Wednesday, May 21, 2008

BOYS RULE AND DOGS DROOL

Our household has been taken over by members of the male persuasion. With the girls gone I am living in a male dominated world. We have had a 12 year old boy named Ian Bowlin living with us for the past 3 months, which has helped increase the environment of XBox, computer games and airsoft in which I live.

Chuck and Jared have been training hard to participate in the "STP" (Seattle to Portland) 200 mile bike ride coming up in July. They both got new road bikes and have hit the trails every Saturday. They are up to riding 50 miles at a time. Of course they also have acquired all the cool clothes and shoes so that they look good doing it. They will be going to Orcas Island for 3 days over Memorial Day weekend to ride around the Island every day with a group of friends. I am boarding a number of dogs that weekend and need to stay home.

As of last Wednesday night, Jared is now a Life Scout and as such is on to working towards his Eagle. It would be nice if he can get it out of the way before he turns 16 and starts dating and driving, and has too many other things competing for his attention. He is looking for suggestions for a project. Jared is in the Teachers quorum presidency at church and on the committee to plan a "superactivity" for the young men in our ward.

Chuck is still traveling for business and usually gone 2 nights a week on the road-this week the "road" leads to Nebraska. Although I know the traveling is hard, and he rarely sleeps well in a hotel, he doesn't complain. He works to make the best use of his time at home doing fun things with the boys and giving me a much needed "date night" now and then. Since I have started my business he has also done a ton of dishes, laundry and cleaned toilets- my hero!!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

STAYIN' ALIVE

I have been so busy, blogging has been put on the back burner. I don't know whether to try to catch everyone up on what has transpired over the last 4 months (which would be overwhelming), or just bag it and start from the here and now. Suffice it to say that life is good at the Escoto household.

We are all looking forward to the end of the school year- 5 weeks to go! I am also counting down the days left of seminary (14 to be exact). I love teaching seminary, but by this time of year I am starting to get burned out. Unfortunately just when seminary and the early morning hours really start to wear on me is just the time when I need to spend 3 weeks teaching Isaiah. It is a miracle that I survived it. Isaiah is hard to understand, and harder still to teach to 14 year olds, and hardest of all to keep their attention at 6am. One really has to come up with a dog and pony show every morning to keep the kids engaged, a regular sunday school type lesson just won't cut it with Isaiah. But now I am over the hump and on to the rest of the prophets (I taught Daniel this week) so I am getting my second wind.

My dog walking business has grown like crazy- I am averaging 10 dogs a day. The income is good and I have been able to purchase a computer and a van that holds a lot more dogs than my truck could. My next investment in my business will be to get a new fence for the side yard that will be more secure when I am boarding dogs. The existing fence was intended for a large, very lazy dog that neither jumped nor could ever dig a hole large enough to get his massive butt through. My clients don't all have those same characteristics unfortunately, and so some improvements are called for.

My entire business arose out of the fact that I was taking my own dog to the dog park daily, so I might as well bring along some doggy friends and get paid for the trip. Unfortunately Kobe blew out the ligament in his knee a month ago and as such his dog park days are over. He is taking it all very stoically, and doesn't even ask to go when I head out the door to do my dog route.

The dog business has been pretty hard on my body as well. So far I have sprained both of my thumbs, gotten tendonitis in my right elbow from throwing a million tennis balls a day, and have a piece of loose cartilage floating around in my knee from the dogs constantly running into my knees while they are wrestling with each other- I definitely see arthroscopy in my future!!

In spite of all the above, this is still the most fun thing I have ever done and look forward to going to work every day to see all my 4-legged friends. The off-leash dog park is like Disneyland for dogs- "the happiest place on earth" I am so blessed to get to share in their joy every day. I am constantly entertained and amused by their antics, and I spend my days with a big grin on my face.