2008 in Review!

2008 has been a very great year for us and a lot of awesome things have happened in our marriage. There were numerous fun and huge life milestones we encountered this past year and it has been a year of many many memories.





In January we went on a Fair family vacation to Seaside for a couple of nights. We had a lot of fun playing with the girls and browsing through Seaside and also just relaxing for a couple of nights.


This brings us to April where things started to pick up for the year! Peter graduated from college! It was such a big milestone for us! Our entire dating and married relationship had focused around getting Peter through school and it was finally done and we could celebrate!

My husband, the (nerdy) accountant!

To celebrate the graduation milestone we took off to Jamaica for a week. This vacation was awesome. We had such a great time together and made many memories that we will never forget.

I think that this picture right here pretty much summarizes the highlight of my year. This was a picture taken at our private oceanside dinner in Jamaica. It was such a romantic experience!

The end of May we got our precious baby girl Juno. She has been such a great dog and we spoil her rotten! Juno is unique from other dogs because she has no hair and we wouldn't want her any other way!

In July for our 2nd Anniversary we returned to Disneyland. We had a very fun trip. All of Peter's family joined us for this short 3 day jam packed tripped and we experienced an earthquake Disney style that shut down the park for several hours.

I do not want to go without acknowledging one of the lesser known parts of our year. In September I found out I was going to be an aunt again and I was thrilled. A short time later, the baby was lost. We still acknowledge the precious little May baby that is not here.

In early September Peter started his career at KPMG. He is really enjoying it there and has his career off to a great start!

In October Peter went to Chicago for training with KPMG.

The view from the top of the Sear's Tower

The beginning of December we added a new baby to our family. Indy our chocolate miniature schnauzer. He is adorable and very awnry!

Our puppies celebrated their First Christmas, and we even had a white Christmas with record snow falls!

At the end of December our condo finally sold! We had a very long drawn out closing on it but it all finally went through and we said goodbye to condo living.

We moved into our new home with lots of room to grow!!!

2008 was a great year and we look forward to what 2009 holds for us. We already have lots of exciting hopes and plans for the year ahead. Happy New Year!!!!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas! Ours has been great so far as we play with our Christmas presents this Christmas morning. I of course am still loving my early Christmas gift from Peter - Indy my 9 week old puppy! Peter is upstairs right now playing with his new lego set (yes I bought my husband lego's for Christmas). Our puppies are enjoying scattering their new Christmas toys around the house - things are very good today.

We are celebrating Christmas with a ton of snow still on the ground and I think that is awesome! We have had white Christmas Eve's before but never a white Christmas and there is a lot of it (I say this from an Oregonians perspective).

The only other thing I can hope for this Christmas is that our condo will close. I have not posted about it but the condo was supposed to close at the end of November and we are still working it all out right now. We are all hoping and praying that it all goes through before the new year hits. We absolutely love our new house - it is perfect for us! We are finally starting to get the last of our stuff put away - it has been hard to be motivated to put things away when at times in the past month, the condo sell has been up in the air. I will definitely post pictures of the new house as soon as it is officially our house!!!

Merry Christmas everyone and stay tuned for my year in review coming up in the next couple days!!!

Juno's baby brother

Juno became a big sister this week. Her baby brother's name is Indy and he is all of two pounds right now. He is a chocolate miniature schnauzer puppy who is currently biting my fingers as I type this - I guess he would like to say hi! We certainly feel like we have two children right now. We have the hyperactive toddler who doesn't know her own strength with the fragile baby. She is doing very well, but is a little jealous and can be a little rough with him at times.

We also have the tiny fragile baby who keeps us up all night crying and has to have constant supervision as to not get in any trouble. We are adjusting to life with two babies and know they will be best friends as soon as Indy puts on a little weight.

Boring post alert!!!

Not a whole lot to report on the home front. Guess I am just posting to post. Peter leaves for orientation training on Sunday. He will be spending his week in chilly Chicago. He is enduring a small busy season at work right now and pulling in some long hours. My work has settled down a lot and we are FINALLY off of mandatory overtime. We are still busy selling stuff but have built up a large enough stock that we don't have to work quite as much.

