A day trip to Sedona

I have the greatest husband in the world. An old college room mate called a few months ago to tell me that she would be within a day's drive and would like to meet me at a halfway point. My husband took a day off of work to homeschool our kids so I could go to meet her. He sacrificed one of his few vacation days (as he just started a new job five months ago). I left on Wednesday evening and returned on Thursday evening.

One thing about driving from Phoenix to Sedona is that getting out of Phoenix is roughly half of the driving time, especially in rush hour traffic which is not nearly as bad as Chicago rush hour traffic. Really! Also, Arizona is an awesome place to drive because a lot of the highways have a 75 mile/hour limit once you leave the city. However, there are no road lights, so once night falls, 75 feels pretty fast. It also means that you see nothing except what your headlights illuminate in front of you. So when I drove into Sedona at 7 p.m at night, I didn't see any mountains. Inky blackness extended beyond all the shops, galleries, hotels/motels/inns/resorts and restaurants. Sedona could have been one big valley as far as I was concerned.

However, this is what I woke up to:

Isn't it breathtaking?! The mountains seemed to form layer upon layer. You would get past one layer and find a whole new set of mountains. We got to "rock and roll on a very bad road" to see the ruins of an Native American pueblo built into an awesome cave. There are so many trails to hike that I could spend a week there and still not have explored them all. However, if I had formed my opinion based on what I had seen in the dark, I would have passed it off as merely a tourist trap (which it also is) and missed the glory and splendor that God created. It also made me wonder, however, if the residents of Sedona, the people who wake up to these views 365 days a year ever say to themselves, "Oh yeah. Another beautiful day to look at mountains (yawn). BORING!", or even "Mountains? What mountains?" I mean, really, if you had an awesome view to look at every day of your life, wouldn't it become ordinary and commonplace? Would it lose the luster? You might have to go to Detroit, Michigan (which I did visit once and was not impressed) or Rockford, Illinois (in which I lived for three rotten, no good years) to be able to renew your sense of wonder at your hometown and really appreciate it. At this point, I will leave you develop all the emotional and spiritual lessons that can be gleaned from this insightful insight.

My girlfriend and I had fun chatting about all sorts of stuff, taking a couple of hikes, and shopping, which, because I wasn't hunting for something in particular and because it didn't involve noisy malls, it didn't inspire anymore stanzas to the Malls--How do I hate thee? poem. We had lunch at a western themed restaurant with a fabulous view, too. I think it was the same one at which our family ate when we visited Sedona almost five years ago. I also had a vision for what to do to fill up the shelf high above the dry sink: buy a few, funky, tall, glass vases of different colors and shapes and put one of those rope lights behind them to turn on at night. However, I won't be buying them from the shop in Sedona which inspired my vision, considering one of them was about 1/3 of the cost of a small car.

All in all, it was a wonderful, lovely day in which not one conversation was interrupted by a child's need/scream/question/comment. Thank you, Eric. You are my knight in shining armor!

A trip up Pass Mountain

One of the many highlights of my in-laws trip was an early morning hike with my two daughters and niece up Pass mountain, part of the Usery Mountain range. Pass mountain has really cool, cream colored "scar" running near the top. It is volcanic tuff--rock formed by ash. It glows orange in the evening when the sun is setting. Our goal was not to make it to the top of the mountain, but to see the Wind Cave, a section of the mountain carved out by the wind. Actually, you can go on, but there was a sign that said that the path became very dangerous and I really didn't feel like doing something dangerous with pre-teen girls.

We started our journey in the wee hours of the morning. I woke my neice and daughters up a little after six a.m. and loaded up the camelbacks, some fruit, cheese snacks and stuff we might need on the trial, like bandaids and hand sanitizer. I also remembered the camera. Woo Hoo!. With one extra long stop at Dunkin' Donuts for sugar and carbs and a bathroom break, we started on the trail somewhere around 7 a.m. Part of the delay is that I had to return a second time because the donuts that M and I had chosen were so horrible tasting, I had to return them. What is the point of consuming a thousand calories in fat and sugar if you don't enjoy it? I wouldn't recommend that particular Dunkin' Donuts to people. Note that in the first picture, the girls are wearing jackets. Yes, sixty degrees IS cold if you are in Arizona.

