Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas has finally arrived. I hope all of you are having a very merry Christmas. We are having a nice one here. We went to Christmas Eve church service last night (well the family did, they left me at home in my cage). They told me they sang Christmas carols and heard about Jesus being born in a manger.

We opened presents this morning. You'd think it was everyone else's birthday, other than Jesus the way everybody got presents. Last night I heard some hoof beats on the roof and some fat guy in a red suit came into the house and left all the presents. I stayed quiet so no one would wake up when he came in. He was very nice and left me a new bed too. Mom got a new ring and the kids and Dad got Nintendo's.

Salvation Army Bell Ringing

It rained allot yesterday and all the snow is gone. Then it turned windy and cold. The wind was so strong it knocked over signs and mailboxes. Everything is okay at our house, but the bird house Aidan made for Mother's Day was knocked out of the tree. Dad will fix it when the wind dies down. It is really cold here today.

Yesterday Aidan helped the Salvation Army by manning a kettle and ringing a bell for them at the mall. His Soo Bahk Do class took responsibility for the kettle all day yesterday.

Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look Allot Like Christmas

Huey came to visist us again. Huey loved the snow. We're getting allot of snow. It snowed last night and it is snowing again now. At least it's not too cold.

Dad was traveling agin this week. he's working on some project and he's been gone allot lately. He's back now and should be staying around most of the time now.

We got a bunch of snow overnight.

I'm just hanging out inside today!

Rhianonno had a dance audition yesterday. Dad took Aidan Christmas shopping. Mom has spent the whole day cleaning after Huey and the kids trudge in with snow.

Joey's Birthday

Christmas is coming and we set up the Christmas tree last weekend. Aidan and Rhi put up most of the ornaments. Mom helped and Dad and I watched.

Huey came back to visit for a couple of days. I had fun playing with him again.

It was Joey's Birthday yesterday. we had a big ice storm, but everybody came over anyway. Aunt Patty even came to visit. It was lots of fun. Joey got some really cool presents. He got his own Gameboy so that he won't have to borrow Rhi or Aidan's any more. I think that's his favorite present.

Happy Thanksgiving

BE THANKFUL
Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.
It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.

Rhi's Birthday

Rhiannon had her birthday this week. We celebrated with a party at our house on Saturday night. Rhiannon got all kinds of cool stuff. She was really happy. She had a beautiful cake.

Aunt Patty came down to visit. That made it extra special. Dad took a great picture of Mom. Look at her beautiful smile!

I had allot of fun at the party.

It was also Halloween this week. Aidan dressed up as Scream. Joey was Spiderman. Rhi wore Dad's lab coat and Mom's Stethoscope. Aidan got a ton of candy. Rhiannon worked at church. Dad was traveling so he couldn't take any pictures. Sorry.

Cousin Huey Visits

This is a picture of my cousin Huey. He lives with Mom's sister Val and her husband Butch. They went away for vacation and we got stuck with this overgrown mutt. Butch is the one who brought me to this family. Huey is a golden retriever. Everybody's paying lots of attention to him.

Huey is fun to play with. Huey likes to try to get my whole head in his mouth.

I think Mom like Huey more than me. Huey really likes Mom. He follows her everywhere. He also like Joey. Its funny to watch a 120 pound dog try to climb in Joey's bed, but it kind of freaks Joey out. Joey says "Owie" when Huey slobbers on him.

We only have to take care of him for a week so I'll survive. I'm not sure about the cat, Gracie. She's been hiding up above the dryer since he moved in.

Joey has been having some fun with Huey. At least he doesn't ignore him. He says "Huey" allot now. I hope Val and Butch come home and my family doesn't decide to keep him.

Of Bats and Birthdays

Dad started to take the treehouse down last weekend. When he removed one board, he saw some movemnet. It was a pair of bats. They look really cool. They're small and black, and, well there's a picture above.

Dad left the board where it was, but a day later they moved on.

Rhi and Aidan helped Dad out.

We also celebrated Mom's birthday. We had pizza, cupcakes, and ice cream. [Well everyone else did, I didn't. :(]

Lily dropped by to wish Mom a happy birthday.

I gave Mom this card along with a movie.
Then I fell asleep on Papa's lap.

