Well...that was a job!

Yesterday out with Jim, the wind started to pick up, I worried about the bunnies.

Called Bob (next door neighbour) and asked him if the 'tent' was still standing.

He said, yup, everything looks good. I relaxed a bit.
got home...checked the tent...well...it wasn't all right.

So got all the rabbits out. Jim a total sweetie for helping me with this as he was still tired physically from Saturday's rescue.

Put them on the grass, covered them with a tarp.
When in town on Monday I had asked Princess Auto if I could return the tent and get a new one. They said "yup!" so did that today.

Lauren came over at 5ish with Bella. Bella is a doe that I bred last summer so she's a bit more than a year old. She's had an 'oops' litter. She needed to rehomed out of fairness to her... Her family is getting a new housemate and quarters are getting tighter something had to give and so Bella came to live here. I don't mind. I've regretted not being able to keep one from that litter and Bella is just a knock out.

Anyways, Lauren said she'd help us put up the new tent. Wow...did her helpfulness ever come in handy. :) Took us an hour to get it all set. Another hour to get most everyone back in and squared away...until we had to break for supper.

After supper I put the rest of the bunnies away. That was a challenge.

Decided to get the guinea pigs out of their wet housing...I have NO idea how they managed to get wet but they succeeded. So they are now in their summer housing pen.

Lost two mice to the rain last night. I didn't realize the tarp I covered them with lacked in the waterproofing department so they almost drowned. Two (one baby and one adult) got too wet and died. The rest I managed to rescue! The babies I brought in the house and used the hair dryer on them for a bit. And I managed to catch one of my mouse escapees tonight. YEAH!!! :)

Boy are my muscles sore.

Beginning of February

So it's the second day of February...ground hog day I think. (do I really care???) :)

Spent most of the night sleeping last night, interspersed with the noise of Justin coughing (to me is seemed like coughing his lungs out). Don't like the cough, but overall he doesn't seem rattlely in his breathing so I'm not too concerned yet...but if he's still coughing really hard by mid-week I'll probably take him to the doctor just for a once over.

Jim is getting a sore throat...here's praying that it doesn't become a full-blown cold. he's been running a bit short on sleep lately so we're letting him sleep in a bit this morning.

Justin's been enjoying watching LOTS of movies lately. Mostly on Thomas the train. :) he likes Thomas that boy does. :)

we watched ratatouille the other night...that was fun. Nice movie. We'll need to watch Wall-E this morning because it has to go back to the video store this afternoon and there's no point in renting a movie without watching it!

Lots of fun yesterday afternoon playing out in the snow. we even dug out the sand-box since Justin needed a truck to carry snow with. it was SO nice out. :)

Jesse came over with his doe Bailey to get her bred to Baskin. That was an experience in itself! He was willing..she was a bit more....reticient shall we say. BUT he got the job done. I had a disappointment this week with losing a litter of baby rabbits. Hopefully won't have that happen again.

Anyways, I think that's about it. Talk more another time.

January Updates

January has been A COLD month!

I am slowly getting better from the bug that inflicted me in one way or the other throughout December. Doctor tests revealed nothing. I find I still need to focus on blander foods lest my digestive system react negatively.

Jim is doing well.

Justin is starting to figure out the whole toileting thing at night. Sometimes he gets up and goes back to sleep, other times he's up at 230 and raring to go. Jim and I tend to disagree with him at those times and then it's just a matter of trying to keep him quiet enough that SOMEONE can get some sleep. :)

I've managed to sell most of our baby guinea pigs. Justin has requested that we keep one of the Rainbow ones, so we've done so. Just three left to sell, two are spoken for.

One of Jim's cichlids has a mouthful of babies. He caught her today and put her in a net holder for live bearers. She's unimpressed, but hopefully those babies will survive. :)

My guppies are starting to multiply well. My hope is to sell them, but if for some reason I cannot, they will make good supplemental food for the cichlids.

Hmm...now what else?
Not a whole lot. We're having snow tonight. Kinda pretty, but rather miserable to work in. :)

okay...It's November 10

My knee is starting to do pretty good.
LOTS of work to get done outside...we have snow coming this week and next.
BOY that knee of mine put a kibosh on things..

Anyways, part of life.

Now...what can I say for an update....not a whole lot!

