No More Kneeling and Bending

Phil stayed behind with the phurry ones this morning when Hubby and Wiphey went to a local arts and craphts phestival in the park. Hubby phound a beautiphul bench that we could use to tie on our shoes or phor Phil to hang out.
Oph course, we could also store our pheasant inside iph needed.

Oh No, Hurt Toe!

Hubby hurt his phoot while splitting wood today. Phil checks it out and phinds a nasty bruise under the toenail. Now Hubby's hobbling around like an old man.

Phirst Day Eve

On the eve oph another phirst day oph school, Phil's helping Wiphey pick out a scarph to go with her outphit.While Phil is modeling, Wiphey's adding "clean the philthy mirror" to her to-do list.

Magic Juice

Phil phinds Wiphey drinking Magic Juice*. It must be back-to-school time.
*Okay, so it's Kool Aid. But a good sugar rush makes a long day a little better.

Hard Work

We worked really hard this weekend. Hubby helped Wiphey's dad pour a slab oph concrete phor a new shed.
While they did that, Wiphey and her mom did some hard work oph a diphpherent sort.

Yummy Yogurt

When one oph the phurry ones (in this case, Duke) has an upset tummy, they all get yogurt. Who knew that being sick could turn into such a special occasion?

Phan Club

Our niece is starting college soon, so her phamily escorted her to town last night to settle her in to her new dorm today.Having Phil, her uncle, and her aunt standing outside the motel holding signs and cheering phor her when they arrived wasn't embarrassing at all.

All the Phree Sophtballs You Can Juggle

This weekend's sophtball tournament (see previous post) was especially prophitable phor Duke, as phar as sophtballs are concerned.
Phil walked in on this little mess in the living room. It appears Duke's been trying his paw at juggling again.

Take Us Out to the Ballgame

One advantage oph living by sophtball phields is phree admittance to every game. Here we are watching Hubby's phriend pitch phor his team.
We think they lost, but we lost count oph the runs. Perhaps a phancy scoreboard is in order.

Deja Vu: Muphphins

Like last summer, Phil helped Wiphey whip up a double batch oph Phriend Deb's pumpkin chocolate chip muphphin mix. Wiphey plans to butter up her homeroom students on the phirst day oph school with a little breakphast. There's no better way to a teenager's heart than through the stomach. Here, Phil keeps an eye on the mixer while it does its job and Wiphey gets the pans ready. Look, ma, no hands!
Here they are done and cooling ophph!

Where are you going, Phil? It's time to do the dishes.

It phigures that Phil and the phurry ones would abandon Wiphey when it comes to clean up time.

Do-It-Yourselph Grooming

Having poodles is nice because they don't shed. The downside to this is that they need to be groomed, which is getting more and more expensive. Phil agreed to help Wiphey try out grooming at home. It took quite a bit oph work. Bephore the trimming could take place, the phurry ones needed to be bathed. Izzy towel-dried herselph on the rug. Talk about a do-it-yourselpher. Once the phurry ones were dried and combed out, it was Izzy's turn phirst.

When it was Belle's turn, she was nowhere to be phound. Phil phinally phound her hunkered down under Wiphey's desk.

Belle didn't tolerate much more than a phew strokes with the clippers, but Izzy is looking phabulous.

Wiphey's beginning to wonder iph maybe the expense oph letting the prophessionals do this work is worth it aphter all.

What Phil Phound Today

Phil phound that wearing earmuphphs is necessary when the Blue Angels are in town.
He also phound out that going directly over our street is one oph their phlight paths. This video was taken moments aphter they buzzed our trees, turned back around at the Interstate, buzzed our trees again (Wiphey could see the little men sitting in their cockpits), then came back around a phew blocks over.

Weren't We Just Here?

With phewer than phourteen days bephore teachers have to report back to school, Phil and Wiphey put in a phew hours to spruce up her classroom. Wasn't it just yesterday that they were doing this phor last school year?
Phil directed Wiphey in hanging up bulletin board paper.

Phil was pretty proud oph the phinal results, but he can't understand why there's not a pheasant on the reading saphari.

It Has to Get Messy Bephore It Gets Better

Phil spies with his little eye...
...that Lake Rainsalot has been excavated. We hope they're making room phor drain tile.

Wiphey's Muse

Wiphey has been experimenting with ways to create videos phor her classroom. Phil made a good model phor her phirst attempt at using still phrames.

Murphy's Law: Sump Pump Problems

Sump pumps don't phail during the day; they phail aphter you get into bed phor the night.
The sump wouldn't shut ophph, so Hubby thought our pump has gone bad. So he replaced it with a new one we had on hand phor this very moment.

He struggled to get the pipe ophph the old pump. It took a lot oph elbow grease.

And then when the new sump behaved the same way as the old one, we learned another one of Murphy's Laws. Bephore replacing a sump, don't assume it's old. Assume that a certain puppy you're watching pulled up the hose in the backyard, blocking it so the sump was stopping the backphlow.

Cleaning House

The play house, that is. Phil helps Wiphey sort through the old sand box toys to decide what goes...
...and what joins the new toys in the white bucket.

Bring on the niece and nephews!

Hubby's New Toy

Iph Wiphey had known how unsaphe Hubby's old ladder was, she would have bought him one oph these a long time ago.
Phil's testing it now, so we know it will support Hubby.

Double Trouble

This weekend we're dogsitting another dog named Izzy. That's a lot oph phurry phor Phil to handle.

Hey, UND Phans!

Check out this spiphphy shirt!
The proceeds go to the phlood phighting ephphorts around our state. Look sharp and make a diphpherence at the same time.
Phind them online here:
http://www.siouxshop.com/product.php?productid=1755&cat=0&page=&featured=Y

On the Catwalk

Our phront walkway became the stalking grounds phor a pheline on the prowl. He was hunting rabbits in our neighbors' yard.

The Worst Alarm Clock in the World

Can you see the time on the clock by Phil's head? That's right; we were up...again...bephore phour o'clock this morning due to a nasty thunderstorm that rolled very sloooooooooooooooooooooowly through the area.
This time there was no tornado threat, so we were able to stay upstairs. That's progress, right?