Uncle Jerry Visits Chicago and Sees Rocks from Around the World

Over Labor Day weekend, Uncle Jerry (Lacy's dad) came to visit Chicago for some kind of political science convention. (Jerry's big on political science.) On Friday, Jerry and Dad walked around downtown Chicago at lunch time. Then on Saturday, Aunt Patty and Dad took Uncle Jerry out to dinner and more walking around and seeing the sights.

I think Uncle Jerry's favorite building was the Tribune Tower. It was built in the 1920's after the Chicago Tribune held a contest for architects to design the most beautiful building. The coolest thing about the building is that it has stones in it from all kinds of famous places all over the world. Dad took a picture of the stone from the Kremlin. (Uncle Jerry studied Russian in school.)

Then they took a walk over to Navy Pier, where Dad took this picture of Uncle Jerry and Aunt Patty at sunset.

Manteno Lake closed on Labor Day. No more swimming this year. Well they had fun at the lake over the summer and it'll open again on Memorial Day. I guess summer is just about over.

Summer's Almost Over

Well, summer's almost over. It's already Labor Day weekend. We had so much fun this summer. I know it's been a while since I wrote. I'm sorry, but August was a little crazy.

Dad spent a week in Albuquerque for work. He said it was nice. He brought presents home for everyone, including me. :) Mom and Rhi got some sterling silver and turquoise jewelry. Aidan got a box to keep his special things in. Joey got a plaque for his wall. I got a bandanna.

While Dad was in Albuquerque, he saw two friends that he works with, Charlotte and Gary. They went out to dinner and Dad took this picture of them. Gary and Charlotte both work for Dad. Charlotte works in Virginia and Gary in New Jersey.

Mom, Rhi, Aidan and Joey went to the zoo with Rhi's friend Molly and her mom, Cindy. Here's a picture of Rhi and Molly.

Nano and Papa got a new puppy. Her name is Lily and she's mostly fur. She's pretty, but with all that fur, it's hard to believe there's a dog inside there. She looks like a hairball to me, but everybody seems to love her. School started last week. Joey is in first grade and he has a new helper named Arlene. His helper from last year, Mr. Kasper, passed away from bone cancer while they were away on vacation.

Mr. Kasper was a very special friend to Joey and we are all going to miss him allot.

Aidan is in the Labor Day parade today with his Soo Bahk Do school. He just tested for his next belt. He did really well and should move up a rank once the test scores are posted. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll put up some pictures from the parade in my next post. Have a nice Labor Day and I'll write again soon.

North Carolina (OBX and Cherokee)

Well, I'm not angry at them any more, so I'll show you some pictures from their vacation. They went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Everybody loved it. Joey had a ball playing in the sand and in the waves (Dad was never far away when Joey went out).

Aidan and Rhi really had fun playing in the sand and waves; riding boogie boards and flying kites. Even Mom had time to sit back and relax on the beach.

It was Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Anniversary. Everyone went. Days in the sun at the beach and exploring the Outer Banks, and evenings visiting and playing cards.

On the way home, they stopped in Cherokee, NC and visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. It was a very cool place. Rhi and Aidan stood on the NC/TN border in the Smoky Mountains.

Home Again

Well, they dumped me! They dumped me at a boarding house for 10 days. Mom cried. She made Dad take me. It wasn't so horrible, but I heard one of the girls at the boarding house mention that I have issues. ISSUES! They dump me in a strange place without explanation and I'm the one with issues. Geez!

Well I found out what they were up to. They spent a week at the beach. Here are a couple of pictures. It looks like they had fun (without me!). I guess I'll forgive them. Maybe I'll tell you more about their vacation another day when I'm not so mad.

Echoes

Another busy week. Dad went to Louisville for one night. Dad left really early, but he saw a beautiful sunrise on the way there. He brought me back a new bandana. It says, "Life is good if your the Big Dog." The only problem is... I'm not. Mom is. She got a shirt that says "Big Dog Mom... She Who Must Be Obeyed." In fact, Dad brought home something for everyone except Gracie from Big Dogs. Big Dogs is a store that, well... sells Big Dog stuff.

Last week the paper ran a story about another little girl whose little brother is autistic, like Joey. Her name is Lily and she is raising money for her brother too. She held a walk for autism. Pretty cool. In the article she says that she read about Rhiannon and it inspired her to do something for her brother.

One of Dad's favorite singers is a lady named Dar Williams. She has a haunting voice. On her latest CD there is a song called Echoes (click link to listen). The lyrics are:

"Every time you love just a little,
Take one step closer,
Solving
the riddle.
It echoes all over the world.

