Halloween 2007

Happy Halloween everyone! It’s just after 8pm here. I shut off the lights at 8pm, and took in decorations that weren’t nailed down. I think we had somewhere about 75 trick or treater’s. Not a ton, but not a bad group either. It just seems slower and slower every year. A cold front moved in last night, dropping temperatures down into the 30’s by trick or treat time, so I am sure that was a de-motivating factor for kids to be outside for long. I did have one group of 4 kids who sang me a Halloween song! It was very cute.

Courtney was a giraffe, of course! We put her costume on her for the first time this afternoon when we went to go visit Nana at work. She refused to walk in it. When we put her down, she would sink into a puddle on the floor. But she was a darn cute giraffe.

This evening, Kinsey was very excited to get this ‘trick-or-treating’ show on the road. So, they started out by traveling over to our house. Once we heard they were coming over, we put Courtney back in her costume. Hailey was a Puppy (her favorite thing), Kinsey was a fairy or princess, or fairy princess, I am not sure which. The 3 kids all looked so cute together, we took pictures and will try to get them up soon.

After they left, Courtney was getting comfortable in her costume, so we left her in it. Our neighbor came over to return a book I lent her, and Courtney showed off her costume. Soon after that kids starting arriving, she loved watching the kids. Some of my favorites were 2 Harry Potter characters, and a 20 month old dressed as a clown that was pretty darn cute also. And of course the group that sang me the song won as far as I am concerned. The worst ones of the night were actually our first trick-or-treaters. It was two teenage girls, with no costumes. They came to the door and held out their pillowcases for candy. Hubby made them at least say ‘Trick-or-Treat’ for candy.

I had reserved a copy of Guitar Hero 3 for Hubby. It just came out this past weekend for the Wii. We picked it up yesterday and so far it has been a hit in our house. Hubby has put lots of miles on the guitar all ready.

My head cold went away pretty fast. For that I am very thankful. Courtney’s seem to clear up pretty quickly also. We still have some after effects, but at least her appetite has returned.

We have some out of town guests arriving tomorrow. One of our cadet’s mom and brother are coming in for the weekend. The mom is also a Pampered Chef rep, so she is hosting a party for me on Saturday. I am excited about that. Hubby has all ready picked out about $300 worth of merchandise in the catalog he wants. I need to get more orders in so that we can get some of it for free!

Last night I spent time ordering lots of gifts on line. For the past few months when I get catalogs and look through them, if I see something that will make a good gift I have been tearing out that page and saving the page. Last night I gathered all my pages and ordered everything. It is only about 7 weeks to Christmas now, you know! Of course some of the pages were also things I would like, so those went on my wish list for Christmas. Yes, I all ready have it started.

Well, I am cold from tonight, so I am going to get in my nice warm PJ’s and get in bed with my heating blanket and read! Hope everyone out there had a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Standing appointment

My week was a very long one last week. One of my uncles ended up in the hospital and we were all very worried about him. It was a lot of waiting for updates in the early part of the week. At this point, all seems to be going well.

In the later part of the week, Courtney started to come down with a cold. Wednesday she had a slight runny nose, Thursday was the same. Thursday I felt achy. Friday her nose was a little runnier, but still not too bad. Friday, I had a sore throat that burned like the dickens. Friday night at 9pm, Courtney woke up screaming. I thought to myself, ‘I know what that means!’ That means ear infection. When she gets ear infections, she doesn’t want to lie down. She is much more comfortable in a sitting position. So, I rocked her in her room for about an hour. I put her back down, and she slept about an hour that way. Then she was up again screaming. So, I brought her downstairs and we sat in the lazy-boy for a few more hours. Then, in the middle of the night, I remembered that one of the doctors had given us some drops to numb the ear when it’s infected to help with the pain. So, I found it and put drops in both her ears because I wasn’t sure which one was bothering her. This allowed both of us to get at least a good solid 4 hours of sleep.

