How do you know you've been away from family for a long time?

Today, at lunch, without provacation:

"I don't remember what Tiggs' face looks like."

'Nuff said

Snitch

I thought she may have got hurt at the end but her reaction to the fall proved me wrong.

What A Night

Emma and I decided that it was time for the dogs to have a bath tonight. We got the towels together, found the dog "Oap" under the sink and headed upstairs. The two of us have never given the dogs a bath before, usually its the whole family. One dog at a time while the other waits impatiently outside the bathroom door.

Cassius was nominated to go first because he's got a rash under his neck and inside of his legpits. Cassius likes taking baths once he is in the tub, getting him in the tub is the hardest part because he is so damn heavy. I got him lifted in and set the temperature for the water. While I was doing that Emma took the initiative to flush the toilet next to the tub. We usually don't let her flush unless she actually goes to the bathroom in the toilet so while I had my back turned she took advantage of the opportunity while she could.

Emma was delighted to see Cassius get rinsed just like she does when she is taking a bath. She thought that it was important that she help pour the water as well. If I could get her to fill the jug up completely she would only dump 1/2 of it on Cassius then start refilling the jug turning the quick rinse job into a long process. About two minutes into the ordeal Emma lost interest in the rinsing and found it more entertaining to stick her hand into the faucet spraying water in every direction.

We eventually got Cassius rinsed and ready to be sudsed (is that a word?). I started scrubbing his face while Emma went and flushed the toilet again. I had to give her some dog shampoo to get her back over to the tub. She worked on Cassius's chest while I did the rest of his body. In the middle of the scrubbing Cassius thought it would be cool to shake with all the soap on his body. Emma was extremely impressed with the water and soap all over both of us. It was time start rinsing again.

I did my best to make sure that Emma didn't see how to turn the faucet on. Its different than the tub that she takes a bath in so she was very intrigued about how I could get the water to start and stop so quickly. As soon as I started rinsing Emma realized the toilet wasn't running anymore so she went back and flushed it again. If there was anything in that toilet when we started it surely wasn't there anymore. After a few seconds of Emma spraying water all over the place she learned that she could stick her fingers into the faucet and push the shower stick up blocking the water and forcing it up the water pipes and thru the shower head, Cassius wasn't impressed by the water coming from a different place at all and tried jumping out of the tub while I was working on getting the shower off. It would have been a good picture. Me leaning over Emma trying to get the shower turned off while trying to block a soaked 75 lb dog from leaping out of the tub. While I was getting Cassius contained in the tub Emma again took the liberty of flushing the toilet one more time.

Eventually all the soap was gone and we started drying Cassius off. He gracefully jumped out of the tub landing on his wet feet causing him to crash across the linoleum. Emma missed the show because she was trying to put the dog shampoo in her own hair. We kicked Cassius out of the bathroom and brought "Min" in.

Min is quite the opposite of Cassius as he doesn't like taking baths at all. When I lifted him up he did his best to stay out of the tub by stretching his back legs out straight towards the floor, catching them on the edge of the tub which then scared him even more than what he already was. He started flopping like a fish out of water kicking the tub with all four legs as I got him in. It was loud and pretty frightening for Emma, she started crying and had to give him a hug and a kiss before we got started.

Everything was pretty much the same for Min's bath. Water spraying, fights over who got to pour the water, two more toilet flushes, and one shower head demonstration. I had to lift Min out of the bathtub. For some reason he is too scared to jump, just like I have to lift him out of the truck when he goes for a ride because he is too much of a wimp to jump two feet onto the ground.

Emma didn't get as wet as I thought she would. Her sleeves were soaked from rinsing her hands in the faucet and her face was wet from the dogs shaking during and after the bath.

We headed downstairs and found Stephanie making cookies. While we were gone Steph went to Ron's house to borrow some butter for the cookies. When we were done cleaning the dogs Steph realized that we needed two sticks of butter rather than one so she loaded Emma up in the truck and headed back to Ron's house.
Emma has really enjoyed helping us cook lately and over the last week or two we have made a few batches of cookies. She likes snitches the most, what kid doesn't? On the counter where we make the cookies we have a spice rack sitting next to the stove. We made the mistake a few weeks back of letting Emma entertain herself by making a spice potion (Phaedra?)while we finished dinner. Now every time she gets to cook she thinks we need to add some spices. I was in the living room resting after the workout I had wrestling with the dogs and heard "EEMMMMAAAA GRAAAAACE" I knew right away what had happened. It was kind of like the toilet flushing upstairs. While Steph wasn't looking Emma grabbed a jar of Dill Weed and added a teaspoon to the cookie dough.

What makes the entire story worthy is the amount of effort that took place to get the butter to make the cookies only to have dill weed added to the mix. Steph ended up scraping out the weed and using the little bit of butter we had in the fridge to finish making the cookies. Emma was happy, she got her snitches and a beater from the mixer. Video coming.

Something to pass the time

While we wait for me to get my pictures and videos in order, here's something that is sure to amuse you.

A week without posts!!

What's going on with everyone?!?!

I've got a few videos incoming. I think I've become addicted to Call of Duty on the XBox: I don't really want to keep playing it but I keep doing so, just trying to improve. THat's how I'm spending my days off, mostly. Take Miku to school, drop Yuzuru off at work, then I've got a few hours of open time till school's out. Lame, I know.

