Mr. and Mrs. Morgan

I finally have a picture from Caldwell and Kate's wedding day! Aren't they a lovely couple? They recently returned from their awesome honeymoon - a week in Belize and a week in the Bahamas. Lucky dogs.

A few pics from a random Tuesday...

Check out my teefers, two on top and two on bottom...


Partners in crime...


Ossie is a good sport...


I'm cute!


Look, she can already read!


Serious face...


Snack time!

Blueberries, bananas, yogurt and... SPINACH! (and she loves it, by the way)

A couple Father's Day pics

Matt's wearing his shirt in the water again... and Lola, too! Like father, like daughter...

Bears in Pontiac?! Oh my!

I went for a walk early this morning, and as I strolled along deserted Highway W, I enjoyed the unusually cool air and warm sunshine as it peeked up over the hills. I only met one car - no one else appeared to be stirring yet. And just as I thought to myself, "Boy, I could get used to this," I stopped suddenly in my tracks. A BEAR.

No, no, I didn't actually see a bear. But, I suddenly remembered there have been two - count them, TWO - bear sightings this summer in Pontiac. One was maybe a hundred yards from our house, and that one was a cub. The other (and I saw pictures of this one) a big, huge, GIANT bear spotted just a few miles up Highway W.

What does this have to do with me and my walk this morning? Well, as you might imagine, my imagination began to run wild. What would I do if I saw one while I was out and about alllll by myself? I shouldn't run. I know that. Bears are fast, and I am sloooooow. Should I play dead? I've always heard you're supposed to play dead if you see a bear. So, what, just throw myself in the ditch and pretend to be dead? Yeah, okay, I can do that.

Wait, what would I do if he decided to come over and 'sniff' around me anyway? Would I really be able to lie still? It's sort of like being out on the boat and having bumble bees the size of small birds fly around me and Matt and Gabe telling me to just "sit still, it won't sting you if you don't move." HA! Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen. Of course, I always flail my arms and scream and end up jumping in the lake to escape said bees.

No, I don't think I should try to play dead. I think the bear would figure out I was only 'playing.'

And then I started eyeing the ditches along Highway W, which, by the way, have been neglected by the state lately. The grass is at least two feet tall, and some of the weeds would probably reach my waist! So, I'm supposed to throw myself into that?? With all the snakes, spiders and other critters that are surely lurking in there?? Huh, yeah, I don't THINK so.

So, I'm back to option No. 1: RUN. I could run to the nearest house and bang on the door. What if no one is home? Could I break down the door and call someone? Naturally, I left my cell phone at home, and what if their phone doesn't work? I'd be stuck in someone else's house (probably with NO air conditioning) with a HUMONGOUS bear standing outside the door, forcing me to stay barricaded inside FOREVER.

Okay, I'll play dead, force myself to lie still, and PRAY the snakes aren't moving around yet. Sure, that'll work just fine.

And now the sunshine that I thought was so glorious a few minutes ago is starting to play tricks on me. Every shadow I see out of the corner of my eye is a GIANT bear. Eeeeeeeek! What was THAT? Oh, whew, just a squirrel. Wait a minute, if a squirrel can create that much racket, how horrendous would a huge bear sound as it clambered about in the woods? Or, worse... maybe he'd be stealthy and sneak up behind me and lay one of his island-size paws on my shoulder.

And then suddenly I topped the hill just past Pontiac Lodge and could see the marina entrance to my right and my driveway straight ahead to the left. I made it. I survived my morning walk without seeing a 15-foot-tall bear (because that's how big the bears are in Pontiac). Perhaps tomorrow I should take a can of pepper spray.

Happy Monday

A quick update sans pictures (stay tuned for pics soon!)...

This past Saturday was our annual spearfishing tournament. Matt and Gabe entered and placed 1st and 3rd in the catfish category. Gabe took first with a 32-pound cat, and Matt took 3rd with a 16-pound cat. There were 33 divers - not bad, considering the high water - but, we usually have about 50 divers. Lori came down and babysat Lola part of the day Saturday while I worked. They went for a walk, swam in the kiddie pool and ran through the sprinkler. :)

For Matt's first father's day we took a boat ride and went for a swim. Lola is getting more comfortable in her life jacket. She loves the water, and she enjoys lounging on a raft. She fell asleep on the way back in. (This is becoming a habit.) We came in that afternoon and fried fish (some of Matt and Gabe's catch) with the Blackburns. I made brownies and monster cookies - they need to get out of our house because I can't stay out of them! The best gift of all was that Lola stayed in bed until almost 7 that morning. (She usually wakes up around 5:30 - ugh.)

