Oh, that's why there's a fence there!

Well, our weekend is over. Back to work tomorrow for both of us. But we had such a great weekend with our main man, Simba. Although Simba doesn't get to come home with us yet (only a few more weeks until we move into our pet friendly building), he still has a wonderful foster mom, my coworker, who allows us to see him whenever we want. I get to see Simba a lot at my work, Camp Bow Wow, but unfortunately, Ben does not. So we like to use our free weekends to go catch up with our boy.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to the Hefflinger Dog Park here in Omaha with Simba. An old fenced in baseball field turned into a 7.5 acre dog park. We have a good laugh every time we get him in the car because of his odd quirks. Not sure why, but he sits behind the driver's seat and puts his chin on the floor and tucks his head in the small gap between the console and the driver's seat. We're not sure if he's scared or uncertain, and we probably shouldn't be laughing at him for it, but he's just so dang cute when he does it.

We had a fun and relaxing time at the dog park watching Simba play. He was looking for lots of friends that could keep up with him - but the other dogs either thought he was weird, or couldn't keep up with him.

Here's Simba's personality described in a nutshell: so think back to high school and think about that one nerdy kid that was shy and always got poked fun of or messed around with. An "easy target." But you always thought, how nice and friendly they were and how they were going to make a great spouse to someone one day because they were truly a good person. Maybe a little weird, but had a kind heart. I know you know what I'm talking about. Well, that's Simba - the shy, nerdy kid in high school, always picked last because he was different. But the sweetest, friendliest dog you will ever meet. When Simba was a puppy in the shelter, every one passed him up. No one could look past his looks or the fact that he was different. I like to call him my black sheep :)

He was kind of having a bit of a problem finding some friends to play with at the dog park. So he always went off by himself and slowing approached dogs, only for them to run away or lose interest. I felt like a mother watching her kid eat lunch alone at school. My heart was breaking.

Luckily, he found a friend and let's just say that Simba doesn't deal with peer pressure too well. Ben and I were busy chatting, until we lost sight of Simba. We walked up a hill and as we called Simba's name, we saw his friend, and then him, hurdle out of a fenced-in area ... covered in mud/clay. Our cute white dog was no longer white. Ben and I let out a huge gasp and started cracking up. We managed to run into the owners of the other dog who apologized for their dog being such an instigator. We didn't mind. After our initial gasp of horror, we were laughing it off.




Hopefully he learned his lesson - he started to roll around in the grass because it itched so bad. Then we brought him to my work and had to give him a bath, which he wasn't too thrilled about.

Super exciting Saturday, I know ;)

On Sunday, we participated in the Nebraska Humane Society's Walk for the Animals - a walk for owners and dogs to help animals in need. Kendra, Simba's foster mom, brought Simba so we could walk with him, and she also brought her own dog. We took the 1.5 mile jaunt at 10 a.m. and it was so much fun. We will definitely be participating next year as well. Ben and I also visited the Vendor Village where we were loaded up with freebees, which we love! The Nebraska Humane Society is unlike any humane society I have ever seen. I am so impressed by their efforts and this community adores them. They are such a well-oiled machine and it's so great to have them in our community.

Here are some pictures from the Nebraska Humane Society's Walk for the Animals




















I'm sure we'll be hanging out with Simba sometime next weekend so I'll give you an update then. Countdown to Simba: about 2.5 weeks!

Love,
Ashley

Randy? You're name can't be Randy.

I should probably start this blog off by telling you how it all started between Ben and myself 3 years ago and where we are today. If you haven't heard the story, it's a real knee-slapper and a crazy story of love and distance. Here's my version. Just remember: the night we met, I was sober. Ben was not. Ben's perception and thoughts of that night is a bit different and way more hilarious than mine. I will have to have him enter his version of how we met into this blog at some point.

Ben and I met at the Minnesota Vikings training camp in Mankato, Minn. on August 2, 2008. I was with my family at the event, and Ben and his friend Ryan immediately caught my eye as they walked into the stands looking for a seat. I whispered to my mom, who was sitting behind me, that I bet these guys are going to come sit by me. And they did, they sat RIGHT in front of me, and my knees were pretty much digging into Ben’s back.