So, the next morning as soon as our pediatrician’s office opened I called for an appointment. The joke with my friends has now become the fact that I should probably have a standing appointment on Saturdays at the pediatrician’s office. So, Courtney and I went at 10:15am and discovered that BOTH her ears were infected. So, the doctor put her on some super strong antibiotics.

That afternoon, she wasn’t interested in eating at all, and she wasn’t interested in much drinking either. I was able to get some cherry pedialite in her. It stayed down for about 15 minutes, and then it came back up all over the carpet! I now have a pink stain on my carpet and so far I haven’t had much luck getting it out.

I was able to get her antibiotics in her and put her down for a nap. She slept about 2 & ½ hours. That helped a bit, but when she woke up she still didn’t want to eat. She also wasn’t real interested in drinking either. Hubby’s plane was delayed, but he finally made it home about 6:30pm. So, he was able to see Courtney before she went to bed. She slept through the night no problem. Sunday she slept a lot as well.

Meanwhile my sore throat turned into head congestion. But, it’s not too bad, I have had worse!

Hubby and I went to see our new agility building yesterday. It gave Courtney and me a chance to get out and get some fresh air. I am excited to start having classes there! It looks like it will work great for us!

Today, Hubby and I went and got our flu shots. The nurse was really good at giving the shot, so I didn’t feel a thing! I prepared by taking Tylenol, but I haven’t had any after effects!

Well, I need to go and try to catch up on laundry and cleaning. After vacation, and Hubby being gone and all that has been going on, my house really is a disaster! Hope everyone is well!

Home

Ahh, it is nice to be home.

It is a bit weird to spend 22 hours traveling, then when you get home you still have over 6 hours left in the day. I left the hotel on saturday at Noon. I got home on Saturday around 7 pm. Somehow Noon to 7pm came to 22 hours... The international dateline plays havoc with your day.

One observation I made while in Tokyo is the quiet. Tokyo is very like most BIG cities. The one big difference is lake of horns. In 7 days I heard one horn, and that was on the bus from the airport, a car was drifting into our lane while going about 100 km/h (approx 60 mph). I only heard emergency sirens a few times. Every other big city has a lot more noise.

One big difference with Tokyo might be that most people use public transportation. The train station next to the hotel (Shinjuku Station) services over 3 million people per day and has 2 subway companies and one train company that ferry all of these people. Not only do you have to know what train to take you have to have the correct fare card for the company the line belongs to. A bit confusing but not tooo bad.

Looking back, it was a good trip. Made some business contacts and saw a new country and different culture. Selling security in Japan is a tough job. Their culture follows the principal that when we hire you, you become part of the family and are trusted. There has been very little press on employees causing harm. Most of the people I talked with think most of the incidents are covered up, it would be hard for someone to public admit "I messed up and hired a bad person."

Where in the World is Hubby?

The past 4 weeks have gone by fast and been very busy. At some points I wasn't sure where I was and my body still really has no clue what timezone it is in.

The first week was in Okinawa, Japan. I did not realize how far south this chain of islands is compared to the main islands of Japan. I spent most of the time on the US Marine base Camp Courtney. The Marines I was training are not allowed stop anywhere off base when in uniform. As I had to rely on them for vehicle travel I was limited to locations in walking distance. The best place I ate at was literally a shack on the side of the road. Well actually 3 shacks with about 10 picnic tables. Very Very yummy fresh raman (not the junk you get in the states 5 for a dollar).

As wifey stated in her post we spent the next week in Virginia and North Carolina pretending to be rednecks.

I then was in Vienna Virginia for a week. I love going to this location. The food is awesome and cheap. I rotate between Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lebanese. Usually there is one student who has not tried at least one of these ethnic foods. It is fun taking people to new foods. I did take one night to eat American and went to a Fleming's steakhouse. That was an awesome steak and for desert I had a molten lava chocolate cake. You know the desert is going to be good when they require a 20 minute notice to make it.

