This coming weekend

We are all excited because my twin sister Gretchen is going to be driving over this weekend, and we get to celebrate her oldest son's birthday here. It isn't like I don't ever get to see her, but since we live 8 hrs away from each other, the trips are fewer and farther between than we'd like. We do spend a lot of time on the phone, tho! lol

I will be posting with pictures (hopefully, if I can remember to charge the camera battery and then remember to use the camera!) on Monday.

On another note, Danny starts his fencing class tonight. He is really excited, being a lover of sword fighting and light saber battling. I wasn't sure when he expressed an interest in it if there would be a class offered near us, but this fall our city had a fencing class in its listing of fall activities! I can't wait to post pictures of him. This summer he took golf lessons, which he also enjoyed, but I never got much of a chance to take pix b/c he was always out on the course with the instructor. A shot of him in the golf cart would have been cute, I guess, now that I think of it, but unfortunately I didn't think of it at the time. He also wants to sign up for the bowling league in town. Phew! For a boy so consumed by karate for 5 years, he certainly has diversified!

Katie, on the other hand, is signed up for karate herself now, plus Brownies, cheerleading, 4H, and the local church youth group. She can't wait for karate to be over so she can do gymnastics, then horse back riding, then dance, etc., etc..

Today they have a half day of school, so we are at the library (yes, Murphy is under the table at my feet!). We are always so busy it's hard to find a good 2 hours free together! There are several good libraries near me (all linked together) so each time we have to vote on where to go. Hee hee! I'm glad my kids like going; Danny loves to read - although he likes the library so he can look up all the Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes books - so it's not a struggle to get him here. Katie is less of a reader - she says she doesn't like sitting still for so long - but the library provides an ideal opportunity to get online! Still, she is an excellent reader - she's in 3rd grade but her Accellerated Reading score puts her in the 5th grade level. Dan, of course, being in 5th grade, is reading on the 11th grade level. Last year he read Moby Dick, and tried twice to pass the AR quiz. He did really well, but didn't pass. This year he wants to try War and Peace!

That's it for now; I'll post after the weekend : )

My Cute Little Cheerleader

This weekend, our city had a kind of town-pride festival that kicked off with a parade. I couldn't be there because of prior commitments, but Daddy took Danny and Katie marched with her cheerleading squad. They didn't stay for the festival, either, because most of the rides are too dinky for them anymore, and the ones that aren't DH and I don't feel are safe enough. The prices are outrageous, for the rides and the food, plus we did the county fair last month so they weren't really missing anything anyway. But Katie is soooo excited, because the city's local access channel will be showing the parade, and she'll be on tv.

Here's Katie in the parade:

Here are Danny and Murphy. DH said the dog did really well at the parade. There were tons of other dogs there, but of course ours was the best behaved!

I really wished I could have been there too. We've actually never gone to the parade before; we're not exactly morning people unless we have to be!

A Cool Picture

We were stepping out to go to school one day last week, and we found a praying mantis on our grill! I got some cool pictures of him:

More about Murphy

Well, we've had Murphy for almost a month now. He came to us pretty well trained behaviorally, so we've only had to reinforce his good habits. This week the trainer, Lisa, came with an old wheelchair for us to sit in while we work on some of the tasks the dog will be doing for Sara. He is good at picking up pens and pencils off the floor and giving them to me, and now we're working on his leash too. He's also learning "finish," which is where after doing a task, he circles around behind me and sits to my left. Murphy is soooo sweet. He's always asking for attention, which I wouldn't mind so much except that when he's working he needs to be content with no petting. Poor Sara can't be petting him during classes in school! He is doing so well, it seems like he picks up anything with one or two repetitions - with treats as rewards, of course. He is really very smart. They are guessing he'll be ready to go to Sara's by Christmas. What a cool Christmas gift, huh?

Wherever we go, everyone seems to love Murphy. Today I took Katie to the dentist for her 6-month checkup, so the dog came and stayed in the waiting room with me. Every 5 minutes someone would come out from the offices to ooh and ahh over him, but they already know they can't pet him so they'd look at him from afar and whimper at me. My kids are pretty good with him, and Lisa has said they need to work with him more themselves. Tonight, they took him for a walk together. He had only just eaten dinner, and left a nice pile in my in-laws' back yard an hour earlier, so I didn't think they'd need to clean anything up. I should have known better! Do you suppose my 10 yr old boy did the dirty work? Nooooo, my sweet, dainty, 8 yr old girl did it, and carried the stinky bag all the way back home, too! So much for gallantry, huh?