Juno is healing very well from her surgery and will be able to get a bath very soon (stinky dog right now).

We went to the Oregon State football game this Saturday and it was a lot of fun to watch! I don't remember going to a game that we killed an opponent and it was none other then Peter's Cougs :) I finally converted him though and he is a full fledged OSU fan now. (Actually I think I have gotten to his whole family now!)

Things are very boring right now- which is completely fine to me, but I am sure it is very boring to read. I promise I will have good material again someday!

The Fruit Loop 2008

We returned to the fruit loop in Hood River for the 3rd year in a row. I think we visited 4 different farms this year and had a good time. The weather was cold, but dry! We visited a little earlier then normal this year so the farms were not completely set up for Halloween but we did visit over the Pear Festival Weekend and stocked up on Apples and Pears! Here are a few pictures of our fun!!!

You can see the Forrest fires around Mount Hood from this picture

The Funny Alpacas

Juno wanted to make it into the post for sympathy. Our little girl had surgery yesterday and is doing very well recovering, but is getting lots of extra loves from her parents!

This is a post that I have not been looking forward to post but I think it is an important event to remember - even for the short time that it was here.

Four short weeks ago I got word that I was going to be an aunt again! It has been exciting all three times in my life that I have found out the news and this time was certainly no different. Unfortunately two short weeks later we found out what we thought was the end of that life. It was not a fun word to get and I know it was definitely not an easy time for my brother and sister-in-law. As the past two weeks have gone by, things have not gotten any better for Jayme and after the past two weeks we all discovered that the baby was not quite gone yet. The baby was no longer alive, but was actually a tubal pregnancy instead of a miscarriage. The very scary part about that is that it potentially puts Jayme's life in danger too and very much so complicates the treatment options. As of today Jayme started treatment and it included some form of a chemo injection. We are all hoping for the best and that her tube clears out quickly.

This is a difficult thing to post on a public, family blog but I just wanted to bring mention of it since I do not want to forget the brief life that was given to the Fair family. Even though none of us met or barely even knew it existed - it was still here and I believe that this baby is now in Heaven. For whatever reason and only God knows why, this baby was not purposed to live here on earth with us.

That is all for today :)

A little bit of life

Life is still busy. We are trying to keep up with it all. I hope things settle down into a routine soon, but I am not counting on it :) Peter is busily into life at KPMG. The bus is working out great for transportation and saving us lots of money. We have worked through the many different health insurance benefits and life insurance and 401 K stuff - man there was a lot to figure out, but it was nice to see some real benefits :) Peter is still doing work for the L.A. office which is good because now that busy season ended on September 15th, there was no one in the office all week. He said yesterday it was literally just him and the other new guy in the department. I think he will be working some long hours next week because the project he is working on is ending next week. So far he is really enjoying working for KPMG and this week he went to lunch with a manager and he helped Peter figure out the time table for different promotions and such. We are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for him there!!!

I am still working my 50 hour weeks. It hasn't been too bad lately, I guess I am just getting used to the hours unfortunately. The end of the year can't come fast enough!!!

Juno is doing great. She will be 6 months next week! She has so much hair now which is good with fall setting in, I don't think it is going to do her much good though. We are struggling to find clothes that will fit her now.

Today we are going with Peter's family to do the fruit loop in Hood River. This will be the 3rd year we have gone. We are hoping that by going a little earlier then normal that we will have some good weather. This weekend is the pear festival so we will see how it goes!!!