Had fun at the Rockton Rabbit Show with Jesse this past Saturday. Stopped into visit with Judy for a little while as well. Justin had fun at Aunt Judy's until he bonked his head into her elbow. (that's straight from his mouth, then they both had oowies). :)

Jim's discovered rust of more of an issue on Jamie (the mazda) than he thought it was.
He's continuing to work on Benny (the sunrunner, he's looking for a new body for it instead he thinks).
Quinn (the van) needs new pins in the doors. Somehow he thinks I can help him with this. I think those doors will be awfully heavy. But we'll see. yes...I can be a supportive wife in this too..I THINK!

What else...I've sold a whack of bunnies lately. We need to find a big tarp to go over the tent and part of the shed. Will probably need to find some more bungee cords as well.

Not a whole lot else I can think about.
Oh...Justin likes doing this at night before he goes to bed.
who loves you....oh let's see .. mommy loves you, daddy loves you, grammer loves you, oma and papa love you, your cousins love and your aunties and uncles love you and your church family loves you... but most of all...who loves you? GOD loves you.
He smiles. says it back to me with a grin on his face.
we say good night.
he falls asleep.
Life is quiet. :)

Oh...that comes from this book by Noel Piper. It's a nice book.

September is closing soon

Life in the past two weeks ....

Things of Justin I want to remember
1. there's a song that has a line Come sail away, come sail away with me. Come sail away come sail away with me.... I had that line running through my head the other day and was singing it. What do I hear Justin singing in the sandbox while he's moving dirt? Come dig away, come dig away wif me. Dig away, dig away. Just belting it out. :) Was fun. Made me and Jim laugh.

2. We were singing songs ... twinkle twinkle little star....and I changed the words to it "twinkle twinkle little bat, how i wonder where you're at". He listened and then looked at me quizzically... "Mom! That's not my favourite song! You're teasing me!"... then he started to sing "twinkle, twinkle little star." he got stuck and "mom, help!" so together we sang twinkle twinkle. :)

3. His emerging sense of humour..and he's got the strangest giggle. :) Reading books at night, he'll change the story on purpose and then laugh hysterically. So we make a game of it rather than getting frustrated with it. It's funny. Though....a bit repetitive at times. The other night he did it with the foot book from Dr. Seuss. Everytime it said foot, he'd say Head. and then giggle away. :) He's a silly boy.

he also just LOVES the duck feet book. Chortles away, makes up stories about it. And I have to be the mad mommy sending the duck foot boy away. :)

I've learned why he doesn't like me singing.... It's TOO loud. If I sing quietly, for the most part he doesn't mind. Or if I'm singing loudly when caring for the bunnies he's cool with that too. He's a boy who at this stage in his life, does not like loud noises.

Momma rabbits who die leaving 11 babies behind helps one develop a bit more patience. It also is funny how full of happiness a person can get when a baby bunny figures out the bottle and goes into a deep sucking mode of "GIVE ME THAT MILK NOW!". I can get, 9 of the eleven to suck the bottle, one to drink milk from a saucer lid, and one, well...it nibbles on the nipple and slowly get milk into it's tummy.

What else....Jim had a nasty cold last week. Wiped him out. Justin is almost over his cold. Yesterday I fought dizzy spells all day...who knows what was up with that. I think I have two more bunnies sold. My little quiet holland lops...if I had eight of them I could probably have them all sold and picking which one I'm keeping would be so very easy.

I've gotten one garden put to bed for the winter, another few zillion to go. :) I've learned that having a dedicated onion bed doesn't work for me and how I garden. So I"ll need to figure out how to do that better. My tomatoes have done well this year. Had a fellow coming by to purchase my yellow tomatoes from me. Nice to make some cash.

Oh...I've reorganized the book room and Justin's room. A great many of his toys are upstairs now, I'm moving his craft stuff upstairs which means I"ll be able to tidy the kitchen up more, and oh...it's all coming together. Slowly...but it's coming together. :) yeah!!!!!

It's into June

Okay, our family over the past three weeks or so.

Busy. :) That would be a good way to describe it.

Jim's had LOTS of meetings. I"m looking forward to summer when he has a few less meetings. It'll be like having my hubby back!

Justin's been growing and learning lots. He made me laugh and cry tonight.
Laughter amidst frustration. He decided he would make a nice bunny nest tonight. Guess what he used???? laundry...both clean and dirty AND all the clothes from his room...every single last piece that he could find and reach. MY laundry..of the drawers he could open. Ditto with Daddies..... oh my.......NOT fun trying to put it all away again. Though by the time it was bed time Justin was eager to help mommy get his clothes back where they belonged. :)

We had a bit of a visit at Nancy's tonight (next door neighbour). She's back in school full-time to become an office administrator. Her son and niece were playing out front so Justin thought he'd join them. I invited Nancy to have me help her garden anytime she needed help.

