Pontoon Mama has a new home....

After about 7 years of waiting, we finally got a slip at the marina at the cabin! So the Pontoon Mama will be living the life of leisure in the water....instead of being kept in the driveway!

lub dub lub dub

I took Drew to the cardiologist for his fainting and the diagnosis is low blood pressure. He needs to stay hydrated and possibly ADD salt to his diet! And the doc taught him how to respond if he feels light headed -- immediately squat down which causes to blood in your legs to be forced up to your torso and brain. He used the technique already and it worked like a charm.

If it keeps happening, then we will need to call back and come up with another plan.

Doc said it is not all that uncommon at this age. It makes sense. With the rapid growth, how can the body regulate perfectly at all times!

Sassy!

Check out my new shoes! They have got to be the cutest shoes ever. Even the waitress at lunch commented about them today. And my admin got online as soon as she saw them and bought a pair!

But...no wise cracks about my cankles!

Swamp Monster

Ahi rolled in something up at the cabin and we can not get the smell out of her! I have bathed her three times already. It's better than it was but you can still smell her when she snuggles up to you. We have taken to calling her "Stinky Pete". And this morning, I caught her trying to dive into a dead slug!

Paul has left the building!

We got a good lead earlier in the week on the bunny and his origin in the neighborhood. I talked to the mail lady on Tuesday and she said someone at the end of our street sometimes has a rabbit cage in the front yard. I was super excited at first, until I realized that the girls from that house walk by all our signs posted on poles on their way to school each day. So I figured that it must not be theirs.

Then tonite one of Gracie's buddies mentioned the same thing about them having a bunny and said it was a black bunny. So we sent Gracie and her friend down the street to ask the neighbors.

Five minutes later, here comes Gracie with the neighbors in tow. IT'S THEIR RABBIT!!!

So they come back into the backyard where he was hanging out and pick him up. Then we get the whole scoop....

* His name is Paul!
* He likes bananas, toast and dried apricots
* He was rescued by them over two years ago when the girls found him at the high school left in a cage
* He has escaped before and been gone for 4 days, so they figured he would come back

So with mixed feelings, Paul was sent on his way.

More turkey pics

Take Your Kids to Work

Today was Kids to Work Day and Gracie came with me. They had events from 9 am to 2 pm and I came home exhausted! We did a scavenger hunt, did art projects, played and had lunch.

Sydney

A few months back, my Aunt and Uncle in Kentucky lost their dog, Austin. There were lots of tears shed and memories shared.

Now they have the opportunity to build new memories with their new dog - Sydney! The adopted Sydney like they had adopted Austin. But this is a bit different, because Sydney is an ex-con!

She was trained by convicts at a prison! They take in homeless dogs and train them so that they can be placed in forever homes! So Sydney lived at a prison while being trained. I am sure it will make for some good stories.

Fainting update

I took Drew in for some blood work and an ekg following his fainting episode. So far, the blood work looks excellent and the EKG looks normal. The pediatric cardioligist will take a look at the EKG and make the final assessment.

Gracie also had the blood work and hers we "excellent" too.

Turkey Hunting

Jim's new turkey caller defintely worked! That turkey he caught was 22 pounds cleaned! He brought it home and cleaned it in the garage and driveway. I was horrified and was hiding out in the house. His buddies, the neighbors and the kdis thought it was great fun.

More pics coming soon.

Gobble Gobble

Turkey Down...

Microchip?

My last hope was that this bunny has a microchip and that we can find his owner.... took him to the vet this morning to check.....NOPE! No microchip.

Does anyone want a slightly used bunny?

Instant Message

Drew sends me instant messages when he gets home from school. It is how we check in after school when I am at work. Here is the message from Drew today on instant message:

Dad brought a turkey calling thing home today. It's very loud. He is blowing it all over the house.

Only at our house! Wonder what the bunny thinks?!?!!

Dog's vs Bunny

The dogs are hilarious with this bunny.

The first nite we had him, Ahi would NOT go to bed. She would leap up on our bed, leap back off and go running downstairs to look at the bunny. She is normally in bed by 9 pm and that night, Jim made her go to bed at 11:30!

