Catching Scary Stuff

Remember how I said we had a cold winter? Did I mention how the river became blocked up with ice? This picture doesn't even the worst of it! I think the water was still sort of flowing at this point. Eventually it all stopped and created huge iceberg like banks and an even more uneven surface than this. Then it warmed up and the river started flowing again, but the iceberg banks remained.

Yesterday, Nellie took her life in her hands when she leaped off the icy bank and went down to the river for a drink. The problem was that she couldn't get back up. The ice banks are about 10 feet high where Nellie was trapped. Luckily there was a rocky area on the river bank that she could stand on, but she was beside herself for half an hour until some very kind strangers who were also at the dog park decided to rescue my dog! One man laid in the snow and tried to get Nellie to impossibly climb up an icy cavern (which she didn't do), while a 2nd man walked into the river up to his shins and made his way to the spot where Nellie was, calmed her down and heaved her up over his head onto the ice platform where we were standing! (Nellie didn't want to leave without her ball!! Silly dog.) As this 6 foot tall man heaved her over his head, the other man laying in the snow beside me grabbed Nellie's collar and dragged her the extra few feet up to safety!! What a completely crazy 45 minutes!! I thanked the soaking wet man over and over again and he just brushed it off with the explanation that he'd been in the British Army and he'd had his feet wet a time or two....and that he was at the end of his walk, so it was not a big deal.

Those lovely people have definitely fulfilled a whole years worth of good deeds in what they did for me yesterday. Marin was with me and was completely oblivious to the whole scenario! She stood up in a grove of trees and played with a stick! My friend Kayelene, who I'd come to the park with, secured her own dog in her truck and was trying to get Nellie to swim upstream to where she was standing on the bank, to no avail. After the rescue, I was overcome with emotion. I was trying to talk normally to Kayelene about something unrelated, but my eyes were just running and running. It was so scary!

Needless to say, Nellie won't be coming to the off-leash dog park without her leash for a while until the ice banks melt. *sigh*

Marin and Nellie have a pretty great relationship. Marin told me she was just going to go and snuggle her dog and when I didn't hear anything for 15 minutes, I peeked my head over the railing and saw this!!! She had fallen fast asleep on Nellie's side! So adorable!

Horsie has been diagnosed, at 15 years old, with hyper-thyroidism. She is currently on medication and it seems to have made a HUGE difference to my little cat! She has gained some weight back and is FAR less active than she used to be, which is great because she seemed like a bit of a maniac before!! And now we know why.

This is my favourite position of hers for sleeping. I think it's hilarious that she tucks her little head into the corner of the couch and sleeps on her back!!

Sweet little Marin, with her bright blue eyes.

Adam and Marin braved giving Nellie a bath after a particularly stinky run at the dog park. Nellie was so well behaved and just stood still (for the most part) and let herself be shampooed! What a good little dog.

This video is pretty hilarious! Nellie attempts to shake part way through and Marin's comments are sweet!



Calli's Grade 3 class studied different cultures and one of our favourites was the Ukraine! Calli's teacher and I had a conversation once where it came up that I was Ukrainian, so she asked if I would help out on Ukraine Day and if I would prepare a Ukrainian dish for the students. I said sure, not knowing what to make! In the long run Calli and I decided on a Ukrainian Paska bread, which I had never made before! We photographed the entire process and all the steps and Calli did a lot of the hard work. Here she is kneading the dough. The dough rises 3 or 4 times, so it was a long baking day.

We researched the traditional decorations used on top of the paska and created our own little version. We kept the cross as is traditional and added swirls and rosettes. It looked so pretty at this stage.

Then it rose again.....

And once I baked it, the majority of the decorations slid off. Luckily, this didn't affect the taste and the paska ended up being the favourite food type treat of the Grade 3 class!

On one of the colder days, Calli insisted on playing outside and had a lot of fun. She was only out for about an hour and when she came in, this is what we saw...

We figure another 10 minutes or so and her face would have been pretty painful with windburn/frostbite. Scary stuff!

Horsie likes to join in at supper time. See her sitting on the chair with Marin, expectantly waiting for a little morsel of food? She is only allowed to do this when Dad isn't home...like a lot of little things we do!! Hee hee!

Granny came and stayed with us for a few weeks, which I'll explain in another post and bought the girls these doll heads, so they could do incredible hairdos!! They literally opened them up from the box and sat and played for an hour with them. Good gift Granny!

Marin has this poster of Justin Bieber up in her room. Calli told me she had something to show me one day and brought me into Marin's room to show me the writing she had discovered on the poster. Yes, Marin is 5. And yes, that is definitely her writing.

I know I've told you before, but Nellie and Adam have a pretty special relationship. Adam is everything to Nellie. I think Nellie would take a bullet for Adam. I'm not kidding. Adam had to run out to a neighbours house for a quick minute and this was what Nellie did while he was gone. Sat on the top stair, ears perked up and just waited attentively until he came home. Once again, scary stuff.