One question I seem to get asked frequently is, won't it be hard to give him up once the training is done? My answer is no, for several reasons. First, we talk about Sara every day, to remind the kids especially. Lisa says we should be able to meet her soon, and even schedule training sessions with her. Secondly, there are a number of things we can't do with Murphy that I would certainly like to do if he were mine, like playing tug-of-war or wrestling around with him. Also, I would like to teach him to bark when he needs to go out! Mainly, though, it is as frustrating for me as it is for others that I can't "share" him when we go out. I feel so mean constantly saying, "please don't pet him, no you can't pet him, sorry, you need to leave him alone...etc." He's so adorable, and I know he'd love the attention! It is pretty cool, though, being able to bring him in anywhere I go. Except school, of course - the principal at my kids' school has made it clear he's not allowed, and since the law backs her up, I can't really do anything. Therefore, I will be taking him over to Sara's school (when I find out which one it is) and volunteering there.

We recently decided to let him sleep outside the kennel, too. He just seemed so restless in there, and was getting up and down and turning around every 5 minutes - with a big banging and clanging each time. We tried unsuccessfully to have him sleep with the kids in their beds, but neither one liked how much room he ended up taking! DH refuses to share his bed with so much dog hair, so now he's sleeping on his rug (we call it his "place") next to Katie's bed. She needs to keep her door shut, though, or he'll wander off in the middle of the night. We realized this when we discovered him downstairs one morning - chewing on my slipper, no less!

We are having so much fun with "our" doggy for now. I know we'll miss him in Dec, but we'll be replacing him with a golden retriever puppy in Jan. I don't know how I feel about this - it was awfully nice not to go through house training. Especially in the winter!!

The Family's Summer Vacation

We took our annual family vacation to Canada in July this year. DH's aunt and uncle have owned property on a lake in Quebec for over 30 years, and over time have created an incredible getaway which they generously share with friends and relatives all summer. This is the 4th time we've gone up, and we just never get tired of it. It's about a 10 hour drive (depending on traffic and pit stops) straight up through North Bay, Ontario, crossing into Quebec at Temiscaming, and 3 hours north of that. While we're there, all we do is fish out on the lake, swim, go for hikes or atv rides, or hang out at the cabin and read or play cards and board games. They do have satellite tv, but I don't watch very much myself - of course, the kids are ecstatic that they don't have to live without Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. You'd think this would get old, but it really doesn't. One of my favorite activities is to do puzzles while I'm there, because they have a perfect table for it where the puzzle isn't in danger from kids running around. There just isn't anywhere at my house like that. I probably do 4-5 puzzles in 2 weeks.

Here is a picture of the "cabin" from the water. As you can see, it's really a house, complete with 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, full kitchen, a washer and dryer, screened porch, etc. But they like to call it a cabin.

You can see the pontoon boat, which we generally only take out once or twice while we're there since it's a real gas guzzler. There are 3 other boats, owned by Uncle Cliff and various sons, but the big one was out of commission this year so DH spent all his time out in the small one.


We generally catch quite a few fish, certainly enough for at least 3 good fish fry dinners and plenty to take home too. Mostly we get walleye (Uncle Cliff calls them pickerel), but we sometimes also catch catfish, perch, and small mouth bass too. Every year, though, DH is hoping for "The Big One" - his prize northern pike. He hasn't caught one big enough to mount yet, but he knows it's out there waiting for him.

Here are DH and Uncle Cliff after a good day's fishing. You can see from DH's face that there is nowhere else on earth he'd rather be.

Each night after the boat(s) come in, Harry the Heron flies in to wait for Uncle Cliff to clean the fish. He knows he can eat good at O'Neil's Little Bit Of Heaven - and he's not shy about waiting for a table!





