What's missing here?

Well, to answer that question appropriately I guess I'd have to say two full months! YIKES! Has it really been that long? So much for trying to write at least once a week....

My oh my, how there have been things that I've missed! So much happens in a two month time period when you are surrounded by little ones. The quick condensed off-the-top-of-my-head list: Finished Malia's 2nd grade Math curriculum, and Taylor's 1st grade Math curriculum (YAHOO!! Ahead of schedule for the year even with maternity leave!), we took a trip to Vegas, Lincoln has his first two teeth, Dallin turned 2, Jacob is starting to put letter sounds together for words (reading, here we come!)-oh, and he'll be FOUR in 3 weeks, we are finally making some progress in the basement again, and, on the entertaining side-wow, stolen smarties, styrofoam peanuts, more sticky fingers, and a missing quarter just begin to scratch the surface. My goal for the next week or two is to actually take a few minutes here and there to write about these little things before I forget.

Also missing today is a fixture in our lives for the past 12 years. Our sweet old Sadie had to be put down last night. OK, so technically she wasn't "ours" as she belonged to my parents, but my kids have all known her and looked forward to playing with her each time they visit "Pomps and Beebs", I was there when she was born, and we've dog-sat her when the folks have been out of town (including one weekend gone very bad for our place thanks to the answering machine-heehee)...so although we didn't own her, she was ours too. As it goes when things get old, the poor girl had progressively lost function of her legs-she couldn't walk at all the past couple of days, and seemed to be losing her sight as well. You could tell just by looking at her that she was hurting, so the decision was finally made to let her go. Last night we made our last trip up to see Sadie, take a few photos of the kids with her and say goodbye. The kids seem to be doing well with it all, though Taylor is so very worried about when he'll have another dog to play with. I have to admit I am a bit sad that the big lazy yellow dog won't be there next time we stop by, and that Lincoln and Hallie won't ever know who Sadie was, and I guess Dallin really won't remember her either. Hopefully the rest of the fam is doing OK today after being with her last night (she was put down at home by a vet who does home visits). Everyone seemed a bit more somber than I expected yesterday. Mom pointed out that when Rebbe (Sadie's mom) was put down a couple of years ago, at least they still had Sadie there to make it a bit easier.

This doesn't help the fact that I've been looking at and contemplating getting a dog for the past few weeks. Add the 6yr old boy crying about not having a dog to play with and, well....let's just say that if the yard was completely fenced in, I'd be picking up a little fur ball this week. How long will it hold out?

We'll miss you Sadie.