Farewell, old friend!

We got our first dog, Bandit, from the animal shelter in downtown Atlanta the spring after R and I got married. We had talked about getting a dog from the time we got engaged. As soon as R had the promise of a full-time job, we went to pick out a furry friend.

I remember looking at apartments in Huntsville before we had even moved here. In every apartment we saw, we talked about where we could walk "our dog" and all the things about it that would be good for "our dog." All before we even had "our dog." We planned and hoped for him for a long time.

We brought Bandit home from Fulton County Animal Services in May of '06. This shelter was the saddest place I've ever been. They told us they got up to 200 new dogs a day sometimes. And the majority of them wouldn't find permanent homes. The shelter guessed Bandit, the German Shepherd mix we'd picked, was 6 months old, but the vet told us he was more like three. He was skinny and nervous, wrought with intestinal parasites and mange. After two months of living with us, he had doubled his weight, cleared his skin, and really come out of his shell. He became our instant companion. Bandit was the most loyal animal I have ever encountered.

This is on the day we brought the Bandit home. Can't you see why we picked him?

 

 

 

In this picture, Bandit is about five months old. Lovin' on his daddy!

We joked that this would be a great ad for Angel Soft toilet paper.

Unfortunately, with intense loyalty comes suspicion. As Bandit lived with us, he grew skittish and fearful of others who didn't look and act just like R and me. This included children. Toddlers particularly frightened him, with their squeals and sudden movements. Naturally, this was getting to be a problem for us. Though Bandit was always very good with C, even when she would grab at him or squeal and shriek, he remained cautious and wary around our friends' children. We started to look for a new home for our long-time companion.

Bandit went to live with a friend of Aunt Allison and we hope he's doing well. We really miss him. He always made us laugh with his quirkiness. When we broke with his usual daily routine, he liked to hide in the closet. His favorite position was sitting on your lap. He really loved chewing up glossy paper. Unlike a certain second dog who lives in this house, BANDIT never destroyed anything (except the occasional piece of junk mail). He loved to give hugs. He is a sweet, sweet dog and he is greatly missed.

Flash has been mourning the loss of Bandit by getting into tons of trouble. Since Bandit's been gone, Flash has been on a quest to eat all the food in the house. Once, I left him out on accident when I left for the afternoon with C. He tore up any food that was out in the kitchen that time. A second time, I didn't get his crate closed well and he tore up all kinds of things...including a diaper genie full of diapers. I'll spare you the details, but it was disgusting. He has been snatching C's food from the table or her high chair. And most of all, he thinks we should play with him ALL the time. Ball, ball, ball. I think he really does miss his companion, but he sure has a weird way of showing it. It's a rough transition, but I know Bandit has a good home where he won't be terrorized by small people who do unpredictable things. Life's rough.

Our boys snuggled up together. On a down comforter. They both love soft things. And have expensive taste...

Bandit . . . on my lap.

Where to begin

Arg. I have not updated this blog in months. Unless you are one of little C's grandmamas, you have probably stopped looking to see if I have updated it. So here we are. I'm gonna TRY to make a couple of posts a few days in a row to catch up on what's new.

June was a rough month around here, hence the lack of blog updating. The advent of June brought us two baby teeth, a week of VBS and C missing her morning nap four days running, and learning to sit up in the crib. It brought us all these things, which, as you mamas out there know, means it brought us sleep deprivation too. Major schedule upsets and the discovery that sitting and playing (or just sitting and crying) were way more fun than just laying down and going to sleep at night lead to lots of rough nights. We are thankful that stage did pass.

During late June and early July, our house was abuzz with company. C's Nana came for five days and then Peaches and Aunt Allison dropped by for a visit. Here are a few pics from their visits. C got crawling down really well during Nana's visit and within a day or two, she was unstoppable. In fact, we had a lot of trouble getting good pics with Nana, because all she wanted to do was go, go, go! Um, yes, we have lots of baby gates now.

Sorry, C, just one bathtime picture, please?

Just before C's first ever trip to the pool! She loved it!

I think they are discussing the deeper things in life.

I should certainly do better with my blog updates, but there's a little info for those of you who are actually still reading this. Many other crazy things have been going on, but I think one update a day is all I have in me. (Or maybe one update every two months is all I have in me.) The dishes beckon. The dishes always beckon.

Photo sessions

I don't have time to write a lengthy post, since little one will be up from her nap any minute now, but I just wanted to share some of my favorite photos from the last month or so (we're still learning to use the camera...Daddy is way better at it than Mommy!).
Time goes by so fast and our baby is growing so much. I can't believe it!

 

Sweet home Alabama

What a strange seven days here in North Alabama. Most of you know that our state (and much of the South) endured the powerful force of hundreds of tornadoes last Wednesday. Whole neighborhoods and communities have been completely wiped away from the Alabama landscape. The storms did not hit our home directly, but did hit many places in our community, particularly several miles north of where we live. I have only seen small parts of the destruction (the worst affected areas are closed to traffic), but what I have seen has reminded me that the forces of nature (and indeed of God himself) are stronger, more powerful, and more mysterious than we can even understand.

