The Heart of Love is in Washington!!

Oh My---Updates Finally!!

2009-12-08T13:26:00.003-08:00

I cannot believe it has been a year since I wrote anything on here.
Highlights:
*Vern is working after 17 months of unemployment. He loves his job and is giving life to help those threatened by a possible flood on the Green River.
*Christy is loving Troy University and has been accepted to the School of Education and is carrying a straight A grade average. Our delightful son-in-law, Randy has been accept to Warrant Officer school for the Army but does not know when his journey will begin.
*Our grand puppies, Buddie and Baylee go weekly to visit a nursing home in Enterprise, Alabama and they do such a wonderful job of loving the residents there.
*Brian has started a new career with Edward Jones as a financial advisor and he is doing very well. Megan continues to give care, love and awesome care to her patients.
*Our very sweet and special grandkids (Randy's two young ones) each have had a birthday. Emma was 6 in September and Jared turned 10, December 4. I was thrilled and honored to spend an entire month with them in Alabama in July. Grandma Connie got to go to Disney World and Panana City with them. What a ball I had. I love being Grandma and Vern loves being Grandpa Vern!!
*Samantha Case, our precious grand girl because of Rudy and Anne Case melts my heart each time I see her. She now says, "I love you!" There is nothing any better than that AND she will have a new baby brother or sister the end of April. WHOOOOPPPPEEEE
*My mom bought me a surprise new CAR!! Yes, I said bought me and I had no idea it was coming. My awesome 90 year old mom is quite the lady and really pulled off an enormous surprise!! I love my new Honda CRV all chosen by my mom.

For now just be happy that all is well--hubby, kids and their spouses, our adopted grand girl, Samantha and parents, my grand-pups, grand kitty and our two dogs and our beloved Jared and Emma who are our grandchildren because of Christy's hubby, Randy!! More later!! We are so happy with our marvelous family!!

Buddie has a Very Proud Grandma

2008-11-16T23:02:00.006-08:00

Our Buddie completed his first obedience class and from what I hear from Christy, he is the Valedictorian. He learned to walk on a loose leash, do doggy push ups in the second class (that was a trick for the 7th class normally), play dead when you say bang, sit and stay, come when called and much, much more. He learned things so quickly that he constantly amazed his instructor. Now, the instructor is talking to Christy about training him to be a Therapy dog. Christy would love to do so if she has the time and can find the resources to do so in Enterprise, Alabama. He would have to pass the Canine Good Citizenship Test. Christy plans to enroll him in the intermediate class when her own college class schedule allows.

Buddie's best trick is convincing Baylee to go outside. Baylee walks to the door and stops. Buddie goes outside and then grabs Baylee by the ear and pulls her outside. SMART DOG that Bud Bud.

So Grandma says way to go Bud Bud! You are the tops and always will be. I am popping my buttons here in Washington.

Thank you to our Veterans

2008-11-10T17:08:00.002-08:00

Thank you to our American Veterans for their service in our American military. The best news of my week has come from my friend Regina. Her husband is out of Iraq and will arrive home soon after Veterans' Day. She is so excited. Her husband has been deployed for 15 months. They had been married just a short time when he left.

So, thank you to the veterans we know personally or know their families: our daughter, Christy, our son-in-law, Randy, Teri Hice, John and Regina U., John K., Rob W., Bobby A., Mike VH, Jeff R., Elizabeth M., Nick, Chris C., Bill Hice, Jon P., Ross S., Keith, And please forgive me if I did not remember everyone.

Blessing to all our Veterans.

Whoopeeeeeeeeee! Great Aunt Connie is Happy

2008-09-16T06:25:00.004-07:00

September 15 at 9:25 p.m. Carlee Archer, my great niece was born. This is the daughter of Darin and Susie, Darin's first child. Darin is my youngest nephew (age 41) and I never believed he would have children. Susie has an 18 year old son so this is baby is such a thrill for both them and me, Great Aunt Connie. I am so excited. Darin is the third son of my brother. Darin also has a younger sister. He was the last to have a child so we are celebrating!!! Oh, Carlee is a big baby at 8 lbs. 14.5 oz. and 21" long. I think she is inheriting her mother's height. Susie is 6'2" tall. Darin has contributed lots of dark hair to this baby. In fact my Archer family is all quite short. So, Hurray for this Wonderful Niece!!

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-13T20:46:00.004-07:00

Prayers for Vern's niece, Shawna and her husband, Jeff and their kids, as they deal with their home in Kemah, Texas being flooded by Ike. It is a townhouse that sits at the edge of Galveston Bay and 21" up in the air. The garage was flooded and full of their belongings. When it is allowed, Shawna and Jeff will return to Kemah and begin the clean-up so they can look for a place to move to. I believe they were renting. The kids will remain with relatives until all is taken care of. The yellow lab Jack and the bunny Oreo are safe as well.

Missing One That I Can Count and That Counts---Need a Randy Picture with this Family

2008-09-11T21:04:00.002-07:00

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Why I Have Not Posted on Here!

