331 Our Foster Child

Do you know this face?

Are you missing this face?

Do you live in the Horn Lake Intermediate area

(if you do, you get that description, if not it probably isn't your dog)

Temperatures are record low for this area. This poor pooch has been wandering our street for at least two weeks, and I could NOT leave him outside in 14 degree weather. He is sweet and so gentle with kids, which leads me to believe he has a home somewhere. However he is failing in the house-trained area, which makes me think he has been wandering for a while.

The kids would be perfectly happy to adopt him, but I would prefer to find his real home. As cute and sweet as he is I would rather not have an extra animal right now. Our cat is FREAKING OUT!

If you know where he belongs PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Posters will be going up soon. And I will be calling the vet first thing on Monday.

Until then, we are trying out a few names. Katie keeps calling him Winn-Dixie. I wanted to call him Dirty Panda, or DP for short. My friend Linda suggested Dip, so we would have Chip and Dip. My friend Candy said he looks like an Oreo. Feel free to add your own suggestions to the comments!

261 Little Teaser

I have been out of town for the past few weeks. First I spent a few days with the in-laws, and then we went on to my family in Atlanta. I am still playing catch up on pictures and such, but here is a little teaser of what I will be sharing in the next few days.

That doesn't even cover the whole two weeks ... but I did say it was a teaser.

245 What have we been up to?

I have been seeing A LOT more of the park behind our house. I am trying to walk/jog on a daily basis to get back into some resemblance of being in shape. Some days I can get out there by myself, but mostly I end up with the jogging stroller and an extra 30 pounds to push. Connor is NOT a fan of the jogging stroller. He gets antsy by the end of the first lap. The only time he is content is when I am actually jogging... so, not often :) I am getting better, and I can actually jog a whole lap without falling over. BARELY! I am also hitting the exercise bike as much as I can. I am determined to get rid of as much of the extra weight as I possibly can. I will never be the size I was in high school (can't believe I thought I was fat then) but I can be much healthier than I am right now. Katie joins me in the park sometimes. She starts off with her skates on usually, and then ten minutes later she is done skating and she is ready to play on the playground. She is getting SO good at the monkey bars!! She has come a long way since she broke her arm last year! And she can do cartwheels! We are very proud! Poor little Connor man got a bug bite on his forehead Wednesday night, but I thought it was just a mosquito and not a big deal. The next morning it still just looked like a normal bite.

Then I put Connor down for a nap. He woke up about 3pm and the bite had swollen to golfball sized proportions! It freaked me out! I called his pediatrician, and they had already left for the day ... AT 3:30!!! So we went to the family med place around the corner. We finally got back to see the doc, and the swelling looked like it might be going down. We were just worried about it being a spider bite, but they said if it had been a brown recluse then after 18 hours it would have already been necrotic. WHEW! So, a hundred bucks later we were told to just keep an eye on it. It was good to have our minds put at ease ... but we could have really used that $100!! This pic is from when we got back from the doctor. We decided that treating it with chocolate should do the trick. It seems to have worked. Poor little forehead.It is about time for my little tree to burst into bloom again. It should be absolutely COVERED in pink blossoms very soon.I promised Katie that I would take her to see "17 Again" as a Mommy-Daughter date. Well, we have been foiled at every turn. The theatre here only showed it at 12:30 and she did not get home from Mia's until 1. So we missed that day. The next day they stopped showing it at all! And then the only place that has it is 30 minutes away and it started too late for us to make it back for Chip to go to work. To make up for it I took Katie to the zoo with her friend Mia. She wasn't too keen on the trade-off until I promised that they could play on the playground. I usually try to stay away from it. I hate driving to the zoo for her to play on a playground!! The girls were pretty good though. We hit most of the zoo, although we did skip the farm area and the herpetarium. They even consented to a few poses and smiles. Connor was in his stroller, of course. I know that if I take him out for even a minute then he will throw a fit about going back in, so he just has to stay in it the whole time. My Magpie checking out the Red-billed Blue Magpie!Katie is always excited about the longest fry.I had to prop the camera up for one group shot.And of course I made Katie make a wish on Buddha's belly.Katie actually insisted that we go to take a picture in this spot!! And, of course, the zoo trip ended with a dip in the Nile. Not as much of a dip as the kids in the background who were SWIMMING in it, but enough to get their feet wet. I did get Connor out for a minute to dip his feet. He managed to get VERY wet, of course.Also another picture they insisted on. They just had to climb up on the animal statues at the front of the zoo.

We had a pretty nice little visit to the Memphis Zoo. We love going, and I know we will be back very soon!

Other than that we have had a busy time shuffling kids around. Katie and Mia just rocket back and forth between out two houses. Katie has even spent the night twice int he past week. Thank you Tenbye for giving me a few moments of sanity!!! It is weird not having her at home, but she is only 6 houses away! I can get over that.

213 (Another) Afternoon at the Zoo

Wednesday, after school I took Katie to the zoo. She has been asking to go for a while, and she was really insistent about going on Tuesday. Apparently she really just wanted to spend her money in the giftshop (which she did not do, of course). I love walking around the zoo on a beautiful day, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice. There may not be that many more good days before it turns so sweltering that the joy goes out of the experience. We have been often enough that I try not to take pictures of the animals unless they are doing something really cute or interesting. I was amazed that Katie was so cooperative about having her picture taken. Poor Connor was stuck in the stroller. He did not get out until the very end because I knew he would refuse to get back in ... and then he would scream like a girl when he was put back anyway. I try not to excite the animals with needless high pitched wails.
The zoo was PERFECT! The weather was great, there were barely any people, and the animals were out and about. Even Le-Le the panda was out in the "day room" (although Le-Le had just been bitten on his rear and was actively scratching it against a log). The Abyssinian Ground-hornbill came running up to the fence to show off its catch. It reminded me of a cat bringing a present to its master. Strangely cute, in a really gross way. The sea-lions were pretty active. At least the males were. The females were asleep on a rock. The female gorilla was picking her nose or biting her fingernails. When the male noticed me taking pictures he came over and got her and took her to the far-side of the enclosure. He really does NOT like having pictures taken. The last time we were there he ran from the camera.
On the way out we stopped at the giftshop (OF COURSE). Katie picked out 4 little sticky animals, a multi-colored pen, and a bead bracelet kit. Connor got a stuffed scorpion. Yeah, it was on sale! He actually really liked it. Its tail was perfect for his little hands. And how cool is a scorpion! He is a boy, he don't want no stinkin' cute animal! And then it was time to stick our feet in the wading pool ... okay, so I don't think it is technically a "Wading" pool, but everyone uses it that way. I even let Connor out for a sec to get his feet wet. He did good for a few minutes, then he decided to try getting on all fours and ended up soaking wet. I pulled him out to stand on the side while Katie played a little longer, but he kept trying to inch his way closer to the water. He was ADORABLE with that hopeful look on his face. He really thought he was going to get back in the water. Silly boy! I did finally convince Katie that it was time to go, and we headed out a few minutes before they locked the gates.
We will be going back on May 5th for Katie's school fieldtrip, so I am sure there will be more pictures taken then. Until then, enjoy our most recent zoo trip.