Ewwww

Dog eats $400, but woman recovers some cash later

APEX, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina family's dog didn't eat the children's homework, he ate mom's money. Kelley Davis said she had an extra $400 in cash to deposit after working extra hours as a physical therapist. She told the News & Observer of Raleigh that on Friday she planned to deposit the money, but it wasn't in her pocket.

She remembered leaving it in the bedroom and it occurred to her that the family's 2-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog, Augie, might have eaten it.

Davis, 42, said when she took Augie for a walk Saturday, she found parts of three $100 bills and five $20s in his leavings. She washed them with a garden hose and hopes to find enough pieces to exchange them for cash.
A professor at the North Carolina State University Veterinary School said the money shouldn't hurt the dog.
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If you are a teller in the wonderful state of North Carolina - BEWARE

2009 Iditarod Restart

We were offered a great opportunity to go to our friends cabin on Willow Lake where the restart of the Iditarod has taken place the past few years. We packed up for an overnighter and headed north Saturday evening to avoid the traffic and got cozy in their Toyostove heated cabin and woke up the next morning to breakfast burritos and coffee. As their friends arrived so did the food - we could have fed a small village with what we had and of course plenty of beverages to wash it all down with. They have quite the set up there - a firepit on the lake, plenty of parking space for your snowmachine, and a sledding hill for Seth to go down. I am not even sure if he realized there was a mushing event going on.

I scored a VIP badge from a gentleman I met while working the gallery the day before and got to schmooze with a lady from Virginia who paid $10,000 to ride in Rick Swenson's sled at the ceremonial start. She said it was an incredible experience.

The Skies

The sun is not anywhere near Alaska right now, but all the clouds that exist are - so luckily I can go visit The Pioneer Woman and enjoy her sunsets - even if they are in Tulsa, OK.

How exciting is this? Bakerella and The Pioneer Woman are having a baking/cooking get together at The Lodge on march 10th - this ought to be entertaining and very blog worthy!!!

Champs

It was a thriller to go down in the books. Early in the 1st period we had our first score by Karl, you could feel the collective "whew, we are on the board first" from the parents. Then a second goal by Karl to sort of act as insurance and a 3rd goal that rebounded off a Red Hot Lava players skate and right past the goalie. Ugly, but a goal and we will take it, thank you very much. 2nd period was all Red Hot Lava - they caught up with 3 goals, but we scored one more - we were always just ahead on the board. The 3rd period was a nail biter for 16 minutes. The Wildcats had determination and still some fuel in the legs, the Red Hot Lava team was thirsty for a win and were not giving up. Eli had a breakaway and in prime hockey form scored and raised his stick in celebration then looked up at mom and waved. Seth was vicious at defense, he is learning to go after the puck and pass it off to the hot hands. With 47 seconds left the Red Hot Lava team tied the game at 6-6, do they do over time or one on one with the goalie? We will not have to worry about that, because our young Gretzky Karl got a break away and with some fancy spancy stick moves and the ability to stay on his skates flipped the puck into the net with 7 seconds left on the clock- SCORE!!!!!! and the crowd goes wild - Karls dad giving everyone, including me, high fives.

Who needs the Red Wings when we have the Wildcats??????

Running with the Reindeer

The second annual running of the reindeer grew 2 more herds this year. Turning out to be one of the better money makers for the Fur Rondy. They have a male herd, female herd, couples herd and a group herd. This big fella was right behind us and I did see him drop his nose a bit, but they mainly just wanted to get to the hay at the end of the 2 blocks we had to run. The sun was out, the strange Alaskans did not disappoint - especially the two men with beards in drag that tried to run with the female herd and no one got gord

The Posse

Front row: Lindsey, Beth Backrow: Julie, me, Steve, Jana

Baze & Croft

We have not had many visitors this winter, but that means less piles of poop to pick up, so its not all that bad. We are only in the B's so this mama is Baze and her young one is Croft. Croft was in the front yard while Baze was laying in the sun all day in the backyard.

Seth is into his tournament for Hockey now and I think his niche is defense. He hates to be scored against so he likes to stay back and make interference for those who are heading towards his goal and then he likes to camp out in front of the goalie to "help" defend. This means that he will one day be slamming people into the boards and have to develope an aggressive attitude. Oh Joy!!! Right now I can pretty much hear him say "sorry" when he knocks over someone. We have some studs on our team who I am sure go to bed dreaming of scoring goals: Karl, who reminds me of a possible young gretzky, Gregory, Eli and even little miss Hannah - who hangs with the boys and says she hates pig tails - my kind of gal.





