Dear Lucy

Oh Lucy Loo! I'm so unbelievably sad writing this because I should have done it before now but it is SO hard saying goodbye to you and writing this means that I've accepted that you are indeed gone. That sentence BREAKS my heart!!!

There has never been a dog as loving as you! You have put up with so much in your life. We have had so many friends that you have tried to "show the way" with your amazing sense of manners and obedience.

Shall I name them all? Yes, I should! Because while your daddy was away playing hockey, you spent many days teaching Malinko, Sage, Dakota, and countless others how to behave in our home. Lead by example is what you have always done.

There are so many funny and happy memories that I have of you in our life. First in my mind is the look you had for an ill-trained St. Bernard who took a huge dump on your living room floor. I will never forget the look you gave him and your exit from the room, as if to say HOW STUPID could you be!!! Then the ONLY time you were ever in a fight when you stood up for your two girlfriends Kaya and Abby when they were getting harassed by a dog. I had never seen you in that light and of course I realized you were just being the family girl that you were. You would have done that for any of us!

You solely taught Mick and I how to be parents. How to be responsible for someone other than ourselves. I will never forget the time you pooped in your daddy's hands because you waited as long as you possibly could! Sometimes hockey games were more than you could last as a little pup!

As our family grew and there were little boys around, you epitomized the phrase "go with the flow". How could there be a dog that would let little boys crawl all over them and not even bare teeth or look at them sideways? Not to mention the back seat that you took during those early days. That was you sweet Lucy! It was as if you always knew your place and the role you would play in our family.

Our conversations in your last days will always be with me! I will never forget your permission to let me have you in my house even though I think you wanted to run away and not let me see you suffer. I'm SO sorry I was so selfish to keep you here so long when you felt so bad!!! I hope you will forgive me and understand. You were my first baby, our first baby. You taught us so much!!!!!

I swell up with tears whenever I get near your grave. I love you so much! I miss you SO much! Every time I drive up in the driveway I still expect to see you and it is always so hard when I have to grieve you each and every day.

The biggest hope that I have is that the good word says that our animals will be with us and I can't wait to see you again. I know you are romping around with Malinko and Molly and hoping that you don't see us sooner than need be, but that it will not be too long.

You were THE best dog I have ever met! I never knew how hard it would be to let you go but please know how much I love you and the time we had together!

I love you big mama!!! There will NEVER be another like you!!!

Oh Saturday Morning! Why must you be so cruel?

So my morning went like this........................keep in mind this is my ONE morning to sleep in.........


5:45 AM...golfer showering getting ready

6:00 AM.....golfer kisses me goodbye and out the door

6:15 AM....little boy at bed side asking "how do you spell fishy" (still haven't asked what this was all about)

6:30 AM....LOUD noise of hockey sticks scraping on tile floors and intense game being played

6:45 AM...hoisting of Lord Stanley's Cup (bowling pin) and lots of LOUD cheering

7:00 AM.....little boy bedside again complaining "Ben wants to play the XBox and I want to play the Wii"

7:15 AM.....Mom up and not in the best spirits because she just KNEW she would be able to sleep in on this wonderful Saturday

I will be napping on a float in the pool today....all men in my life, please respect this and don't splash me or dump me over!! A girl can dream right?

Quick lil' Sammism

So his mantra will NEVER be "it is what it is". Because in Sam's eyes, one thing can always be something else. I love this about him.

So quickly before the OT starts in the hockey game...........

Tonight I get called to the bathroom. Sam needs a cup to rinse his hair. I go get the cup, give it to him and continue my laundry duty. I get called back....Sam is standing on one leg, one arm up, one leg bent back, leaned over pouring water out of said cup......"Look Mom! I'm a fountain". Why yes, yes you are Sam!

Happy Birthday my sweet Mick!

So my husband turns 40 today and we have probably not celebrated the way he would want. We planted a garden and he worked HARD. He did all the things that he knew that I wanted to get done even though it fell on his birthday. Which brings me to this point and this picture.

My husband makes our family fabulous! He does so many, many, many things for us selflessly. He does all the little things that make the BIG things happen.

The picture above is one of our hikes. He asks me what we have to have for our hiking trips, and I gather things, first aid kit, whistle, water, camel back, etc., and he gets them all packed and ready to go. Same when we go camping, I gather and make lists and he sees that it all gets to where we are going. Makes my job pretty easy.

