It's getting finished !!!!

Yay!!! Our bathroom is finally getting finished.  It's been going really slow for the past few months, but we finally have a new bathtub, and walls around the bathtub.  Next will be a new potty, and sink and then I guess the floor and paint.  I will be off work all next week, so I'm not sure how much will get done, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.  Meanwhile I will be painting my downstairs bathroom.  I feel like I'm making some slow but sure progress.  Will keep you posted.

Stay Tuned

I have been really behind on keeping up with this blog.  So I plan on doing a lot of updating during the next few days, hopefully sooner.  Please be patient with me.

Love L

Shadow

Ahh.... my heart is breaking.  We lost our precious Shadow two weeks ago.  He had been getting sicker the last few weeks, and he just couldn't fight it any longer.  We are all so sad...but, Brad, Erin, Julie, Joe and I all got to be with him when he went.  I really think he liked that.  He loved us all so so much, and we loved him. 

Shadow danced into our world as a five week old puppy.  He was so small that he fit on a 12" square of tile in our basement.  The stairs perplexed him as he would look up as if to say, "really?  you want me to climb that?" 

Julie and Shadow when she brought him home.



As Shadow grew, it became obvious that he was going to be a handful, but a loving handful at that.  When Cookie was alive, he would wait patiently for her to go outside with him and play.  He didn't always stay outside, but he seemed to like to lay in the sun on the hottest day of summer.  We all remembered the time we cleaned his kennel and it was a very hot summer day.  The sun was beating down on his kennel, but he stayed in it as if to say... "this is mine and I'm not leaving !!"

Shadow was a good listener.  He listened to everything Julie would say to him and respond in a way that only Shadow could respond, with his head down on your hands and a bitter whining as if to say -- I feel your sadness, joy, pain, (fill in the blank).  When Julie went away to college, he was always glad to see her come home and would greet her in this manner.  When she would pack to go back to school, he sometimes would take her clothes out of her suitcase as if to say "please stay".  He always got nervous when  Erin and I would go to Kansas City for the weekend and we started moving suitcases.  I hated leaving him, but it was better than putting him in a kennel.  He hated kennels, and would bark himself voiceless.

He was fiercely protective of us, so much so that when anyone came to the house that he didn't know, he would bark at them.  Even though this was so annoying, I really did understand why he did it.

He never jumped on furniture or chewed up anything.  He was a retriever through and through, except he hated water.  When he was a young dog, he ran from the house one day and straight to the pond behind our neighbor's house.  He was greeted by a flock of geese who lifted their wings and squawked loudly at him.  He never went in the water again. 

I will miss Shadow greeting me when I get home from work, and laying in the middle of all of us during family gatherings.  He would patiently lay under the table when we ate hoping for just a morsel to drop from our table.  When my Aunt Wee Woe was staying at our house, he stayed by her side all day and even stood still for her to brace herself on him.  When she died, he truly mourned her too.

Sunbathing with Julie the day before her wedding

I will always miss seeing him look out the window at us whenever we drove away.  But he patiently waited for us and was so happy to see us, and we were happy to see him.  I never knew a heart could hurt so much.  
Shadow.  We all love you and miss you.  We will never EVER forget you.  Rest in peace sweet boy. 

Love... Mom, Dad, Katie, Chantz, Julie, Joe, Erin, and especially Sam and Yadi.

Shadow loved to run in the snow.  It was his favorite thing

Another snow picture with his sweet girl, Erin

With his new best friend, Yadi

The front of a really nice card from the Vet that took care of Shadow

The inside of the card.  It still makes me sad to read it.

November 12, 1999 - April 26, 2012 

Katie

Happy birthday, Katie.  Twenty-eight years ago today, I learned the meaning of unconditional love.  Twenty-eight years ago, I learned what patience meant.  Twenty-eight years ago, I learned what it meant to love someone so much it hurt.  Twenty-eight years ago, Katie came into my life.  I learned that I could eat cold food, function on a few hours of sleep a night, and know the joy of being a mom.  You have taught me a lot (in fact you and your sisters have taught me a lot) and still continue to teach me every day.  Perhaps that is what made you become a teacher.  So Katie, I hope this year will be better than last, but not as good as next year.  That each year will get better and better for you.


~~Love Mom~~

Julie

This past Saturday was Julie's 25th birthday.   I know I have said it before, but she never ceases to amaze me.  Her compassion for suffering people is so strong, that I know many people who have been and will be touched by her will always remember her for her kindness. 

So for her birthday, she and Joe invited us to eat pizza with them at Balducci's and then they got dressed up and went to the Fox theatre to see West Side Story.  They both looked very nice.  They liked the play, too. 

Since they were going to be gone for most of the evening, I got to dog sit Yadi.  Now Yadi is the sweetest dog.  He loves our back yard, and spent the first half of the evening running like crazy.  It would be easy to sell tickets and place bets on him.  He is that fast.  Poor Shadow, on the other hand, tolerates Yadi, but he has enough puppy in him to remember how much fun it is to run and jump too.  The only thing is Shadow tuckers out fast and Yadi just keeps on going.  This is how they were at the end of the evening.

After Julie and Joe got back, we had ice cream cake -- Yum Yum.

Then Yadi and Shadow got a "second wind" and ended up like this:

Yadi Won!!!

So Julie, thank you for bringing so much joy to my life. You are so special to me.  Happy birthday.  I love you!!!

~mom~

New Bathroom

We are remodeling our upstairs bathroom. I'm so excited!!!  We have not done any updates in this house since we moved in 15 years ago.  This bathroom was in the planning for 3 years, but all we had bought was the vanity and then it sat in the basement.  I was getting so aggravated that we weren't doing anything, I seriously thought about selling it, and just sprucing up what I could to make the bathroom look a little better. 

Then about two weeks ago, I happened to run downstairs and found water running from the upstairs bathroom.  As I ran back up to see what was going on, I realized that the faucet had finally rusted through and the water was running as if someone had left the tap open.  As a result, we had to start the long process of remodeling.  I will start with before pictures and add more as it gets done.

Our lovely sink with all Erins "stuff".  Notice the knobs fell off long ago.

Bye bye potty...

and floor

This ugliness will be all gone soon.  Can't wait!!!

January

Yesterday I took down my Christmas tree and decorations.  I leave my snowman collection up during January, but I really hate putting away Christmas stuff.  The house always seems so much brighter and warmer.  It reminds me that winter is still coming, but we are safe and warm in our bright home.  January always seems like such a boring month.  So this year, I am going to try to see how I can make this month more interesting.

Not sure what I plan on doing, but when I figure it out, I will let you know. 

Keep warm!!!