Real Work Life

Well we made it through week #1! Last week was pretty crazy but Peter survived his first week in corporate America and enjoyed himself in the process. I am very happy that he seems to enjoy what he is doing. Last week was spent two hours north of Seattle in a town called Darrington. He spent his nights in a nice hotel with a king size bed and 50" plasma tv - I think the tv was the highlight of his trip even though he was hardly ever in the hotel. He was very busy but loved what they had him doing and was gone until late at night. It was quite an adjustment relationship wise because we were not able to talk to each other very much last week at all. He was getting back to the hotel so late and I was having to go to bed to get up in the morning and go to work. I asked Peter if there was anything he would like to add to this post about his first week of work and he said - and I quote- "the big tv" Yeah, that is the extent of it. No, we would also like to add that he gained a lot of respect for people who work in lumber mills because they have to be quite smart to do the job they do. He was sent up to Seattle with no one else from Portland but with three people from the L.A. office and had a good time with all of them.

This week is much less entertaining for him - no big tv's at work to watch all the training videos on, just his laptop at his desk :) He is trying out the bus for transportation into Portland and so far so good with that. It takes him about an hour to get there from Sherwood but it works out since he can study for his exams on the way to and from work so it doesn't cut into his time with me at night -plus he is saving a TON of money if he doesn't drive into Portland and park.

I have nothing too thrilling going on in my life. My biggest excitement that I have not mentioned on here yet is - I am going to be an aunt again! I am very excited to get another niece or nephew to play with and love and I will anxiously be awaiting their arrival in early May!!!

Worried

Been thinking a lot about the people in Jamaica today. Looks like they got hit hard by Gustav on the southern coast of Jamaica which is where Whitehouse is. The country is already so poor and the homes so weak - makes me wonder how people survive this type of stuff year after year.

I am officially starting my 4 day weekend! Only have a three day work week next week and then another three days off! Very nice to see some time to relax in with how busy work is. Things are about to get awful at work for the next four months. I have no idea how we are going to make it, but I know we will.

Tonight begins College football season. Yes, I am quite excited about it. Go Beavers!!! I am optimistic that we should have a pretty good season this year - time will tell!

Peter finishes at the mill tomorrow. CPA exam #2 is only two days away so pray for him :) He is also going on his first business trip on the same day he starts work - crazy on the job training if you ask me. He will be going to a client outside of Seattle for all of next week and who knows where he will end up after that.

That's my short little update for today. Mainly hoping my friends in Jamaica are safe tonight.

Good News!!!

First things first - Peter passed!!! We are so excited and I am so proud of my husband!!! 1 test down 3 to go. I have been checking the mail this past week to see if he got the letter from the OSCPA because he really did not want to find out he failed the test a week before his next one. So if he did not pass then I was supposed to hide it from him and tell him that he did not get it yet. I was so very happy that I did not have to lie to him and was so excited to share the news with him!!! Peter can relax a little now and be very happy for what he has already accomplished. So reward #1 - A trip to Benihana's!!!!

In other very big news - KPMG called and asked Peter to begin employment on MONDAY!!! That was a little too short of notice for him with a CPA exam next week and also needing to give his work decent notice. So he will be starting the following week. Tuesday September 2nd - a full month early!!! He is a little sad to be leaving SP so soon and knowing he will be leaving them with a lot of work because they have not hired his replacement yet. What do you do though, when opportunity knocks??? He has to make the best move for his career and it will be better for us financially too!

Lots of exciting news for Peter - I am so proud of him!!! He is one amazing man :)

7 already!!!

Jezzie - the little girl who made me the happiest aunt in the world - I cannot believe that you are already 7 years old! Hard to believe how quickly you have grown and hard to believe that in another 7 years you will be a teenager. Your birthday brings back so many happy memories of being your aunt. I will never forget the night that I found out that I would be blessed with a precious little niece or nephew to love!! I was ecstatic and so excited to meet you and hold you and it was such a long wait from that night in November of 2000 to your arrival in August of 2001! I saved up all of my babysitting money (I was only 14) for a couple of days after my birthday in March when we were to find out if you were a little boy or a little girl so that I could go shopping crazy on you! Shopping for little girl things was so much more fun the shopping for little boy clothes ;)

Then the very long summer before your arrival. Finally the day came - your due date and none of us expected you to arrive on that day and yet you knew - right on time!!! I remember being woken up at 1:30 in the morning to the phone ringing saying that your mom and dad were on the way to the hospital and were bringing Bentley over for us to take care of!!! I was so excited and had such a difficult time going back to sleep - I was about to meet you!!! As morning came and we made our way to the hospital - just in time for the doctors to tell your mom to go back home - disappointed - no Jezzie yet. But later that night you made your arrival via emergency c-section. We were all very nervous for you and your mom and fortunately with some extra care you were both okay. I will never forget watching my big brother walk down the hall carrying this precious package that we were all so excited to meet! You were the most precious beautiful baby!!!

