Wow, that was some cold. Ugh!! And it wasn't just our family, either; even though it seemed that Katie was the only one sick at first, people all over have been dropping like flies ever since! For some reason my cold, although only truly awful for the first 2 or 3 days, morphed into bronchitis, and even though I got meds for it quickly, all the coughing kept me exhausted for another week. Blech! I am so glad it's finally gone from our house.
Speaking of gone from our house, Archie is leaving tomorrow. : ( awwwwww Seriously, we aren't tooooo sorry to see him go. He is leaving earlier than normal, b/c he's going to be transitioning so far away, and they want to get Jake in our house for final training and then transitioning by Jan. Archie has by far been the cutest, cuddliest dog so far, but he is also a THIEF!! [An aside: We borrowed a movie from the library last week called "My Dog The Thief", an old Wide World of Disney made for tv movie (you could easily see the breaks for commercials built in), from 1969, really cute. The dog is a St. Bernard named Barrabus, who is notorious for stealing anything and everything, which leads his owner into many varieties of mahem. Thus...] I really think he needs to be renamed Barrabus! He has been stealing anything he can find lately, with his preference running to sneakers (no pun intended, lol!) Today, I was preparing dinner and someone (he shall remain nameless) had placed a kiwi on the shelf in front of the milk; when I pulled out the milk jug the kiwi rolled off onto the floor just in front of the fridge. Sooner than I could put the jug on the counter and turn around, the dog came over and swiped up the stupid fruit! Did he eat it? no. Did he squish it? no. He gave it back to me, neat as you please, with two little dracula-like puncture marks in it! grrrrr! Those stupid things are $1 apiece! But we aren't allowed to yell at him for picking things up, b/c we have to praise him for giving them back - hopefully without destroying them. Of course, with the shoes, that is just a matter of whether or not we notice that he has them! And the socks are a totally different matter; he actually tries to hide the fact that he has one, and goes off and shreds happily in peace until we notice. Whereas we used to keep our shoes on a mat by the back door, now we have to put them all in the pantry, and make sure that the door is closed! Other than that, I will also not miss the tremendous "puppy poots" as another blogger has so named them. Whoofer, that dog can clear a room quickly! So anyway, our huggable Archie is leaving tomorrow, to be quickly replaced by his brother Jake.
I have lots more to talk about, but the library is about to close, so I'll go ahead and publish this now. More later!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Inconsequential Mutterings
Not a whole lot going on here, but I thought I'd better post, in case *someone* (you know who you are) bugs me about being too quiet out here...
Danny ended up having a great time at camp, once he went back. He actually enjoyed his first day, too, since he didn't feel sick until bedtime. He came home Wed. morning, slept all day, woke up for dinner, then went back to bed and slept all night. On Thurs. morning he felt sooooo much better, so I drove him back down. It's a good thing the camp is so close! My friend told me when she was in 6th gr. her camp was 3 hrs away! I remember going away to "Outdoor Adventure Camp" in 7th grade, to a place called Thunder Mountain. No idea where it was or how far away from home it was, but it seemed a world away at the time. Of course, I had done plenty of camping trips with Girl Scouts, so it wasn't as big a deal for me as it was for D (not being a scout himself). Anyway, he got to do all the expected stuff, although the day he missed was the boating/fishing class, and he was bummed about that. But he got to do the archery class, and the nature hikes and stuff, and he didn't miss the big bonfire on Thurs. night. He really liked their version of Giant Clue - they split into teams, and had to gather clues to figure out who kidnapped the camp cook and where he was. (It turned out to be Ms. So-and-So with the fork in the tree house!) The weather held out until the last day, which was just pack up, breakfast, and load up the busses. I had to go pick him up at 11am, and they got the rest of the day off! The school promised the kids would be so exhausted they'd sleep all weekend, but all I got was, "can I have a friend over??????" Argh!
This weekend *I* finally caught the dreaded cold, and it truly was miserable for the first 3 days. It seemed like it cleared up after that, but now all 4 of us are stuffy-nosed. I missed church on Sun and my women's meeting on Tues because of it. boo hoo
Let's see, what else... Katie lost her riding lesson this week, b/c of bad behavior. We kept warning her over and over, and I finally realized she didn't really think we'd do it, so I told her one more offense and that's it - and naturally she went too far. Now at least she knows I mean what I say.
