Name that Harry

Sweet Marissa named our puppy Harry. It was a moment of divine inspiration. Or something like that. When the ball of fluff with two little black eyeballs and a pink tongue glued to it came bounding out to greet us these were the first words out of her mouth,"AWWWWW, he's so cute!! We'll call him Harry!" And so it was. We tried on other names, but nothing seemed to fit as well as Harry.

Sometimes I call him Harold. Especially when he has just leaked out a platter sized puddle of puppy pee onto my kitchen floor is naughty. I just say "Harold James Beaty" and he KNOWS. It is a weapon in the arsenal of every mother. Nothing like giving the full name treatment with emphasis on every drawn out syllable. We haven't really given him a middle name, but it works, doesn't it? James is the Captain's dad's name.

Many times when I look at him, he brings other Harrys (Harries?) to mind. When he is cute and cuddly I think of this Harry.

How would you like to have him curled up at your feet at night looking at you with frank love and admiration, girls? That's what I thought. Let's just be honest.

When he goes into the girl's room and grabs a piece of Barbie fodder to chew on in 0.1 seconds with a quick as lightning slight of paw to mouth move, I think of this Harry.

Sheesh. That's Harry Houdini and after looking at that picture, I really don't want to think of him again. Too much time in handcuffs underwater will do that to a person. So let's call in another Harry with magical powers.


Ahh, much better.

And when he is making racial slurs and partying with his girlfriend at all hours of the night, I think of this Harry.

Actually we haven't had too many problems with this issue.

Hmm, I used to think that Prince Harry got the short end of the stick in the princely looks departments when compared to older bro Wm. Maybe not so much.

Regardless, we think Harry suits Harry to a T(or would that be an H). The potty training is going quite well. He is making it through the night without having to be let out. He makes us laugh and smile at least 20 times a day, which is directly proportional to the number of times we have to let him out to do his thing. I can handle that. All in all, life with Harry (and all his alter-egos) is good. Really, who could resist that face?

I Fine.

There is a couple in our church small group who has the most adorable daughter, blond curls, dimples, the whole nine yards. Tyra would get shy at times and when in situations where she felt a little bit uncomfortable her eyes would get all teary, her chin would quiver and she would tearfully soothe herself and repeat over and over again in her three year old lisp, "I fine. I fine. I fine." and eventually, she would be.

That's sort of how I felt all last week.... I fine. And you know what, I am. The first day of school went just peachy. The Captain and I went for breakfast. Alone. I did some shopping. Alone. I got groceries. Alone. I fine!

The girls are fine too. Marissa looked so grown up in her little jean jacket, and it was fun to watch her show Maren the ropes. She is a GREAT big sister. Maren did great too and sort of shooed me out the door as I was leaving her room.

I picked them up afterwards and they were all smiles and information. I am sure we are still in the honeymoon phase of back to school life. I told them I was going to go shopping with Grandma that night to get them a few things we still needed for school. Maren crawled on my lap and in all her drama says, "But Mom, you can't go, I just love you too much and sometimes I love you just a little bit more than Daddy." She was playing all her cards, let me tell you. Funny thing is, when the Captain is gone, Daddy is the one she loves more. Then I told her I was going to buy her some new shoes and she shooed me out the door again. But, for just a second, I reveled in the fact that my baby still needs and loves her momma.

I fine. I fine. I fine.

Whiney Whiney

It seems I have the innate tendency to feel sorry for myself sometimes. Mostly that happens once a month, if you catch my drift. I have learned though, that you never have to look very far to see someone who has it much "worse" than you do. And really I shouldn't be feeling bad at all, but I am. Why?

I feel like we never really had a summer at all. It was gone in a wink.
I am sending my baby off to Kindergarten.
I am sending by first baby off to 4th grade.
The Captain has hardly been home at all this past month and a half.
One of my favorite patients graduated from rehab and I'll miss him.
One of my other favorite patients survived his heart attack only to die from cancer three short months later.
My Grandma is still struggling with her health.
It is that time of the month.

I know I am being a whiney whiney. So I am going to look on the bright side, search for the silver lining, rejoice and be glad in it.

We had a GREAT summer vacation in Florida and got to spend many days at the pool and the lake and it was fun fun fun.
Princess Maren can hardly wait for Kindergarten to start. Every morning for the past two weeks she asks if this is the day school starts yet.
One of Marissa's classmates was killed suddenly in a car accident this summer. I know his mom would love to have the chance to send her boy off to 4th grade.
The Captain has a job and in this economy that is something to be very grateful for.
My patient who graduated kicked some bootie in rehab! He did so much better than I ever thought he would. Lost 45 pounds and is now walking a mile with his wife every morning!
The old is gone, the new has come and I know Mr. K. is enjoying all things new in his heavenly home.
Grandma has had one heck of a summer, but it has brought us closer in a lot of ways. I think it has also helped her and my mom to mend some rifts and appreciate each other more.
Well, at least I don't have hot flashes yet.

Now, I have to go practice for Thursday. I find if I bite the inside of my cheek sorta hard, I can stop tearing up. Looking on the bright side doesn't mean I won't have a few tears when I leave school that morning, but at least they will be happy tears.

Perfect Pairings

Job 38:18 (New International Version)
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

There's more over at Baloney's house. Enjoy!

