It's October and Autumn is in full swing here in the Northeast. WOW! It has been stunningly beautiful this year. I thought last fall was good but Mother Nature has out done herself. Isabella is into the full swing of school and seems very happy (not that she has much choice). She really loves her teacher, Mrs. Torrens, and especially loves her gym teacher, Mr. Dero. She said he is the funniest ever. Although I'm sure he's no Mr. Williams ( my amazing and very funny elemetary gym teacher). She has made lots of new friends and we have met lots of new families. I have found that the days go by much too quickly now that Bella is in school. Between volunteering, Daisy, and my normal stuff, I am keeping very busy. I am a library volunteer (no surprise) and actually have taken the position as co-chair for that committee as this is the last year for the current Chair-mom. I also got picked to be Room Parent. At Jamesville Elementary there are so manny parents who sign up to volunteer that for most positions the names have to be drawn out of a hat. I am kind of wishing I wasn't so lucky. I hate group projects, somebody is always slacking. Next Tuesday Teddy and I have our first parent/teach conference, I'll let you know how that goes. Isabella also started soccer and karate. Soccer is for an hour every Saturday morning ( it ends next week and begins again in April) and karate is an after school program for one hour a week for 6 weeks. We thought it would giver her a taste and see if she likes it. She was very insistant that she no longer wanted to try Irish step dancing and instead wanted to try Karate. I'm sure she'll change her mind next week. She changes her mind with the weather.
Our other girl, Daisy, has settled in quite nicely. She still gets yelled at, but not as much ( to quote Isabella). We have been pretty successful with the potty training. She got the idea right away, the problem was control. As she gets bigger she gets better (only 4 accidents last week!). She even figured out how to ring a bell tied to the door to let us know she has to go out. It only took 3 tries! She could give Sally a run for her money in the intelligence department. She also knows how to sit already. She has been very good about chewing. She did developed a taste for the remote but we quickly nipped that in the bud and we are keeping her very busy with lots of bones. She has put on about 18 pounds since we got her and she is now beginning to get her adult coat. Her and Isabella have become the best of pals and play and cuddle very nicely. Her favorite part of the day is jumping in Bella's bed and waking her with kisses every morning. Seamus seems to have accepted Daisy although she does try his patience (I can definately relate).
Picasso still hates her, but on occasion will enter the same room. With the support and guidance from our vet, Daisy has started running with me and she does surprising well. She doesn't pull me all over the place and she keeps up with no problem. Sometimes she even gets a burst of energy and I have trouble keeping up. The vet said to start her off easy, a mile at first, but there should be no reason whay she can't eventually go on a 4 mile run with me. We have definately found it helps with her energy level. I am hoping Santa will bring me some snowshoes and we can go snowshoeing too.
We have been enjoying the beauty of the season as much as possible. We did a lot of hiking in September, almost every weekend and we all really enjoyed it, Daisy included. (Just so you know Seamus is not at all neglected. If you know him at all, you know he is resistant to change, does not like the car and prefers the leisurely city dog life. He much prefers neighborhood walks that don't involve a ride in the car and an afternoon nap in his bed. Daisy we have found loves the car, loves water, hiking and loves being anywhere we are.) There are lots of great parks near us with awesome hiking trails and in the winter snowshoeing.
One weekend we rented one of those quadcycles and rode though Onondoga Lake park. Isabella, who didn't have to pedal proudly proclaimed, "Aaah, this is the life!"
We also went apple picking and have made pie and applesauce from our apples. This weekend will go to the pumpkin farm and get our jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Teddy has been learning how to fish for salmon. It is the season for salmon and we have great salmon fishing here. Hopefully he can catch a couple big ones and save us a little at the grocery store. You should see him in hip waders! Oh my God! I wish I had gotten a picture.Two weekends ago Isabella had a five day weekend, (Yom Kippur and Columbus day, we never got off for those!) so we took a trip to Boston to see the Knipplemeyers. We had a great time! The weather was gorgeous and the drive was breath-taking. (I'm so used to driving from St. Louis to Chicago and/or Kansas City and you know how mundane that drive can be.) Boston is such a great city. The architecture was beautiful and it was so clean. We took Daisy with us as I was afraid to kennel her and set back our housetraining and Jana insisted we bring her to be Floppy's guest. Both Daisy and Bella did great on the 5 hour car ride and everyone had a blast. Jana took us to the Boston Children's Museum where Bella and Maxim got to pla
y. On Saturday, both families went to the Boston Aquarium and Cheers for lunch. Later Reiner and Maxim took us to see the U.S.S. Constitution (which was really cool for me!). The rest of the time we got to visit and the kids and dogs got to play. On our last day Jana, Maxim and Emma joined us on a side trip to Salem. They really get into Halloween in Salem and have events and festivals the whole month of October. It was really neat. We saw the oldest home (Circa 1642) in Salem, which is the last remaining building with a connection to the Witch Trials. We even met some real witches, although they prefer to be called wiccans. Our whole trip was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again. There are so many interesting historical sites I still want to see. Oh, and as you can see, Isabella got her picture taken with the next President of the United States.
