Dog Snow Shoeing

Hurricane!

I walked out to the garage (at the cabin) this morning and was faced with this! What a mess! Our summer gear is mixed with our winter gear and this is the result. We need to get out there and do a clean up .

More pics

Here are more pics from our snowshoe trip to the lookout tower. There is a helicopter that we got to play around in. Not a bad spot for a picnic!

Fire Lookout Snowshoe hike

Yesterday we did a snowshoe hike up to a fire look out in Yosemite. The hike up the mountain is beautiful but the view once you get to the top is magnificent!

It was Ahi's first snow shoe hike and she did great! She hiked about 4 miles. Every so often, we would pick her up for a while to warm her feet.

Dork Cam

We got a helmet cam for xmas. You strap it to the top of your head for snowboarding, biking, fishing, etc. Jim is the guy that wears it, so we call it "dork cam"!

Here he is using it to play spoons.

Early morning at the cabin

I got up early this morning and the dogs were NOT ready to go out for a run like they normally are. I think we wore them out with all the hiking, swimming and snow play. I was on the computer and looked over and they were snuggled up together. Sweet doggies!

Violence

Last nite we were playing a game of spoons and it turned violent! The pic shows the results!

The spoons went flying, broke some glass and my hand landed in the broken glass while I was going for a spoon! That is blood on my hand from the cut.

You can't lose good friends - part 1

There seems to be a pattern....

Today we lost our friends. First, our Chiweenie. Now, our friends.

This afternoon we went to the snow with Tina and Marty for an afternoon of sledding. When we pulled off the road at the spot where we always stop, we waited and waited..... But no Tina and Marty.

There are two roads with the same name and we were at the second one. So we figured that they must have gone to the first one. So we turned around and went back to look for them. We each had walkie talkies but they were not responding to our calls.

We got to the first road and headed down it. The conditions got worse and worse - lots of snow and ice. We started worrying that they thought we went down it and headed into the poor conditions. We went a couple miles and could not find them. It was starting to get unsafe so we turned back.

We started to get worried.

We headed back to the main road.

We decided to head back to the cabin, thinking they might have headed back.

When we got back to the cabin and they were not there, we put together a full on rescue plan.

We loaded the truck with sleeping bags, shovels and warm clothes. Jim and Drew were on the rescue team. Gracie and I were to wait at the house and if Jim and Drew were not back with Tina and Marty by 8 pm, I was to call rescue authorities.

About 20 minutes later, everyone showed up at the cabin! Hurray! Just like the Chiweenie, Tina and Marty headed back home to safety!!!!

Lake Day

Jim and Marty went fishing today in the kayaks. Jim caught a giant blue gill and caught all the action on his new helmet/head cam! Grace, me and the dogs all walked down to the lake to check it out and Daisy got a chance to swim.

self portrait

Here is Daisy and I snowshoeing together. I took the pic of us by holding the camera out and upside down so I could push the button! That is why her nose is cut off of the pic! It is the best shot of the 5 that I took.

My Best Friend

Everyone should be lucky enough to have a lab as a best friend.

Isn't she a beauty?

Random Texting

Tonite while bbqing chicken, Jim got the following text message from a phone number he does not know:

"Ya when you admit you care we will talk but really im done with your attitude you need to have respect for other people."

To which, Jim replied:

"respect is really overated"

To which the random texter responded:

"wrong number my fone is tripin"

To which Jim responded:

"No worries, let me know if you want to talk, my friends call me dr phil"

To which the random texter responded:

"thats nice but i really dont know you lol"

And then later texted him again:

"sorry again about the text and thanks for the offer to talk"

Weird and random!

The Grandma Holidays

The Grandma's had very different holidays.

Grandma Kathy spent hers convalescing a hurt shoulder. She took a spill on a wet sidewalk and ended up on her shoulder. The doc says it may be a rotator cuff injury but that there is too much trauma right now to tell. Lucky for her, she is doing some traveling coming up that will include some rest and relaxation!

Grandma Anna went snowshoeing with me up at Badger Pass. She is amazing...almost 72 years old and she went snowshoeing for 3 miles at 6500 feet!

Pierogi Kitchen

Today we spent about 4 hours making pierogis. Pierogis are a polish giant ravioli type food. The filling is mashed potatoes, onions, garlic and cheese. It's a big labor intense process but the results are delicious!

Prewash

Here is Ahi doing the pre wash in the dishwasher. Saves water.

Merry Xmas Present!