Justin helped me plant the crab potatoes. yes...you read that right. I had some stuff not come up on the garden, and thought...oh right, I hadn't planted potatoes why not plant some? I had some potatoes growing 'eyes' so I asked Justin if he'd help me plant them. Well..those crab potatoes were all tired and they had to go to bed and sleep under the ground. They were hiding! :) it was fun listening to all his little boy talk with those crab potatoes. :) he then helped me replant my beans. Next week I may replant some lettuce and transplant my ground cherries to where I want them growing.

We've had mice and baby bunnies born. I always like new life.

My niece Ange got married. Monty seems like solid rock of a guy. He's a tattoo artist from Alaska. I got called a crackpot at the wedding because I'm daring to home-school Justin. :) I was quite taken aback at first and then I figured....older lady, not "up" with the times. We chatted a bit afterwards and she amended her crackpot statement to "those who home-school are rather different". I thanked her for that compliment. :)

My main man Jim....he's a handy man. He's almost done building this really cool workbench in the garage. :) YEAH!!!!! Looks good thus far. Hopefully it will prove to be as functional as it looks. :) I'm rather proud of his abilities.

Oh.. that reminds me. I was talking with one of the ladies at work today and not sure how we got on the topic but I mentioned that I trusted Jim implicitly (not to have an affair). She was shocked. She said...you do realize that we live in Huron county right? I said so? I wasn't raised here, neither was my man, and I trust him implicitly. She was just confounded and so very intrigued by the notion. I find that rather sad. Probably should have found a way to bring God into the conversation, but I didn't, and it was a short conversation.

as to me...I've been working on spring cleaning the house. One room per week is my goal. This week I got the main bedroom cleaned. Got the back yard tidied up as well. I've managed to get a few other things done this week as well but you all don't need to hear all about that. :)

Anyways, it's getting late. I'm tired and going to bed. Keep well all.

Middle of April

I've just realized I haven't done a family update lately. :)

So.... what have we been up to lately?

about this lad of ours ---

• Justin's favourite word lately is NO. He's fairly straight forward, everything is NO! It's a bit frustrating at times. BUT overall he's still a pretty good lad.
  
• We've learned that right now water is absolutely fascinating...making rivers and waterfalls, sitting there and watching it. I've learned to watch him carefully with water because he'll dump it in places you really don't want it -- found him one day dumping loads of water into the mouse food container (it still had mouse food in it) I had to lay it all out on a sheet to get it all dried again. ARGH! Silly lad. :) AND he's learned the joy of throwing water at people. :) Fortunately he's fairly easy to out-run at this point in his life.
  
• He likes to be silly - he'll do something and I ask what he's doing...'Justin silly boy!' will be the response...and sometimes it is safe, harmless and silly, and other times it likes "no Justin, that's not silly, that's wrong...don't break the rabbits food bowls".
  
• He's learning to dance to music (just not mommy singing). BUT he likes to tell mommy what to sing so we often sing.
  
• He likes to go to Toddler Time, but he hates it when Missy sings the clean up song. Has a fit at home when I sing it too. Not sure if it's for the same reason though. :)
• Hoping to start swimming with him at the local pool soon. Should be fun to do that again.
• He's learning his abc's and 123's and colours. Fun to watch his mind at work. He just likes to KNOW stuff right now.

Jim

• wrenched his back/shoulder the other day not sure who, resulted in some pain and resultant lack of sleep. Found it difficult to do some things. Found he liked having a couple of back rubs through it all :)
• has sent off his paperwork to go to the Conference at the end of May. I'd drawing a blank right now as to what the conference is. But it's a pastor's conference.
  
• Continues to work hard at his job
• Is trying to get the front fender off of the Sunrunner so that he can learn how to fix the rust on it using sheet metal (or something like that). He also has plans to fix the brake lines on the Mazda as they are starting to rust up a bit. Anyways, he apparently has two more screws to get off and the penetrating oil is taking it's time to do it's thing.
• Disappointing....We got a plecko, added it to Jim's peacock aquarium, they promptly got ICK, Jim treated the tank, two fish died..and then Jim realized that he neglected to remove the carbon from the filter. Removed that, treated them again, the ICK cleared up. ARGH!!! Lost some good fish. Jim's hoping we can replace them today. So that was a disappointing thing over the past week.
  

