Our Household Happenings

Just as Pretty as Gretchen's

2009-05-19T19:01:00.004-04:00

I know I don't post nearly enough, but here is a picture of my lilies of the valley picked just today from my back yard:

They smell even prettier than they look! I wasn't sure if any would bloom this year, because there are an awful lot of weeds growing in the patch, including a viney sort of flower that is choking the life from almost everything else in there. I only have half the patch of lilies I used to, but today I realized that they had spread to the other side of my back door, by my irises (which haven't bloomed yet). I even had enough to pick another bunch to put down by the pc so I can appreciate them from down here : )

Eat your heart out Gretchen!

Ok then

2009-01-30T21:36:00.007-05:00

Well, I was really hoping that somebody would comment on my last post, but oh, well. It really makes me wonder who may or may not be reading this....

So, I am still trying to get my Christmas pics organized, but here are two to whet your appetite:

Before:

and After!

Hopefully there will be more to come!

Until I get my pictures off my camera...

2009-01-05T19:32:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to put in a little post about Twilight, since I want to wait until I get my pics to post about Christmas. I know the books were written for the teen audience, and the movie is basically made for them too, but I read the series last summer, and I was pretty excited to see the movie in Nov. I ended up seeing it 4 times, so I guess you can say I liked it! I went with my friend MaryBeth on the Sun after it came out, with my teen friend Becca on Tues, and my friend Michelle and her sister on Wed. Then after Thanksgiving, when we went to Springfield, I saw it with my friend Lori and her, um, cousin? niece? (sorry!) and her boyfriend. Each time I went, I saw something different. The first time, I just appreciated that the movie was true to the book; the second time I was more critical of the acting; the third time I listened more to the soundtrack (very good, btw!); and the 4th time I tried to watch it from my friend's point of view, that is, not having read the book first. I would see it again, if someone wants to go with me! lol So here's my review:

I wasn't too impressed with the actors they chose for certain roles, but overall I thought the movie stayed true to the book as much as a movie can. I know there were a lot of people who were disappointed in it, but I think their expectations were too high; a movie can never follow a book exactly. Personally, I don't find Robert Pattison all that good-looking, especially with that weird hair. I didn't like the actress playing Bella; while her appearance fit my own mental images well, it didn't seem her personality came out as it should have. I thought her acting was pretty flat, and she just mumbled all her lines. As for the other actors, I liked them. Emmet was perfect, Rosalie worked for me, and I liked Alice - although I didn't find her fashion sense to be as keen as it should have been. I didn't really have any idea for Esme, so she was ok, and I loved Carlisle. As I was reading the book, I had a hard time remembering that he was so young, but the actor I thought was great. And *I* thought he was better looking than Edward! Jasper, now he's another story. The actor did as good a job as he could (Jasper seemed to have more of a role in the book) but all I could think of as I was watching was that he looked just like Samantha Brown from The Travel Channel. No one else I have mentioned this to has seen her, so I haven't had anyone agree with me, but that is what I was thinking. As for Charlie, I liked him, although he should have been a bit more protective (the scene just before the ball game where E wants to be officially introduced, and C is cleaning his gun in the kitchen - I loved that!). I also liked Jacob, I thought he was appropriately younger-looking than Bella, and a bit goofy. I am really looking forward to seeing how they show his tremendous growth spurt in the next movie. [An aside: one of my friends couldn't get over the fact that she never really pictured him as Native American while she was reading the book! I cannot see how she could have missed it, who did she think the Quiluete were, and why else would they live on a reservation??? I can't let her live that down! lol] Regarding Bella's friends at school, Jessica was absolutely perfect, Mike was ok, but I didn't ever picture Eric as Asian. That didn't bother me so much, but he was not geeky enough, just weird. OK, that's it for the actors.

There were some really great lines in the movie - I read the 1st book so long ago that I can't remember if they were original or added in the movie - for instance, "the one who looks like he's in pain, that's Jasper." I think you have to have read the other books really appreciate that one! One of my all time favorite scenes is where Bella is lost in Port Angeles and gets cornered by the group of bad guys, and Edward shows up in his car. The way he confronts them - just the look in his eye! - and then peels out as he drives away. It's awesome! There were a lot of people who didn't like the way Edward "sparkles"; I didn't really think it was so bad except it should have been brighter. Also, there were some times where it seemed like the sun was shining at school but he showed up anyway (wearing *sunglasses*????? should a vampire even own sunglasses?). One thing I definitely did not like was at the end of the baseball game, when James sniffs out Bella and everyone goes on the defensive. Why are they bobbing and weaving like a bunch of Weebles? I would definitely expect the vampires to go deathly still, not go up on their toes and bob. Otherwise the baseball game was fun :) My other favorite scene was where E decides he wants to try to kiss B. They do a great job of showing the tension, danger, and desire. Yum!

All that said, even now that I have read all 4 books and seen the movie, I am still on Team Jacob, for several reasons. The most important one for me is, he's warm! I am always cold, so cuddling up to a cold block of marble just doesn't appeal to me. Give me the human heat generator! Also, he's alive, and still human, and he doesn't have to hide from other people. He's still protective, strong, has awesome powers, and he cares for Bella just exactly in the way she needs, even though he wants more. Plus, there isn't even one tiny part of him that wants to eat her! lol

If anyone wants to add their 2 cents, I'd love to hear what you thought!

ACK! Did those last 2 months just fly by or what????

2008-12-27T23:49:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe that I haven't posted here since Halloween! Several friends have been begging me to post again! But I haven't gotten a chance to download my pics off my camera yet, and I blog much better with visual inspiration.

Truly, there hasn't been all that much going on to write about. Thanksgiving was really fun; we stayed home and ate dinner at C's parents' house. The food was fantastic, as always, but since D and K are the only kids there, the atmosphere is pretty sedate. I didn't remember to bring my camera, so no pics of the feast. This year I made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and some chocolate pastry puffs instead of chocolate pie (sorry, Uncle Tom!). The apple pie was my best ever - I used a new combo of apple varieties, but of course I didn't write down which ones and now I can't remember what they were. The chocolate pastries were inspired by a recipe I found in Family Fun magazine, they are just pie crust cut out with cookie cutters and stuffed with chocolate chips. The pastry came out nice and flaky, and the chocolate chips made a tasty filling; the kids liked them. The only thing is, all my cookie cutters make average sized cookies, and once you seal 2 together it doesn't leave much room for filling! I need to find some good oversized cookie cutters to do this one again.

