Poor Daisy Update

So as if the pink cast/bandage wasn't bad enough...at least it was kinda cute on her...she had to chew on the bandage and expose her stitches and bother her stitches, which left me no choice but to purchase her this humiliating cone. She literally shook for the first 2 hours it was on her. :( She is still not happy with it and neither am I, but what can I do? Besides wonder how we are going to make it a whole week, that is. The worse part is that she can't even put her nose to the ground to sniff...it feels like pure cruelty to keep a beagle from sniffing around...it's like 75% of her entertainment in life!

Poor Daisy

So begins a looonnnnng 45 days of recovery. Daisy 'blew out her knee' (torn cruciate ligament) and she could either hobble around on 3 legs the rest of her life or have surgery. Being that she is only one year old and we have an active lifestyle, we opted for the surgery. sigh.

Poor pup! I'm glad she is back home, but I'm not really looking forward to the next 45 days. First challenge - keep this cast on for the next 10 days!

Sisters

Yesterday I was reminded of the special bond of sisterhood my girls share. Sarah's teacher let the kids write letters to someone else in the building and Sarah took her letter to her sister. So Morgan's teacher sends me the following email:

Just now, Sarah brought Morgan a letter. It was the sweetest exchange ever. I got a little misty eyed. Precious girls.

Awww...I love teacher emails like that one! :)

Being only 19 months apart, they have always shared a special bond of friendship. Oh, they have their sister moments, but they really are very close. Here's a couple pictures from 2003 that I've simply labeled "Sisterhood begins..."

Not my Proudest Morning

Apparently I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Unfortunately, the girls got an earful of my screaming this a.m., lets just say it's not one of my prouder moments.

It was an accumulation of things...fishing stuff out of the toilet they dropped in there, their clothes still being all over the bathroom floor after I'd already asked them a half a dozen times to pick them up, trying to get ready for picture day, needing to sew a button on at the last minute, and the last straw was stepping on the tube of toothpaste that they somehow managed to get on the floor without a lid, so I had glob of toothpaste all over the bottom of my foot. None of that is major, so I'm not real sure why I was so grumpy, but I was.

So I called Mike to calm down and what does he do? Make me cry! Yes, he has to say "You know, you're gonna miss this one day!" That did it...I know I am going to miss this one day, however crazy that might sound. I went and apologized to the girls. We all make mistakes and I certainly did this morning. We had a good rest of the morning getting ready and I enjoyed seeing them both while subbing at their school today...so forgiving they are, all smiles and hugs.

pandora.com

I've been loving http://www.pandora.com/ - it's been fun to listen to so many songs that I had forgotten about. If you haven't tried pandora for your music enjoyment - you should! You type in a song or artist and it creates a radio station for you based on that. My list of free radio stations is growing. Just now, I had typed in the song Shepherd Boy (by Ray Boltz) - I realize not too many people know his music, but it stirred something in me many years ago. I don't listen to this music much anymore, but when I hear it, it still moves me. Well the next song that came on was Find Us Faithful (by Steve Green). I don't think I'd heard this song since becoming a parent, but today, I found it inspiring me in this journey of parenthood. Here's some of lyrics:

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

CHORUS:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Just a few reasons...

Here are just a few reasons I've appreciated my husband this week -

• At this moment he is downstairs singing karaoke with the girls and their friends.
• 10 minutes after our small group bible study left, I walked into the kitchen and found it all cleaned up.
• He's believed in and encouraged me to pursue my dreams of writing. He's excited for me and the writing competition I entered. He told me that I'll be the first to know when they've declared a winner 'cuz they will be calling me to say I won!
• He took 2 hours of vacation time to take the dog to her surgical consult with me.
• He paused to reminisce with me about our first date 19 years ago.
• He packed my lunch last night.
• He gave me numerous back rubs.
• When I was stressed he asked, "What can I do to help?"
• He made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.

Life is just sweet with him by my side!!

Where Fairies Fly

In the magical world of my children’s minds there still exists a place where fairies fly. I love imagining this place with them! When we go camping, there are two staples on my list of items to pack – 1. s’mores fixins’ and 2. Fairy Dust (aka, glitter).

Again this weekend, at Pomme de Terre Lake (or as my girls call it, 'potato lake') the girls spent literally hours building fairy houses, which eventually turned into fortresses. As I watch them search our campsite, they turn leaves into fortress walls, rocks into tvs, couches, & beds, moss into carpet, twigs into trees and gardens, bottle caps become bird baths (after all, fairies do love shiny things!), leaves become towels that are left next to the fairies pool (an empty plastic fruit cup).

I love their creativity! I love the magic of it all… of them imagining the fairies visiting the houses they created after they go to bed! I love sprinkling magic fairy dust all over their homes and dropping a few shiny things (dimes) into their fairy worlds. I love their look of sheer delight when they see the fairy dust in the morning and exclaim, “look, they slept in the fairy bed!”

I know they are skeptical and keep trying to ‘figure it out’ – “mom, did you bring glitter?” – “ummm, why would I do that?” I know these days of ‘magic’ are quickly coming to an end, although I hope they will always hold on to a bit of that magic deep within. I hope their creativity never ends and they keep believing in places where fairies fly and visit magical fortresses, made by little girls, in the middle of the woods.

The pictures don't do these magical places justice... but at least they remind us of their existence!