It's elementary, my dear Watson

If you remember in one of my previous posts I said that we went and test drove a couple of SUVs for my birthday.  Well we eventually did buy one and it finally came in last Friday!  We've been debating for awhile with what we should do with Chris's Xterra.  I'm pretty much the sole driver of both cars that we have since Chris works all week and takes his work car.  I never liked driving the Xterra because it got horrible gas mileage and it didn't have a sunroof.  So it pretty much sat in the garage collecting dust until Chris needed it for tailgating.  It was two and a half years old and it only had 7,000 miles on it.  We thought about keeping it but with gas prices going up we decided it keep the thought of getting rid of it on the back burner.

Well for the past year or so GM has been sending out Saturn loyalty offers trying to get Saturn owners to purchase another GM vehicle.  Most of the offers have been for a couple of hundred dollars off certain cars.  When we received an email for 2,000 off any GM vehicle we thought that it might be a good time to start shopping around.

The two vehicles that we were looking at were the GMC Terrain and the Chevy Equinox.  Both SUVs are sister cars to each other and the only real difference between the two is their body styles.  Although if I could have picked any vehicle that I wanted I would have picked the Chevy Volt!  But sadly they are still way to expensive for us to own.  Since both SUVs get better gas millage than my own car it really didn't matter which one that we got.  After driving both SUVs we decided to go with the Chevy Equinox.  Once we signed all of the necessary paperwork and we just had to wait a week for it to come in.

Apparently the Equinox is a really high demand SUV according to the place that we bought it from.  I'll be nice and I won't post about the horrible experience we had with them!  I'm just glad that the nice talk Chris had with their general manager finally got us our SUV in a timely manner!  It's been nice being able to have two cars that get good gas mileage.  Since most everyone knows that I name my cars, I've decided to name this one Watson.  Hopefully Watson will be with us for many more years to come!

Watson has lots of technical things like a backup camera.

A year ago

This time last year Baxter was having laser disc ablation surgery at OSU. I am so glad that we decided to go ahead and have the surgery for him. Expect for one scare that we had in August which might not even be related to his back you can hardly even tell that he has back problems. Now he jumps off the back of the couch and I don't worry that he is going to rupture a disc. He has to take fish oil everyday for his hips and joints but other than that he is just like another other normal dog. So if anyone has a dog that has disc degeneration disorder I would highly recommend this surgery. The people at OSU Vet Clinic are great and they take great care of pets!

The ABCs of Mel

 I've seen this on several blogs on the internet so I thought that I would share with you guys the ABCs of me.  Maybe some of followers who don't know me very well will get some insight into my crazy world! 

A. Age: 29
B. Bed size: Queen.  Sometimes I wish we had a King though!!
C. Chore you hate: Cleaning the toilet but I also hate getting gas in my car.
D. Dogs: Baxter, Morgan and Newton
E. Essential start to your day: Chocolate milk
F. Favorite color: Red and Purple
G. Gold or silver: Silver
H. Height: 5’2
I. Instruments you play: Sadly none
J. Job title: Information Assistant
K. Kids: Our dogs are our children for right now
L. Live: Northwest Arkansas
M. Mom’s name: Marietta
N. Nicknames: Mel, MelMel, Mellie, Melon, Magoo
O. Overnight hospital stays: Yes, when I had to have an emergency appendectomy.
P. Pet peeve: When people spit in front of me or when people are late and they don't call.
Q. Quote from a movie: "Not you, fat Jesus" - The Hangover
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: Half sister  Kristine and younger sister Mayline
T. Time you wake up: 6:45
U. Underwear: I'm assuming this means what brand is your favorite, Victoria Secret
V. Vegetables you dislike: Green peppers
W. What makes you run late: Other people.  I can't stand being late!!
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Left arm, neck, and teeth
Y. Yummy food you make:  Considering I can't cook there isn't much that would be good.  But I can cook mashed potatoes okay.
Z. Zoo- favorite animal: Anything at an aquarium.

Ash Wednesday

As many of you know Chris has his own personal blog and one of this entries was on Lent.  It was so good that I thought that I would share his post on here:

As we enter the season of lent we start to think of what we will give up. Each year I contemplate something that I can easily do without. I think in the past I have given something up because it’s what you are supposed to do. I don’t think I’ve ever truly embraced the idea of lent. Lent is to be a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I’ve always just given up sweets, tea, and junk food.

2010 was a very interesting year for me. I had changes in my life good, bad, and indifferent. I lost great friends and made great new friends. We had deaths and births. It wasn’t really different than any other year, it just felt more monumental. I guess as I get older things mean more to me, that has been weighing on me as I have thought about lent this year.

