summer 2014 recap

Yes, it's a bit late, but I need to add some more pictures of our summer, so we know we didn't just jump off a cliff and build a raft.

Here is some more stuff we did:

 Claire and Jared swam on the swim team

Carter lifeguarded some meets

and swam in the last one

we had some great days on the boat, when it wasn't broken

enjoyed the farmer's market

went to Met Calf Bottoms in the Smokies

learned this neat trick with a swim cap

welcomed Trey home from his mission

favorite picture of Lisa and David waiting for Trey's plane 

The boys made me nastalgic for the days when they got free ice cream

we climbed the Chimneys 

had some cuddle time

Carter got his boater's license and went out on the jet ski a lot

some fishing

went to the beach with all the Knoxville cousins right after Trey got home

lessons learned

A while back I was taking both dogs to get groomed.  Like always, Neo was pulling ahead and Max was cautiously hanging back.  As we got close to the door, Neo slipped out of his collar so I had to grab him and hold him (while he is fighting to get free from my hold).  This caused Max to loop around me in a panic and started pulling in the opposite direction.  So now I am fighting to walk with a leash around me, Max pulling in the wrong direction and Neo squirming in my arms.  And I had the thought, "I hope no one inside can see me.  I am so embarrassed.  Why can't my dogs just walk into a building like normal dogs?".  After dropping them off, I was driving home and I was still thinking about how embarressed I was and then I thought, "they are just dogs...no one cares...the vet understand how dogs are...they know Max and Neo and their personalities. "  And then a flood of memories came to me.  Me with my two other boys. Feeling like everyone was looking at me as I held a way too big baby while chasing a way too much energy toddler.  Wondering why they couldn't just act like normal kids and not embarress me.  I wish I knew then what I know now...no one cares, people understand how kids can be.  

climbing the mountain

 See that mountain behind Allen and Claire?  We have wanted to figure out how to get to the rock part , where we have seen a few people before, for awhile now.  Then this summer one of Carter's friends called him from it and said he could see our dock.

So we found out how to get there and set off one summer night.  I packed a back pack with water bottles as we didn't know how hard the hike would be.  We found the road we needed to start on.  We ignored the sign and set off.  Little did we know that it was more of a walk than a hike.  So quickly we were there...

 We had a great time looking over our little part of the lake that we have spent so many hours on.  Carter did some research and found out there was also a cave not to far from the lookout  point.  So, we headed over there and explored a little.

 Then we went back and enjoyed the sunset.  It was a great night with the family.

just like the good old days

My kids finally got to experience the kind of snow that I grew up with.  The kind you could sled down without removing all the snow on the first trip down, the kind that covered your shoes when you walked through it.  This January we had two great snow falls  two weeks apart from each other.  Both produced days off of school.   The first snow came fast and unexpectedly during the day and the schools and town rushed to get kids and get home.  There were cars on the sides of every road that either slid off or just parked there when the hill was just too steep.  It reminded me of a Valentine's day that we got a surprise snow and Joel and I walked home from school for some reason (didn't want to wait on the bus?) when it let out.  I remember how fun it was to trudge through the neighborhood  as the snow came down.  I also loved reliving the excitement of my youth as the phone call would come each day announcing one more day off school.  I love it all.

We had fun sledding and building large snow men.  Since the first snow came during the day, we waited until about 4pm to go out and play.  But we planned ahead-we put our swim suits on under our snow gear and when we were done playing, we peeled off our clothes and jumped in the hot tub.  We have lived at our place for 3 years now and I finally got to do this.  I have always wanted to be in a hot tub while it was snowing.  It was great.  We had a snow ball fight, Jared made a snow angel, and we relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of the snow (well, maybe just I did).

december

Our December was full of holiday activities.  We started the month with our church putting on "The Nativity: A Christmas Celebration."  Allen was a wise man in a short program and Carter and Jared were wise men in the live nativity they had outside the church.  The whole gym was transformed into a display of nativities from around the world.

