Home from camping!

My Rah is home and the house is back to itself!  It sounds like Sarah and her best bud had a great time camping.  As she describes it they investigated many a duck and tadpole in the little lake they camped by.  They found much to do and seek out even with grampy and grammy about.  I think they had as much fun just playing in the pool there with the kids as anything else.  Considering it was 5 days, the girls seem to have done pretty well.  Sarah says they didn't even fight "very much"...which is pretty good for girls. She came back all suntan and happy.  I'm so glad she gets this time to bond with her grandparents and friend.  Summer is magical when you are a kid! (Oh, and the puppy is soooo happy to have his kid back)

Day 2 - no kid

Sarah is off camping with grammy & grampy.  They do this quite a bit in the summer and you would think I would be used to it but I'm not.  I still come home to a much more silent house than I like.  I suppose it is the story of what is to come as she grows up and spends more time out of the house. 

On the good side of all this...the puppy is almost back to his energetic puppy self.  The swelling is down and his attitude is joyous!  See, he's even smiling :)

A Happy Father's Day

We went over to my folks today for a simple day of relaxation and celebration of the dads.  I have to say that Father's day and Mother's day are more important to me than birthdays.  I love to celebrate someone actually "doing" something as opposed to just "being".  It's just a silly thing I suppose, but when I think of it, it seems right to me.  Tracy is a wonderful dad.  Sometimes I don't think he knows how good he is...which might be ok.  The thing is, I think Sarah will look back and know with certainty that her father always loved her....I know I always knew/know that my folks love me.  It's wonderful that they have the pool.  I have to say it is the easiest way to escape the desert heat.  The summer has been lighter than usual so far but we are still enjoying the pool!  Dad threw some hamburgers on the grill and made up some us his stir fried zucchini and tomatoes from his garden (Dad is fixated with the joy of the garden :)Hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

My baby is sick

The puppy turned a year old this week. He had such a happy day.  We took him to PetSmart to pick his toy followed by a trip to the dog park for a romp with other "big" dogs.  When we got home, Sarah made sure to get him canned food for a special treat.

He loves his new "wubba" toy.  They are durable enough for a puppy to chew on and easy enough for a short nosed dog to grab! 

Here's Flashy showing off his big dog face :)  He just knew that there were more treats to come!

Unfortunately, poor Flash made it a couple of days before getting sick.  Tracy took him to the vet yesterday and he has an enlarged prostate and has to take big antibiotics for 10 days.  They told us we will probably have to get him "fixed" in order to help him not have this problem again.  Poor guy...he can barely stand and we are having to hand feed him until he feels better :(  I know he'll be ok, but I feel so sorry for him that there is nothing else we can do.  Note, he still has his "wubba" and blankie close

Trying to plan when it's hard to plan....

I was thinking today, that it’s probably likely that our house may not sell before Sarah’s birthday in August. In fact, I suppose it’s highly possible we will be here for some time due to the economic conditions here. So…..I need to start thinking about a birthday party.

Sarah is a funny kid. She isn’t a big “party” girl but she does like to be acknowledged. She’s more of a low maintenance type of girl but since this is the last time I hope to have a party in Nevada, I’m hoping to get as many of her friends together as possible. I don’t know if 12 is a big year or not, but I think she’s looking forward to it. Almost all of her friends are already 12 so she gets to “join the crowd”. (Sarah, also not much of a joiner) So, I’m trying to think of ideas…..

I was thinking something like laser tag. I’m sure there are some packages for parties and with her friends being an interesting mix of boys and girls, it would probably be something that both groups could enjoy.

Or….I could do a pool party at grammy and grampys. We could just grill some hamburgers and hotdogs or order pizza and let them just swim and play….

Or we could have the Mad Science people come in and do some fun sciency type thing…she loves science

Hmmm, maybe I should look some ideas up on the internet. It was so much easier when all she wanted to talk about was pokemon and puppies!

Let this be a lesson

Sadly I am not a person of habit, but I find that Sarah really likes some things to be the same.  She was the kid, that when we moved 8 yrs ago, had to have her room set up exactly as it was in our old house.  Once it was, she was able to settle in and sleep.  Food has always been an issue.  She has a few basic rules...food can't touch...sauces are illegal...most vegetables are yucky  I've tried not to be a caterer but after awhile you just want to see your kid eat.  So we've found the compromise...some days are Sarah food days :) Monday - Spaghetti and Meatballs (barely a gloss of sauce and lots of meatballs), Friday - Pizza (light sauce and cheese only).  Today I made tuna helper...God help me..

