Gracie and her grief!

Gracie as a pup- below and Gracie now

Our little boxer mix, Gracie Rose is in mourning. She had a best friend named Abbey, who was a lab/pit mix. They were best friends. They played for hours on end and chased each other in the yard constantly. Abbey was young- and started showing her "pit" side little by little. First there was food agression- no problem, we feed all of our dogs in their crates. Then came toy agression- problem- she and Grace would growl and "play fight". Then one day all hell broke loose. Abbey had a toy and Grace went up as usual to grab it and Abbey went INSANE and we were lucky to get her off Grace. Mind you, she was a year younger and smaller than Grace. We called a hundred people, from pit experts to pet psychologists and got the same answer- " It is only going to get worse, rehome Abbey." Well, we did and Grace has not been the same since. She mopes under our bed and still grabs a toy and runs outside and looks around like, " Where is she??" So we are asking God whether we can fill that spot or whether another needy dog (we would only do a rescue puppy with no pit bull in it) needs to come here to have a home. This is Gracie's puppy picture, and another of her now. We're trying, Gracie Rose!!!

I have the E Ticket and it's not all it's cracked up to be!

Well, for my girls, today is back to school day. Emily is in

eighth grade and Jules entered middle school (6th grade)

today. They were ready, happy, loaded down with their

books and schedules and Jules might have been a bit nervous

but overall, they were READY. Em assured Jules that she

would walk her to her homeroom and any other classes

that she needed help finding and I felt really proud of both

kids.

I have homeschooled for two years until a back injury derailed me so I have experience in both kinds of school-homeschool and public school. I also taught in public school for 10 years. (We don't have money or desire for the kids to be segregated at a private school.)Each year that my kids have been at public school I drove them to school in the morning and they rode the bus home in the afternoon. WHY? Because I wanted to pray with them on the way to school and bless them before they entered their day. Some mornings were glorious prayers and other mornings I was so fatigued it was, " God I am too tired but you know what they need, please do it today."It was a special time for us- and I loved it.

This year both kids got on the bus this morning and will be riding it home this afternoon. Ok, no big deal. Except that when Em rode the bus sometimes in the am last year, I still drove her to the bus stop at her friend's house to have those last few minutes to pray over her or tell her how capable she was or just to say, " GIVE ME A KISS, NO I AM NOT WEARING LIPSTICK EMMY!"

So they were going to walk to the bustop today. Good.It's time for them to do that. I ran out and said to them" Please don't go, I"ll eat you up, I love you so!" (an old

favorite we say all the time from the classic story Where the Wild Things Are.) Em looked at me and said, "OH MOOMS, do you want to drive us to the bus stop?" " YES YES YES!" Jules said, " I wanna ripstick to the bustop." (A modern day skateboard).

Then she looked at me and said, " But I will ride with you guys." So I prayed the most thorough prayer a mom can pray in 2 minutes and they kissed me and out they got.

I got home and Jon said, " YOU GET TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TODAY!" I looked at him and said, " Yea, only I don't want to really." He said, " Rest today

read, do whatever!" I said, " I feel lost today Jon." Not sad, not depressed,

not unhappy, just kind of lost feeling- like someone gave me a freeE ticket at Disney (if you aren't old enough to know what that is, it was the tickets that let you go on the COOL RIDES AT DISNEY like Space Mountain or Pirates of the Carribean and when your E tickets ran out, you had to either buy a whole new book of tickets or ride Dumbo or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) It was a treasured thing. So I have the E ticket and am standing in the middle of Disney World thinking, " But there's nothing I really want to ride today." BIZARRE? You bet. I told Jon, " They are growing up and learning to live without me."-they now do their own laundry, make their own lunches,and have always done their own homework,

unless they were stumped.I don't ever and will never "bail" my kids out of an assignment they forgot or left at home or waited until the last minute to finish. "And Jon, that is good and right and profitable for them, and I know that. But I miss them. I miss just knowing that they are upstairs being silly and making stupid dance videos. I miss driving them to school and having six minutes to pray instead of two. I missTHEM, the essence of THEM in my home." He said, "I understand."

