A GIRL AND HER DOG

Nobody in our house is safe from the antics of a 6 year old little girl and her 6 month old puppy,

Tonight while I went to get ready for bed, Mimi was in her bathtub. I'm not sure if Butch wanted to take a bath with Mimi or if she wanted to take a bath with him. All I know is that when I came out of my bathroom both Mimi and Butch were running around wet as all get out. As you may have guessed it, our rug upstairs (especially in dad's office) was sopping wet. I also must mention to anyone coming to our house is that NO SHOE is safe with Butch around especially snow shoes with puff balls on them.

CHRISTMAS CARD

This card was sent to us this past Christmas by our very good friends Gini and David in California. It just had Mimi and her little cronies howling with so much laughter. David says that he had to appeal to the high intellectuals.

HIGH WINDS

Boy howdy! Did the winds ever rip through our neighborhood last night! At this very moment it is so glorious outside with the clear blue skies and everything. You would not believe that last night night the winds were just a howl'in outside our window. The picture to the left is our neighbor's house across the street. The picture to the right is our backyard. There is also a ton of debris from the trees behind our house. I guess we have our work cut out for us.

COMPUTER GAMES

At the beginning of the school year, Mimi's class started to learn about the computer. Once a week they go to the computer lab at school. This year's birthday present from Uncle David and Auntie Setsue is this computer game. Both Uncle David and Auntie Setsue are professors at Old Dominion University and Mimi absolutely loves animals so put two and two together, this is what you will come up with. Man oh man does Mimi and her friends love it!!! Both Blake and Halliwell have borrowed this game to download on their computer at home. I have been told by Brandy that Halliwell will sit for a couple of hours just playing these games. Even Brandy and I love playing these games. Not only is it educational but oodles of fun too.

SKI SCHOOL

Today was Mimi's first day of ski school. Although it is not the first time she had attended a ski class. Dad got her all signed up then went to have some fun for himself for the next couple of hours. Meanwhile I made the trek back to the lodge to stake out a place for us and sat down to write out all of Mimi's thank you notes to her friends that came to her birthday party last week. That was loads of fun for me. While I was writing a whole group of 5-6 year old came and sat next to me. We had loads of fun talking about what they like and don't like. They really liked her Madagascar thank you notes. One of the dads that was there asked if I had any kids and I told him about our Mimi. He said "I kinda thought so. You seemed to be in tuned with everything they are saying." With Mimi, anything about body parts and the noises they make gets her and her friends just howling. Same with these kids. Then I found out about the snow tubing that is located next to the parking lot. Maybe next week I will dress more appropriately and then take Mimi tubing after her ski lessons. That should be lots of fun since I don't ski. On the way home I just remembered about the new casino that just opened up a few months ago. I mentioned to dad that we could stop by to see it since I love to play the slots. Although he did not say anything and just smiled at me, I knew that he was thinking to himself "put a cork in it". I shared with him a story from an acquaintance. It seems that Luster (her real name) loves to go to Muckleshoot Casino quite often and she had told me that she was given her statement of all her wins and losses for the past year. I don't know how much she won but her losses in total was $41,000.00. Dad said that if it had been me, it would have been sayonara mama-san. Lucky him, I am not that hard core.

ANTS ON A PICNIC

Just this week, Mimi's class was given a reading project. Each student was given a book to take home to read. When they are completely able to read the book on their own, we the parents are to sign it off on a sheet that was sent home via of a baggie and then the student will get another book to read. At the beginning of the school year each student was encouraged to spend at least 10 minutes a day reading and they are to color a square on the reading log that is sent home each month. By the end of the month if the log is completed they receive a surprise. One month it was a Krispy Kreme doughnut. As part of this new reading program each student is able to use it as part of their reading log.

BUTCH AND OLLIE

My Ollie is just about the best cat there ever is. He so tolerant of Butchie and his ways. Butch loves to play with Ollie. Everytime Ollie takes a whack at Butch, Butch thinks that he is playing and just goes back for more.