This week I am in Tokyo, Japan. Yes, two separate trips to Japan in less than 30 days. I am here for the BlackHat Japan conference. I taught on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yesterday, Thursday, I spent a few minutes at the conference then went to Akihabara. As a geek this was awesome. The amount of technology available to buy was staggering. Imagine 10-20 square blocks of New York City being nothing but technology stores. There was one section (under the train track) that had 50+ vendors crammed into a little place (I had to duck the entire time I was in there) selling pieces parts so you could build just about anything you need computer related.

Being in Tokyo sure makes me feel huge. Walking around with the crowds was not an issue, I could see over most of them. When on the train it was a bit of a squeeze as my shoulders are wider than most of them. I do stand out here, not just because of size. I have been wearing shirts with color. Most of the men here seem to like to wear blue or black suits with white shirts. They seem to want to blend in and thus very little color even in ties.

Speaking of color. Today, Friday, it is cloudy and a bit rainy. Most umbrellas are black. There are more clear umbrellas than ones with color.

I am hoping to see the Imperial Palace today. The cloudy weather might diminish the viewing.

So far the food has been awesome. I have only eaten in the Hotel when the meal was paid for by others (breakfast and lunch) The breakfast I have been doing the western buffets, for lunch it has been order by picture. For dinner I've been going out to the street and hitting different restaurants and ordering by picture. There have only been a few bites and one drink I regret.

First Snow!

Let’s see, last I told you all about our vacation, and the Air Force Game. We ended up with 4 cadets that night for a period, but the two freshmen left in the middle of the night to go elsewhere. They had borrowed a car so they had freedom to go places.

The next morning Hubby left early. It was snowing when he left. It snowed most of the day. At our house we ended up with about 3-4 inches on the grass. But it had been so warm the day before that nothing stuck to the sidewalks or roads, which was very nice.

Here it is Wednesday and I think the last of the snow just finished melting. The last few days have been nice.

Which is nice, except that we had our last agility class in the barn, and the snow how been melting for 2 days. So, everything was mud. That was not fun. But starting in 2 weeks we will be in a brand new building. NO dirt, dust, mud! And we will have heat! It will be so nice!

Courtney painted in day care today! They gave her, and all the other little ones in her room, finger paint and a large piece of paper. They made a lovely piece of artwork that they hung in the hall for all the other kids and parents to enjoy. Apparently she enjoyed it so much, she had it everywhere. There were still remnants on her clothes when I picked her up. She even tried to eat the paint. Apparently it doesn’t taste very good, because they told me she made a face!

So, I got BOO’ed the other day! What is that you ask? I came home and on my porch was a pumpkin basket with candy, and some Halloween decorations in it! With a cute sign that says:

This Halloween there’s something new, a sweet surprise that’s call a “Boo”! Secret Friends have left it here, to bring your family some ghostly cheer! You’ve been boo’ed and it’s your turn to share, with friends or neighbors, anyone you dare! Put together two goody bags, spooky and fun leave them at the doors and just run! Enclose this poem and one thing more, an “I’ve been booed” sign for the front door! It’s the latest and greatest thing to do, spreading Halloween cheer with just a little “boo!”

And included was also an “I’ve been Boo’ed” sign to hang on your door. It’s neat! I have NO IDEA who boo’ed us! I put together two more treat bags like it asked, and I plan to deliver them tomorrow. Unfortunately, one of the people that will be Boo’ed reads this blog, so she will know who it came from. But the other family should have no idea! They are neighbors across the street I have met once. I love the idea! How fun!

Saturday I am going to take Courtney to a place here called ‘My Gym’. It has classes for kids from, I think, 6 months and up. Since she loves to play on mats, slide and be upside-down so much, we are going to go try it out. We get to try a class for free to see if it is something that we both are interested in. When they are young (I think under age 3) parents participate with the kids. I am excited. I loved gymnastics growing up, so it’s probably in her genes!

Well, off to bed for me!

