Lake Crook

Lake Crook

We live within 15 minutes from two good sized lakes. The lake we primarily go to is Pat Mayse Lake. It's an Army Corps of Engineering dam. The lake has several trails you can hike/bike/horseback on and around. You can also go boating on the lake and swimming. This time we decided to take Finn and go check out Lake Crook. Lake Crook is good if you plan on boating or kayaking. As far as we could tell there wasn't a beach for swimming. However there was a nice pavilion and playground for kids to play on. There was also a little arc way so I'm sure there have been several weddings or vow renewals out there. We have friends with kayaks so we're hoping we can borrow theirs soon and go around the lake. I love that we live close to several outdoor activities. We're looking forward to getting into more outdoors adventures.

Playing in the back yard

Later we came back and just played in the back yard and relaxed a little. It was nice being able to have Guy home for the weekend. It's been a long several weeks of outages.

Allison's 25th Birthday

Blowing out the candles. 

On October 17th I celebrated my 25th birthday. Guy was still in an outage that day so he left for work at 4 am that morning. When he got home we had dinner, cake and presents. Finn was my big birthday present so he was included in all of the photos even though we got him in July. For dinner we had chicken fajitas. For my cake, Guy made me a german chocolate cake. The Friday after my birthday Guy had off as part of his 980 so we went disc golfing, to lunch at a sandwich place and test drove the new Honda Ridgeline. We both decided that the Ridgeline will be our next vehicle purchase but it will be a few years before we get it. The truck we drove though had 12 miles on it so it was pretty fun driving a BRAND new car.

For my birthday a few of Guy's coworkers came over to cake so that Guy and I didn't have to eat it all by ourselves. For my gifts I got a new running shirt, running shoes (I needed them bad), socks, the new Nicholas Sparks book, cards from various loved ones, birthday money (going to my running shorts), and a bonsi tree with an encyclopedia. Oh and of course Finn! My only concern with my bonsi tree was that it was shipped via Amazon and I'm not the best with plants so I'm hoping it survives.

It was a nice day overall a little warm though. Feels weird to have a 90 degree day in October for my birthday... it was nice though being able to relax and have fun celebrating.

Bonsi Tree

I really needed new shoes...

Valliant Mill Employee Appreciation Picnic

Every year, the mill Guy works at does an employee appreciation picnic for the employees and their families. The picnic is pretty awesome! Everything is free and there are a ton of activities. They had kids bingo (and adults bingo), bouncy houses, the giant bubbles to play in, rock climbing, pumpkin patch for kids, inflatable corn maze, fair food, lunch, mini golf, yard games, a raffle for the adults, and many more. There was a lot to see and do!! The down side was that Guy was in the middle of an outage so he had to work the day of the picnic. He was able to get away for pretty much the entire activity though. Some of Guy's coworkers participated in the sand volleyball tournament. Having run 17 miles that morning I opted out of playing and instead chatted with a fellow wife and took pictures. There were 3 teams in the tournament and they participated in a double elimination system. Guy's team lost the first match, won the second, and then lost in the final game. (The team that beat them had won all of the games.) Guy's team wasn't too bad, but the other team was really good!

The mini golf course

We felt like we needed a "corn maze" photo. 

Guy is in the back row..far left

Getting ready to serve

Guy earned 3 points with his serving skills!

Last game...waiting for the ball to come in bounds

Guy's got this one!

But just missed this one!

IP does a good job with family friendly activities. The picnic was a lot of fun. Later that night we came home and watched The Choice on DVD. I decided that it was my least favorite of the Nicholas Sparks books to movies. Shame, I really enjoyed the book. 

Fort Worth StockYards

On Thursday October 14, I met up with a former coworker from the USDA down in Forth Worth at the stock yards. The stock yards are pretty cool. I got to window shop at a lot of fun different stores. There was one spice store with more varieties than I could have imagined. It was a lot of fun being able to smell the different flavors. We also tried different flavors of jerky and salsas. I had a lot of fun playing a tourist. Twice a day they run the long horn cattle down town. It was pretty cool to see the cattle up close. They also had places where you could ride one but I opted out of that. Guy and I plan on going there later this fall.

They have a sign on the wall that tells you what the job is of the cowboy/cowgirl on the horse next to the cattle but I don't remember what they all did. I know the front cowboy is the leader and so he leads the cattle. Some of the people on the side provide a flank but I didn't find the sign until after the drive. 

Cy...the cat

Meeting Cy

Around the middle of the month we heard a kitten crying under the shed again. This is the second kitten that we've had. This one was a grey and white male and we had no idea where he came from. We discussed keeping it but neither Guy or I wanted to deal with a cat. We decided to chuck it over the fence into our neighbor's yard. Our neighbor loves cats and so we figured it was a good shot for him to survive. We it lived in their yard for about 12 hours until I caught it digging it's way under the fence back into our yard! Finn was thrilled; Guy and I were both rather annoyed. After talking at length, Guy and I decided that the cat could stay if it learned to hunt. We weren't going to feed it but if it wanted to live under the shed we wouldn't stop it from doing so.