I have had so much fun with you over the years and I feel very lucky to have been able to spend as much time with you while you were little as I was able too. I have memories of the sponge bob phase, the care bears phase, and most recently your obsession of the Texas Longhorns! Time has gone very fast with you (and now with your little sister too).

Happy 7th Birthday Jezzie!!!

Other randoms: The gorgeous sunset the other night

Juno's sad eyes!

The busy, stressful, tiring life

The title pretty much sums up all of our emotions right now. What can we say - as everyone knows life is not always fun. We are making the most of the way our lives are right now knowing that things are not going to get any easier anytime soon.

Poor Peter is less then two weeks away from his next CPA exam and he is really feeling the pressure with this one. He has a lot of material to cover and only a very short amount of time to complete it in. There really isn't an option to postpone the exam because the testing window closes September 1st and he has to wait a whole other month if he doesn't take it now and then he is cutting into his study time for the next exam and would be taking a test right when he is transitioning into his new job. He is just going to cram cram cram as much as possible to get it done.

We are still awaiting the results of his first exam. He is very nervous to get them back and we should receive them at anytime. He feels like he did well on the first one but also knows it will be very close as to whether or not he passed.

He is beginning the end of his time at the mill and I know he is full of lots of emotions - a little sad to leave his friends there, excited at the new oppurtunities, nervous about the new expectations. I know he will do a great job at KPMG but convincing him of that is not so easy. I know it has to be very difficult for him to have to enter into a new role at a new job while constantly studying for a very difficult exam at the same time - he amazes me!!!

I am still very busy at work. No matter how hard we work or how many days a week we work we cannot keep up with orders. I have no idea how we are going to handle the workload going into the end of the year. We are all already falling apart - none of us may be standing by the time January comes around. My heart issues are not resolved yet. All of my tests have shown that there is nothing to be too concerned about (I think) but the meds they have me on make me physically exhausted. I called and tried to tell them that I can't function on these things, but they told me that was normal (uh, okay) and to keep taking them. Luckily work has been very cooperative with me and allowed me to take time off as I need it. I go back to the doctor this weekend and will hopefully get some answers and (crossing my fingers) get taken off these stupid pills!!!

Juno is doing very well. She is getting lots and lots of hair. We took her in for her puppy shots and she now weights 28 lbs. She is definitely the spoiled little baby around our house - we try to be tough with her but her puppy eyes get us everytime! Cesar (the dog whisperer) would be so disapointed. I swear she knows how special she is. There is not a single person that she meets that does not fall under a puppy spell when they meet her. She is definitely a charmer.

I guess I shouldn't leave our other babies out either. The chins are doing very well - just as fuzzy as ever. Having Juno has brought out a completely different side of them. They love attention now where as before they preferred to be left to themselves. Kahlua and Juno are best buddies and always are nose to nose between the bars. They tolerate us holding and petting them a lot better now - it is very strange (I told you Juno has some sort of puppy spell that everyone falls for).

Still no luck with our condo. We are just trusting that in God's timing everything will work out. We have a few houses that we are interested in and we just trust that if any of them are meant to be then it will all work out when it is supposed to work out. Waiting can be really hard sometimes...........


That is all for now. Hopefully better news to come soon - good news!!!

Disneyland

It is way overdue time for an update. I am sure that everyone is dying to hear how Disneyland was. Disneyland was just as amazing as usual - the place that never gets old.

With us only having the financial resources to go for three days it was a very hustled trip but still very fun!!!