Back from Vacation

Well, what an amazing trip! We flew out Saturday Oct 6, Courtney did pretty well. She struggled a bit on the plane with the fact that she could not get up and walk around, but it wasn't too bad.

Saturday night, some long time friends of Grammy and Granddad came over to play cards and eat dinner with us. They have known Brian his entire life, and after Grammy and Granddad moved to VA, this family went as well. And they both work at Radford Univ.

Sunday Courtney and I went with Grammy and Granddad (Hubby's parents) to an ALS walk. We walked a mile and ate hot dogs. I really enjoyed it. It was a beautiful day, and we were in the shade most of the time.

Monday Grammy had the day off from work because of Columbus Day. So, we all went to Blacksburg and drove around Virginia Tech. We also stopped at an off campus VT store and stocked up on new Virginia Tech stuff.

After that we went over to Radford and went to Radford University. Hubby graduated from RU, and Grammy used to work there before she recently went to VT, and Granddad currently works there. So, we took a nice walk around the campus, stopped at the bookstore, stocked up on RU stuff. We met Granddad for lunch, as well as Dave, one of the long time friends. After lunch we went and took a tour of the building that Granddad works in.

Tuesday Grammy had to go back to work, but we went and met her for lunch. Then Hubby dropped me at home, and he went to RU to talk to some computer security students and to donate 3 books to their library.

Wednesday morning, Courtney, Hubby and I drove down to Charlotte. On the way into town we stopped at 2 garages. First stop was Raceworld USA, which is Michael Waltrip’s garage. I must say, that was probably not the best place to stop first. He has really designed his garage to be fan friendly. You can see so much of the employees actually working on cars! And you get to take a tour around the grounds and everything. You really get to see a lot! Apparently we missed Mikey by a few minutes on the way in, as well as on the way out. Bummer.

Next stop was Hendrick Motorsports, which is the home to our favorite driver, Jeff Gordon. I must say, after Raceworld USA, it was a little disappointing. You didn’t get to see much of the actual garage. They of course had a museum with lots of cars and trophies and such. But it was fun to see the action! But at least now I can say I have been there!

Then it was off to find out hotel which was right in downtown Charlotte. After getting settled in our room, the 3 of us headed out on a walk to find some dinner. We found a nice Thai restaurant and had a yummy (but expensive) dinner.

The next day was the first day of Hubby’s class. So, we dropped him off early. Later in the morning, Courtney and I headed up to DEI (Dale Earnhart Inc.) It too was a little disappointing, but it was neat to see all of Dale’s old fire suits that he actually wore! One had been in a fiery wreck and had some parts melting off!

After that, I was looking for a bookstore. After trying several different exits off the highway, I stumbled upon a beautiful outdoor mall. It had a lot of high end stores, and it was all outdoors! They had a Barnes & Noble too, so I was able to get the books I was looking for. Courtney and I walked around a little bit, and I made a few purchases in Ann Taylor Loft.

We went back to the hotel, and when Hubby was done with his class, he walked back to meet us at the hotel. And then we left again on foot to find some dinner. We found an Uno’s. Hubby really likes Uno’s, but we don’t have them out here. So, we usually stop at one if we see one while traveling.

The next day, we dropped Hubby off again at his class and we headed to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It was the neatest place! It is a privately owned exotic animal drive through park. If you don’t want to drive through you can take a wagon ride through. I thought that would be best so that both Courtney and I could enjoy it.

It was so much fun! You can purchase a feed bucket, and off you go on the wagon. They have over 750 animals from 6 different continents. The wagon stops every now and then and the animals come up and each right from your hand. There were buffalo, yaks, llamas, pigs, deer, antelope, zebras, giraffes, goats, and many more!!! It was the neatest thing! If you are ever in the Charlotte area, I HIGHLY recommend it.

From there we went on to Discovery Place right in downtown Charlotte. It’s a kid’s museum. They had an area for 3 and under. Courtney played in there for about 2 hours! We had to wait for Hubby to finish teaching his class. We finally caught up with Hubby and we headed back up to Grammy and Granddad’s house.

