Food Chain, Baby

We are up at the cabin this week. I am working during the day but fishing in the evening. Last nite I had Drew and one of his buddies with me at the lake and we were fishing for blue gill. I hooked a huge blue gill (HUGE for a blue gill is about 4 inches!). While it is was on the hook and still in the water a huge bass (HUGE for a bass is about 20 inches long) started eyeing it. Drew was freaking out telling me to pull the blue gill out of the water but I just thought the bass was going to harass the blue gill a little. I was WRONG! The bass opened his huge
mouth and chomped down on my blue gill! I screamed like a girl and Drew grabbed my pole and took charge of the situation. I use the words "taking charge" loosely because he was pretty much screaming like a girl too! Him and his buddy Jared fought the bass and shrieked until the bass finally let go of the blue gill! Then they released the blue gill, who was miracously still alive!

We have been talking about the experience ever since! And like Jim says...."that's the food chain, baby...."

Animal Rescue 911

So we start this morning with a frantic telephone call at 5:55am from my girlfriend Heather, who is the mom of Brittany Spaniel, Lucy (see pic of Lusy with a donut further down in my blog). Lucy was in a real pickle and they needed some assistance. She was in her crate, where she sleeps and somehow had gotten a bungee cord hook that was stuck thru the crate stuck in her mouth and she was hooked and almost hanging like a fish! And she was way in the back of the crate. They had tried to pull it out of her mouth and she bit them.

So Jim and I speed over there after grabbing a couple tools, not knowing what to expect. We can hear her crying when we walk up to the door. We rush in, assess the situation and Jim has her out of the crate and unhooked in about 10 seconds! He cut the metal crate which allowed the bungee hook to release from the crate and she RAN out. Heather grabbed her and the hook fell out of her mouth! There was a bit of blood and three very hysterical kids - but all in all a great rescue!

Lucy seemed no worse for the wear - she was running around licking everyone!

Schools out for summer

The kids are finally out of school. Their last day was last Weds. And so far they have squeezed more into the four days than most kids do all summer. They have been to two water parks, an amusement park, fishing, camping and Gracie has been to the cabin with me! And with all that came a couple big melt downs. We really need to pace ourselves!

Rest in Peace Sweet Rowdy

I am very sorry to report that Rowdy the chicken has passed on to chicken heaven this morning. Jim found her dead in her coop. She was on borrowed time since last summer when she almost died. So, I feel good that we had a year longer with her that we really should have.

I believe that she is in heaven with Marty's Dad and they are hanging around a farm watching the crops grow. Rowdy's job is to eat all the bugs. Tom's job is to make sure Rowdy doesn't eat all the plants!

Running after 40

Although I have told Jim I was only committed to running until I was 40 and 40 was last week......I am still running! But it appears that after 40 you have more bad running days interspersed with good running days. I ran on Tuesday and thought 2 miles would kill me. I ran 3 miles today and felt like I had 4 more good miles left in me! No complaints though....at least I am still out there.

And until further notice, I am committed to running until I am 41!

Danger Girl

Here is my niece on her first birthday! She is a a little daredevil!

Happy Birthday to me and Amelia!

My 40th birthday was last friday and I had an OUSTANDING birthday weekend. To begin the weekend we had dinner out with 8 friends and then went to the Keith Urban concert! Jim and I were on the floor close to the stage and at one point Keith was singing about 20 feet from me! He is HOT! And an amazing artist!

On Sunday we did a family celebration to celebrate mine and Amelia's birthdays (Amelia is one!), fathers day, my Dad's 10 year heart transplant anniversary and my parents 43 wedding anniversary..... The pics here are from that celebration!

A message from my mom

"Tom just completed his 10 year post transplant evaluation. All is well, his heart biopsy shows no evidence of rejection, and his labs are close to perfect. As we have thought many times over the past 10 years, it is nothing short of a miracle. Thanks for all of your support and caring."

Field Trip

Here are pics from Drew's filed trip last week to an indoor climbing wall. If you think he looks gigantic, you are right! Those are loooong legs! And biiiig feet!