 

We are so thankful all we had to endure was a lengthy loss of electricity in our home. As you will see below, I actually enjoyed it, but in no way do I mean that I enjoyed the reason for the power outage. It was nice to be without power for a spell, but I don't mean at all that I'm glad for the storms. 

 

All told, we spend 104 hours in our home without power. This is a small inconvenience, when you consider those who lost so much more than power. I have included a few photos . . . in case you were wondering how you fill five days without power.

A few comments about living without power . . .

Many of our friends left town and were even kind enough to offer their parents' homes for us to come stay in. While I know that would have been great and was greatly appreciated, I'm so glad we made the choice to stay and "tough it out." We had almost a week of time together. Time to walk the dogs, play with C, plan complicated meals, discover all the things in our freezer and pantry long forgotten, play games, read books...many things we opt not to do when the options of tv and internet are available. Without power, so much of the pressure to "get stuff done" was lifted. No work for Russell, no tutoring for me, no laundry, minimal cleaning, no blogging, no facebooking, nothing. Just hours to fill. The dogs are definitely spoiled now, after days of way too much attention and way too many rounds of fetch. We met neighbors we hadn't met before. People were out in their yards, on their porches, talking to each other. Smiling. Sharing food. Offering resources. Making the best of it. (Not to mention the thousands who have already volunteered to help clear debris, house the homeless, feed the displaced, etc . . . there has been a remarkable outpouring of goodwill and neighborly love in our community.) It was wonderful. What a great couple of days. We even had a beautiful (mostly) acoustic church service Sunday.

There were a few things we missed. The hot water heater. The vacuum cleaner (you would too if you shared a house with Bandit for a week...) The washing machine. But really, the list ends there for me. Doing dishes by hand was just fine (what other pressing matter did I have?), the loss of TV and internet was not much of a sacrifice, and even indoor lighting was only missed a little bit. I am glad that we won't have to worry again for quite some time about where and when we might find ice, gas, refrigerated foods, etc. Thankful for and reminded of our usual abundance we take for granted.

So we are grateful to have had the experience and so thankful that our friends and family are safe. We are looking for ways now to help Alabama rebuild and help people piece back together their homes and their lives.

I was in the middle of laundry when the power went out. We hung out the contents of the washing machine to dry in the dining room!

We grilled this frozen pizza after it had thawed in our "freezer." Um, it was really charred. We scraped the cheese off and ate it.

Other than the incident with the pizza, we really ate like kings, trying to keep all the best contents of the freezer from going to waste. Our dinner Friday night was steak, mashed potatoes (made on the side burner of the grill), and corn on the cob. Thank you Publix, for putting that on sale the week before the storm!

After the first 36 hours or so, we got cell phone coverage back. It was tough to keep the phones charged, since we had one car charger that took about five times as long as a wall charger. We were glad to have a connection with the outside world, though. We learned about Bin Laden via text message. After dark each night, we played games and read by candlelight and flashlight.

So thankful toys operate on BATTERIES!! I don't think C ever even knew anything was different. It was just one big party with daddy home every day and nothing to do but play, eat, and take naps. Which is pretty much life everyday when you are a six-month-old. Another note - she is pretty much sitting up now! Wow!

She holds the book along with you. Love it. See, the best things in life don't require a single watt.

C's baptism

On Sunday, March 20, we brought Catherine before the Lord and our church to claim her blessing as a child of the covenant. She was baptized, surrounded by friends and family. We look forward to the day when she will express her own faith in Jesus Christ and hope that we can remind her one day that she was known by God long before she knew Him. It was a joyous occasion. (Yes, I cried. Thankfully, she did not!)

Here are a few photos from her baptism and the weekend of friends and family.

Little one with her Nana

And her Peaches,

And of course, Aunt Allison!

the death of the bumbo . . .

Upon reading the title of this post, you are probably thinking a) why isn't H writing about C's baptism? b) how sad! or c) the death of a what?

Well, the baptism post will come soon, but, when you have a five month old, the death of a bumbo is quite newsworthy. Especially because it was destroyed . . . spectacularly.

It started with a photo shoot. Pretty spring day, cute little baby in a spring sweater, great new camera we're still breaking in. All good! Since C can't quite sit up on her own yet, I had her sitting up in a bumbo (the great little foam "baby holder" as my friend Betsy so eloquently puts it). When she started to get fussy, we scooped her up to take her inside. We left the bumbo. In the backyard. With Flash and Bandit. Did I mention it was foam?

Well, fast forward thirty minutes, and bumbo was in a thousand lavender pieces, strewn across the backyard like little wildflowers. My mom actually found it and corralled the parts before I could take a picture. That's how it goes these days. When the dogs destroy something, my first thought is, "Man, this will be funny later. I should take a picture." It's useless to be mad. Besides, can you really blame them? (True, I might have been more upset if I hadn't bought the bumbo in question for $10 at a consignment sale...)

Tales of two dogs and a baby . . .

Flash in the camera is larger than he appears.



Here is one of the last pictures of the baby with the bumbo. There won't be any more.


And here is the bumbo. Say what you will, this is impressive...


And this one is just cute. We won't get any more like this until she can sit up on her own.

