We may not be able to truly afford a dog right now. I don't know that I have the time or energy to train and care for a dog right now either. But if there is one thing that I believe in, it's that little boys need a dog. So, after searching the newpaper under the FREE pet section for weeks, we found a litter that was just for us: 12 week old big, brown muts: part lab, part golden retriever, part Rotweiller, and part mystery. Perfect.

We chose the puppy that bonded with J instantly, and made sure that she didn't snap or get agitated when C poked her in the eyes and stepped on her tail. Then, J carried her home in his carseat and I am making the time and energy to train and care for her.

Another thing I believe in...giving pets literary names. (Of course you do, Tiffany. Aterall, we don't imagine YOU naming pets after baseball players, for example.) Though I must add right now, GO CARDS!!!!

And if we had a fish,

I'd name him Pujols.

Did I say GO CARDS yet?

For example. . .

I had a beta fish in college named Tolstoy. He died and I named his replacement Zora (after Ms. Hurston, of course). She died. Her replacement was named Allegory ("allie" for short). She died too; I'm not good with fish. A cat lived among us once-for a very short time-named Shadrach after one of the three non-flammable men in Daniel; our old dog, Eli, was named after Elijah the prophet, and Pablo, our chihuahua that Emma loves and cares for now, was named after Pablo Neruda-the Chilean poet.

So anyway, you can imagine my joy when we asked J, "What do you want to name your puppy?" and he answered, "Moon," after his favorite literary work, Goodnight Moon. He said, "milk" first, but we had to eliminate that one; you just can't name a dog "milk." So say, "Hello" to Moon, our new mut:

Things are going well. There is some aversion to wet doggie kisses, but we're working on that.

Finally, the third thing I believe in: pictures of already adorable little boys are made more adorable with a puppy. (I'll let you wonder as to whether or not I have stronger convictions on anything in life other than these three... ). Don't believe me? Just look at these moments:

We are a little more stressed than normal at the end of the day, but by the time the boys are in bed, we can happily say to our favorite things, "Goodnight, sun," "Goodnight, cheese," "Goodnight, music," "Goodnight, Moon."

It's that time of year in the south! Our house, the park at which we play, and the roads on which we drive are surrounded by white fluffy cotton.

This scenery is one of the many benefits of moving out of the military town and into the country. Unfortunately, we don't see autumn leaves in this part of the country; every tree is evergreen pine. But there is plenty of cotton in autumn!

It's almost harvest, so it won't be beautiful like this for much longer. At the park, me, J and C went over to a cotton field, and (sorry Mr. and Mrs. cotton farmer-we'll pay you if you tell me who you are) picked a fluff out of it's brown crusty ball.

The boys loved feeling how soft it was and rubbing it on their faces. I tried to explain to J that cotton is used to make his shirt and pants, but he looked at the cotton, looked at me, and it was clear that he didn't believe me. He just squinted, held up the cotton fluff and said, "shirt?"

I had to tell J that the cotton needed to go "night night" in order to get him out of the field. He wanted to pick as much as he could and rub it on his skin. So now, whenever we pass a cotton field (every 10-15 seconds...) J says, "Night night, cotton," and rubs his face gently where the soft cotton touched it this day.

I wonder how long it will be before they grow up and won't appreciate afternoons like this anymore.

"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world...

Red and yellow, black and white,

they are precious in His sight...

Jesus loves the little children of the world."

And He shows His love to them by sending docile butterflies to our backyard for them to play with for an afternoon.

Big Blessings in a Little House

My job last week? Find room in our 1600 sq. foot house for two very large objects. Hmmm....we could get rid of the refridgerator...or we could put the bath tub outside...

Don't get me wrong-we have plenty of house. It is far more than we need, but it isn't very accomodating for big things, like great danes, or curio cabinets. Even so, we were recently blessed with two large gifts from grandparents: a piano and a train table.

We spent yesteday putting together the train table in my former study-now study/train room. Conveniently, the directions were missing page 2, the page that tells how to put the actual table part of the train table together. But after some trial and error, the boys have a train table that fits beautifully in this room. And J loves it. That's an understatement. He LOVES it. Thanks Granny! I'll have pictures of the boys playing with it later.

Considering my boys being boys and the spacial issue, we used our piano gift dollars to purchase a digital piano. I never would have considered this before, but I was really impressed with how far they've come the past ten years. On grand piano setting, the tone is better than any actual grand I played at the showroom. Other pluses, considering it's for the boys? It has a volume control. It has weighted keys, like a regular piano. They aren't ugly looking keyboards anymore. You can hook headphones up to it, or hook it up to your computer for recording. It plays 65 songs on its own. You can add accompaniment. Did I mention it has volume control???? Very important, and therefore even I can even play it while the boys are sleeping.

We put the piano in what used to be the dining room, now the dining/music room as my cello and music had to move into the dining room also to make room for the train table in what used to be my study. Get it?

Anyway, it came to pass in all of this piano frenzy, Tim decided that he wanted to learn how to play the piano. And since J hasn't yet distinguished his right from his left, nor can he say his letters or numbers (all necessary skills for basic piano), I had time in my schedule to take on another student. Tim's only had one lesson, but he was really excited about his new ability to play "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and "Merrily We Roll Along." J was pretty excited about it too and chimed in with the harmony on my pitch pipe. Very cute. You better be ready for your next lesson, Timmy!

















So, our house is officially full, and we couldn't be more grateful for the gifts we have!