My Dad got this cool buffet warmer for xmas. We used it that morning for our breakfast burrittos and it kept everything warm! LOVE it! I must get one!

Badger Pass

Here is the tremendous weather from yesterday!

Can't Lose a Good Chiweenie - Part 2

As you all know, the dogs go out for a run every morning. This morning, at the cabin, Jim went with me, so we decided to walk thru the forest, down to the creek behind the cabin. That way the dogs could be off leash the whole way and get a good run in.

We went about a mile and started walking up a road. The Chiweenie took off down the hill, across the creek and up the canyon on the other side. We continued to walk a little ways while whistling. After a few minutes, there was no Chiweenie to be seen.

So....Jim walked across the creek and looked for her while I walked up and down the road whistling for her. We did this for about 20 minutes until we decided that she was (a) she had gone home or (b) she was lost in the forest forever!

So we hiked a mile back home - whistling and calling her name the whole way!

Jim took a different route then me, just in case she went a different way home.

We got home and.....no Chiweenie on the deck!

Damn!

I yelled down to Jim that she was not here. I went to the front and opened it up to tell everyone that "apparently, you CAN lose a good Chiweenie"! And....I was greeted by Drew on the couch, snuggling with Ahi!

She had been back about 15 minutes!

Damn dog found her way back thru a forest that she had never been in before this morning. She was barking at the front door, so Gracie let her in! Then, everyone waited for us to get back.

What must Daisy think?

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays from pontoon mama and her whole crazy crew!

Pic taken in Yosemite. You can tell how tall Drew is in this pic compared to me.

Frasier

Twas 4 days before xmas

and all thru Sonora

Many creatures were stirring

All being human beings

OK....thats all I can think of for now...

This is our xmas tree for the cabin. We looked all over Sonora and found the last three (in the whole town) at Orchard Supply. Jim drove up to the front of the store, parked in the fire lane, held up each of the riduclous three remaining trees and we all laughed hysterically - for these were the ugliest trees of all time!

We chose this one and call him Frasier. It is so little that we just threw it in the back of the truck on top of the groceries. Normally we get a 12 foot tree for the cabin and this little guy is lucky if he is 5 feet tall! We giggle everytime we look at it! And he is so whimpy I accidently call him Francis!

Snow Chiweenie

Ahi had her first trip to the snow and loved it!!!! She ran all around and ate snow. But then after a while she got too cold and wanted back in the truck. We turned it on and turned on the heated seat which is the second pic. She laid there and shivered while the rest of us played in the snow.

Want to hear something nasty?

Yep....I know you do!

We have a "for sale" alias at work. For those of you not in high tech - that is an email list that you can sign up for and people post things they have for sale. Then you get an email saying the item is for sale. Think garage sale at work. There are all kinds of random things people sell - bikes, sunglasses, purses, dvds, computer parts, etc.

Now here is the nasty part.... Every few months there is someone selling a used breast pump! ICK! I totally believe in reusing, reducing and recycling. But I don't want someones old breast pump....especially someone I work with!

YUK!

Any Pokemon fans?

I have a brand new Pokemon book that needs a new home. I got it for my very handsome and charming nephew, Jack, but he already has it. Just say the word and its yours! And come and get it!

My favorite cookie recipe

Butterhorns

Dough

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup sour cream

Filling

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 t cinnamon

Mix together dough ingredients, divide into 3 parts, roll into ball and refrigerate in wax paper overnight. Roll out each ball to 1/4" thick (like a pizza dough) and sprinkle with fillling. Cut into 16 parts (slice like pizza) and roll up (like a crescent roll). Bake at 375 15-18 minutes. Makes 48.

Dog Sandwich

This morning, Jim left at 5 am to go get the boat. When he got up, I asked him to let Ahi out and put her in bed with me so that I could sleep late.....HA! Nice try!



He brings her into bed with me and she does her crazy roll around routine and then climbs under the covers and snuggles right up against my stomach. She then proceed to breath on me - big breaths! Then she started hiccuping! Big breath followed by big hiccup!



Then Daisy Mae gets in on the action by laying right behind me...making me the filling of a dog bread sandwich. She puts her head on my shoulder and breathes right in my ear.



So much for sleeping in! I could only take about 10 minutes of it and then decided to get up and take them for a walk in 27 degree weather!

Reporting Live from OG Office.....

My investigative reporter in the field just found out the following:

"Just found out more about the dead guy.

