Back to reality

Mom left on Sunday morning to go back to Philly. The dogs had lots of fun with her since she fed them all kinds of table scraps. We've been referring to them as the "chunky monkeys" because they may be a little thicker through the waist. It was back to work on Monday. At least it's another short week.

Our Christmas

Fonzie got a new hedgehog, his favorite present every year.

The big dogs got HUGE rawhides. They might have been a little too big.

They didn't chew on them for long, it must have been too intimidating of a task to take on!

Duke curled up and laid with his.

Mom cooked lots of food. Jason helped by carving the turkey. It was a relaxing day, spent in our jammies all day long.

Think they might be a little spoiled?

The kids got lots of presents. They must have been on Santa's nice list. :)

Snuggling with Grandma

My mom had lots of fun with the dogs while she was visiting us.

Duke's favorite part about Christmas....

....chewing up wrapping paper rolls!

Our best colors...

I wrapped Duke in the bow I got off of our present at Jason's work party. I think blue is a good color on him.

A hunting we will go.....

Jason and Duke went hunting on the 20th. As you can see, they had a great time. This was Duke's first time retrieving a goose. Jason said that Duke kinda paused when he picked up the goose like, what's this thing? because it was so big. I think they both look handsome in their camoflauge.

O Christmas Tree

We didn't get the ornaments on until last night. I love taking all of them out and remembering how it is we got each of them. I especially love all of my doggie ornaments!

Tree Hunting 2009

We made our annual trek to Sprouffske's Tree Farm on Sunday, braving the bitter cold. Troy joined us for the first time purchasing a tree for himself and his parents.

Jason enjoyed playing the lumberjack as usual.

We picked out a 9 foot Douglas Fir.

Tom, Stacie, Tyler and Remi found a tree much closer to the truck than us.

I had to take a picture of the truck weighed down with our FOUR trees. It's great to have fun traditions with our friends!

The Dog Whisperer

On Friday night, we turned on The Dog Whisperer. Roscoe sat and watched it with us. Not just a glance, he sat there just like in the picture and watched the show. It was hilarious!

Merry Christmas to me!

I have been wanting to upgrade to the larger 6 quart KitchenAid mixer for quite some time. I found a deal too good to pass up on Amazon.com on Black Friday. So I bought it, can't wait to start my holiday baking with it! Isn't it pretty?

Boogieman Part 2

If you do not remember, Roscoe became obsessed with our computer room closet during our remodel earlier this year. He was so obsessed that every time he came into the house, he had to run upstairs and check that closet. On Sunday when I was pulling out decoration, he kept going into the closet under the stairs. I don't know if it was the closet or the mirror inside of it where he could see himself. In any event, I think he may have been on another quest to find the Boogieman.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving at our house yesterday. Roscoe assumed his normal post under the table as soon as he could. At one point he was trapped under there by chair being pushed in but managed to get out to get some bites of turkey.

The turkey turned out great. It was actually done a half hour early! I couldn't believe it actually got done early!

I was happy that dinner turned out well. Carrie held Addison while Jenn ate. Addison is getting so big.

Allyson REALLY enjoyed the chocolate pie.

Alexa really enjoyed the Cool Whip, so much so that she grabbed a handful of it!

Clam Digging

Jason headed over to Westport yesterday to go clam digging with a group of his co-workers. I wanted to go but had other commitments. He took Roscoe with him to work on his training. As you can see, like father like son, both are wearing camo! Jason and everyone in his group (almost 30 people!) limited out.

Happy Halloweiner!

Happy Halloweiner to all! I hate dressing up, I always have. I made the Fonz put on his leather coat briefly to pose for a picture. Notice my shirt - Halloweener dog. I love the great stuff you can find online these days!

We've had lots of trick or treaters. Jason is answering the door while watching college football and I'm working on stuff around the house. Looking forward to a low key day tomorrow!

And we're done....

We went to Rainier again today so I could help finish all of our stuff. We made our batches of homemade kahlua and I also baked our famous cakes in a jar.

Allyson stopped by to visit us. She played wonderful music on the piano she got from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. Fonzie was riveted.

Tripleberry

We finished up our annual jam sessions this last weekend. We made strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, tripleberry and blackberry.