Wind Cave trail is a 1.6 mile trail with an 800 foot elevation gain. We started out with what looked like a dry river bed on one side. The reason it looked like a river bed is that it was a lower area and had a high concentration of Palo Verde trees whereas we were surrounded by various cati and scrub brushes on the other side of the path. In Arizona, trees don't shed their leaves in the fall, they shed them in the summer, when drought conditions do not give them enough water to be able to photosynthesize. Also, most trees have small leaves in the desert to minimize transpiration, which is the trees breathing out moisture with the carbon dioxide. As we passed by palo verde trees, I saw tiny, cute leaf buds emerging from the stems. It took us about an hour to climb to the wind cave. The fact that it is a cave should tell you that we didn't reach the summit of the moutain. There were a couple of times when the path turned sharply and we started going the wrong way. Fortunately, the wrong way soon became impassible, which caused us to look around for the real trail. A few times, we walked over large bolders that served as a bridge over a little crevice in the path. With the way they were tumbled together in just the right way to support each other, I wondered if this was engineered by the park service or an act of God designed to help hikers. The wind cave is part of the tuff, so that when we approaced the cave, we got to see the it up close and personal. There were bits of granite "marbles" embedded in the tuff as well as large tracts of...lichen. We made it to the wind cave in about an hour. We spent some time resting in the cave. Basically, it is an indentation carved out by the wind. We didn't stay long because there was some evidence of a bee hive formed in one of the crevices, which made at least one of the girls nervous. We ate the cheese and started walking down. Even though we carried camelbacks, which hold at least 64 ounces of fluid, one of the children had gone through most of her water on the way up. Therefore, I had to share some of my water on the way down. It took us about 45 minutes to get down, mainly because we took fewer breaks. By that time, the kid's camelbacks were all drained, which meant a stop at the potty before heading back home. We were home by 9:45 a.m., ready to go to bed, or at least rest ;-). The hike was made possible by Nana and Poppa, who had brought my boys with them for a sleep over the previous night. Otherwise, the hike would have been a bit more daunting, especially with a four year old. I think I will wait another year, or maybe wait until I have another adult, to go on this trail with my youngest.

The only thing that I was hoping to see was a little more wildlife. With cooler temperatures and the early morning hours,theoretically, we should have seen a lot more animals. However, with four chatty females acting as an early warning system for the animals, the only thing we really saw were birds, other hikers, and one baby rabbit. However, the rainbow made up for the lack of fauna. It "rained" that morning, and by "rained" I mean that water fell from the sky, though very little of it actually touched the earth. Seeing the rainbow as we started our descent was very inspiring. It was as if God were blessing our hike that morning. It must have worked, too, because, for once, my youngest daughter did not cry and whine at all about being too tired to go on. It was definitely an awesome hike!

What I did on my Facebook Vacation:

When I moved from Illinois to Arizona, I was just getting into Facebook. That is to say, I would be on it about a once a night and maybe skip some days. When I moved to Arizona, however, Facebook became my primary lifeline to my friends back home, whom I was sorely missing. I started checking Facebook multiple times a day. I started viewing my day as what would make a good Facebook status. I started spending a LOT of time commenting and reading and taking quizzes of all kinds. I knew I was spending too much time on Facebook when my kids started developing a daily mantra of “Momma’s on Facebook again.” or “When are you going to get off of Facebook so we can play, Momma?.” Ouch! However, just like an alcoholic starts having a hard time saying “no” to alcohol, I started having a hard time walking away from FB. I HAD to get my daily, I mean, hourly, fix. Finally, God basically told me that I had to cut WAY back or else He would have me shut it down. Therefore, I took a two week vacation from Facebook. I planned the time carefully because family was visiting us for one whole week. That was the highlight of my two week FB fast. What else happened? Here are more highlights, in random order:

