side of the family. TJ was a big hit with his Uncle Matt.


TJ spent some real time in deep conversation with his Grandpa Summers

We took the opportunity of being around so much family and blessed him in Grandma Summers' Ward.


Christmas Eve dinner.

Ever since Mel's dad grew his beard out, he's been getting comments that he looks like Santa Claus. Here are the two Santas, chillin' out.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas

Just Because

This is just a quick picture post. I figure I wrote enough text yesterday. Besides, does anybody actually READ it?

TJ loves bright lights. The fire enthralled him.

I love the following sequence of pictures:

The Nightmare Before Christmas

And I'm not talking about the show produced by Tim Burton; I'm talking about the week we've had, produced by Delta, Continental, the weather, and Honda. We spent the past weekend in Houston doing a second-look interview. Monday morning, I woke up with a painful mastitis infection. Rob was scheduled to be busy interviewing until 3pm. We planned on doing a late check-out from our hotel: Rob would finish interviewing, help me pack, and then we'd fly home. Well, when I called the front desk to request a late check-out, they said it wasn't possible, and I HAD to be out at 11AM. I had a frantic morning (all while feeling lousy), trying to pack with one arm while soothing a wailing infant in the other. By 10AM I was already totally frazzled. I hauled all the suitcases down to the parking garage (no mean feat while lugging 14lbs of flailing baby), only to find myself locked out of the car, and without keys. Apparently, while still half-asleep, I'd told Rob to leave them at the front desk, and then forgotten all about it. So I was under the impression we'd stuck to our original plan to leave them inside the car (yeah, this is never a good idea anyways). And I couldn't call Rob and ask him about the key's whereabouts, because he did not have his cell phone with him on this trip. So I spent the day sitting in a hotel lobby, freaking out because I believed the keys were locked inside the rental car, with a really mad baby who NEEDED a nap, and just couldn't get calm enough to take one in the noisy lobby (I made sure to sit close to the desk of the mean guy who'd made me leave my room at 11AM; he kept giving me dirty looks about my crying baby, and I kept giving them right back). Rob finally showed up at 4PM. By this time, I'd called a lock-smith to unlock the car (which I was fortunately able to cancel). We drove to the airport, dropped off the rental car (where they accused of us denting the car-- yeah, right: it didn't hardly leave the hotel parking garage, thanks to the key gaffe-- we're still fighting this one out), and hustled off to our gate... where we learned that our flight was delayed due to weather. We sat in the airport for HOURS, waiting and waiting, and the flight kept getting pushed back later and later. It was about midnight when they finally cancelled the stupid thing. We were able to get a hotel (I'll spare you the blow-by-blow account of this-- it wasn't real easy, as there were alot of people in our same situation), and work on rescheduling a flight. Since all flights to Little Rock for the day had been cancelled, they were all booked out until Wednesday; but they said we could fly through Atlanta, and get home on Tuesday. Okay. Fine. So we went to the hotel, slept, got up the next day and went back to the airport. Again, our flight's departure time kept getting delayed. Then we finally boarded and sat on the runway for an hour (TJ LOVED this part-- and remember that I'm feeling awesome myself with the whole mastitis thing). By the time we made to Atlanta, our connecting flight to Little Rock was long gone, and the next one was full. But the helpful Continental lady said she could get us home to Little Rock flying through Houston. Ha ha ha. So we were stranded for another night. Luckily, Rob's sister, Heather, lives near Atlanta and was able to rescue us from another hotel. The one redeeming facet was being able to spend some time with her family (see the cute kids in the previous post). So the next day, we again return to the airport to try and get home. Again. Our flight keeps getting delayed. Again. We FINALLY finally make it to Little Rock this time, though. It is with a deep sense of relief that we get off the plane, walk to our car, load up, turn the key... Hmm. Turn the key again... Please start, please start... TJ is screaming, it's cold, it's late... We fought that car for a while, but it just wasn't going to happen. We were able to find a ride home from the airport (THANKS, Sally!!!), and crawl into bed sometime around 1AM. Thursday morning, Rob had to work so he took our remaining car. TJ started to develop a fever, which climbed slowly as the day went on. He got fussier and more uncomfortable, which--being the new mom I am-- made me start to panic a little. Rob was going to check his ears for an infection, but, lo and behold, the other car wouldn't start. So one car was stranded at the airport, one was stranded at the hospital, and I had a sick and crying baby. Awesome. Just awesome. So our night ended with getting the car towed to a repair shop, going back to the airport to get a rental car, and finally collapsing in bed sometime after midnight. I'm still waiting to hear what the repair shop wants to fix the car. That may be the real nightmare.

Here are a few pictures from the hours spent in the airport. Isn't my baby awesome?
And here is Rob, working on teaching TJ about football. Early indoctrination is key, he claims.