I cut my hair! It isn't super short or drastic, but it's 'short' for me these days. Thanks, Kristy - I love it! Much easier and cooler and more manageable.

Matt ordered an ipad 2 for our anniversary. It arrived today. We haven't had time to play with it yet, but, we're excited!

Lola had her first 'green' smoothie this evening. I blended half a banana, a handful of frozen blueberries, a handful of fresh spinach and a little water - she loved it! I do have pictures of this, but I haven't downloaded them yet. Soon! Matt and I tasted it, too, and it was good! (You absolutely cannot taste the spinach.)

I believe Lola is getting close to walking. She can stand on her own for about 5 seconds. She gets really excited, and then she sits down. She smiles ALL the time these days. She talks a lot. She says "mama", and I think she knows that's me. Her hair is getting thicker. She gives hugs and kisses and high fives. She is so fun!

Happy father's day to all the dads out there!

"I can't believe it's Father's Day and I have a kid." ~Matt Wade

Happy FIRST father's day to one amazing daddy-o. And happy 31st father's day, Captain Morgan, and 37th father's day, Grandpa Dan.

Love,
Lola

9 month stats

No shots for Lola yesterday! But, she did have her 9-month well-check, and all is well. She's now 29 inches tall and 20 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces (call it 21 pounds). Growin' like a lil weed.

Helloooooo cuteness

Lola, meet the Four Winns

Believe it or not, Lola just took her first boat ride and official swim in the lake yesterday. The only other time she'd been on a boat on Bull Shoals Lake was on a pontoon for about 20 minutes during the Blessing. And that was just a quick trip out past the breakwater and back in. She splashed around in the lake just right off the walkway at the dock last weekend, but she hadn't actually been out in the water until yesterday

That was our fault. We hadn't uncovered our boat until yesterday. I think Matt had been putting it off because he was worried it wouldn't start, or we'd have some other problem, and he'd have to deal with it. I love our boat, but we have had some problems with it over the past couple of years. Hey, it's a boat. It's supposed to break down at the worst possible time, right?

Anyway, we uncovered the old girl, gave her a good scrubbing (the boat, not Lola), and took her for a spin. Katelyn (Lola's new BFF, aka our nanny), Lola and Oscar went, too. I'll just tell ya - Lola doesn't love her life jacket. But, she's just gonna have to get used to it.

The first couple of pics I took at the house before we went out. That's Katelyn with Lola. The rest, you'll see, are from the boat ride. Enjoy!

Eight years

Happy anniversary, Mr. Wade. It's been a lovely cruise so far. :)

Honey "Bee" Wade, 12-29-02 to 6-6-11

It is with great sadness, relief and peace that I write this. Our dog, Honey, passed away today. She had been battling kidney failure for several years. She did remarkably well, according to our veterinarian. Most dogs don't last as long as Honey did. For a long time you wouldn't have known Honey was sick. Robin (our vet) kept telling us the symptoms included loss of appetite, weight loss, lethargy, vomiting, etc. Well, Honey didn't have any of those problems! If you knew her, you know she was a hefty little thing for many years. And a loss of appetite? Ha ha. No. Honey liked to eat. :)

For those of you who don't know the story of Honey, here goes...

Before we were married, Matt and I lived in Sarasota. I had gotten my first job out of college at a community weekly newspaper there. We had been there a month or so when we decided to get a dog. My family had a shih-tzu (the infamous Forrest) when I lived at home, so, naturally I wanted a little lap dog, too. Matt had only had big dogs growing up, so it took a little convincing on my part to get him to agree to a small dog. He found Honey online. She was in Atlanta, and she was the only puppy left in the litter. She was light brown, hence the name "Honey." We drove to Atlanta on Feb. 14, 2003, and we picked her up first thing the next morning. She was a little fur ball. The kids in the house had started calling her Stitch. When we put her in the car and started down the road she started to cry. She cried for about 30 minutes, and then she was okay... until Matt slammed on the brakes and she fell in the floorboard!