C has been tremendously busy lately, outfitting D for hunting season. Last year, he went kabongers buying his own bow (he'd been borrowing his buddy's until then), arrows, arrow heads (both field and practice), all kinds of camo clothes, gloves, hats, boots, etc. Although a bit shocked at the total expenditure, I wasn't too bothered, b/c poor DH really needs a hobby, and he so enjoys hunting. Well, this year he asked D if he'd be interested in hunting with him, and D said sure. I was happy; there are a bunch of things D likes to do, but nothing he's really passionate about yet, and during the winter there's not much to draw him outside, so I thought this would be a good activity for him. I didn't expect DH to go overboard!!! Now D has everything he could possibly need, from $80 boots (extra warm and waterproof - it does get durned cold out there in winter), pants, insulated bib overalls, lightweight camo jacket, heavy winter camo jacket, camo ls shirt, hat, face mask, gloves, PLUS his own youth crossbow AND a blind to sit in under C's tree stand. Yup, about $500 later, D is ready to go. I sure hope he really likes it!
Poor K is so jealous. She sees things coming in for D, plus hears about what a fantastic time he's having at youth group meetings, including (the straw that broke the camel's back, btw) the visit to the big amusement park at the end of this month; and she just can't help whining how unfair it all is. But if she could step back and see the big picture, she is in 4H, she had her first Girl Scout meeting y'day, she's getting the horseback riding lessons, she's in AWANA, she's getting to do the cool park activities I signed her up for... she's getting her share of cool stuff. Especially GS, b/c they are planning lots of great trips this year. First is the circus, which is coming to town in October, plus a visit to the newsroom (her leader's husband is a cameraman), to a NASA space center, and other goodies. I also plan on signing her up for a cupcake decorating class later in the fall. I think things sound pretty even, don't you?
The weather here is getting pretty unpredictable; last weekend the remains of Gustav blew through, and many many people were without power - some still are! D actually had Mon off, b/c his school didn't have power (oooooh was K jealous!). Ever since that tree fell and demolished our shed C gets panicky when we get strong winds, but we didn't lose anything this year. The temperatures can be anywhere between 60 - 80 degrees on any given day, which makes it hard to get the kids dressed in the mornings (they are taking less and less direction from me, even though they have no idea what the weather report is for the day - especially my little fashion diva). Today is beautiful, sunny and 75. (Hey Jenn, remember that song, "Sunny with a High of 75"? Think I'll pull out that cd....) I'm enjoying it while I can!
That's it for now!
Danny ended up having a great time at camp, once he went back. He actually enjoyed his first day, too, since he didn't feel sick until bedtime. He came home Wed. morning, slept all day, woke up for dinner, then went back to bed and slept all night. On Thurs. morning he felt sooooo much better, so I drove him back down. It's a good thing the camp is so close! My friend told me when she was in 6th gr. her camp was 3 hrs away! I remember going away to "Outdoor Adventure Camp" in 7th grade, to a place called Thunder Mountain. No idea where it was or how far away from home it was, but it seemed a world away at the time. Of course, I had done plenty of camping trips with Girl Scouts, so it wasn't as big a deal for me as it was for D (not being a scout himself). Anyway, he got to do all the expected stuff, although the day he missed was the boating/fishing class, and he was bummed about that. But he got to do the archery class, and the nature hikes and stuff, and he didn't miss the big bonfire on Thurs. night. He really liked their version of Giant Clue - they split into teams, and had to gather clues to figure out who kidnapped the camp cook and where he was. (It turned out to be Ms. So-and-So with the fork in the tree house!) The weather held out until the last day, which was just pack up, breakfast, and load up the busses. I had to go pick him up at 11am, and they got the rest of the day off! The school promised the kids would be so exhausted they'd sleep all weekend, but all I got was, "can I have a friend over??????" Argh!
This weekend *I* finally caught the dreaded cold, and it truly was miserable for the first 3 days. It seemed like it cleared up after that, but now all 4 of us are stuffy-nosed. I missed church on Sun and my women's meeting on Tues because of it. boo hoo
Let's see, what else... Katie lost her riding lesson this week, b/c of bad behavior. We kept warning her over and over, and I finally realized she didn't really think we'd do it, so I told her one more offense and that's it - and naturally she went too far. Now at least she knows I mean what I say.
C has been tremendously busy lately, outfitting D for hunting season. Last year, he went kabongers buying his own bow (he'd been borrowing his buddy's until then), arrows, arrow heads (both field and practice), all kinds of camo clothes, gloves, hats, boots, etc. Although a bit shocked at the total expenditure, I wasn't too bothered, b/c poor DH really needs a hobby, and he so enjoys hunting. Well, this year he asked D if he'd be interested in hunting with him, and D said sure. I was happy; there are a bunch of things D likes to do, but nothing he's really passionate about yet, and during the winter there's not much to draw him outside, so I thought this would be a good activity for him. I didn't expect DH to go overboard!!! Now D has everything he could possibly need, from $80 boots (extra warm and waterproof - it does get durned cold out there in winter), pants, insulated bib overalls, lightweight camo jacket, heavy winter camo jacket, camo ls shirt, hat, face mask, gloves, PLUS his own youth crossbow AND a blind to sit in under C's tree stand. Yup, about $500 later, D is ready to go. I sure hope he really likes it!
