out of the mouth...

Last night while I was putting Logan to bed, he asked, "Mommy, how did the first person get on the world if there was no one there to have him?" I answered by talking about how God created the earth and how he created man from the dust of the earth. "Can you tell me the name of the first man that God created?" I asked.

"Adam" he correctly replied.

"Do you remember the name of the first woman that God created to help man?"

He thought about it for a minute and then replied, "Stephanie?"

early morning at the dodd house

Friday night, Jeff and Ben Scott installed a new hot water heater. (The fun week really started on Tuesday night when our water heater busted!) Since it was a new water heater, Jeff and I decided it might be a good idea to finally invest in a carbon monoxide detector. Since we have NEVER had one in the house before last night.

We plugged it in around midnight, I crashed and about 4 am we were all jolted awake by the beautiful (tons of sarcasm) sound of the alarm telling us we had carbon monoxide in our house. Jeff and I decided, it must be a faulty alarm. None of us had any symptons and we really just wanted to go back to sleep.

We couldn't get back to sleep, so we decided to let the fire department come and give us the all clear so we could sleep. I called 911 and they told us to get out of the house. So, with all in our jammies and flip flops, we waited on the porch wrapped in an afgan. The EMT and a large fire truck pulled up in front of our house (no sirens! Yeah!) and a ton of firefighters roll out. To make a long story short, they found carbon monoxide in our house and headed to UC Hospital to get all three of us checked out (still in our jammies and flip flops).

OK, I can't make it too short, what's the fun in blogging if you can't rattle on! The good doctor at UC told the emergency driver to take Logan to Children's and bring the parents to UC. You can imagine how well that went over with us.

Luckily for us the EMT specialists, the doctors & nurses at Children's thought that was utterly ridiculous and they admitted all three of us.

So after about 3 to 3 1/2 hours at Children's we only had trace amounts in our systems and we were released. We called Vicky Litmer and she came to pick us up.

We had to call someone to come check out our house and find the source of the problem. But of course, no one can find the sourse of our carbon monoxide. The furnice and water heater (it is wondeful to have hot water again!) both checked out fine. And so far the dectectors are showing clean air in our house. A huge thanks to the Union Emergency Services for doing a fine job. What a great bunch of guys! That Chad Scott guy must do a good job training!

home again, home again...

Wow! What a great way to be welcomed home... over a foot of snow and a broken garage door! We can't get my car out of the garage. Which is very odd, since my brother Derrell had dreamed that we came back and our garage door was open and someone had tried to rob us!

We had a great trip. Disney is definately the way to cruise. It is not overwhelmingly Disney - Mickey Mouse, High School Musical and such is not everywhere! But the level of service and fun is all Disney! With just enough of the other stuff to keep everyone happy.

We boarded the ship on Sunday afternoon and looked around the ship to find:
1. three pools (one kids, one family and one adults only!)
2. a huge food buffet
3. our inside state room (small but adequate with TV - mostly Disney of course)
4. one jumbo screen by the pool
5. movie theater
6. theater for some great Disney shows complete with all the Disney magic ("Mom, how did they do that?" was Logan's favorite question.
7. Oceaneer's Club where Logan got to make flubber, hunt for Capt. Hook's treasure, dig for whale bones, build a beach and see a magic show.
8. More food
9. Spa aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh relaxation
10. game room
11. lots of ocean and so much more.


They pack a lot of fun into a 4 night cruise. We went ashore at Nassau, didn't tour a lot, we took a 40 minute ferry ride to Blue Lagoon island and had an encounter with a couple of dolphins.

We got to feed, pet, hug and kiss a dolphin.

And dance with a dolphin.

The dolpin didn't think Jeff was much of a dancer! The water was so very cold. I really had to force myself (& Logan) to get in the water. It was fun to see a dolphin that close. Such a fun (but bitter cold) experience.