Meanwhile: the 2nd born is playing at the bathroom sink and decided to wash my contacts down the drain. For the love of Ugh.

Conversations with Seth

Seems these days more posts on Sydney are taking up space on the blog and really since Seth is totally into his Wii and fighting off General Grevais he has not given me much subject matter. I can attest though that he is doing well in school, hockey and is in good health. Just sometimes looks like a zombie when he is flying through space in his x-wing.

But today, I do have a conversation to post and here goes - hold on tight.

Mom: Seth, you have a game today are you going to skate fast?
Seth: Yup, but mom I am really worried about finding a wife.
Mom: ah, okay (trying to hold back laughter). You are only 7, don't worry about it.
Seth: But I am really concerned I won't find one, when will I get one?
Mom: you don't get one - like a prize - you will know its her when she makes you laugh and make you want to be around her all the time.
Seth: okay, but I am not having a baby come out of my stomach. Dads don't have babies. Where do babies come from.
Mom: You are right, only moms have babies - do you want a sandwhich?
Seth: No, just a snack.

Whew, another good dodge.

Start them Young

Normally Sydney likes to bust out of the club after our morning shift, but today she decided to explore the equipment. It was slow and the manager is in the Caymans, drinking a tropical elixir, running her toes through the sands and ahhhhhh soaking up the warm sun - slap, back to the story- so I let her wonder and she decided to jump up on the treadmill. I tell you this kid has no fear and so as a good mom, I decide to start it up. She was walking at a speedy gonzales pace of 1.0mph.

Little Terror

Sunday started out so nice. I stayed in bed longer then usual, Glen got Sydney out of bed and eventually she came in to say her good mornings to me. Waffles were made, coffee was poured, the Red Wings were one TV and the sun was out. Then the house got quiet - the kids were up to something - In walks Sydney who has just given herself a deep conditioning treatment and facial with Balmex - yes, people diaper rash ointment. So into the tub she goes. Splash, Splash, Splash. Then I go and check on her after awhile - oh nasty, she is bathing amongst poop - yes, people #2. So out of the tub she goes. DISGUSTING. Disinfect, Disinfect, Disenfect. We go to the hockey game and actually all is well. Then we return home and so does little Ms. Monster. I catch her on the counter and playing in the flour bag that was left from the mornings waffles. Once again, its a good thing Ebay does not allow the offering of children.

Caught in the Piggy Bank

When you hear your child talking in their room and you know they are just waking up, you tend to just let them be until you know they are ready to get out. This morning was just like that, except Sydney is now able to reach over and get things off her shelf and this happens.

By the way, this is not an expression of pain but rather a "if I close my eyes, maybe mom won't see me" expression.


I think its time to move her stuffed animals up to the shelf.

He cannot tell a lie

I am not against fast food, its just that if I want a hamburger we (okay, Glen) makes better ones at home. I don't deprive the kids fast food but would prefer something healthier and Glen takes them more then I do - so they get their share of it. I have had talks with Seth because whenever we head up the hill the last thing we see are the "Golden Arches" and he always asks to stop and I say "we are almost home we can eat something more healthy there, you can't eat at Mcdonalds all the time its not healthy". Oh, the bad mom that disappoints the child. He gets over it. Well, Glen had to hustle home and take the kids to hockey and here is the conversation I had with Seth when i got home and noticed they had stopped by some place:

mom: Seth did you go to Mcdonalds?
Seth: oh, no mom (as if he was in trouble and said the right thing tone)
Mom: Then what's that? (pointing to the take out bag)
Seth: Oh, we went to Carls Jr.

Like that is any better - actually, the famous star burger and a milkshake is really good.

go ahead, make my day

So here I am on my first day of shooting Walther. Lil sis's boyfriend Ben was full of instructions that I paid attention to. At the end of the session I learned I need more sessions. In his words, "I baby the gun". And yes, I hit my target - but I also broke 4 nails and blisterd my thumb but I will return.