All I have to do is say "hi bunny bunny" and the dogs run over to the cage to look at the rabbit!

Ahi's birthday was last Thursday (she is 2) and I keep telling her I got her a bunny for her birthday!

Weekend Recap

It was an incredibly busy weekend. Highlights include:

* 4 soccer games (Drew had 3 and Gracie had 1)
* Rescuing a bunny, creating "found" signs and posting them all over the neighborhood
* Getting all the apple orders from Gracie's team and tallying all 382 of the apples
* A BIG Costco trip - got a new tent for Cherry Lake (so at least we will have one tent with a door)!
* Going to the Carmel Mission and touring if for Gracie's 4th grade mission project
* Hanging out on the beach in Carmel
* Checking out the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey
* Watching the Sharks's blow it
* Taking the dogs on multpile walks

I can't remember what else we did but now that I wrote this all down, I don't feel so bad about being tired today!

Fundraiser

Gracie's team did an apple fundraiser and made $1428!!! What a haul!

What's up doc?

Came home from dinner tonite to have a bunny run across the road in front of the truck right by our house. It was not a wild bunny so we knew we had to take action. We leaped out of the truck ready for a rescue maneuver!

Another kid and his mom were already out of their car looking at the rabbit...but not doing anything. They just needed someone in charge...and that someone was me.

I got the kids rounded up and did a lot of screaming...."GET HIM!". With my expert leadership, we were able to grab him!

We now have him in our kitchen in the 100 gallon fish tank. He is eating and grooming himself.

Gracie is making "found" signs and we will post them tomorrow.

4th Grade Letter

At the beginning of the school year, Gracie's teacher asked that parents write a letter to their child without using their name. During the school year, the teacher pulls a letter and reads it out loud and the kids guess whose it is.

Here is the letter we wrote for Gracie - her teacher read hers this week.

Dear 4th Grader,

We can’t believe that about 10 years ago you were born into our family! We were so excited to bring you home to your family, which included your big brother and your dog. We couldn’t wait to share our lives with you and watch you grow. We wondered what type of person you would become.

The person that you have grown into is better than we could have imagined! There is so much we love about you:

We love spending our family time together on the boat, at the cabin, fishing, hiking, backpacking and inner tubing.

We have loved taking you on trips to Chicago, San Diego, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan and Washington DC.

We love to watch you play all your sports, including soccer, hockey and swimming.

We love to see you be kind to all people.

We love to see you find joy in nature.

We love to watch you interact with animals and show your love for all our pets.

We love when you act all goofy which makes us call you “squirrel”!

You are a wonderfully unique person! Your spark, feistiness and kindness are what we love so much about you. You are unstoppable when you put your mind to something – that is why you have earned the family nickname: Bones and Dynamite.

We hope you enjoy 4th grade!

Love,
Mom and Dad

3 Dog Day

It is a nice day, so I told the dogs they need to be outside. I looked out and they were all three laying on the pillow in the sun!

Scholarship!

I am so proud - Drew got his second scholarship. Last year it was for $150 and this year it was for $250! Not a lot of money but every dollar helps! Like last year, it was for athletic excellence.

Lima Beans

Remember Gracie's lima bean plant from about 6 months ago? It has been growing inside for 6 months and she harvest these two lima beans today!

More Pigs...

For our helmets for Mud Buddies!

Biker Pig

This is the pig I got to zip tie onto our bike for Muddy Buddies! Two dollars at a thrift store. She is even wearing workout clothes - albeit - aerobic leotard and leg warmers!! That just adds to the hilarity!

The Return of Chadman

Chad is back for a short stay. His family brought a stuffed squirrel for all the dogs to play with. But Chad wanted none of that. He layed on Daisy Mae's pillow squeeking it. Then when he tired of that, he put his head on it so no one could play with it.

More power

Should a guy who just fainted be managing a giant saw like this?

ohm or yum?

I went to yoga today at lunch and at the end of class, I had an incredible craving for Indian food. Coincidence?

