Birthdays

The end of November is busy for us in terms of birthdays.  Uncle Dave kicks off the celebration with a birthday on 21 November.  We all called Uncle Dave and serenaded him with a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday--it probably didn't sound good to Uncle Dave over the phone because of the limited bandwidth of the connection which prevents all the beautiful harmonics of our voices from being heard.

Ashley turned 48, err, I mean, she simply had a birthday.  Here's Bode and Ashley getting into the party spirit.

We then did some presents--didn't take many pictures, but she said she was thrilled with her gifts.  We got her an Auburn watch and this floating Auburn football helmet (uses magnets)...if only we could have gotten her an Iron Bowl win...

Bode turned 11 the day after Ashley's birthday.  It is hard to believe our little man is now categorized as a preteen.  Ashley outdid herself and made him a Neapolitan ice cream cake.  It doesn't look like a well-sculpted cake...

but it looked great when you cut into it.

Look at those well-defined layers--and it tasted amazing.  Nana was in the neighborhood, so she popped in just as we were opening Bode's presents.

As usual, Bode was spoiled and got all sorts of toys--a book, money, a new drone, and these water dancing speakers.

We are now in full-Christmas mode.  Only 25 days til the fat-man arrives.  I guess we all better get shopping!  Pleasant weekend to all.

Gobble Gobble

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Ashley has a wonderful turkey recipe that makes the perfect turkey.

JoAnne, Frank, and Jasser came over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We all ate too much, and then JoAnne and I were lazy and watched football while Ashley, Frank, and Jasser repaired the steps that go into our swimming pool (aka the Bay).  The weather was perfect, so much so that we decided to take some photos.  Here are Ashley, Bode, JoAnne, and Joey.  Note how tall Bode is getting.

Next we have Ashley and her father (and Bode and Joey).

Joey spent some quality time with his Nana.

Joey and I also took a nice picture on the dock.

Bode also spent some solitary time looking at whatever it was he found in the grass

Finally, a picture of Barkley--we couldn't get her to be still.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving; now, we must exercise to burn off all the calories :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Bode's Party

Bode is quickly approaching his XI birthday.  Like we have done in previous years, we held his official birthday party before his actual birthday since his big day usually falls around Thanksgiving.  Bode was off from school this entire week, so we had his party on Tuesday at Surge Fort Walton, which is the local trampoline park. 

The party was great--the boys (and girls) arrived and proceeded to jump and burn off some energy for two hours.  I tried to take some action photos.  First, Bode is gearing up with the appropriate socks.

Next, we have Bode doing...something.

Bode then did a little jousting...

and eventually made his way back to the long runway tramp.

He also fought Madison on the joust, but he didn't look to keen about fighting a girl.

At some point, we gathered up the kids and got them to our party room for pizza, drinks, and cake.  We got Bode a "Star Wars" cake, which was just a regular cake with a Darth Vadar mask.

We did make everyone sing...

and pose for a group picture (but a few kids headed back out to jump so we don't have the whole crew in the photo).

Overall, a great birthday--sort of a prelude to the big Thanksgiving holiday :-) 

Joey is recovering from his surgery.  He had a bit of a relapse, and we had to go to the ER on Sunday.  We thought he had hurt his knee because it was really swollen and he was acting abnormally.  He was diagnosed with an infection, so they loaded him up with antibiotics.  He was back to his normal self a couple days later and seems to be back on track to a full recovery.

Big day of turkey eating tomorrow--we stopped eating last night to prepare :-)  Pleasant Turkey Day to all.

Joey on the Mend

Joey underwent the surgery to repair his torn ACL.  In big dogs, the ACL is not repaired.  Rather, they do something called Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy.  This type of surgery completely alters the dynamics of the knee. Once the bone is cut and the tibial plateau is rotated, where the femur and the tibia communicate, no longer can the femur slide backwards. The knee is immediately stabilized. By doing so, this eliminates the need for the ACL ligament entirely and returns stability to the joint immediately (I cut-and-pasted from the web; google TPLO dog surgery if you want more info).  Needless to say, Joey is doing fine.  The hard part is keeping him from playing and running.  Joey also had a lump removed from his side. 

Post-surgery, I spoke with the dog.  Joey's ACL was completely gone (as we thought), but his meniscus was intact, which is good.  They also took rather wide margins when removing the lump because they wanted to be sure to get everything.  We received word from the lab that the lump was NOT cancerous, which is great news.  Thus, everything went as well as we could expect.

The recovery is the long part.  Joey has to wear the cone-of-shame for two weeks until he gets the staples out.  Fortunately, it's not a hard, plastic code, but one made of fabric.  This way, he can lie down in his normal fashion, and he's not smacking into things when he walks around the house.  Here's a picture of the big guy--I guess the cone also acts as a light blocker.

He's going on walks and is getting around fine.  He's one week into an eight-week recovery process.  By week three, he'll be wanting to play and run, so that'll be the hard part.

Bode and I are off from school today (Veteran's Day observed).  It is pouring rain here--not a mild shower, but a full-day storm.  I guess we'll be inside.  We might watch The Meg on demand.  Pleasant week to all.

More Halloween

On Wednesday, we went trick-or-treating.  We checked the national weather, and were surprised to see that it was snowing in Colorado with temps in the 30's--brrr!  It was cool here--I was in shorts and wore a hoody, but got a little warm as we walked.

Bode donned the Slenderman costume again, with a couple of modifications made by Ashley aka Supergirl in order to make the spider arms sturdier. 

