Too Stinkin Cute!!

We had such a great day today!

Dakota's Scary Survival Story

This weekend we had quite a scare with little Dakota. Saturday evening, Ben took Luke and Dakota on a walk. Dakota, our schipperkee pup, did his normal "sniff along the fence line and bark at fellow dog" routine. This time he literally barked at the wrong fence... He was violently pulled under the fence by a lab who grabbed a hold of Dakota's neck and shook him like a rag doll. Ben freaked out and tried to pull D back under the fence but he had his hands full with Luke plus the lab had Dakota so tightly. Finally the owner of the lab heard the screaming and yelping and came out to pull off his dog! Amongst the craziness, the owner said the lab was a rescue dog and had attacked other dogs. Ben was fairly disturbed and got Dakota - put his in the bottom of the stroller and quickly went home. He called me and when I got home we went to the animal ER. Dakota was okay but bleeding from the neck and limping on his front leg. Amazingly, Dakota survived and the 4 teeth punctures in his neck missed all major arteries and muscles. The vet was amazed and said how lucky he was to be alive. Below is a photo of the teeth marks in Dakota's neck. Poor baby... He is on antibiotics and is recovering very well. My tough little dog.

The Tale of Blanquita - Part 3 - The End

Okay - so now for the happy ending... (If you are new to my blog, scroll down and start at part 1.) After a very challenging week, Friday finally gets here. Blancs is now really fixed after taking everything down to the ignition switch to finally find the problem. I must say I boycotted and refused to go to Diesel Toyz. So, Ben took care of that situation and arrived home in a very healthy Jetta. As he walked inside, he faced me and handed me a manilla envelope that said 1987 Mercedes... Eh?

Ben bought for me a 1987 white diesel Mercedes 300SDL with none other that red leather interior! Ow ow!! (Some may be wondering why 1987; why diesel; why this model? Well,... because this is one of the 3 cars that Ben approves of for daily driving...and we have the other two.) The best part is the story of how he got it.

As I understand it, Ben had been looking for this model for a while... Well one day a this particular car popped up on one of his specialty websites. The car was for sale in Virginia. So, Ben called the guy - put a deposit down and arranged to fly up there immediately. Now, I had NO idea this was going on. He told me a great convincing story that I fully believed (I will not elaborate on the story online quite yet - possibly in the future -though I can tell you in person.) Apparently many people were in on this endeavor - his parents, his sister, Ben's friends, a select few of my friends... The goal was to get it by Christmas and that would be my Christmas gift. You know - I walk outside and there is a new car with a HUGE red bow! (I have always wanted to have this happen to me - and Ben knew this.) Well, he got the bow with the help of his aunt. And, now it was arranging for the car to get to San Antone. When Ben flew up there, he thought he would drive the car down and he even bought a plane ticket for his buddy Wilson to accompany. But when he arrived in VA, there were a few things to be fixed. So, they arranged to have it shipped down to TX. That ended up taking more than a month. So, I got the car last Friday! The day Blancs finally came home. I must say - I love it and cannot wait to drive it. (It needs tags.) Ben worked so hard on this surprise and his effort means the world to me! I love the car, but his effort to make this happen is an even greater gift. Sweet husband.

So that's my story. Blancs is fixed. We added to our fleet with hot red leather Sadie. We will no longer go to DToyz. French fry can be moved inside of our driveway gates to hide it from the outside world. :) Overall, the car situation at the Tanner's is currently alright...

A Rough Day

It can be so hard being a little guy...

The Tale of Blanquita - Part 2

Sorry for the delay for Part 2. Let's just say that Part 2 became so frustrating that I had to give it a week or so before writing. Breathe in, breathe out. All is good now...

So, part 2 begins when we take Blancs back to Diesel Toyz and leave her to be fixed. Each day she is supposed to be ready and each day she is not... So, after 4 more days with no car, she is finally "ready." We load up in french fry and poof over to DToyz. Once we arrive, the DToyz dudes are no where to be found - place locked. Lovely. After Ben calls and they finally decide to arrive, Ben tells me that Blancs is fixed but won't start... I was confused by this statement. To me, fixed is completely working?? Right? Well, they had to rig the car to start again and off we go to none other than WALLY world. (Apparently the battery is now bad and we need to exchange it for a new one.)

