Our plans for the next two weeks

Jim is on holidays for the next two weeks...ah..whatever shall we do with such freedom? :)

1. Clean and empty the trailer and put it to bed for the winter. That is both good and bad. It means no more camping, but it also means another job done.
2. Jim wants to build a tv stand then....
3. We can rearrange the living room -- I like it!
   
4. Help his mom tear out her kitchen floor and the bottom cabinets
5. Clean this house and get ready to leave for a week starting Monday
6. I go to coffeebreak Wednesday morning with Justin. and the library Friday morning.
   
7. Jim changes the oil in Quinn (the van) in prep for going to Algonquin for FYBO.
8. I need to decide if I'm going to try to attend part of a weekend conference. Hard to decide because Justin is still not well, and there's a scrapping thing in Kitchener which is free, and I'd like to meet Kim and she'll probably be at the conference - but not sure if doing the Friday night is a good idea since I'm tired this week and night driving isn't such a good idea and.....Oh...I just don't know. I'd also like to do some more rearranging here at home of stuff....that I can do best if Jim ain't around.... There's just too many decisions to make!
   
9. Give Sassy dog a good bath and brush-out (not in that order)
10. Pack food for Jim and Sassy.
    
11. Jim goes to FYBO this coming weekend. He leaves Thursday a.m. comes back Sunday p.m. He takes the Sassy dog with him.
    
12. Pack bags for our mutual vacation week.
    
13. Next week we go to Toronto where
1. We stay at a good friends house.
2. Go the Royal.
3. Have a dinner and movie night.
4. Leave Justin with Eva (Jim's mom) for three days.
5. Meet Eva somewhere between Toronto and London to exhange Justin.
   
6. Have Justin with us Wednesday to Friday morning.
7. Bum around Toronto taking in various sites and attractions.
   
8. Leave Justin with Judy (Friday morning to Saturday evening).
14. And we'll return on Sunday.
    

Hopefully we'll have a good time away. If not, well...that will really suck, but we'll survive.

Hallowe'en at the Pinery

So we came back a bit early.

We went up on Friday night to Pinery Provincial Park to do a wee bit of camping. The Pinery has a hallowe'en weekend every year which we discovered last year was a lot of fun. A whole whack of people from the MFCC were there as well. We arrived shortly after lunch, got all set up, did a bit of visiting, and had supper out at the Colonial in Grand Bend... by the way, I do not recommend eating there... although the staff are friendly, the food.. leaves a wee bit to be desired. Jim had a classis meeting in Ancaster on Saturday so he went home to sleep so that he didn't need to arise so early in the morning on Saturday.

We both ended up missing the potluck...Jim because of the meeting, me because Justin was sleeping. Well.... I did get a hotdog! :) Erik (an MFCCer) was a real doll - he and his son David, and another lad (Lewis) split our wood for us so I could build a nice fire. I had hoped to surprise Jim with a nice warm fire to sit by... that plan didn't quite materialize due to inclement weather and a power outage.

We had intended to stay until Sunday afternoon, but while Jim was at his meeting, the power went out early afternoon. That meant...a COLD trailer. Not fun. It was actually warmer outside than inside for a while --- so we went visiting, Justin played, got soaked, got changed, and thought to go out again...but then the wind picked up. Since he is still battling an ear ache I thought a strong wind and a little boy were not a good mix. Ever try amusing a 15 month old in a trailer that is cold for 3 hours unassisted? With two largish dogs who wanted to be in as well? Not my idea of fun. We did problem solve though.... the boyo played on the the table (it was flattened to bunk size) and the dogs stayed by the sink. Then it was time to go trick or treating which was a good deal of fun. Met lots of nice folks too.

Justin dressed up at "baby Mickey and his toys" which is one of his favourite books. He'll do that again on Tuesday in the neighbourhood.

Jim returned at 6 p.m. to a trailer with the awning up. He wanted to know what happened with that, I didn't know as I'd been out with Justin treating. But Oz and Us said a couple of people were at the trailer working with the awning. I told Jim that my best guess was that the awning came loose yet again in the wind and that the neighbours were helpful. :) I mentioned the power was out and that we were cold that perhaps going home would be an option as having a cold trailer and earachy boy didn't seem a good plan. He agreed. I stayed with the boy in Oz and Us' trailer (it was warm...ah the beauty of a hard side with propane heaters ... mmmm.....) Yes, I may convert to the 'darkside'. The power stayed out until 730 pm, by which time the trailer was basically packed up.

We were home by 820, put the boy to bed, put the trailer up again, and relaxed. :) I recalled what my Sunday School lesson would be, hubbie did something else and the boyo slept. And now it's Sunday morning, Sassy's been walked....Riley well...he didn't come and I didn't think to look in the living room (he ALWAYS sleeps in the Kitchen) and since I couldn't find him I just walked Sassy so they're out in the backward and he'll have to wait till after church for a walk.

Enjoy your day all!

Applesauce

Last week our family went out to get some more apples. We had gone out earlier with Gramma to pick apples at Farmer Jacks and Justin had a blast.

He had so much fun getting two apples and then putting them in the bright red buckets we had been loaned for picking.

Sassy (in the back ground) enjoyed chasing and eating some of those apples.

BUT, I didn't have enough for just doing apples up. The ones we picked were nice eating apples for the winter. They store lovely in our cold cellar. So we went back to get some cheapies : empires and macintosh.




Yesterday while Justin was napping I decided to make applesauce. It was going well, and then he woke up. Of course he immediately thought that helping his mommy was just the thing to do!

He had a hoot! :)

He stirred, he mixed, he got his fingers into jars. He had so much fun....

Mommy learned a valuable lesson....DON'T dress the boy in white if you think he might want to help! Just don't do it!

What do you think, does he like it?
Do you think he got messy enough? :)

A couple of updates

1. My Aunt's (Annie (Jan's wife) from in holland) surgery went well. They'll know in a few days if the growth was cancerous or not.

2. My mom-in-law got us an appointment with a doctor that she knows. He is hoping to get us in with a doctor in Ilderton who is bringing in a couple of new doctors. Would be nice for Justin to have a family doctor. He noted that Justin's ear has not healed over completely, and wants to see him again in two weeks to see how he is doing. He was a VERY nice doctor. If I could have a nice doctor like him for our family, it would be really nice. :) But time will tell. If the ear hasn't healed in two weeks he may refer us to a ear, nose, and throat specialist.

3. My dad is slowly continuing to improve. Bad weather makes his joints feel worse. But overall he is thinking more clearly, and walking more upright. He is taking less meds as well which is a good thing. It will still be a long road to complete recovery. He continues to have a lot of muscle spasms.

October 11

My mom and sister and sister-in-law have this yearly tradition. Each year they spend one day out shopping for clothes together. I've tended not to go along. I can't say I'm real keen on clothes shopping. I do the minimum and now that I'm married, my hubbie takes care of that for me a lot. I tell him I need new stuff, and he keeps his eye out. He has more of a knack for it than I do. :) Who would have expected that as a good side-benefit of being married!

But yesterday Justin and I chose to go out with them. My aunt is visiting from Holland so it made for a nice day out. I went up the night before and it was really cool.. my aunt showed me all the pictures of her grandchildren (my cousins and their kids). It was fun to get to know them a wee bit. :) My mom wanted to get a new Sunday outfit for the fall/winter as she needed a new outfit.

Since I HATE shopping for clothes I said I'd go for the morning only, besides the fact that staying all day would be too hard for Justin to do. But thought it would be fun to get out with the ladies. It was!

Justin and I took breaks and went to the disney store where he climbed up this mountain of stuffies. He tried hard to convince me that he needed not one but TWO winnie the pooh stuffies. at $25 I said...I THINK NOT! He cried but...ah well, a boy needs to learn he can't have EVERYTHING he wants. :)

Mom didn't have success before lunch. We ate at Subway in the food court. Justin loved the kids toy that came with lunch. Then off to the pet store to enjoy the critters there. Justin just LOVED the mice. Just absolutely fascinated by them. :) We had fun, but then off to the car while Justin napped as I drove home. I went home a different way, called Jim when I wasn't sure where to turn and got home in two hours. It was a good day away and I'm glad I went along this year. :)

He's learning.....

My boy Justin is learning to eat with a spoon.

This mornings breakfast was "applesauce breakie". It is a mix of applesauce and cottage cheese.

He gets stuff on the spoon, and then as he brings it to his mouth it somehow gets turned upside down so half lands on the table top or his shirt, and the other half in his mouth.

