What did I do to deserve this?

If it's not one thing, then it's another! Read the previous post to find out the most recent drama in my life... until tonight. Kyle came home from playing volleyball tonight and I was laying in bed crying because I miss Dayzee so much. She was such a comfort to me while Kyle was gone. She was really good company. So he came home and asked me what was wrong and I told him "I miss her so much today" and he had a really horrible look on his face, I KNEW something was wrong! Something had to be wrong. He looked right in my eyes and said "I didn't want to tell you tonight but someone stole Dayzee from Kurt's house" and I lost it. I was bawling. So now, not only will I not have her until we move out of the shit hole we live in now, I will never have her again. Kurt was afraid to tell me because he knows I love her so much and I would probably lose it, and I needed Kyle there to hold me and to let me cry, so he let Kyle tell me. Kurt was driving around looking for her and he put up signs. Apparently, some of the kids in his neighborhood saw the other kids hop the fence and take her, but they didn't know who the kids were. I am pretty sure we will never see her again. If you are dishonest enough to take a dog like that, you are not honest enough to give her back. I have no idea if she is ok... if she is scared (which I imagine she is). We don't even know where those kids took her, or if they left her on the streets somewhere. She might not have food there and she definitely does not have her toys. It breaks my heart. Kyle thinks we might still get her back, but I seriously doubt it. I don't want to get another dog now... even when we move back. I can't handle this. It is too upsetting to me. I just have to pretend that Dayzee never was because I can't handle anything else. Kurt sent me this picture yesterday, he had gotten her a new toy to play with. So good bye Dayzee mae... you will always be in my heart and I hope wherever you are, you are safe and happy. You will surely be missed by your mom and dad. We love you. It was a fun year! You kept me comforted when I was alone and you made me happier by just having your fun personality around. Be good and I love you!

Dayzee Mae

This past weekend was so hard on me! I was in class on Thursday and Kyle sent me a text and told me to call him when I got out. I figured he was just planning on making lunch and wanted to know what I wanted to it could be partially ready when I got home. So I called him and he broke the news to me. See, we're not supposed to have pets at our apartment, and we knew that, but Kyle works a lot of graves and is not home a lot so we decided we would just keep Dayzee and hope for the best. She is such a friendly dog. She hardly ever barks (and will stop immediately if you tell her to) and she is extremely friendly. Everyone loves her! Well the landlord called him and told him that we needed to get rid of her immediately or pay $50 a DAY to keep her. Needless to say, we do not have that much money and we had no other option. I was going to spend the day in the library working on homework, but ran home so we could discuss our options and figure out what we were going to do. The only option we had was to get rid of her. We couldn't hide her anymore (and I know which one of our hillbilly trashy neighbors told on us, and that war has yet to begin!!) So we packed up all of her things, in case the landlords decided to stop by) and we took her to a friend's shed. We didn't know what else to do, but we had to get her out of the apartment immediately if we didn't want to be charged. I put her bed in the shed and took over an extra blanket and made it so she could curl up in the blanket if she got cold. I kissed her good bye and Kyle took me back to the school. Luckily, Kyle's manager is way chill and in some of my classes and told me to have Kyle take Dayzee up to his work where she could stay the rest of the day. I spent the whole day crying because Kyle and I both knew we had no other option than to get rid of her. Kyle's brother had sent me a text the day before and told me that he was looking for a dog so I should keep my eyes open for a good one. And Kurt loves Dayzee, so Kyle and I discussed our options and I would much rather have family take her because I know she would be treated well and I know we could one day have her back. So we called Kurt and he said he would take her until May when we move and find a place that we can keep her. So Friday morning, we packed up our stuff and drove her down to Las Vegas. Luckily, Kirt was out of town that day so I got to spend one more night with her (she likes to sleep on the bed, in the covers... it is so cute). We dropped her off at Kurt's house on Saturday and I got to tell her goodbye. I explained to her where she was going and why and that it wasn't permanent. We gave Kurt her bunny, her tennis ball and her bone... along with her bed and her favorite food. Kurt had to hold on to her pretty tight when we walked out the door, she was struggling to come with us. He said she sat and stared at the door for an hour, waiting for Kyle to come back. I cried the whole way back to Cedar. It was hard leaving my little girl. I know Kurt will take good care of her, but either way it was still hard. It was hard coming home from work yesterday and not having her greet me at the door and it was hard taking a nap and knowing she wouldn't be waking me up in the middle because she wants up on the bed. It is an adjustment period for me and I do not like it. So here are some pictures of my little girl. I sure do miss her!!!!

Dayzee and her bunny
Our little family
Her first time playing in the snow
Dayzee and her dad... she loved Kyle so much, it made me jealous sometimes, but it was the sweetest relationship
I love this little girl
Who wouldn't love that face???


So for now, it is "see you later Dayzee Mae"... we love you! Have fun with Uncle Kurt and we will be back for you soon!

Resolutions

I am really not into making New Year's Resolutions but this year, I kinda talked Kyle into doing it. Let's see how long we can actually keep these! We each made 2...