Pretend

If you can not live in the country, the next best option is to pretend that you do....that is why I have chickens! That is Betty in the pic (and Rowdy's feet).

Here is my latest animal....a cow. So, there are laws against having real cows in the "burbs", so I had to get a picture instead of the real thing! I thought it might make the chickens think they were in a barnyard so I put it on the inside of their coop. Think of it as their own chicken artwork.

Culinary Treat

Meatloaf is a very rare occurrence in our house because it requires someone touching meat to make it. And that "someone" who makes dinner at our house who would need to touch the meat is ME! And those who know me know I DO NOT touch meat - especially nasty ground meat.

But Drew and Jim LOVE meatloaf!

So every once in a while if the timing is right and Jim is home I throw all the ingredients in a bowl and he mixes it and puts it in the oven and then monitors it to see when it is done.

Last nite was one of those nites. But this time, I made a vegetarian meatloaf too! I used fake meat and all the other meatloaf ingredients and it turned out great! Weird but yummy!

Garden

Here is my latest garden.....it is tomatoes! This is called an aero garden and is automated so it gets the right amount of light, water and nutrients. My last crop was herbs and they grew like crazy. I don't have any tomatoes yet but the flowers are starting.

Friendship, Fatherhood and Love in a Family

I have been wanting to write something profound since I got a call from our best friend Marty yesterday morning telling us that he had just found out that his Dad had died unexpectedly. But it is hard to write profoundly. Sometimes it does not come until the heart warms up a little after such a shock. I have been thinking about this for the last 24 hours and comtemplating on friendship, fatherhood and love in a family.

Death of course if part of life. Although death is always sad, it seems to me that there are degrees of sadness that you can feel with death. The death of a young child seems devastating to all. The death of an old man is sad but somewhat more pallatible. The death of a young mom who leaves children behind in heart wrenching.

So when I think of Tom's death, I am sad...sad for his family that he leaves behind, sad for his friends who will miss him and sad for the people who never got a chance to know a man who was so kind.

I also have a sense of happiness and gratitude.
* Happy that this was a man that any family could be proud to call Dad
* Appreciative that this man raised such wonderful children and that his success in his raising his family has touched my family making it richer and better.
* Happy to have seen unconditional love that has carried Tom and Phyllis thru so many years of marriage
* Appreciative that his being on this earth made it a better place for all that who knew him

Tom was a kind, gentle man that I wished I knew better. But thru his legacy, he leaves me his greatest accomplishment --- the love and committement of a great friend, a kind and gentle man in his own right, who no doubt learned it from his father --- his son and my friend, Marty - a living testament to the great father he had.

Our love is with Marty, Tina and their family.

Cherry Cobbler

The other nite, we picked a bunch of cherries off of our cherry tree in the backyard and make homemade cherry cobbler! This is Drew pitting the cherries....there were some quality control issues as I had 5 pits in my cobbler. Gracie is making the batter. We all stayed up late waiting for it to come out of the oven. Yum!

Close-up

Look at that sweet lab face! Gracie took this pic.

Remember Stretch?

Dog Shoes!

Check out my great new shoes! They have black dogs on them and the white spots on the dog are shoe shaped! Sooooo cute!

How to Suceed

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Caution: Adult Material

Drew is doing Family Life Education in the 5th grade (AKA: Sex Education). So last nite our dinner conversation was all about male anatomy. He had a cross word puzzle and would read us the clues and we would try to figure out the word. Gracie got scrotum and testicle right! He told us all about what they learned in the class, what questions the kids asked and that his teacher's son had a twisted testicle (bet that kid is not so happy with his mom).

Then we moved on to a discussion about erections....complete with sound effects (something like..."boing"!). I literally thought I was going to choke up my salad while Jim and Drew were making sound effects back and forth.

Later in the evening, just Drew and I had more discussions about the physics of erections....

Overall, I am really pleased with the program and what he is learning. But most of all I am so pleased that both the kids feel comfortable enough to talk about this type of stuff with us. And they talk about it with no embarassment, in fact it just flows with the normal conversation at the dinner table. One minute we ar discussing erections and the next minute we are discussing the talent show at school.