No Dog is an Island.....

.....but Ferris seems to be stuck on one! I had him out in the backyard for a little bit today. While I spent 10 or 15 minutes picking up the pool cover clips and trying to put them back on, he spent the time sniffing for critters around the shed. Earlier this week he had been able to fairly easily walk on top of the snow to go potty. However, the last couple days were warmer and the snow was mushier. If he took his time he was okay, but as soon as he started to run he would sink. When I was done trying to fix the pool cover, he started to follow me on the snow, but gave up and just stopped walking. So I picked him up and carried him out front. I threw and he chased a couple small snowballs around the front yard. Then he went to the raised landscaping bed, which has almost no snow left on it, and just stayed there. He walked around it trying to figure out a way to get back to the concrete without getting on the snow. Eventually he just sat down and waited for me to go get him. I think Ferris, and just about everyone else in the Northeast, is ready for spring!

More Snow

We had our second blizzard of the winter this past weekend. We got right around two feet of snow. We were so impressed when the snow plows showed up early. It was still snowing when this big plow came into the cul-de-sac. But then he plowed two straight lines, and that was it! He didn't get anywhere near our driveway. I waited patiently, and he did come back, with a friend in a backhoe. They plowed together, but they still didn't get anywhere near our curb. So, in addition to shoveling our driveway and sidewalk, we had to shovel ten feet out into the road. They also plowed the snow almost right up to our mailbox, which we then had to clear away so the mail lady would deliver our mail. I don't understand how you can pay THOUSANDS of dollars in taxes a year and get such crappy service when it snows. There were no cars in the road at all, nothing to keep them from plowing right up to the curb.

This is the path we shoveled for Ferris in the middle of the storm. Check out his little footprints leading to and from the patch of grass where he tinkled. Yeah, we had to shovel this a few more times during the course of the storm.This was after the snow stopped. Unlike last time when my van had so much snow piled on it, thanks to the wind, Fred's car didn't have much at all. This picture is a little deceiving; the snow wasn't nearly as deep further down the driveway.

Sledding on the little hill in our neighborhood. It's actually a retention basin known as "the ditch." In the summer it's used for pick-up baseball games.

Ferris went with us to the ditch.

He even went sledding with Rachel. He stayed on her lap the whole way down the hill, multiple times. He didn't try to jump off at all. I took him down once, too, and I hit a bump at the bottom and fell backwards. He still stayed on me. In fact, he made himself at home and sat down on my chest as I was laying in the snow. I guess his feet get cold in the snow. I'm thinking of getting him a pair of booties. He's so good about wearing coats, maybe he'll keep booties on. Of course, the only bad thing about sledding is climbing back up the hill. But seeing as how Ferris didn't want to really be in the snow that much, he stayed in the sled and let Rachel and a friend push/pull him back up the hill.

Back at the house after sledding we tried to make a snowman again. And just like December's snow, this snow wasn't packing. It wasn't just us....I haven't seen any snowmen in any neighbors' yards. So Rachel settled for making snow angels. I kept telling her she had to wave her legs, too, but there was too much snow and she couldn't.

All this playing in the snow makes you tired!

Bath Time

Ferris was a little stinky, so he had to get a bath.

"No! Please! Not a bath!!!"

Tomorrow will be a long day. Rachel has her D.A.R.E. graduation at school at 9:30. Then I have a 2:00 job in the city, after which I'll come home, pick up Rachel and then head back to Philly for the Sixers game. Hopefully I'll get a little work done in there, too.

Christmas Morning

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

After waking us up around 7:30, Rachel waited patiently at the top of the steps for us to tell her she can come downstairs. We like to videotape her coming down the steps. This is the first year we didn't use "caution" tape to block off the top of the steps. As far as we know, she didn't peak before we got up.

First she went through her stocking. Usually she does that last, but this year she wanted to e different. Then she really got into the unwrapping. Look! She got a doorknob!!! She had seen this at Antropologie a couple months ago and thought it would look cool when we redo her room this summer.

Of course, Ferris had to be in the middle of everything all morning!

This is a "Harrods 2009" Christmas bauble.

Yay! Another bag! Because a 10-year old girl can never have enough bags!

The aftermath. Both cats and the dog love all the wrapping paper and Violet especially loves the boxes.

This was around 10:30 a.m. She was a wee bit tired of having her picture taken. That's a new DSi she's playing with.
When we went to China in July, we left Rachel's Nintendo DS and her Gameboy on the plane, along with ALL her games. I blame myself...I neglected to put her name and address on it, and I didn't look under the seats very god when we arrived in Beijing. Fred was playing with the DS (AHA! It's his fault!!! I kid, I kid.) and I distinctly remember him handing it back up to Rachel and I watched her put it in its case and put the case in her carry-on. And she didn't get it back out to play with. I think it must have slid out of her carry-on under the seat and got mixed up with all the blankets and pillows under there. As soon as we got to the hotel I called United, both in Beijing and in Washington, where we departed from, and they took a report, but of course we never heard anything. It was pink and totally blinged out. So maybe there's some boy out there somewhere enjoying a blinged out pink DS!
So now Rachel is starting from scratch with a DSi. She got one game for it on Christmas Day, Style Savvy, and played it ALL day. A couple days later she got another game from her friend Emily.

