nov 3rd

hi all. man it's been a crazy busy last couple of weeks.

my dad is having his spleen removed on the 16th. my mom and i will be updating his caringbridge site when that time arrives: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mattgatchell

---

hazel is doing so good. we have her completely litter box trained. currently, it's in the kitchen with her, and she goes in there all day. but, now we have to be super consistent with her when she's in the house to make her way to the box when she has to go and she's not confined to the kitchen. she's doing really well with puppy class, and we also take her to puppy party at the dog training center. she get's to spend an hour with puppies her same age, and play and run and socialize. i guess that it's SUPER important to get them socialized at this age so they don't turn into crazy dominant doggies.

---

mr. c's aunt & uncle came to visit from virginia the week before our anniversary. they got the grand tour of our house, and we had a great time with them.

---

for our first anniversary, we went SEVEN hours north and stayed at a cabin in Iron River, WI. it was SO relaxing. before we knew it, we had to pack up and come back home.

---

mr. c got news at work that there's a good possibility he'll be promoted and moved to a different shop. he'll probably still be on second shift, but the chances of him moving up are much greater at the other shop (non-union) than the shop he's at (union).

---

we had our first trick or treaters! we had about 50 kids, and we had plenty of candy which was good. we even had some unopened leftovers to return to the store!

---

i'm now down 5 pounds. i've been having trouble staying consistent, but it's definitely going in the right direction. all of the food is in the basement pantry. so, there's no eating just out of boredom. you have to go over the baby (puppy) gate into the kitchen, then go down to the basement to get something. so that really helps curb the snacky monster attack.

--- pictures to come.