Dog?

The boys' new favorite word is...can you guess? DOG! They say "dog" all day long, especially when they haven't seen Goldie in a while, like after their naps. Micah says, "Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog?" And Benji will say, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hey dog!" It is so cute. They also recognize dogs on tv, movies, books, and toys. Sometimes they call animals "dogs" that aren't dogs, at all, like cats, or our stuffed toy opossum (a wonderful birthday present from their Aunt Candace....)

Well, last night, apparently, animals aren't the only thing the boys are calling "dog." Micah was sitting snuggled in Aaron's lap. Aaron had his arms around Micah and they were sitting contentedly. All of a sudden, Micah pointed to Aaron's arm, his rather hairy arm, and said "Dog?" We couldn't stop laughing. 

Goldie!

We have a DOG!!!! Yes, a dog! We got her this weekend, Saturday March 21 at 9:30pm.

In my last post, I mentioned that we were looking into getting a dog. We looked at petfinder.com and saw her picture online. I fell in love and knew that I had to e-mail the rescue to find out about her. Debra, one of the rescue owners, told us that she thought Goldie would be  perfect fit for our family--and she is! Goldie is a 2 year old yellow lab, about 70 lbs and has short legs! She is gentle, sweet, laid back and is completely non-aggressive. We think she may have been abused before she came to the rescue because she seems fearful at times and cowers down a lot when we want to do things like put on her leash. She just wants attention and to be loved. She loves to have her belly rubbed and go for walks. 

The boys love her! We introduced them to her Sunday morning. They just gasped and said, "Dog? Dog?" Micah said "Woof! Woof!" The kissed/licked her on the nose and loved to pet her. They also liked to poke her eyes and grab her mouth. We kept saying, "Gentle! Gentle!" but she didn't do anything. She just let them mess with her. She is going to be great with them.

She was kind of sad yesterday and just laid on her bed. We think that she is lonely for the other dogs at the shelter. She always had a buddy with her. She perked up when Aaron took her for walks. We also gave her a bath yesterday. She was STINKY! I hoped she would love the bath since labs are supposed to like water but she was terrified. Poor girl. I actually need to get some flea wash today because we spotted some little buggers on her. Great....

We are excited to be dog owners but nervous too! We think she is going to be a great addition to our family.  (I am still trying to figure out this picture thing....I really didn't want them all at the top...any advice, bloggers?)

Where I've been

Wow! It has been a long time since I blogged. I have been so busy! I survived the insane school work load and have now finished one of my classes. I actually read my term paper aloud today for an audience (of four- my professor and three of my fellow students) and got lots of great feedback. My paper compared Sandra Cisneros' "The House on Mango Street" and "Cinderella." Fun topic and fun paper. I am so glad it is over though!

In the middle of all this school work craziness, we went to FL for 5 days. Aaron's stepmom's mother died and we went down to FL from Thursday through Tuesday. We drove overnight on Thursday. The trip went really well except for Benji vomiting in the backseat at 2:30am. Carsick? Who knows! He was very happy after he threw up though. I guess he got all his sickness out. The boys were great and slept for most of the trip.

 It was a sad reason to make a trip but we really enjoyed seeing everyone and were glad we could be there to support the family during this hard time. There was a memorial service on Sunday that was very special. We also got to see my grandparents for brunch on Monday morning. We always meet them at Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee. We loved seeing them had a great time. Benji shared toast with jam with Nonnie and then decided to style his hair with blackberry jam. It was everywhere! The boys love going out to eat and we had lots of laughs and took lots of pictures with Nonnie and Poppie. We love seeing them! 

We also spent the night with my best friend from high school, Megan and her husband Matt in Atlanta. They have a beautiful and comfortable home and a very energetic puppy! The boys loved all the dogs we saw on this trip (there was one at every home we visited!) and their new favorite words are "dog," "pup," and "woof!" It is SOO cute! We are seriously asking ourselves if we want to get a dog now.....DOG, not puppy, though. We'll see...

The trip back was really long and stressful. The boys were really very good but it was difficult keeping them entertained for the LONG hours in the car. Micah's favorite game was dumping his snack bowl of cereal all over his lap over and over again. That child was swimming in cereal by the end of the trip. I just had to keep telling myself, "deep breaths! deep breaths!" Benji is not a very happy traveler but thankfully slept most of the way. He has a really hard time dealing with change in routine and cried a lot while we were away and was very clingy. He is SO glad to be home and hopefully will be back to his happy self soon. 

While we were away, Lynchburg was dumped with 8 inches of snow!!! We were enjoying the sunny weather in FL but were sad to miss such an awesome snowfall. Apparently there were some other things falling while we were away too- my (original) painting that was setting on our mantel fell off while we were gone and shattered! There was glass all over our living room when were walked in the door. All I could say was, "oh no! oh no!" Aaron was afraid someone broke in. Thankfully, that was not the case but I was really sad about the painting. It was punctured by a utility knife that was on the floor but hopefully it can be fixed. I tried to pick up as much glass as possible before I had to rush to class. Tuesday is my busy night- I usually don't get home until 9:30 but amazingly my professor let us out at 8:30! YEA! It was so good to go to bed. I worked on the chaos that is "coming home from a trip" today so the house is a little back in order but it still needs some work in the coming days. Whew! Life is an adventure! I'll try to be more faithful about blogging in the future but who knows what else life will bring in the day ahead. :)