A new addition to our family!

I woke up about 10 minutes ago to the sound of our first real addition to our family (no offense to Herbie, may he rest in peace). Ready for the big news? We got a dog! And not just a dog, the greatest dog ever! (No offense to Clifford, may he never devour anyone's children... yeah.)

Meet Zeus!

Zeus is a beautiful 2-month year old male pure-bred boxer puppy with a lot of spunk! Lydia and I haven't been able to get a dog before now because we've been renting an apartment. But with our recent move to our home in Roy, and some great luck, we were able to adopt this little puppy.

Here's the scoop. A few months back, Lydia's sister's family (Mindy & Steve Caldwell) adopted a 2-year-old boxer from the local pound (Drake). He was a great dog with a big heart, but unfortunately had some real health concerns. He was taken back to the pound and put to sleep. It was really hard on the family.

So a couple weeks ago (after much convincing from some very persuasive children) they decided to try again. They wanted to stick with boxers, but this time got a puppy - yep, Zeus! They've had a great time with Zeus and have really fallen in love with him. Unfortunately though, they had to make another hard decision recently to give him up. He hasn't been very compatible with their two younger children, especially their youngest daughter Emily.

Mindy wrote a blog entry about their decision. She said it was really heartbreaking, but it was the right thing to do. I was sad to hear about their experience. This dog had really meant so much (and still does!) to their family. As much as I was sad to hear about it, I got excited at the thought of maybe having a dog of our own! Mindy asked if anyone was interested in keeping him, and I couldn't resist. I talked to Lydia about it, and we decided to adopt him. We're so happy that Zeus is still part of the Caldwell family, and that the kids can still come and visit him whenever they want. And WE'RE really excited to finally be dog-owners! I was telling Lydia tonight we can scratch one more item off our list of life-goals. Own a house, get a dog, have a baby. 2 out of 3 ain't bad! Lydia reminded me that I also got a new computer recently, which is true.

Anyway, back to the story. We picked up Zeus tonight from the Caldwell's and brought him back to his new home. So far, he's adjusted really well! He had one little house training accident tonight, but nothing too serious. He's been so curious of his new environment and has been sniffing around every nook and cranny of our house. We gated off the kitchen and decided that until we can have a little more time with house training, he would be our kitchen puppy (hurray for tile!). He's keeping me company right now sleeping next to the chair by my desk. Idn't he cute?!

What are you doing Mike?

Sorry for disturbing your nap buddy. :) I've been a little-camera happy tonight. He's such an attractive animal though, I'm having a hard time not filling up my memory card with pictures of him.

We're so excited to have Zeus be a part of our little family! If you want to hear more about Zeus, take a minute and read through Mindy's blog.

Here's a few more pictures I took of him tonight in his new home:

Zeus getting a bedtime story from Mom about
appropriate places to defecate.

Me and Zeus (I know, I know, it's Zeus and I, but oh well)

Our first family photo!

Thanks again Mindy, Steve, Rachel, Julia, Cameron, & Emily for letting Zeus be a part of our family. Feel free to come and visit anytime! We love you!

Cameron, Rachel, Julia & Zeus
(courtesy Mindy's blog)

Asleep after a long day

Another great photo I stole
from Mindy's blog :)

One of Zeus' favorite spots to spend his time

Behold... the office!

I apologize in advance if any of you were led to believe that this would be a tribute the popular tv series "The Office." Although this would have been an excellent blog entry, this is simply not so.

Lydia and I have been chipping away at our house one week at a time. One of the first things on our list was to get all the rooms painted, particularly the office so I could move my furniture and computers up there and set up camp. But for whatever reason, that ended up being the last room to get painted. But we're finally done! We finished painting all of the doors for every room in our house as well as finishing off the office last week. Hurray!

Here's a shot of the finished product. Thanks to Shanna Taggart for the two-tone idea!

26 years young

Happy birthday Lydia!

Today my sweet wife turns 26! Which reminds me of a funny story. October for the Scothern family is a little bit crazy. Maybe it has something to do with Valentine's Day being in February, but there are a LOT of October birthdays (including Lydia's). Anyway, Seth was asking his dad how old someone was going to be this year and Ben told him that she would be turning _____. Seth thought about it for a second and then asked him, "Dad, who turns people old?" I thought that was pretty cute (let me know if I got that right Ben).