Poor K is so jealous. She sees things coming in for D, plus hears about what a fantastic time he's having at youth group meetings, including (the straw that broke the camel's back, btw) the visit to the big amusement park at the end of this month; and she just can't help whining how unfair it all is. But if she could step back and see the big picture, she is in 4H, she had her first Girl Scout meeting y'day, she's getting the horseback riding lessons, she's in AWANA, she's getting to do the cool park activities I signed her up for... she's getting her share of cool stuff. Especially GS, b/c they are planning lots of great trips this year. First is the circus, which is coming to town in October, plus a visit to the newsroom (her leader's husband is a cameraman), to a NASA space center, and other goodies. I also plan on signing her up for a cupcake decorating class later in the fall. I think things sound pretty even, don't you?
The weather here is getting pretty unpredictable; last weekend the remains of Gustav blew through, and many many people were without power - some still are! D actually had Mon off, b/c his school didn't have power (oooooh was K jealous!). Ever since that tree fell and demolished our shed C gets panicky when we get strong winds, but we didn't lose anything this year. The temperatures can be anywhere between 60 - 80 degrees on any given day, which makes it hard to get the kids dressed in the mornings (they are taking less and less direction from me, even though they have no idea what the weather report is for the day - especially my little fashion diva). Today is beautiful, sunny and 75. (Hey Jenn, remember that song, "Sunny with a High of 75"? Think I'll pull out that cd....) I'm enjoying it while I can!
That's it for now!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
WAGS Picnic
Here's my promised report on the WAGS picnic we went to last weekend. I don't know if this is an annual thing or not, since we only started fostering last Sept., but I was excited as soon as we got the invitation in the mail a few months ago. The picnic was planned by the founder, Wendy, as a great big get-together for the foster families, the families where dogs have been placed, and the trainers/breeders, and of course all the dogs. I think there were maybe 50 people including the kids, and about 12 dogs in all, but it was hard to keep count! When we got there, there was only one other family there, besides Wendy (it was at her house), so at first it was easy to tell the dogs apart. Wendy has Moose, who she uses as a demonstration dog, and the one family brought Bella, another golden retriever.
One by one, more families arrived, and each time they came through the gate, all the dogs would rush up to the gate to greet the new one. I tried really hard to keep them straight, but after the 6th dog, I completely gave up. At one point I was worried I wouldn't be able to tell which one was Archie!
Here's a picture of a whole butt-sniffing chain! Don't ask,
I couldn't tell you who's who!
The dogs were given the "day off", no jackets required, and were allowed to roam the (fenced in) yard and visit the whole time. You may be wondering, didn't it get a little dangerous to walk around??? Amazingly, I only heard of one incident of stepping in poop - of course, it was Danny, lol!
It was really hard to get good pics of the dogs, since they were constantly in motion, and mostly I got a lot of doggie butts.
Wendy had a great set-up in her yard, with tables set out for eating, a really cool outdoor bar, and an open area with a corn hole game set up in the far rear. The right side of the yard was mostly full of trees and shrubs, so that was pretty much the dogs' domain for the day. Here's a great shot of the back of the yard:
One of the great things about the picnic was getting to see all the dogs and their kids.
We hadn't seen Rudy since June, and since he wasn't placed from our house we really didn't know much about his family, so meeting them and seeing Rudy again was especially fun. Here is a fantastic shot of Rudy and Joe:
Although Rudy still needs to wear his haltie (to prevent too much pulling on the leash) he has otherwise settled down well at his home, and he and Joe seem to really love each other. I have to say, I am soooooo proud of Rudy, and so happy that he has been placed well. When we first got him at 10 mos old, we were worried that he'd never be calm enough to be in service. He'll always be "Freaky Dog" to me! Of course, now we're thinking the same thing about Archie; I call him "Nerd".
Here is a picture of Sarah and Murphy, with D and K. The next day, K and I spent a few hours at Sarah's, and Archie and Murphy got to play again. Wow, did he love that! Archie doesn't have any other dogs to play with here, so he just had a ball. Sarah is indeed going to school with D (she's one yr older, tho), and he does see them in the halls. He says the same thing everyone else does, "yeah, but you can't pet him!"