Claire had a piano recital.  She is in the middle of her second year of taking lessons and still loves it.

We picked out our tree and decorated it.  It was our biggest one so far, about 10+ feet tall.  I loved looking at it everyday.

I want to take the time to write down our family Christmas traditions as they are now, so years from now I can look back and remember.  They have changed through the years, but for the past few years this is what we do in the month of December:

-The kids favorite tradition is doing the 12 days of Christmas for a family.  We pick a family with at least some young kids that we think would enjoy getting little surprises every night, but won't  try and catch us.  Also, the location has to work well; no cul-de-sacs, etc.  The kids love to help decide what to give and love to be the ones to run to the doorstep and run away.  When we started this only Allen or I could do the dropping off.  I like it much more now that even Claire can take part in it.

-We have a advent calendar with candy, but the count down that we really enjoy is one we started several years ago.  We make a chain to count down to Christmas and on each link we write something we love about each member of our family.  Each day we open the link and read it together, then put it on the wall so we can see it all month.  Seeing what each kid puts about everyone is always fun.  This year Carter and Jared put the same thing for me:  "She always makes sure we do fun things as a family and she drives me to all my activities." I found that very interesting.

-For the past several years we have gone over to a friend's house who host a Christmas sing along.  Several families sing Christmas carols, visit, and eat yummy food.

-We pick out and decorate our Christmas tree as a family.  We play Christmas music as we decorate.  I do the lights and ribbon and any added greenery first, because I like it done a certain way.  We love to look at all our vacation ornaments and remember great times together.  I love to see the ornaments with the kids pictures from when they were younger.

-We make a white chocolate chex mix to give to our friends.  We make my grandma's fudge and make and decorate sugar cookies just for us and family that comes over during the holidays.  This year Carter made white chocolate peppermint bark for himself because he usually doesn't like most the goodies our friends give us.

-Claire didn't want to go sit on Santa's lap this year, so I guess that tradition is gone.  She said the letter she typed in computer class to Santa would be enough.

-Christmas Eve:  Usually Grammy and Grandpa come over and give their gifts to the kids.  They also open one gift from under the tree.  A few times we have gone ice skating with the cousins, but not this year.  We go to Grammy's for pizza and the cousins act out the nativity as Grammy reads the story of Christ's  birth.  She has costumes for all the parts.  This is a tradition that I did as a kid so I love to see my children do it too.  Then we are off to Mimi and Grand dad's church for their candlelight Christmas Eve service.  This is what Allen did every year growing up and I love continuing it with our family.  After the service we head to a restaurant to eat appetizers and desserts. As we head home we drop off our last day of the 12 days.  We also drop off a "Christmas jar" along with the book, Christmas Jar, to a family we feel may need it.  Once home we lay stockings on the couch so Santa knows where to put the gifts and we put letters to Santa in the stockings.  The kids sleep in the same room (at least start out and end that way).  After they are to bed, Allen and I open our gifts to each other.  I love this tradition.  I love having this alone time with Allen, reminiscing about the day, talking about the exciting day to come.

-Christmas Day:  The kids line up on the stairs and wait for us to get our cameras ready and say they can come down to see what Santa brought them.  Then we eat our traditional William Sonoma croissants (plain, chocolate filled, and ham and cheese-yum!).  Next we dig into our presents from and to each other.  Sometime that morning Mimi and Grand dad come by to see what the kids got.  We usually head over to my parent's house around lunch time and visit and exchange gifts.  The cousins love showing each other what Santa brought them.  We head home for dinner, which the last few years we started a new tradition of having Allen grill some filet mignons to perfection and have baked potatoes and some green with them.  We usually get back together with the Sextons that night to play whatever new board game we got.

-The day after Christmas:  Allen's sister, Kelly, and her family come in town and we get to have another Christmas!  Marianne always makes a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner, then we open gifts which usually includes many surprises and games from Larry.

