She's growing up...

We took a lot of pictures last weekend, but due to some internet issues, I wasn't able to post until now.



Our little girl is growing so fast. And boy does she have her poppi wrapped. I would never have guessed Del to be a dog person (and he wouldn't either), but I'm afraid this little girl has stolen his heart.



She is so darn cute it is hard not to fall completely in love with her.



I was also able to do some scrapbooking last weekend, which was the first time in forever it seems. I did a 2007 year in review page.




And I did a page using pieces of some of the Christmas cards we received this year.

Since I'm feeling a little guilty about posting all these pictures of Maggie, here is one of Chalupa, who is pretty much back to normal since her surgery. (She is another one who has Del wrapped.)

This weekend (actually week for that matter), I was single mom once again. Del had to go to Carey, NC Monday night coming home Tuesday, only to leave Wednesday morning for Orlando. He extended his business trip to do some golfing with his dad. So it was just us girls again.

Today we had a vet appointment, we went for a couple walks and played in the back yard.

And now she is one tired pup.....my plan all along! :o)




We are both happy that poppa comes home tomorrow!

Just me and the children....

I was a single mom this week.


While Del traveled to Salt Lake City Monday through Thursday, I was home alone with the children.


Maggie was such a good girl staying in her crate all day long while I was at work. She still so desparately wants to play with Chalupa, but Chalupa wants no part of it.

Poor Chalupa had an extremely rough week. She had to have three teeth pulled on Friday (the vet suggested doing it on Wednesday, but with Del away, I didn't want to be here by myself if anything happened to her). We were very nervous, particularly when the vet told us there is added risk when a cat over 10 years old goes under, especially when she is FIV positive like Chalupa. Leaving her at the vet in the morning was extremely difficult, but she came through it beautifully and is recovering nicely now at home. I think she is still a little loopy, but she is acting more like herself a little each day (while keeping her distance from Maggie, of course!)

Maggie is as cute as ever and is getting bigger every day. Here are some of the newest pictures of our not-s0-"baby"-girl...

She got a new toy today after her class...

And here is one with just her hanging out with Dad...

It really is amazing how big she is getting. She weighed 30 pounds at the vet last Saturday. She is finally starting to grow into those big feet of hers. :o)

On another note...a very special shout out to my mom who celebrated her birthday on Friday and a very belated birthday wish to my sister, Tina, who celebrated a milestone birthday on the 6th of this month. (This picture was taken of the three of us when they were here visiting in September.)

Happy Birthday, mom and sis! Lot of love to both of you!

Maggie Pictures

So, just like any new parents, we are taking quite a few pictures of our baby girl. And, of course, we have to bore people by sharing all those pictures....

Not quite the blackmail pictures as a naked baby, but bath pictures that are just as cute...

Some pictures of Maggie playing...

Just hanging out in her little lounger (since her bed is really her crate) chewing on one of her favorite things - a stuffed hoof ...

And one last picture of her with her Puppy Kindergarten teacher, Bret.

This week she's been a great girl. No accidents!!!! She even stayed in her crate all day long on Friday with no breaks during the day (Del didn't come home at lunchtime to see how she would do since he is traveling at the end of the month). She also slept all night Friday night without getting up at 3:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom.

We couldn't ask for a better dog - she is so great!!!!!

New Addition

I know most of you already know that we have a new addition to our family and have been anxiously awaiting pictures. I'm finally getting around to posting our new child.

Meet Maggie.

So the story goes like this:

I've been trying to convince Del into getting a puppy for a couple of months now. My desire actually escalated when a friend of ours got a new Golden Retriever puppy, Champ. Since we were already scheduled to drive home for Christmas, Del convinced me that we couldn't do anything about a dog until after Christmas. Little did I know that there was a puppy waiting for me back in Norwalk. It seems that on the weekend that Maggie #1 moved away Del emailed his dad asking him to look for a golden for me. Two days later, Maggie #2 came into our family. This, of course, was about three weeks before Christmas, though, so Del's sister, Laurie and her husband, Bruce, became Maggie's foster parents (in the meantime, they became the actual parents of Lily - read the story here). Thanks, again, guys for taking care of Maggie for us!! We so appreciate it. Christmas day brought a big surprise for me...

So our drive home was pretty good, other than one little accident in the hotel room. I rode with Maggie in the back seat all the way home and she did so good. Here is a picture of Maggie sleeping on her little pillow in the car.

Since we've been home, we've had less than a handful of accidents in the house and they are only after an extreme puppy play session (Maggie can be quite the spaz at times). We crate her during the night and during the day while we are at work. Del comes homes at lunchtime to let her out and feed her.

Yesterday, we had our first session for puppy training at PetSmart. Our little girl was the most vocal in the class of six. Del thinks we might have a problem student on our hands. :o)

Chalupa still is not so sure about her new sibling. She mostly keeps her distance and keeps her eye on Maggie at all times.

She has at times allowed Maggie to get close enough to smell her and lick her ears a couple times, but that's about it. They are not exactly best friends just yet. But at least Chalupa is no longer hissing at her.

Maggie is a lot of work and is wearing us out at times, which I guess is normal for any new parent, but she is so very sweet (most of the time)!