He'd just come out of the store and had a heart attack, fell and hit his head. They were treating it like a crime scene because no one saw it and he was wearing shorts in the rain. The police thought that was odd (they must not know Jim....haha).

Anyways, they pronounced him dead at the hospital.

I feel a little better knowing it was a homocide or some bum."

Dead Guy Number 2

How many dead guys can we find in one week? Remember the one I found at the local elementary school? Well.....he didn't end up being dead but it was unknown at the time.

So, Jim goes to the grocery store on Sunday nite and comes home to report that there was a dead guy in the parking lot. Apparently half the parking lot was roped off because a guy was dead in between two cars. It was not known what had happened so the police roped it off and treated it like a crime scene.

Weird happenings.

Family Pics

Here are the family pics we got taken this year. I love the one of the 5 cousins!

Xmas Humor

Thanks to my friend Tracy who has the same sense of humor as me! Merry Xmas to all my Old Lady friends!!!

Out takes

Here are the out takes from taking the xmas pics of the dogs. I don't know about you but they make me laugh out loud! Hilarious!

13 years old!

We celebrated Drew's 13th birthday yesterday. And in order for him to get his gift, he had to do the following scavenger hunt:

1. A Package that is wrapped and full of water bottles was given to him with the following message inside:


Thirteen years ago a baby was born whose name was Drew.
His family wished for him to live to be an old Geezer.
Soon he became the Head of a Five Cousins Crew.
Now….13 years later if he wants his birthday gift, he needs to go to the …freezer!

2. He needed to look in the big freezer in the garage – there was a package containing the following message:


Solve this puzzle:

I am dark as night.
I am a little better with peas.
I love my “sister”.
Now once you have it figured out…..go to where I sleep.

3. This led him to Ahi’s crate – there wasl a package with the following message:

Let’s see….
It is not a phone
It is not an air soft gun
It is not a pair of boxers….
What could it be?
If you want your birthday gift come with me….

I took him to the next spot, the kitchen and gave him the following instructions:


I couldn’t find your gift at Toys R Us or Sports Authority, so I had to order it online and have it sent to you. Lucky for you, it came today all wrapped with a bow. Go find it.

The final gift was in the mail box – wrapped with a bow.

The last pic is the look on his face when he realized he got the new voyager phone he has been wanting for months!

PS - He is officially 5 feet 8 inches at 13 years old. Four inches taller than his mother!

Merry Xmas

Merry xmas from Santa and the little elf!

Christmas Cards

This is a heads up that you will not be getting a Christmas card from us this year. The reason is two fold:

1. Christmas has lost much of its meaning for me because it has been reduced to tasks. Get one thing done and there is another waiting on the list.
2. The $200 plus dollars that it costs me to send Christmas cards could be used for much better things this season.

So, I am using the extra time that I have that is not spent on doing Christmas cards to play baseball with the kids, to take the kids to the park, to bake cookies, to take the dogs for a walk, to read a book...

The money I save is going to be given to the Second Harvest Food Bank. This is what $200 buys:

20 4-person dinners: a whole chicken, mixed vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce
90 1 lb loaves of bread

Please know that we wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best that the new year has to offer. And we hope that next years Christmas season is more hopeful for the world economy.

Happy Holidays!

With All Our Love,
Jim, Chris, Drew, Gracie, Daisy Mae and Ahi Wasabi

It's a dogs life....

I am hoping and praying I come back in my next life as the dog of one of my descendants.....

The Middle Place

This couple minute video clip is worth the time to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4qwVLqt9Q

I have ordered the book. I willlet you know how it is.

Life

I have been pondering a lot about the meaning of life. I know that sounds deep and it really is.

The state of the world is what has me contemplating what is important in life and how to spend more time on the important things and less time on the non-meaningful, non-fulfilling items. More than ever we are all consumed with worry, tasks and negativity. This is all easy to say and easy to ponder about but it is not so easy to do.

I had a moment last nite that was a perfect illustration of the meaning of life.

Last nite was the end of the season party for Drew's soccer team. It was at a local pizza place and was low key. At the end of the evening, Drew's coach, Andy, got up and said something about each of the players.

And what he said was meaningful. REALLY meaningful.

It meaningful to each player because it showed that this coach cared about them and that he noticed when he did things well and not just the things you would think(ie making goals and winning games) - he noticed things like being a good leader, being supportive of team mates, and doing your personal best.

It was meaningful to each parent because it illustrated to each of us that our hard work in raising and guiding these boys is working. And because we realize that in this coach, we have been blessed with an amazing ally in our endeavor of raising our sons.

