epic fail

if there was a mother of the year award, I would definitely be out of the running.

approximately 48 hours ago we picked up our cute, fluffy, adorable new schnauzer puppy, who we christened 'roxy'. we brought her home and played with her and quickly became attached. not long after her joyous arrival, I started itching. all over,but mostly my face and neck. I didn't really pay attention until later that night when I was still itching. suddenly it dawned on me that it might be the puppy.
'I'm not allergic to dogs!' I thought to myself. however, as a child I actually did test positive to dog and cat allergies among a myriad of other things. we had just always had animals around, and I was on allergy medicine pretty much all the time, so either that was doing the job well enough that I didn't notice any kind of adverse reaction, OR my body adjusted to having animals in the house (which I've read can most definitely happen).

we haven't had an animal (with hair) in the house for 7 years, though, so at this point I'm wondering if I really do have a mild allergy, and having a puppy right up in my face aggravated that allergy.
I sat there on my living room floor Sunday night, wondering what I should do. I decided to give it some time and hopefully it either wasn't actually the dog, or I would adjust like I did as a kid.
fast forward to Monday morning.
wait, let me back up first.....
7 years ago,when Colby was one,we had him allergy tested because he had a mild reaction to eggs, and was just generally a congested kid. we found out at that time that he was indeed allergic to eggs as well as cats and dogs. they cant test for seasonal allergies that young, but I figured he probably had a healthy dose of that as well, just like his momma.

we had a cat at the time; mine from when I was about 13 years old. I hated to get rid of her, but as soon as we did, Colby showed a marked difference. (my mom took her, and although very old, she's still alive so I get to see her often. yay!) as he's grown it's very obvious that he can't be around cats or dogs without benadryl coursing through his body.
over the years we've heard about different hypo-allergenic dogs, and have even 'test-driven' schnauzers at different pet stores, always with very mild but still clear reactions from Colby. a family in our church had a litter of schnauzer puppies 6 weeks ago and while Allen and I were in Maine, my mom took the kids over to visit and play with them. they were there for about 45 minutes, and Colby didnt have a reaction! I took them back last weekend (on Friday) to see for myself, with the intent to buy the last one left, a little girl. Colby once again came away hive free, so we happily made plans to come back and get her on Sunday when she was officially 6 weeks old, and clear to go to a new home.
now fast forward to Monday morning.

we wake up, have breakfast, and the kids play with the puppy for about an hour. then it happened. sneezing, eye rubbing, and it wasn't me like the night before (but I was still having some kind of reaction). it was Colby. my heart dropped. were we going to have to get rid of this puppy? the puppy my kids have been wanting since forever??
I very gently told Colby what I saw happening and that I was reacting as well, and that we might have to find her a new home. we all cried, then I made some phone calls. I thought about and talked through the options, namely if we should wait a week or two and see if we would in fact adjust. we decided that if there was any chance that we would have to pull the plug it was better to do it sooner rather than later. I would hate to have the kids get even more attached, the dog gets trained, learns her name, and the after all that we still have to find her another home. id probably rather stick nails in my eyeballs.
a family in our church that we know well and love was able to come pick her up last night and give her a new home. we'll be able to visit and take her on the occasional walk. they renamed her Zoe, which was our second name choice. it was a very long, very emotional couple of days here at our house. we took the kids the gattiland for pizza and games last night, and let them stay up past their bedtime. today we made a trip to target where they each bought two new toys with their birthday money from great-grandma. so I guess it's safe to say that we're getting through it with junk food and, well, junk. :-)
there's talk of a hamster, but I know allergies to those are possible, too, and not altogether uncommon. I'd hate to have to do this again. I think for the time being we're unfortunately going to have to stick to animals of the scaly variety.
they're just not very good cuddlers.

even though shes not ours anymore, here she is. cute little thing.

for those of you waiting for allens sermon, i'll have a link up tomorrow.

threesixfive, day 306 thru 312

we had a very full week, starting with a trip to great wolf lodge for colby and mollys birthdays. allens preaching tomorrow, so we brainstormed some ideas for that, and we made a pretty last minute decision to get a puppy. we dont pick her up till tomorrow, so no pictures yet. she'll get her own post this week i'm sure. :-)
heres what we did this week...

