Category: Family

Missing the rooster?

Nope!  But the rooster is gone – I think Fitz misses it, I haven’t cleaned the kennel yet that we kept him in for the last 2 days and Fitz is very interested in the kennel every time he walks by.

Hopefully the rooster is happy in his new home ‘on some farm’.  We got a note last Thursday that said the Animal Control guy had picked him up in the morning.  I’ve since talked to another neighbor who said that there’s a guy on a nearby road that had a chicken or rooster in his yard (fenced in) and let it loose and claimed it wasn’t his last week.  So I’m pretty sure he was getting complaints about the crowing so let it loose – thanks a LOT!

I’m just glad we’ve been having some decently warm weather so the rooster didn’t suffer.  Of course I could do without all this rain lately.  Luckily Fitz went to daycare yesterday and got tired out so he’s not bugging me for a long walk in the rain today!  He’s just giving me ‘the look’ because he’s not in his comfy bed (he’s in my office with a cheap bed instead) 🙂

Thanksgiving

Had a great thanksgiving with all the family. And the girls got to play with little jason finally:
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Unfortunately the weekend didn’t end great, by Saturday my allergies were turning into a sinus infection and Saturday night I couldn’t sleep even with benedryl (I miss nyquil!). Sunday I just laid around all day taking tylenol when I could and going through a few boxes of tissues. Unfortunately I think I’m in for the same tonight and I think I’ll be skipping work tomorrow now that a cough is starting too 🙁 hopefully this cold passes quickly and doesn’t turn into asthma like last year.

A Family Weekend on the go

No house progress because we were on the road this weekend.  Saturday was my niece’s 5th birthday party!  We drove out to Springfield and had a blast at the children’s museum.  We barely saw my niece as she was off with her friends but my younger niece needed supervision so Ryan and I tagged along with her, exploring things from her level and she was a hoot.

After the party and presents back at the house we headed down to my sister’s house to see my nephew.  He has grown so much!  He’s now holding his head up strong and almost sitting (needs a little support).  He’s also very playful and can get very talkative, especially left to his own devices.  I got lots of snuggles and baby coos between Saturday night and Sunday morning before we did the drive home and relaxed (football was on) in the evening.

Here’s a few pictures we took of Jason just before we left…

Hello Little Jason!
And here's a funny face!

And today is my cousin Georgia’s 12th Birthday – that’s just crazy (the 12 part, not the birthday part)!

Fitz’s day

I noticed yesterday that when I got home the door from our bedroom to our screened in porch was ajar and I know when I left in the morning it was closed (not shut and latched but closed for privacy).  I realized Fitz must have pawed it open (he’s getting good at that) and spent at least part of his day out there.

Since I’m working from home today and Fitz was driving me crazy with his huffs and sighs, I decided to open the porch door again, then I sneaked up on him to take a picture.  Most of the time he’s just laying out there, sometimes sitting so he can just barely see out, then if something catches his interest he does this:

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The squirrels and birds were putting on quite a show for about 5 minutes he stood like this.  He’s such a riot!

Labor Day Weekend

What a packed weekend!  It was great, we got to see all the families and do some camping and Fitz had a blast.

Friday night I picked Ryan up in Boston and we drove back to NY.  Saturday after sleeping in (which is why we did the late night drive) we got packed up to head up to Knox!  It was muddy this year due to all the rain but the campsite was dry and Mom and Dad had gone up Friday and mowed the campsite as well as set up a canopy already so setup was easy.

We relaxed all day and Fitz was great off-leash the whole time – plus he loved to swim!  I think he’s part beaver because he thought it was his mission to remove all sticks from the pond (and of course we kept throwing them back in for him), then he’d chew them – crazy dog 🙂

He jumped in the second he saw the water, we were surprised and excited. It was so hot and muggy he probably thought this would cool him off 🙂
Retrieving another stick, beaver-lab mix 🙂
Who needs toys when there are sticks to chew?

Sunday as we were eating a late (and hearty) breakfast we saw the storm clouds coming so we raced to pack up the campsite so the tents could be packed up dry (well mostly dry – the dew was crazy heavy due to the high humidity).  Then we waited out the pouring rain before trecking back to the cars and heading out.

On the way back we stopped by Ryan’s mom’s house (she just got a new house) and Fitz got to play with her 3 dogs.  After dinner we headed back to my parents with a tired puppy sleeping in the back 🙂  After another night relaxing, we went down to Ryan’s dad’s house on Monday for lunch before driving home.  We picked up the posts he’s been making!  Holy cow – 6 posts already done – made from 6×6 pressure treated wood and they look great.  I will snap a picture tonight hopefully.  That’s about half of what we need for our crazy huge porch and we can’t wait to get them installed!

