May 03, 2010

Our New Couch is Here!

Yellow, un-square and comfortable! We are so glad to have a new couch!

The old couch? Here it is in all it’s glory:

And now?

Have I mentioned that I have always really liked the fabric on this couch?

So, I gather what I like, and throw the rest away. (Although I would have like to have kept some of the wood as it was really pretty, but way too much work to get apart.)

So now, we will enjoy our new couch.

In Christ,

Rita

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April 20, 2010

Bella Changes

For the last two months I have been amazed at the changes I have been seeing in Bella. It’s almost hard to recognize her as the same dog we picked up in October.

On the day we picked her up, the only thing we knew that was “wrong” with her was that she wasn’t leash trained and she was a bit intense when she obeyed the “sit” command. (Think: sitting so intensely with her eyes huge to the point of seeing white all around her irises.)

We soon learned that she was rather scared of a lot of things. She quickly ran out of the way if we walked by with anything in our hands. She ran from any toys we offered her, especially hard plastic. If we threw something in her direction, she ran. Strangers, ran. Raised our arms, ran. Sudden noises, ran. Falling objects, ran. David’s computer on his lap, ran. You get the picture. She would run quickly at anything not done quietly and cautiously.

(Bella running from the camera after sitting nicely on my lap for the first time. - Thanksgiving weekend)

But on the other hand, she longed for and begged for attention all the time. She would sit so fiercely at our feet and we didn’t know if we should pet her or not. We were glad that she wanted our attention, but we didn’t want her always thinking she had to be so stressed about it.

(“Food please…”)

Now that it has been 6 months since we got her, we are amazed at the changes we see. We did take her to obedience training as soon as possible, if even just so we knew how to take care of her more than for her obedience.

Bella no longer runs when the pillow falls from my computer chair (every time I stand up!).

My clapping and waving of hands has become a game to the point of boredom.

Toys? Loves them. The cloth ones mostly, especially ones with squeakers! (That in and of itself was a learning curve! It was fun to hear her bark or growl at the toy after she got it to squeak, she wasn’t sure what to think!)

And walking? Walking is my favorite part. Almost two months ago something clicked in Bella and me and she is heeling so very well. After much pulling (on both ends!), yanking, crying, kicking (yes, even kicking, sigh.), choke collar, Gentle Leaders, food, bribery, and frustration, Bella and I figured out what works well for us. It wasn’t any one thing that worked a miracle but a combination of things. The two biggest ended up being the use of the Gentle leader (after I had already broken her from her extreme pulling by bribery) and switching her from my left side to my right.

It was really silly of me to wait so long in switching which side I made her walk on, Bella has always been better on the right. But in asking the trainer in obedience class about it, she said to teach Bella on the left. (Now I think she really meant that for the class I had to have Bella on the left, or dogs would be running into each other and causing problems.) Not only is Bella better on the right, and more relaxed, but my reflexes are quicker in my right arm. On top of that I realized one day that I carry all heavy/bulky objects on my left side (babies and laundry baskets) and it just makes sense to keep her on right side to free up my left.

(Pause!!! As I am writing Bella is growling and barking at something in her sleep! How funny! Go get’m Bella!)

Now all those people who have seen me walking Sheyenne St, yanking and pulling my dog around, now see us walking together side by side. And it feels good! It feels so good, that I realize it’s just a matter of time before Bella’s other issues slowly go away, and I am glad!

Oh, and if we walk by with something in our hands, now she follows us to find out if it might be food!

In Christ,

Rita

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April 19, 2010

Photos of the past few months

Since I haven’t been posting for a while, I thought I’d give a little update through photos again. I see that I have to go back to January.

The biggest event that happened in January is a visit from Jon and Erin for a belated Christmas celebration together. (Silly them, they were not engaged until AFTER they left us in January, so we haven’t been able to celebrate together in person.)

In February I had the opportunity to attend a carving class taught by Harley Refsal a the Milan Village Art School. There I learned to carve a caricature to add to my carvings. (I don’t have a photo of it yet, I’m not quite sure if I’m finished with it yet.)

Shortly after the carving class David and I took a spontaneous trip to Minneapolis to go to Ikea and buy a new mattress. While we were there we stayed with The Mahans.

