Cookies and Milk

Jackson can now say "my mom made me cookies and milk after school." And we have the pic to prove it!

Change for America

Jackson and I attended the Barack Obama rally downtown today. He's been absolutely begging me to take him for several days. When our countries leaders start to seem like rock stars to my 12 year old- well this can be good. We were at Municipal Auditorium at 4:10, and waited in the foyer for 35 minutes. The wind chills are in single digits so as we waited the foyer became increasingly crowded until there literally wasn't room to bend down and tie your shoes. Then we waited another hour and 15 minutes in a long serpentine line. Finally, back aching feet throbbing we made it to the rally hall. Obama obviously has a lot of supporters in KC! We stood along a second floor rail where a big old pillar blocked our view of Obama but at least we could see him enter the stage and we could see the people's response. I didn't think that the strict security would allow camera's (I was wrong!) so today's picture is of Jackson eating his dinner. I was so tired I couldn't even think about waiting in a real restaurant for food! Jackson by the way was very impressed with Obama and now wants to "volunteer for his campaign."

Loving Books

Today was Toddler Story Time at the library. Erin and I love to hang out together at the library. She carried her own bag of books.

And she carefully put them into the return box- one at a time.

We listened to more stories about elephants. We sang songs and clicked our sticks to the music.

This afternoon I made trip number 9 to the vet. To remove stitches. Here's the finished product. She actually has three remaining toes- the thumb toe is just underneath in this pic. Nasty huh? The good news is that she can lose the big old cone head.

Gentle Sunny Sundays

Don't cha just love Sundays? This morning we went to church. Jackson is studying with the confirmation class and will hopefully make a profession of faith in late April. They unveiled the new youth room~ with much admiration from Jack and his friends!

Then Deb and I visited Granny in the hospital. We are so happy that she's receiving excellent, loving care. I didn't bring the camera or I would have taken a picture of the cherry pie & vanilla ice cream that brought her such joy! We really enjoyed our visit together.

It's a wonderful 50 degrees today. So Jack and I found a trail that wasn't just sopping mud. John sometimes rides his bikes along this trail. Cooper still ended up a muddy mess. Poor Colby had to stay home so that her wounded paw wouldn't get filthy.

I used to commute through the lake every day- and in the winter I love this scene. It's a winding little creek that flows into the bigger lake. The rest of the year the trees and leaves block the view entirely.

Here's Jack checking out the woods along the hiking trail. This trail is on a bit of a ridge that runs along the rim of the lake.

Griswald Politics

Remember the Griswalds trip to Wally World. Well it turns out it's very much like the Myers go to a political rally! Tonight we went to see Bill Clinton in Independence. Everyone in western MO went to see Bill Clinton in Independence tonight! The high school parking lot was absolutely packed- and people had parked in every inch of lot. I ended up getting stuck in a wretchedly small place to make a right turn. I rolled down all the windows and inch by inch somehow got my mammoth old van to go right. Back and forth, back and forth, and a report by Sammy sticking her head out the window that I was getting "a little close to the other car." Back and forth some more. Kids are scared all heads stuck next to windows. I was about to have Jackson hop out and find a police officer- because I was just plain old stuck. Then I said well just one more try and somehow we got out of there. We parked way down the road. We decided to just walk through the grassy area next to the school to save some distance and time- not knowing that we would walk through a bog of ankle deep mud. When we finally got inside Jackson told the person handing out the stickers "this is not dog poop- it's mud." And she just laughed.


We finally found some seats. Such relief. We made it. Then I look around and think 'man there's not THAT many people here." No one had told us we were the overflow audience! Now how to keep three kids occupied who can't see anything. But at least we could hear him. After his audio speech we waited and waited. The staff had said "he always speaks to the overflow crowd." Finally someone comes to tell us that he's already left. The kids were great- and I do believe we had fun in spite of ourselves. Jackson says he'd really like to go see Obama who is town next Tuesday. ("well ya never know he might be the next president") I don't know if my nerves will have been sufficiently recovered by then. But the civics lesson went well huh!



There were lots of Ron Paul people at the rally. Jackson asked one "um who is Ron Paul and why are you here?" The whole crew of them responded. One asked him "what issues concern you most?" And I had to redirect "he's 12- his friends are 9 and 7."