Once we finished dinner, we (the 4 of us) hopped in the car and drove down to Springfield to spend the weekend with some very good friends who were up from Atlanta (spending the holiday with their family). We stayed 2 nights in the same hotel they were in, and we had a great time with them. They have 2 kids the same ages as ours, and they spent every available moment in the pool (swimming in winter is always a treat). Unfortunately, Danny managed to come down with strep throat Thanksgiving day - he was ok through dinner, but miserable by the time we arrived at the hotel at 10 pm. So the next day, while C and Dennis were out doing the Black Friday shopping (leaving at 4:30am) I took D to the nearest Urgent Care for antibiotics. If you were paying attention to my Facebook entries, he had had a sore throat the week before, but tested neg. for strep; so I was just thankful he was positive so he could get the meds and feel better sooner. That afternoon, while C and Dennis rested from their morning excursion, Lori and I went out shopping with the rest of the kids. Not that we could get a lot of Christmas shopping done, with the giftees right there, but we had a nice time out of the hotel. Later that night, Lori and I went to the movies with her cousins and saw Twilight. (Even though L loves vampire stories, she hadn't read the book or seen the movie before, so I told her she had to see it. She's the only person I know who saw the movie without reading the book first!) Saturday we went to one of Dennis' old haunts (Springfield is his hometown), a local dairy farm. The kids had fun going through the barn, and Lori and I had fun going through the gift shops! Then we went to the restaurant there for lunch before setting out for home. It was really great to see them again; C has been down to Atlanta to visit a few times but I haven't seen Lori in a year and a half. I wish it wasn't so far away, I really miss hanging out with them.

After Thanksgiving weekend, nothing eventful at all happened. We were massively busy getting ready for Christmas, and trying to keep D and K focused on school. So really, there wasn't anything to post!

In my next post I'll have pics of all the decorations and stuff, and some of Christmas Day. I promise it will be soon!

Earlier this week...

2008-10-31T23:35:00.005-04:00

Earlier this week, Katie's Awana club had Crazy Hair Night. Awana is a Christian club at our church; this was their alternative to costumes and such. Her leader suggested last week that we color her hair using Kool Aid, so I gave it a try. I used 4 pkgs, with just a tiny bit of water in a dixie cup and applied it using a pastry brush. It made a mess, but luckily Kool Aid is washable! We also used the silver hair coloring to put a stripe in the front, just like we did for the pop star hair. Then we curled it as much as possible (boy, her hair just doesn't want to hold any kind of curl!) and sprayed glitter all over. Pretty crazy! The girl next to her won the contest, but Katie was runner up. I was surprised that almost all the girls had crazy hair - most of them just did crazy hairdo's, not coloring and stuff. It was really cool to see so much participation.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:01:00.010-04:00

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I posted; ever since I got on facebook, I've been addicted and my blog has suffered.

Last week Chuck carved out our pumpkins; he loves to do this because he sorts out all the seeds and roasts them in the oven. He and Danny love to eat them! Danny and Katie draw out designs on paper, and C does the actual carving.

Here are the finished products:

Danny's is supposed to be Kirby, but I didn't have orange construction paper for the hands and feet, and Dad got too tired to carve out the cheekies. I like Katie's too, with the fangs and the little pac man eyes.

Here are pics of Danny (Indiana Jones again this year) and Katie is a pop star (note: she is NOT Hannah Montana!):

She hated getting her hair done up, but she loved the makeup! Here is a close-up:

Those are actually sunglasses on top of her head; she had seen some at the costume store but they were $8! So I got a plain pair at the dollar store and some pre-glittered felt at the craft store, and made my own for less than $2. Oh, yeah! The shoes aren't exactly glamourous, but they made it easier to make it through 2 hrs of trick-or-treating!

This year, Danny went out with a friend in their neighborhood, while Katie went out with her 2 best friends here. I had a great time, because the moms and I gabbed the whole time and I hardly noticed how long we were out. The girls also had a great time!

Katie had a great haul, and as my due I got all her peanut butter cups : ) Danny isn't back yet with his Dad, but I'll bet he did well too!

Personally, I am so glad this holiday is OVER! It really isn't one of my favorites.

What do you mean you've never heard of an ATLATL?

2008-10-19T23:12:00.005-04:00

A few weekends ago, I signed up the kids for another park adventure; this one was called the Woodland Indian Experience. It was at the county park closest to my house, which I liked : ) Danny and Katie were supposed to both go, but D of course had some other thing he had to be at. Anyway, Katie and I went, and there was one other mom with her son, who I think was a 2nd grader. The park guide took us for a hike along the paths through the woods and explained the history of the parks and what kinds of archaeological digs had occurred there, and the Native Americans known to have lived in the area thousands of years ago. That part was interesting, and since there were only the 4 of us Katie got to do all of her babbling she usually does without annoying too many people. When we got back to the park area, we got to try out atlatls. What, you've never heard of them??? Pronounced "AT-LAttle", they are "weapons" developed to improve their spear-throwing. They were invented before the bow and arrow, sometime around the time they were hunting big game like mastodons and wooly mammoths. They are pieces of wood with a strap on one end and a hook carved into the other end, which you set the spear onto and use as leverage to throw the spear harder and straighter. Here is a picture of the park guide showing the kids how to set up:

And here is one of Katie's better throws:

As you can see on the ground, it's a little harder than it looks! We 2 moms both tried a few times, but the kids kept at it for a while - until Katie's arm got tired. The boy kept on going and going, until finally he did hit the target! The other mom and I agreed that our older sons would have loved this program, and that we would sign up again in the spring if they offer it again.

Katie's Weekend

2008-10-02T21:45:00.004-04:00

While Dad was hunting and Dan was riding roller coasters, Katie got to spend the day at her Grandma and Grandpa's. She had plenty of fun there!

The weekend before, she got to march in our local city pride festival parade. If you remember, last year she marched as a cheerleader, but this year she marched with the Girl Scouts. Instead of wearing their sashes, which are pretty plain so far having just moved up from Brownies last spring, they all wore the t-shirts they earned from cookie sales last year.

The one girl in the cheer uniform is also in GS; she decided at the last minute to march with her troop instead, b/c no one else in her cheer squad was in the parade. The day started out pretty chilly, but warmed up quickly, and by the time K marched past me she was pretty hot (hence the rolled up pant legs!). I thought she would be toward the beginning of the parade, being in section B4, but that ended up being closer to the end so she didn't get to see much of the parade herself this year.

I did take Archie with me, but I didn't take any pictures of him. Here is an interesting fact - normally, here in our area, people love to attend parades b/c they throw out candy to the kids. Well, if you have a dog, there are plenty of people who bring dog biscuits, too! I had my little baggie of training treats with me, and we definitely went home with more than I brought!