Annette

• uh...my life...always the hardest to come to......
• My bunnies are fun! I like raising bunnies and selling the offspring. Fun work. I like seeing the different colours and personalities. Customers can be odd to deal with but I think that's pretty normal. Not bad money even if I sell the babies cheap. I've had people out from Missausaga, St.Thomas, Kitchener and of course London for them. Amazes me when people are willing to drive 1.5 hours (or more) for a bunny, but I sell to them. :)
  
• I'm starting to plant my gardens, my radishes are starting to come up already. :) I hope the spinach and lettuce come soon too. Justin is learning to stay out of the planted gardens --- I put a brick on them to help him remember.
• I've had fun learning to do build rabbit cages. :) I use old lumber and free stuff from the lumber yard. I'll have to I think buy one more piece of plywood, but other than that, should be done. I want to get the cages up off the ground but haven't figured out a cost effective way of doing that yet. Any thoughts...let me know. :)
  

Sassy, Sparks and various critters.

• Sassy is doing well. Her leg tends to bother her at times. She hasn't had an issue with Justin at all lately! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! But the weather is so nice lately she can be outside alot, and we're outside a lot too, so it's not like she's been abandoned. :) Justin's getting older and realizing that rushing a dog is NOT acceptable. She goes for walks to the park with us, rides in the car to the store (Short trips), and plays ball a lot. :) She also ALWAYS gets a good morning walk, the evening walks vary as to what's going on in the house and with Jim.
• Sparks continues to be a nice Tom Cat. He has some annoying habits that we'd like to break, but not sure that we can. He's a cat, they can be fairly particular.
• The fish...the guppies are doing well, they are very colourful which is one reason why I like them. The Kribs are growing well, we have at least one female. They assist in keeping the guppy population under control :) Also hoping to get a breeding pair so I can sell any resultant babies. That would be nice. :)
• Jim's put some new light bulbs in the tank upstairs with the south americans cichlids so they show off their colours really nicely.
• Guinea pigs, we have four girls and one boy right now. the boy is new so going through a hold stage. He was a young girls pet who simply doesn't have enough time for him. We'll see if we get youngsters from them or not.
  

That's about it I think.

Feel free to leave a comment that you've been by. :) Always nice to get comments...just click on the little comments box. If you do anonymous (because you don't want to open a blogger account) that's okay...just sign your name please. :) have a great day!

Busy Weekend

So wow...was this weekend ever busy!

Friday...Good Friday. Had a service in the morning, then Jim had a funeral home visitation. I had work. Thank goodness for Eva being around...she was able to watch Justin while I was at work and while Jim was at the visitation. The Good Friday service was apparently really good....I had no chance to listen to it as Justin did not want to go to the nursery and there was no way he wanted to go into church. He was quite adamant that Grammer get out of Sunday clothes and play with him and Mommy was to go to work! He was 32 months of profound determination. :)

Saturday we had the funeral service. Really good service. Justin sat in service until the sermon started and then we took Marcus' boy with us down to the nursery. It was rather funny at one point....Christopher started to cry and Justin's response to that was "throw him out!" (in reference to my oft repeated threat of "I'll throw you out the window") Made me laugh, which made Justin laugh and become the helpful little boy I know him to be. :) He made Christopher stop crying by his playing antics. :)

Sunday, sonrise service, breakfast and morning service. Then off to see my Sister. We had a family gathering there to celebrate birthdays and Easter. We had a lovely time. Justin hunted for Easter eggs, and had a lot of fun playing with his cousins. Tired boy fell asleep on the way home and went straight into bed.

A good weekend, but rather exhausting. :)

A Good Couple of Days

There I was Tuesday, reflecting over the day and realized that even though I didn't feel very productive over the course of the day I actually was. I managed to, despite having a dentist appointment in the morning, managed to complete all the laundry, make a supper, and do some work in the upstairs rec. room. Didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I didn't expect the freezing to hurt like a son of gun when it came out either (so I read until it was finished coming out). Jim had an executive meeting that took most of the afternoon/evening to handle.

