February Shmebruary

Since moving to Ohio we have had some really nice winters. This winter has been awesome. It'll snow heavily and be freezing for a couple weeks, and then it'll flip and be springy for a week. I can deal with the cold when it's accompanied by the sun. February is usually the month where I feel like we need to toss winter out the window and move on to spring, knowing that there are still at least 2 more months of winter ahead. Not my favorite. 

Poor Abe got neutered this month. It was pretty sad. He hated the cone of shame and would just mope around all day with it on. Look at those sad little puppy eyes! The cone only lasted a few days and then his stitches were healed enough that they didn't bother him anymore. The vet said that we should not let him run or jump for at least a week after the surgery. Yeah. Right.

Scott came to visit. This is Clayton wearing his clothes. Clayton thought it was hilarious, Scott wasn't as amused. I thought it was weird. They have the same body, just different colors and different faces. Weird.

We visited Kirtland. We took the Community of Christ Kirtland temple tour, and then we took the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints tour. They were so different. It was interesting to compare the two. The temple tour was very focused on architecture, and the guide only referenced the history of the saints a little. The LDS tour was very spiritual and was lead by two missionaries. I liked both for different reasons. 

Scott was only here for a weekend, but we had time to play a lot of games and spend a lot of time talking. We love our dear old dad!

Last night Clayton and I went to the gym. We got home pretty late and were eager to call it a night. As I walked up to the house I could hear Abe barking in this weird, high pitched whiney way, which is odd because he doesn't usually make any sound. We walked in the house and were assaulted by this AWFUL smell. Abe had gotten sick in his crate and it was a huge mess. Clayton carried Abe to the tub to give him a bath, and I took the crate outside to wash it off. Unfortunately our hose was frozen into something like 20 kinks and the water couldn't get through it (lesson learned: never leave your hose out during the winter), so I had to get creative. I started filling up buckets with water from the faucet and then pouring them onto the crate. The water splashed all over the drive way and myself, and since it was 18 degrees outside it froze into ice faster than I thought it would. My hands were frozen, my tennis shoes were soaking and frozen, the ground was so slick I kept falling, and the crate was not getting clean. In fact the water was freezing onto the crate making it icy and impossible to wash off. It was late, freezing, and I was not happy. I'll spare you the rest of this miserable story, and just say that in the end everything got cleaned up and we were all exhausted. We're still not sure why Abe got sick. He must have eaten something that we didn't know about. Dumb dog.