I helped him finish. :)

Perforated Ear Drum

That's what my boyo Justin has. It's not fun.

Apparantly he had an ear infection that went unnoticed. Go figure that.

Part of me is feeling like I'm a really bad mom to not have noticed. He played, he laughed, he talked, he had a couple of nights of being REALLY tired, but otherwise he acted like himself.

No pulling of the ear, no running a temp for a few days, just a quiet normal little boy.

All we had for signs was a high temp on Wednesday night, not wanting to sleep or lay down. Made for a hard night for mommy. Then Thursday I saw stuff coming out of his ear. Took him to emerg (without a hospital card!) so hopefully we won't be billed. Discovered that his temperature had a reason for being...and his ear drum is perforated. (from the ear infection).

He was put on meds and advised to take motrin for pain. Hopefully the meds will work really well.

The advice is to get a family doctor so that we can get a referral to an ear, nose and throat specialist. Generally ear drums heal quite nicely. The concern is that it might affect his hearing from fluid build-up. Getting a family doctor is tough so... Jim's mom knows a doctor who MIGHT be able to get us a referral to the appropriated specialist. :) Hope so! :)

Meanwhile, we'll put ourselves on a list to see if we can get ourselves a family doctor.

Just Give me Jesus

I am going to the Just Give Me Jesus conference this coming weekend. You can find more information on that here.

I'm not entirely sure why I want to go. I'm not a huge one for wanting to go to these types of things. I've been "burned" too many times by bad teaching, or weird charismatic type stuff, but I saw this announced and I immediately thought to myself... I want to go.

I even have things competing with it.
1. A scrapbooking show RIGHT HERE IN LONDON. Yes I know...I'm one of those strange people, I like scrapbooking. I do. And it looks like it would be a nice and FUN show. Not going.
2. Connect 06. It's a teachers thing that our denomination is promoting. Not going.
3. something else that I can't think of right now.
4. Means I"m skipping out on teaching Sunday School this weekend, which means my student will miss out as well.

And for some reason...I still want to go.

Jim worked hard this week, despite his miserable cold (which I know is miserable because I'm still getting completely over it). BUT he was unable to fix my car (Jamie) so that means I have to drive the van (Quinn) to Toronto...and I'd rather have my own car...and I'm still wanting to go. Go figure that eh?

So...I'll go. I'll stay at a friends house so I don't have as far to drive. I'll figure out how to get there. AHH!!!!

I'll leave our son at my mom and dad's for the weekend. That should be fun for them.

Jim will stay home and get better and take care of the dogs and work and be all alone. He's not looking forward to that but he still says... GO. And then he adds... It will be good for you.

So ...will it be good for me? Will I learn more of the great God that I serve? Hope so. :)

And The Boy Surpised me

Today Justin surprised me. We were getting ready to go for a walk and I asked him if he was going to bring black cat or Collie. And from the door I heard "col-col". And off he trotted to get his beloved collie. I hadn't expected an answer...I just expected him to go get whatever he wanted. So it was kinda cool. :)

It was cute. We went to the Pet Store today. A new one opened up downtown so we just had to go check it out. They had the usual hamsters, fish etc. And at the back of the store was this fluffy young Himalayan kitten. :) OH BOY!!!! Was the look on Justin's face. Off he trotted. This kitten just made his day, because Justin stuck a finger through the bars and this kitten rubbed back and forth along that finger. Justin was just delighted! A cat that likes him! :)

And I surprised Justin. While Justin was napping I took the opportunity to clean the fish out and then move them around. Justin woke up just as I was almost done. So I brought him downstairs so he could observe me while I finished. But oh no!!! Mommy moved MIDAS!!!!! Talk, talk, talk, talk and point point point. This little boy was so taken aback at the nerve I had! I MOVED HIS FISH!!!!!!!! Justin just couldn't get over it. Even when I brought the bright gold fish in from outside and put them in Midas' old tank, Justin was just pointing and talking about Midas being moved! That boy....has a real love-hate relationship with that fish. :)

Update on Feeding our Dogs

As you know, our dogs are being fed a B.A.R.F. diet.

It's going well.

Riley, our senior dog, has the most trouble adapting to this diet. We learned with him, that he needs his food frozen so that he would scarf it down without chewing! We learned that he needs beer in order to keep his tummy working well. Three times a week he gets 1/3 to 1/4 can of beer.

Sassy likes her food in small pieces. She is VERY particular about her food. She learned that fruit is once again something to be enjoyed! Now if only I can keep her OUT of the raspberry bushes!

They get fed twice a day. Between 8-10 a.m. and between 630-830 p.m.

Morning meal: Riley gets 1/3 cup heaping of organ meats. Sassy gets 1/3 cup even of organ meats. Twice a week they each get a half cup. With this they get a 1/2 cup of schlump.

Schlump is a ground up mix of all types of veggies: carrots with their tops, turnips, lettuce, swiss chard, tomato (sparingly), cucumber, zucchini, bell pepper, beets or whatever I have on hand. Generally speaking 1/2 is leafy veggie, and the rest a mix of whatever I have. More above ground veggie than below. I also throw in 1-2 apples (depending on size) or a banana. SOMETIMES they are lucky (at least in Sassy's mind) because I'll give them cut up melon. I also put in all the egg shells from the week and have recently started adding some oil as I think they need something just a bit more, I'm hoping to add cod liver oil for the winter months (just need to find in bulk).

To this morning mix they also get all of Justin's leftovers from the day before. Yum Yum!

At night they get raw meat. As mentioned earlier...Riley's comes frozen. 8-10 oz. Sassy's is nicely in smallish chunks 10-12 oz.

They are both at a good weight. Sassy could stand to loose another couple of pounds. Riley shouldn't lose any more SO... twice a week Riley gets Sassy's portion and vice versa.

They have both nicely blown out their coats. They look shinier and nicer than ever!

We took canned fish out of their diets as they both consistently had diarrhea with it. And I figured I did NOT want to deal with that (and figured they didn't want to either).

What the dogs don't like is
1. empty food bowls! Riley grew up ALWAYS having food available, now it's not.
2. Sundays. They only get one meal. At night. And it's just a larger portion of their morning meal with yogurt and oatmeal added. All they get in the morning is ONE LOUSY dog cookie!
3. they have to SIT before I feed them, and
4. they are tied up to eat. Sassy doesn't mind, Riley hates it since he eats faster and likes to steal Sassy's food.

So what do I like about this diet?
1. Dogs are healthier
2. Sassy LIKES to eat now.
3. Easy to adjust if dog is a bit over or under weight or going to work hard (i.e. Sassy at a trial gets more the night before/morning of)
4. Costs about the same as feeding mid-range kibble
5. Riley occasionally plays again
6. Easy to vary what goes into diet to avoid allergy issues.

What don't I like?
1. more labour intensive with meal prep, clean up etc.
2. harder to travel with
3. hubbie dislikes feeding it himself, BUT likes that they are on it.

So that's our update on our dogs and their new eating patterns.

1, 2, 3, 4 .......

So how many teeth do you think a 14 month old boy should have?

1? 6? perhaps even..... 8?

Well, let me tell you...this boy of mine thinks that having TEN teeth is a really good idea!

6 on top
4 below.

AND THEY ARE SHARP LITTLE TALONS TOO!

He got them September 7, 2006.

Recently Read books

"Life of Pi," by Yann Martel

This book was interesting to read. I"m part of a book club at the local library. Not that I've ever been able to attend a meeting yet, but I'm at least a reading member. This book had some funny lines, some very questionable theology, and I left wondering if Pi made up the whole story, OR if things really happened as people at the end of the book. Not entirely sure. Here's a review of it that I found on-line. It's not a bad read. Check it out.


Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey.

This overview sums up this book fairly well

Overview:
Kit Pitman is fourteen and lives in a ramshackle cottage on the outer banks of Newfoundland, where isolation is all she knows. The only visitors are fogbound fishermen and an occasional young man brought ashore to keep the bloodlines clean. But Kit's isolation is compounded by the mystery that surrounds her family and her illegitimate birth. Her mother, Josie, is mentally retarded and often runs wild among the clapboard houses that dot the shore. Meanwhile, her grandmother Lizzie staunchly guards them both from the disapproving glances pious townsfolk cast their way. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life's harsh realities and to unexpected dangers that repeatedly threaten to break them apart.

