Interview

I bravely agreed to be interviewed by my good friend Courtney.  It was nice to think back on all this stuff.  Thanks, Courtney!  In the spirit of Internet tags, if anyone dares, leave a comment with your email address and a request to be interviewed by me!  I will send five questions to the first five commenters who will then post the answers on their blog.  Its actually pretty fun.  Enjoy! 

 1. Of the many places you have lived (at least as a married adult), what is your favorite AND least favorite about each?

 This could be a long one, so I'll skip the places we lived in for less than three months:

-Provo, UT (May 2004-July 2005)  My favorite part about living a BYU married ward was my neighbors.  This was, and probably still is, the best ward we have been in.  We were so close with all our neighbors (literally because the ward consisted of about three apartment buildings) because they were such awesome people.  Sadly, I haven't really kept in touch with anyone, but that is how school wards go.  

My least favorite part about that place was the lack of a dishwasher.  Nate worked at Dominoes and at the League of Credit Unions and at the Karras Campaign and went to school full time.  I worked full time at Open Court (40 minutes away at 5am every morning) and went to school full time so we never had time to do dishes.  A few times we even loaded up a laundry basket full of dishes and took them with us to Nate's parents to run them through the dishwasher.

 -South Bend, IN (July 2005- May 2006, August 2007- May 2008)  I wasn't thrilled about this place in general but if I had to name a favorite thing it would be Notre Dame.  The campus is beautiful and the people are amazingly nice.  The football games, especially our first year when they were moderately good, were so fun.  It is something that Nate and I recommend to everyone.  Also, one of my best buddies in the world (Kasey) was there at the same time while her husband was in law school with Nate.The leaves changing was beautiful too.  

My least favorite part was pretty much everything else.  I worked a ton there and didn't make very much.  The weather was truly awful.  We had blizzards, tornadoes, monsoons, flooding, electrical storms, and weeks upon weeks of rain in the fall and spring both.  It made it pretty and green, but you could never go outside. I had to start tanning to keep away the intense cabin fever.  

 -London, England (September 2006- June 2007) In contrast to South Bend, I loved almost everything about London!  Our flat was beautiful, our ward was so cool, our neighborhood was quaint and super close to everything, we made lifelong friends, traveled the continent, spent many full days in museums, and saw tons of west-end theatre.  Nate had more free time than ever and we took advantage of that.  We are currently still paying for that adventure but it was worth it.  

Pretty much the only things I didn't like was the high cost of everything and the fact that we were so far away from our families (but luckily they, and many others, came to visit).

 -Boise, ID (June 2008- Today!)  I love Boise.  I didn't think I would because coming from AZ, we had the perception that Idahoans are super weird.  Some of them are but they are a lot better than a lot of places I've been.  I love our cute apartment and our cute dog that we can finally have here.  I love the friends we have made and the weather (most of the time).  Probably my favorite thing is that I can finally go back to school.  I really love Boise State and finally understand (a little) those Bronco fanatics.  

My least favorite thing is my neighbors.  If we were staying in Boise longer, we would definitely be moving to another place!  

 2.  If you could go back and re-live any one day of your life, what would it be?

 -If there is one thing I have learned as I get older, it's that I am not as smart as I thought I was. The older I get the less confident I am.  If I were to go back to any one day and try to fix something, I think I would just do a worse job than I did because I would over think it.  I would love to go back and relive some of our travels with a little more money.  Particularly that day in Salzburg in the rooftop restaurant where we stayed long into the night ordering tomato sandwiches because that was the only thing on the menu we could afford.  On second thought... that was a good day just how it was.  I would maybe go back to my wedding day to try to remember who came, and make sure my photographer got a picture of BOTH my sisters.  

3. You have a cute lil' pup, Bowie. What is the most challenging thing about having a dog? 

 -This is probably going to make me sound like a "dog person", but the most challenging thing has just been worrying that he might be hungry or sad or sick or lonely.  I suppose I project my maternal instincts on my dog because I don't have kids yet.  He is such a cool dog and I am so impressed with what he has learned so far.  He is finally house trained, crate trained, and obedience trained (mostly).  We are finally to the point where he is learning fun tricks and we actually like to have him around.  Now if he could just sleep past 6:30 in the morning!    