Say Cheese

My parents have eight grandkids. Half of them have birthdays in July. How many of Bennet and Twyla's grandchildren have birthdays in July? (Just a little story problem for those of us getting ready to go back to school.)


Maren's birthday is on the 4th. Emma's is on the 16th and Mason and Marissa share the day on the 26th, with Marissa being 365 days older. How many years are there between Marissa and Mason? Wow. You guys are sharp. We did a combo birthday one year and sent out empty M & M wrappers - one plain and one "with nuts" - as invitations. Which grandchild would be represented by the plain and which one would be represented by the one with nuts?

Instead of doing lots of little parties, we all get together at Chuck E.'s place and just let them off their leashes like a bunch of wild animals. It works well, and Chuck has to clean up. I'm all for someone else having to clean up afterwards. Here are the highlights. Apologies again for the pictures. Chuck has some weird lighting going on at his place.



Here's Emma - looking lovely and grown-up. Emma just got her hair cut and donated 11 inches to Locks of Love. She had some serious hair going on.



Here's Maren and Mason. Maren thinks Mason "never really plays with me". Now we know that's not true. We have a photo to prove it. I think she is enjoying herself.

Here's Marissa learning how to be a compulsive gambler after winning the jackpot on one of those hit the button while the light is in the right spot games.

Here's Kleyton. This child never takes a bad picture.

See what I mean? Even the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza couldn't ruin this shot. Hi Tyeson, you sure do look cute too.

As opposed to this guy. The pizza must have given him a little indigestion.

Even his sweet daughter is scared. And worried.

Here's the Vaas boys. Nate's Three Sons.

These apples don't fall far from this tree. Poor Tanya.

Here's Kleyton again. He emotes fake agony so well. Don and Michelle paid about 38.95 for that "magic" nail through his finger.

And last, but certainly not least, is half of the partnership that started this mass chaos. Somedays, Dad has a hard time finding things to be joyful about. Even smiles get tough with Parkinson's disease. Not tonight though. If there's anything that makes Dad joyful, it's hanging out with his kids and grandkids. And that is clearly written all over his face. Say Cheese! And thanks again Chuck!

Bicycle Race Part II

It was a good thing while it lasted. The training wheels are back on. We'll try again later.

NOTE: No innocent children or Barbie Princess bikes were hurt while taking this picture.

Bicycle Race

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride my bike.....

and that's enough of that song... GO MAREN!

P.S. Mom, you have to hit the little arrow button in the bottom left of the frame to see the video. Just trying to help and save you a phone call! You're doing great!

Weekend Shannon-igans

HA! What a title, eh? So clever. Wow, I am tired and here I am blogging. There should be a law. What did YOU do this weekend? Ours was crazy, so crazy. But a lot of fun.


The Captain got home on Friday night. We Wii'd. The Captain got his highest score in bowling. Finally beat his five year old. Night, Honey. Good Morning. Mow lawn. Hot dogs on the grill. Saw a puppy. Bought a puppy. Bring puppy out to pee. IA Pilot Wife 20 year class reunion. Lots of laughs and catching up. Take puppy out to pee. Night, Honey. Good Morning. Take puppy out to pee. Clean pee from kennel floor. Bye and have a safe trip. It is now Sunday morning.

Yes, I did say we bought a puppy and let me introduce you to Harry.


Quite appropriately named (ala Sweet Marissa), don't you think? If the hair fits, wear it, right? He is a shih-tzu and poodle hybrid, aka fancy name for "mutt" with a more than usual under bite. Makes him look a little curmudgeonly at times, and very "Harry" appropriate. Also happens to make him about 200 dollars cheaper than the usual asking price, so we happen to really like his under bite. Officially you would call him a shih-poo. I hope he does not officially "shih-poo" all over my house. Really though, who could resist a face like that? The Captain finally got his boy.

On to the class reunion and that would be my 20th. Yikes. Typing that hurts a little and makes me cringe. I really had mixed feeling about going, even though it was only a three mile drive to the activities. You know, the angst. Who needs to be reminded of all that high school angst? I feel like I had had my share. I'm so glad I went though. It was a lot of fun re-connecting. Some of them I had not seen since tossing our Floyd Valley Thunderbird mortar boards and tassels back in May of 1989. But, somehow we survived. Our graduating class numbered *drumroll* 27. Yep, that's it. Way back before all the smaller Iowa schools got taken over by gunpoint consolidated with a larger neighboring school district. I pretty much went to school with the same two dozen people give or take a few for 12 years. We were like one big happy (albeit very dysfunctional) family.

We had all changed over the years, well except for Ruth, and that is said in a good way. Some of us lost hair, others put on a little weight (that would be me) and yet there were things that remained essentially the same. Somehow we all turned out pretty well, I think. We reminisced about teachers - the good the bad, the ugly and the "dang he was hot" - yeah, we had one of those. Mostly though we were blessed with exceptional teachers in our school who impacted many of our lives in meaningful ways. We remembered the pop can incident, the vomit which induced more vomit incident, the secret crushes, and many things that I had no clue about. Wow, who knew?

We decided we were going to do a destination reunion next time. Maybe Vegas, maybe Seattle, but you can count me in! And yes Honey, we'll go to your next one too.

Perfect Pairings

Psalm 103:12 (New International Version)
12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

and believe me, she was transgressing a little bit that night...