Teaching an old dog new tricks!

We finally decided after 13 years and 2 recent long trips to Mumbai that it was time to train our Frankie to use a doggie door. Gerry put his carpentry skills to work and cut the 2 holes in the wall and installed it. He needed my help for the final adjustments and tightening. After some coaxing with treats on the other side of the door, she did great! She still needs to figure out the fact that she can use it anytime she wants without our permission and that we shouldn't need to continue to coax her to go in and out. Its only been a couple of days though and she appears to be doing well in her training. Here it is, you be the judge...

We had our final celebration supper for this snowbird season with Mom and Dad this past Sunday. Every year we take our weekly Bingo winnings (Thursday nights are our ritual Bingo night at Mom & Dad's park) and put them together and celebrate with a final day at the casino and a nice supper. This year we had almost $400 to play with, YAY!. So it was a definitely a FUN day. Gerry the 'non-gambler' actually played the slots and came out almost $300 ahead when we left. We are so very sad to see them leave again, but we enjoyed reminiscing about all the things we did over the last 5 months and talking about their return even earlier next season in mid-October. They LOVE Arizona and hate to go back to the Great White North so soon. There was lots of talk of baby stuff and how our lives will change drastically this year.

We have been busy buying, planning and working on baby stuff galore. It is so much fun. I can totally relate to Carrie Jo (Procreated in India) and her enthusiasm and joy in planning for the baby. It is great to be able to share this with a fellow Indian Surro Blogger. So we got our first big purchase this week. Our convertible crib was delivered just the other day and we will recruit Dad for one last chore before they leave...building the crib with Gerry. We have been working long hours painting our murals on the nursery walls and we are pretty pleased with the results considering neither of us are very talented in this particular area. It feels great to be able to do this and have such a personal added touch to the nursery. The closet is getting full...I am officially addicted to buying onesies! Gerry's thing is books...'We will read to the baby every night Rhonda!' So no surprise the shelves are already full of books too. So much for a baby shower...we will have it all bought before the baby hits the 3rd trimester at this rate. We can't help it! We are so overjoyed and excited about our little angel coming to join the family. Even Frankie is enjoying her new hangout, the nursery!

Since so many people have been asking I decided I would share a little sneak peak at some of our hard work (OH, and one of my secret addiction) ...

We have our weekend birthday/anniversary get-away to San Diego this weekend. Hopefully I will be feeling better. No sooner did I get over my stupid cold, when I was hit with a horrendous stomach flu and stuck in bed for 2 days, BLAH! So much for a proper good-bye to Mom and Dad. They waved from the living room so as to not come anywhere close to the 'sicko' in the bedroom. They arrived home safe and sound to a whopping 28 degrees in Niagara Falls. Mom says she is chilled to the bone and will have to go into hibernation for the next week until her body gets acclimated to the cold weather. Of course Gerry couldn't wait to rub it in that it got up to 96 degrees here today in sunny Arizona (not that I would know being stuck in bed). Have I mentioned lately that my dog is the BEST? My Frankie girl stayed at my bedside for the entire 2 days I was sick, not even leaving to see Papa and Grandma off. Pet's are the greatest!

We leave for India in less than 2 weeks, and can't wait to see our precious KT and her family and of course our little belly bump! We are going to be having an ultrasound done while we are there and will get to hear our precious little angel's heartbeat for the very first time. Luckily we have been getting everything ready for the past couple of weeks and only have a few more gifts to buy. Well it's back to painting, we would like to have it done before we leave for Mumbai so that we can bring pictures to show KT and the Docs.