February 15, 2020

Happy New Year! It feels like Christmas was months ago, instead of a few weeks.We haven't done a lot since then but as always, we have been busy! Christmas Eve found us at church, as always. with Oliver ushering and me enjoying the beautiful service. On Christmas Day we had a nice prime rib dinner and then went to Jeannine and Mike's for cocktails and our gift exchange. I got so many cute things from Jeannine for the kitchen and a very clever tote bag for all the power cords and such for when we travel but the best of all was a beautiful handpainted apron that Kadence made for me! She is so very talented.

On New Year's Eve we gathered with s few friends for dinner and drinks but none of us made it til midnight! We were home by 11 and I did see the ball drop at midnight from my bed!! The rest of the month was pretty normal with a few doctor's offices thrown in. Oliver and I toured Holy Trinity Classical Christian School, a school that was started by our church and will graduate it's first class this spring. We visited a few classes and believe me, listening to 1st graders conjugate Latin verbs and 11th graders reading The Iliad-in Greek!- will make you feel like an idiot! The senior class at HTCCS just returned from their trip to the Holy Land and all have been accepted to colleges of their choice. Of the 5 National Honors seniors in our county, FOUR of them came from  HTCCS. We are very proud of these kids.

The end of January was the second annual Ladies Tea at our church and I was a co-chairman so I was busy during the months leading up to it. We had 38 co-hostesses who decorated 20 beautiful tables and hosted 100 other ladies. Our Rector spoke and it was a really lovely afternoon.

We hosted our church dinner group on a super bowl party and had a grand time with so many yummy things to munch on! At half time, everybody thought the game was over! Nobody was here for the last exciting 10 minutes! We were of course sorry our Packers weren't in it but we were rooting for Kansas City so were glad they won!

On Monday morning we board a flight at 6AM bound for Vietnam! We will fly from Savannah to Dallas to Tokyo to Hanoi, then spend 2 nights in Hanoi and 1 night on a junk on Ha Long Bay. The following day we will fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia for 3 nights and then board the AmaDara for a 7 night cruise on the Mekong River. We end up in Ho Chi Minh city for 2 nights before flying home. We splurged on first class tickets because we will be traveling for about 27 hours going and coming and neither of us sleeps on planes so hopefully the lay flat seats will help! We are not really concerned about the whole coronavirus thing-as with most of these things-the press is having a great time over reporting it! We do hope, though, that we don't end up quarantined some place!! And I'm sure our puppysitter hopes so too! 16 days with our two terrorists is probably plenty for her! When we get home I will start a new page for the trip. Keep us in your prayers!! We had to get a number of vaccines- Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Tetanus and polio-and we start our malaria pills tomorrow and continue until we are back for a week. We had to spray all our outdoor clothes with a mosquito repellant. Some people think we are crazy to be taking this trip but our feeling is that if you let fear run your life, you'll miss out on a lot!

Here is my special apron from Kadence!

Oliver got dressed too early on New Years Eve and had to borrow my apron to help me finish our dishes!

The Ladies Tea was beautiful

This was our Super Bowl snack stadium!

And dessert

The clothes spraying was quite an ordeal. These are Oliver's and I had a whole rack also!

 

 

December 21, 2019

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just 4 days away! Time has flown by since we got back from our cruise to Canada. We both had several routine doctor's appointments and I had my usual activities-piano lessons, nursing home visits and docenting at church, while Oliver did work in his shop. The weather was beautiful and we spent lots of time on the porch with a fire and movies or football games. Go Pack Go!! The end of October we headed to Southern Pines, NC with the dogs for the annual Stinkeye event. This year there were some 75 dogs-mostly Welsh Terriers but a few other token breeds-and over 100 people. It's quite a full week-end. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and after we got the dogs walked and settled in to our room, we went a few miles away to visit Olin and Faye Welsh. Olin was Oliver's first boss at Wyeth, almost 50 years ago! Faye is a REAL dog lover and she insisted that we bring Quincy and Skipper. I was a nervous wreck but they actually behaved quite well! We had a nice long visit and left with a toy that both dogs found in her dog toy basket and wouldn't put down! Back at the hotel we had drinks and some snacks before turning in. Friday morning we headed to a beautiful dog park that was closed to the public for our event. Our two don't go to dog parks so they weren't real sure what to do! Skipper pretty much hung around Oliver but Quincy took off and found some playmates to run with! It was absolutely a gorgeous day so they had a wonderful time and exhausted themselves. After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed out to Ironwood Cafe for lunch, dogs included! I wasn't sure how Quincy would react but he actually was better than Skipper. We had 2 other dogs at our table and Skipper would peek under the table and if the other dogs were peeking back, he would bark. Of course having lunch with 40 or so dogs, it does get a little noisy but not as much as you would think! We had a delicious lunch and went back to the hotel for a little rest. The pups stayed in their crates while we went down to dinner and then to a wine and paint event. We had sent pictures in earlier so it was sort of like paint by number--with no numbers! We had a great time and Oliver's turned out really well, mine not so much. There is a silent auction so we spent some time looking over the items before taking the dogs out for their night time walk. After breakfast on Saturday we took all the dogs into Southern Pines for a group picture and some shopping. The stores all ope their doors to the dogs and many provide treats and water. You can imagine the people in town when they see 70 dogs that all look alike strolling through the streets!! The Chamber of Commerce publicized the event so there were people who had come into town especially to see us!! Saturday afternoon we had a scavenger hunt. We took Quincy with us and it was a riot. There were things we had to find inside and outside, some things we had to take pictures of and some things the dogs had to do. Quincy was very good at "sit ups"--laying down then sitting up then laying down then sitting up etc etc!! There was one station where he had to figure out which of 3 bowls the treat was hidden under. We didn't win but we had a great time! After the scavenger hunt there was a fashion show where the dogs modeled things that were for sale in the Stinkeye Store. We left the pups in the room while we had cocktails and dinner and then the biggest event of the week-end......the costume contest! We didn't dress up-I was just too busy to pull it all together-but there were some awesome costumes! The best part of the whole weekend for us was seeing Quincy's father! It was amazing. Quin and his dad recognized each other immediately and they were inseparable. I didn't know if he would remember his dad after a year but there was no question that they were father-son! Janice, who owns Talie, got such a kick out of it. She just loves Quincy. I found out that the breeder had considered keeping Quincy for showing but thought he was going to be too big. He's exactly the right size though and Janice would just love to have had him!! There are days when I think about shipping him right off to her! On Sunday we had breakfast and then drove home. The dogs were exhausted and slept for 2 days!!

