Merry day after Christmas!

Well another christmas has come and gone, we have survived and had quite a bit of fun visiting with everyone and of course eating. We were also lucky enough to be able to get to talk with Cody online. Of course it wasn't quite the same as having him here, but it was way better than not being able to talk to him at all. Today grandma and I took Hailey, Kelsey and Sean all shopping. We about killed Sean with boredom, Kelsey spent her entire gift card, and Hailey is much more frugal when she is spending her own money! More fun is in store for the next few days, than in no time we will be back to our boring lives, and of course back to school.

Happy Christmas Eve!!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! This was the picture this morning off our back porch, the twin sisters and the angry red sky, not a good day to go sailing!

Meet Holly....

Well here she is at last! Our new puppy, we re going to call her Holly since it's so festive and christmas-y. The introductions went well with the big dogs, well she was horrified by rylie, but who isn't. She is slowly coming out of her shell, and has successfully gone to the bathroom outside. (brrr) We think she will fit in great and we think she may even be a red headed tri when her puppy hair has been replaced by big dog hair, dont worry you'll get tons of pictures! Grandma arrived safe and sound today, and I was lucky enough to go get her and spend quality one on one time with her, which doesn't happen often, there is a long line of people who want to spend time with her! We did shopping at Costco and a couple of other "secret" stops :) By then the Canadian police found us and it was time to head across the border! We cant wait to see everyone again on Christmas day, cheers !!

It's not just a job..

It's an adventure! and a little dangerous as well, cody sent these pics to grandma who was sweet enough to forward them on to me :) Cody and his buddy are strapped into their C130 in a chair that is strapped in as well to refuel helicopers mid-air in the pitch black night! At least he wont be bored all the time, as long as his harness holds! The other picture is of Cody's adorable (tiny) girl friend Jerren, whom we will all get to meet when cody brings her home! The girls are officially enjoying christmas break, and so am I. Grandma gets here on the 21st we are all very excited and ready for it to be christmas, sort of, 99 percent of my shopping is done there are just a couple of more important things...After some important decision making by the Junior executive branch of the family ie: cathi, dave, and myself, we have decided to have the ever festive holiday burgers on christmas day. Everyone is invited and encouraged to join us!!!!

monday morning

the weather is yucky, windy and rainy. Kelsey and I are done with Whatcom, and she is still recuperating from her tonsilectomy. I am doing house stuff and thinking about starting my Christmas cards. Tomorrow kelsey has her drive test, and this time hopefully she will have a drivers license! She also has Baker tomorrow and cheer is in full swing, so no more idle time for her. Both of the girls are looking forward to Christmas break which starts on friday. I have been instant messaging, and video calling cody, it has been so much fun, and so cool to be able to see him. He looks good and seems to be in great spirits. It's amazing that he can be so far away but we can still hear him and see him, computers are amazing. I know Cathi & Don are incredibly busy with their tree farm, and of course grandpa has been there to help too, but I really miss all her updates! I will do my best to fill in once in a while, of course I am not promising anything great. I have added a new picture cody sent to me of him getting ready to go into the town. He said they were going to go to the coast soon maybe too, I believe it is the Red Sea.

It took forever!

but he finally made it. Cody called me from Virginia on tuesday night, from there they were headed to Europe and eventually to Saudi Arabia, where he called again to let me know he was Ok, but tired. Then finally on Dec 1st he made it to Djabuti Africa, where he will be for the next three of four months. We have talked once, he says it's very hot there, humid and miserable. He did send me an e-mail with some pictures, they also caught some poisonous snake right outside their tent! He said the base is small, but it doesn't take long to walk from one end to the other! Anyways I will keep everyone posted with news and pictures as I get them. I am really looking forward to being able to video call him with our new web cam that grandma & grandpa got for us. It is very cool, as I have gotten to practice with grandpa while he has been in Canada. It will be great to see his face AND hear his voice! Thankyou Mom & Lee!!!

The last of the snow

The girls decided to make a snowman before it was all gone. Today was the first day the snow was wet enough to make anything with! We tried the other day but it was so powdery it wouldn't stick together. It is melting fast, we now have a mixture of crunchy snow or ice, where the snow had been packed down. Still trecherous but definitely getting better. We decided we would trade all this beautiful snow for Grandma & Grandpa any day!

kelsey's new car

now which horse power is more useful??

And more snow!!

It hasn't stopped yet, and its supposed to snow all day again tomorrow...by the time we went back outside to bring the horses in we had accumulated several more inches of snow. We even braved the elements to take supplies to Lindsay and Jake who are snowed in at the top of Kelly Rd. Nobody has school tomorrow due to the "inclement" weather. Darn, guess I'll just have to finish all my homework!

SNOW!!!!

