The Baby Shower

Before the Tater Invasion 2011 happened, we had a morning of party planning. :-) Saturday morning was a busy morning as we prepared to have 20 guests come and celebrate the upcoming arrival of my friend Patty's new baby boy, Jonathan.



Madie was a spectacular helper for me. She made up all the party trays and did a little decorating too.

My living room isn't quite big enough for 20 people, so we put Patty in the recliner by the kitchen, so we could open up the space more. Please notice on the floor on the left side of the picture is a lady and her daughter sitting on their knees. They sat that like for a good hour! I couldn't believe it! And, the mom is in her mid-80s! I was so amazed. I wouldn't have been able to FEEL my knees, let alone stand up if I had done that.

Patty was all smiles and seemed to have a really great time. :-)

She walked away with lots of super-cute stuff, as well as some gift cards that they went out and spent today, getting those last minute items. She's being induced next week, so we were on a time crunch! It was a really fun afternoon and the calm before the Tater storm that came later that evening. :-)

Look How Fun

Here is more Tater Tot fun!

TATER is Here!!

Today has been a crazy, busy day! But, so full of good stuff. :-) First we had a baby shower for a great friend of mine who is due in like 2 weeks. I have pictures of that too, but I knew how many people were waiting on news about Tater. Figured I should post about that first. :-) After the shower was over, we headed up to Elburn, IL. It took an hour to get there and I swear the kids must've asked if we were there yet 27 times in that hour. They were beyond excited!




When we got there, they went running up to the house!

We were taken to their basement where 6 of the cutest little boy dogs and 2 of the cutest little girl dogs were. It was so hard to pick just one!! They were all so excited to see us and were jumping up and licking us. Oh my gosh. Just pure heaven!!

Pete picked up a couple of them and the last one was the one we chose. THIS was our Tater. :-)

We had to weigh him and sign some paperwork before we could leave. He's a whole 16 lbs right now.

Apparently all that work tuckered the poor guy out and he slept the entire way home.

We took him right outside when we got home. We cheered as he peed and then we ran around and played with him.

I expected him to be a little shy and quiet. Maybe a little scared, after leaving his brothers and sisters, but there is not a shy bone in this dog's body. He's ready to go and has been chewing on everything in sight and getting himself in a whole lot of trouble already. :-) He's cracking me up!

The kids all love him to pieces. It was like love at first sight with him.

I mean, how could you not love this precious little guy? Welcome home, Tater!

The Pancreas

The pancreas. An often overlooked organ in our bodies that balances the sugars with insulin. Not much attention is paid to this little guy until he starts getting attacked by his former best friends, the immune system. Being too weak, or too lazy, to really fight back, it slowly dies off and in it's wake opens up a whole new world to the people it affects. It has become a very popular topic in our house lately and here are some of my favorite comments/questions that have come up in the past month.

1. "When your pancreas dies, will it go to Heaven?" Livie asked. I told her that it doesn't have a soul, so it wouldn't go to Heaven. "But," she said, " it's a special part of our inside, so things that are special go there." Never thought of a special place in heaven being reserved for pancreases. Wonder what THAT'S like? Think pancreases (or should it be "pancreai"?) like mansions and sidewalks of gold (or golf courses as Pete and my dad seem to think exist up there)?

2. Instead of having tummy aches, Livie now has pancreas aches. The other day she was sad and grabbed her belly and said it hurt. I asked her if she had a upset tummy and she said, "No. My pancreas hurts."

3. At Bible Study on Sunday, when we were asking for prayer for Noah, our pastor told us that they are doing great things with pancreatic transplants. He said, "Hey, if I die, I'll make sure that Noah gets my pancreas. Wouldn't that be a hoot?! Noah could say that he has Pastor's John's pancreas." We reminded him that he would actually have to die to have that happen, so maybe it wouldn't be a TOTAL hoot. ;-)

4. When discussing names for our new puppy, the kids all decided if it was tan, it would be named "Pancreas". Makes sense, right?

Until Diabetes came along, this relatively unknown organ was living in obscurity in our bodies. Now, good 'ole pancreas (lazy though it may be) is front and center in our lives, both in the form of questions and, apparently, possible pet names. Thanks, Pancreas, for opening up a whole new world to us in which you are the shining star.

Another Article

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=426196&query=write team

Only 3 articles left! But, I have none in reserve, so I guess I'd better get writing!

The Countdown is ON!

We are counting down until next Friday, the 18th, when the newest member of our family joins us!

This picture is of our new puppy (or one of his brothers or sisters). They all look alike, so even if this isn't him, it will look just like him. :-) Many of you know I've been wanting a dog since before we got married. I talked to him about getting a dog before I ever mentioned wanting children! So, yeah, the doggy fever has had me for quite a long time. I realized that this was the year to do it. Livie's finishing up preschool soon, so for now, I'm still a stay-at-home mom and I can devote the time necessary to train a puppy. And, if we got him in the spring, I would have all spring and summer, with the kids, to get him used to our family and give him the attention he needs from all of us. So, after much persuasion, Pete finally agreed! I think it was the picture above that did it too. He fell in love with this little guy and said, "I want HIM." So, I called the breeder, found out that she had a litter available on the 18th. We sent in our deposit and are just waiting on a phone call to set up our appointment to come up and pick out our new puppy. We're thrilled to pieces! We have the crate all set up, a bin full of doggie toys, and everything else he could ever want. Now, we're just waiting for our little guy. We even picked out a name. His name will be "Darth Tater Sock Frog Trolinger". I know that's quite a mouthful, but everyone wanted one part of naming him. We call that his "show name". But, in everyday life, we'll just call him "Tater". We even scoped out a Cubs collar for him and plan to take him to the store once we get him and let him pick it out himself. Who knows? Maybe Tater will bring some luck to the Cubbies this year and we'll go all the way! So, to everyone who's been wondering about my not-so-cryptic message about the puppy - YES - we're expanding our family! Since Cara and Em are both having babies, I thought I'd join in and have a furry baby of our own. ;-) So, the countdown is on until you get to see our sweet Tater here with his new forever family. Hope the next week flies by!