September update

Now that school has started, we're busy but it's mostly stuff in town. Which is fine. That way we aren't always driving. I don't mind drives there. It's the drive home that always takes forever.

On September 5, we went to Aberdeen to get Rob's hair cut. The barber has one of those dolls that dances if you push it's hand. It taught Murphy to dance. Now she dances to any music or at the mention of "dance". Ironically, the 5th was also the day she learned to say Riley, no no, puppy, and ball. No no Riley and no no puppy are heard a lot at our house. They usually go along with ball as in "No no, Riley. That's Murphy's ball".


We did get a big trip in though. My boss used to live in Denver and he has season tickets to the Broncos. We got his tickets and went to the Charger's game with Rob's sister and her boyfriend. The trip didn't start out well, though. I took Murphy to Aberdeen and met my mom. She spent the weekend with my parents. I think they all had a good time. I didn't have trouble leaving her. I had trouble leaving Riley. I dropped her off at a kennel near Aberdeen and it was terrible. Terrible, terrible. I don't know what I expected but it sure wasn't that. When I pulled up to the place, there was a sign that said "Animal Control Shelter". Hmm...you mean "place pets go before they're put to sleep"? It's not starting well. Then, there were two buildings. One with small dogs (which Riley is) and one for big dogs (which Riley is not). Guess which one she went to? The big dog building. So we walked through and there were concrete pens with poop and pee everywhere. The dogs were laying in it. And then when the pens were cleaned out, everything got shoveled to the center, where I was walking. The huge dogs there were barking and barking. Poor Riley was shaking in her paws. She would have been shaking in her boots if she had them. Maybe she should have had some to stay out of everything we were walking in. So the man had me put here in a cage and leave her. I said "should I leave her kennel or her food or bowls or toys?" He said "no, she won't need any of that". Not feeling good here. And Riley was crying. And howling. I have tears in my eyes at this point. I leaned down and told her I loved her and left. I went outside and called her name and looked through the little hole in the wall. I could see her standing up against the cage barking. She finally came out and telepathically begged me to take her out of there. I bawled and bawled. As I drove into Aberdeen todrop off Murphy, I called Rob and he didn't answer. So I called Jill, a girl I work with that has a dog and I knew would understand. She said "go get her and bring her to me. I'll watch her." That's not why I was calling but I sure took her up on it. So I dropped off Murphy and went back and got Riley. 45 minutes cost me $8. Like I said, I don't know what I expected but it sure wasn't that.

So we headed out of town and met Christy and Rob (yes another Rob) and started driving to Denver. We made it as far as Thedford, Nebraska where we spent the night. We drove the rest of the way into Denver on Saturday. We found our motel and decided we'd go to the Rockies game since we were there. It was really fun until it started to pour. They played the Dodgers so we got to see Manny play. He got booed every time he came up to bat. There were some drunk guys behind us and one was from Minneapolis and hunted every year about an hour from us. So it was kind of fun. The people next to us were originally from South Dakota as well. Sunday morning we all got dressed up in Charger gear except Rob who was a Charger fan for the day but really a Packer fan. He did wear blue, though. My Rob made up for it as you can see in the picture. We had one very obnoxious lady behind us and one obnoxious Rod Smith jersey wearing jerk in front of us. Otherwise everyone was pretty peaceful. Not like the St Louis fans. They were very nice. Also not like the Minnesota fans. They were not nice. So the Denver fans were somewhat in the middle. The game didn't start off well. The Chargers did terrible. And if you follow football at all, this was the game that Ed Hochuli made a very, very bad call that was discussed on ESPN for days after. The Chargers came back but still lost. It was still really fun, though. The drive home...not so fun. We got home around 6:30 Monday morning. We slept for a few hours then went to work. I went to Aberdeen after work to pick up Murphy. She was well rested. Riley had quite a weekend, too. She chased Jill's dog (tormented Jill's dog) and even got to go to a friend's house. I think Baby (the dog) was ready for Riley to go home.

While at my mom's Murphy learned about kitties. How to say the word and how to love them. Poor Louie. He just wants to be pet. So he thought he had it made when Murphy showed him her affection. He soon got tired of it and hid from her. Her word for kitty is "K". And she says it all the time.

The 15th, the day we got home from Denver, was also the anniversary of the day we got our phone call from Luann telling us we had a baby girl. It's hard to believe it's been a year.

On the 19th, Murphy got a new cousin! My niece had her baby, a boy named Gavin, that night. I don't think she knows yet that she won't always be the center of attention.

That next week was really busy for me. (And Rob, too I guess.) It was homecoming week. Tuesday was coronation. Rob's cousin, Morghan, was the queen from last year so we went to watch. Another cousin, Meghan, Morghan's sister, put lip gloss on Murphy and loved it! She was the entertainment of the night. For us at least. Wednesday I volunteered (or did someone volunteer me?) to help with the community clean up. I helped the senior class paint the spill way. I really did enjoy it but didn't exactly have the time to do it. Friday was the parade. The theme was "Olympics". Friday morning we came up with our float: The newest Olympic sport: Corn Husking. We had two of the guys husking corn in the back of a pickup while three of us girls handed up candy and stickers. We got done with that and moved on to the chili cookoff. The recipe for this was also decided on last minute. And then was changed by the time we got there. We didn't dress up or having corn in our recipe but we did get third place out of 15 teams. Next year I put it on my calendar to start planning earlier so we can win!

Murphy got tooth number seven on the 26th. She has four on top and three on the bottom.

Tuesday the 30th our school played in a special volleyball game. It was called Volley for a Cure and we all wore pink t-shirts in support of breast cancer. For those of you don't know, both my mom and her sister were diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age. My mom tested negative for the breast cancer gene but I know it's in my future.

Riley is still doing well. Calming down a little. Still peeing on the floor every once in a while. She can make it all night though now that she sleeps with us. She's only allowed under the comforter though otherwise her cold nose ends up touching us. She is quite the bed hog as she likes to sleep right next to you. For me it's not that big of deal. She keeps me warm. For Rob who is warm blooded, she makes him sweat. When Murphy wakes up the first thing she wants is a kiss from Riley. No one else wants one so she might as well get as many as she can.