The Story of How we Acquired Luna

Meet Luna!  She's a miniature (only 8 lbs) wire-haired dachshound who is probably about 2 years old.  She's got a lot of pep in her step.  She's house-trained and crate-crate trained.  She sweet as can be with  kids and LOVES (a little too much) other animals.  She was found nameless, collarless, and micro-chipless in a neighborhood by a big dog lover friend of ours through the kids' charter school.  All neighborhood apps and Facebook pages have turned up no owner.

I rarely check Facebook, but I happen to be looking on the school page for something specific and saw this post about this sweet dog.  I showed the post to Brian, expecting to be shot down, and told him just to think about it because we obviously can't have a bird or any other prey for Trinity and if we wait until we have land and are settled, the girls will already be out of the house.  He gave me half a dozen reasons why we shouldn't get a dog, and I said, "Just think about it."  

The next day, I get a text while homeschooling that showed me another puppy for sale that had been neutered, house-trained, etc in the neighborhood.  I was shocked because I thought he'd never give in, and here he was bringing it up to me.  I immediately asked him if we could just go meet these dogs, and he agreed as long as we didn't tell the kids about it yet.  

Turned out the puppy was $300 to adopt and Brian nixed that one, so we only went to see this stray dog.  Brian picked her up and immediately fell in love with her...more so than I did.  He was all about doing it, and I was the one saying, oh no, what if this is a huge mistake and too much for me to take on.  

The kids met her for the first time before we brought her home.

She's a huge fan of riding in the car, so she usually goes with us for drop off and pick up.

Overall, she's a very good dog.  We definitely have some things to work on, but she is already sitting very well, and I taught her to ring a bell on the back door when she needs to go out in less than a day.  I am somewhat regretting this because she is a very curious and busy little lady, often asking to go in and out and in and out way more than is necessary.  Her biggest issue is barking at people or animals, and she has made marked improvement with that already in just two weeks.

This is from after Drew's camp out, he came home, showered and crashed with her on the couch.

Trinity came down once the first day when we got her and hissed at Luna who just wanted to be friends and has refused to come downstairs ever since.  We tried forcing the issue, leaving her litter and food in the pantry where they already were, but after one peed on bean bag, I quickly moved the litter box up to our bathroom.  I tried still to leave the food, but when she hadn't still ventured down to eat in three days, I caved and moved it all upstairs.  We currently have a gate at the bottom of the stairs.  Luna gets the run of the downstairs except when we are gone or at night when she goes in her crate.  Trinity can come down whenever she feels like it, but two weeks and she still hasn't.

Naming her was fun.  I wanted a literary name that had a religious tie in.  Hyacinth was from a book and also a saint name.  Trinity wasn't from a book, but has the religious theme while still making light of her three leg situation.  Mr. Bubbles was named after a character in a book. So we had the following list...

1. Merrylegs, nickname Merry (from Black Beauty and has tie in to Mother Mary)
2. Ladybug, nickname Lady (from Lady and the Tramp and has tie in to Our Lady, plus ladybug is our family's favorite word in German, Mariankefer, translating directly as "Mary Beetle")
3. Hildegard, nickname Hildie (no literary character, just a German saint name for a German dog for a family that has lived in Germany) *Brian really pushed for this one, but not many others really liked it.
4. Luna (from HP and has tie in to Mary because she is often referred to as being like the moon and reflecting the son's glory, plus it's a Spanish word and we got her in San Antonio)

We did many votes, even trying out some different weights to the adults votes and still it always came out against Hildie.  So Brian relented and her name is Luna, with nicknames Lulu, Lou, Luna Love, Loonie Bird, Loon.  She's learning it.

Dog beds are expensive, so I made her a quick one for the time being out of spare fabric and old socks.  It was such a quick project.  I am going to have to make her a nicer one with her name on it when I find the time.

Family Beach Trip

Every year my mom rents a beach condo for a month during off season.  Last year we went every weekend because we had a free place to stay for three of those weekends.  However, this year the other condo wasn't available so we rented a place at her location to split with my sister the first weekend and rented a cheaper place across the street for the last weekend.  The second weekend, no one else was going down there and Brian had three of the boys on a camping trip, and so the girls, Bob, and I went down and stayed in her place with her.  

