The stuff that happens.

It's a good thing he's cute!

2008-09-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

Isn't he cute? It's a good thing, too.

It started with Mike thinking Diesel needed a friend to play with. I wasn't really excited about the idea, but not totally opposed to it. He started casually looking at the rescue pet sites, mainly for a boxer. Many of the dogs he found were not good with other dogs, cats or kids (gee, wonder why they're in rescue in the first place!). Then he found a black lab named... Optimus. For those of you who aren't 'up on' Transformers, Optimus Prime is the leader of the autobots. He is also Gabe's FAVORITE Transformer. Gabe's favorite color is black too. So, we had to check into this dog. Turns out he was originally gotten from a breeder by a family with 2 young children, ages 1 and 3, who had never had a dog before. Well, he got bigger and I guess they didn't like having a dog. So, they turned him into Angel Paws Rescue. We got him at 11 months old. Here are the things that have happened since we got him:

Day 1 - Played very well with Diesel and slept nicely in his crate at night
Day 2 - Played well again. We noticed that he vacuums down his food in about 3 seconds.
Day 3 - Played well, met the cat and was nice to him. Noticed a couple piles of puke on the deck. Thought he ate too fast and threw up.
Next couple days ok. He's a really nice and loving dog.
Day 7 - Decided to leave both dogs outside while we are gone to soccer practice and bbq. I got home around 9, and my nice older neighbor... brings Optimus home. He noted that he'd returned him to the backyard the FIRST time he found him out front. Later find out that after the 2nd time out, he stored him in my neighbors' yard while their dogs were inside. Then it began raining, so he went and got him and kept him at his house until he saw us get home. Very thankful for good neighbors.
Day 8 to present - Let him out back, he shows up at the front door. At least he doesn't go anywhere.
Day 10 - This is a good one. Threw up a couple times before we went to bed. Thought he fired down his food too fast. Cleaned up puke, mopped. Woke up in the middle of the night to screaming boys who had tried to come downstairs to see us and walked thru what we 'thought' was more puke. Cleaned up and mopped at 4 AM. Let him outside to go potty, watched him go poo... if that's what you want to call it... it was WATER. Realized last accident wasn't puke. Really grossed out.
Day 11 - Called the vet, gathered a sample, and took him in. After testing the poo, he is diagnosed with hookworm and roundworm. Yes, passable to humans and other animals. Began treatment for that. They ok'd his neuter that was pre-scheduled for the next day. No more accidents in the house. I bought extra mopping supplies and sanitizing wipes and wiped everything down.
Day 12 - Took him to the other vet that rescue had set up his neuter at. Mike went out and got supplies to alter our fences to contain him. I picked him up at 2 and brought the cone head home.
Day 13 - Left him outside while at church because he couldn't POSSIBLY jump the fence with the cone on! Got home, found him in the house (huh?). There was a note on the table from another of our SO nice neighbors, Carol... she found him outside with his cone on. She got to know him a bit and put him in the house with her copy of our keys.
Day 14 (Labor Day) - Woken up at 7:30 by a giant dog jumping on us (the kids had ventured down in the night, and Josh was on the edge of the bed.) He got a scratch in the face and was screaming. Apparently, Mike had left early to Home Depot for supplies, and left the dogs out back. Carol brought him back and put him in again... she rang the bell, and I slept thru it. We had a laugh once we figured out what was going on. She claims she doesn't usually go in her neighbors houses at 7:30 am when they're home :) Mike worked on the fences all day. We were going to add lattice at the top. It ended up looking so ghetto, that we took the lattice off so no one would see it. Called a fencing company. This was a very bad and stressful day. Being worried about the worms, I was making the kids wash hands a million times, not letting any of their toys on the floor and regularly mopping and sterilizing!
Next few days... He's a good dog. He only gets to go out when we're home and check up on him. He managed to unlock the gate one time, and I found Diesel out front! I thought he'd taught him his tricks, but alas, the gate was hanging open. He has to stay in the crate when we're gone, and I've been taking him for pretty lengthy walks in the evenings. Julia likes to come too. I guess I can use the exercise too :)
The fences will be done next Tuesday. With that, I expect that relief will come. Dogs can run free in the backyard, get tired and be restful in the house.