The next morning, Hubby and I got up EARLY and drove back down to the Charlotte area to go to the race! We arrived at the track about 9:30am so we had a ton of time to walk around and enjoy all the stuff there was to see and do. Between us, we acquired 14 sharpies! And lots of other free stuff. Plus, we purchased stuff.

The race was a night race; it started at 7pm-ish. It was a fantastic race! Lots of action and the most important thing is that Jeff Gordon won! It’s sooo great to be there in person! I love it!

We had thankfully booked a hotel about 2 & ½ miles from the track. The race ended at midnight, and we crawled into be at just about 2am. We got up early the next morning, had some breakfast and hit the road. Back up to Virginia we went. Hubby’s sister and her family were there, they had spent the weekend with Courtney and Grammy and Granddad. Courtney got to meet her cousin Jackson for the first time. They apparently got along famously. They all went to a Pumpkin patch and had a ton of fun picking out pumpkins. Courtney kept finding ones her size and picking them up.

Once Hubby and I got back up to Grammy and Granddad’s house, we all sat down to a nice lunch together. I hadn’t seen Brian’s sister, nephew and brother-in-law since the wedding! Jackson sure is different from 3 years ago!

In the afternoon they left to go back home. Hubby and I spent some time getting a nap in because we were wiped out! After that we had to pack everything up! That took a while. I ended up taking one of Hubby’s suitcases back for him. The plan was to get his logo shirts for work to the dry cleaners and back before he got home.

Monday, Courtney and I flew home. The first plane ride was pretty good. It was pretty empty, so we were able to have the 2 seats to ourselves which makes things easy! The next flight wasn’t that way. It was full, no empty seats at all. Courtney did okay, but the last 20 minutes, she had decided she was pretty much done. She just wanted to get up and walk. Of course we were on our final decent so that wasn’t possible. I was very thankful when we got on the ground!

Tuesday was back to work for me and back to daycare for Courtney. But she was moved up to the Infant 2 room. So, she is in the room next door to where she was prior. It is a good thing. They had several new small babies start over in Infant 1, and Infant 2 is really designed more for kids Courtney’s age and ability. The only bad thing is that Ms. Kay isn’t in infant 2. The 2 rooms share a kitchen, a diaper changing area, and an outside play area, so it’s not like Kay doesn’t see her, it just that Kay isn’t her main caretaker any more. I am very saddened by this. I just love Kay. She is really good at her job. When she told us it was time to move Courtney up, she got tears in her eyes. Courtney really likes Kay as well, but she has adjusted into her new room very nicely. She had all ready visited over there a few times, so it wasn’t unfamiliar territory. I think Kay and myself are having a harder time with the change then Courtney!

The rest of the week went as normal, agility, work, day care. Courtney also got a flu shot. That made for a long night that night. She was up screaming at 2am. I had to go in and give her some Tylenol and rock her back to sleep. She also woke up screaming at 4:30am, but she was able to settle herself back down again without me having to go into her room.

Friday, our cadet who is now a Junior, and one of his friends came over. They set up and Xbox in the basement to play Halo3. Hubby arrived home around 10:15pm. He got the cadets set up with internet access so they got on line and played Halo3 apparently until 2:30am.

We all had to get up early today. It’s AFA game day. Our cadet does the cooking for his squadron’s tailgate party. And we had to head out to take Courtney to Nana’s house for the weekend.

We had our usual tailgating crowd. It was fun! We had a ton of food, and we ate and ate and ate. Finally at noon we headed over to the stadium. It was a pretty exciting game this year. The one we went to last year was awful because it was very lopsided, so it wasn’t even fun to watch. Today’s game was interesting right down to the last 3 minutes, and Air Force won!

After the game was over, we meandered back to our tailgating spot, cooked some more food, ate lots more and sat around while we waited for traffic to die down. Finally about 4:30pm, we packed it up and hit the road. Hubby had to pick up a few essentials before leaving again tomorrow morning.

