Enjoying vacation

Our Christmas was great, and the day after, we headed up to Cottonwood after hitting the after-Christmas sale at Walgreens. The boys picked up some additional squeaky chew toys and we got some neat Christmas decorations and lights.

It was cold in Cottonwood but we had a great time. Sunday, after Dennis went home with Ron & Marilyn, the boys and I headed up to Munds Park to spend a few days with Lisa at the cabin. Judy was also there as well as their friend Ruthanne. The dogs all got along well, except for Mr. Rickety Swayback also known as Dakota. He reminds me of Jack Lemmon's character in Grumpy Old Men. He kept getting in the way of the other three dogs playing, and "menacing" them. The dogs would all play hard, then they'd all crash out. That left more time for their parents to drink, eat, play games, watch movies, and relax.

After two days of fun in the snow (there were piles and piles of it everywhere!), the boys and I headed back to Cottonwood. After we all three showered (they are fresh and clean now), we relaxed and then headed to the Laundry center to do some laundry. We're currently in the car within range of the wireless Internet at the Family Center, waiting for our clothes to dry. The clean, white fur balls are sleeping the passenger's seat and I'm blogging away in the driver's seat. I could get used to this all the time! Maybe we'll win the lottery on Wednesday. :-)

Tomorrow, the boys and I are driving to Phoenix to pick up Dennis so we only have 1 car up here. Sunday, we are taking the Motor Home back to Phoenix and can't very well drive 3 cars between the two of us. It'll be a nice day for a turn around trip to Phoenix and the boys will be SOOO excited to see their papa again!

More to come on the blog after the New Year. We hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Muehlfeld-Taylor Christmas Newsletter 2008

What a year it has been! We’ve had ups and downs, but we made it through. We’ll share some of the highlights with you.

March brought us a new Motor Home in place of our truck and fifth wheel. This allowed us the comfort to go on “self-contained” camping trips without worrying about running out of electricity. We never went on these trips before with the fifth wheel. The Motor Home has a generator and has most of the lights powered by 12 volt battery so as long as we have juice in the battery or at least gas in the tank, we can have power! We camped for 5 days/4 nights at Woods Canyon Lake over Independence Day. It was fun! In July and again in August, we went to Mingus Mountain. It rained both times but the storms were beautiful to watch roll in. We met some new friends and spent more time with familiar ones.

August brought 2 additions to our family. You can see them below with Santa. Drama Boy is on the left and Brother Boy is on the right. They are Bichon Frise’ puppies that we adopted on August 24th. They are brothers and littermates whose birthday is 9/22/07. They’ve enriched our lives so much! It’s definitely a lifestyle changer to become puppy daddies, but we’ve adapted well—and so have they! They came crate trained and house broken and it didn’t take long for them to make their way from the crate to the bed at night! We’ve tried giving them free reign of the bedroom while we’re gone, but we’ve discovered they feel safer in the confines of their crate when we’re not there! They love the Motor Home and camping up North. They love other dogs and rarely bark, except when they want to say “hi” to other dogs!

Dennis was promoted at McKesson this Summer. He really likes the job—still hates the commute, but it’s a good company and he has a great boss. I’m still at Wells Fargo, managing to escape several rounds of cuts this year due to the housing market, poor economic conditions, and the tightening of credit. Things have stabilized a bit at work, and I’m hoping for a better 2009! We’re planning to spend Christmas at home, then we’re going up to the Motor Home the weekend after Christmas. The boys and I are spending the week in the Motor Home as Dennis has to work the week prior to New Year’s. He’s coming back up New Year’s Eve and we’re spending our last weekend in Camp Verde.

We launched a blog in November. You can visit www.rodneydennis.com to keep up on us. There are plenty of pictures of the dogs on there! Feel free to e-mail us as well, we both got new e-mail addresses: Rodney@rodneydennis.com and Dennis@rodneydennis.com.

We hope 2009 brings to you good health, peace, warmth, prosperity, love and joy!

Rodney, Dennis, Drama & Brother Boy

Something to pick you up!

Isn't this the cutest picture? Our doggies are very photogenic! Enjoy! Christmas Newsletter is coming soon. I'm hoping to get it published on Christmas Eve. I put together a draft tonight, complete with the picture to the right, and am proofing and editing it as I type. I'm SO happy that I got the CD for this photo before Christmas! Check back soon for the Christmas Newsletter!

Rodney & Dennis

Thousand Trails Let Down

I'm dismayed that Thousand Trails has discontinued their "on site storage" program. This means we won't be able to park our motor home on a site, pay by the month, and visit it on the weekends. Booh! We're bringing it home Sunday January 4th and will have flexibility to take trips to other places over the winter. I guess we won't be "wintering" in Verde Valley this year! At least not as we had hoped.

