Ready for Summer!!

After this weekend and tonight trying to get 2 boys who napped nearly the whole way home from my mom and dad's to go to bed, I am ready for several weeks without a place to be early every morning. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and the boys love going to school, but this weekend (which should have been the end of the school year but for the "Storm Days" and "Snow Days" we had to make up from September and February) were nothing but a teaser of summer break. Memorial Day weekend was a bit earlier than usual and she school year is going a bit later than usual... only 2 more weeks!

We had a good weekend, overall. Safe travels, relaxing time with family. The boys and I took the huge step and went to the Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society on Saturday and adopted the dog I had been looking at on their website for about a week. His name was Gravy, but we changed it to Goliath, Davey's chosen name for any dog we might adopt. He's the perfect dog for us: calm. housebroken, obedient, quiet, and a beagle that looks nearly exactly like the dog I had when I met David (Tino, our family dog we adopted when I was in high school in England). [A little side story: I used to joke with David that he met Tino, fell in love with him and decided that I came with the package and if he wanted to hang with Tino, he had to take me, too.] We brought Goliath home to my parents' house and attached him to the chain we always used for Tino. The boys cuddled him (Max "fluffs" animals instead of petting them), played with him, walked him around on his new leash and showed him the play house. He followed me "off lead" down to the play house- I was so impressed that he didn't run off. I went in a bit later to help with preparations for dinner (my parents had invited the associate priest from their church to come over for dinner). When Fr. Anthony arrived, the boys were excited to introduce Goliath. The only problem with that was that they had run inside to help make dinner and had forgotten to hook the chain back onto the collar. So Goliath had likely wondered why these people who were so interested in him vanished and tried to find us. We looked everywhere we could think of as things got darker and darker. Davey was crushed and couldn't stop apologizing. He feels so responsible. It wasn't habit yet to remember that dogs like to follow and often wander. We hadn't heard him bark and he didn't run anywhere in the time we had him, he just moseyed. I had already put the tags from the rabies shot and the microchipping on his collar, so we are hoping (and praying to St. Anthony- patron saint of things that are lost- and St. Francis- patron saint of pets) that some kind person finds Goliath and calls the toll free hotline on the tag that says Goliath is microchipped so we can have him back with us.

We arrived back home tonight, WISHING we had smelled wet dog all the way home. We now know we are ready for a dog in our family. Maybe we will have Goliath or maybe another beagle boy will be the lucky one, either way, we all learned a lesson in diligence and attention required to keep pets safe.

Enjoy your next few weeks and I hope your summer is ready to begin and will be full of many fun and relaxing plans!!!

Fun, Flowers and Family

I had every intention of getting this published last night, but I fell asleep before I could get it written. This past weekend, my mom and dad were here to see Davey play 2 soccer games. We also did a LARGE number of other things.

We started the weekend with making $83 at our neighborhood yard sale (I had to move into the garage due to the rainy drizzle). I am now without 2 small analog TVs, several games, toys, ride-on scooter type things, many board books and a few puzzles. I sold donuts, too, which were a hit. I still have 3 pipe clamps, some weights, an electric fireplace, a Roomba and a golf hand cart. If you know anyone interested in any of these things, let me know. It was funny the looks I received after answering this question (for at least the 10th time): "Don't you like the Roomba?!" "Well, I am strange this way, I LIKE vacuuming!"

After closing up the sale, with a few cars still driving around, the boys and I headed to meet my parents at Wallitch, a fantastic local nursery to find a few things for our flower beds and for the cemetery. I bought a moonvine, a cardinal climber (we always plant these at the mailbox, to twirl around the base), some portulaca (for the cemetery) and some tomatoes for the pot on the patio. Then to grab a quick lunch and off to soccer.

Davey loves to play goalie, so he was thrilled to have that opportunity for a quarter. Even though we "don't keep score, they are only beginners", St. Margaret Mary won, 3-0. At the game on Sunday, they won 3-1. They are a great group of kids who all get along and like each other. Hope this is the first of many years of this type of camaraderie!

After Saturday's soccer game, it was off to Costco, a DANGEROUS place for my AmEx card and I to go. I stuck to my list pretty well, venturing off of it to purchase strawberries, peanut butter and snacks (which will likely be for the trip to the beach, if I think Uncle Fuzzy, Aunt Sherri and, most importantly, JT will like them). I need to OK them with the TX crew.

Planting, grass mowing (my dad is NOT a big fan of my electric mower- David and I were attempting to be "green" and environmentally minded when we purchased it- I don't mind it, but I don't have much basis of comparison, it is really the only mower I have used much) and grilling steak were on the agenda for Sunday. After church, we went to the cemetery and planted the portulaca. The grass that the grounds people planted is coming in thick and hasn't been mowed, so the boys enjoyed running over it and laying on it. The end result of the weekend gardening is that I have plants in both pots near the front door, annuals to replace the bulbs that have run their course and herbs and foxglove in what used to be the sandbox. The sandbox was crushed in the Great Ice Storm 2009 (the one that caused us to me making up one of the extra weeks of school after Memorial Day)so it now has been given new life.

