Farewell, Blogger

So, basically, Blogger kinda sucks. It has gotten increasingly difficult to use. So, I have migrated Wm's blog over to Wordpress, which is MUCH easier to use. There is a new post up and ready to see! So, CLICK HERE TO COME ON OVER TO WM'S NEW SPACE.

Christmas Spirit

So far, we REALLY like the Christmas season in the new house! We actually have room for the Christmas tree. And we have taken to ending the evening by lounging on the couch with the light of the fire and tree. It's very warm and cozy!

All the snuggles!

Steve is home today while the chimney guys put in a new liner. Apparently, it's an all day job. And an expensive one! But, it will allow us to keep enjoying all the fires! Worth it.

Wm only has a couple more weeks of school before finals and then the end of the semester. He's still on track to complete his math and science classes this term and start new ones next. I think he also gets a new English class. They're reading a Neil Gaiman book that Wm has already read right now in his lit class. But, he forgot most of it, so it's like reading it for the first time! He gets REALLY mad because, apparently, they read some of it out loud in class and he can't abide the slowness of the progress reading that way. Ha!

Jess sent me this and said it reminded her of Flip and Schroeder. The only difference is that Flip has stopped trying to play with Schroeder and now just wants to murder him. And, of course, Schroeder has always wanted to murder Flip.

In fact, I took a funny video of them "playing." I was telling a friend that Flip can't ever snarl because whenever he tries to really curl his lip, it makes him sneeze. So here he is sneezing his way through an attempted snarl fight with Schroeder:

Holiday Pictures!

The professional pictures are up!! These are just screen shots. But, if anyone (I'm looking at you, grandparents!) wants the high quality digital image(s) for getting a print, let me know! I am waiting on the download password right now. Then, I will have a hard time picking my favorite to get printed and framed!

Mid-growl

Stilling growling...

Love Wm's smile in this one! May be the framer!

Or this one!

Thanksgiving 2018

It's been a great holiday! Flip was very excited that everyone was home, and sleeping in. He made the most of it...

Check out the fang and corpse-like Steve

Guess where my spot (or lack thereof) is?

The cats continued to steal Flip's water like weirdos.

We went up to NEO on Thanksgiving and visited with family and ate all the things. We were stuffed and happy! Steve was both the big loser and the big winner in ping pong games. Wm had a blast playing with Andrew. I got a compliment on the boots that Steve calls "weird" every time I wear them. It was a great time!

Grandma in front of her spread!

Wm even decided to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's to prolong his visit. Then, Mimi and Guy drove him home the next morning. He was exhausted, but super happy to have been able to do it!

Road Trippin' Willie

Steve had to work a bit this weekend. Not a ton, but enough to disrupt the fun train that was rolling! It worked out, though. While he was at work, I went shopping with Suzanne! We also found time to put up all the holiday decorations.

Family room tree and Wm

Small living room tree and Wm

We discovered that our living room tree was missing a tree skirt, so I snagged one when I was shopping with Suz...

Hoping the cats don't eat it

Also got very festive wreath!!

Then, today, Steve put up the outside lights. It's finally dark, so I'm about to go out and see them! Pictures to come!

Earlier this afternoon, we took Wm and Flip to get holiday pictures taken. I told Wm that letting me pick out his outfit and his nicely posing for pictures sans any complaints would be my Christmas present. He was delighted to get off that easy and was very compliant! Flip, however, was a super pill! They tried to get him to focus using a squeaky toy and then he just wanted to murder the toy. He was low key growling at the toy throughout the shoot. Thankfully, this did not scare Santa away! It was pretty inexpensive and the cost was a donation to a dog rescue that we support anyway. So, it was like getting something for nothing! The professional pictures will be available for upload in a couple days, but I snapped a few with my phone while they were posing...

Wm seems suspicious. Flip with murder in his eyes.

A different angle, but the same squeaky toy intensity. 

Behind the scenes mayhem

We all return to work and school tomorrow. But, Thanksgiving is always nice because we know that in a few weeks, we are on an even longer holiday break! Wm is off for 2 and a half weeks. I'm taking off 4 days, but get 12 continuous days off, with the way the holidays fall. WOOT!

