Way too much about poop

So I mentioned that Daive has been sick, right? Riiiiight. This particular brand of sickness has involved a lot of pooping (mostly inside, which has been a bad thing) and a fair amount of vomiting (also inside, though when she has to do it in my room, she thoughtfully has chosen the exercise mat in my closet, which makes me happy b/c it's cheap and it's not carpet). The vet diagnosed it tenatively as food intolerance, and so I've been forced to make the switch from Hill's Science Diet to...something else. Daive has been eating Science Diet pretty much as long as I've had her. Even in Israel and Korea. Anyway, so I researched it, and had basically decided on Royal Canin. It's an expensive and rather snooty brand of dog food, but they have a line named "Special" for Mini dogs with sensitive stomachs. Then I stumbled across Nature's Recipe online, but thought Petsmart probably wouldn't have it, and I'd just go with RC. Lo and behold, Petsmart did have the Nature's Recipe. It has no beef, corn, or wheat, no by-products or fillers, and no artificial preservatives.

For my freshman English class, I wrote a paper entitled "What Are You Feeding Fido?" That's right folks, it was all about dog food. And I learned some rather horrifying things. Like blood-soaked sawdust from slaughterhouses can be included in dog food as a meat by-product. Ditto for chicken beaks, feet, and a gel made from steaming the feathers plucked from the chickens. In a word? Disgusting. This was an issue with my parents. They were loyal Ol' Roy dog food buyers. I wish evil things upon the heads of the Ol' Roy makers. In any case, the point it, all the bad stuff that can somehow legitimately go in dog food, is NOT in this particular brand of dog food. And so I bought it yesterday, and Daive ate it for the first time yesterday.

Now, you needed all that as background for the actual important part of this post. It was because of all that that I was found this morning exclaiming, "YES! SOLID POOP! OUTSIDE! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Thank you, Nature's Recipe.

Instead of noticing how many cheese-related things are in my little fridge, allow me to direct your attention to the lid being off of the cheese dip. *I* could barely remove the lid off of that container of cheese dip, yet an exploding diet coke can had absolutely no problems with it. Go figure. Luckily, it's still all frozen in my fridge, so it didn't make too much of a mess. Or something.

PS - I only put stuff in my fridge upstairs that I know the kids will eat if I leave downstairs. Hence my favorite foods...hence, mostly cheese items.

Daive IS my dog....

but I'm not so obsessed with her that I'd create a whole blog about her. I am starting this blog because I'm not in Korea anymore, so the whole kimchinotforme blog is a little obsolete. Also, the situation in which I find myself does not lend itself well to public blogging. Blogging is an outlet for me, a much-needed outlet, but I need to make sure I can do it without getting myself into trouble. Hence, this is a private blog. I apologize to those of you who are not already on blogger, who now have to keep up with one more username/password because of me. I had to get over myself in thinking it would be entirely arrogant to start a new blog about my life in the US, but I realized how vital blogging can be in keeping up with people. And those of you I sent invites to - I'd like to keep up with you, or have you keep up with me...or something.

So yeah.

Here are some highlights for you:

- Daive is indeed my dog, my sick dog, to be specific. Not entirely sure what's going on - hope to figure it out soon and nip it in the bud.

- I'm about to start medical transcription school online. It's a year-long program, and based on the research I did, one of the best programs out there. It was the first, or one of the first (can't remember) to be accredited. And there is 98% job placement after finishing. AND...I can eventually work at home. Another AND...I can make actual money. Which means that my dream of owning a humble home on enough land in a rural-ish area so I can have two or four dogs is an actual possibility sometime in the future.

- There's more, but that's enough for now. Sorry again for the hassle of this. Thanks for being such exceptional friends though. Love you all!

The New Addition

Ellie got a dog. After much internet searching (and between the two of us, I do mean MUCH) and a few visits to the local animal shelter, we found THE dog for this family. I wish I could share a picture with you, but I unfortunately cannot. Why, you ask? Because the dog is literally afraid of cameras. I don't know if it is the fact that it is something silver and shiny pointed at the poor thing or what, but three times now I've tried to take a picture of her, and she immediately goes and hides under my bed. To describe her though, imagine Daive, put into a morphing machine. The frame of her body is compacted and her legs are made shorter, her entire frame is widened, and then made taller than Daive. Doesn't make any sense at all, does it? Trust me, if you saw her, you'd totally get it. However, at this juncture, it doesn't look like you'll be seeing her anytime soon. A few points of interest though - she somehow ended up at a local animal control center, pregnant. They took her puppies away from her and euthanized them all. She cried for three days straight. When one of the volunteers from the no-kill shelter where we got her from stopped by, the workers at animal control begged her to take the dog. She has such a sweet disposition, and obviously a tender little canine heart. So that is how she came to be at the no-kill shelter. She was a strong heartworm positive, so she was spayed and treated for heartworms. She is afraid of going down stairs (so very very afraid), afraid of being carried, and afraid of men. Oh yes, and afraid of cameras. She loves food, hiding under the bed, and occasionally romping with Daive (before she retreats back to being under the bed again). She is obviously rubbing off on Daive, because just now I couldn't find her, and she was asleep under the papasan chair.

