3.21.2008

so this is love...


i took this picture about three minutes after tali met this sweet little fur baby... and it honestly speaks for itself. anyone who doesn't believe in love at first sight forgot about puppies. we've been looking for the right dog for weeks and weeks [it feels like months and months]... and knowing that the best match for our family, especially for tali, was a morkie [yorkie/maltese cross, also called yaltese or malkie] we narrowed our search... only to find that morkies are having a run on boys this year [apparently] and females were both hard to find and extremely expensive if located.

i've spent hours on the internet, searching on-line classified ads for the right pup. i've called or emailed dozens of breeders. i've looked at pictures of hundreds of dogs. and the nearest morkie girls we could find were west of st. louis... knowing how patient tali had been looking for the right dog, jim donned his super-dad cape and agreed to travel to st. louis to meet the breeder and pick up a pup. it was not ideal, but it would have to work. we've looked everywhere else.

and then today, despite having made up our minds to buy the puppy from missouri, i looked at the evansville courier again... and i almost peed myself when i saw the listing for two female yaltese, in our price range, in VINCENNES! vincennes! can you believe that? all of our searching eventually led back to vincennes! and not only that, to a girl i knew from high school that actually now works for generations!!! God is good!

i called immediately and within an hour i was snapping this picture. tali's absolutely in love. she's named her puppy lily [our little easter lily!] and i can't think of a more perfect pup for her. beautiful long, soft hair, tolerant of bows, playful, loving... she's just a joy. as i type, zach is curled up asleep with sam; tali is curled up asleep with lily; and jim is at wal-mart buying a doggy dress [not even kidding... isn't he the best dad ever?].

we're all feeling pretty blessed tonight.




[if you want to feel just as blessed, lily's sister is still looking for her forever home. the girls' family bought them from missouri about a month ago, and mom has been given a job offer which will take her out of the home a lot more. they just don't have the time to dedicate to puppies. let me know if you want any info.]

this here is men's work...

Two weeks ago we got the phone call we've waited for nearly two years on... it was Carol, and Isaac was finally ready to come over and play at Zach's house. Any of you who know Isaac, understand how this could be such a monumental event- he's a little old man, set in his ways, sticking to his schedule, and since Zach's house has never been on his schedule before, it took him a couple of years to figure out how to pencil it in.

When we finally made it to our house, the boys headed straight for the back yard... and the mud. This is something Zach just can't enjoy with his sissy [are you kidding? Tali with a shovel, mud, and truck?] so it was cool for him to have someone to enjoy his strangely male imaginative play. Here they are strategically moving dirt from behind the garage to the middle of the back yard. There were also monster truck rallies in the dirt. Then things took a more somber turn as they relived recent events in both of their little lives by burying the "dead dog" [a can]. Something only a little boy can understand.

I love the picture above because if you look closely, both boys have their tongues hanging out in concentration. There are important things to be done. We can't be bothered with the camera. You can go back in the house mom... this here is men's work...

3.20.2008

txt speak

those of you who love to txt also recognize that txting has a language of it's own. new ways to spell words that are quicker, shorter, and phonetically based. using numbers and letters in place of words. dropping vowels.

the other day jim got a txt from tyson and attempting to read it, said out loud, "oh no, tyson knows how to speak txt". i read the message to him, and apparently this is all the lesson he thought he needed in this language of the 21st century. jim was now a pro. a day later i text him and this was his reply...

Ok w2hL Wme2day

i'd love to see if any of you can figure out this cryptic message... or if my abilities to understand him are a strange side effect of 16 years spent together. come on txt'ers... i kno u cn do it...

3.17.2008

overheard...

was talking to my brother cory, age 16 and caught up in the business of "finding himself"... what an awkward age, honestly. we were discussing jealousy and he said... "i get jealous sometimes"... "why?" i asked...