We left town very early Sunday morning and were in LA before 9:00 Sunday morning. That gave us almost a full day to spend in Disneyland. Peter and I are now pros's forging through the park and it was fun to get to share our expertise with family. This was of course Edik's first trip to Disneyland and I don't think he had any idea what he was in store for. By 11:00 we were in California Adventure (we thought that would be the least crowded place to start). It was game time. As we made our way through the park I sent Peter off as "the runner" for the trip and he ran over to Disneyland to get us our first fast passes of vacation. Within 15 minutes he had gotten us 3 sets of fast passes to return later and "cut" in line for the rides.

We started with an easy ride to get Edik and Andy warmed up. They had no problem with it so we headed off to the big roller coaster "California Screamin!!!" Edik was ready to ride, but Andy and Beth were not (we did succeed in our attempts later in the trip and they loved it!). We spend several hours in California Adventure taking in as many different attractions as we all could in the amount of time we had. We eventually walked over to Disneyland and spend the rest of the night there until after midnight - it was a 20 hour fun filled day.

The photo spot in Space Mountain was blinding.

My favorite memories of the night had to be riding splash mountain twice at around 10:30. The first time we put Peter in the very front and he got really wet, but the second time we put Andy in the front and he got soaked (so did Peter and Edik).

Monday we went to Knotts Berry Farm for a day of roller coasters. Knotts is a totally different feel then Disneyland and I have to say it was not the same park that we usually enjoy. There were no wait times for any of the coasters which was very nice and we walked on almost every ride (except Big Foot Rapids - everyone wanted to get cooled off). The coasters are always fun though and no trip is complete without being terrified on The Xcelerator - 0 to 80 in under 3 seconds. Edik liked every ride we did with the exception of The Tower of Terror and the Xcelerator - he said it was too fast.

Tuesday, July 29th 2008 - Disneyland!

Tuesday was our 2nd wedding anniversary. We had an early entry into the park this morning which meant we had to be there at 7:00. We did several rides in that first hour and several more within the next hour. We made it through quite a bit of Disneyland in that short amount of time - we did some of the classic favorites like The Jungle Cruise and The Tiki Room.

We also had a character breakfast this morning where we saw Minnie, Pooh, Tigger, and Chip and Dale. Three of the characters came to our table at one time and starting playing around with each other which was pretty entertaining. After lunch we decided to go to California Adventure, by noon Peter had a wallet full of fast passes to use later that night (little did we know how badly we would need them). We did a couple of things in California Adventure and were just about to get on California Screamin for the second time of the day when the earthquake hit. I was very glad we were not on the roller coaster when it hit because all the rides have earthquake sensors and they all stopped wherever they were. There were several people stuck on rides until they got them down which would not have been an enjoyable experience for me.

Pictures of the sleeping park while they tried to fix all the rides:
We waited around the dead park for over three hours. When I say dead, I mean the rides were dead - there were people everywhere in the place. After three hours and the rides showing no sign of starting back up we decided to go back to the motel for awhile and get some rest and return later. We returned later to find that some of the rides had barely reopened before we came back so we were very glad we didn't waste our time and energy. We did a ton of rides that evening with all the fast passes we had. Peter and I went to our favorite magical place to eat - The Blue Bayou. The restaurant is inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and it is just an awesome place to be! It is very expensive but I highly recommend it for special occasions spent in Disneyland :)

After dinner we went and got our picture taken in the engagement spot. The park is going to change soon and it makes me a little sad only because the park I go to now brings back such wonderful memories of our engagement and honeymoon. We spend the rest of the night enjoying as much of Disneyland as we had time for before midnight rolled around and it was time to call it a night. Another very long, but very fun day.

Wednesday we spent the morning in Disneyland doing some relaxing and shopping in the park and soaking in what little time we had left in our happy place :) I really wanted to try mickey beignets and by the time we got to the restaurant we found out they had closed for two hours to prepare for lunch so we waited around and I finally got to taste them and they were wonderful.

I could leave happy - knowing that in 14 long months I will return to my happy place :)

Disneyland - here we come!!!