He painted last night, what did I do? I picked out the color. I asked if I could help but he says no, he's got it! (I think he is scared I will mess up the cutting in, and I will)

Same with the garden today. He digs out the area, hacks out roots, basically tills it with a shovel. He gets the boards angled and together because I want a raised garden. He goes and gets truckloads of soil and puts them in said garden. I sweep in, put the plants in and then he labors getting the fence around to help keep the squirrels and birds out. Now, normally we call this 'my' garden but it doesn't seem fair to say that. (although I think he likes it that way just in case there is any bad luck to where it doesn't thrive)

But this is the point of this post. My husband is FABULOUS and he works hard for our family. He is an amazing father, amazing husband, my best friend and I'm so very glad that he is in my life because life without him would not only be hard but it would be very boring. He is the yin to my yang, the salt to my pepper, the bread to my butter. I enjoy him! I'm so thankful for him. And I don't care how old we get, I love him more everday.

Pushing it a little too far!

So this is a replica of the face for the story I'm about to tell. It's about me pushing the limit. So we try to eat healthy, we really do and my boys love salad. In fact, Sam only eats raw vegetables, he does not like them cooked. He comes and grabs whatever is being chopped right off of the cutting board, whether it be purple onion or avocado, he just loves some fresh veggies and fruits.

Well Ben is a bit more picky than Sam. We have worked him up to several new fresh vegetables in his salad. I LOVE sprouts. And if they have broccoli sprouts, it's even better because they are PACKED with calcium. Well I snuck some in Ben's salad Tuesday night, he's not a fan, so I hid them at the bottom. He noticed them and told me he didn't really like them but he ate a big mouthful. So what do I do? I put them in again on Wednesday. He doesn't complain about spinach, green pepper or carrots in his salad, so why couldn't I just leave well enough alone? Well probably because I'm ME?! So when he discovered his sprouts last night he looked at me (with above replica face) and said, "Mom, seriously, I'm GONNA quit eating salad if you don't quit putting sprouts in it!" So I said, "okay okay, I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" And I won't.

Replica of face with salad without sprouts :)

A pitiful attempt for a picture at Christmas, they were having NONE of it!

And a little Sam funny: He tells me tonight, "when you stick your middle finger up, it means you don't love your Lord".

Christmas

Sam's year to put the star on, pretty soon, Mick will not be able to lift them and we will import a ladder!

Star Wars FREAK!

serious

love woody and buzz!

chillin with the legos

it's the whole 'round-up' gang

Breakfast chef at our new table!!

Christmas at our house this year was GREAT! I love a minimal Christmas because my kids have too much stuff and I'm not a fan of stuff. In fact I'm the opposite of a hoarder, but that's a-whole-nother post. ahem!! Back to Christmas.......what I LOVE about this Christmas is like my own Christmas story. When Ben was 2, he LOVED Toy Story. So for that Christmas he got a Buzz and a Woody and he couldn't exactly say it right, so they were forever, "oody" and "uzz". He wouldn't open any other gifts that year, he just kept saying "mama, I aawnt oody, mama I aawnt uzz. Open mama!" Like a broken record!!

Well with the anticipation of Toy Story 3 coming out, they had a double feature here of Toy Story 1 and 2, so OF COURSE, we had to go see it. And it was fabulous.

A few weeks after the movie we went to make Christmas lists of what the boys wanted. Well Ben picked a lot of Toy Story stuff, in fact, 99% of his list was Toy Story. I wondered if he had outgrown it and would be disappointed in just those toys for Christmas.

Well I LOVED hearing him Christmas morning in his room playing with his Woody and Buzz. For some reason it made me feel like I still have him for a few more years before he grows out of his little boy stuff and only wants games, electronics and sports equipment. I'm very thankful for my little boy that loves 'oody' and 'uzz', that was the best Christmas gift of all this year. Besides my smart wool socks of course:)

My solution....Olivia Newton-Sam

What is this you might ask? Well, Sam has eczema and it bothers him in the winter on his legs so what do I do? I lather up his legs and spots with medicine and then put my leg warmers left over from an 80's party on him so that he doesn't get the cream all over the house. He calls them ninja socks, I call it hilarious!

He said he was posing like a star in the one photo. I agree, Sam you are a star!!

On a side note....we do indeed, feed him. As a matter of fact he eats all day long and is still a stick but no worries, Mick says, because he was scrawny like that too!

Second side note..........my kids HATE pajamas, they are never cold and prefer underwear to pretty much all other outfits in the world.