I sat with my best friend Michelle, whose son was also marching. We really enjoyed ourselves; we got the perfect spot - close to the end of the parade route, under the shade of some trees and close to a bathroom!

Here is a picture of her son, Ian (in the white t-shirt):

He marched with the combined middle school orchestras. This was new this year, I'm not sure whose idea it was. The orchestras are separate from the bands and basically consist of the strings. Violins and violas marched, while the cellos and bass fiddles got to ride on a trailer. I guess someone thought it was unfair that the bands got to show off and not the strings, so they put the orchestras in the parade too. They went back and forth between 2 songs, Battle Cry for Freedom (a Civil War song anyone who has watched PBS would recognize) and another one. I'm sure they were plenty sick of both by the end of the parade! Ian did a great job.

Deer Season

2008-10-02T20:58:00.010-04:00

Last weekend was the opening day of bow hunting season here. Naturally, as I have referred to in another post, DH is totally psyched. Danny wasn't able to go out with him b/c that was his youth group trip to the amusement park (also referenced in a prior post), but DH spent a lovely Saturday up in a tree. Here he is all decked out:

(Can you see him? He's standing there just in front of the tree, lol!)

He said that it was pretty quiet all day, although there were about 10 hunters all out in the same area (!). At around dusk, when the deer tend to come out and forage for food, he said there were 4 yahoos on atvs joy-riding through the area. Gah! No chance of deer with that going on. But even so, he always appreciates being outside with nothing pressing to think about.

This coming Sat., he and D are both going out. Here is a picture of D practicing in the back yard with his cross bow:

And here is his shot:

Bullseye!

I wonder how long D will be in his blind before he gets bored.

Feeling Better (finally!)

2008-09-29T20:16:00.005-04:00

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!

Inconsequential Mutterings

2008-09-17T12:42:00.004-04:00

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!

WAGS Picnic

2008-09-13T00:16:00.014-04:00

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!

Just a Reminder

2008-09-11T12:24:00.003-04:00

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?????

Other Goings On

2008-09-09T23:41:00.006-04:00

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!

1st Day of School and My Birthday

2008-09-05T22:43:00.009-04:00

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!

Katie's Sewing Class

2008-08-30T22:16:00.017-04:00

So here is one more fun thing Katie and her friend Meagan got to do this summer. I signed them up for an intro to sewing class at Joann Fabrics. I was very impressed with the instructor, b/c there were about 7 or 8 little girls, and K & M were the oldest ones there (both being 9 yrs old). They learned to make pillowcases, which are simple b/c the pieces are all rectangles and the sewing is all straight lines. Here are the pictures:

First they laid out patterns on the fabric they had purchased prior to class. The sewing supplies you see on Katie's table are from my basket at home; luckily I had almost everything she needed, so the cost of supplies was pretty much limited to the fabric and matching thread. Each girl did their own pinning and cutting. The instructor was really good about letting them do as much of the project themselves as possible.

After the fabric was cut to size and pinned together, they practiced sewing straight lines on the machines. The instructor did thread up all the machines and get them started, but the girls did the rest of the work on their own. She would only come over if they asked for help. For Katie, using a sewing machine is like Danny getting to use power tools!

Once they felt comfortable with the machines, they got started on the pillowcases. Here is a picture of Meagan concentrating very hard on staying neat and straight.

Once all the pieces were sewn up and the cases were done, the girls each got to iron them to get the worst of the wrinkles out, which made me nervous. They each used the iron on their own! But nobody got burned - phew!

And here are Katie and Meagan with their brand-new pillow cases! I was most impressed. Great job, girls!!

Wow, I never really appreciated...

2008-08-28T14:34:00.004-04:00

When Gretchen first started up a web page, I thought it was pretty cool. When she added wallpaper and background sounds, I thought, way out of my league, ever! But then Blogger had these really easy templates, and now it's easy to post and everything, so here I am : ) But adding extra stuff can be a pain if you need to know html! Those cute little smileys? ugh! It took me an hour to figure out how to add one for Jenn! I wish I knew how to add stuff to my header and everything, too; I have no idea even where to start with that. Someday (maybe with a lot of G's help, lol!) I'll figure it out. Sigh, so for now you're stuck with stuff as it is. Still, the new colors are better than shocking pink, right? I mean, pink's good for say, teenagers (right, Jenn?), but not so much for us old biddies.

I'm at the library now, so I can't upload any pictures for this post. I've got D & K, as well as their friends Frank and Bradley (whom I am watching for a few hrs as a favor this afternoon). Naturally, they're on the 'puters, as well, no doubt watching Super Smash Bros videos on YouTube - Katie, of course, is on Webkins. I took them bowling earlier, but Danny forgot to wear socks, so he was relegated to cheerleader. Or not, since cheerleaders are supposed to be cheerful and Danny was pretty much sulking the whole time. Bradley won, yay!, Katie came in a close second, and Frank did as well as he expected, which was not well at all. But they (those 3) had fun!

Tonight we may be going out to dinner, b/c one of the restaurants here offers dinner for kids for $1.25 on Thurs nights and the boy's mom is taking them there tonight. The only thing is, Katie's school is having a back-to-school ice cream social tonight, and if we go out we'll probably miss it. Decisions, decisions! (Where have I heard that before? lol)

Danny had his last golf lesson yesterday, which we celebrated by going to putt-putt afterward! How appropriate is that? lol Actually, I had promised the kids all summer that we'd go, and since it was the last day I'd be watching Meagan, it was also my last chance to keep my promise. They had fun; Danny met 2 of his friends (Hunter and Christian) there, and after playing I bought them ice cream at the DQ next door, and then they all came over for an hour or so. I really like having the kids all at my house, so I know what is going on. Too bad it started raining, tho, b/c then they were all stuck inside playing on the wii. Katie had a Target gift card she'd won at the end of the school year, so while Danny was at golf, I took the girls over and she picked out the "I Can Be A TV Chef" Barbie playset, so that's what she and Meagan were doing. Katie's blonde Barbie was Sandra Lee, and Meagan's brunette was Rachel Ray - too cute!

Poor Danny went back to the orthodontist on Tues to get his bottom braces on, and now his teeth are too sore to bite down on anything. I don't remember my teeth hurting that badly, or at least I don't remember complaining that loudly! His top teeth have straightened out so much already, he looks much better. No more "buck teeth"!

That's it for now, until I can get to my pics at home.

Here is an update, just for you Gretchen! I thought it would make more sense to add it here than put it in a new post, so here's a picture of Chef Katie and her new Barbie set:

We found the pink chef's hat in the $1 bins at Target. I couldn't resist!