Then Wednesday came around...I managed to have a great sleep on Tuesday night! YEAH!!!!! I don't get many of those. Anyways, got all the paperwork sorted out from the masses of piles upstairs, got that done in the morning. Got tons of dog food made (Sassy is set probably for the next three months), the dishes done, a nice supper made, played with the boy child and even had time to relax with my sweetie. I even ate healthy almost all day long! What can I say...the boy child's goldfish crackers were a bit too much of a temptation. :) Jim got some visiting done and some work on his sermons...not as much as planned because he unfortunately didn't sleep so well on Tuesday night.

Today I plan (I hope) to finish the rest of the upstairs rec room. Clean out the piggies for sure and the rabbits if the weather cooperates (needs to be mild enough mid-morning). Play outside with Justin for a bit. What else....Make supper of some sort...oh...bacon cheeseburger pasta. :) And just generally keep myself busy...I'm pretty good at that. :) I assume Jim plans to work on sermons today...probably won't see him too much here at home.

This Most Recent Weekend

So, This weekend was a busy one.... and yet a bit slower than expected.

Friday night...our open house. Boy was it ever fun! Lots of people showed up. Conversation, laughter, a couple of small presents for Justin, bundles of coats and lines of shoes on the floor. The fact that the cat was unimpressed being locked in the office, and the dog got cold locked in the garage were small prices to pay for such a nice evening. And next year I get to do it again! Oh what fun! :) People seemed to enjoy the baking that I had done, the house was nice and clean (thanks Jim's mom for helping!), and it was just very nice. :)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to visit Mom and Dad overnight because Jim had a classical appointment to preach in their church. The biggest snowstorm to hit Canada this December thought it would take the opportunity to hit us HARD! When I walked Sassy in town for her morning walk I thought hmm....the weather is drivable, but I wouldn't want to go too far. When I arrived home I learned that there were many road closures due to poor driving conditions. So we stayed put. We had hoped to go home later in the afternoon, but the roads didn't reopen until 630 pm. and having a boy that didn't nap, not having things packed to go, made returning home in the dark an undesired option. So we stayed over another night.

It was nice staying over. We played a couple of games. Ate some good food (my mom is great cook). Jim got mom's email straightened out a bit. Justin had fun playing trucks. It was odd not getting out to church, but safer to stay home. Most church services were canceled as well. Boy did we ever get a lot of snow!

Justin had a good nights sleep, we left around 930 Monday morning. got home 1114. Parked on the road because boy oh boy did we ever get a lot of snow. Justin and I waited until Daddy got a path blown out for us. I got the boy into the house, got some food out for him to nibble on while Jim got the driveway cleaned out, and blew out some paths in the backyard for Sassy dog and me to the composter and shed. Then I cared for the critters...boy where they hungry! But they all survived the storm and cold. My baby bunnies have grown and are getting hair. :) And the wee mice are old enough now to start exploring their surroundings. So they will be ready to ship out in another couple of weeks. :)

Once that was all cared for Jim wanted to head to London as per usual for Mondays. We surprised mom. She willingly cared for Justin though since he was all happy to see Grandma. Jim and I finished our Christmas shopping. :) We did make it an early return though. I was beat, Jim was sore from shoveling, and I thought it best not to overextend our welcome at gramma's. Justin fell asleep on the way home, so he went to bed right away. I walked Sassy, did my finances and then did my exercises while relaxing with Jim downstairs.

Overall a good weekend.

Open House Tomorrow Night

So our open house is on tomorrow night. Haven't gotten quite all the baking done that I intended, hopefully can rectify that today. Most of the house is cleaned and put together. Jim isn't happy with the tree yet. Some things we can't put up until the party because of a toddler lad. :)

Justin is feeling better. Jim was very achy starting Tuesday night and through yesterday. Hopefully he'll be feeling good today.

Yesterday Kathy called me up in the morning, wanted me to help her get a Turkey, so I told her to call Hayters and then we could run errands together. It was a fun time.

What else?

Oh yesterday afternoon we stopped into see Susan. She had surgery a while back and she's looking pretty good now. Her colour is good and she's able to do things more readily now. It was a nice visit. Justin had fun playing as well. It was fun watching him with the bird. they have a somewhat unfriendly cockatiel, Anyways,...this bird just LOVES children apparently. Justin had lots of fun talking with this bird, and having this bird sing back to him. Just fun. VERY loud, but fun. :)

That's it. Today I hope to get Justin to toddler time for an hour, then pick up some milk, sour cream and _____ Drawing a blank right now. And this afternoon I want to make some cookies, clean the book room a bit more and then say done with it! :) oh ...perhaps bring up some more tree decorations and tell my hubby to have at it. Perhaps the train too. :)

But right now, devotions sound good and then perhaps seeing if Justin wants to walk Sassy with me. So toodles for now! :)

December 5

Jim saw an Owl last night sitting on the window ledge outside the bathroom. Rather neat huh?