We haven't locked in our travel but it will fall sometime in the window of March 20-April 6. It might be just me and Miku depending on a few things over here. Yuzuru is almost done with her dissertation draft: I've got to read it for her as she finishes it up over the next month and submits it to her advisor. Assuming it is g good enough, she'll defend in July.

That's the update for now. Peas!

The Valentine's Day Package

Huge thanks to Babba Jo for the wonderful package.






BEST KEYCHAIN EVER.

Duckfooted Stiltwalker

One of Miku's take-home prizes from her sports day was these stilts.

From the frontlines of 4 years old

hf ueu utrhbbmkkgymvm virov 8vh itkrrkmm


miku

EDIT by J-rod: After the first entry, written all by her, she wanted to add some pictures. So we have one of a lasagna elf (btw I made that lasagna) and the second of a demon, made in honor of setsubun, a ritual observance bringing good luck in the house and banishing the evil spirits (demons!) outside.

Clean that Room

Its hard for me to do anything anymore without Emma wanting to help. It usually takes my twice as long to get the dishes done, make a make a cake or vacuum the floor but I don't really mind. Hopefully she catches on to it and someday will do it all on her own. Then I can play xbox 360 more.

The absurd reversal associated with a consistent stance

I realized today the source of a point of confusion for me. You see, I was against the war in Iraq but now I'm against the withdrawal of US troops. But I realize that these apparently contradictory positions are entirely consistent with a single moral premise: The state of Iraqi society and the life of its citizens.

I was against the war because I thought it would make them worse off (and sadly I was correct). However I firmly believe, based on the same sort of evidence and consideration I used to be against the war in the beginning, that a withdrawal would make them worse off, again. So by considering the effect of our national decisions on the people who actually pay the price for them, I've gone from peacenik to hawk.

Funny world we live in.

(PS: I'm sorry if anyone thinks I'm spoiling the blog by bringing up this kind of topic. I hope that we all feel free to talk about anything here, but you are also free to ignore me.

Making Christmas cookies

Here's one from a few months back.

Current reasons to visit America

"I want to go to Babba Jo's house. Because I want to take Penda for a walk."

"and see Emma."

We got snow too.

We got the most snow in a decade the other day and rushed out to build a snowman and play before the rain washed it all away. We really were blanketed with about 3 inches but it was so wet that we rolled up everything down to the grass when we made the snowman. Miku loved it.

Did you see all the videos?

Not trying to pimp my own posts here, but I'd uploaded videos of Miku playing the Wii Fit, dancing on the Wii, singing and dancing in her sheep outfit, and then at the sports day. I saw comments for the first two but not the middle two and just wasn't sure if they go lost in the shuffle.

I'm working to keep more videos coming on a regular basis.

more snow in North Idaho

I believe I have found one of the most profound spots on earth. This view taken right before you get to the mission looks up the river from the freeway - I always drive slow and look at this site - most days you see the mountains or the sky reflected in the water - today it just says a lot.

Grandma White is staying close at home. I delivered her a few requested items - eggs, milk and a disposable camera....Stopped at the fork in the road on the way to the mission and took this picture. Cracker is out runing around and having a good time in the snow. Sad to say - Cracker has a tumor growing in her jaw/tongue and even though GM has had it removed twice and one chemotherapy - it continues to grow. It might be her demise soon. Sad - but in the meantime she eats, sleeps and seems to be okay......

This is a great shot of the Grandma house from the road down below. Do you remember when the story of when Grandpa's mail car dropped out of gear, rolled down the bank and went into the slough? Those were exciting times for us -

Just a house on the side of the hill as we came back home. This is the lake with little dock and dock house - lots of footprints going out onto the ice.

The mission - I love this picture because it shows some of the trees to the left and don't orget to look at the sky and the clouds -

I can't wait for you guys to come so we can barbecue on this deck.....after the snow leaves of course!

More snow - is predicted. I did get my emergency supplies in order - which I always do every winter but this one ---

One might never notice the state highway buildings directly at the foot of the 4th of July Pass - eastside. They store sand and some snow removal equipment there. Each summer they spend a lot of time filling up the sand building... Didn't the snow make these trees profoundly beautiful?

Yesterday when we were in Kellogg we took these pictures of the new "Wellness Center" formerly known as the Hansen estate....Notice the snow almost to the windows -

When you open my patio door and go to the right of the deck is where you will see all of this snow. Barkly loves it! - he rolls in it and jumps around. Even better yet - the terrorist squirrels are back - a little harder to jump through the snow but he keeps them up in the tree....

A slow start on sports day

Here we see the Peach class of the pre-school make their entrance and then they run their first event. Miku is in the first row, red pants and white shirt. One of the boys in the third row bumps a boy in the second row who bumps Miku right before the starting gun, which explains what you'll see.

Personally this video just makes me tear up with joy. My little girl out there, running the event as best she can. I love it.



I also like the little half-jog she does afterwards.

A singing sheep does the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dance.

Miku was one of the 4 girls in her class selected to be a sheep in the Christmas pageant this year. She has her costume on and sings some of the songs they sang as they did christmas caroling around the downtown. She also shows the choreography for Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. I'll work on getting the video of the pageant up sometime as well.

Dancing Fool

This speaks for itself, really.