As we complete another year of marriage we are returning to the place where we have so many happy memories together!!! From our first trip together when Peter proposed to our honeymoon and now to our second year of marriage where even more memories will be made. Disneyland really is our happy place :)

This second year of marriage has been an awesome and very busy year for us. We began our second year of marriage with a get-away to southern Oregon and it was a great time for us to remember the first year and talk about the coming year of our marriage and how many big things we had coming in the next year. Here we are at the completion of it and this year has exceeded our expectations in so many ways. Peter finished up college and dealt with the strenuous recruiting process which brought a major life decision of choosing which place to begin his career (or adult) life.

We celebrated and relaxed in Jamaica after completing the first major project of our married life - getting hubby through school :) It is not easy to be married and go to school (or be the spouse of someone in school) and it really was a big deal for us to complete together. Jamaica was just an awesome experience that neither one of us will ever forget. It was a trip that brought us much closer together and was truly a blessed experience for both of us.

This past year we also added our first "baby" to the family. Juno is our little practice baby and in a lot of ways she is conditioning us for parenthood. We have learned a lot about each other by just adding a dog to the mix - who knew!?!

The first two years have been awesome and quite frankly - surprisingly easy in a lot of ways. We are thankful and feel very blessed that we have had an easy first two years together and look forward to everyday together. We definitely do not have a perfect marriage but we try hard to not say things we will regret later. We know we would not be the people we are today without each other. We have lived our marriage so far by two basic principles and thus far they have worked:

Trust and Commitment

Trust in the other person and their faithfulness in EVERY area of life to you and a commitment to gain the same trust from your spouse.

much needed update

It has been a long time since I have posted, in fact I did not know it has been as long as it has until I started typing. There has been so much going on in our house that needs to be updated on.

First things first with Peter. He took his first CPA exam on Monday and he feels things went pretty well. He feels like he knew quite a few of the answers but there are never any guarantees so he feels like the test could have gone either way. We have to wait until sometime in September to find out if he did or not. Now he is starting in on the second part of the exam and he will be taking that portion at the end of August.

There is also one other possibility going on with Peter but there has not been anything set for this at all. Peter was asked by KPMG if he would be interested in starting in the next couple of weeks if they need him to. The catch is that it would be located in Seattle for 8 - 10 weeks. The complication with that would be him trying to find time to study while working long hours (we assume since it is a big project he would be working quite a bit). Plus us trying to find a way to spend some time together with him in Seattle, it would be complicated with one of us having to travel over the weekends to see each other. The pluses of this opportunity would be him getting a jump on his career, and of course the pay increase! There would be a lot of things that need to be figured out for this to be possible especially since it would be happening soon.

Things in my life have been hectic lately. We have been working a lot of overtime lately and today I had enough of it and called in sick. I have been having some issues with my heart racing lately and finally saw my doctor about it and they ran a bunch of tests and nothing has been determined from all that money, err I mean test results. They put me on a medication that has made me very tired this week and with this work week being a possible 56 hour week I couldn't do it and gave up some of my overtime. Work has been very flexible with me and allowed me to rest and take it easy which has been very good.

And the last bit of real exciting news - we will be listing our house this weekend!!! We have been wanting to start the process of looking at homes for sometime now and we are finally at a point where this is a possibility so we have been looking at homes, we have been pre-approved for a loan, and we have been cleaning, packing, and doing minor home improvements to get the house ready and I think it will be ready by the end of the weekend. Now we just hope that it sells quickly and we can find a house that is perfect for us and within our budget :)

Samson

Things have been tough in the Keyser household this past week, but things are getting easier everyday. My first puppy Samson was put to sleep on Friday. Samson did not live with me for the past two years, he stayed at my parents house after I moved out, but he was always still my baby. He just turned 10 at the beginning of this month. On Wednesday of this past week my mom took him to the vet because he was bleeding really bad and they ran a bunch of tests on him and concluded that he had some sort of a virus that was causing his immune system to attack itself. The vet gave him a 50-50 chance at that point and they were going to put him on IV drugs for 3 to 4 days. On Thursday morning he was doing better and eating again but by later that evening he was really sick again. The vet said not to give up hope yet, that most dogs do survive the condition, but early Friday morning the vet said he was suffering and put him to sleep. If he had been able to survive this he would have probably lived another 3-5 years. It caught my whole family off guard and it has been a rough week for everyone in my family. Samson was a great dog to all of us.

