YAY RHETT!!!

Contrary to what he believed, RHETT actually survived his first day of staying in the room while we went to work.

I refused to let him go with us today. The weather was FREEZING (17 degrees) and I wasn't willing to take the Jeep (heater doesn't work) so that he could be more comfortable (the Tahoe has bucket seats so he can't lay down.)

When we came back for lunch the message light on our phone was blinking and I just knew it was the front desk telling us he had barked the entire time we were gone. Well, it was in fact the front desk but they were telling us that we had mail, whew!!

So we are making progress!!!

As cold as it is, he behaves so much better when I exercise him everyday. I cut his walks short when we first got here because it is so windy and cold but he showed me who was boss by acting like a BRAT!! So BEG and I bundle up and take him on a 3 mile (feels like 15 miles with 20 mph winds in your face) walk around the hotel premises and he is back to his old self (plus it's good exercise for us.) He really enjoys the brisk, cold air (unlike his momma) and the newness of all the smells (unlike his momma again!) but I'm convinced his walks are why he is acting/sleeping better so I will continue to bundle up to ensure I get a good night's sleep and no phone calls from the front desk!!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

CMG

George

I am confident that George has no idea he is not at home. We bought him an XL dog kennel to get him from Shreveport to Midland and I thought for sure he would freak out being locked up but he actually did quite well and didn't fuss or anything. He has a litter box, a cube, all of his toys and his food and water in there so it's like a home on wheels just for George.

Our biggest problem with George right now is that he has his days and nights confused. He does a lot of this during the day

therefore, he is up all night. I have had to confiscate his toys that make noise because he literally starts playing with them about 3-4am EVERY single morning.

I suppose he thought RHETT needed a cleaning so he decided to help him out!

Just hanging out

We used to think that George never ate. Well, we are quickly learning that he eats all throughout the night (we hear him) because he is too busy sleeping during the day! And his food of choice is RHETT's dog food, so we have had to start feeding RHETT before bed and putting his food away or else this is what we find.

So no need to worry about George, he is adapting just fine.

CMG

RHETT

To say that West Texas has been an adjustment for RHETT would be an understatement. He is not adapting well at all, poor guy.

He does a lot of this

when he is not doing this

One of the major challenges for RHETT has been the lack of places to go to the bathroom. For some reason RHETT has always been a very private bathroom user (usually backs into bushes so no one can see him) but being that the terrain out here looks like this

he doesn't have many options as to to where to use the bathroom. So for the first couple of days, he found a tumble weed; that was until a big wind gust hit and the tumble weed took off on him mid-potty. He was terrified and stayed away from the tumble weeds for a few days. He finally found the courage to attempt the tumble weed again but again it blew off mid-potty so I think he is officially over the tumble weeds. He appears to be dealing with his fear and he actually went to the potty in the wide open this morning (I think he is quickly learning that's about the only option he's got!)

Another problem we are having with RHETT is his separation anxiety. Here is a picture of RHETT in the car. He refuses to stay in the hotel room when we leave (he scratches on the door, barks, whines, you name it) so he literally goes everywhere we do and just sits in the car all day while we work. He seems to be 100% content just being with us so whatever works.

And here is what he looks like when we get back to the car in the afternoons! For those of you who are wondering, yes I do go out to the car multiple times throughout the day and let him run around and go to the bathroom.

Another problem RHETT is having out here is with his paws and the dead grass. I guess I never realized how soft his paws where until we got out here. When I take him for walks it's so hard for him to walk in the "grass" because it is so dead and hurts him to walk on. It is also covered in stickers. So we did a little research online and found some doggy booties (for hunting dogs) that we are going to try out on him and see if they will allow him to better enjoy his walks! Hopefully, he will embrace them!

The final problem we are having with RHETT is his need to feel like he needs to protect our room from anyone who walks down the hall. I am glad he is protecting but am growing a bit tired of him growling and barking at all hours of the night when anyone walks down the hall in front of our room (literally midnight, 3am.) This can grow a little tiresome, especially considering we are living in a hotel!! I found a box fan at Lowe's this afternoon so we are going to start sleeping with that on in hopes that it will block out any noise from the hallway so maybe he won't be able to hear it!?!?!

Hopefully he will continue to adjust. I feel so sorry for the guy but I try and spend as much time with him as I can; seems to be the only thing I can do!

CMG

Sandhills Stockshow & Rodeo

So I experienced my 1st Texas Rodeo last night! Blake and I heard on the radio the other day that 2011's first rodeo was taking place this weekend in Odessa and we thought it would be fun and different so we called and bought tickets (our tickets were supposed to cover a free concert by Casey Donahue after the rodeo but when we got there they told us our particular tickets didn't cover the concert,boo.) I figured we would be a little out of place but we were A LOT out of place!! We had no bedazzeled or bejeweled anything, no Ed Hardy or Affliction and no cowboy hats or belt buckles but we still had fun. Below are some photos we took; some aren't that great but enjoy!!

