Tucker

We had been married for just a year and had just purchased our first home when we started searching for a puppy in August of '02.  We agreed that we wanted a chocolate lab.  By September we had found him, and in October we were able to take him home.  We named him Tucker.

On Sunday morning, we said good-bye to Tucker.  He died after being sick for the past month due to Lymes Disease.  JD buried him in the back yard, and even though he's gone, we'll never forget him.

He did all the typical dog things, like shedding all over the place, puking every once in a while, barking when it wasn't necessary, begging (and drooling) for food, killing the grass wherever he peed, and leaving dog poo all over the lawn.

He was such a great dog that we forgave him all that.  He was incredibly gentle with the kids, even when they climbed all over him and pulled on his ears and tail.  We could trust him in the house all day and he was super easy to train to stay within the invisible fence.

I never finished this post (that I started a week ago) as I really wanted to go back and find pics of Tuck as a puppy and with the kids when they were little.  It hasn't happened yet and with school starting today, I don't know when or if it will, so I'm just going to grab a few recent pics, even though they aren't great to give an idea of what Tuck was like.  We miss him.  Ryley misses him the most.  She fell asleep crying last night (It was his birthday), with his leash and collar on her pillow :(

Quin Turns Two

Our little man turned two yesterday.  He's quite the little guy and makes us smile all the time.  

• He loves being outside, playing in the sand, driving his little car around, and jumping like a maniac on the trampoline.
• He loves real animals but doesn't have any attachments to stuffed animals.
• He loves his blanky and needs it to sleep (we have several and he doesn't show preference.
• He loves running and will race against himself.
• He can make brooming noises with toy cars for an hour straight.
• He isn't talking too much yet but understands most things that we ask him to do.
• He gets excited to go to bed at night and sleeps about 12 hours.
• He is a picky eater and prefers to drink (just about anything we offer him).
• He loves to see Daddy when he gets home at night.
• He loves watching Curious George but nothing else.
• He won't sit down in the bathtub and hates having his shirt changed.
• He doesn't like his hands being dirty.

Quin started his day by sleeping in.  I had to wake him up at 10.

We went and played at the playground while Ryley was at the orthodontist.

While in town, we bought balloons since Quin LOVES "boons."

We spent the afternoon playing after I tortured him by giving him a haircut.

Sadly, this picture is blurry, but you can see his excitement about the new "digger" he sees in the sand pit that JD made for the kids a couple of weekends ago.

He improvises as he's a little too little to use it properly.

He figured it out pretty quickly.

Brother and Sister want a turn, but Quin says "Mine!"

Bug cupcakes for the birthday boy!

Aunt Dolly, Meme, Dick, Grampy, and Grammy all came for cupcakes.

And Quin shows how to properly eat a cupcake:

 Opening presents was fun too!

Ryley's Debut

Last week was the county fair which is held a few miles from our house.
We love it.  The food, the people, the events, the rain and mud, the whole experience is jammed pack with moments that are meant to become memories.
We had a fair budget of $100 which isn't much considering we planned on going several times and adult admission is $10 and child admission is $5.  We managed to make it there 4 times; JD and I had free passes every night we went and we only had to pay for the kids twice.  We also ate very little fair food.  We brought drinks and snacks from home as much as possible and only spent about $70 for the 4 days we went.  Not bad.

I worked at our school booth, Zeke went on rides, we watched tractor pulls (basically a huge family reunion),  and Ryley showed horses for the first time.

Friday was her big day.  JD took the day off from work and went to the fairgrounds early to help with the horses.  Ry spent the night at the fair in the horse trailer and was quite excited and anxious about her big day.

She showed in the draft horse show with my Aunt Lisi's horses, a Clydesdale cross named Willow and a Belgian named Macey.  The first class was a halter class with Willow.  Ryley was nervous but did great.  She is naturally shy but anything that has anything to do with horses tends to help her reach beyond her comfort zone.  She did great as the youngest child in the 13 and under class and placed 6th out of 8.

Later in the day, she drove Macey in the 13 and under cart class.  There were 12 kids in the class, most of them older than her.  She did great and placed 5th out of 12.  It was a great experience for her and I have no doubt that she'll only get better as she gains experience and confidence. 

