Once again, I've let blogging slip. But between work, kids activities, illnesses, and our new addition....what can I say? So I finally gave in to the idea of having a dog. I figure, I do work from home, so I can be here most of the time anyway, so why not. We found Jackson at the Humane Society. He is a 4 year old Brittany Spaniel, which is a breed I hadn't really heard of until lately. He is very calm, house broken, sleeps alot (sometimes too much), only barks when he sees a squirrel or sometimes at Butch, or when we leave him at home alone (which is something we're working on). That's his only issue, he has separation anxiety, so he tries to dig and bite his way out of his crate when we leave him. Poor thing, he has injured the top of his nose in doing so. We've watched many episodes of the Dog Whisperer, so that has been very helpful. I think in time, once he figures out we will always return to him, that will subside, hopefully. I think having him has really been a good thing for us. It has forced us to be more active. He is a dog that likes to be walked a lot. So we have been doing lots of that. Everyone has been helping to take care of him, which was my main thing when I agreed to bring him home. It's been nice to see everyone work together to take care of him. I think he's been a good stress relief as well. He really loves to cuddle and would like to be right on your lap if he could. He's kinda big for that.











For the last several months or so, Rich has been working on something that is totally different. He was asked to be a Technical Editor for a book. It is called "BBQ Sauces, Rubs, & Marinades for Dummies". He worked really hard on it and last week we were sent 2 copies of the finished product. It was a very exciting moment and neat to see his name in a book.



HERE ARE SOME RANDOM PICS


Rich and Trevor went down to a car show. Here's Trev with the General Lee.


Daddy and his girls ready to go to the 80's themed Father Daughter dance for Girl Scouts.


Emma with her Brownie Troop at the dance. Totally rad!


A wintery family walk on the nature trail behind our house.


Melody and I took the girls down to a museum for an American Girl event. We had a good time!


I caught Savannah unloading the dishwasher....without even being told. AWWW!!


Emma and Jackson cuddling while she was home sick last week.


Emma and Lily made bouquets out of the dead ornamental grass that has taken over our yard from our neighbors house. How creative!