A Tune Up

My Granny is in the hospital- when you get to be 88 things can start to fall to pieces. She's got pneumonia and is having diagnostic test to help fix up some other ailments as well. I visited her this afternoon and shared the visit with my great Aunt Waneta and my second cousin Marsha. (I have very large and close knit extended families! ) We enjoyed kidding Granny about her handsome Doctors. My Granny loves to be teased and to joke.

Signs

Cooper's leg has healed into a heart. The right side of the heart lobe is a bit bigger than the left side- but I see a heart! Three weeks ago tonight we thought we'd lost him~ and he escaped with this small cut.

Cold Day on Ice Part 2

It might not be portrait quality- but I loved the way the sun glistens off Cooper's coat in this picture. He really is a very handsome dog. And he could very easily be dead or mangled and broken from being hit, and hit HARD, by that car.

Colby rode along when I dropped Jackson off to school and about embarrassed him to death (but keep in mind he's 12- EVERYTHING embarrasses him!). But I might have to agree with him- being seen in the same card with a dog in the back seat sporting the biggest disk head you've ever seen might qualify as embarrassing. But she really wanted to go with us!

Cold Day on Ice

Cooper got to ride in the truck with John today. They found a trail near the lake with a small farm pond nearby.

The dogs are normally really good off leash in the woods. They really just stay with the pack. But today Cooper was very naughty and when John accidently dropped the leash he ran. This is what happens. John followed him through the thickets and found him all tangled. (notice the blue leash wrapped around the trees!)

He might be almost 1 and 1/2 now, but he's still a big puppy. The ice was fascinating.

Paradise

We played in Paradise today- Paradise Park! It's kind of like a children's museum with all sorts of fun. Our favorite play area was the pretend village that featured a miniature bank, house, pizza shop, and grocery store. Erin loved the pretend pizza shop.


Lauren and her friend Eric thought the pretend store was pretty cool. Lauren painted her face purple in the face-painting center.

Sunday & Monday

Poor Colby- she figured out to work around her cone so we had to get a bigger cone! This one is cartoonishly large- it must be for a Saint Bernard. But it allowed us to remove the bandage to allow her wound to really start healing. This of course meant trip number 7 and 8 to the vet. Number 7 was for a wound check- and featured a full waiting room of dogs of every shape and size and color and a few cranky cats in cages. Throw in a dog aggressive border collie being handled by a young clueless teenager. Visit number 8 was to quickly fetch the bigger cone while Jackson literally stood watch over her paw at home.

After celebrating the Patriots victory on Sunday, we headed to mom's for a wonderful dinner feast. Jackson and I spent the night along with Deb and the girls. And we watched old videos late into the night.

The Salt of the Earth

We ran out of salt today. Isn't it great to have someone that you can borrow some salt from when the cupboard is empty! People who are sometimes literally the salt of the earth! I know that my hamburger's gonna taste a whole lot better because of their good-neighborlyness.


The kids are downstairs having a "bubble hockey" tournament. A frigid, cold Saturday night just doesn't get better than that.



Jackson and John spent last night and today at the big Royals Fan Fest. You may have noticed but Jackson looks just like me- strangers comment on it at the store. But it's like John has cloned himself as far as Jackson's interest. They both love collecting sports cards, and watching games. Today I realized that when I was 12 I would have lived to go to something like Fan Fest too.

While the boys were out and about, I worked on a scrapbooking project using memories of Christmas. I also made my sixth trip to the vet this January. This time to have Colby's bandages changed. Luckily our vet's are great.

Road Trip

Deb and I road tripped to visit Granny this afternoon. We brought a lot of life, love and energy into her quiet day. Not to mention something tasty to eat! Erin shared her favorite song "winkle winkle little star." And Lauren drew a lovely picture of a turtle.

Toe-ing the Line

Colby had a toe amputated today. She's had a badly infected paw for several weeks now, and despite antibiodics it wasn't healing. The surgery revealed that there was a tumor along her nailbed. She's a bit sore and tired tonight, but she's going to be just fine.

Job Interview

One of my 2008 goals is to find a great job. My perfect job would include the right mix of a short commute, interesting work, good benefits and of course good pay!

Today I had an interview with a potential employer.

