Oh for the love of a DOG!!!!

I have had a love affair with my dog for over 13 years now.  He is my friend.  He isn't such a good dog, but I still love him.  And I am sad that he is already 13.  My family enjoys making jokes that he doesn't have a lot of time left.  I try to take it all in stride and laugh with them...but I surely wasn't ready to see his life come to an end last night.
You see, my sweet little girl has a cold.  Runny nose, sneezing, coughing.  So, just before bedtime I gave her a chewable benadryl.  When I looked back down to her she said: "I gave it Kobie."  And there stood Kobie at her feet.  She feeds him often.  And he rarely turns down a hand-out. Often times it isn't even a hand-out.  He likes to swipe food from their little hands. (one of the many reason he isn't such a good dog)  So, I went into panic mode.  Here it is bedtime for my three kids and potentially permanent bedtime for my dog.  My dear husband starting making phone calls.  First the emergency vet.  As he read off the ingredients to the tech on the phone they said that he SHOULD be OK.  But for $60 we could call animal poison control.  YIKES!!  They also offered that regular poison control might help.  After a call to them, they also said he SHOULD be OK.  SHOULD isn't really what I was hoping they would tell me.  However, for a 13 year old dog it was the best we were gonna get.

He IS OK.  Especially considering he never even ate the pill.  A little after they kids were soundly asleep, I looked down to find the pill lying quietly under our kitchen table.    Oh well...at least you can count on us to help keep some people from being bored in their evening job.

Finally??

You might remember back in June I was itching for August.  After a particularly hard day of mothering my three, I had that "when do you go back to school?" feeling.  But, here we are and I am once again shocked at how quickly the summer went by!!  I thought I would be saying: "Finally!!"  And here I am wondering how it can go by so quickly.  I guess that just goes to show that time DOES fly when you are having fun!!

Mostly our summer was glorious!  We spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool and I have a tan for the first time in MANY, MANY years!  (yes, I wore sunscreen---wasn't trying to tan)  We spent time with family and even made some new friends!  We learned some new things and we made some memories!! I am so thankful for such a great summer and for healthy and happy kids to spend it with!! 

Now we are back in the season of complete busy!  And complete abundance!  School started on Monday and so far so good.  We have been calling our little man "Mr. Kindergarten" this week!  He is loving it and loves being at school with his big brother, you know, our well accomplished 2nd grader!!  That said 2nd grader started his first season of tackle football last week.  Cub scouts started again this week.  And AWANA starts up after Labor Day.  We also have some WOLFPACK football coming up soon!   Need I say more?  Making memories...that is what we do!!!

Blue Night

Swim team season came to an end tonight.  And it was a great season.  I am so thankful for what my boys have learned in the pool this summer.  Their skills have come a long way.  Now, of course, they are still not the best ones out there, but that was not the goal.

This is my little man with his favorite coach of three.  Coach "Adam".  This guy was amazed at how much Andy has progressed!  At tonight's meet our little guy won his first BLUE ribbon! 

Tonight was also my little Missy's very first swim meet.  Thankfully, she has been at home with her Mimi during the others. But, she did do well tonight and obviously is enjoying a nice BLUE ring pop!  Thanks to her cousin Anya for helping to babysit her tonight!!  Yes, she stayed the whole meet and didn't get in the pool but one tiny little time!  (no, she does not have on a bathing suit--the pool is supposed to be empty other than the race at hand)

(sorry for the lack of picture of my big man by himself at the pool...but the camera died and I had to replace batteries when I got home)

As for my big man, he too won that BLUE ribbon tonight!!! Actually he won TWO BLUE ribbons tonight!  We were so excited for him.  As you will remember from my last post about swim team, this guy was also just learning, but he was mostly learning to have fun with the experience!  He started the season with some serious doubts, but ended it on a very happy note!  He had a blast and learned a lot!  He even knows how to dive pretty well now!  We are very proud of him and how well he has done!  He is already asking to be on the team again next summer. 

All in all, we had a great season!  The boys are much stronger swimmers and we even made some new friends!  Wow, five years in a neighborhood and all it took was one summer on the swim team!!  I am a little sad to see it come to a close.  But, am thankful that at our last meet tonight we had a nice cheering section for the boys!  Thanks to Popi and Mimi, Anya, Uncle Mike and Aunt Nan, Aunt Moi, Jordan and Lee!!!  (no picture of the cheering section either thanks to bad batteries in the camera!)