Writing all this down makes me sad it is over for this year.  I can't wait until next year!

love

During our ordeal with losing Max, we were showered by love from family, friends and strangers.  Here is what I want to remember:

Family:  After calling Allen, he said to call my parents and he would call his, to help us. (Allen had patients all day and so he was back and forth looking and in the office).  They dropped every thing and came to help.  I got a random text from Lisa and I told her we lost Max and to call Mom for details.  The next thing I knew she was there along with David.  Lori drove with me all the next day as we looked.  Before I knew it Marianne had made fliers at her work and they were being posted.  I hadn't even thought about needing posters up asap.  I really wasn't thinking at all.  My loving family did that for me.    And when our paths would cross, they would hug me and let me cry, and forgive me for not stopping and talking.  Some of them were leaving on trips the next day, and still gave all the time they could to help us.  When Lisa had to leave she called a friend of mine that has dogs and asked her to help because Lisa knows me well and knew I wouldn't ask anyone to help.  I can't thank her enough for that.

Friends:  Lisa also happened to see people that day and told them about Max.  Those great friends also came to help.  They weren't even asked.  They also were leaving on trips. (It was Fall Break).  So, through out Monday, people just kept showing up to help.  That night more people came.  Tuesday almost everyone came back to help.  These wonderful friends gave so much of their precious time to looking for Max.  Between my family and friends; they called shelters, vets, went to the pound, put up signs, put an ad in the paper, called radio stations, called the police, and more.  If they hadn't done this it would have taken us days to get it done because I felt I had to stay on the street the first day or two so Max could hear my voice.  Allen's staff even took their lunch break to help look.

Strangers:  I mentioned how many calls Allen got about Max.  The first several weeks it was about 5 a day.  About 50 percent of the calls were just people asking if we got our dog back, or to ask a question about him or to tell Allen about when their dog was lost.  It was a little hard at first because Allen kept thinking every unknown number was someone who found him.  But I am still amazed by the sheer number of strangers who cared;  cared enough to write down a number from a sign and call to give their sympathy.

The experience that I will hold hold most dear from all of this is one that still makes me teary.  When we thought Max had been taken, we made reward posters.  We also made two huge posters that we held on the street that we thought he was taken-hoping the man would drive down the road and see the sign, see us, and change his mind.  We did this with the kids for two mornings during Fall Break.  I wanted to hold it one more day, when the kids were back in school.  So, I'm standing out with my big sign on a five lane road during the morning rush.  A lady pulls over to a side road, and comes walking over to me.  She is fighting back tears. She says, "I'm so sorry."  I just nod my head because I am now crying and if I try to speak I will completely break down.  She says "I'm so sorry" again and we both just stand there crying. I have never cried with a stranger.  I have never felt such empathy from a stranger.  It was a surreal experience that I will never forget.  Then she asked if she could give me a hug and take a picture of the poster so she could post in on her facebook page.  She did something that I have never imagined doing.  I have felt bad for a stranger before, but I have never taken the time to express it to them in such a way.  I have learned a lot from her and her Christ-like love she showed me. I hope some day I can be like her.

This is the picture that I texted to everyone that helped look for Max, moments after we got him back

miracle max

We had a miracle happen to us.  We got our very shy dog back after 3 months of him being lost.

  For the past three months I have been trying to get myself to write about losing our dog and the experiences that came with that.  But every time I thought about what to write I would cry (first month) or tear up (last two months).  I knew I needed to document what happened in this "family journal" I am keeping, but it was hard, and I knew it would be a long post-which I try to avoid.  And now, we have him back, which will take even more words to explain.  So, this may come in a few posts.

Losing Max:  On October 15th (sorry I never texted you happy birthday Dan-busy day) after taking Claire to school, I was headed home. Max was in the car with me, the windows were down, and he either fell or jumped out as I was turning a corner.  I chased him for awhile with the help of several people.  We finally lost sight of him and that is when I lost it.  I was in full panic.  He was gone and he was too shy to go to anyone.  I have never lost a child, not even for a few minutes.  I am so glad, because I know now that I would NOT handle it well.  I called Allen and screamed "I lost Max", but since I was hysterical, it sounded to Allen like, "I lost our kids" or "all the kids have been kidnapped" or whatever else parents have nightmares about.

