i know, it's been a while..

But I have a very legitimate reason. Student teaching. The past four months have been completely dedicated to torturing myself. But that's not what I wanted to blog about because technically I have one more week. I just wanted to get into words the crazy weekend we had. It all revolves around our wonderful dog, Roxy.She has had a rough week. First on Tuesday she comes home from the farm with a long scratch on her belly (we are guessing is from barb wire). Kade didn't take her to the farm on Wednesday so she could heal. But on Wednesday night there was a terrible storm and it was pretty cold. Roxy came in Thursday morning whining and crying, because there was obviously something wrong.
Kade took her to the vet that day to figure out what was going on. Well, the vet gave him some antibiotics and said she was probably sore from the cut and was being a baby. She wasn't being a baby.. she kept getting worse and worse. She would barely eat or drink, she was really stiff, couldn't bend over, and had trouble breathing. Last night was when we really started to worry, she wouldn't come out of her dog house or even lift her head to look at us. We couldn't think what to do because it was a Saturday night in Winnemucca. Everyone was asleep.
I was able to find online an animal emergency place in Reno that was open all weekend 24 hours.
We were so worried about her dying that night that we drove to Reno at midnight. When we got there we found out through some x-rays that the area around her lungs and heart were completely filled with fluid. The vet at first thought it was an infectious fluid from the cut and said she wouldn't make it! We were so depressed.. I can't believe how attached you can get to a dog.
But the vet didn't give up, she extracted some of the fluid and found out that it was blood. She came into the room and asked if Roxy had any access to rat decon. Unfortunately there is some at the farm and apparently dogs love the taste of it. While it was still bad news, she was going to live. The vet gave her plasma and vitamin K and watched over her for the night. We left the vet in a much better mood. This morning we got a call from the vet letting us know that Roxy was doing much better and we could take her home.
We are so glad we took her to Reno, because she probably wouldn't have made it until Monday. While she is still recovering, she is doing much better and soon we will have our dog back. :)

Painting Class

As I am finally finishing up my elementary education degree I had enough room in this semester to try out a painting class. I had been wanting to get into painting and because GBC offered a painting class I signed up! I was really excited to try it out and I was not disappointed! That class was the first night class (7-10pm) I had that I loved going to! The class focused first on acrylic then we worked with watercolor. I wanted to post some of my work. To get us started the teacher mostly had us copying other artists' paintings like in this impressionist painting where we were copying Paul Gauguin's Tahitian Landscape:
Then she had us work with still life. She brought in some objects for us to paint. I chose 2 big seashells. After I painted the seashells I was trying to figure out what to put them on. So I painted in a beach. Because I painted the seashells when they were sitting on the table in front of me they look sort of odd like they are standing up after I painted in the sea and sky. After still life we worked on painting buildings for perspective. She told us to find a picture with a building in it. Kade suggested for me to find a cabin in the mountains. The best I could find was a picture of an old worn down house next to a mountain, so that's what I used. This is also in acrylic: Then we moved on to watercolor painting. Except we didn't actually use watercolor paints. Because the teacher only had a certain amount of money for the watercolor supplies she bought everyone watercolor crayons. They were harder to use but once everyone figured out the best way to use them it got better. My first painting with the watercolor crayons looks like a crayon drawing so I'm not putting it up. This was the first decent watercolor I did, it's two deer during a sunset: As part of the class we were supposed to research a famous painter, report on them to the class, then create a painting like theirs. I did Albert Bierdstadt because he had some beautiful western landscape paintings like in Yosemite. I did one of his paintings in watercolor, Light in the Forest, because it didn't look quite as detailed and difficult as his other paintings. For our final we were supposed to do one last painting and choose another painting we did to display at the college. I wanted to try one of Bierdstadt's Yosemite paintings but they are just insanely detailed so I found an easier one online at yosemiteart.com by Mark Gudmundsen called Half Dome and Two Bears. I chose this one and the Light in the Forest painting for the final. We matted and framed them then hung them at the college during finals week. Now I just have to brave through four months of student teaching starting January!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we got to go to West Virginia to see all my family. The only one who wasn't at the house was Aaron who is still on his mission in Chile. However, Stephen had just gotten back from his mission the week before from Spain. It was so great to see everyone! Especially the little babies, they were so cute!We arrived in WV on Monday and stayed until Saturday. We played sports, games, and lots of Wii. There was a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with amazing rolls and delicious pies made by Megan and Wendy. We also got to try a Thai dish that Stephen made, and some crazy desserts made by Stephen, Scott, and Mom Blood.
I wish we could have stayed until Sunday to hear Stephen's mission coming home talk in church. We also missed Dustin's mission farewell talk that Sunday too as we were driving back from Salt Lake City.
I always look forward to the holidays to see everyone again, I can't wait until next time we can all get together when Aaron will be home!

