Well. Hello, Stranger!

I'm back. Not sure if anyone still reads this thing, but I'm back. I'm not making any promises on frequent updates, but here's what's been going on lately.

Our new puppy is now longer with us. (Did you notice his absence in the picture up top there?) A little over a week ago he unfortunately showed us his true colors - or at least what could be expected in the future. I had given both dogs raw hides and Ashley was sitting on the floor next to Mack petting him when with no warning he suddenly attacked her. There was no warning growl, just a lunge to her face that resulted in the need for an ER visit to get stitches.

This was upsetting on so many levels because the one concrete rule Bret and I had made when adopting him was that he was gone after the first bite - no exceptions. I wish I could say we didn't see it coming, but the week before he had growled at Ryan because he had stepped over him while he was eating from his bowl.

It's unfortunate because he had showed so much potential. He really was a good little pup. I'm not angry at him because I honestly think he didn't know he had done anything wrong and immediately wanted to play. Unfortunately, if he did this at 6 months old, I was willing to bet a sizable fortune that he would do it again. We have small children that live on both sides of us that use the playground equipment in our backyard so there was absolutely no way we could keep a dog that had already attacked once.

It was heartbreaking, we took him back to Paws that very next morning. I cried the whole way there and the whole way back. I cried some more while putting his things away. Surprisingly, the kids took it very well. I think they were now afraid of him, so letting him go was a bit easier for them.

I thank God everyday that the damage to Ashley's face was pretty minor compared to other dog bites that I've seen before. Hopefully there won't be any scaring. I've learned through this process that it's probably not a good idea to get a puppy from the pound. You have no idea what they've been through or how they will turn out. I'm sure we'll adopt again (and not until Daisy is gone, if I can help it) but next time we'll stick with a dog that's already a year or two old that hopefully would have already showed any aggression by then.

Keeping Us Busy

The New Year has brought busy times with it. Ashley's Volleyball Team's games have started. They are 0 for 2, but have come so close to their first win as their new school's first team. They're having fun and Ashley is getting tons of play time. She is the second tallest girl on her team.

Mack continues to grow and Daisy continues to tolerate him. This shows just how much she has to tolerate:

Mack has slept in his crate in the family room at night since we got him last month, but lately he's starting to understand where Daisy sleeps and has been trying to invite himself in. We gave in this weekend and brought Daisy's downstairs bed up for Mack and he slept throught the night in our room on it both nights! It seems there will be no more crate for the puppy at night anymore!

Exhausted.

Santa Claus Parade

Instead of battling the crazy crowds at the stores this morning, we went and watched Ashley and her school's band march in the Peoria Santa Claus Parade.

.

My little street bum.

Bret & I.

Ashley's school band approaches.

Unfortunately, Ashley and her flute were on the opposite side of where we were standing so I wasn't able to get a picture of her.

Remember McGruff, the crime fighting dog?

Ryan's favorite float.

Santa arrives.

We're off for a weekend in the windy city...

World's Favorite Mom Today

I am now one very favorite mother to one very happy 12 (almost 13) year old daughter right now.

Three weeks ago when we were up at my mom's visiting, my brother gave my daughter his friend's EnV texting phone because he had gone with another carrier and no longer needed it. Because he went with a new carrier, Ashley had to wait a certain amount of time before we could activate the phone. It's been killing her, to say the least.

Every weekend we've tried to activate it, just in case the phone was released from it's old number early. We forgot this past weekend, so I just tried it without telling her a little bit ago. It activated this time, so I brought it to her and the surprise on her face was worth more a million bucks!

Homecoming Parade

This weekend is Dunlap's big Homecoming weekend! Ashley survived her first parade in the marching band and had a great time.

After the parade, we ran home to eat and change clothes and then went and cheered on the football team at the game.

Today we're off to Chicago to drop off the kids at my mom's and then it's on to my friend Emily's house for girls night out.

Spartan's Win!