Now, it is on to the next season!!  Football here we come!  (tackle football that is---so please pray with me over this one!!!)

What Vacation?

Well, after 2 full weeks away in the mountains with my family, I am ready for MY vacation!!  Remember mamas don't get vacations when the kids go too, just trips away with our job in tow!  I am pretty sure my mama feels the same way after her three weeks of taking care of kids and grandkids!!

But, don't get me wrong, we had a blast.  Enjoyed every moment and can not wait to return to good ole Lake Lure, NC!  My parents are SO generous to share their cabin with us.  They are also very kind and patient with us as we wreak havoc on the old place!  Thankfully we survived without too many bumps and bruises.  All were healthy and mostly happy the entire trip!!  My middle man did discover that those mountain roads don't do much for him, but its nothing some sea bands couldn't cure!!  He didn't complain once on the way home thanks to those trusty little wrist bands.

I took over 450 pictures.  YES, you read that correctly!  458 to be exact.  We had lots of guests and many MEMORIES were made!  I am tired and my house is dirty from all the luggage, but I would do it again tomorrow!

Thank you Nana and Papa Bob for being so generous!  Thank you for sharing a little taste of heaven with us!  And thank you for inviting us back again and again despite the chaos we bring with us!!  I would not trade one moment of my time at Lake Lure!!

And Thank you Jesus for your sweet provision and hand of protection over us while we were away!

Learning from Experience

We had a swim team meet tonight.  And both my little fellas did really great.  No, neither of them is an accomplished stroke-swimmer.  But, one month has made a TON of difference in their swimming lives! 

My middle man is all about the swim team!  He loves it and would prefer to wear his swim-team shirt every day.  It was terribly dirty before the meet tonight and he was almost broken up over it!!  Tonight he realized that he can do it all by himself.  And at his age that is important.  The swimmers in his age group only get first place if they do it completely unassisted.  The unassisted swimmers place first and then they place the assisted swimmers in their order accordingly.  He was almost jipped out of 2nd place UNASSISTED...with an Assistant mark on his card----but I quickly went to make sure he was getting his fair shake on it!!!  He has made the decision that he will be swimming ALL alone at his meets from now on!  You gotta love this little guy!!  If nothing else he has a TON of heart!!  I am hoping that the Good Lord has blessed him with a little bit of athletic talent to go along with his heart!  But, you know, heart can carry you a long way!!

My oldest little man has not been so sure about his involvement in this sport.  He is extremely competitive.  And basically would prefer not to participate if winning isn't a strong option for him.  However, I think he is changing his mind.  He had a blast tonight at his first meet.  He came in 2nd on one heat and 3rd on his three others.  Quite the accomplishment for a young man that has not been on the swim team before.  And he was proud.  Yes, he did mention that he badly wants a blue ribbon.  But, isn't it wonderful that he has something to work towards?  And I think he has great potential to win that ribbon before the end of summer! Regardless of whether he ever gets that first place ribbon, I am still so proud of him and his drive to be the best he can be.   

Is it August yet?

Just kidding!  But, summer-time sure can wear a mama out!!  I am enjoying every moment with my kids. I have only had a few "gonna go crazy" moments!  I do love summer and am not actually wishing it away.

The kids are enjoying their time too!  Tonight is my middle man's first experience at the movie theatre!!  Toy Story 3 here we come!!

I told you my middle man was getting pretty comfortable in the pool!!  This is his cousin Justin with him.

Summer Days

Summer time has arrived at full speed!  We have already had a farewell to the school-year, a family wedding and the end of t-ball season.  Now we are full-swing into swim team!  (and we are finishing up our first season of coach-pitch baseball with our very first tourney this weekend)

This year we decided to sign the boys up for our neighborhood swim team, and I can already tell a HUGE difference.  I really never expected to place my boys on the swim team. However, we simply could not pass up the exposure to the pool each week.  Along with a relatively cheap form of swimming lessons, it can't be beat.  And our middle man went from not wanting to get his head wet two weeks ago to doing flips in the water today!  He has become a fish and I am so glad!  They still are working at getting to a point of being competitive, but that will come with time.  (It looks as if backstroke might drown them each time they attempt it!) So far we have spent almost every day at the pool and this mama is covered up with sun-poison!  Thankfully, the kids are not!

Here is my little "Holly Hobby".  That is, if you remember who Holly Hobby is!  If you do, I guess you are at least as old as I am!