Payton Orion Palmer

Jill had her baby on Tuesday! I didn't get to see him though until Friday afternoon because he was stuck in the ICU for a few days. I did visit Jill Wednesday evening after work to check in on her and hear how the baby was doing. I guess he had a low white blood cell count after he was born and they were worried about him catching pneumonia or an infection. But, he's a tough little guy and was able to be released just 2 days later. 

It was SO fun for me to visit her and ask her all sorts of questions. This was by far Jill's hardest pregnancy all around. She's got a lot of after-birth pain and it's hard for her to move around right now. She has a lot of help from Paul though and the rest of the kids! 

Anyway, here are some pictures of Payton. He looks SO much like Elijah it's so cute!

Flowers, dogs and life!

Finally, an update! I've been taking pictures over the last few weeks, I just haven't had the opportunity to post them up - so now I'm taking that opportunity! Remember, you can click on these pictures if you want to see them bigger!

Work is by no means any less hectic right now. I've had some dreams of vultures lately and apparently the symbolism of them means that I need to keep my patience and be resourceful. So in terms of what I'm actually responsible for now, I'm being as resourceful as possible and working smarter, not harder ;)  And in terms of what will eventually happen at work, I'm just being patient ;)

Since it's actually acting like Springtime in Utah, I've been able to finally plant some flowers and Ramin and Chris have done some great work in the yard! I already posted the pictures of Chris and Ramin prepping the areas for the new trees to go but here are the pictures of the trees actually planted!

So we have a tree in each corner of the yard (East and West). And Ramin also attached some new trellis' to the fence. At the base of each trellis he also planted some Jasmine vines (Ramin really loves Jasmine because it reminds him of Florida). We also bought some Rose bushes we're going to plan sometime this weekend as well.

I love Springtime trees so here is what the tree in our front yard looked like a few weeks ago:

And as is my usual practice, here are the starter flower pots for this season. This isn't all of them because I just got started, but it will be fun to see how much they grow over the summer!

I also did some spring cleaning a few weeks ago as well. I wish I would remember to take some "before" type of pictures because if you could see the mess beforehand it would lend to more appreciation of the final product. But alas, no before picture. Instead, here's the final picture of my newly cleaned out pantry. I actually bought some new containers and shelving to go in there so it's been really helpful so far!

And last, but certainly NOT least, WE GOT A NEW DOG!!  His name is Dingo and he is 2 years old!

Isn't he super cute?!?! He is an Austrailian Cattle Dog mix...we think he may be mixed with Border Collie because of his black coloring and face mask. He is so sweet and smart!

We got him exactly one week ago today. Lady went to the vet last Friday for her usual comprehensive exam. When we went to go pick her up at the Petsmart Banfield vet, I noticed that the adoption people put the animals in a different section of the store, right next to the vet!! Usually I avoid looking at the adoption animals because it breaks my heart too much, but this time I couldn't avoid it. And the first thing I saw was Dingo looking at me from his cage.

For the last few weeks I'd really been thinking about Belle and how we need a companion for her since Lady doesn't play with her at all and because Lady is getting so old. To make a long story short, we brought Belle into the store and introduced her to Dingo and they've loved each other ever since! They are always play fighting or making out with each other - I'm serious!  I'm going to have to post the videos of them doing both because it's hilarious!  They cuddle with each other and just love it - they are basically the same size.  The only issue we've had revolves around the toys. Belle is SUPER possessive so we'll have to work with her hard over the next few months getting her to adjust.

Lady is sometimes annoyed with both of these crazy dogs but otherwise she is fine. She has developed a heart murmur that the vet informed me about, but I can't really do much about it. As long as Lady is comfortable and acting like her usual self I'm not going to stress too much. At least now she gets more attention because the other dogs are usually outside playing around in the yard :)

This is Belle's classic look - like she's mad at you or something!

The dogs play fighting - one of them always has their mouth on the other!

Jill's Baby Shower

So back in mid-April I helped to throw a baby shower for my best friend Jill :) She is due in early June and is expected a boy that she and her husband are naming Peyton. This is Jill's 3rd pregnancy and really the first one that I've actually helped throw a shower for. The shower itself was held at Jill's sister's house - Kristi. I coordinated with her for all of the arrangements. It was a fun shower and I think Jill really enjoyed it! Here are some of the pictures. The ones captured of me and Jill are on her camera so I need her to email them to me :)

First we have the set up - the favor/cupcake table!