We actually had a white Christmas! It wasn't fresh snow, but we'll take it! Fred took this picture (with my new camera) in the afternoon. Yes, Fred got me a new camera, a Nikon. What did I get him? A frying pan! I really wanted to get him a good cast iron one by Le Creuset, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I kept finding the big casserole pots that cost about $250 and I thought, he'll kill me if I spend $250 on him for Christmas. Oops! So I get a nice camera and he got a $15 cast iron frying pan! Oh, and I also got him a nice knife. But he uses his frying pan every day, and I'll get him the Le Creuset one as soon as I find one.
I stopped buying Fred tools for Christmas a couple years ago. It seemed whatever tools I'd get him were never quite what he wanted. Plus, he has just about every tool known to man. He likes cooking almost as much as he likes working on cars and repairing stuff, so Rachel and I usually get him cooking gadgets now. Last year we got him a chef's coat, which he wears quite often when cooking.

The rest of our Christmas Day was quiet. Fred made baked ziti, per Rachel's request. (Last year's request was lasagna) I baked cookies. And we watched TV and just chilled out. It was perfect. Hope yours was too!

I think Ferris was pretty happy to see Santa, don't you?

Jacques

Meet Jacques. Jacques is our Elf. Our Elf on the Shelf.

Jacques' current position is not a shelf. Today he is perched on a string of lights over our kitchen sink.

Yesterday, Jacques was here, on this reindeer's antlers. You see, Jacques is one of Santa's elves. Every night Jacques, and millions of elves like him, fly to the North Pole to report on the children they're staying with. They re-appear the next morning in a different spot in the house.
Well, Jacques picked a bad spot when he landed on this reindeer. You see, it's a little too close to the floor....and a little too close to Ferris. Sadly, Ferris thought Jacques was a chew toy. Santa's elves are not allowed to speak when they're staying watching to see if children are naughty or nice, so Jacques was not able to holler for help. Rachel and I discovered Jacques lying on the floor in the kitchen last night after dinner. Minus his cute little white collar. And an arm. And his head appeared to have been bitten.

Ferris, what did you do?!?!!??!?

Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on how you look at it -- I have no pictures of the carnage. Please rest assured that Jacques is magical (how else could he fly to the North Pole and back in one night?) and therefore he feels no pain. However, Jacques really needs his arm to fly. So after a short surgical procedure last night, I'm happy to report that Jacques is nearly 100% healed. He had no head injury after all...just a small tear in his hat which was easily fixed. His arm is a little wonky, though. (I love that word, "wonky") But I think that just makes him more endearing. And now he has a "history," a story to hand down to the next generation. I think Jacques learned his lesson and will only land on higher locations in our house. As for Ferris:

"I'm sorry, Jacques!"
It's okay, buddy. I'm sure Santa will still bring you some presents on Christmas, too.

Open House at the Vet

We took Ferris to the vet today, but not for an appointment. They moved into a brand new building this month, and today they had an open house. Winslow Animal Hospital has a beautiful facility. They were giving tours of the whole building, and Ferris had a lot of fun sniffing some other dogs that were there. The new facility's is a therapy room that includes a small pool for aqua therapy, which Ferris wanted to try out. There were also free samples, free toys and photos with Santa. I'll post Ferris' picture when I get it back.

In one of the operating rooms, Rachel got to "help" with a simulated c-section. It was cute. They had a stuffed animal on the table, and they pulled baby stuffed animals out of the belly.

The best part of the day? Snow! We only got a dusting, though.

So much for posting a picture a day!!! Some days I forget; some days it just seems there's nothing different to take a picture of.
I'll try to catch you up on the last couple weeks.

On Saturday 11/14 Fred had to go to Harrisburg for his brother Dennis' bachelor party. My friend Kim and I made plans to go to Atlantic City for dinner, shopping and gambling, and Rachel stayed over night at her house. We did shop and we did have dinner, but neither of us really felt like gambling. So we did a little more shopping. I was home by 10:00.
I had planned on getting some work done, but made the mistake of turning the TV on and saw that The Wedding Singer was on. I've never seen it before, so I grabbed the laptop to check out Facebook and watched the movie in bed. Well part of the bed. I had a little company. And I fell asleep right before the end of the movie.

One day last week we realized that our spare refrigerator was dying. This is the one we keep in the garage. It's mostly for drinks and we stock, obviously, frozen foods in the freezer. So I took all the beer I had in it (about a case of Heineken) over to a neighbor's garage to store in their extra refrigerator. Quite honestly, the beer was mostly for the neighbors anyway! Fred and I don't like beer, so I just keep it on hand for friends. We have to get something to replace the fridge. Fred wants to get a Coke machine. But how are we going to store stuff like extra milk and orange juice, or even leftovers, in a Coke machine? Not to mention the lack of a freezer.

