Puppy Love

We have some neighbor friends who own and breed their Sheltie.  They recently had a litter of five pups, and once my kids heard about the puppies, they had a new favorite way to pass the summer days!  They have all been spending hours petting and playing with the puppies, but Lauren has been especially enamored with them.  She has her own names for all five of them, and she has her favorites. 

Of course the girls have been begging us to buy one of the puppies, but I didn't even blink when I told them NO, over and over and over!  Lauren said to the owner, "If only you could lower the price (from $500) to $11.25"--which is of course how much spending money Lauren has to her name.  Thankfully my wise neighbor answered her, "Even if I did, you know the answer would still be no."

The puppies are old enough to be sold now, so we knew that it was possible that we wouldn't see them any more after our family reunion in Idaho last week.  (Driving home from the reunion on Saturday, Olivia was very grouchy about going home to our house.  She wanted to stay and play!  But once we pulled into our driveway, after dark that night, she perked right up with this idea that she shared: "Let's go see the puppies!")
Sunday at church, we learned that one of the puppies had indeed found a new home.  Even though Lauren should have been prepared for that news, she was shocked and devastated.  It was her favorite one. 

That afternoon, Emily, Lauren and Hannah went to visit the four puppies.  When they came back home, I was really surprised to see Lauren walk in the door first.  She is usually the last to leave those puppies!  I asked her what was up, and she said, "Well, I really like it when the puppies fall asleep in my lap and I can hold them and pet them, but today they were too hyper, and they wouldn't go to sleep."  I explained to her that that's what happens.  As puppies get older, they sleep less, and play (and chew) more.  Her shoulders sagged as she sighed and said, "I guess it's ok if they sell the puppies now."

Lesson learned.  Now we all agree that having neighbors who will have puppies for us to play with once a year is much more fun than owning our own dog.

But, to compensate, I did let the girls get some fish.  Lauren bought a fish bowl at a yard sale, and a dark blue angel fish at the pet store.  She named her fish Jimmer, and I'm trying to get used to hearing her say things such as "Today Jimmer bit my finger" or "Did you know that Jimmer doesn't sleep at night?"  Also startling is when Hannah talks about her fish, "Darla."

Emily also owns a couple of fish, but they certainly don't thrill her like horses do.  Emily still draws horses, reads about horses, and dreams about horses.  She also volunteers at a nearby therapeutic riding stable.  Yesterday I went to pick her up and got to watch the end of a lesson she was helping with.  I was so proud to see my girl walking in the arena with two disabled riders on horses, helping with their therapy.  It was a very tender scene.  She has decided to quit soccer, which we were hesitant to allow her to do, but I'm over my disappointment about dropping soccer because of all the good things Emily is doing.  At the stables, she is learning to work hard (she has to get all her work at home done before she can go to the stables, and she does that quickly and independently), to shoulder responsibility, and to work with other people and be more confident in her associations with all sorts of people of all ages and abilities.   What a girl!

Can't forget to give a shout out to Katelyn.  She hasn't spent much time with the animal kingdom this summer, but she has been working like an animal at Color Guard practices, and earning money to help pay her Color Guard fees.   So glad she's my oldest girl!

It is time.

The peonies have popped, and it's time to play in the pool.

Perfect!

Daddy Daughter Date (at Dawn)

Katelyn can hardly wait to get her learner's permit and start learning to drive a car.  But this morning, our early bird Lauren caught the worm.  She tagged along with Doug as he hit a quick nine holes before work, and he let her drive the cart.  He reported to me that her comfort zone is anywhere with lots of green.  However, when she tried to cross a bridge, things didn't go so well, and Doug has a bruised forehead to prove it.  (I can't type that without giggling about it.  What kind of parents are we!?)



Grandma - don't worry too much.  This is post-bridge incident.

 Good times.

Less Gloom, More Bloom

This was our first June bloom.  I'm still waiting for my favorite pink peonies to pop.  Then I'll know that it's really truly summer time!  The weather hasn't been hot yet, but it hasn't been as gloomy as forecasted, so for now,  I'll take it.  With less than a week of summer break behind us, things are going pretty well.  I'm enjoying my morning walks, the girls are enjoying sleeping in and staying up later (with the sun), and we're getting a fair amount of work done.   I'm trying to enforce a couple of schedules: all chores done before noon, and no more than 30 minutes of electronics time (t.v., computer, Nintendo, etc) until after dinner.  Wish me luck.