I was excited, even if it was a cardboard cutout.Thank you Jana, Reiner, Nikolas, Emma and Maxim (Floppy too)for your incredible hospitality, we are so glad to have you as part of our lives and really enjoyed spending time with you!
The next couple of weeks are pretty busy for us. Bella has lots of Halloween activites at school and I will be doing my fair share of volunteering. This past weekend we kicked off our Halloween festivities with Zoo Boo. As you can see, Isabella is going to be a witch. First it was a werewolf, then Dorothy, then a mummy, then Alice in Wonderland, then little Red Riding Hood, then a fairy and she finally settled on a witch (see what I mean about changing her mind). Thank God! I didn't know how I would make a werewolf costume.
Betcha've never seen a hula hooping witch!!
At the Zoo I also got to meet my favorite monster, Dracula. He didn't even bite, much.
Well folks, here we are only two weeks left until we, the voters, decide the fate of our country. I have to say I am full of mixed emotions. While I am really looking forward to finally celebrating the fact that the American voter has some brains, I am also a little sad to see it end. I know most of you think I am insane but I truly do enjoy watching politics in action and this campaign has been very exciting and somewhat surprising (Sarah Palin, huh?! Who would've thunk it). Everyday I think of Tim Russert, and wonder what effect he might have on things and what he would think. While I do love Tom Brokaw, I miss Tim terribly every Sunday morning. If only he could have gotten a hold of Sarah Palin. Speaking of Sarah Palin, (nice segway, right?!) as you can imagine I have very deep feelings about her. Deep seated feelings of emense dislike (my mother always told me never to say hate). I mean really, how can they think she is a good representative for women. She is the anti-woman. Supporting rap kits and examines paid for by the victims, and supporting her own daughter's "choice" (yes, SHE used that word) but not for the rest of us. Don't get me started on the whole family thing. If I was a working mom that had 5 children, one with very special needs and one a pregnant 17 year old (looks like teaching abstinence really worked out, don't you think), you better believe I'd be taking care of things at home instead of running for the 2nd highest office in our country. I do have to admit that I almost felt sorry and embarrassed for her as I watched the Katie Couric interview. That is until Katie asked her why she did not have a passport until this year. Her response was, that unlike some people she was not handed a passport, money and tickets to Europe after school, she's had to work hard her whole life. Well, let me tell you, Govenor Palin, my friends and I busted our asses to earn our own money to pay for our trips overseas, some, by giving of their time in the Peace corps. Her comment about how she got all the knowledge she needed about the world through books and such, is ridiculous. There is no experience like that of traveling and experiencing different countries, people and cultures first hand. I am more qualified to be Vice President than she is in that aspect and probably many others as well!!!! For all of us who have really worked hard so that we can broaden ourselves and get to know and understand the world around us, she can kiss off! Anyway, I hope I don't offend anyone, it just really made me feel angry and insulted. She made it sound as if all of us who try to see the world are spoiled brats, who are handed everything.
As angry as Sarah Palin has made me, the debates and Obama's campaign speeches have reminded me of why I love politics and why I can still have hope! By the way did you see that crowd in St. Louis at Senator Obama's visit this weeekend?! Wow!! I gave me chills! And not to mention Colin Powell's endorsement, what a weekend! He gave, what I think are the best reasons to support the Obama/ Biden ticket. He was so thoughtful and articulate.
Speaking of controversial subjects (another good segway, yeah?!), has anyone besides Mandi and I seen Bill Maher's documentary, Religulous? If you haven't, you should. He asks all the right questions and is hysterically funny.
So that's it for now, I'm sure your tired of hearing me rant! Thanks for reading even if I do go on. It just makes me feel better to get all my crazy ravings out and I know my husband is sick of hearing it. He really can't wait till November 4th.
Happy Halloween! Happy Election day!! Don't forget to GO OUT AND VOTE!!! If you don't vote you have no right to bitch!! (I'm going to have that etched on my tombstone)
I'll see you right here November 5th, hopefully I'll be celebrating and not crying!
14 days till Obama becomes President!
91 days left of Bush!!!!! HOOORAH!!!!