sunday, day 306
molly got a haul of squinkies for her birthday. what are squinkies you ask? teenie tiny little toys that will inevitably get sucked up in my vaccum cleaner. allen and i are taking bets on how long it will be before they've all disappeared. but i have to admit, they are kinda cute.

monday, day 307

we spent the morning in the car and the afternoon swimming and riding water slides at the resort (no pictures of it, though. sorry.). it was a great trip because colby was big enough to ride everything on his own, and there were only two slides molly couldnt go on, although she certainly would have if they'd let her. i definitely have two thrill seekers on my hands. we went to dinner at the rainforest cafe (one of the kids favorite places to go if theres one where we are) and ordered the volcano for dessert. that thing didnt stand a chance.

tuesday, day 308 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!!!)

theres a game at the GWL called magiquest. the kids begged and begged to play last time, but its pricey, so we didnt. this time since we were celebrating birthdays, we splurged. it was really really cool. they each got a magic wand and you have to go all over the 8 floors of the building to find clues and get points to free the pixies and fight the dragon. the wands are synched up to everything so you just wave it at something and it will come to life and give you your next "task" or whatever. allen and i had just as much fun with it as they did.

wednesday, day 309

my big 5-year-old girl at lunch with my family. i love when she wears her hair down, which is pretty much never (she lives in a headband).

thursday, day 310

i made this hair clip!! between the spray adhesive, hot glue, and felt backing, im not sure my fingers will ever be the same, but im pleased with how it turned out.

friday, day 311

we went to a coffee house to hear the band that leads our youth worship on wednesday nights. this is the drummers wife, mandy, and colby, wearing his new and somewhat obnoxious but adorable hat over bright pink earphones (they belong to mandys daughter ramona who typically wears them at the concerts, unless a handsome 7 year old wants to try them out).

saturday, day 312

we went up to the church this morning to set the stage up for allens sermon tomorrow. 3,000 red gumballs and 40 yellow. i'll post a link to his sermon this week so you can go find out what they're for if you want to. ;-) hows that for incentive?

as i said earlier, tomorrow we will be the proud new owners of a schnauzer puppy. i'll share pictures of her later this week. looks like between that and posting the sermon, i'll be on here at least twice between now and saturday...between potty training our new addition of course. i thought i was past those days.

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 299 thru 305

just another week here. mimi and papa visited from houston mid-week to deliver birthday presents, so it was great to see them. other than that, everything was pretty standard.
heres what we did...

sunday, day 299
i'm working on a wreath for my memaws birthday coming up in another week and a half. these are the fabrics i chose. her house is mostly blue with little splashes of pinks and purples.

monday, day 300

day 300?!? that means only 65 days left this year. crazy.

heres my little candy corn and pizza slice all dressed up to go trick or treating.

tuesday, day 301
we had a playdate at a friends house, and colby found this headband that i guess is supposed to be pumpkin-esque in nature. he put his head on the coffee table next to the other pumpkin and tried to blend in.

wednesday, day 302
im in the process of unpackaging and hanging up all the costumes i purchased for the co-op christmas skit. colby and molly wanted to test a couple of them out for me.

thursday, day 303

new haircuts!!

friday, day 304

this was colbys main bday gift from mimi and papa. he hasnt stopped playing with it since thursday.

saturday, day 305

this is the barner family. theyre the ones whos baby girl passed away last week. if you didnt watch the video last week check it out on the previous post. their story is touching. the celebration service in honor of caroline was saturday morning, and to wrap up the service, they did a dove release. such a cool thing to see and be a part of.

mollys birthday is tuesday (she'll be 5), and we're heading out tomorrow morning for a dual birthday celebration trip. each year we've had one party for colby and molly together, since their birthdays are only 10 days apart. this year they werent as keen on that idea, so instead of having a party (or parties as it were...or wouldve been), we talked them into taking a trip. the four of us are spending 2 days and a night at the great wolf lodge in grapevine. its an indoor waterpark, plus some other pretty cool things. we went a couple years ago, but theyre taller now, so they'll be able to do more this time. it should be a lot of fun!

have a blessed week!