1. I had a fabulous time with my wonderful father-in-law and his wife, who is a dear, sweet lady, and my fun loving niece. The highlights of the stay was spending time with Kathy, hiking up Wind Cave Trail in the Usury mountains with my girls and niece, having alone time with the boys, dinner with in-laws sans kids, and playing Bananagrams.
2. I started making a Thanksgiving wreath using an embroidery hoop and many different colored ribbon. I finished it tonight watching a pre-recorded episode of “FlashForward” which I have not decided if I like or not. Too much cheesy dialogue. Too much like “Lost.” And is Joseph Fiennes really that gruff-voiced or is he intentionally whiskey-voiced to add to the gloomy ambience and keep reminding us that his character is a recovering alcoholic?
3. I played with my kids more—really. I also paid attention to them more and talked with them more.
4. My husband and I talked more. Any more information is really none of your business.
5. I read about making paper mache, which we are going to need in order to make two different Halloween costumes for the kids.
6. I finished one blog and wrote a second one.
7. I found my book _Waltzing Australia_ under a pile of kid's books and read another chapter in it. Well, technically, one of my kid's found it for me.
8. I read other people’s blogs.
9. I prepared more for the homeschooling week and found ways to make history come alive, mainly by impromptu acting.
10. I planned trips to take with my niece and children.
11. I shopped for the kid’s Halloween costumes, though that wasn’t all joy and bliss as my last blog will testify.
12. I slept more. It’s boring, but much needed.
13. I wrote a blog for “RealFolksUnited” about why I homeschool. I was inspired after reading that President Obama plans to increase the number of hours in a school day AND extend the year in the hopes that our children will become smarter than all the other world’s kids in spite of the fact that we already log in more hours per year of school than the children in countries who spank us in test scores. Every problem is a nail and the government is the hammer, apparently. Or is it a sickle? I know, it’s both! (Tongue in cheek humor, here. For those of you who support President Obama, keep in mind that at least I am not hyping an energy drink with a cocaine theme).
14. I started investigating things to do in Sedona for the one day that I will be there with an old college roommate.
15. I searched for potential camping places for my daughter, who wants to camp and fish as well as wrack my braid for a free weekend in which to take her.
16. I called a couple of people I normally would only facebook. BTW, can "facebook" be used as a verb now?
17. I baked a little more. It was in the 80's last week. Woo hoo for cooler weather! (please refrain from nasty comments from those of you in northern climes, I can't help it that I live in the desert!)

The one thing I wish I could post as an activity is that I spent a lot more time with God, both in prayer and in His word. However, I was a little sporadic in that area. One week was totally awesome and the next week was bad. Therefore, I can't blame FB for problems in that area, at least.

In general, I did not experience any withdrawal symptoms from Facebooking activities, though I was a little worried that one or two of my pregnant friends would give birth while I was taking the vacation and thus miss the announcement. Unfortunately for them, they didn't. Girls, you can now go into labor! I'm back! :-). I did miss all the little updates on my friends lives, but I will have to go on with my life with a blank spot in my computer generated memory. And I will be only going on FB occasionally during the week, because I don't want to status my life away.

Malls--How do I hate thee?

I am preparing for Halloween. I hate spending money on something that is used once or maybe twice, if I can find it the next year, so I try to create a costume from clothing that the kids can use after they go trick or treating. The problem is that to accomplish this, I usually need to find clothing of a specific color and PLAIN--i.e., free of all embellishments, patterns and egotistical phrases. Ay, there's the rub! To try and accomplish this feat, I decided to go to the mall with all four children in tow because, after all, malls have the highest concentration of stores and, theoretically, I should be able to find what I need in ONE store? The end result is usually me needing the remainder of the day in quiet solitude to recover. Returning today from the latest venture in frustration, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, "How Do I Love Thee?," inspired me to write one of a contradictory theme.

Malls, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.
I hate thee to the height and depth and breadth
of all my senses, which are constantly assaulted
by loud music from the numerous stores and halls
and gaudy displays of women and men
in provocative clothing and/or poses.
I hate thee for the TVs that are strewn about the mall
and congregating in the food court showing music videos
of women wearing a preponderance of tight, glossy leather,
or bikinis, promoting them as everyday, casual clothes.
I hate thee for the multitude of total crap
that you try to convince me and my children to buy,
useless trifles packaged appealingly
and appealing to our egos and vanity,
stirring up in us ingratitude for God's many blessings.
I hate thee with a hatred that re-emerges
every time I step through your doors
trying to find what I need and instead
being offered what you think I should have.
And, if I could choose, I would shop always
in the quiet and solitude of the internet
until God brings me home in a heaven free of malls.

