We woke up today to about an inch and a half of snow. There is more on the way before the week is done. It’s been fun to see how Daisy reacts to the snow.
She is not quite sure what to do with it. She sniffs it. She rolls in it. She eats it. It’s quite a scene.
When she is out by herself it was fun to watch. When the kids came outside, it was even more fun. The kids could not wait to get outside.
They were making snow angels, throwing snow up in the air, and running around like crazy. The puppy was loving every minute of it.
The puppy was hilarious. I would grab a bunch of snow and make a snowball. The pup would see it and get excited. I would throw it and it would explode as soon as it hit the ground. The pup would run to where it landed and would look around for it. If a snowball remained a snowball after it hit the ground, she’d go to pick it up with her mouth. Naturally, it would crumble immediately.
The more I threw snowballs for her, the funnier I found it. Sam came outside and I said, “Hey, watch this dumb dog!” I threw a snowball and she’d run after it it and go crazy when she couldn’t find it. She’s be digging around the snow. I was cracking up.
I did this for quite a while and karma came back to get me. I reached down to grab some snow for a snowball only to see that I had also scooped up with it a semi-fresh bit of dog poop! It was all over my gloves. No more snowballs for me.
Ok, Karma, I won’t make fun of the puppy anymore. I got your crappy message – literally!
“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard
2024 rang in quietly at my place. Sam worked New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I was in bed and asleep by 11:45pm on NYE. I didn’t even hear the fireworks and gunshots. At 5:45am, Daisy was barking to go outside. I got up, got dressed, and took her outside. The sad thing about this who scenario is that the first kiss of 2024 for me … was from the dog!
Sam came home and went to sleep and the kids and I prepared for my dad’s visit. Each of us had things going on over the holiday, so he said he’d drive up on New Year’s Day. He brought the kids their Christmas presents. Ella got a Barbie Camper and Andrew got a Little People car wash. Naturally they fought over the toys while my dad and Rose were there. During one loud batch of screaming, I looked at my dad and said, “By the way, I was hoping you could babysit the kids for a few days.” LOL
Rose doesn’t like her picture on the net, so I cropped her out of the picture. It is always nice when the kids get to see them.
I’m glad I got to see my dad. I feel like I see him less now with my new schedule, but we still talk all the time. There’s nothing better than seeing each other in person, though.
My yearly recap is coming and a pretty big thing happened today that brought me to tears. More on that next blog.
It’s lunch time at work. In just a few hours I will punch out and head home for the holiday weekend. I am truly looking forward to four days with my family. It’s been a very busy year for all of us.
I was ready to write that my son had his last appointment for the year today, but I remembered he still has one more. Today we saw his neurologist. We discussed the results of his sleep study, the MRI, and his EEG. It was a long appointment and we have some direction and a plan of action.
I left the appointment and went right to work. I’m only a mile or so from the doctor, so I punched in early knowing I will be able to leave early. I was able to get most of my work done before lunch, so I thought I’d blog.
The other appointment, incidentally, will be to pick up his AFO leg braces. This is something that will help eliminate the toe-walking. Hopefully, he won’t need to be in them too long.
I recently blogged about our family tradition of getting a new Christmas ornament at Bronner’s. We had yet to go this year, but someone (maybe someone who read my blog) did the work for us. We received a Bronner’s box in the mail and the message inside said, “It looks like Daisy needs an ornament for that tree of yours!”
This week, I found out that McDonald’s has adult Happy Meals. Sam took the kids to get lunch and they brought me back one. Ella apparently said that mom and dad needed a toy, too!
How silly is that?!
Money has been a bit tighter this year than in the past. Normally, I would try to get something small for my boss and co-workers for the holiday, but I just couldn’t swing it. One of my coworkers got bags for everyone. There was a small gift and some chocolates. My gift was socks! Go figure, right!? Well, they are actually pretty cool.
If they only made socks with the Miser Brothers on them …
I’m looking forward to Christmas for many reasons. One of them is that the Elf on the Shelf goes back to the North Pole! It becomes work to do something with it each day. Some people really go all out! It’s crazy. My favorite one from this week ties into the last bit of news to share …
I don’t care if I use this one every year! Here is Twinkles, the elf, reading from the Bible. I said that it ties in with my last bit of news.
This week, I finished my 1st semester of the second year of my Bible classes. I will have three tests to do over the next week or so. Then I will move on to the second semester. I feel like I have really accomplished something. Actually having a lunch hour (which we really never got when I was on midnights) allows me to watch an entire class and take notes without any real interruptions. I’m hoping to keep it up and press toward the mark.
