Watson

Watson has been with us for four years now.  Four wonderful years.  When we first got him I wasn't sure if I liked him or not.  Not anything he had done but I was still so upset about Mr. B's death that I didn't think I wanted to let Watson into my heart.  I know, I know, I was the one that said I wanted to get a new doggy but logic really didn't play into it much! 
Over the years he grown into my heart so large that I don't know what I will do without him!  He is now 51/2 years old so hopefully I won't have to know about that for many more years.  He is such a fun and loving boy.  He loves sitting outside with us and watching the world go by. I know he would love it if we had more people over as he is such a social dog.  He loves to go down and stay at doggy day care and play with all his friends. 

Good Doggy! 

Starting Blog again?

A Husband, A Wife, a Wonderful little Doggy, some cute little finches, Seven Kids, Eleven Grandkids (and counting) and all the In-Laws!! That makes a bunch of News to report!!

This is what the old blog said about itself.  Oh how things have changed!

There is still a husband and wife and still have a wonderful little doggy even if it is a different wonderful little doggy.  No finches left....  Still have seven kids and the in-laws but up to 14 Grandkids and one Great Grandson! 

The husband and wife have now been married for 20 years!  They have moved from the home of 39 years down to Ramona two years ago.  The first Wonderful Little Doggy, Beardsley, died a little over 4 years ago and he is still missed every day.  The new Wonderful Little Doggy, Watson has been with us 4 years tomorrow and is a joy to us every day. 

Husband has retired and loves it!  Wife is doing pretty much the same things as before just in a different town. 

Things have changed but they are pretty much the same! Still a wonderful life with wonderful family and friends.
 

 

 

Starting the blog again, maybe...

 

 

View from our deck in Ramona.  We have lived here two years now.  Two wonderful years. 

We sit outside and watch the sunset, the bats and owls and listen to the coyotes sing. 

 All this and no mosquitoes! 

Retirement at its best. 

17th Anniversary

This is from May 3, 2015  Guess I never pressed Publish! 

 

Gone With The Wind

The movie Gone With the Wind opened in Atlanta on this date in 1939. Excitement was at a fever pitch; at a top-secret preview screening in California three months earlier, the audience had gone wild when they realized what they were seeing. They screamed, they cried, and they stood on their seats. The official opening of the film in Atlanta was the culmination of three days of parades, receptions, and a costume ball. Confederate flags and false antebellum façades covered the city. The governor declared December 15 a state holiday, and asked Georgians to dress in period clothing. Former president Jimmy Carter remembered it as the biggest event to happen in the South in his lifetime. The cast attended the premiere, with the notable exception of the African-American performers, who were prevented by Georgia's Jim Crow laws from sitting next to their white co-stars.

We just a new dog bed for Mr. B at Costco. Now why would Paul say he is spoiled??

This is What Spring Break in Utah looks like!!

The kids are out of school for Spring Break and look at what they got last night! Some present! I looked back and they got a heavy snow fall last year on April 1st. Guess winter really isn't over yet!

(I love Sunny Southern California!!)

This picture I just took off the traffic cam from Farmington area.


One of Darcy's friends took this picture this morning from her house in Farmington. (I stole it from Nicole's Facebook page! Darcy tell her thank you!!)

Song

Click on frogs to hear their song.

Cleaning up after the Dog - Poem

Cleaning up after the Dog
by Jason Tandon

Pull plastic bag from pocket
and wave it like a flag

or diploma. Make sure many people
congratulate your care
for the community.

Check bag for holes.
Double check.

Inspect stool for odd hues.
Greens, blues, blood.

Evaluate consistency.

You don't want to leave smears
on the sidewalk or grass—no prints.

Getaway must be clean.

Prepare to go in for all of it.
Hold breath.
Grab, clamp, reverse bag, twist, knot, cinch.

Smell hands.

Hold loaded bag high in the air,
assure onlookers that Everything is Okay.

If a cop should cruise by,
his crew cut bristling
in the sun,

hold that bag higher,
so he, too, can salute
your contribution.

The bomb diffused,
the world a little safer, a little cleaner,

will not offend the deep treads
of someone's shoes.

