Fall is creeping in

Once again we got busy and the blog didn't get updated. But life with 3 puppies & just about as hectic as having 3 children....only exception is that the puppies don't need to go to soccer practice!

Introducing Charlie into the family has reminded us of bring Jack into the family 7 months ago......When rescuing a animal from the Humane Society, you never know about their past. You must be patient while they figure out where they fit in the family, are they going to end up back in a cage or if they will be loved or hurt. Charlie has had some "male issues" but Joel has worked very hard with him over the last week and he is slowly coming around. On friday, September 10th Charlie had his junk in his truck removed, so it was a quiet weekend for him.

On Saturday, September 11th was a fun day. Chetek was having their Harvest Fest with a whole day of fun stuff. Joel & I started by doing a little garage sale"ing" at the City Wide Garage Sale. Normally we don't do garage sales, but we have been looking for some items. Then we picked up Charlie from the vet after his over night stay from his surgery. After we dropped him back off home, we took Lilly & Jack to the craft sale and bake sale in town. Around 1:00 it was time to head to the Demolition Derby which is always a good time. It was a little cloudy in the beginning, but it quickly turned into the most beautiful afternoon. We were outta there by 7:30 and ran up to Rice Lake.

Sunday, Joel worked on the shed for a couple hours in the morning while Big Joe and I went to Humane Society of Barron County for a small fundraiser called Doggy Days. We brought all 3 of the puppies and Charlie did VERY well considering he was stuck in a cage there a couple days earlier. Early afternoon we headed down to the "Big City"....Eau Claire to shop at Best Buy. We needed to buy another monitor for Joel's new station. After that we hung out at the dog park so the puppies could burn off some steam. Charlie did very well socializing with the other dogs and their owners. Once the puppies were pooped, we stopped off at Petco to get a fall coat for Charlie as he didn't have any. Found a real cute on, so bought matching ones for Lilly and Jack. Then we bee-bopped over to Petsmart to pickup a life jacket for Charlie....you know, safety first :) Then we had our little treat.....Olive Garden for the Never Ending Pasta dinner. Yum!!!

This last week Joel was able to work from home on Monday and Tuesday which was very nice to have him home working side by side with me. Sure wished we had a office here like we had at our SSP house.

Today, Joel & Sheldon both took the day off to attend the "Tapping of the Golden Keg" for Oktoberfest in Chippewa Falls. I was going to go with them, but had work to do, so I was unable to go with them......I'm sure it is a guy thing anyways.

Tomorrow we all will head down to Oktoberfest and enjoy "Drunk Fest 10"

Check Back Often.....Check Back Soon

Zoey.......My precious Zoey

Tribute To A Best Friend

Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.

We miss you Zoey, we know this is for the best. We all knew you were ready to go, but we just bare the thought of you not being here with us. The disease overtook your body and life wasn't as you always knew it.......so today we say goodbye to our family member, a best friend, our companion and the grandma, the one who always kept the babies in order. Once in heaven we know that your body will be back to your old self and you will be pain free. We know that you will give those squirrels a run for their money......Go get em' Zoey

Love,

Mom, Dad and Jonathan

The past 2 weeks.......

Holy Moly has it been busy at the Waage's house over the past 2 weeks. So I do the quick run down to bring you up to speed.

The weekend of August 27-29th, Kevin, Nicole and kids came up along with their new addition, Molly. Molly is a 8 week old golden lab and is a bundle of energy. The adults had a day planned for Saturday, so Big Joe had kid and puppy duty. We planned on heading down to Eau Claire for the "Festival in the Pines". It was supposed to be an all day affair with 350 vendors, but once we got down there, we were in & out in an 1 1/2 hours. So with our plans cut short we decided to have so lunch and head out on a wine tasting tour of 3 wineries in our neck of the woods. With new bottles of wine in tow, we headed back to the house. We were able to get out on the boat on Sunday. We tried to do some swimming at the island, but the wind was so strong the boat wouldn't hold, so we decided to just do some cocktail cruising. All & all it was a fabulous weekend.

Monday, August 30th:
Was a busy day preparing to go back to the cities the next day for the fair. Making sure everything was in order. It also was a very special day because it was Joel's first day of working at home. It went very well and apparently Shred is going to continue to let him work from home on occasion. In the afternoon, Joel had a doctor appt to meet his new doctor and get his RX refilled. That evening, Joel & I headed into Rice Lake for our first night of bowling on our mixed doubles league. It was the first time since my 2 surgeries that I had bowled. It held up well and I bowled a 99, 145 & 133. No bad for not bowling for 1 1/2 years. Not near my bowling average, but now I have something to work for.