And Aunt Laurie - you will be happy to know that her favortie toy is still the loofah you gave her (or she stole, anyway!).

Sad, Sad Weekend

We're very sad this weekend. We knew it was coming - the sign has been up for several weeks now, but the time has come....

Our neighbor dog, Maggie, is leaving us. They sold their house and are moving away. The moving truck was here last night. We will no longer have her greeting us as we pull into our driveway. Del talked to our neighbors last night and told them that we would be willing to take her off their hands, if they wanted to give her up. They didn't concede, so our friendly, cute, sweet greeter is really leaving us. A very sad, sad weekend indeed...

Can it really be over already?

Day 8
Our last full day in Hawaii was pretty uneventful. We spend some time just walking around the resort.

The beautiful coast line…

The dolphins…

We then took a drive and were blessed with this incredible rainbow…


…followed by a beautiful sunset…



We finished the day with the most unbelievable Thanksgiving Day buffet.

Day 9
We slept in on our last day, dreading the inevitable task of packing to go home. After that was finally done, we checked out and then had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the airport.

The flight home, which started at 1:00 p.m. Hawaii time, was a very long flight with a stop in San Fransisco again. It doesn’t help when both legs of the flight are booked solid and you’re stuck in your seat for 5 hours each leg, not forgetting that we are both still pretty sick. I’m sure the people around us were loving that they were stuck in these cramped quarters with two sick people.

We arrived back in Charlotte around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. Since Del couldn’t go another day without having Brueggers for breakfast, we stopped on the way home before crashing for 7 hours.

Now with laundry almost done and bills all paid, we are gearing ourselves up for having to get back to the scheduled, routine work day tomorrow. But before then, we can say we had another successful vacation.

Until next time…

More Volcano Park...

Day 7
My cough has gotten worse, but Del seems to be on the rebound. I do have a voice, but it is very scratchy. We got a later start than we wanted to, but headed out to the Volcano Park once again just the same.

After our normal stop for breakfast in Waimea (we’ve become regulars at the McDonald’s there), we moved on. We got to the park around 11:30 and started our hike on the Kiluaea Iki trail (which is a hike across this crater).

Moving on to the Volcano House (on foot, of course) we had a quick bite to eat and then headed across the big crater on the Halema’uma’u Trail.

This next picture is a huge crater that is along this walk, but you can’t go in for fear of it erupting.

How awesome is that??

Because we were afraid of running out of daylight, we decided to take the Crater Rim Road back to the car instead of the trail. This probably saved us a couple miles. Since most of you have not been here, this may seem like a leisurely walk. Although the terrain wasn’t too difficult to navigate, this walk was anything but leisurely. When we got back to the car, Del calculated that we did close to 15 miles today. My feet were screaming at me right by the end of the day – but, surprisingly enough, no blisters!! (Jen – I’ll bring the maps of the park to show you what we did and so you can plan your day there!)

On our way back to the hotel we stopped in Waimea (again!) and had Chinese for dinner.

We both were extremely glad to be back in the hotel room to take our shoes off and shower the grub off from our 15 mile hike.

Today – lounging by the pool (at least that is my plan!!)

More Hiking and a movie

Day 6
Although neither of us were feeling very well, we were not going to sit around in the hotel room another day while we were in Hawaii. We headed back out to Polulu Valley to hike.

We were afraid we might not be able to hike since it seems to have rained in the morning. The trail down to the beach is extremely slippery when wet. Although it looked a little slick, we decided to take our chances.

This was a shot from half way down the path to your left …

And this is a shot to your right…

After about 15 minutes you are on the black sand beach with these views…

So awesome!!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a state park and got these pictures…


How can someone not fall in love with this place??

Because this trip was due in part due to a potential time share purchase, we were obligated to sit through another 90 minute presentation, which really only lasted 60 minutes after they realized we weren’t buying.

After a quick bite at the golf course grill, we headed to Kialua-Kona to see the Bee Movie. It was a little disappointing, but cute to watch. I’m not sure, had I known, I would have paid to see it – I would have waited for the DVD.

More golfing...

Day 5
Well, it is officially – Del and I are both sick in Hawaii – it seems to have hit me more than Del. Since be both woke up sick again, we decided it would not be a good idea to hike the Volcano Park again as originally planned. So instead, we ate a leisurely breakfast, lounged around in a hammock on the resort grounds…


and then decided to go ahead and play another 18 holes of golf. We played the King’s Course today. They are doing a lot of construction around the first few holes, so it wasn’t very peaceful. This course was definitely not as nice or pretty as the course we played on Friday, but it still had its beauty.


We even had some spectators on the sixth hole…where else would you play golf with goats next to your hole?



After golf we came back to the room to clean up and head to dinner. Nothing special tonight – just ate at one of the hotel restaurants and planned to call it a night. As the day has gone on, I have managed to go from a low sultry voice to losing it completely.

We are planning the hike at Polulu Valley tomorrow, so I’m really hoping I feel a little better. I bought some Niquil at the hotel store (for a mere $12.99 for a small bottle) to knock me out to get a good night’s sleep. Sure hope it works.