?!?!?!?

So, admist a very hectic end of the week where several of the agents I speak with have made me feel worthless, I leave the apartment this morning with Chester to take him to doggie daycare. Every time he visits, he gets a raving report card, telling us how much fun he is. They are even starting to have nicknames for him, like 'Ears'.

So as I am ready to lock my door, I see an envelope on the front door, which has come from the apartment complex. I opened it up, wondering if it's because we were short somewhere in rent or something else. Inside? A letter:

We have several reports that the dog in your apartment has shown aggressive behavior towards other residents. It has also been seen off of a leash. Your pet is always required to be on a leash, and should not threaten other residents. Please remedy this situation and keep the dog under control, or we will have to pursue further action.

Now, for all of you who know Chester first hand KNOW that this is not the dog described in the letter. Sure, he has no manners, but aggressive? Sure, to get attention! He's great with adults, children (he loves Helen!), and of course, with other pets (well...my parents' cats might say otherwise!)

But of course this has me concerned. People think Cary and I own an aggressive dog! For anyone who truly knows me, I would NEVER allow an aggressive animal in my house. But now, I have a dog that has a reputation!

So, as we continue to pursue to train him and make him listen to us (incuding not barking) I will choose to laugh at this incident and say it came from a resident that is afraid of dogs, including stubborn, playful ones.

Let no stranger come near me, or I'll sic my vicious dog on you!

A Day In The Life Of A McFadden Gathering

Yesterday, we got together with Cary and his family. Brad, Faith, and Helen were in town from Sulphur Springs, so we decided to get together at his parents' house and eat and do what we do best--play games.

These gatherings are fun, and but can also be tiring from all of the activity. When Cary, Chester, and I showed up around 11, it was just Gary and Helen, as Brad was at work and Brenda and Faith went shopping.

Once Brenda and Faith joined us, it was time to start the hotdogs and hamburgers!!! And of course, as soon as we do that, Brad calls, ready to be picked up. So off Gary and Faith went to retrieve him while Brenda and Cary watching the food on the grill and I played (watched Meet the Robinson's) with Helen.

Close to 45 minutes later, everyone was gathering around the table to eat our yummy grub. Oh, and thanks Faith for the great idea of 2 hotdogs in 1 bun! I'm using that everytime I eat them now (unless they are jumbo dogs!). Helen led us in prayer, and then the food went down the hatch!

I don't remember the conversation much, but I always enjoy sitting around the table with them. Brad usually has some wild story to tell!

After lunch, Faith went off to shop again (taking advantage of the numerous shops in the area) and the rest of us played a game of Cranium (Brad, Gary, and Brenda against Cary, Helen, and me). Somehow (don't let this go to your head!) Cary, Helen, and I lost (bad!) against the other team. Next time guys! :o)

After that, it was Cary and Helen's turn to play a game of Battleship. I had not played in several years, but trying to help Helen beat her uncle was a lot of fun. Let me tell you--Cary is a great uncle, but a loud winner at any game!

Chester? He had himself a blast with a 7 year old to chase him around. After that visit, we went to my parents, where he got to chase cats and run around a freshly watered back yard. He had a great day!

And I would like to thank everyone who helped in wearing Chester out, and giving Cary and I a very restful night's sleep!

All Because My Dad...

Says Cary and I take way too many pictures of the back of the head.

And it's true; we do take a lot of pictures of the back of his head. But it's unintentional (thanks for the help in spelling the word, poppy). Whenever we are following him around for Clown photos, we end up behind him, resulting in the following pictures.

But now, it look like it is becoming a fun 'inside joke' between all of us.

Yes, everyone, this is real HENNA (not tattoo). It will remain on the back of his head for several days. And we are already trying to think of other things for him to put on it in the future!

I love you dad. Thanks for always knowing how to make us smile!

Fellowship Concert

Last night, Cary, Jon, Melissa and I went to Fellowship Church, where the singers of Fellowship were recording a DVD for the release of their cd. This cd is their first, meaning that all of the music was written, produced, and sang by them.


The music was great, and they made the atmosphere fun and very much like a rock concert. Well, I guess you can say it was a rock concert that was focused on God.

Cary knew all of the songs, as we bought the cd a couple of weeks ago, and has listened to it since then nearly non-stop. I also knew some of the songs from riding with him in the car, and it was great to be able to join in and sing along.

I have 3 songs on the album that I consider my favorites, one of them being 'New Creation'. For the performance of that song, a couple of people literally paint (as in all over) the singer, and there are drums on the stage with confetti all over that jump into the air as they are hit...it was the excitement of the night for everyone!

The DVD will be coming out soon, and if you can, I encourage everyone to check it out. Great music, great voices, great church. All coming together to worship our God.

I hope that Melissa and Jon enjoyed themselves. It was their first time to visit Fellowship, and I know it can be quite overwhelming for first time visits. Melissa was so full of energy and sometimes you couldn't help but get the same burst of energy she had.

Thanks guys for joining us!

Cary's Halloween Fun

Looks like we have the makings of a hockey player!

How Long Does It Take?

Ok, so it started as a dare from Melissa to blog the amount of time it takes to get home after a nice evening of dinner at Cary's favorite restaurant, Chaat. So, how long does it take to get from Chaat to our home? 6 minutes.

Then I realized that people will drive quite a distance to get to their favorite store, restaurant, church... So, I would like to bring up that question:

"It takes me _____(seconds/minutes/hours/days/months/years...) to get to ___________(favorite thing here)

For me? It took me 28 years to get to London, and another 2 1/2 to go back. I can't wait!