In the Swim of Things

Another day with favorite people~! Mom, Deb and I did water aerobics this morning with a pool full of women in their 70's and 80's. Then we went to lunch together.

Hanging out with Renie

Today I hung out with one of my favorite people- my 2 year old niece Erin. We went to story time at the library and heard stories and sang songs about elephants. We picked out some great books- including a toddler board book about Ronald Reagan. (It's a scream!)

Then it was off to the pet store. We watched dogs get baths, mice run on wheels and even a cat get a hair cut. The biggest hit were the crickets- all that noise!

I asked Erin where she wanted to go for lunch. "um your house." So we headed home for hot dogs.

Sunday, January 13

We went to church this morning, and then I settled in to read "The Darkest Evening of the Year" by Dean Koontz. Cooper by my side. The book has a Golden Retriever as a main character and the heroine rescues Golden's. So it was very appropriate to share the afternoon with Cooper.

S-A-TUR-DAY

Today was a "getting things done" type of day. The boys played basketball at the park. We live within easy walking distance of two nice parks.

One of the things that I hope to do with this new blog is to share places and things that I love. This is the view from the back window of the library. I think it's so pretty and so endangered. Every available square foot of land is being developed in my community.

Extreme Friday Nights

Most every Friday night Jackson heads to a local gymnastics place to hang out with his friends. They jump, run, climb and socialize. In this picture Jackson is hanging out with his friend Sam. They were very embarrassed that I took their picture. Sorry boys.

It was a cold rainy night

This morning Colby and I braved the drenching cold rains to go to the vet. Although her infected paw is improving, this morning it was so sore she couldn't put any weight at all on it. We'll know by next week if she'll need surgery. She got new pain meds to keep her going until then.

What do we do on cold rainy winters nights?

• We eat delicious hearty beef stew that has simmered in the crock pot all afternoon.
• We watch hockey. I'm a big Blues fans. And as I type the Blues are pounding the Stars. We subscribe to Center Ice, so we are able to watch nearly every game played in North America. We watched the first period of the Bruins game during dinner.

• We begin a new afghan which will be auctioned at the Underwood School Carnival in March. The school colors are primary red, blue and yellow. I'm hoping that I can work it into a reasonable throw without it looking gaudy.

To Grandmothers House I Go

Today I visited my Granny in Smithville. She's 88 years old, and the highlight of her day is when the Meals on Wheels brings her lunch.

Brady appreciated his new digs. It has lots of little windows to dangle things and to pounce on things.

A Winters Night

When I started this project I wondered what type of pictures I would take on cold winter nights. I wonder no more. I will take pictures of:

• my son's really bad hair day. Man those are some Nelly Olson curls in the middle. It was good for a laugh. In case you are wondering- no there is no barber strike in Missouri- this is just sixth grade style.
  

• My son's amazing creativity. He built this great cat house. Notice the yellow highlighter marked "sleeping area" this helps cats who are confused.
  

• my husband and Cooper "watching" the Blues game.
  

Winter Ball

Another warm day in KC. We have a great wiffle ball field in the back yard and the kids decided to play some winter ball after school. I wasn't able to get any good action shots- but they stopped to pow wow about the game and I was able to get a shot of all three.

Sammie and I took a breather on the porch swing.

Colby seemed pleased that we suspended the doggie double rule. (if you accidently hit a dog you automatically get a double) Her paw was so sore yesterday that she couldn't walk, and we had to carry her down the stairs to go to the bathroom. But she's running today- and has discovered that her new "cone head" works very well to head butt Cooper.

January Thaw

We had temps in the upper 50's today. So we hiked down to Deer Valley Park which is a few blocks from our house. A pretty little stream runs through the walking park.

Colby also visited the vet yesterday. (in the morning!) She has a badly infected nail bed due to her obsessive-compulsive licking. She gets to wear this lovely hat for 10 days until we can see if the wound will heal or if it will need surgery. We had to move furniture so she could have a fairly straight shot to move around.

Jackson made this special bed for Cooper last night. He took the pillows from his bed and used his favorite football throw. Then he collected all of Cooper's toys and put them around the bed.
Jackson hanging out on Cooper's sick bed on Saturday. These two could be the poster for a boy and his dog.