First Day of Pre-K and Second Grade

Wonderwild

For a last HURRAH, I took the boys to Wonderwild. Kids in San Diego should have no trouble playing outdoors, but right now in Houston, it's sweltering hot! Sooo, Wonderwild is a brilliant brainchild of someone who had ME in mind when creating it. It's an indoor play place with a large climbing structure, slides, a giant jumping pillow, an infant area (we've graduated from that one), and a kid-powered train.

It was comfortably crowded when we arrived, but the place was PACKED soon thereafter. Kids everywhere, running...running fast. Big kids, little kids. Kids climbing, kids flopping, kids tripping, kids hopping.

I'm running out of days to be home with the boys and that makes me incredibly sad. What I have to hold on to is a summer that filled me with so many good memories. I love my boys. I love that we can escape and do fun things together.

HOUSE #1

I finally have a digital photo of House #1! Our first little house seemed HUGE when we built it. We'd have plenty of room for a bunch of kiddos, the two furry babies, and...well...the air would be filled with rainbow sparkles and chirping bluebirds.

We outgrew that house in a matter of months. It was not much more than an apartment on the ground, but it was a great little house.

3742

3742--That's how many miles we clocked over the last two weeks! We just returned from a minivan journey from Houston to San Diego and back. Hoping that all would go well while we planned the vacation, I was very reluctant, and really just terrified about the possibility that we'd be miserable and hostile over the span of the trip. I could not have been more wrong.
We had 14 days of family bonding that was not at all cheesy. We talked, we played, we explored, we experienced, we shared, and we saw. Together. It was amazing, and we're already talking about the next road trip.

Our Pretty Sadie Girl

We knew she was getting older and slower, and more frail. Our Sadie girl. Her time with us sadly ended yesterday.

Nearly eleven years ago, her time with us began. She was already 3+ years old and had seen a tough life as a puppy. Mistreated, chained, and neglected, she was rescued from her first home in Kansas. Charlie needed a friend, so somehow we trekked to Oklahoma City--a half-way point between Kansas and Lubbock--and adopted her from a rescue foster parent. She was extremely skiddish and flinched each time we went to pet her. With each day she warmed up to us and realized that we were there to love her and give her a comfortable dog life.

She was always as gentle as gentle could be. She never met anyone whom she couldn't befriend. She never denied any attention, and even pawed at you for it if she felt she needed more. She had an inner clock for mealtime that got earlier and earlier as she got older. She'd bounce and bounce, bark and yelp frantically announcing that it was time to feed her...and Charlie could eat too.

I chided her often for being between my feet while cooking dinner, or sleeping right beside my bed when I'd get up in the middle of the night...always nearly stepping on her. We told her countless times to not circle the table like a shark awaiting crumb spills from the boys. She got her fair share of "Sadie-don'ts!"

Our family is missing a soft piece now. We're missing velvety ears to scratch, and a tummy that never said no to lovin'. We're missing our girl.