Not Normal

This is a bit wrong, we should not be seeing the deck free of snow until March. I am not falling for it because as I learned last year you just can't think its over until its over. We still have the rest of January and February to get through and don't forget the Iditarod in March. Last week at this time we were going through a cold snap - not as cold as the interior or on the peninsula - but cold and with a negative in front of the temp, this past week the winds picked up and so did the temps - today it is 39 and all the snow is either melted down or icey. Just to show you how windy it got take a look at this:

Not really sure how we are going to get that back up!!!!
I am listening to Seth tell Pops about the fort and he says, "it blewed over from the very windy wind, can you believe that?"

Bling

All his life Seth has been surrounded by girls, the poor guy, his cousins in town are girls and up until recently the neighbors have all been girls. Something tells me too that I am raising a charmer and this will never change - it could be that he is a chip off the old block of the Aasland men.

Well, I have to tell you the story of this necklace.

The night before we got it, Seth and I were in one of the MANY stores at the Magic Kingdom and Seth had seen a dark blue plastic ring with the outline of Mickey in rinestones - Seth has always liked shiny things and also rings so this was a blend of his 2 favorite things - but the ring was $6 and I was not about to spend that on THAT. I also said that it was kind of girly and maybe there was a Skeleton ring from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - trying in my best motherly way to sway him away from girly bling.

IT WORKED.

Then the next day we were in another store of MANY and he comes up to me and says

"mom, there's something I want to show you" - in kid language every parent knows this means they want us to buy them something. I looked at BIL Tim and he said "he wants something" and so I went along to see what the kid wanted. He brought me to the jewelry stand and pointed at this necklace and the talk went like this:

Seth: "isn't this pretty?"
Mom: "yes, it is but is also kinda girly for you"
Seth: "oh, I know I was thinking of buying it for you because it is pretty and I think you would like it"
Mom: fuzzy feeling and melting, and speechless - or maybe soaking up the moment.
Seth: "I will buy it with my card" (the room card that is also your park pass, resort id, but most importantly a room charge key much like a credit card)

So with that, he proudly marched over to the counter and bought his first piece of jewelry for a girl - FOR ME!!!!!! he even signed the receipt then turned around and said I could put it on now and so I did.

Once on, he asks "can I keep the black case?" (Seth has also always loved little boxes) I said yes and I look over at BIL Tim who is laughing and says "see, he just wanted the case"

I Believe

I Believe

I believe that the sun shines after the rain

I believe if you don't get hurt you'll never gain

I believe in not doing things the easy way

I believe that being selfish doesn’t pay

I believe in a second chance

I believe in a life long romance

I believe there is life after death

And standing up to a life of mess

I believe in love at first sight

I believe that revenge isn’t right

I believe that first impressions last

And there is nothing better then a good laugh

I believe that dreams do come true

I believe there's destiny for me and you

I believe that good things come to those who wait

I believe love never arrives too late

I believe something good comes from something bad

I believe that for tears of happiness there are tears of sad

I believe everyone has a guardian angel

And the good you do will be rewarded well

I believe sometimes there is no explanation

I believe money can't buy people's affection

I believe you don't know what you've got until it's gone

I believe a new day arrives with every dawn

I believe a smile can be contagious

I believe in being very outrageous

I believe in living with no regretsI

believe that life is as good as it gets

I believe that God watches over us

I believe the little things are worth the fuss

I believe you have each friend for a reason

I believe you will get punished for treason

I believe that what comes first is family

I believe we should all live in harmony

I believe in making the most of a beautiful day

And it's not the end until everything's okay

I believe absence makes the heart grow fonder

I believe you will lose if you sit and wonder

I believe every experience teaches you a lesson

And nothing cures better then a drinking session

I believe everyone has one true love

I believe sometimes we need a little shove

I believe the whole world is a stage

I believe we only get better with age

I believe that to learn you have to live

I believe that to love someone you have to give

I believe one moment can change your life

And there's still help when you’re in strife

I believe everyone has one true friend

I believe love helps a broken heart mend

I believe in the power of a song

And things will change before too long

I believe living is the best experience

I believe in not laughing at other people’s expense (sometimes)

I believe it’s hard to watch a lover leave

And when they’re gone all you can do is breath

I believe to always look on the bright side

I believe that life is just one big ride

I believe when I die people will grieve

But it’s ok because

I believe

Kayla Neil