"Cleaning up after the Dog" by Jason Tandon, from Give Over the Heckler and Everyone Gets Hurt. © Black Lawrence Press, 2009. Reprinted without permission but with gratitude . (buy now)

Jake's Activation

On January 21st at 10 am we went over to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego to get Jake's "Ears" turned on. He had his surgery on December 30th and now everything was healed up enough that they could hook up the external part of the implant. They went with the Advanced Bionics® (www.advancedbionics.com) for Jake. You can check out the web page for more information on the equipment. It is very interesting.

We were in the middle of a major rain storm although the rain wasn't bad when we drove over. It had knocked out the elevators so we had to walk up 4 flights of stairs with all Jake's stuff, all the cameras and misc junk. (We had a lot more going down too!!)

Jake played in the waiting room until they called us back. You can see where they had to shave his hair to do the surgery. I couldn't believe how much his hair had grown in the three weeks!

They took us back into the room and as the audiologists were programing the computers and setting everything up Jake played with all the great toys they have there.

After they finished with that they "hooked" him up to the computer. You can see the cord hanging down. They were playing noises into the implant from the computer to find out at what level he could hear the noises they were making. After they got the base line they turned on the implant so he could hear what was happening in the room.

That was a very emotional time for everyone. Jake started turning around trying to figure out what was happening and then he started crying. Of course everyone else started crying too!!
You can see the the headpiece that attaches to the implant in his head with magnets. They come off fairly easily and I know it will be a learning curve for keeping them on.

After a few minutes he calmed down and played but he wanted to stay on either Mommy or Daddy's lap! Here he is wiping his tears and then wiping Mommy's. He was sooooo cute!

Here he is after he has both the headpieces on. The blue vest has pockets on either side in the back. These hold the processors that run the equipment. In a few years when he gets older he will be able to have them go behind the ears like a hearing aid.

After we left the hospital we headed over to a restaurant for lunch. On the way he was very unhappy with all the noise he could hear! He didn't even want to play with his "favorite toy" the toilet paper! He had held on to it on the way to the hospital and thought it was great fun.

We went over to one of Jake's favorite restaurants for Dim Sum.

Here Jake's Pou-Pou (Grandmother) is helping him eat something or other. I don't remember what Lisa said his favorite thing was.
What ever it is he really likes it a lot. When we first went in Steve turned off the processors so he would eat. After he started eating and was happy he turned on one. At first Jake started to cry but stopped fairly quickly as the food was soooo good. Then Steve tried to turn the second one on and Jake had too much trouble with that so they went back to just one for the rest of the meal. It will be a long learning process. (for everyone!)

No, the restaurant isn't on fire and no one is smoking, just hot steam. You can see his headpiece again.

Goofy Daddy!

All in all a very exciting morning. A lot more work to be done but at least it is started now.

After lunch Lisa had a ultrasound and her mom and I got to go with her. It was so exciting to see the newest little grandson!! He is beautiful, or should I say, Handsome!!

I will post a of picture of him as soon as Steve scans one for me. How I wish I had been able to have an ultrasound to see my babies! It is so fun. Thanks Lisa for letting me come and thanks Steve for giving up your spot and babysitting so the grandmas could go!!

More to come. ....... ...... ........

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

(I have been trying to post a video of the dogs fighting but for some reason it won't work. You will have to do with the pictures until I figure out what I am doing wrong.)

After Jake's surgery on December 30Th I brought Bailey back home with me. I was going to bring both the dogs back but Guinness just had surgery himself so he had to stay and have all his post op check ups and get his stitches out.

So for the past three weeks we have had two dogs to love and take care of. It has been a lot of work at times but it has been sooo much fun also. I have enjoyed it so much. Bailey is a very good puppy. Puppy being the key word! She brings back memories of what Mr. B was like when he was a puppy. All the redwood bark from outside in the house, the torn pieces of paper. Never letting them get too far out of sight. If she is quiet too long I know I have to check on her!!

"Oh look at the great piece of plant I found! I think I'll take it inside and tear it up and then leave it all over the floor!"

Resting for a second or two before she is back to running around and checking everything out.

This how the two of them have spent the last three weeks. Play fighting. They have had so much fun together. Mr. B is going to be one very, very lonely dog after tomorrow morning.

