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June 2005 News
June
06
Tornado Warning
Posted by: Jennifer
We had quite the weather this evening. It started with some
thunder, then progressed to hail. I gathered some hailstones from
the back yard that were ping-pong ball sized and put them in the
freezer. Our house got progressively hotter and muggier as the
weather worsened so Jose and I escaped to the cool of the basement.
While we were watching the news on TV, there was a public warning for a
tornado in Coalhurst which is 5 minutes west of Lethbridge. That
had us a bit worried. Before we had gone downstairs, I'd been up
in the spare bedroom looking out the window when I saw what I thought
was a funnel cloud off to the west. Turns out I was looking at the
Coalhurst tornado. A few minutes after the first public warning,
there was another one telling people in Lethbridge to get down in their
basements as there was a tornado warning for here. That's when we
got a little nervous. Jose ran up and closed all the windows.
When he came back down, he had our next door neighbour with him.
Her husband is working out of town, so she's all alone with her little
boy. She was freaking out at home, and saw Jose checking out the
skies and asked if she could come to our place. She reported that
the sky was pretty scary - all swirly and black. So we had a bit
of tornado party in our basement. No other warnings came on, and
when we went to check the sky again, the sun was shining, the rain had
stopped, and it was starting to dry out. The sky to the east was
still really black, but the storm was definitely moving on. It's
really muggy now though, which I find hard to deal with. If it's
too miserable, we'll blow up the air mattress and set up the playpen in
the basement. I'm SO GLAD that we have a basement now. It
will make such a difference during the hot summer months. No more
putting up with a bedroom that's 37º on a good night the way it was the
summer we got married. I've got two fans running up on the top
floor, and one running in the kitchen. Hopefully that will help.
Bye for now
Jun
20
The silencing scent of citronella
Posted by: Jose
For those of you who know Sam, you'll know that he barks a great deal.
I think he barks just for the sake of barking; he likes the sound of his
own voice. However, we rented a special anti-barking collar that
sends a spray of citronella into Sam's face when he barks. It's much
nicer than a shock collar, and it's worked really well. We've been
setting him up to bark, and he's learning quite quickly. Good thing
he's a smart dog. And he won't get any mosquito bites! He does
understand that when the collar is on, he'll get sprayed if he barks, so
he tends not to bark as much when the collar is on as he does when he's
not wearing it. One downfall to having a smart dog!
My mum is
visiting this weekend. She came down yesterday afternoon, and is
spending today with us. We went out for supper yesterday to
celebrate Father's Day. We had a fairly quiet Father's Day. I
bought a cake Saturday that we ate with James, Jess and Ryan who came over
for supper before we went to "Batman Begins." We all came back to
the house afterwards for cake, which Jose knew nothing about.
James is doing well. He's having a nap right now. He's
sleeping at least seven hours a night on average now. He's so big that
he's wearing some six month outfits that fit quite well. There's
still some room to grow into them, but he's not swimming in them.
Bye for now
jun
16
Jame's Babtims and Sammi's Limp
Posted by: Jennifer
James's Baptism this weekend went off with a bang. It was a
really fabulous celebration. We had about 40 people over for lunch.
James received some wonderful gifts. At the service, James was a
very good boy. He was asleep during the whole thing, even when the
water was poured on his head! It was also my mum's 50th birthday.
She said she didn't mind sharing her big day with James!
Sammy has had a
limp for awhile. We had it checked out at the vet, who took some
x-rays. Unfortunately, one of the growth plates in his left front
legs has basically stopped growing. That means the bone it's
attached to isn't growing anymore, but the other bone in his leg is, and
it's curving over the shorter bone. If it's left to its own devices,
the leg will bow painfully out to the side. The only other option is
surgery, which could cost us about $3000. The surgery would have to
be done in Calgary, and he would likely have a limp for the rest of his
life. So we're pretty upset about this whole thing. We're not
really sure what we're going to do. Our vet here in town is going to
send his x-rays up to Calgary, and we'll see what the verdict is.
Right now we're praying for a miracle!
    
