Week 24!

OUR NEW ADDITION:

The other day, a woman at church made that comment that I must be "saintly". I just smiled politely and thought to myself that until that moment, I had never realized how the words "saintly" and "insanity" have a love of the same letters! So--I am huge pregnant with my fifth child, coaching cheerleading, in two weeks, I will be back to teaching 6th grade full-time, have a second grader, first grader, and preschooler, I will be running Drew and Dawsyn to piano lessons, Drew to football practice, Delaney and Dax to Kindermusik, the older 3 to Drama class, Dawsyn to baton and pom-pom, Delaney to ballet and gymnastics, throwing in Karate when we can, plus Sunday school starts and Drew will be having extra classes to prepare for First Communion. Soooo.... Just to insure there is no chance of boredom around here, I broke down and got Dawsyn her first puppy!!! See??? Total insanity? Apparently I am addicted to potty-training, because I finally have Dax all potty-trained and I get a puppy that now needs to be watched ever second! She is a little Bichon-poodle mix (no shedding was a major point with me!). She is snow white and Dawsyn thinks she looks just like the type of dog that a Disney princess, or Barbie would have. Dawsyn has named her "Snowball Elaine". That should be cute to hear her calling it when she's 20! She has been after us since Christmas to get a dog. She is the only one of my children who is so in love with animals. I actually think in the long run it will be good for her because she does best when she has something to be responsible for. So far, she has done well--now we're just waiting for the novelty to wear off. When we gave her the puppy, we had all of the kids line up on the couch and I told them that we got them a "back to school" gift. I started with Dax and gave him a gift bag. When he opened it, inside was a little stuffed puppy. He was very excited and loved it. Delaney went next and opened a little puppy webkinz, then Drew opened his Webkinz dog. Finally, we brought Dawsyn her bag, she looked inside and a little white puppy head popped out. At first, she jumped and wasn't sure what to think. But, as the pictures show--she was in love right away. Definitely one of those moments you won't forget--and try to force yourself to remember when puppy is whining at 3:00 in the morning! In reality, I only had about three more months to sleep through the night--might as well start adjusting again now!