We've seen a lot of family over the past few months. We were in Arizona after the fire, came back to Utah to move into a new place, went back to Arizona for Cooper and Kaeli's wedding, then the Urness family came up for Cooper and Kaeli's Utah open house, then we all went up to Idaho for another family wedding, and now the Urnesses are back again. With that being said, a lot has happened! 

1. Puppies! My mama always swore she wouldn't mix her purebred English goldens with poodles, but alas...

2. I chopped my hair! I told Danielle I was bored with it, and when I told her I was cycling through thoughts of dying it red, brown, white-blonde, and gray, as well as chopping it, she said she would chop it right then and there! Danielle did the initial snip, and then Bri did the professional work to make sure it didn't look blunt. I cut off 12.5 inches! 

BEFORE

AFTER

If I'm being honest I totally want my long hair back, but it was a fun change and Dallin is still obsessed with it. He never wants me to grow my hair out again and claims it's already grown too much in the last 6 weeks.

3. The burned house got demonished.

 I was happy to have a home visit for a week before my grad program started.  My body seems to have acclimated to Utah temperatures and therefore forgotten how to cope with Arizona heat, but it was well worth the sweat, especially when I got to cool down with a Dutch Bro's frozen hot chocolate and the pool. While we were there, Dallin and I rotated between the three households. While Dallin joined the Samuelsons at the flight school, I want shopping with my (or his) sisters and accompanied my mom on a lot of trips to the tile store to help her prepare for the big remodel. My family bought a boat, and we went to the lake twice to test out the incredible wake-surfing gear. We joined the Urness family at the shooting range.

On Saturday, my mom took our dog Dakota to get a C-section. She had 7 puppies, including a 9-ounce runt (as a reference, the biggest sibling was 18 ounces). A few hours after she was born, Sophie started shouting.  The pup stopped breathing, started foaming at the mouth and went completely stiff.  My mom gave her mouth to mouth, and her breathing resumed followed by gradual relaxation of her muscles.  We looked it up, and apparently she had had a seizure.  Dallin and I rushed to the store to get ingredients for puppy formula including Karo in case her blood sugar levels were off, which can sometimes cause newborn puppy seizures.  Then everyone took turns watching the litter box and bottle feeding her throughout the night.  The next day, the little pup was very wiggly and ate way more than her siblings, even figuring out how to latch onto her mom by herself.  She and her siblings are now almost a week early, and my mom reports they are all doing well! 

 We had a little high school friend group reunion.  Now that two of the friends have babies and others have spouses from other states, it was difficult to get together, but it was nonetheless fun to see old faces again!

     After a long summer of working, nighttime walks and episodes of Jane the Virgin with Rachel, all good things must come to an end, as school starts in a few short hours. I feel very blessed to have had a boss who not only made me and my work feel appreciated, but who encouraged "having a life" and taking time off to be with family even when I was stressed about not working enough.
     This was a summer of healing.  There was a lot I had to learn or relearn: how to better love my body and treat it with care, trusting the signals it sends me. How to respect myself and take "me time" to help myself grow as a person. How to enjoy life. After so many months of sacrificing activities which I love in order to overwork myself to the breaking point, I instead spent the sunny season writing chapters and chapters worth of my novel. It has felt so amazing to have "me" back.
    I wasn't very brilliant when I booked my ticket to AZ: I missed my mom and brother's birthdays by  1-2 days, marking four years in a row of barely missing them.  But I was ecstatic nevertheless to be home. On my first day we attended a surprise party for Aunt Sheryl's 50th; we also spent some valuable time with my grandparents who are now 88 and 87.



   Now for the cute but slightly gory story: The morning after I got home, our pregnant dog Mia was panting and dripping green for several hours without much pushing, so rather being safe than sorry {given her sad history} we took her in for a C-section.  We watched as they sliced her open and then kept pulling out more and more and more of the long, two-horned uterus.  Then they cut open the uterus and handed puppy after puppy to us.  Along with my mom and I, there were three other vets/assistants, and we worked on clearing their lungs by roughly rubbing their ribcages, running our fingers along the inside of their tiny mouths, bulb-syringing their noses, or swinging if necessary, until their started crying.  There were seven total. We actually believed the first one to be dead, but despite being stained green and smelly, they were able to revive her after some time.