Moment of Insanity or New Kitty at the Wold House

Either title would be a great name for this blog title. I was not actively seeking a new 4-legged member to our family; we already have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I complain daily about the hair while sweeping the stairs and the floors. I am disgusted by 1 cat's hairball problem which is threatening our furniture since we cannot completely get rid of the smell of cat spit. I am irritated by dogs sneaking into bed at night and hogging the space. We pay for kennel when we want to go away for a weekend. Vet bills can be costly especially as our pets begin to age now. But I love them all dearly and wouldn't trade them for the world. Let me repeat that I have not been seeking a new pet. We all headed to Petsmart on Saturday to get dog food, cat food and litter. I came in several minutes after my family since I had gone to the store next door to return something. So I stopped at the adoptive pet room since I figured Mark and the kids would be there by then to visit the animals like we always do. Big mistake. There, curled up in a very tiny ball, was my dream kitty. I go inside to tell them I'm here now, and Mark was already giving me a weird look. I get her out, read her papers. Uh oh. She's 4 months old, female, short-haired, and ORANGE. The orange ones are never girls, always toms. Uh-oh. She's been spayed already and was purring so loudly that we could all hear her. I could feel myself melting already and all reason was out the door. But I did have some wits about me and restrained myself from impulse buying her. I did say that I would pray about it and if I still felt as strongly about it I could always come back tomorrow. God said "yes". Her name is Alice.

Dear Tooth Fairy aka Tooth #2

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I have lost my other tooth please come and wake me up. I do not know what you look like. I lost my tooth at Jump Zone.
Your friend, Adam

I Hate to Say It But....

In one month...school starts. We start back on August 23rd. Ugh. It's going too fast: the sleeping in, the lack of schedules, the impromptu plans. As soon as the calendar turns over I will begin thinking about my new children, improved lessons, bulletin boards, room configurations and other planning. I want to make the most of the time we have left to play and relax. Any ideas???

The Tooth Fairy Frenzy

Adam lost his first tooth! The 2 front ones have been pretty wiggly for weeks now and last night at dinner Mark said "boy that one's so loose you could just about pull it!" So with huge drama, Adam pretends to pull it out: "And a 1, and a 2...and a .....3!!!" Then he looks at his hand. The look on his face when he realized that he really DID pull it out was PRICELESS! So then begins the discussion of the Tooth Fairy. Now, I just wrote that these 2 teeth have been wiggly for weeks so we really should have expected the teeth to actually come out some time right? We were not prepared for the Tooth Fairy! Argh! We had not talked about how much to leave, whether we would have the little tooth box or bag to leave each time, whether he should write a letter, whether there would be any other token left along with the money, but most important...how MUCH! I've had the conversation in the lunch room at work with coworkers. Honestly, I thought it was pretty ridiculous! Parents these days apparently are leaving $20 and up for first teeth, video games, coloring books, candy bars, new baseball mitts. Yikes! While I wanted to nurture my child and continue the Tooth Fairy fun we enjoyed as children, I didn't want to set a precedent for Christmas type spending on teeth. So we did what any modern parents would do. We Googled it. Fortunately, Mark came across a great blog by a parents who found herself in the exact same predicament we were in, back in April. It was awesome to know we weren't the only slackers, or the only ones opposed to needing overtime pay to finance a baby tooth. The theme that occured in our research was to use some sort of special token for payment like a $2 bill or a $1 coin, a novelty. It also recommended having kids write letters to the Tooth Fairy so she could write backing explaining "the tooth rules of payment". Thus giving the kids clear expectations for the FIRST TOOTH vs. ALL OTHER TEETH. First Tooth=Bigger Reward. All that being said we left $2 in single bills (no time now to get to a bank for odd bills or special coins) and Mark typed -to disguise the handwriting- a lovely, sweet letter from the Tooth Fairy. We had Adam label the tooth envelope himself and address it to the Tooth Fairy, didn't think about having him write a letter until after he was in bed! All in all, we didn't completely blow it, but now that we are expecting the 2nd one to come out any day now, we need to be prepared! We will be paying $1 coins for all other teeth and will need to make a visit to the bank to get them. I think that 50cents is plenty, but Daddy was put in charge of Tooth Fairy duty and that was his call, I'm supporting it totally. This morning before 6:30am our boy was in our bedroom shaking with excitement over his discovery. He had his wallet out and plans made to visit the Dollar Store without delay. After I explained that the store wouldn't be open for 4 more hours he settled down to reread the letter. Bliss. We didn't blow it. More bliss. Now we will follow the Boy Scout motto and "Be Prepared" for the next tooth because while it seemed like just last week when we saw the tooth first appear in his little gummy mouth, it will be that quick that the others will fall out too, bringing on the grown up teeth. *sigh*

Vampires and Country Music! "Colt Ford - Chicken and Biscuits"

Starved Rock: Then and Now

This weekend was a much better camping experience for us than last month's trip. No storms, no mud! We decided to go to nearby Utica, IL to camp at Starved Rock. The last time we were there Adam was Lucy's age (3-ish) and Lucy was only 7 months old. We had just bought our camper and it was October! It was impossible not compare our visits, to notice how much they have both grown up, how their levels of independence have changed. Here's Adam at the top of a hike THEN:
and NOW:

This time his was able to climb 150 steps without complaint! He watched out for his little sister, used the walking stick, and felt very BIG. Because he IS big.


Lucy has always been one to cling to her family. She trusts Adam and watches everything he does. Once she checks out what he's doing, she works hard to keep pace and do what he does. This weekend was no exception! Last time she was totally dependent upon getting around by our pace:
This year she followed Adam up those 150 steps and did HER way! With diva sunglasses and frequent breaks, but always stopping to look at a bug and find a toad. It was awesome for us to see them enjoy the weekend like this and always good to get away together.

Happy 1st Birthday Dennis!

Yesterday was Dennis' 1st birthday party at Shaun and Cindy's house and they invited the whole family over to celebrate. It is such a great feeling to see how big he is, but more importantly to see how HEALTHY he is. 1 year ago we were all praying for him to get stronger and make it to each new day when he arrived 10 weeks early. God is good all the time. What a wonderful day!