Not Exactly...

...what we had in mind when we bought a crate to train Blue.

These two can't get enough of the crate. I guess if you don't have to be in there it is pretty cool. They will crawl in and lock themselves in even when the dog is already occupying the space. Blue has gotten much better at this crate thing. She is even retreating to her crate when things get hairy around the house...which is often. Gosh, I wish I had a crate ;)

Pumpkin Party

The kids dig the ghoulish punch and halloween decor
Big Daddy and Hunter...just hanging out
Faith enjoying the crafts...and lollipop (y'all keep it on the down low from her dentist, K?)
Love painting her mini pumpkin :) And decorating her cookie
Faith diggin' and a cleanin' her pumpkin
Hope and her finished pumpkin. She selected the scene and helped mark it before I cut it out.
Faith's finished pumpkin...we added eyelashes for fun (sorry about the blur...my camera without flash shoots slow)
Hope's pirate ship pumpkin, she was so proud of "her" pumpkin :)

Times are changing, life is happening...even if we don't particularly care for its direction. I was happy to see my cousin and her kiddos. They are holding up. It is huge what they are currently enduring. Bless them Lord.

What's Up...

Let's see...I have been a terrible blogger. There has been much to talk about but not a lot of time to do it. Something I find comfort in is that I am not alone. All my bloggy friends are in a funk...I guess we have all caught the bloggy blues lately. I am going bullet style to catch up:

*My 88 year old grandmother had emergency surgery a week ago...she felt sick...mom took her to the ER...part of her bowel was dead...guess that would do it. She is recovering physically ok, mentally a bit slower. She is moving in with my parents.

*Faith changed schools. The bullying was back. A new girl, same crowd, friends that were disloyal...just a stinker of a mess. The change is VERY good. They just don't tolerate it or much else at the new school. She is amazed at what they send kids to the office for...which has her on her best behavior. She joined athletics and is loving it. She digs physical competition.

*If you ever want to see the devil having his way with your children or their friends...check out their mysp*ce pages...you will be amazed at what they say, do and photograph. AMAZED....thankfully I have Faith's password and visit often to check on things and people. It is a great way to learn who she should hang with and those we should pray for. She isn't strong enough to bring them up, in fact, she is young enough in the faith to be brought down rather quickly. I don't know where the language really got out of hand...even the girls I know and would have no problem at all with her hanging with surprise the wits out of me. That is where the hanging stops and the praying begins.

*Big Daddy had his surgery Monday. He is something else...I am just going to leave it at that.

*Soccer is going pretty well for Hope. Faith on the other hand has had only 2 games and we should have had 8...rain, rain, go away.

*Love went back to the eye doctor. His prediction is she will probably be in glasses before Kindergarten.

*My little girls LOVE school. My older kids LOATHE the school work. There is so much busy work. Who assigns a freshman a word search for science vocabulary? What does that teach at all besides word recognition?

*I am so sick of laundry. I'd like to donate everything but one week's worth of clothes for each person...and then have them wear everything twice :) Just kidding....uh, sort of.

*Hunter is in love with....Blue. But, Blue totally nips at him all the time. He hasn't established his alpha status with her yet....he babies her too much. He won't correct her...which we are trying to teach him is actually hurting them both.

*Speaking of Blue...potty training puppies is worse than humans. I like diapers...all those times I said I didn't - I lied, I know that now. Diapers are wonderful. They are waste containing carpet and shoe savers.

*Love is putting words together nicely now. She is hungry to learn. I am also seeing a very artsy side developing in her. She has an incredible imagination...she can build blocks and see just about anything in her finished product.

*Does anyone know anything about photo restoration or repair? I have a photo that I was changing the frame on and there was sticky stuff on the inside of the new frame and it pulled some of the picture off onto the glass. Our 10 year old canvas family picture now has white dots left on my children's faces...breaks.my.heart. Help?!

*This morning Hope had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. She was excited...I lacked zeal because of the weather. I called the school twice and the "committee" decided they would go because all the activities were inside a barn. It was raining. I had asked Big Daddy to pray for my attitude to change...it was stinkin' a bit and even my sil was praying for it. I knew it would eliminate the hay ride, the outside running and playing, the true experience of the patch. By the time we got there it was coming down good. Turns out the owners wouldn't open the gate...they cancelled our field trip because everything inside the barn was soaked. Most moms were disappointed...and I was a bit too for Hope's sake but in my suburban when I got the news I was having a celebration with the Lord!! To think he went and changed my circumstance to change my attitude...thank ya Lord ;) Y'all can say it was luck or fate or whatever else you wanna say...I know it was Him. You know how in the Bible when it talks about favor...if I were in a book it would have said...and the Lord had shown favor to Sugar Momma. Ok that may be stretching it a bit but I sure felt favored.

So, that is about it... :)

Adoption of the Canine

Let me introduce you to....

BLUE and if she had a middle name it'd be BELL ;)

She is an 8 week old Catahoula Leopard/Australian Shepherd mix
She has pretty blue eyes and has what they call the blue merle coloring. The eyes still may change but it is probable that they will not. So, with the two blue elements in her physical appearance, blue being the favorite color of both Faith and Hope, Blue Bell being...well great, the fact that Love can pronounce it, and we all 6 agreed on the name..."Blue" it is!
She is sweet and I have heard Hunter say more than once how much he loves her. He is on cloud nine. He has wanted a dog for so long now. We were going to wait until his birthday in November but we went ahead and adopted this little cutie.

There were many factors in why we would not have a dog. First, I have a really hard time feeding a dog when there are starving people in the world. I could probably sponsor at least one well, probably two children through Compassion for the price to maintain a dog. Go ahead and tell me how awful I am...I just rank people above dogs...sorry. I am not big on the aroma of dog poop. It just turns my stomach and changes my mood. I tend to be the full time care giver because I am the mom and home all day. In fact, who was up last night at 1am and 4am? Who cleaned up the 5...yes, 5 tee tee accidents already? Who cleaned out her crate after she had a rather nasty incident and spread it all over? Yep, that is right...me. I apparently am in some need of some humbling. There is nothing more humbling than cleaning up after someonelses messes. Oh and last but not least, we may have neighbors that no longer like us. She may be little but girlfriend is LOUD and WHINY.

But, there are advantages too. I love witnessing the nurturing side in all 4 of my children with her. I love that they will learn compassion. I think it is good for them to understand by adopting a dog we agreed she is family...period. I love that they want to please someone else with no expectation of her returning the favor. I think the responsibility will be good for them...and I will follow through with them helping while they are at home. There are studies out that say caring for a dog and even petting an animal can reduce your stress level...Bonus! Truth be told, I kinda like this little girl.

Notice Anything...

Different?

How 'bout now?
It was traumatic for about 60 seconds...

Hope had decided to tie a shoestring (unused) to a laundry basket and drag it with her teeth. Why, you ask? Good question. Possibly because a dog would do that? Anyway, she had 4 loose teeth and with the tension from the shoestring well, one broke loose. It took me about 2 seconds to get it all the way out. It was one of those that is actually more painful if left to dangle and twist on its own. So, this is it. The headfirst dive into growing up. Her first baby tooth - gone.