4. If there were no concerns about cost of education and length of time to complete it, what would you choose to study?

 -If I could do anything with my education it would be what I started out to do: Medical School.  I have wanted to be a doctor since I was two years old and that has never really changed, but my circumstances have.  I was premed at BYU but I think I was too young and overwhelmed to do well in the program then.  I think I could do it now, but ironically, I feel like I'm too old.  We have put off a family for so long and now I feel like I just need to hurry and finish school so I don't have that excuse anymore.  I'm sure I will find others though!  I have always loved English and feel like this is the program for me right now.  I just need to stay at one school long enough to finish!    

5. How did you and Nate meet?

-I moved to Utah about three days after I graduated high school.  I got a summer job at the Thanksgiving Point dinosaur museum.  I worked with a gal named Ambre who called up a guy she knew in HS (Nate) to see if he would take her on a date.  Nate came down to the museum and asked me out instead.  He said it only took him four or five dates to know he wanted to marry me, but it took me significantly longer.  About a year later we got married.  We have been married almost five years now!  

 

 

Shock collar

When I worked at an animal hospital and helped with their puppy classes, the thought of using a shock collar on a dog really offended me.  I thought that any puppy could be taught to do all the normal things with praise and love and treats.  Then I met Bowie.  

From almost the first day we brought Bowie home, he has been something of a menace.  We knew that he was supposed to be a high energy mix and that he had a really strong temperament, but we thought that all puppies were inherently sweet and wanted nothing but to please their loving masters.  Bowie definitely has his moments of sweetness and he makes me laugh, but in the next moment he can turn and bite like a fighting Pitt Bull (no offense to Pitt Bull lovers, myself included).  

Bowie has a very cushy life.  He gets walked at least twice a day, he has tons of toys (given out responsibly), and treats, he is fed high quality food, and is fully vaccinated.  He is incredibly smart and I think that may be the problem.  Once he learns a trick, he chooses not to do it even for a treat.  He is on to our kennel routine and will lash out if we try to kennel him by "force".  He knows that if we reach to take off his leash that he is probably going in the kennel and he bites or bolts.  He has figured out how to open his kennel from the inside and we have to lock him in with his leash, but it is only a matter of time before he figures that out, too.  He is bully with all dogs no matter the size, and gets very jealous if his mom (that's me, for you non-"dog people") tries to pet other dogs, especially puppies.

Needless to say, some of his behaviors, particularly the biting and jealousy, are pretty big warning signs.  When we hired trainers for Bowie we told them we wanted a freakishly well behaved dog.  Our feisty monster seems hell-bent on not letting that happen.  

After Bowie learned all the basic commands backwards and forwards, our awesome trainers started us on the plastic prong collar that simulates a small bite like the mother would give when he misbehaves or chooses to disobey a command.  This is an important part of the training to get puppies to the point where they don't have to have a treat to obey, and to reinforce the importance of obedience.  The problem is that when Bowie gets corrected it almost seems like he is thinking "she just bit me and I'm going to get her for that later".  Scary smart.  He started to retaliate.  

This leads us to the dreaded shock collar, or as we like to call it, the electronic collar.  When my trainers brought one to try I was so against it, but we tried it and it was amazing.  Bowie is so sensitive to it that we only used the lowest current, so low that I can't even feel it on me (you bet I tried it first).  When I turned it up so I could feel it, it wasn't really painful, just kind of tingly and weird.  He responded immediately.  

We have been using it for about a week and the change in his behavior is awesome.  He doesn't know where the correction is coming from so he is no longer retaliating.  He knows that if comes to my side and sits then he feels just fine.  He is no longer eating things like goose poop and cigarette butts (super fun to fish out of his mouth), and he comes when called even with other dogs and people and cars around.  His spirit is not broken, as I thought it would be.  He is still the same sweet happy puppy, he just listens better and doesn't bite as much (we are still working on that).  He is so smart that I think he is going to be a super cool dog when all is said and done.  We just couldn't put up with this silly stuff when he has such potential.  