Judah was playing with his newest cousin, Savanna.

This was after Judah hyper extended his knee when he stepped into a big hole in the sand, under water.  He was limping around a little bit after that.

Bob had a grand ole time playing with Turner.  They especially loved trying to surf the waves on boogie boards.  They would get all ready, standing on their own boards just outside of where the water was and wait for waves to comes and make them "surf."  It was quite amusing to watch them fall off every time a wave was big enough to lift the boards.

One night we all went to a restaurant and took some pictures, but most of the time we ate at the condo so everyone could swim and play on the beach as much as they wanted.  Hannah really doesn't hang out too long on the beach, she just doesn't like the dirtiness of it.  She will swim a little longer in the pool, but still she is happy to hang in the condo most of the time.

Isaac was stung by a small jellyfish and Dylan was stung by a bee.  Both Turner and Judah hurt their leg and were limping part of the trip.  It was an eventful trip, but the most eventful moments involved Drew.  Drew had had his retainer to move his upper jaw forward for a little over a month when we went to the beach.  I have been super attentive with teaching him to be responsible with it and never take it out unless he's putting it in it's case either on the dining room table or the one in my purse.  He's a pretty responsible kid actually for an 8 year old boy, but still this is worth thousands of dollars and I wasn't going to just trust him on this one.

However, all that said, I made a huge mistake and did't make him take it out when he went swimming in the ocean.  It had never fallen out, and I figured "What could happen?"  Well, one morning I took all the boys and Genevieve out to the beach ahead of everybody else.  Drew and Dylan had gone out in the ocean as far as I said they could go to jump the waves.  They come running in and Drew tells me his retainer fell out in the ocean.  Wait.  What.  Tears immediately filled my eyes as I jumped up and tried to find the spot I thought they'd been in.  They didn't even have the thought to stay where they were and call for me.  The waves were so rough that whole weekend.  I plunged my hand into the water and lamented.  This is Corpus Christi, not Hawaii.  You can't see anything in this water.  I said to Drew and Dylan, who are standing with their mouths open and their eyes wide watching the crazy mom/aunt cry and panic, "There is NO WAY we'll ever find it in this water, and we don't even know exactly where you were."  Then I turned to Drew and grabbed his shoulders, almost growling, "Pray to St. Anthony!"  

I turned away from him and said aloud, "St. Anthony and St. Jude, pray for us!" and in the next breath, I stepped on something hard.  No, it couldn't be.  I reached into the murky water and pulled out his retainer.  If that isn't proof of the saints being able to intercede for us, I don't know what is.  We celebrated all day!  It was amazing!

In case you don't know, St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost things, and I perpetually freak out and forget to ask for his prayers.  St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, and I threw him in there because this seemed like pretty much a lost cause to me.  Plus, he is near and dear to my heart, probably because I tend to feel like lots of things are lost causes, pessimist that I am.  

Somebody got so worn out, that he was asking for naps in his hideout.

I made a pyramid in light of our ancient Egypt studies while Genna tried to make a deep volcano.

Bob helped me make this castle.

Combined Boy Birthday Party: No girls allowed!

The seven year old privilege is to have an all boy (or all girl,depending) birthday party, but last year Drew didn't have many friends yet since we had just moved here.  So, we postponed it until this year.  I couldn't avoid it any longer.  He opted for a bowling party and agreed, very lovingly, to allow a triple birthday celebration with two of his brothers, Isaac and Judah.  They each wanted a different cake/cupcake decoration which complicated things a bit, but how can I complain when the cakes and invitations where really my only jobs after setting this up at the bowling alley.

Judah's Flash mini cake

Drew's Spiderman Cupcakes

Isaac's guitar cupcakes

I made chocolate melt guitars on wax paper with a basic outline drawn underneath.  Hardest part was actually keeping them from breaking afterwards.

Brian ran the youngest lane of bowlers and Bobby enjoyed himself thoroughly!

Isaac and his friends got a lane to themselves.

Judah was in the middle lane with Drew and their friends.  He's not quite strong enough to bowl regularly.