I realize that I may sound a bit puritannical in this poem; however, it is actually quite appropriate since we are studying the Pilgrims now (tee hee). You also need to know that shopping is not enjoyable for me. I am not the stereotypical woman who views shopping as therapy. I hunt for what I need and get frustrated when I can't find it. And the more specific an item, the harder it is to find. Plus, being highly visual and very auditory based person, I have just realized that the mall totally overwhelmes my senses. I feel the same way as I do when all four children try to talk to me at once, or at a party when there are two interesting conversations going on within earshot. Finally, my children usualy devolve into whining, wild things at the mall if I spend too much time there, which continues past our time at the mall.

In an attempt to end this on a positive note, my kids are dressing up as Black Beauty, a princess (but not Princess Buttercup), a cowboy (because he really wants an excuse for me to buy him boots) and a pterydactyl. The horse and pterydactyl will involve the kids learning about paper mache. I am looking forward to the whole process and its imperfect finished product. I just hope that the horse and pterydactly are moderately recognizable.

Homeschool Update

Bridgetender School is currently in session with three grade school children and one pre-school. We started on August 17th, 2009. God has truly been blessing me in getting contacts in the homeschool groups here. The Arizona Homeschool Convention was held in Phoenix in July, which helped me find a couple of friends. I have also found homeschoolers in the church and who are friends of neighbors.

Once again, we are studying history and science as a group. This year, we are learning about the colonization of America, the Revolutionary War and the Constitution and American government system. We started by talking about some other documents that inspired the developers of the Constitution, like the Magna Charta. We also discussed some of the explorers of the New World, like Leif Ericsson, Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. Every other week we are getting together with a retired homeschool mother who is teaching us basic colonial skills like washing wool, dyeing it, and, soon to come, spinning and weaving it. We have also planted seeds, which the smart colonists would do. All of our gardening this year will be container gardening. So far, we have planted tomatoes, peppers, carrots, lettuce and several herbs and spices. Science is a continuation of the Apologia curriculum covering flying animals. We are starting with birds and what makes them fly and some of their behavior. We will be starting to establish a bird journal which will . We are also going to set out bird feeders with different seeds and see which one is preferred by the birds. Apologia recommends some homemade suet as one alternative, but methinks that suet would melt in Arizona temperatures.

For math, Kris is continuing using Math U See. Elizabeth is almost finished with the third book and will be starting the fourth book, which will cover fractions and all the wonderful things you can do with fractions. Jessica is starting to learn multiplication and Kyle is starting addition. I think that they are all telling John math facts because he is starting to memorize certain facts.

For literature, I am using material from the Institute for Excellence in Writing, specifically related to literature. We are reading _The Princess and the Goblin_ by George MacDonald and talking about basic story elements, finding alliteration, similies, and metaphors. This also, we are doing together.

We are managing to do grammer a little bit together. I am using "Grammer Rock" to introduce topics, use the Bafflegab game to create sentences and then analyzing them, based on their level. Kyle is learning about subject/predicate, Jessi is having the basics parts of speech re-inforced and Elizabeth is learning about direct objects and will be learning about indirect objects. When President Obama gave his speech to Congress in regards to health care reform, I printed out the text and had the children take a paragraph and look for something, either subject, noun or verb. The kids like playing Bafflegab, in which they are given five words and have to come up with a sentence or two using as many words as they can manage.

Kyle is starting penmanship and Jessi is starting cursive writing using "A Reason for Handwriting." Jessi and Elizabeth sometimes will have copywork or dictation exercises. They also will sometimes be assigned writing activities. Most of the writing activities are short, but I did give both girls a biography to write and then verbally report to the rest of the school. Elizabeth did a great job and I will publish it soon. It was too much of a stretch for Jessi, though, even when I broke it down for her a little bit.