It's not the type of book that I normally read. I found it fascinating to follow Kit's growth as she matured. She found a "peace" of sorts by the end of the book. Unfortunately, it wasn't a peace found in God, in fact, religion was seen in a fairly negative light in this book. But somehow her story was fascinating.


Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller
Now this book is a GOOD book. Talks about how people (primarily pastors) can change what they are doing, and what their focus is, and influence their congregations for the glory of God. How pastors can put the gospel message into everything they do.

I'll write more on this book at another time, in a separate post as it deserves to be properly chatted about. :) In the meantime, here's one review and another review and one last one here.

Justin has a cold

So our boyo Justin has yet another cold. This I think makes cold number one in about 2 (maybe 3) months... he had at least four over the winter.

No, I'm not particularly surprised since we were out and about a lot when we went camping and he is at that stage where EVERYTHING has to be mouth-tested.

This one is NOT a fun cold. Lots of mucous and irritable tempers and so forth.

On the good side, when he sleeps, he sleeps good.
On the bad side, when he coughs...he coughs hard and wakes up. Which makes the sleeping a bit more of a challenge when the Dimetapp wears off.

AND even more good news..... JIM HAS CAUGHT JUSTIN'S COLD!

No... not good news...just scratchy throat news and hopes that it's not going to affect his preaching in the morning AND his sleep tonight!

JUSTIN WITH THE SEALS

Here is some video of Justin with the seals during out trip to the Toronto Zoo.

Vacation Report

If you want to read about our vacation, I blogged it over here.

If you want to know about two books that Jim has recently read you can find that here.

Cheers!

And we're off.....

So we're off to go camping.

To find where we are going, check out Jim's blog.

 

I was going through the pictures on one of our digital cameras, and found this wonderful picture of Justin on his first birthday. He really liked his birthday cake. 

immunization

Today Justin had two shots! They were due when he turned a year, but chicken pox happened so...he had them today. He received the Measules, Mumps, Rubella one and then the meningococcal C-Conjugate.

he cried.

he got a bubba (bottle) of milk.

he relaxed again, holding mom-mom the bottle and Collie.

He played for 15 minutes.

He went and got him weighed and measured. He is 31.5 inches long and weighes 26 lbs, 2 oz. he's growing.....

He follows instructions!

Justin can do it!

I can ask him...Go find your collie. And off he trundles to find collie (as long as collie is on the same floor as he is).

It's cute!
It's fun!

For those who don't know...collie (also known as col-col) is his most treasured stuffy in the whole wide world! He is a stuffed collie dog that he found at the towns rummage sale benefit for the hospital. He occasionally gets into other stuffies but ONLY col-col gets that special smile and special bite on the ear!

Here is the article about my second cousin

Boy, 12, dies in go-cart mishap

Youth is hit by tractor on country road

BY: MELINDA DALTON

KURTZVILLE, ONT. (Aug 12, 2006)

A 12-year-old Palmerston boy died yesterday only metres from his grandmother's house after the go-cart he was riding in was hit head-on by a tractor.

The victim, Alex Van Oostveen, was celebrating his 12th birthday and visiting his grandmother in Kurtzville at the time of the crash.

The collision happened at about 4:15 p.m. on Perth Line 88 near the intersection of Line 178.

The boy was riding around the yards of several neighbouring houses in a homebuilt motorized go-kart, said Perth OPP Const. Glen Childerly.

The go-kart pulled out onto the shoulder of the highway and was crushed by a tractor pulling two grain trailers, Childerly said.

"The front end of the tractor collided with the go-kart and it was dragged," he said. "It hit almost straight on . . . The tractor then rolled onto the lawn of a residence."

North Perth firefighters and emergency crews arrived a short time later and an air ambulance from London was summoned.

CPR was performed at the scene, but the air ambulance was called off before it landed. The boy was taken to Listowel Memorial Hospital by land ambulance where he died, police said.

The boy was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, but his injuries were too severe, police said.

The tractor wasn't travelling fast, but the nearly 3,000-kilogram load of wheat it was pulling made stopping quickly impossible, police said. The driver of the tractor was not injured.

Yesterday evening, the tractor remained on its side on the front lawn of a home, the crushed cherry-red go-cart under its wheels.

Solemn neighbours filed past, some shaking their heads at the scene.

The roadway is generally quiet, they said, but this time of the year traffic picks up as farmers bring in their crops.

"It's wheat harvest season and there's a lot of farmers taking their wheat to the mill up the road," said Murray Williams, who lives around the corner from the scene of the collision. "It gets pretty busy."

Police were continuing their investigation.

mdalton@therecord.com

found online "the record" at this address.

Please Pray

My mom phoned yesterday, and I learned a bit more today.

I have a second cousin, 12 years old, who has just passed away.

He was at his Oma's (grandmother) house celebrating his 12th birthday. He was riding around on a cart, having blast with a neighbour boy, waiting for his mom to pick him up after work.

And he got in front of a tractor with two grain wagons behind. The tractor couldn't stop. There would be no way he could have stopped with two full grain wagons behind him.

His grandmother rushed out to see what happened and found him dying.

The medical people say that he died on impact.

Visitation is Monday and Tuesday with the funeral on Wednesday. Two of his uncles are ministers and will be doing the service. It will be tough.

Please, if you would, keep his family in your prayers.


UPDATE::::

I found a newspaper story with the information on my second cousin. It is found at The Record. I have no idea if they will allow you free access or not. In case they don't I'll copy the article out and paste it as a separate entry.

Isn't he just adorable???

This is day four of the chicken pox. He is NOT a happy camper! Though he tries hard to be....but sometimes his discomfort gets the best of him. I get alot of "mom-mom...pick me up" (this of course is NOT spoken, it is cried with tugs at my shorts).



Here he's trying hard to organize where Charlie is to go so he can lie on him. :) You'll note the ever constant presence of tiger and collie. They are a MUST to have with him these past four days. Oh, but he loves his tiger and collie dog. :)

Chicken Pox!

Yesterday Justin had TWO blistery like spots on his body. One on his backside, the other "in a hot spot".

Thought nothing of it really. Just an anomally in the life of raising a boy child.

He had a hard time settling to bed last night as was still awake (but quiet) when I gave his bottle of water for when he wakes up in the morning.

This morning, he woke up, I got him up. He seemed a wee bit dozey. We did our morning inspection of the property. Then we got dressed properly for the day and he has spots over his back!

Since we were planning on having a day trip to London (Jim has to visit a parishoner) I thought I'd do a quick stop at the ER. Found out that he has chicken pox...and they didn't even do the whole check in thing. The out-going doc just gave his back a quick peek and said YUP! That's chicken pox!

So we came home, had a nice breakfast, Justin got a bit fussy and back to bed (with a bit of tylenol in him). He's having a nice nap.

Our breakfast reading....

One of the things that Justin and I do at breakfast is read a book.

I tend to be done breakfast before Justin is, so while I am waiting for him to finish I read from a book. I know that he's a bit young for the books I'm reading to him, but I figure the words are good for him to hear. I do occasionally paraphrase passages for him though.

The book that we most recently read was Heidi.

It was a good book to read. In the process I discovered that Jim has never read this delightful little book. One of the things that I most appreciated about it, was how it continually points people to praying to God. That God answers questions and requests in ways that we don't always expect. I plan to read it to/with Justin again as he gets matures abit in his understanding.

I'm not sure which book I'm going to read with him next. I"m thinking..."my teacher is a martian" but I"m not sure. :)

For the curious I also read him books that are more at his age level throughout the day. Yesterday he was quite taken with "brown bear, brown bear what do you see". He wanted it read over and over and over again. :) I do have to admit...I got a bit tired of it after the sixth go through, even with making different voices for each of the critters and colours listed within.

The Woes of Having an Older Dog

Riley and Sassy (our dogs) went camping with us this past week.

Our camping neighbours LOVED our dogs. See...our dogs... they don't bark when we camp. They are very quiet, well-behaved dogs. Sassy also LOVES people and is a total wiggle butt and people seem to really like that. :) They even seem to like that Riley is a big stand-offish until he gets to know you. They aren't aggressive with passing dogs and they just lay out quietly watching the world. Sassy impresses people with her frisbee and ball catching skills and.... she even did some freestyle moves for our dog-loving neighbours.

Sassy (who is our barker at home) only barked one time and that is because she was eating her supper and a neighbour (Lee) tried to visit with her. It was more of a "hi, I'm friendly bark, but I'm eating so leave me alone." What can I say...she was REALLY hungry (that's what comes from not eating most of her supper the night before).