Nonetheless, this dog is such a sweetheart. She has these big brown eyes and floppy ears. She's a jewel. I'll be sure to upload pictures as soon as I'm able to take any. That's all for now.

This is what's been keeping me busy...

Well, not so much the pancakes - I mean more the cooking, shopping, trying to stay organized kind of thing. So I got a little creative when I was making dinner tonight. This little heart-shaped pancake turned out nearly perfect, but definitely good enough for me. It was like Rorschach pancake night - there was this one that looked like Mickey Mouse, if Mickey Mouse got one of his ears a little too close to a ceiling fan. Anyway, it obviously doesn't take much to impress me, as this pancake rocked my own socks off. I had eaten earlier, so I wasn't hungry. However, one can't just give one's pancake heart away indiscriminately. I ended up giving it to Jeremiah, as he seemed sufficiently impressed as to deserve said pancake heart.
This is our garden! Abi and I planted this a few weeks ago, and it is coming along quite nicely. I cannot tell you how amazed I was when I saw the first little sprouts! It was an awesome moment! I think this is the first thing I've ever tried to grow.

Close up of the cucumbers.

Close up of the sunflowers.

The Dunlaps sure do love their Daive!

Abi and Daive snuggling and taking something of a power nap.

Bethany, up close and personal, loving on Daive.
(Can anyone else believe that this is the same girl who resisted
being called "Aunt Bethany" in relation to the dog for almost a YEAR?!
But we have won her over, BWA HA HA...err, yeah.)

Daive would probably deny it if she could, because she's kind enough that she
wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I'm rather confident that Ellie is
her favorite Dunlap. And you can tell why in this picture. They relate. They
connect on some sort of inner feral level.

This is more of a "The Dunlaps love Teresa's room" picture, especially given that
the top picture of Abi was taken about ten minutes before this on was taken.
Regardless, Daive is definitely in there, loving on Ellie.

I think this is an awesome picture. Ellie and Daive. BFF.

Daive never misses an opportunity to make her presence known.
Poor Seth can't even play a video game without having to
accommodate the little princess.

A little lost

It's 3:10 AM and I'm still awake. How very unspiritual of me, at least that's what some would say.

It's been an interesting day. An interesting week, too. I'm sure I could go back even more than that, but it would sound overly cryptic and annoy even me.

I'm kind of at this point where I'm trying to figure out what is next. I've heard the famous quote, "Wherever you are, be all there." I'm trying to do that, while at the same time be responsible. The reality is that I am a 26 year old single female (with a really cute dog), a bachelor's degree with no foreseeable usefulness (unless I wanted to go back to Korea to teach again, which I do NOT see happening) but that I really don't regret in the slightest, no established career, and nothing to tie me down after I'm finished here. I'd love to work with animals. Maybe be a vet tech? But I'm really not sure if my stomach can handle gory open wounds. With my experience in Korea, I could probably find a job teaching. I'm just not sure that's what I want to do. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's NOT what I want to do. Like to know the direction I'm leaning at the moment? Medical transcription. I could take online classes, and in nine months have the skills to land a job. Not only a job, but eventually a job where I could even work from home. Then I could have a whole heap of dogs, maybe get connected with a rescue group and foster some dogs. The biggest thing is to get a job where I can make money and work on paying down my student loans. Perhaps by the time they are paid off (around when I retire? Don't laugh, it's a possibility), I can then fulfill what could be a God-given dream to go teach Dalit pastors in India.

Would you like to know the point of this post? It's to share simply that I am feeling a little lost. I don't know the direction of my life at all. And if we could all work hard to spare any trite cliches or advice, I'd appreciate it. I know they would all be offered/given out of love, but I can recite cliches to myself all day long. So far, it's not helping.

Any guidance or advice (that is entirely devoid of said irritating cliches) though, would be most welcome. I love you guys (you know who you are). Sorry for the tone of this post. It's annoying me, actually, but now it is 3:34 AM and I've taken two benadryl and I'm too tired/lazy to go change it.