Fort Wayne Day Trip

It had been far to long since we'd see Ian, Jen and the boys... so we packed it up and headed to Fort Wayne for the day and I'm so glad we did.  The boys are getting so big and it was great to hang out with Ian and Jen for the day and catch up.  Oh and the pool didn't hurt either.  And everyone got to meet Miller.  Great day all around!

One more week!

T-minus one week until we are off to Alaska!!  I am so excited I can hardly wait. 

Only issue now is finding a kennel for Miller and Joey.  And I had no idea how expensive it was going to be to board both dogs... One place I called was going to charge $42 per night for Miller and $28 for Joey - I was like are you crazy!  I'm not spending $600 on dog boarding!  No way!  So I found one in Saline that will charge half that - so $30 a day, but yikes - that's still a lot of money.  I decided I think I should open my own dog kennel... I'd be rolling in the dough!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!  Here's to another 61 awesome years!!!

10 days

10 days until we are on a plane bound for Alaska!  So excited!!  I can't wait for Ryan to see everything.  And to have some quality time with Dad, Julie and Jason!

Field on Fire

Well we had some excitement on the block.  Fortunately everything is okay.  Unfortunately we missed all the excitement because we went out for some ice cream.  Darn ice cream - always causing problems!

After our cruise in the Chevelle for ice cream, we turned down Crane road and saw fire trucks a little to close to our house for comfort.  Luckily it wasn't our house, but the first next to use is now a quarter gone.  Supposedly a goose flew into the power lines and then fell into the extremely dry cut wheat field.  Results - charred goose and charred field.

Midweek Update

1. Ryan fixed the Chevelle last week.  Very proud of him and it didn't cost too much at all.  All it took was fixing some bad wiring by the previous owning.
2. Garden is going crazy!  We have beans on now - in a few days I'm thinking I will be picking them and starting to freeze one.  We have a couple corn cobs on.  I'm just hoping it's ready before we go to Alaska and not while we are in a Alaska.
3. We leave for Alaska in almost 2 weeks.  Where has the summer gone?!
4. Yesterday we set the record for temperature 102 degrees.  Where do we live again?
5. I miss summer when it was 80 and sunny.
6. I miss rain.  We need rain... lots and lots of rain.  Rain, rain, come our way!  There's a chance for tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath.  Some people got rain today, but of course we weren't one of them.
7. I mowed the grass on Saturday for the first time in a really long time.  Only did the front, and the back 40.  Not the middle 40 - it is completely dead.  Well the back 40 was too but it had lots of weeds that were driving me crazy.
8. I'm sick.  Boo for me!  Summer colds are the worst.
9. Work is crazy busy!  I feel like I'm drowning.
10. I ordered some pictures from shutterfly and they sucked.  Not going to order 4x6s from there anymore which stinks because they keep giving me free prints when they stink.  Oh well.
11. We had a brown out again last night and thus lost power.  Sucks with no power and 100 degrees.  But luckily we got it back on about midnight.  Let's hope that's the last time.

PS - Julie are the still reading... no comments lately? :-)

Miller's back

After a trip to our regular vet, we discovered what was wrong with poor Miller.  He has worms and Coccidia.  So lots of meds and a short and we are on our way to a happy healthy puppy.  And after only being on the meds for like 12 hours I could already see a huge difference.  He's eating lots now and has his spunk back.  Look out now... It's Miller Time!

Miller Update

Well after a glimpse of hope that Miller was getting better... he's just not and we actually think he's worse.  So it's off to the vet this morning.  Poor puppy can't keep anything in and is losing weight.  Hopefully they can help him feel better.  

Disaster!

Dear Miller,
Will you please stop pooping in your crate and then barking for hours about it during the night?  You are driving me crazy and I'm sick of cleaning up liquid poop.

Thank you,
Your Human Mom

Okay... just need to say that.  I keep telling Miller that put he doesn't seen to care or listen.  But I guess part of the problem is us and his food transition which did not go well at all.  So now cute Miller is allowed only white rice, boiled chicken and pure pumpkin to help his stomach get back to normal and then we get to start the process all over again.  But he's losing weight so I'm hoping it's quickly.  We can't keep anything in him.

It's a good thing he's cute or I might have returned him by now.

Holy Garden

So in the week we were gone on vacation, the garden blew up - in a good way though.  Check it out.  We have beans on, peas pods on, lots of green tomatoes, tassels on a corn stalks, and a pumpkins.

Lots of beans

Our first tassels

Holy pumpkin patch

 And our first pumpkin

Tomatoes... something is up with the leaves... all rolled up- have to do some research on that.