I went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" with a friend Sunday afternoon. It was cute and my parents commented when I got home that I seemed rejuvenated. I think a little time without the boys that doesn't involve work, errands or procuring groceries is an essential element to being a loving, patient single parent, well ANY parent, actually!

Davey had his first t-ball game of the season this evening. He had fun and for one week, will be a dual sport athlete. Next Tuesday, there will be a conflict between soccer practice and a t-ball game. I guess a game outranks a practice, but I am not sure which place to be. I was proud of us because we walked to t-ball, then to dinner, then home again... perhaps that makes up for the pizza I ate at Tony Boom-Bozz (it was kids eat free night!).

Thursday is Max's end of the year program- a pj (Prayers for Jesus) party... after all, it IS a Baptist childcare center! All the kids (and presumably the teachers, too) are going to wear their jammies. Davey asked if he and I could wear ours, too. Hmmm..... whether to do that or not.... have to ponder that!

Please keep my friend Tena and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her grandmother passed away early this morning.

Have a fantastic week and a spectacular long weekend!!

Mother's Day and Other Things

We had a wonderful time at Nolin Lake. We met my parents at the lake house of some dear friends who seem to have adopted the boys and I as their own. They babysit the boys so I get the chance do do a few grown-up things, have us over, check in on us, etc. They picked my parents up at the airport in October when they were returning from their Italy trip and delivered them to the Light the Night Walk and shuttled people to and from in August. This weekend, we played games, worked puzzles (Max is a whiz- he does 64 and 100 piece puzzles these days), sat on the porch, read, explored the locale... relaxation!

Davey is going to be reading at Mass tomorrow (this will be an improvement over his chosen activity LAST Thursday- playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with 2 classmates). I am planning to attend, at least long enough to see/ hear him read his Scripture passage.

Things are beginning to get back to normal with David's mom and dad. Sharon fell 2 weeks ago and broke her leg just below the ball joint while cooking dinner. She had surgery, spent some time in the hospital and then was transferred to a rehab hospital unit. She went home yesterday and they seem to be making the necessary adjustments for mobility, ambulation, supervision and independence. Keep them both in your thoughts.

My mom had a check up recently and things look good there, too! Hot flashes as summer is approaching will not be fun, but Mom has a great attitude about it!

I am pleased to report that I have 16 (I think) days of work before vacation. I love what I do, VERY MUCH, but there are plans being made by me (and by the boys) of things to do this summer and things to try, not limited to: movies, Calypso Cove (the YMCA water park nearby), Cub scout camp, a week at Googey and DadDad's, trip to see JT, Uncle Fuzzy (who Davey referred to tonight as "the tallest grownup I've ever met") and Aunt Sherri, and, certainly the most nerve wracking of them all, getting a new dog. Davey wants to adopt a beagle and name it "Goliath", after the dog on the old claymation TV show "Davey and Goliath". We have been looking online at a couple local sites to see what is available at what location. Many people try to warn me about beagles, but I hat a beagle for several years, especially while my mom and dad were in China, where Tino would have been a snack for the locals.

I am running out of steam, so I will stop for tonight. There is more, I am sure, but it will have to come another day.

Parade!!!

Max had a blast with his float for the WRBC Childcare Center annual Pegasus Parade. Every year, we try to have a float that relates to an event during Derby Festival (Steamboat, Bedrace, airshow, Thunder fireworks) or something Louisville-ish (the Gallopalooza horses found around the city). This year, we chose the Chow Wagon- the food choices available on the riverfront near where the concerts are held. See if you can pick out the various delicacies available on Max's float! YUMMY!!!!

Also, for your enjoyment, photos of the boys' floats from LAST year, since I have just figured out how to download photos from the camera and then upload photos to the blog. I have had to teach myself (and get tutoring, often via phone) to do these technical tasks David used to do for us. I am handling things well, I think and trying to become a "Jane of All Trades".

Visit To Daddy

Today we went to the cemetery and then to the zoo, since it is Oaks Day and schools were out today. Here are some photos from the trip to "visit Daddy". I was so touched by my gentle Davey. He sat there with Max and talked to him. I tried to keep my distance so they could have their time together. After we got loaded into the car, Davey asked me, "Mommy, can we go tell Daddy one more thing?" So I unloaded both boys and they ran over to the stone for a minute, then gathered up some dandilions, so David would have some flowers. I guess we will be going back to plant some things. Davey wants to plant marigolds, since "Daddy really liked marigolds".