Lily the cute

We are puppy-sitting Lily the Yorkie-Poo for a few days. 

On our way to the park, she hitched a ride with Zach when she didn't want to walk more than a block.

Our 12 lb. cat Bruiser is intimidated by 3.5 lbs of puppy power.  Sorry for the unfortunate reference to the most annoying dog in t.v. history:

My own future little dog is tentatively named Sophie the Ridiculous.  I have 'threatened' Nate that with the kids growing older, I might lose my marbles and get a small dog to primp and coddle.  I used to be a fan of big dogs, but after having 4 babies I find absurdly small things to be darn cute.

unwilling economy stimulators

We've been doing our part to stimulate the economy of the south-of-the-river suburbs.  Nate came home from work early on Friday so I could go to an orthodontist appointment to discuss financial arrangements for Adrienne's soon to be installed spacer.  He was also going to wait for our contractor to come pick up his final payment on the rebuilding/repair of the retaining wall that creates our side parking pad.

Nate had some news for me when the ortho appointment was over.  Our car's radiator sort of exploded just after he'd gotten home, pouring smelly steamy smokey stuff into the garage.  He ushered the boys inside and told them to go the basement, then hunted down the fire extinguisher.  He ended up just hosing it off, and called a tow truck.

Three expensive things to deal with in one weekend.  Oh the folly of having kids with teeth, and buying a house with a sub-par parking pad, and driving a car.  But, as my dad says, things are rough all over.

Altar Server Michael

Michael went through altar server training at church several months ago and finally served for the first time at Mass yesterday.  Luckily, none of the doomsday scenarios I had imagined occurred.  He didn't trip and drop the candle and light the pulpit on fire or anything.

Here he is afterwords - I thought I might get a picture of him in his alb, but it never seemed quite appropriate.

Mmm, sundae cones.

a skateboarder & a cheerleader

Michael finished skateboard camp yesterday.  He had fun while learning some new things, and even managed to avoid injury.

Adrienne is in a weekly cheerleading class through mid-August.  She was already a loud drama-queen, just needed some choreography to go with it.

Speaking of A, here are a few more of her 3rd grade journal entries.

1/7/10
If I were in charge of school lunches, I would do ice cream, just ice cream.  I have a poem called Ice cream.
Ice cream.
Ice cream.
Ice cream.
THE END
If you like the song, leave a message after the beep.
Beep.

(Date unknown)
A person part of body I admire is my finger.  I admire my finger because boys are scared of it.  And that's all I can think of.

2/11/10 - (All entries are now in cursive, oo la la....)
If I could change one thing about myself I would change nothing.  I would change nothing because mother told me to never wish I was somebody else.  Father told me that...well, he did not tell me anything.

3/15/10
Over the weekend I went on a walk, sort of.  Sort of because I rode my scooter.  Guess what?  I have bad news.  What is the bad news?  I fell down twice.  One more thing, I got my BEST pants all muddy.