Then we have the hanging decor - Jill wanted blue, green and brown for her colors, to match the invitations!

The drink table - Kristi did the awesome drinks!

This was the banner I made especially for the shower - I used my Cricut Expression I got for Christmas!

Here is Jill with her cousin Tiffani and her sister Kristi

Jill's step-daughter Alicia, her daughter Aireonna, and her niece, Maya

This is Jill with her Grandma Coates

Jill's Aunt and Mom

The food table once everything was served

I had some fun word games for everyone to play - a baby word scramble game and then an alphabet game - we gave prizes away - it was pretty fun :)

So those were all of the pictures I got during the party - I should have gotten more but I was busy taking care of stuff during everything :) It was a great day and I'm glad it all turned out well!

And I DID take more pictures this weekend but I'll post those up during the week since I'll have time now that school is off for this week.

Wow...really long time!

I know I know, it's been a month since I last updated the blog. I feel really bad about that. Things are progressing at work - I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll be able to share some updates for that I've been waiting to happen. I'll just say for now that I'm still HELLA busy. This week we started our new calibration program and I'm facilitating 13 calibrations/meetings a week with between 5 and 20 people at a time. It's actually fun but it's also time consuming because of all the preparation that goes into each one AND the after meeting work like compiling notes and sending them out. But anyway, that's silly work stuff!!

I plan to take loads of spring update pictures this weekend because it's supposed to be sunny. But for now I just have a few things. First, we have some seriously cute pictures of Lady that I took last weekend when I caught her sleeping soundly on the couch. I actually got within inches of her to take these and she didn't even notice - poor girl can't hear anymore :( But she is really peaceful looking in these pictures and I just love it!

Next we've got Ramin and Chris working in the back yard. We bought some new baby trees - they are called Pear Trees but they don't produce pears :) Instead they are just shaped like pears as they mature. These are the ones that turn REALLY pretty in the fall - I've noticed them around the valley during the fall and have always wanted some. The guys planted one in each corner of the backyard for some added privacy :) When I take pictures this weekend I'll actually take some of the trees planted in the ground :)

So that's all I've got for now! I know it's not much but its better than nothing. School is also done for the Spring semester and I did really well again in my classes - I just love school - cause I'm a nerd. :)

Dubai Pictures

So don't hate me but I'm incredibly lazy (and still sick) right now and I don't have the energy or motivation to post all of the Dubai pictures on the actual blog, but I'm fairly certain anyone who reads this blog also has a Facebook account, so that is where you can find all of the Dubai pictures we have:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2091618&id=29005970

Here is one picture for you though, it is of our custom artwork Ramin and I had done made out of wood. While wandering around one day we happened upon a cute little artsy place with alleyways and cute little shops. We found this guy's shop, his name is Hadi and we did get a picture of him in his shop. We loved what he was making and so we left thinking about possibly getting something done for us.  A few days later we want back to him and asked if he could make something of us even though we didn't have a picture for him to work off of, instead he just took pictures of us with his cell phone. Three days later we went and picked it up. It's made of wood mounted on black velvet, all handmade. It's AWESOME! Ramin has a cute crooked smile and I sort of look asian because I was squinting in the picture, but all in all you can still tell it is us - it was the best item was picked up in Dubai :)

Dubai Trip

So this isn't going to be my full post about our Dubai trip - I just don't have the energy to do that full post yet because I have loads of pictures and lots of stories to go along with the pictures. But I wanted to let everyone know we got back Sunday afternoon, slept the entire rest of the day, took Monday off from work to acclimate ourselves again and then headed back to work on Tuesday. It's been rough transitioning back to work and we're both still pretty tired all of the time. I'm hoping I'll be able to post up all of the pictures and stories about Dubai sometime over the weekend.

For now, enjoy these few pictures of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) and the Burj Al Arab (tallest hotel in the world).

New Decor & Flowers!!!

Hey all,

I haven't updated in a while - same old reason too - WORK :P My work has been paying off though. I got an award yesterday during an offsite we had. I am pretty thankful because my hard work lately was appreciated during yesterday's activities.

Anyway, I'm getting things prepared to go to Dubai in a few weeks! I CANNOT wait! Ramin and I so excited to take this trip together and see all of his family on his mother's side. We will take tons of pictures, don't worry :)

The weather in Utah has been weird lately, rather warm. My crocus flowers have even bloomed ALREADY!

