Elser Family Blog

Butch, Dales dog of 10 years, passed today. Dale is understandably broken up about it.
She was diagnosed a week ago with multiple tumors, and she stopped eating a couple days ago. She went fast, she didn’t suffer too much. In the little time I knew her, I could tell she was a great dog.

This picture was taken late last night. Dale didn’t know I was following him. I don’t think I will show this to him for a while. I think it would be a bit too emotional. (click for the larger view)

Say hello to Sheiba for us, will ya’ Butch?

Kathi spent 10 minutes trying to get TRooper out of a tree yesterday…
She finally gave up only to realize that trooper was sleeping in his cage… She was calling the wrong squirrel the whole time.

ha!

Kath and the kids are out front watching the homecoming parade while I type this. I’m sure there will be a couple pictures to follow.

Happy birthday my little sunflower.

Squirrel madness I tell you.
TRooper has been living on the porch. ..But she is not happy about it. She wants back IN the house.

Even when we close the door… Do you notice anything strange about this picture?? We have a peeping squirrel!

Her antics lately! K gave her a nut.. And she promptly ran over to a potted plant and buried it! Yesterday a friend of Kathi’s came over and the squirrel ran up her leg and sat on her shoulder! Fortunately the friend wasn’t skittish and had known about the squirrel. But it was still a surprise.

I wish I had a video or even picture of the squirrel running down the sidewalk to follow Kathi to the car. It’s like she knows K is leaving and is saying, “Oh no you don’t”! K has to lock it in the cage to get away sometimes. Seriously!

Today was the first day that the squirrel left the porch for a while. It disappeared for most of the day. K thought it might have decided to fly the coop.. But she came back at feeding time.
That said.. I have a feeling she is not going to be around for too much longer. I think she is ready to go out on her own.

Here is a great video of TRooper trying to find a way back into the house… Crawling all over our front door screen. (1.7mb QuickTime file)

[parental boasting] Hannah caused a stir in class today… I guess the teacher usually marks the AR (accelerated reading program) progress board on Mondays. The books that the class typically reads are worth .5 to 2 points. (animorphs, secrets of droon, etc. Average 120 page books) Hannah was doing really well with ~20 points for the year so far.
So, today, the teacher adjusts the board, and Hannahs score jumps by 13 points…
I guess all the other kids had the equivalent response of “what the heck!?” and asked how that happened.
What happened was this weekend she read the second Harry Potter Book (~340 pages), and took the test today. It was worth 14 points! (H scored 90% on the test, so she lost a point)
Needless to say all the AR kids in the class were signing up for the Harry Potter books![/parental boasting]

A Mom and her squirrel.

Kathi was helping Hannah learn her lines for a church play.. But I think the trooper thought she as talking to her.

Anyone wanna’ buy a Slabside Shoebox 50 ford? Runs decent, pretty much everything works (the overdrive needs a relay I think.) $4800. Discount to family members. 🙂

For those of you that watched the “squirrel outside” video, here is the picture… 🙂
OK.. Blogger is definitely having issues. Pictures to come I guess.

The squirrels cage has been outside for a couple days now… But she still wont wander far from “momma”. this is about as far as he is willing to go. (QuickTime movie.. Poor resolution, as its from my cellphone camera.)

Being that time of season.. Here we are at the pumpkin patch.

Rockwell is not really happy here… I made him sit down, because he was getting a bit too rambunctious.

OK, back to the Squirrel.

Click here for a movie of the little rascal eating.

Hannah “nice squirrel”

Hannah “arrg!”

Squirrel update. Kath says people are probably getting tired of the squirrel updates.. I don’t think so. She is going to put his cage outside tomorrow, so he can get used to being outside. Soon he will be a free squirrel! (click on the picture for a movie of the sqirrel using K as a tree. 2 meg .mov file)