And now, Willow

 Last weekend Charlotte, our first foster dog, got adopted. Her stay in our home was short! We're happy for her to be in her forever home, but it felt so odd not having a dog in the house even after such a brief time with her.

We ended up having to wait a week before getting another dog because arranging a visit when the shelter, Mom, Dad, and Jasmin were all free was a tad difficult. Jasmin does admit that she enjoyed the week of dog-free mornings to sleep in though!

Yesterday we finally got to meet our new foster, Willow. She's listed as a 11 month old whippet, but we think she's more likely a mix that has a lot of boxer in it. Other than no loose jowls and a small stature, she looks very boxer-ish. She is going to be a lot more work than Charlotte! She has a lot of energy, a puppy bladder, and has no qualms whatsoever about wiggling her way past our makeshift stair gate. She also loves getting up early it looks like.

Mom's actually even a bit happy about that as it will mean another incentive to get up and work her way back into morning runs... as long as Mom's heel will continue to heal with daily walk-runs.

Other things this week:

We got back to Heart's Desire river area! And the kids had to relive rock hopping - despite the fact that the river is full, undamned spring swollen, the water achingly cold, and the wind still rather nippy.

I guess that just provided the necessary upgrade in difficulty for it to still be a challenging activity :) The girls methodically used each other and a stick to get across more or less dry, but Aiden forged ahead and ended up very wet. Mom wanted very much to try, and made it out two or three rocks, but being the one with the phone and the knowledge of an untrustworthy foot, she didn't risk more than that. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful 2 hours! Once the kids recrossed back to Mom, we sat in the sun and ate still warm garlic buns and drank hot tea.

We had planned on doing more, but Aiden was too cold, even after switching jackets with Mom, so we made our way back home quite satisfied. it was a good early birthday day for Mom :)

Snippets from the week

It's been a relatively quiet week as most of Aiden's activities that get us out and about had the week off.

We were disappointed we'd lost our raspberry canes in the back yard when  the deck had been replaced. But we discovered quite a few new sprouts coming up - excitement! Unfortunately most of them were between the patio stones so not really where we could leave them to grow. Mom tried to dig them up and replant them, but so far it looks like that didn't work, but we're still hoping they're not all dead. It does look like we'll get peas and a few strawberries if we can protect the crop from the backyard rabbits, birds, and other critters.

It's been cold enough that we've had the heat on a few days this week :( Aiden in particular is indignant that the beautiful warm weather has disappeared again so quickly.

Jasmin has settled into 2 long walks a day with Charlotte, and we seem to have chewing under control. We are seeing her true personality coming out more now. She is smart! And rather stubborn. But between eager Aiden and patient Jasmin, she is learning to obey well. And now Charlotte has an adoption appointment this weekend... will we be saying goodbye to her this soon?

We finally got back into a routine of Mom reading aloud at meal times and have finished off Burn Anyway, a fairly satisfying ending to a Christian fantasy series. There is enough world building and character development that I think we'd all love to see the hints of a wider story be fleshed out into more books :) Now we have to think of another read aloud to work on.

 Dad is finally free enough for promised lessons/guidance in learning computer programming for Aiden. They both are enjoying it!

Dad, Jasmin, and Aiden have spent a fair bit of time setting up Jasmin's new computer (for her upcoming illustration and concept art courses), and swapping out Aiden's computer for Jasmin's old one. So finally the faithful little box computer that was Grace's, then Jasmin's, then Aiden's can now have a rest as a backup. Aiden's happy to have a faster, non-overheating computer to work with, even if it is a coveted laptop but with a broken screen so it's still a desktop.

Dad took the time then to think of and implement a system whereby mom can listen to her large music collection on Grace's computer (the one with enough space) from her own computer. We're all happy to not have to listen to repetitive ads along with the music, and to be able to choose the songs we listen to without having to pay for the privilege.

Doggo, Tulips, Fish

Aiden got invited to a birthday party already! He and Dad went to a Father and Son fishing birthday party on Saturday. Dad enjoyed the networking with other dads, and Aiden quite liked learning how to cast his line for fishing and building the budding friendships with this new group of friends. It was a very different experience than his last fishing expedition though!

We've sorted out how Dad and doggo can live in the same house... counter intuitively the dog lives upstairs now, and we're doing an insane amount of cleaning... but it's working so Jasmin is relieved. The first few days we weren't sure, as Dad's asthma was bad, but we seem to have found a manageable solution. I'm sure Charlotte the dog would prefer full access to the house though! Unfortunately, Charlotte likes to chew... so Jasmin and Aiden are kept hopping and Charlotte has to be contained, trying to keep things safe from her as even baseboards, beds, and bath mats are not safe from her.

Today we went downtown to visit the Tulip Festival. We would have loved to take Charlotte with us, but she is not yet well enough trained, and that long in the car with Dad probably wouldn't be a good idea. 

The tulips were in fine form, and the lighting just great for their colors to seem like they had a light of their own - very beautiful!

We also had fun with the activities: 

learning some semaphore...     

 

...playing giant Jenga...          

 ...giant chess...

 

...climbing giant trees...

We also had a picnic supper, and planned to stay late enough to see the black light board walk and light show, but we'd tired ourselves out already and thought of not-so-patient Charlotte waiting for us at home. So we made our way back home just in time for dark :)

Since Forever

 Jasmin has wanted a dog... since forever. After many years of "not possible" and mini pets that sort of scratched the itch, this is the year!

Despite an unknown future, uncertain length of stay, Dad's continued allergies to pets, and still (!??!) being under age to volunteer at the shelter, we've found a possible way.

We waited patiently through the process of becoming a volunteer foster family for shelter dogs. And this week we've become host family to Charlotte, a very interesting husky/retriever mix. She is a pretty well mannered and mostly obedient, almost pure white 3yr old. We don't know how long we have her for, and we're still working on arranging things so Dad doesn't feel pushed out of his own house by a dog, but Jasmin - and Aiden - are more than delighted to have Charlotte!

(Sorry, no photos; the shelter has this policy of no social media for foster animals)