the sound of my voice

Why is it that some people’s voices can make you do things?

Remember when you were a kid and your mother or father said.. “Donny, come in here.” in a stern yet commanding voice and you wasted no time in getting your butt in there? Oh yeah, that was me.

Or remember Mr. MaLean our 10th grade history teacher who simply said at the beginning of class… “Work.” and we all did?

Why is it the sound of someone’s voice makes us do things?

For young kids it is different. I mean, look at Santa… Little kids see him and they get all wigged out!
Or grandparents. Grandparents wig little kids out in a good way.

So this same phenomenon is happening in our household right now.
It is happening to Taffy who is 3 and a half months old.

Every time someone who will remain nameless but starts with John and ends with Koehler comes over, our dog pees on instinct.
Last week we were cutting Taffy’s hair, John comes over to pick up Justin from a play date. Taffy is so excited to see him, she pees right where she is.
Last night, the Koehler kid’s come over for piano lessons, Taffy sees John, pees on the floor.
Man, you would think that she has a crush on him or something. It is truly bizarre.
I am gonna have to have the guy call me before he comes over so I can take the puppy outside and she can pee all see wants.
Or John is gonna have to change his voice. One or the other.

I think it is really cute actually. The dog gets completely spazzy for John, can’t lick him enough, can’t stop her tail (which in effect shakes her whole body). Taffy does the same for John’s wife Christine, but not in the same intensity.
It’s like a Pavlovian bell.
Weird.

Feeling a little better.

Jacks is feeling better. I am pretty sure he will be returning to school tomorrow.
I am not really feeling a whole lot better yet. My throat is sore and I am lethargic.
Well, sometimes I am lethargic anyways….

Sick.

I am sick.
Even worse, Jackson is sick as well.

We went to church yesterday morning, taught Sunday School, then came home.
We pretty much sat on the couch the whole day feeling blechy…

Blech.

We did get to watch the Grey Cup though. That was good. Saskatchewan beat Winnipeg. Good game. It was a good thing that Kevin Glenn was out. I honestly believe that Winnipeg would have won with their big quarterback on the field.

Things I learned in the last 2 weeks….

when you sit in a room for 6 hours that has a smoky fireplace, you will smell like smoke.

Blackberrys and clothes washers do NOT mix well.

No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to please everyone. Someone is undoubtedly going to think you are wrong.

There are a lot of people who think they know a lot about computers but know very little and are dangerous..( I consider myself one of these quite often)

I do not know enough. I wish I could know what everyone believed and thought about the church and its mandate.

Scary dreams

I do not very often have nightmares.

In fact, they are very rare for me.

Last night I had one and it was not pleasant at all.
It revolved around the fact that my family and I were somewhere cold and a big thaw came in and there was separating ice and water and Jackson fell in and could not be retrieved.
Scary. I mean really scared.

I woke up in a sweat. I had to physically get out of bed, go into his room, kneel down by his head and listen to him breathe to set my mind at rest.
Even then it took me at least 3 more hours to get back to sleep.

I had to hug him tightly this morning and make him promise that he would not let go of my hand if we ever are in a situation like that…..

I love that kid. He simply hugged me back tightly and assured me of his love.

What a difference 24 hours makes

So yesterday I blogged about how the weekend went and how the puppy was injured.
Man, what a difference 24 hours of rest can make….

Throughout the day, Nan and I periodically would be saying to the pup.. “slow down!” or “not so fast you!”

This morning, she has been trotting around the family room and giving herself a good bath. This is incredible in the fact that in order to give herself a bath, she has to bend in ways that yesterday morning would have had her yelping and crying. This morning she is doing acrobatics to have a bath. Amazing. She was at one point this morning, scratching herself with her bad leg!

Wow, I wish I could heal that quickly.
She is by no means, completely back to 100%. She trots like a gimp but she is at least trotting….

This is a good sign.

What a weekend!

Well, it has been quite the weekend.

Nan and I were lucky enough to get away this weekend with Eric and Lindsay to Toronto. We went with for the purpose of going to see We Will Rock You! which is a musical based on the band Queen. What a great time we had. The music was phenomenal and the story was quite good. Humourous in parts even.

We left Saturday morning after John and Christine came to our place. They had a showing of their place and were taking care of the boys for the time we were away so it made great sense for them to come and chill out at our place for the day.

We arrived in St. Thomas, picked Eric and Lindsay up at their house, and took off for the Big Smoke. We stopped by Espresso Planet and bought a bunch of coffee syrups for ourselves and other people who wanted some, I drooled at the fancy espresso machines for a while.

Then we took off for downtown and checked in at the Marriott. After checking in, we decided to walk along Bloor St. and window shop a bit. Fun. There are some pretty high-end stores there so it was fun.

We then had supper at a restaurant called Belini’s. It is supposedly one of the top 20 restaurants in Toronto. The waiter sure was crusty enough. Man, that is another story altogether.

On our way to the restaurant, we got a call from John, who was watching our boys. The puppy had gotten underfoot during the afternoon and been stepped on and was yelping alot. He decided it best to take her to the after hours vet clinic. Broken leg. Ah the joys of puppy ownership!

I know the Koehler’s felt bad but they need not. She is a puppy and puppies get underfoot. That is what they do. So, off to the clinic, an x-ray for confirmation and and pain medications!

Meanwhile, back in Toronto, we hurried to the Canon Theatre across from the Eaton Centre, which we did not know had before been called the Pantages, or the Royal Alexander. Man, they change their names a lot!

The musical was so much fun. I really enjoyed it.
After the show, we made our way back to the hotel, the girls went to bed and Eric and I hung out for an hour or so downstairs in the bar.
We had a great talk.

Sunday morning, Eric and I went in search of Starbucks coffee. The one that is in the underground was closed. bummer. But we found another within 90 seconds walk or so. Only in North America huh?
Took the coffees back to our respective rooms, enjoyed coffees, got ready and then did a little more window shopping. At about noon, we took off for Missisauga where we went to Shoeless Joe’s for lunch. VERY tasty.

A quick run back to St. Thomas and then home. John brought the kids home a few minutes later and then we settled in for the night. Wow, what a weekend. Busy, but a real treat.

Big Smoke day

Nan and I are off to Toronto today with Eric and Lindsay. We are going to see We Will Rock You. It is a musical based on the band Queen who is incidentally one of my all-time favourite groups!

We have had this planned for quite some time. We are really looking forward to hanging out with Eric and Lins. Should be lots of fun.

The boys and the pup are going to be spending the next day or so with Koehler’s. John and Christine are quite excited about having the boys. They are also very excited about having the pup with them.

Should be a fun weekend.
I am feeling pretty good about all this because this week was really stressful at work. I have finalized one project and it seems jumped right into the thick of the next one. man. oh well, it will be worth it I think. It is a good size project and I am 85% there I think.