Last Weekend

We seem to have hit that time of the year when all of the slowness of the winter seems to shake itself off and turn the throttle to "run like your hair is on fire".  I've never actually seen a throttle on anything that really says that, but you get the point. Well, last weekend was even a step beyond that. For relatively boring folks like us, we managed to squeeze in an awful lot of pretty exciting stuff. 

Friday morning, I packed up with Lauren to head for the Meadowbrook Preschool Field Day event. I should add that my attitude about this particular event was perhaps not the greatest, not because I didn't want to spend the day with Lauren, but because this was my sixth in a row of attending the exact same event. But Lauren and I had a surprisingly good time. I love how she relishes special time just for her, and so her excitement snapped me out of any poor attitude pretty quickly. Grandma and Mara even joined us for a while and had lunch with us there so that was fun. 

After a quick stop at the office and the pickup of groceries (thank you, Weis internet shopping...I ought to write a whole post on the beauty of that whole situation) it was time to head home to get ready to leave for huge event #2 for the day. The kids were all set with a sitter, and Jason's office staff was all geared up for the Garth Brooks concert at Penn State. This marked a first for us because his tickets were in one of the suites- so we had room to get up and walk around, dance and SING.  And did we ever. I was lucky enough to have seen Garth when he performed at PSU in 1996 (as a college freshman...me, not Garth) and it was even more amazing than it had been then. I knew every word to every song. And the best part was-- so did everyone else in the BJC.  Unreal. After some pretty horrendous traffic akin to a late night football game (ouch), we arrived home around 1:00 am. 

No time for much sleep, though. When we got up the next morning things were in super exciting mode because we had been given the green light to bring home a brand new puppy that afternoon. I will do another post on all of the details of how this all came to be, but we were all thrilled. And some of us were terrified.  OK, maybe just me. 

And so, Jason and I took off for Sweet Valley (which, even after having been there I still cannot begin to tell you where it is) to meet the breeder at 2:00 to pick up our golden retriever puppy who we decided to call Toby. 

One look at that face and it was pretty much love.  The kids were very excited when we got him home. 

Saturday night ranks right up there with my top ten list of most horrible nights of sleep, as our sweet pup had some adjusting to do to sleeping in his crate. And by "adjusting" I mean he cried all night long. And Jason and I stuck to the guidance of the breeder's "crate training bible" that we were provided with, which amazed me. I was pretty much in a daze all day Sunday- which proved challenging for my role in teaching Wee Worship that morning. But God got me through that one for sure. 

Nana, Aunt Libby and the girls came for a visit on Sunday afternoon. Toby was pleased to meet some more people who all wanted to pet him and love him.  And I appreciated the diversion so I didn't fall asleep standing up. During their visit, Lauren apparently "tug" Joshua in the mouth during a game they were playing in the yard, and knocked one of his teeth out. This was a first. The tooth has not yet been found and in my sleepy haze, I didn't remember the tooth fairy duties until 4:00 am after I had come upstairs after taking Toby out. I may have wanted to bawl.  And why is it that there was not even a spare $1 bill upstairs. Goodness. 

Things are going better with the puppy, although still a challenge. I can see the potential he has to be such a beloved family pet. We just have to love him through these next challenging months of puppy-hood and hope he doesn't chew us out of house and home.