Surprise Pictures Are Coming Soon!

Wait till you see what is happening at the Van Houten's!

Our LaPrador---She is a Beauty!!!

Faith decided she had missed dad so much when he spent the entire week in Portland. She surprised him with her whole self!

The Danger of Christmas and Dogs

Well, Christmas is off to a rough start in our house. My wonderful preschool families gave me so many wonderful treats that I guess Faith and Toby were jealous. I went downstairs to get tissue paper and was gone 2 minutes. Faith inhaled a box of chocolate and peanut butter fudge. I know, dogs are not supposed to have chocolate so thankfully it was not the dark baking chocolate. Someone asked how I knew Faith ate it. Faith can set time records eating a bowl of food. Toby does not eat fast and he only got to lick the wax paper off the candy.

A few years back, we made an emergency run to a vet clinic in Kennewick, Washington on Christmas day with Toby. He had eaten an unknown substance in my mom's yard. It turned out fine but it was not what one wants to do on Christmas day. You see they gave him a weird medicine in his eye to make him throw up. It worked but it was disgusting. I actually wanted some of that medicine in the house. You see this in not the first time Toby has eaten something very strange. One day he ate a partial SOS pad. Bad news for him! He felt crummy but was OK. By the way, that medicine turned out to be a derivative of morphine and even the vet is only allowed to keep a small amount on hand. In otherwards, they would not let us have any. We had to put baby locks back on our kitchen cabinets.

So, I am hiding every Christmas present and guarding them with our life. I am also thankful for Brian and Christy who never got into things like Faith and Toby have.

The Van Houten Clan

It has been very busy at the Van Houten clan's house. Preschool started for me smoothly and then it just started getting busier and busier at school. This year is going great. Miss Chris, who I work with, and I have two wonderful classes. We have seventeen 3 year olds on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The other three mornings, we have 16 four and five year olds. Very soon, we will have a new boy named Toby joining us in the three day class. He is the son of the new pastor who will be arriving at the church where I work. We are very excited about having Toby and his family join us.

Vern is also very busy at work. He finished up a job at a hospital in Missouri and then came home to move a boat building business and also is working in Portland, Oregon on a job. He will not be traveling quite as much as we believed he would this fall. In January, he will spend a great deal of month in Portland.

We are attempting, with very little success, to get the yard cleaned up for fall. We had our first frost this morning. I am not looking forward to scraping those car windows but I do love the cold, crisp air of fall and winter. Everyone does think I am nuts when I say I do love the winter. Deep in my heart I am a Wyoming girl, in case you did not know. I spent my childhood in deep, deep snow in Torrington, Wyoming and I loved it.

This past September, we had a wonderful 10 days with grand puppy Walker. Brian and Megan have a dog now. Our lab, Faith, thinks he is the best just as we do!! Toby, the Shit Tzu, on the other hand, just tolerates Walker but at least Toby did not try to beat up on Walker.

Our friends and 2nd family, Rudy and Anne, are expecting and we are so excited. I keep telling them, that I will do any favor for them that they ask me to do, so long as I can babysit when the little one arrives. Sounds like a plan to me. The next 4 days, I am caring for their 2 dogs, so I figure that should give me lots of baby sitting opportunities with the precious baby.

Randy and Christy are all settled in Hawaii. Randy arrived home from Iraq the end of Sept. The two of them spent lots of time getting needed items for their first apartment. I do believe some of those items were a HD television, livingroom furniture, a diningroom table, new printer and kitchen stuff. Christy has really been cooking some wonderful meals. Vern and I cannot figure out why she did not cook while she was here with us.

Brian and Megan are happily celebrating the arrival of their new nephew Lucas Marco Jonathan Goodman who was born to Jenny and Matt Goodman. Megan's brother and his wife, Jenny, sure have a cute baby. I joined in the celebration by going shopping for baby boy clothes and just happened to find the cutest little pair of 6 month old size jeans, warm up pants and 4 shirts to match. I used great control but I still have not bought any toys or books for him.

More to come as we move into November and December.

Lots of Time Has Gone By

I have decided this blog thing may not be something I'm good at. First of all, I never remember how to sign in-------------I never remember my password that is. Second of all, I do not want to take the time to write anything because I end up telling everyone everything before I ever get anything written. So, this time Christy is home from Iraq and out of the Army and she fixed my blog so I can get into it. She is also helping me clean out lots of junk and we are getting organized in the house and at preschool. So, I will leave you with that. It is time to go enjoy my daughter. She will be with us till the end of September and then will be moving to Hawaii to join her husband, Randy. He is still in Iraq at this time.

Connie

Best Laid Plans of Mice and Women

Recently, I was in my favorite store, Earth Pet. This store is one of a kind and always gives me good advice about the dogs and their needs. I buy food, treats and best of all some of the cutest, most unusual toys. They know our dogs, Toby a at 53 pounds nd Faith, and the dogs are welcome in the store (leashed of course) at any time. It is not unusual for Pearl, the dog's favorite clerk, to request that I bring the dogs out to see everyone on a Saturday. You even get a one time 15% discount if you give them a framed picture of your pet to hang on their wall. The particular day I went in, a sales person walked in with the cutest toy just the right size for our Big Brown-Faith. Faith is a sweet, gentle, playful, energetic, female, ball hog, chocolate lab, weighing inof pure muscle. The toy was made of fleece which meant Toby would not chew it up and it stood 26" tall and slender like a wiener dog. It was called a "Monkey Stick". It had 5 different places where it would squeak. I immediately ordered it, knowing it could really be Faith's toy. You see Toby takes over any toy that comes in the house. He thinks everything is his. I knew by the size of THIS toy Toby could not lift it, would not chew it up (Toby will not chew up fleece.) and we had the "perfect" toy for Faith and it was way too big for Toby to dominate and pull up on the couch. You see he is a Shih Tzu and weighs 14 1/2 pounds.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, oh boy was I wrong!

Vern and I got the Monkey Stick out for Faith today. Toby had known all week exactly where it was. Faith looked at it, smelled it, stood there and did nothing. Along comes the Boss, Toby, and he squeaked it, rolled it across the floor like a log, picked it up by it's head and pulled it across the floor and then he proceeded to pull it up on the couch. The toy is several inches longer than he is! How could my plan go down the drain in a matter of seconds! Vern squeaked the toy in the middle and Faith got scared and dove under the table. Faith went back and picked up her ball. All she wants is a ball and we now are putting the Monkey Stick away. Soon, we are getting out the video camera to take a video of Toby playing with his "new toy". Oh my, now Toby is standing at the table barking at the toy, just hoping it will jump off the table.

I have learned my lesson and I will buy Faith balls and more balls and more balls. She is a ball hog loving Lab. Once in awhile, she will play with one of Toby's toys but usually even that toy is in the shape of a ball or bone. I also will remember that my opinion and plans do not count in Toby's mind. Whatever toy I buy is Toby's.

Parents Need Help Too

Well, in the spirit of my sister-in-law's parents having their own blog, I have decided to help my mom make one also. She helped pick the title and url address. She will be posting and doing all of the rest of the stuff on here----- unless she needs a little bit of help. Notice, I was able to fix her a beautiful purple page at her request. Enjoy!