Monday, July 30, 2012

An old Friend

A story going back many years.....
Colonel Mustard and I, like many young couples, thought we should follow the pet rule before we had kids. you know-- get a plant, make it grow--get a dog, make it happy, then you're ready to have children. I'm certain I never made a plant grow, but at some point we moved on to the dog part and found ourselves a sweet little black lab puppy. We struggled to name him, but the following morning when he had managed himself out of the box and onto Colonel Mustard's pillow, I decided we should call him Bear, since he obviously believed he was our teddy bear.

Several months later, and without the permission of Colonel Mustard, I found Bear a Buddy (a yellow lab that threw up in Colonel Mustard's new truck on the way home!) Buddy and Bear were the best of friends and we loved them. Bear thought Buddy was his chew toy and I often came home from work to see "Muddy Buddy" frantically pawing at the back door, covered in mud.

A year or two later ( I'm getting old and can't quite remember) we moved to Arizona and brought our puppies in tow. Shortly after we moved there, I turned up pregnant with Andrew. Bear and Buddy were my best buds and I came home from work every day and walked them around the neighborhood with my rather large pregnant self. Colonel Mustard was known to come home and let the dogs in the kitchen and lay on the floor and play with them. On occasion, I saw him sharing his popsicle or ice cream with Bear, though I'm certain he would never admit doing so himself.

One day about six weeks before Andrew's impending arrival I called my Mom upset and crying. She inquired as to the cause of the upset and I informed her I was worried that I would never love this baby as much as I loved my dogs. She died laughing....and when she gained her composure she replied, "Honey, when that baby gets here, you won't even know those dogs exist." And sadly, she was right.

I hate to admit, but would be lying if I didn't, those dogs became just that...dogs. I still loved them dearly, but I had children to take care of and they obviously took up a great deal of my time. Many days since then, I have been outside with the dogs and have said to myself, "You know, when these dogs die, I will be almost as sad out of guilt for them not being my babies anymore, as I will for the loss of the dog."

Well, as we all know, life goes on, and dogs do not live forever, and today....today was that day.

We came home from a weekend out of town and our dear old friend Bear had died. Colonel Mustard and I spent the evening digging a grave and burying our little puppy we took home almost 11 years ago....and I am sad...and guilt ridden...and grateful to know that all dogs go to heaven (they really do, it's not just a movie) and I'm certain he is happy there." I am sad I wasn't here when he died.. and very sad that life sometimes happens the way it does and my job as a mother heavily interfered with loving my puppies in the way I wanted to.

So tonight I say goodbye to my Bugga Bear. I will miss your happy face ever eager to see us. I'm sorry we didn't get to play as much as I would have liked. I hope you know you were loved and will be greatly missed--even the tore up flower beds.

Bear 
September 6, 2001~July 28, 2012

Monday, July 23, 2012

Deep Thoughts....

Did you know that eye twitching can be caused by tiredness and stress? Now I know why my eye has been twitching for the last 9 years--Thank you beautiful children who NEVER SLEEP!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Family Reunion

Last week was my family reunion, and thanks to Grandma's help, we were able to go for the first time in 10 years. My kids have only been to Grandma's house as infants for funerals, so this was their first real meeting of all their cousins.
While it seemed a little overwhelming at first, they really enjoyed their five days at Grandma's house! Sadly, I didn't get enough pictures-- I was very busy myself. so I'll have to see if any of my siblings took more.

The kids loved Grandma's pool-- even if it was brutally cold the first couple of days. There was never a lack of boys for Andrew and Ethan to cause trouble with!

We had a big family Kickball game in the back field--they also had a basketball tournament on Grandma's new basketball court.
 
 There are very few girls at the end of my family, but Ava quickly became hooked at the hip with the one cousin her age. Ava is only about 6 weeks older than Ainslee and they had so much fun together. My sister even felt the need to buy them matching dresses and get Ainslee a pair of shoes that matched Ava's!
Allison and Katlyn never lacked for attention and have had a hard time adjusting to being home where they are no longer constantly held. They loved every minute of it, but I think Grandmas was their favorite to snuggle with!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Three Months Old

I can't believe the girls are three months old already! It goes by so fast-- like just the other day Ava was talking about her birthday cake and I started to put her off again saying we'd see when it got closer to her birthday....then I realized her birthday is a month away-- yikes!
 The girls are both full of smiles and they love to have conversations with you. They are awake for a lot longer periods of time now and to my great relief they will actually play for short stints without fussing-- really helps me get things done. (a few thing anyway). they still sleep on me at night, but we are usually good for about a 4-6 hour stretch--which is also very helpful as it's a little easier to function that way.
I had to take them in for a weight check and it wasn't very impressive.

Allison 7lbs. 11 oz.
Katlyn 6lbs. 9 oz.

They are little peanuts and are short and have small heads still too! We are beginning to worry that Katlyn might be a little Ava, but I cross my fingers everyday, try to feed her more and hope that the puking will stop and she'll gain some weight. Fortunately, they are both very strong little girls and seem to be doing very well in every other way.
Allison

Katlyn