The kids, naturally, have a great time there too. They don't fish quite as much as their dad, but they still find lots to do! This year the temperatures were moderate, so they only got to swim a few times. One year it was in the 90's for 5 days straight! We ended up getting into the van and driving 1 1/2 hrs to Pizza Hut for lunch just so we could sit in the air conditioning! You can see from these pics that the days were sometimes warm, sometimes cool.

Here's Danny in the boat. Although he didn't go out every day like his dad, he still went fishing quite a bit.

He especially liked it when he got to "drive"!

Here's Dan and Dad with the day's catch. Not too shabby!

Katie also loves to fish, but she'd rather go out on the dock and fish from the pontoon boat than spend the day on the lake (ahem, can you say "flush toilet"?). Here she is with one of the many catfish she caught:


She did like going out with her Daddy for a quick jaunt down the river (where the Ottawa flows out of the lake).

She also likes driving the boat!

Here's a few pictures DH took when the fish weren't biting. lol

This year for a change (and mostly because of having the smaller motor) Chuck spent a lot more time fishing up the river (where the Ottawa flows into Lac Sinard) than trolling out on the lake.

Isn't the scenery just gorgeous?

One day, you'll never guess what they saw!!

Yes, that's a moose, crossing the river right in front of them! Glad DH had the camera with him that day. Pretty cool!

Uncle Cliff, of course, doesn't get to fish every day. Since he and Auntie Jan live there from May through September, there is quite a bit of maintenance to be done on the house and property, like lawn mowing, fixing boat motors, taking the trash to the dump, working on the docks, etc. Always willing to lend a hand when needed, DH helped Uncle Cliff cut down a tree by the cabin. Danny and Katie were allowed to help cut it up with the log splitter:


On our last days there, there were some big thunderstorms, which sometimes knocked out the power. Last year the tornado that went through North Bay caused a power outage throughout areas of Ontario and Quebec, and we were without electricity for almost 3 days! This year, though, we were only out for a few hours. When the storm had passed, there was a gorgeous rainbow. It was actually a double one, but I could only get this part in the shot.

Can you see how it's reflected in the water?

You can see why we always love our vacations in Quebec. As someone else put it: "Life, the way it should be." Already we're looking forward to next year!!

More Pictures of my Vacation...

Although there was a severe drought, it did actually rain one day. Of course, this was the day that lunch was scheduled to be a picnic by the river. We were driven down to the site in vans, where they had breaded fish, hushpuppies, creamy veggie soup, and other yummy dishes cooked over a campfire waiting for us. Just as they called us up to serve ourselves buffet style, it started to sprinkle. Michelle and I didn't really care, so we went ahead and got our food anyway, even though some guests decided to get back into the vans. As it started raining harder and harder, we just kept enjoying our lunch - which was getting colder and soggier! Pretty soon the only people left were the kitchen staff, a family of 3 from London (Phillip, Caroline, and their daughter Charlotte), and Michelle and me. Caroline laughed and said how English it was to stay and eat in the rain, and Phillip agreed, saying, "Yes, it's just what we would do: 'Look, it's raining, let's have a barbeque!'"

Here is a picture of us. The white spots on our shirts are the soup which splattered up from the rain falling in the bowl as we were eating it!






Once again, we had a fun conversation about food in England vs. the US. They wanted to know what hushpuppies were, since to them Hushpuppies are shoes! LOL

We also had the opportunity to go on one cattle drive during the week, which we all enjoyed because it was the one activity where our horses weren't following nose to tail down a trail. My group got to go out to the pasture where the cows live and herd them back to the corral at the ranch. This entailed bringing them along a trail through some woods between the mountain and a railroad track. Michelle was on the side keeping the cows out of the hills, and my job was to keep them off of the tracks. Since all the yummy grass was up the hill under the trees, Jewel and I were a bit bored whereas Michelle and Zeus were pretty busy!

Once the cows were back at the ranch, the after-dinner activity was team penning, where 3 guests and 2 wranglers would mount up in the corral with the cows and try to get one of them into a pen in the center. It was the wrangler's job to separate one cow out and bring it toward the front, and then one of us would chase it to the pen while the others blocked it from returning to the herd. The hardest job was singling out a cow, which is why the wranglers did it for us. Of course, I got bored waiting, so I tried to go down and help (hey, they didn't say we couldn't!).

