A new member of the family

Alivia with the new puppy.

By Allan Olson

It’s crazy how many different things we can fit into one week, and last week was no exception. Ours was jam-packed full, especially the weekend, even though we didn’t leave town for a change.

To kick things off, we celebrated 12 years of twins – my “middle” children, Abigail and Marcus, celebrated their 12th birthdays last week. I’m not sure where that time went. At first you look forward to them getting into the communication and out-of-diapers stage, and then pretty soon they are into some “cute” stages, and then with a flash, here they are nearly teenagers. For their birthday they each had one dinner guest over to enjoy their requested meal – meatloaf (they actually agreed on something) and then they each picked out a cake to have made by their younger sister. I could say I helped with the cake, but really it was Alivia who kept me from screwing it up, although Abigail requested a marble cake and, well, it ended up looking more like a light chocolate. But she didn’t care – it still tasted just fine.

And since we celebrated their birthday, that’s a reminder for me that I’ve been working in the Cass Lake area for 12 years now. It’s been interesting and, more often than not, quite fun.

My wife has been talking lately about getting a puppy again. She even sent me links to look at online, which at the time I was too busy and didn’t even bother to check out. A couple days later, she asked me to look at them again, and the next thing I know, I was agreeing to another dog.

We both knew that we wanted a big dog, and she really wanted an English Mastiff – so I guess this time we’re going to have a really big dog. We picked the “little” guy up Thursday night, and all of sudden there was a flashback to having a baby in the house again. Staying up at night with the whiny puppy because he doesn’t like his kennel, cleaning up the occasional mess (thankfully that’s less often than changing diapers) and making sure he doesn’t get into things that he’s not supposed to – like shoes.

I give the kids credit – they have been pretty good about getting up with him, but they need their sleep, too. As for me, I can say that I’m typically the last one to get up for him. As much as I don’t mind having a dog again, I pretty much told everyone when the decision was made that I’m going to be the last one to getting up in the middle of the night to take him out while he’s getting potty trained. I need my beauty rest, or I turn into a big grouchy bear, and nobody wants that.

Earlier in the week, Abigail asked her mom to see if my brother and his kids could come visit. As luck would have it, my wife checked and it was his weekend off, so on Saturday afternoon my brother showed up with his three kids. His youngest is only a first grader, full of energy and stubbornness (just like his dad), but he had no time for inside activities. Thankfully the weather was nice, and the kids spent most of their time outside while they were here. 

After a late lunch/early supper of some tasty venison – the last of our supply (thankfully deer season is nearly upon us) – the kids asked if we could go to the beach, so off we went for a brief trip to the beach as Marcus had an appointment and our guests had to head home.

It was fun visiting, but with the busy week ahead, I was exhausted, so before they left the driveway I was already back in my comfy clothes and reading a book on the couch.

Sunday morning – a day that I could have slept in – once again I was awake earlier than I wanted, but I took advantage of my time and read another book. A family friend came to visit with her dog (a nice big Doberman) and the two dogs played in the yard, wearing each other out, jumping and running around.

During her visit, I apparently realized I was exhausted again and headed off to bed, where I again spent time reading before finally getting in some rest. Refreshed, I decided it was time to tackle the approximately 100 pounds of crabapples that we picked one day last week. I got all the kettles and jars ready, and at about 11 p.m. I finished boiling all the apples for juice to make jelly at a future date, and saved the “insides” for making apple butter for Marcus. 

I finally crawled into bed after midnight, but between the late night storm and the whiny puppy, my sleep was not great that night. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken that nap.

This week wasn’t going to be quite as busy – until my wife decided that she wants her youngest niece and nephews to come for visit. She checked with her sis-in-law, who essentially said “Take them!” So now the plan for Friday after work is for one of us to meet them halfway to get the kids for a couple days before repeating that trip on Sunday. Thankfully, Monday is a holiday. Something tells me that after the weekend I’m going to need another long nap – or maybe a short geocaching trip!

For next week, well, it’s back to school time and I have no doubt that it’s going to be a busy week.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.