Knit One Pearl Twice

Grace has learned to knit and has made various items such as drink coasters and bracelets. Tonite she made a sweater for Ahi....its quite stylish!

Deck update....

Here are pics from mid day yesterday. Jim texted at about 5:30 pm and said they had screwed in the last screw! But we still don't have railings! So it's not time to party on it yet!

Home again

Gracie and I came home a day early from the cabin so she could play in a soccer game (they tied 1 to 1). And while coming home from the game, I got this pic in a text and it was titled: "so sad....we miss you". They don't LOOK like they miss us!

Update on Deck

Finished: back deck, stairs and slider side!!!

Still to do: framing and laying down deck of front door side, doing all the railings and cleaning up the mess!

We have done a pretty good job of staying on top of the mess but we have a lot of wood and junk to still haul out of here. Jim's truck is about full of wood to go back to SJ with us. And I have taken 8 bags of garbage and recyclables to the dumpster. Plus Drew, Gracie and Mari took a truck full of yard waste to the waste yard yesterday.

Deck update

Today we finished 3/4 of the back deck and the stairs!

And he's down and out.....

Yesterday morning we had a very interesting experience with Drew.

I was working at the kitchen counter at the cabin and he was sitting on the couch.

He got up from the couch, walked into the kitchen and started talking to me. Then he said, "wait" and started stumbling! He stumbled into the refridgerator and then fell, head first, into the closed dishwasher! A 6 foot tall kid has a looooong way to fall and it was VERY loud when he hit the ground.

I was right there and saw the whole thing.

I ran around and he was crumpled on the floor rubbing the top of his head.

He said he did not remember hitting the fridge but did remember hitting the dishwasher. He had a huge knot on the top of his head.

After the incident, we did a self diagnosis and believe it was caused by low blood pressure and dehydration. But he is going to take a trip to the doctors office next week!

Doggie Hockey or Big Time Wrestling?

This is how it went down....

Pepper, my parent's dog, is here with us at the cabin.

He is not very good with doggie social clues. He growls and barks, incessantly, at my dogs.

Daisy Mae is the best dog ever....she won't make eye contact and will get up and leave the room if Pepper is there. She knows she is not suppose to attack her cousin, so she does not engage.

Ahi tried a couple times to play with Pepper, but Pepper didn't get that it was playing and would get aggressive. So she stopped and did the Daisy strategy of "ignore".

The other afternoon, she was laying on the couch minding her own business and Pepper kept going up to her and growling and barking. She kept looking at him and looking at him... (I am sure she was thinking..."shut up you idiot!")

And then finally, she had enough! And in true hockey spirit, she threw off her gloves and said "ok, you wanna go?!?!" And then she leaped off the couch and attacked him!

He ran screaming like a girl!!! She chased him down and stood over him puffing out her chest and standing tall, as if to say, "don't mess with me or my sister, you white fluff ball!"

I think I heard Daisy giggling from the bedroom! She was glad her sister had the role of Jody Shelly, ENFORCER!

A website for Chiweenies

Check out this website - it cracks me up!

http://www.chiweenie.net/

Mud Buddies Training

This is my first week of training for Muddy Buddies. True to my type A fashion, I put together an excel spread sheet with all the training for the next 10 weeks. The problem is...I already have an injury! The bottom of my right foot is killing me. I have really struggled with plantars faciatis in the last couple years. If I don't run, its fine, but the minute I start back up, it starts to act up. I have only done 6 miles of running, 3.5 miles of hiking and 4 miles of walking this week. Doesn't seem like much but its enough inflame my darn foot! I swear....after this race, NO MORE running for me!

I have given my partner the chance to trade me in for a younger, healthier partner but she is sticking with me!

Happy Holiday

This weekend is the biggest holiday of the year....and I don't mean Easter!

It's opening weekend of salmon season and we have not had a salmon season in 3 years! Let's just say that for Jim, this weekend is as important as the birth of his children!

The kids and I have been giggling at his antics all week. He is completely obsessed and can think of nothing else except for fish! Earlier in the week, I found him up at 2:30 am checking weather sites on the computer!

I just hope he fills up the freezer because I hate buying fish!