We'll Miss You Bobbi

I took Bobbi in to the vets yesterday morning to have her put down. I came to that conclusion when she would stop eating in the middle of her meal from being out of breath and then finishing later. She is a Labrador and one thing about that breed is that the only time they won't eat is when they are sleeping.

It was tough. I knew it would be emotionally tough but I just couldn't hold back the tears a few times. Very overwhelming at times but in the end, it was the right thing to do in order to alleviate her pain and discomfort.

She wasn't a barker, scratcher or biter. Gentle with the kids and always a happy disposition. She would wag her tail at anyone and everything. I heard her growl just once, when the Postman startled her.

I'll miss her, she was a great dog.

Makershed Project

I bought this kit called "Soldering: Time" from the Makershed. Makershed is a company that has do it yourself projects, some of them hard and some of them a little tougher. They make these kits wher you buy the parts an then you put it together. I picked the watch kit so that my son and I could try it during Summer vacation.

This is the first week of Summer vacation, so I wanted to pick a few things to do with him that we could make together. Earlier in the week it was paper airplanes of Star Wars ships that  got him at his school book sale the last week of school.

After Emma went down for her nap, we cleared off the table and I got out the soldering iron. I have not used the soldering iron so this was a bit intimidating to use an instrument that could A) Burn me or Jack, B) Burn the table or C) Both.

It turns out, I am a natural. The soldering spots were tiny and looked very neat, like a machine had done them. I was quite pleased with myself.

After assembling the unit, it was time to put it together in its housing and attach the screws and wrist strap.

Jack learned about soldering, clipping the leads, the circuit board and some of the things that go on the board. The only problem is that after all of this, it doesn't work.

The LED display only shows "12:00" but doesn't reset or let us set the time. But we did learn some good stuff. We are going to take it apart and see if we can figure out what went wrong. Sometimes trouble-shooting is the best way to learn about something, it also gives you are real appreciation for the process and taking pride in your work.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jack!

We went out to his choice of restaurant and then he opened presents after we got home and had cupcakes.

Earlier in the day we stopped in at school and brought cupcakes to his class to share.they sang happy birthday to him.

Thanks Grandma

And Grandma Witchey sent a lego dino too! Jack just finished putting it together all by himself this morning.

Dinosaur Lego

We built the Dino Lego helicopter yesterday and Jack lives playing with it. Thanks for the birthday stuff, GG and PaPa John!

Thanks GG and PaPa John!

Jack wanted to say thanks for the Dino Lego Copter -he is so excited to put it together and play with it!

We are going to go out to dinner and then open up the rest of his presents. More pictures coming soon.

Look Out The Window

This is a pic of Emma looking out our front window.

She is usually very active, bouncing from one thing to another but here she just kind of lost herself for a few seconds and just watched the world go by. I wondered what she was thinking. Then she went back to playing, the spell broken.

Emma's First Soaphawk

Filling Big Shoes

Backyard Pool

Best $35 we ever spent. So far.

 

The full set of all the photos is on my Flickr site; Click Here To See Them.

Jack and Emma

I can't let a week go by without the obligatory photo of my two favorite kids.

 Between he two pictures, one is smiling in each. Put them together and you get two happy kids.

Lucky Me

I was in the backyard yesterday and as the kids were playing, I noticed a bunch of clover on my lawn. I started looking to see if I could find a four leaf clover. I found one in five minutes.

I posted that picture on Facebook and got a lot of likes. Karen Gilmore (our neighbor growing up)  said she has never found one of those in her life. The next day, Emma and I went out to the front lawn and I thought about how special it must be to find one. I started looking again and found not one, but two, very close to each other.

 

I saved them, one of them the last one I let Jack pick and he can keep it. I tried to save one of them in a plastic resin but that didn't go so well. I wanted to preserve it but used the wrong stuff and pretty much encased it in plastic that is opaque, making it very hard to see.