At one point at the end of the day, we tried to get a group picture of all the dogs. Believe it or not, it was harder than we thought! A whole afternoon of freedom apparently went to their heads, and this was the best we could do:
(No, Danny wasn't in charge, even though he looks like he's got some sort of control over them!) A few of the dogs had already left by then, but there's 11 there, 8 of them goldens! Can you tell which is Archie? Nah, me neither. Rudy's back by D, and Murphy's right there in the front; the other black lab is Budha. Not that I can tell which is which, but the other dogs' names are Moose, Bella, AJ, Sampson, Max, Jake, and...ummmm...ok, I only forgot one of them - that's pretty good, right? lol
Here is one of my favorite shots:
This is Archie (on the right) with his full brother, Jake. They are almost completely identical, except Jake is a little lighter in color. It was soooo neat to watch them when Jake arrived; they instantly got together and ran around, like they new they were brothers. The interesting thing is, Archie is going to be placed with a family about 1 hr away, while Jake - who is fostering at a home out near Archie's future family - will be placed in the town next to ours! So in about a month the two will be trading foster families, and we can each help with the transitioning. Otherwise, Lisa, the trainer who works with us, would have to keep carting both dogs an hr each way every time they went to visit. Makes more sense to switch 'em!
All in all the picnic was a huge success. I think all the kids (foster, owners, siblings) had a really good time and the dogs sure loved every minute of it! Hard to believe, but no one went home with the wrong dog! As for Archie, he slept the whole way home, lol!
One by one, more families arrived, and each time they came through the gate, all the dogs would rush up to the gate to greet the new one. I tried really hard to keep them straight, but after the 6th dog, I completely gave up. At one point I was worried I wouldn't be able to tell which one was Archie!
Here's a picture of a whole butt-sniffing chain! Don't ask,
I couldn't tell you who's who!
The dogs were given the "day off", no jackets required, and were allowed to roam the (fenced in) yard and visit the whole time. You may be wondering, didn't it get a little dangerous to walk around??? Amazingly, I only heard of one incident of stepping in poop - of course, it was Danny, lol!
It was really hard to get good pics of the dogs, since they were constantly in motion, and mostly I got a lot of doggie butts.
Wendy had a great set-up in her yard, with tables set out for eating, a really cool outdoor bar, and an open area with a corn hole game set up in the far rear. The right side of the yard was mostly full of trees and shrubs, so that was pretty much the dogs' domain for the day. Here's a great shot of the back of the yard:
One of the great things about the picnic was getting to see all the dogs and their kids.
We hadn't seen Rudy since June, and since he wasn't placed from our house we really didn't know much about his family, so meeting them and seeing Rudy again was especially fun. Here is a fantastic shot of Rudy and Joe:
Although Rudy still needs to wear his haltie (to prevent too much pulling on the leash) he has otherwise settled down well at his home, and he and Joe seem to really love each other. I have to say, I am soooooo proud of Rudy, and so happy that he has been placed well. When we first got him at 10 mos old, we were worried that he'd never be calm enough to be in service. He'll always be "Freaky Dog" to me!
At one point at the end of the day, we tried to get a group picture of all the dogs. Believe it or not, it was harder than we thought! A whole afternoon of freedom apparently went to their heads, and this was the best we could do:
(No, Danny wasn't in charge, even though he looks like he's got some sort of control over them!) A few of the dogs had already left by then, but there's 11 there, 8 of them goldens! Can you tell which is Archie? Nah, me neither. Rudy's back by D, and Murphy's right there in the front; the other black lab is Budha. Not that I can tell which is which, but the other dogs' names are Moose, Bella, AJ, Sampson, Max, Jake, and...ummmm...ok, I only forgot one of them - that's pretty good, right? lol
Here is one of my favorite shots:
This is Archie (on the right) with his full brother, Jake. They are almost completely identical, except Jake is a little lighter in color. It was soooo neat to watch them when Jake arrived; they instantly got together and ran around, like they new they were brothers. The interesting thing is, Archie is going to be placed with a family about 1 hr away, while Jake - who is fostering at a home out near Archie's future family - will be placed in the town next to ours! So in about a month the two will be trading foster families, and we can each help with the transitioning. Otherwise, Lisa, the trainer who works with us, would have to keep carting both dogs an hr each way every time they went to visit. Makes more sense to switch 'em!
All in all the picnic was a huge success. I think all the kids (foster, owners, siblings) had a really good time and the dogs sure loved every minute of it! Hard to believe, but no one went home with the wrong dog! As for Archie, he slept the whole way home, lol!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Just a Reminder
Hey, everyone, you gotta leave me some comments here! I don't know who's reading or what you care to see. Are you out there? At least say something on my chat box!