He's a good boy.

Soccer Camp

2008-08-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm going to direct you to Facebook for multiple pictures. It's too cumbersome to put them on the blog...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33024&l=ee589&id=685454513

All 3 kids went to Scott's Hot Shots this week. Josh wasn't all that interested in doing what his coach told him, so we had a talk and he did better the next day. He said, "I was a good boy today!"

Gabe had a blast, and Julia had fun too. They were all very tired and hungry and ate tons of lunch when they got home.

I don't have much more info about it, because I dropped them off and went out to do the school shopping! By myself! Imagine that.

Toys these days aren't what they used to be...

2008-07-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

So, Gabe loves Transformers. He likes the movie, the animated cartoons, the website and of course, the toys. Last Christmas, he got some as gifts, and the joke then was that "I" got them... because he couldn't DO them. He'd bring them to me, and I would DO them. "I want it a robot", "I want it a truck", repeat. All day. The picture is of me, last Christmas, with Ironhide.

Recently he has been able to DO them himself. This has been great because I don't have to. That is, until I decide to get him a new one. Yesterday, we went to Target because he "needed" a Prowl. Of course, if Gabe's getting one, Josh has to get one too. Gabe chose Prowl and Josh got Bulkhead. We get out to the car and open the packages. Within 2 seconds, Josh is screaming that he doesn't know how to do it, and Gabe is screaming and crying because these things are so cheaply made that the parts fall off all the time! The stress level in the car rises as I remind them that I CAN'T help them while I'm DRIVING! "But his leg fell off AGAIN!" And on, and on. The rest of the day.

Why do I buy them? Because I like my kids and want them to have them. It would be easier if they didn't WANT them, but they do. So, I suffer. Now the initial pain of the new toys has worn off... Prowl's leg only fell off once today, and Gabe figured out how to fix him and transform him all by himself. Josh also figured out how to transform his Bulkhead.

It's always a party over here.

Company Picnic

2008-07-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was the Microsoft company picnic. On Friday night, we had a little 'freak out' because Mike realized that the registration hadn't gone through correctly. We were really disappointed, thinking that we wouldn't be able to go. Last year it was a summer highlight. In the morning, we devised a backup plan, and decided to go ahead and see if we could get into the picnic. We prayed that it would work out, and that we wouldn't have disappointed kids (and parents) to deal with. God answered our prayers at the customer service table when Mike explained what happened... they scanned his badge... and said "Have fun!"

There were bounce houses, rock climbing wall, many inflatable slides, mini-ferris wheel, mini-golf, pony rides, games, motorcycle jumping... etc. All in the beautiful setting beside Mt. Si in North Bend, WA. Julia and Gabe took a shot at the rock wall. Julia got almost to the top, and Gabe didn't want to go up very far.

A few funny things were said:

- As Josh was eating his 5th ice cream bar of the day, the band was playing loudly nearby. He looked up and said "This song rocks!"

- As Mike was consuming some pretty awesome ribs, his jaw dropped in utter disbelief and he said, "What the ...? That guy is wearing a Google shirt!" A guy standing nearby noticed it too, and came over to comment to Mike on it. Being a Microsoft party, apparently that's pretty gutsy. (What? Oh... blogger is Google? Well, I'll just keep being a traitor on my Mac and Blogger.)

- About halfway home, Josh was contemplating the success of the day, and said, "I hardly got to go on the alligator one!" My response was, "You can live the rest of the year in regret and try again next year."

That's about it! The highlight for Mike and I was, of course, that (a.) everything is free, and (b.) that there are many food choices!

Well... Here goes.

2008-07-18T20:37:00.001-07:00

I'm starting a blog.

More later.