Tuesday, August 31:
Joel, Jonathan & I got up at 3 am to head back to the cities for the fair. Joel needed to work a 1/2 day, so Jonathan & I had a morning filled of activities. After dropping Joel off at work, we went to breakfast at Key's in Woodbury, then to Ficocello's for Jonathan's hair cut, Dress Barn for some mom shopping and a pedicure for mom. After Jonathan hooked up with Derrick we headed to pick up Joel from work. By the time we arrived at the fair is was almost 2:00 pm. The boys went their way and Joel & I went our way. During our time at the fair we received an e-mail from the people that purchased our SSP house by contract for deed. Seems they had wanted us to fix some things in the house that had gone hay-ward since they took over. We ignored it and figured we would deal with it once we got home. We ate, we walked, we people watched and we outta there by 6:00 pm.

Wednesday, September 1:
Immediately started dealing with our situation with the SSP people and to be perfectly honest it went from bad to ugly in less than half a day.

Thursday, September 2:
The ugliness of the day before came into today as well. Between the two days of several e-mails going back and forth between the SSP people, their attorney and us.........I was forced to make an emergency trip back to the cities to have a Notice to Vacate served upon our SSP people to get them to vacate the premises in 30 days.

Friday, September 3:
Spent getting caught up with my business paperwork, the SSP house ordeal, additional e-mails to attorneys and preparing for Nancy to come for the long weekend. After Nancy arrived and settled in , we headed out to meet Joel at the demolition derby in Ridgeland. First the sun was out, then it rained a bit and then the wind picked up.......I had brought blankets, so we just hunkered down for a fun night.

Saturday, September 4:
We all slept in but once we got motativated we headed to Rice Lake for lunch at the Beer Cheese Bar and Grill. Then it was off to make a couple of returns at the mall, Weyerhauser to check out their town celebration Booster Days and then off on a beautiful fall day road trip scouting out an apple orchard. Just so happens we found 3 orchards within 1 block of each other. After than we headed home for dinner and a evening of Mexican dominoes.......in which I won!

Sunday, September 5:
We just hung out until the sun warmed up a bit. Joel & Big Joe worked on the shed while Nancy & I headed up to get a couple of groceries. Once back we loaded up the boat & headed out for a cocktail cruise. Enjoyed a yummy dinner, watched a couple of television shows and headed to bed.

Monday, September 6:
Got up, visited in the living room, went to breakfast at Bob's Grill and once back, Nancy headed out for home. I did laundry, cleaned up the house and prepared for another week at the Waage's. Little did I know that the following week was going to be bring great changes to the Waage household.

Tuesday, September 7:
Started uneventful. Spent most of my day in my office working on paperwork. Around 3:00 pm I needed to get ready to go tot he post office but before I went I needed to go check out The Barron County Human Society which I had been doing every week since we moved. I just figured if there was ever a little min pin baby that was trying to find their forever family.....I needed to know about it :) Besides what are the chances?

Well.......this was the case yesterday. There was a little guy by the name of Charlie, who was listed as a stray and on hold until 09/11.

So I went up to Barron County to put my name on a list for them to call me once his hold was up and if he hadn't been claimed. So I spoke with the manager, Kim as I filling out the appropriate paperwork. After completing, I decided to go check him out and say Hi, As I was visiting him, Kim knocked on the glass and waved her finger at me to come to her. She proceeded to tell me that she is fairly confident that the person that turned Charlie in as a stray was really his owner and that I could take him home right now.......

I wasn't ready nor prepared for this. My intentions were to just go put my name on the list so that after the hold date was done, I would have the rest of the weekend to think about it. Joel was in Duluth working, so I quickly called him & sent him pictures and we decided to go for it........

Charlie is slowly adjusting to the family and still hasn't figured out his place in the "herd" but with Lilly as a sister, I'm sure he will get it quickly!

This weekend Kevin, Nicole and kids are coming back to attended Chetek's Harvest Fest and on Saturday the Demolition Derby!

Check Back Often.....Check Back Soon
Joel, Amy & Jonathan