New Love

We have a new love in our home. Her name is Lucy.



The kids and I have been searching for a family dog of late. It's taken a while, but she joined our home this weekend.



She's 3 months old and we're completely in love with her.



She's a black lab mix (not sure with what--possibly a little bloodhound).



She's good at fetching.



And sleeping (the kids thought she might be cold and wrapped her up in a blanket).



She's leash trained, crate trained and under our care has learned to sit. She's also learned to sit and wait for us to enter the house first--no bolting and running through our legs to get in first. We think she's pretty smart!

Summer

The calendar says it's the first day of summer. The thermostat has been reading mid-July - August. Wow! It's been hot!!

What Do You See?

Sometimes the only thing to do is to start looking at everything again until you forget what you're supposed to see & actually see what's there ~ Story People

Reasons for Celebration

Last Wednesday was game one of the soccer tournament for Andrew's team. They earned the first seed in the tournament. His team won Wednesday, Friday and headed to the championship game on Saturday morning. At the end of regulation, the game was tied 2-2. At the end of overtime, it was still 2-2, and they had a shoot out. Andrew moved to goalie and stopped every shot!! One of the girls on our team scored a goal, and we won 3-2.


Flying High!


Turning the ball around.

Holding his breath on a goal kick.

Intense look during the throw-in.

Celebrating his goal on a throw in.  He intended to throw the ball in, have it hit another play and bounce into the goal.  He was successful!!

Stopping the ball during the shoot out.

His 1st Place Medal.  Also notice the missing tooth.  I pulled it right before the game--in the parking lot.  It was just hanging there and I was afraid he was going to swallow it or choke.

Way to go Supersonics!!

Another cause for celebration was Abby's birthday. She's actually 8 today, but is away from home. We celebrated her birthday on Friday.


I found these fun Happy Birthday Sunglasses for her.

She chose an iCarly cake.

This one and the next one were taken while we were
singing Happy Birthday to her.


Making a wish.

And blowing out her candles.

Happy, happy birthday Abby. 

Twenty Minutes

Last night I asked each kid to spend twenty minutes in his/her room cleaning and straightening up.

Out from under Adam's bed came all of this:





Approximately one hour and thirty minutes later, he was still there.

Mother's Day Picnic

Last Friday I attended my final Mother's Day Picnic at the park with the school's kindergarten classes. It was a gorgeous day. The kids went on a scavenger hunt with their mothers and we traipsed all over the park looking for the items on our list. Andrew and I were down to one final item--an acorn. Andrew thought perhaps we could find one under the trees by the creek. As you can imagine, the rocks in and around the creek were too tempting and several of the kids were jumping from rock to rock. Not surprisingly, Andrew fell in--up to his waist. We had to make a quick trip home for a change of clothes and some dry shoes.


That's my boy!

We had free time before lunch was served to play.



After lunch all of the kids sang songs to the mothers. It's so cute. They had practiced and practiced and did such a good job.



Andrew has a special friend, "T." He asked her mom if it would be okay for them to have their picture taken together. "T's" mom has a folder that she calls "The Andrew Loves "T" Folder." It contains all of the things Andrew has written, colored and drawn for her. It's so cute.



You can see some of the moms reflected in Andrew's glasses. His teacher told the kids they had to take their sunglasses off for the songs so the mommies could see their eyes.



It was a really fun day. As soon as we got home Andrew made his teacher a thank you card.



Here's Adam from my Mother's Day Picnic with him in 2006 (he's in the middle).



And Abby from my Mother's Day Picnic with her in 2008.

Ability, Motivation, Attitude

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it
Lou Holtz