Nik's Photography

Nik has been using his Christmas present- a Canon Rebel T1i. :) The first two pictures are me and my camera, and the rest are his. He's still getting back into the swing of it.

Sakari really loves riding in the truck. She climbs in and goes to sleep instantly on the floorboard.

Fourteen degrees outside!!

Right now! It's snowy, incredibly icy, and great. We stayed at Nik's mom's house overnight Christmas Eve and through Christmas. I can't believe how much snow we got this year, especially after having none on Christmas last year. Something like five inches, but in the drifts it felt even deeper. More like a foot??

Anyway- the pictures. Us and our gorgeous puppy.

Nik has been off since Tuesday!! And he's off until Tuesday. We got a lot of the apartment so organized and clean today- it's great. We also took Sakari to Petsmart to be groomed. She smelled like sugar cookies afterwards, and looked gorgeous. One of the employees there said she had to be a purebred, and all she was lacking was size. Since she's only ten months old, the size will definitely come. Also, my mom lives next door to a woman who rescues Great Pyrenees for most of west Texas, and she said Sakari is definitely a purebred, with perfect markings.

So, here are some pictures. The first is when the kitties saw Sakari for the first time...

We love all our babies so incredibly much! (And spoil them rotten, as you can probably tell.)

Sakari

"Sakari" is our beautiful, more than likely purebred Great Pyrenees dog. She is wonderful. She's still a puppy, so I have to roughhouse with her at times, but it's totally worth it. We took a two mile long walk tonight, and we're both pretty tired. Nik and I decided on Sakari, since it sounds really gorgeous and seems to fit her.

Nik is coming home tomorrow!! His company's Christmas party is tomorrow night, if we're going. I'm cooking fried chicken for him and his family on Saturday, and I'm really excited. Pictures probably that night or Sunday. :) And Sakari will be there of course. She gets along so well with Nik's mom's miniature Pinscher!

Names

Atka (Eskimo for guardian spirit)
Blitzen
Cadence

Furbulous
Indigo

Moonbeam
Moxie
Nova
Qannik (Eskimo for snowflake)
Sable

Sacha
Sakari (Eskimo for sweet)
Shortcake

Furbulous and Shortcake are more for laughs than anything else.

Old Hat

Our romantic dinner last night while we watched the Cardinals and 49ers play (helping Nik win the Superbowl in his Fantasy league, yay!), and some really cute pictures of our sweetie. I'll make a list of names we need to decide on in another post.

I'm too tired to get the pictures off my camera right now, and I want to hurry so I can get in bed with Nik. He has to go to Dalhart again tomorrow, and will probably be gone through Thursday. I want so badly to go with him, but I need to stay here with the dog (whom we still haven't named yet- it has to be really special!) I helped my mom at her business in Idalou today, and took the dog with me. I'll be home all day tomorrow, and keeping track of Nik. I'm so worried about him having to drive all that way by himself.

We found our new pet outside a gas station on the way home from Dalhart Friday night. She was muddy, covered in burrs, and really pitiful looking. She was lying down blocking the door to the station so that people would have to push her out of the way to leave. Everyone really avoided her, so I had to get out of the vehicle and pet her. We tried to leave, but she followed us onto a pretty major street. After going back to the gas station and getting her to safety, we spent thirty minutes trying to decide whether we should take her home or not. That night we bathed her in the shower and ran out of hot water. The next morning, we took her to the vet and she got a clean bill of health, except for being malnourished (she was about ten or fifteen pounds underweight). Nik and I only have a small apartment, and the kitties. I know this isn't a great situation, but I take her out a lot for walks, and we have to make this work for now. I'm a little concerned that she's been taking all the cats' toys away.

I'm really tired and stressed right now. Nik and I are crazy about each other and happy, but we've been having some weird fights lately for dumb reasons. His job is going horribly right now. I really want to fix all this for him. I don't want to go to Idalou with my mom Wed.-Fri., but I feel obligated to help her. God I'm just tired, and really looking forward to tomorrow except for the fact that Nik is leaving. I'm going to clean and make sure the dog and cats keep working towards getting along. And I'll also be on the phone with Nik as much as possible. This post sounds really negative, but we are okay. The dog has been great. We get to take her out, to Petsmart, his mom's house, and lots of other places. She helps us meet other people and animals also. This stress is just pooling in the pit of my stomach. I'm scared, and I hope it'll help that I admitted it. Really, really scared. I need this all to work and I'm feeling completely overwhelmed. I'm also trying to eat less. Dieting. My stomach hurts right now and I am desperately hoping that sleep will make this all go away.

Guess WHAT

We are... the new proud parents... of a Great Pyrenees mix. We are totally in love and will get some better pictures of her soon.

I am so terrified of rejection, even when I act like I'm not. Maybe that's what stops me from making friends.

Realization = possible progress

I've got nothing to lose, right?

This is some of the funniest stuff ever. Nik's mom's dog, Jaxx, had a couple shirts that she doesn't wear. We brought them home to try on the cats... so freaking cute!!

Nik and I are going to Dalhart, Texas, tomorrow. From everything I've heard it sounds awful. Oh well.

This is what's holding me together (besides Nik).