Where did the time go?

Well since we posted last time, Ronda has returned to work and is doing well. Duncan got his cast off and is running around like nothing ever happened. Bob is trying to adjust to his new yucky shift at work. We now only see each other on Wednesday and Thurdsay nights since Bob is working nights. It is sucky, but we will just have to enjoy every minute we do have together. This is the first time since we got married 11 1/2 years ago that we have worked opposite shifts. It has been quite an adjustment for both of us. Poor Duncan is trying to adjust too!
We are looking forward to the summer so that we can spend more time together in the mornings and go vacationing/camping. We are also looking forward to hopefully starting to do foster care in the near future. We have completed our papers and are just waiting to finish the house inspection and any little detailing that they request. Hopefully soon we will be a mommy and daddy to little ones and that Duncan will have a little sister or brother to play with daily. We can't wait!!! We will try to keep things updated as they happen.

A new year!

Here is Duncan in his cute new sweater from Grammy.


Christmas was very busy, but fun! We loved having time with friends and family. Christmas was good to us once again since we both got spoiled. We have finished all our classes for foster-care.

Everything is going great for us! We still love every minute we have with family members and friends. We can't wait for the day that we can have little ones in our home though!

Some photos of the past

We have decided to make a music video to a song we found by Michael McLean called the "The Gift We Couldn't Give Each Other." This song shows how we feel about the adoption process and the birth mother that gives us a chance. We hope that this will also help you to know us better. We hope you enjoy it.

Fall Time Fun!

Well, things have been rather crazy for us the last few weeks. Ronda has been adjusting to teaching in the second grade and Bob has been busy at the state fair. Before the fair we were able to spend a night at the Bee's baseball game together. We had a lot of fun eating nachos and hotdogs, cheering for our winning team, and eating ice cream from a mini baseball helmet. During the game our section won coupons for free chips and salsa at Chilli's restuarant and Ronda was able to catch one of the stress ball baseballs that the cheerleaders were throwing out. Overall we had a great time and were able to destress for a few hours. Since then we have attended the rodeo and the Boys 2 Men concert at the state fair. Things have been busy, but fun as we have been able to do a lot of activities in the evenings. We can't wait to see what the next few weeks has in store for us!

Back to Work!

Well Ronda has finished her first week of the school year in second grade. She loves teaching, so she was able to survive the challenges that came this week. The kids are so little compared to her fourth graders she usually teaches. They are a lot cuter too since most of them don't have attitudes yet!
As for Duncan (our dog), he survived his surgery this week and is up and running around again. We are so glad to have him feeling better now days. He really scared us there for a while. We hope that all the tests come back okay finally and that he will be with us for a long time. We love to watch him with little kids and babies because he is so loving and cuddly with them. We can't wait to see how he cares for and loves a baby of our own one day. Hopefully soon!
Bob has been being Mr. Mom for Duncan this week since he had his days off right after Duncan's surgery. He is so cute with Duncan and will do great with a baby too! He has also been a great help with getting Ronda through this week. Thank goodness he is very patient, because she has been quite stressed out!

Here are a few of Ronda's Seattle pictures. The first is of her and the other two second grade teachers. The second is of her and her friend that teaches third grade next door to her. The last on is of the latest style of transportation in Seattle!

Now things are back to normal at home again. Ronda is back to work and has her classroom set up for another year. She will start teaching second grade on Monday and is a little nervous to have such little students. She met them last night at conferences and they all seem so quiet compared to the attitude-filled fourth graders she usually teaches. We both think this will be a new challenge for her, but a fun one!
During conferences last night Ronda had two very fun experiences--the first one was that the student we went to see dance in Las Vegas came and gave her a shirt from her nationals competition. Ronda thought that was so sweet, she will miss teaching her! Ronda says she is the ideal student and that she would love to have a class full of her. The second thing that happened is that she had one of her students from 4 years ago come back to visit and ask if she could come in and help Ronda after her school gets out 4 days a week. Ronda was so excited first to see her, but second that she wanted to come back to help her. The girl could hardly read when Ronda had her in fourth grade, and now she is in straight honors classes. She said that Ronda made her like school and also made her want to learn. That was the best pay off Ronda could ever have as a teacher.