This was Rachel working on her "Daily Geography" cards on a Sunday night.

Yesterday there was a little mini hot rod parade in our court, led by this Trans Am and followed by a few Grand Nationals and Monte Carlos. Turns out they were there to meet up with a neighbor who goes to a lot of car shows.

Also yesterday, we hung our outdoor Christmas lights. It was a beautiful day, and since we won't be around much this weekend and we don't know what the weather will be like, we took advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures (about 60 degrees). We transitioned to all LED lights outside this year. Last year the lights on the roof line were LED and the lights in the bushes were just regular bulbs, and it drove me nuts that they didn't match. I'm old-fashioned when it comes to Christmas, so I don't like the looks of the LEDs quite as much. They're so bright! But they save on electricity. Our meter stayed the same after turning all the lights on.

Rachel climbed the ladder and got on the lower roof for the first time! It's a little harder coming back down the ladder, but she did good.

With both Thanksgiving and Fred's brother Dennis' wedding, I'm hoping to have more picture opportunities this week. Tomorrow I have a 9:30 job, and Rachel has an 8:30 orthodontist appointment. If Fred can't take her, we'll have to reschedule that. Then tomorrow night I have to make a cheesecake for the rehearsal dinner, Rachel has cheerleading, and Fred has to pick up his tux. Wednesday morning I have to clean the house and pack, pick Rachel up at school at 1:15, stop in Philly for my check, pick up Fred at work and head to Harrisburg, drop Ferris off at my in-laws and be at the church in Hummelstown by 6:00. I'm praying for few traffic delays. Yeah, right. On the day before Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

Aren't they adorable!?!?!? This Halloween was different than the previous nine Halloweens. Yes, decorations were put up, a pumpkin was carved and costumes were worn.

What made this year different is that I was told I had to stay home and let Rachel go off trick or treating with just her friends!

This is how I felt watching my baby go off to wander the whole neighborhood with no adult supervision! I did call her cell phone to check on her every 15 minutes or so.

Then I put this on and scared some kids! Only one or two. I kind of felt bad. But only a little. It is Halloween, after all!

Ferris was none to pleased about being left behind either. He sat on the front porch with me through three hours of trick or treating, patiently waiting for the next group of kids to come and say hello to him.

But now Rachel is safe and sound at a friend's house having dinner and I'm sure a little candy. And I'm trying to accept the fact that my trick or treating days are over.

Pre-Halloween

This is my neighbor's son at the bus stop this morning. How cute that he's dressed just like Ferris! Rachel wore her costume to school, too. Pictures of her will be up tomorrow. Her class had a party today. One of their activities was for each group (4 or 5 desks make up a group) to decorate one of the kids in that group as a mummy with all kinds of crazy accessories. Rachel was the mummy for her group, and they won! I know she wore a coconut bra as part of it, and maybe a cowboy hat. A room mom took pictures, so I'm hoping to get a copy.

This was on one of our neighbor's front yards. Very cool!

I've had more work this week than I have in months. That's a good thing, and I hope it keeps happening, but between long jobs and cheerleading/tumbling, I haven't been taking many pictures. I'll try to do better next week.

Boo!

Ferris can be the most patient dog in the world sometimes. Rachel got these glasses at Zack's party over the weekend. They're WAY too small for her head, but guess who they fit perfectly! I tried them on Violet, but she was going to rip them to shreds the second they touched her.
So I think these will go very nicely with Ferris' skeleton costume. :)

Chilly at the Bus Stop

Ferris at the bus stop, wearing his Phillies jacket, waiting for Rachel. This was the day before the rain started. We had rain for four days. Rachel and I were supposed to go on the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation with our neighbors this morning. Their son was diagnosed last year with both diabetes and celiac disease. Rachel was saying her throat was hurting a little, and it was cold and rainy, so we didn't go. Instead I stayed home and cleaned the house all day.

Happy Birthday, Fred!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

For his birthday "cake" Fred chose a banana cream pie. He also bought it himself when he and Rachel were at Sam's Club. Rachel and I were going to get him a cake when we went out later, but he came home with this. Hey, it's his birthday....he can have whatever kind of cake he wants! He also cooked his own breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mainly because he's a much better cook than I am, but also because I'm working on a big job and didn't have the time to cook a big elaborate dinner. Fred made tortellini with chicken in a homemade sauce. Not sure what was in the sauce. It was tasty, though.

Ferris wasn't too sure about the card we got Fred. It barked and talked, and that freaked him out a little bit.

He was pretty interested in all of Fred's presents, including the little hair trimmer. He really wanted a piece of the whiffle ball and bat.

But Ferris was most interested in the Milkbone that was in the bottom of the bag!

His birthday was pretty low-key due to my having to work almost all day, but I hope he enjoyed it nonetheless!