1. Claire and Miguel w/ James, 2. James and his new teddy from
Great-Granny - a 25-year-old tradition, 3. Paul and Catherine - proud
godparents, 4. Catherine and Chey w/ James, 5. Jose and I w/ Rev.
James
    
1. James w/ Mum and Dad, his Rodgers aunts and uncles, and Grandpa, 2.
Four generations!! 3. All the godparents,
4. Parents and godparents w/ the Little Love, 5. Natalia and John -
more proud godparents
    
1. Uncle John and James, 2. Proud grandmas, 3. James w/ his new doll,
Marc, 4. Jose and I thoroughly enjoy one of James's new books, 5. Auntie
Natalia, Mama July and James
    
1. Nana gets some lunch, 2. James w/ his new lamb, 3. James plays w/
his "Roll and Crawl" ball, 4. Token picture of Sammy, 5. James naps on
his new sheepskin
Bye for now
jun
10
Quick update
Posted by: Jennifer
Oops! It's been a few days since I've put anything up. Time
just gets away from me, and I don't know where it goes. James has
gone back to sleeping about six hours at night. Last night he woke
up at 2am, only 3 hours after I fed him, so rather than getting him up and
feeding him, I gave him his soother as an experiment, and he went back to
sleep until 5am. He certainly wasn't going to waste away because I
made him wait either. He weighed in at 14 pounds 5 ounces this week.
He's 24 inches long. He gained 12 ounces in one week!! He's in
the 50th percentile for his length and head size, and the 75th percentile
for weight! The doctor was pleased with his development though, so
there's nothing to worry about - he just likes to eat!
With all the
flooding around Southern Alberta, we've managed to stay dry. The
alley behind our house is higher than our back yard, so we had lots of
water on the grass at the back, but none came inside, and now the lawn is
thick and green! The Old Man River that runs through Lethbridge is
extremely full, although we didn't get any rain today (yet - it's building
up for a storm) and it has dropped back quite a bit. I managed to
get a walk in yesterday between rainy periods. And Sam and I went
for a walk in the rain on Monday after Jose got home. We were both
drenched but we both needed it, and felt better afterwards. The rest
of the week was not nearly so cranky!
Sammy has decided he really likes to dig. We caught him in the
act on Tuesday night. His entire face was covered in mud. In a
way, it was quite amusing. Of course, we took a picture.
    
    
Bye for now
jun
06
One of those days
Posted by: Jennifer
The weather in Lethbridge continues to be extremely gloomy. It
rained all day without a single break. I suppose that's good
though. It's been really dry here. Also, when there are
breaks in the rain, the wind dries up all the rain in record time so
I guess it's a good thing it hasn't stopped since yesterday evening.
Luckily, Jose had a chance to mow the lawn before it started up
again. With all the rain, the grass has been growing very
quickly.
I don't know if it's the weather or what, but today has been a
rather crabby day. James has been fussy all afternoon.
He kept falling asleep in my arms, but then wailing when I put him
down for a nap. I think that might be due to the fact that we
were in Medicine Hat this weekend, and he was thrown off his
routine. He got used to being held until he fell asleep all
weekend. He sleeps much better when he's allowed to fall
asleep on his own in his bed.
Having a fussy baby is one thing, but having the dog pee on the
carpet sure didn't help matters. If it had just been that, I
would still have been mad, but I could have kicked Sammy around the
block because this morning after Jose went to work, he barked and
howled and cried. I went down twice to make him stop.
The second time, he got a shoe thrown at his kennel, and that
finally made him stop. James has decided that sleeping six or
seven hours at a time during the night is not for him, so I was
really tired, and desperately needed the sleep. Hopefully Sam
won't do that tomorrow morning. I don't think he will.
He gets thrown off his routine easily too.
So you can see why I might be feeling a touch crabby. I told
Jose that I need to get out of the house. So after supper
we're going to go do something. I don't know what yet, but
something.
In more cheerful news, we had a good time in the Hat this weekend.
It was the first time we'd been since before the baby was born.
Sammy wore out his Uncle Buddy who didn't appreciate having a young
whipper snapper biting his ears and tail. James was greatly
admired at the Spanish church. He started wailing during the
praise music at the beginning. I think it was way too loud for
him. So we went downstairs together to have some elevenses.
He hadn't eaten since he woke up which was his other problem.
That's all for now. Just a reminder, Jaime's Baptism is this
weekend. Lunch at our house afterwards.
Bye for now
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