Bareback Riding

Mutton Bustin'

(there's a kiddo riding a sheep..look close)

Steer Wrestling

Team Tie Down Roping

(exclusive to the Sandhills Rodeo)

Tie Down Roping

still trying to catch the calf.....

still Tie Down Roping

un-tying the calf

Calf Scramble...hilarious!!!

kids trying to catch a calf

apparently a lot harder than it looks

FINALLY got one!

Saddle Bronc

Barrel Racing (ladies only)

I know nothing about Rodeo's but there were a few famous people there last night (or so I was told!) The NFR in Vegas is like the Olympics for cowboys and some of the guys last night have qualified for the NFR multiple times. I will say even though I know nothing about what happened last night, some of the cowboys were pretty impressive!!

Until our next adventure...

CMG

Our Room

So I am going to start the photos with BEG's favorite part of our new room....his closet!! The closet space in a hotel room is non existent so the fact that we both brought a lot of clothes since we will be here awhile we knew we needed to come up with some sort of alternative. So off to Bed, Bath and Beyond we went and wa la.....Beg's new closet!! This is the coolest thing I've seen for only $30. There's a shelf on top for his britches, a shelf below for his shoes and 2 extendable rods on either side of the regular rod to hang more clothes!! Not bad.

My closet

Our bedroom, ha!

The Den

complete with geroge's "room"

The Office

The Kitchen

The pets

We are continuing to settle in each day and hopefully (fingers crossed) RHETT will become more accustomed to this our new home soon, very soon!!

We've got big west Texas plans this weekend that I can't wait to share with y'all next week!!

CMG

Update

Well we have officially made it to the 48 hour mark and everyone is still alive and breathing!! George is adapting just fine (see photo below) to the hotel as long as he is in the room.

I thought maybe he would want to run around in the hallway this afternoon and fetch is ball but he freaked out and took off sprinting down the hall. Blake came out of the room to help me catch him leaving RHETT in the room and that is a whole other story. RHETT has not quite adapted as I had hoped he would. We know he has severe separation anxiety but the last 48 hours has been a little extreme. When we left to go to breakfast yesterday morning he started freaking out barking, scratching on the door, etc. He finally calmed down but does this every time we leave him in the room so...........he now goes with us everywhere we go. Ridiculous I know but we aren't left with much of an option because he can't carry on and disrupt the other guests at the hotel. So he literally sits in the car all day with the windows cracked while Blake and I are at work. Hopefully sooner rather than later he will realize that we will continue to return to the hotel everyday and that sitting in the car all day is pretty terrible.

We got a nice little surprise on the way to work this morning....George W's birthplace! I'm such a nerd and made Blake drive back by again b/c I didn't have my camera the first time we stumbled upon it (I'm learning quickly to take my camera everywhere because you never know what you might see out here.) I thought that I would share these pictures as I feel certain that no one I know will ever see it in person because 1)Midland is not somewhere people would ever want to vacation too and 2)Midland is on the way to no where that anyone would ever want to vacation too!

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

CMG

So Long Shreveport......Hello Windy West Texas

So here are photos of our new home for the next 5 or so months....The Residence Inn in Midland, Texas!!

For those of you who didn't know we were moving so soon....we didn't either. We found out the Tuesday before Christmas that we were going to be in the Midland area for a work project beginning the 27th of December through May (hopefully) or longer when we will move to Lubbock for BEG to start school.

We headed to Abilene for Christmas on the evening of the 22nd, had a wonderful visit with his family and then drove to Dallas Sunday afternoon the 26th where we caught a late flight to Midland. Once in Midland we rented a car and drove 1.5 hours further west to Pecos where we stayed at the Best Western and worked all of last week. We got home Friday am (the 31st) and immediately begin taking down Christmas decorations, doing laundry, packing up our clothes and the pets belongings, doing Christmas with my family and celebrating the New Year! It was a crazy 52 hours but we managed to get everything done and even left at a reasonable time this morning without being rushed!!

We pulled out of Shreveport at 11:15am and pulled into the hotel parking lot at 9:02pm, not to bad considering we stopped 2 times for quick pit stops (my husband couldn't even get out of the Shreveport city limits before we had to stop), twice to let RHETT move around and in Abilene to have a quick supper with BEG's folks.

Here are some pics of our new digs. Not too bad but a hard fall from our 3,000 square foot house! We re-arranged some furniture and I think we will all learn to love our new "home".

George hasn't stopped investigating his new digs while

RHETT just wants to sleep

We are going to try to make the best of our time out here by frequenting the drive in (yes!! they still have drive in movie theatre's..so excited) next to the hotel, going down to Big Bend for a long weekend and just hanging out and enjoying each others company. I'm super excited about having the option of a daily maid service and breakfast!!!

2011 hasn't started the way we had planned (not that we had anything planned but living in an extended stay hotel with both pets in Midland, Texas never crossed my mind!!!) but we are extremely thankful for our jobs and each other no matter where we are!! We have a lot of planned things to look forward to in 2011 and I'm sure many unplanned things but either way we are super excited to see what the new year has in store for us!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful beginning to the new year!

CMG