Goodbye, Old Friend

Written soon after he died nearly five years ago...shared now because we miss him...

And with a final wag, we bid goodbye to our precious Buster Brown, our first family pooch of nearly 16 years.

I am reminded of the story told through Marley and Me. The author, being a journalist, chronicled his dog's life through a column he wrote for the newspaper.

A dog's life.

Many live fewer years than our sweet dog. We were blessed. We know that and accept that gift with a huge amount of gratitude.

Often, after the loss of a pet, my husband expresses his sadness by saying he doesn't want any more pets...he wished he didn't have to feel such pain. But I always counter him with the fact that if we didn't have the pet we wouldn't have had the joy they brought.

Yes, it's hard. VERY hard. Sometimes it feels as if our hearts might break. But it's also beautiful.

A sweet friend reminded me that Buster lived "a long, loved life."

And he did. Always smiling. Always happy. Always grateful. (He wouldn't start eating without us patting him and saying, "You're welcome!")

I like to remember him that way.

Loved for a long time.

Friday Funnies

Here's a little something to bring a smile to your face and a giggle to your heart.

Isn't this the cutest?

I grew up with bulldogs -- and we have two mixed-breed dogs that have bulldog ancestry (of some sort) -- so I love love love this breed!! So much fun-ness -- and funniness -- about them!

I hope you enjoy a fun Friday! And don't forget to SMILE!

(photo courtesy of Cup of Jo's blog)

Saturday Sweetheart

Emily took this photo of our sweet Rosie. Doesn't she look festive?

Worded Wednesday

The hardest part of loving pets into old age is having to say goodbye. 

Rest in peace, our sweet bunny Tony (L).

Click here to read about when we got them.

Happy National Dog Day

I was a little late in finding out that today was National Dog Day. Hopefully, our dogs still felt loved today -- like everyday.

We have two poochies: Buster Brown, 12, and Gigi, 5. They are both rescue dogs that we adopted from other states. They are both North American Peehounds, which means they are of indeterminate ancestry, though both have Shih Tzu in their heritage. In other words, they're ever-sweet and lovable mutts.

Buster weighs a little more than 30 pounds and has Boston terrier and Shih Tzu on his paperwork. Gigi weighs about 15 pounds and has French bulldog and Shih Tzu on her paperwork. They both have wiry hair and wiggly tails tipped with white. Buster has tulip ears and Gigi has bat ears. They look like siblings and make an awesome pair.

I grew up with English bulldogs, so I love our dogs' smooshy faces and snorts and wiggles.

Dogs are funny creatures.
 
Always loyal. Always ready to give a kiss. Always eager to greet you. Always wagging their tails, even when they don't feel very good.

A good example of how we humans should act?

Happy National Dog Day!

What is your favorite kind of dog?

Do you have a dog or two or three? If so, let me know in the comments. Include a photo, if you can.

Friday Funnies

Another of the wonderful "Simon's Cat" to enjoy. Hope you had a super fun Friday!

Saturday Sweetheart

Here is Jane, our not-so-modest sweet kitty. I love that she lays around like this. So relaxed.

Monday Musings and Memories

Happy Monday!

Wow! Is July really speeding along...nearly the middle of the month. Sheesh!

It was amazing to go to Target yesterday and see school supplies out ALREADY?!?!? Seriously? I mean, don't we get to enjoy a bit of summer break without thinking about "back to school"?

Guess not.

Stuart says it won't be long until they have out all the Christmas stuff. Give 'em a month or so, he says. Which reminds me that they are...drum roll, please...171 more shopping days until Christmas. This has been a PSA brought to you by Writer's Block.

So many thoughts...so little brainpower to get them written down.

My boys are vacuuming for me as I type. Really cute. Edward is manning the larger (real) vacuum, while Ethan follows using his Fisher-Price (pretend) one. Edward volunteered. Really sweet, huh? Emily is at play practice for "Twelfth Night," which opens on August 3rd, pending no rain. I think she's actually pretty excited, and she's really clever at learning her lines so quickly. Here's hoping she remembers them under the weight of her nerves.

Speaking of school. I heard Ethan whispering sounds during the prayer time at church yesterday. He was sounding out the word "EXIT" at the back of the sanctuary. He was quite pleased with himself when he figured it out...and so was I, though I did remind him that we should be quiet since we were praying. He's so clever with his learning, sucking it all up like a very thirsty sponge. I get excited by it, but then I'm quick to remember that the other two were just as clever. It makes me feel very blessed...and very daunted, being their teacher.

We suffered through a mini heatwave at the end of last week, and I don't think the air conditioner turned off at all during that time. I know that other parts of the country have been suffering for much longer, some without power. With temperatures close to 100 on Saturday morning, Emily decided she just had to have the next book in the Ender's Game series. So since we have a small used bookstore up the street that carries them, she begged Stuart to take her. He told her it was way too hot...but, being the book lover that I am, I said I would go with her. I've been looking to buy the book I Captured the Castle for less that the $14.99 Barnes & Noble is charging...so going along I knew I might get lucky and find it there.

Wow!

We hadn't even gone 10 feet and the wave of heat nearly melted us into a puddle. We made it there -- found her book and a bag of others (not the original one I hoped for but $5 for a bag of books?), as well as a book of short stories by Fitzgerald -- and back without frying too much. Yikes. What we do for our kids, right?  And, just for the record, it got to 102 F on Saturday.  Hot enough to fry an egg?

