Wednesday, January 9th

Well, it seems like the worst is finally behind me. I'm still coughing a lot, especially at night, so my sleep isn't what it should be, but I'm feeling much better. It's been quite a long haul and I'm glad to be on the up side of things again.  

Not a lot going on this time of year. Everyone seems to be getting back into their usual routines. I got a quick call last night from James and Patti. They were on their way to his first Air Cadets meeting. He's ever so keen to go and could hardly wait till he turned 12 so he could join.  I can't wait to see him in his little uniform. He'll be so proud.  Almost as proud as he was when he cut down his first tree, all by himself.

It was really windy and cold that day but everyone was a trooper and we got the job done, hauling it home on our sled. The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating it, and can you believe it, I don't have a picture. Now that tells you just how poorly I was feeling over the holidays.

Fortunately we did have a quick trip to the beach, although it was very cold and windy that day as well.
Meadow has never actually been to the beach because the beaches they've gone to don't allow dogs on them at all. So she really enjoyed herself. Of course, being a lab, the first thing she did was head into the water but that didn't last long once she realized how cold it was. Cooper, on the other hand, doesn't particularly like the water so he stayed away.

A small patch of ice was fun for sliding

Poor Meadow had such an awful time as the city dog visiting the country dog. Her first day out she got a large scratch on her face. The next day she ran into the same pieces of wire fence at the back of our lot and succeeded in getting a fairly deep puncture wound that bled for quite some time.  Then before they left, they noticed she had another scratch on her belly. We all joked about her being such a 'city dog'. Meanwhile  Cooper just plugs along and has never had an issue with any of the wire since we've been here. But fortunately she survived her visit with her country cousin!  The dogs got along pretty well and one day they were even both asleep together on one of the beds.

I had so many things I wanted to do with them but I just wasn't feeling up to it. I got a text from Patti yesterday and she said that I wasn't alone - the hospital there had been swamped with people with the same sort of thing.  But I'm hopeful the kids had a good time in spite of my lack of participation.  Thank goodness mother nature helped out with some snow to play in.

Hanging out at the beach