So, with me and Luke in Blancs and Ben in French Fry, we go to good ole Walmart. yay... But, the "best" part is when we arrive and park, Ben pops Blanc's hood, takes out his tools, removes the battery (while she is running) and goes inside Walmart to do business. So, just picture this scene... I am in the car, doors locked sunk down in the seat, Luke is in the back fighting to get to sleep, the car is running with the hood popped and there is a hole where the battery goes... in the Walmart parking lot. Too bad I didn't snap a shot of that... :/

About 20 minutes later, Ben comes back only to say... the battery works!!! What?!? You can imagine the fumes coming from Ben's ears at DToyz for this... Ben just closes the hood and off I drive SANS battery - back to DToyz. When we get there, I am fuming at loserville DToyz for a crappy job and making us do this annoying round robin for over a week and wasting our time! So, back in french fry and home we go with Helen STILL carless, Ben frustrated, and Luke finally asleep (thank the Lord.) One thing is for certain, we will not be returning to the lovely DToyz after this debacle is over.

Don't worry - there is a very happy ending. Part 3 comes tomorrow - I promise.

Just hanging out!

The Tale of Blanquita Part 1

So, about 2 years ago Ben said I needed to get rid of my ridiculously useless Mustang and get a good car - a diesel Jetta. So Ben searched the entire US for the perfect Jetta - white (to go with our "fleet"), 2002 (duh?!), diesel (do you know my husband?). So, he found it-in Riverside, CA. We loaded up in his french fry truck with the car trailer behind us and off we went to Cali. We have no problems (miraculously - with our track record) and get Blanquita (or Blancs as we call her). She has been a pretty good car for 100,000+ miles. So we fast forward to now... The story begins...


For the past 2-3 weeks, Blancs has been acting up - not starting and making weird noises... At first it was the glow plugs and then it escalated to more issues. Finally, after a few attempts of fixing late at night (Ben does not have the time to spend with cars like he used to... he spends it with Luke :) ) he finally says we are taking it in. Okay - great. Well we don't go to VW or, I don't know, a normal car repair garage, we go to DIESEL TOYZ. That's right - in the warehouse district in San Antone - we drive to a tiny little place with a vinyl hanging sign - DIESEL TOYZ. I am thinking... how the heck does Ben find these places - seriously?! Well - the owner guy isn't even there!!! So we leave the car and put the key in the mailbox. No worries about stealing it b/c it WON'T start! Ah - good thing...


Well - the owner guy finally calls and has the flu so he will not be working until the next week. Okay... well back to DIESEL TOYZ to rescue Blancs for the weekend so maybe Ben can work on her. Unfortunately Blancs, not being able to start normally and what not, is in a little bit of a bind. Thankfully, Ben has the answer. We rig Blancs to French Fry with his off roading straps, back her to the top of the hill in the parking lot, let her loose and then use the trick people use to start manual cars (when they don't start normally...) And, yes, Luke is with us for all these adventures.


Photo 1: The infamous French Fry truck
(Spencer, Ben's best buddy, told me this is the perfect truck for Ben - among other things but especially for all the compartments.) Why does it have to be so heinous??







Photo 2: Blanquita aka Blancs (plus Ben preparing to strap the car)








Photo 3: Strapping Blancs to French Fry









Photo 4: Top of parking lot "hill" after towing it to top - about to be let loose!








So, the car starts on its downhill adventure and we are good to go for the drive home. So the weekend comes and goes and Monday we take it back to DIESEL TOYZ and we do the same drill... Car out front, key in mailbox...

That is all for Part 1. Get real excited for Part 2 - it gets even better!

(Seriously, I should write a book about my car/vehicle adventures with my dearest, Ben Tanner.)

Growing like a weed!

Luke at 2 months!

Luke at 3 months! Precious!

LHT 3 months

Riveting stuff - especially the end. :)

Bringin in the New Year Tanner Style!

To celebrate our first New Year's with little Luke, we went to Austin to hang out with Annie, Dave and little Avery. Ann and Dave host an annual New Year's party and how perfect that both of us have little tykes. Avery and Luke did indeed kiss although it was around 8pm or so. They were precious. Here are a few pics from the night... (No, I did not cut my hair although it looks unfortunately "Little House on the Prairie-ish". I took it down later.)


Aren't they precious - those two little ones! Luke looks so studly.

We had a fabulous New Year's Eve in Austin. Ben and I always make a top ten list each year. The top ten things we want to accomplish... They always include professional, personal and family goals. I would say our record is close to 50 percent completion each year. Hopefully this year we will knock out all 10! Happy New Year!