We have baby mice. I was shocked. Went out a bit more than a week ago, planning on killing the ladies as I was NOT going to bring them in the house for the winter. Anyways, they had babies! A whole whack of them. This morning I checked on them (as I do in the mornings to feed and water) and their eyes are opening. 10 days old they are now. :) Some very pretty ones in the mix too. not that is matters, ugly or pretty they bring in 75 cents each. But they are handling being outside just fine. So thinking I'll just keep the ladies and one male from the litter over the winter. In the spring I can get me a new male and keep babies from a litter or two and start all over again.

Bunnies are doing well over the winter too outside. They keep quite cozy. I'll breed them in February to hit the Easter crowd and that's good timing as they'll be able to go out on grass too in April so they won't get overcrowded.

What else...Sassy's old injury is bugging her again.

Jim had a couple of crazy busy week's but this week is a bit easier.
Justin got over one cold just to get another one. :( ah well..life of a toddler.
My foot is feeling a lot better, my back is stiff in the morning lately...not much I can do about that, just keep moving! :)

That's it!

His Sense of Humour is Developing

So last night I was doing dishes, Justin came in to "help". I asked him instead to let the dog in the house.

Off he toddled. I hear him at the back door (just like two steps away). Sassy coming? Sassy he yells. Then I hear the door open, then a giggle as the door shuts.
Sassy coming? He giggles. I hear the door open, I poke my head around the corner asking if he needs help only to see a boyo closing a door carefully just as Sassy tries to get in the house. He did this again. Sassy was being very patient.

I said "Justin are you teasing the dog?" He looked up at me and chortled.

I opened the door and let the dog in. :)

Told Jim about it. His response... He must have learned it from his mommy who likes teasing her animals too. :)

As An Aid to my Hubby

Jim told me that if he doesn't read and write it down he won't remember what Justin's chores are around the house.

1. Helps feed the fish ... does this twice a week or sometimes more often
2. Helps feed the baby bunnies
3. Helps to wash the cups (especially HIS sippy cups) while Mommy washes the dishes (or while he's playing in the sink)

So now my sweetheart has a ready and able list to go by. :)

Jim, Camping with the Men

So Jim is an active part of the Pop Up Explorer group. Each year a bunch of men go camping up at Algonquin park the first weekend in November. A bunch of Canadians and Americans. They drink beer, burn Tiki huts, have conversations, and I'm assuming perhaps do some walking about.

Jim calls at least once a day to just say how things are going.
He's been rather disappointed by the "vileness" of some of the campers this year. Finds it discouraging. He's still having fun talking with some of the more "grown-up" of the men, and some of those men he is really enjoying getting to know better, but some of the rest overrides a bit. He is looking forward to coming home. :)

Our days are mostly outlined here and here and here. Go check them out if you desire.

What else did we do this week that I failed to mention?

1. Dug up my "not hardy for winter" bulbs. Planted daffodil bulbs leftover from Jim's mom.
2. Got the composter all dug out and our new garden all filled in.
3. Brought the baby bunnies inside to get tamed up a bit.
4. Cleaned the house, seemed like umpteen times, especially with a boy child following after..... I would like this house clean before we leave next week.
5. called Jen (a friend in Ontario), we can stay with her and the family next week. They are in Oakville which will make a daily drive into T.O. a bit shorter.

Basically managed to keep fairly busy. Good thing that.

Today I'm not sure where I"m going to church. Mom and Dad's anniversary as well. Have to pick up Justin. Part of me just wants to go to London now, find a church, then wait for Justin and Mom to come back from Woodstock and then come home, let Justin nap and wait for Jim to come home. But that doesn't seem efficient to me somehow ...and tempts me too much to do stuff on Sunday that I don't need to be doing. Anyways, first I have a dog to walk.

Boy.... is this house ever quiet...........

Rainy Day

So... our life.

1. We miss our Riley dog, but it's getting better. Justin noticed today. he walked around the house today saying "an riley too? riley hidin?" What do you say to that? All I could say was "No buddy, Riley is all gone now."