The first snow of the year! It's always so much fun, until you have to drive somewhere. We had a wonderful time with the Murphy's last night, it was so good to see everyone, the kids are growing up so fast. We got pretty much the most beautiful tree on the place, and we are choosing to believe it's one of the Radiner (sp) trees that Cody helped with one summer! It's in the garage drying off right now, awaiting its adornment. We were lucky we left when we did last night as the snow was coming down fast and made driving slow. I think it is supposed to snow for a couple of days, more than likely there will be no school tomorrow. The kids are horribly upset as you can imagine..:)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A day late but still well intended. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, we ate too much (big surprise) but everything was good, although I missed the green bean casserole, since I am the only one who will eat it I decided not to make it. Dave got to go fishing and the girls made their candy calenders. It was pretty quiet and low key, OK it was boring but we are looking forward to a trip up north to see the Murphy's on saturday to get our tree! That should be fun, I got a call from Cody who was having fun with his friends and new friend (the cute blonde) and thought you might all like to see as well. It's very cold today and apparently there is a cold front moving in, good, maybe it will freeze up all the mud! Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend!!

And it hasn't even been a week!

since I have last posted! It's friday night and we thnkfully have our power back, which includes heat and water as well! Our power went out wednesday at 1:00 and came back on sometime today (friday) we don't know because we spent the night at a hotel last night, at least the girls and I did. Dave bravely stayed home with all the animals in the dark cold. It was sooo nice to have a warm shower and watch TV, the girls even got to check their myspace on the hotel computer, and they swam! We do have a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow with cleaning up the debris and re-building the puppy tent. The weather man promised it would be nice tomorrow before the next storm comes in and I'm sure he wouldn't lie! We still have one puppy left but not the little girl, we got gus back! long story but hopefully he will be gone soon, I have had lots of e-mails. That's all the new news, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Who wants a puppy???

Since this puppy is so incredibly cute, somebody must want her!! She is the last one left and she is all alone, except for the other four dogs! Today has been a good day to get stuff done, house cleaning, barn cleaning, homework, all kinds of stuff! It is back and forth on the rain today, cold for sure but sometimes even a little sunny. I have to go to work tonite, boo! not looking forward to that, but oh well...Tomorrow will be another day to get homework done, and I will be making a drive down to standwood to pick up Hailey. Hopefully someone will want to come and buy this cute little puppy soon!

Friday again??

Well as you can see all that fishing has finally paid off and dave went catching today! He was up and out of the house early to spend the day on the river, even though he has caught my crud! It was obviously worth it since he caught a fish!! He was very happy, even made us take pictures of it! He cleaned it a shortly after he got home and there is apparently a little of it left for us to eat...he is thinking about taking a class to learn to filet a fish, if there is such a thing. Mom, the eye wash has not worked..I dilligently left my house early enough for work tonite to stop by the drug store and actually found eye wash with an eye cup. I got home from work around 9:30 and tried it right away, but it didn't seem to work, I will try it again before I go to bed. Cathi, Patience's sleepers are here, along with the stuff I exchanged from old navy and don's labels-we should try to hook up, maybe when jordyn is feeling better? Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Tails are fun!!

This is a picture of kwan playing tug of war with rylie's tail! Well, it has been over a week since I have posted. This past week was crazy and not fun, nothing I wanted to share or re-live. Except that I did get an A on my IDS 112 test, which was amazing since it consisted of 10 essay questions! The teacher is a little bit sadistic, but it's still better than "regular" math. I had puppy buyers come to visit their puppies yesterday and today, plus a club ride today, a trip to get hay and dinner at Mi Mexico. I did manage to sleep in so that helped somewhat with my cough- sore throat- headache thing I have going on. I have another big week coming up so I will probobly be hit and miss on news, I am apologizing in advance! (although most of you are definitely used to that about me by now) I have a mid-term in psych on friday, and a big presentation project I need to start with my group for IDS, and 5 pictures I need to draw from a famous artists' drawings. Not having to go to work would be especially helpful this week! Well I hope everyone had a great weekend and are refreshed for the coming week, I am off to bed!

Yay! it's Friday!

Here is a picture from way back at qualifyings, many of you may be wondering why hailey has a western bridle on Nick when she is obviously going in for an english class, and the answer is simple, we had two english bridles and three horses! there was a lot of turn taking...most of you probobly were not wondering but I thought I should clarify anyway. Well I made it to the end of the week, although I have a ton of stuff due next week as well as two tests that I should spend the better part of the weekend working on, at least I will get to sleep in! That would be where the Yay! comes in. Everything is going fine and dandy, was able to talk to my mom today and that always makes me feel better, thank God for moms! I'll be back next week, have a great weekend!!

This is Jake..

