Down the River

Last week, Grandpa had an opportunity to go cruising down the river with the Seniors at his church.  He didn't want to go unaccompanied so he invited me to go along with him.  We had a beautiful day to enjoy and the food and music was wonderful as well.

Christmas at Our House

Brave Man

When we lost Hambone a little over a week ago, we expected it to be a while before we started to even consider another dog.  However, by Friday, a few of the kids were already asking when we were going to get another dog.

So, we started looking around a little to see what dogs were available.  CP is allergic to animal dander, so our choices were limited.  And the kids really wanted a puppy since Hambone was nearly 5 before any of the kids were born.

We checked Craigslist for poodle puppies and saw a few listed.  We sent e-mails out, but didn't get any responses.  We checked the local Animal Shelter but didn't expect to find any puppies.  However, we did see one dog that was listed as approximately 2 yrs old that was a  poodle mix.  So, we went to visit him.  However, we found out when we got to the shelter that he had heart worms and that the treatment required him to be still and quiet for 4-6 weeks.  NOT happening at our house.

So, we checked our local poodle rescue group, but didn't expect to find much.  We had checked out their site before when we first heard about them and they rarely had young dogs and many of their dogs are rescues from the local animal shelters.  However, much to our surprise, they had a puppy listed!  He was less than a year old and black.

 We called to see if he was even available for adoption and much to our surprise - he was.  We also were curious as to where he was located since this rescue group actually fosters the dogs all up and down the East Coast of Florida and sometimes over on the West Coast.  The lady I spoke to said that he was actually located in our county and had been recently surrendered by a family that couldn't take care of him any more.

We had to put in an application for the dog.  They wanted us to meet him (since he was actually a poodle mix) to make sure he would be a good match for us - mainly due to CPs allergies.  So, Friday night they brought him to us to see how CP would react.

CP did his best to trigger his allergies;  he rubbed his face in him, petted him, rubbed him, held him close.  For a LONG time. 

While CP did feel his allergies kick up, it was never more than he could handle.  After about 30 min, the ladies that brought the dog by, asked us what we wanted to do.  We took a vote from the kids and they all voted YES!  

Even Grandpa voted YES!

 So, without further adieu,  meet the newest member of our family - Farley.  

While he is still somewhat scared, he is warming up to all of us slowly.  And we really do think he is a 

Brave Man (or puppy)

Father's Day

I know - I'm late as usual.  We had a nice, somewhat relaxing Father's Day.  We went to church that morning and then came home for lunch.  BG and JA had a basketball game that afternoon (more in a later post), then I grilled steaks for the adults and burgers for the kids.  We had corn-on-the-cob and green beans and watermelon for dessert. Our good friend Mr. E came over to join us for dinner.  The four adults - CP, my Dad, Mr. E and I - sat outside enjoying a beautiful sunset and great conversation.  We had such a nice time, I forgot to take any pictures.  But here are some recent shots of the 3 fathers we celebrated on Sunday.

Hambone

We knew this day was coming.  We expected it nearly six months ago.  But it still doesn't make it any easier. 

We lost our best friend last night. 

Hambone (or Bone) was 18 yrs old.  He was our first "child".  CP and I had been married a little over a year when we decided to increase our family.  Since CP is allergic to animal dander, we had to choose a dog that wouldn't bother his allergies.  He had a black poodle as a child so we looked for another black poodle.  We drove about 30 min from our home to a breeder and got to choose our puppy. 

On the drive home, we tried to think of names.  Lots of names were mentioned - Thunder, Tux (he had a little white spot on his chest), Spot, and at one point, CP said "Hambone".  I have no idea what made him think of that name, but I started to laugh.  I told CP that if I didn't stop laughing, Hambone was going to be his name. 

Well, you know the rest of the story.

We worked really hard to make sure he was a people dog.  Our house was on the main road of our neighborhood and lots of people used to walk the sidewalks.  We would sit outside with him and introduce him to everyone that walked by.  He was a wonderful, friendly poodle. 

We took him to obedience training at the local Parks and Rec.  He ended up winning "Most Improved" by the end of the six weeks.  (Of course, I think this was because he was such a rowdy little guy when we started!)

He was so little when we first brought him home, he would have to hop in the tall grass to get around.  If it snowed, he would sink up to his shoulders. 

