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Cuter than Cute!

I am not trying to brag, really. I mean, yeah my youngest grandson and only grand-dog are in the picture. But even if they weren’t related, I’d still say this picture is adorable. Just look at that smile!

Thanks go out to my daughter, Amy, for sending the pictures. She says that Joey (grandson, 11 months old) and Klondike (grand-dog, about 3) have only recently become really good pals. And she is pretty sure she knows why.

You see, Joey is pretty independent. He knows what he wants and knows when he wants it (or not). Especially when it comes to food. He has always been that way. Now that he is eating more and more solids, he will still eat until he is full, and not a bite more. Do you think he says, “Uh, Mom. I am done.” Of course not. Although he is talking already.

When Joey is finished eating, he simply drops whatever is left onto the floor. Klondike is usually nearby and is more than happy to step in and help Mom clean up the mess.

Klondike may just be a dog, but even he can see how hard Amy works taking care of all three kids while her hubby is away training. She runs her own business, too (bookkeeping services), which she started right around the time Joey was born (July 2007).

Mike and I are very proud of what she has been able to accomplish. And she’s a great Mom, too. You’d think she’d be overwhelmed by it all, or at least complain sometimes about having to manage so much. She doesn’t. She is just as happy as can be.

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Forty States

I was wrong again! Daughter Amy pointed out that we flew through Texas on our way to Yellowstone a few years back. So here’s my final revised map.

The states I have yet to set foot in are Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahome, and Rhode Island.

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Correction… Thirty-nine States!

My wonderful hubby, Mike, corrected me. He says I left out Missouri in my list of visited states map. So, I have gone to a new site (better map!) and added Missouri. Now, only 11 states left to visit.

The states I have yet to set foot in are Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahome, Rhode Island, and Texas. I hope to get to Maine first as I really want to see Acadia National Park.

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Change of Pace

Not a whole lot to say today. I am just starting my second day of “normalcy” now that we’re back at home, back to work, etc. Not that I have ever really been normal…

For something different, I am going to share a joke sent to me by a friend a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

A husband and wife are waiting at the bus stop with their nine children. A blind man joins them after a few minutes. When the bus arrives, they find it overloaded and only the wife and the nine kids are able to fit onto the bus. So the husband and the blind man decide to walk.

After a while, the husband becomes irritated by the ticking of the blind man’s stick as he taps it on the sidewalk. The husband says to the blind man, “Why don’t you put a piece of rubber at the end of your stick? That ticking sound is driving me crazy.”

The blind man replies, “If you would’ve put a rubber at the end of your stick, we’d be riding the bus, so shut the hell up.”

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Thirty-eight States

On our recent trip to Alaska, Mike and I got into a discussion with some folks about how many states we have visited. Mike has been to 49 of 50 (only Hawaii remains). I know I have been to a lot, but I have never actually counted. Today, that changed.

My Visited US States

I have visited 38 of the 50 US states. The ones I have left to visit are: Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Texas.

I doubt I’ll knock any of those remaining states off of the list this year, but one never knows.

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We’re Back…

After a pretty long day of traveling, we are safe and sound back at home. When we left our hotel in Anchorage at about 5:30 AM yesterday, it was around 50 degrees. We flew to Chicago first. The flight should have been five hours and 45 minutes but ended up being closer to six and a half hours because of the weather (lots of thunderstorms in the area). Arriving at O’Hare after the peace and tranquility of Alaska was quite a shock to the system. Nothing like a quick jolt of reality. And we were still in the Midwest!

We boarded our plane bound for Baltimore at about 6:20 PM. The A/C was not working, so we had to sit in a hot airplane waiting for it to be fixed. That was about a 30-40 minute delay. Then after it was fixed and we pulled away from the gate, we had to sit on the runway waiting for more thunderstorms to pass before we could take off. The temperature in the plane reached a stifling 82 degrees (at foot level, which is where my thermometer key chain was). Now, that is not horribly hot, but inside an airplane with 100 other people and very little air moving was rather unpleasant. After about a 25-minute wait, we took off. Although there were storms in Baltimore, too, it was clear enough for us to land. We finally made it home around 10:30. It was in the upper 70s and quite humid. And it is supposed to hit 97 degrees today!

The dogs were quite excited to see us. I think they thought we abandoned them for good. Eric said that CeCe, our neurotic dog, had diarrhea for at least a week because she was upset about our being gone.

It is nice to be home, but I sure wish we could have brought the weather with us.