The kids (and that means Dave too) were enjoying their first “workable” snow of the season.
What does “workable” mean? It means snow angels that didn’t blow away, plus snowmen and snow forts!
Enjoy the slideshow!
Like I’d mentioned earlier, there is a base theater here which shows almost-first-run films. They show other stuff too (I saw “Goodfellas” the other day, “Scarface” is running at 2am Saturday morning). As for the first-runs, they’re currently showing “The Wrestler”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Nights at Rodanthe”, “Miracle at St. Anna”, and “Marley & Me”.
Many of you know that I wanted to see “Marley & Me”. I’m always game for cute movies about dogs. It played at 11am today, since my bedtime is 2pm it was perfect. I even had time for a run beforehand.
Boy, watching that film was like watching a movie made about Dave and me.
“WHAT? Since when would anybody cast Jennifer Anniston to play YOU in a movie?”*
Okay, okay, kill the glamour of it all. Break it down to the storyline. Newlyweds, each getting along in their careers, decide to get a dog. Then a couple years go by, they decide to start a family (in Florida, no less, sound familiar?). When the second child comes along, Mom makes a conscious decision to stop working to raise the kids (again, sound familiar?). She goes through the exhaustion, the periods of bitterness and resentment of giving up her career for the family, etc. Dad is faced with relocating the family (sound familiar 6 times over?). The dog is there through all of that. He sleeps on the kids’ bunk bed (sound familiar?), the kids don’t know life without the dog (sound familiar?).
(Note: Our Howie’s behavior is nothing like Marley’s. Unless faced with a squirrel.)
Anyway, while most people would cry at the end, I was in tears all through the movie, from them choosing the puppy all the way to the end (which I won’t give away). I guess I was really missing my boys. All my boys. Dave, Howie, Jacob and Timmy. All of us girls in the theater cried, we all had to run to the bathroom afterwards to grab paper towels.
I don’t think I reacted that way to a movie since “My Dog Skip” (2000), which, incidentally, stars Luke Wilson. Owen (Luke’s brother) was in “Marley and Me”.
Bottom line: I highly recommend the film, but bring a BOX of Kleenex. Perhaps I was better off waiting till I got home to see it.
I had to say goodbye to my boys this morning.
Surprisingly, no tears…so far.
This is a Pre-Birthday cake for Timmy. We’re going to do cake and a couple gifts tonight, mainly so Mommy gets her chance to sing “Happy Birthday” to her almost-4-year-old. Dad plans to have a few friends over for cake and ice cream closer to Timmy’s actual birthday on the 26th.
But the cake! Where do I begin??? First the icing base coat fills with crumbs, making the icing layer appear all mottled. Then the spray-on yellow square has some bleed off. Then I run out of icing before I can really finish Spongebob. I had planned to dress him, at least.
But look on the bright side: I don’t think there’s any doubt in who that is, right??
This not a rigid amount of time but I think it’s a good estimate…90
days in theater, plus some travel time on both ends. Jacob will have a
new responsibility: adding one number on the left, subtracting one on
the right…every day till I come home.
With Jacob’s affinity for numbers this will be really good for him.
I just realized that I never blogged about Dave’s and my first baby, Howie.
 |
| From Howie |
The day we got him, he had to wear the leash for about 24 hours straight and the crate was his home for the first 18 months or so.
Or Howard.
Or Howie-the-Wonder-Dog.
 |
| From Howie |
Howie is our 8 1/2 year old Lab-Chow Chow mixed breed puppy. We got him in August 2000, just after our 5th anniversary, from a shelter in Kettering (near Dayton), Ohio. Dave and I were grad students at the time, and it wasn’t hard for us to spend enough time at home to help housetrain Howie. We also had ample time for some good training early on, which is probably the best time investment you can make in a pet
 |
| From Howie |
We were hoping for a big, Lab-sized dog with Lab-length fur, and we ended up with something closer in size and fur to a Border Collie. Howie is a very calm dog, rather quiet, and chasing rodents is his #1 downfall.
 |
| From Howie |
This is the scene that Dave and I faced when we’d head out the door to school in the morning…Howie with a toy in his mouth, making us feel SO guilty for leaving him for a few hours.
Before we had human babies, Howie was the one we would spoil at Christmas, he’d come with us everywhere, and before the quarantine rules changed, we were even convinced that we didn’t want to get stationed in Hawaii, we couldn’t bear to have to quarantine Howie for a number of months!
 |
| From Howie |
Howie would jump the gate when it was just one gate, so we had to use two baby gates.
Howie is the most laid-back dog you’ll ever know. In fact, he’s more like a cat in so many ways! He enjoys sitting at a window looking out at the world and he’s a very picky eater. He doesn’t play with toys the way other dogs do — Howie has his favorite stuffed dinosaur and bunny rabbit (from his puppy days) but otherwise he enjoys chasing squirrels in our backyard, and nipping at loose pant legs.
 |
| From Howie |
Howie lounging on his “Civil War” dog bed, which I made from leftover material from reenacting costumes I’d made.
So many of our boys’ friends, who previously may not have liked dogs, ended up loving Howie to death and would start bugging their parents for pets of their own (sorry Wendy and Julie!)
 |
| From Howie |
Howie (left) playing wth his two dog friends in Florida, Jerome (right) and Moxie (top). We 3 families would trade around dogsitting in FL. This was in Florida, but Jerome and Moxie are now in Ohio.
(Okay, so I’m a little biased!)
 |
| From Howie |
Over the years, Howie has had to take a back seat to the boys. I feel badly at how often we have to leave Howie out of a family outing because having the boys with us was enough trouble. Howie was subjected to years of having toddler boys around, each of our boys had a good 18-24 months of “Don’t pull Howie’s tail!” or “Don’t sit on Howie!” or “Please leave Howie’s dog food alone!”.
 |
| From Howie |
Howie is keeping an eye on the construction workers while we had tile floors put into our FL house, late 2004.
This past summer, just before we left North Carolina, we took Howie for a checkup and our vet deemed Howie a “senior dog”. Howie had put on some weight in North Carolina, and he had the worst allergies…his gorgeous coat was definitely compromised while we were living there. I wanted to cry at the thought of our first baby now being a “senior”.
 |
| From 2007 06 17 Family Reunion PA |
One of Howie’s favorite things to do, chase the hay wagon at the Vollmer family reunion!
So here are some pictures of Howie for you to enjoy…when I talk about how much I’m going to miss my boys when deployed, Howie is among my boys!
 |
| From 2007 05 01 Howies Birthday |
We had a birthday party for Howie in 2007, Jacob said that Howie needs a cake, so we made one for him, and Howie even got to enjoy a big piece! (No chocolate!)
(See how grey he’s getting around the muzzle? Sniff sniff!)
 |
| From 2007 06 17 Family Reunion PA |
Yes, this is the view from my parents’ back deck!!!
 |
| From 2007 12 15 Po… |
Enjoy this picture from the holiday portrait session my boys and my nephews did together back in December. Imagine how tough it is to get 5 little boys to cooperate for the camera, so even though my sister’s youngest wasn’t quite looking at the camera, they were all posing well and were smiling nicely.
Click on the link underneath the picture to see more from the portrait session…including a couple snapshots of the boys eating pretzels on the floor of the mall hallway. Aren’t we classy?
You can once again see how my Timmy is the “White Boy” of the Fox side of his generation. Actually, even on the Vollmer side, his 12-year-old cousin is Italian and also has a dark complexion.
Also, note the boys’ chins. They’re all the same. It was one of the first things my Mom said about Jacob when he was born: “There’s that Fox chin!”
Recent Comments