The underground railroad for Dogs

 I'm not sure why, but somehow calling this dog OURS feels like we are doing something wrong.

 She was running our neighborhood loose without a collar or tags, no electronic chip tracking thingy, no ads have been run in any of the newspapers that we have checked, no one has answered our ads, we've hung fliers................no one seems to be missing this dog.

And yet, here we are over a week later, and although I technically have called off the search and rescue mission............it seems like we took someone elses dog and are calling her ours.

How much dog hair do we have to accumulate in our house before I can stop feeling like a dog thief?

Our family camping trip that was a long time ago.........finally

I never did post any pictures from our family camping trip the end of July.  And since this sorry little blog is the closest thing to a scrap book for my children- I must now include these.

 It was a nice weekend, one that I will treasure as it was nice to spend time with my family and enjoy their company, humor and wit.

 Here is my brother..........eating corn.

 And here is my brother and his wife.............eating corn.

 Here is my sister.........not eating corn.

 And here is my corn.  Dang that was some good corn.  It was on this trip that I discovered a hispanic seasoning called Tajin (I have no idea how it is pronounced......but it is tasty).  If you have a desire for adventure, wander into a mexican grocery and try to find yourself a bottle.  Of course, don't ask anyone unless you speak ACTUAL spanish, because they won't understand you. 
Apparently, speaking slowly in english is not spanish.

Tajin is lime and chili pepper- says it is good for fruits and vegetables.  My preference?  CORN!

Here is Sam roasting a marshmallow..........which is what we ate in addition to corn.  His Aunts, sisters and cousins were playing yahtzee and he took it upon himself to make them all s'mores.  He would slap a marshmallow on the stick, roast it for like 3.5 seconds and pop that cold marshmallow onto a cracker with chocolate and deliver it to them.  And they would argue over who had got to eat it.  Because NOTHING is better than an ice cold s'more.  Well, other than a nice toasty warm melting s'more.  But those were no where to be found.

He never did get to eat his own s'more that night- he said the 'bingo' people said he had to feed them first and 'man they are some hungry people who just LOVE his smores'. 

I will forever refer to my family as 'the bingo people'.

A Public Service Announcement

We will now demonstrate how to not get stuck in our scary stairs and have to live there forever for the rest of your life:

First- relax.  There is no need for panic.

 You will be unable to pull your big giant noggin straight back through- it will not fit.

 You will need to turn your head to the side and gently pull it back out.

This concludes our announcement.

You're welcome.

A strange feeling

Dan's dad has been in the hospital since last Saturday.  At first, they thought it was pneumonia.  Then they thought it wasn't. 

And then they thought it was a staph infection, and then it only grew in one of their cultures, so then they thought it wasn't.  Which is good and bad- because although he doesn't have the actual Staph infection, it is there somewhere between the needle, his blood and the petry dish. 

Then they worried that the cancer was ravaging his bones.  But after a bone scan, they found it wasn't.

So then they worried about the tumors in his lungs, but after a CT scan, they decided they weren't the issue.

And today?  They still don't have a clue.  But they are sending more blood to other hospitals and calling an infectious disease doctor. 

He's running a low fever off and on.  His oxygen levels drop very low when he tries to move.  And he feels cruddy.

And I'm afraid.  I suppose it hit me yesterday that his body might not be able to fight hard enough for long enough- and what if this stupid disease wins?  What if it takes away the only grandfather that my children will ever remember?  What if this is the year that grief will settle back into our family?  What if Lew passing was just a way for the Lord to help my children begin to understand death, because He knew that Dan's dad was going to be next?  What if I never get to play cards and tease this man again?  What if he never asks me if I like seafood again in my life?  What if....................his end is almost here?

I have to push this from my mind.  I can't handle it today.  Thanks for letting me dump it all out here.

Sweets and Flowers

 Over the weekend, my beautiful Daisy turned into a Brownie.

 It's this fancy girlscout thing where they 'bridge' up to the next level of scouts.  Why on earth she became a girlscout brownie instead of a cookie is beyond me.

Either way- its a girlscout conspiracy to generate more revenue by making families buy multiple vests/sashes over the course of their lives.  See- Daisys wear the blue one, the one which I have already painstakingly sewn on 247 individual patches.  Brownies wear the brown one.  But being a former girlscout myself, I am trickier than they are.  Forgoing my original plan to just give her Allyson's brownie vest, I decided to go ahead and fork over the cold hard cash for the new vest and 23 patches that it required.  But instead of hours with needle and thread?  Hot Glue Gun.  Worked beautifully.

And Emily didn't even know the difference.

Dog People

When Lewis died, we all knew that we would get another dog.  It was just a matter of when.  And what kind.  The possibilities were endless.  Would we get another beagle?  A hypoallergenic Shitzu?  One of those cute little terriers?  Something tiny I could put in a special purse?  Something huge that could pull a sled?  Endless possibilities.

 None of which included this dog.  This ugly ugly ugly dog.  Lord help me, that is one UGLY dog.

She has been running the neighborhood for a few days.  One morning she was in our back yard.  I finally conceeded and told the kids to put out a bowl of water for her- in my defense it was soooo hot and she was just running around frantic and there was not a drip of water anywhere.

We had an engagement early Saturday morning and as we pulled out of the neighborhood, she was running around at the end of the street. Which meant she was moving on to wider horizons- perfect.  As we got back home, Allyson said "If we see that dog again today I'm going to take it as a sign from God".  I kid you not, as we rounded the corner to our home, that dog was sitting square in the middle of our front freakin' yard.

She was timid and guarded and wouldn't let anyone near her.  I told the kids to leave her be and Emily and I left for a birthday party she had that afternoon.

 By the time we got back, two short hours later, the dog had a name, a collar and was in our back yard playing with a tennis ball with the kids.

 Shortly after she got a bath and an invitation into our house.

Although we have run ads and put up flyers and notified local vet offices, something tells me that this ugly ugly ugly dog is now a Goble.  Rosie Goble.

I guess I'll never outgrow this

I have never felt any more unprepared to be a parent than I do right this minute.  Which confirms that being a young mom was never the problem, since I am not exactly that anymore.  Although seasoned with a few extra years, I still lack the confidence and knowledge to know that I CAN successfully care for these three small beings.

I feel so very discouraged.