Catching up...

So I've been slacking since school started. But finally everything is starting to slow down, though I know it won't last long. In January I start student teaching in a third grade classroom! I'm scared, but excited to finally be done! Well, what has happened since school started... Kade went elk hunting twice with his brothers and dad. Although Kade was just helping he had a great time. He helped his brother Ryan get a nice elk down by Pioche, NV. Then later he went with his dad and brother, Dustin, to Ely to get his dad an elk. They came back with this
After all the hunting trips things have been pretty mellow, except for the school work. This semester I am taking two methods classes (reading and science) a required GE class that is really retarded, and an awesome painting class. For my observations this semester I was in a fifth grade classroom. The teacher was awesome and taught me alot about controlling a classroom. I also subbed a little bit, too. One week I was scheduled to sub all week in a fifth grade classroom but I got sick half way through and had to call a sub for myself.. But it was good to experience the higher level, I liked it a lot.

It was very depressing to see my garden die from the frost, but before the frost came I managed to pick all the watermelons. They filled up the fridge.And I was still picking some delicious raspberries for a while after the frost. Now I guess I just have to wait until next spring.

Onion and Blue Lakes Camping Trip

Last weekend Kade and I took a camping trip before school started for me. We decided to go all the way up to Onion and Blue Lakes up by Denio. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive including a hour drive through a rough 4-wheel drive road. But it was worth it. It turned out to be a great camping and fishing site. When we got there on Friday evening we started fishing Onion Lake. Kade reeled in two big rainbow trout within ten minutes, but I never got one. A little later while I was back at our tent, Kade caught another one. The next morning we packed up our camp and drove to the Blue Lakes trailhead and hiked up to the lakes. Blue Lake was really pretty. It was surrounded by trees and had really clear water. A family was already up at the lake swimming and jumping off the rocks. We fished for a while there and caught two smaller trout. We were going to let both go but one of the fish was going to die so we kept it. That evening we hiked back down to the truck and drove home. It was a great relaxing weekend and now we have four fish to eat :)
Rest of the pictures --> click here

Summer Project

I don't know if you remember, but a couple years ago when we were living in Utah going to school, we were in desperate need of a dresser. We were so lucky to find a free dresser sitting by our apartment's dumpster. The thing was actually a dresser with a changing table on top and was very sad looking. After leaving Utah for Winnemucca and a new house, we were able to get real furniture. We seriously thought about throwing it out or giving it away, but I decided I wanted to try and fix it up. So this summer I started working on it in the garage. I removed the ugly handles, stripped the old finish, hammered some parts back together, and put wood putty on the scratches. It took me quite a while stripping off the old finish because it was hard to work on for more than a couple hours at a time. But I finally got it all stripped and sanded so I could put some new stain on it. With some new handles the dresser looks just like new! Kade couldn't believe how much better it looks.

Kade's Big Buck

Once again, Kade has killed a monster buck. Bow hunting season just started a week ago, but Kade had his eye on a nice buck coming into the farm at Adams Peak. On Friday, three days after Brandon got his huge buck, Kade saw this deer with his group of 8 other bucks and stalked him out of the field into his bed in the brush. He sat crouched down for almost 4 hours waiting for the big deer to stand up so he could get a shot. One of the smallest bucks got up and came 16 yards from where Kade was but didn't even know what he was. Finally, the deer Kade wanted stood up to scratch his back and he got a shot. Because the arrow was a little off it took a while for him and Brandon to track him. They left the farm at dark and we all went out the next morning to look for the dead deer. After finding a bed, Kade and Brandon were able to track the deer to where he died. Kade was so excited to get that huge deer. He measured it 29 inches. The head is currently at the taxidermy waiting to get mounted.
more pics--> click here!