Anyways, Riley spent the last couple of nights we were camping OUT of the trailer. Why? Because he got the runs and didn't know it. He was still lying in it when I said JIm! Put that dog out! ICK!!!! We were up at 5 a.m. cleaning up the trailer and TRYING to do it quietly AND then Justin woke up and well....what can I say...it was just a mess. We did succeed though in keeping quiet. None of our neighbours got upset with us, or even seemed to wake up through the whole mess.

It was kinda funny later on. Riley was just a stinky mess, it had rained the night before, and I wanted him cleaner. Riley is normally a dog who will splash through puddles and wade around. NOT this morning! Oh no! When we want him too he won't! So here I am, the big meanie that I am, I make him SIT in a puddle and I swish him around in it. Got most of the poop off, he's complaining to beat the band (whine, whine, whine). I let him up. Note that he's still a bit poopy so the next big puddle I have the audacity to do it again!

You have to understand something here. When Riley is displeased by something...the whole world knows the life is not good. Must be the combination husky-shepherd ...husky's are talkers and Riley talks. Shepherds are facially expressive and Riley can pull this "Ah, life is not good look". It was funny. BUT he was cleaner! Not as smelly! YEAH!!!! yes, I know...I'm a big old meanie for washing him in a puddle....TWICE!!!

But on a sadder note, Riley has been doing this pooping thing without knowing it, much more frequently lately. I am getting tired of the cleanup - happening way to frequently lately. And there are days when he looks like SUCH an old dog. I don't like those days when he's looking so old and so sad. Makes me worried for him. And the days that he just seems to get tired going for a short walk ... He's getting old...

I called our vet the other day to see how much it would cost to put him to sleep. Not as bad as we thought...$35 - We'd have to bury him though. Jim says, the backyard, a big hole and a nice marker. It will be hard to let him go....but we're starting to think that in October (when the weather starts to turn too cold to let him out all day and early in the morning) That we'll have to say good-bye to this good old dog.

Oh...i was going to add...the last night we were camping two little coons came by our campsite. We had supper garbage bags hanging out and they were curious. I woke up to the "grr" noise that coons make. They had noticed Riley out in the x-pen and where making "we're not scared of you" noises "see how big we are". Riley's response seemed so classic "What? I'm here you're there. I"m not doing anything. What?" Stupid baby coons! :)

Vacation

Ah...the joys of summer vacations....through the eyes of a one year old boy.    More on that later....once I get pictures that I can access at least....

Jim had his birthday (40th) this past Sunday and he didn't want to work on his birthday so he decided that this past week would be a great time to take off.

It worked out, providentially to be good timing.   Most folks didn't know, but at least that I know of, guessed... I was pregnant, and at the beginning of our vacation week, I lost that child.   It's our second miscarriage.  Still not a pleasant or good thing.   I had just gotten to the point of looking forward to this little one, when God in his providence, chose to take that child home.

This wee one, I called Angelina, will be missed even though we scarcely knew her.   (and yes, I know, we can't know if the baby was male or female, but the baby just seems an Angelina to me).

We took off.  Spent the first couple of nights at Jim's mom's house since she was away pet-sitting.  I didn't feel comfortable going to a camp-ground at that point.   On Wednesday we headed up to Fanshawe Conservation Area in London.   We spent the days just kicking around.   Did some window-shopping, walked the dogs, swam at the place where Jim's mom was staying (nice pool that Jim and Justin enjoyed thoroughly), and just relaxed with each other.

JUSTIN HAD A BLAST.   But I'll write more on that later.

NOT THE WEEK WE WOULD HAVE LIKED

Today we arrived home from our week off. The weather was good, all be it, hot. The camping was lots of fun for Justin with lots of things to discover and get really dirty doing it. However, for myself and Annette, it was not what we had hoped for. Although we had not told anyone (some had guessed) Annette was pregnant. This was her third pregnancy, the first ended in a miscarriage, and the second in our wonderful boy Justin. We hoped that this would be the time for a brother or sister for Justin as we are now both in our 40's (I just turned 40 on Sunday), but that was not what was in the providence of God. On Monday the 10th, Annette told me she was spotting, and by the middle of the week we had lost the baby. Although it was only 2-3 months into the pregnancy, the loss is no less. Annette picked the name Angelina for our unborn baby. Rather than being restful, this vacation turned into a very tiring emotional stretch that left both of us drained. It was good to be together through this, and not have to work. I worked the last time and paid for it in being completely drained emotionally and from that physically for months afterward. This time I had the time to work through things a little, but it was not the vacation either of us wanted.

CAMPING

It is good to have some days off, and better yet, to be able to get out and camp. It is one of the things I really enjoy. I am not sure why, but even if I had to work, I would happily do it while camping. We are definitly going to Fanshawe Conservation Area. It has fairly nice sites, and I have found it to be a great base to head out on day trips from. It has some nice trails, and if we were to bring the canoe the reservoir makes for good canoeing and fishing.

It is located here:

We're off

Today we are off.   Jim is on holidays so we're going camping for a week or so.   Not entirely sure yet what all we will be doing, but my best guess is we'll go to Fanshawe Conservation Area in London.   We can park the dogs at his mom's while we do day trips (she's away pet-sitting).  That will keep the dogs safe and release us from worrying about them at the campground.  :)

Anyways, we'll be back and I'll be sure to update you then.

Our Dog Sassy

I know, following a post about our boy, it may seem silly to post a picture of one of our dogs, but this picture from several months back is a good one of Sassy at the K9 sports agility trial.

Picture on day of turning one

That rather cumbersome title is all so I can post this:



Here is a picture of Justin on his first birthday.

He's One Year Old today!

Can you believe it's been a whole year already!?!?!?

My boyo is a whole year old!   No party today, that comes on Saturday, but he's one year old.  He celebrated by walking across the kitchen completely unaided.   Wow...what a boy!

Daddy took a picture of him eating a VERY messy lunch-time meal.  Not sure that he has it downloaded yet for me to post, but it was very messy and very full of smiles.  :)  When it's up, I'll be sure to post it...everyone needs to see a messy, smiley boy once in a while eh?   :)

Oh...he even got a present today!   One of the ladies from church stopped over with a brand new truck for him!   What fun!  :)   Justin even liked the card that came with it.  The truck of course went zooming all over the floor.   Oh boy...trucks are fun!  

Tomorrow if it's nice he'll go swimming in his pool, go shopping for his party on Saturday, and go for a nice walk with the dogs.

Silly Dogs

I have for the most part decided that we have two very silly dogs that share this household.

Two dogs: Riley older husky-shepherd cross male.  Sassy younger complete mix.

We've in the past couple of months switched them to a raw food diet (actually known as a B.A.R.F. diet)  that stands for biologically appropriate raw food diet.  To learn more go here.

They get fed outside because, well, raw food is a tad bit messier than kibble.

We've seen good changes in them, and can do it for about the same cost as mid-range kibble.

Anyways, why are they silly?

1. We tie them up when feeding because Riley is a thief.  No other polite way to say it...he is an unrepentant thief.

2. So here is Riley, he is NOT done his own food.   He is stretching out as far as he can on his lead-out with his nose in the air sniffing.  And then he starts his infamous woofing.  I want off!  I want off!  he woofs!  I kept telling him to be quiet.

3. I go out to see what is taking Sassy so long to eat her food.  What do I find?   She's guarding her food against flies!   Silly dog!  Just eat!   I told her to go ahead, eat!  Even scared the flies away.  She ate!  ARGH!!!!

Silly dogs!!!  Both of them!!!!

Neither completely finished their meal.  That's not unusual for Sassy, and a good sign with Riley.  I"m testing just how much he eats, and will give him filler (rice) to help him feel full so he won't woof and beg to be let off so he can steal from Sassy.  (not that it worked tonight...perhaps I'm deluded in thinking I can change him....)    Tonight I gave him just a tad bit too much filler.   Sassy tends to eat her quota one day, and then the next day, she leaves some behind.  She's a bit harder to figure on this new diet.  

I used to keep the leftovers for the next day, but have stopped doing that.  I either flush the leftovers OR if it's pieces of chicken, I dump it out in the compost for the neighbourhood stray cats (at least that's my assumption as it's always gone the next morning!).  Besides, whatever is eating it, the scent gets Sass all excited the following morning!  Good to have a rush isn't it?   (grin)

My Girlie ROCKS!!!!

The trial: Jumping for Joy Trial in Maryhill, Ontario.