So while there may be mothers settling down with a cup of coffee today saying, " Praise be to God for school starting!", I am not one of them. I want the E ticket but I want to go on the rides with my kids. That doesn't mean I want to homeschool- I know that I cannot and do not want to educate them to the standards that they are educated by six different individuals at school. I am honest about that. I don't have the energy to do it with excellence.I just wish kids still came home for lunch- maybe we could hop on Space Mountain and then they would say, " WOW, Mom, that was awesome, wanna go again?" And we could. But E tickets don't exist anymore, kids don't come home for lunch anymore, and there is a mom in Florida who is going to have to adjust to riding the rides alone.

Maggie is safe and sound at Tony's house!! Hooray!

Well, our Ibizan Hound is being fostered by a very nice person named Tony and his wife Leah. They know dogs like I do- they are more dog oriented than people oriented. (Compliment to him by the way.) Maggie has settled in well. She has had horrible allergies and we couldn't afford to get her tested and do the shots and that broke my heart. More importantly she had been showing agression toward some of the dogs and has tried to kill one or our IGs twice. Well the night before she was to be picked up I was crying my eyes out and I said, " God, I want you to give me one HARD FIRM NON ARGUABLE SIGN that this is the only way. The next morning I was out with Maggie, Quinn, Abbey and Grace. All of a sudden Maggie had Abbey nailed against the fence and was going to tear her UP. I broke it up and had Abbey come with me and BOOM Maggie ran up and did it again. Maggie had never shown any agression toward Abbey before and there was no "reason" for this agression on this morning. I was shaking all over with anger and fear for Abbey and every doubt in my heart about Maggie having to go just went POOF like a flame being burned out. I said, " God thank you for this hard and inarguable sign."

God knew that Jon and the girls and I love this dog with all of of our heart and I guess he knew I needed some sort of loud billboard kind of sign. So she went to Tony's the next day- I never cried until that morning when I opened the fridge and saw the package of ham and I just fell to my knees sobbing. Ham is what we used to put her meds in or reward her with ham after we gave her the meds. Oh my Maggadocious, we loved and do love you so much and I will never see your picture without tearing up a little. If we could have changed your aggression, I would have begged borrowed or stolen (not quite) the money for your allergies, baby. I miss you but I know you are being a blessing to Tony and Leah and they will see how much you were loved. I know Tony will find her just the right owner and that Maggie will bless that family as our surrenders bless us. Janie was nine when she came here with breast cancer- it's been 3 years and she is old and quiet but she has been such a blessing to our family and I love her so very much. I know some person will say as I have of Janie's old family, " God thank you for the family that loved this dog and thank you that she is part of ours, we love her so very much."

PS. This is not Maggie, but it is a picture that shows the grace and majesty of these very intelligent amazing dogs.

New good homes needed for Abbey and Maggie!

Abbey on left sucking on my hand and Maggie on right looking sad with allergy meds.

Maggie's allergies will not cease and the next step is allergy testing which can be upward of $700 and Abbey Dabbey Doo needs another puppy to roughhouse with. So, ICHUS (Ibizan Rescue) is working on finding some great people to take Maggie and pay for her allergy testing and shots and give her a great new home and I am checking out come prospective homes for the Abbeymeister!!! I took them both in bed with me last night and cried and cried. But we are not the BEST homes for these dogs and that is what rescue is all about. So say a prayer for me, for the girls, and for the new owners of these precious gifts from God.

Donna and Lainey come for a visit!

Well we had our good friends, the Clarks come this week. Their kids were participating in power up clubs for our church and my kids were recovering from 2 straight weeks of vacation. Donna and Lainey, their adopted 4 year old Chinese doll stayed with us. I taught her how to swim last time she was here so she was eager to get in the pool as soon as they arrived. Julianna did a superb job of watching her and playing with her in the pool- even without her floaties!!! We so enjoyed hearing her laugh and be silly. She also LOVED the trampoline. She would just giggle and giggle when she fell down. I am certain that Julianna will be a mommy one day or at the very least work as a superb babysitter. WAY TO GO JULES!!!!