litter mates

I am a believe in dogs and the "pack" mentality and how dogs apply that to their two legged family. Luna May has it figured out. The female two legged creaturs is her "person". NOT to be messed with, but yet takes care of everything. The bigger two legged boy is next and then the big two legged guy-who is a little standoffish so she messes with him just to get his attention. The small, loud, quick two legged creature (known as smal fry) is another story. This is a true equal. This is the one she runs from, nips at when playing and looks at like "Really, YOU are going to give ME a direction". But she loves him and here is how I know and I just noticed it this morning. Small Fry ALWAYS comes to the breakfast bar in each morning with his fuzzy blanket. He wears it around his shoulders and it drags across the floor. Each morning after I take Luna out she hangs out and paces waiting for the frys to wake up. I see Small Fry come out blanket in tow. All of sudden I see Luna with her blanket from her crate in tow dragging across the floor and sets it in front of the breakfast bar or sometimes tosses it around (secretly waiting for two legged child to pull and drag on it-which is forbidden-and both small fry and the dog both know it).

Yes, there is something about that pack hierarchy-they are true litter mates.

The joys of fishing

Luna became a little bored of posing for me, this was our resting time when we weren't scrounging for dead fish

The first one all by himself. We were explicitly told we were NOT leaving until he caught one all by himself

The hill that had to be climbed to get to the car. Which Luna and I did: once to get the tackle box, once to get the camera, and once to bring down the cooler.

Here is the cooler which was also a gazillion steps away, because it is way fun to carry stinky, catfish all that way!

We ventured to Pierre to fish. Just so you know we are the worst fisher people ever. So we were taking a big risk, but everyone kept telling us it is the best fishing in YEARS. So we pack the kids, gear (new gear that hubby just had to have), and one dog.

We started the trip with one carsick dog, because someone named me, forgot and fed her before we left. And thus the motions sickness pill kept getting, um not where it was supposed to be.

We arrived in Pierre ready to fish, with no beginner's luck. We watch with just a litte jealousy as some guy throws in a BARE hook and pulls out a whopper walleye on the first cast. You could tell Hubby was about throw the guy over the dam.

We get to our hotel and are sweetly asked, "Do you know about our water situation? We have none that is hot"

We stay til late in the evening with one small walleye to show for our fun. We head to a very nice Italian restuarant-yes in Pierre, to find the snot-nosed high schoolers who work there had shut the kitchen down five minutes early.

We get up very early the next day knowing our fortunes will change. Well they did, we became the best catfish fisher people in the world. Now if you are from Swamp People or watch Swamp People you know there is no shame in catfish. So I manned up and consented to let the boys (all 3 of them) start keeping them vowing "We will eat them!"

So Luna and I meandered around the area, fetched things from the car, and practiced our "drop it", "leave it" skils with the gazillion dead fish carcasses from the flood.

A good time was had by all, so much that hubby thinks we are should go again this weekend

Please, please let us be walleye fishers this time!

Just a few more...

Ephiphanies...
Blogging is a great way to avoid a hubby who is annyong you
45 surveys filled out about YOU and your ability to lead others AND completed annonymously by people you work with is both uplifting and a little sad. It is that one outlier that will be the one that sits on your mind EVERYTIME. Not all the wonderful feedback.
My shell needs to be a little thicker, but I am a good "fake it til you make it"
Pineapple Upside down cake is delightful
A small bag of doritos when you are down in the dumps is even more delightful.
The "pie" chart on Livestrong calorie counter that showed a the wedge of the days calories that amounted in 50% fat is not delightful. I think it really is an oxymoron having a PIE chart show daily calorie intake.

Ok, I am so enlightened I can hardly stand it!

Wow, more epiphanies

First, I hope I spelled that right. I get a little paranoid when my blogger/auther/grammar queen Karen reads my stuff.

We have this blogger friend named Karen who is infamous for meeting new people and LOVING people. I am not so much. So imagine my surprise (well not really, I always knew this) when Big Fry comes home and tells Luna met a new friend, Bill. Bill from down the street, he's lived there about a year. You know mom, Bill, down the street, he is nice I stop and chat while I walk Luna sometimes. It is one thing to be a 39+ woman (he he) and be social with new people, another to be 12 and talk to total strangers. So the epiphany is maybe we need to teach Stranger Danger AGAIN.

Epiphany 2-I have my own Marlboro Man, who is actually, secretly a Pioneer Woman. Hubby baked a from-scratch, in-the-skillet pineapple upside down cake. Eat your heart out Pioneer Woman.