Every time you open to
kindness,
Make one connection used to divide us.
It echoes all over the
world."

So, I guess Dar would say that Rhiannon started an echo. Pretty cool!

Lately, I've been enjoying playing with Gracie. She's been enjoying growling, hissing and trying to kill me. We're getting along great!

Busy Times in Bourbonnais

Okay. It's been a while since my last post. So much has happened and I haven't had time to write. First, the festival was a blast. Everyone had fun. Then Aunt Patty and Aunt Linda, Cousins David and Andre and Grandma all cam to visit. What a blast they are. Then we had "Vacation Bible Fun" at church. Then it was Fourth of July. Wow! What a busy two weeks. I'll try to summarize.


Everyone (except me and Mom) went on rides at the Festival. Here is a picture of Rhi, Joey and Dad on the fun slide.



Unfortunately, everyone was having so much fun during the visit no one took any pictures. Andrew and David are allot of fun. They have two dogs. I think I'm happy I'm the only one here!


Mom cooked all the food for VBF. About 300 meals a night. VBF was fun, but hectic. Rhiannon sang two solos. She has a very nice voice. David and Andrew were there for the first two nights, and then left. Everyone missed them the last three nights.

Fireworks are kinda scary. Aidan thinks they're too loud. Joey (who is generally upset by loud noises loves them. We had two sets of fireworks, one during the festival and one on Independence Day. It rained during both of them. :( Joey still loved them.



Rhiannon leaves today for dance camp in Chicago. I'll miss her this week. There will be no one to rescue me from Aidan.

Friendship Festival

The Friendship Festival kicked-off on Wednesday. Rhiannon was the Grand Marshal of the Children's Parade on Friday. Check out this link that tells her story. She got to ride in a Corvette. Dad got to drive it and Mom and Joey rode along too. Dad had a hard time keeping it under 5 mph and when he got to the end, I thought he was going to take off down 102 and Rhiannon would fly off the back. Thankfully he was able to restrain himself (and the car) and everyone made it home safely, including the Corvette!

Afterwards everybody went to the carnival and had a great time. Joey's favorite ride is the kite flyer. It goes around and around in circles. Next to it is the tilt-a-whirl, and it also goes around in circles. When one stops, Joey just turns around and watches the other one. Joey doesn't ride on them, he just watches. When they both stop at the same time... Joey gets mad!

Joey rode on the slide with Rhiannon and Dad and also on the Merry-Go-Round. He seemed to like them.

Today is Saturday and there are fireworks tonight. Mom invited a bunch of friends over to watch from our backyard. It'll be the first time I meet most of them. (I hope they like me.)

Oh, one other thing... Allot of people have asked me what Joey's autism is like. I guess there are allot of different types of autism. Joey's is pretty much like the one described by David Royko in an article from the Chicago Tribune a couple of weeks ago. His son is about 6 years older than Joey. The story is called "The Chronicles of Ben." That's pretty much the way Joey is. Its really sad and I cried when Dad read it to me. I hope Joey has a brighter future, but if not, I know we'll still get along fine.

Crazy Times on Father's Day

UPDATE: Rhiannon made the local paper... See her at

http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=397465

Ok. I just gotta say this. These people are totally crazy. I mean outright insane. I will never understand people. And some of these other dogs who follow them around... they're crazy too.

I'm getting ahead of myself. So today is Father's Day and we go over to Aunt Amy and Uncle Joe's house. They have a pool in the back yard. A pool is this big, well, for lack of a better term, water dish. I'd never seen anything like it. And everyone gets into it and plays. They are laughing and carrying on and having fun. Then this big dog named Annie, who belongs to my Uncle Jon comes over. Annie jumps right in the pool and starts swimming like everyone else. Boy it was hot and everybody seemed to be having so much fun, so I tried it. OMG! I almost drowned. Why do you people do this?!

So after I figure out how to get out... Dad puts me in again, just to take my picture! Geez!

Then everyone stands around laughing at me and says that I look like a sewer rat from Mexico (only they say "Me-Hee-co") and talk like the taco bell dog. I am totally embarrassed.

So then Mom takes me home.

Oh, yeah... We got Dad some Tootsie Rolls and a coupon to buy a new hammock for Father's Day.

Joey got so tired that he had to veg out with Uncle Joe on the couch. Uncle Joe showed him how to surf the channels.