Finally peas

And more tomatoes.

Still waiting for some peppers to show up.  But we've already enjoyed some radishes, which are quite hot, but still good.

Vacation Wrap Up

Why do vacations have to go so fast??!  Ryan and I got up north on Sunday and headed home Friday morning and it felt like we just got there.  So here's the wrap up.

Sunday
Arrive in Arcadia about 3:00 and set up camp.  Got the dogs used to things (well mainly Miller who had never been there).  And then enjoyed sitting outside in the shade, not driving.  That night we took the dogs to the beach for the first time.  Joey loved it and well Miller wasn't so sure but he loved eating the sand.

All my boys

 Lake Michigan was like glass... calmer than I've ever seen it.

All tuckered out for the night

Monday - After our first night at the cottage we were up and at them so we could play golf at 8:52, and woke up to a puppy and toy duck full of poop.  So into the tub they went and was all clean for the moment.  Ryan and I then headed to Crystal Lake to play golf - only a dollar a hole.  First nine, Ryan played great and the back nine I played pretty good.  But after about 15 holes we were both done.  It was really hot, no breeze.  So we finished up and headed for ice cream to cool us down and then went to a great antique store looking for some cool old signs for the man cave, but didn't find any that were in our budget.  But I did find a donut cutter!  And mom said it was a good one!  We finished the night with a beautiful sunset and walk on the beach - just humans.

crystal clear water

Tuesday is the day you go to the Amish store and get fresh bread and cinnamon rolls right out of the oven and they are so worth it.  And of course there is always other things to get too - like apple pie and yogurt pretzels.  Then back home for the nice relaxing day.  We also went to the beach for a couple hours.  We also attempted our first walk with both dogs.  Joey was fine but Miller decided that he was too cool to walk the normal way on the leash and he preferred this method.  We were also joined by the Welden's on Tuesday night.

Wednesday.  Happy 4th of July! I can't believe how fast our vacation is going.  I'd just like it to slow down a little, please.  Today was a hot one!  Before breakfast we took the dogs and kids to the beach.  This time Miller was a little better but still ate a lot of sand.  Joey retrieved the stick a few times and then Kahle decided to do the retrieving.

We also got to try out a stand up paddle board and after that, Ryan and I decided we needed a couple of those... well that is until we saw the price.  Might have to wait until next summer to get one.

The board wasn't quite sized for Ryan... he was a little too big, but still made it look easy, well except for this fall.

And I can't forget to mention our yummy perch dinner at Rigger's.  So tasty!


Thursday... our last full day in Arcadia.  Started with some yummy french toast and bacon and then a nice relaxing day sitting in the shade as it was so hot there.  Then a little beach time and some quality time up at camp getting ice cream and playing ping pong (which I can horrible at) and a little shuffle board with mom.  I of course did not win.

Kahle and Uncle Ryan swinging.

An amazing honeymoon, vacation and family get-to-together.  And now back to reality!

The World's Longest Day

I've had some long days, but yesterday was a new record for long days.  The day started with a red eye flight home from California, leaving at 2:00 am EST and arriving in Detroit at 6:30 am.  Ryan picked me up and we hit the road to get out new puppy.  The original plan was to drive to Bedford, PA and meet the breeder, but after they received a horrible storm with damage the plan was derailed.  So we arrive in Bedford and find out that she hasn't even left home (which is 4 hours away).  So we get back in the car and keep driving... to where we didn't know.  And let me remind you I'm going on about 0 hours of sleep and the previous night I had gotten up on Michigan time in California - not the bed idea.  Also by now we have eating McDonald's in 3 different states... breakfast in Michigan, lunch in Ohio and a shake in PA.  


We finally get word from the breeder that her boyfriend is bringing the dogs so we pick a stop in Strasburg, VA (which was the 7th state we had driving in and the 8th I had been to that day).  At about 6:00 pm, we finally get Miller (and a little friend to that we were delivering back to Michigan - a beagle name Wheatie).  So we load them up and off we got... Garmen's arrival time at home, 1:30 am.  For real?!  Yes, for real.  Luckily for us the dogs traveled great and towards the last few hours I had gotten my tenth wind and was now keeping Ryan awake who after having gotten up at 5:30 and been driving for over 12 hours was starting to fade.  But he's a trooper and drove the whole time.  I sang songs, made up games, whatever it took.

After dropping the beagle off to the new owner at Cabella's at 1:10 am, we were finally almost home.  We hopped on 23 with the plan of getting off on the Willis exit.  But alas the was closed so up to US12 we went.  We pulled in the driveway at 1:45 am.  And the world's longest day was officially over and we had a new puppy, Miller.