Juno must have known that I was sad this weekend because she stayed extra close to me all weekend. She is doing well, she just turned 3 months on Friday and she is eating a lot and growing a lot. She is still getting a lot of hair and we are hopefully on the upside of potty training now. She does not have very many accidents, except when I say how good she has been doing, then she pees in the house again. She knows how to sit and lay down and we just started working on stay. My hope is for her to carry on the tradition of crazy tricks that started with Samson!!!

Peter is doing great studying for the CPA exam. He is feeling more confident and more prepared everyday. Please keep him in your prayers, he is 2 weeks away from his first test date and I know nerves and doubts are going to get to him any day now. We have been discussing what we want to do to celebrate each test that he passes. He wants to go to Benihana's when he passes the first test. The second one he hasn't decided yet. The third reward is a night to the beach and the fourth and final passed test he will go buy a Nikon or Rebel camera!

I am still on 50 hour work weeks. I am looking forward to next week when I only have to work 20 hours!!! I don't know what I am going to do with all my free time next week but I will hopefully get some yard work done! We have gotten the back yard all cleared out now and this weekend hopefully Peter will get the yard leveled and then I can go buy some plants for the yard. I only have one part of the yard planned out and the rest will probably be cheap things that we can find. Then we will bark dust and put a little gravel walkway through the yard and call it good!!! It will be so nice to have that project fully completed!!!

That is all the news in the past week - its been a rough one!

Busy life............

Things on the home front are very busy right now. I can't imagine things being much busier then they are right now, but I am sure something else may come up eventually to add to the fun. Peter is in full swing with CPA exam studying. He has been studying for the better part of two weeks now for the first of four sections that he will hopefully be taking in early July. That date is quickly approaching and Peter is definitely nervous about the whole process so please keep him in your prayers :) He has to study for at least three hours every night and at least four hours a day over the weekend so that has kept him tied up most of the night. There is so much information for the poor guy to cover but he is taking an awesome prep course that gives him good study guides and great practice tests that help him figure out what his weak spots are.

My life is very busy with my job. We are up to 50 hour mandatory weeks right now and who knows if/when that could be bumped up to working on Saturdays. I am very thankful to be working for a company that is so busy because I have been hearing of so many people right now who are getting their hours reduced at their jobs or getting laid off so I am one of the fortunate and I don't take that for granted. We are busier then we have ever been in my time there and we are pretty sure that things will not be slowing down until the end of the year now. My back is having a very hard time dealing with the hours and so I just need to do everything that I am supposed to do with it (take my meds, use my chi-machine, stretches) and hopefully I will be able to survive!

Juno is doing very well. She is now 10 weeks old and growing quickly. It is amazing how she is growing hair now. Our naked puppy is growing hair!!! I think she is just happy to have a home! She is doing very well with potty training as long as we keep a close eye on her and we are beginning to be able to tell the signs that she needs to go out. She has learned how to sit and is starting to get the hang of down. The biggest problem we have had with her so far is crate training. She has hated going anywhere near her kennel and freaks out anytime we put her in it. She freaks out to the point of scratching her poor face up really bad. We tried quite a few different methods at first and it finally came down to the best option being .............. spending all day at Grandma's house!!! She really is "parent training" us. Peter takes her over to "Grandma's House" on his way to work at 6:30 in the morning and she spends the day there until Peter gets off work. She plays with Bella and Edik and gets some time in the crate which has been very good for her. She still does not like the crate, but she is getting used to the fact that she has to spend time in it. One thing about her is for sure - she has us wrapped around her paws!!!!

