A Parade & our new dog Bootsie

Mark and I had a nice weekend. Saturday morning we met some friends to watch a local parade and walk around the 'fair/festival' atmosphere. I grew up marching in that parade every year I was in band, so it really 'took me back'.

Saturday evening we went to eat dinner at our neighbor's house. We have the sweetest neighbors. They do a good job of looking out for us. (They do things like check up on me when the electricity goes out in the neighborhood.) The husband is retired and forever working on a new project around their house and the wife still works some. Well, they said they've been wanting to have us over since we moved in...I think they were good friends with dear old Harold who lived here before us. He grilled his famous pork chops and his wife made more side dishes than we could possibly eat. To top it off, he had made us a baby gift! I hadn't realized how talented he is at woodwork. I'm not sure what to call this little gift, but it's like a 'rocking horse' on wheels, except it's a dog! So we're calling it a doggie scooter. The handles on his head make the front wheels turn left and right--it's really fun!
That night I mentioned it would be a great 'farm dog' for our 'farm-themed' room, and that we'd have to name him Bootsie, after Mark's favorite ol' farm dog. The funny thing was that our neighbor had grown up on a farm and she, too, had a dog named Bootsie growing up. So Bootsie, it is!

Mark continued to work on the deck. He's scraping off the old paint, replacing rotten boards, bracing the bottom portion of the deck, and going to paint soon! You can't tell in this picture, but he'd rigged up the perfect set-up...the Chiefs were playing so he brought out our little T.V. and was watching on the deck while he worked!