The date: July 1, 2006

The judge: Billie Mclean

The organizing body: Agility Association of Canada (AAC)

The events entered: Advanced Standard, Advanced Gamblers, Advanced Jumpers.

MY GIRLIE ROCKS!!!!!  

Yes indeedy!   A hot day, camping with fireworks.  Nervous girlie.  Had a hard time settling, wouldn't eat her supper or her breakfast (needed to bribed of all things with BACON!!)   She ROCKS!!!

The night before: dropped Riley (actually on thursday night at my hubbie's mom), dropped our son at my parents (on Friday).   Headed up to the trial site.  Camped.   There were fireworks.  Sassy was unimpressed.  One of the participants drove onto a stump, that caused a kerfluffle, Sassy was unimpressed.

First the standard run.    Sassy was one of the last dogs to run.  NO OTHER DOG completed the course clean and under time.  I got a tad bit nervous at that point.  The standard course time was 67 seconds, Sassy squeaked...literally squeaked through at 66.70 seconds!   WOW... call that cutting it close.   Wouldn't have been so close if the weaves hadn't freaked her out a bit.  Took three attempts to get it right, (she kept missing a pole here and there).  BUT she did it.  She got those poles completed, she picked up some speed, and we squeaked it through!!!  YEAH FOR MY GIRLIE!!!!

Then we had the gamble.   For some reason, I like doing the gambles but I find them somewhat nervewracking trying to figure out what I think is best to do for me and Sassy.    BUT Sassy did EXACTLY what I asked her to do, at a rather pokey speed, but everything that I asked, I had planned a bit more in case she wasn't pokey, but that would have just been gravy.... She sended with 64 points!  Yeah for Sassy.
She did the gamble!!!   She was one of I think two dogs that completed the gamble.  Comments overheard afterwards: "Nice gamble by that dog", "Good run!"

She started to relax....good dog!   :)  Ate some food!   Yeah for stressors leaving! 

The Jumpers course.   Looked challenging, proven to be in some ways to almost everyone out there.   I was conflicted about how to do the opening, to I run on one side knowing that would draw her to the wrong side of a tunnel farther down OR do I risk a harder opening and know that, that wrong tunnel will be less attractive?  I chose the latter.   So....Sassy unfortunately got a refusal at a tunnel because I didn't clearly indicate it enough thinking it was just a straight run.  BAD HANDLER!   BUT!!!!!   She still came in first!!!!!!   :)  She had 3.23 time faults and 5 faults for the refusal.   She gave it an honest try...just had a really sucky handler!     Didn't help at all that we had taken the trailer down so we could get going as soon as possible after the trial was done so she was all stressed that we were leaving and she wasn't allowed in the van.  She is such a silly dog sometimes.

Would I trial under Billie again?  Yes, I like her open courses.

Would I trial at Jumping for Joy again?  yes.  I would love to not have quite so many mosquitos, but it was a good trial.  Well run.  Met lots of nice people.   Calm, relaxed atmosphere.  They treat their volunteers decent.  Good place to exercise your dogs close by.   Just very nice place.

It was just a lovely week

So I"m not entirely sure what made this past week such a nice week, but it was just a really good week for us.

Yes, Jim struggled with the heat and trying to sleep.  He ended up setting up the trailer and sleeping out there.  The cool night air did wonders for him.  :)  YEAH!!!!   No headaches and general icky-ness feelings during the day.  

Justin and I did the pool thing frequently.   He now makes a beeline for his swimming pool when we are out in the backyard.   I can put him down anywhere and if he sees his pool...off he crawls to get to it.   Nice to see him having fun NOT nice having to haul him out wet clothes and all!   

I had my last Sunday School class yesterday (for this year).  We are trying to figure what to do for next year.  The one girl is so ready to move up, the other isn't.   Hard to know what to do.  They really don't want to be in a class all on their own either so....what to do?  Ah, their mom and I and Jim will figure it out.

Justin, Jim and I went for a bike ride for the first time yesterday.   it worked well!   We passed some horses and Justin got all excited.    I was reminded of why I like my bike so much.   :)   Cost enough...I should like it.  I"m hoping next year that we can afford to get the shifting system revamped.   Somehow it got messed up so shifting is an issue, but for just riding around town shifting is just not an issue...I love the smooth action and gliding of my bike.   :)

We had our anniversary, just a quiet day at home with lunch out and a "eat whatever you want" supper.

It was just a lovely week together as family.   It felt like my little old heart smiled a lot this week.

Our anniversary

Jim and I have been married, as of today at around 2 p.m. (I think) for four whole years. They been good years, filled with some tough moments, but also times of gladness and joy.

Times of sadness: arguements with each other over stupid things, loss of a child, watching Riley dog get older and stiffer, death of people in church and so forth.

Times of gladness: watching Riley play again when he switched over to a BARF diet, birth of our son, guinea pigs, The Royal winter fair (yearly), new friendships, and a whole host of more.

We've grown in our relationship with each other.

I've learned to appreciate him in ways that I never imagined.

I've grown in my relationship to God. Never expected marriage to impact that!

I'm a parent! Sometimes I'm still in shock! :) I so expected to live my life as a contented single woman. And now I'm living my life as a more or less contented married woman with a child! God is so full of surprises at times. :)

Praise be to his name!

So we are now at four years and counting....I wonder how many more we will get until God takes us home.... Good thing I can't see into the future. Makes me treasure each day that I have.

Discovery Toys

You know how when you go to fairs and so forth you will often see a vendor booth for Discovery Toys? I like their stuff. It's bright, colourful, children like it, it can be educational and so forth. I also find that their stuff is a bit pricey (at least for my book).

BUT!!!! Garage sales can be havens of discovery! This past Saturday we came upon this toy at a local sale.

CASTLE MARBLEWORKS® Play Tower
Thinking & Problem Solving, Fine Motor

Building the tower is just the beginning of this fast-action experience. As children watch the three weighted chime balls race and spin, twirl and drop back and forth, children learn to predict the pattern of the ball pathways. Set up the 8-piece set in different ways. 25" x 14½" x 10" (64cm x 37cm x 25cm). From 24 months-Kindergarten

In Discovery Land it is worth $50. We got it for the princely sum of 50 cents! It only has the one ball (but we've discovered golf balls work too!) Justin loves it. And I have always liked these rolling path ball toys. I think they are neat! And it's fun to switch which ways the path go, and to make the ball stay inside and to just listen to the sounds of the ball going down the pathways. Fun! Fun!

Discovered this morning

On our walk this morning (me and the dogs) we saw this fellow.

Picture from: http://www.northrup.org/photos/red-fox/

He, of course, saw us first and beat a hasty retreat. He stopped about 100 ft from us. The dogs poked up their heads and watched him. He sat down, curled his tail around us and kept a good watch on us. He didn't move until he thought we were well out of site. Makes me wonder if there is a fox den somewhere on the trail in town.

I just thought it was rather neat. I've never been that close to a real wild fox (one that's actually in the wild). Just so you know...it's way better than seeing them in the zoo! :)

He swims

So this past week we purchased a small pool for Justin. $10 at the local C. Tire store.

Filled it with 3 inches of water.

Let the wonderful hot weather we are currently experiencing heat the water nicely.

Today Justin went swimming. I stripped him down outside and just
dumped him in. (after of course checking that water was indeedy warmed
up) This little 11 month old boy had SO MUCH FUN!!!! Made his
mom-mom laugh. I had purchased some sand toys a while back on sale,
and I dumped half of them into the water with him. Splash and dump
and attempt to drink. Boy.... you couldn't have asked for more fun.

AND THEN>>>> he learned that he>>>>> could
climb out! WOW!!! more fun!!!! more excitement!!!! More screams
of AHH!!!!!

Later today he might experience the joy of bike riding too. Justin
and I picked up a bike seat for him while garage-saling this morning
and then hubbie and I picked up a toddler bike helmet for him this
afternoon. He was unimpressed at the store (he HATES wearing anything
on his head). So we'll see how that goes.

Raw Food Diets

We are switching our dogs from a mainly kibble diet to a mainly raw food diet.

Why?
1. research shows it helps with dogs who have attitude problems which our Sassy dog sometimes displays.
2. research shows it helps older dogs maintain their health longer
3. we can do it for about the same price or a wee bit more as we can feeding a mid-range dog food
4. defecation is reduced!

After one week of doing this Riley was discovered happily playing in the backyard with an old sour cream container. I had never seen him do this with any type of vigor. Jim said Riley used to play like that all the time.

