Sweet Parker Dog

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December Happenings

Redneck Swimming Pool

I love Bryan.  He never ceases to amaze me.  He is always coming up with genius ways to solve problems.  He also comes up with clever ways to have fun.  He has been asking me lately (on these hot, hot summer days) if he thought we could make a "swimming pool" out of a tarp in the trailer.  I didn't think it would work, because I just thought the tarp would squish out the sides of the trailer and all the water would leak out.  But he, of course, knew he could make it work and he did!

It wasn't a super big or deep pool, but man, it felt so good to sit out there when we were all dying of heat.  Ha ha!  I loved it!

Even Parker cooled off with us in the pool.

Go Bryan!

July Happenings

Our random events in July:

First, our sweet Tess takes after her daddy so much!  She is persistent and tries something over and over until she gets it.  I wish I had that quality!  I'm much, much too prone to giving up if I can't do something well, quickly.  Anyway, here's cute Tess with this ingeniously engineered contraption she came up with to turn off her lights from her bed.  It's got belts and neckties and jump-ropes and who knows what else.  Clever girl!

One morning the kids opened the door to take Parker out for a little walk.  There was a strange pause and then Miles said, "um, Mom.... there are gold things out here...."   What the?  I had no idea what he was talking about?  Bryan saw these little statues and started cracking up.  Apparently the story is this:  our old Primary President in the ward was getting ready to move out of state, so she bought these little gold statues of somewhat creepy children from a yard sale.  Before she moved she left them on a neighbors' doorstep.  So now the joke is that they are passed around from neighbor to neighbor.  Bryan just recently put them in our Bishop's garage while they were on vacation.  The garage was cracked just a bit to let their cat in and out, so Bryan gently wedged the statues under there, and then put them back upright so they would be creepily sitting there when the Bishop's family came back from vacation and opened their garage door.  Ha!

Bryan gave Parker a haircut the other day.  His fur has a big mix of colors...there are coarse black wiry hairs, and softer blond hairs, among the generally light brown majority of his fur, not to mention his white old-man dog hairs all around his face.  But when he was cut pretty short, he had a distinct racing stripe down his back!  Ha! (again!)  (And I like the little black tip of his tail that looks like it got dipped in paint.)

Bree has done UPSTART, an online preschool, this year.  It's an awesome program that Miles did as well.  (I really wish I would have known about it when Tess was 4!)  Anyway, here is her cute graduation picture with Rusty & Rosy Racoon, the UPSTART mascots.

We have great Activity Days leaders in our ward.  They had a Daddy Daughter Date at a fish farm a few weeks ago.  Tess had lots of fun catching fish with Bryan.

Parker Dog

Since our kids had so much fun with all the dogs out at Simpson Springs this year, Bryan & I started talking about possibly adopting a dog.  We debated and debated...we knew the kids would love it, but we weren't sure about the added stresses that come with a dog.  I've never had an inside dog in my whole life, so I was worried about how stressed out I'd be with dog hair, dog drool, and dog smell on things.  We knew we did not want to deal with a puppy and the chewing/potty training issues that come with puppies.  But after much discussion and looking at lots of shelter dogs, we picked this sweet little old dog named Parker.  He's 9 years old (almost 10!).  He lived most of his life with an older couple but the wife passed away, so the husband signed him over to the vet's office to find him a new home.  I am a little worried about his old age, but hey--maybe it's a good thing because it is definitely a shorter commitment than getting a one year old!  He has such a sweet, mellow personality.  He's a really good companion dog; he just loves to hang out with anyone and have someone pet him.  He loves to go for walks and he's quite obedient.  He's the perfect dog for novice dog owners like us. :)

He's also the perfect size for me.  Not too teeny and yappy, but not so big and drooly.  Just medium.  He kind of looks like a mutt, although they did say he's a Border Terrier.  (He reminds me of what Ribsy from the old Henry Huggins books would be like!)

He's very patient and gentle with the kids.  He loves to go for walks with the kids wearing Roller Blades.  I am very glad we got him.  I hope he lives a lot longer.  10 years is old, but they said that Border Terriers should live 14-15 years, so hopefully he'll be with us a while. :)