One Year Ago (Or Seven Years Ago, If You're Hobo)

 The other night this picture popped up in my Facebook Memories feed.  A dog had started hanging around our house and he needed a home.  One year ago today, we made the decision he could stay!

 There were a lot of late nights and early mornings spent walking back and forth to his kennel at our neighbors' house.  It's probably good we didn't know how long we'd be doing that, or we might have said no!

 He *loves* riding in the car!

 Two days before we moved, our neighbors threw Hobe a little going away party, complete with homemade dog treats!

They made this whole dog thing possible for our kids.  Some days we're thankful and some days, not so much.  Ha!

 The boys in the new yard--now there's a big patio-sized kennel thanks to someone's penchant for digging!

 Our neighbor made him a new blanket!

I think his two favorite things are the hose and bubbles.

 Waiting politely...

 That dog can jump!

 Success! 

(And I still can't believe we have a dog!)

Johnny Cash

I Walk the Line

Tennessee Flat Top Box

Ring of Fire

Daddy Sang Bass

Boy Named Sue

Man in Black

One Piece at a Time

The Man Comes Around

Hurt

An Afternoon in Muskogee

 We spent yesterday afternoon in Muskogee visiting a couple of sites for an upcoming article.  Our first stop was the USS Batfish at Muskogee War Memorial Park.

 The USS Batfish is a World War II submarine that sank 3 submarines and 11 ships.  You can go inside it (though all of my inside pictures are still on my other camera) and it is really neat!

 After that, we went to Honor Heights Park.  We had spent some time there a couple of summers ago and the kids really enjoyed it.  We found they had put in some really nice new playground equipment and the weather was perfect!

 When we were getting ready to leave we found out the water was still on, so the kids went for it.

It ended up being a chilly ride home, but I think they enjoyed it anyway.

 

 

It was so nice to be able to enjoy the afternoon without any worries about house showings or lawn work!  Perfect!

The First Day of School!

 Today was our first day of school!  We just moved a week ago and in that time the kids and I have all been sick and we've been out of town two days as well, so we're definitely not as prepared as we have been some days, but we're going to go ahead and get started anyway.

 We started the day early by giving Jay a ride to work and then we came back home for pancakes.  I was so impressed with myself for locating the squeeze bottles and managing to make these pancakes.  That's a big accomplishment for me lately!

 I cannot even believe this.  How is this possible?

 Or this??

 Here's a zoomed out view to let you see what we're really dealing with here.  We lost 2400 square feet in the move, so we're living with a lot of boxes, most of which haven't really been dealt with yet.

We took a lunch break and ate with my grandma and ran a few errands before picking Jay up from work.  It will be a light start this week, but hopefully we will be up to full speed soon!

Linnaeus Teaching Gardens

 I posted about the storytime in the gardens, but I never got around to sharing about our first visit to the Linnaeus Teaching Gardens in the spring!

 We went with a couple of other homeschooling families and had a tour of the gardens one morning.

 This tree was decorated with a chainsaw!

 There are all kinds of pretty views!

 They don't use any chemicals on the plants, so you can taste test!  (I can't remember what this was called, but it was kind of like a cherry, I think.)

 We saw frogs on the lily pads!

 There is also a children's area inside the barn.

 We went back to the storytime this week--and I just noticed that Jack wore the same shirt he had on when we went in the spring!

 Looking for matching leaves

Another great thing about the gardens is that they're a short drive from the splash pad, so we went there afterward and played and had sno cones!

One on One

 I have lots of time with my kids, but it's kind of rare to have one on one time with them.  Since they did camps at different times this year, I did get more than usual this summer!

{Alice and me in the tape tunnel at the children's museum.}

 Really, I just got about three afternoons with Jack since Alice's camp was shorter.  He had PE one day and went to the trampoline park another day.  One afternoon we spent at the children's museum, where he got to make a custom minifigure (with a Discovery Lab shirt!) as a souvenir.

 We also went to Braum's for sundaes!

 Alice used some of her time to go to Build a Bear and spend a gift certificate she had gotten for her birthday.

We also took my grandma out for lunch and pedicures one day.  Alice thinks we need to do that a lot more often!