Good Dog

I was watching the movie Marley & Me the other day and choking up at the end. It reminded me of Copper. Copper was a maniac dog. She drove me crazy. But I sure do miss her. We had to say good-bye to her last June. I know that it has been nearly a year. But it's was a harder decision to make than I bargained for.

Copper came to live with us the same week that Isaac was born. She was about 3 years old. She was a beautiful dog. She had so much energy. Anytime the front door was opened, she ran for it. We chased her down in the car quite a few times. She ate anything that was left out: whole loaves of bread, entire roasts, an entire unopened bag of hershey's kisses (she did spit out the wrappers on the carpet). Twice, in one week, she got sprayed by skunks. That was not fun. But we discovered that if we rubbed Mexican vanilla into her coat, it overpowered the skunk smell, and we had a vanillaroma dog every time it rained for months afterward.

Copper kept the kitchen floor clean. It took me months to figure out why I had to sweep so often after she returned to live with my parents when Isaac was 2 or 3. She would eat all the food the kids dropped during meals. When she left, the kids still dropped food, only I had to clean it up because she wasn't there to eat it. Copper loved to ride in the car. She loved to go after the ducks in the pond; although, she never could even get close to one.

Copper hated thunder and lightening and fireworks. She would run around and bark. The year before she died, she lost her hearing. So the thunder didn't bother her so much anymore. But she could still see the lightning flashes. Whenever there was a storm when we weren't home, she would hide. One time, one of the boys was using the bathroom soon after returning home and Copper jumped out from behind the curtain in the tub. Quite startling. We joked that she was such a smart dog that she knew where the safest place in the house was during severe storms. The bathrooms were one of the few places in the house without windows so she couldn't see the lightning.

Things were frustrating and difficult the last few months of Copper's life. I was hoping she would last until summer, so Dad could see her again. But her quality of life was diminishing. It was hard to see her get old. Saying good-bye to her was hard. Someday we may get another dog. But for now, we'll just remember Copper. She was a good dog.

Spring Break

We went to Lawrence, Kansas for spring break a couple weeks ago. We went to visit Nate, to relax, and do a little house hunting. We woke up to snow on Monday:

So we kind of stayed in at the hotel and watched some TV

and swam in the pool.

We celebrated Pi Day (3/14) with some terrific pie.

We did a little house hunting and found this:

We think it's a zonkey.

Mostly we just relaxed, watched TV, read books, played video games, watched movies, swam in the pool, ate out, met new friends, and had a nice time.

On the way home we met a nice Kansas Highway Patrolman.

At least he only gave me a warning.

lessons learned

• When your 14 year old daughter uncharacteristically wakes us before you do, there's a problem.


• If you ask to cut layers into your own hair and your mom says it's not a good idea, don't do it --- even though your dad says it's okay. Listen to your mom.

Thank heavens for fabulous hair stylist friend who is willing to fix the hair disaster before school so she didn't have to face middle school with a really bad hair day.

Even though she wasn't planning on going this short when she tried to cut her own hair late last night, the new cut is cute. Drastic, but cute.

Leaning Tower of Pisa Cake

For a social studies project Isaac had to make a 3-D model of an historic European structure. Isaac's assigned structure was the leaning Tower of Pisa. He wanted to make it out of cake. I thought it was a fabulous idea. So we spent the weekend baking and decorating cake. Tomorrow he gets to bring it back home so we can eat it! I like projects like this. Who knew that cake decorating would come in handy for my son's social studies project?

KU Game

Kansas University was playing their playoff game down in San Antonio last weekend, so Nate and I went. Since we are moving there, we may as well start getting involved. So we got the family T-shirts:

The Jayhawks got an ealy 20 point lead and kept it the rest of the game. Not the most exciting of games, but fun to go and watch.

Spent the weekend...

Hazel and her friends filled the little pools in the back yard (first time this season - probably the earliest ever in the 13 years we've lived in Texas), then played in the sand box (best project ever finished in my yard). It was 90 degrees yesterday. (Not so today, but we enjoyed the heat while we could.)

Added some more pepper plants to my garden. The bunnies ate the last ones. I'm worried that my lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower will bolt because of the unseasonable heat. But it is supposed to be back to normal this week. Hopefully we will be eating more greens soon. I mowed the lawn for the first time this season...well, Isaac did. But I weed-whacked, spread some weed-and-feed to tackle the weeds that grow faster than the lawn, and enjoyed some sunshine.

Nate worked on fixing some of the piddly stuff the inspector found around the house: patching mortar in the brick, fixing sprinklers, finding sprinkler boxes under the overgrown lawn. I'll be glad when that's done. The carpet cleaners were here all day deep cleaning the house. I must say, they are the best I've ever had clean carpets. They look sooooo much better...almost new. This week it's the window repair guys (darn golf balls hitting my house), the window washers, the chimney sweep, and preparing for a garage sale next weekend. Got to keep busy.