I watched a funny video online of a lady talking to her dog and telling it all the things she would do for it. She goes, "I would kill my entire family for you," which cracked me up. I was sitting in the living room with Flip and he was being especially cute. So I go, "I love you so much Flip. I would kill my entire family for you." Then, I heard Steve, from in the dining room, go, "Ummmmmm...." HA! I had to show him the video to prove I wasn't planning murder. This time.

Bathtub Grinch

Flip got his pre-Thanksgiving salon treatment. So he's now coiffed and fluffed and smelling nice! I even put his Christmas collar on. Wm was suuuuuper grumpy that Flip was bathed in his bathtub. He was like, "he destroyed my bathroom!" I told him I planned Flip's bath for the weekend of his  Xtreme Bathroom Cleaning, so it would be spotless before he ever used it. He was not fully appeased. So I sent him this screen shot and his text back killed me...

He's not wrong.

But then, when Flip was smelling sweet, was all soft and warm and sleepy, Wm was once again a big fan.

Best buds

We got a HUGE delivery of firewood. Steve is suuuuuuper pissed because, apparently, the creepy dude he found on Craig's List lied and it is not seasoned. So he was tantruming around all weekend. But, he and Wm worked their butts off to move it from the driveway to the rack we got to stack it on in the backyard. Wm came in DRENCHED in sweat. The boys worked their butts off! I told Steve that we can season it ourselves - we basically just bought next year's firewood now. He was only marginally appeased.

Then, Mimi came over. Flip was OVERJOYED. I'll let you be the judge of how much he adores Mimi:


He then got super excited, lick attacked her, and barfed on the carpet. So, fun times.

I took a nice walk with Suzanne and we had some hot chocolate chats. The weather didn't turn out to be half bad! But, we woke up this morning to pouring rain. I left Wm sitting comfortably in his pajamas. I was very jealous!! He's living the dream!

Toothpick

For some weird reason, the cats only want to drink Flip's water. Even though they have their own water in their basement haven, they will emerge and drink Flip's water, leaving their own untouched. Steve built Flip a raised food/water shelf because he is taller and it was stretching his neck weirdly to have them on the floor. That has not stopped the cats. They now perch themselves up on the lip of the shelf and still drink all Flip's water!

Water Thief

Wm has taken a liking to coming on Flip's evening walk. It's full dark now, so Wm likes to walk to the park and swing at night. One night, he heard a weird noise and became convinced there was a wolf in the ravine. So I have been teasing him about the "ravine wolfman." (He realized later it was nothing, so he's not scared anymore.) I told him not to worry because the wolfman would eat me first because, OBVIOUSLY, I am the most succulent member of the family. Then, he'd eat Steve next. But, Steve is stringy, so then he'd have to use Wm as a toothpick. Wm thought that was a good time.

Apparently, Wm took the 9th grade math proficiency test at the end of last year (6th grade). He just got his scores yesterday. Not only did he pass, but Wm tested "accelerated" in 9th grade math while in 6th grade!

Wm is headed over to a friend's house after school today. His whole gang is going, so he's thrilled with life. The host lives 45 minutes from us, so pickup will not be fun! But, worth it!! And then, he's off all next week for Thanksgiving break. Must be nice!

Then, this just made me laugh and laugh...

Fire!

Our dreams have come true! We have a working fireplace! And, it's cold enough to use it. Steve built a fire on Friday night and we had a pizza/movie night by the crackling of the fire. It was amazing.

Steve...has made fire!

Did not make it through the movie

It was a gorgeous weekend!! We had planned to go to see Bohemian Rhapsody, but the lure of the sunshine was too great. So, we spent Saturday raking and yard working. Wm came out and helped and it is GREAT that he is old enough now to actually make a significant contribution - especially because our new yard requires a lot more work than our old one!

Sunday was equally nice, so we decided to go out to a walking path at a Metro Park in Dublin. After a walk, we took Flip into their dog park (where he vigorously humped another dog's face), and then Wm went to their super awesome playground that included a mini zip line. On the way home, I was like, "See? Didn't you have fun?" And Wm goes, "No. I did not want to come and I had NO FUN." Soooo...there's that.

