Patchwork

Béni just ate a small piece of foil. Argh. 

He’s doing much better after his surgery and crazy events last week, though. He’s more than ready to have his cone removed, but unfortunately, we have to wait until Monday, which is when his stitches should be ready to be taken out. To show this cuteness of cone-head state, I give you these two photos just taken on my iPhone:

 

 

Did you notice all the dents in the plastic? No? Go look again. Most of those represent times he’s turned into PD and run into either John’s legs or mine. Ouch! One of the saddest things about the cone is that if Béni has an itch on his neck or face, he can’t scratch it. We try to scratch it for him, but I know it can’t be the same. Poor little guy!

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We leave for the States in less than 5 days. Hurray! We’re really looking forward to this trip. It’s been 8 months sine we have been to the States, and it will be really good to see everyone as well as to eat massive amounts of Tex-Mex. Drool.

The Today Show broadcast from San Antonio on Wednesday, and watching it made me even more homesick. I also kind of did drool when I saw the awesome dinner plates at Mi Tierra. Can’t. wait. So. good.

While we’re gone, Béni will stay in a doggie hotel. Have you ever heard of those before? We hadn’t. Apparently, there’s a common area for them to play in during the day, and at night, they bunk the bigger dogs 2-3 to a room, so he’ll have roommates. They pay attention to who gets along with whom, so he’ll be staying with his friends too. Fun, right? In their rooms, they have various things to lay on, including a couch. Since we currently make Béni “ask” to get on the couch, we’re a little worried about how he’ll act with the furniture once he gets back 2.5 weeks of getting to be on a couch whenever he wants.

The dog hotel also spends time each day training the dogs and having them exercise. I think they even groom the dogs. Sending Béni to a place like this makes me feel much more comfortable than sending him to a regular kennel.

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As this trip got closer, I started to get bummed, because I didn’t know what I would look forward to once we got back to Germany. I have been looking forward to this trip since March, so not having a big trip to look forward to would be a big change. 

Once I thought about it, however, I realized we have so much to look forward to (in addition to regular holidays and our birthdays) the rest of our time living over here. Check it out:

• Trip to the States Aug. 5-22
• Helen’s wedding Nov. 21 (we’re not sure if John will be able to go, but I will go at least Friday-Sunday…so yeah, it may be a very short trip to the States)
• My parents and Andrew coming to visit December 17-29.
• Trip to Garmisch with John, Andrew, Mom & Dad December 18-20.
• Morgan and her sister coming to visit mid-March.
• Spring!
• April or May – trip back to the States
• May 31 our 2 year anniversary
• Sometime during the summer: Eastern Mediterranean cruise
• Late October 2010 – Morgan’s wedding (going back to the States for that, of course)
• Another friend’s wedding during the winter – not sure if she’s told people the date, so I won’t announce it here (we’ll go if we’re invited, of course!)
• Moving back to Texas/getting out of the Army May-June 2011.

That’s just insane! We have something to look forward to every few months for the next 21 months. If you want to come visit us, please do. The time is passing quickly here, and we’ll be back in Texas before you know it. We would love to add your visit to our list of things to look forward to.

And in case you truly are interested, we have a guest bedroom, easy access to public transportation and you can find round trip flights for around $650 including tax. What a deal! 🙂

Happy Friday!