Back Home Again in Indiana (and Illinois). . .

Our German-born, Korean-raised dog is LOVING life in America. Well, more like he's loving life in the midwest. Lots of love from both sets of grandparents, more room to run than he's ever dreamed of, and plenty of places to swim (who knew dachshunds were water dogs?) Here's some of our favorite pics and videos of our time home (and yes, most of them are of Oskar. What can I say? For another few months at least, he's our only child!)

It did nothing but rain for our few days back in Indiana. But the dog that HATES rain LOVED the flooding!

Here's Oskar playing in the floodwaters with Buddy, my parents' German Shepherd/Husky mix. Buddy is only a year old but already 80 pounds, and when he gets running, you better watch out! You'll hear my screams quite clearly in this clip, as 80 pounds of wet dog ran past me and sprayed me with water.

My sister came up from Texas to visit, bringing her Pomeranian Chopper. Chopper is a very anti-social dog, but he did enjoy playing with Oskar at least a little bit (more than I can say for Chopper and Buddy!)

I've traveled all around the world, and there is still nothing more beautiful to me than an Indiana countryside. . .

We all know that Oskar has "little dog" syndrome. Nowhere was this more apparent than being in my parents' home with Buddy. Oskar wanted to do everything Buddy did, including eating out of his "big boy" dish. . .

After a few days in Indiana, we drove over across the state line to Illinois to stay with Jonathan's parents. Oskar was sad to leave behind my parents' house in the country (Jonathan's parents live on the outskirts of town), but he was ecstatic to go out to Jonathan's parents' farm. In fact, I don't know who was more excited: Jonathan or Oskar! We had a lot of fun riding tractors and shooting guns (although I did contact my friend who's an OB nurse to make sure shooting a gun wouldn't affect the baby's hearing before I agreed to go shooting--talk about a nervous mommy!) Jonathan posed me for this picture: pregnant, with a gun, on a tractor. This might be as white trash as you will ever see me. . .

Oskar got a kick out of chasing the four-wheeler around. All that training we've done to get him to STOP chasing cars, and then we encourage it by doing this. We have a lot to learn about being parents. ;)

The best thing about the farm? Another pond! Oskar only lasted about 2 minutes before he was in the water again. Before that, however, I got this shot of my two boys, imagining our retirement home. . .

Since we are planning on retiring here (although not for quite a few more years. . . the Air Force owns us for awhile), we wanted to at least do something to start making the land "ours." Jonathan's parents have started a garden and planted a few peach trees near the apple trees in the orchard. We added our two cents by planting two plum trees. Well, Jonathan planted them with his parents and I took pictures. ;)

Jonathan and I also planted trees back by the pond. The pond was recently dug out and re-filled so the area surrounding it is just dirt. Grass seed has been laid, but it's in desperate need of some landscaping! Here's a row of trees we planted, all different varieties.

This little tree all by itself was one I just HAD to have. It's a Japanese cherry blossom (see previous posts if you don't know my obsession with cherry blossoms). I'm hoping to have a whole area of cherry blossom trees in this section near the pond one day.

One last thing that's great about Illinois? Grandma's tennis practice! Jonathan's mom coaches tennis, and Oskar LOVED going out during practice to chase everyone's tennis balls around. After practice was over, he kept going. . . chasing the balls during Jonathan's game against his parents. I think this might be what heaven will look like for my little wiener dog. :)

But now, it's time to say good-bye and head out west. Thank you, everyone, for such a wonderful visit home! We had such a great time; can't wait to see you all again soon!

Susan G. Komen Dachshund Dash for the Cure

Today was a big day for Oskar. It marked his official entrance into wiener dog racing. Jonathan and I had seen clips online of wiener dog races and thought the concept was just absolutely hilarious. However, since we've been overseas for 5 years, we never got a chance to throw our lot into one. Well, God has a pretty funny sense of timing: a wiener dog race was scheduled for the exact time we were going to be home on leave. Even better, it was to benefit the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund. We paid a $10 entrance fee and then contestants could bet on the dogs; if you picked the winning dog, you got a t-shirt and all the money from the betting went to charity. With such a good cause, how could we refuse?