Sassy defecates much less often! YEAH!!!

A dog on the raw diet consumes between 2-4% of their body weight in food each day.

Our dogs are roughly 50 lbs – means 1-2 pound of food per day depending on activity levels

so....looking at that what we will do is

Riley
16 oz to start... we will see how he does

9.6 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

2.25 oz veggies (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
4 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Sassy
24 oz to start... we will see how she does

14.4 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

3.6 oz veggies – (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
6 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Tuesday's new mix made

Veggie mix – lettuce, carrots, turnip, peppers, broccoli...
- whatever isavailable with ½ of from above and below ground veggies

Weekly Menu

Sunday night – kibble with veggie mix
Monday night – oatmeal, rice and yogurt, veggies if any left
Tuesday night – veggies with meat
Wednesday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Thursday night – veggies, rice with meat – fish night?
Friday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Saturday night - veggies with meat

Justin and garage-saling

Yesterday was Saturday.

One thing that Justin is learning about Saturday's in the summer is that his mom-mom likes to go garage-saling. For those of you who have NO CLUE about what that means... it means that his mom-mom likes to check out all the yard sales around town (and anywhere else she sees one).

Yesterday we started off our day at the Fireman's Breakfast. Good food. Justin didn't eat he was too busy gaping at all the people around him. Jim had a huge breakfast, I ate what I could. Nice to support these men.

THEN>>>>> we went garage-saling. What fun!
1. Jen's sale - Justin got a barking dog, a puzzle box that makes noise, and an orange thing that you pull a lever and it tells a nursery rhyme.
2. Other sales - I got a neat scrapbooking sticker page, some free clothes hangers (I needed 10 she gave me a whole whack of them), a barney truck (you know...the purple dinasour that parents love to hate), and... Justin's new favourite toy!

This was a BRAND NEW... as in never been used, still in all the packaging. Shelcore Sort'n See. $5 only! I was impressed.

Justin had so much fun with it. I showed him how the blocks fit through the holes. He didn't get it. I showed him how the lid fits on. Well my goodness! First the blocks go in the bucket (without lid), then out of the bucket (repeat several times) and THEN!!!! the blocks go in the bucket one at a time with the lid going on after each of them. Boy oh boy...what a very intrigued young fellow he was. :)

Very fun to watch him learn and experience and explore.

QUOTE

While on his death bed John Owen was reported to have said, "Oh, Brother Payne, the long-looked for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever yet done or been capable of doing."

From The Pastor in the Sick Room -- Ministering the Gospel to Those on the Brink of Eternity by John D. Wells 1892, Solid Ground Christian Books, Birmingham Alabama

Tollhaven Trials and Tribulations

Yesterday, May 20, 2006 Sassy and I were at the Tollhaven trial run by Gloria Mitchell.

We had a good day. We ran in three events.
Advanced standard - came in second with no "q". It was a good run with a refusal for a bar that I just didn't indicate clearly enough for her. BAD HANDLER!!!! Good lessons learned though! :)

Advanced team - Sassy ran her side clear but her partner....well let's just say both her and her handler had issues that day! No "q" for that! I was VERY pleased with the effort that Sassy put in.

Advanced Jumpers - Sassy got a case of the nerves due to an equipment change (which caused her to have to wait too long to run) and just wanted her treats and to go home.... So she ended up wasting time on course TRYING HARD to convince me that would be the right course of action. I tried to make up some of that lost time and made her rush a bit so...we had a knocked bar and a run by another jump. So...no "q" there either BUT she still managed to come in fourth overall. This course was more challenging than I thought it would be ... only one team out of 18 ran it clear...and that was a jack russel who hadn't trialed in 1.5 years due to some issues that he had. We were VERY happy that he had a VERY successful day. YEAH ERNIE!

Ah well...life goes on.

It was a good day though rather cold in the wind. We had a bit of rain, with a lot of overcast, the sky started clearing by early afternoon. Sassy was a well-behaved girl who was VERY sucky...not quite acting like herself...very clingy and not observant of things other than cookies and where we were positioned. So we did okay in spite of it all.

GLOWING SQUIRRELS

LOOK OUT! ���

Vellenga Views is a radioactive squirrel!!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Mom's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day.

Now I can't say I'm a huge "make a day for people" type of person. But I did enjoy mother's day yesterday.

My mom-in-law Eva came over for the day. She's a real nice Christian woman for those of you who have never met her.

Justin and his dad-dad even got me a mom's day present. A fun card (yes, I love a well chosen card). This one was fun!

Here's the front. A good card can make my heart just smile.

Justin thought the middle was just so much fun. I should have taken a picture of him with it in the afternoon when I let him give it a good looking over. He was being so careful and so very serious with it. See...it's a pop up! He just thought it was so neat with the bears popping up at him everytime he opened the card! :)

This is the present I received. Isn't it just the coolest photo frame? :) Now I need to find pictures that will fit into these tiny frames. :) Boy...that will be fun (or perhaps frustrating). We may need to print our own I'm wondering....or send them to my mom's since she has a photo capable printer and then size them to what we need. Hmm...fun...a chance to visit my mom!

I've been richly blessed with these two men in my lives.
With an extended family that cares for me and my fellows.
For technology that I can do fun things with.

Ah...God has indeed blessed this household.

THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

My reading has taken a definite serious turn. From fiction novels to good solid theology. So, I have turned my mind to study the doctrine on which the church hinges, Justification. To do so I decided to re-start reading a book I started to read a while back, but got too busy with other things to complete. Now I try to read a chapter or so a day, and that seems to be working well. The book is The Doctrine of Justification by James Buchanan--subtitled An Outline of its History in the Church and of its Exposition from Scripture

J.I. Packer had this to say about this book, "The doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. The doctrines of election, of effectual calling, regeneration, and repentance, of adoption, of prayer, of the church, the ministry, and the sacraments, have all to be interpreted and understood in the light of justification by faith. When justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then as Luther said, the church itself falls. The value of Buchanan's book today is that it will help us to understand this message better, and so to preach it in the full and comprehensive way in which the modern world need to hear it. This is still the best textbook on this subject, from the standpoint of the classic covenant theology."

There were two things that I found fascinating in the introduction. Remember that this book was originally published in 1867. Buchanan states, "looking at the character of our current literature, may it not be said that, to a large class of minds in the present age, nothing could well be more new than the old Theology of the Reformation?"

What caught my eye here is how true that was not just then, but still is today. The doctrines of the Reformation seem to have been lost even in many Reformed denominations.

Second, what caught my eye is his guiding principle, "that the only effective refutation of error is the establishment of truth. Truth is one, error is multiform; and truth, once firmly established, overthrows all the errors that either have been, or may yet be, opposed to it. He who exposes and expels an error, does well; but it will only return in another form, unless the truth has been so lodged in the heart as to shut it out for ever."

This serves as a good reminder that as a pastor my task is not merely to reveal and correct error, but much more importantly to proclaim the truth in such a way that believers are filled with it and error is cast out.

So far this book has been fascinating. I am looking forward to the rest of it.

WHAT A NEAT EATER

I thought that since Annette was putting up pictures of Justin, I thought I would add one of my favorite recent pictures of him. Here he is as he works his way through strawberry jam on bread. As you can see, he keeps himself very clean while eating ;)

LOVE OF GOD

I just finished reading this wonderful little book by D.A. Carson. Although it neither claims to nor does deal with this topic exhaustively, it certainly does give a good overview of why the doctrine of the love of God is not as easy for us to either understand or proclaim today. I would highly recommend it as a very good starting point for the study of this important doctrine.

Our boy Justin

So our son, our boyo is a little over 10 months old.

He has been finding life hard this week.

Being told no, Being put into playpens so mom-mom can work, Being bitten by his favourite fish when he sticks his hands in the water, thistles hurt when you step on them, and why can't I just have fruit for breakfast????? Getting pointy teeth is a bit painful. Napping is hard! Having a long cold is miserable. Life is hard being 10 months old.

Mind you...life is also exciting sometimes. Tulips are fun! Even if mom-mom says...Gentle. Dirt is fun! To roll around on, to eat, to examine ever so carefully. Collie is becoming more important to him (stuffed collie dog that he found at the hospital rummage sale). Walks are good. Crawling under dad-dad's legs is just a hoot! Roast beef is new, fun to eat. Swimming is interesting and the little babies should be STARED at.