We eventually moved to another town in NC and Hambone (or HB as we sometimes called him) started having seizures.  We took him to the vet and were told that the seizures would shorten his life span.  With an average life span of 12-15 yrs, we figured we'd be lucky if he lived 8-10 yrs. 

While we lived in that town, he became "friends" with our neighbor's cat.  One of our fondest memories is of the two of them running around in our backyard and crashing into each other as they tried to jump across a small trench (we were building a walkway) from opposite sides.

In 2003, we moved to Florida and for some unknown reason, he stopped having his seizures.  We still figured that after having them for the 8 yrs we lived in that town that he probably didn't have much life left.  Thankfully, we were wrong.

Of course, at 18 yrs of age, he was mostly blind (only saw light and shadows) and deaf.  He laid around alot and kept us company.  When we had company over, he would still come up to check them out and on occasion he would do his "rabbit run" where he would scamper around the house like a rabbit. But those times had become very few and far between.

Since we homeschool, the kids are used to being around him all the time.  He would come into the homeschool room and lay down on his rug and hang out with everyone.  At times, he would go visit Grandpa - even if Grandpa wasn't at home.   But that won't be happening any more.

We are going to miss our best friend.

The Mouse House - Again

Our passes we bought to Disney are only good on weekdays and not during the summer.  Last Friday was the last day before summer that our passes were good - so we took the whole family for another day with the mouse.

We arrived early so we could beat a lot of the crowds.  The boys were excited to ride Thunder Mountain since it has been under renovation all year.  Our plan was to ride the train over to Splash Mountain and then ride both Thunder and Splash.  However, our plans were foiled as the train was closed at park opening.  So, we improvised.  They were just bringing out the horse drawn carriage, so we hopped aboard.

We enjoyed our ride down Main Street to Cinderellas Castle then hopped off and went to the Mountains.  By the time we finished Splash and Thunder, the train was running.  So we hopped on the train and rode over to Fantasyland where we rode Goofini.  From there, we headed over to Space Mountain.  The girls opted out of Space Mountain and rode Carousel of Progress.  We also got to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride before we headed out of the park. 

We rode the train to the entrance then headed over to Hollywood Studios.  We didn't stay long as the crowds were horrible.  

We then headed over to Animal Kingdom.  We rode Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids.  The boys rode Everest a few times and asked to ride up front.

We enjoyed our day and missed most of the rain.  

Coming Up For Air - AT's birthday

The last month has been busier and more stressful than anytime in recent memory.  Everything sort of hit all at once.  I think we are past all of that now :-)

Lots of things have been going on, so I'll try to do a couple of short updates rather than one long one.  First (well, most recently), AT turned 12!  We had quite a series of celebrations even though we didn't really intend to.  First, we had a small celebration at home on his birthday with donuts (much less expensive than cake and no leftovers!).  He then had to race out to a baseball game.

The next night, CP and I took AT to dinner - his choice.  He choose a local sports bar type restaurant that he had never been to before.  He enjoyed it and so did we.  Afterwards, we were going to head to the beach to just hang out, but it started to drizzle rain.  So, we started trying to think of indoor things to do.  CP mentioned bowling - so off we went.  We bowled three games and got home VERY late.  I didn't have my camera with me, so no photos.  Then, this past Monday, we used our Disney passes and went to Disney for the day.  AT had heard about the opening ceremony at Magic Kingdom and wanted to be there to see it.  (He also wanted to close the park, but I quickly nixed that idea.  We can do that another time!)  

Our friend Mr E went with us while CP, BG and TJ stayed home (their choice).

then AT decided that he wanted to go to San Francisco! So we let  him.

Summer Fun

While I am frustrated with the other house not selling, we are truly enjoying our new house.

We have a nice backyard and a fire pit that the boys are enjoying.

To avoid being in front of the camera, TJ got behind it. He tried to take a picture of me, but ended up taking a picture of the ground.  I ended up cracking up and then he took the picture below.

and yes, we are roasting marshmallows - giant marshmallows!

A Wedding

Today we went to my nephew's wedding.  He waited until he found the right one for him.  I am so proud of him for waiting!  I pray they have a long happy marriage!

I took the opportunity of a captive audience to take some pictures.

I also managed to get pictures of all the boy cousins

and the girl cousins

We had a great day!