visitors

Today the puppies were visited by their future owners. They arrived with excitement and camera in hand to document their puppy's early days.
The family that is taking one puppy, chose the little honey colored boy and have named him Phinneas aka Phin for short.

I was told he was named after a favorite Disney TV show character. This guy looks a bit on the hyper side...lets hope that Phin doesn't emulate his namesake!

Everyone was very excited to see the puppies and the children thought they'd be bringing the puppy home today ....after some initial explanation, we got through to them that Phin will have to live here with her Mama Chloe until the 15Th of Sept.

Later in the evening, the 2ND family arrived to view the puppies and check out the black and white boy and girl that they will be bringing home. The children were also and came armed with the knowledge that they would have to wait a few weeks.

They loved visiting with Chloe who was very sweet and calm as people stared at the puppies and gently touched them. The baby kept pointing and saying "gog" too cute! They also came with camera and will be coming back to visit weekly to see the puppies grow. They don't have names quiet yet for their puppies but will be thinking hard on some wonderful ones!

Earlier in the day I had a chance to weigh the pups and am happy that they are gaining weight.
I lay them down and Phin is definitely the larger puppy. The other boy seems to be the smallest (on left) with the girl almost as big as Phin.

They fit perfectly in my little food scale (well this week anyway!

I ain't birthing no babies!

Chloe, our shih tzu, was due today. She was mated with a toy poodle named Carson and has had an uneventful pregnancy. This is her first litter and my first experience with a pregnant dog! Saturday night we had company come for a cookout. Chloe was needy, wanting to be held and coddled. Nothing new really and I didn't think much of her panting and odd behavior of being right under my feet all day...just chalked it up to her pregnancy. I set up a 'maternity ward' for the big day. I think I covered the area pretty well and had all the supplies needed if she required my help. Around 10 PM, I brought Chloe to the 'birthing room' and sat with her while she panted, cried and demanded to be let out. I was determined to have her deliver the puppies in this covered and confined area.
Chloe had other plans and they involved my plaid chair in the TV room. I finally had to allow her out of the pen area as she was crying and carrying on and I felt like I was stressing her out. I thankfully covered the chair in a drop cloth and she made a beeline for it and took a long nap.

Later she did get banished back to the 'maternity ward' and she carried on with fussing over night. Finally after 2 hours of sleep, I let her out of the pen around 7:45 AM and again she bee lined it to the chair. I went to set up the supplies that may be needed (gauze, cotton balls, towels, boil some hot water....) and as I entered the kitchen I heard her yelp. I rushed back in only to find her lapping at a new little puppy!

After 15 minutes of mother son bonding and me in absolute awe, I moved them both into the maternity ward much to Chloe's displeasure.....
After an hour went by, she began contracting again and the next thing I know, here comes puppy #2. He was a little bigger than the first puppy and honey colored. So very cute! She again knew just what to do and I sat there thinking of the money I spent on birthing supplies that just went down the drain! I watched as she cleaned up her second son and I laughed to myself about the similarities of my own children at birth. P was born with jet black hair (that later fell out and came in blond) and S was my red head and a bigger baby than P. I just knew she'd have her girl next and I wasn't disappointed when she delivered a black little girl...hmm M was born with jet black hair like P. Chloe tended each of her puppies with such care....well except for the chewing of the umbilical cord when she picked them up by the cord and swung them around as she chewed! That was a sight to see. She then snuggled and nuzzled them, cleaning every inch of them until they were dry and nursing.

They are all doing well, have gained an ounce each already (weighing in at 6 oz for both black pups and 7 oz for the honey colored pup). Chloe is never from from them and when they cry, she races back to her box and lays down with them. Its an amazing thing to behold seeing this maternal love for her offspring.

An unexpected delight

I woke in the morning at my usual 7am time and went about my morning routine. I showered, I dressed, I ate my breakfast, checked my email and then I waited and waited for the lump under these covers to emerge.

I waited until almost noon! I don't recall starting the "teen sleep til noon" phase until I was much older....she has it down to a science!

Meri popped her head out the slider as I sat reading out in the sun. I had her go eat breakfast and get dressed and let me know what she'd like to do. Her reply.... "I don't know" and then she sat on the couch and flipped on the TV! I gave her choices... go to the beach (and listed a few of our past favorites) "I hate the Beach" ... okay go to a pond or lake and I listed a few.... "I'm sunburned and don't want to go swimming" ..... How about we go on a hike? "Its too hot" OKAY How about we go home? To which she replied she didn't care and that this was no fun without Patrick and Sam. She misses them. I do too. So what did we do? How did I entertain this almost 13 yr old? I took her to Main St in Falmouth and we walked around and window shopped! Her mood lightened considerably and we had fun together. We bought two ocean themed prints off this woman.

Had ice cream. And took in a farmer's market for organic produce.

We then traveled to Hyannis and went to the Christmas Tree shop to buy frames for the prints. While there, I decided to take Meri to a restaurant I used to frequent when I was living and working on the cape. I called my mother and asked if they'd like to join us....but no, they don't like that restaurant much so we met them at their favorite place. After a nice dinner, conversation with some townies I'd not seen since before I was married, my dad suggested a sunset cruise on the boat. Meri delighted in this idea and we headed down to the harbor. The bay was like glass and the greenhead flies were out in full force so we lotioned up with "Skin So Soft" which they don't seem to like for whatever reason.

With the engines started, my dad the captain said we were good to go and so we headed off to deeper waters...well 15 foot waters since it was extreme low tide at the time!

Meri sat up front with Grandma and enjoyed a conversation. I was invited up to hang out with them.

enjoy the sunset over Barnstable Harbor.

This is interesting! I found this while surfing some blogs and took the little quiz.