So, I have changed my tune somewhat on the electronic collar.  In the right hands and with the right instruction from a good trainer, I think it can be a useful tool.

On an unrelated note (ha ha), I have been asked to sing in church on Sunday.  If any of you are in Boise, feel free to stop by.  It's been a long time and I am a little nervous, but we'll see how it goes.             

catch-up

It has been a long time since I have blogged.  I don't even have an excuse.  

Much has happened since my last post.  I finished the semester and was super disappointed by a B+ in Economics.  I really, truly hated that class so I guess I should be happy with that but there you have it.  It drags down my GPA. Boo.  Otherwise, the semester went well.  As mentioned before, I learned a great deal about myself, namely that I don't want to be an artist.  It was a fun, if not slightly wasted, semester.

We then jetted off the the fabulous Phoenix to go to Rachael and Whit's wedding.  It was so much fun.  I have never been to a wedding that was so much fun.  She had the backyard of a really cool house decorated beautifully and Rachael was stunning.  I have never seen a prettier bride.  I was the first one to start crying during the ceremony but that's okay; she is my best friend after all.  They had a s'mores bar and hot chocolate bar and food catered by the Olive Garden.  It was amazing.  Whit's band buddies did the music which was weird and perfect and then we wrapped up the night with some silly-white-people-dancing to a Mariachi Band.  It was so fun.  

I also got to see a bunch of other friends from high school.  It is so nice to catch up with all those people!  I love you guys!  

We then flew home to have Christmas with the fams.  I had planned to help my mom at the bakery but it turned out my help was not needed (danged economy), so we got some good chill time in.  It was so good to talk to Daniel (Nate's little bro, on a mission to GA) on Christmas.  He sounded so good and so happy.  

Among some other wonderful gifts from the families (my favorite of which is my David Bowie concert t-shirt I'm wearing as I type), is a sweet new tv from Nate's family.  Nate is in heaven watching all those bowl games on 37 inches, and Gilmore Girl's doesn't look too bad either.  We had to move our couch back.  I was mildly uncomfortable getting such and awesome gift when we have so little to give, but Nate's family is always so generous.  Hopefully next year we can make up for our meager offerings.  The bottom line is it's so good to spend time with family.  We played endless rounds of American Idol on the Wii with my family and it was just so fun.  

While we were home for Christmas, my buddy Courtney had her baby.  She had a beautiful little girl named Claire.  I am loving holding her.  It is nice to sit there and just snuggle a baby.  It is also nice that as I sit there Courtney recounts the joys of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing, so that I don't get too baby hungry.  Right now I'm just super house hungry.  I'm jealous of our friends that don't have neighbors.  We are at war with ours at the moment, but that is another post for another time.

Nate is back at work but I still have two weeks till I start school.  I am trying to look for a job but that is not very fun.  

Today is Nate's 27Th birthday!  Happy Birthday baby!  I love my handsome hubby.

I have lots more to post.  I have pictures from the wedding and pictures of Bowie as well as some cute and sad stories.  Here is a teaser: shock collar.  Sad.

Procrastinating

So, I'm supposed to be writing a "paper" (one page commentary on an article-- art majors are kind of a joke), and usually I don't think to blog so you can see how badly I don't want to.  Any comments on using Indian symbolism for team mascots?  That's what my paper is on.  

Nate and I are frantically trying to get done with this year.  I hate to say it but we have both been a little "bah, humbug" this week.  Nate is, as he has been for years now, looking for a job.  That is not a knock on Nate, we just have had a lot of temporary jobs and are near the end of another.  If anyone needs a super smart and cute attorney let us know!

I recently, and after much deliberation, changed my major to English Lit.  I am really excited about the classes I get to take, but most of all that I can graduate in three semesters rather than six!  Also, I would much rather spend my money on books than art supplies.  I suppose I am a bit of a bourgeois sell-out for giving up on the art "dream", but I am much happier with the bourgeoisie.    

This Saturday my best buddy, Rachael, is tying the knot.  We scrimped and saved and charged and are going down to Phoenix for the wedding.  I am 90% excited to see Rachael, etc., and 10% excited for real Mexican food.  It has been too long.  South Bend and Boise are not exactly stellar places to find authentic Mexican food.  

