Rescue Dog

One of Jamie's co-workers is training her dog to be a rescue dog. So for practice she asked Jamie if she could bring her dog out to our place and let him find him and the boys. She needed to practice for his up coming test. Plus she wanted it to be with someone the dog has not met yet and a new location.

So Jamie drove the truck from the garage up to the pole shed so his scent would be in the truck. Then Jamie and the boys headed into the woods to get lost.

Once Carmen got to the house. She wiped the steering wheel and door handle with a special sealed cloth and then placed it in the Ziploc bag. She made sure never to touch the cloth herself. She only wanted Jamie's scent on the piece of cloth.

Then Carmen got the dog out of the truck. Hooked up the working harness. Let the dog take a sniff and off they went to find the boys.

From what I understand the most important point for the dog is to follow Jamie's scent and not the boys. So at one point Jamie broke off the trail and did a big loop and then Jakob did the same thing. The dog followed Jamie's loop, but not Jakob's. Then when she found them the dog was suppose to go up to Jamie and not the boys. Sounds like he did a good job.

And most important he found them.

Here are some photos I took in Duluth this weekend. Enjoy.

Ice Fishing Tournament & Teeth Teeth & More Teeth

So Saturday was Valentines and to show how much Jamie loves me he took us all on an ice fishing tournament. It was a family tournament on Lac Courte Oreilles Lake. Josh got us registered and also got us raffle tickets.

We got out to the lake around 8:30 and the tournament started at 9:00. I don't think Josh was very happy with us that we were that late.

Jamie and the boys drilling holes in the ice for the tip ups.

Josh getting the ice fishing house ready to go.

Next I would show you a picture of all the fish we caught......but we didn't get a dang thing. Not one bite. I wanted to stay for the raffle, but there were soooo many people. And Seth was complaining that he had to go to the bathroom and he of course didn't want to go there. Next thing we know he lets out a "I can't take it anymore." And proceeds to throw up all over himself. Good times had by all.

Now the teeth. For awhile Seth has had a really loose tooth and he wouldn't let anyone near him to look at it. Well I guess he would let me wiggle it, but if I acted like I was going to pull it he ran. Then one day we were out sledding in the backyard and he was showing Jamie his tooth. It was so gross the tooth was shooting straight out of his mouth. I asked him if I could look at it. I grabbed it and yanked it right out. He didn't even feel a thing that's how loose it was.

And then there is Jakob with all his loose teeth. We have been chasing him around the house also. Most of the time they weren't lose enough, but I think Jamie likes to torment the boys. Jamie finally got one of his top teeth out a few weeks ago.

Sunday after church Jamie was once again trying to get a hold of Jakob's teeth. They fought for awhile but Jamie finally won and got two teeth out. Poor guy he looks like a Jack-o-Lantern now.

School Carnival and Basketball Skills

This past week was a busy week for us. Tuesday we had our final practice for Basketball Skills and it was at the High School. I picked up the boys to go and one of the 3rd grade teachers stopped me to let me know I had a flat tire. I really didn't want to hear that since I already had a flat in the same tire during Christmas break. So I parked the truck and he drove me and the boys up to the high school. Which was actually a good thing cause I had no idea where the high school was. Josh once again came to our rescue and picked us up and changed the tire on the truck for us. Man I owe that man a lot of cheesecake.

Then on Wednesday night the boys had a school carnival at the Intermideate school. I do know where that school is. : ) I took the boys there and let them run around. They had different bouncy houses, games, food, and a book fair.

Here's Seth bouncing in the big Tiger House. Jake decided once we got up there that he didn't want to go in it.

Here are the boys waiting to go into the next bounce house. It was a nascar track and it took forever to get to the front. You can sort of see the line going down the side and to the back of it.

Then we went up on the stage and played some games.

On Thursday and Friday the boys finally got to do there performance at half time of the basketball games. They have been going to practice two nights a week for almost two months. The practice was to teach the kids different ball handling techniques and then perform a routine at half time. They learned how to dribble, move the ball around there head, waist , and legs. They also worked on feet skills and passing the ball. Here are some random shots of the performance.

Sorry there aren't any close up of the boys. Jamie didn't have enough time to get the big lens on the camera. And I was down on the floor with the kids helping out. If you would like to see the whole routine you can go to this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw7hANeGdI

Or you can go to www.youtube.com and then do a search on Little Hurricanes. Hope you like it. It makes me giggle each time I watch. Thanks.

The Well

Sunday morning Jamie got up to get ready for church. As he was in the shower the water stopped on him. We started to check different things in the house and Jamie went out to the well to check the pump.

I, in the mean time, took the boys to church and Sunday school. Then we stopped at Josh's house to get some fish the guys caught. Once we were there Josh let us know that Jamie thought the line was froze and have the boys do bathes there. So Jake took a shower, Seth took a quick bath and I got groceries.

Jamie called a well company while we where gone, but they don't have people working on weekends anymore due to cost. Of course they don't, that would be to easy. So we had to wait until Monday.

Monday morning Jamie packed a bag and went to Josh's to shower and get ready for work. And I got the boys off to school. The well guys didn't get here until after 1:00 in the afternoon. They were suppose to be here at 10:30.

They also checked all the stuff downstairs and the well and figured out the line must have froze. So they were sticking pipes with a tube down the well full of steam to thaw the line out.

They also stuck the tube down the line from the basement. They figured out that it was froze right at the elbow of the line. So they were trying to thaw it on both sides.

Sunday I put snow in the bathtub downstairs so I could get some water to put in the toilet. That way we could at least flush after we went.

Not to sure why, but the owners before us put Styrofoam in the toilet tank. So it was like putting ice in a cooler. It wouldn't melt right away.

Here they are with steam coming out of the well.

After about 4-5 hours of working on the line it finally opened up. Then I had to run all the facets to get the yuck out of them. I am still trying to do that today.

We were told to run a hose from a facet outside and keep is running for about a week. This way the tank and line will stay warm.

If you look close you can see there is no water coming out of the hose. The stupid hose froze over during the night. And when I went to turn the water off the facet is now froze open!!!!! Luckily Jamie told me how to turn the water off to that facet.

Here is the yuck coming out of the washer machine.

So now I am running water and checking them as much as possible to make sure they are still going and not freezing up again.

Thanks Josh for letting us use your bathroom. We owe you once again. : )