What do you do when you don't have kids to dress up for Halloween??

You buy your dog a costume!!!!

He is a prisoner, which is kind of ironic.

Herbie - Pointing at Mike

Family Picture

Not much new here, for updates. We have been very busy with school! Mike will be interviewing soon for the 8th gr girls basketball position. I think he is pretty excited about that! I have been keeping busy with my 16 preschoolers - planning, organizing, and grant writing. It has been long days and weekends at school!

Homecoming is this week. Mike will be going as batman, on Thursday, and his sidekick, Robin, will be his social studies colleague~

Mike finished the shelter for Herbie's kennel when Craig and Ann were here. Herbie loves his kennel and would rather outside in it, then in the house. We'll see though, once it starts getting cold where he wants to be!

Herbie is almost fully potty trained, although puppy classes aren't going too well for him. We had a week when he was suppossed to know take it/leave it for treats, toys, ect. He ate every treat and squeeked every toy in the aisle that night. The teacher said he was cute - I said he was naughty! He has to do a sit/stay for 30 seconds next Thursday for graduation. Not sure if they flunk dogs, but he may have to re-take the course because he cannot do this.

School starts Wednesday for Mike. We both have been preparing our classrooms and curriculum the past few weeks and its now starting to fall into place. I have home visits the first week of school and start preschool on the 26th. I am very excited to start and meet all of my kids!

Craig, Ann, and Becca were here last week/weekend. We did lots of fun things with them. We took Becca out on the river with some friends for a relaxing day before inservices start again on Monday. It was a beautiful day and Mike and I got burnt. With Craig and Ann we went golfing, took Herbie on lots of walks, and Craig and Mike built Herbie a shade/rain cover with left-over wood and plywood from the roof. I will post pics of them later.

Becca helped me take Herbie to the vet on Friday. He is a whopping 22 lbs. He got his last set of puppy shots and his rabbies shot. He took them like a champ and hardly whined because the vet gave him some squirty cheese on the table to distract him from the pain. I can't believe it worked, but it did.

Last night, Mike and I took Herbie to Wildcat Den State Park. Its about 10 miles south of Durant. We took him on a hike and then down to a small stream. His orange 'bird' was thrown into the stream multiple times and finally we did it deep enough where he would have to swim if he wanted to get it and he did!!! I screamed when he finally swam. . .I was so proud! He would have done it all night if we let him, but I didn't want him to drown, so we took off for home. I can't wait to go back with him next weekend.

Thats all for now. Since school starts on Wednesday, I am sure we won't be updating for a while. Hope you all are enjoying the last bit of your summer I know ours went way too fast!

Before and After Pictures of the Roof

Our house looks like a brand new house! Ryan and Mike did a great job on the roof. They got it done 2 1/2 days and even worked around rain. The house and garage ended up having two layers of shingles, not one like we originally thought and there only was one bad piece of wood beneath all those shingles. . . Not to shabby if you ask me!
We had a great time here with Ryan, Kristy, Jack, Addy and Henry. Jack loved Herbie and wanted to play with him all the time! We went to the park, library, and a train museum while the boys were working on the house. We were sad to see them go, but it was a fun time all around.
The house projects are DONE for the time being. School is just around the corner, and we are now focusing on that!
Herbie is growing like crazy. He is learning to listen to his mother now and not just his father. He loves his outside kennel, but still loves it inside too. He spent his first night out there on Sunday night. I think it was harder for us, than for him.
We are awaiting our Bemidji guests (Craig, Ann, and Becca) They all come next week. We are so excited to show them our new house!
Thats all from Durant. We love reading all of your blogs, so keep them coming!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Roof

More Kennel Pictures

Herbie watched us from a shady spot as we built his kennel

Mike did the mixing and pouring




We used 55 bags of 80 lb concrete.
That's 4,400 lbs of concrete!!!!

My studly man with no shirt on.

I did the tamping, spreading and smoothing

More pictures to come as we get his fence up!!

The work is never-ending.

We start re-shingling on Friday.
17 days until school starts!!! AAAHHHHH

Herbie's Kennel

We started laying the concrete for Herbie's kennel today. Neither Mike nor I had ever layed cement before, so lets just say it was a learning experience. Our neighbor, Steve, came over and helped mix and pour cement. We got a 5x6 slab done today. We are doing an 'L' shaped kennel around the garage, so we will update as it gets more complete.

Herbie goes for his shots today. . .hope he does well. Mike has taught him to fetch his bird and come. He does it very well, but only for Mike. . . He does sit for me though and knows what no means!!

Some pictures of my garden. It has really been growing a lot lately. I can't wait till everything is ready. I planted carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and just last week I did one hill of pumpkins.

My Cucumber plant is huge!

I had no idea that one plant would make so many cucumbers

Tomato plants are getting very big.

They sprouted a few small green tomatoes over the weekend!

Pumpkins starting to come in. I planted them

last week hoping they would be ready to go by Halloween!

busy, busy, busy!

This is the tree we cut down on Wednesday. We didn't think it would take very long, but boy we were wrong! It took us literally all day to cut it down. The tree wasn't very big, just lots of trunks (close to 30, I think). We borrowed a chain saw from a friend and Mike did a great job of cutting it down. We had many, many wires to work around and he did a great job of being sure not to pull any of them down with the tree!
The compost closed at 3:30 on Wednesday and doesn't open again until Fri, so the tree, limbs, and firewood is just laying all over our yard. We basically look like white trash! Oh well. . .
Today, we are preparing for our puppy, Herbie Husker Hougen! We get to pick him up at 1. He is a munsterlander and is so cute. We are building his house outside today, although I think he will be an inside and outside dog. we will have more pictures coming soon of our new baby!!!

Our New Kitchen Table!!

I LOVE our new kitchen table. . .hand-me-downs from my big sis Megan! It even has 2 leaves to go into it for when we get visitors this summer!! (hint Hint - come visit)

My mom gave me this quilt and the colors match our kitchen walls perfect. Now Mike thinks we should have a different one for each season! We'll see if I get around to that.

I finally broke down and bought new shoes. I have been training for the half marathon in my old red trail runners. I think I have had them almost 3 years! They were great shoes, but theses are pink. I love them and they make me feel very fast!