Well it's the end of the thursday, a long day to be sure, but at least it's over. the weather was very nice between classes. Not much going on, just the hectic schedule club. I had a lady call me about a puppy tonite, she wants one with a tail! sheesh, you just can't win..I told her next batch, if she wants to wait, we'll give her one with a tail. I'll keep you posted. Lindsay had a picture of her and Jake at his house and I thought you all might like to "meet" him. I'll get one of kelsey and Ben too, just to be fair and all. Well I'm off to do chores!

It's only tuesday?!

This is going to be a looong week, although I am not sure what I am in such a hurry to get to the weekend for, it actually just means another monday. work was a drain on my good humor last nite. Not to mention my teenage daughters.(were a drain) Oh well, they grow up and move out, and back, and out. The good news is the weather has been being nice, and with any luck I may get to mow one last time, all I need is a good 4-hour block of time. The mornings and nights are cold, but the days are sunny and pretty warm. We had to drag out the big blankets for the horses, and put the rain sheets back in the barn. We are officially down to one puppy to sell, the little girl. I don't think we'll have any trouble, they are awfully cute, I know I'm prejudice....Not much else to report, I'll try again tomorrow.

Time Flies!!

My how time flies, I can't believe how busy I am getting nothing done! At least that is how it feels. Saturday I got a lot of "house" stuff done waiting for some prospective puppy buyers to show up. Then I got some outside stuff done until it was time to go to the end-of-the-year 4-H party at the bowling alley. that took up the rest of the productive part of the day. Watched "kong" that night, very entertaining and kept you on the edge of your seat. The end was sad though. Sunday the girls had lessons at barb's so again that took just about forever, and we had a BBQ at the house with our kids and assorted other stray kids. It was nice but a far cry from cathi's thanksgiving feast! today is monday, I had a psych quiz this morning, hoping for the best, did some errands, took kelsey to ride her horse, dave took her to whatcom for her classes, and here I am, blogging! then it's off to the shower and off to work, yay! with the hope of making money but of course no guarantee. Tomorrow I have art and ethnomath, more riding, a meeting at the library, I won't go on, you get the picture.

Yay! we are half way there!

well, today I finally took kelsey to do her written driver's test and she passed! She finished in 10 minutes, when she came out of the testing room I figured she failed and the computer turned off, but she only missed two! I was surprised and apparently looked that way, Kelsey was offended since I had told her before she went in I knew she would be able to pass it, of course I wasn't really sure but I was trying to give her a pep talk. So now she has her "driving" drive test on the 19th of oct, and if all goes well we will not have to cart her around anymore! I am so excited, I think Ben and Lindsay will be as well. That was the good news for the day, now we are off to a baby shower, oh the fun never ends!

Meet Dave...

Ok, how about a human picture

My two cents...

After a quick catch-up on cathi's blog I am going to give my somewhat unimpressive rendition of a blog. This was a long day of school, to make matters worse I locked the keys in the car before my second class, now normally as most of you know I would never dream of locking my car! But today during my break I had run to the feed store and target, and I didn't want anybody to take anything, so I left the keys in the ignition (where they always are) and locked the door and shut it! Luckily, Kelsey was on her way to Whatcom for her classes, so she met me between her classes and gave me her spare! whew! wont be locking the door again!! Not much else new, I inadvertantly sent a picture of the female puppy to what I thought was the buyer, however, I was mistaken, it was another couple who just happened to be interested in the last male puppy, funny how things work out sometimes. Then I managed to come up with a testable hypothesis for my psych paper, so all in all life is good. I love the picture of the girls, and yes I do barely remember Ruby Z, I wonder what I did with all mine? Tomorrow is another huge list of things to do, wish me luck. I talked to cody last night, he is doing well. He and his friend Travis decided to take up fly fishing, and now they are pretty much experts! He didn't send me any pictures he did however post them on his Myspace. I know it's getting old but I am going to put another picture of the puppies!!

Monday again

Well here it is monday again, on the positive side mom & lee are home safe and sound from their fantastic trip to Hawaii! I am just a bit envious, but at least the weather here has been quite cooperative. I was treated to a wonderful visit from my sister and two adorable neices on saturday, and of course she has all the good pictures! It was great fun to see them and it was a welcome break for me, since I am not smart enough to stop working even though I am hurting! I did manage to get EVERYTHING done this weekend, which included, but was not limited to unloading a pick-up load of rock, moving dirt/sand another 8 feet out of the arena, replacing the pellet flooring of the puppy pen, and swapping out some straw bales, laundry, mowing the back yard, vacuuming and I actually had a hand in dinner on sunday night. Kelsey and Ben are both sick (hmmm...) so they spent the better part of the day on sunday asleep on the couch. Hailey and her two friends did whatever, I'm not sure, I was much too busy to pay attention. Dave fished a lot, and that was about it! Not exactly riveting reading but here it is monday again and so we start all over.

I Just noticed...

