(Richard) Henry Lee and (Samella) Chase and Daphne

Come meet my neighbor's new pups. These are English Bulldogs, 10 weeks old and changing by the hour. Since the litter was born on Memorial Day, Daphne has decided to use names from the musical "1776". The all white, most submissive pup is Chase.

We've had such fun watching Niko interact with these 2 pups. He needed some socializing and so did Henry Lee and Chase. The bulldogs walked down the street without even a leash, just content to be with their mom, or is she the mistress? I go with Mom. Family is family, don't you know.

I made a video of the pups playing but it's too long. Next time I'll go for a shorter version and then post that......

August's Party Theme on August 1, 2008

THE FLOODS OF LIFE
DOES ANYONE RECOGNIZE THIS? This is something that we didn't have in our other home...it's called a sump pump. I am not even sure why there is one, why it even exists, and I sure hate that it does.

Our first August party began with all the Kennedys and Marissa being here. Then Kurt and his son Spencer came up for game night. Everyone was having a great time. Boggle was on tap first and then a few others were planned. Kurt brought a great mix of peanuts and M&Ms.
Cara was doing some laundry and the circuit breaker must have gotten switched and she asked where to go to flip it back. Robert went to the basement to take care of difficult things like this...he's that sort of man...always doing the difficult chores even if they aren't difficult. Suddenly he comes back up and calls out "INCOMING" ... in other words, flood in the basement. Years ago, what seems like forever, my folks had a backup sump pump that would kick in by battery should the electricity go off. A few months before dad died, he said he needed a new sump pump and later told me he gave the backup one to the repair guy. Even then I questioned whether or not he needed that...knowing full well, in my mind which knew very little about such things, that he did. But he said that it had been corrected.

OBVIOUSLY....every sump pump needs a battery backup. Below are the pictures of what the party turned into. But I am so grateful for party goers who were present and willing to change the theme.












busy worker bees








Even feet got involved...and after a hot day it was actually refreshing to have cold feet.

Robert has now gone out and bought the battery backup pump and is working at installing it. It was late last night so he only got part of it in and Kurt was actually back and helping. The humor of that was that he was wearing a t-shirt that read "I Survived the Flood" which was his wife's family reunion theme....very apropos, don't you think?

So floods come. Almost always unexpected...at least these do. So what do you do to prepare yourselves for the floods in your life? Are you equipped with the necessary items to clean up? To move out? Are your 'things' suppported on skids as ours were which meant that those precious 2" made all the difference? And what sort of skids do you have for other type floods? Are you firm footed, even without shoes? Can you hold fast to your humor? Can you get through these moments without falling apart? Can you survive and then NOT have to bring up the incident at every turn? And when the floods are been cleaned up, what do you do then?

Why PARTY ON, of course.

PREPARE THE FIRE, GRAB THE 'SMORE FIXINS'

Then settle back to snack, rest, chat, watch the lightning storm over the lake and just be grateful for life and family and friends and floods that teach us so much about so many things.

This picture was taken by Teri and you can see more on her blog....but this is exactly what we witnessed from Lake Erie. I think there might always be a warning of what is to come...sometimes a flooded basement, sometimes a flooded land, sometimes an unfaithful friend. But always you will find a way out if you keep your wits about you, your eyes open, and keep in contact with the One who can always direct you.

Memories

Memories!

Here are the rules:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It does not matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog/email and leave one about you.

Let's see what happens. Life is filled with memories. And blogging is one good way to write them down when WE remember them. This cute exercise might job our own memories.

Cedar Point

By now I am sure that most of the US, if not the world, has heard about the Famous Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH. Cara and Jacob and their 5 kids came up last week to visit, help us move and to go to Cedar Point. Really only Cody is capable of handling The Point so I suggested those 3 and Robert go and allow me to play with the other 4 grands.

Now, I used to love the rides at Cedar Point but Robert didn't. I always wanted to try out some of the coasters but didn't want to go by myself so I never did. I was surprised that Robert even wanted to go to The Point but he said he wanted to go one more time before he dies.

And so, what does he do? He rides the Magnum Coaster. The lovely screaming her head off, mouth wide open in my lovely daughter, Cara, and her husband, Jacob...next to her, is hanging on for dear life...altho if you look closely you will be able to see the force of the drop. In front of Cara is her oldest son, Cody. I have never seen Cody's hair standing straight up like that but once again, you can see the force ... look at the side "frame" and you will see the coaster's steep drops. Now we get to Robert. He's the one with his face covered. He says he was trying to keep his glasses on his face, which he might have been doing. But to me it looks more like he's NOT wanting to look.

Cara said that periodically, Cody would reach over and ask, "Grampa...Grampa? Are you OK? Grampa? Grampa!" I don't think Robert ever answered Cody. Robert said he will NEVER go on that ride again...and by the way, it's not the scariest ride in the park.

Cara bought the picture from the park and I scanned it and it's my desktop feature at the moment. But I look at it as I pass through, continuing to unpack, rearrange, organize (anyone wanna help?) and think...this could be life. We get such huge dips and scary rides that if we actually saw what was coming we would look like Cara. More than likely we look like Robert and try to not actually see what's coming at us. Perhaps we just need to be more like Jacob and Cody...look, brace ourselves, and hold on for dear life.