Summer Fun and Sadness

July has been a full month for us! We've done a lot of running around, playing outside, and meeting with friends, new and old. Monkey has a new friend named "J" who loves P**emon as much as he does and they've been having a great time getting to know each other!

Mango and Monkey had been asked to be "practice kids" to help train new play therapists, so we spent every day last week running to the therapy clinic for their sessions. In between, we hung out at Caribou and the Mall of America. We have a membership so once again visited "Sealife", the walk through aquarium.

This is Mango's favorite fish. His name is Bubba. He is a Goliath Gorami and is much, MUCH larger than what he appears to be in this picture. I'm pretty sure he weighs as much as she does!
Legoland has completely changed it's look! This picture is for all of the students we've hosted, so they can see a bit of what it looks like now!

During our busy days last week, it became obvious that our oldest dog Chloe was entering the last days of her life. We'd been told the month before that she had cancer and knew our time with her was running short. When she would not get up and would not eat last Monday morning, we knew it was time. The sad and difficult good-bye was said. She was nearly 14 1/2 years old and had lived all but one year of her life with us. Four of the five kids never remember life without her. Our house seemed pretty quiet without her.

Even with two cats and Cooper...

We had talked many times in the past month about what everyone wanted to do when Chloe died - did we want to get another dog, did we want to do it right away or wait? Even shortly after Chloe's death, most were in agreement that it was okay to start looking. The one who was hesitant agreed when pictures were shown of the dogs we wanted to look at and a promise that we would not come home with a dog unless everyone agreed and felt ready.

So we headed off to the Humane Society and came home with.....

Bella. Bella is a two year old beagle/rat terrior mix and is about 30 pounds. She was originally from Oklahoma and we believe she is one of the "storm dogs" lost or abandoned after all of the tornadoes there. We also believe she has been mistreated. There are a lot of valuable lessons this little dog will help us teach - that it's not your fault when you've been abandoned; that when you've been hurt, it can take time to trust a new home is safe and forever; and that love, attention, and gentle discipline can help something heal, but ultimately she is the one who must decide to trust. She has a very gentle, loving, calm temperament and can't seem to get quite enough petting. She does not seem to know how to play or to be very familiar with treats, but we are determined to teach her and to help her have a good doggy life (even if she never leaves the cats alone)!

Catching Up

We've had a very busy past few weeks as a family.
Seely had a 9 day mission's trip with the youth group to Miami, FL where they served in a Haitian church clearing the fields and running a VBS program for kids. Most people who went said it was one of the most difficult missions trips they'd ever been on, but lives were changed and the youth rose well to the occassion, doing what needed to be done with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts.
Before he arrived back home, we took Mango to camp. Her cabin was the very last cabin I counseled in when I worked there, so that was kind of cool! I love that she loves camp! She's already counting down the years until she can work there!

Little Monkey also spent a couple of days at camp. He had such a great time and his counselors were fantastic! I think we may also have a budding future staff member in him!

The day after we picked both of them up from camp, we had a graduation open house for Seely. I can well remember his first day of kindergarten, as well as the first day of home-schooling him. The bus went by and he turned to me and said, "So what do we do, now?" As a first-time home-educator, I asked myself that same thing, but that was really the first and last time I've questioned our decision to keep our kids at home. I'm so proud of the person he has become and wonder how he did that in spite of us! Next year, he'll be finishing his 2 year degree in Computer Science.

The next week, we had VBS at church. Lily and I worked in the nursery caring for several toddlers while their mothers helped with VBS. Random and Mango helped with the pre-schoolers. Seely helped with the elementary crews and Monkey was a student. I love VBS week - it's crazy and exhausting, but also a lot of fun!

That Friday night (I told you it was a busy month), we got a call from my parents that the storm had taken off their roof and water was running in everywhere. We loaded up buckets and boys, and headed out to help them get the roof covered before more rain arrived. Seely and Random happily climbed up onto the roof to pound nails and staple gun tarps down, working along side their grandfather and many other relatives and neighbors to get the job done. This is a picture of the roof on the ground. It was pretty much down to plywood up there.

This week, we've celebrated the 4th of July, attended a picnic, made new friends, and tomorrow a good friend of Random's arrives to spend 5 days with us. This has been the summer of the revolving door, but I don't think we'd have it any other way!

Pond Therapy

It's one of my favorite places....a quiet little corner of our backyard, separated off by a large pine tree.

My little fish pond
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Last week, we filled it with water and after a couple of days, put in our water lillies. For Mother's Day, I asked for the decorative rock to surround it (so my kids are taking great pleasure in telling people they gave me rocks for Mother's Day), and those also went up.

Last night, we added the one remaining feeder goldfish from our first "pond year", and today we added two small koi. We'll see how long they stay small, but for right now all of the fish are about the same size. The koi are named Avery and Ava, while Mango named the goldfish Purple. Monkey is requesting a black fish, so he can name it Batman. We'll see.

There's nothing like ending a busy day, curled up with my Kindle on one of those chairs, DH in the other, listening to the sound of running water, watching the fish happily swim around, and hearing the kids playing happily on the other side of the tree. It is pure therapy.

An Unexpected Trip

Last Friday morning, my niece's 35 year old husband passed away very suddenly following surgery. Thirty-five. He left behind not only our niece and her 3 daughters, but 5 children from previous marriages. He was a part of a large, blended family and many people are grieving this very sudden loss. Many people's lives will never be the same.
Life is short, people. Love hard.

We left for Wyoming early Tuesday morning, stopping for one night. Wyoming is beautiful. It makes you feel small and I think we all need to feel small once in awhile. It helps keep things in perspective.
We also did some of this... Uncle D and Aunty C's church had a "Big Toys" night for their AWANA kids, so our three youngest had a chance to run off all of the energy they'd stored up traveling that far in 2 days. Here is Lily with her second- cousin E. Monkey ran straight for 2 hours on all of the inflatables, only stopping to eat when we made him!The funeral was held on Thursday. I was so proud of my niece and how she was able to not only remain standing, but support her children and all of her step-children through such a heart-breaking loss. The grief was tough to watch, but her family and his family are circling the wagons, and she will have plenty of help and support in the days ahead. Please pray for them whenever they come to mind.

Friday morning, we spent a couple of hours with family there and then headed back over the Big Horn mountains. It was a beautiful winter wonderland...even for someone who is pretty sick of winter!

We got snowed on for quite some time on our way back over. On our first trip, it had gone from rain to hail to snow to blue, sunny skies in literally five minutes. It was pretty amazing. I think the Big Horns are quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the world.

Minnesota Sealife Visit

Today we spent the morning at Minnesota Sealife(formerly Underwater Adventures). For those of you who have been here before, not a whole lot has changed with the name, except you now go through "backwards" and of course they have you walk through the very expensive gift shop at the end. This picture was taken in one of the tunnels. This is part of the Jellyfish Kingdom. I think Mango and Monkey could've stood there quite happily for a very long time watching the jellyfish swim.

This stingray pond is now at the beginning. It has a couple of underwater viewing windows that the kids enjoyed.

This was at the end of one of the tunnels. We went through twice and this shark was sitting in that same spot both times.