Puppy! Puppy! Puppy!

So that's the exciting news for us. A Puppy! 

But we'll save that for last.

Kurz Photography

Phoebe and Jonathan celebrated a couple friends' birthdays last week. Several graduated last year, but there is still a great group of kids that hang out together.

Phillip and I got some good time together and with old friends when we went up to Memphis, MO for the weekend. Phillip preached one revival night at Downing and then preached again Sunday morning at Memphis (this is the ministry he was at when we got married). 

We stayed with a couple who had a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of property overlooking hills. This northeast part of Missouri is quite hilly. I had not been back to Memphis since we left over 20 years ago. Phillip's been back before though. We really enjoyed seeing everybody. A lot of good memories in that little town where we got our start!

Phoebe and I made a trip to Quincy to get clothing and Joann Fabric supplies. She drove there so that she could get some highway practice. She hates merging, and she got to practice that three times. :-) She did very well.

I opened up my carton of eggs this morning and thought they were all so pretty with the different colors. A friend from church sells them, and they are so good! 

I got a letter in the mail from Lanaya Elizabeth! I sent her a letter first because I just feel like I would like my kids (and myself) to have some kind of handwritten account of life as a keepsake. I wrote so many letters as a kid. So many. I haven't kept them all, but I did keep a boxful of notable ones. 

The postcard picture is one of my favorites from the artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. Another favorite, which I put in my book A is for Art is The Banjo Lesson. They are so full of tenderness. Realness. Papa prays with his hands like that sometimes.

Now on to the puppy! 

We got a puppy!

We've always told the kids that if we moved to the country, we would get a puppy. 

So we finally got a puppy.

He's adorable! He's a Bagel (Beagle/Bassett mix). A lady advertised them at County Market. She lived maybe two miles from us. Doc was the last one left for sale. Our two options for names were Carl (which means Man in German) or Doctor Benjamin Rush. We have already named one or two kittens Carl, so we went with Doc. 

We need to do some major training. He jumps and nips at most of us whom he does not respect. Phillip's already established his dominance, but Doc seems to think I'm his puppy sibling.

He and the cats are off to a rocky start. Abigail is the most comfortable, but she hisses at him and he cowers. (maybe I should try hissing!)

He only whimpered the first night early in the morning. Otherwise, he has slept through the night and seems quite content here.

He drags roots, sticks, bark, corn cobs, dirt clods, grass clumps, and toys onto the front porch. At least he did at first. He watched me sweep everything off one day and he has not brought anything back on the porch. He is starting to explore the property.

Harrison is the new pooper scooper.

Cat back arched, tail bottle-brushed, hissing sounds. 

But this was at first. It really is getting better. They even eat out of the same bowl now. Doc will take a bite of food, then lick a cat, cat would recoil in disgust, then they would go back to eating. They're gonna be just fine.