Outside activities include PE club called SportskidzAZ which meets Monday, art class, which meets Wednesday afternoon. The art class is another one of God's blessings. I found it by missing the turn to get to Usery mountain. I passed a house that looked like a castle and as I was pointing it out, I saw a sign indicating that someone was having art camp. I eventually wrote down the web site and found out that a local artist is teaching kids art in the area. He has been letting them make sculpey creatures, make wooden structures and is starting them on oil painting. Wow! The girls are also taking music lessons, Kyle has become involved in Cub Scouts and Jessi and John are taking gymnastics. Elizabeth has also become involved in the church youth choir and is taking horse riding lessons, which meets her P.E requirement. Her volunteer opportunity is helping her teacher, a college age girl, take care of the horses for an hour after her lesson. We meet once a month for a homeschool support/fellowship group and once a month for the group's playdate. Once again, God's grace is obvious because many of these activities involve more than one child at the same time, so that I don't have to be constantly in the car, though it does feel like it. We are currently evaluating the gymnastics day that Jessi and John are attending because it is already very busy.

I feel priviledge that God is still allowing me to learn so many things through my kids, not only stuff that I should have learned in school (reference to "Whaddya Know" program out of PBS--WI), but also how my kids "tick" and how to give gentle critism of their work. The best thing He has taught me is to recognize when I am being too tough on the kids, expecting their work to be high school level. When I catch myself in the middle of this train, I jump the tracks by saying, "Well, this is okay for a sixteen year old." The kids laugh at this and then I start "guessing" their real age. When I guess correctly, I tell them, "Well then, this is awesome for a ____ year old." And we hug. I am currently reading a book by Cynthia Tobias called _How They Learn_, which is a great way to have discussions. I am looking forward to learning more from Him and from my kids. I am amazed at what they can do.

We took a short break when a friend from Illinois, Denise, visited us, which was a LOT of fun. We will be taking a short break from all but the basics in October when we get a visit from Papa, Nana and cousin/niece Emily. We are really looking forward to seeing them.

What is true compassion?

If you have ever watched VeggieTales’ “Jonah”, there is a point in the movie where Pa Grape defines compassion as this: when you see someone who needs help and want to help them. I looked it up in Webster’s Nineth Collegiate Dictionary and it used fancier words for the same definition. I love VeggieTales! Who would think that that such a simple definition would be in the center of so many arguments? Some people say that abortion is showing compassion to those women who are in a bad situation whereas other say that the truly compassionate deed is letting them experience the joyful bundle that comes out of bad situation. Some people argue that giving everyone health care insurance is showing compassion to the poor, whereas others argue that eliminating the huge debt we owe to other contries is showing compassion to future generations. Can we say “Ni Hao?” Sure, I know we can and possibly will. As a conservative, I have sometimes been troubled that the liberals seem to be more compassionate toward the poor, the downtrodden, the forgotten. Every time there is a national debate about health care reform, housing reform, etc., they talk about the plight of the poor and weak and that those people need help. I think George W. Bush must have felt the same way because he coined the term “compassionate conservatism” which, at the end of eight years ended up being neither, in my opinion. However, I come back to the issue of helping the poor and think, “Am I really being hard hearted toward the poor and weak and defenseless?” Jesus talked a lot about the poor and weak, didn’t he? Wouldn’t Jesus want us to help them? Would Jesus be telling me to support security blanket programs like Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and a public health insurance option?

Somehow, I don’t think so. All those programs, and the proposed public health insurance option, allow us to keep the poor and needy at a distance, someone else’s problem, without letting them become our neighbors. After all, if the government is helping the poor and needy, we certainly don’t need to concern ourselves with them, do we? We are showing that we love them indirectly, by allowing money we earn to be taken from us by the government and given to the poor. Boy, does my conscience feel better now. And I still have money to buy my daily venti caramel machiatto and cinnamon scone at Starbucks and amuse myself with my iPhone as I plan my next vacation to Disneyworld!