Here's us getting ready to enter the stadium for registration. . .

The race consisted of 4 heats of 8 dogs. Each dog required two human "helpers": one human was responsible for loading the dog into the starting block (pictured below) and then standing 25 yards away. Once the dog was released from the starting block, that person would yell and try to coax the dog to run by running with him/her towards the finish line (another 75 yards away) where the other human "helper" was stationed as a cheerleader/doggie catcher. Being 7.5 months pregnant, I was designated as the cheerleader while Jonathan's job was to run with Oskar down the track.

A wiener dog parade of all contestants before the start of the race. We're in the middle of the picture (Jonathan's in the green shirt).

Oskar was in the 3rd heat, lucky number 7. He wasn't too happy about his "racing jacket."

Several people were betting on Oskar (known as "Oskar with a 'k'" because there was more than one Oskar in the race); many said they were going to bet on him because he was from Germany. The pressure didn't seem to bother Oskar, but his fan base was nervous with anticipation before his heat. This is Jonathan's mother and aunt, cheering away. :)

No need to worry, though. I had a trick up my sleeve, in the shape of a little, yellow tennis ball. (Yes, this was completely legal--we just couldn't have any noise makers.)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand. . . they're off! You can't really see Oskar in this picture, but you can see Jonathan yelling for him.

The camera man is in the way in this shot, but its the only one we have of Oskar crossing the finish line. I'm squatting down greeting him, but all you can really see is him in his bright orange jacket. It took him a little while to figure out what was going on and what he was supposed to be doing, but as soon as he did, he put his game face on and took OFF! When all was said and done, he had come in second place in his heat! He had earned a place in the finals! Yay, OKB!

The top two dogs from each heat made it to the championship race. For this race, Oskar was #6 and had to wear a black racing jacket (not too much fun in the hot summer sun). But this time around, he knew what he was supposed to do!

It's hard to see Oskar because of his black jacket, but if you watch towards the end, you'll see him come screaming across the finish line. It was a pretty close race. . . but not because of anything Jonathan or I did. Oskar was actually chasing ANOTHER guy who was trying to coax his dog down the track! You can see ME chasing after Oskar trying to stop him AFTER he crossed the finish line. And if you watch until the very end, you'll see Jonathan go up and shake the guy's hand. We had to thank him for leading our dog to second place. :)

After the race, we had a nice little awards ceremony for the winner and OKB, who got a runner-up plaque. He also got a special shout-out for traveling all the way from South Korea to be in the race (and Jonathan got a special thank you from the crowd for serving our great country--man is it good to be back in America!)

Oskar's cheering section celebrating his 2nd place finish. Thank you, everyone, for coming out and supporting our little boy!

And, in case you're curious, because he did so well, Oskar's reward was part of a cheeseburger on the way home and a long day spent swimming in the pond at the farm afterwards. I think it was pretty much one of his best days EVER. :)

An Indiana Kind of Baby Shower

My family threw Baby W. a small shower today to celebrate his up-coming arrival. I didn't want anything big with games or birthing stories, so we chose to do a low-key luncheon with family and a few close friends--it was perfect! Due to our transcontinental move and subsequent drive out to Vegas, most people opted for gift cards (which are wonderful), but I had to share a few pics of some of the cutest little gifts I received.

My absolutely DELICIOUS and beautiful cupcake cake. Baby W. THROUGHLY enjoyed a few of these ;)

From my cousin Nikki. How in the world did she guess the nursery was going to be full of airplane stuff? ;)

From my sweet, sweet grandma. . .

From my best friend Angie. Another wiener dog onesie! This kid will definitely be a dachshund lover like his momma. ;)

From my sister. This kid will definitely not forget his midwest roots (or where Grandpa works!)

One guess who this one is from. . .

My nephew wanted to come to the shower even though we told him he would be the only boy there (so sweet!) So I let him help me open a few gifts.

From my mom. Again, this kid will never forget where he's from!

Thank you to everyone who came out and thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts (and gift cards!) I'm so glad I got to celebrate Baby W. with all of you while I was home!