I've got a good post coming on the WAGS picnic we went to last weekend, lots of pics of the doggies : ) Also, I'll be giving you the full scoop on Dan's camp experience (such as it was). Maybe someday I'll get pics of the trip we took to the zoo, too : P
Anyone out there?????
I've got a good post coming on the WAGS picnic we went to last weekend, lots of pics of the doggies : ) Also, I'll be giving you the full scoop on Dan's camp experience (such as it was). Maybe someday I'll get pics of the trip we took to the zoo, too : P
Anyone out there?????
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Other Goings On
Even though I haven't been posting regularly, there have been quite a few things going on here; it's hard to remember all of them when I sit down to write!
For one, Danny has started going to our new church's youth group activities. The last Sun of August, they held an end of summer/start of fall kick-off at an indoor sports arena, just for middle/high schoolers (ie., the extremely jealous 9yo couldn't go). He invited 2 of his friends, and they played indoor soccer, basketball, some video games someone had set up, and used the batting cages. For my sedentary, non-athletic son, this was quite impressive! Because we had invited the one friend, Ian, at the last minute (b/c Ian had been out of town that week and had only just gotten home the night b4), his parents had already planned dinner, and since K had already finagled an invitation to Grandma's for the day, we were invited to eat Ian's dinner! lol My friend Michelle is Ian's mom (read all about her in last year's posts!), so we had no hesitation in saying yes, especially b/c she was fixing fondue. Yummy! C and I rarely get to eat fondue, mostly b/c I don't own a pot, and eating out is pretty expensive (as in, costs way more than Hometown Buffet). C and Lee (her DH) get along really well too, so we had a great time. The food was excellent - Michelle is an awesome cook, and she had an amazing spread! Then later that night after we picked up the boys, Ian stayed overnight. On Monday, Danny went over to his friend Hunter's house for a few hours, and they spent most of their time swimming in his backyard pool. One last hurrah before school!
On Tues night, Danny got to go to his first youth group meeting, which is where the middle school boys all get together at the leader's house (there are corresponding meetings for the middle school girls, and the high school boys and girls). This first meeting was mostly a get to know you night, so they did more video games, which of course D loved. Then this Sunday night was the first youth group hang-out, which they call The Mill. Half the evening is spent in "worship", which is singing along with the youth praise band, and a message from the youth pastor, and the second half is hanging out playing ping pong, corn hole, and yes, you guessed it, video games! Danny is absolutely having a ball, which is so awesome. Our old church was really nice, and had great people, but the youth group consisted of 3 boys, including D. We really wanted to get him into a bigger group, and I'm so glad this is working out as we'd hoped.
For Katie, she is having fun at our new church, too. Her age group has a special Sunday morning program called Kid's Jam, and there are lots of other kids her age too. Although she is jealous of D's activities, she will get to go to AWANA on Wed.s, and I think she'll be surprised at how cool the meetings are when there are so many more kids attending. Of course, K has way more going on than just church stuff. On Sat., she went to another park program called My First Horse, which was pretty similar to the Camelot program - but without costumes, lol. I didn't stay for this one, since I'd have to pay my own admission again, but the instructor was the same as last time, so I trusted they'd take good care of my girl : ) They basically did the same stuff: looked at the various breeds of horses, took out 2 and groomed them, and then got to try out both western and English style riding. This time, at the end of the program they got to have lunch at the park's little cafe. No pictures this time, since I didn't stay, but K loved it.
Then today, Katie had her first official riding lesson!!!!! We found a young woman at our county fairground who was willing to teach K for a really good price. We've actually been waiting all summer to hear from her, but since the horse owners have to move their horses out of the barns during Fair, she wanted to get started after the summer was over and they'd moved the horses (and all their stuff) back into the stables. Today's lesson was mostly where Katie and her horse, Snoopy, got aquainted. She groomed and saddled him (much like at her park program, only one-on-one) and then Bridget led her around the yard at the end. Here she is learning how to tie the girth on the saddle:
And here she is on Snoopy! Loving every minute of it, without a doubt.
After the end of the lesson, Bridget led us through the barns and let us see some of the other horses she's familiar with. There were 4 new foals, born last spring, and they were sooooo cute! They were wearing "pyjamas", which were close-fitting covers over their backs, necks and faces. I thought it was to keep them warm since the nights are getting so cold, but she said they were to keep them clean and neat b/c they're going to be shown this week. We visited another horse, Maynard, a Percheron, and he was absolutely gigantic, especially compared to the babies we were looking at, lol! Overall, I was very pleased with Bridget's knowledge and style of teaching. She was really good at making sure K understood what to do, without going over her head or treating her like a little baby. I think K will do really well with her, and I'm looking forward to seeing her progress - almost as much as she is herself, lol!
