Puppy Breath

So what is it about Puppy Breath that is so adorable and loveable?  I know of NO other animal, big or small, that everyone just loves their BREATH!!  If you have the answer, please tell me! 

But in the meantime, meet the newest member of our family!  His name is not "official" yet, but so far Hudson has been calling him Norman. We have bounced around Ranger, Chief, Hogan, Nelson, O'Malley, and a few others....but Hudson likes Norman BEST. 

We picked him up yesterday in Dallas and got to meet his mom, Sadie, and his 1/2 sister Gracie.  They were just super cute and fun! 

Gracie is in the front and Sadie is behind Greg's leg

Norman took to Hudson quickly and they were fast friends...

This is a picture of Norman's daddy.....his name is Auzzie.  Puppy pic on the right and one when he was a little older on the left.  He doesn't have any of the black hair anymore, so this was probably taken well before he was 1 year old. 

A little play-time for Sadie and her baby boy....

Peek-a-Boo!!

The beginning of a great friendship:

Soooo, that was our first day with Mr. Norman!  He was GREAT on the car ride home and just acted like he had done it a million times already.  He only got up one time during the night and went right back into his kennel.  I think we have a good little dog on our hands and I'm sooo thankful we waited all this time to find the perfect dog for all of us.  :)

First Day of 3-year Old Preschool!

Welp - today was Hudson's first day of Preschool! 

He was VERY excited and didn't ask me not even once when I was going to come pick him up.  This is polar opposite of every other year thus far, so for those of you you might have a "clinger" or a "cry-er" or just one that asks you ever day before school when you will pick them up - they really DO grow out of it!!  Whew.

The morning started out with me waking up 45 mins late and when I was making his lunch I was moving something in the fridge that caused the CoffeeMate to fall straight to the floor like a ton of bricks.  The result....CoffeeMate splattered ALL OVER the entire kitchen.  The microwave, the ovens, the floor, the entire inside of the fridge, the rug, the the cabinets.....shall I go on?  I kept my cool, took a deep breath, and cleaned it up.  Tragedy averted.

So I know you all want me to shut-up and just show you the pictures so here they are....  :)
My big boy!!!

Heading into the school!

Ms. Bandy (assistant) on the left and Ms. Prichard (teacher) on the right

I am soooo thankful for them and will pray for them daily.  They're going to need it.

This is Hudson's "symbol" for the year.
As well as learning to look for his name, he will
look for his symbol to know where he is supposed
to sit, where his papers are, etc.  FUN!!

Ok, so now I'm going to show you a few extra pictures I snapped this morning....

All of a sudden Hudson when into "model-mode" and here is what I was able to capture in between my giggles....

I mean, seriously...
What is he doing?

CRACKIN ME UP!!!!

In An Instant....

Hi there.

This has been somewhat of a strange week.
A woman who lived in my husband's hometown passed away.  I didn't know her personally, but she was only 30 yrs old and has a precious husband and three young babies.  Her funeral was regarded as a celebration of her life and praise was lifted as she is now in her forever home in the Kingdom of God.  As much as I truly love the thought of that, and believe that with all my heart, I just have so many questions....most of them starting with the word "why".  I"m not doubting God or wavering in Faith as I truly believe she lived out her destiny on this Earth, but still.....why her?  why now?  why-why-why....

Then tonight I found out that a woman in my Junior League Group....her son, who is a senior in high school, died of a terrible tragedy.  More why's......?

Tonight, Hudson and I were in an "accident" (WE ARE BOTH OK!!!), but it was very scary and I just can't help but continue to think about it....  So, I wanted to share it with you and hopefully it can put a little perspective in all of our lives.

At about 5:30 this evening Hudson and I were heading to the post office to mail some birthday goodies to my Dad.  I called Greg from the car and he told me that the golf course was in the middle of a hail storm, wind storm, and rain storm.  I proceeded to tell him about the huge, ominous cloud that was lurking over us and I even made the comment that it looked just like a tornado could drop down, but there was no rotation at all so we just carried on our way.  I came to a stop light and noticed that the American flag at Chick-fil-A was blowing to the southwest.  Weird.  I even picked up the phone to call my parents and report the strange West Texas wind that we were experiencing.  No answer, so we moved on towards the post office.  We arrived there just as few rain drops were starting to fall and I informed Hudson that we had to be FAST so that we could get back to the car before the big rain started. 

Forget that idea.  The big rain started about 30 seconds after we walked into the post office.  I picked out an appropriate box for our items to be mailed and was filling out the mailing label when I said, "man, look at that rain!!"......and WHAM.  Before I could even begin to process another thought the entire window of the post office blew in on all of us.  Miraculously, there were only 2 people that required stitches and gratefully neither Hudson nor I were one of them.

Hudson was obviously shaken up and scared, but he handled it all very well and all the way home we talked about how God had protected us and that it was just a weird accident that would never repeat itself.  At bedtime tonight, even after we had not talked about any of it for hours, he thanked God for keeping us safe.  :)

And He did.  I mean seriously.... there is absolutely NO reasonable explanation that there weren't some major injuries.  There were pieces of glass that were 12 inches long....probably bigger.  But glass was EVERYWHERE.  How did someone's eye not get poked out?  How did someone not have a huge piece of glass protruding out of their body somewhere?  How in the world......???

All I can say is that Angels were among us tonight and I am soooooooooo very grateful.  Humbled.  Amazed.  Thankful.  Blessed. 

I do have to admit that there is a part of me that wants to rationalize it all.  I even told Greg I want to see the surveillance tapes.  I mean, HOW did it all happen?  How was no one seriously hurt?  What did everyone do?  Did it really all happen as fast as it seemed??

The truth is that I already know....there is only one answer.  There honestly is NO other explanation.
It was a God thing.  And as much as I want to keep asking why and how and what, I'm starting to realize that there really are more important things that God wants me to be noticing, feeling, living, recieving, giving....

So, in finishing up, I just want to say that your life, my life, Hudson's life....ALL our lives really can change in an instant.  I plan to start living my life keeping that in the front of my mind.  I hope you will too. 

Love and Blessings - C