Epiphany 3-Which was not realized BEFORE the pinapple upside down cake, otherwise I would have never have ate any. It is way easy to eat LOTS of calories in a day and not even realize it. I am not one to count calories but a good friend of mine suggested it after sharing my frustration with exercise and NO weight loss. So I found livestrong.com, which has t.he easiest calorie counter ever. Who else actually has mini reeses pbc on their calorie counter? Anyway, I just gotta say, a humbling experience. I think it will be my new addiction. The calorie count and maybe less of the mini pbc's.

Epiphany 4-Work is hard, I forgot how hard over the summer. It is like temporary amnesia that I always get. But then I remember how much I LOVE it, each year is a new challenge and fun.

Well there it is, hope you have some new light bulb moments of your own

New discoveries

When hubby talks to Luna May while playing, he sounds like Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live-Really I kid you not.

Just when I thought I saw it all at school, and could wait out ANY kid with my superior patience and ignore anything, I find out I can not.

A sick 12 year old needs his mom just like he did when he was two.

Dishwashers are NOT all built the same, trust me on this.

Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes really are the BEST ever, in small doses or else your butt will look like mashed potatoes.

If you work in the field of education you can still be a dead beat mom. Classic example: call the middle school office, ask for homework for your sick 12 year old and then get so caught up dealing with someone else's kid that when you show up to the get the homework at said middle school, everyone is long gone and the building is locked.

This and That

School and work are off and running, and one of my goals has been to not get on the computer while children are still awake, which means my contact with my blogger friends has been lacking, I apologize. My lack of posts does not mean we are lacking for good stories though. The adventure of life is always there.
I love my Luna May. I love to come home and pet her ears and have her wag her tail and grunt a little because she is so HAPPY. I love that she is SMART. 3 days of training with the wireless fence and she gets that going past the track in the long grass is NOT good. Ahhh, more outside time makes a happy dog.
The boys are not quite giving up the last benefits of summer or warm weather. I was informed last night to wake Big Fry up promptly at 6 for frog hunting BEFORE school. Anything with the word frog and hunting BEFORE school is not going to be good. I reminded him of breakfast which was met with "I can grab a pear and eat when I get back". When they returned with school clothes muddy and a muddy dog and where promptly ordered to clean the dog, I was met with, " I need to eat or I will starve!" in a true tweener wail. AND it was not his job to clean the dog as he was ONLY helping Small Fry.
I also enjoyed watching hubby try to repair a remote control helicopter. I strongly advised Small Fry from ordering it. NOTHING good ever comes from a remote control anything. And of course the first time it took off on a full battery and crashed into a wall a wing was smashed. We order wings which come in the mail when adults are not home. This leads to big fry "helping" again and trying to take off said wing with a knife (because any screwdivers we once had are long lost). Which in turns leads to stripped screws with hubby trying to figure out how to get wing A1 off. We then find one of the wings we ordered is lost in the frenzy of brothers doing their own repair work. Like I said remote control anything is not good.
I am sure there are other this and thats, like how right now my really smart dog, is smart enough to drop her kong toy by the couch, knock it under the couch with causes her to scratch endlessly at floor and couch to get it. Then whines at me, like it is my fault. Yep just another day in the journey.

sigh, just not our weekend

In the yellow, coming out strong, Small Fry was leading the pack
Big Fry with th corn-fed-east-river-super-fast-riders

PEDAL!!

We made the annual trek to Aberdeen. This year was different than others, we had raced and practiced more. Big Fry turned intermediate, he had wins, confidence, and a desire to do good, more than he has ever had in previous years. Small Fry was fired up, ready to at least place with the huge group of 18 other 9 year olds he has to compete with.

Friday and Saturday were not bad, they both made the main races, pulling through when it really mattered. Sunday came-big trophy day and the time to earn points for a number plate for the whole state. Turned out to be not their day. Small Fry made his main and let his mind get the beter of him when he had an outside gate. Last. Big Fry didn't even make his main.

I persuaded everyone to stay for the award ceremony, which we have never done before. I was hoping beyond hope that the calculatios would turn out that one or both would get a number plate award. I knew they were VERY close. Small Fry sat on the metal fence hanging on the announcer's words as they got to the 9-year old group. His name wasn't called, I could see him blinking quickly and swallowing, trying not to cry. We got to the 12 year old group and I knew as soon as the other kid Big Fry races name was called that he had been bumped out, they had been tied. If Big Fry had made the main race he would have had it.

We headed out to the parking lot, with Big Fry condeming me with "I told you we should have just left, I knew I wasn't going to make it." We get in the car, and the sounds of a 12 year old holding back tears fills the car.

I.felt.awful. I cry and Big Fry tells me it is not my fault, he says, "I just wasn't fast enough today mom". When I apologize to Small Fry for making them stay he says, "It's ok, I am going to get them next year."

I know the disappointment will wear off for them, we have work to do!