I did capture Wm and Flip being as cute as can be:

Snuggle friends

Kiss Cam!

I was off for Veteran's Day, but Steve and Wm both had a normal day. So I went out to a 3 hour lunch extravaganza with my friend Melanie. It was awesome.  However, it made coming back to work today tough...

It's funny cause it's true!

Wm got a 102% on his first test in Let's Taco 'Bout Food (which is a chemistry class). So, he's rocking out! He's only a few short weeks away from finishing his first semester of 7th grade. I told him, at that point, he will not only be halfway through 7th grade, but that is also the halfway point through middle school! He's on target to finish Algebra II and "Taco" this semester, so next semester he will have Geometry and some new science class (maybe Potions?) I decided to stop checking his grades and just let him be in charge of things. I asked him on the way home yesterday if he liked not having me checking his grades online and being involved or if he missed me monitoring things and he goes, "I LOVE IT - DO NOT START NAGGING ME AGAIN." Ha!! Since he's doing so well, I don't really need to. So I will just empower him to be in charge of his own business.  His school is doing a thing called The Golden Ticket. For kids that don't have any disciplinary issues and master their classes, they get to spend the day at the movie theater, seeing movies for free, at the end of the term. Wm is HIGHLY motivated by this!

He was horrified to learn that the parents of one of his friends look at all his texts, emails, and
"spy" on his phone. Wm goes, "thank god those are not my parents!" I told him that I trust him to be responsible...unless he gives me reason not to! Wm goes, "I will never give you a reason." He's just nerdy enough that I believe him! For now...

Last night, I let Wm watch a pre-approved episode of the show Black Mirror. If you haven't seen it, it's some MESSED UP stuff. Each episode is its own show that highlights something sinister about technology. So, Wm watches the episode, it ends, he turns to me and goes, "OMG...did he just die?That was DARK. Can we watch another one?!?"

This is America

I know we retook the House, but I woke up very sad about the election results this morning. No candidate that I voted for won (I'm not counting Sherrod Brown because never, in my wildest dreams, did I think good 'ole Sherrod would lose!) Candidates in other races that I was counting on did not win (I'm looking at you, Beto). And Issue 1 went down in flames. Mostly, this makes me hate everyone and everything and begin plotting my move to New Zealand. Hell, even Michigan elected a democrat governor!! Maybe I just need to go to Ann Arbor...
I told Wm this morning that it's up to him and his generation to fix everything that The Olds have screwed up. And, also, to take care of me in my old age - after these shitheads have destroyed Social Security and Medicare. He didn't seem too jazzed about this responsibility. So, basically, I'm feeling very salty today. No one talk to me. Except the Childish Gambino...

Time Change

On Friday night, we took Wm to his first comedy show. Jim Gaffigan is in town and we love him! Steve and I went to see him live a few years ago (thanks to an awesome gift from Drew and Jess!) and it was awesome!! We took Wm this time because he loves Jim Gaffigan (and he's usually pretty PG). Wm laughed, had fun, and liked it overall. However, he also yawned and was tired, and quite grumpy about having to arrive at the Palace Theater and sit for a bit before the show began. So, his ultimate review was: "it was fun - but it would have been better to watch at home on Netflix." Sigh.

Waiting for the show to start!

The Animal Crew was not used to us leaving again after coming home from work.  They had to hang out with each other (except for Schroeder, who will not be in the same room with Flip).

Where are our human!?

Saturday was much more Wm's speed:

All my favorite boys watching Adam Ruins Everything

What Steve and Flip do after I've got to bed

This just made me laugh

Steve had to work on Saturday. He was supposed to have to work on Sunday, but because we got so much rain, the tournament canceled games! Which was good, because yesterday felt endless with the extra hour. Even though this is supposed to give us an extra hour of sleep, it's messing with my system! Steve and Wm seem fine. My only ally is Flip, so is REALLY thrown off by this. He started barking and barking at his usual walk time, but I was like, "dude, it's dinner time now...calm down. We'll go after dinner." Sadly, Flip does not speak English, so he did not stop barking.