Cy crawling back under the fence

Our thought was that it would be great at catching and maybe eating all of the crawdads in our yard. Finn was beyond thrilled because he got a new play thing. We decided to name the kitten Cy because it's eye was partially closed so it looked like it was seeing only with one eye. It usually hung out under the shed unless Finn and I were outside then it would come and be closer to us. Finn loved chasing it and pouncing on him. He was doing pretty well holding it's own. During meal times, Cy would cry by the backdoor waiting for us to feed him. I felt bad for the little dude but we didn't want to feed him. Cy tried to come in several times, but did better as we pushed him away from the door. One morning Guy took Finn out to go to the bathroom, Cy was curled up in a corner by the door (it had been cold that night). Guy thought he was dead (since he had been looking bad for a while) so he touched him. Cy let out this low moan. When I took Finn out a few hours later there were ants crawling all over Cy, so I touched him and he moaned a little. I felt bad so I picked him up and moved him into a bucket with some weeds (so it was a little more comfortable). A few hours later I went back to check on him and he had passed. We both felt bad that he had died, but we're glad he's in a better place now. We miss having him around a little but I think Finn misses him the most. He occasionally goes and looks for him under/by the shed. Here are a few pictures of him and Finn.

Cy crawled through!

Finn chasing Cy 

We miss having him around a little but I think Finn misses him the most. He occasionally goes and looks for him under/by the shed. RIP Cy the kitten. Thanks for putting up with Finn's rough ways. We know it wasn't easy being dragged around like a chew toy. 

Outdoor Clean Up

Before

When we bought our house we had several yard projects we wanted to accomplish. One of the first things we needed to do was trim the bushes in the front of the house. We have no idea the last time they were cut and they REALLY needed a trim. We bought a trimmer at the beginning of the month and worked over this weekend on cleaning them up. I didn't get any pictures in progress but I did take a before and after picture. Guy trimmed the bushes and I picked up branches/raked out the flowerbeds. Part of our 5 year plan with the house is to put rock in the flower beds instead of mulch. Having rock helps prevent termites from getting in.

Before
 

Before

Before

After

After

After

Red River Valley Fair

This weekend is the annual Red River Valley Fair. We have friends from church who had extra tickets and gave them to us for free so we decided to go check it out. It's a pretty small fair all things considered but we had a great time. We got BBQ from a food truck for a place called 'Pit Happens'. Guy got a brisket sandwich and I got pulled pork. We both thought the barbecue sauce was good, but Guy thought there could be more sauce on the brisket. It tasted a little dry.

Pit happens BBQ

We then stayed and watched the sly hand magician from Dallas. He did a great job talking and interacting with the kids. Some of his tricks Guy and I were impressed at and others of them were pretty obvious. Still fun to watch though. 

Marty the magician

Afterwards we walked through and looked at the exhibits. Some of the artwork was stunning, there were also several really neat quilts and crafts. One vendor was selling goat milk soap, and cheese. Another vendor also had different types of woodwork signs, crosses, ornaments, etc.  We walked into the local exhibit as well and got to meet a few people running for city council. There were also several booths with people displaying their guns, and where you could enter to win a gun. The fire department, police department and sheriff's office were all out as well with different activities for kids. There was even a small booth for Hilary fans and an even larger booth for Trump supporters.We sure live in a very conservative area. 

After we looked at the displays we went to another food truck and got dessert. This one was called the chocolate kettle. They had all kinds of chocolate dipped treats. From cheesecake slices, fruit, cookies, peanut butter all the way to pretzels with dipping chocolate. We got a few different pieces to try as we walked around the midland to look at the carnival rides. The lines for the rides were really long and tickets for wristbands to ride the rides were $25; so we skipped that part and just looked at what kind of rides they had. Some of them looked a little sketchy. 

One of the quilts

They even had a petting zoo for kids. The friend who gave us tickets told us how her two year old daughter got them kicked out because the 2 year old kept chasing the animals and picking them up. We skipped the petting zoo though since it was mostly dark and the animals weren't really out anymore. 

It was a smaller county fair but still pretty fun. We had a good time.

Finn Update

Finn at 5 months

I thought I would post a few photos and update of how Finn's been growing the last few weeks. At the end of September he officially turned 5 months old!

Favorite food: Anything! If he can get it in his mouth he will. Some favorites include: dog food, worms, sticks, sweet potatoes, veggies, bacon.
Things I know: Sit, stay (Still working on this), come (getting better), down, high five, shake, find mom or dad, leave it, carry things, go into my kennel on command
I sleep: all the time! We're entering a growth spurt
I love: To chase my ball but not bring it back, walk, and carry the mail in
Weight: 30 lbs!
Height: 18 inches (about halfway to my full height).
Coat: He's starting to loose his puppy coat and his adult coat is coming in. It's longer across his spine and on his back legs but still short on his sides. It should take about two years for the coat to grow in. We're not sure how long it's going to be but it seems to be getting longer still and his white markings seem to be thickening up since he was a puppy.

He's officially lost all of his puppy teeth! The last one fell out about a week ago. All of the adult teeth have broken through and he's loving to chew on antlers, bones, and carrots.

Another tooth out!

The past few weeks his right ear had been bothering him. I would clean it out and within 48 hours it was filled with discharge and gross stuff. I called the vet and took him in the other day. Turns out the ear drum was pretty inflamed and swollen. We started antibiotics and I think he's beginning to feel better.

We try and take him with to whatever activity we're off to since he doesn't like being left alone. Finn especially hates it if he has to stay with dad when I leave.

Finn lays by the table during dinner.

Finn learning to swim...he'd rather lick the salt water off mom

The weather is cooler so he enjoys laying in the grass/weeds on his back

He likes to be close...so he's often underfoot as I clean

Getting tall enough to look at what's on the counter (bacon)

First time disc golfing

Laying on mom while we watch General Conference

When he's really hot he lays down to drink 

We sure love how much fun we've had with him.