During training camp, my cousin Lisa, who is naturally talkative, stirred up small talk with Ben and Ryan, while I sat there and watched her child, secretly listening to their conversation. After talking for a while, Lisa found out that Ryan's mom worked with her. Small world. She managed to get little tid bits of information about each of them, and continually nudged me saying "he's cute" while pointing to Ben. I couldn't tell. The dude was wearing a backwards hat, aviators, and had yellow gym shorts and a Vikings shirsey on. The only thing I noticed and thought was attractive was his dark hair popping out from the back of his hat. I'm a softy for dark haired men and clearly I wasn't attracted to his sense of fashion.

After the training camp had ended, Ben turned around and gave Lisa's 7-year-old child an "autograph" on his foot, claiming he was a famous football player named Randy (no idea where the made up name came from - I'm assuming Randy Moss). Then he turned to me and asked if I wanted an autograph. I said sure. He autographed his name AND phone number on my foot and we parted ways. Smooth move. "How many times has he done this to the ladies before?" I thought in my head. But I didn’t plan on seeing him again.

Lisa convinced me to call him to see if the phone number he gave me was real. I called and his drunk self answered, "Hello, this is Randy." It wasn't fake.

We ended up texting back and forth that night and he invited me back to the campsite he was staying at. I respectfully declined. Plus, my mother didn't want me running off with a guy I had just met named Randy.. Figures.

After texting throughout the night, I found out that he was leaving in a week to do a 5 month College Program through Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Huge bummer and pretty much a deal breaker, because I was leaving in 3 days to go to a weekend country festival. AND I was leaving to study abroad for 5 months in Australia that coming up February. If you do the math, and if this were to work out, we would only be in the same city with each other for two months out of the year.

We decided to meet up anyways 2 days after training camp, a day before I left for the festival. He invited me to his block party for National Night Out. I took a chance and decided to head there by myself, with no wing women. Minus getting lost on the way there, I ended up having a great time with his family and neighbors and we really hit it off. But I was leaving the next day, and he was leaving before I would get back from the festival. We stayed connected through Facebook, texting and phone calls throughout the next month, and he invited me down to Flordia to visit him. I took another chance and headed down there. He showed me around Walt Disney World and I had a great time. After I got back from the trip, we became "official" on November 3, 2008. I took another trip down there a month later and had another perfect trip.

When he came back to Minnesota from his program in January, we only had a month to spend with each other until I had to leave for 5 months to Australia. We spent the time together in his college town of Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. I left for Australia on February 13, 2009 and landed there on February 15, so unfortunately we missed our first Valentine’s Day together.

He was supposed to come out to Australia at the beginning of May that year, but cancelled 2 days before he was supposed to fly out. I was upset and we ended up taking a break. We broke up until I came back at the end of June. He showed up at the airport with roses in his hand. It was a long 5 months without seeing each other but we made it. We had a month together, until we both went back to our separate colleges for our last year of school. Another 3 1/2 hours of distance.

In November 2011, we were both offered jobs within 10 minutes of each other, but in separate cities and separate states. 3 hours of distance didn't seem that bad anymore. He was offered a job as a Creative Services Intern with the Triple-A baseball team, the Omaha Storm Chasers and I was offered a Social Media/Receptionist position at a photography studio in Wayzata, Minn. 6 1/2 hours of distance. I gave up. I couldn't do it anymore. I gave up my job because his job was so hard to come by and the opportunity could not be passed up for him. I wouldn't allow it. So here we are, in corn country! We have been here for about 9 months. Ben landed the full-time job with the Storm Chasers and we are moving out of our current place and upgrading a bit to a nicer apartment community and into a pet friendly unit down the road.

I truly believe all things happen for a reason - I thought God didn't want us together with all the obstacles we have had to dodge in our relationship. But maybe he led us right here to this point to save a life. And that life is Simba's. We are adopting Simba, a one-year old Siberian Husky/Rat Terrier mix (I know, weird right?) sometime during the week of October 10, 2011.

Our adventures of owning our first dog together will be portrayed in this blog. Join us in celebrating our newest addition to our family. We can't wait to officially welcome Simba home!

I know a lot of my friends are taking the plunge into pet ownership, and I ask all of you reading this who are thinking of adding a dog or cat to their family, I beg you, please ADOPT, don't shop. There are so many wonderful animals, including puppies and kittens, just waiting for a home. You can save a life. Think about it.



Love,
Ashley