Off to Indy

Well today James and  will head out for Indy for the 9th time to see the Indy 500 - it's the kid's first time.  After we got the darlings we thought our Indy 500 days were over, but it seems Justin has taken a little interest in racing or should I say a certain race car driver (see previous blog - "That's My Boy!") and Andrea loves all the different foods at an event like that - so . . .here we go again.  We'll see how they do at an all day race event - we did go to the Long Beach Grand Prix for about 2 hours this year and  that turned out well -so we are hopeful!

Of course one of the major highlights of this trip is getting to see relatives that transplanted to the Indy area.  Our kids got to meet my cousin's family while they were  in LA last year - so they are anxious to see Grant again and meet their new cousin Grace.
Andrea is especially excited about getting to help with the little ones - she is such a natural and wherever we go she gravitates towards the little guys that she can "mother"!
She'll make a great babysitter when she is older!

Did I mention that packing for 4 is much different than for two????  It has taken me DAYS and I'm sure that I have forgotten some very important item or two . . .
Oh well . . .

SURPRISE . . .SURPRISE . . .SURPRISE!

On a sad note before I begin the Surpise post I must tell you that we lost our little Sophie dog on March 5th!  It was one of the saddest days for our family - she had become such a part of our family and with the loss (death) of both our cat, Tigger and our bird, Brodie last fall she really filled a void in the pet population of  our family.  We posted signs everywhere, and even sent our 500 robo-calls to our neighbors,  searched the local animal shelters daily, but to no avail.  We just hope that someone else found her and couldn't bring themselves to part with the adorable dog!

And now . . .

Fast forward two months to May 5th

The telephone rings - conversation follows . . .

Q - Did you lose a dog named Sophie?

A - YES . . did you find her??????????

Q - No, but I found another dog a few days ago, definitely a stray.  I've had her groomed and a vet visit including shots. I even have an appointment for her be spayed in two days.  The vet says she is not pregnant but she should be spayed. She's a poodle mix about 2 years old. Are you interested, because I CANNOT KEEP HER!

A - Let me talk to my husband and kids and see if they are ready to move on.

Of course we said yes, went to see Molly that night and upon the encouragement of the LADY we brought her home right then and there.  After a quick and expensive visit to PETCO (of course she couldn't use Sophie's stuff - what are you thinking . . .) we came home and stayed up half the night oohing and aahing over the cuteness of this little 9 lb. poodle mix - definitely not as cute as Sophie, but cute.  We are IN LOVE.

Next morning - we get an email from the LADY - she wants her back - decided she was lonely and before we got attached she wanted her back . . .!  We held a family conference that night and explained to the kids and after 30 minutes of tears (and wailing) we decided that our children's emotional well-being outranked this 40 something divorcee's loneliness.

So . . .we called the vet for an appointment for her second round of shots and spaying (June 15th), and then set it up with our neighbor to pet sit while we are in Indianapolis later in May.

Whew . . . now we can sit back, enjoy the dog, and get into a little "there's a new dog in the house" routine.

SURPRISE. . . nine days after we got her, I went to the store and 2 hours later when I returned we had not one poodle mix, but 3.  YES, I SAID THREE!  Sweet Molly now weighs only 6 lbs as she had 3 lbs of puppies, handled the whole thing, and cleaned everything up so well there was no evidence except that of two very squirmy, white bundles of fluff.  Of course being the city girl that I am - I went online and found out that had we known that she was having pups we would have needed about 20 items on hand to assist in the delivery - I guess it is better we didn't know!!!!

Do you remember the adoption of our hamster when a week later we came back from vacation and had 5 more hamsters . . .what is it about us?? 

Who votes that the LADY knew???

Anyway we decided this is a gift because . . .

NO we wouldn't even have considered taking her had we known she was pregnant!

YES we are having a blast watching the development of these 5 day old puppies!

NO we wouldn't have had her spayed had we known!

YES we will be looking for two great homes for the two cute puppies!

ANY TAKERS?????