St Pat’s from Aberdeen March 17, 2009

Liza has been in Aberdeen for 2 weeks and 1 day. She is heading back to the cities tomorrow – and has had many adventures.

Mark and Michael were gone until early Saturday  morning – so up until then, there were dog chores, casino chores, house chores, little dog chores, and work chores to be done. Tony came and helped for a week, so that was wonderful. Mark and Michael got home early on Saturday, after having been up for a whole day. We met them at the airport, helped them unpack, and settled in for a day of doing chores and getting organized.

Michael’s 13th birthday party was on Sunday afternoon. Four friends joined us out a the bowling alley and the boys bowled for three hours. We bowled a couple of games, and decided, quite frankly, that we just aren’t that good at bowling. But it was a fun and stress free party, as now that the boys are 13, its much easier to supervise. We were remembering what pool parties at 5 years old were like – and not wanting to go back to that time!!!

Sunday evening was spent doing dog chores, and dealing with little dogs in the house. We watched some TV and just got things organized, and worked on loads of make up work for Michael. Tony left on Monday afternoon, to head back to the cities, and Liza is still in Aberdeen, wrapping things up and waiting for her car to be finished so that she can go pick it up. She’s got a few errands to run – getting ready to head back to minneapolis tomorrow!

Sad about missing St Pats in the cities though. The past couple of years have been reall fun, so here’s to everyone else and drinking green beer!

New photos in the Picassa photo album. (on the right hand side under links). Dog yard fun in Aberdeen, plus little dogs, plus Michael’s birthday party. Great stuff!

Spring Forward! March 9, 2009

Hello to you all, on the first Monday that it is light out later! It is so exciting to see the change in the sun – of course, since we’re all about to get hit with a blizzard, its not THAT exciting!

At the end of February, we both went to Aberdeen to see Liza’s mom off for Alaska. We stayed a couple of nights, helped Diane get packed, Michael caught up with school, and  Mark get settled with the house and dogs after Diane left. We returned to Minneapolis with two of their little dogs, Rx and Ringo, in tow, because its much easier for Mark to handle just one dog. For the next week, there were 5  Klee Kai in our house! Even though the dogs are all, for the most part, well behaved, it was a bit crazy and ridiculous to have so many furry friends in our  house with us. Needless to say, Tony was a bit relieved when the time came for Liza to head to Aberdeen – if only for the fact that there’d be less dogs for him to deal with!

Liza left Minneapolis on Monday  March 2nd (after a fantastic Junebug show in Mankato on the 1st) and headed to Aberdeen. She brought back Diane’s dogs, Rx and Ringo, and brought Wicket as well – so that Tony only had to deal with the two girls at our house. She spent Monday night packing Michael and Mark, starting to clean up the house, and getting herself and the dogs organized for an extended “vacation” at the Johnson house. Liza and Wicket have been hanging out at the Johnson’s ever since, with Libby, Rx, and Ringo.  Mark and Michael got on the early flight Tuesday morning, and ever since then, Liza’s been cleaning, dealing with little dogs in the house, taking care of the big dog dog-yard – (with 15 big dogs) and taking care of business at the casino. She hasn’t managed to get much work done of her own, but she’s getting there!

Aberdeen, as well as Minneapolis, is under a blizzard warning for the next few days. Tony was going to come to Aberdeen sometime this week, but after he heard about the blizzard warning, he packed up Daisy and Willie and headed out tonight. Liza expects him around 2 AM, and is looking forward to having a little bit of help in the crazyness that is the Johnson household!

Mark and Michael will be back anytime between Wednesday night and Friday – details to be announced at a later date! As soon as Tony gets to Aberdeen, the Kollmans and all 6  Klee Kai will settle in for a few days!