Saying Goodbye to 2012

I must admit that I’m excited to see 2012 go. It feels like it’s been one exhausting year and I’m ready for a new year. A new start.
I’m excited to see what 2013 brings us.
I thought it would be fun to look back on 2012 with a post from each month of 2012.
There is a snapshot from each post and if you click on it (or the post title below it) it’ll take you to the full post.
Enjoy!
January
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I still think that was what she was up to
February
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This post inspired many more posts which eventually earned their own page. *points up* “My Dog Does… “

March
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What can I say? My Ella was a gifted little nut.

April
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Watch out for that Easter Bunny, guys.

May
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Lassie causes trouble. :O

June
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Ella liked to trap poor, unsuspecting Collies.

July
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Ella celebrated her sixth birthday.

August
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The very worst part of 2012.
She passed away the same day my grandpa did 4 years prior.
I also want to link to this post: Our gratitude because I am still so grateful and still so in awe of all of  you and your kindness.

September
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Petal kept me smiling after Ella’s sudden passing.
This dog is wonderful.

October
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Lassie’s eighth birthday!

November
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Just a few of the things I was thankful for in 2012.

December
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So I couldn’t resist linking to 3 posts for December. I had to link to Petal’s birthday and to Lassie’s gotcha day and then, of course, I had to link to a Christmas-y post. 😉

Thank you all for following us through 2012 and being so kind to us. We love you guys.
I hope you all have a fun, and safe, New Year’s Eve and a wonderful new year!

Thanksgiving

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I am thankful for…
(In no particular order)

1. Lassie.
2. Petal.
3. The years I had with Ella and everything she taught me.
4. Hot chocolate served in an owl mug.
5. Sweaters and scarves and a reason to wear them.
6. My blog and all the wonderful people I have met through blogging.
7. My family and friends.
8. My health.
9. All the love I have in my life.
10. This song.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday.
And for those of you who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a lovely Thursday. 😉 And a great weekend!

Dreaming of snow

In July and most of August we received an abundance of thunder, lightning, and rain every day (or very nearly every day).
It was crazy. I can’t remember ever getting this much rain in Southern Utah.
I absolutely loved it.
Now it is September and we’re heading towards Autumn and it’s starting to cool down.
Though, as far as heat goes, it has been a pretty mild summer anyway.
Between the (sometimes) mild heat and the frequent rain storms, I started wondering what winter would hold for us. I’m hoping for plenty of snow.
Because I have literally been dreaming of snow lately.

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December 2005. Northern Utah.

I’ve been dreaming of seeing my goofy Lassie snack on the snow and lounge in it as if he’s on a beach in Hawaii.

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January 2008. Northern Utah.

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December 2011. Southern Utah.

I’ve been dreaming of laughing at Petal as she burrows her face beneath the snow and then takes off like a bullet (because snow is her catnip).

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December 2011. Southern Utah.

But mostly I’ve been remembering the crazy amounts of snow we use to get while living in the mountains in Northern Utah.
I know we won’t get anything like the snow we got then, but a girl can dream. 😉

 That was some insane (and fun, unless you had to shovel the driveway, or you got stuck in said driveway) snow.

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January 2008. Ella peeking to see if her doggy friend is home.

That is a six foot fence.
Or at least it was before the snow came and turned it into a four-ish foot fence (say that ten times, fast).

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“Grizzly, come over and play!”

Believe it or not, we only got more snow that year.
It piled up and up and we wondered if it would ever stop.

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It accumulated more and more and grew taller and taller until…

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February 2008. View from our next door neighbor’s backyard.

We got six feet of snow.
Ella no longer needed permission to go visit her boyfriend Grizzly, she just waltzed on over the fence and romped around in the snow with him.

One of the neighbors behind us had the brilliant idea to dig out a path way for their dogs (I think they owned retired racing Greyhounds, but I might be getting them confused with different neighbors), so they could maneuver around their yard a little more easily and wouldn’t be able walk over their fence.
Well, Lassie, Ella, and my Aunt’s dog (who lived with us for a little while) decided to hop on over and pay their yard a little visit.

Hopping over was the easy part, but getting back to their own yard? Impossible. They were stuck in the neighbor’s yard and since they lived behind us, I had to either run around the block or cut through the backyards. I honestly can’t remember which one I did, but cutting through the backwards sounds smarter and faster, so let’s say I did that.