We lived on the third floor of a three-story apartment complex with no elevators. So, as you can imagine, housebreaking Honey was a bit of a challenge. We couldn't just open the door and let her out into the yard. No. We had to run down three flights of stairs first, which resulted in lots of peeing on the stairs (and on us) because she couldn't hold it all the way down.

We took Honey to a dog park in Sarasota, where she'd get chased and pounced on by this aggressive little Jack Russell Terrier named Bullet. As if that weren't bad enough, one afternoon there was a "parade of yorkies." Here they all came prancing into the yard, wearing clothing and sunglasses, and this tiny little yorkie walked right up to Honey, lifted its leg and peed on her! That was the last time we visited the dog park.

If you've known Honey from the beginning, you've witnessed the bizarre change in her hair color. She went from a "honey" color to a dark charcoal color - almost black at the end. And just as her hair color evolved, so did her nicknames - Honey Bee, The Bee, Bumble Bee Button, Bee Bear... but, most of the time she was just Bee.

When we decided to move back to Missouri, of course Honey came with us. We lived in Branson for a few months, then we moved into an apartment in Springfield, then we bought a house in Springfield. And finally, about five and a half years ago, we moved to Pontiac.

In May 2008 we adopted another dog, Oscar. Honey took a bit of a backseat when he entered our lives, as he is like white lightning, darting around everywhere, demanding attention and cutting in front of Honey every chance he got. As much as neither of them liked to show it, they were buddies.

And, of course, last September both dogs took a backseat when we brought Lola home from the hospital. That's just life, I guess. Honey had developed a reputation for being a "nipper" from time to time, so we were concerned about how she would act toward Lola. They both pretty much ignored each other.

At the beginning of the year I took Honey and Oscar to the vet for their annual check-up. I was astonished to learn that Honey weighed less than Oscar. I told them to weigh her again, that it wasn't possible. But, sure enough. She had slowly and steadily been losing weight.

Robin explained that dogs could live on 25 percent kidney function - which means 75 percent could be non-functioning, and she'd be able to continue living. But, once it dropped below 25 percent, she would go downhill in a hurry.

Around the first of April Honey got pretty sick. She wouldn't eat much and was vomiting a lot. We took her to the vet, and they ran fluids through her all day long. Robin said she might perk up for a while, and she did! But, Robin warned us that it would be a temporary fix. She had energy, started eating and seemed to be her old self again.

But, over the last few weeks we noticed her eating less and getting smaller. Over the past several days she stopped eating altogether. She started getting sick every day. And she barely had the energy to walk out to the yard - in fact, Matt carried her out and back in the last couple of times. Yesterday afternoon we talked about it, and we knew it was time.

We know she is much better off now. She's probably running around and biting people in heaven (ha ha), begging for greenies and barking at every little noise she hears. But, best of all, she's reunited with her buddy, Forrest. She's buried next to him here, and I know the two of them are probably stirring up trouble together up there. Rest in peace, Honey Bee. We love you.

A sneak peek at our weekend...

Matt getting cuddles from Lola and her cousin, Keaton, who is just 10 weeks older than Lola. They're pretty much the exact same size now...

Lola's cousins brought a fun blow-up pool that she loved splashing around in!





Soooooooo big!

We also took the girls swimming in a big pool this weekend (thanks, Loopers, we owe you one!)

I believe this was Regan's first time in the water (not counting a bath), and she loved it!

Patrick, Chaney, Lola, Matt, Keaton, Megan, Jessica, Regan - the gang's all here!

And this is what baby feet look like after swimming...

Buddies

On Monday (Memorial Day) Josh and Shawna stopped by to see Lola after spending the day on the lake. (And by the way, happy birthday, Josh!) Jess, Gabe and Regan were there, too, for dinner - a "beer can" chicken, sweet potato fries and fresh green beans. Yum-o. This was the first time we really got Lola and Regan in the floor together. The difference in size is shrinking - they're going to be running around, stirring up trouble before we know it!