Dangers of Swimming with Dogs

Well, we took Sam swimming for the first time last night. He loved it and kept fighting to get back in the pool every time we kicked him out. Thing is, he wants to be right next to you in the pool, and when he's near, he ends up getting excited and really swiping his paws while he swims. I was in the deep end of the pool when we discovered this... He was pushing down on me while he was swiping, and I ended up with this:

After that, I was scared to death every time he came near me in the pool. Matt attempted to keep Sam away from me starting then.

Oh, and did I mention I'm getting carpal tunnel in my left wrist as well? Why am I being tortured in such manners?? haha... It hurt SO bad to swim. My right wrist is waaaay more carpal tunnelly (let's pretend that's a word) than the left one though, so it could be worse :)

Does Life Ever Get Easy?

So what hasn't happened recently...

Matt got me into the habit of not liking to wear socks when I sleep, but during the day I always am wearing socks (I HATE dirty feet, even mine. They gross me out.) I woke up this morning and reached to the floor to pick up my socks... and there was a tick sitting on one! What in the world would it want my sock for? It has no blood in it... Weird bug. There was a huge tick on Phoebe when we first brought her home, and it laid a few eggs. They were still connected to Phoebe, so we killed them at that time. The vet removed a few more, and last week, we found one on her. Four instances of ticks, and it's getting really annoying -- We need to spray the house and the yard AND get Phoebe a tick bath now. And probably Sam too, since he'll get here before we've sprayed. It's going to be SUCH a pain!

I've been told that toothpaste works for acne. Does it really? It's supposed to dry it out, but not too much, and help get rid of the redness. I've used it twice now and felt... fresh and minty... when i took it off. haha. And it did get rid of the oiliness that was there before, but I don't know if it's really going to help more, because the redness hasn't gone away at all. I do give it some credit, because the show "The Doctors" even said to use toothpaste. I hope it really works!

Sunday is mine & Matt's one-year anniversary! It seems crazy to think that we've been married for a year, it really doesn't seem like it! We were married on 24 July 2010 in the disgusting Arizona heat in the Mesa Temple. It was the best day of my life. This picture, courtesy of Darilyn Jeter, is also where he proposed to me a few months earlier:

A wonderful thing I've had the chance to experience is...identity theft. I checked my credit report a couple days ago, but I didn't notice something until last night: I apparently have a Capital One credit card with a limit of $12,500. First, I've only had one credit card (ever), and second, I've only done anything with Visa. I've never even talked to anyone who works with Capital One. Whoever decided to do this IS making payments each month. Because of this, he/she has been able to keep this on the DL since they opened the account, which was 1 January 2009!!!

So to echo the title, does life ever get easy? Sometimes it seems busy and hard, but I don't realize how good I have it until it gets more stressful...

The Past Few Days...

We have a new dog entering our family on Friday! Sam belongs to Lauren Schill, one of my best friends from back home. He's a 2 year old golden retriever with SO much energy and SO much love. Lauren has nowhere to keep him right now, and until she lives somewhere that she can fully take care of him again, we're kind of going to be his foster family. The vet said this morning that he may be the best thing that could happen to Phoebe. For however long this is, she gets to have a big brother she can play with, and she won't be so bored with us. Matt and I both love Sam and are excited to have him stay with us. I have a feeling he's going to be a decent amount of money -- we even need to start off with buying him a huge crate. Good thing we have lots of leftover money from Disneyland!!

On a side note, Harry Potter was amazing -- mostly. There was a lot that didn't follow the story though. Not at all.  It was frustrating to watch those random parts that they added in. And the end? I think they could've put more than 20 minutes into trying to make the kids look like they were honestly 19 years older. Ginny was the only one, in my opinion, that looked decent. The boys had random wrinkles & they looked they were past their 40's, not still in their 30's. Hermione didn't change at all. I know they have a budget they can make those differences with.  That was a disappointing end to Harry Potter for me.

I had my IUD removed yesterday, so we can start trying to have a family! With all the health problems, I didn't think this day was ever going to come!  But as my OBGYN was removing it, he tells me to wait a month before we start trying -- that there's a tiny bit greater chance of having a miscarriage if you don't wait for a cycle. It was weird that no one had told me that before this moment. I asked my sis-in-law Leslie, who's currently pregnant and had an IUD, and she'd never heard of it. I next asked my sis-in-law Tracy, who's a nurse & gave birth less than a year ago -- also after having an IUD. She hadn't heard of it either. In the end, I decided I'm not worried. I looked it up online, and only a couple women even knew about it. A lot of women that had posted got pregnant within the first month or so & their pregnancies are going fine. Therefore, I see nothing major that's wrong with not waiting.

In line at Space Mountain

Disneyland!!!

I've finally experienced it. After riding Space Mountain a second time, I saw this in a nearby store:

Needless to say, Matt was thrilled :) I walked around the store for nearly 20 minutes while he was building it, and when I came back, he still wasn't even done! My husband is such a nerd.

4 of the nephews heard about it from him so they joined him and all made their own.