I know many of my blogger friends are taking a break over the holidays. I’ve got plenty of things lined up over the weekend, I don’t know that I will not blog, but just in case I don’t, I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. As we get ready to wrap up another year, I find myself grateful for you. Your own personal blogs, the comments you share here on my blog, and your friendship has brought me much happiness.
I look forward to a year of sharing experiences with each other.
“It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that’s important, but rather who is around it.”
“The best Christmas gift is to realize how much you already have.”
“The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.”
“From home to home and heart to heart, from one place to another, the warmth and joy of Christmas brings us closer to each other.”
I’ve been asked by my boss to act as Emcee for Holiday Trivia at our Christmas Meeting/Gathering. There will be some training before hand, catered dinner, and Holiday Trivia.
I’ve never been to a Trivia night at any local bar or pub. Because of this, I really have no idea how they play. I know a few bloggers who have and some friends who go, but it seems that every place does it a bit differently. Getting questions for this is no issue – all I had to do was go into my folder of Christmas trivia I used when I was on the radio. It is the execution of the game itself that I don’t know.
The basic gist of the thing is that there are 2-5 rounds of questions. Teams write their answers to the questions on a piece of paper or on index cards. There are points for getting the right answers. Some places wager on questions based on the topic. I really am clueless. I plan on doing some sort of search online to see the best way to do this.
Have you ever been to one of those trivia nights? Any suggestions?
Our doc is probably sick…. of us!
Over the past 10-11 days, every one of us has been to the doctor. Today, I had both kids in the office again because their coughing sounded awful. We were worried that the gunk we all got was in their chest and might lead to pneumonia.
I swear, between in office visits, ER visits, telemedicine calls, and messages back and forth through the office portal, our doc has got to be sick of seeing our names! On the other hand, she might just thank us for making her house payment this month!
Chilly Fun
Daisy finally got to go outside in the snow. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it. She was biting at the falling snow for a bit and really didn’t know what to think about walking on it. It didn’t take long and she was running round and rolling in it. She was even eating it off the ground.
The kids were insistent about going outside when the snow fell. Neither was feeling great, but they wanted to see the snow. We bundled them up real good and we were outside for 10-15 minutes. In that time we started to build a snowman.
At first glance, in the above photo it looks like Andrew is putting the snowman’s head on. That, however, was not the case. He has actually removed it and about 2 seconds later, he threw it on the ground. Then he and his sister jumped on the rest of the poor snowman. Sigh.
Elfin’ Around Again
The Elf on the shelf is back and once again, I have to be creative with it. I’ve been lacking a bit, but the kids still get a kick out of it. Two nights ago, I just put it on top of the TV looking down. The laughed at that more than the Elf and Barbie looking at Christmas lights…
Last night, I printed some pictures of the elf and made it cover all our faces in the pictures on the wall…
Perfect Gift
I’m not sure who might read this, but this will be a bit cryptic. My wife’s Christmas present is on the way. All I will say is that I may have mentioned something about it in a past blog. I have seen some pictures and I cannot wait to see it in person. I truly believe that this will be a BIG surprise for her and I hope that she will love it!
I’ve had to tell her that there is a package arriving and that she cannot open it when it comes.
I hope this blog finds you enjoying the remainder of the holiday weekend. My weekend, which was supposed to be very relaxing, wound up being full of the unexpected.
Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from my wife. Her dad had passed out at the doctor’s office. His blood pressure was up and down. They rushed him to the ER, and admitted him for a couple days. No heart attack, no stroke, and they didn’t find any blockages. There were a few things that neurology is going to look into in more detail. He is home now and relaxing.
My mother-in-law was at the ER for Thanksgiving and when she told us that she was going to drive through McDonald’s for dinner, we told her to go home and I’d bring her a plate. I packed up turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and rolls. Andrew and I drove over to bring her the food. At the end of their street is a guy who goes all out with holiday lights. Andrew loved looking at them.
That’s not even his whole set up!!
Ella and Andrew haven’t been feeling all that great and when we woke up Thanksgiving day, we all felt a bit under the weather. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon battling fevers with Motrin and Tylenol. We watched a disappointing Detroit Lions game and had dinner. After that is when everything got scary.
Ella did not look right. Her nose and eyes were watering all day and her fever spiked again. She was far from herself. There was enough going on that I packed her in the car and made the trip to the ER.
They checked her out and said it was viral, which we kind of knew. It “has to run its course.” So we weren’t there too long. I was just relieved it wasn’t pneumonia. Her cough was awful.
We were supposed to go to the Detroit Zoo for their Wild Lights, but we were all under the weather. Thankfully, they had my order and were able to switch days for us. I’m grateful, because I would have hated to have not been able to use them.