The next day, Tuesday, we went ashore at Castaway Cay (pronounced Key), which is Disney's private island. Wow! I could have spent two or three days there. It was beautiful. This is where Logan got to do a treasure hunt, dig for bones and build a beach. (and get a little sunburned) Jeff and I took a bike ride around part of the island to an observation tower. (Logan was having too much fun with the club counselors and other kids to be bothered with Mom & Dad.) After lunch, we did make Logan go with us to the beach to try snorkeling. The water wasn't quite as cold, but it wasn't warm either. The snorkeling was a bit of a bust, we didn't travel far enough off shore. But we enjoyed the sun and sand for a while before getting back on the boat.

Disney characters would visit at different times for photo and autograph sessions. We didn't get to see them all and sometimes Mom didn't have a camera, but Logan would say hello anyway!

I will post more pictures when I can get out of my garage to have my 35mm film developed. (I know, I have to get into the 21st century and get a good digital camera!)

i'm going to disney & i lost a tooth

Hello everyone. It's a big week at the Dodd household. Logan lost a tooth on Wednesday morning. (See cheesy shot above!) My baby is growing up. He let our friend/neighbor Carrie pull it. He had worked it so much it practically fell out. He told Carrie, "I don't think my mommy is very good at it. She's never pulled a tooth before." Me and my big mouth, I shouldn't have told him that I had never pulled a tooth. Oh well. His first tooth was very exciting.

Tuesday night Logan and I ate dinner with Tammy, Emma & Michaela Martin. The girls are really growing up. Emma and Logan had a great time giggling and playing together.

The photo below is his, "I'm leaving for my cruise tomorrow" look. Yes tomorrow we fly out of Dayton for a 4 night Bahamian Disney cruise. Warm weather, sandy beaches and all the Mickey Mouse you can handle... what more could you ask for? Any way, check back in a week or so and I'll have a few pics to share.

it's feeding time

Last weekend when we were visiting my parents. Logan and I took a trip to the barn. My uncle raises goats and currently has about 25. The little ones are cute! The big ones... not so much! Logan got to bottle feed one of the baby goats. He was more concerned with the puppies that wanted to check out the action.

feeding the goat

Last weekend when we were visiting my parents, Logan got to visit the goats. My Uncle raises goats and has about 25 or more. Logan fed one of them with a bottle. Logan was more concerned with the dog than feeding the goat.

winter fun

Wow, we had a blast Friday night. We went over to Perfect North Slopes and went tubing! I have zero pictures of the evening, because

1. I forgot my camera and

2. I couldn't hold and camera and a tube at the same time.

We went with a group of friends from church and had a good time. Jeff had an upset stomach, so he was sidelined and watched.

The first trip down, I held onto Logan's tube and we went down together. He was scared. He cried a little going down, but once we were at the bottom, he was ready to give it one more try.

He LOVED the doing the long trains. The first time we had a long train with Steve, Pam, Erin, Logan and me, we went down fast. He looked scared all the way down, but exclaimed, "Let's do that again!" once we stopped. We tubed for over 2 hours, the last time up, Logan couldn't take two steps without falling. He told Mrs. Michelle, "It's past my bedtime." He was exhausted. We are looking forward to doing it again!

quick Christmas update

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog since November. Shame on me! December was hectic. As you experienced also. But it was a great holiday season. Logan (in his own words) got all I ever wanted from Santa.. real tools made of metal! Of course, that was not all he received.

At Thanksgiving, someone asked Gage, my great-nephew (age 4), what he wanted for Christmas. To which Logan quickly replied, "It doesn't matter anyway, cause Santa doesn't bring you what you want!" This because 'Santa' decided Logan was too big for a Diego Tree house last year!

I think he has changed his mind this year! We baked cookies for Santa. And remembered to leave out extra carrots for Rudolf.
After Christmas, Logan enjoyed playing the paleontologist. Santa also brought him a Dinosaur dig. Plastic bones encased in plaster that he got to dig out with a hammer and a chisel. You can tell he took his work very seriously.