Matt & our nephews -- all very proud of their lightsabers...

We had a lot of fun & stayed in the park for about 13 hours, but it was SO nice to get back home and see our puppy! Matt's friend Austin house-sat & dog-sat for us while we were gone, and apparently his shoes were in her reach this morning... and by the time we got home, he had bought new shoes, since the old ones were destroyed!!! Our crazy teething puppy.

During our day at Disneyland, I somehow killed my knee (it still hurts just to walk!) and Matt got sick from the teacup ride. I feel like we're getting so old already! 

Carpal Tunnel

It's official -- I have carpal tunnel in my right hand. The wrist brace I have to wear is terrible -- and this is coming from the girl who once broke both wrists at the same time and had a cast on one wrist & a brace on the other for 6 weeks!  It has a metal plate on the top and bottom of the wrist, and it hurts pretty badly when I do something that would normally make my wrist bend, because now it's just hitting metal. This includes driving, typing on the computer, holding my phone, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, petting Phoebe... And Phoebe wants to bite/chew on everything lately, & she's really into this brace, so I can't play with her so far. It's really kind of discouraging.

I was looking at music today, and I'd completely forgotten about a song I'd downloaded. I used to really like "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele when it first came out. Now it's just incredibly annoying and every time I'm in the car & it comes on the radio, I turn it off. BUT... several weeks ago I came across a version I really liked, it's actually Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, and Turning Tables in one. It's done by some of those odd people that honestly spend all their time trying to get famous from posting videos on youtube. I guess there's hope, now that it worked for Justin Bieber? Oh well, to each his own :)

I have to go to bed so I can get up and pack for Disneyland in the morning :) It's a Collins' family vacation (meaning basically EVERYONE) from Thursday to Saturday. I've never been before, so I'm really excited!

Doctors, Oh How I Love Them

Last week, I was trying to fall asleep when the fingers on my right hand suddenly went numb. I figured it wasn't anything. But now they've gone numb while sleeping, driving, sitting at the computer, and so much more. Yesterday, as I was sweeping my sis-in-law's house (that's my "job" right now. I haven't gotten to the temp agency yet, so this is my amazing source of income. haha), my fingers went totally numb again. It was too much, so I made a doctor appt finally. Now, starting when I woke up this morning around 4am, most of my hand (not JUST the fingers anymore) is numb, and it hurts, mostly in my wrist but also all the way to my elbow. Matt's even doing the dishes for me because it hurts to grasp things, and even more to twist my wrist at all. --Our dishwasher hates us, WE have to get every bit of food off before putting the dishes into the dishwasher or they don't get cleaned, so even with a dishwasher, I end up cleaning them by hand-- There's a weird sharp pain any time I even open doors, like to let Phoebe outside. I don't want to wait till Tuesday for my appointment, but that's the soonest appt they have!

Cute picture, huh? That's one of my more photogenic moments. I was in the ER in January because of a concussion from my ice skating class at BYU :)  After insurance, it was $100.91. I paid it but in the mail this week, I received *ta-dah!* a bill for $100.91. I look on the "online account" it tells me to pay on, and it says I owe them nothing -- so of course I got to have a nice conversation with them. Hooray for billing!

Next doctor, and most frustrating: Utah sleep specialist. My insurance completely covers sleep studies. Multiple people in my family have had them and they've always gone smoothly, without the confusion I'm involved in. I had my sleep study in February, and NOW I get a bill for $1559.00 -- no kidding! We're definitely talking to them...

Matt and I decided to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon in July 2010 and my big toe on my left foot was cracking (I must have smashed it against something??). I didn't want sand to get in and have my toe infected under the nail, so I had it removed, which should have been safer. It wasn't. It grew back completely ingrown and SO infected -- We only even got to go to the beach ONE time! Sad! I finally ended up going to a foot clinic. I had a bill sent to me that I received yesterday -- months later, and at my inlaw's house (I don't know how they even got their address!) for $310. My insurance paid $210, and then $50 as an insurance write off, so I still owe $50.00, according to them. The deductible was definitely met for the year, and I really shouldn't owe ANYthing...

Having doctors just makes life more complicated, so why do I even agree to go to the doctor any more?! I should quit doing dumb things and ending up at the doctor's office :)

Starting Over

I used this blog from April-September of 2009, but I decided to delete those posts and start this whole blog over.
I met my husband while we were at BYU. Matt and I have been married for almost a year now -- since July 24, 2010. We moved to Phoenix at the end of April, and we got a beautiful puppy 2 weeks ago.  Phoebe is a 5 month old black lab mix who's very stubborn and already has the attitude of a teenager. She's absolutely perfect.

Until I find a job, Phoebe keeps me company every day while Matt's at work. It's SOOO nice to have a living thing near me during the day again! Also, once we have a family, I'll have her there to keep from going insane from crying babies, etc :)

We bought a car in May, a 2003 Volvo S80:

I'll do more of this later -- I need to let Phoebe outside and then clean the house--yippee...