"because i'm a jealous, impatient, angry person"

maybe it's terrible, but we laughed and laughed! i've never heard such a straight forward self-evaluation. cory is jealous, he's incrediby impatient, and at times angry. he's also funny, a hard worker, willing to help someone else out in a pinch, responsible, able to offer the hand of forgiveness, and very self-aware of his strengths and weaknesses. who of us would want to admit that we are jealous, impatient, and angry. he did. with the smile of self-awareness.

[i know i wouldn't! although at times i can be all three!]

3.15.2008

the great puppy debate

so we know we are going to get tali a puppy (zach is getting a whites tree frog- it's the perfect level of responsibility for him). tali SAYS she wants a yorkie... so we find them... i show her pictures of adult yorkies, and she says "that's not what i want". we are having a difficult time correlating cute little black and tan puppy grows into beautiful long haired silver (blue) and tan adults.

jim and i, after hours spent looking over the internet at various mixes of dogs, have determined that what she *really* wants is a yorkie-something mix... right now we are leaning toward a yorkie-maltese mix (a morkie). we have also considered a yorkie-shih tzu mix (a shorkie), or jim's favorite the yorkie-schnauzer mix (a snorkie). tali's not a fan of the schnauzer, even as a pup she says "that's just not my dog"! sorry jim. we have ruled out some mixes- yorkie-bichon mix (yochon) as the bichon is not good with children; yorkie-chihuahua mix (i don't know, a yo-chi? or a yorhuahua?) we are worried would be too small; yorkie-poodle (yorkie poo) mix are adorable, would probably be wonderful dogs... we just don't want any poo in our dog- no good reason, just don't want it! lol

we have found some morkies just north of terre haute - which is relatively close in the great puppy search - but we still aren't totally settled that's what we should get. especially since in a lot of cases these mix breed pups (glorified mutts!) are as costly as their purebred cousins. uggggggh. personality-wise, yorkie and maltese are both a good fit for our family. size wise the ones we found are nice... about 5-6 lbs so not those little-tiny-zach-could-break-them pups so many people have for sale.

i don't know... i'm getting a headache trying to figure it all out! it's like adopting a furry child and we want to get the right one for t-bird... i envision this being the pup that is with her all through growing up. maybe we'll go to the pet port today and luck out... our dream dog will steal her heart. i know the right dog will wag it's way into our life soon enough, i just wish it were like yesterday! on a positive note, if all else fails, we can still get the yorkie that would be ready to come home in june.

on a super-positive note- bev, garry, and grace should be getting their new little fur-baby today! their affenpinscher is coming home to his forever family and i'm so glad for them!!! the loss of fez has been hard on everyone, especially sweet little layla and she needs a companion so badly. seems like this pup is going to be the perfect fit for their family. we can wait a little while for our pup (it's just for fun, after all), but they really needed to fill that hole in their family quickly and i'm so glad God worked it out for them!

3.09.2008

alas... no puppy...

it was reservation day for pups at this site i've been following. three little wriggling bundles of cuteness to be posted, those of us on the waiting list could then email them with the pup of our choice and the one with the fastest gmail skills wins... mail deposit and five weeks later pick up your new fur baby. today, i was NOT the one with the fastest gmail skills and i also had to be the one to tell tali that we did not get the yorkie pup of her dreams.

my generally-so-level-headed daughter did not take the news well. daddy tried to talk her into a boy pup that had not been reserved, but tali could not bring herself to put those cute little doggy dresses on a boy, therefore the purpose of having said yorkie pup of her dreams would be out the window.

there is a silver lining to this tale of a little girl's heartbreak. due to a little error in their posting of the pups, and the general sweetness of the owners of the operation... i've been promised a little girl from their next litter. so we are officially expecting! her due date is april 16th, but she won't be able to join our family until early june. baby puppy's mommy is givus kisses, so be praying hard that she delivers at least ONE female!

yay for silver linings!

