First Football Game

Andrew had his first football game on Saturday, August 29th and his team, The Cowboys beat the DeSoto Eagles 19-0! Drew played defense and in the pictures above he is #38. He is wearing black pants because his grey pants were too small. They ordered him some new ones and hopefully they will be in by the next game on 9/12. All the uniforms were either too big or too small, this is why the boys unforms do not all match.

Friday night we went to the Fox High School game and they also beat DeSoto! It was a lot of fun and the first time I have been to a high school football game since I was in high school! We hope to go to more this season - so many of the boys from Drew's league go to the games.

Next game they play the JCYA Chargers.

New pictures of Athan

He's getting bigger and I hate that I can't see him more often! Athan is 6 months old now! He can sit up and crawl! He is such a sweetie and he is a great cuddle bug. I miss him already! Come back soon little buddy!

Now you see them, now you don't!

Drew got his braces off today! Yeah! Starting the 7th grade this Thursday without braces on his teeth!

Lake of the Ozarks Vacation

We just got back today from our camping vacation at Lake of the Ozarks. We got down there Thursday afternoon and got set up in our campsite. The camp grounds at Lake of the Ozarks State Park are huge! It was quiet when we got there and we were starting a campfire when we noticed two fawn just a few campsites away. I was able to get pretty close before they took off. We saw quite a bit of wildlife this trip, I had an encounter with another raccoon, this one jumped up on the dumpster Thursday night just as I was walking away after putting trash in! He was trying to get inside the dumpster. We saw herds of deer besides the two fawn in camp, squirrels and chipmunks. Another camper told us that Bobcat's were in the park on Thursday night but fortunately I didn't see any!

Friday we went over to my parents Lake house which is so nice and about 200% better than the old trailer they used to have! We went out on my parents boat on Friday and since we brought Ellie with us we thought we would just leave her in my parents house. As you know we recently lost Kipper and Ellie is our only dog now. She is house broken and other than getting into the trash she is a good dog until we left her in an unknown place! When we got back from "coving out" we found that she had chewed up the couch! There was foam everywhere. Needless to say my parents were not happy! Friday night we went out to dinner and had to leave Ellie tied up outside at my parents. When we got back to camp she literally when straight to bed because she had such an exhausting day.

Saturday we went back to my parents and hung out there for the day. Bill and Drew did some fishing and we all enjoyed some swimming off their dock. It was so hot too on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Figures because all of July was so nice. Bill cooked some ribs and we all enjoyed some BBQ (not to mention the chicken wings we had earlier in the day).

Sunday we went out on the boat again and this time Ellie went with us! She wasn't too thrilled with her boat ride but she did good. The best thing was Drew's first time ever on a inner tube being pulled by Papa. The facial expressions that kid made were hilarious! Both Bill and I laughed so hard we were crying and I nearly peed my swimsuit! If only I had a video camera to catch all of that. I got several still pictures but a video would have been priceless. After all of that fun we went down to the Strip and went to Dogpatch gift shop and Grandma's Candy Kitchen. Drew and Bill rode go-carts where Bill takes it very seriously! One would think he was racing on NASCAR!

Monday was suppose to be our last day at camp but it rained hard all morning and we didn't really want to leave. So we talked to the camp host and we stayed another night! The guys went fishing while Ellie and I went on a long walk. We did a lot of long walks throughout the park the whole time we were there. One walk was really pleasant, though rather long, because as we walked along the trail we came upon a doe and Bill said "her baby is close by." He was right, only she had two babies! I'm pretty sure these were the two we saw in camp the first night. It rained off and on all day Monday but it was cool and very relaxing. We played cards (Uno) after dinner and then went to bed to get up early this morning to head home.

Now we are back home, mostly unpacked and laundry going. The pictures above are the photos I took while on vacation. I'm not in too many because a) I take the pictures and b) don't really like my picture taken anymore! We got home in time to go to 7th grade orientation at Fox Middle School. Drew will be on the green team (whatever that means) and he is in all advanced placement classes. He didn't get German but instead got 2 band classes (regular and Jazz). We found his locker and he is excited about going to middle school.

Now I think I'm going to get ready for bed so I can get up early for work tomorrow, then football practice in the evening!

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Today Kipper joined our Taffy in dog heaven. Ironically he had the same cancer Taffy had and followed her just three months after she went. We will miss you Kipper so much.

Almost 10 years ago, Drew and I were ready for a pet dog so we headed down to the City Shelter. I wanted a female dog and was looking at this Shepard mix when Drew said to me "mommy, I like this one" I turned around and saw that he was male and I said "I wanted a girl dog, look at this one." So Drew turned around to look at the dog I was looking at and the male dog started barking and whining to get our attention. I thought he is a cute little dog, so we asked the attendant about him. She put him on a leash and we went outside and she told us this is a good dog, he is leash trained and house broken. We decided to get him but there was a 5 day hold on him because the dog catcher found him and they had to wait to see if he was claimed by a family. They told us that he was trapped in an abandoned building where the stairs had collapsed behind him. The dog catcher thought he was so sweet that he rode up front in the truck cab with him instead of in the back with the other dogs! We waited and hoped that "our" dog would come home to us. Just before Halloween 1999 we got the call that no one had claimed him and he was ours! He came home to us the first week of November. Because we got the news on Halloween we thought we would give him a Halloween name. We tried different names but the dog never looked up. Well some of you might remember a television program for kids called "Kipper the dog" and that video tape was sitting on top of our TV, so I said "what about Kipper?" and he lifted his head and wagged his tail! That was his name from then on.

Once not long after we got him we were having White Castles and Kipper stole one right out of Drew's hand! We figured he remembered them from living on the streets! Kipper has been a great dog. Sometimes a little neurotic but he was loyal. He loved us as much as we loved him and our house will never be the same without him in it. We will miss you old man!