Fun at the dog park

I painted Marina and Oliver painted Skipper

Faye loved our boyz and spoiled them!

Lunch with the boyz

Quincy and Talie, his dad, when they first saw each other

A hug from Daddy

Quincy's Dad as a lion with his lion tamer!

There were merdogs

and the spider from Charlotte's Web

Molly O as Cleopatra

And of course Mother Superior

November found us in Michigan for a pre holiday visit with Mary. We enjoyed visiting with Carol and Tom as well as Cooper and Sully, nad we had a big Thanksgiving dinner, delivered courtesy of Harry and David!! It was freezing there and we walked the first day but after that we stayed in and Mary and I put a jigsaw puzzle together. I hadn't done a puzzle in a long time so I really enjoyed myself. It was such a nice quiet week-end and our travel went without a hitch! 

Our big dinner

We got home from Michigan on Skipper's birthday and I bought him the space shuttle toy. It made noise like a jet engine starting and then got louder and louder. It was great fun for about 15 minutes and then Quincy bit the nose capsule off and we had to throw it away!

Hard to imagine that this innocent little face causes so much trouble!

Oliver has been using our golf cart as a utility truck as long as we have lived here and he was beating it up so he treated himself to a real utility truck! He loves it and he uses it almost every day for something or other! He has cut up a couple of trees that fell and is still splitting wood for our fires.

One of his projects was this table. We bought the wood piece in Halifax, Nova Scotia and he welded the frame for it.

Thanksgiving Day found us with Mike and Jeannine, Kellen and Kadence, and our friend Patti. Jeannine cooked almost everything-turkey and ham and gravy and mashed potatoes and salad and green bean casserole and rolls! It was awesome. Patti brought some yummy carrots and I did sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, and pecan and pumpkin pies. We had quite a feast!! After dinner, Kadence helped Skipper and Quincy open their Christmas presents from their Secret Santa! They got lost of fun toys and there were a few things in the box for me as well. There are 250 Welsh Terrier owners all over the world who participate in the gift exchange!

Look at this cutie pie! 

After Thanksgiving, I started decorating the house and baking and cooking for our annual Christmas party. We had a great time with about 35 people here. Fortunately it was warm enough for us to have the bar on the porch with a fire going and we had a wonderful evening with so many of our friends. Our Bell Choir played for services twice in December and then we played four our Lessons and Carols event. Oliver got sick so couldn't go and about 2 hours after I got home, I was sick too! Nothing bad, just colds, but we were miserable for a couple of days! After that I took Skipper to the doctor for his annual check up where he met this guy!

Last Wednesday Oliver and I went to get our vaccinations for our upcoming trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. We each got Hepatitis A, Tetanus and Polio booster shots, pills for Typhoid which we started yesterday and take every other day for 4 doses, and prescriptions for malaria pills, which we will start 2 days before we leave and continue for week after we return. We also got super strength mosquito spray, some pills to take to (hopefully) prevent "traveler's diarrhea" and a prescription and some other stuff in case those pills don't work!! We SHOULD be prepared for anything! We leave on February 17th and return on March 4th. Our puppysitter Karen will be at the house with Skipper and Quincy.

We hope that you all have a very merry Christmas and that the New Year finds you happy and healthy. Thanks for visiting with us!