Decisions, Decisions

2008-08-25T22:05:00.004-04:00

So, here I am, absolutely psyched that people are reading my blog, and actually leaving COMMENTS!! Let me say, to those of you who don't blog, or don't realize this, that writing is much easier when you know people are reading it. It's hard to get inspired to post when you think there are only 4 or 5 people who will be checking it out. So when you leave a comment, it tells me who is reading, and what you like to see here. And motivates me to post more!

So anyway, here I am trying to decide whether to spend another hour on a post, or to attack my pile of books so I can add to my finished book list. Bad me, I went to the library tonight! I was going to just pick up the next 3 Hamish MacBeths, and ended up with *9* books! I am such a book junkie, lol!

OK, I'm off to read now. I hope to post soon on our trip to the zoo, and Katie's sewing class. Check back often!

Since Jenn asked...

2008-08-25T16:52:00.002-04:00

Thanks for using my new gadget! BTW, is this Jenn my niece or someone else? Just curious.

So anyway, about the Twilight series. It took me a while to get sucked into the first book, I think already knowing that Edward & co were vampires but waiting for Bella to figure it out seemed to take forever. (The book she's writing from E's p.o.v. sounds like it's gonna be much better!) But once she figures it out, the book picks up. Then too, I never really got a feel for B's attraction to E. Once Jacob gets involved in book 2, I was solidly on Team Jacob! I liked the way SM depicted B's drifting through the months after E leaves by the chapter pages with no chapters. Clever! I got frustrated by book 3, not knowing whether or not B will be changed by the end of the story. Come on and do it, already! But I read SM's website where she explained that she was probably more reluctant for B to lose her humanity than B was herself! lol So, by Breaking Dawn, I was ready for the story to move along, and you're right, it didn't. I thought there was just a bit too much time spent on Jacob and Leah mooning over people they could never have. Neat twist at the end for J, but poor L never does get resolution. I really liked the face-off at the end of the book, I thought the twists and turns were great. Especially Siobhan's help - even when she herself didn't believe she had any effect.

Tell me what else you thought?

A Busy Weekend

2008-08-24T11:41:00.027-04:00

This weekend has been extremely busy for Katie (not so much for Danny, although he's been having fun, too). First of all, on Friday night we managed to finagle a ticket to see..... the Jonas Brothers concert!!!!! at the last minute (no pics, b/c *I* didn't get to go, lol!). One of Dan's friends was going with his family, planned a long time ago as a b'day present for a niece, but his younger brother wasn't all that excited about it, so we bought the ticket and they took Katie with them instead - she was sooooo excited! Bradley came over here instead, and spent almost the entire 6 hrs playing Super Smash Bros with Danny. They had a blast! Katie didn't get home until after midnight, but she was so wound up it took her over an hour to fall asleep. I am glad after all that I didn't go, b/c the weather turned out to be sweltering that day (the concert was held in that outdoor amphitheater I mentioned before), and I was just happy to stay home in the a/c. So, a great time was had by all!

Then on Saturday, another surprise for Katie, a class called "Adventures in Camelot". We had recently gone through and signed up for some local park programs (some free and some not) for this fall. One was called "My First Horse," and the other was this Camelot program. She decided on "My First Horse", but later on I was talking to my sister, and once I described the medieval class she offered to send up the money for that one too! We agreed to keep it a secret, and surprise Katie that morning. She knew there was something up, b/c I kept telling her she needed to be on her best behavior or I would cancel the surprise.

So anyway, thanks to a generous Aunt Michelle, here is what Katie did in Camelot!
(Just an aside: the arena was huge and dimly lit, so it was really hard to get some of the pictures to come out right. I did the best I could!)

The first thing they did was design and paint their shields, so that the paint had time to dry during the rest of the class. Each kid made totally unique designs, which was so cool.

Then they got to go down to the stables, where they learned how to groom and saddle the horses. They used 2, one was Fancy, a Belgian/Morgan mix, and the other was Jasmine, an Arabian.

Here is Katie helping get Jasmine ready:

When they came back up to the arena, they were able to choose from several costumes and have their pictures taken next to the horses. Katie wore her head piece from Medieval Times (where we went with Aunt Michelle and the whole family over Thanksgiving) which just happened to match the dress perfectly!

The boys had several choices, too; one chose to dress like Peter in Narnia (that helmet was HEAVY!), and the other chose a plated tunic with a cloak, and the metal gauntlets and helmet.

I found out that the park had ordered the armor (including Fancy's demi face plate) from a local craftsman. They had seen his work at the Medieval Faire, and he offered to make it for them.

The kids didn't get to ride in the costumes, but they all got to ride both horses and try to spear the ring.

The side-saddle was pretty tricky; the girls felt like they should be sitting sideways instead of straight ahead, but once they got on correctly, the weird knobs fit just right. Katie thought it was way cool.

And here she is on Fancy, spearing the ring. Good job!

I could see Katie's face as she sat on the horses, she loves this as much as I do. It's too bad we don't have the money to own a horse. I know my mom always said that all girls love horses, and eventually grow out of it. Well, I never did, and I'm pretty sure Katie feels the same way as I do. DH and I are going to have to figure out a way to get her into some lessons. We have a friend at church who knows a lady with horses at the fairgrounds, and he said she'd be willing to teach K, so I put off looking into lessons all summer. Unfortunately, this lady has never gotten around to calling us. Wah!

So anyway, the weekend is not yet over; we still get to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for Uncle Ray's b'day! Yummy, cake!

BTW, Gretchen, I hope you're loving this post, b/c it took me 4 stinking hours to do!!!

A Word About My Book List

2008-08-23T01:39:00.004-04:00

As you can see, I have been trying to steadily work through the Hamish MacBeth series - they are short little mysteries so I can generally get through a book in 1-2 days, depending on how much free time I have. I have to request each one from the library b/c, although the library system does have all of them, they aren't all at the same library, and it seems that very few are at the one library I like to go to.