In other news, Danny left for 6th grade camp this morning. This is a tradition in our school system, and although there was some question of how it would work out this year (due to the switching around of grades/schools), everyone made sure our 6th graders wouldn't miss out. They stay at a camp about 1/2 hr away for 4 days. They stay in cabins with attached bathrooms, and eat in a dining hall, so it isn't camping in the roughest sense of the word. Each day is packed full of all sorts of activities, led by teachers from the school and camp staff. Some of the stuff he gets to do includes boating and fishing, nature walks, archery, something called When Art & Science Collide - led by a teacher who broke his foot over the summer, lol! - and of course the obligatory bonfire on the last night. There's tons more stuff, but I'll wait until he gets home to put all the details down. You will note, I have lots of pictures of Katie doing stuff, but none of Danny. This is because, as I have mentioned earlier, D hates it when I pull out my camera. So, no pics of D headed out for camp. Sorry!
-----> an update: as I was composing this post, the camp nurse called (yes, at 12:15AM) -on the cell phone, since I'm online - to tell me D has a bad sore throat, which he caught from K, and was worried he might have strep. He was crying b/c he was afraid he'd have to come home (plus he felt icky) but I reassured them that K didn't have strep, in fact she feels better already after only 3 days, and he should be ok by tomorrow except for an annoying runny nose and cough. Mostly he just needs to rest, so I encouraged him to ask to sit out of anything if he felt he needed to. Poor Danny! He has been so psyched about this since last year, and of course he had to go and get sick the first day. They can't even give him Tylenol without a Dr's note, so I have to go down to the office, get a form, then go to the dr's and get them to fill it out, then drive down to the camp (thank goodness it's only 1/2hr away, and the dr's is on the way) and deliver the forms and the medicine. Phew! A mother's job is never done. I just hope he feels better quickly and can enjoy most of the week at camp.
I had more to write, but I'll save it for another post since this one's so long and now it's 1AM. I have a lot to do tomorrow!
For one, Danny has started going to our new church's youth group activities. The last Sun of August, they held an end of summer/start of fall kick-off at an indoor sports arena, just for middle/high schoolers (ie., the extremely jealous 9yo couldn't go). He invited 2 of his friends, and they played indoor soccer, basketball, some video games someone had set up, and used the batting cages. For my sedentary, non-athletic son, this was quite impressive! Because we had invited the one friend, Ian, at the last minute (b/c Ian had been out of town that week and had only just gotten home the night b4), his parents had already planned dinner, and since K had already finagled an invitation to Grandma's for the day, we were invited to eat Ian's dinner! lol My friend Michelle is Ian's mom (read all about her in last year's posts!), so we had no hesitation in saying yes, especially b/c she was fixing fondue. Yummy! C and I rarely get to eat fondue, mostly b/c I don't own a pot, and eating out is pretty expensive (as in, costs way more than Hometown Buffet). C and Lee (her DH) get along really well too, so we had a great time. The food was excellent - Michelle is an awesome cook, and she had an amazing spread! Then later that night after we picked up the boys, Ian stayed overnight. On Monday, Danny went over to his friend Hunter's house for a few hours, and they spent most of their time swimming in his backyard pool. One last hurrah before school!
On Tues night, Danny got to go to his first youth group meeting, which is where the middle school boys all get together at the leader's house (there are corresponding meetings for the middle school girls, and the high school boys and girls). This first meeting was mostly a get to know you night, so they did more video games, which of course D loved. Then this Sunday night was the first youth group hang-out, which they call The Mill. Half the evening is spent in "worship", which is singing along with the youth praise band, and a message from the youth pastor, and the second half is hanging out playing ping pong, corn hole, and yes, you guessed it, video games! Danny is absolutely having a ball, which is so awesome. Our old church was really nice, and had great people, but the youth group consisted of 3 boys, including D. We really wanted to get him into a bigger group, and I'm so glad this is working out as we'd hoped.
For Katie, she is having fun at our new church, too. Her age group has a special Sunday morning program called Kid's Jam, and there are lots of other kids her age too. Although she is jealous of D's activities, she will get to go to AWANA on Wed.s, and I think she'll be surprised at how cool the meetings are when there are so many more kids attending. Of course, K has way more going on than just church stuff. On Sat., she went to another park program called My First Horse, which was pretty similar to the Camelot program - but without costumes, lol. I didn't stay for this one, since I'd have to pay my own admission again, but the instructor was the same as last time, so I trusted they'd take good care of my girl : ) They basically did the same stuff: looked at the various breeds of horses, took out 2 and groomed them, and then got to try out both western and English style riding. This time, at the end of the program they got to have lunch at the park's little cafe. No pictures this time, since I didn't stay, but K loved it.