The girls stayed at home and took in the quiet house while Brian and I took the boys to the bowling alley.  I was so proud of myself for making it there with candles and cakes on time.  When I walked up to the counter to ask where we go, they informed me there were no birthday parties scheduled that day at that location.  They suggested maybe I was at the wrong location.  I sorta panicked at this point.  Thankfully, it was only 7 minutes drive which is just crazy because in San Antonio everything's far.  We made it to the party only a couple minutes late. 

The boys had three lanes organized according to age.  My family was able to come, and my sister and brother bowled in their own lane.  The kids had pizza and lemonade.  The kids got cards for the arcade and we sang Happy Birthday before eating cake.  It was a fun time.

My New 8 Year Old!

It seems like yesterday when he was giving us a run for our money and virtually living in time out. And then he was eight!

His birthday fell on a Friday which worked out perfectly for him because that just happens to be his favorite day of the week.  It is Co-op day!  He loves to go and be in a classroom setting and see his friends.  He is especially excited about lunchtime when he gets to play outside with one of his best buddies.  Plus, he was able to have his birthday dinner on his actual birthday.  He choose Buffalo Wild Wings which is only really because they have tablets with games on them and it's THE only time the kids get to play games on a computer.  It makes for a quiet dinner.  Coincidentally, my parents were in town and able to join us and my brother's family at the restaurant.  

His eight year old privilege is to lose the booster seat in the car.  We have a cushion that boosts him a little and is pretty comfy, so he's using that most of the time to give him just a little boost, but really he's tall enough not to need it.

I got him the Chime Travelers Series since he's into easy chapter books right now, but his real gift was a Beta fish.  He calls him Bubbles or Mr. Bubbles.  Its from a book called Memoirs of a Goldfish which was a cute picture book,  I checked out a bunch of books on goldfish, including Goldfish on Vacation which was the Read Aloud Revival Author Access recently, written by Sally Loyd Jones.  It was also a delightful book.  Anyway, his fish is doing well, and I am hoping this will teach him a little about fish and taking care of a pet.  I'm trying to explain as we go along the reasons behind things that need to be done for the fish and the water quality.

Our Cross Country Champ

Well, she's a champ in our eyes!  Over the summer, Genevieve started a regular running routine and made her 100 mile goal.  This was to get her ready for cross country.  I have been so proud of her for working so hard and not giving up.  She's run every race without stopping and she rarely complains about the practices, mainly just about the heat.  She has come a long way.

The Pancake Breakfast
They received their uniforms during a ceremony that included a speech by coach.  All the speeches at her school are about Aristotle or the Ancient Greeks or Romans and this one was no different.

The mass "Start" at the first cross country meet.  So many girls!

Genevieve is in the back here.  In Meet #1, her two mile time was 17:49.  It was so hot that day that even the bystanders were dripping with sweat.  One grandma and several runners got over heated.  

From after Meet #2

From Meet #2, she improved her time into the 16 minute range.

From after Meet #3

She's had three meets total and the only things left are Regionals and the Championship.

Miscellany

We spent the first weekend of the school year at a Catholic family conference together.  It went pretty well, over all.  We put the youngest three in the childcare room for the day on Saturday and heard some interesting stories about the other kids which made me glad I decided not to do it for the second day.  They just stayed with us for the second day.  We brought books and coloring stuff for the and they were very good.  

At the conference

I was inspired during Mass to come home and draw again which I haven't done much of lately, besides in my bullet journal.  I made these two pictures.

It's always wonderful when one of the kids is begging to learn things.  Bob is doing just that.  I know enough from my homeschooling experience to know that won't last forever and I need to take advantage of it while it lasts.  He's doing reading lessons from this book, and he is already reading the words with the sounds he's been introduced to in his head.  He's skipping sounding them out out loud.  This is one of the best parts of homeschooling.  Seeing them just get it and be so proud of themselves.

I got a pack of 6 white boards because they are the cat's meow around here.  Everybody spends so much of their free time on these boards.  Bob's even learning to write his letters on his board.  Judah was proud of his superhero.

Speaking of artwork, Hannah did these two pieces for school.  She doesn't spend a ton of time drawing anymore, but she still has a talent for it.  I'm glad they're "drawing" it out of her at school.

Architecture by Hannah

Still life by Hannah