The Abbi-gator got adopted!!!!!!!!!!

Her new people drove straight here from Pittsburgh, PA to pick her up, turned around and drove straight home. Holy cow, they're great parents.

They are amazing people that Mark and I would gladly hang out with if they lived closer. They asked great questions, brought us an amazing gift and sent us a text message picture of Abbie on the road.

We feel truly blessed that we knew and loved Abbie. She was a solid friend for me after Beanie died, and made me smile every morning with her gator bombs in bed (she jumped on top of me every morning for 2 straight months).

I cried after she left, but they were tears of happiness that she will know the love that we give to our two girls.

What a blessed weekend!

Melt!

Melt!
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

So its 54 and sunny today. Tomorrow is supposed to be 64 and sunny.... Weird weather here in KC... Im ready for our normal summer of hot hot hot and sunshine :)

Gator is almost adopted!

Gator.
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

We're waiting to hear the final word, but its possible that my little Gator could be going home to Pittsburgh, PA with an amazing couple this next weekend. They're planning to drive out to get her :)

YAY FOR GATOR!!!!!!!!!!!

Why won't winter end?!?!?!?!?!

Snow in March.
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

Kansas Citians are blessed with a pretty amazing midwestern winter. We have warm weather until late November, usually, and it starts warming up in the beginning of March, normally... We have between 4-10" of snowfall annually and its generally sunshine and blue skies getting us through the frigid temps of winter.

This winter we had NONE of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been cold, we have gotten 44.3" of snow. Its the 4th snowiest winter on record. ON RECORD!!!

#1. 1911/1912 with 67.0"
#2. 1959/1960 with 58.5"
#3. 1961/1962 with 55.0"

Yep... a co-worker of mine remembers the 1961 winter because it was the year he moved here to start teaching at Rockhurst. He said it was awful.

Just two days ago, I had all the windows in the house open, the dogs were out side lounging on the deck and Mark and I took multiple dog walks outside because it was over 60 degrees. Today its 33 and cloudy, with possible snow tomorrow!

SO SO SO OVER IT! Canada needs to take their damn winter back!

Our first child: Slappy

We adopted Slappy from Reunion Rescue in May of 2003. We're going on 7 years of love with our little brindle girl, and I thought it would be a nice time to remember her first milestones with us, since she is going to be a big sister soon!

This is the second time I met Slappy. I went to visit her at the emergency vet after her spay opened up and she ended up eating part of her intestines and stomach. She required a lot of surgery to repair her. The end result was an alive dog, a fired shelter employee (who drove her to the emergency vet) and a huge ordeal with our rescue being banned from pulling from San Francisco Animal Care and Control... its a long story!




Slappy's first Christmas card:


Her first picture with Santa:


The first time she met her grandpa... who was hesitant to meet his pit bull granddaughter... it was love at first attack kiss!




First trip to the Lake:


First camping trip:


Her daily walk up on the road:


Three generations of Hanses:


Slappy and her BFF Biggie. I guarantee you they got in trouble for this one:


and this one:


Our first foster dog ever, the Dingo:


One of my favorite pictures ever:


Another favorite:


Slappy's favorite toy ever, her eel... Pokey killed it.



Slappy's first appearance in the PBRC calendar:


She used to love sitting in the sun on the grass and helping her dad work on the ford.



Slappy and her cousin Bella:


Slappy's first taste of Missouri snow... check out the look on her face!


One of the first pictures of Slappy and Pokey... I think they love each other:


So far Slappy has visited 13 states, been to beaches, lakes and bodies of water all over the US. We're proud of our little girl.

The floor... a compilation... what a mess!

So here is a pictorial of what we went through with our bedroom floor. It started out as a kitchen, and had an ugly white vinyl flooring on top of this hideous brown flooring. There were 6 layers of flooring before we were able to even get to the bare wood. Also, there were huge nails every 4 inches from each other throughout the entire floor. We walked around with socks to get them snagged to figure out where the hidden nails were... it was gross!

Mark scraped the glue up by hand in the entire 10x10 room.

After 3 hours of Mark and his dad removing the previous 5 layers of hideous flooring:



This floor was filthy, stinky and probably full of asbestos.

Mark chipping away the old floor tiles before he has to scrape up the glue:


The beautiful wood with a top coat of disgusting old glue:


After soaking the glue in water for 30 minutes, Mark used that scraper attached to the pole to scrape up what he was able to of the glue to reveal a severely damaged wood floor:


The entire floor scraped:


First round of sanding:


Final sand:


Stain and poly:



Tada!

So... we're trying to teach Slappy how to use the treadmill...

It isnt going very well because she is just too treat motivated.

Sorry its dark, and the room is an absolute mess. We're still trying to organize after moving our bedroom.