Midnight - Our rescue

My daughter and Midnight

I haven't posted here in a really long time. This blog is different from my craft blog and cooking blog. It was meant to hold family memories but alas, fell by the wayside. I am compelled to write today because I wanted to document this darling puppy. Her name is Midnight and she first stepped foot in our home on Thursday (2/24/11). She's about a year old and is a black lab. All she wants to do is please you. She's sweet, gentle, cute and cuddly and a super fast learner. Midnight had a bit of a rough beginning.

Here's a video of her. You can see that she's gentle, her tail wags all the time, and she won't stay still long enough to get still pictures. :) So a video was the best I could do.

She didn't suffer the abuse that some animals do, but it was abuse just the same. The odd part about it is that the owner really did like her, but unfortunately lost his temper a lot and Midnight was the brunt of his frustrations. She was often smacked on top of the head over and over again, simply because she came looking for some love. She was tossed around and thrown about, all because she wanted some attention. Sometimes she had food, sometimes she didn't. 

Thing is, the owner took her for walks, taught her basic commands and actually wanted to know how she was doing after she left his house. It's beyond my comprehension, but as I'm finding out, there are some mental stability issues at hand that often affected his emotions and reactions. 

This sweet puppy lives here now. She's a fast learner and eager to please. We have been careful not to yell in her presence, as she cowers when we do. We also don't lift our arms or hands quickly as that causes her to cower as well. Other than that, she's only had one accident and seems completely potty trained. She stays in the yard and gets along great with my 9 year old German Shepherd, Angel. She plays fetch and loves to run and play.

I said I didn't want anymore dogs. One was enough. However, when my husband told me about her there was no question in my mind that we needed to get her out of that environment. Just imagining this sweet little girl being the brunt of abuse makes me want to cry. I'm happy she's here now, I think she's pretty happy too. Welcome Midnight. :) We love you already. I think we loved you before you even got here.

Dirt bike pics

Here's some pics of the hubby and a couple of the kids on the dirt bikes in our neighborhood. more later :) 

Sunrise, Baseball, and Buffalo

Ok the subject line sounds kind of weird I know. But I have a few photos to share. Some of a gorgeous sunrise from Friday morning, some of Dominic's first baseball game of the season (they won!) and a photo of the buffalo at a nearby farm.

The photo above is of the buffalo (duh), which aren't normally near the fence at the road, but today they were. There's a buffalo farm a few miles from us and it's always cool to see them off in the distance, but it was truly a treat to see them right at the road side today!

Friday morning there was a gorgeous sunrise. These photos are of the view I saw from my upstairs deck, which is basically off the kitchen. Good morning! :)

These next set of photos were today, Saturday, of Dominic's first baseball game of the season. They played so well, such good teamwork! They did win the game and had a lot of fun. They got lucky too, right at the end of the game the rain came pouring down!

The first picture is of Dominic (middle) with two of his very good friends. As you can see, they are all on different teams :)

Went Camping This Weekend

We just came back from a very relaxing trip up to our camper. We decided at the last minute to go and the older kids opted to spend the weekend with friends. So we loaded up the dog, the two younger boys and one of their friends and went to enjoy the mild weather.

Widdlin' wood :)

Walking back from the river

Mmmm marshmallows :)

Fishing

Riding the dirt bikes

It was beautiful out and so nice to get away. I have tons of laundry to do now and everything smells like a campfire, but I don't care. I needed it!

Here's some pics, the dark haired boy is our neighbor and my 3rd child's best friend. :) It was his first time camping, first time on a dirt bike, and his first time to the Dells. A great time was had by all.

Rainy Days

It's raining today. Hard to believe we got 4" of snow two days ago. It's almost gone, should be gone by the end of the week. I was so happy spring was here, and so were the birds, so this snow needs to take a hike! :)

Chicago: Field Museum and the Big Christmas Tree

This past weekend we made a trip down to the city (Chicago) to see my Dad, the big Christmas tree, and visit the Field Museum. After all, as long as we were going to drive an hour and half, might as well make a day out of it :)

We brought Dakota, Kristen's best friend, with us. Here's some pics. There's a video at the end of Kristen being pushed around by one of the city carriage horses ;-)

Captions below photos.

Kristen (left) and Dakota standing by "Sue" the T-Rex at the Field Museum.

TJ (Tracy Jr) and Dominic, our youngest two boys, holding two of "Sue's" teeth (or models of them anyway).

Kristen and Dakota, Picasso behind them, by the big Christmas tree. 

My Dad (far left) with Kristen, TJ, Dakota and Dominic standing in front of a beach display in one of the nature exhibits.

TJ, Kristen, Dominic and my Dad in front of a giant worm in the Underground Adventure.

Kristen and Dakota outside of the Field Museum.

Kristen and Dakota inside the Field Museum, city view through the window. Or at least we tried :)

Dominic and TJ being eaten by an alligator ;-)

Dominic, Kristen, TJ and Dakota in the Underground Adventure exhibit, climbing on the wall.

Me and my dad in front of the big Christmas tree.

Dakota, TJ, Dominic and Kristen in the car on the way to Chicago.

A view from the bottom of the big tree.

Dominic, Kristen and Dakota in front of the big tree.

 

Kristen getting a shove from one of the city carriage horses ;)

Let is snow

Well we have had our third snowfall already. These pics are from the first one. We had one before that even, but it was only about half an inch.

This is the magnolia tree in the yard just next to my driveway.

These are the trees at the end of the street, so pretty :) 

This is my street

This is the view of the neighbor's house standing in my driveway. Look at the big pine tree :) 

Tony on the mule

This is a shot of the front of the house in the fall, look at the red bushes! 

Oh look... snow!

Ah the Hillbilly Hot Rod ;-)

Angel!

Coming out of the garage
This is what those pretty red bushes look like now ;-)