The next two days straight we searched for Max, put up fliers, call animal hospitals, vets, shelters all across town.  (I will have a separate post on the great people who helped us).  Sometime during day number 2, we had two calls saying that they saw a man grab him and put him in a mini van.  We felt pretty confidant that this happened and switched our fliers to reward posters in hopes that whoever took him would rather have money.  No such luck.

Having to tell my kids that I had lost Max was one of the hardest things.  I know that losing a dog is not the end of the world.  But breaking your children's heart is.  I can still see Jared when I told him, he hung his head and just cried and cried.  I will always remember on day 2 having Carter walk in the door after school and me shaking my head no, and he sat down and cried.  I will always remember the prayers given by my children for our dog.  The guilt I had was huge.  I lost our dog.  I am so thankful that no one except myself gave me guilt. 


Fast forward 3 months (in which we got another dog-post on him later) and Allen got a call at 11pm at night.  A man that lives on the other side of town said that he had been feeding a dog along with his  outside dogs for about 3 weeks but the dog would never let him near.  That night he and his wife tricked the dog in their house and found his collar still on, with our number on it.  During these 3 months we have had multiple calls a day about Max.  We probably had over 15 calls from people who were sure they saw our dog at a shelter they were just at, or in their neighbor's back yard, or even that they had just given our dog a bath at the shelter they work at.  So when Allen came in to tell me, we both had our doubts.  But Allen kept saying it sounded right.  Then I asked why they didn't call my cell- it was first on the tag.  (All flyers/adds had only Allen's number).  Allen went and got my phone and there was a message from the man.  Then I knew it was Max and I cried.  And slightly freaked out about having 2 dogs.  And Allen and I both worried he wouldn't remember us (had him 3 months, gone 3 months)

The next day we met our angels in a parking lot and got Max back.  Except he didn't look like the beautiful dog in the above picture.  He looked like the picture below: brown instead of cream, hair covering his eyes, fur all mated, smelling awful.  But he acted like our Max:  tail wagging, giving us kisses.  

 

 

Long story slightly shorter, the vet said he was healthy, just had to be shaved (next picture).  Kids were in heaven having him back and were ecstatic about having two dogs.  Max acted like he had been gone a day, remembering everything and everyone.  He is truly our Miracle Max.

smile

Here are some things that have made me smile lately:

-Playing. The kids spent a Sunday afternoon setting up a "lazer beam" obstacle course. They even had streamers from the fan and put it on low and you had to go in and out of it without being touched.

-Exercise. Allen and the boys are in a competition. They run down to the lake and then back up the hill. They are keeping their times on our board and keep setting goals, making them, and setting new ones. Allen is such a good dad. Claire has set a goal, but has yet to run.

-Learning. I found the kids quizzing each other about all the quotes on our quote board. Hmm...so they are actually looking at them.

-More fun exercise. Bike week at the elementary school. Every year the kids get to bring their bikes to school for two weeks and ride their bikes all around the beautiful campus during PE. How great is that?

-Making pies. I have been trying out new pie recipes...and it makes me happy.

-Love notes. I was tucking in Claire the other night and saw a small note on her night stand. It was a quick love note from Jared (the kids are great at leaving love notes on each others-and mine and Allen's- bed) I asked her why she kept it there. She said it was there so if she has a nightmare, she can read it and it will make her feel better. That really made me smile.

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iphone photos

I was looking through the photos Allen has taken with his phone and found it interesting what things he chooses to capture. I wanted to share/remember some of them:

the deer that wanted to take a swim

the sweet note our teenager left for his brother on his birthday

the split sky, time to go in! You can barely see the tube behind the boat

the cuddling on long car rides

Claire and I enjoying The Melting Pot (our kids favorite)

a chilly spring day on the boat

Me showing off my rope climbing skills