2. Jim was away at Classis all day. Left at 530, arrived back at 5 p.m. He's tired. Says it was a good meeting.

3. Our van, the bearings need to be replaced.

4. Jim leaves to go up north probably next Tuesday. He will be missed. He is not sure yet if he is taking Sassy with him or not. Pros and Cons both ways. He's going camping in the cold with a bunch of men.

5. Harry's boys will take care of our critters the week that we're away. I'll pay them $10 for their trouble. They are just old enough to do it now. :) Peter is excited about taking care of the mice. :)

6. Mom and Dad are moving. I go up Monday to help. Jim is hoping the van will be done early in the a.m so it's done and out of the way. Kinda needs it fixed so that he can take it up north.

7. Justin is for the most part, potty trained at home during the day, as long as he isn't wearing pants. Going away is harder, and we're still figuring that one out. Good thing as his cloth diapers don't fit very good anymore and we've kinda given up on them.

8. Justin's room has been "fall-cleaned". All reorganized. He was a bit scared to go to bed tonight as it all looked so different. I lay down with him for one minute talking about his room and how his crib is the same, and mommy sleeps in her own room and he's just fine in his room. and such like. He settled down nicely after that.

9. Justin struggles with me going to work on Fridays. Yesterday and today he kept asking...Mommy home now? Mommy stay home now? AH!!!!! Makes me wonder how women do it all the time. How can they leave their little ones behind to go to work? I don't figure it too well. These two days make me want to just chuck the job. But I won't. I know he's fine. He is with his father. Life is good. :) Helps me pay off my credit cards, helps me get stuff that we as a family need. But ah....just tugs at me old heart strings it does....

Anyways, that's it. I have a dog to amble. Rabbits to catch and dishes to get done. Tomorrow is Sunday! YEAH!!! We get to worship God as a corporate body. :) Life is good.

Crowing a bit About Sassy

I need to crow a bit about my dog Sassy for a minute. :)

This past weekend, I went to an agility trial at Jumping for Joy in Maryhill with Jim and Sassy. We camped over Friday night in the trailer. We've in the past brought Riley with us as he's such a calm dog that nothing bothers him that it keeps Sassy all chilled out to. Like me, she's easily made tense. :) Funny how our dogs mimic who we are at times.

Anyways, Riley was NOT up to traveling. He was really, really not feeling well. Eva came over to care for Justin and Riley.

That left the problem of how do we make sure this trial is a GOOD thing for Sassy dog. Our problem-solving resulted in: making sure she ate her food...took me 20 minutes of coaxing with her favourite..CHICKEN! Found a ball for a toy (which ended up not needing too much as there were apple trees around and Sassy loves chasing apples and then eating them. During the day instead of tethering her out, she stayed inside with Jim as he did his work. She only came out for her runs and for exercise.

First run.... standard run. Contains all the different obstacles: tire, jumps, a-frame, teeter (seesaw), weave poles, tunnels and so forth. The run looked do-able. But since Sassy hasn't trialled in such a long time I thought she was capable of just doing a no-brainer and not listen OR choosing to grin at me and then do her own course or listen really well and do everything great. Forgot to factor in her handler...me... Run went great until we got the table were we had to stop for a five count. My back said OW... my brain went left-field somewhere and we got a two count refusal for the weave poles. Blanked out completely. So in this run it was "great dog, pity about the handler". :)

Second run: team. Team is HARD to get. You depend on two dogs and two handlers both being in good form on the same day on the right course. WE DID IT!!!!! Little old Dexter and middle-aged Sassy pulled it off. Two estactic handlers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Neither of which believed we had done it until we saw it on paper. WE DID IT!!!!!!!! Sassy and Dexter "q'd" ah...what a wonder. :) so pleased with both dogs listening and doing their stuff so very well.

Third run: Gamblers. This one I didn't worry about at all. Okay...wee bit of a lie, got nervous which I always do, but chilled out once we started running. I saw what the main gamble was and said to myself... Sassy can do this. She's done this type of gamble before in practice...about two years ago. This... she can do. So I thought I'd play around a bit with the stuff beforehand just to see what she would do. i.e. could she do the mini gamble? Could she do the big point obstacles despite my back just killing me by this point? She could!!!!! she could!!!!! WE WON THE CLASS!!! Totally cool! :) We beat out the competition by 2 points we did!!!!!!

