Louie

We decided that we're ready for a dog. Not a puppy. A dog. So we've been going through craigslist, petfinder.com, and various animal shelter websites looking for a match. We wanted a small to medium dog, at least a year old, one that doesn't shed too much, and a with nice temperament.

On Friday night, we found him.

Meet Louie.

He was a stray rescued by the shelter from animal control. He came in completely matted and had to be shaved down to the skin. The people at the shelter had him for over a month, and described him as really mellow, kinda mopey, and not into toys or balls or anything. He just liked attention and loved being a lap dog.

He spent all of Saturday and Sunday just following us around quietly, and jumping on our laps any time we attempted to sit down.

Turns out he was just depressed.

Louie Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . Louie Today

On Sunday night, he finally figured out that he was home for good, and warmed up to us.




And he ran! And he was excited! And he can fetch! And he DOES like toys!


But lucky for us he's still a good lap dog.

How To Save on Your Energy Bill

Are these hot summer days taking a toll on your energy bill? They were mine. Until I discovered the secret to a low bill. And it was so simple!

Step one: Turn off your A/C completely.

Step two: Watch your energy usage PLUMMET!

(Step three: Spend thousands of dollars replacing your air conditioning unit)

Think of the money you'd be saving! You can't afford NOT to do it!

Sam's 1st Birthday Party

For Sam's 1st birthday party, we threw him a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" family party.











We served all of the food from the book. Apples, pears, plums, strawberries, oranges, chocolate cake, ice cream cones, pickles, swiss cheese, salami, lollipops, cherry pie, sausage, cupcakes, watermelon, and a nice big green leaf salad.

Sam's first year of growth

The guests










Sam's gifts

The goody bags

Sam got some really great presents.
Cathy & Ben's handmade gift may need some closer inspection:

It's Sam's Baby Walker. Patent Pending.



And now, the cake.

Happy birthday Sam!

Sam's First Year

Luckily, It Wasn't Sprained

Last week, Sophie decided to perform an amazing feat of athleticism for her uncle just 10 minutes before her bedtime. She claimed that she was "trying to do a somersault off the chair" but what it looked like was a dive from an arm chair to the carpet.

Accompanied by a "POP".

And then a screaming 3-year-old.

We consoled her as best we could and sent her to bed. She had obviously hurt her wrist really bad, and could not calm down or sleep. I wrapped up her wrist and forearm in an Ace bandage, and that seemed to help the pain a little, but she was still up every 30-45 minutes all night that night.

The next evening we took the bandage off and she had no swelling, no bruising, and had full rotation in her wrist. She exclaimed "I think I'm all better now!" And she felt great all week, with just the occasional mention of her arm still hurting a little.

Well, by Sunday, we noticed that she was still really favoring that arm. She wouldn't put any weight on it and didn't use it to do normal things like climb into bed. We decided it must be a pretty bad sprain and an x-ray was in order.


Yeah. It's broken. So this afternoon it was off to the pediatric orthopedist.


Doll in tow. Elo (the doll) was allowed to go everywhere today. Sophie was super brave and very calm the whole time. She got to pick her cast color too. Any guesses?



It hasn't seemed to phase her at all. On the ride home, she said "My arm is locked!" And the only time she got sad was this evening during dinner when she realized that she wouldn't be going swimming for a while.

The day exhausted her, and she fell asleep on our way from the doctor to Yodipity. We'll have to save that for another day I guess.

Construction Sophie

First Day of School!

Today is Sophie's first day of school! She was totally excited to go. I drove her today, and she was too shy to go in by herself so Sam and I tagged along for a bit, but I'm hoping she did better after I left (I'll find out in an hour).


Her new car seat arrived this week (this one that I talked about here), so the ride to school was her first time using it, and Sam's first time in his big boy chair. Boy was he happy to be out of that infant seat. It was just too reclined for his taste, and he enjoyed this seat much more. And Sophie loved her chair "that looks like Ellie's". She liked how it was lower than her other one and I like that it's still nice and padded for her.


Also, it being the first time in 3 months I've been without 2 kids, poor Sammy Boy had to endure a chain of errands with me. I have a list of places I've been putting off going to until school started up again.

He didn't quite make it home conscious.

Yay for Monsoons!

Here in Arizona, we tolerate the ridiculous summer weather for a couple months anticipating the relief that monsoon storms bring in. They're a nice half-way point to our summer.

This week, we were even lucky enough to have some daytime showers. Here's hoping we get more this weekend!

The Boy is Turning One Soon

Sometimes we pretend that our neighbor's front lawn is our yard. Thanks Mimi!

Sam will be one this month (!), which puts me on the hunt for a car seat (Happy Birthday Son! Here's your new car seat!). Actually, we're giving him Sophie's convertible seat and we're planning on switching her to a 5-point booster. I think I'm going to go with CSN stores again since they were so good to me before (remember, they have baby stuff, dining room sets, shipping supplies, you name it). Also, a lot of their more expensive items come with free shipping.

I'll let you know how it goes.

New England Part VII: Boston

And finally, our last full day in New England was spent in Boston. We drove to a train station about 20 miles from where we were staying, took the train in to town and then the subway into downtown.

When we emerged, we found ourselves right near Boston Common and a downtown art fair. It was lunch time, so we started looking around for lunch. I knew I had found my meal when I spotted a street cart with a line of about 10 people waiting. It turned out to be an Armenian chicken kebab place and it was DELICIOUS. As in Jake-regretted-his-meal-choice-and-also-wanted-to-go-there-for-dinner delicious.


We ate our lunch in the park and then headed to the playground to let the kids run around. Unfortunately, it was sprinkling on us, so we didn't change them into their suits to play on the splash pad or in the frog pond. The rain was a nice relief from the humidity though, so we were glad to have it.

After the playground, we walked over to the Public Garden and rode the swan boats.

Sophie and me making silly faces at Jake

Well, two of us rode the swan boats. The boys stayed ashore because of this:

Afterward, we tried to follow the Freedom Trail for a bit, but then changed our minds and walked over to the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood. It's full of beautiful brick and brownstone homes and brick sidewalks. This is Acorn Street. It's a working cobblestone street and it was quite lovely.


Our vacation was just awesome. Every day we did something new and exiting. We're so lucky to have been able to go on this trip. Thank you Mom & Dad for being so generous and for letting our whole family have this experience. We'll never forget it!