When I stop to ponder, which is rare, I am truly grateful for this time of year and getting to see our families.  Maybe I just need some inspirational Christmas stories to perk me up!  Bring them on, meager few blog readers.     

Pretending to be cool enough to be tagged

8 favorite TV shows:

Gilmore Girls

How I Met Your Mother

The Big Bang Theory

Arrested Development

Heroes

Project Runway

The Barefoot Contessa

LA Ink

8 things I did yesterday:

Skip economics to study for Anatomy and Physiology

Work my butt off at the gym because the new cocktail of pills I am on is making me fat

Take my Anatomy test (I got an A so that justifies missing a class to study)

Process my film for my final Photography project

Come to the realization that I am going to have to shoot more film

Go to the dentist (Boo)

Half watch House/ half write my Economics paper that is due tomorrow

Take my super cute puppy for a much needed walk

8 things to look forward to:

Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving break- no school for a whole week- hooray

My mom and my sisters coming for thanksgiving

Twilight tomorrow night at midnight!

The Forgotten Carols Friday night

December 20Th- my best friends wedding- and the reason I need to not get too fat

Christmas- which really means no school!

Nate getting a permanent job

(is it telling that this was the easiest section to write?  Perhaps I should live in the moment more)

8 favorite restaurants

Rice in London (sad since I don't live there anymore and it's my favorite)

Cafe Rio (unfortunate since they don't have one in Idaho where I currently live)

Matta's (depressing since they closed a few months ago, the end of an era)

Harvest Restaurant (also only in Utah)

Bonefish grill (hooray they have one in Boise!)

Flatbread

TJ's Burgers

Grechenbiesel

8 things on my wish list:

get out of debt

graduate college

divine inspiration on what I should do with my life

my puppy to never pee/poo on my carpet again

four extra hours in the day in which I get to see my husband

that fancy high paying job in DC

an upswing in the economy so my husband can get that fancy high paying job in DC

absolute foresight

Since I don't even think 8 people read my blog (so sad for me) I'm not going to tag anyone.  Do it if you want to and then let me know so I can read it!

New President

I voted in my second presidential election yesterday.  Nate and I went down to our polling place (because you don't have an excuse to leave work/school early or get a sticker if you vote absentee).  I won't tell you who I voted for but I will tell you that the state of Idaho did not validate my choice.  Afterwards I had "The Buyers Remorse".  I suppose I should have worked that all out before I voted but I'm sure the feeling is only temporary.  Unlike all those folks on the news I am going to keep an open mind and see how things go.  I guess you could say that I am choosing to hope.  I know, cheesy.  

On a related note, Bowie, our dog, seems to love the sound of Obama's voice.  I watched his speech today on tivo and Bowie sat very attentive until it was over.  Maybe he is a good judge of character.  I knew he was smart when I picked him... Bowie, not Obama.  We shall see...    

Bowie...Finally

This is Bowie on the ride home. He would try to wedge himself into the weirdest places. Here he is trying to lay on the arm rest of the car door only he doesn't really fit. I stuffed his little toy under his head and put my arm under him and he slept this way for about an hour. My arm was about to fall off but it was cute.
This is Bowie's best buddy. Brinlee lives in our building and they are the cutest little pals!


These are Bowie's cousins. They came to visit and we had so much fun.


I love this little guys ears. He always has one or the other flopped this way and that. Here he has one popped up and he looks so cute. This is the day we took him to the farmers market and he was a hit. Everyone wanted to pet him and we got about ten comments on his ear and how cute they are.

Bowie loves his bed and his flower toy. He will literally do flips to try and jump and grab this toy from our hands.

We are so glad to finally have him home. He is already totally comfortable (maybe too comfortable) with his surroundings. He makes life super busy but so much more fun.

Of all the weeks

So we got our super adorable puppy last weekend. He is so cute and we just love him. He has been a bit of a stinker but we knew going in the small dogs and male dogs are harder to potty train. Our breeder didn't help us out with that much by letting him only use potty pads and never really introducing him to grass. It has been quite the week. He is now sleeping through the night which is such a blessing (I really love to sleep) and he is mostly pretty sweet. He is definitely part schnauzer as he is a sniffer and a digger.

