Puppy Play Date

 This is Millie at 3 1/2 months. She's the queen of the yard. Her official name is Millie Rose....but Michael and I call her Millie Mutt after his childhood dog. Her attitude is Mutt the second. 

She has been enjoying play dates with Kimber since she came home at 7 weeks. Kimber is CoRielle's puppy. She's about 9 months old and is a retriever/husky mix. .

Millie has been a rough and tumble wrestler from the start. The thought was that Kimber would put her in her place and she'd learn appropriate play. Kimber is a sweetie and is happy to let Millie play....from time to time she rolls on her back and let's Millie "win." 

This has not Millie appropriate play. She also "plays" with Reno, an English Mastiff. Reno, Luke's dog,  is the most laid back dog I've met. He lets Millie climb all over him and when he's done he just lifts his paw, places it on her and she's done. LOL 

On this day we were eating outside and misplaced a couple of dishcloths....Tug OF WAR. 

Millie  ATE the cloth. My word. We've had to pull more terrible things out of her throat....disgusting...she eats sponges, socks, ropes...and pukes them back up.  Here everyone tries to corner her....to steal her priceless dishcloth.

I can't remember who ended up pulling the cloth out of her mouth this day. This was BEFORE Stacia and Millie met with "the trainer" and she learned she had to control Millie's environment because Labradoodles are CRAZY.  These days Millie trails a leash so we can catch her quickly when she pulls these stunts. 

Preparing for Sundaes on Sunday

Day 4 of the "week" Dad has been given to "wake up."

This is the day before Stacia's birthday! Many in our family request various ice cream cakes for their birthdays. There have been a few cheesecakes requested...but for the most part it's ice cream cakes.  This year Stacia requested homemade ice cream and sundae toppings. If one wants homemade ice cream on Sunday - one makes ice cream on Saturday. This is a rhythm we have had in San Angelo, TX and when we lived in the RV....she misses it. 

I shopped for an amazing amount of toppings, cream, and honey and made the ice cream mixture. Michael and Benny manned the ice cream makers. 

LOVE the summer yard

The girls chopped candies, nuts and cookies. 

The magical moment when Benny SEES the milk and honey really DOES make ice cream! I love how God promised the Israelites a land flowing with ice cream milk and honey. It confirms to me we are meant to enjoy our food. 

Everyone's favorite part - quality control - tasting y'all. 

Such a helpful pup

Jamin came out and the guys enjoyed relaxing together. We love having Jared here...and we're proud of the work he is doing in Juneau as well. 

Tomorrow we celebrate Stacia turning 15 years old, we will miss GG. 

Stacia Cut Her Hair

 Stacia has been growing her hair for years. She has been talking for over a year about cutting. Her sisters and I have been curious what will happen to her hair when she cuts it - we suspect waves and curls.  

She has decided, with her 15th birthday on the horizon, to cut her hair.  

I had told Norma she had a LOT of hair....after about 30 seconds Norma came out and asked if they could donate her hair to Locks of Love. YES! 

Yep, she got the curls and waves, along with the height.  

Jared flew over or up from Juneau.  At this point in time (I'm writing in Oct), GG hadn't woken up from surgery. He flew up to be with us when he heard we had agreed to take GG off life support if he didn't wake up in a week.  GG had 4 more days to wake up.  These were tense days and it was nice to have Jared here. 

Stacia Makes a Quilt

 I'm catch-up blogging from the vantage point of 2022. I KNOW I posted a photo of this somewhere....but the photos have showed up with a date and more than 1 photo so I will post again. 

The shut down and then Covid ran through our home...Stacia took the time to dig into the scrap bags she had and create a quilt.  This is a birthday quilt for Arielle. Each white square is embroidered with a character trait of Arielle which Stacia loves. 

Thanks to Jacque, for talking through the project with Stacia. 

This and That

Please, people, let me in!

Arielle and Benny came to visit. 

Our black cochin, Lori, has hatched a chick. Michael has great fun with it, they bond quite thoroughly. 

 

The Wait Continues

 It has been convenient for Krista to have us on base in the RV. She is doing a reserve stint on base. We leave the RV for her to stay in until her time is over. 

We continue to wait for Dad to wake up. 

The doctor calls and convinces us to go ahead and go home. We can't visit - even if Dad does wake up. We'll be called if death is immanent and then they'll let me in. We drive back to the valley. 

....it seems fitting to play Farkle...but sad with GG not playing. 

From the vantage point of 2022 I can see that Dad has never regained the concentration to play Farkle with us. That game the night before surgery may have been the last. We'll begin to see if we can work up to it. 

Back of Base

 Dad has still not woken up from surgery. We explore the back of the base while we wait. We are still staying at the Fam Camp on JBER.  We showed Stacia where we used to fish, ski and sled etc.  Michael took the opportunity to explain the workings of a snow maker to her. 

Millie stayed nearby. 

We were curious what Millie would do with water. She wasn't excited about it at all. 

Stacia decided to go in and see if Millie would follow. She stayed on land and tried all sorts of way to convince Stacia to come back. 

She finally went out to Stacia.