2008-09-07T15:47:00.015-07:00

1. It is raining in Seattle. Wrong--We have bright blue skys.
2. We have not had any dogs to write about. Wrong--We have our own Faith and Toby. We had Buddie (Christy and Randy's dog) May 20-July 30. We had Baylee Bear for the time Randy and Christy were here. We also had and will have Walker around.
3. The yard is so small that there is nothing to write about it. Wrong. The yard is almost 1/2 acre including the house and Vern is always planning and creating in it.
4. I no longer work so nothing new there. Wrong. I work and there has been a ton of changes going on at preschool. We have two new teachers after two leaving having worked there for 15+ years.
5. The presidential campaigns are boring. Wrong. Not boring maybe but getting very tiring.
6. Brian and Megan are never doing a thing. Wrong They are so busy we have to be written in on their calendar to see them. They are doing super!
7. Christy and Randy lead dull, uneventful lives. Wrong. Christy calls 2-6 times a day with news of something. Their stories of the two dogs alone are enough to entertain us for hours. She is making plans to return to college in January and they have a new house in Alabama.
8. Nothing is happening at Christmas so nothing to tell anyone about. Wrong. We are going to Wisconsin for Christmas to be with the Goodmans, Megan's family. It is so exciting and I hope we have snow. I can hardly wait. We will also get to me Lucas, Megan's nephew for the first time.
9. Our unofficially adopted kids Rudy and Anne have nothing going on. Wrong. They have our new adoped grandaughter named Samantha and I have been babysitting this summer. She was born in May and it has been so much fun. I love her! They are planning on moving if they can sell their house and find one that suits them. We hope it is not too far away.
10. Our Dot #2, Lorae never see us. Wrong. Oh boy, we do have fun. We have to watch 6 episodes of Desperate Housewives to catch up. She took me to a play for my birthday and -------------------------nevermind on that one. We had a bit of a surprise in the content of that play. If anyone asks, there were no dogs in it.
11. No one had a birthday. Wrong I did and it was great. Vern and I rode the Duck in Seattle and I got to sit in the captain's chair and drive. We had lunch at Chandler's Crab House and dinner with Brian and Megan at Stanfords. We took a wonderful drive along Lake Washington. The day was beautiful. Actually, it was the hottest day of the summer in Seattle.
12. No anniversies Wrong Vern and I had our 37th wedding anniversary, September 4. Brian and Megan cooked us dinner to celebrate. Brian cooked the most wonderful turkey breast on the BBQ. Megan made yummy dishes to go along with it. She is such a good cook. We are so lucky. We had other plans but decided to stay home and not spend money on gasoline.
13. The Olympics were boring. Wrong I love, love, love the Olympics and watched them a bunch. I could have written volumes about just the swimming gymnastics and women's soccer.
14. I did not take one picture all the month of May through August. Wrong I have so many pictures of Buddie, Baylee, Toby, Faith and Walker, I would go broke if I printed them all. In fact, I do not know how to organize them all. I think I need to find something to do and take a class to figure out how to work that camera and find out what to do with all the pictures. You notice none are on here. I mess up the blog when I put them on. Then, I call Christy and she fixes it for me. Isn't that what daughters are for? Well, I think it is. She is always rescuing her mom with such good humor.
15. A large brown lab named Faith stays off our bed. Wrong, oh so Wrong We can be wide awake and she will get up on the bed so quietly, we do not even hear the jingle of her tags. Other times it is like a two ton truck coming through. We take her down, place her in her bed and say stay and she stays. That is just long enough for me or Vern to get back to bed and lie down. This all started when her friend and playmate Buddie moved to Alabama. So the way I see it is, Buddie needs to come live with us so Faith is not so lonely. OH, baby gates keep her out of the bedroom and make us feel terrible. She gives us the puppy dog, sad brown eyed look.
16. I have no friend anywhere else in the world that are up to anything. Way WrongI have many friends who are a part of Soldier's Angels who are up to good stuff taking care of our American soldiers who are overseas. They send me great news about their experiences and events almost on a daily basis. I have met special people through Soldiers' Angels and there are some very special, brave men and women in our Armed Forces.

So, no more excuses here. I just did not write anything about anything and I am not pretending that I am going to.

Our Cousin Walker the Schipperke Is Here!

2008-02-22T11:30:00.004-08:00

Mom cannot get Walker to stop running with Faith long enough to get a picture but she promised she would try. Maybe, Walker can help us take care of Dad when they both are on the floor. Check back because I am determined mom will get that picture. Brian and Megan are snow camping so we get Walker, Hurray!! Love, Toby

We Are Caring For Our Dad!

2008-02-20T19:38:00.006-08:00

I (Toby) feel so bad because dad hurt his back picking me up. So, I decided to sleep on him at night in case he needs me. You see he is on the floor and so easy to get to.
I do look mighty cute up here if I do say so myself. See Faith sleeping on her big bed and staying close by.
I (Faith) am dad's alarm clock. I woke him up with my special kisses and he loves it because he loves me!
You know I am the guard dog, so I am protecting my dad by sitting on him. Therefore, no one has a chance of getting close to him.