Wild eyed dog!!

Break time to check out the window to see who they can bark at. There is always someone going up or down the street that can make them interested. Working together to tear a toy apart. That's what we like, team work. They really didn't tear it apart. Bailey does that all by herself! I picked up some of Beardsley's more favorite toys and put them out of her reach. She has taken the squeakers and stuffing out of about 6 of his old toys. Keeps her busy anyway. She just went into my bedroom and brought Paul's slippers out. No, I don't think you need to chew on those!!

All in all it has be a great time with her. She thinks that Paul is just great and runs to meet him when he comes home. He likes her a lot but doesn't like that fact that she loves to french kiss him! I told him he always has something great in his mouth so she wants to share! The shedding on the other hand is something both of us could do without. We knew we did the right thing getting a dog that didn't shed but this really reminded us how good it is! There is white fur everywhere! It will take me a month to get it all cleaned up!

Tomorrow morning I am going to be taking her back home so we will be back to just the three of us. I know we are all going to miss her but I'm sure that Mr. B is going to miss her most of all. I am going to have to take him over to the dog park a lot so he gets to play with other dogs. He just thinks she is the cat's meow!

Jake's Cochlear Implant Surgery

This post is sooooo late! I am going to get it up before I head back down to San Diego tomorrow for the next step of Jake's magical mystery ride.
On December 29Th I drove down to San Diego so I could babysit the dogs while Jake had his Cochlear Implant surgery. Because Guinness has just gone through surgery just a couple days before to get a seed out of his intestines he wasn't feeling very well.

Jake was so happy the day before we wished we didn't have to put him though all this but know it is for the best. Bailey looks content doesn't she.

Mattie & Jake

Bailey.


Poor Guinness with his halo on. Paul wanted to know if Jake was going to have to wear a halo also!!

'I'm trying to be brave!" He was very good for just having major surgery. I would have complained a lot more!!

Wednesday morning started early with Jake and parents getting to the hospital at 6 am. Jake couldn't have anything to eat before the surgery but it wasn't quite as bad and they were thinking it would be. He went back for the surgery at 7:30ish and was in all day. I think he got out of surgery around 3 p.m.

Here he is right after he got home that evening. It was a out patient surgery believe it or not!

Still kind of "out of it" . Getting his pj's on.

Sleeping with a worried daddy.

Thursday morning he woke up with a smile on his face! I guess it didn't last all day but it was great to see.

Happy little boy playing with his toy food that he loves!

Staying pretty close to mom and dad in the morning.

Well, this is all old news to everyone but I thought I would share the pictures anyway.

In two days he goes in for his Activation. That should be very exciting. If you wonder what it will be like do a search on Youtube under cochlear implant activation. There you will see several and how the kids react when they first "hear" something.

I will try and post more about that Soon.

The London Beer Flood

I love my couple of mugs of beer a month but maybe this would be a bit too much!! It wouldn't be Gluten Free either which would be a problem!

The London Beer Flood occurred on this day in 1814. At 6:00 on a Monday evening, a torrent of beer came rushing through the streets of the St. Giles district of London.
It started at the Horse Shoe Brewery at Tottenham Court and Oxford Street, where there were huge vats of porter perched on top of the roof. They contained beer, which had been fermenting right there for months. The wooden vats were enormous — some as tall as 22 feet — and were structurally supported by large iron hoops, dozens of them. They sat on the roof of the Meux Brewing Company, each of them containing hundreds of thousands of liters of beer.
The largest vat had started to strain under the weight and pressure of all that porter, and on this day, around 6:00 p.m., one of the iron hoops gave way and all the porter in the 22-foot-tall vat came gushing out. There were about 600,000 liters of beer in there, and when the vat burst and all that beer came exploding out, there was a chain reaction and the surrounding vats on the roof also burst. More than a million liters of beer toppled the brewery's brick wall (it was 25 feet tall) and began flooding the streets of St. Giles.
People came out onto the streets of St. Giles with mugs and buckets and pots and pans to collect the free beer; others leaned over and drank directly from the streams gushing down the streets. But many people were injured by the torrent and sent to the hospital, where inpatients smelled the beer and nearly rioted to get their share.
Nine people died. About half were children who drowned or sustained fatal injuries from the flood, which had also crushed the roofs of buildings near the brewery, adding heavy timber to the gushing rivers of beer. One man died a few days after the flood from alcohol poisoning. Trying to prevent all of it from going to waste, he had drunk a lot of beer in the span of a few days. People brought a lawsuit against the Meux & Company Brewery, but in court the flood was ruled an Act of God, and the brewery was not held legally responsible.

