Puppies Week 5

Puppies Week 4

Puppies on Halloween

Our first trip to the vet on Day 3

Craft Fair Weekend

We had a big time today in Springdale and Rogers at the craft fairs. Mom, Hillary, Madelyn, and me left this morning and drove from Van Buren for a full day of shopping! Madelyn was really good the whole time (except when she told Hillary "hush" when she was told to walk and hold her hand when out of the stroller!) I took lots of pictures and will have to get them posted to our photobucket site soon. Tomorrow will be an early start to the day with the drive home to Ada to take the puppies to the vet, but I hope to take a good nap later on. If I can get pictures posted tomorrow I'll be caught up!

In Memory of Little Bit

Ben's trip to Idaho last weekend

Oops, they did it again...

Yes, that's right! Puppies....again!

When Myrtle was gaining weight even though we had kept the dogs apart during her heat, we took her to the vet to make sure she was OK. After a fairly thorough check-up, the vet determined that it was probably a "false pregnancy" and that some dogs' hormones just kick in and prepare their bodies for puppies. Since Myrtle was such a good momma dog, we figured she just really wanted to have puppies again and was tricking her body into it.

Then when I FELT and SAW the little ones moving on Saturday night, I called Ben (he

was in Idaho at the time) and he was as shocked as me. So the next day I got the

middle-sized crate back out of the laundry room and we kept Myrtle separated from the boys.

After two nights of random barking in our bedroom, we moved Myrtle's crate

back out to the dining room last night. When she started barking again,

we moved her crate in the living room next to the other one.

That seemed to calm her down and we all went to sleep.

However, we were awakened at 4:45 a.m. to nonstop barking and Ben came out to see

what was going on. I listened from the bedroom and came out when I heard

a little squeak! We turned the lights on and discovered six little totally clean,

precious Boston Terrier puppies next to Myrtle in the crate. She had taken time

to clean EVERYTHING up and then she proudly made her official announcement.

With four boys and two girls, they are quite the sight, and seem to be doing well,

thankfully. One of the girls is about half the size of all the others and we've had to try supplementing her food with milk replacer. She also has a little wound on her belly

that we will get checked out at the vet's office first thing in the morning.

She is so tiny, but hanging in there and trying to make it work with four big brothers

and a big sister!

I'll be heading to Arkansas tomorrow for the craft fair weekend, so Ben will be on patrol

until Saturday morning. I will miss them over the next few days, but I'm just glad

that I was here when they were born (even if we were all asleep!)

Sunday afternoon

Ready for another week...

This weekend has been eventful! We have had extra events in our schedule this last week or so and then I had a little stomach bug yesterday on top of it all. Today was much better and I worked in overdrive to get the house clean and the laundry caught up. We've had dinner, walked our 45 minutes, finished lesson plans, and had our piece of freshly made chocolate cake (so much for that walk) so now we're beginning our favorite Sunday night show, Mad Men.

Today Ben's jazz band played at the Miss Ada Pageant (yes, I said, "pageant"). This is a great little money-maker for the group, but it's three and a half hours of Ben's life he will never get back! One thing you have to say for it, however, there is no lack of entertainment the entire time!

I just love this picture. Sometimes when I'm on my way to school in the mornings the sky is so pretty. I was leaving Starbucks and heading to the school when I thought I'd grab my camera and snap a few shots. An old college friend was telling me this past summer that some of the best pictures of landscapes were ones that had sunlight peeking through the clouds in the early morning or later in the evening when the light is the softest. I have tried to take pictures from time to time during those times using natural light and he's right...they always look great (this one included, aside from the buildings and cars and stuff...)

Still blooming....for now

I've really gotten in to taking close up pictures with the super macro setting on our camera lately. I love how part of the object is in focus and the background is blurred. I keep looking for more blooms everywhere and this is a hibiscus bloom I shot yesterday in our backyard. It's amazing how intricate and detailed flowers can be, and most of us don't really pay too much attention. I have noticed that the kids at school always notice more details....for example, one little girl said she could tell these two twin boys apart because one of them had darker freckles! I need to try to be more like that sometimes!

It may be a little while before the leaves really start turning colors, but we seem to be hanging on to our mild summer weather and the plants and flowers are happy. This morning we took a walk before church and it really felt like a brisk fall morning....finally! I guess I have to start planning for when the temperatures dip low enough to bring the plants inside. Where am I going to put them all!!??!!

Austin Weekend Trip September 2008

ECU Band Debut for Fall 2008

ECU won today!

After a rocky start, ECU's football team won in overtime at today's game 51 to 49. It was a winning day for Texas, too as they beat Arkansas 52-10. Needless to say, Ben was pretty happy today!

The following slideshow has pictures of the ECU band from the first home game (I didn't attend today...too much work to do!)

Recent images

A lot has been happening lately...a little of everything! We're trying get caught back up on laundry and cleaning the house this weekend since we were gone to Austin last weekend. It was so great to see everyone and I was able to reconnect with a few old teaching buddies I hadn't talked with in awhile. Since last weekend, we've been a little behind, so I'm taking this opportunity to catch up on...on everything! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...

Ben and I were involved in a Patriots' Day celebration where the Silent Drill Platoon from Washington, D.C. came to perform a rifle routine. They were really amazing! (This is the same group that is featured at the beginning of A Few Good Men....but Ben and I were only with A Couple Good Men.) Sorry, I couldn't help myself!