If letting the government take care of our neighbors is true compassion, then Jesus needs to re-write some of his stories, too. The guy who goes to his neighbor’s house to borrow food for an unplanned guest will be told by his neighbor, who is shouting through the closed door, to go three miles to the government office for food stamps so he can get the food free (Luke 11:5-8) or maybe he wouldn’t have gone to the neighbor in the first place. In addition, the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus told in Luke 10:30-37 should be re-written too. Instead of the Samaritan stopping, caring for the wounds, bringing the injured man with him at the inn, taking care of him through the night, and paying for the man’s continued convelescence there, Jesus would have the Samaritan stop by the local government office to tell the people working there about the wounded man. “Yeah, we know about him,” the government official would say. “You are the third guy to tell us about him. There was a priest a couple hours ago and a Levite an hour ago who told us about him. The problem is, that we have had to take care of so many people, we haven’t been able to pick him up yet. My guess is that he will get picked up and taken to the local inn for care in the next hour.” And they all went on their way completely justified. The end.

For those of you who aren’t into the Bible, there is another, very familiar story that no longer has relevance if letting the government take care of the poor and needy and uninsured is the right solution. It is as much of the Christmas tradition as is “The Nutcracker”, presents, and Christmas parties: It is a play that is run throughout the country based on a book written by Charles Dickens, called A Christmas Carol. It would become the shortest book ever because of the two gentlemen visiting Scrooge at the beginning of the story to ask him to give them money to help the poor on Christmas Eve. Scrooge asks whether or not the debtor’s prisons, the Union workhouses and the Poor Law had been dismantled—the government plan for taking care of the poor. When they assure him that they were still in place, his comment would be “I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course…I help to support the establishments I have mentioned—they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.” Then the gentleman would say, “Oh that is right, the poor ARE taken care of. Why are we even doing this?” And they start talking to Scrooge about the best way to invest their savings. The end. Scrooge wouldn’t be described as a “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone..a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,clutching, covetous old sinner.” And he wouldn’t be visited by his partner, Jacob Marley, who at one point, wouldn’t be crying out in the hopes of changing Scrooge, “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” The book would be approximately 50 pages at the most, unless he decided to add other events justifying Scrooge’s position because, after all, he did get paid by the word those days. By the way, the Poor law was the way the English government decided to help the poor. They required communities to develop buildings to house and feed the poor, in exchange for work. If you want more information on these poor houses, you can either read Oliver Twist or check out http://www.judandk.force9.co.uk/workhouse.html. In the interest of context, Mr. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol nine years after a new Poor Law was established to supercede the old Poor Law, which apparently wasn’t working.

So this is my concern: if we, as individuals decide to let the government “take care” of the poor, will we become a nation of Scrooges, or at least a majority of Scrooges? Maybe we have poor people and uninsured people so that we can carry out our God-given responsibility of looking them in the eye when we are taking care of them. Jesus says that the second greatest commandment is this: “To love our neighbor as ourselves.” This means that we need to love our neighbors, the poor and not-so-poor, up close and personal, not let someone else throw money at them in the name of love. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan right after highlighting the second greatest commandments in response to a person asking him the definition of “neighbor,”. Since the Samaritan encountered the injured man on a road and didn’t know him personally, Jesus’ definition of neighbor isn’t necessarily limiting the word to the person who lives right next door. Loving your neighbor, however, is REALLY tough. I just moved from a neighborhood near Chicago and was recently reminded how long it took me to get to know my neighbors and how tough some of them were to get to know. Now I get to start all over again. Yippee. Family members are also no picnic to love either. For that matter, it takes a lot of concious decisions to love my husband and my kids at all times. I am sure some people feel the same way about me. And yet, I would not give any of them up for all the safety net programs in the world.

So now that I have realized that liberals are not necessarily more compassionate than I am, I can sit back, with my concience cleared and think about jumping in the pool with my husband and kids. And yet, there is still something tickling my concience. It is the thought that God does not bless us so that we can wallow in those blessings, like Demi Moore wallowing in money she received in some movie with Robert Redford. He gives them to us so that we can pass it on to others in some way. It doesn’t have to be money, but it does have to show love to someone else that He puts in our path, whether it is an old friend or a stranger. And that I should be encouraging people to be more personally liberal with the blessings God has given them so that the government doesn’t steal our God given rights to care for our neighbor. How about it? Why don’t you take the time to go somewhere where you aren’t comfortable and start getting to know someone you don’t know and may not have any common interests?

