Bella, or was it Lady Bird?

Thanks so much to those of you who have asked how I am doing.
The tornados missed us in Georgia, luckily. I ended up staying up late to watch the news. Today, going to show you a little bit of my sweet girl. The only girl that will share the house with me for a while!!



Look at that tongue..hanging in the wind.. :)

This girl has been behaving so well..and so has Buoy, since we got the doggie door. We find her out there late at night, just laying around. She is so sweet!

My mother in law sent me back an email I sent her after we got Bella.  It was in March 2008.  This is what a part of the email said,
"We still haven't figured out a name....we are thinking possibly Lady Bird :) and calling her lady...or Tuck (for Kentucky) or Lexie (for Lexington)...but we're not sure about any of those!
As you can see in the last picture...Brandon is so happy to have a big dog in the house....or 'soon to be' big dog. Sleeping in the bed didn't go so well last  night, so we're going to try to adjust to some floor sleeping :)"

Oh, Bella...you were almost called Lady Bird...sort of funny, because I still call her Lady all the time :)  And, the floor sleeping, we still TRY, but she always climbs up on the bed in the middle of the night!

Check out these pictures I included in the email.  So sweet! 


Buoy wasn't excited, even from the start. He was meant to be an only child :)

So, so sweet.
 She is just twice as big now! :)

Fun to look back on these times. Soon, I'm sure, I will be reflecting on how fast my children grow, so I will give my dogs the attention while I can!

Oh Marley...

If I told you everything my dogs had done lately, I might just get really overwhelmed. So I'll just tell you about a couple incidents.

Buoy REALLY doesn't like thunderstorms. So, this first set of photos will illustrate his day when it was rainy and thundering while we were at work. Brandon even came home at lunch to check on him and try to calm him down. To no avail. Buoy likes to hide under the bed when it is gross outside.

It started with this. It is a little cubby in our kitchen. Since he likes to hide under the bed, but the door to our bedroom was closed, we think he was trying to burrow into here :)

Thanks Buoy, for the present. You are potty trained. I guess it literally scared the crap out of you :)

Thanks also for taking this rug out of the bathroom and eating it. My feet are still cold in the bathroom.

Well, this wasn't nice either. Since we closed the door, you felt like you should share your emotions with us about it. We get it. You wanted to get under the bed. You didn't have to tear up the door buddy.

When you couldn't get in the bedroom, you turned to the backdoor, looking for us.
When we weren't there, you thought eating the blinds might make you feel better, huh?
Well...it didn't make me feel very good.


And then there was this......


 Wednesday, we got home and had to immediately go back out to a function at the Commanding General's home. We got home to a SEA of feathers. Not just a couple. A SEA. It was about two inches thich through our whole family room. I wasn't even mad. I was amazed.  How could so many feathers be inside ONE MEASLY pillow? I just don't get it!





WOW. What a day.
I conveniently fell asleep at 7:45pm after we got back from the function at the General's.  I woke up at 11pm and asked Brandon how long it took him to clean.  He said two hours.  I felt HORRIBLE.  :)

Then, yesterday, we took sweet Bella to the vet and she has a urinary tract infection. Poor girl.

So we got home today and she had sprayed pee everywhere on the hardwoods, which she NEVER EVER does! (If anyone does any accidents, it is BUOY, and he usually does it when he is mad or nervous...) Poor girl...you could tell she just couldn't control it!

How am I ever gonna deal with kids along with these wild dogs?
I'm sure it will all work out :)

Happy FRIDAY!!!

A little snuggle...

from my sweet little Bella.

I missed her so much when we were on the cruise.
When I got home I just wanted to snuggle with her, and she always loves a good snuggle, so she immediately climbed into my lap when invited...and didn't leave for the whole night.

My sweet child will be in trouble...because this dog is 85lbs...and I wanted her on my lap all night long. I guess that means when I have a teenager, I will still be trying to snuggle.. :)

If you notice the graininess in this picture, I took my camera in today to be cleaned and he said it was filthy (I knew that already, because I noticed my grainy pictures...)

