Our Canine Companion

Well, this week's excitement has been the addition of a dog to our family. Dear friends had to leave the state, and due to some unforeseen circumstances with their daughter who was planning to take care of the him, it ended up that he was going to have to go to a kennel. Last time he went to a kennel for over a week he ended up with bleeding foot pads, which when I discussed this with my hairdresser this week I found out that a nervous dog without enough stimulation will begin to lick their feet or other areas even until they are bleeding! I knew of his last kennel visit and I didn't want that to happen again and I certainly didn't want my friends to worry about their dog while they had so many other serious concern on their mind. Soooooooooooo..............we have added Teddy to our family. Most of you know that having a dog is something that my children have wanted for a long time and that I have fought against just as hard! Let the adventures begin!

And so it begins

Well, we have been waiting to see how all this economy stuff would effect us. Our income comes from our rental properties. Ken is developing a couple internet businesses, but they are not income producing yet, so we depend totally on our rentals. We just found out that our major renter cannot fulfill their rent anytime soon. We are not totally surprised by this, but it is still very disconcerting to have it actually happen. So today has been filled with figuring out where to go from here and how to make cutbacks in our spending and tighten our belts, just like so many others have. We have some major decisions to make over the next week. We will have to act rather quickly on this matter in order to get all our ducks in a row and not let the situation get to the desperate point. What to do, what to do.......

Necessity is the Mother of Invention............

There is rarely a dull moment around here when Ethan is home from college, and last night was no exception! Friends had given him a hydrogen car kit (toy of course) to build and he needed some distilled water. Of course, I had none. While Ken and I were out to dinner Ethan decided to make his own distilled water. These pictures are what I came home to! It actually worked pretty well, but at 10:30 I finally went to bed and he still didn't have enough water to run his car. Thankfully nothing blew up in my kitchen. Hmmm..........I wonder how this would work with grapes? Could we maybe make wine this way?!!!

It's a little late but...............

I forgot to post pictures from when my brother, Bruce, and his wife Cami were here during December! I wanted to put pictures up with this and didn't get around to it before now. We had a really nice visit with them and LOVED seeing my little nephew, Logan! He is just adorable and is going to be quite the little guy as he grows up. Wish we could see them more often!

A picture is worth a thousand words.........

How cold is it? Well, it's soooooooooooooo cold that I had to take pictures of our thermometer to prove it got this cold! I've seen some low temps around here in my 40 some years, but this really is the coldest I've ever seen. The top numbers are the outside temp and the bottom numbers are the temp in my kitchen. Thankfully there was no school scheduled for today and the kids got yesterday off due to the cold so we are having a nice little break here this week. I'm sure glad Ethan was home and not trying to walk back and forth to classes in temps like this. It is due to get a little warmer starting tomorrow so life should return to it's usual pace.

New Year, New Post

Ahhh, my poor neglected blog! I just realized that it had been awhile since I put anything on here for my two loyal viewers to read, hehe!

Let's see. Since I posted last Ethan came home from college. So far I haven't seen a lot of him. He sleeps pretty late in the morning and most days I'm already gone somewhere by the time he gets up. I do get to feed him and chat a bit in the evenings with him, though! He heads back to school next Wednesday already for the next semester. He did good on his finals and with one semester under his belt, I think he'll do even better this spring semester.

Ethan and Alex got to attend the winter camp that our church organization held in Montello, WI for a week. Ethan was on staff as an assistant dance instructor and Alex was a camper. Both had an awesome time and there are now many pictures on Facebook to attest to that! Mariah is looking forward to FINALLY being old enough to go to it next winter. Ethan's been teaching her some of the swing dance moves that he taught the classes and she loves it!

Our community was shocked and saddened by the death, at the end of December, of a dear lady who I worked with several years ago at school and who was dating Ken's father. It was not of natural causes and is still under investigation. Our community is a little skittish of the whole thing still and we are praying for results to the many unanswered questions to come quickly.

Ken was sick with a bad sinus/head cold for most of the two weeks the kids were off school. It caused him to snore something aweful and my earplugs didn't hold up to their promise to block out loud noises, including snoring! I ended up on the couch one night and in the beds of whoever happened to be sleeping somewhere else for a night. Finally Ken offered to sleep in Alex's room while he was at camp so that I could get a full night's rest. It was kind of like the three bears story around here for awhile..............trying all the beds until finding one that was comfortably quiet!! He's finally well, but now Ethan is sick! I think Ethan's is just a cold. I've heard that many of the kids got sick after camp, more so this year than in past years :-( Hope he's better by the time he has to head back to school.

Mariah has started basketball at school. This was the first week of practice and the first two nights she was so sore she could hardly walk! It's getting better now and she really loves it. Her first game is in two weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing her play. There are only 7 on the team so I anticipate she will get more than enough playing time!!

Oh! An update on our Squirral Relocation program!! So far we are up to 11. I do have a hunch that they are finding their way home again and we are just catching the same one or two over and over again! How can we possibly have that many squirrals around here? I suggested we spray paint their tails before releasing them so that we will know for sure, but have you ever seen a squirrel in a cage? They aren't too happy about it and tend to flip around pretty quick in there!

Well, I think that brings you up to date on our local happenings. I'll try to stay caught up better!