RIP Dolly Mae

We will miss you Dolly, you were part of our family for the past 13 years and you were such a good dog. At least you'll see your mom Cleo and sister Daisy Mae in doggy heaven, along with China, Taz, Abbie & Shadow. RIP Dolly, we love you.

Why don't friends with kids have time?

This article was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. I am not a stay at home mom, but I can still relate to everything in the response. I work full time and do all of these things in addition, so you can imagine my availability. Granted, Phoebe is growing up and becoming more independent, but I still want to spend every available minute with her before she gets to that age where she doesn't want to hang out with me. =( So I don't get on Facebook or on the computer at home except maybe once or twice a week. Right now I'm posting this before she wakes up. I do feel so out of touch with everyone, but I feel so in touch with my daughter, which is the most important to me. So hopefully my friends and family understand. We'll be in touch again one day. :)

Tennessee Vacation - June 20-23, 2012

We flew in to Nashville on Wednesday, June 20th. We had to get up at 4am and leave the house for 5am to catch a 7am flight. We arrived on time in Nashville at 9:06am. When we got to the baggage claim, Mikey spotted my dad outside, me and Phoebe went out by them and Mikey stayed to collect the baggage. Well he was taking a while so I went back in to check on him, he's still standing there waiting for the luggage. There are only a few bags left on the belt, none of them ours. Then the worker turned off the lights and power to the carousel, which meant there were no bags left to be claimed. No one offered assistance, we stood there, looking lost. I finally decided to ask the United Airlines lady who was a foot away, "what do we do if our luggage isn't here?". She didn't even look at me then said "I'll need your baggage receipt" and she walked away, continuing to work. She may experience this chaos everyday, but we haven't flown in a few years where we had to check luggage. So she could've acted a bit sympathetic to our situation, geesh. I follow her around until she finally asks me for the baggage receipt. She types something on the computer then tells me our luggage wasn't placed on our plane and it would arrive on the next one, which was due to arrive in 2 hours, at 11:30. We had the option to come back and pick it up or have it delivered. We chose to have it delivered, which would be within 2 hours of the plan arriving, so within the next 4 hours. My cameras were in the luggage, so no pictures could be taken. We headed to my dad's house, but stopped at Cracker Barrel to grab a bite to eat on the way. We hung around the house and the luggage finally arrived around 3 or 4. Phoebe learned to play pool and ping pong. She loved both. And I was introduced to Arizona Diet Green Tea, which I now drink everyday. :) We went to Rock City and Ruby Falls on Thursday, went to the mall to walk around & ate at Rainforest Cafe, which was great, on Friday! Then we flew home on Saturday. Talking to Phoebe - asking her which part of vacation was her favorite. Here is her response: The airplane (I really loved flying on the airplane) & getting to see Granddad and Granny Liz. Her next favorite part was when she got to get rocks from Rock City. I listed the things we did and she put them in order of which was her favorite. 1-Playing pool & ping pong 2-Eating at Rainforest Cafe 3-Rock City 4-Ruby Falls - she liked when the tour guide clapped her hands & turned on the lights 5-Seeing the mountains during the drive to Chattanooga 6-Going to the mall She got to meet Jellybean, their Cockerspaniel rescue dog. Phoebe was really impressed on how she could go and find the treat Granddad hid. They had Jellybean stay upstairs by the back door, which means she couldn't see which part of the house they were going to. They hid the treat downstairs in the basement. They came back up and told Jellybean to go find the treat, she took off on a hunt, she didn't find it right away and she thought about giving up, but they told her to keep looking, and she sure did find it! Amazing dog. :)

Tennessee Vacation Pictures