Here I am trying to pick out a calf.

Every night, Michelle and I went to hang out in the saloon below our room, where we played cards with whomever wanted to join us. Mostly we played with John and Evelyn, and for the first half of the week with Linda and Bob. Since the latter couple left on Wed, we started playing with Karen and Peter and sometimes Hannah and Tim (The Mariotts from Sussex). John and Evelyn taught us all how to play a game called 31, which is simple, easy to learn and really fun. Later on, the Marriots taught us a game we ended up calling either PoopHeads or ScumBucket, but which is better known both here and overseas under another name none of us were willing to use (begins with an S---). Hannah also taught the other kids (of the 30 or so guests, about 10 were children 15 and under) a game called Cheat, but once she got them started, they would never leave her alone!

Here is a picture of Hannah, Tim, and the kids playing Cheat.

On Friday night, the ranch held a square dance - with live music - in the saloon. It was really fun! Almost everyone was there including the wranglers, and we had all gotten to know each other well enough to feel comfortable dancing together. Here are some pictures:

This is Michelle and Tim (and Nate and Marissa), paired up for the first dance. I went up to get my camera, so I missed out on getting a partner for the first dance. What this meant, though, was that I got to take pictures : )

The second dance ended in this snakey thing winding all through the saloon area.

This is Karen and Peter Marriot (with a couple of other peoples' kids).

And here is a picture of John and Evelyn.

I just have to say what a wonderful time Michelle and I had. We made such good friends while we were there, and I hope to keep in touch with them if possible. Already I have received an email from Fla and a birthday card from the Mariotts!! It was absolutely the best birthday present I have ever gotten, and I don't see how it could possibly be topped : )

A big huge THANK YOU to my fabulous hubby and kids for letting me go away for a week with my friend to do something fun and exciting. The ranch does have special packages for Thanksgiving, and my sisters and I would love to coordinate something for our families all together, but I think that would have to be after someone won the lottery or something. I sure would love to go back again sometime, though!

Yay!! I have figured out how to upload pictures!

Unfortunately, it takes forever for each picture.

Anyway, here is a picture of the ranch, as seen coming back from one of our trail rides. To the far left are the "lodge rooms", in the center is the gift shop with game room above it and the Whistlestop, or dining room. The lighter brown building to the far right is the "Hotel", which has the saloon on the bottom and our hotel rooms above.

In the front, the grass you see is one of the pastures where the horses live. There are at least 4: one is up on the hill behind the barn, one is in front of the ranch, the "close" pasture is across the drive from this one, and the "far" one is down the driveway from the ranch. A few horses live in the barn and are turned out into the corral each day; considering that we had to go get our horses ourselves and take them back after the ride/cool down, Michelle and I were quite happy to have horses from the barn!


Here is the view from the porch out front. Isn't it gorgeous!! We were in the Smoky Mountains, and the views everywhere were just beautiful.

You can see the front pasture and the driveway, then the far pasture. I felt bad for those with horses way back there, because after each ride, we had to get off and walk our horses around the drive once, and then return them to their pastures. If your horse lives out in the far one, that meant you essentially had to walk around the driveway once before and twice after each ride! The barn, on the other hand, was right behind the livery (where they keep saddles, bridles, etc.), where the hitching posts were set up. Hee hee!

Did I mention that the area was suffering a severe drought?

Here is a picture I took one night of a forest fire we could see from the ranch. I guess I'm not that good at taking nighttime pics, yet - I must have moved some - but you can see overall the effect - it looked like a volcano, the way the fire glowed at the top of the mountain. Don't worry, the fire was in the middle of national park land, so there were no homes in danger, and it was 3 ridges and a river away from us, so we weren't either. As forest fires go, I think it was a small one. We didn't see any efforts to put it out, so it must have been pretty well under control.

This is Jewel, my horse for the week. Isn't she pretty?

She looks a little sweaty, because this was taken at the top of the mountain, where we rode for the overnight. On the way up, we encountered a nest of yellow jackets, and she was petrified. I didn't get stung on this ride, although our wrangler at the end did. Jewel was so freaked out, she tried to bypass the trail and go straight up the mountain! I was able to get her under control, but she was still panting heavily when we got to the top.