I am actually (finally) reading a book again. It's called The Janson Command, the sequel to a Robert Ludlum book I read a few years ago. Not written by him, of course, since he died back in 2002 and this just came out but still very good. I have a stack of other books to read, and I'm hoping this greases the wheel for me to get reading again.

I'll end with a photo I decorated in memory of Molly, Edward's guinea pig. It was a hard day yesterday, but we know that God cares for all of His creatures, big and small, and that He loved her, too.

Bittersweet Sunday

Today, we lost another furry friend: Edward's first guinea pig Molly passed away. It was a hard loss -- as they all are -- but especially so since she was his first-ever pet. And she was such a sweet piggy.

I'm so thankful that God understands moments like these. As Luke 12:6 says: "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God."

He loves even the smallest of His creation, and He is the comforter of all.

We are so grateful.

Here's a repeat song from a few months ago...so meaningful to us.

    

Saturday Sweetheart

Today marks our sweet poochie's 10th birthday. So we decided to celebrate by buying him a squeaky cupcake toy.  He decided to "celebrate" by taking a walk down the street...by himself.  Fortunately, a kind pair of neighbors found him and put him on a leash and called us.

Phew.

That would not have been a good birthday gift if something bad had happened to him on the busy road near our house. (Thank You, God!)

Here's Buster Brown, the birthday boy, in all of his glory. He wasn't too sure about the squeaky toy...but I think it's growing on him. We even sang the "Happy Birthday" song and lit some candles I put on his dinner. Not sure he knew what to do with all the extra attention today...but he's a good boy.

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Funnies

I absolutely love "Simon's Cat" on YouTube, but I haven't paid much attention to the new ones that he's made. Knowing that they're always entertaining, I thought a new one might be a fun post for this Friday.

And I wasn't wrong!

Enjoy! And have a funny Friday!

A Tuesday TV Tidbit

I'm a sucker for soppy television shows. Put in a cute animal and some kids, and I'm a-gonner emotions-wise. The way that a story can bring tears or laughter or rage or fear is such an interesting "power" to study. It's probably one of my favorite reasons to write.

The "worst" type of television-viewing for me is watching a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. The ads in between the already tear-jerking movie...well, enough said, right?

Sigh.

I took an advertising class in college and really enjoyed learning how advertisers evoke emotions from their viewers. I reflected on the sweet commercials we reviewed during that time, figuring out which ones worked and which ones didn't.

Here's one that I remembered that really worked. The proof? I still remembered it.



Blog-hopping with Tillman today. Something fun...and a first for me.

Saturday Sweethearts

Getting bigger....

A Doggie Birthday "Eve"

Tomorrow is the 8th birthday of Buster Brown (our North American Peehound). We got him a new bed for his birthday, and he seems to be enjoying it.

Do you agree? *wink-grin*

Wordless Wednesday

Piggy Noises

Sweet "piggy" noises! (Make sure your volume is turned up.)

Babies, Babies, and More Babies

Our "baby" Ethan turned 18 months old yesterday...


And Edward's birthday guinea pig, Molly, surprised us with three little babies.


And when I went downstairs to feed the rabbits this morning, I discovered that Audrey had a surprise of her own last night...two more babies!



Yikes!

Seems like a nursery around here!!

Happy Half-Birthday Happenings

Happy Half-Birthday, Ethan Samuel!!

18 months today!

It's hard to imagine our little baby has transformed into a "toddler-guy." Even harder to imagine he's a half-year older. He's changing so quickly.









However, today started on an interesting note...

We arrived home last night to discover...we had NO power. (We've been having torrential rainstorms since Friday and had lost electricity on and off earlier in the day on Saturday so we weren't completely surprised.) The house was pitch black and eerily quiet. With nothing else that we could do in the dark, we decided to go to bed. The clocks were springing forward an hour for Daylight Savings Time...or whatever they've renamed it.

Before I went to bed, I called the power company to report the outage (since all of our neighbors around us seemed to have power), and they told me it would be noon (today) before they could get to us.

Ugh.

So we headed to bed, hoping against hope that we might have electricity in the morning.

We got up this morning to a cold house and still no power.

Ugh again.

We quickly got ready for church and played briefly with our new 18-month-old.

And then we heard Edward yell that "they" were here. The baby guinea pigs had arrived! About a half-hour later, the power company arrived and got our electricity back on.


Yay!!

What a special time to come! In a power outage, after the clocks "sprang forward," and on Ethan's half-birthday!

Monday Mall Musings and B'day Adventures

Happy Monday! And Happy President's Day!

We headed down to King of Prussia Mall today for Edward's "birthday adventure." He got some birthday money to spend and had his eye on some LEGO and another Build-a-Bear.

(We had planned to go to New York City for the day, but given the prediction of cold and snow, we rethought and will do that later in the spring.)

All in all, it was a fun day...though "Note to Self(s)": Never ever, ever, ever go to the mall on a school holiday...

*wink-grin*

On other matters...

Our birthday gift to Edward was something a little less flat and papery...something a little more fuzzy and lovable...

Introducing: Molly, Edward's first-ever pet...and our family's first-ever guinea pig.