Shannon:
#1 - Be nicer. I'm not a super nice person, and quite frankly, I have no desire to be, people hurt my feelings all the time and I get over it, but this year I want to work on being nicer overall and watching what I say and who I say it to. Just because other people are jerks and self-centered arrogant assholes, doesn't mean I have to be.
#2 - Lose all the baby weight. This shouldn't be too hard since I haven't gained too much, but it is extremely important to me! I miss being skinny and am willing to work hard to get there again, and hey, maybe I could lose a few extra pounds as well ;)

Kyle
#1 - Lose weight. Kyle put on a few pounds since the wedding, which is common and not unnatural, but if I'm going to be dieting and working out, Kyle promised he will do it to. We are still pretty much newlyweds and need to be looking hot, just because we will have a baby is no excuse to be sloppy.
#2 - Get us out of Cedar City - I finish school in May and I am done with this place. No more Cedar City for me. Kyle has lived in Utah for about 6 months longer than I have and we are both sick of this place. It may be nice to visit, but I DO NOT want to live here, well at least not here in Cedar City. I need a Target, and a Jack in the Box (totally goes against the whole diet thing, but come on... moderation!)

So there we have it. Let's see if we can make 2010 great. So many things to look forward to!

Christmas becomes a tragedy...

I really need to do a quick update, but I don't wanna. I am sitting at work, thinking and realized that this Christmas was bitter sweet. It's something I knew, but the more I think about it, the less I focus on the "sweet" and the more I focus on the "bitter".
Kyle and I spent Christmas in Las Vegas. It was such a fun time. We got there on the 22nd and by the 24th, Christmas was definitely ruined. Take the time to read and I'll explain.
... My parents have a HUGE back patio, solid concrete. When we moved into that house in 2000, the patio was cracked but the previous owners said it has been like that for awhile so my dad figured it was nothing to worry about. The crack got so bad that it cracked a wall in the house, so it was time to get it fixed. My dad hired someone to fix it and it was being done during the week of Christmas. So we spent two days listening to a jack hammer and wanting to literally pull our hair out. But that is not the tragedy. We have a really old dog. He is our family dog and probably everyone's favorite. We got this dog when I was 8 and we all grew up with him (his name is Ricky). Ricky is dang old now... old old old. He is almost completely deaf and we think he is going blind as well. You know when old people get to that point where they are constantly confused, well that's Ricky. He literally will get himself into a corner (an actual corner, not like a situation) and can not figure out how to get out. In the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas he lost a LOT of weight. He looked completely different. Kyle was in the backyard for awhile and said him and my dad saw Ricky take a few stumbles. It has been really sad to watch. We are all super attached to him, especially my dad. So anyways, Ricky was fixed and never goes to the door when people come, we can leave the door open without worrying about him ever walking out. He is a good dog. All day on Wednesday, Ricky was outside with the workers, just walking around the backyard, just hanging out with "the boys". Then Thursday morning he was out there with him again and next thing we know, he is gone. He wandered away. As soon as we realized he was gone, we immediately went out looking for him. For one thing, he is old and we figured he couldn't get very far and for another, we want him back. Kyle, my mom and I walked around our neighborhood for a good hour or so. The sad thing is it is pointless to call out his name, he can't hear us. But my dad was out looking for probably 5 or 6 hours. It was really sad to watch. He would be gone for about an hour, come home so see if we had found him and then pack up and leave again. Once it started to get dark, my dad went to the animal shelters to see if anyone found him and turned him in, but no one had. I actually saw my dad tear up over it. It was sad and hard to see. I have a few theories...
1. Ricky is a shetland sheepdog (he looks like a miniature Lassie), and his breed comes directly from wolves. My first theory is that he knew he was getting old and was likely to die soon. Wild animals can often sense a nearing death and will leave their pack to die alone. Maybe Ricky knew he was dying and went to be alone.
2. He wandered out of the yard, and got turned around and had no idea where he was so he kept wandering. (this seems more practical at times) Although, in his condition... it doesn't seem likely he could get too far. My dad says he has a collar with a phone number on it.
Either way, I am so nervous about him. If he is still alive, he is probably starving and about to die anyways. It was the worst thing to deal with the day before Christmas... might as well have been a member of the family dying (which in a sense, it was). Unfortunately, Christmas 2009 will always be the year we lost Ricky. We are still praying that we get good news, but it's not looking very good. When Jay left he said "When I come home, I hope Ricky and Grandma are still here", he got to talk to Grandma on Christmas, but how do you tell him Ricky "wandered away" when he is already so far from home and super homesick. Makes for a sucky memory huh?!