Yeah for Sassy listening so well. For not getting all stressed out and only wanting to get her toy and to go home! Yeah for me holding my back together long enough to get through three runs!!!! yeah for Jim being patient and just sitting with her in the trailer when I had to do my volunteer stints. :)

It was just totally bonus today folks, just totally.
At the end of the day she got three first places for her class (specials). and two of the more important "q" ribbons for doing everything just the way she was supposed to in the time allowed for her to do it. Those two ribbons go toward a bigger title which hopefully we'll finish off next year. :)

And to think I went into this trial thinking we'd come home empty. thinking that after 8 months off she and I would be too rusty to get through anything well. HA! I say HA to that! My dog is TOO good for that! (imagine a very big grin) So yes... I think I can be proud of my girlie. Sometimes I do wonder what she'd have been like with a different, better handler ..... I think she'd be national/international quality I do! :)

Okay.... all done crowing now. :)

Weekly update - sept 20

Lifted the lawn mower wrong a couple of days agao..just a little thing. Sent my back into major spasm. VERY irritating. Just been a summer of irritation! :) develops character right? Side benefit though...JIM will wash the kitchen floor for me. I rather dislike our mop so I usually do a hands and knees thing, so the floor desperately needs a good cleaning so Jim has promised to give it a once over.

Jim thinks he has caught what Justin and I fought with over the weekend. Gave Justin a day of vomiting and diarrhea. me...If I ate I felt icky, but if I didn't I felt worse somehow. Jim has a general feeling of malise going on right now. Hopefully it will pass over him quickly. Changed his plans to go visiting an elderly lady of our church tonight. she's like... 98 or something like that. Lives in assisted living now. Just finished battling an illness so Jim's not real keen on helping her battle something else. :) Go figure eh! :)

Sassy is entering her first trial in almost 8 months this weekend. I've dropped her down a height level because I don't like how she won't do everything high that I ask, but otherwise seems fine. But she's full of zip again so I figure.. it's a small trial, let's see how she does. :)

What else.....I could just be really chatty and tell you EVERYTHING that I've done this week... do you want me to be that chatty though??? that's always the question. :)

Tuesday... laundry (ALL the laundry done!). Lawn mowed. Killed three bunnies to make into dog food. Rearranged all the critters to make fit the pens that we have constructed. Groomed Riley. Practiced agility with Sassy. Played with the boy child. Cooked three healthy meals! Even got most of the kitchen clean except for dishes..my back said enough is enough by the end of the day.

Yesterday... gardening. Have to admit, I asked Jim to help me with dig the potatoes loose. Justin helped me pull the onions. Learned a new thing... Had onions left from last year that had "hidden" themselves. Figured I'd just let them stay in the garden and see what happened with them over the course of the year. one... they flowered. SOME of them grew onions out of the flower head (like Egyptian walking onions do) Others just grew seeds out of the seed head, and some also grew babies like tulips do. Totally amazed me to see the differences in them as they were apparently all the same variety of red onion. Rather neat.

Also hmmm... Oh..processed all the free meat I got for the dogs off freecycle. Getting that ready to make my dog food next week sometime for them. it was funny. Had this HUGE roast that just daunted me to make into ever so many smaller pieces. Decided to whack it in half in give it to the dogs. Note... this was probably a 12 pound roast. VERY solid. Anyways, wanted to see if ever hungry Riley would still be hungry if he ate half of it. AND if Sassy could even manage to finish it. They both succeeded. Then they sate some ribs from a rib roast I could barely cut through. To make it meal sized would have required more work than I wanted to put into them. so Riley got two ribs, and Sassy got one and a bit. But Sassy... VERY rotund. No desire for supper. No desire for a walk...just let me sleep and digest please is her attitude. Riley.... Hey...where's supper now? Hey...food is good? Hey dumb human... I think you forgot something!!!!!!
Dumb irritating dog! You've had enough food for 2 days dog! actually enough for 4 days!!!! Ah well...he's old and semi-senile...what can one expect? Makes me laugh even if he is irritating. :)

Update on the dogs this morning: Sassy VERY eager and happy to go for a walk. Chased bunnies and squirrels, said hi to our regular morning walk people, with two normal poops. Riley, walked slowly, not a lot of interest in things, but walked nicely, one not so good poop which is normal for him if I change things on him. He's still hungry! Silly dog. no breakfast this morning for you! Your tummy is still full!

What else...not a whole lot. Justin went to bed well last night. Woke up during the night talking and playing, so now when I want to go to toddler time with him he's sleeping in! Silly lad. Jim slept fairly well last night and he isn't feeling as perky as he'd like, but better than last night. Hopefully he can do the visiting today that he wants to get done.