In other fun news, the reason I have not posted a million cute pics of our boy is that our computer that we have had for three years and that has been across the country and world with us is finally dead. We have replaced our power cord four times and this time it has only been about a month and it will not stay powered without pushing the cord in the back with all your might. Even then I can only get enough charge to see what emails I have received but not enough to actually read them. I think it is time to officially call it quits. If anyone knows where I can get a cheap desktop let me know. I now have to do all my computer work at school and I try not to stay here any more than I have to. As soon as I find a genius way to get my pics from my camera to the web without a computer I will let you know.

Nate's mom and sister and her kids came to stay with us last weekend. We had a good time in spite of all the very un-Boise-like weather. This town is so geared to the outdoors that when it rains there is NOTHING to do. Bowie was in heaven with all the kids to play with though. We are going to get him good and socialized with all the visitors we have had and will have in the next few weeks.

I would love to comment on my favorite conference talks but with all the craziness this week/month/year/lifetime they are all still just sitting on my tivo. How I would just love to have 8 hours to spare!

Sweet Finds/ Stress Rant

I just added a playlist to my blog so now you can rock out while you peruse my pearls of wisdom. Let me know if you have any suggestions of songs to add, or you can create your own playlist for your blog.

On another note, why is life so complicated sometimes? I realize that I am super fortunate and actually quite blessed but some days I just don't want to deal with my stuff anymore. I have no idea how women with kids and jobs and hard church callings and real obligations do it. I am just trying to go to school and really nail down what I want to do with my life and it has really tested my limits. Any thoughts on how all you gals (and guys, maybe) deal with your stress? I would love to hear it. Nate will probably tell you that I am not very graceful or fun to be around right now. I really need to get it together.

On a fun note, we are going on Saturday to get our puppy! We cannot wait!

I recently found (and maybe I am way out of the loop, like WAY) a blog called seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com. Don't read it if you don't have a sense of humor about Mormon women or if you hate blog lingo. I laughed out loud a lot. It is such an accurate picture of a lot of the women in SLC and "The UC."

Great News!!!

We found out this week, about a month earlier than expected, that Nate has passed the Utah Bar Exam! We are so thrilled. Nate is officially not only a doctor, but a lawyer as well. He is very smart and handsome but I might be biased. Thank you for all the well wishing and prayers.

Insight

I stole this from a friends blog. Its pretty funny.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) – Hooch Accord
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Praline Missouri
3. YOUR “FLY GIRL” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - Asec
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) – Green Elephant
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Kristy Orem
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Secal
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, put “The”) - The Orange Grasshopper
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Lark Coleman
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy)- Pure Grace Skittle
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) - Lobdell (my mom doesn't have a middle name)

I just hope none of these is the answer to my password questions... you know the ones you pick on the banks website in case you forget your password: What is your high school mascot, etc. Enjoy!

Cute!!!!

The breeder named him Alexander but we are not keeping that.

Weekend Trip Home, etc.

Nate and I went to Utah for Labor Day weekend. Daniel had his farewell before he heads off to Georgia in a week or so. Daniel did a fabulous job on his talk and Holly, Laura, Jon, and I didn't do half bad on a really impromptu musical number.

After a wonderfully uplifting farewell party, Nate, Nancy, Jon, and I headed off to the Bob Dylan concert in Deer Valley in a torrential rainstorm. The venue is a lovely little outdoor amphitheatre in the mountains that was turned into a very respectable mud pit by all the concertgoers. It was super cold and none of us could understand a word that crazy guy was saying but we had a great time.

You can almost see him down there. It was raining pretty hard the whole time so we didn't see much of him, but he sounded good (as good as he ever does).

Nate is helping me keep my feet warm. I forgot to bring socks or real shoes. Brrrr.

Since it was the last time the Sechrest family will all be together for about two years, we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken. Those kids are sooooo cute!

I will post the newest pics of our puppy as soon as I have them!