It was Easter of 2007 when our Pastor Britt gave one of the most influential sermons I have ever heard. He made me realize what I was running from and what I wasn’t wanting to hear. Since that day I have tried to be a better husband, brother, son, and friend. I have had good times and I have had bad. Here we are again just a few shorts days from Lent 2011, the Lenten study groups have started forming, flyers are up in the halls at church. Again I’m forced to think about how this year will be different.
As most of you know I am a very picky eater. I eat cow, pig, chicken and pizza. I come by this honestly, it’s all my moms fault. Ask her about the breakfast sausage and she will accept the blame for my poor eating habits. I don’t eat salads, mushrooms, peppers, or just about anything else that doesn’t walk or fly. That’s why I’ve decided to give up meat for lent. I can’t think of a bigger sacrifice for me than the food group that sustains me. Every time I eat during lent I will be reminded of why I’m eating what I eat. I will think of Jesus, who came to earth to free us of our sins. I will be thankful to Jesus for everything that has been provided for us.


This year as you are thinking about what you will give up make sure it’s something you will miss. Remember why you are doing it. Remember who you are doing it for. Remember the real reason you are able to give anything up.

Happy 29th

This past Sunday was my 29th birthday and it was a really great birthday.  I took Thursday through today off from work to relax and enjoy my birthday this year.  Thursday James and I spent all day test driving SUVs because Chris and I want to trade our Xtrerra which gets 12 miles to the gallon off on something that gets better gas mileage.  I'll post more on what happened with that later.

Then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we spent at Baum stadium.  Thankfully the Hogs swept against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  The only thing bad about it was I wish that Saturday was a little bit warmer.  I drank some much hot chocolate that day to stay warm but at least the weather was much better for my birthday.

This was Kathleen's first Razorback baseball game!

Yesterday we drove up to Branson to spend all day shopping and of course eating at yummy places!  We had a great time and we did some serious shopping.  The trunk of the car was loaded with shopping purchases.  All in all this has been a great birthday but next year will be the dreaded 30!

Krispy Kreme Donuts!

Ride 'em cowboy!

Wait don't hurt me!!

Who doesn't love the massage chairs at Brookstone?

Kathleen found an AWESOME outfit to try on! :)

Drum roll please...

And the new name for the blog will be May The Bosch's be with you!!  It took be a long time to decide what I was going to change the name to and I still might change it a few more times later on in the near future.  There were so many good ones to choose from that it was really hard to pick.  I liked this one because it had our name in it and we are Star Wars fans.  The other two that I was really leaning towards was Live Long and Blogsper and Hitting the Bases with the Bosch's.  Thanks Greg for coming up with the winning name but don't be surprised if I change it again! ;)

Adventures with the Wolfpack

Every Saturday night we get together with our small group from church.  We absolutely love our small group to death.  They are some of the best people that we know and we are so blessed to have them as our friends.  When we get together we play games, watch movies, or just hang out.  This past Saturday we went to Fast Lanes and played cosmo bowling, which is black light bowling.  Sorry some of the pictures are dark I forgot to turn the flash on!

I had my highest score ever at 119!!  You can't really see it but Kathleen and I dominated the guys!

After we got done at Fast Lanes we walked across the street to play some mini-golf.  We were actually closed the place down!  Right after we left they turned the lights off!!

They had these rocks all over the place with signs that said "Keep off rocks."  Of course that meant that we all had to get on them. :)

Morgan and the 3 beds

Newton has been with us for two weeks now and the dogs have finally adjusted to him.  I won't say that they get along completely yet because they still get into the occasional fight over toys and food.  I think that the biggest adjustment has been for Morgan because he doesn't stink up for himself.  We bought Morgan a new pillow for the living room but it seems like every time he looks up someone is sleeping in his bed!  We have several pillows in the house for the dogs to sleep on ranging from big to small.  It seems like Morgan never gets the big bed!

Morgan left to watch tv and Baxter took his new pillow!

Newton stole Morgan's bed in the bedroom.

Morgan sleeping in Baxter's baby bed!

After Morgan tried sleeping in Baxter's baby bed we had to go get a new pillow for the smaller dogs to sleep on.  Hopefully now Morgan will have the big pillow to sleep on all to himself!  Baxter is starting to really like Newton because Newton likes to play with toys.  They play tug of war all day and it's just so cute to see!  It's nice to have someone else play with Baxter for a change because he would love with his toys all day long!!