Stop the Squirrel INSANITY!

News Flash......

Squirrels in Sioux City Iowa suffering from obesity! Officials report local man contributes to the overweight dilemma for spoiled rodents who should be hibernating. Ramond Santi, soon to be retiree, has been supplying the neighborhood inhabitants with seed, corn and leftover pumpkins. At last report - Mr. Santi has been seen with a new assistant who seems to be eager to learn the art of squirrel stuffing. Mr. Santi and said helper can be seen in the following picture putting out new corn cobs, a much sought after snack for the fur covered gooballs suffering from the munchies.





In this picture - the assistant catches on quickly under the tutelage of Mr. Santi.


As you can see in this photo - Mr. Santi likes to provide buffet style dining for all the patrons.



Officials have yet to decide if Mr. Santi is breaking any laws or ordinances, but warn citizens that feeding , (or overfeeding) your neighborhood squirrels might just mean roof or car damage from the lardball falling out of the tree after his blubber finally breaks that branch or causes him to lose his balance and fall!

Funtime with Nana and Papa

We ventured down to Sioux City this past weekend to visit Nana and Papa. We hadn't been in SC for quite awhile, and Jerry's Pizza was callin'. Jakson got to take in his first M'Side basketball game. It was not long before he settled onto Papa's lap, popcorn and soda in hand.

The Mustangs won - although I would say not impressively - but a win is a win.

It was pretty nice last weekend so Jakson and Nana made a snowman (sort of - more like a snow troll) and even Aesa enjoyed the good weather.

It didn't take long for Papa to influence Jakson by tossing some snowballs at Nana!

The typical "spoiling your grandson" behavior ensued the rest of the day. Karla and I snuck out for a date night dinner at Rebos' (mighty spicy but very tasty) and then skipped around fourth street for awhile before heading back to the house. A good weekend over all. It didn't exactly help my diet too much, but hey - sometimes you just have to enjoy yourself.

A little boy and his dog

Aesa turns 7 in about 3 weeks. Jakson is is looking at going on 4 this year. It doesn't take much to figure Aesa is his big sister. She never paid much mind to Jakson, or him her for that matter, until more recently. I think he has discovered that she is more willing to play with him if he tries just a little, and she has realized that he provides much more entertainment than Karla and I do. This weekend they pretty much spent the entire time together. If is was on the couch, on the bed, or playing tug-of-war, Jakson always makes sure he gives Aesa a big hug and a kiss. It is amazing how she tunes into his personality and emotions. Tonight - Jakson was put into the corner for a timeout - and she went over and sat next to him and looked at him and then gave us a look as if to ask "What's wrong?" She didn't understand why her small human was pouting on the floor. We both had to chuckle to ourselves - it was pretty special.

Later in the evening - Jakson discovered a new sport - floor sledding. Think dog-sledding on carpet and that sums it up. We were laughing pretty good - I think it might have been something we could have submitted to America's Funniest Home Videos if we could have taped it. Jakson, who weighs in around 30lbs has little no chance against our 80lb lard ball. She pulled him around with little effort, and he giggled all the way.

Kids play hard - and they sleep hard. Jakson has another puppy to cuddle with, and Aesa has a new buddy to hog the couch with.

We're still around

Sorry - I was in Lincoln, NE all week for a sales meeting so I haven't had much time to write anything. Karla was busy wranglin' Jakson all week - so she didn't really have a chance either. I promise - once I get caught up and my eyes stop burning from all that "Husker Red" I will post something more of interest.

Happy New Year

Sorry for not posting in a while. It has been a busy weekend and week so far, and it's only Wednesday. I hope you had a great celebration to ring in the new year. We started the weekend off by taking Jakson sledding. He was a trooper and we ended up going both Saturday and Sunday. We have a great sledding hill not far from our house (as you can see by the photo) and Jakson slowly got braver and braver with each run with the sled. We eventually ended up about a third of the way before all was said and done. I managed a run down from the top. It's about 80 to 100 yards top to bottom and if you can imagine someone my size on this tiny sled careening down a bumpy hill at bone breaking speeds, well you have the making of a potentially large flash of snow and limbs....but I made it, and with out injury! We finished up the sled runs with catching snowflakes on our tongues and eating snow. (Jakson loves this) He never wanted to be carried and trucked up the hill a good dozen times each day, not to mention playing on the playground equipment too.


We also promoted Jakson to the "big boy" bed. He was getting to cramped in the toddler bed we had. He does well in this size bed and has yet to fall out (knock on wood) and I think (or hope anyway) that we'll have less visits at 4 am with someone wanting to share our bed. He helped pick out the the bed and headboard and now he can use the cool "Cars" quilt he got for xmas. Notice the nice tongue for the camera? He gets that from Karla! (I was never like that)

We spent new year's eve at some friends house hanging out and playing the Wii. We even made it to midnight to ring in the new year. Tuesday we spent the day watching football and hanging out. Kinda nice. Today it's cold (minus 25 with the wind chill) so to anyone in warm weather - you might want to think twice before coming this way anytime soon.

Happy New Year!