In Memory

For those of you who haven't heard, our dog Jake passed away yesterday. He was a great dog that had been a close family member. I'm starting to cry just writing about him. I would tell you how I feel, but many of you have lost ones that you loved and already understand. You wish that you had hugged them just one more time, told them that you loved them and how much they meant to you. You hope that they already knew all those things. So, maybe instead of writing all that, I'll just write a prayer, one that I prayed the night before.

Dear God,
I really would love to have Jake feel better and be his usually playful self. I know that he's so sick and needs to be with you. Please let Harry meet him at heaven's gate. (Harry was my mother's dog who passed away last summer. He was as sweet and loving as Jake was.) May they enjoy each other's company and have fun playing together. Hug him when he gets there. You know how much I love him. Please take care of him for me. I know that there are people who don't believe that dogs go to heaven. But I know that you love us and that heaven is a place of happiness and it won't be happy for me unless I know that Jake is there. Thank you for letting him be a part of our lives. It was a gift and blessing from your hand to have him be part of our family. I know that you understand what it's like to have someone you love die. Please be with us.
In Jesus' name,
Lis

A New Addition to the Family

Well, for those of you who read about Jake, you know that we've been looking to get another doggie for the family. Well, we started looking this past weekend at all the pet adoption sites this weekend that we could visit. I figured that we would get a good idea of what we might be looking for. I prayed that we would get just the right dog for our family. Well, We'd gone to three different sites and hadn't seen any doggie that would be right for our family. They were either still puppies or needed to be housebroken or needed medical treatment that we couldn't afford. We decided to go to one site that was literally a tent beside the freeway. We drove up and saw a beautiful dog that reminded me of one that we used to own when I was little (Hoppy). There were lots and lots of dogs to choose from. We discovered that there were actually about 3 or 4 rescue operations that were all there. The next dog was a beautiful siberian husky male with the most beautiful blue eyes. He was so pretty!! Mom and I (and Aiden) were talking to his foster mommy when Olen comes rushing up saying that he had found our new doggie!! He was so excited!! Come to find out, the dog he chose was the sister to the dog we were looking at. Apparently, she was housebroken and he was not. Before I knew what was happening, I was driving home to meet Olen and the foster mom for Isabella to see how she would get along with Jake. One hour later, I was on the road for a girls night out leaving my baby, my sick doggie, and our new addition with my mom to babysit. (THANK YOU,MOM!!!) Needless to say, after a week of illness and stress in our family, I was a little (make that ALOT) overwhelmed. Luckily, a good dinner, a good play, and some great friends later, I was more calm about having a new doggie. She is now an official part of the Gustafson family. It's been pretty...what's the word?...we'll just say that it's been exciting around here. Her name is Isabella. We've been calling her Izzy for short. She likes to look on counters. She likes to run. She likes to tug at Aiden to get him to play with her. He's not real sure about that yet though! She likes to chew on things, but not the grapefruit that Aiden threw overboard! This will take some getting used to. I'm not used to having that much energy in a dog!

Christmas Dinner 2007

Here are some of our pics from our christmas dinner. We always go to La Mansion del Rio's holiday buffet. It's wonderful. The food is great, the service is great. And...we don't have to do dishes!!!

Christmas Presents!!!

Yeah, Yeah, I know it's february. So, I'm behind on blogging from christmas time. At least, I'm up to the opening of the presents on Christmas Eve!! If you don't know our family, we tend to go overboard at christmas with presents. This year was no exception. Aiden was a bit overwhelmed, but then so was Olen the first time he participated too! We had lots of toys under the tree, or rather under the tv and scattered around the living room. I think next year we'll limit the presents, maybe.... We still haven't convinced Aiden that it's okay to tear into presents. He looked at me like "Are you sure about this?" It was a lot of fun having him aware of the presents this year. Maybe next year we can just find one big present instead of 50 or so little ones. OK, maybe it wasn't 50...or maybe it was?