We got our Christmas photos back and there were more good ones than bad ones. We sat with them and picked the ones for our family Christmas card. This is one of my favorite family ones:
Being inside has been driving the kids crazy. Sam had bought a few games on Amazon for Ella’s birthday, but decided to bring them out to help keep them (and us) occupied. It’s been a while, but I can honestly say that I still can’t win playing Hi-Ho Chery-O!
Today, I had to take Daisy to Puppy Training. I swear, I gave her a bag of treats during this class. We worked on Sit, Watch Me, and Touch today. The trainer started off the class with what was going to happen over the next 6 weeks. All the pups were given a bone to chew while she went over this. Daisy, of course, broke off a tooth and probably swallowed it. She was bleeding on the bone.
As embarrassing as that was, at least she didn’t pee during the class. Another dog, however, peed like three times. As the class drew to a close, Daisy started to get antsy and began to bark at the other dogs. She was pulling and trying to get off the leash. She was happy to finally leave and get in the car.
I put it on after I took this picture, but I bought her a name tag at the store. They engrave them there for you. It hangs off that loop where the leash goes. It hangs down a bit and “clangs” when she walks. It is making her crazy. It is funny to watch her try to chew at it.
The kids are feeling a bit better today, and I hope that continues with more rest. I’m hoping for some rest too!
So much testing is happening with our little guy. Yesterday, Sam took him in for the Barium Swallow study. He’s been choking a lot and while it may be because of low muscle tone, they wanted to see it in more detail.
Next test is his EEG to check out the Neuro stuff. One of the things they told us was that he needed button up pajamas for the study. Sam found a few pair and I’m not going to lie – I think they look cute on him! Of course, the slippers and my reading glasses make him look like a little old man!
He was handling things pretty well and is loving having his own backpack. He and mommy are playing with playdough, coloring and snuggling.
Hoping for good news after these tests. Next up – MRI.
We appreciate your thoughts and prayers. It means so much to us.
Oh, before I forget, Dave asked for more puppy pictures. So here is Daisy in a totally weird sleeping position …
The weekend is finally here! It has been a crazy week.
Monday, I took the kids to get their pictures taken in their Halloween costumes. Our photographer, Beth, once again got some great shots in our 15 minute mini-session. Ella is going as Rapunzel this year.
Andrew is going out as Spiderman.
The pictures came out so good.
Tuesday, Ella woke up with a fever. It was crazy high. She slept most of the day and eventually, Sam took her to urgent care. Strep Throat and tonsil stones. She was miserable.
My brother came up Tuesday night and Wednesday they were going to stop by our house, but I told them it was better if I came to him. So Sam stayed with Ella and Andrew came with me. They were staying at an Air B&B near us. It was a brief visit because I had to work that day.
On Thursday, Ella was feeling a little better, but not 100%. Sam had to take Andrew to Occupational Therapy, so Ella and I stayed home. I was trying to fold laundry and get stuff done, but she called to me and asked me to snuggle with her on the couch.
You don’t say “no” to snuggles! She is so funny though. At one point, she faced me and put her arms around me. As she hugged me, she said, “I just love you, daddy!” She held me for like 5 minutes. I was thinking about just how amazing this was. She made me feel so special. It was amazing. Then, suddenly, she let go and said, “Ok, that’s enough hugging for one day, dad!” Hilarious!!
We got a Halloween Tonie for their Tonie Box and it plays all kinds of Halloween songs. They have been watching Halloween episodes of Miss Rachel, Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, and such. The Ghostbusters theme song is on that Tonie (and in the Miss Rachel show). I did a spit take with my coffee when out of the blue from the couch, she says, “Dad. Who you gonna call?” Immediately followed by her screaming, “Ghostbusters!”
She was actually making up lyrics to it in her room the other day “There’s a tree outside. Outside my house. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! It was complete nonsense and I loved every minute of it.
Daisy, our new puppy, is slowly but surely getting better about going to the bathroom outside. I’m not looking forward to standing outside in the rain and snow with her this winter waiting for her to go! On a funny note, I think she thinks she is going trick or treating with the kids this year….
The kids did a Trunk or Treat this evening and got a bunch of candy. They have the list of candies that fall under the “daddy tax” rule.
Tomorrow, we are heading out for a Halloween Train Ride with my friend Margaret and her family. I am SO looking forward to it. It should be a blast.
The above text is how it started. My wife saw some puppies for sale and she texted me to ask if we could get one. Those of you who follow this blog know that not too long ago, we took in a dog on a temporary basis to see if she would be a good fit. She bit one of the kids and my sister in law took her in.
Both Sam and I said we’d wait until the kids got a little older before getting another dog. When she called to ask about puppies I told her that I would have to think about it. A few minutes later, Ella video chatted with me asking to get a puppy.