Then today, Katie had her first official riding lesson!!!!! We found a young woman at our county fairground who was willing to teach K for a really good price. We've actually been waiting all summer to hear from her, but since the horse owners have to move their horses out of the barns during Fair, she wanted to get started after the summer was over and they'd moved the horses (and all their stuff) back into the stables. Today's lesson was mostly where Katie and her horse, Snoopy, got aquainted. She groomed and saddled him (much like at her park program, only one-on-one) and then Bridget led her around the yard at the end. Here she is learning how to tie the girth on the saddle:
And here she is on Snoopy! Loving every minute of it, without a doubt.
After the end of the lesson, Bridget led us through the barns and let us see some of the other horses she's familiar with. There were 4 new foals, born last spring, and they were sooooo cute! They were wearing "pyjamas", which were close-fitting covers over their backs, necks and faces. I thought it was to keep them warm since the nights are getting so cold, but she said they were to keep them clean and neat b/c they're going to be shown this week. We visited another horse, Maynard, a Percheron, and he was absolutely gigantic, especially compared to the babies we were looking at, lol! Overall, I was very pleased with Bridget's knowledge and style of teaching. She was really good at making sure K understood what to do, without going over her head or treating her like a little baby. I think K will do really well with her, and I'm looking forward to seeing her progress - almost as much as she is herself, lol!
In other news, Danny left for 6th grade camp this morning. This is a tradition in our school system, and although there was some question of how it would work out this year (due to the switching around of grades/schools), everyone made sure our 6th graders wouldn't miss out. They stay at a camp about 1/2 hr away for 4 days. They stay in cabins with attached bathrooms, and eat in a dining hall, so it isn't camping in the roughest sense of the word. Each day is packed full of all sorts of activities, led by teachers from the school and camp staff. Some of the stuff he gets to do includes boating and fishing, nature walks, archery, something called When Art & Science Collide - led by a teacher who broke his foot over the summer, lol! - and of course the obligatory bonfire on the last night. There's tons more stuff, but I'll wait until he gets home to put all the details down. You will note, I have lots of pictures of Katie doing stuff, but none of Danny. This is because, as I have mentioned earlier, D hates it when I pull out my camera. So, no pics of D headed out for camp. Sorry!
-----> an update: as I was composing this post, the camp nurse called (yes, at 12:15AM) -on the cell phone, since I'm online - to tell me D has a bad sore throat, which he caught from K, and was worried he might have strep. He was crying b/c he was afraid he'd have to come home (plus he felt icky) but I reassured them that K didn't have strep, in fact she feels better already after only 3 days, and he should be ok by tomorrow except for an annoying runny nose and cough. Mostly he just needs to rest, so I encouraged him to ask to sit out of anything if he felt he needed to. Poor Danny! He has been so psyched about this since last year, and of course he had to go and get sick the first day. They can't even give him Tylenol without a Dr's note, so I have to go down to the office, get a form, then go to the dr's and get them to fill it out, then drive down to the camp (thank goodness it's only 1/2hr away, and the dr's is on the way) and deliver the forms and the medicine. Phew! A mother's job is never done. I just hope he feels better quickly and can enjoy most of the week at camp.
I had more to write, but I'll save it for another post since this one's so long and now it's 1AM. I have a lot to do tomorrow!
Friday, September 5, 2008
1st Day of School and My Birthday
Ok, sorry I've actually gone a FEW DAYS since posting...sheesh!
So here are some pictures of us this week...
The kids started school on Tuesday! What a nice day that was for *me*! lol Seriously, though, they were both very excited. Here is Katie in front of her school:
She loooooooves her teacher this year. She just happens to have the same teacher as Danny had in 4th grade, so I'm glad too; I already have a good relationship with her, and I know she's a lot of fun. This year, K gets to switch teachers for certain subjects, which is new for 4th grade. I am happy to say she likes them all, and truly is excited about her classes.
I don't have any pictures of Danny on his first day - can you hear him? "Moooooooooooooom!" He hates it when I pull out the camera anymore. This year, D has a lot of adjustments to get used to. The main one is that he's now going to Middle School. Our school system has rearranged the schools somewhat, and this is the first year the 6th grade is in the middle school (which used to be the junior high, when it was 7th, 8th, & 9th) and 9th is moved up to high school. Along with this major change, he is also now taking the bus, he has a locker, he changes classrooms for each subject, he has to change for gym, and he has a real cafeteria. Phew! We took several trips to the school a few weeks before he started, to walk his schedule and try out his locker combination, and by the time Tuesday rolled around I think he was pretty comfortable with it. I haven't heard anything negative about school from him yet, but you know boys; it may be a while before he lets me know if there's something he doesn't like.