After the final touches, we were ready for the official Halloween photo.

We headed over to Colin's house--Colin is in 4th grade, and their family moved here this summer just like us. 

All of us ( Colin's Mom--Jess-the witch--and Emmy (she's a ninja-turtle, but you can't see her in the wagon)) headed over to the park, where the neighborhood does a community trick-or-treat.  I was impressed by the turn-out--a lot of cars at the park, and then we headed up the street adjacent to the park, which was packed with trick-or-treaters.

We are now loaded up with candy for the next few years :-)  We did get a couple items of bad news this week.  First, Joey did tear his ACL.  He is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday.  Everything should be routine (our first rottweiler, Auburn, had this same procedure done), but it will be a chore to keep him relatively inactive for a few weeks while he recovers.  Then again, relatively inactive is the dogs' state for the vast majority of the day.

Bode got his report card as well--this was not any type of bad news, as he got all A's and 1 C.  The C was in science (of all things!).  We met with the teacher, and we've learned Florida is really into the standardized testing.  Some of these tests make of their grades.  For science, they had a test on their third grade science skills, which included a lot of material Bode had not learned in Colorado.  Bottom line, he'll be fine by the end of the year--at least that's what the teacher told us at the parent-teacher conferences.  However, the second bit of bad news we learned was that Bode's teacher is leaving the school, effective next Friday.  Bode is taking this hard, because he really likes Mr Welsh.  He's not leaving for anything bad--some personal emergencies and what not, so we wish him the best, but it's hard on the students.  Here's hoping they find someone quick and qualified :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Halloween Fun

We went to a corn maze on Saturday for a little Halloween festivities.  It was a beautiful day, and the location didn't feel like Florida at all--felt more like Ohio than anything...although it was close to 80, so that's probably not Ohio-esque for late October.  Bode liked the little dune buggies, although he would have liked them more if they were not peddle-powered.

We then headed over to the corn maze, but stopped for some goofy pictures.

We entered the corn maze with hopes that Jack Torrence was not in hot pursuit.  Bode immediately attacked me with a corn stalk.

Ashley then attacked Bode with an ear of corn.

We found all five landmarks within the maze.  There were a lot of "cheat trails" in the maze, as it has been up for over a month.  Still, we enjoyed ourselves and had fun.  We then headed over to the pony ride, which was neat...if Bode was 5 instead of 10.   Bode liked it but I think he would have preferred to have actually ridden the pony vice walk around in a circle.

Last night, our neighbor's church had a trunk-or-treat activity.  This was just an excuse for Bode to give his costume a test-run.  Ashley really got creative and made a pretty cool Slenderman outfit for the boy.  In case you don't know, below is a picture of Slenderman.

Here's Bode all dressed up.  He received a lot of good comments from other people.

The neighbor boys (Alex and Jacob) had a Star Wars theme going.

Towards the end, Bode needed to be able to see better so he took off the hood.  He's looking like a young man more and more each day.

Some sad news:  We think Joey might have torn his ACL on his back-right leg.  He's not putting any weight on the leg, but isn't in any real pain.  Auburn (rottweiler #1) had a similar injury and she exhibited the same symptoms.  We'll get him to the doc and likely schedule some surgery.  Poor little guy--but he does seem to be his normal happy self albeit a little less mobile.

Pleasant week to all.

Some PRs

Bode had a swim meet this past weekend.  These are early starts--it's about a 30-minute drive to Destin, and the warmup begins at 0700.  Here's Ashley at the pool deck after we have set up our little tent.  Note she's wearing a UWF top.

Once he completed his warmup, Bode rests and stays focused by staring at his phone--he was very excited because Verizon gave unlimited data to gulf-coast users due to the hurricane.  He was thrilled that he could "watch youtube videos at the park."

He made us retake the photo because his hair wasn't done...

Here's a movie of Bode starting the 100-individual medley.  He's the third swimmer from the left.

Here's the finish of the 100-IM--he finished strong, and he had a best ever time of 1:30--coming in, his best time was 1:40.

Next is Bode doing the 50-free.  He is third from the bottom.  Note he is in third place at the turn.  If you watch to the very end, you will see that Bode caught and beat both boys that were ahead of him--he really turned it on at the end.

He had a PR of :35 seconds (coming in,his best time was 38 seconds).

He also swam on the relay team--I think he's the fastest swimmer on the B-relay team.  Bode is probably one of the faster "middle" swimmers--there are some boys that are just incredibly fast.  Bode is not with them, but I think as he ages, he'll improve.  I've noticed Bode still has some "baby fat" in his belly, while these are boys are somewhat lean.  Once he his puberty and starts growing, I think this fat will quickly turn into muscle...then again, he could simply watch youtube videos and put on a hundred pounds of chunk :-)

Today, Bode swam the 100-freestyle, the 50-back, and the 50-butterfly.   He had best times in all--1:21 in the 100-free (a 9-second improvement), :46 seconds in the back stroke (a very small improvement, but improvement nonetheless), and he swam the 50-fly in 0:45 seconds (an 11-second improvement).  Here's Bode doing the 50-fly--it's hard to believe there is a 200-yard fly race (but not until they are a little older).  Bode is the third swimmer from the left.

Bode and Ashley also took a goofy picture.

After the meet, Bode (I) was exhausted, so we came home and took a nap (well, I did).  Bode is off tomorrow from school, so I think Ashley is taking him to get his haircut.  All is back to normal after Hurricane Michael (for us--Panama City is still a mess from what we hear).  Pleasant week to all.