Then, he wanted to come beg for food, as he does. But, he was also very tired. So he decided to watch us eat from the chair in the family room. Then, he fell asleep trying to watch eating happening from afar.

Too tired to beg.

He went upstairs super early and crashed. Then, he looked rough this morning. Me and Flip take some time to adjust!!

Speaking of Flip, he took up the whole couch yesterday, so I moved over to the chair to have some room for relaxin'. It didn't work.

Followed me.

And now I have to go formulate a plan on how to sneak a nap at work...

Sickly

We had a very low-key weekend. Not only did it rain the ENTIRE weekend, but Wm has some horrible cold of doom. Steve is blaming the flu shot and is like, "I TOLD YOU SO!" He said something in front of Wm, so I had to bring down the thunder. But, Wm didn't even want to go get his Halloween costume this weekend and says he just won't go trick or treating. And he's home from school today. He had gone up and gotten back in bed as I was leaving for work. Poor dude. I told him to rest, drink lot of fluids, and to not spend the whole day on screens. I'm planning to head home early, as soon as I finish all my student appointments. So then I can make sure he's complying.

Since we were pretty much house-bound, we got lots of little things done around the house. It was, miraculously, sunny very briefly on Sunday morning. Just long enough for Steve's soccer game and me to take Flip on a walk at Antrim Park. I was also motivated to finally get Flip some rain coats. He has an all-season rain coat:

Trust the Gordon's fisherman!

And I also got him a winter weight one as well. Mr. Chunk had to get an XXL. A lot of it is his barrel chest! He's husky!

Frankly, Wm's cold timing is pretty good. He should be healthy for Friday. When we take him to see Jim Gaffigan!!!!! He's sooooo excited!

Weirdos

Flips LOVES soccer balls. If Steve wanted someone in the house who loves soccer balls as much as he does, well, he has it! However, Flip loves to destroy said soccer balls. Then, he rips out the weird rubbery innards and begs everyone who comes anywhere near him to play tuggies with it. When he tires of that, he just sits there and slowly bites of chunks of it. Wm is his most favorite soccer ball innard tuggie partner. It is a GREAT way to tire them both out. After this, they're both exhausted:


Another thing Steve and Flip have in common is their love of chewing ice. Anytime anyone drinks anything with ice in it, Flip comes and begs for ice like a weirdo. Steve always gives in. As he and Flip shared ice, Steve goes, "he's a Matyas." Steve loves that damn dog something fierce. Which is HILARIOUS because he really did not want a dog...like AT ALL. And how he may love Flip more than me!

Wm has finished Physics! He has moved on to a new science class. This one is called "Let's Taco 'Bout Food." It involves eating. How do I take this class? According to Wm, he's about to run out of middle school science and will soon have to start high school science.

He's also back to his old antics. He walked by me yesterday and I said, "Whassup, Mr. Ugglepants." And he glared at me and goes, "I would appreciate if you DID NOT call me Mr. Ugglepants." So then I went, "Sorry, Mr. Ugglepants." To which, he screamed, "POP!!!!! MUM WILL NOT STOP CALLING ME MR. UGGLEPANTS." And then went and slammed himself into the den. Apparently, not only can he not take a joke, but he's a snitch.

Apple Picking

It was, mostly, a beautiful fall weekend!  We were successful in our mission to get Wm new pants. But he walked downstairs in his floods this morning, despite said new pants. Sigh.  And Mimi came over, making Flip's day. Flip loooooves him some Mimi!

Happy lap dog

Later, Wm and I were petting him as he sat hilariously on the chair...

Yes, that is my spotty belly. Pet it.

But then, he was very sad when we left...

Waaaaait!

I tried to take a picture of Wm, the grumpy tween, pretzeled on the couch. But, he un-pretzeled and looked at me like this:

Not having it.

On Sunday, we went apple picking! It was Flip's first trip and he had a grand time! Wm also was thrilled with life because we let him climb the trees this year.

Still not too big for the shoulders!

Steve and Flip picking a winner

Wm having a good time

Wm in the tree

Everyone tired on the ride home