another trip to the Rainbow Bridge....

We lost our Maggie today. We are really still sort of in shock, it's all happened so quickly. She was coughing for a few days, then stopped eating, so I took her to the vet on Wednesday. She got a shot, still wasn't better the next day, got some chest xrays. Then our vet called and said it appeared that she had lung cancer - that he'd never seen anything like it before - usually lung cancer in dogs comes from cancer somewhere else in the body, but that this was primary lung cancer. So he gave us some medicine to see if it would make her more comfortable, and then we could make a decision. The medicine really didn't help, and we couldn't stand to watch her suffer. She was a really good dog (I know what you are thinking...all I did was complain about her. That's true - she made me crazy sometimes. But I did love her - craziness and all.) - she was an incredible hunter (Megan's sad that she won't get to hunt with her this year on her first hunting trips out with Daddy), and she had the sweetest disposition - she loved everyone. And she was just beautiful. We are all going to miss her terribly.

Cassidy's 7

When did my baby turn 7 years old? It's not right...it seems like just yesterday she was born. Now she's all big and bad (well, not so bad, very sweet in fact...just a little wild and crazy). We had her party with her friend Alyx, whose birthday is 2 days after her's. We had it at the Salazar's casa, with a petting zoo and pony ride. It was the best party ever. I think the kids had a great time. Cassidy's favorite animal was the white and tan goat, and mine was the black and white baby goat. I really wanted to bring him home. They had a baby pig that was really cute too. The pony's name was Sir Lancelot, which I think may be my next dog's name. (haha - you know I dig the crazy animal names) Happy Birthday Bug!

new haircut for Megan

Megan had decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to get a shorter haircut - with it longer in the front. I made her wait till after the recital, although I don't know why looking back - she wore a hat in the recital...oh well. So here it is - it looks fabulous on her, don't you think? She LOVES it.

recital

The girls' dance recital was this past weekend. Cassidy did a jazz performance to Surfin' USA and Megan did a ballet performance to Rodeo' (the music from the beef commerical on TV). They did so well - we were so proud of them. My mom came in town for the weekend, and the girls loved having her there to see them dance. She thought they were the best ones on stage. And of course, they were (to us, anyway!).

family

We went to BR for Mother's Day weekend. Jon's brother Josh made it home safely from Iraq (thank you God for prayers answered), and his brother Jason was in town on leave before he sails off to the Persian Gulf on the carrier USS Ronald Reagan (he'll be gone for 6 months, maybe more - please pray for his safety) for his girlfriend Karen's graduation from LSU (congrats to you Karen!). All 7 siblings haven't been together in the past 5 years, so this was quite an exciting event. All their mom has wanted was a picture of her children together, so that's what they got her for Mother's Day. It was so awesome to get to visit with everyone together - hope it's not another 5 years before it happens again, but that's one of the sacrifices you make when you have family serving our country.

New Wheels for Jon!

Jon FINALLY got his new truck yesterday. He's very excited, as are the girls. It's a Toyota Tundra, CrewMax 4WD. It's so big, I'll probably never drive it. But, it's really nice and has lots of cool things that it does - the back window (you know, the one over the bed of the truck) rolls down (okay, admit it, it's cool!). The first thing the girls did was jump in the bed of the truck and climb thru to the back seat via the rear window. The back seat has SO much room, even more than the Yukon does. I have upgraded to the Yukon, the girls are excited to finally have some tunes in the car after 5 years of silence and having to talk to your mom on the way to school or Walmart (haha). Seriously, I'll miss the Cherokee, I drove it for 10 years, but I am excited to have something newer to drive. It's just so much bigger than the Jeep, it'll take some getting used to.

Meet Laura Bush

3rd grade had a Living Wax Museum at school. They had to pick a person, research, then do a report and make an exhibit on that person. They would stand very still, just like they were in a wax museum exhibit, then when a visitor would press the button to hear information about that person, they would recite 5 important facts. Megan picked Laura Bush because she thinks she's a very interesting person. Her facts about Laura Bush are:

1. She has a springer spaniel, a black cat, a stray cat, and a scottish terrier.

2. Her favorite hobbies are reading and gardening.

3. She likes to collect tiny antique perfume bottles.

4. The piano she learned to play on is now at her daughters' old elementary school.

5. She likes Mexican food.

There you have it. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

Bad Maks II

This seems to be a recurring theme...leaving the house, coming home to chaos. Our mischevious little dog decided to have a Hershey Chocolate party while we were out. Thank goodness he only ate one, he just spread them around and made a huge mess, and ate the bag. Plastic tastes better than chocolate?...I don't think so!

Bad Maks...

We came home this afternoon from school, and Maks had gotten a hold of Cassidy's cowboy hat while we were gone. (no drama, believe it or not) I wonder what that hat did to him.

How does your garden grow?

...very well, thank you very much! Here's a pic of our one tomato that we have so far. We are very proud of it, and can't wait to eat it. Hopefully plenty of friends will join it soon. We also have some little bitty cucumbers and a few banana peppers. We'll let you know when we start harvesting....