In the meantime, I have finished Celeste Bradley's Heiress Brides trilogy, which was pretty good; I know she has another series having to do with spies, but I plan on borrowing them from Gretchen (I think she's got them all) next time we exchange books. The Twilight series is done for now, until the movie in Dec and then the 5th book, which is supposed to be book #1 only from Edward's point of view, but I don't know how long it's going to take S. Meyer to write that one. So I thought I'd go through my cache of books and read something I actually own myself, and I picked up book #2 of a trilogy I started a while back, Jane Feather's Brides series. I had a hard time getting through the 1st one, mostly because it takes place in a time period I'm not so familiar with - mid 1600's England. That wouldn't be so bad, except she includes so much political info that I feel the story gets too bogged down. So #2 is basically more of the same, and once again I'm having trouble slogging through. I don't think I'm going to bother finishing it, which is too bad b/c the back story of the 3 girls' unlikely friendship sounds so promising. But, I've got so many other books waiting for me, I don't feel too bad giving up on these. So, that said, I didn't even return to my cabinet but headed straight back to the library to pick up #1 in Nora Roberts' Sign of Seven trilogy, Blood Brothers. (Sorry to be grammatically incorrect, but there is no underline option in this stupid blogger window!) I'm about 1/3 through, and loving it. I have read her Key trilogy, and really enjoyed that, so I was looking forward to starting this one. I was kind of putting it off so I could be sure to read all 3 in a row - I hate having to wait for the next in a series. (Waiting 2 weeks for the last Twilight book was hard enough - and I can't even begin to describe the torment I went through waiting for HP#7 last winter!) So, anyway, that is my update for now. No new books added to my list lately, but only b/c I've been working on 3 at once - LOL!

About our WAGS dogs

2008-08-20T21:26:00.007-04:00

I don't think I've said anything lately about our foster dogs. I know I talked last year about Murphy, the black lab. We got him in Sept and he was ready to be placed in Nov. What a dream dog!!! What was really cool about Murphy was that he was placed with a girl, Sarah, who lives in the next town over, so we got to visit often, and we had a few play dates even once the transition time was over. Plus, she and Danny will both be going to the same school this fall!!! Way cool. Here is a picture of Murphy, in case you forgot.

He was such a cute dog, and soooo easily trained. His main job is as a retrieval dog; his girl is in a wheelchair and he goes everywhere with her - even to school! The only thing was, he would let out these HUGE stinky toots. UGH! Well, once he was placed his new family could decide what they wanted to feed him, and it turned out it was the food that was the problem.

The next dog we got, Rudy (a yellow lab/golden mix) did not have the same problem, because he was on a different food. Rudy was a very unique dog. He was 10 mos when he moved in, and totally puppy-brained. He was so spastic, jumping and running around. He would chew his toys into tiny little pieces, and constantly stole papers out of the garbage pails. Even though we liked to call him a freaky dog, he did grow on us.

Here is a picture of C with Rudy - say what he will, it was obvious they bonded!

After Rudy turned 1 yo, he calmed down a lot. He is very good with kids, as you can see from this picture of him with my nephews. They were dressing him up to be a rock star - can you see the headset? He kept chewing on the mike, but who can blame him? It was practically in his mouth anyway!

After his time was up with us (dogs are only supposed to be fostered with a family for 6 months at a time so they don't get too bonded), he spent a short amount of time in a prison training program (we kept joking that he was sent up to the big house!). He has since been placed with a family where he fits in really well. Since he wasn't placed from our home, I never got to meet his family, and I don't know anything about them.

Here is the dog we have now, Archie, a purebred Golden Retriever.

He was 8 months when we got him in the beginning of the summer, so I guess he's almost 10 mos now. He's a cutie, but an even worse chewer than Rudy, in that he too destroys his toys but he also likes to steal things, especially shoes. He's ruined my flip-flops and a pair of D's slides, plus uncounted socks. He'll take any stuffed animal he finds unattended, but he hasn't chewed any - yet. He'll come to one of us and show us that he has it, and usually he'll give it up right away when told to. He's much more reluctant to give up the socks, though. And, anything he brings is always drenched in dog spit. Yuck! Archie will not have any specific skills; he will be what is called a skilled companion, which means he'll be trained to be well behaved in public, and able to go anywhere with his child (he has been assigned to a girl, I think, but I don't know anything about her yet).

When Archie first came he was still eating puppy food, but now he is switching over to BilJac, b/c the company has decided to sponsor WAGS4Kids, and is giving them all the food for free. And, what do you know, now Archie is letting out the worst gaseous clouds ever, easily rivaling Murphy in stink factor. I am glad that BilJac is sponsoring WAGS, and it's great they're donating food, but I don't think I'll ever buy any for my own dog, if I ever get one!

Archie still needs a lot of work. I try to take him out when I'm not going to be out for a long trip, and he does really well in McDs, but he has yet to go to the supermarket. I think with the kids being home during the summer, I'm not as able to focus on the training when we go out, and I get worn out too fast. Of course, training Murphy was so ridiculously easy, we were spoiled! Now that I have to actually work at it, it's hard! But hopefully I'm doing ok. I have taught him to lay down when people come to the door (rather than jump up on them or dance around them looking for attention), and he's learning to retrieve, too. He LOVES to play ball in the yard, and he is safe off his leash while he plays - something we couldn't do with Rudy.

Next month WAGS is having a big picnic for all the people involved in the org - foster families, dogs, disabled kids and their families, volunteers, everyone. I am really excited to go and see everyone, even the dogs/families I haven't met before; I have heard so much about them! Maybe I can put up more pics after the picnic.

Getting Ready for School

2008-08-20T16:52:00.004-04:00

We still have 2 weeks to go before school starts, but since Danny is moving up to middle school this year, there are a number of adjustments to get used to. Tonight is his orientation meeting, where he gets to walk through his schedule, try out his locker, etc. There is a cookout before the actual program, but C doesn't really care about making it to that. Hopefully, I can get some pics and post them. Of course, I have shown clearly already that just b/c I *have* pictures doesn't mean you'll ever see them! lol

We went out a few weeks ago to get school supplies; I hope I got them all! I don't know how families with 4+ kids stay organized!

Poor Katie is so jealous that her big brother is getting so much attention. We've been trying to keep her busy too, but you know how the sibling rivalry goes. Today I took her and her friend Meagan to see SW Clone Wars. It was ok, they really enjoyed it. I can see how SW fans will like it, but there wasn't enough character development for me. The little baby Hutt was kinda dumb - brings to mind all those cuddly ewoks - but they did do a good job of plot twists and intrigue that I'm used to seeing in SW. I have also made sure she gets to the pool when she wants, and on Mon I let her invite her friend Lizzie over (I didn't have to watch Meagan that day). I think once school actually starts, things will even out. I am not looking forward to getting up every day at 6:30, trying to put together lunches they'll actually eat, and getting them out the door in time, but I'm sure they're looking forward to it even less. At least I get to go home and go back to bed! But then there are also the daily homework fights. Ugh! I wonder if D will have weekend assignments this year.

Gretchen says she started school already. Ha! I feel so spoiled for not starting until Sept. Of course, that's the way it was when I was growing up - school *always* started the Wed after Labor Day. You never had to look it up or call the office to find out when school started, you just knew. Ah, the good old days.

Well, it's almost time to get going to orientation. I hope Danny pays attention!

A New Element

2008-08-15T22:08:00.003-04:00

I have added a new element to my blog, as you can see to the right. I don't think I could possibly review every book I read, but I can at least list them off to the side, so you can see what I like. I might be able to add some kind of rating system, but for now I just hope to list the books. As you will see soon, I read A LOT! Please feel free to comment on the list, or let me know if you have read any of the same books - I love to talk about what I read! Also, you could make suggestions on other authors or books you've read and think I'd like. I would really like to hear from you!

You might notice, I am a big fan of series novels, and I always try to read them in order. That isn't to say that I finish one series before I start another! The ones I've listed today I've been working on pretty much at the same time. You'd think it would be confusing, but since the series are so different it's not that hard to keep track of the different stories.

Me Again!

2008-07-24T19:16:00.004-04:00

OK, so I have all these grandiose plans for blogging and keeping my friends in touch, but I can never manage to find a solid block of time to come and post! Sorry.

I have finally got my Kodak picture software loaded on our new pc, so I can post pics again (one of the major reasons for not posting), but it takes a while to shrink them down and then upload them onto blogger, so there aren't any for this post.

We've been having a busy summer so far! Whenever the weather permits, we spend at least 2-3 hours at the community pool (DH says, "We'd better get our money's worth out of those passes!"). For the past 2 weeks, Dan and Katie had swim lessons every morning, so we pretty much spent every day there, except for the one day we got rained out. I am watching Katie's friend Meagan 3x/wk, and she comes over at 7:15AM. Anyone who knows me even superficially knows that that is an automatic UGH! for me. I don't usually like to get up before 9 if I can help it. When the kids are in school, I would get up, get them ready, drive them over, and come home and go back to sleep! But having a friend over is helping to keep K from getting too bored, and for the most part M is a good guest. Even Danny gets along really well with her, so there is rarely any tension there. The other day, the 3 of them were making up a Harry Potter the TV Show, and assigning each other roles. It was so cute to see them running around with make-shift wands and claiming, "I'm Harry, Dumbledore, and Sirius!" or "I'm Hermione, Ron, and Snape!" Hey, they were using their imaginations, and the tv was off - I couldn't ask for more than that, right?

This week, I signed up Katie and Meagan for a sewing class at JoAnn Fabrics, where they get to make a pillowcase. They both had a great time picking out fabric, and the class, which was today, went really well. I was most impressed with the instructor, b/c she had 7-8 girls, from 5-9 yrs old - Katie and Meagan were the 9yr olds. They each got to use their own machines, and use the iron when they were all finished. They did great! Katie can't wait to use her pillowcase - I won't be surprised if it's on her pillow tonight. Right now we are at the library; she and her friend Lizzie are doing a little beading jewelry activity. We also met another of K's friends on the way in - a nice surprise! Danny was supposed to come too, because he's been begging to come to the library and spend time on the computers, but he spent the day at Grandma's, and he said he was too tired to come. Tomorrow, Katie and Meagan are signed up for a jewelry class at JoAnns. I think I'll try to find something fun to do with Dan while they're busy (today I just stayed in the store the whole time).

Last week I took Meagan and Katie to the movies to see "Kit Kittredge an American Girl". It was really well done (especially compared to their tv movies), and I liked the messages in it. American Girl can sometimes be a little too liberal for me (read:feminazis) so I wasn't sure if they would go too far, but I really didn't find anything at all that I didn't like in it. Next week, we're meeting a friend of Danny's in the afternoon and going to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Dan's a little ambivilent, because he knows movies are rarely as good as the book (especially with a classic like this) but I'm hoping Brendan Frasier can add enough humour to make up for it. Speaking of which, I don't know if we'll bring Danny or not, but I am looking forward to seeing the next Mummy movie - I really liked the earlier ones.

We had a visitor last weekend - a good friend of ours from the South came for 4-5 days, and he and DH spent most of their time out of the house. They saw numerous movies, went to Dave and Busters, and ate out a lot. Did I get to participate at all???? Noooooo, of course not. But that's ok; I have friends here that I can see and go out with, whereas DH's keep moving away (another good friend moved to MD!). It was nice to see Dennis (when they were around), and I really wish his wife Lori could have come too. Hopefully, next time it'll be her turn and WE can do all the carousing! When they lived here, she was my best movie buddy. We'd borrow movies and watch them while the kids were in school, or go to the movies whenever a good chick flick came out. Now I just keep seeing ads for movies and thinking, "if Lori were here I'd love to go see that!"

My friend Michelle has been inviting me to go along with her to some orchestra concerts this summer - we've been to 2, we're definitely going again next week, and I'm hoping to go to another in August. Her family gets package tix every summer, and she has to go to help with her grandmother. She bought tickets for her son to go too this year, but he always has a softball game, so I get to use the ticket! Sweet for me, and for Ian too, b/c after the first 2 concerts he said he was bored anyway.

I have been reading like a fiend, and I'd love to have some kind of list of what books I've gone through, but I haven't been keeping track. Last weekend a friend introduced me to the Twilight saga, and I blew through the 3 books in 1 week. Now I can't wait for Aug 2! I won't be going to any of the bookstore parties -we went to the release of HP7, and it was fun - I'm not sure how much I want to hang out with vampire fanatics! I am not usually into vampire romance (at ALL) but 2 different friends had read it and the 2nd actually showed me the book, so how could I say no? What I'm really looking forward to is the movie in December. I saw the EW article and was disappointed with the actor playing Edward (he just looked creepy to me) but I've seen the trailer online and the movie actually looks good. Edward is played by the actor who played Cedric Diggory in HP, and he's much better looking on screen than the article portrayed. Even so, it's hard for me to dig up much sympathetic feeling for vampires - I am definitely on Team Jacob!!!

Well, Katie is done with her jewelry now so it's time for me to go. I'll try to post again soon!

Hey, we're still alive!

2008-03-25T17:43:00.002-04:00

Sorry I haven't been around for so long. I have soooooo many pictures and stories to add here, but there hasn't been a lot of time for me to work. Being stuck with dial-up is torturous, for one thing, and for another, our pc died last month and we have been working on re-loading all my stuff onto the new one. Then there is the fact that having so much to say is so overwhelming that I'm procrastinating doing it at all. Bad me!

So, first of all I have to say:

Congratulations to SOSOM on her new and totally awesome new house!! I would really like to be posting pics of that soon.

Secondly, I have to say:

Congratulations to Jenny on being accepted to "the college of your first choice" as my favorite English teacher used to say! Way to go!!!

Then, there is wah wah wah about all this stupid snow we're getting, which I am so sick of I cry everytime I see any flakes in the air. I can't wait for SPRING! (The real thing, not this But-It's-Easter-Already-excuse-for-spring.) At least it's not below freezing every night. When I went to church for the Easter programs, the song running through my head was, "Have A Holly Jolly Easter"....

So, that's it, just to let you know I'm alive and thinking of all you readers (not that I have any idea how many of you there are, since hardly anyone ever posted to my blog last fall......)

There should be pix soon!

Yay! A new post!

2007-11-05T16:06:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't been on in a while; I have been busy lately, and there are some pix I really wanted to load but DH had had the camera with him whenever I had time to get on. Sad excuse, I know; obviously I can post without a picture.

So, Halloween is finally over. Can I just say, I am always glad when Nov 1 rolls around. Ever since the end of August, I have tried my best to ignore all the trappings. The thing is, I HATE this stupid "holiday". Back when I was little, I loved it just like all the other kids. No, I wasn't too terribly taken with the gory, gruesome stuff, but most people's decorations and costumes were cute, and free candy was always a good thing. These days, however, it seems like all the adds for costumes have the same themes: for girls, anything making your daughter (ages 6 & up) look slutty - there is no way she needs to dress as a Playboy bunny (OK, that costume was for the teenage girls, but no joke, there was a French maid costume in Katie's size); and for boys, anything scary and/or gory. As a child, my costumes were always either cheapy one piece outfits with plastic masks, or homemade from stuff we had in the house. NEVER would my mother have considered spending almost $50 on some stupid outfit we'd never wear again. So far, we have gotten away with nice costumes for our kids, but each year it gets harder - my son, thank God, honestly couldn't care less about what he dresses as, but this year my daughter wanted to know why I wouldn't let her buy the costume for Vampiretta, [slinky, sultry] queen of the night. What on earth am I going to do when she's a teenager???

But my real beef with Halloween is the thrill we are all supposed to get from scary stuff. When my kids were toddlers, I hated going to the mall in the fall, because I was sure all the realistic skeletons and blood-drenched monsters would give them nightmares. One of the houses in our area puts up a complete cemetery in their front yard, complete with corpses hanging from the trees, etc.. Now, I just roll my eyes at most of this stuff, but the worst is all the ads for horror movies on tv. Not just on the appropriate channels at the appropriate times, but for instance, for Saw III on another cable channel, on TLC while we are watching a home decorating show. Of course, inappropriate content on tv is another rant entirely. The point is, I hate what appears to me to be the embracing and celebrating of all things evil. I just don't get into it.

That said, here are my kids this year. Katie is a 1940's Silver Screen actress, and Danny is Indiana Jones. We were very proud of Dan's costume, because we put it together ourselves. The hat is from his cousin, we got his bull whip (completely fake, btw) from ebay, and the leather bomber jacket we got at an outlet store and will be his winter coat this year. The cargo pants and t-shirt he already had; the holster for his pistol was from my dad's ancient cowboy set and the pistol was an orange water gun painted black; the treasure bag was dh's dad's from WWII (strapped on using the dog's leash, lol!). He even had a skull (McD's Pirates toy painted gold) inside the bag! He was so awesome. Katie looked great too, but she's so into dressing up all the time anyway. Her costume was store-bought, but she already had the silver shoes that match the dress, and I curled her hair (why, I don't know; it was pretty windy that night and didn't last long) and applied liberal amounts of eye shadow and lipstick. What do you think?

"I hate snakes!"

The kid's school has a fall carnival, and there is a costume contest. Here is Katie - she won for her grade! I think it was the face painting, which she had done there at the carnival, lol! We didn't want her wearing her actress costume b/c we didn't want it damaged before trick-or-treating. Danny was Indy, but he didn't win - I think if he would have let them paint some beard stubble on his face, he would have won too.

DH and I thought this spider (a beanie baby from McDs many years ago, lol!) was the perfect touch, but Dan has suddenly developed an aversion to spiders and refused to leave it on his back.

A busy week!

2007-10-04T20:03:00.000-04:00

Well, the past week has been full of activity! First of all, as I promised, here are some pics of Danny at his fencing class:

Danny in his gear

Listening carefully to his instructor

"en guard!"

So far (after 2 classes) Danny really enjoys fencing. There are a lot of rules, and as his instructor said today, "this isn't Star Wars." But it's the closest he can get! The classes are 1hr 15min once a week, so it isn't too intense (like karate, which was 3-5X/wk). As you can sort of see, the class is made up of all ages - there is one guy who must be in his upper 60's at least, down to an 8yr old - but it doesn't intimidate Danny. They sometimes choose their partners and sometimes are paired randomly, and he doesn't seem to mind either. I also signed him up for the after-school bowling league, which starts next Wed. I hope he likes that as well, because it goes all year until the middle of March! The league is city-wide, so there will be kids from other schools there; I don't know who else is signing up from our school, so there's no way to request a certain team. I hope he likes his teammates!

While Danny was at class, Katie played on the playground outside. Even though the gym set is designed for younger kids, she found enough to occupy her time. Here is a video of Katie doing something I could never do in my whole entire life:

(I will try to fix this so it's right-side-up!)

If you know my family at all, you'll know that it's hard to believe she actually came from my womb! (We have always firmly believed that no girls should be able to do stuff like this-since we couldn't! lol)

This weekend, my twin sister came out to visit with 4 of her 7 boys. It was the eldest's birthday, so we went out to CiCi's Pizza, and had a yummy cake which I decorated with Cars (the movie) cars. He's 13 - a teenager! My older sister has a 17yr old girl and a 15yr old boy, but somehow this one's birthday hits home harder - I guess b/c his mom and I are twins. She and I also did some serious used book shopping, plus a trip to the library. We are book addicts, lol! There are a few authors that we both love, so one or the other of us is trying to get all of her books. G is working on Mary Balogh, and I on Lynn Kurland. I also have a good selection of Eloisa James, but I'm not trying for all of them. If I can get them, I really want all of Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series, but they are hard for me to find. (I need to do used, of course - Amazon is for cheaters! lol) Her boys are mixed in their reading likes, but while we were at the library, they all went for Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes. Danny especially likes to read them there, since I almost never let him take them home. (No, I'm not a meanie, it's just that when he does, it's all he reads for the entire 2 weeks that he has them. Deprived of these comics, he'll actually read brain-enhancing material!) Her one son, however, fell asleep! He looked so cute there, sprawled in one of their comfy chairs. And no, it wasn't the baby! lol Here is a picture of Jacob, sitting happily on Mommy's lap.

Isn't he adorable? Every time DH sees him, he gets this gooey look in his eyes, but I just look at him (dh, not the baby, lol!) and say, "NO!" We are sooooo done. I value my sleep way too much to voluntarily go through babies again. If God were to decide our family needed a new member, we wouldn't be devastated, but we're certainly not planning on having another!

Last Tuesday, my kids' school hosted a skating party (the PTA does this about 4 times a year). Katie always loves to go - she even got a pair of Barbie roller skates for Christmas last year - but Danny has no interest, so he stayed home with Dad.

Here are Katie and her friend Lizzie:

They convinced the dj to let them do karaoke for one song - and they picked "Crazy Frog" (what, does that have words? I guess so!). Here they are in the booth with another friend who weaseled her way up too.

Katie is such a drama queen; this was right up her alley! Her fantasy is to become the next Hannah Montana, if Disney ever made anther show like that one. She has a good voice, when she's not trying to be as loud as she can. And she's constantly making up songs!

This week has been an interesting one for Murphy. On Mon., he was alone in the house while I was at the YMCA, and dh was in the garage working out. I guess he missed me, because he chewed up one of my slippers! Grrr. Oh, well, my fault for leaving it where he could get it and for leaving him alone in the house. Then on Tues, we went to Marc's, and without warning, he pooped in the produce section. Ewwwww, gross!!!! I was soooooooooooooooo embarrassed. But what could I do? I really needed to go shopping, and there wasn't another time for me to come back, so I had to finish (after notifying mgmt, and taking the dog outside, of course). How humiliating. On the good side, he knew he was in big trouble, and behaved perfectly for the rest of the day. Then today, I decided to try taking him down to the beach, since the weather is just gorgeous. He's never been on sand, and judging from his reaction to the hose he doesn't like water much (and he's a pure bred lab - go figure!). Well, he did fine on the beach, although he was a little leery of the waves, with the sound and all. After a while he relaxed, so I worked our way back and forth getting closer to the water. Eventually, I was close enough to stick my toes in, and I tried to get him to do the same. On the 2nd try, he did, but when the wave moved up and back, he all of a sudden freaked out, running in circles as far as the leash would allow, until he pulled me off balance and I landed on my rear end! Thankfully, the sand cushioned my fall, but it was the wet sand by the water, so my budinkus was soaked - and full of sand. And I didn't have time to go home to change before I had to get the kids from school! Uck!

That's it for this week!

This coming weekend

2007-09-27T14:32:00.002-04:00

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

2007-09-24T15:54:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-21T23:20:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-21T21:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T13:11:00.001-04:00

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...

2007-09-10T00:03:00.001-04:00

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!

2007-09-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-09-06T12:51:00.000-04:00

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!

We'll Start With My Awesome Vacation

2007-08-30T13:30:00.000-04:00

OK, here is my first attempt at blogging!

Last week, I spent 7 days in Tennesee with one of my best friends at a dude ranch in the Smoky Mountains. We slept in a really cool 1800's style hotel, and rode horses every day. We ate family style in a dining room just down from our rooms, and the food was EXCELLENT!!! In fact, even with all the exercise, I didn't lose a single pound : ( My horse's name was Jewel, and my friend Michelle's horse was Zeus. Both of them had a tendency to walk and trot fast, so we had to keep reining them back so as not to pass others on the trail. Unfortunately, the wranglers have to keep the horses in a certain order on the trails, and Michelle was almost always 1st behind the lead wrangler, while I was always near the end. The views were awesome, although the trails were steep and narrow, so picture taking opportunities were quite limited. I did get some good ones on our overnight ride, so when I figure out how to get them up I'll post them.

One of the best things about the whole vacation (aside from zero responsibilities!) was waking up, looking out from the front porch, and seeing the horses out in the pastures right in the front yard! Every morning, Michelle and I would walk to breakfast and think, we get to do this all week!

Besides the trail rides, we also did team penning, where 3 people at a time would go into a corral of cows, and try to chase one into a pen in the center. It was fun, although the horses know what they are doing and we didn't have to work too hard. There were 2 wranglers who helped separate the cow (the hardest part), and one person would chase it while the other 2 would block it from returning to the herd.

We also all got the opportunity to do one cattle drive during the week. This was where we either brought the cows up from the pasture or returned them after the penning events. The cattle drive was one of the most fun events, because we actually got to use our horses to herd the cows, and we weren't just following a guide along a path mindlessly.

Aside from riding, there were a couple of activities where we could get wet, which was especially appreciated since it was STINKING HOT! There was a pool, sort of small and only 5 feet deep, so no diving, but a lovely alternative to showers in the middle of the day between activities. (They were experiencing a severe drought, so we were asked to limit water consumption.) We also went tubing down the river that runs past the ranch, which was fun even though the river was really low and we got stuck on lots of rocks. The last full day, we were scheduled to go white water rafting, but they were unable to release enough water from the dam to make a good run, so we went out in "duckies" instead. These are sort of a cross between a kayak and an outrigger canoe. They have two inflatable pontoons with a plain canvas bottom between where you sit, and you steer with a double paddled oar. Most people rode in single duckies, but my friend and I foolishly decided to try a double - with the water so low, the double got stuck on rocks much more than the singles. Argh!

The afternoon of the last day, we got to go on an advanced ride, meaning we got to gallop up the mountain instead of just plodding along at a walk. There were tryouts in the morning, and even though about 15 people tried out, only 5 of us got to go. We were having a great time until we came to a yellow jacket nest, and all the horses running by stirred them up. I got stung 3 times, and the rider behind me 4 or 5 times. Unfortunately, she was allergic to yellow jackets, so we had to head back down after that so she could get her medicine. (She's fine, btw.) I think we did get to do most of the ride, and it was the downhill part that was cut short. It was "terrifyingly exhilarating" as Michelle said.

Friday night they held a square dance, which was pretty fun. The wranglers all have to show up and participate, so for the first time I can ever remember, there were more men than women! I have some good pictures of that too.

We made some good friends with the other guests, and hopefully we'll keep in touch. First was a couple from Florida who live very close to my father, so I might actually get to meet up with them again! The others were a family of 4 from Sussex, England, and we had so much fun on the overnight and the rafting trip with them. We also taught them a new card game and they taught us some!

When Sunday came and we had to say goodbye, I was very sad. I could have stayed another week and not been bored!

OK, so here is my first post. When I figure out the pictures, I'll add them!

Here is my first post

2007-08-30T09:55:00.000-04:00

I am finally starting a blog, after years of enjoying my sister's. I make no promises how this will turn out, or how interesting it will be. Wish me luck!