Alright Melissa--the dare is done! Now I dare you to post how long it takes to you get to your favorite place.

But, really, I hope that you and Jon enjoyed the evening, and hopefully you enjoyed the food as well! We'll do it again soon!

Howl-O-Ween Party

Last night was yet another gathering at the Jarvis house with dear family and friends. And this theme (as you could guess by the title) was Halloween. I have 3 additional blogs about it below if you have not seen them yet (I know, I know...Good grief Jenn!)

Now, nothing here was really frightfully scary (unless you count my uncle's lack of costume) but I hope everyone had a great time like I did.

The costumes:

Mom was a medieval maiden

Dad was a Pirate (the baseball ones!)

Melissa was the Sock Monster (and she stole a lot of cute ones!)

SaBra was a dark fairy whose wings were snatched from her

Alex was a vet (great job throwing that together last minute!)

Erica and Austin came from a football game, so they werent' quite dressed up

And Bill, well, we gave him a hat for his dress-up!

And from previous posts, you know that Cary, Chester, and I were dressed as the Grinch characters.

The night started with hot dogs, chili, and chips and then moved on to cake. Cary and I made a big marble cake with a pirate story and SaBra brought a pumpkin-shaped chocolate cake--both were delicious in my opinion!

We had a pumpkin-carving contest, where we randomly were paired up with someone to make the best pumpkin. Mom and Alex were paired, Dad and Austin, SaBra and Bill, Cary and Erica, and Melissa and I. We took about 45 minutes to design and carve a pumpkin to see who won.

And the winner is: Austin and Dad!!! Austin walked away with the grand prize of a Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, and then the pirate toys from the cake--Lucky kid!

We finished off the night with SPOONS, which I lost, AGAIN! Bill walked off being the big winner this time--good job!

Bill brought his dog, Nina, along for the night, and Chester looked like he had so much fun with her. Whenever he got close to Nina (who is exactly like Chester except size, ears, and a white spot on the chest), she would growl (playfully) and Chester would tuck his tail under and run, only to return seconds later looking like he was ready to pounce. He slept well last night (thank you Nina!!!).

And it looks like our Christmas and New Year's parties are already planned out, thanks to the creativity of mom and Melissa!

How The Dog...

Became the Grinch!

Cary and I had been thinking for a while of what to do with ourselves for Halloween. There were thoughts of using a theme, and thoughts of our own costume.

Cary thought at one point he wanted to be Uncle Fester from the Addams Family, but we could not find robes that were good enough to be like Fester's!

I couldn't think of anything really fun for myself, though I played with a lot of ideas (Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Pirate...). And then, there's Chester! If he's going to be going to a costume party, we need to dress him up!


Because of Chester's silly paws and the fur that comes up out of them, I call him Grinch feet occassionally. Well, that sparked the idea: Chester can be the Grinch! Cary wanted to go as Cindy-Lou-Who, and I got to be Max, the Grinch's trusty canine companion.

This blog you get to see the results. Cary makes an adorable Cindy, doesn't he!

And for feeling 'guilty' for putting Chester through the green dye job (yes we REALLY sprayed and gelled him green) we bought him a new toy (also to go with the theme that the Grinch was out to destroy Christmas), which he started destroying in 1/2 of the day! Poor Santa Dog!

The costumes were a big hit, and Cary enjoyed wearing pink pajamas all night long...but he refuses to wear them to work on Halloween! And I think Chester was glad to finally get the green out of him at the end of the night.

I will never see that cartoon the same way again!

Aaarrgghhh!!!

I don't know if it was the huge hit of Pirates of the Caribbean or dad's Safety Pirate theme for the Lewisville Safety Clowns a year ago, but pirates are HUGE right now!

What was originally going to be a 'cemetary' theme for our cake for the great party quickly turned into a Pirate theme when a visit to Toys R Us failed to provide any great cemetary decorations for under $70.

What we chose ended up working really well I think. And I think Cary agrees with me, because he likes to keep going back to the pictures of the finished creation and looking at them.

We baked the cake on Thursday with the anticipation of the next 2 days being super busy preparing for the party. And it's a good thing we did because we were busy on Friday and Saturday with de-gutting the pumpkins and the last minute errands on Saturday!

It was a large marble cake (a full sheet I believe) and it was fun to design and really colorful! The story behind it: 2 pirates row up on the shore of a desert isle and follow the map to where the treasure should be. They begin digging and they strike gold! Along with a skeleton that comes back to life and scares them away as he tries to protect his precious gold.

I added this last picture because it cracked me up: After crumbling up the cake for the grave, I dug the skeleton in there: "I'm so hungry; I haven't eaten in years!" I know--me and my child-like mind!

In The Beginning...

There was the selecting of the pumpkins.

What was going to be a morning of walking through a pumpkin patch (or maybe just going to the closest store) with my parents and selecting a variety of pumpkins with "personalities" turned into a quick pick at the local Kroger.

Unfortunately mom was not feeling well on Friday night, and instead of going on Saturday to pick the pumpkins and de-gut them before the party, Cary and I decided it was best to do it Friday night and decorate the cake on Saturday. So, 4 became 2, but we had fun with the variety we got to choose from.

Afterwards, Cary and I loaded them into the car and drove to Lewisville to join my dad in the clean out process (which I refer to as de-gutting). 5 pumpkins=quite a mess! I wanted to get into a seed/goo fight with one of them, but both dad and Cary were less than enthusiastic about it--men!

With that process out of the way, Cary and I headed home, where we were happily asleep by 10:45 to get ready for a super busy day on Saturday!

P.S.--Mom is feeling better; it just sounds like she needed a good night's rest herself!