threesixfive, days 292 thru 298

we had quite a week, full of ups and downs, and finally some fall weather. sunday it was announced to the church that allen will be stepping into a new position as family pastor, and will be overseeing babies thru 12th grade. its an exciting but somewhat daunting step to take. they're looking to hire a youth associate and soon after that a childrens director. please keep us and our church in your prayers.
pictures....

sunday, day 292
i watched the youth workers' kids for allens meeting, and was happy to get this shot of colby with tate. he loves babies.

monday, day 293
i finally took some of my feathers out. these are the ones i had put in back in march!! MARCH! they were way grown out, obviously. i still have the others from june. i'll leave them in a bit longer.







tuesday, day 294
i was at the hospital for a lot of the day with our dear friends the barners. lauren found out about 16 weeks into her pregnancy that their baby had a terminal condition and would not live outside the womb. knowing that life is a gift from God, they chose to carry their baby to term and love her for as long as the Lord would allow them to here on this earth. caroline joy was born tuesday afternoon, and lived for 66 minutes before going to be with her heavenly father. they have an incredible story you can watch below. they are truly incredible people.

Parent Commitment for Caroline Joy Barner. from Central Round Rock on Vimeo.

wednesday, day 295
i posted this painting to craigslist. it was in our formal dining room, which is no more. i hate to see it go, but if it doesnt sell it will wait in the attic until i have another room to put it in.

thursday, day 296

molly graduated from level one swim school!! she started in june and progressed beautifully! next week she'll be in level two with colby.

friday, day 297

happy 7th birthday to me sweet boy. you can read his thoughts about the day here. (click on it.)

saturday, day 298

we spent the morning at our churches fall festival. our friends the farrells have triplets, and played on that for their halloween costumes. they were adorable.

whew, i'm tired from reliving all that through my words and pictures just now.

i hope you have a fabulous week!!

happy birthday colby!!

my little man turns 7 today! well, actually not officially until 9:35 tonight...or maybe its 9:37, but you get the idea.

we had co-op this morning, and i let him wear a "birthday boy" pin on his shirt i'd kept from last year. he made sure to point it out to anyone and everyone who happened to be in the room with him. or walking by....or within earshot.

after co-op he picked chick-fil-a for lunch, praise the Lord. i was dreading, er, i mean anticipating a trip to mcdonalds.

when we got to chick-fil-a i immediately took them to the restroom to get that little adventure out of the way and get their hands washed. i sent colby into the mens room and waited outside the door. when he came out he had a big wet spot on his pants and informed me he had pee'd on himself, offering a demonstration of how it happened. i passed.

at first i thought, no big deal, we'll eat, they'll play, it'll dry. but walking behind him thru the restaraunt i could smell him, and people were looking. i didnt want to be the mom that let her kid play in the playscape with pee all over his pants. on his birthday.

so we went home (about a 10 minute drive), changed his pants, and went back up there.
from there we went to meet allen, and parents, and my grandparents for fro-yo and presents.

after that we made a quick stop at the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. colby wanted me to make him a pepperoni pizza. we came home, he and molly played with his new toys (after i spent a good twenty minutes opening the boxes and untwisting all those infuriating twisty tie things), and now the pizza is being consumed as they watch a movie before bed (madagascar; his choice). i'd say it was a successful day. mollys birthday is in 10 days, so we get to do it all again pretty soon.

i asked colby earlier

me: colby are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

colby: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

is it bad that my first thought was 'hmm...i wonder if we'll have this same conversation in another 50 or so years, only the other way around'?

colby in 50ish years: mom, are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

me at about 85 years old: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

threesixfive, days 286 thru 291

we spent most of the week in maine for our 10th wedding anniversary. we arrived late saturday night, and flew home thursday. i posted several pictures from the trip friday afternoon--its the previous post if you want to check them out. we had a fabulous time and everything was beautiful! these pictures are different from the ones i posted yesterday--except saturdays pic because its the only one i took.

sunday, day 286
we slept in on sunday and spent the afternoon exploring the little town we stayed in. there were hundreds of gorgeous houses, but something about this one hit me and i had to take a picture. sigh....i have house envy.





