Our Beloved Gracie

Today was a very difficult day for us. It started out like any other morning. Around 6:30am Gracie jumped up on the bed and sat between Jason and I, close enough to scratch Jason's armpit with her scratchy toes. We scratched her for a while then shooed her down.

My dad called and wanted to run out to Jason's shop to grab some mulch and any other treasures he could find. Papa came over and picked Jason and Gracie up. As my dad and Jason loaded things up, Gracie and Joe took off on their hunting excursions like always. When it was time to leave, they called the dogs and Joe came back but not Gracie. They called and called and nothing. Both my dad and Jason walked every square inch of the property and couldn't find her.

My dad happened to see a meter reader and approached him. He told my dad where he saw Gracie and my dad scooped her up. Jason and Papa dunked her in the pond at the shop thinking she was over-heated. In the mean time Jason phoned and had me get a cool bath ready. When everyone got home, Jay put her in the tub to try and cool her down. Her front legs where not working at all! That didn't seem to be working so they moved her outside and used the hose. At that point I was frantically calling the emergency vet. We found a place that would see her, wrapped her in a towel and headed up toward Cedar Rapids. The vet saw her right away.

We knew the news wasn't good when the vet started the conversation off with, "If we want to know what is truly wrong and know whether or not it can be reversed, Gracie will need and MRI that can only be done in Ames or at the University of Wisconsin." The rest all seems kind of blurry and unclear at that point. The only things I knew is that she was perfectly fine an hour ago and now the life she knew would never be again.

After discussing options and what would be best for Gracie and for us, we decided to let her go. We went and got the kids and some milkbones so we all could say goodbye. The kids went back to our folk's place and Jason and I went to be with her until the end. It was rather quick...too quick, but it was painless and we were with her through the whole thing. She lived a long wonderful 12 years! She will be very missed!

Our beloved Gracie AKA Graciella, Stinky, Stinkles, Stink.

Boating Bash

Papa Ed and Grama Shari rented a pontoon boat for a couple of days this week. We loaded up everyone and when I say everyone I MEAN everyone: Uncle, Tara, our family, Grammy, Papa and the dogs!

We had such a great time boating, swimming, tubing, eating, and sunning ourselves. The only down side was that we had to return it! The kids had an absolute blast and would live on the water if we would let them. I on the other hand am still a little fearful of the scurvy lake water. I just can't let go of that feeling that something is going to grab my leg! Yuck! We all slept really really well after that!

Drive-In Theater

Tonight we drove over to Newton to take the kids to their first drive-in movie theater experience at Valle. We headed over and arrived around 7:30pm for the first showing at dusk. I thought we would be super early, but we were almost too late to get a spot.

We laid the seats down in the back and made a little place for them to lay. Jason and I put our chairs out behind the van and Squiz fell asleep in her seat watching a movie on the DVD player.

They broadcast the movie over your car radio which makes it way better than those tiny speaker boxes. We watched Toy Story 3 first and then Libby crashed out. The second showing was Prince of Persia and surprisingly Maison stayed awake for the entire movie!

The drive back was shorter than I thought it would be and we had everyone in the house and in bed by about 2:45am!

I Love Corn

Tonight Squiz decided she wanted her very own corn on the cob. I knew it would only be a matter of time. Both Maison and Libby loved and still love corn on the cob. I was surprised that she actually ate it verses just licking the butter, the salt, and the pepper off.

4th of July Celebration

Our church celebrated the 100 year anniversary of The Big White House this 4th of July. The church bought the abandoned property about 3 years ago and have slowly been restoring it in order to open up to the community as community center.

The kids enjoyed playing period style games which of course included bobbing for apples!