First Day Schooling

Let me just say right from the start... The back yard looks great!

Maddy started her first day of school yesterday.  Here are the first day photos that I have so far that I was able to glean off the live streaming of the chapel services.  It helps that Matthew has blond hair too when I attempt to find her...  

Maybe she'll send me an updated one...

Meri's first day is TODAY!!!  And here she is all bright eyed and bushy tailed, even after the evening before...

what a seg way...

Speaking of the evening before...

Meri mowed the back yard for me, late yesterday afternoon.  I told her that I'd close the gate for her since she had to get to marching band practice soon.  She wasn't feeling well and the fact that she stepped on my weed wacker the day before didn't help.  Her foot was bleedy and feeling swollen.  So I made her a B-Bop's burger, which is a chain in Central Iowa.  They use freshly packed burger patties and not frozen.  They are wonderful...  

So I made her one with bread.  Shaped the patty to be a bit bigger than the bread so it would shrink down appropriately, put on a slice of cheese, a couple slices of tomato, a few rings of fresh cut onion and their sauce, which I think tastes like mayo mixed with ketchup.  She really enjoyed it!  

A friend was having a crisis so she stayed later than she should have.  I texted her to take care of the dogs when she got home. And then again 10 minutes later when she didn't get home yet.  Then again 10 minutes after that...

FINALLY she got home and we heard the front door open and her taking the dogs out.  Whew... I could finally get some sleep now.  But suddenly I jerked awake remembering that I hadn't shut the gate like I said I would.

dang.

I pulled on a bathrobe and shoes and headed out where she was already looking around for the dogs.  The two trouble makers came in right away.  One is on a chain because he really IS a trouble maker and digs holes under the fence, but Ellie coming in immediately was a shocker...  Duke was on the run or hobble.  He's getting really old and is mostly deaf and has a hurt foot too.  Meri walked one way down the street and me the other, whisper shouting his name.  

Like a lot of good THAT would do...  Since he can't hear us anyway...

For over 30 minutes, I wandered the street in my bathrobe in the pitch dark in some blocks.  Meri ended up driving all over looking for him.  I eventually gave up.  I figured that Duke would most likely be sleeping on the front porch in the morning or at least we'll have light then to search better.  I tried to explain that to Meri when she drove past again, but she was adamant that we find him tonight.  

YOU HAVE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!!  Go get some sleep!  She finally relented but was going to go on one last run about the corn fields in case he wandered into them.  

He would so get lost in there as old as he is...

I walked back home in the dark wondering what recent photo I had of him that I could post on FB in the morning so my neighbors could keep lookout for him.

I've got some hearing loss too, so Duke isn't the only one.  But when I was within a block from home I suddenly heard a very creepy breathy whispery heh heh heh sound.  I stopped.  Did a complete 360, thinking that it was either Duke following me or some serial killer with emphysema.  

Neither.

The sound had stopped so I started walking again.  

Creepy breathy whispery heh heh heh again.

I stopped.  Coming out behind one of our cars was that dog...  He must have been running by the creek.  He was all sweaty and out of breath.  But of course, he's like that just walking from the laundry room to the kitchen... so who knows?

I called Meri and she had just pulled in but wasn't coming in.  Come ON girl!  So I went back outside and she was texting some friends in the car and sobbing.  I'm sure she had probably been crying as she drove around.

What a way to start your first day back!

So I had to wake her up this morning.  

TOO early...  She'll get the hang of this school thing again soon.