Things we have learned about Ruby so far

1. I have combed enough fur off this dog to make a rug for the living room. On top of that, I have only been able to get to about half of her so far. I didn't find any fleas or ticks on her--I expected to.
2. She loves everybody. She wants you to love on her all the time. She is content to lay on the floor with Bridget, serving as a pillow.
3. She figured out how to open the gate between us and the neighbor behind us. If I put her outside, unattended, for more than a minute, she runs over to seek love from the neighbors.
4. She seems to be housebroken so far.
5. We were told she was mostly an outdoor dog. I don't believe this at all.
6. She is a very messy drinker, but not much of an eater.
7. She is NOT brave. She does NOT like thunder. Last night she sat and pushed her head behind my back to hide.
8. She does NOT like raised voices. Even if it is just excitement, she gets all nervous.
9. She is not used to stairs. She will come up to the bedrooms, but is very hesitant to go down. She refuses to go down the stairs to the garage and basement.
10. She does not know how to fetch and has zero interest in toys. This makes her fit in perfect. We only accept lazy dogs.

A new addition

We have been having a debate in my house. You see, Belle is old, and not doing the best. We know her days are (very sady) numbered. That is just a fact. She is cranky and not much fun. Schaun has wanted another dog since we lost his little Yorkie friend, Stinky. {For the record, Stinky came to us named Belle, and we already had a Belle. So we had two Belles. Sound familiar?--my email address. Anyways...} I think we should wait until we are down to one dog before getting another, but Schaun wants to get one now. Sometimes you gotta give right?

So Schaun has been reading the Craiglist's pet ads for a long time now. It is sort of fun to read them. I now do it too all the time. He had decided he wants a Pug. I want and have always wanted a Golden Retriever. The other night on Craigslist was an ad for two Golden's. One female and male. I thought, awwww, then the kicker--they were free! What? Free Golden's? There must be some catch. Schaun called the guy, got the story, it seemed legit. Schaun made arrangements for us to go see the dogs last night.

I was hesitant and reluctant. Three dogs is a lot. We have done it before and we had two cats then too.

Then we drove up and saw the dogs. I really had no resistance. They were exactly what I have wanted and we will probably never find such beautiful ones for free again. So we have a new friend here.

Her name is Ruby. She is around five years old. She desperately needs a bath. I'm not sure if she is housebroke, but I think she probably is. She is submissive and happy. She loves everybody. She isn't bothered by Belle and Daisy, and they took to her just fine last night. We got a large kennel and she slept in it without complaint.

So today, she will be getting a bath. She had been living outside, she is so, so dirty. Bridget is in love with her. It is so cute. She begged me to take their picture together last night. (It was hot and we were out there for a long time. That is why she (Bridget) looks so sweaty).

I guess I'm not a good mom

"You ruined my life!" Becca, today. (and some think Bridget is the dramatic one-ha!)

Too bad statements like that don't work for her. They actually crack me up.

Also, just a note about the photos below. Everybody has asked me where I took them. Well, it was this really fancy, exclusive lake area--okay not really. It is an entrance to a neighborhood, I think Lionsgate, on Nall.

A silly 4 year old

Just like a pro (at 6 years old)

These are all her own poses--uncoached. Pretty good huh? For some reason her head is cropped out a bit in these top two, but in the real pics, it is all there.

Weekend Review

This was a fun weekend. Saturday we surprised the girls (especially Becca) by taking them to Day Out with Thomas. We told the girls we were driving out to the country to meet somebody special. The event happens in Baldwin City at their train depot. They didn't quite get the "drive in the country" part as they thought we were going to see our friend Craig that lives in England. So this event includes activities like a moonwalk, magic show, lots of Thomas displays for the kids to play with, a firetruck, and the best part--a ride on Thomas the train! When we parked we told the girls what we were doing and they were bouncing around excited. "This is the best day of my life" was heard many times from Becca. When boarding the train you get to choose what car you ride on. We picked the caboose, it was open and the other cars were enclosed. I am certain that Becca was disappointed in the ride. When we started off I asked what she thought we would see and she said "Thomas' world". I don't know what his world includes, but lots of green farm land probably isn't what she thought, but is what we saw.












Here are the girls getting the temporary tattoos.
















































Here Bridget is helping the magician with a trick. She was not so impressed. This guy was not near as good as the magician at Becca's party.






On the train, one of the worker people offered to take our photo. I guess seeing Becca's face was not important. He told Bridget to stand up because he couldn't see her, but whatever.














On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. The past few years we have had a big BBQ blow-out, but that didn't happen this year. We stayed home and Schaun smoked some ribs and a tenderloin. The girls each chose the gift they wanted to give him this year. Becca knew, without hesitation that she wanted to five him flowers and chocolates. So cute and funny. Bridget wanted to give him a new video game. I told her he really only plays the one game. She considered a movie, but then she saw the "World's Greatest Dad" shirt and hat combo and that was hew choice. The card was great too. The girls really like the musical cards and they found a Father's Day card with Tinker Bell and played Disney music. Schaun told the girls how lucky he was to be their Daddy. They were really proud of their choices.