[and we're taking suggestions on names... remember jim has the power of the veto... princess is already out]

3.08.2008

have you missed me?

because i have missed you, big beautiful world! i have been soooooooo sick the last few days. not so much the icky snotty head stuff of a few weeks ago... more the icky coughing chest stuff that landed my beautiful mom in the hospital. of late, i've been spending a ton of time lying on the couch. i've had the sweetest nurse ever, and quite possibly the cutest. while tali went to school, spent the night at brooke's, and helped kaden down the aisle in a wedding today, my little man zach hung with mom and retrieved many drinks from the fridge and fluffed pillows upon request.

although the inability to breathe was more-than-annoying... the time spent with zach was precious. i spend so much time running tali to activities, picking her up from school, helping her with homework... this massive time-out with zach was much needed. there was much time spent cuddling on the couch and bonding over video games. it was good for both of us.

as for mom- she's out of the hospital now, but still feeling really rough. massive doses of steroids have her climbing the walls a bit, and in talking on the phone she's still really short of breath (that's SOB in case manager short-hand btw- i'm so juvenile i still giggle a little when i read it in casenotes!) and has a really nasty cough. prayers are really, really appreciated... she certainly doesn't want to end up having to go back to the willow street hilton...

love ya all!

3.03.2008

the birds and the bees... with zachary

tonight it happened. i have been prepared for months for tali to ask "the question". i had a response ready that i felt she would understand and accept. i believe in being honest with my children, not sugar-coating facts, using proper terminology... but doing so in a way that is on their level. i was fairly confident that i had made it to tali's level...

but it was not tali that asked me "the question". always full of surprises, it was our little man, zach. i don't know why i'm surprised... tali is like me, she just accepts things at face value (she's been satisfied with my explanation that "God puts them there" for years now). zach is our observer. the one sitting in the third row, studying everything going on, looking beyond the obvious to those nuances that so many of us miss. perhaps i should have known "the question" would come from him. but of course, i was too busy accepting things at face value and assuming my older child would clearly be the one to get "there" first.

in any case... it went something like this...

zach (picture here big brown eyes, mussed blonde curls, and a very earnest face): "mommy, how do babies get in girls bellies"
me (picture here a look of shock, a good bit of stammering, a deep breath, and eventual): "did brooke tell you to ask me that?" I know, mother-of-the-year... but I was sure he had asked brooke, who is OBVIOUSLY pregnant now and she had shoveled him off on me as any self-respecting aunt/babysitter would do.
zach: "no, i just was wondering"
me (thinking easy-way-out): "well, when a man and woman are in love, they get married, and God lets them have babies"
zach: "oooooooooooooooh"
me (that was easy!)

zach: "but HOW does the baby GET IN her belly?"
me (oh, not so easy): "well, God puts the baby in there and it's very small at first."
zach: "ooooooooooooooo000000h"
me (phew!)

zach: "but how does the little itsy bitsy tiny baby get IN there"
me (quick prayer inserted here): "well, you know how you have special parts that girls don't have?"
zach: "yes"
me: "what is that part?"
zach (pointing)
me: "right! and girls have a special part that boys don't have..."
zach: "yeah! BOOBS!" zach is more than a little obsessed with boobs. i will leave out the details, but here he filled me in on every observation he's ever made of them, including that little boys and girls have flat ones, daddies sometimes have flat ones and sometimes medium ones, and mommies have BIG ones that can feed babies.
me: "yes, their boobs are different but they have something else that is different"
zach (pointing again)
me: "right. and God made them so special that when boys and girls grow up to be men and women... and they are in love and married... they fit together in a special way and THAT'S how the baby gets in there".
zach: "ooooooooooOOOOoOOOOOOHHHhhhHH! i see. thank you mommy"

i honestly have no idea what he really thinks happens. i do not know if i pass or fail this test of parenting. but for the moment at least, he appears to be satisfied.

tell me, wouldn't you love to be there when he attempts to explain it to tali?