Quick Update

Good News!! We had choosing day for our puppy yesterday. This means that everyone on the waiting list sends in their choices of which puppy they want and then the breeder doles out the dogs. We wanted the only boy in the litter and we got him! I will post updated pics soon.

Getting back to school has been ten thousand times harder than I thought it would be so I feel like never have a moment to spare. I have other things to post and will try to get to them soon. I know all my millions of faithful blog fans are just waiting anxiously... soon my friends, soon.

Yet Another Puppy Update

I do realize that most people have enough in their lives that they don't have to get THIS excited about the arrival of a new puppy, but we really don't. We have been planning and waiting for over a year for this moment and our excitement level is reaching ridiculous proportions. The puppies are now a little over four weeks old and so cute it is not even right. We get to drive to Spokane in about three weeks to bring ours home for good. Enjoy!

These are the girls. It is still possible that we may end up with one of these gals but we are still leaning more towards the little fella in the next picture.

This is the lone male in the litter. Our breeder says he is very playful and cuddly. I think he is just about perfect!

Puppy Update

We have a new picture of our puppies. We get to take ours home in about a month now!

Our Puppy is here!

Our super cute puppy was born last Tuesday, July 29th. The litter includes four females and one male and we are hoping to take the boy home in about 6 weeks. We are supposed to have first choice so it shouldn't be a problem. We could still end up with a girl based on how we feel when they get a little older and how their personalities fit ours. We are so excited!

Who doesn't love a good dog pile!

The Bar, etc.

Nate takes the Bar exam this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. Things are getting tense and he is studying like mad. Once he passes he will finally be a real live lawyer! It has been a long road and we will both be glad to be done with this last major part.

I recently went, somewhat against my will, to Boise State orientation. It was good to see the campus and I was excited to get signed up for my classes. After I went through the whole "don't steal, don't walk around campus alone at night, make sure you study" spiel I tried to register for classes. They informed me that I had been discontinued and that I was not actually a student at Boise State. I yelled and waved my brand new student ID in their faces and said "I beg to differ!" enough times that they finally called the deans office and had someone with special clearance re-enroll me. Of course I had to wait until the next day to register for my classes so everything I need is long gone and I am showing late enrollment so I am not eligible for financial aid. Needless to say the day was not fun and I still have an endless list of people to yell at before everything is fixed. For example, even though I took AP English Lit in HS, Honors English Composition and Advanced Persuasive writing at BYU, I apparently have not filled the English 101 requirement at BSU. BS-U is right so far. I am trying to stay positive and take my mom's advice that yelling gets you nowhere, but it makes me feel better to yell. Finally, after all this, I did get some fun classes--not ones I really need, but fun all the same. I am excited to get back in the swing of things, and I'm sure things will look up any time now. Rant over... well, paused. I'm sure I will have more to say in the future. I can just tell.

Hawaii

We recently took a trip to Hawaii with my family for graduation. I graduated, Amanda graduated and Daniel graduated so it seemed like a good time to go. It was a fantastic trip and we all had a lot of fun. We spent a week on the North Shore of Oahu and spent a lot of time lying on the beach, golfing and seeing the sights around the Island. The Polynesian Cultural Center was definitely a highlight. Visiting the various exhibits about the islands was a lot of fun and very educational. We recommend it to anyone who is considering going. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Here we are at an overlook in the mountains. It was pretty.This you can almost tell is us at the sunset on Turtle Bay. It was awesome.

Here are all my siblings at Pearl Harbour. It was powerful.

Here we are in front of the Hawaii Temple. It was Beautiful.

Nauvoo

On our move from Indiana to Idaho we made a little stop in Nauvoo. I had never been there and Nate hadn't since he was little. We stopped by Carthage and then stayed in a cute little motel. I was surprised at how tiny the town was. The first night we grabbed some burgers at a little "family" diner full of drunks that scared me a little but the trip was uphill from there. The historic town was really cool. We loved the blacksmith and the brick maker. We also went to the show that the senior missionaries put on that was really cute. It was so great to see part of the history of our church. It made me a little sad but it was good to see. We got to go to the temple and we went to the Nauvoo hotel buffet which was delicious. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been.