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say. I had a good laugh at this because of my own blog address...who else is this blog supposed to be about! :)

href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca">What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

We are off.....

What are we doing today? Oh that old summer verbiage! I've come to a conclusion...vacation can be really boring when you are the only adult in the mix.

The kids have been having a good time. I've taken them to the beach, to dinner, ice cream, and we did make it over to Adventure Isle where they road go carts and we played mini golf. I paid for the tickets, took a few photos and then sat in the car and read.

Today we hung out at the house, kayaked on the lake (I saw a muskrat up pretty close!) and even took a nap.

This past spring, my sister blogged about going to see "The Wizard of Oz" put on by our High School Alma Mater Drama Club. They'd truly enjoyed the performance. I was thrilled to see that since it was a big success they were running the show this weekend! I reserved tickets and off we went to see the wizard this evening. We were not disappointed! We arrived 40 minutes early and were shocked to see a huge line snaking around the building. We got in the 'reserved tickets' line and waited our turn to finally get in and find some seats. The theatre was packed with people and you could feel the excitement oozing off the little kids in the audience.

Way back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, as my kids like to say.... I went to this high school and participated in this drama club run by John Sullivan. "Sully" as we called him, was an amazingly talented man. I was lucky enough to be cast in "Music Man" and a musical rendition of "The Hobbit" (someday I'll post some photos of me in this). I also participated yearly in the annual "Haunted House" my favorite 'job' being that of a guide. We worked hard, learned our parts, were at practice daily and it all paid off. We were often in awe of the props and back drops that were created by the art dept. Tonight I was transported back into that feeling of awe at just what Sully had once again created.

Yes, those are real chickens in the hen house and Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are counting real chicks....oh and yes, Toto was played by a real dog for the "Kansas" scenes.

Glinda the good witch came floating down on this ring while a bubble machine spewed forth bubbles over the audience...pretty cool. I loved the scenery for munchkin land. The major munchkins were played by high schoolers and one by Sully himself. The young girl who played the Wicked Witch of the West (sorry but after reading "Wicked" I can only think of her as Elphaba) had the voice down very well. She was pretty convincing!

I was truly impressed with the talents of the main cast. The young man who played Scarecrow was incredible. He had all the moves! All of them had wonderful singing voices and the young man who played Lion got a lot of laughs from the audience.

How can there possibly be a BHS performance without an out of the ordinary occurrence on stage?? Yes, that is a real horse and YES the horse is green! That is Mr. Sullivan himself driving the carriage. All I could say was "Wow" when the curtain went up for the Emerald City scenes.

"you've killed her....." Ding Dong the witch is dead...I'm melting, melting! such a great 'melting'! She slips behind the wall and shrinks as she disrobes.

And all ends happily with Dorothy's proclamation 'Oh Auntie Em, there's no place like home."

The kids loved the show, and were happy we went. On the way home Sam piped up..."Hey Mom, what are we doing tomorrow?".... thank goodness its Wed. and we have to head home for the day to send Sam off with his Grandma and Meri has a dr. appt!

Vacation or something resembling it..

This week I am on vacation. You can call it a vacation as we are not home but on Cape Cod. We will go to fun destinations...but.... when we arrived, I mopped the floors, cleaned toilets, wiped counters, grocery shopped, vacuumed and cooked dinner! Do we mothers ever really go on a vacation?? I do count myself lucky to have a friend who loans me her summer house free of charge that sits right on a lake and is close to my family.

Today we got to spend the afternoon with my mom, my sister, my sister in law and 2 of her children. Of the 4 kids, 3 enjoyed the beach, went swimming, ate lunch and sunbathed (or should I say sunburned!) while one of hers, who hates the beach, complained most of the time we sat there. The day was warm with a constant breeze (which created small sand storms that were annoying so I don't blame J for wanting to go home!).

After a day on the beach, we went home and awaited the arrival of M's best friend who will spend a few days with us. I grilled some chicken and after dinner and clean up, we hit the road and went to the Sandwich boardwalk. What a beautiful night! I enjoyed walking along combing the shore as the kids walked and talked. Sam and I enjoyed playing with our cameras and taking photos of various plants, rocks, people and birds. It was a relaxing way to spend the end of the day.

The Sandwich boardwalk

Meri and her best friend Grace
Sam taking a photo of some local fauna.

I love playing with my camera and getting interesting shots.

Bird houses on the marsh.

On the way out back to the car, we noticed a large group of people had arrived at the beginning of the boardwalk. I noticed them partaking in a favorite activity I recall with fondness from my earlier life on living on Cape Cod. The tide had come in creating a wonderful deep area to jump into from the bridge. Kids and adults jumped into the cold water's of the marsh while many stopped to watch. As a young teen, my friends and I loved this summer activity and often jumped off the side of a small overpass in Barnstable harbor. The major difference from this place was ours had a rip current that would drag you out into the marsh where known eels lived. You didn't want to tangle with one of those! And it had rocks covered in barnacles that you had to climb out onto...no 'water shoes' back then...just cut up legs and feet! So we had a rope that dangled under the overpass to grab hold of. At one point one man retrieved a member of his group and carried her over his shoulder to the bridge.

You could hear the members of his family talking "Oh he's just teasing, he won't throw her in" and others, "I hope he throws her in!".

All eyes were on this man and his daughter/niece/close friend?? as he walked to the middle of the bridge, then jumped with her in his arms into the water! The look on her face was priceless.

We all agreed that this was a great adventure out.

I then stopped at a local bakery/ice creamery to the delight of my charges. Yes, I got a slice of pie enjoyed every bite! Tomorrow its supposed to rain.... I have a few thoughts as to where we will go...one idea may involve go carts!