I go and knock on the neighbor’s front door.
“Hi… um… My dogs are stuck in your backyard… Can I get them, please?”
We had a good laugh about that.
I walked the dogs home and, of course, found a better way to let the dogs out to take care of business, because as funny as it was, we didn’t want that happening every day, several times a day.

We definitely won’t get six feet of snow here (which is probably a good thing, because it does become problematic), but I hope we get enough to have some fun in, without getting muddy.

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Yeah.
I’m kind of tired of the mud.
;P

Black and White Sunday: Missing you

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I miss this sweet girl everyday.

P.S. I made a goal early in the week to start post regularly again,
so of course I get a terrible cold.
Hopefully we’ll get back on track this week.

Today we are participating in the Black and White Sunday blog hop hosted by You Did What With Your Weiner, Dachshund Nola and My Life In Blog Years.

Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

  •  Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below. 
  • Follow the hosts, and follow as many other blogs on the linky as you’d like. 
  • Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text, and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE. 
  • Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button and include it in your Sunday Blog post.

Our gratitude

I wanted to write this post the moment I started getting comments from friends and then from friends of friends, but I knew it would be an emotional one, so I put it off. I can’t put it off anymore though.
You wonderful people sent me more wonderful people to offer words of comfort?
I am so blessed and so grateful to you.
Every comment that appeared in my e-mail made me cry. I’m so grateful for each one.
I can not thank you guys enough; words cannot express.
I want to give an extra thank you to Janet of Basset Momma and Leslie of Bringing Up Bella. I feel as if you two sent me an army of kind and thoughtful people to offer me their condolences. It made me feel so blessed and so loved, thank you both from the bottom of my heart.
I also want to give an extra thank you to Carly, my best friend. You used nearly every means of communication to send me your love and condolences, and I’m truly sorry I dodged every one of them for days. It honestly meant so much to me, I just didn’t know what to say, I still don’t know what to say, other than thank you.
Thank you Nola, Brianne, Pixel, Cotton, Essex and Sherman and their Dog Dad, Daisy’s Mom, Kim, Theresa & Prudence, Donna, H and Flo, Teje, Cindy, HoundDogMom, Val, Julie, Melissa and Yuki and Rocket, the brown dawgs, Cinnamon and Linda, KSO (Betty), Pauley, and Collie222— I hope I didn’t miss anyone— your kind words mean so much to me.

I feel I should give a little update on things around here.
It has been quiet and empty and lonely without my sweet Ella.
Lassie has taken it pretty hard, but you guys would be so proud of Petal. She has really stepped it up over the past few days. She makes sure Lassie and I get up and she makes sure we still go for our walks and we still play and have a little fun. I honestly don’t know what we would do without her, but we probably wouldn’t be leaving the couch all that often.
She always seems to know when I’m about to lose it and she knows exactly what to do, whether it be cuddling with me and letting me cry, or doing something extremely goofy to make me smile instead.
Lassie has been clingy. Tuesday I ran a few errands with my Mom, hoping that getting out of the house would help, and when I came home I was told by my Dad and my siblings that Lassie actually howled while I was away. He doesn’t do that often and usually he’s pretty upset when he does do it. 
I took a shower that night and Mom said Lassie cried for me.
He follows me from room to room. He’s licked away a lot of tears and offered many hours worth of snuggles.
Lassie is wonderfully understanding when it comes to mourning and he brings me so much comfort. Petal has as well, but she also reminds me that— despite how hard it may be— I have to keep going.
Sometimes going, going, going helps, but sometimes… I really hate it.
How can everything keep moving and going after Ella left so suddenly?
Like she did with everything else in her life, she left so quickly.
One morning I thought I heard her shifting and getting comfortable in her crate.
When I leave the house I look for three furry faces to say “Be good! I’ll be back!” to.
When I walk in the door I expect to see her dancing around me with a toy in her mouth.
I wake up in the morning, ready to feed and care for three dogs, and quickly realize there’s only two now.
I miss her so much.

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Ella – July 2006-August 2012

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July 26 2006 – August 5 2012

I know you guys are all probably wondering what happened— believe me, I am too—, but I can only guess and the only guess that makes any sort of sense to me is that her heart just gave out.
It was very quick, very sudden. She didn’t even make it to the vet.
I will tell you more of what I can, but… not now.

The Collies and I will be taking a break from blogging.
I don’t know how long it will be.