My momma and Buoy

This week we think we figured out that Bella is not a lab/pointer mix. She is just a German Shorthair Pointer.  

We found this website that told us all about her. Along with several others.  It is confirmed. She is not a lab.

One of the most energetic breeds, the German Shorthaired Pointer is a hunting dog by nature. Protective, clever, eager and willing to please, they are very fond of their human families. Happy-go-lucky, they love nothing more than to engage in some type of constructive activity with their owners such as a long walk, jog, hike, hunt, or a game of Frisbee. This breed is not suited to life in a kennel. Faithful, spirited and friendly, they like and mix well with children. Best suited for an active family. 

Our vet told us pointers never calm down.  Seems right on about Bella!

These are pictures of other Germain Shorthairs...looks way more like  Bella than any lab I have met...

Sweet Bella

This is our good dog....

Oh wait...if you have been reading for a while, you know that is a lie....

But oh boy, does she LOVE the water.

These pictures are of her showing off in the backyard wile Buoy got in trouble for digging his way out. She was just looking around like, "You know me, I'm the good girl. All I do is kill squirrels. :)"She is like a child. She gets in the boat, looks back out to the water, sees me, and jumps in again. If I swim away as fast as I can, she can always catch me :) This is not Army Guy...it is one of his friends who is in town for a course and has been coming to our bible study for a while.  I like having another guy at the lake...it makes less work for me :) She makes me smile :)  Happy Thursday!

I am going to do a photo shoot with friends this evening....it should be a great day!!

Bittersweet

Main Entry: bit·ter·sweet

Pronunciation: \ˈbi-tər-ˌswēt\

Function: noun

1 : something that is bittersweet; especially : pleasure alloyed with pain

There are a lot of bittersweet things lately.
Let's start with my dog, Buoy.
He's so cute. So sweet. So adorable.
But He is NAUGHTY.
He is sneaking out of our fence all the time.  He literally tears that fence up. He hides under the bed all the time and growls at me. I give him baths every day because he is so muddy from trying to dig his way out of the backyard. Oh, Buoy...He makes me so mad.  But I just love him.

Bittersweet...
Although I'm allowed to drink Starbucks again, my drink no longer tastes good to me. So sad. Might not seem so to you......but really....I loved that drink!
Bittersweet...
Picture Taking. For some reason, lately, I just cant' get things to be in focus...I can't get the lighting correct....I just can't make it right. Why? it could be that I did something to mess up my camera (very likely) or that I need to spend more time with it (also likely)....or I could be un-focused...but it makes me sad to miss special moments because I am not a proficient photographer.

Bittersweet.....
Celebrating the sweetest friends and babies... who I LOVE SO DEARLY.  EnjoyIing them and enjoying the act of celebrating.  I cannot wait to meet Catherine and Adam's baby..."Little Miss" since they are having trouble deciding on a name we are calling her that for now :)  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Emma Jane....Rebecca and Travis' baby...she is awesome.  She is adorable and tiny and sweet.

Knowing that my sweet Briar will not be truly celebrated....people won't be able to pass him around and hold him at a party...that is tough.  I know that we will have other babies, but it is bittersweet to know that our little man is not going to have a long life here on earth.  He will go straight to be with the savior of the world...and he'll miss out on this world and the things in it.  I guess I consider that quite a blessing...and I love that I will meet him there and spend the most time with him there.  AG and I went to the doctor on Monday and we got to see the sweet guy kicking around and moving like crazy. It was wonderful! We loved seeing that. We also saw the problem. It has not changed. I definitely prayed for healing. For change. Unfortunately that is not what we saw. But I feel as though the Lord has told me this is his purpose for this baby.  And it is not to be fixed, but to show others that he and his mom can persevere and seek JOY in the midst of pain.

To tell you the truth...I have been having a tough time lately.  It feels so overwhelming.
But I know we will make it! But if you know anyone with a pool...I could use some relaxing days.. :)

Love to all....