"the only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. you either have to laugh or cry. i prefer to laugh. crying gives me a headache." — marjorie pay hinckley
These pictures are from Christmas 2009, so they're really old. But I just stumbled across them. Here I am, conked out, and my faithful Zumi is by my side.
With his eyes aglow like that, he looks like he's saying, "Wake her and I kill you."
Christmas post... finally! We had a great time at my parents' house. We slept little, ate a lot, played lots of games, and ate a lot. And I played the piano a lot. It was so nice being with the whole fam. I love my family!!!
Prepping the punch for Christmas Day dinner with Mandi. We ate at my grandma's house because there's too many of us for my parents' house anymore!
We took the boys (Chris and Max) to the Holiday Festival of Lights. Here we are roasting marshmallows. Or rather, here are Ryan and Mandi and the boys.
Our happy family. I still miss him to pieces.
Caroline looks lovely, but Collin looks like a fox! (Can boys be foxes?)
All siblings and siblings-in-law, grandsons, and dogs. That makes 11 of us.
Chou!
Zumi and Max!
Sisters!
Brother!
Taking Chris and Max on the carousel and getting some freaky pics.
Naturally, your friendly festive Christmas light bulb.
For New Year's, we went to the Limas' New Year Eve bash. Here is Kurt, looking stoned. He's not... I promise...
Chris getting his dance on!
Max thought about getting his dance on.
We look stoned. But we're not... I promise...!
We took the boys to the playground at JICP and snapped a few pics. Actually, Steph and Mandi did while Caroline and I took the dogs to the dog park.
Tonight, my phone died while I was at a reading tonight. When I got back from to my dorm, I plugged in my phone and started getting ready for bed. Then I turned my phone on to see that I had 5 missed calls from a number in Denver that I didn't recognize. I also had a text from that same person. "Call me as soon as possible, I have your dog by the side of the road," it said. My breath caught in my throat and called the number. A man picked up and said, "I don't know how to tell you this," and I knew. The world seemed to rush in on me and the tears started falling before he said that Zumi had been hit by a car, and had died. It's been a rough night, to say the least. I started crying and told the guy I was going to call my husband and give his number to Kurt so Kurt could get the body. Then I called Kurt on his cell and work line without answers. So, hysterical, I called my family. When I finally got to Kurt, he was already on his way home from work and was able to call the guy and find out where Zumi was. Next time Kurt called, he had Zumi in his arms and was walking home. He was sobbing. This is the first time, in the 3 and a half years that I've known Kurt, that he has cried. Kurt and I cried together on the phone as he found a box for Zumi's "casket," laid him in it, and tucked his blanket in around him. We decided to bury him in his favorite spot in the yard, right by the wooden fence, where he'd like to lay when it was sunny. To those of you who think I'm being dramatic, let me tell you that you have no idea how much you can love a pet until they die. And remember, Zumi was our child, for all intensive purposes. We don't have kids yet and so he was who we gave our parental love to. (I told Kurt that I hope we never lose a child, if it's this painful to just lose a pet.) He was a sweet puppy, the best natured dog I've ever known. When I got home from work, he'd always be in the back yard, hopping around, ready to play with me. When I mentioned the word "walk," he'd run to the front door, too excited to go out to sit still long enough to get his harness on. He could sit, lay down, army crawl, shake, and jump/twirl for tricks. He always had some sort of smile on his face. When he was in a really playful mood, it was a happy grin. When he was more calm, it was a mischievous smirk. He rarely barked. He followed you around and sat at your feet, happy to be near you. He had a spot in the kitchen where he laid while I cooked dinner or cleaned the dishes. I was so looking forward to him keeping me company during the long, lonely, busy tax season. When I took him to the vet, and he got scared, he'd lean up against me for comfort. He was my little buddy, my happy boy, my puppys, my Zoomers, Zoom buggy, Zumy do, Zumba, Zoom, my Zumi. It's amazing how much a small dog can touch your life in 8 shorts months.
Happy birthday to my Zoomster! He's a year old today! To commemorate it, and also because we ran out of his food, we bought a bag of dog food. That's right, not puppy food, DOG food. *Sniff* My puppy's all growed up.
We did a quick one night, 10 mile backpacking trip a few weeks ago and I finally got the pictures from Kurt's phone (we forgot the camera in the car). Friday evening. A late start + sudden storm = pitching camp early in the evening and only after a mile of hiking. There were gorgeous aspen groves on the hike. Unfortunately, it still wasn't quite spring so they were mostly bare. We hiked to a lake. It was windy and very chilly. The name of this lake was its elevation. We ran into another hiker who took this and the following pic. Zumi LOVES snow! It's so cute! This patch was on a slant, so he would run to the top then run down, sliding the last little bit. It was adorable. My snow dog! It was very chilly, mostly brown, but man, that view was amazing. Kurt's stinky camera doesn't do it justice. Afterwards we went to Coney Island! And stuffed... our faces! Nothing like consuming in 30 minutes all of the calories you burned in several hours! Yeehaw!