Allyson's First Pumpkin Patch visit

We joined the crew on a visit to Lattin's Cider Mill. The mud was unbelievable but the freshly made apple fritters made it worth it. Jos and Geri were in town from Holland so joined in the merriment. I'm sure they think we're just crazy Americans going hunting for pumpkins in a muddy field!

Allyson's First Birthday Party

I am not too found of this new version of blogger which is why I have not been posting. Allyson's party was held a couple weeks back. Jason made her a toy chest, it turned out great as usual. I think she needs to patent this scowl, she has it down pretty good!

Redneck Defroster

We made cherry jam today and had left the lid off the water bath to cool down. Bill came in to make a sandwich. Gloria's microwave bit it in a power surge on Friday night so there was no microwave to defrost the bread from the freezer. Bill came up with his own defroster - the steam from the water bath.

Oh the things you see....

Is it a motorcycle? Is it a Pinto? I don't know!

Oktoberfest

We went to Oktoberfest at the Puyallup Fairgrounds on Saturday night. Jason had fun drinking beer, I was his driver. Jerry bought an AWESOME lion hat. They all had fun playing hammerschlagen. A polka band was playing most of the night. Eventually a different band took over and played some harder stuff. Who knew you could rock Back in Black on an accordian?

Redneck doggie back scratcher

My trip to High Point

I went to visit my girls and my college for Alumni Weekend and a Phi Mu reunion over the first weekend in October. It was fun but also bittersweet due to Dr. Warde's passing. I took a picture of my favorite meal ever - steak hoagie and a side of hash browns from Alex's House.
Picture of my letters on the building I lived in for 3 years.

A view of the campus from the University Center. A picture of a group of us on Saturday night. It's always so much fun to see everyone but so hard to come home.

Goodbye Dr. Warde

I'm very sad to report that Dr. Charlie Warde, seriously one of my most favorite people in the world, passed away very early this morning from complications of pneumonia. He had a stroke back on September 11th and was showing great improvement. I was shocked to learn this morning that he was gone. I was already leaving for High Point tomorrow morning for alumni weekend so I am hopeful that I will get to attend his funeral.

Dr. Warde (he always wanted me to call him Charlie but I never have been able to flip the switch to it) was an amazing man. He always had the ability to pull me out of whatever funk I was in for whatever reason and make me believe that I was the most brilliant, amazing person who ever walked the earth. I roped him into being my sorority's on campus advisor. All of us loved his irish accent and his fun spirit. I cannot believe that he's left us.

Taken at my sorority's 50th anniversary celebration
Snapped at my friend Rosie's wedding rehearsal, he did a reading during her ceremony

Happy birthday Duke!

I can still remember exactly how it came to be that we found our Dear Dukus. We had literally just moved into the house and decided, let's look for the lab puppy we wanted to get. We wanted him to get to grow up with Fonzie since our little hot dog was only 4 months old. We knew the little weiner dog would get too spoiled being the only dog in our house. It was early December 2001, everyone was waiting to get puppies for Christmas morning puppies. We took Fonzie to "meet" Duke and the rest is history. Duke was already 11 weeks old so we have no itty bitty puppy pictures of him (which I hate!). This is the first picture we ever took of Duke.
I remember throwing them together and they actually stayed so I could get a picture of them. You should have seen how they used to chase and play with each other when they were close to the same size. That didn't last long at all!

We had no idea just how much we would love this little black furry guy. Very early on and still today, he only has eyes for Dad.

I don't know if he will ever forgive us for bringing home Roscoe who we bought to be his playmate because we thought Duke was bored outside all day by himself. Can you see the disdain in this picture?

This my favorite picture of you - your first time duke hunting. So handsome in your camoflauge. I insisted that Dad had to buy you a life vest because you were going out on a boat and I had read a story about a hunter's dog drowning earlier that week. You're a mess - you even have mud in your whiskers! You had so much fun though. You slept for days after your first hunting adventure.

You love your kennel and are always going in there for no particular reason. If you hear us yell, you run in there even though you're not in trouble. I think it's your little cave, your safe place.

You are always so happy. Always panting, tail always wagging. I think you're actually smiling here....

And you always have something in your mouth...I don't get it. Duke, you are our perfect dog. You love everyone and everything. Happy 8th birthday, we love you more than words can ever express!