Dance Recital 2008

I am a bit behind in posting about the girls dance recital last weekend. The dance classes start in August, and they actually start working on the recital dance around Christmas, with the actual recital scheduled in June. So, my girls have been doing the same dance for about 6 months. I stay during each class and have watched the progress each week. I say progress, but I really didn't feel like there was enough. Bridget's teacher never spent one minute of individual time with any of the kids. Even on some weeks when only 1/2 the class showed up--that was a disappointment. Becca's teacher was absent about 25% of the time. The weeks she was gone, there were sub teachers, but they didn't know the routine to practice it. So how are 4 year olds suppose to know this routine? I was disappointed with her too. On top of teacher issues, Becca is a clown in class. She listens and pays attention enough of the time to appear like a good student, but when it is the whole group doing the dance and practicing the routine, she would goof off and make faces and do her own thing.

The recital requires a practice on Friday and Saturday nights. The show is on Sunday. During both practices, Becca basically stood on the stage and watched the other girls dance. I thought, "well, it's good she is so cute just standing there". Bridget got better each practice. She really knew the routine. I knew she would be great.

So during the show I was completely shocked when Becca came out and did the whole dance! That little stinker knew almost every move and smiled while she did it. I was so proud and excited. Becca's dance was to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Bridget's dance was to All That Jazz. I was not a fan of the construction cone orange costumes, but since she is still small and cute, it worked. Now let me tell you about this little show off. When they walked out there was some serious hip shaking going on. The best part of the routine was the shimmy. These girls were so cute. They all shimmy different and basically look really silly. The audience loved it and we did too!

Also this year was Kelsie's last year. As a Senior, they can do a solo act if they want. Kelsie gave a beautiful performance.

Kindergarten layout

I bought this ribbon (knowing that I didn't need one more inch of ribbon), but I really liked it and when it matched this dress so well, I was so happy. I got to use some of the KI lace cardstock too--fun stuff!

Growin, growin, growin!

I took the girls in to the doctor yesterday for annual check ups. I saved myself a trip this year and decided to take them together. It was actually so much easier because Bridget goes first, then Becca will do what she did and I didn't have to plead with her to cooperate. Bridget is SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD! She is a perfect example for her sister in situations like this.

I know Bridget needs some shots to start school in the Fall. The amount of required shots annoys me so I try to put them off as long as possible. The Montessori school didn't really check on these sort of things, so we were able to put this off another whole year (from Kindergarten to 1st grade). Bridget needs 3 shots to be current and Becca is current. The doctor suggested that Becca go ahead and start getting what Bridget will be getting so she will be current before Kindergarten and mostly cuz she so willingly shadowed Bridget so well. So I agreed to one of the three needed and dreaded shots for both of the girls. Bridget was perfect. She sat up all brave, gave a little "ouch" and a flinch but nothing else. No tears-way to go! Then it was Becca's turn. At this point she decided she was definitely Becca and not Bridget. She tried to hide behind me, that didn't work because I picked her up and put her on the table-kicking and screaming. She wasn't really crying--she was just mad! So, so, so mad! Her face was red, her muscles were all tight, she was sort of doing this growling sound--just as angry as she could be. I kept thinking she was going to turn green and become the Hulk. The nurse and I won though and the shot was done.

On the way home we stopped and got ice cream. Becca remained mad, glared at me, and refused to hold my hand for several more hours.

They both grew a lot last year. It was obvious that Becca had, but Bridget did too. Last year Bridget weighed in at 39 lbs and this year 46 lbs (which is in the 50%). Last year she was 41 1/2" tall and this year is 44 1/2" tall (which is the 25%). So she is growing and and average weight, just not the tallest girl and never has been. I am pretty sure that Becca is going to outgrown Bridget one day.

Last year Becca weighed 27 lbs and this year she gained ten pounds and weighed 37 1/4 lbs! That moved her into the 50% in weight. Last year she was 36 3/4" tall and this year is 40" tall (that is the 65%). I knew she had grown a lot. Especially between when school started last Sept to January. I noticed that she skipped a whole size when the Christmas clothes didn't fit shortly after Christmas!

Schaun went to a new doctor yesterday. He is really suffering, but with the non-treatment he received last year, he didn't want to go to doctors like that again. So my good friend Shawn found out about this doctor in our area that sounded like he might be different. I set up the appointment yesterday morning, and they got him in right away (always a good sign). The doctor seemed to know his stuff. He told Schaun what was wrong with the treatment last year and how they would fix him. This doctor is predicting relief within by the end of the weekend. That would be so awesome!

The start of summer fun

We have had the sprinkler out a few times and the girls love that. Yesterday we went to a park to find some ducks. We didn't find any, just a bunch of mean geese. We didn't stay long. When we couldn't find any ducks the girls wanted to leave.

Nothing much to say

There is not much going on here to report. The van is fixed. The girls are happy playing with the girls that live behind us ALL THE TIME. They practically pass out at night. They have never played outside so much. The already have tans going on. It is nice to have the neighbors behind us that we do. We trade the kids on and off, so we all get some quiet time. That's nice.

Then there is the bad news. Schaun is suffering again. It is frustrating. He hurts and seems incurable. He went to a bunch of doctors last year and they couldn't find anything wrong, so that means there is nothing to treat. The problem with that is he is still having a lot of pain.

We just had a major thunderstorm pass thru. The girls HATE thunder. I can't convince them that noise doesn't hurt you. Now it is just dreary and dark. I guess it is a good cleaning day. Better get busy.