The Es Came to Visit

We really enjoyed seeing the E family on their way through on Saturday. We don't get to see them enough, but that's okay, because someday, AM's kids will watch mine on the commune where our houses will be just close enough to set up a sort of red-tablecloth-on-the-clothesline-means-hello type of coded communication. And cell phones, we'll still have those of course.

Anyway, beautiful baby girl and beautiful boy and some of the rest of us:

AM's short hair, and the beautiful Miss B (in pink shoes).

Little E is in perpetual motion, so this is the BEST photo I could get of him. He looks concerned, so I'm betting that he needed his pencil sharpened. He also may or may not have had pants on in this picture.

This is why C thinks having a baby is easy. You just hold it, right? And keep watching your scary alien/war movie. Hand her off to Mom when she gets cranky, hungry, wakes up, etc. Yeah, no, that is not the way it works, C.

Miss B and me. I think that is almost a smile. You'll have to check out AM's blog for her real smile; complete with dimples. She's so much fun and her brother is a hoot. Mom and Dad are pretty amusing too - we love when they come to visit!

The Dogs at This TIme

We watched Mom and Dad's dog, Abby, for ten days while they were on their anniversary cruise over Thanksgiving. She gets along really well with Bella and Boris, but she can irritate C a little bit - just by being a small dog. There are quite a few things that a small dog can get away with that a larger dog cannot (jumping on your leg, sleeping on your bed, picking fights, etc.). Abby is, through nature (genetics as a dauschund) and nurture (my parents' training) a burrower with a sense of entitlement. What this means is that she likes to sleep under covers. A problem in the R household because C has the tendency to move around a lot and could possibly roll over on Abby, and Abby, sensing an injustice towards her might lash out with her teeth. Not that this has happened before at all. No way. We've solved this by letting her sleep under the fleece blanket at the end of the bed. On the other side of the peoples from Boris.

There has also been a pack hierarchy shift. Abby and Boris are about the same age with about 50lbs difference between them. Bella is alpha female in our family. Abby will place her tiny head in Bella's mouth to show submissiveness. That's not the problem; the problem is that Abby has actually dominated Boris for the last two years and then something shifted. I'm not sure what changed, but Boris has asserted dominance and Abby isn't sure she likes it. I've caught them baiting one another with toys during this visit so that they can snarl and fight a little bit. Really, they're dogs! Am I going to have to call the Dog Whisperer?

Mom, Dad, here is some fuzzy proof that C LIKES playing with Abby. He does. He plays a little rough, but she seems to like it.

Abby is the guard dog. She has no fear. She's charged dogs way bigger than her. She even bit Bella on the snout when she was stressed out. You can just barely see her green ball at the right edge of the photo. Boris, that is HER ball, DO NOT touch it. Just sit there and look like a cute blue heeler.

This is what Bella does. And she is really good at it. Hardly even snores.

Super fun game: Guess who is the rightful owner of the dog bed. Does size matter? Is it the dog that "fits" in the bed the best? The one that looks the most comfortable? Does the bed match one dog better than the other? I thought this was way too funny to pass up!

Thanksgiving ReCap

We had a very nice, low-key Thanksgiving. Last year, everyone travelled to us to celebrate and the festivities seemed really big and a whole lot of the food travelled to us as well. This year, my parents were in Belize City on Thanksgiving enjoying a seven day cruise to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary (it was in September). So, C's parents and my sister B and boyfriend J came to our Thanksgiving. It was perfect in it's simplicity. C is great with the bird, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, I made two pies, B brought a third pie, the rolls, and green bean casserole, and C's parents brought L's seven-layer salad and some other yummies. We all ate too much because it really tasted good! I can't remember the conversation (because it really tasted good!).

This year, for some reason, I wanted it to look Thanksgiving, so I got the tablecloth and cloth napkins. Everything looked really nice with Grandma's china and the lead crystal candle holders C and I received as a wedding present.

J and sister B with the "starters." He asked for the peanut butter - it was not part of my beautiful plan. It's a good photo of sister B's really short hair - J's may be longer at this point! They are so cute!

Food collage: my apple pie (homemade), the tasty turkey, my pumpkin pie (mostly homemade), and L's awesome seven-layer salad. Then my beautiful table again.

The table, candle holders, and three glorious pies. The pies were gone within 48 hours.

C's New Project: Dodge Ambulance

Oy, this is C's new project. His new new project. Not counting all of the Jeep parts in the garage that need to find one another so that we have a drivable CJ-7 by spring break.

Anyway, he had to go to an auction nearby and win this, which he didn't, but he did help drive the price up for the guy who did win this 1942 Dodge Ambulance (WC-54, pre-Power Wagon). Turns out the guy was another Power Wagon dude, though, and he wanted something totally different from what C wanted. So, C handed over some money and got the ambulance. He wants the sheet metal from the cab forward so that he and his dad can fabricate a Dodge quad-cab. It will be another Franken-Dodge, but the Power Wagon guys will love when we pull up to the rally in June 2011 (are you kidding?! It will NOT be ready by this JUNE!) towing our cool Power Wagon with the Franken-Dodge.

Without further ado:

Crappy blue house = not ours, piece of junk on the trailer = ours. Someday it will be super cool and maybe even beautiful. You can't say that about the house; it needs to be bulldozed.

This captures most of what C wants to keep. He'd never say it this way, but I'm sure it is because he "likes the lines of her."

Pretty sure it is not the correct bed for the truck. Not that it matters. But the ambulances of old did resemble the ambulances of today with a big cargo area - someone cut it off behind the cab.

C is stoked about the doors and the dash panel: the doors fit perfectly, are in great shape, and are rust-free; the dash panel is all there and is not cracked. Very impressive for a truck this old that has gone through so much.

We'll keep you updated on the progress and I'll let you know how the Jeep is coming (because right now, it's not).

Pheasant Hunting Out West

If you don't enjoy some good photos of bloody birds, I'm warning you that C went pheasant hunting. We went out west to LL's parents' place where the boys could shoot their fill of pheasant, which C LOVED doing. Saturday morning was gorgeous for pheasant - a lot of me went out and they were able to cover a large area and bring down thirteen or fourteen pheasant and then blow up some quail. I didn't realize that we came out on the weekend that LL's family celebrates Thanksgiving, so we also tucked in for a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner Saturday evening. LL's mom made creamed pheasant and it is such a wonderful dish over mashed potatoes. You put the right food in front of me and I am the happiest girl ever. C was living a dream: hunting, followed by a giant dinner?! Yeah!

I think C actually enjoys cleaning game. He's good at it. And when he tells the story about butchering a deer with a knife in one hand and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other, I gag a little bit in my mouth. But I assumed that these birds were going to taste good and they were just as pretty dead as they were alive (and they look a little bit like chicken once opened up), so none of this really bothered me.

More cleaning pictures. I didn't go with them because I really enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday morning after we arrived at 1130pm Friday night. So no HUNTING pictures here.

Ahh, more dead birds. The photo in the lower left corner really amuses me. J is funny. It was nice to see LL at home and J around his soon-to-be inlaws (they really like him).

The meat and the pretty tail feathers. I could have made a hat with the tail feathers, but the snow the next morning got them. Boys went out Sunday morning (I declined again) and were soaked with an hour or two. When C walked back into the house, the only part of him that was dry was his rear.

We had such a nice time with LL's family - they took C hunting and were super nice. They even let us crash their Thanksgiving (and boy can C eat!). LL got some more wedding stuff accomplished while home and we all got to see the beautiful church where she and J are getting married this May. Fun times!