To this coach this was a season of guiding a team full of boys on their road to being young men. NOT a season of winning games. I thanked him when we left and told him that he has no idea how influential he has been in these boys lives.

Unfortunately, Drew was not at the dinner as he was sick. But the rest of us went and when it was Coach Andy's turn to talk about Drew, he asked Gracie to come up and stand in Drew's place.

Andy then proceeded to talk about what great natural athlete Drew was and how he "makes good decisions, consistently good decisions for a kid his age", and that he knows the game of soccer almost as much as Andy himself. Then he talked about how Drew grew as a leader during the season. Andy spoke of how at the beginning of the season Drew was named the team captain and that he had been hesitant to take that role. He spoke about talking with Drew each game about what to work on in that role for that particular game and that he was proud of the growth Drew had made.

As a parent, I could not have asked for more from a coach - he recognized Drew's natural ability, identified areas of growth opportunity and focused on developing those growth areas. He made a difference in the self esteem, confidence and ability in Drew.

And, as a parent, I could not have been more proud.

So....while I ponder, I am taking the time to recognize these meaningful moments in life and hold onto them for as long as possible. And to feel blessed for those people who come into our life and make a difference.

Dead guy?

Yesterday morning I went out to take the dogs for a quick run before I went to the gym. I decided to take them over to the school and let them run off leash a bit. I sloshed thru the wet grass and headed to the blacktop area. It was darker than dark and I couldn't see very well.

When approaching the building, I looked up and saw Ahi heading over to a form on the ground. I looked closer and it looked like a guy laying in a sheet - on the ground, up against the school building. It was so dark I could not tell if he was alive or dead! But I knew it was not a good situation either way.

I quietly called the dogs and beat it out of there speedy quick!

I went home and called the police to report the situation. I gave them all the details and then went upstairs to tell Jim. While telling the story the police called back and were having trouble locating the guy. I gave them detailed directions, to which they responded - "We got him"!

When I drove by the school about 10 minutes later, no one was there....so he must not have been dead!

It never ends....

Jim came home to a flood in the kitchen last nite! He worked on it for hours and it is still not fixed. We may need to get a whole new faucet.

Reward

A couple weeks ago, my brand new shoes got stolen from the gym! I had only worn them a few times! Boy was I mad. So I went out the next weekend and bought another pair exactly like them. So within 2 weeks I spent $250 on running shoes. I can only hope that the person who stole them needs them really bad.

Bah Humbug

Heads up that I have a bad case of the "Bah Humbugs"! I wouldbe happy if we could fast forward to Dec 26. I hate all the work that xmas entails for ME! Shopping, cooking, planning, wrapping, decorating, etc. I would much rather be out on a bike ride or a hike.

Thankfully my folks gave us a hand me down fake xmas tree that the kids put up one day while I was at work! Then we decorated it yesterday morning and I think it might put me in the xmas spirit a little bit! I really like the fake tree - no needles and no worrying about it drying out. Plus I got a tree scent thingy that goes in the electrical socket from Bath and Body and it smells great in the room!

YUM!

These are my favorite xmas cookies. They are called butterhorns and my family has made them every xmas for as long as I can remember. The dough is made with sour cream, sugar, flour and egg yolk. You roll the dough out like pizza and then sprinkle with a cinnamon, sugar, walnut mixture. Next you cut like a pizza and roll them up like crescent rolls. YUM!

Bedtime

Ahi was looking to go to bed (in our bed) at 6:30 tonite. It had been a long dog day. But no one was going to bed, so she settled for the next best thing....snuggling up to Daisy Mae who was taking a snooze in the family room.

Mystery solved

My keys came up missing while we were at

the cabin this weekend. We searched high and low: under the couch, in the boat, in the garage, etc. We even called the local grocery store and restaurant to see if we had left them here. They did not show up anywhere.

One of our late theories was that they got left on the bumper of the truck when we were packing up and we drove away with them there. Thinking that this was a potential option, we called the front gate to see if anyone had turned in a set of keys. Imagine our surprise when they said "yes - someone turned in a set of Chevy keys!".

We all hopped in the truck to run down and see if they were mine. The pics are what we found. My keys had been run over multiple times! Some of the keys were completely bent in half and some were just mangled.

Mystery solved. Scooby Doo could not have done it better.

Hike

These were the views during our hike in the bear country. Beautiful day in the Sierra's!