Ashley played a great game on Saturday. She made some really great plays at first.

Ashley at bat.

We have one more week left of school ball and then sadly, the softball season will be over. We've really enjoyed sitting through all of her games. We couldn't be prouder.

Birthdays and Make Overs

Today we celebrated Ryan's 8th birthday with family over at my father in law's house. His birthday isn't until Tuesday, but with school starting I thought it would be best to get everyone together before school starts tomorrow.

Looks like we have another Wii game for mom to play when the kids go back to school tomorrow. Ha.

He has been wanting this since he saw a picture of it in the Playmobil catalog and didn't have a clue that my mom, Grandma and brother were getting it for him. It may be a week or so before I see the white's of his eyes again.

After Ryan's little party, I took Ashley to get her hair cut and was surprised when she told me that she wanted bangs and to get her eye brows waxed. She looks so grown up that I had to do a double take. Next thing you know her eye teeth will be in and she's going to come out of her room with all kinds of eye makeup on. Her dad and I just may have to lock her away for the next ten years!

Why do they have to grow up so fast?

E 'finito!

Ashley is beyond excited at how awesome her room turned out! My sister in law is a creative genius when it comes to stenciling! She left work at 2pm today to come over and finish up the second coat on the stencils. Then we ran to a few places to get curtains and some other finishing touches and pulled it all together tonight. I am so happy with how it all turned out!

Ready? Here is a before picture...

...and POOF! Here is after!

I am now off to try and put back together my poor neglected house.

Sneak Peak

It has been quite a day today. We had one of the worst storms ever roll through here at 4am this morning. All day yesterday it had been in the upper 90's and the humidity was so bad that you could barely breathe outdoors. Taking all this into account, we knew that any storms that reached us would be really bad. And they were.

Every single thing on our deck had blown over to the railing right in front of our patio door. Our only saving grace was that we had just stained the deck, so the floor of it was still pretty slippery which I believe helped our new patio set glide across instead of being hurled across. Our neighbors weren't so lucky. There table flipped over and shattered into a million little pieces. Our other neighbors had it even worse. Their children's brand new wooden play system blew over and broke. All throughout our neighborhood, the effects of this morning's storm could be seen.

With the outdoor clean up taken care of, I moved on to Ashley's room. I ended up removing all of the tape from around the brown wall and was upset when the tape took off quite a bit of the original blue paint. Guess what that meant I ended up doing today? With the help of Ashley and my sister in law, we repainted all of the three walls with the same color.

After getting the blue walls painted, we moved on to the stenciling. My sister in law is quite talented and did an incredible job. Ashley is beyond excited, but the squares still need one more coat of paint tomorrow and then we can move everything back in and put her new bedding on.

I still need to find window treatments for both kids' rooms, but need to look around and decide if I want to make them myself or just buy them. We'll see.

Check back tomorrow...hopefully I'll have her room all put together and final pictures posted. For now, I'm off to go collapse in bed.

Painters For Hire

We got just a little bit sidetracked today.

Don't worry - we did eventually get two coats of brown paint up on that wall. Now we're just waiting to see if we need a third coat. Then the stenciling nightmare will begin tomorrow.

Oh, don't you worry, Daisy. You're days of boredom are soon to be over. Luke arrives in less than 2 weeks.

Here We Go Again

With the upcoming addition to our family coming in less than two weeks, I thought I had better get Ashley's room done since Ryan's has been done for quite some time now. There were a few things that kept me from getting it done, such as our vacation to Florida, the carpal tunnel in my wrist (which still hurts if I do too much, but it's managable for now) and more summer ball games than one can count.

Here we are before:

(The blue and brown bins in her closet are new.)

Now I'm working on the after. It's all taped and ready to go. I just need to go pick up Ashley from softball and get the paint - then she and I can get to work.

More later...

Unfair

When I was a teenager, I more than put in my time cleaning out my disaster of a bedroom. So why now, when I'm 31 (I'm 31, right?) years old am I doing just that again?