You already know what happened. We built the fence around the yard so the pup could run (and poop) around. The puppy (who Ella named Daisy) came to her new home on Friday. I’m not going to lie, I’m loving it.
We had dogs growing up and I forgot how fun they are, especially puppies. I also forgot how you really have to watch where you are walking, because there are plenty of accidents with puppies! However, we she jumps up on your lap and snoozes on you, it makes it all worth it.
The kids have plenty of toys that need to be picked up so that Daisy won’t chew on them. We have to make sure that the shoes are put away, too. Daisy loves to go into Ella’s room and grab her stuffed animals to play with. The other night she had been playing with one and then fell asleep. Picture perfect pose:
Tonight she went over to my in-laws house. They have a golden retriever. They hit it off pretty well.
All in all, she is a welcome addition to the family and I think she loves the kids as much as they love her!
I suppose I could take each one of the following items and make them into a separate blog, but I decided to put them all in one. Short blurbs, of course.
Daily Dad
One of the hardest jobs I have ever been handed is that of being “dad.” I cannot remember who suggested this book, but I had it in my Amazon cart for a few weeks before finally ordering it.
I have only had it a couple days and the introduction in this book would make a fantastic blog in itself. It is very powerful.
Like a daily devotional, it is organized to feature a thought every day. I am glad that I bought this and look forward to making it a part of my day. I want to be the best dad I can be and teach my children life lessons. I want to raise them right. I hope to use what I learn with my older children, too.
Daily Devotional
I have been a lot better as of late in reading my Bible every day, or at least watching a Bible lesson from pastors I know. I stumbled on this daily devotional quite by accident. A fellow believer had a small picture of it on her Facebook page and I was able to nab a copy of it.
This isn’t set up by date, however it does have 366 devotionals so you can read it in a year. Again, I’ve only had it a couple days and I have really enjoyed this. The pieces are not too long, but loaded with solid information.
Other Reading
My wife has been telling me about a book for some time. I kept putting it off because of the other books I had from the library. I have started it and am progressing slowly, as my time to read physical books isn’t what it had been.
My oldest son has Asperger’s Syndrome, and so does the main character of this book. It is described as a crime thriller, a lesson in motherly love, a primer on Asperger’s syndrome, and a heart stopping trip through the legal system. So far, it is very good.
In the car, I am listening to a very unique story. It has quite an interesting premise.
In a nutshell, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit (yes, you become each witness). We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
The main character wakes up each day as a different person, reliving the same day and it is his job to find out who murders Evelyn Hardcastle. So far, it is really good. The audio book is like 17 hours long!! I am about 4-5 hours in. I’m hoping it doesn’t disappoint.
At home, I read a chapter about one of my favorite characters of all time and a different case.
Great book by a fellow Columbophile!
The Biggest News of the Weekend
I’m not sure who is responsible – my wife or my daughter – but come this weekend, we’ll have a new addition to the family.
I’m not sure if that puppy is spitting her tongue out at me or is looking at a bone. I am sure that she is coming to our house on Friday.
It started with a text from my wife. “I want a puppy.” That was followed by a video call from my daughter telling me why we needed a puppy. Then my son chimed in, too.
We housed a dog for a while, but she bit one of the kids, so she went to live with my sister-in-law. Because of this, I was apprehensive about even entertaining the thought of getting another dog, let alone a puppy.
Sam decided to send me pictures of the available pups. Then they picked a couple (of the 9 pups) that they liked. Then the owner allowed us to go look at them.
It became very obvious which one liked Ella and which one Ella liked. So, she will be ready for us to pick up this weekend. Many names were thrown out by Sam and me, and Ella shot most of them down. We did talk her out of naming the puppy after her pediatrician!! Anyway, it looks like “Daisy” will be very welcomed in out home.
Puppy Project
When we had the previous dog, it didn’t go far and stayed in the yard. However, I know puppies. I don’t want to be chasing it through the neighborhood. So my father-in-law (my project manager) and I worked this weekend setting posts for a temporary fence. Pardon my amateur art skills….
Our backyard is huge. So my father-in-law and I mapped out how we were going to give the pup it’s own area. There is an area up near the back of our house where we can run fencing from the back of the garage to the chain-link fence of our neighbor. Then we can run some fencing from the house to the garage and add a gate. This will give the pup a nice little area to play (and poop) in for the next couple months.
Once the snow melts in the spring, my father-in-law and I are going to buy chain link fence and run 100 feet at a time and finish fencing the entire yard. For now, this will work.
Be ready for plenty of puppy pictures (probably of stuff it chewed up!).
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 