Picture Sharing

If you want to check out my pictures - that I have posted on Shutterfly - go to the new picture sharing site that I created.


http://nancymorinpictures.shutterfly.com/

I will email the password out to you if you don't have it - just email me and I can send it your way! :)

Would you like fries with that?

Well, it's true - Cameron has chosen the dark side. He got his first job at McDonald's. Being that he comes from a long line of whopper flippers - this was, as you can imagine, a shock. :) - My big brother, Greg, my sister, Paula and myself all worked at Burger King when we were youngsters - but Cameron unfortunately doesn't have a Burger King to choose from, so strictly for logistical reasons, (Cameron loves that word, logistical) Cam has to work at McDonald's. Here he is right before his first shift.


Also, notice that in the second picture - Sadie is jumping up and doing the "paw wave" because she knows where Cameron is going and she doesn't want him to forget that he has hungry bichons at home!

Goodbye Rascal

Craig and I volunteer with an organization called Small Paws Rescue - they help match homeless bichon frises' with new owners. One of the great things that they do is help to get bichon's freed from the grips of terrifying puppy mills. They send the doggies to foster homes to "acclimate" them to life outside the concentration-camp like mills. One of our dogs actually spent 5 years in a commercial puppy mill. She is a great dog - although she can be a stinker - I think she loves being a part of our family. We took in a 6 year old male in September named Rascal. We've never seen a dog that is so sweet before - he just let Andrew climb all over him, hug him, kiss him, etc...and never complained once. His family was dispaced due to the floods in Iowa this summer - they lost their home, etc...The family was planning on taking Rascal back as soon as they were situated, but that fell through and they wound up surrendering Rascal to Small Paws. Well, we knew it wouldn't take long once we posted Rascal's profile on Pet Finder, because he's such a terrific dog. Craig wrote up such a nice story about Rascal and immediately, we had a bite. One of the Small Paws volunteers, Carol had a friend, Bonnie that was interested in him. Today was the day she came to pick up Rascal and take him to his forever home. Our dogs are now sad and lonely and the house just isn't the same without him. But, we know that Bonnie will supply him with all the love and attention that he will need. Also, he's going to have a new "buddy" - Joe the cat. I love that! Bonnie calls him "Joe the cat". He's a gorgeous pure white cat - so they will look great together on Christmas cards I'm sure. When Bonnie arrived at our house today to pick up Rascal, she brought a beautiful Christmas centerpiece that was made by a friend of hers. It's gorgeous! When we have Christmas dinner, it will be in the center of the table and we will think of Rascal. This is a picture taken today of me, Andrew and Rascal. We know he will do really great in his new forever home with Bonnie - and we can't wait to see him again - maybe at the 2009 Bichon Bash! Goodbye Raskie! We love you tonz!

Job Shadow

Cameron has to meet certain requirements for graduation - and although he's only a sophomore in high school - he met one of the requirements yesterday. All kids are required to do a job shadow. The job shadow cannot be with one of your parents (so Craig and I were out of the running) - and you weren't supposed to shadow a teacher (because you already spend so much time in school. So, Cameron's other options were Richard Branson, Donald Trump or Steve Heim (a friend of ours from church). Since Richard and "the Donald" were busy, Steve agreed to take on the challenge of showing Cameron the world of law. Steve is a partner with Dorsey and Whitney and has a "fantastic" office in downtown Minneapolis. Off Cameron went on Friday morning bright and early on the city bus to head downtown for his "day at the office" with Steve. Here's a picture of Cameron - wearing a tie, even!

I think Cameron learned a lot when he was on the job with Steve - for one, he learned how hard he works. He handles very large cases that have very intricate details. One of the highlights was a conference calls that Cameron was able to listen in on. Ok, maybe that wasn't a highlight for him - but Steve did take Cameron to lunch at Hell's Kitchen (approptiate for church friends, don't you think?) :)

All in all, I think it was a great experience for Cameron - and boy are we appreciative of Steve doing this for Cam.

Fruit Carvings

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the fabulous food creations that Cameron has been "experimenting" on us lately. He's been in a class this quarter called "Foods" - something most teenage boys enjoy taking because it's like having a second lunch during the day. Well, I met his teacher the other day and she is really lovely. She has shown Cameron how to make omelets, muffins, pizzas, tacos, and of all things, birds out of apples. Take a look at this creation!

Cameron also made us stuffed shells one night - that were stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. They were delicious! The other thing I like about this "Foods" class is that the teacher's big project for the quarter involves the kids having to clean the refrigerator, and oven! That came in handy!

Cameron loves to cook - one of his favorite things of late is pizza. He has asked me to buy so much yeast lately - I've never even used yeast before! He makes his own crust and everything. It's really tasty too! What a talent in the kitchen.

Onion Ring

Craig went to the Shamrock Bar and Grill for lunch last week and said he had the "best hamburger" he's ever had! So, on Saturday, Cameron was snowboarding at Trollhaugen, we decided to try it out. Andrew loved it there because they were all decorated for Christmas with all the lights, etc...

The thing about these burgers is that they somehow "infuse" them with cheese - so your first and your last bite involve cheesy, gooey goodness. It was something I had never tried before.

So, we ordered the "nook" burgers and waited for our dinners to arrive. I got onion rings with my meal because they smelled so delicious when a waitress brought some by our table. Andrew got the kids meal burger which was HUGE! His came with fries - he LOVES french fries! But, we soon found out that he also LOVES onion rings as well! I know the picture is dark - but here he is with his first onion ring! He really loved it - and the look on his face was really sweet when he got through that breaded goodness and bit right into the soggy, oily onion. But he kept going after it because he loved that breading so much.

Here's another pic of him devouring the O-Ring with glee...

Andrew was pretty well-behaved on his trip to the restaurant until he decided he was finished eating. He took a part of his hamburger bun and balled it up - without us realizing it was preparing to "fire it off" and without warning, off it went! Into the air! We couldn't stop it and as we watched it fly - it struck the poor, unassuming waitress walking by! We were mortified. She was very understanding and we promptly removed the rest of his "arsenal" from the table.

All in all, it was a good evening. Andrew is really a joy to take anywhere because he brings out the best in people. All he has to do is smile and people melt like Frosty the Snowman during the spring thaw.

Puke and Snot

And, no I'm not talking about the Renaissance Festival comics...I'm talking about sweet little Andrew. He was so gracious this weekend sharing his puke with Daddy on Saturday and then again with me today (Sunday). We had him in the Urgent Care last night because he was spiking a 103 temp. They ran a blood test to rule out anything really bad - that came back fine. So, we received the typical "virus" response - which is ok, just so long as we know nothing really serious is going on. He seems in good spririts but is really tired and napping a LOT. It's nice, but we really like to play with him on the weekends and when he's not feeling well, it's kind of well, boring around here! Here's a recent photo of Andrew - lately he likes to put this easter bucket on his head and then he knocks on it - it's so incredibly cute!

Cam and I have been playing Pathwords on Facebook which is fun! I got 580 points and am slowly getting sick of the game already.

We got about 2 inches of snow today too. It's really beautiful out.

Our nephew and God son, Kenny had a program at church today at 4 pm that we had to miss out on. I hope it went well!

Here's hoping that I get a little bit more sleep tonight than I have been getting for the last few months. There's always someone wanting to get up, go out, eat, drink, or poop at some time during the night.

Good night!

Andrew Crawling

Here's an old video of Andrew crawling - he's of course walking now, but wanted to get this out there so others can see it before our computer crashes and loses all the videos again!