monday, day 286
walking down to the beach was this fence with ropes and pieces of net tied to it. different things that had washed up on the beach. people removed it so it wouldnt get pulled back out to sea.




tuesday, day 287
i kept seeing these trees--yellow birch i think. they were shedding and the bark looked a goldish silvery color when the light hit it. i was fascinated.

wednesday, day 288

another house picture. this one is more because of the halloween decor. we noticed houses overall really get in to decorating for halloween; ghots, spiders, witches, orange lights, etc. i love that the porch steps are covered in pumpkins and flowers.

thursday, day 289

i mentioned in the previous post how much i love food network. before we flew out thursday (from boston), we found roxys gourmet grilled cheese truck (from food truck race) and had truffle fries and two delicious sandwiches.

friday, day 290
we had to bring a little bit of maine home with us. if youve never had a whoopie pie, you must! we stopped wedensday night at the grocery store and loaded up on these little beauties. delish.

saturday, day 291

we hit a few fall festivals in the area saturday morning and afternoon. one of them had a mobile butterfly house. pretty stinkin cool. definitely the best thing we saw all day.






i think we've recovered from the vacation and caught up on everything that needed catching up on (pet care, laundry, bills, all that glamorous stuff). tomorrow starts another week. i hope its a fabulous one for you!

the maine event

allen and i rolled in last night from an absolutely amazing 4 days in maine, celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. we slept in, shopped, hiked, drove around a lot, ate a lot, and had a blast hanging out together. we were told the leaves arent near as vibrant right now as they usually are this time of year, but i have no point of reference, so i thought it was gorgeous, especially considering that everything in texas is brown right now.
we stayed in a friends vacation home in the town of saco, about 25 miles south of portland. everything shut down at 5pm, and i mean everything. we were coming back one evening from shopping at an outlet mall about an hour away and as we drove down the main street i noticed both a tattoo parlor and a pub that were closed for the night (this was at about 630pm). really?!? the two establishments that should practically be required to stay open late had closed up shop. i had to laugh to myself. sorry citizens of saco, if youre going to drink too much and make bad decisions you're going to have to do it before 5pm...or go to portland.
and now i will bore you with a ridiculous amount of pictures. :-)

this is the house we stayed in. we were a 5 minute bike ride from the (very cold) beach.






monday we drove over to new hampshire and went to the franconia notch state park where we walked thru the flume gorge, one of the most beautiful and fascinating things ive ever seen.
this first picture is one i took from a 'scenic overlook' stop on the way there. i couldnt tell if that was a house or a little chapel out on that island.




the flume gorge

this waterfall is called the cascade. unbelievable.

new hampshire is famous for its covered bridges. there were two along the trail we were hiking. this one was my favorite.

see? arent the leaves beautiful??

tuesday we went on a self guided tour of 6 lighthouses in the portland area. this is portland head light, the most photographed lighthouse in the country.

allen and i in front of the spring point ledge light

im a food network junkie, and this place was on diners, drive-ins, and dives for its award winning seafood chowder among other things. there was quite a wait, even at 130pm, but we were willing to sit at the counter, so we waited only about 10 minutes. allen and i had a big late breakfast, so we split a lobster roll and a cup of the seafood chowder. oh. my. word. i couldve eaten a gallon of that stuff. allen is absolutely not a fan of any form of soup, but even he thought it was really really good!

YUM, LOBSTER!

i didnt take a picture, but we also ate at the kennebunk in, which was featured on food networks 'best thing i ever ate' for its lobster pie (cat cora's choice). it was delicious, mostly because the puff pastry topping should be illegal.


thursday we flew home, but not before having lunch in boston. i google searched anything in the area that might fit my food network criteria, and lo and behold we found roxy's gourmet grilled cheese food truck from food truck race. it just happened to be parked 6 short miles from the airport. allen had a 'green muenster' (muenster cheese, guacamole, bacon) and i regrettably had 'the rookie', which although very tasty was nothing more than cheese and tomatoes. i wish i had been more adventurous with my grilled cheese sandwich selection. go big or go home.

now we're back home and doing the typical 'ive been gone for a week and now i have to catch up on life' thing. i have so many more pictures, but i suppose this is enough for now.

i'll try to post different ones tomorrow for the 365project.

until then.....