The cat still won't let Justin catch him. Riley has learned that tails do get pulled with little boys around so moving away is good. Sassy occasionally offers kisses and doesn't growl at him anymore! YEAH FOR THAT!!!

His favourite toys right now are his big stuffed dog, "collie", chairs that he can push around, pots and pans that make noise and a squirty toy in the bathtub.

He is into everything and LOVES to help his mom-mom clean out the fridge, boy how much fun that can be! BUT helping mom-mom do the sprinkler...that's he's not so fond of, especially if the sprinkler catches us! :)

Anyways, that's an update on the youngest member of our family.

The following picture is when he was a little younger.

Where Am I From?

I've come across these poems? blogs? I don't know what to call them and I think they are a neat way of saying things about a person.

I got the basic template from here which also links to a variety of "froms" that other people have done. I think they are interesting to read. :) I thought I would give it a shot, and found it harder than I thought it would be. :)


WHERE I AM FROM

I am from farmyard, from chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, geese and cattle. I am from farm dogs (collies of sorts) and dogs of my own.

I am from the the purple bedroom, the off-limits family room, big gardens, long lanes and the bush!

I am from the peonies, lilac bushes, picking marsh marigolds and irises to bring home to mom, the bush with the fish pond that we would swim and fish in.

I am from "would rather be in the barn" and "hard work never killed anyone", from siblings, Dutch roots and large families.

I am from the twice yearly large family gathering at Christmas and in summer, sledding, pot luck meals, and baseball.

From "you are so much like your grandmother" and "do you have to tie everything up?"

I am from conservative, calvinistic beliefs, a family that believed that God was God and worthy of our consideration and all that we do is for HIM!

I'm from Bill and Wilma, small town Ontario, "stumpot", crusts from the bread that Dad insisted we eat, three good meals a day and lots of love.

From fishing on vacation with my Dad while others went elsewhere, tying a brother up on the picnic table with brothers and sisters helping, the barn wall falling in on the calves when blowing up the old silo, and the brucellosis hitting the herd hard and having to start over.

I am from family albums filled with pictures from days gone past.

Success Granted

Near where we live there is a really nice trail for walking. It used to just be a foot path, not used often, really nice to just let the dogs run. The town council thought it would be a good idea to make it more user-friendly so added a crushed gravel path, some boardwalk, and extended the trail. That made it a really easy path to walk. It is used frequently by all sorts of people.

Even though it is used more often than I like (I prefer solitude when walking the pups), I still often use it.

Last year I picked some plants to see if I could get them started at home.

Bloodroot From Wikepedia "Bloodroot is also known as Bloodwort, Red Puccoon Root, and sometimes Pauson......The plant was used as a dye and for an herbal remedy by the native population. A break in the surface of the plant, especially the roots, reveals a reddish sap."




I picked three Trillium. Two white and one red. From Wikepedia "While trillium flowers are very attractive, some believe they should never be picked, since the three leaves below the flower are the plant's only food source and a picked trillium may die or take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas, e.g. British Columbia, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Washington, it is illegal to pick trilliums. While popular belief exists that it is illegal to pick trilliums in Ontario, no such law actually exists......A white trillium serves as the emblem and official flower of the Canadian province of Ontario. It features prominently on the Franco-Ontarian flag." Only one of the white ones survived.


I also picked some DogTooth Violets. Boy..were they ever hard to dig up! The roots go way down. The bulbs are buried quite deep. I was very pleased to discover that one of the five that I dug up actually made it through! From Thompson and Morgan: "Dog Tooth Violets may not be well-known, but they're definitely worth including in your spring garden. The bulbous perennials form clumps of glossy foliage, with attractive bronze mottling for extra appeal. It's marvellous for naturalising in thin grass. Tooth-shaped bulbs"

These plants, as near as I can tell are native to Ontario. It's really nice having them come up in our backyard. I planted them under our tree in the backyard.

Yesterday I visited

Yesterday Jim, Justin and I headed up to visit my parents. Jim had a sore throat so didn't talk much. Justin had a good nap in the afternoon, he slept there and back. This morning he is such a happy boy. :) Has a bad cough, but looking good.

Anyways, back to my parents.

When we arrived, just before lunch, Roel and Annie were there for a visit. They stayed for lunch.

Mom and Dad were looking pretty good. Mom's been struggling a bit with caring for Dad and trying to get the gardens in order for the season. I helped mom with some weeding of her flower beds and getting the potatoes into the ground. They had LOTS of potatoes. We wanted to get rid of them so we planted LOTS of potatoes in one whole where normally we would only put in one. :) The rest of them we put out to compost.

Big job done. Dad's heart more at ease because the potatoes are out, Mom's heart more at ease because her hubby is more at ease. We also had a nice visit. Justin played and helped them both to smile.

How is Dad? He still struggles a lot with bad muscle spasms. I asked what type of exercises they did, sounds like a good mix between strengthening and stretching. It's hard some days for Dad to do them because it hurts. His blood remains at a good level which is one less concern. And he is off the antibiotics which a blessing as well. The pain levels make it hard for Dad to get a proper sleep which in turn creates it's own problems.

According to Dr. Hupel the hip surgery was a complete success, now we just need to wait for his muscles to catch up to his activity level. It's a struggle.

Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Today I gardened....

Ah..here we have it.. a lovely warm day...started off with a bit of a chill though.. but the day heated up as it went along. As did I.

We had some dirt (topsoil) delivered to us yesterday and today I thought I'd top up the three raised beds that were feeling a deficet of dirt in them. Worked hard...got them done. Justin slept through most of it (took about an hour), but the last garden he was awake and talking to me as I shoveled dirt. I let him out for a bit to see what he would do and of course he made a beeline for the dirt and grabbed a handful of it. Would have eaten it too! (but I thought i'd rather not let him do that).

Anyways, when I got that done I did a couple loads of laundry, had lunch, let the boy have a nap, chatted with Jim for a bit, worked on the flower garden then walked the dogs and the boy again. When we got back I worked on the flower garden again - it was hard going. This garden has obviously not had the benefit of nice dirt in it. It was like digging in dried out clay! Tough sloughing...and I didn't get it done! I'm unimpressed..but gives me something to do tomorrow when the boy naps in the morning.

I have to admit... I"m feeling a bit jealous today, my neighbours peas are up, mine aren't AND they were planted on the same day! ARGH!!!... I want peas I do! I keep telling myself, they'll come up, It's all in God's timing...BUT I WANT PEAS!!!

Okay, I'm okay..done whining now. Need to bring in that last load of laundry off the line and feed the dogs and let in the piggies so enough typing for today.

I am So Proud

So....Jim and I took Sassy for the weekend. Jim's mom Eva took care of our son Justin for the weekend, and also our other dog Riley.

Jim and I stayed at Phyl and Barry's overnight and then headed off to the agility trial put on by K9 Sports. Sassy was entered into four events at this trial.
1. Advanced Gamblers
2. Starters Standard
3. Steeplechase
4. Starters Snooker

We had fun. :) The day started late and ended late. I was rather very unimpressed with that... but that all aside.... We were all bushed by the time the day was finished. Boy oh boy did we get tired. But things went fairly well.

Gamblers....well...we had fun. Sassy and I did well in the opening, and somehow managed to blow the final gamble. Not sure why but she decided the far end on the tunnel was what she should take, but that's what she did... So ah well...we learned lots, she did the mini gamble really well (Yeah Sassy!). Did her contacts wonderfully! She was a good dog with a good heart.

Standard...ah...we did it!!!! My Sassy dog nailed this course! We came in second!!! We "q'd" (as in we ran fast we ran clear we made NO mistakes!) My Sassy dog rocks!!!!!!! woohoo hoo hoo hoo!!!! (can you tell I"m proud of my girlie?)

on another rather cool note..... Sassy decided that she actually liked her x-pen. This the dog who hates being confined. LIKES her x-pen, even wanted to go into it. HA! Cool dog.

Steeplechase...fast, furious, man...we tried hard... but not today. She popped a weave, I wasn't sure if she had...took a chance...and well...ah well...for a first attempt at a fast and furious master's level course... we done good. Sassy worked hard, paid really good attention...but just couldn't hold those weaves. AND>>> we didn't get lost on a twisty course either! So there! :) What can you do eh?

