That right there made all those hours on the ladder worth it. Soon I'll take some pictures and show you all..... you never know, you might just find yourself painting silk roses black and hanging ghosts from the ceiling, too.
Now to the other reason I've been so busy and not blogging..... My kids have been begging, and when I say begging, I guess I should say BEGGING to get a dog. We've substituted with goldfish and frogs..... not much of a substitute, I know, but a dog is not something I was ready for..... I am so, so busy every day..... I can't possibly fit everything in that I want to do each day, so I've never thought I could handle taking care of a dog, too. And as far as the kids go, I never felt that they were quite old enough to be responsible for it. It's not that I'm against dogs it's just that, one, I had a horrible experience with a Dalmation in college that warped me forever on the difficulty of raising some puppies and, two, Jonathan is highly allergic to cats and some dogs. So every time the kids begged, we said, "no..... not until you're older and more responsible." Well, guess what? I finally realized they ARE older and they ARE more responsible. No more using that as an excuse.
So there began the search for the perfect family pet...... a friend of mine has a labradoodle puppy, a mix of a lab and a poodle, and that's when I started looking into poodle mixes. They are supposed to be hypoallergenic and usually don't shed. But there are tons of different kinds of mixes...... so I did a lot of research and with most breeders in Illinois and Wisconsin and Virginia and, therefore, a plane flight away for a baby puppy, I finally got really lucky and ran into a local woman walking her dog that I thought was cute as could be. She was so helpful and said she got her dog, called a Cavapoo, a cross of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a poodle, from a breeder in Athens, GA. Driving distance!! So I got on the lady's website and then shared a few phone calls and finally decided, with the kids' help, on a little red-haired puppy that would look a lot like the dog I saw when he is grown. So here's the first picture we saw of him at 5 weeks.....
And this is the picture the breeder sent us of him at 6 weeks.....
What a cutie-pie! So I'm reading lots of books and visiting Petco a little more than ususal. This time I want to make sure I do this right. The kids are beyond excited...... ESTATIC! And best of all, they say they don't even want Christmas presents this year......... we'll see how long that lasts. We've named the puppy Miles, after finding out that Miles Standish (captain of the Mayflower) is my 9th great grandfather and the kids' 10th great grandfather. Fitting I thought because the dog has red hair just like Miles Standish did. We'll go pick him up -- the whole family -- on October 17th..... he'll be almost 8 weeks old. I really do feel like we are adopting a child or something...... a new member of the family...... I guess I'm a little excited, too.Here's a picture of the dog I saw walking that Miles will resemble when he's older. He'll be 17-18 lbs or so with the softest coat and great disposition...... or so we hope. If anyone has any puppy advice, please help -- I'm sure I'll be needing it!