Scary Test

Kyle and I went to see the doctor on Monday for our last "monthly" visit. We will now be seeing him every 2 weeks. Anyways, while we were there, I remembered something I thought was just due to being pregnant, but I wanted to double check. I mentioned to the dr that I was bruising a lot, and I'm not a peach, I don't bruise easily. The doctor didn't come across as being overly concerned but wrote out a lab sheet and told me to go over to the hospital right away and have some blood work done. Kyle didn't seem nervous at all, but I was. Cancer, diabetes and crohn's disease all run in my family. Even where that chick poked me bruised up, worse than ever before... and these aren't those little whimpy green bruises, they are full on black bruises. When we got home I called my mom to talk to her. It really concerned my parents because the truth is, the dr was most likely trying to rule out cancer, but was not going to come right out and say it. The less a patient is informed before anything is certain, the better. So I had been worried for a few days. I asked Kyle what of my stuff he wanted, you know, incase I didn't make it. And his response "I get all of your stuff"... good response. (He tends to think I am slightly over dramatic... nah!)
We got a call a few days ago from the dr that my results came back normal but I needed to keep a close eye on the bruises. I needed to pay more attention to when they come up and if they get more severe , stay longer, or I get an increased number... because we will go back and retest. It was a scary few days for me, but I'm happy everything turned out ok :) I will not be dying anytime soon.

Avance Family Pics

Wow, with all these posts, you would think we have a life! But these are the family pictures we did while in Panaca. Although I think the pictures are well taken, my face looks huge and I have a hard time even looking at it! Kyle looks good though!
I don't look too incredibly pregnant in any of these, although at the time I was almost 29 weeks.

Final note... we see the dr later today for our 30 week check up... only 10 more weeks. The next family pictures will hopefully have our little boy in them. And once Jay comes home in May, we can do new LaPratt family pictures with all the changes... Jay will be home, Ethan, Parker, and our little boy will all be there and Nate will not! Hooray!

Pat on my own back...

So I already blogged about Kyle being super smart in his classes, and I don't care about receiving the praise (except from Kyle) but with this semester ending, I feel the need to recap. I took a full load this semester, expecting it to be like any other semester. Oh boy was I wrong. This semester was busy busy busy and seriously kicked my trash (I feel way mormon saying that.. haha) There is one professor at SUU who I seriously used to dread taking classes from. He has been a defense attorney, a prosecutor and a judge... he knows his stuff and he doesn't let people "skid by". So how did I end up taking 2 classes from him? One of the classes was my senior seminar... talk about a waste of time! Seriously! He did a good job but the class focused on immigration, something that I care nothing about. My only real complaint about illegal aliens is that they don't speak English, well it was until my research paper at the end. Professor Admire grades you after each class based on participation. He wants people to speak up and to voice their opinions. What if I don't have one on the particular subject? And how many times do I really need to say "Yeah, but would we have that problem if they spoke the language?" Then we had to write our senior paper. Admire is tough... he doesn't grade lightly. He knows what he is looking for and doesn't settle for less. I turned in my proposal, which was "The cost of illegal immigration on public school systems" and come to find out there is ZERO information out there on that topic. So I changed it to "Illegal aliens receiving In State tuition at U.S. Universities". Oh did that ever change my opinion on immigration. Utah is one of 11 states that allows illegal aliens to receive the BENEFIT of in state tuition as long as they graduated from high school in the state of Utah. What a bunch of crap!!!!! How is it fair that I'm a citizen and paid $6500/semester and they have NO legal status and pay $2200/semester! Well either way, I pretty much aced the paper. It was only 10 pages when it was supposed to be 15-20, but I went in to talk to him about some things and he said not only is it well written but I have a good grip on the topic and extra wording is not needed. Awesome!
My criminal procedure class is the second class I took from Professor Admire. This has been my favorite class of all time! It is pretty much "who does what and why"... I LOVED it. Every day I was like a kid in a candy store, just soaking up useful information. But yet again, it was NOT an easy class. Admire doesn't teach in the "traditional" format... he expects you to read the assigned chapters before coming to class and come to class and know the material and be able to discuss it. we went over specific supreme court cases and how they have shaped and changed the laws into what we know now. I know all sorts of random details about the law now. Admire also doesn't test in a typical format... there is no true/false, multiple choice here. It was more like "here is the situation... so and so did this and the cops did this... argue from the defense attorney's side and the prosecutor's side" It was applying what you had learned and making it work it a "could be real life situation". I scored a 92 on the first test (most people scored in the mid 70's) and a 96 on the second test (highest grade in the class when no one else cleared 90) This class totally solidified what I want to do with my life. I apparently have the right way of thinking, and I like to argue (although most attorney's don't do that anyways). If I score well on the final I will finish thatclass with the highest grade in the class! It's a super hard class so I'm very excited to be able to say that!
I also took an Abnormal Psychology class, this class was definitely interesting. It was not at all what I expected. We visited a lot of places around town where the people who resided or worked there had certain diseases or mental illnesses. This was also my first psychology class since general ed classes, so it was a tough class for me. I scored very well in the class and finished with an A. He gave us a print out of all of our scores and he said I was missing an assignment that I know I turned in, so I went in to argue him about it. It was only worth 10 points and I already had an A, so the professor looked at me like I was stupid. But I worked hard for my grades, and I like them to be a good reflection of the work I did that semester.
Either way, I did better than expected this semester, we'll have to see how next semester plays out with the baby and everything, but it is my last semester and I will not just slough off... I have worked too hard and too many people have made too many sacrifices for that. I feel good after doing such a good job and I know it makes my parents and my husband super proud and for once, I'm proud of myself and what more do I need?