Still Here

Seems I dropped off the blogosphere after our closet finished huh?  Well let me fill you in…

The last weekend of our vacation we went back to NY for my nephew’s welcome baby bbq.  Then Irene decided she was attending and we had to cancel so we drove home Saturday night.  That meant Sunday was actually an unexpected day at the house – did I get anything done – no.  Why?  Because Saturday night I didn’t feel well so I didn’t sleep well so I slept most of Sunday!

Monday brought work again and Ryan’s new job started up.  This means that while I’m also busy due to a new program at work, Ryan is even busier and has a longer commute (mine is tough to beat too!).  So I’m on full time dog duty as well as house everything duty.  This leaves less time for much else BUT I have been getting a start on halloween costumes!

The black cat costume was put together and tried out, it needs a little adjusting and then it needs embelishment.  That’s a quick one.  I also started the top for Maia’s dress, go the pieces cut out.  I’ll post pictures after I’ve done some actual sewing 🙂

Camping?! this weekend – depends how Knox is (is it a swamp after Irene) and how the weather is.  Either way we’ll be seeing family this weekend and Irene is not coming!

Baby Jason Update

Last week I took a half day off to go out and visit my nephew!  He is growing so fast – he’s over 7lbs now!  We spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning just hanging out…

Look how tall he is!
Happy boy!
Let's try some tummy time (this lasted about 5 seconds) 🙂
Let's try to Boppy...
Even the monkey came out to play
about 10 seconds later...
And we're awake again...
And back to sleep again 🙂

This past weekend we went back to NY to see family and babies (although not my nephew).  We met our friends’ new baby Landon, I went to a baby shower, and we saw our nieces!  Fitz also got to run around my parent’s yard and watch out for bears (although he didn’t see any this time).

Busy weekend

We got a lot done this weekend! Saturday was a short day because we had a dinner obligation up in Concord but we did manage to go car shopping and I got a new car! I got a 2011 Acura RDX which is a crossover SUV. It’s nice and small so it’s easy to drive and it handles just like the Audi. It’s got some great features (still have my heated seats and sunroof!) but now I also have USB input (for ipods), bluetooth connectivity for my phone, backup camera and more storage space.

My new car!

I do plan to get a remote starter installed before winter, but for now we’re going without that feature (I think it will be cheaper to get it installed elsewhere than through the dealer).

Today we worked on window panels, the dogs got the run of the porch again and unlike Fitz who mostly hides upstairs when we’re working on the house, Buddy likes to follow us around, not at all bothered by the saws running. Just wags his tail every time we talk to him 🙂

The window panels are really coming along. We started with the window caps on the cupola. We still have the very top piece of those that we need to make, but we got the first 2 cap pieces made and installed all the way around! Then the sill we installed almost all the way around (one small piece left). Finally we worked on the lower boxes and finished those all the way around. Since it’s hard to explain, here are the pics.

The second and third windows now have full panels except for the very top box.

2 pieces of the cap go all the way around the cupola now.

Bottom boxes are done all the way around and the sill is almost done.

The first window is completely done!

And here are the boys, it’s been a long day (hah!) and they are cuddled up in the A/C. Buddy doesn’t even try to cuddle with me on days like this when we’re home all day. If we’re gone all day he likes to come up on the couch and cuddle. He’s been very good being left alone though, I’ve got my camera on them and they mostly sleep with interruptions to bark at strange noises (buddy) 🙂 I’m so happy they get along so well, I love having 2 dogs!
Tough life.

Agility take 2

Week 2 of agility class went a little better!  Fitz jumped through the tire and ran through the tunnel no problem at all.  Minus one small marking incident, he did great and was taking treats too!  He was still very distracted by other dogs whenever he wasn’t doing a trick but concentrated on his task at hand when we had something to do.

New this week was the plank, just something to get them used to walking on a plank and he did great, getting up on it, sitting, laying down, turning around, walking!  (It took a second try to get the turn around right but he kept it up!).  Also new was jumping up on these platforms which was no problem once he figured out what he was supposed to do.  Again, sitting and laying down on it and jumping up/down to/from them.

I can’t wait for next week!  It went fast this week but it was HOT so that was a good thing 🙂  For now we’re just working on our homework, still with the clicker.