Apparently not too many kids do more than one event and we were surprised to find out that she won Reserved Grand Champion for the 13 and under crew!

Chickens!

JD wanted chickens.
Reagen wanted chickens.
Jack wanted chickens.
Finn didn't care.
I was outnumbered.

We looked at chicken coops, new and used.  They're quite pricey.
We decided to turn part of our shed (used for storage before we built our garage) into a coop.
We already had the wire and 2x4s, so it was definitely within the budget.  The outdoor run cost a bit more as we decided to use a dog kennel and weren't able to find a decent one at a decent price on craigslist.  I like that the run can be used for a number of different things if it turns out that chicken farming isn't for us.

We've been working on this coop project off and on all summer and this weekend we finally go to the point that we were ready for hens.  A friend gave of 6 members of his flock:  three adult layers (2 Rhode Island Reds and 1 White Leghorn) and three "teenage" Rhode Island Reds which will begin laying in the fall.

On day 1, each of the adults laid and JD made the kids an omelet.
On day 2, we only got one egg.
On days 3-7, we got 1-2 eggs.
We've gotten 3 again for the past couple of days.

Apparently, they're not consistent with their egg laying.

Their names (thanks to Ryley) are Snow-Fire, Big Red, Redlight, and Flyer (which refers to any of the three younger ones as they all look alike).

Shed turned coop with guard dog Brodie.

Flyer (one of them anyway)

Snow-Fire

Redlight

FPU-July Review

What a month!  We've been busy with lots of little things:  hauling Ryley to Pony Camp, a weekend on Nantucket, sending big kids off on a camping trip, a couple of days on Lake Seymour, finishing up our chicken coop, a few days with AZ relatives, and lots of overtime for JD.

Financially, I was looking forward to this month, specifically JD's third paycheck at the end of the month.  Now that we're living with a monthly budget, those two months of the year when he gets a 3rd paycheck are huge (He gets paid bi-weekly; I'm paid twice monthly).  Thanks to that third check which wasn't needed for bills or anything else, we were able to put the whole thing towards our property taxes which we've been saving for since early summer.  And we met our goal!  In the past, we've been able to just set aside plow money for taxes.  This year we had to come up with over $6000 from nothing.  Thanks to FPU and the way that we've changed our spending habits, we did it!

We'll keep saving and hopefully pay off our first two loans (a personal loan and Ryley's orthodontics) early.  Without those payments, things will be a little easier going into winter when things tend to get tight.  At the same time, tuition payments and daycare will be starting up and if anything, our income will decrease.  I'm already looking forward to December when we'll get another 3rd check!

We had a little scare when something was going terribly wrong with our van and I could already envision a huge repair bill.  We were extremely thankful when we found out that even though it needed a new transmission (at only 55,000 miles) we only had to pay a $50 deductible as it was still under warranty.  Yay!

PS. I'm so glad that we got rid of our credit cards.  I thought I would miss my card and the perks, but after months now without it, I'm sure that the lack of a credit card bill every month definitely outweighs the perks.

Nantucket!

On Friday the 13th of July, we loaded up the van with luggage and kids at 4:00 a.m. and hit the road.  Destination: Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts and home to JD's sister and her family.

On the way, we got to see a mama moose and her baby up close.  We found out about three hours into the drive that we had a hitchhiker along for the ride, a good sized toad who had to be kicked out when he starting hopping around JD's feet as he was driving on a four-lane highway in Massachusetts.

"Mom!  There is a frog on my pillow pet!!!"

We bribed the kids with spending money and they were perfect angels the whole way there, with the exception of the little guy who was extremely tired by the time we boarded the ferry to the island and turned into a little monster for a bit.

Our time on Nantucket was perfect.  We had beautiful weather for beaches, quahogging, walking the historic streets of the town, getting ice-cream from the Juice Bar, and just hanging out.

Zeke loved hanging out with cousin Max

Everyone tried their hand at raking up quahogs.

A beautiful beach day

One last ice cream

On our return trip, we made a side trip to Ikea and got stuck in Boston traffic for too long for JD's liking, but eventually made it home.  Thanks to Jen & Peter and Max & Boone for opening their home (and vehicles) to us!