Flashback Fashion

Tonight, Katelyn wore my eighth grade "graduation" dress (specially ordered by myself, and made by my talented mother) to her eigth grade "completion" celebration.

Rebecca in her backyard (with her grandparents), 1990

Katelyn in her backyard, 2011

In my case, it really was a graduation, because I was leaving junior high and starting high school. 

 In Kate's case, it's just a "completion", because even though Katelyn will be a Freshman in the fall, she is not graduating from junior high.  Our local junior high hosts 7th-9th grades, and the high school is just 10th-12th.  And that means that Katelyn will spend more time in junior high school than she will at a high school, since she started 6th grade at a junior high school in Washington.

In Katelyn's lingo, she might say that's "Pretty grand, eh?" 

That's My Kid!

This morning, I woke up early and found Emily on the computer.  She explained that she wanted to write a poem.  In a matter of minutes, here's what she composed:
 

Happy Memorial Day!

Here's a little message for those who've passed away:

Thank you for the work you did, and who we are today.

For without you we wouldn't be! Nor this place we live.

We're honored by your sacrifice. Your lives you'd freely give.

You fought in battles, long and hard! You raised our parents well.

Because of you, we freely talk, and learn and work and dwell.

So, on this Memorial Day, We'd just like to claim:

Thank you, and we miss you! We'll try to be the same.

We'll strive to do our very best; examples, just like you!

Lastly, I'll just again say: Thank you and we love you, too!

 Emily Larson, 12 years old

Some Strange Place

To cap off our family reunion weekend in St. George, we visited Snow Canyon.  It feels like another planet!  The sand feels sweet beneath the feet, and the plants add an ocean of bright aqua.

 So bright, in fact, that as we walked through the canyon and glanced down at our arms, our skin looked blue!  Pictures don't capture the magical color. 

But they do capture some of the fun.  Gravity check:

After playing in the sand dunes, we drove through the canyon, and then some of us made the return trip to the park entrance on our bikes.  It was about a three mile ride, and 97% of it was downhill!  We smiled the entire way down.  We saw birds, butterflies, and chipmunks, and even a long black and yellow snake on the trail...Olivia joined the I Spy fun and pointed out some other familiar creatures: "See those humans?"....but no gila monsters, and no turtles.  Maybe next time.

What's Next

I always need something on my calendar to look forward to.  As soon as one anticipated event ends,  I start to ask myself, "OK, what's next?"  And I've come to realize that all of these little things I anticipate have an underlying theme: getting me closer and closer to SUMMER!  I think this is why January is always so hard for me.  There's not much to look forward to--it's all too far away!   2011 has gone something like this:

January - looking forward to Hawaii!  Then I'll come home from Hawaii and it will only be a few more weeks of winter, probably!  Spring Break will be just around the corner, and after that I'll be busy planning our Family Reunion in May.  By the time we come home from our Reunion, the girls will only have two partial weeks of school left, and then it will be SUMMER!  CAN'T WAIT!

Those were my thoughts, starting the day after Christmas.

Doug always warns me not to expect too much, because it leads to disappointment.  He's right, but somehow that lesson just hasn't kicked in yet.  I have been disappointed that winter seemed to last much longer than anticipated, and Spring has been much less thrilling than I thought it would be...in fact, it hasn't felt much like Spring at all yet.  And now that I was anticipating Summer, I'm afraid I'm going to be let down once again!

If I could just make friends with Mother Nature...but she's such a fickle gal!  She should know I'm not a very patient person when it comes to high maintenance drama queens.  I think that's why our relationship is on the rocks right now.  I'm really trying to focus on the positive, you know? 

Like this:

One of my favorite pics from the Reunion.  It shows a lot of elements that made my weekend so wonderful--family gathered together (6 of Doug's 8 brothers + their families), sunshine, playfulness (and a little bit of competitiveness mixed in), relaxation, laughter.

We came home and I looked at my calendar.  This week is pretty much empty.  Soccer has ended, school is winding down, and time seems to be slowing down...which would be perfect, if we weren't back to that January weather! 

Oh! Somebody's Got a Birthday!

...and Doug had to stop somebody else from blowing out the candles for her!  Also notice that the birthday girl can multi-task: brush little Polly Pocket-size-Rapunzel's hair, and blow the candles mid-stroke!

How we love our three-year-old Olivia!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

One recent (rainy) day, Hannah said to me, "There's sure going to be a lot of May flowers!"  I truly hope so!   We're so ready for May!