Oh. This is burned. Get it OUT of my mouth!!

Flash Face!

WHITLEY
¨  Started walking a week after his first birthday.

¨  Likes chasing Sadie around the living room, a rare and highly supervised treat.

¨  Pushes toy trucks around the living room moving shells, rocks, and dry beans from the quarry to the barn and back.

¨  Enjoys feeding the dogs their dog food then licking his hands.

¨  Loves backpack rides.

¨  Needs a great deal of persuasion to wear a vest.

WALT
¨  Gets to work from home almost two days a week.

¨  Still plans to publish a paper he presented a year and a half ago.

¨  Hopes to do better at fantasy football next season – he couldn’t be worse!

¨  Happy to be 40!

¨  Teaching Whitely to play guitar, baby steps.

¨  Enjoys hikes with Whitely.

¨  Takes time to persuade Whitely to wear a vest.

JANE
¨  Is training for the marathon in February.

¨  Apprenticing as a pet dog trainer and volunteers at the municipal animal shelter.

¨  Stopped washing cloth diapers when Whitely turned one.

¨  Learned how to end temper tantrums, for now.

¨  Enjoys hikes with Whitle;, dreams of camping.

¨  Takes Whitley out without a vest.

A year ago we looked like this:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Wonderful photos by Bridgette Bloomquist!!

A couple nights ago I told my mom that we tether her in our bedroom at night to prevent her from peeing and pooping in the house. This works great. Especially since I put down a fluffy pillow and a snugly blanket, she goes to this space when she’s ready to sleep for the night, or if I’m in the bedroom for any amount of time, folding laundry, reading, etc. So tethering her is a matter of reaching down to clip her collar to the leash. I was proud of myself for coming up with a solution that Sadie likes.

Then I realized I could do the same with the crate. More of a duh moment than a prideful epiphany. I replaced her lame bath mats with polar fleece blankets. At this moment she is behind me.

In. Her. Crate.

I can hardly believe it.

Just chillin’ in the once dreaded crate.

The menu: ham, dressing, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, giblet gravy, sweet potatoes, corn soufflé, green bean casserole, deviled eggs and rolls. Oh and lemon ice box pie. Barbara prepared it all, no short cuts were taken! What a feast. The best part, we will be eating like this for days!!!

We had exactly three crackers left from Christmas!

And a very large man driving eight tiny reindeer stopped by with some ornaments for us!

Bebe got a bee. I got a dog. Walt got a poodle which is super fitting because he came up with great costumes for a dog-trainer friend’s night-in-Paris theme birthday party. We were french poodles and won the best costume prize: movie tickets. Whitley got a dragon; it’s one of his more charming animal impersonations.

I have been fantasizing lately about throwing all my stuff into the road. Just chucking it out the doors and windows, letting it break as it lands on the asphalt and get run over by cars. A strangely consoling mental image. But what to do about all the cruddy stuff I have that reminds me of so many other things? The stuff that is broken and useless that I like none the less? Things my mother gave me that were hers?  My solution: Blog them and be done!

These delightful golden slippers went to Goodwill today. If you spotted these in Goodwill, what would you think about the person who owned them?

These were my mothers. My guess is she acquired them in the late 60s early 70s. The only time I remember her wearing them was with a crazy peter pan hat and a pastel paisley printed satin wrap one-piece jumper thing for halloween one year. She said she was a clown. I wore this “clown outfit” to a halloween party my freshman year of high school. I thought I was pretty snazzy. That freshman year of high school she gave me several other pairs of her shoes from the same era – two pairs of short boots with a medium heel and a pair of tall boots with a lower heel. I wore all of those into the ground some time ago. I wore the gold slippers a few times as regular shoes, but they have no treads so they have mostly been in my closet. Or should I say “my closets” since I’ve been in eight dwellings since receiving them (not including moving in and out of dorms four times).

That’s “Nigel Adair Linguistics” and “Sadie Adair Escape Artist.” The dazzling duo have not gotten lost in awhile. But they do tend to bolt out the front door if we miss a few days of walks, and you never know when that might happen next.

Then Uncle Shane brought out a stash of cars.

Crumbles comes to investigate.

Whitley makes an offering.

Dirt goes in cars. Cars go in cars. Maybe cars go on Crumbles?

An overview.

Then Whitley climbed up a ladder unassisted. Didn’t like it at the top and climbed down assisted.