That all of cathi's titles end with ... :) just kidding sis! it's very cute the way you tie them in. Jordyn is absolutely adorable, and did you realize she always (as in the pics on the posts) smiles with her mouth closed? No toothy grins for that girl! Exactly the opposite of her big sissy, also I have one small request, a picture of patience from the front! I miss that little face!! I got my hair cut and colored yesterday, I am much new and improved, dave even said I looked like Meg Ryan! Even though he only meant my hair looked like Meg Ryan, it was sweet. All is well here, getting ready to go to work, and have a busy day of outside work planned for tomorrow. Sunday we are BBQing with the kids and their boy toys. Ben came over and made dinner last night in honor of he and kelsey dating for one month! He made spagetti and ceasar salad, I thought it was sweet, and way better than me cooking! He is now the new favorite boyfriend, especially since the other one's "driving" handicap! Just kidding, they're both nice boys!! All the puppies are adorable eyes open, and prancing around all important. We have just two left to sell, too bad Patience isn't in the market just yet, I have an adorable little puppy that looks just like a little panda bear!! Well I must go, I hear you can make your own laundry soap!

Hump day!

Well, it's wednesday, I have almost survived another week of school/work/life. Thanks to Lindsay and Ben (kelsey's boyfriend) I have only had to drive back & forth to whatcom 1 day this week! That is extremely helpful, as it frees up a lot of time. Other than school work and day to day "stuff" not much else going on here. I can't believe my nephew is 17 yrs old either. Where does the time go? Pretty soon he will be graduated and moving on to ?...I wish my sister would post pics of the new tv room, I hear it's yellow! We have sold another puppy Yeah!! now we just have 2 left, one boy and one girl. Their eyes have started to open so they can see where they are dragging themselves around. They should start getting a little more active and then they will move to their "new" playpen. We have been grateful for the weather, it has been nice to be able to keep up on the outside stuff. And for added fun dave and I put up an awning of sorts on the back patio. It has a top and one side to keep the wind, rain, snow or sun off the porch, and provides a dry place for the dog houses and the dogs. Since it is bolted to the concrete, we are hoping the wind does not set it on the roof! Everyone else is doing well, not much else to report. I hope mom & lee are having the most wonderful time in Hawaii!

Ok, Ok I will fill you in...

Well, with the exception of my sister, who gets tired of waiting and finally just calls me...no one has been updated for a while. Pretty much everyone knows about lindsay's car accident by now. She is doing much better by the way, healing nicely and had the staples removed from her head. Kelsey and I started school at Whatcom last monday. The week was intense for both of us, I did a lot of driving back and forth as our classes are not on the same schedule at all! We haven't been able to find a time to get her in to the D.O.L to get her license, even though it would free me up immensely! She is really enjoying being in college, as am I. I have two tough classes this quarter and one easy class, art 112, or beginning drawing. I am pretty sure I am the worst one in the class, but the teacher is quite encouraging, hopefully things will improve! My hard classes are Psych 110, and IDS 112, which is a cognitive reasoning class, the LAST form of math class I will have to take the rest of my school career! Anyway, Kelsey has Mono, again, we thought it was strep, again, but we were wrong. She has been asleep most of the weekend, but managed to work on some spanish yesterday. Cody and Hailey are doing well. Cody called me friday to let me know he got his BTZ promotion, over a year early! He was very happy, and we are very proud of him. This puts him higher in rank, and results in more pay, which is always handy! He is still scheduled to be deployed mid-december to somewhere in Africa. We will certainly have a big party when he gets to come back home in April sometime. Well I am going to go get ready for school, and my long week!

A new Day

Well, the day (friday) is almost over. The puppies got their tails done today, Lindsay took a shower! while that may not seem like a big deal, it's a lot harder to do with one arm. Kelsey and Hailey both had lessons today, and I did a few errands, some laundry and cleaned the barn.It's weird not getting ready to go work tonite, but I could get used to it. Dave caught a little trout at the river today, too small to keep, but for some unexplainable reason it seems to make him so happy?! I wish I had more interesting things to tell anyone, but I just don't. Lindsay's new beau has been hanging out here after work to keep lindsay company. He is a nice guy, polite and well groomed :) One minor glitch in the driving competence area, but I guess you can't have it all! Tomorrow is another day so maybe we'll try again

puppies!!

well, at long last the puppies are here! It was a long day, but Kady did great and we ended up with 2 girls and 3 boys. not too bad! better than one girl...Hailey hasn't seen them yet, as she went home with a friend after school, but lindsay, kesley and dave think they are adorable, and of course they are. That was pretty much all I did today, tomorrow will undoubtedly be much more productive!

Okay, Val, here's your title field!

Hi Val, somehow the "title field" got disabled! Obviously my fault since I was the only one on your blog!
Okay, post away...we're all dying to hear the details of your days : )