(Spoon carved by Fred Livesay) At the beginning of March David and I took a spoon carving course together, also at the Milan Village Art School. It was a great weekend! Even if David decided that carving is not his thing…

Bella and I are excited to find that even if the sun doesn’t reach inside the apartment in the winter, at least it does in the summer. We might not be so glad for it later, but for now we will enjoy it!

David and I spent Easter with David’s parents, which was double the enjoyment because it was also Mom Hjelle’s birthday!

And that brings us to this past week which you heard about in the last post. So I leave you with a colourful photo of part of our living room and my carving station.

In Christ,

Rita

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April 17, 2010

A Visit from Mom and Dad!

Do you know that I am glad that Mom didn’t realize how far away Fargo is? If she did, she might not have decided to come visit us on their way home from their latest DRS trip down south.

It was a long drive for them, and very much out of the way, but I am so glad they came! We had a blast! When we were not eating and playing games, we were shopping or something similar. My favorite part was the games. I miss playing games! Good thing I’ll be visiting them in a month!

I’ve not been good at remember to take photos lately, but I did get a few I can share with you.

On Tuesday we went to the Hjemkomst Center to see the Stave Church.

Mom and Dad

Mom and I riding the Sheels Ferris Wheel.

Taking a Picture of Dad waiting for us so we can get some coffee (and ice cream and pie and fudge and…)

Bella sunning herself while she waits for us to be ready to take her for her walk. Mom and Dad were still in bed at this point, or she wouldn’t look quite so relaxed. She did better with them than we thought she would, but still a bit skittish.

Mom taking a turn walking Bella, and Bella wondering why I dropped behind.

It’s too bad that I cut Dad’s head off in this photo, or it would have been a really good one. It’s still a good one to leave you with.

Thank you so much for coming Mom and Dad! See you in about a month, Lord willing!

Love to you all,

Rita

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March 20, 2010

Spring in Fargo

Horray! Spring is finally coming to Fargo!

Well, I’m really about two weeks too late with this announcement, but it’s still true. About two or three weeks ago the sun started shining brightly and started melting the snow. Then it rained lightly for a week straight, and now the sun is out again. The snow is mostly gone and I’m excited to be walking the dog in warmer weather!

Along with the melting snow, and the bit of rain that we had, the river is again rising. You may have heard about the flooding Fargo and surrounding areas had last year, this year is also expected to be rather high, but not quite as high as last year.

For date night, David and I decided to go flood hunting together. We live in West Fargo, and don’t have to worry about flooding really. We also purposefully have a second story apartment.

Here are a few photos of our drive last night.

I believe this is supposed to be nice park by the river. It’s not a part of town we are usually in, so I can’t say for sure.

No, this is not a beautiful lake. Well, it does look like it here, but I believe this is a field that got in the way of the water. The water won.

The road we were driving on suddenly came to a stop with these road signs. The water was running over the road here pretty quickly.

Here you can see the flooding in the fields better. It’s a photo taken on the on ramp to the highway. You can see the fence posts, etc. As we drove down the highway we could see that it wouldn’t take much more rising for the south bound highway to be taken over by water too.

After getting to a point where we couldn’t see much from the highway, we saw a sign for Fort Abercrombie, so we thought we’d check it out on the way too. After passing the and getting to the MN side of the river, we saw this historic sign.

And one of Bella just to make you smile. She did join us for our flood hunting, and really enjoyed smelling the fields thought the crack in the window, but this photo is of her watching for David when we picked him up from work on Thursday.

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January 31, 2010

Van Oords get Dogs

I am quite excited to share that my sister Julia just got a dog! I didn’t know that our family has been aching for dogs all these years, but it appears to be so.

My brother has a dog. He had a yellow lab, Sammy, for a long time, but after that dog died he got another yellow lab, named Skippy, to grow up with his boys on the farm. (Sorry I don’t have a photo)

My sister Elizabeth got a puppy this spring. I was so jealous! As soon as David and I thought we might be moving I started talking hard about getting a dog, and looking up all the available dogs in Fargo that I could find out about on line. Molly is a black cockapoo. The kids love her!

Then, in October, as you know, Bella joined us and we are learning so much and it keeps getting better!

Now there is Sophie. A black Miniature Poodle that Julia adopted. What a cutie!

Debbie has declared that she does NOT want a dog. But does enjoy ours I am sure.

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