miscellany monday

{en}

Meet Buddy!

Buddy is a very special dog.  He is my sister's baby and my mom inherited him when my sister passed away in 2009.  He's really an awesome dog but he snapped at Noah last year and I had him shipped to Canada to live happily ever after with my sister's good friend (who was second in line to inherit him anyway).  I saw that I missed a call from him yesterday and my heart sank.  Mick doesn't call me often and my gut said something happened to Buddy.  He's 12 so I know the time is near.  Buddy was just found to have an enlarged heart and the vet says his life expectancy is probably a few months.  This dog was one of the most important things to my sister so it will be a sad day for us when Buddy reunites with her.  The good news is that Mick says he's perfectly happy and not in any pain.  He just gets very short of breath when he over-exerts himself.  So sad :(

{to}

All I can say is...I was at work.

{tre}

A girl after her Daddy's heart...

(Yes, those are goldfish.)

{fire}

I'm putting this in the mail for Uncle Kyle this week:

(Translation: I love my Uncle Kyle because he plays with me.)

Uncle Kyle probably won't be as touched by this as I am.  Noah's teacher regularly has her students say a sentence and then attempt to write the sentence and illustrate a picture with no help.  I was pretty impressed that he nailed this sentence with only one spelling mistake! 

{fem}

I missed it yesterday.  One of my good friends ran it and I was slightly jealous.  I'm running it next year...even if I have to crawl part of the way.  And, I fully intend to run it in a Team Sparkle running skirt :)  I just have to decide which color!

{seks}

While I was under the influence of pain killers right after my accident, I canceled a Disney Cruise that we had booked for the end of March with Emma and her parents.  I clearly wasn't thinking straight.  We looked into re-booking it shortly after I made this mistake and it was totally sold out for a family of four.  I am so bummed.  We'll keep checking for an open cabin until it sails!  Part of me really wants to go on this one because it'll be our 10th Disney cruise which would move us from "gold" status to "platinum" just in time for our 10th wedding anniversary this fall :)

{syv}

My GPS speaks to me in Norwegian!!  How cool is that?!  Of course, I don't understand much of what it says but I'm hoping it helps me increase my vocabulary a tad.  My Daddy would have been so excited over this technology.  It makes me think of him every time I get in my car and hear it.  Of course, I have to change it to English when I really need it for directions but if I know where I'm going I will leave it on in Norwegian just for fun!

Wet 'N Wild!

We were having a little bit of Emma withdrawal since it had been a few weeks since we saw her last so I asked Sarah if Emma could come to WNW with us yesterday.  It has been so warm here and the water at the park is still heated so it's ideal weather for WNW!

Sycee was so happy that Sarah let us take Emma for the day!

I was happy to let Sarah get a few hours of peaceful sleep since she worked overnight :)  I should have joined her considering I "worked" the overnight shift with Noelle Friday night, ha!  It makes me smile to see Noelle letting Sarah hold her with a smile on her face - it wasn't long ago when she freaked out if anyone but a select few went near her!

We only stayed for the morning but you can see from the pictures below that it was a fun few hours!

I'm really grateful to be able to do things like this again.  I did some reflecting on that yesterday morning while I was "running" - five months ago I was laying in a hospital bed wondering if I'd ever resume "life as normal" again.  While I still have a way to go, days like yesterday remind me that I'm getting there :)

Thanks for a super fun morning, Daddy!  We love this perk!

Athens 2011 - Day Two, Part Two!

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Erin brought us to an adorable wildlife trail that was just perfect for the kids!

The kids enjoyed seeing the black bears up close.  It kind of reminded me of the time Rob and I were in Alaska and there wasn't a fence between us and the bears!  I was so freaked out until the tour guide pulled out the gun he was carrying to ease my mind, ha!  At least we were nice and safe in this environment :)

While we have plenty of alligators in Florida, they were still super exciting for the kids to see.

The Gators living in Bulldog country couldn't help entertaining us with the "Gator Chomp".

Uncle Johnny - you didn't tell us you donated to the Bear Hollow Wildlife Trail!  Ha!

There were two really cool owls that were hard to capture on film without a super zoom lens.

Groundhog Gus didn't agree with Puxatony Phil ;)  We don't really care so much living in Florida where we're already in the high 80s.  I wish Gus Gus was right though...some cooler weather is always welcome around here.

Everyone was in awe of the turkeys.  This one turkey pranced around displaying its feathers the entire time we were watching. 

I don't remember what type of owl this was but it was so cool for the kids to get up close to it.

Oh, and Aunt Erin too!

A turtle you say?

Try again.  It's a tortoise, as I was quickly informed of when I called it a turtle in front of the teenage volunteer :)  Turtles live in water; tortoises live on land.  Point taken.

Feeling the tortoise was a highlight!

Maybe Aunt Erin will remember what she and Sycee were looking at because I certainly can't!

It was such a fun little outing and we'll definitely go back next time we visit Uncle Kyle and Aunt Erin!