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?!?"