But I thought I would post an update. Fall is in full swing and the leaves are now on the ground. We had nine puppies and were able to get rid of eight, and we kept one and named her Ginger. Not that I really want three labs, but I was over ruled. We were bummed with the election but life goes on. The worst part is that assisted suicide got voted yes in Washington! How gross is that?

James' parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, so he and I are heading down today for a quick trip. Julie is watching our kids for us. We're just hoping our dog, Molly, doesn't have her puppies while we're gone!

I love summer. School is out, the weather is gorgeous and I just got home from my sister's home in Roseburg, OR and picked many, many strawberries. We ate strawberries until we could eat no more. I made 6 batches of jam, brought home a cooler full of frozen berries and several pounds of fresh berries. We had strawberry shortcake every day. It was strawberry heaven. The one huge blight was the poison oak. Luke is violently allergic to it. The other three kids climbed all through it and got not one spot on them. Luke touched a leaf, washed his hands and he's now unrecognizable. I had to take him to the urgent care place in Roseburg and they gave him some shots. That was Thursday and by that evening he was worse. His left eye was swollen shut and his face was oozing and puffy. We drove home Friday - 8 hours with barely a stop - took him to the medi center here and they sent him straight to the hospital. They gave him an I.V. and he's doing better now. I, however, woke up at 4 a.m. and had to go make sure he was still alive. He looks so pathetic. But at least we'll be able to enjoy the jam for months to come!

A puppy followed me home this morning on my run. He was following this other man who walks, then he decided he liked me better I guess. I got to our gate and left him outside, but he managed to worm his way through the fence. Our other dogs are so happy, and the kids are outside playing with him and they've named him Randy. We have Simon, who is almost 2, a golden Lab. And we have Molly who is a 9 month old golden lab, and our nephew's and niece's dog Lucy, who is part black lab, and our neighbor's dog, Marley who crawls under the fence every day, a golden retriever. Too many dogs around here. I'll have to post some signs today. *sigh* He has no collar.

We're getting ready for our Florida trip. I checked the weather and it's warm there! Last night on our way home from karate, the car was making a funny noise, I thought a window was down but it ended up being a flat tire. Thankfully James was nearby and he and another friend came and fixed it. It took almost an hour and it was freezing outside. It took me a couple hours to warm up afterwards! My last flat tire was long before Luke was born, so this one should hold me over for another 15 years or so. We went skiing on Wednesday. Nathan and I stayed on the bunny hill - that was enough excitement for me. It snowed and the wind blew the whole time. Brrr. James and the girls hit the big slopes and had a ball. It's going to be so weird to be in 85 degree weather on Monday. I'm actually looking forward to thawing out for a few days!