Anyway, for Lydia's birthday post, I thought I would share some other significant events that have occured on October 19th.

• 1512 - Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
  
• 1781: The American War of Independence ends with the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to George Washington at Yorktown, USA
• 1789 - Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1925: A US-Franco expedition to Algeria finds ancient sea shells, proving the Sahara was once partially submerged
• 1926: Chuck Berry, Popular 'Rock and Roll' singer of the 50's was born
• 1980: Lydia is born!
  
• 1987: was declared "Black Monday" when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell dramatically, and on which similar enormous drops occurred across the world."
• 2003 - David Blaine finally ended his 44-day endurance stunt of being sealed inside a transparent case suspended 30 feet in the air over Potters Fields Park, located in London.
• 2005 - Busch Memorial Stadium is closed and destroyed.
• 2006 - Lydia turns 26 and goes to work at America West bank - she wears gray pants!
  

Happy Birthday honey! You're such a great wife. Thanks for your constant love and support. You mean the world to me. I love you!

Your life is about to change forever

You won't regret this. This is maybe the best website ever created in the history of the universe. This will likely influence the way you live your life for as long as time exists. So if you're not ready for any life-changing events, steer clear of this link. Because once you've been, there' s no coming back.

http://zombo.com/

Breaking News!

Did I get your attention with that attractive title? I'm sorry, I don't really have any breaking news. It's just that I keep thinking to myself, self, you need to sit down and write in your blog. I keep thinking of all these great things I could write about, and now that the stars align and I actually have a few minutes to write in my blog (class got cancelled today!), I can't think of a single thing to say! Wait hold on, let me think. Something's happening... is that?... is that a?... a thought? ...

Nope.

Rats. Well, you can't say I didn't try.

How about an update? Oh, Lydia got a job! I know that's old news for everyone who will read this, but I'm just proud as a peach. Did I just say that? Yes, apparently I did. Anyway, she's a New Accounts Specialist, but has found out that her job specializes in much more than just opening new accounts. She's now specializing in answering phones, helping her boss choose his desktop wallpaper, and much more. She's really enjoying the change of pace from Happijac. And, she wears make-up everyday (I like that part)! She has to wear nylons if any leg is showing though, which she's not too fond of. Her Mom says that it will keep her legs warm though (and it probably will).

School is going good for me, but I'm starting to get tired of it. I'm now technically a Senior! Crazy huh? I think so. The sad thing is that I still have at LEAST three more semesters before I graduate. I know this is pretty normal, but I'm really feeling ready to graduate. It makes it especially difficult when my employer says they could really use me full-time, and I have to turn them down so I can go take Art 1010, one of the many pre-reqs I have to take to get into the upper-division classes which I may or may not ever use.

Here's the low-down with my major for those that don't know. I'm a BIS (Bachelor of Integrated Studies) major at Weber State. I can choose three areas of emphasis, and I've chosen Computer Science, Multimedia, and Visual Arts. I'm in the web design business and it's my hope that I can pick up some skills that will help me out in my career. The frustrating thing is that I have to wade through so many classes that have nothing to do with what I'm going into (3d design, Art 1010 - which I've taken at Utah State and twice in High school -, C++, Intro to Multimedia, just to name a few) to get to the classes I actually want to take (typography, Flash, programming for the web, etc). Problem is I'm not that patient, so I end up learning the things I want to learn on my own, and when I finally get to the classes I want to take, it's all old hat.

So what to do? There are still classes I'd like to take, and I want the degree (if nothing more than a formality), but sometimes it feels like the program I'm in at Weber doesn't offer enough to make it worth giving up time I could be working at my job (which I love!) making decent money.

So if any of you college grads out there wouldn't mind leaving me a comment and telling me its worth it, that would be great. It IS worth it right?

Wow, wasn't expecting to write anything about that today. I apologize if I come off as arrogant. It feels good to vent about things though. Truly, there are a lot of classes I'm excited to take, but it's just a long road and it's nice to stop and kick a squirrel along the way.