I'm disappointed....

Monday 12/22/08

We had a fabulous weekend in Verde Valley. Friday we arrived just before dark and finished putting together our patio heater. We ended up sitting outside, under 2 patio heaters with a propane fireplace in the middle with Ron & Marilyn and Dave & Lori (and Cheye) and drank a box of wine. Yes, I said it. A box of wine. It was Black Box Cab and it wasn't half bad. It was good enough to keep us warm. Well, that and the company. :-) Dennis had some beer and Hogue Late Harvest Riesling. When we woke up Saturday, EVERYTHING was frosted over - including the empty beer bottles and wine bottle. It was beautiful. The boys didn't quite know about the crunchy grass. But, they managed to do their business so we could go back inside!

Saturday was a nice, sunny day. It was still cold but when in the sun, it was warm enough to be outside. Marilyn, Lori and I found a wonderful little shop in Cottonwood called Gingerbread House. It was like a Hallmark store on CRACK! Plus they made their own fudge. It was delicious. After blowing all of our time there, we had to make a quick trip to Walmart. That was nearly impossible, given it was the Saturday before Christmas. The parking lot was PACKED! We divided and conquered inside the store to save time and met up at the checkout. We got all of the essentials - liquor, hot cocoa, and food. Three of the 4 food groups in cold country. While back at camp, we had chili and cornbread for lunch. What a great cold country meal!

Saturday evening brought a fabulous potluck dinner. Marilyn & Ron made an incredible prime rib. Dennis & I brought rice & beans as well as steamed broccoli & cauliflower. Dave & Lori brought Caesar Salad and a fantastic bread pudding with chocolate sauce for dessert! Yum! It was an early night for everyone as we'd had an exhausting day shopping, drinking margaritas and enjoying the sun like lizards.

Sunday morning brought more frost and another cold morning walk with the boys. The boys love the cold! After getting ready to leave, we said goodbye to our new friends Dave & Lori and Cheyenne. We wish them safe travels, good health, and prosperity. Their stay in Arizona is coming to and end and we hope to see them again soon. It was a nice drive back to Phoenix. We had Burger King, and fed the boys a hamburger after which they both went to sleep. It was precious! Enjoy the week, Merry Christmas, and more to blog when I have time.

Here's a video I took while we were leaving Thousand Trails. The mountains in the distance had snow on them and were beautiful. Enjoy!

Monday morning 12/8/08

It's Monday following a great, busy weekend. Friday we watched a movie. Dennis had a beer and I had some wine. Saturday it was house cleaning day and we did quite a lot before we had to leave around 3 for Dee's wedding. The wedding was at 4 (ok, actually started at 4:30 - not sure who was tardy). We then took the gifts to the reception and left to head to Scottsdale. Dennis' holiday party was Saturday at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. It was a nice place, great food, and good company. We left around 9:30 to head home. My friend Jeff from Las Vegas was in the state and came to our house while we were gone. He let the doggies out - they weren't quite sure what that was about - and then relaxed until we got home. We were up until about midnight, watching TV and catching up.

Sunday morning was groomer day for Drama and Brother Boy. Jeff and I dropped them off at 10, then headed to FEZ for brunch. It was fabulous! I love their Peach Bellini's! Yum! Oh, and the food was good too. We still had time to kill so we did a little shopping. Walmart and PetsMart were on the agenda before heading back to Wag N' Wash to pick up the boys. They were so handsome when they were done!

We stopped at Carl's Jr. to get Dennis some lunch on the way home, then we relaxed and watched a movie. The boys and I also took a nap on the couch. They were so cold! Jeff left around 4:30 and I called my mom and dad and talked to them for about an hour. Sunday night I headed to Safeway to get some groceries for the week, including a couple of frozen pizzas for dinner. We also put up the new spiral tree that Dennis bought. It's beautiful. By 9:30, we were all in bed.

Up at 5am and time to do it over! I hope everyone has a great week!

Welcome to our blog

Dennis and I adore our puppies! Drama and Brother Boy are Bichon Frise' puppies that are 14 months old. They found us in August, and a week later, we adopted them. It was fate. Our life revolves around them!

We are staying home this weekend. Saturday is Dennis' company holiday party and Sunday the boys go to the groomers for a shave. They will be even more handsome when they are done!

A childhood friend of mine is coming to Phoenix from Vegas this weekend and coming to visit Sunday. We haven't seen him since he was here for his back surgery this past Spring/Summer.

We hope you have a great week and weekend and will update more next week.

Welcome to our blog!