And this is what it looks like when a McDonald's is being demolished. Now this area is completely flat and the newly remodeled McDonald's should be ready in December (not that we eat at McDonald's since we watched Supersize Me, but it's still cool to see buildings being torn down.)

Simon's 1st Birthday!

How some kids react to instructions at school...

Seriously, school is going great and we can't believe it's already mid-September. Our calendar stays busy and we enjoy time at home only rarely now (and it's usually when we're really tired!) But that's what Sunday afternoons are for, right?

End of summer pics

The big 30!

What a great 30th birthday! I talked with several family and friends, had a wonderful dinner at Pete's and Ben surprised me with a new iPod! Don't you just love the green? It's the 8G so I can fit tons of music and video...just in time for a new school year!

I'm ending this birthday with some blueberry coffeecake and coffee (compliments of Starbucks) and the latest episode of Mad Men. It's been a great day!

VB in July

The last week in July was very full, but in a very different way. Instead of doing projects around the house or working at school, we packed the XTerra and drove over to Van Buren for the week. Ben taught a drum camp all week so his days were full, and I did some cooking, shopping, sewing, decorating, playing, and reading with Hillary and Madelyn. We took just about everything from our house and moved in for the week. I told Hillary it was like we were camping at their house with free hookups for water.

Madelyn is almost 16 months old (will be tomorrow) so she is talking more and her little personality is really developing. I am now "Keiko" (we haven't worked on "Aunt" just yet) and Ben is "Beh". And I really think Madelyn believed we lived in her playroom. Maybe she's adjusted back to normal now.

So here are a few pictures from the week, starting with some from the birthday celebration with Mom, Dad, Kelsey, and Katie, too. They drove over on the first Sunday and we celebrated Mom's, Kelsey's, and my birthdays as well as Mom and Dad's anniversary...complete with Mrs. Sutterfield cake and homemade Butterfinger ice cream!

What a name...

Did they really mean "shrub" sale?

World's Largest Bronze Sculpture

If you've never visited Tulsa, I can recommend one area of the city that should be on your "Things to See" list. I just returned from the Oklahoma Educators Association Summer Leadership Academy which was held at the Hilton Tulsa Southern Hills Hotel. This lovely hotel is directly across the street from Oral Roberts University, where you can find the world's largest bronze sculpture known as "The Praying Hands".

Recent Carter pictures

Isn't Carter the cutest little farmer you've ever seen?

Britney sent us this link http://www.studiobphotos.blogspot.com/
to see pictures of Carter along with lots of other great pictures, too.
The photographer is a friend of her sister's.

We don't get to see Carter in person very much, but we really enjoy all the pictures that Britney sends our way!

Mad Men Season 1 Marathon

One of our favorite shows from last summer is about to begin its second season in only seven short days! Mad Men on AMC!!! I've been watching the Season 1 marathon since about 6:00 this evening and it's almost midnight. I think this is the season finale. If you haven't heard of this show, you should go check it out at http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/ and be prepared to get hooked!

B&K Save the Day

Thursday's little adventure had all of the elements to be a really good, possibly prize-winning, stupidest home video (that is, if we had been videotaping.) Ben and I decided to do some yard work that morning (mowing, weeding plants, watering, etc.) As we were finishing with those tasks and it was coming up on lunchtime, we were noticing a few more limbs were down around the big oak tree in our front yard. There are so many dead limbs from an ice storm way before we even moved here that are trapped on top of some other limbs. So we decided we could handle cutting and sawing off several of them if we backed the truck up under the tree and stood either on top of the cab or on top of the step stool inside the bed of the truck. Has everyone pictured this yet?

Ben was the primary ax man with his little hatchet and our piddly little hand saw, freakishly strong hands, and protective goggles. (Fine tools for cutting down several thick oak limbs, don't you think?) I was the helper and only got to have protective goggles. My main job was holding onto the end of the limb Ben was cutting and simultaneously lifting it up and pulling it down and to the side to the ground as Ben sawed through it (trying not to smash it on top of Ben or the truck.)

We were very, very careful and we drank plenty of water to stay hydrated, and ended up with a nice pile of smoking wood for another brisket. I told Ben it felt like the beginnings of a home video where someone was about to come inches from certain death, but we both made it through the experience with only a few scratches (and it's really a miracle that only one of those scratches on Ben's forehead came from the saw...I couldn't help that he raised up as I was lowering it! Oops!) And I'm happy to report neither of us fell off of anything and the truck is no worse for wear either.

The tree is really two trees that grew up so close together that they now share one base trunk and the limb that goes out to the right is really one of the massive trunks. It's really bizarre...and it was starting to lose a few limbs sue to rotting from the inside out, so we are happy to have helped put them out of their misery.

July in Arkansas

The Elliotts' visit to Ada

In June, Hillary and Chris brought Madelyn and Sophie to visit us here in Ada for a few days. We had lots of fun and lots of food, too! I think Hillary was inspired to even start cooking a little more...she took three of my cookbooks with her back to Van Buren!

Most of the pictures we took that weekend were of Madelyn, of course, so I've added several to our photobucket album. There are also some older pictures of Madelyn, too...which are really fun to look back at.

Memories from Kansas City

While in Kansas City, we saw the Chiefs Stadium, a neat fountain near the Plaza shopping area, Mediterranean style buildings at the Unity campus, President Truman's Home, and the biggest cinnamon roll we've ever seen (that picture is Ben holding it up in front of our steering wheel!)