Yes, I said leaving again. He leaves for Tokyo tomorrow. He will be gone just over a week. Then he will be home for a whole 2 weeks before leaving again. Ah, life is busy as ever. In fact we are looking at 4 cadets here tonight! So, I better go make beds.

Hope everyone is well!

Suppprt Rescue!

Hubby is currently on his way home from Japan! He should be in the springs about 5pm. It should be interesting to see exactly how jet lag will affect him. He has 2 days to get himself back together before we leave again! Courtney and I will be gone 10 days, while Hubby will be gone 14 days. Then he is home for 1 day before he leaves for Japan again. Yes, JAPAN again, Tokyo this time. He will be there about 7 days.

Maggie started agility Monday. It was the first night so it really wasn’t very exciting. She just got on the wobble board. She was a little timid of it, but she did okay. She will miss the next two weeks so we will have a lot of make up when we get back!

Bristol had agility last night. He did so well! We are working on sequencing now. So, putting jumps/tunnels/weave poles in a line and running them. Every time he messes up it’s because of something I did. The last thing of the night that we did was about 7-8 jumps in a large circle. The instructor wanted us to just all out run it and if the dog misses a jump, keep going. Well, the first pass through, Bristol missed about 5 of them. The second run through he hit every one! It was awesome! We are starting to click!

In our class we have a Chinese Crested. Most of you know these dogs as the ugly naked dogs with the tuft of hair on their head. But they also have furry ones. Token is a white furry Chinese Crested who is about 9 months old. He has never been super fast, and his owner spends most of her time walking and coaxing him on. Last night we did 3 jumps that led into a tunnel. As the dog is exiting the tunnel, you are to throw their favorite toy about 10 feet out in front of them. Well, Token jumped over the last jump and his owner gave the tunnel command. Token TOOK OFF through the tunnel. The owner threw his toy out the other end, and Token came charging out, grabs the toy and starts zooming all around the barn (we call that having the Zoomies). We were all laughing so hard. First, Token seemed to be doing a few victory laps, he was prancing all over. Second, it’s not like Token to run at all! He was a ball of white flowing fur. Even the owner was laughing so hard it took awhile to call him. It has to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen in person!

So, yesterday, after I picked up Courtney from daycare, I decided to stop at Target on the way home. We have a new Super Target that I love. It’s kind of like no one else has discovered it yet. So, anytime you go, you get great parking and there are no lines to check out!

Anyway, I pulled into the parking lot and a van pulled in right behind me. I got out and went to get Courtney out when a man and his two kids got out of the van and came over to me. He was holding an Italian Greyhound puppy. He said ‘excuse me, but I saw your sticker that says support rescue on your car. And I see that you have a beagle (I have an ‘I love my Beagle’ sticker). My wife and I run a rescue for puppy mill dogs’. He continued by saying ‘when the puppy mills are going to close down, we go in and buy the parents for a very low price. Then we find them new homes.’ He wrote down the name of the site for me and asked me to pass it on to others.

However, I will not pass it on. Paying for the dogs, cheap or not, still promotes puppy mills! Of course they say they are closing down. Most likely the puppy mills do this to get rid of the over bread parents. Then they ‘re-open’ with new parents and start all over again. Its awful what goes on!

People are always so afraid of getting a rescue dog because you never know what kind of mental or physical issues you may end up dealing with. Guess what? It’s just the same as puppy mill dogs! It makes me so mad that there are still pet stores in malls that sell dogs. It makes me mad that people do not get educated as to breeds and where to get dogs. So, please, encourage everyone you know to rescue, and to make sure that the rescue was not a cheap dog from a puppy mill! Hopefully one day we can get everyone to see the horrible side of the puppy mills and demand will drop, therefore causing puppy mills to close down permanently. There are so many wonderful dogs out there in rescue, waiting for a good home! Please help stop Puppy Mills!!! Support Rescue!