Pup's 1st Birthday

Yup, this pup is 1. Although we have not been here for a year, our beloved German Shepherd is celebrating his first year in Idaho.

Yes he is truly an Idahoan puppy. I’m not sure if you recall the story of how we acquired said dog, but I’ll retell it in just in case.

You see we were moving here from Chicago during one of the coldest spells in December. We wanted to be here and set up before Christmas. Our luck ran out in our last town and we needed a change. Our visit last summer brought us as far as Sandpoint and Coure D’Alene. It was love at first sight and we knew we were destined to move here.

Fast forward to December as we are trekking our way through the states traveling West. Now you may remember that I hadn’t even seen the house we were buying except in pictures and a poorly shot video. We also didn’t know as much about the area as we should have prior to moving. If you know us well, we can be spontaneous people.  We packed and moved within a 6 week time frame.

Here we are on our last leg of the trip passing through Utah and entering into Idaho. We stop for the night somewhere around Idaho Falls. Hubby has always wanted a dog and a German Shepherd was it. I think he had been searching for one all during our trip. The morning of our last leg, he shows me a picture of the cutest puppies and well who couldn’ t resist.

He said, “Hey, would you like to go and check out some puppies?” Anyone knows that “check out” is code for “Hey, come look at these irresistible dogs that you will end up taking home with you!” That is about how it went. We stopped off at a pet store along the way to get us set up. You know the essentials: dog food, treats, toys, leash, collar, and bed.  Yes you read correctly, we bought these things before we purchased the dog. Why? We didn’t know if we were going to encounter another store before we got home.

Speaking of home, I forgot to mention that we were still 6 hours away from our final destination.

We get to the house where they are selling the dogs and we quickly choose one because it is freezing outside. The kids are extremely excited and want to hold him in their laps. So, we manage a way for him to sit on 2 out of 3 kids laps because that is how big he is. It becomes a bit unstable for him and the kids are complaining

because he is heavy.

There is no other room in our vehicle because the back is jammed packed with our worldly belongings. Yes we picked up this creature along the way. We are still 5 hours out and through a moutainess journey.

Can you guess where the dog ended up riding? Yup, on my lap. Now he is way too big to be on anyone’s lap.

Happy 1^st birthday Pup! This name has stuck and all others have failed. Yes, I did make his cake as I do all of my children. The kids were super excited to celebrate his day. Along with making his cake, we bought him some new toys. 

Boom, Pop, Fizz

Today the kids turned in their paper filled with circles for the library’s reading program. This started in June and kids were encouraged to read a book or have a book read to them (young ones). At the end, you returned your paper. They would donate $1 to the humane society, the older kids got a button and pencil, and the younger one got stickers and a growth chart. Then they each got to pick out a book to keep.

I am extremely happy that my kids were able to participate in the summer reading program at our library. First all, two of them are able to read books confidently for the first time. Although I have always read to them and have been trying get them to read on their own—it has only started working.

My style of teaching is a bit lax and I let them guide me as to what they want to do. I have taught them phonics and have felt that one day it will all come together. We had been reading and I have had a lot of push back from them.

This summer reading program came at a perfect time because I felt Braedon was now becoming an independent reader. I still felt that he needed more guidance and assistance when he encountered words he could not pronounce. He would get frustrated and want to give up. The program is designed to have the parent keep track of the books the kids read. I would tell him every day that he needed to read a book in order to fill in his circle for the day.

We would go to the library and they could choose the books they wanted. I would also choose books I felt would help propel them to the next level. Both boys are gaining more confidence and well the little one just loves all books.

I am grateful for the helpful staff and the large assortment of books. Coming from Chicago, this library is a sanctuary for our homeschooling family.  In Chicago, I always felt like a criminal checking out books, you could only hold 3 books, when you requested a hold it took about a week or more, and often you could not find the books you went to get. I know that the Chicago was understaffed and probably underpaid. That is why I find our new library so refreshing.

I was super surprised my kids were so happy with the prizes they received. I told them they should be grateful for whatever they get because normally when they read books, they don’t get anything in return. They were thrilled and thanked the staff member.

I just might have to create my own reward system to continue the journey. They did still push back a bit, but I can push harder. I want to build strong confident readers and I know it will lead to strong-well-spoken children. 

Fire, fire, fire--oh wait it is just smoke, smoke, smoke

I woke up yet again to the smell of smoke.  Once again, I look out all of my windows and I can’t see anything. I just smell it. There is a significant breeze coming in from the southwest and this time it smells like wood. I veered outside and it was very hazy from where the wind was blowing.

Earlier this week I awoke at 3am to heavy smoke which smelled like BBQ or garbage. Really? Neighbors can you really be cooking at that hour. I thought it was garbage and that maybe they weren’t supposed to be burning it. Do we have sneaky neighbors?

Not really knowing what I should do, I phoned the fire department for advice. I was given Joe Williams’, Fire Marshall, voice mail. Oh, I’m in for it now the Fire Marshall. I just left him a message about my concern. He phoned me back promptly, but was unable to comfort me. There were no reported fires that evening in our area. 

Darn, I was sure it had to be something serious.

His advice was to drive around and snoop (I mean get to know) my neighbors.  I should see what they are up to and find out the burning regulations in my area. He also stated that the wind matters a great deal. You can smell fires burning from miles away. He said that we should keep our hoses out in case of a fire, keep an area of green around our home, and report anything. I asked specifically what does “anything” mean? He said they would come out no matter what I reported and they would do their best to track down the fire.

Now I know better not to report a fire until you see flames, but he made it sound like I can call with any concerns. Ok that did make me feel a bit better, but I don’t want to waste their time looking for something when they can actually be putting out a real fire.

Probably as the season moves on and we hopefully get more rain, we will be immune to the whole wildfire frenzy. We will then get excited as the weather turns colder and the smell of tamarack, oak, or other woods are burning in chimneys (where they are contained).

For now dear neighbors if you are planning a BBQ after the 10pm hour, I must insist upon an invitation. Otherwise, I might be running with my hose and may have even phoned Moscow FD.