A cast of characters

We've been having fun this week with a new camera. We have quite a ways to go before we are proficient with it, but we're trying to learn! Here are a few of our first attempts.

R took this very artistic picture (ooh, blurry background!!) of some lovely tulips he and C brought me when I was out tutoring last week! So spring-like!

This is our dog Bandit. (Yes, I now know this would probably have been a better picture sans flash.) He is . . . special. We rescued him from the streets of Atlanta. His first home was Fulton County Animal Services, which may well be the saddest place I've ever been. He is incredibly protective and loyal, but predictably neurotic. He has a sweet side, no question, but he has some rather odd traits.

This is Flash. He is huge. He is mischievous, lovable, sweet . . . all the things a proper lab should be. Oh and drooly. His salivary glands must be as large as his brain, maybe larger. He thinks the fact that we have a baby is great because a) she always has food on her face and on her clothes that he can lick and b) we frequently have to leave him unattended to deal with fussiness and this opens the door for him to get into trouble. Case and point: A few weeks ago, C was (supposed to be) napping, and she started to cry. I went upstairs to check on her. I came down a few minutes later to find Flash running guiltily out of kitchen. What I found was a full tin of my fresh cornbread muffins (that were supposed to be cooling) with their tops all removed, bottoms still intact, and a very happy dog. Things like this happen all the time. Did I mention he's huge?

C has recently become very aware of the dogs. Every morning, we go outside and Flash and Bandit show off by wrestling for us. They stop as soon as we go inside or stop watching. She thinks it's very funny when Flash nuzzles her (which usually involves licking too . . .). Tonight, Flash got her going in a full giggle and we happened to have the camera handy. How often do those two things coincide?

So this blog post was a random smattering of stuff, but it's been a while since I updated. So there you go! C is going to be baptized this coming Sunday, so that will be my next post. Lots of family coming to celebrate with us!

The system was down

So . . . just a few days after my last blog post, we had hard drive failure. Ka-blooey. So I know what you were thinking. There Heather goes again, making one blog entry and we'll hear from her again in a few years. But ha! Here I am. Back and daring to post again. My husband is a genius. He ordered the requisite parts to get the computer up and running again and he managed to do so last night WHILE in charge of little C. Yes, he is that amazing. :)

Photo - C's four month birthday celebration. On her changing table. Favorite place!

The greatest thing about starting the blog up right before the computer crashed was that starting up the blog made me think about baby pictures. Which reminded me that I should probably back them up on the external hard drive. So we didn't lose our record of these first few months with little C. So thankful for God's mercy on that one!

Since my last post, lots has happened. C turned four months, I turned 29, C had a check up and C has started solid foods. She seems quite keen on eating from a spoon. It's messy, but she's lovin' it! Mom is quite hopeful that getting some solids in her tummy during the day might help her make it through night-time a little better without getting hungry. Oddly, all the "experts" say this doesn't work. All the moms I know say it does. Hmmm.



Lovin' that oatmeal cereal!













Flash and C love tummy time together!






Check out the big-girl jogging stroller! We took our first walk in it this week and C loved being able to see as we went. In her old stroller, she had to stay in her carseat and all she had to look at was me. (Should that be 'I'?). Thanks to G & G, Aunt Fran and family, and Aunt Jane Anne and family for the super-spiffy stroller. I think it's made of airplane grade aluminum or something . . . it's so cool!









Isn't being four months old great? Welcome to the new world of TOYS!

Yes, I am figuring this out . . .

Okay, so I know this shouldn't be hard. But I just figured out you put pictures directly in your posts. So . . . pictures, here we go!

Here are a few pics I took on a walk. This is my view from the stroller. I have a great view, no matter where we go!

These were taken with my phone, but I don't think they turned out too badly. Love the hat. She did too, til it fell into her eyes. Which it did. A lot.

Trying again

So . . . I started this blog almost two years ago. As I read my first entry, all I could think was, "Yes, I was 27. Ah, to be 27." I will be 29 on Tuesday, ready to being the death march toward 30. Well, just kidding really. I'm not worried about being 29. Or being 30. Or being older than that. It's all part of the deal. To get older is to have more time to enjoy your family, learn and grow in your faith, and to figure out how to get your dogs to behave.

So since my last post, we have had our first baby. (Yeah, that tells you it's been a while . . . kids weren't really on the radar when I last posted.) We still do crossword puzzles, but really just the Sunday puzzle anymore. Not much time for that. Tragic. But Sunday puzzles are the best ones anyway. And it has to be the New York Times. We did USA Today for a while (alas, they are free), but NYT wins out every time.

So naturally most of my future posts will be about the baby. Maybe the dogs, maybe crossword puzzles, maybe my culinary exploits, maybe my part time math tutoring job, but definitely about the baby.

Our little girl was born back in October. She is almost four months old. I'm staying at home with her, but we do what we can to avoid actually staying at home all the time. I can't wait for the weather to get nice so we can go walking every day! (The dogs, incidentally, also cannot wait for spring.)

For now, I need to figure out how to post some pictures and decorate my blog. I'll do better this time with updating it. Maybe. Hoping for long, peaceful naps!