I miss Zelda

o.k. It has been about three weeks since Zelda and I said our goodbyes. Now we have another dog in our home, Rascal. I have to confess, I don't really like the new dog. She is the opposite of Zelda in every way possible. She is some kind of terrier that we adopted last weekend. Zelda was kind and gentle. I picked her from the pound 12 years ago. Her ear was flopped over just so. Mark and Lizzy picked this new dog from the "event" for rescue groups we went to. She wakes me up up at 5 a.m. after Mark leaves the house for work. Whining. Crying, biting. Zelda never did that. Zelda, I miss you. I stayed with you to the end, as nobody else in our family was up to. Thank you for your final bark and goodbye, and yes, your ear flopped over at the end. A final goodbye.

Lizzy has a good day at the Hard Rock Meet

Lizzy had her meet at the Cardinals new stadium in Glendale. It was a fun place to have a meet. Hard Rock is a huge meet with teams from as far away as Canada and Alaska. Last year, our team got killed at it. Lizzy did not fare well individually either. It is known as a "tough meet". So since Liz was home sick last Wed, Thurs, and Fri, I did not know how she would do. I pumped her up with a full dose of tylenol junior and sent her into warm ups just hoping she'd make it through all four events. She started on vault, which is the picture of her in the middle above. She had a great vault and scored a 9.525 for her first ever first place. We were so happy for her as at the last two meets she has struggled on vault. Plus, a lot of the score is based on the run, and anyone that knows Lizzy, knows that sprinting is not one of her stronger points. Needless to say, we were very proud. She had a good meet all around with her highest ever on beam of a 8.9. Her coach, Michelle, really wants her to get a 9 on floor, but she got an 8.875. Anyways, lots of other girls had there best meet as well. Lizzy's friend Angela got second all around in her age group, they are in that bottom picture together. Lizzy got a third place in her age group. It is fun because at that meet second and third get trophies. First gets a denim jacket. Our team just missed first place and took second. It is so much fun to see Lizzy improving and feeling successful. Her confidence is really increasing as well. As any parent who has watched his or her child struggle, it is just that much more rewarding when they finally succeed.

The Artist

Bella and I tried out our first "mommie and me" class. We did an art class through the city of Tempe. It is a four time forty-five minute class of exploring art. Exploring we did! Bella had a great time and loved being in a classroom environment. She colored and painted. She loved painting, especially when she started painting her hands. I stopped her after she passed her elbows. Then they made beaded bracelets and her favorite part of the whole class was stringing the beads. We ended with play doh and Bella didn't want to leave. She was chatting away with a couple of her classmates, already very social. It was a lot of fun and fairly painless as I avoid most mommie and me stuff. Bella had a great time and really enjoyed doing something special just for her.

Another meet for Liz

Lizzy had another meet the other day. She got her highest score in Az for her all around. Bella went with us to watch and Nancy came too. It was fun to watch her. She is looking more confident now. Bella mostly enjoyed playing in the grass outside the meet. Markie opted to stay at Aunt Kim's house with the benihana. Lizzy got two medals and was quite pleased.

Dominoes and checkers!

We have started family game night once a week. My second cousins, Tom and Gladys visited a couple of weeks ago and we played dominoes with a train and Lizzy is hooked. W have played quite a bit since then. Markie likes it o.k., but he often gets one of us going on a side game of checkers on his spiderman checker board. He loves checkers and is getting quite good. It is a fun way to spend time together as a family, and Bella loves to take part as well! So if you are planning on visiting, you might want to brush up on your dominoes, we can get quite competitive.