one sick puppy

anyone that has kept up with our life before this blog started knows that we started our little family with the addition of two little puppies, max and maggie. they also know that we spoil them more than a little, and basically treat them like our children.

little maggie is sick. she couldn't walk on sunday night and couldn't hold her head up on monday morning. when we got her to the vet, they said that she had ingested something toxic. dr. bowling, our fabulous, schnauzer-owning vet, told us that things didn't look good.

i have spent the last couple of days in tears. i vascilate between playing out all the ways she could have gotten into something and fervently praying that she bounces back. it is not a good feeling.

she is improving (in my expert opinion). when we visited her last night, she wagged her tail (fabulous), held her head up for us and even drank some water (HUGE). we're still not totally sure she's going to make it, but i am comforted knowing she feels even a little better.

i struggled with knowing whether to pray for her healing. there are people all over the world that are suffering so much, i hate "wasting" a prayer. but as my wonderful mama told me, God made our little doggies just for us, and he's pretty OK with hearing our cries for help.

so, if you're of the same mind, please whisper a prayer for my little maggie. it would really mean a lot to me.

first day of school

i'm the daughter of a school teacher. anyone who knows me well knows this. my mom is an undeniable influence in my life, but her legacy of school and education is one of the strongest pulls i feel. it was she who taught me that the first day of school was unlike any other "first day." she still gets all excited when walmart opens up those two long aisles of back-to-school goodness. she would take jessica and me to the hot springs mall and let us pick out our school clothes, usually at sears or penneys and then we'd go home and lay out our first day outfit. i mean, head-to-toe, if there was layering involved, it would be evidenced on the hangers outside our closet, and the shoes would be lined up as if there was a little invisible emily hanging outside those folding doors. now, i would continue this ritual up until marriage. jessica usually let it go after the excitement wore off.

i write all this, because this is really my first time to live through the first day with my own son. i got so excited last weekend because it was TAX FREE. that means that all the families in tennessee mob target just to save that almost-ten-percent tax on school clothes and supplies.

pause. there is nothing i like better than brand new school supplies. the smell of wooden pencils, even though i never use them, is heavenly. the crack of a notebook that has yet to get it's spirals smashed. those cute mini-supplies, like staplers, that you'll NEVER use.

so last weekend, we asked dennis if he needed anything to start school. he looked at us if we were half-crazed. "but, don't you need new pencils or something?" 

"no. i have lots of pencils."

"paper? notebooks?"

"no. why would i need them? i have plenty of paper and notebooks."

"don't you need new polo shirts - isn't there a stain on some of them?"

at this point, he notices that i'm slightly pained.

"i don't need a new one. there maybe a small stain, but it's fine. maybe just one more would be ok."

and then i remember that he's from a former soviet nation. just having a pencil is fine. as long as you've got room to write, you don't need more paper. a stain on a shirt is no biggie, so long as it fits you.

there are times when i notice that american excess gets to him. and it breaks my heart and has even made me return things when i sense that i've fallen prey to the same. and i recognize that the "first day of school" is a marketing ploy like everything else because what kid in america really needs one more pencil?

what have we become?

...so, tomorrow, i leave to pick up my son. sort of. 

NOTE: to any would-be robbers: the house will NOT be unoccupied. just so you know.

yes, i'm going to pick up my son. but also: my sister turns 25. one of my dearest friends is having a baby shower. i have deemed this weekend, "the weekend of things that i must do, but things that i want to do...nay, things that i can't wait to do." 

yes, that's a long title. but seriously. i'm going to get to celebrate my sister's birthday for the first time in probably 10 years. i mean, the last time we were together in july, i'm pretty sure we were bickering. which means it was at least when i was still living at 1039. which means it was a L-O-N-G time ago. 

and, though i can still remember a time when almost ALL of my friends said that it would be a L-O-N-G time before they had kids, well...almost all of us have had them...or acquired them or whatever. i can't believe i'm going to a shower for hfp, or hff, as the case may be. i can't wait to see my buddy...the one who was embarrassed to have received a red nighty our freshman year from a beau. she is very visibly pregnant. i almost misspelled the word. because i feel like we're not quite that old.

and i have a teenager. i never thought that i'd be celebrating my sister's 25th as the mother of a 15-year-old. and i can't wait to see him. this has been one of the longest two-week stretches of my life. i can't wait to laugh with him, to hear his music blasting from his bedroom, to see his sheets rumpled again. i miss my baby boy.

isn't it funny how the world works...and how God works in it? i'm pretty sure none of the people in my sphere could have foretold the things that will be tomorrow. but i'm thankful for every event. for every person. for the very reason that i will travel 450 miles. i'm thankful for today...and for all we've all become.