Who Would Think 14 Pounds Could Be Dangerous

2008-02-19T20:09:00.004-08:00

On Sunday afternoon Vern picked up our little dog Toby and turned. The turning was the mistake. He has done something to his lower back at the waist level. Now, he is lying flat on the floor on top of a glacier. He is supposed to stand and walk on flat surfaces or lie down on the floor. It has been hard getting him comfortable---- with something under his knees---with enough blankets. He has pain medication, relaxant medication, has had a massage--that felt good when it was done and had 2 chiropractic treatments which hurt like crazy. I am his driver extraordinaire since it is not good to drive when on pain meds. I hope he feels better soon as this is not much fun for him at all.

The Day of Cupids

2008-02-13T02:03:00.002-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all in our lives. We will spend our day at work with me watching the 3 year old children who will try to figure out what in the world Valentine's Day is all about. They love the cards they get.

We are so thankful for all that bless our lives, our children and their spouses, all those adopted sons and daughter, nieces and nephews, grandpuppies, and all the distant relatives through Megan's family in Wisconsin. Also, we have the Grube family in Tacoma. We are blessed with friends old and new. I am fortunate to work with 3 wonderful ladies and the rest of the staff at the Lutheran church.

Take care and Happy Valentine's Day! Extra hugs to Walker, Buddie, Fyodor, Toby, Delight, Peaches and Faith our dog family! You make life great for everyone.

The Tagging Game--Come Along and Play

2008-02-09T14:41:00.001-08:00

Dedra S. tagged me..so here it goes..The rules:
-You must post the rules before you give your answers.
-You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name.
-Each fact must begin with that letter.
-If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
-After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.
-At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

My middle name is short.
Sue is it:

Sweet: That is until I get stubborn but I can tell you for sure no one I know nor anyone in my family thinks I am stubborn. Sweet all the way! Plus you see, my two bio children, Brian and Christy are not stubborn and my husband is not stubborn and our sweet daughter-in-law Megan is not stubborn and our Special son-in-law Randy is not stubborn. None of our adopted sons or daughters or any of our dogs or their dogs or cats are stubborn. We are the Sweet Family!

Under and Up: You usually find me under a table looking for a child or something lost in the preschool room or up above a child trying to figure out what is happening and or what we are doing next. The only problem here is that children are getting taller and I am not. Many children seeming to be stretching toward my height very quickly. So, I guess I will sit down and have fun with the kids and not worry about their height or mine.

Easy: It is so easy to tell me a joke and I just do not get it. It is so easy to tell me something and I will believe it and it is not true. It is so easy for me to go screaming around the house saying. "It is snowing." I so love snow! It is so easy for me to love my two kids and their spouses and the two dogs they have. It is so easy for me to love all the people that have come into our lives because of our own two children. We have so many adopted daughters and sons and soon to have an adopted grand child by Rudy and Anne. It is so easy to look into our world and find so many good things happening in our lives. It is so easy to love kids and dogs and by kids they can be of any age. It is so easy to love the families connected to us through others we know. Our family has grown so much in the last few years with Brian and Christy getting married. It is so easy to care for all the soliders and their families with Randy and Christy being in the Army. Dedra and Ross, you are one of those families. It is so easy to love the children and the families I have had over the past 20 plus years at Our Savior Lutheran Preschool. It is so easy to love those I work with and their families. It is easy to care and love.

Now, it is said I have to tag 3 people so here it goes. I usually do not play these games but it was fun. Thank You Dedra.
I tag Betsy or Jon (whichever one of you wishes to answer this and you are part of the Sweet Family), Jenny because you are part of our Sweet Family and Anne because you and Rudy bless our lives so much.

More Pictures of House Coming!!

2008-02-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

Caution Ahead: You may not want to change the color of your house while one of you is at work!

2008-02-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

When we bought our first tiny house in Tacoma Washington (bk-before kids), the paint started peeling on the outside. It was guaranteed not to do so back came the painters to re-do the job. Vern went of to work not knowing that painters were arriving that day. In fact, I did not know they were coming. We knew what color we wanted to paint the house but----------------the painters arrived and informed me they were painting that day and I had to choose the paint from 6 choice. Of course not one was what we wanted. Vern could not be reached by phone and of course there was no such thing as a cell phone. Really, we had only land line phones. If you left your home or office no one could call and bug--oh excuse me--no one could reach you by phone. I also do not remember if there were answering machines but I know we did not have one at home. I chose the color all by myself and the painters painted the entire house.

So hubby is at work and gets a ride home. He told the driver friend to stop at the bluuuuuuuuu------house and the house was olive green! His friend must have thought Vern was crazy!

What a shock! (It was almost like the shock when I painted the bathroom lime green when Vern left for work one day. My parents were coming for the weekend. It was bad so Vern had to wallpaper part of the bathroom to help offset the shocking green before they arrived.)

So, this time the shock is not bad but we still think we are at the wrong house when we arrive home. The bottom half of the house is not done but will be some type of brick or stone. I am so glad the brown is disappearing after over 20 plus years in this house. Oh, we did plan to change the siding on the house and we both knew when it was happening

Surprise Pictures Are Coming Soon!

2007-12-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-12-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-03-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

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!