Here are some more pics of the overnight. It was very rustic, and yet everything we needed was set up for us when we got there.

This picture shows how they had pens set up like stalls for the horses while we were camping. There was a small shelter with hay, and each horse had a bucket like the blue one in the picture for water. The horses seemed very comfortable there. Especially when we brought them carrots after dinner!

Here you can see the campsite:

There were 2 picnic tables, a campfire, the lean-to where we layed out our sleeping bags, and even a tire swing for the younger kids. Only 10 people were allowed to go, plus the 2 wranglers. There was a dad and his 2 young sons, a family of 4 from Sussex, England, Michelle and me, and an 18 yr old from France. His family was at the ranch, but there was space only for one more on the overnight, so he came by himself. He does speak English well, but he's pretty shy so he kept to himself most of the time. The food was soooo good. Foil pans with beef stew were prepared ahead and heated up over the campfire along with garlic bread, and we had pudgy pies and s'mores for desert. The Marriots (from England) had never had s'mores before, so I made them some. You haven't really camped in the US if you haven't had s'mores! After dinner, we tried playing cards for a while (we played a game called 31, which we learned from John and Evelyn (from FLA) and then taught everyone else), but it was hard with only flashlights. Tim (the 16 yr old from England) fashioned one out of a large flashlight set shining up with a styrofoam cup over the light to diffuse it. It did work out well, but we were all too tired to stay up too late anyway. For breakfast we had french toast (ahem, Yann told us this isn't really a "French" food!) and sausage. Once again, the Marriots were surprised to see us eating it with butter and syrup - they call it "egg bread"and eat it plain! We woke up around 7 and got going back down the mountain by 9:30.

Here's a shot of the absolutely gorgeous view from the top of the mountain.

This is the trail ride back down. Just in front of me is Tim, and in front of him is his sister Hannah, who is 19. Can you believe they had never ridden before this vacation? There were quite a few new riders, actually, but the Marriots were the only family where no one at all had any experience. They did great, though! I really had to admire their sense of adventure, picking out a vacation like this for the family.

Well, that is enough for now. My connection is so sluggardly, this post has literally taken me hours to prepare. I'll be back later with more pics : )

Sorry, no pics yet! But about "our" dog...

I am sorry! I know I promised pictures soon, but the one chance I had to sit and organize them and then upload them, blogger was down! I'm at the library now, so while I have GREAT speed, all the pics are at home. Just wanted to say that I've been trying!

Our service dog-in-training, Murphy, has been with us just over a week now. For those who need filling in, we are fostering a black lab who is being trained as a service dog for a girl with spina bifida (I'll call her "his Girl"). He is sooooo awesome. No one can believe he's only just 1 year old, because he's already so well behaved. At home, he lays under the kitchen table while we eat, lays at my feet while I'm sitting reading or at the computer, and generally lays around! His Girl wants him to sleep in bed with her, so each night he jumps up in the kids' beds to cuddle before he goes in his kennel for the night. (Since he's only been with us about a week it's too soon to leave him the run of the house while we're all asleep.) Twice a day I take him out back to play fetch, where I am working on his "take it" and "give it" skills. He is even learning "potty pee" and "potty poop" for me! (Pee we've gotten down, poop is taking more time.) Right now he's laying at my feet under the table at the library, quiet as a mouse. So far, I haven't had any problem taking him with me into public buildings, with one exception - my kids' school. Can you believe it? This awesomely behaved dog, who is being trained for an 11 yr old girl in a wheelchair - who will be taking him TO SCHOOL with her - is not allowed in my kids' school, because the principal "has to think of her kids [the students], and some have allergies." I have asked Wendy Nelson, the founder of WAGS 4 Kids, to write her a nice, polite letter asking her to change her mind. If not, we'll go to the superintendant, who I am relatively sure will agree to let me in. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to volunteer all my time at the school where Murphy's future owner attends, which is in a different town, and would really bum out my kids and the librarian at their school, who has already been asking when I'm coming in.

Pictures of Murphy will be up soon too!

It's almost time to pick up my kids from school now, so this is it for the time being. Hopefully pictures will be up soon!