I gave Ashley weeks to get her room cleaned up so that we can redecorate her room, but was growing frustrated by her lack of motivation and ability to get it done.

We've been in there most of the day, slowly and painstakingly organizing her things and still have a ways to go. There are so many toys and such that she's outgrown that I just don't know what to do with. And you know what? I'm frustrated with MY lack of motivation and ability to get it done.

Update:

Her room is clean! It's done! I can drop now!

I don't think she'll ever let it get that messy again. I took great joy in dumping every single one of her draws and making her go through every single thing she owns.

I'm really proud of her, though. She did a great job. I helped her by guiding her where to start and what to do next, but she did it mostly herself and showed amazing maturity in getting rid of things she no longer needs or wants.

Now we can start painting.

Year End Softball Team Party

With the end of the summer season comes a good time at Kartville every year.



You've got your bumper boats...

...and the kid who fills the bucket and ensures that you walk away thoroughly soaked.

Then it's good clean fun out on the dirt. Yee-haw!

But, do NOT forget the blue snow cones!

Ever Changing

Life never seems to stay very still for us over here. It seems like summer just began and now it's going to be over in 3 weeks when the kids go back to school. I thought with the end of summer sports and summer activities that we would have a breather, but I was fooling myself because I honestly don't know how to not be busy.

Ashley is excited to go back to school and has gone straight from summer ball to school ball. Softball try-outs started this week for the middle school and while she's made the team, we still have yet to find out if she will be on the Varsity or Junior Varsity team. Practices start immediately on Thursday and will be everyday except for Fridays and Sundays. Whew, here we go. Sometimes I feel more like a chauffeur than a parent.

Ryan has scaled down to just swim lessons, with only two more remaining, so things are momentarily calm there. With the start of school comes the whole stress of making sure Ryan gets what is needed with his hearing and learning disabilities. We've given him the summer off from working so hard, but it's time to get cracking again.

In other news, we're adding a new dog to the family. We currently have Daisy (see picture on masthead above) who is 9 or 10 years old. She is the biggest sweetheart and everyone commonly calls her the neighborhood dog. People love her that much and welcome her into their yards.

My aunt has a 4 year old Golden Retriever, named Luke. She's moving and sadly cannot take him with her. We've offered to take him and the kids are really excited and having a hard time waiting the 3 weeks until my aunt can bring him down here. It could have been sooner, but we have our upcoming annual weekend vacation to Grand Bear with Bret's brother and his family and didn't want to upset his adjustment period here.



So, that leads me to a question I've got for all of you. I've found a lot of valuable information in regards to adding another dog to your family online, but I'd love some advice from anyone who's been through this. Daisy has her annual appointment at the vet tomorrow and I'm going loaded with questions for him. Does anyone have any suggestions on making the transition easier on both dogs? I'm pretty sure Daisy will be the dominant dog as Luke is very laid back and easy going while Daisy is pretty laid back herself and very well behaved, but is very protective of her turf. I'd love some feedback!

All Star Weekend

We're more than half way through Ashley's All Star Softball team's weekend tournament. She played two games last night, two more today and the team is currently in first place. She and her team play again tomorrow afternoon. If they win their first game tomorrow, they'll play one final game for the championship!

Ashley and her teammates warm up between games today.

Ashley and one of her best friends.

The heat and sun must have been the cause for this side track during warm ups. Whatever works to keep you motivated.


Ashley's friend almost got rolled over!

Ryan had to be part of the action, too. He was the only boy up there with them.

Kid almost ran me over here.

Rolling, rolling, rolling....

"Umph," says Ashley as she tries to get up while her head is still rolling.

Back to business. Ashley is definately one of the best players on both of her teams this year. (And that's not just a proud mom talking.) She must have gotten it from Bret, because I always dreaded when it was time to play softball during gym class in school.

"Just try to get past me!"

Dunlap All Stars - 2008