Dogs...

Kenny and I are HUGE dog lovers and we have been without our Duke boy for about 3 months now. Had the birth of Charlie not been in our near future, we probably would have had a sweet new dog in our house by now. After we put Duke down, we decided it was best to wait to get a dog until after Charlie's arrival so that the new dog will join our family of 3, rather than adjust to Kenny and I just in time to readjust to Charlie. Logically, this is what we SHOULD do. It's what everyone TELLS us to do. It's really the BEST thing for us, Charlie and the future dog. Right???

But....our HEARTS want another dog sooooo badddd!! We WANT to come home and be greeted by a jumping, furry friend whose is just happy to see us and makes all of the bad things that could have happened that day go away. Kenny and I seem to take turns going through this "needy" phase. So, we spend our time studying rescue websites, looking for our next furry companion that will be a great friend to us, that will look after our Charlie...a sweet loving dog that will fill the house with fur and give sweet, sloppy doggie kisses on command.

AND...then we "discuss" the BIG QUESTION...

Do we get a sweet, midsized, loving Brittany, like I grew up with???

OR...do we get a great, bigger Lab, like our Duke and the only kind of dog Kenny has ever had?

What do you think???

Water for Elephants

I recently finished reading Water for Elephants for my book group and it was FANTASTIC!!! Great pick, Pia! It was one of those books that I probably never would have read if not required for book group. Even though it was a best seller and one of the books proudly on display right when you walk in the door of the bookstore, I still probably would not have read it. But, I loved it! And this is the exact reason why I love book group so much because it gets me to read things I normally would not have and most times, I feel very committed to finishing it, even if I don't like it. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Next book group pick is mine, The Glass Castle. Since I've read it already, I've moved on to Jodi Picoult's new book, Change of Heart. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it and it's awesome. She is a great author!

Baby Charlie...at 24 weeks!

Here's another look at Mr. Charlie at 24 weeks. It's a profile shot of him lying on his back. His head is on the left, belly to the right and limbs in the air.

The reason we have another picture of him is because my doctors are being a little extra careful with me because I have had a few high blood pressure readings in the last few years and while I've been pregnant...to them a high blood pressure reading is 125/84 or 127/78. I have to love that they are being extra careful with me, but laugh a little because most doctors I know wouldn't look twice at that BP reading. Regardless, I'm thankful for them and I know that as this pregnancy continues, the chances of my BP going higher naturally, get better and better, so I appreciate the extra tests that they have put me through thus far. All tests and procedures have come back completely normal and if something were to get worse down the road, they now have "baseline" readings for me on everything possible, so they know better how my body is working.

With that, after our first pictures of Charlie at 20 weeks, they ordered another ultrasound for 24 weeks, to ensure that Charlie is growing at the proper pace. And, of course, he is. I can even see that from the pictures he looks bigger. Since Kenny and I were confident that everything was fine, Kenny opted not to go to the ultrasound. So at the last minute, I invited my mom to join me. Since she's retired, her schedule is ULTRA busy (HA! HA!) and she dropped everything to come and see her grandson for the first time and an ultrasound for the first time. As she pointed out to me, I'm too old to have had an ultrasound done when she was carrying me around!

She loved it and we even saw his little heart beating away! Ultrasounds are amazing!

Kid Funnies...

The first weekend in March, we had a graduation/18th birthday celebration at our house for my cousin Samantha! Now, first let me make my "I'm feeling old comment." I remember when Sam was born, I remember all of her life and I can't BELIEVE she is 18 and done with school already!!! We are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished in the last year and were so happy to host her party.



The party also means that we spent Sunday with 20 or so of my relatives. The youngest, Jack, is 3 and is my cousin's son. He's so cute and I love the innocence of a 3 year old's thoughts. Here's TWO sweet/funny Jack stories, that I can't resist not sharing...



Jack is a typical boy's boy and loves to play and was in the process of reinspecting our house to find new adventures. As he emerged from Kenny's "car room" and was telling his dad about ALL the cars and trucks in there, he spotted Duke's toy basket, that we cleaned out after he passed away, but left a few good toys in for any visting dogs or our next dog. Jack said "look at the toy basket." I said "Jack, that is Duke's old toy basket and those are doggie toys, not toys for you to play with." He looked at me, crossed the room to get closer to me and with the sweetest little look on his face asked "Where IS Duke?" Almost, like he was wondering where he was...but I'm not sure he remembered who Duke was. I explained to him that Duke was in heaven, like his dog Bear (who passed away last year) and now they are friends and can play together. He thought that was a great answer and went off to play with some of Kenny's cars. That just made me want the innocence of a 3 year old back!!!

Jack's second story is VERY funny...

Jack's mom, Amy is lovin' that Kenny and I are having a boy, since Jack is the 3rd of 3 boys in their house and she KNOWS how much fun (and trouble) boys are! I had shown Jack Charlie's room when he got to our house and invited him to play with his toys that we have received. Many I pointed out to him were hand me downs from a co-worker of Kenny's.

We were in the kitchen talking about boys and she pointed out, as Jack was eating his cake, how fun they are...Jack had a nice line of frosting and cake down his sleeve that he wiped there from his mouth! I made some sort of comment about Charlie and Jack looked over at us and said "Where IS Charlie?" Poor kid, we talk about Charlie and show him Charlie's room and toys, but he doesn't understand he's not here yet. So, I explained that he is in my belly and pointed to the growing bump and said that in the summer when it's warm all the time and Jack is wearing shorts alot, Charlie will be here for him to play with whenever he wants. He found that answer acceptable and went back to his cake. A minute later, he walked over to me and started to lift my shirt while explaining he was "looking for Charlie." :) I took out an ultrasound picture and showed it to him and said that's Charlie...and he must think Charlie is a strange looking kid. I assured him that when he was that big, his mommy has a picture of him that looks the same. Amy agreed they could look at it when they got home. At least we know that Jack is interested in meeting Charlie and I hope they will be great friends!