In the last bit of big and exciting news for today - and this is exciting news for us - we are going to Disneyland!!!! Over our 2nd wedding anniversary we will be going to Disneyland with the rest of the Keyser family! Even after a few short weeks of working these long and exhausting hours I am so ready to go away and there is no better place to go then the happiest place on earth - so very exciting!!!

So there you have it for today. I will be posting pictures soon of Juno's introduction to the chinchillas - it was very cute!!!

What a week

So I know that I have not posted since our trip. It has been very difficult getting back into the swing of things here. It has taken forever to get our house put back in order and unfortunately I still have not been very motivated to get things done even two weeks later. Anyway this week has been crazy. We woke up Wednesday morning to find out that Peter's car had been broken into and Andy's (Peter's little brother's) old laptop was taken from it. Peter had it in his car to take back to Andy and someone was tempted to take it. The only funny thing about it is that the computer no longer even turns on so it was a total waste for them, but an expensive lesson for Peter. We were very fortunate in that Peter had filled out his CPA exam paperwork and had it in the front seat of the car and it had everything from Social Security numbers to Mother's maiden name on it and could have been devastating for us. God was watching over that situation - it could have been much worse.

What a mess: (Notice the size of the rock in his car)

Wednesday night at Midnight we went and saw the movie I have been waiting 12 years to see! Indiana Jones 4 - I never really thought that I would get to see that movie come into production and it was well worth the wait for me - we went three times this weekend to see it and who knows how many more times that I will go! So after being up until almost three in the morning on Thursday we then had to get up early in the morning to get Peter's car window replaced and also to get my toe fixed - not going to go into detail on that one but it was not much fun and hopefully will feel much better in a few weeks!

I took the rest of the week off work because I couldn't get a shoe on after the procedure and so I enjoyed a nice long 5 day weekend. That is not all the news we have for you - there is more. We adopted baby #3 for us this weekend. I have been asking Peter for quite some time to let me get a puppy and he has not been willing to let me get one. This weekend Peter's mom sent me a link to a puppy in the Oregon Dog Rescue. She was an 8 week old boxer puppy that was born with a genetic condition and because of it she has no hair. She would be perfect for us because Peter does not want a dog that would shed in our house. He was really fond of the idea of getting her because of the fact that she would be "different" then all the other dogs. So needless to say we have an 8 week old naked boxer puppy!!! We have to put sunscreen on her when she is out in the sun and we have to put clothes on her year round because even if we have the air conditioning on inside it is too cold for her - the total opposite of our chinchillas problem. She has been great so far - we are doing our best to get her kennel trained and potty trained and she is picking up both quite well. She whines a lot when we first leave her in the kennel but with some reprimand from us she quiets down quickly. She is getting the hang of going potty outside and I think she is doing very well for only being with us one day.

Couldn't go without posting pictures of our new baby Juno:

Jamaica Day 6

Here we are at the end of Day 6 with only one day remaining of our vacation. It is a sad feeling knowing that we will be heading soon home because everything has been so great here that it is hard to have to return to the real world. We have had such a good time with each other and knowing that reality and the stresses of life are returning is not the best feeling in the world. We feel very fortunate and thankful to God for being able to take such an amazing vacation and have a break from all stresses and unwind and relax - we know that is much more then some get to ever get to experience. It has been a wonderful and enriching experience for our marriage - which we also do not take for granted! The time we have been given this past week to spend together has made up for all of the long hours we have spent apart! More of the usual activities today - eating and swimming. We had a loud thunderstorm go through today that got everyone out of the pools and off the ocean. We just happened to be eating at an open air restaurant when the storm came through and that gave us quite the show and quite the loud noise of the thunder crashing. We did participate in the late night chocolate buffet which was awesome! They make everyone dress in white for the buffet which is just asking for trouble, but no chocolate stains on our clothes!!!

More Pictures:

The cute little lovebirds that fill the lawn in the morning:


Day 6 of the ongoing construction of the shuffle board: (I sincerely hope that the resort is not paying these guys by the hour)


The Chocolate Buffet: I know you are all jealous :)

Let the Scavenging begin!!!

Our yummy spoils: