Happy Thanksgiving!

The Abby Show

Abby was the star student at school a couple weeks ago. She got to bring a special show and tell item one day during her week. She decided she wanted to bring our puppy, Roxxie.... so we made the arrangements with her teacher. Abby was pretty excited about it! She even wrote me a note several days ahead of time so I wouldn't forget, and put it in a prominent place on the front door.


On that morning, I was getting ready to go, and realized I could not find Roxxie's harness. She had her collar on, so I grabbed her leash and figured we'd be fine. (The only reason I questioned this is due to an earlier incident on a walk in the park. The little stinker slipped off her leash, and ran around for 15 minutes while I tried to catch her. She thought it was a great game, but I was not thrilled about it!) Take a look at her, though. She's so cute, it is hard to stay mad at her for long...



Anyway, we headed off to the school and got there just a few minutes before we had to be in Abby's class. I had my arms full with a bunch of stuff, so I made sure Roxxie's leash was on tight, and we started to walk toward the front door. We took about five steps, and wouldn't you know it, she slipped right out of her collar in one swift motion. I am totally convinced she knew what she was doing! Aaaargh!!


Of course, this happened to be in the middle of the day, when many parents were picking up their kindergartners, so there were lots of cars in the parking lot. Roxxie bounded happily into the traffic (in the parking lot), weaving in and out of cars. I began to panic, and I dropped to my knees and started calling her name. I know better than to chase her now, because she just sees that as a game and keeps on running. When I called her name, she just stood in the middle of the driveway staring at me. As I mentioned before, there were lots of people around, so I had a bunch of spectators during this debacle, including the Fed Ex guy who had just pulled up. He just chuckled as he walked by me. (Umm, thanks dude!) I was desperate for something to coax Roxxie to me, since she loves treats, but I didn't bring any dog treats with me. Then I realized I had Abby's Halloween candy in a bag. I grabbed a piece and held it out to Roxxie, hoping she would be interested. I was so relieved when she came to check out the goodies, and I snatched her up.


Well, I learned a lesson from all that: I will not take that dog anywhere without her harness again! She has caused me enough worry and embarrassment for the time being. Abby enjoyed having Roxxie come to her class, though, so it was all worth it in the end. She got to show her off to all of her classmates. Here is a picture of Abby showing the class her poster and pictures that she made to tell about herself. Her teacher called it "The Abby Show". So cute!

That's it for now... have a very happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Steve 1, Bambi 0

After being skunked during bow season, I got one on my first day gun hunting. (By the way, this is a rare Steve-post. ) I went out this morning with my pal Kim, we went on some state land by my sister-in-law Tammy's house. There was one other hunter in the area. We got out there just after sun-up. Around 9:30am, the other hunter decided to leave. On his way to his truck, he kicked up six doe that ran right toward Kim. Kim, not having a doe permit, let them pass by him. Between Kim and I, three of them split off and went out into the woods, the other three continued on straight toward me. My heart began to pound as I heard the deer running toward me. I'm pretty sure that they did not see me as they started veering off to my right. I was sitting in a fold-out chair and I quickly decided that I would not be able to shoot right handed. I switched the positions of my hands on the gun and snapped it up into my left shoulder, and just as the lead-deer was jumping over a log, BLAM! She never broke her stride. My first thought was "DANG! How did I miss her!?". After waiting for a few minutes, I went to the spot where I shot her and picked up the blood trail. I didn't even have to walk 100-yards before I found her. Woo-Hoo!!!! Left-handed, on the run and right through the vitals. Maybe I was Wyatt Earp in a former life.

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

Well, it's not that extreme, but I did give my blog a little makeover for the Christmas season. Isn't it cute? If you get blog updates via email, I don't think you will see it, so click on the title to come to the blog and check it out.

A little blog game...

Just for fun, I'm playing along with this blog game...



1. Four jobs I've held:

• Janie's Cookie Company (my very first job) Yummy!


• Bank teller at FMB - First Michigan Bank


• Licensed daycare provider


• Michael's Arts and Crafts - my new job!
  
  

2. Four movies I could watch over and over

• Stepmom


• Pretty Woman


• Groundhog Day


• Sleepless in Seattle

3. Four tv shows I like

• American Idol


• Everybody Loves Raymond reruns


• House


• Grey's Anatomy
  

4. Four people who email me regularly

• Tammy


• Grandma Dot


• Peg


• Kate

5. Four favorite foods

• Chocolate anything!


• Italian food, one favorite is Penne Gorgonzola


• Chinese food, General Tso's Chicken and Crab Rangoons


• Mexican food

6. Four places I'd like to visit

• all 50 states (can this count as one, LOL)


• Australia


• Netherlands


• Caribbean Cruise

Steve and I really hope to do some traveling when the kids are all grown up!

Well, we got quite a bit of snow here in the last couple of days. The kids are loving it! Hope you all are having a good week! Stay warm!

Jacob's Self Portrait

It's quite a likeness, don't you think? It just makes me smile....

Have a great day!

Playing in the leaves

It's funny how we take the little things for granted. We used to have tons of leaves in our yard every fall at our old house, but since we moved to our current house 6 years ago, we have next to none. Our house is surrounded by pine trees, so all we have laying around are pine needles and pine cones. Don't get me wrong... Steve and I count it as a blessing that we don't have to rake tons of leaves anymore. But I never thought that the kids might actually miss it. Can you believe, poor little Jacob has never jumped in a pile of leaves?! :)
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Until now, that is! When we went to Tammy's house to see the goats on Saturday, the kids were excited to see all the leaves in her yard too. I guess Brian usually uses the mower to vacuum the leaves up, but when we were there, I asked for a rake and let the kids play to their heart's delight...

Now that's a great day! We had lots of fun spending time together, and it didn't cost a dime! The kids also got to feed the fish in the pond, and they played Capture the Flag with Nicole. That pretty much sums up our Saturday. I have more pictures, but for some reason I can't put more than one per post right now. I'll post more later!

Country Life

My sister Tammy invited us over on Saturday to see their new goats. The kids think visiting Aunt Tammy's house is almost as good as going to the zoo. I guess since they're city kids, they get excited when we see all the horses, cows, sheep and who knows what else. Jacob got to see some llamas when we visited earlier this year.
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These little goats are so adorable! Daisy is on the left and Lily is on the right. They are so playful, they love to run and jump and climb, so it is fun just to watch them.

Thanks for having us over, Tammy! We had fun!!

Mmmm.... Candy!!!

We had a fun Halloween this year. The weather was great, and I love when Halloween falls on a Friday! It makes for a much more leisurely, enjoyable evening. The kids can enjoy the sugar high, and I don't have to worry about getting them off to school the next morning after the subsequent crash. Here are my little trick-or-treaters:

Abby was Hannah Montana, Jake was Stitch, and Noah was a ninja. Noah made his own nunchuks to complete his costume. Once again, Nate was off with his friends at another youth group event.

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We took Roxxie with us as we went from house to house.... she was so funny! She did not like all those scary, costumed people. She howled her little head off the entire time. The rest of us had fun, though.

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Hope you all had a great weekend too!