Harper's Big Adventure

Whew!  See the sucker waving good-bye and sticking his tongue out?  That's what I thought was seeing this morning.  Since R broke her foot, 'Harper Duty' has fallen to the rest of us.  L has been working so hard on getting him to walk on a slack leash instead of dragging us all over town.  I have been thoroughly amazed with their progress.  This morning I took Harper outside to attend to his 'business' when he started pulling to go on a walk.  The street was quiet so I went for it.  He was doing a beautiful job.  The leash was slack.  He wasn't panting.  We got to the house where his best buddy, Chester, lives.  He hesitated and I prodded.  I finally got him going.  Then I heard IT.  The recycling truck.  Harper is scared of trucks.  When I say 'scared', I mean SCARED!  He started panicking and running in little circles.  Then his head popped right out of his collar!  Panic time!  What to do?  Then I remember that you are not supposed to chase your dog.  Just stand still.  I did and he came right back to me.  Crisis averted.  Oh but it couldn't be that easy, could it?  Apparently the collar didn't click and when we started walking, off it went.  This time he wasn't going to come back as easily as before.  He was naked without that collar and running free!!!!!  I knew I had a short amount of time before the recycling truck circle back and totally freaked him out again.  He started walking down the road like, "Adios.  I'm going home."  Then he ran back to me and I grabbed for whatever I could!  Thank goodness he didn't mind me grabbing his fur.  I slapped that collar on him and made sure it snapped and the two of us headed home like our lives depended on it.  I wonder when the rodeo will be in town...I'm pretty sure I should enter calf roping!  

Prayers for Aunt Barb

This is Aunt Barb when she was about three.

This is Aunt Barb on Mother's Day with her daughter.

As you can see, she is a little older, but about the same height!  :)

She is my Dad's little sister.  She recently found out she has breast cancer and will have surgery tomorrow.  Please say a little prayer for her tomorrow.  I know she would appreciate it and I would too.  Thank you!

My Creative Geniuses

I asked the kids if they would make my Mother's Day cards this year.  Both of them are creative in many ways, so I was anxious to see what they would do.  Of course they exceeded my expectations.  Looks like I'll be buying some frames soon!

R embroidered this using a design she had here at the house.  First she punched the paper and then embroidered.  I definitely think some bright colored mats will look great with it.

L used his artsy fartsy markers and water colors.  He must have spent quite a bit of time on Google looking up all those versions of 'Mom'!

R thought it would be a cool idea to join NetFlix for at least the first month free.  She got me tons of candy like you'd find at the movie theater.  So far we've been watching lots of old television shows and old movies.  I think we'll enjoy it.

And.....she couldn't have selected anything better especially at this time.  Last night while mentoring underprivileged children at the local skate park, she had just finished a gnarly run on the half pipe and stuck a clean landing that she walked away from.  She delivered each of the children back home personally after treating them to ice cream when she started complaining of a slight discomfort in her right foot.  Terribly upset that she might miss next week's Capoeira demonstration with the aforementioned children, we decided a visit to the doctor was in order.  Lo and behold, her 5th metatarsal of her right foot was broken.  Three months in a boot and no weight bearing on that foot were just what the doctor ordered.  That was the most expensive shoe the child has ever had - and, thankfully, it was not even a pair!

Doesn't all that sound so much better than saying she stepped in a hole about three inches deep in the garden?  Yeah, we thought so too!   

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I have no idea when that picture was taken, but it sure looks like Mom had her hands full.  Daddy was a photographer so everywhere we went turned into a photo op.  Absolutely LOVE Mom's glasses.  At the time she had those I didn't think much of them.  They were just 'mom'.  Now I look at them and think, "What on earth was she thinking?"

I've had some pretty special Mother's Days in my life and was trying to think of my favorite.  I think it would have to be my very first one.  Actually, I consider my first one before I even had a baby to carry around.  My sister (that's her in the middle up there) and I had gone to the beach the Saturday before Mother's Day.  She had three boys - each two years apart.  We were sitting in the sand watching the boys play when I started telling her I just hadn't been feeling right lately.  She wanted details, so I gave them to her.  She thought I was pregnant.  Naw - that wasn't possible or was it?  The doctor had told me I could have trouble conceiving, but I wasn't giving up hope.  I took a quick shower at the beach to get rid of most of the sand and headed for a walk-in clinic.  The place was just about empty.  I asked for a pregnancy test.  A few minutes later the nurse came out and told me I was pregnant!  I was so excited that I hugged everybody in the office!  I don't even remember how I told RL!  The next day we went to his Mom and Dad's for Mother's Day.  We were all sitting around, acting all innocent like and caught RLs Mom slightly distracted.  Then we casually threw it into the conversation.  She didn't believe us!  I don't know how many times we actually had to tell her before she did!  The next Mother's Day I had my own baby and two years later my other baby.  Some Mother's Days have been sad.  We had my grandmother's memorial service on Mother's Day 1997.  Some have been surprises - like a trip to Disney World!  Most have been great.  I love being a Mom and I'm so happy we were blessed with our two kids.