Snooker....ah...the nemesis of my life. And that is what it continues to be. 5 tries at it...still no success. We (as in me, myself and I) planned it well.. and it all went fine until Sassy decided to take the wrong end a tunnel (hmm... do I sense a recurring theme?) :) but she tried so hard and worked her heart out for me... I honestly think that today would have gone better if the day hadn't been so long, and we hadn't gotten so tired. It was exhausting being around people and barking dogs all day long. NEXT TIME...I will take Sassy dog out for a good long walk in nature and just give us both a good break from it all. Even if all we do is go lay down and read in the sunshine. And now we are home and she is relaxing (even enjoyed some beef for supper - lucky girl)

Oh... before I forget. In getting that Standard "q" Sassy has achieved her agility dog of canada title (ADC). We now have the dubious pleasure of running advanced standard courses now (NO MORE REFUSALS ALLOWED!!!). Fun fun! My dog has her VERY FIRST TITLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's time for bed.. talk more another day... :)

Easter

The Hope of Easter Remembered.

Different casing?

This place mandarin design tells you how you can do different things to add variety to your blog. I have to admit, I don't understand exactly what all of them do...but this one seemed pretty straigt-forward. I'm guessing that with time I can learn to change the colours to this thing as well. :) Right now I just think it's a kinda cool way to add some variety to a rather basic blog. What do you think?

My Niece

Heard from my sister Joan. She lives out west with her family. Apparently her daughter, my niece, Nicole made the front page of the Chilliwack Progress. You can check out her story here. Look under the "golden imaginations" storyline. I think it's rather cool! I have a talented niece. Not that I didn't know that already. :)

Gardening and Justin

So yesterday I was out working in the yard. Justin spent most of the day outdoors with me.

First he decided that sleeping in the house was NOT going to happen. He was so tired and yet so determined to be busy so I threw him into the stroller and took him with me to walk the dogs. 1/2 an hour later, he was in dream land. So I walked home, parked the stroller in the backyard and set to work. I thought he'd be awake in about 1/2 hour. WRONG!!! 2.5 hours he slept in total! I got a lot of work done!

I worked on digging out the stump and roots of the lilac tree. I'm so fed up with that thing. Last year my dad was kind and cut it down for me. A nice man from church hauled it off to the dump for me. (lovely people I have intersecting my life). :) I had hoped to get it dug up last fall but that just didn't happen. Funny how life is.

So...I didn't get it all done but I did get most of the roots out of my flower garden, and... I got a good ring around the stump! I am so looking forward to getting it out!....wonder if I can do it...wonder if my brother Bill will ever get the time off work to come help before clean up.... ah... the wondering. :)

I also got the veggie gardens turned over and the compost mixed as well.

I even had time to put the piggies outside for a couple of hours and get them all cleaned out. If spring continues the way it has the piggies will be outdoors all the time in a couple of weeks. Won't that be nice? I won't have to clean them as frequently, they'll put on grass weight and keep the weeds eaten (from the gardens) (making it much cheaper to feed them)... ah...will be nice to hear wheeks outdoors again. :)

Justin came out with me in the afternoon for a bit. It was fun to walk him around the gardens. I showed him our anemones which were starting to flower, and the crocuses and other spring bulbs. He touched them ever so gently. I showed him what bad plants are....creeping charlie and grass in the flower beds! ARGH!!! Told him we'd have to fight this battle together! He just said "ah" and looked. Not sure he was really all that impressed.

When I walked around back with him he wanted down so I put him to stand next to my small greenhouse...courtesy of my darling husband...and Justin went from standing to crawling RAPIDLY toward our small pond! He thought it was fascinating and almost fell in. This of course caused me to react quickly! I let him splash for a bit then brought him in for a clothes change and good washing. Needless to say, when he went down for a nap, I gave our rather dirty pond a good cleaning. We'll have to watch him this summer that he doesn't fall in if we're not around.

As you can tell, he already has this fascination with fish. :) This is Midas. He is a nasty fish he needs his own aquarium. If you put him with other fish he'll attack them until they die. Apparently in the wild they are a rather peaceful fish, but in captivity they really like having their own space. He is a type of cichlid...from south america I think. I'm sure Jim will correct me if I'm wrong. :)

PICTURE OF ANNETTE AND JUSTIN

I was doing some re-organization of my digital pictures when I saw this one of Annette and Justin. It isn't too apparent in the picture, but Annette is carrying Justin in a basket full of laundry (clean I think), and he loved it. This picture was taken back in January, so he has moved on to think other things are fun, but it is a great picture of my wife and boy.

MAC trial

So Jim and I just got back (well okay...we've been back for about 1.5 hours) :) We were at a trial in London this weekend.

A trial you say? Whatever did you do wrong this time Annette?!?!?!?!

Actually it was an agility trial. It was put on by MAC. If you want to know who MAC is go here. It was held as part of Agility Association of Canada. You can view their website at this location. It was a well-run trial. They have had a few trials at the Western Fairgrounds but this was our first opportunity to trial with them.

It was rather neat. As Jim and I were sitting awaiting Sassy's turn to run, I noticed some people sitting behind us laughing at some of the antics of the dogs, and how the handlers were doing things. It was fairly obvious that they were having fun AND that they knew nothing about what was going on. They were just enjoying watching the dogs. I took the opportunity to talk with them a bit about my current favourite dog sport. A couple of ladies I ended up introducing to the lady who helped train Sassy and I into the sport. One had a malamute the other a border collie. They were quite intrigued about the possiblity of doing this with their dogs. It was fun to talk with them a bit. :)

Sassy was in two events today. Starters Standard and Advanced Gamblers. She came in second in the Standard and well...a somewhat distant fifth in Gamblers. I went not expecting to do very well so was quite pleased with how we did. It was our first trial of the season, we hadn't trained a whole lot, my handling was awful...I knew this! And well... we just wanted a good warmup before a more serious trial in a couple of weeks. Okay...it's not really a more serious trial... just that I entered more events and would have a somewhat higher expectation of doing better after having one trial under our belts after one year off.

We missed out on a qualifying round in standard by four inches when Sassy got a gleam in her eye and leapt off the a-frame! BAD DOG! Bad handler...needs to reinforce proper dismount from aframe!!!! But it was a fun run! :) Sassy was FAST! If she hadn't have missed that four inches into the yellow we would have come in first!

Advanced gamblers was a higher level of competition than what we ever done before so....not getting eliminated was like...wow!!!! She didn't get the gambles but....a lot of that was handler error...boy I learned lots! And some of it was just... she didn't understand, she tried hard but just didn't get it. (just means more training on my part). Once again....stuff we learned! :) This too was a good run...if only for the lady I met who when I was walking the course said...hey...relax... have fun. Try this, it might help. So that was way cool. So nice how people help others out.

Anyways, I have a boy who is not too happy with life and should probably go check on him to see what is up. Keep well all!

I went visiting

So my boyo Justin and I went to visit his Opa and Oma this past week. We were there from Tuesday to Thursday. It was good to see Justin reconnect with my parents.

My mom had SO much fun with him! She kept giving him little kisses! Justin even learned something new....listening to Oma's no was just as important as listening to mom-mom's no! AH!!! Hard lessons for little boys to learn!

Justin had a blast exploring a new house. He was just simply delighted with mom's duck planter that my sister Judy gave to Dad?(I think) a while back.

Dad sat outside with us one afternoon. I was raking the lawn up a bit and Justin was in his stroller. Their dog Heidi is somewhat untrustworthy so Dad made sure that grandson Justin would be safe. It was nice to see them together.

Dad is currently in a whole heap of pain. He is just plain sore..if not from muscle spasms, just from being sore. Sometimes you could just see that he didn't know what to do with himself. He takes a muscle relaxant at night which helps him to sleep.

He's had a bit of a problem with his bowels which isn't so nice. This makes it hard for him to eat well. And sometimes it seems like he just doesn't quite know what's going on...but after three months in the hospital I don't know how aware I would be either! Just sad to see him a bit confused yet.

BUT they both know that God is in control of it all. And they both really rely on God which for me is just so wonderful to see. I just marvel at them sometimes! They are still my greatest heros.

My mom is tired. Taking care of Dad 24/7 is taking it's toll on her. I'm not sure what to do to help...except be a caring daughter with a laughing son who can help ease the load just a tad. God holds us all close.

Our plan is to go up again in a couple of weeks for a day. Just to visit and to hopefully give mom some of her own space again. :) Who knows... maybe I'll make a nice meal again for them.

I surprised Jim by coming home early. He was both delighted and saddened by this. He had hoped to give the house a good cleaning for me and my early return sort of spoiled that for him. :) I thanked him for his thoughts and he was happy I was home so it all worked out well.