In 1919 there was a molasses flood in Boston, Massachusetts, after a massive tank of molasses crumpled and burst. The molasses flood destroyed houses and trains and killed 21 people.

Tammy & Jim's Wedding

On Saturday, October 3, 2009 Tammy and my oldest son, Jim got married in our backyard.

It was a perfect day with perfect weather and wonderful family and friends to share in their joy.

It has been a busy two months getting everything ready for the day but it was all worth it once everything started.

I didn't get many pictures during the day so you will have to make do with the few I have until we get the photos back from the photographer. Once they come back I promise I will post some better pictures of everything that happened that day. For now just a peak.

My two wonderful sons, Steve and Jim waiting for the bride to walk in.

Tammy and her brother-in-law, Ron. Doesn't she look striking?



The birds were filling the backyard with birdsong all during the wedding. Here is a scrub jay that came to watch the wedding.
Married!! Now they are Mr. & Mrs.

Cutting the cake.
*

Congratulations to both of you, Tammy and Jim.
We love you!!

Visit with Jake and his family

I am so far behind in posting any pictures that I don't know if I will catch up!! What I am going to do is post the latest and then try to work back to June as I can.

I just went down to Steve & Lisa's last weekend for a few days. It had been since the end of April since I had been down there so I was really missing my little boy. They have been up since but it had been busy with lots a people around when they were up and I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them.

It was a very hot weekend so we didn't spend a great deal of time outside but Jake does like to explore his back yard. He has started to climb the retaining wall so they have to keep an eye out for him. He seem fairly careful but.....

Isn't he just the cutest with his long hair curly hair?

Wait for it..........


Yep, the great escape!! Right though the doggy door.

"Okay, I made it past all the guards, what can I get into now??"

Dodger Blue (those are some kissable legs!)

Off exploring with his faithful dog, Guinness.

Climbing on Daddy

Bailey

Hasn't she grown? She is going to be taller and bigger than Guinness. She will be beautiful when her adult coat comes in. Okay, she is already. I didn't get a good picture of Guinness this time.

They signed Jake up for Gymboree classes where they do games, songs and working on climbing and jumping equipment.

"Gymboree Play & Learn Classes. Encourages development through play and learning designed to support your child's growth at his own individual pace. From sensory stimulation to problem-solving games and storytelling, our classes use play-based activities to stretch the body and mind."

During the summer they can take him to as many classes and free play as they want so he was going several times a week. Sunday I met them at a class in the morning and then on Monday we took him over to free play. These are the pictures from free play. He got there and walked in and started playing and didn't stop for the hour. He was tired after that!

Showing winning Laker form.

He really liked getting on this little trampoline with another kid. He was interacting with the other kids more than he had before. I think he is getting comfortable with the set up and seems to really like it.

As everyone knows they are still in the process of getting Jake's hearing checked out. The first test they had done couldn't tell much other than there must be some hearing loss. It is hard to say how much yet. They are waiting for the insurance and doctor's office to set up more intensive testing. They have a speech therapist and an infant educator come to their home once a week. They play with toys with him and keep an eye on his development. Other than his hearing and speech he seems to be pretty much on track as far as I can tell. They will just have to wait for more testing to see just where he is and what can or should be done. Hard to wait!

Giggles with Daddy chasing him.

Hi, Mattie!!

Steve thinks he is going to be a spelunker. He loves to climb into small areas and explore.

All in all a great visit and a much needed Jake fix for me!! Thank you Steve and Lisa for a great visit!

Oh, Lisa even made me some great gluten free chocolate chip cookies! She played around with a normal recipe and worked it out on her own. They were great the first day and even better the second which is unheard of with Gluten free!!