Oh Fall, Oh Fall, Where are you?

WOW!! Tomorrow it will be August. Where has the summer gone? As odd as it may sound, I am ready for school to start and fall to come on in.... It is HOT in Alabama right now. I mean take your breath when you walk outside HOT. I helped Dave mow the grass this morning. Another reason to wish for the fall season to come on in...NO GRASS TO CUT!! We have had a very playful, relaxing summer, but we are all ready to get into a routine again.

I am almost back to feeling 100% again. I still can tell I get tired easily, but that could be because of the extreme heat. I have very little pain in my side anymore. When I do have pain I still get a little afraid it is starting over...that maybe something has come loose inside there...it was just so traumatic, I guess feeling like that is normal.

Dave is almost completely adjusted to being back in the central time zone. He had a great trip. He is working on a video that I hope to post on here soon.

We are about to begin our 6th year of home schooling. Where does the time go? Abby will be in the 5th grade, Erin in the 4th grade, and Samo in the 2nd grade. We have all of our books ready, our little school room is all set up, and I think we are all actually ready to begin. One of the things I'm most excited about this year is that we will be studying American History. I really love the curriculum we have used the past couple of years.

Still working on training the dog. I was pretty good with the child training thing...not so much with the dog training. Not that there is really any comparison there :) We have tried the crate training, but he still uses the bathroom in his crate. Also when we put him outside he barks like crazy and really annoys our neighbors. We will get it right eventually......I hope.

OK. So we love our new puppy. Well the kids and I do....Dave, not so much. We have not done good job at training this pup. He just uses the bathroom wherever he pleases. I NEED HELP!!!! He is a sweet pup. Just not trained. I have been on the verge of making him an outside pup! I get so stinkin attached to pups! So thats my vent for the day. What to do....what to do????

Dave's Home!!

Dave made it home safely from Volgograd last night. The kids and I left around 5:30 heading to the airport. We left so early so we could take our time, get a mocha, and of course get to the ATL airport before dark. I do not like driving in ATL especially at night by myself. So we headed over all excited to get Daddy! When we got there we walked around the airport so the kids could see it all. Then we sat and waited and waited and sat and stood and went to the bathroom and sat and waited and...well you get the picture. Dave's plane was delayed...oh no. More waiting. The kids were so tired. One of the sweetest things of the night was when he texted me so say he had landed, I told the kids well they thought he would come walking in any minute. Samuel ran over to stand and wait. He was giddy with excitement. It was so sweet to watch. His plane was supposed to land at 11:35 and he got there around 12:30AM. We met him hugged him and headed to the van. They were having a MAJOR problem in the parking deck. MAJOR PROBLEM!! It took us 35 minutes to get out. We were all trapped. It was 1:30 before we left the airport. The quote of the night came from Abby...."This airport parking is jacked up".....gotta love that coming from my 10 yr old. We are so glad to have him home. He had a great trip. We have been looking at pictures and video all day and listening to stories. I'll share some pictures and stories from his trip later. Right now I'm gonna go enjoy Dave being home!

The month of June

can you tell I took this picture? :)

Wow. It's been a while since I've written. I think about it all the time and then get busy doing something else. June was a busy month that flew by. Dave and celebrated our 12th anniversary on June 13th. We got to get away for a couple nights to a cozy little cabin. It was so nice and relaxing. We love getting away when we can, but we are always ready to get back to our kiddos.

Erin turned 9 on June 20th. We took her shopping and she realized how fast her money goes. She was adding up all the things in her cart. She had to decide between some things and put something back.....welcome to the real world. :) She also got to celebrate her birthday with her cousins at the lake.

We also got a new puppy in June. He looks alot like Charlie. He doesn't chew up everything like Charlie did. He likes to sleep in his kennel in the girls room. We are NOT good at training dogs. We are good at spoiling dogs. He doesn't mind at all. We have got to work on that. Oh, by the way, he is a miniature dachshund and after two weeks we settled on the name....Copper.

It has been two and a half months since my first surgery and I am really feeling better. My side rarely hurts anymore. It's hard to believe how bad it was. I am so glad it's over and everything turned out like it did.

Dave is going to Russia on a mission trip soon. He is excited about it. Please pray that he will have safe travels and that God will use his team to reach the people there. I am a little jealous because he gets to see our friends from college who are missionaries there and he is going with two of our other friends from college. I know it will be a great trip. He is also going to do a travel blog. I will list the link soon.