Behind Already...

But determined to check up in one post.

I am leaving for Otter Creek's Camp tomorrow. When I return I will be in camp blogging mode, not catch-up-on-the-last-few-weeks blogging mode. Therefore, I must fill in the gap now before I leave for camp.

Even though I have largely only mentioned Stephen's progress through school, we actually do other things, I promise.

A couple of weeks ago, Blake and Julie let us watch their dog, Bo, for a long weekend.

Blake and Julie are some of our best friends. Blake and Stephen have known each other since they were 7 or 8 years old or in other words for almost 20 years. You could say they are like brothers...well no "like" about it...they are brothers. They find each other absolutely hilarious, can stay on the phone for 20 minutes talking about nothing - but laughing about their nothingness the entire time, have tendencies to engage in yelling wars - even through text messages, reminisce on the past 2o years on a regular basis - laughing about the same stories over and over again, can play the church hymn game for hours on end (if you are ever get bored in the car and know all the old hymns - we have the game for you!)...to sum this up they basically joke about everything all the time. As you can imagine, Julie and I had no choice but to be good friends too. Luckily, it worked out because I definitely need someone to endure all these moments with...so thank you, Julie.


I just thought I should give you a little insight on our friendship with Blake and Julie, since I am sure they will be mentioned often.

Back to Bo...AND...Here he is:




He loved putting our socks or shirts in his mouth. It was so funny!

I probably should not share this story because I will NEVER be asked to dog-sit or even baby-sit again, but I don't want to forget this incident.

Blake and Julie have a backyard and let Bo out to "do his business" without a leash. Then, on walks (when on a leash), he trots along - never needing to "pop a squat." This was completely new to me due to previous experiences with Stephen's parents' dog, Snickers. A walk for him consists of a 400 meter stretch (I ran track - this is how I compute distances) that takes 45 minutes because of Snickers huge desire to "grace" every tree along the way. With Bo, I was able to go at a great pace and actually get some exercise.

Because we don't have a yard, we would take him out on his leash (he was thinking he was getting a walk at 10 pm) to use the restroom - but he would NEVER go.

On Saturday, I picked him up early afternoon because it was so hot outside (All you dog owners are probably thinking dogs can hack it - but remember - he isn't our dog and we did NOT want him to have a heat stroke on OUR watch). We took him out the rest of that day- on his leash, of course - to pee and even on a walk - but he never "went" for the rest of the day. Finally, at 6 the next morning, Bo is scratching on our door and crying a little. I woke up and thought "this dog has to be about to explode" - so without even trying to take him out on his leash at our house - we got in the car and went over to Blake and Julie's backyard. When we got to their house, it took all I had to keep hold of his leash. I let him in his backyard - he sniffed for a nanosecond - and relieved himself for a good 30 - 45 seconds. Yes, I watched the entire time in amazement.

Needless to say that afternoon when we went on a walk (we were headed to their backyard so he could pee), he peed on his leash within 5 minutes. There I stood, joyfully repeating "good Bo, good Bo, good dog, way to go, Bo!" with a group of other dog-walkers around observing the situation. They had to be thinking, " Wow, lady, he is just peeing!" Too bad after this amazing discovery by Bo, he went home 12 hours later.

I have to say, I can see why people view dogs as great companions - within days Bo was following us around the house. I loved it - but we are not getting a dog in the near future, Stephen. Just had to make that clear, publicly.

Another visitor just less than 24 hours after Bo left was...

Our Niece - Katie Grace

I think she is about 7 months old in these pictures.


A proud aunt...


To give you a little perspective of what she looked like the last time we saw her at Christmas...

Andy, Rachel, and Katie Grace were only here for a very short time. We were so lucky they even stopped by considering all the people they needed to see all across the country. They live in California and drove from California to Texas to Arkansas to Tennessee to Kentucky just to make sure Katie Grace saw all her family (even a Great-Grandmother). Unbelievable. Really unbelievable with an infant in tow.

Stephen, Whitney (Stephen's cousin who lives in Nashville came over), and I were able to hold her, feed her, play with her, listen to all her noises, and she even fell asleep in my arms.

She is so sweet and lovable.

If she only lived closer...Hint, Hint, Nudge, Nudge...Andy and Rachel. =)


I'll leave you with a few other notable "unbelievables" from this past week...

1. Michael Jackson - "King of Pop" DIED. Unbelievable.

2. Stephen passed all his tests this past week with flying colors. U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-e-a-b-l-e.

3. Jillian, the Bachlorette, kept Wes on for ANOTHER week. Unbelievable.

4. This post has gone on for far too long. Unbelievable!