Bob has been busy golfing once a week lately and loving every minute of it. His famous words when he gets home everytime is that he lost ___ balls in the water. I always just laugh. Now he has me going out to hit a bucket of balls with him every once in awhile. I enjoy that, but now he wants me to go play golf with him on the course. I told him not yet!

As for Duncan, he is stuck to his mom's (Ronda's) hip since she has been home. She can't go anywhere in the house without him tagging along. Thank goodness she doesn't mind!

Ronda is finally home for the summer. She went to Cedar City, Utah for 4 days of July to attend a teacher training. Now she just returned from another 3 day teacher training in Seattle, Washington. Bob and Duncan have been home during both of Ronda's trips. Bob has been enjoying many rounds of golf with the relatives in the past few weeks though. All this traveling has been hard on all of us because we haven't been apart from each other, for more than a day, since we got married. We love spending time together and with Duncan. Duncan is a momma's boy and missed his mommy an awful lot when she was gone. Now he won't leave her side since she got home late last night.
We will post pictures soon!

Fishing with Duncan

We were unable to go camping at Moon Lake this year due to scheduling for Ronda's work and Duncan's health, so we decided to just go up for the day. While we were there, we decided to go fishing with Bob's parents and family. Ronda caught a fish and after we got it off the line and on the stringer out in the water, Duncan decided to go get it and put it back on the shore. Everytime we would throw it out he would go in and retrieve it and bring it back to the shore. The video shows this. The last time it had sunk in the water and so he put his whole head under water and pulled it out to bring it back to shore. He was not going to let his mom's fish get back away no matter what. It was nice to see him playing and having so much fun though after the crazy and scary week we had had with him. Hopefully he will make a full recovery. He has to go back in today for more tests and rechecks on his status. We are hoping for the very best!

Poor Duncan!

This week has been a hard one for us. Duncan, our dog, had a major seizure this last Tuesday and so he had to spend two days in the pet hospital having tests ran. Ronda was luckily there when he had it and was able to rush him to the pet hospital for testing and treatment. We really were afraid we would lose him and that would not be good. He is our life for now and the only baby we have to love and spoil. Due to us having to be with him 24 hours a day for the next week or two, Bob will not be going with Ronda to Cedar City and St. George for her training. He will stay home to care for Duncan and Ronda will only stay down there for as long as necessary to attend her training. We hope all goes well for the three of us, Ronda is really having a hard time leaving.

Oh, no! The trip is over.

On Friday we got up early and headed for the Hoover Dam. We got there before the tours began, so we didn't have to wait at all. We went in the first group. This is the view of Ronda going over to peek out the view hole in the dam wall. Here is what she saw--the new bridge.

When we finished the tour, we wandered around and took more pictures.

Then we headed back to the Excaliber. We decided to play some games there and to wander around some more on the strip. We saw the jelly bean sculpture of the Statue of Liberty.

Then we took a walk over to the Luxor and took some pictures from the outside.

Once we were done strolling around, we headed back in for another trip to the Tournament of the Kings dinner show. Last time we were cheering for the King of Norway, tonight we cheered on the King of Ireland. He was a lot more fun to watch. Ronda kept booing the other kings and they would pull faces at her to tease her. We had front row seats both times. Come to find out, that day marked the 20th Anniversary of the Excaliber Hotel and Casino as well as of the show itself, so they did a special presentation after the show. This is the whole cast, cooks, and crew of the show at the presentation. The kings you cheer for are on their horses in the back. The King of Norway is in orange and black (fourth from the right). The King of Ireland is in green (third from left).

They also brought out a 300 pound cake in the shape of the casino. Here it is! Unfortunately we didn't get any!

Here is a picture of the castle/stage from our seats. We had a great time!

Unfortunately, Saturday we had to head home. We got to see our little man, Duncan that night though, so it was worth coming home for. Here he is waiting to see us.

Here he is all worn out from helping us unload and unpack.