Good Bye Buster

Buster died today.  We are all very, very sad.

Paul and I always say he was our "first". 

We picked him out of a litter to be our very own and raised him since he was a pup of about 3 months old.  He has been such a good dog. 

We miss him so very much.

Buster the best dog ever.

July 17, 1997 - October 1, 2009

Paul buried him in the backyard, beyond the fence.  We had a funeral for him, sobbed like crazy, and laid fresh flowers on his grave. We remembered all the good times and annoying times we've had with him that are now just plain funny memories.  All through the day there is someone crying.

Buster has lived in Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon and was an avid traveler in between. 

He loved to eat, run out the front door, make smellies, chase frisbees, and sniff babies.

In his younger days he swam in lakes, jumped out of a boat, ate our Christmas tree twice, ate Elijah's gingerbread cookie from pre-school, ate Paul's chicken off of the counter-stirofoam wrapper and all, and was even known for getting his tail tangled in the dishwasher rack.

He leaves behind 2 grieving parents and 5 grieving children.

Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful time we had with him

and if at all possible,

may we see him again in heaven please.

A Peak in Our Week

Saturday morning, I was sitting on the living room couch with Hannah while nursing Mary and BAM-  a pheasant flew right into the living room window.  Gave me a heart attack, well almost.  Hannah and I went out front and saw the big ol' bird lying there.  I thought it was dead, so Hannah and I hovered over it to get a good look and BAM it jumped up and ran away.  Gave me another heart attack.  You should've heard me scream, (everyone else did). Hannah cried because it scared us both so bad and then Mary joined in.  Thanks a lot bird.

While at a trip to Fred Meyers on Sunday, after we did church at a nursing home, a lovely little old lady stopped us in the frozen food section to tell me how nice my children were, comment on my big family (I only had 3 with me?!?) and ask me about my Uniform.  As we were chatting I commented how she looked so nice and dressed up too so I asked her "did you just come from church?."  She replied "Oh, honey, I used to go to church but now I can't hear what the h*** the preacher's saying anymore".  GASP!! I started giggling and exchanged looks with  David because he sure heard it!  THEN she used a few worse profanity's to tell me how she went to a wedding a few weeks ago in England and got accused of "chatting up the preacher" by a bunch of "beepity- beep- beeps" (fill in the blank with the worse words you can think of), right in front of the kids!  We are still laughing over that one!!  So once again I am reminded you cannot judge a book by it's cover! This lady looked so classy and grannyish and safe.  Owell, maybe she was just having an off day.

Elijah's soccer team got CREAMED at his last game but he was still on top of the world that he gets to play.  A very good lesson for me.

Hannah was sick with a fever and laying around syndrome for the better part of 4 days, but has snapped out of it and is now running us ragged again.  Thankfully, Paul and I were able to "tag team" a lot of responsibilities this week.

Mary cut her two bottom teeth, is sitting up, scooting all over the place and began blowing rasberries at all her brothers and sisters.  Currently, she is more entertaining than Mythbusters, Clone Wars, Life After People, Blues Clues and computer games.  We gather around her in the evenings.  Spoiled... YES!

My usually "even keeled" hubby got a *wee* bit upset with me for butchering a tree/bush in the front yard into nothingness.  (The girls and I still found a spot to hang the birdhouse).  But that's okay because now we're even.  He hung one of those sticky fly tape catchers over the dining room table and when I was wiping down the table one evening, I get ALL my hair caught up in it.  What a mess.

After diligently working all morning to finish about 60 Harvest Festival Donation asking letters I ended up chasing exactly 20 of them up and down my street.  I had left the office with 20 of them in a file to give to *N* when I saw her at Shari's the next day for a Home League Brunch.  I stuck them on the floor of the car, ran a bunch of errands and came home in time to beat the school bus.  While I was unloading the girls and groceries, the wind blew them(the letters, not the girls) ALL OVER.  I ran and ran and chased every single one down, (not easy to do after 5 kids and the "tinkle" factor). And if that wasn't bad enough, I turned around a block away from our house to see Hannah, my 2 year old running after me stark NAKED!  She was going to "help momma" (she was a witness to the frenzy) after I asked her to change her clothes, company was coming.  Oh my, what must the neighbors think.

And, as I finish up typing this, Ann brings me an empty sippy cup, lid and all, and asks me to squeeze some milk into it so she can feed Mary. I tell her "no Ann". She says "pull up your shirt, and I'll do it."   Ha!Ha!Ha!

Better get upstairs and start the day!  Thank you Lord for your new mercies.