Also this week, (ok, a little out of sequence...) it was my BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy Birthday to Me!
This day is not consistently noteworthy from year to year (although last year, as you'll recall, I gave myself an awesome present, which inspired the creation of this blog!), but this year was exceptionally great! C started it by waking me up with a nice back rub (mmmmm), then letting me do whatever I wanted. For the most part I really just wanted to have a day to myself (remember, this was actually before school started), so I went off alone and spent a few hours at my mother's grave site. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm and sunny, with a slight breeze; just perfect for sitting in the shade. I took a folding chair and a book, and the dog, and had some priceless peace and quiet. Let me add, the cemetery is way out in the country, on a quiet road, with lots of trees and landscaping - very pretty and not at all morbid. So then when I got home, C had made dinner for us, so I didn't have to cook - always most appreciated. After that, they told me to go relax (as in, on the computer, lol!), while C did the dishes and cleaned up. Then K put a blindfold on me and led me back up to the kitchen, where they surprised me with a cake, cards, and presents! Here I am with my cake - note that I was NOT expecting pictures to be taken, so I am not particularly camera-worthy (not that I'm ever particularly photogenic). Can you see what my gifts were? A handful of Dove candy bars!!!!! Yummy! Later that evening, Katie gave me a little spa treatment, brushing my hair and rubbing my shoulders, even a little makeup application (her idea, not mine). She really likes doing this, even though her attention span isn't as long as I would wish. I love having my hair brushed!
Those were the main events of the week. Overall, I know I enjoyed it!
So here are some pictures of us this week...
The kids started school on Tuesday! What a nice day that was for *me*! lol Seriously, though, they were both very excited. Here is Katie in front of her school:
She loooooooves her teacher this year. She just happens to have the same teacher as Danny had in 4th grade, so I'm glad too; I already have a good relationship with her, and I know she's a lot of fun. This year, K gets to switch teachers for certain subjects, which is new for 4th grade. I am happy to say she likes them all, and truly is excited about her classes.
I don't have any pictures of Danny on his first day - can you hear him? "Moooooooooooooom!" He hates it when I pull out the camera anymore. This year, D has a lot of adjustments to get used to. The main one is that he's now going to Middle School. Our school system has rearranged the schools somewhat, and this is the first year the 6th grade is in the middle school (which used to be the junior high, when it was 7th, 8th, & 9th) and 9th is moved up to high school. Along with this major change, he is also now taking the bus, he has a locker, he changes classrooms for each subject, he has to change for gym, and he has a real cafeteria. Phew! We took several trips to the school a few weeks before he started, to walk his schedule and try out his locker combination, and by the time Tuesday rolled around I think he was pretty comfortable with it. I haven't heard anything negative about school from him yet, but you know boys; it may be a while before he lets me know if there's something he doesn't like.
Also this week, (ok, a little out of sequence...) it was my BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy Birthday to Me!
This day is not consistently noteworthy from year to year (although last year, as you'll recall, I gave myself an awesome present, which inspired the creation of this blog!), but this year was exceptionally great! C started it by waking me up with a nice back rub (mmmmm), then letting me do whatever I wanted. For the most part I really just wanted to have a day to myself (remember, this was actually before school started), so I went off alone and spent a few hours at my mother's grave site. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm and sunny, with a slight breeze; just perfect for sitting in the shade. I took a folding chair and a book, and the dog, and had some priceless peace and quiet. Let me add, the cemetery is way out in the country, on a quiet road, with lots of trees and landscaping - very pretty and not at all morbid. So then when I got home, C had made dinner for us, so I didn't have to cook - always most appreciated. After that, they told me to go relax (as in, on the computer, lol!), while C did the dishes and cleaned up. Then K put a blindfold on me and led me back up to the kitchen, where they surprised me with a cake, cards, and presents! Here I am with my cake - note that I was NOT expecting pictures to be taken, so I am not particularly camera-worthy (not that I'm ever particularly photogenic). Can you see what my gifts were? A handful of Dove candy bars!!!!! Yummy! Later that evening, Katie gave me a little spa treatment, brushing my hair and rubbing my shoulders, even a little makeup application (her idea, not mine). She really likes doing this, even though her attention span isn't as long as I would wish. I love having my hair brushed!Those were the main events of the week. Overall, I know I enjoyed it!
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