 

I also decorated the front entry with some St. Patty's Day stuff. I've never had anything to decorate with other than a door decoration so this year I figured I'd get some stuff. It's not much but it's a little start ;) 

 

  

That's all I got for now. I'm going to try and take some pics of tomorrow's game night at the Baugh house :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Next to Halloween, Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday to decorate! It seems like this year it came up too fast and I didn't have much of a chance to totally enjoy my Valentine's decorations. I'm thinking I'll leave them up for the rest of the month. I don't have much St. Patrick's Day decor so I'll have to buy some this year :)

Anyway, here is my decor this year - the table is pretty much the same as last year. The only new additions are the wall decor items which I LOVE! I wanted some more sparkle so I found some things that were very sparkly!

 

  

  

It just so happens that this year, again, Ramin is out of town for work. He was gone last year too for the same thing so it's kind of sad. Last year I hid a cute card in his suitcase and this year I did the same thing ;) I like to be sneaky. Last year he sent me cute red roses but knowing how practical Ramin is, it didn't surprise me that this year he sent me flowers with a twist! 

Can you see the pot in there? Yep, he was able to get potted flowers that I can actually take care of, instead of ones that will die! I LOVE them! And somehow he was able to remember that my actual favorite flowers are hydrangeas! But of course, you can't forget the roses since those are tradition as well as my middle name ;)

So last night I went to work and bought some new pots and potting mix and put each of these plants into it's own container. The bunch also came with a cute little green plant but I forgot to take a picture of it :-/

Anyway, I kept the roses in the overall basket cause it's just really cute and matches the pink of the mini roses.

 

And then I put the hydrangeas in a brand new pot. Yes, those are straws in there. Hydrangeas need support for their heavy blooms so I was able to jimmy-rig some straws to help the blooms stand up :)

 

 

It's kind of crappy because we do not have good natural light in our house. The best window in the house is downstairs and I'm afraid of keeping plants down there because of the cold and because of the fact that I might forget them down there. So, all of the plants have to either go into the office, or near the dining table - which also has issues because some plants don't like to be there because we open the back door a lot to let the dogs outside. So I've got 7 pots/baskets of plants in the office and then 5 pots throughout the living/dining room. I hope I can keep these hydrangeas alive because they seem rather sensitive. Ramin did good this year :)

Completion of Goal!

You should be proud - because I actually completed my goal of adding new pictures. Although I still didn't get any new pics of people :P But that's only because the pictures I'm showing today are actually significant in terms of the animals.

So we've been babysitting "Buff" for the past few days now - we'll have him until Tuesday I think. He's a bundle of typical Boxer energy. Him and Belle play like crazy outside. We've also had a few interior scuffles as well so we have to keep a close eye on him at all times.

 

When Belle does her cute cozy thing though it's pretty cute!

 

 

And then there's Lady. Poor Lady. 

 

Ramin and I got home Friday evening and fed the dogs as usual. Then when Chris came home he noticed the huge mat of red fur on Lady's face. I freaked out a bit and went to the bathroom and tried to detangle the mat. At this point I was thinking either her and Belle got into a fight during the day (we keep Buff looked up in his crate) OR that she had scratched at her mole too hard. As I cleaned away the fur and blood I realized it was probably her mole because I could clearly see a hole in her face. The hole wasn't bleeding though. It was weird. By that time it was too late to go to the vet and I didn't think it was super serious so I left it be and trimmed her fur around her face so she'd be presentable at the vet on Saturday.

So Saturday comes and I couldn't take her to the vet until 5 pm (earliest time they had available). Once we got there I explained the story. They took her to the back operating area and shaved the fur around the spot and dematted the rest of it. Yep, it was her mole/absess. She really just must have scratched at too hard. 

 

 

So apparently they don't clean out that sort of thing. I asked them if they were going to and they said no. Hmmm ok. Anyway, they gave her an antibiotics shot and then gave me some pills to give her twice a day. I also have to inject this stuff into the hole of the mole twice a day as well so that it will help the thing heal properly. It is rather disgusting and I know I'm fond of posting about wounds on my blog, but this really was the major event of the weekend for me. 

 

I'll keep watch over it this week and see how it heals. If it starts looking worse they told me to come back to the vet, and that's just what I'll do!