A new addition to the family

No, I am not pregnant! I know for many of you, the fact that I can go four years without getting pregnant may be considered a minor miracle. However, I am done with being pregnant. I have been blessed enough, my quiver is full. I am now looking forward to the very distant future when I will become a grandmother and take care of kids for a short time and afterward be able to give them back to their parents.

Our newest addition to the family is a dog. For those of you who don't know, I have been wanting a dog ever since I was nine years old. That was the year that my Nana bought a dog for me. There were two teeny problems. The first one was that she bought it in Arizona and I was living in Ohio. The second problem is that my dad was adamantly opposed to having a dog in the house. She knew that he was opposed to having a pet. However, I think my grandmother rationalized that if she told me that she bought me a puppy that my dad would never have the guts to destroy the hopes and dreams of his daughter and not allow her to bring it with her. She had seriously underestimated him. I begged, pleaded, and cried asking him to let her bring my puppy with her (at least that is my memory of the story). However, he stood resolute in his policy of "no dogs allowed" and I finally had to resign myself to the fact that I was not going to know the joys of owning a dog--at least as a child. However, I consoled myself with the thought that when I grew up, I was going to own a dog and a cat, and whatever animal I wanted.

So why did it take me so long to own a pet? Most rental places don't like dogs and charge a lot of extra money for them. Plus, dogs aren't right for a person who likes to travel frequently. So I settled for a cat, thinking that cats are really good training for dogs. I ended up with two cats at one point. I met Eric, and after making him sign a pre-nup that he would allow me to have a dog--okay, it was really only a solemn vow made before our wedding vows--we got married. I still had the two cats in a townhouse, so we decided to wait to get a dog. Soon after our wedding, we found out we were pregnant. The thought of taking care of a dog AND babies was a little daunting, so I decided to wait until the last one was potty trained. I didn't realize how LONG I would have to wait. Nine years later, I had three other voices clamoring for a dog. However, we had to wait six months longer because Eric was laid off, we moved to Arizona and we had to get settled in the house. My youngest daughter spent the better part of a year reading up on dogs and dog breeds. The last two weeks of waiting were spent watching "The Dog Whisperer" episodes. Eric and I also made the kids sign a contract making them primary caretakers of the dog and any other pets that we assimilated.

The process of finding a dog was a heartbreaking. We went to the animal control shelter and saw all sorts of dogs that really needed owners. Even though pit bulls are ugly dogs, in my humble opinion, there were so many that if I hadn't had children, I would have adopted one. Kyle was the determining factor. He was very intimidated by any dog that was close to his height. In fact, he didn't really even want a dog at first. But he did find one dog at the shelter that he liked. It was a cute schnauzer/poodle mix (schnoodle). He was so cute and relatively calm. However, I wanted Eric to see it, so we had to wait four hours for him to get off work. We returned home, hoping no one else would like the dog. We returned to the shelter in the early afternoon to find our hopes dashed. Our kids were inconsolable, especially Kyle, who had really liked the dog. I even cried at one point. However, I kept telling the kids (and myself) that this meant that God had another dog for us. On Saturday,after visiting three different shelter sites in three different cities, we found Jacques.

Jacques is a poodle/bichon frise mix, though the poodle side must be a standard poodle because he is taller than most bichons that I have seen. He is really cute! He and I have bonded totally. He is not so sure about Eric, however. With any dog you adopt, you will have issues from past masters. In the last family to own Jacques, the male figure and Jacques did not get along. Jacques likes to bark at Eric and even growl when he enters the room. This is a little alarming, but we have found that the best way to deal with it is for me to stay out of the picture until Jacques has sniffed Eric and submits to him. He has no problem with Eric walking him or even sitting by Eric on the red couch when I am gone. However, he loves sitting by me or the kids. As a bonus, poodles and bichons don't have as much issues with shedding as other breeds, which is a big relief to me as well as my kids. They are also "hypoallergenic" meaning that even people with dog allergies are okay with them. He makes me walk pretty much every day, either at night or in the morning before Eric goes to work. We have taken "The Dog Whisperer" seriously when he says that dogs need exercise above all else, so we walk him both in the morning and at the evening.

In summary, Jacques is worth the wait and is a blessing to our family.