.I broke down and made a box meal since daddy was working late.  Tuna helper is now deemed one of the best foods ever. 

If I had made it from scratch, she would never have liked it!  Crazy right  I guess you can never tell what will spark some interest in some new foods.  Hopefully this means we are opening up new horizons of food choices. 

Better late....

Dad is so funny about birthday's but we did manage to get a few pictures of the day!  Thought I might share them :)







The strawberry cheesecake was really delicious!








Sarah finished her cake and was edging near grampy's :)

Mom and Sarah picked this awesome shirt. 








Overall, it was a really nice time...I have to say that since I still didn't have my full voice back, that they guys did most of the talking!

Rain dance!

We don't get rain very often.  To be honest, I would call this a drizzle but Sarah's concept of rain is any moisture that comes from the sky.  We had a few moments of "rain" so Sarah did a little rain dance to celebrate.  I love to see these simple joyful moments!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

We missed a lot of birthdays before we moved to Las Vegas.  I sometimes think he would duck calls so he didn't have to acknowledge another year gone by before we moved close!

We are going to see my dad today.  I talk to my folks almost every day...less when I don't have a voice.  We owe so much to them.  They are the reason we made the move to Las Vegas.  I know, we don't love it now, but it has been a time of family bonding and reaching out.  That part of living here has been wonderful.  We are very blessed to have them so close. 

Mom is going to make BBQ ribs for the first time (I sent her the recipe and I know they will be great!), along with some potato salad and such.  I wonder what kind of cake he will have......I'll post pictures of the family when I get them!

Sick

I hate being sick.  There must be something in my personality that want to chose to give in or act as if I'm not sick.  This time I let myself be sick because I knew I'd be down longer if I chose to ignore it.  I actually took a day off work and hung out with Sarah.  My little helper went and got me otter pops and ice water whenever she noticed I was getting close to running down....I have to say I definitely stayed hydrated!  I'm lucky to have such a wonderful family.  Growing up all I remember about being sick was that it was inconvenient.  My mom, though a nice person, was not the "nurturing" sort.  She means well, says the right things, but you knew it would be good for you to get over it soon.  My dad, only missed a couple of days work in 30 odd years of teaching.  You had to almost dying to justify missing school or work.  So I guess I have fought myself in being or getting sick.

Unfortunately I get upper respiratory things easily.  Since moving to the desert Tracy will tell you that I'm always on decongestants.  We are neither one, comfortable with this but I'm not sure how it will change until we get out of here. 

I got my voice back yesterday.  I'm not sure if anyone would say this is a good thing or not!  Sarah has used my illness as a way to take herself over to all her friends "so that she won't get it too :)"  I know that I am ready to be done with it and get back to life!

Memorial Day and Beyond.....

We had a really nice weekend.  I love the three days that seems to give you just enough time to relax and recharge!  I can't say that we often spend times that are necessarily relaxing but for us accomplishment is a release!  Tracy and I found a "salvage" pile over at the abandoned house's and have been helping take down the pile by taking rocks and boulders.  This means, of couse, loading up the back of the truck with tons of rock, literally.  I'm not sure how many tons we moved in the first couple of days but I know it was at least a few.  I stopped us short on Sunday by dropping a large rock on my finger and cracking the nail in the middle.  I'm a wimp so after that, I was moving no more rock for the weekend.  We were also lucky enough to have dad call us to tell us that one of his neighbors was yanking out some small cactus type plants.  For the price of a little free labor we were able to lay down a dry river bed interspersed with a few plants. 

We invited a few folks over Monday for a barbecue potluck...nothing special, just hamburgers and hot dogs.  Everyone brought great food to add, so we ended up with a great meal. I think everyone enjoyed it...I know I did! 

It got a lot hotter than it has been so I had the bright idea of having the spinkler on so the kids could run through it.  You should know, if you don't already, that we don't have grass.  We do have a LOT of dirt.  Needless to say, dirt becomes mud when you turn on the water!  I wasn't sure the parents were going to go for it but thankfully everyone gave the go ahead!  We had 6 mud covered smiling kids by the end of it.  Definitely something they will not forget :)