Flora and Fauna

I'm finally off my keester to bring you this photo of the GORGEOUS floral arrangement that J's parents had delivered to us on our anniversary. =) Complete with purple daisies which always remind me of our wedding.



Here you can see our "wedding jar." J got it for us when he was stationed in South Carolina before our wedding. 51 weeks out of the year, it faces the other way and has a similar design with no words; the week of our anniversary it gets turned so that our names and wedding date show.


True to form for us, we didn't really do anythings pecial that day though, so when Linda asked the question "Did you do anything special?" my answer was "yeah, we got your flowers." ;)

THANK YOU again Danny and Linda! It has been wonderful having such cheery flowers in the house this week.

On to the fauna portion of this post. ;) Earlier this week, after Bug was in bed, I was letting the dogs go potty and Paisley suddenly reared up on her hind legs and let out a kind of strange, low growly sound. I followed her line of sight and this is what I saw:

Momma and Baby Deer were back! It was so fun to watch them, and to watch Momma watch me to make sure I wasn't going to do anything crazy. ;)

Not only was it cool to see, but it turned out to be an interesting lesson in the fallacy of the naked eye sometimes. I could have sworn that Momma and Baby were inside our fence line, there was pretty much no doubt in my mind actually. Then, the next day when J and I put the pictures on the computer and began inspecting them, it became clear that I was wrong. Just an interesting reminder that we can't necessarily believe everything we "see."

And then there was this guy. ;) Another Blanding's Turtle, or at least I'm pretty sure. Wasn't your garden variety paint, that's for sure.

Of course, we can't forget this animal. ;)



More teeth have finally come through! Whew! And he's getting closer to talking, at least I have sensed a change in his babbling. The noises coming out of his mouth are taking on a more purposeful tone. A woman at the store yesterday informed me that she wasn't surprised he wasn't talking yet, since clearly "his Momma talks for him." =( Hmmm...interesting assessment lady.

Anyway, I consider him to be a toddler these days, talking or not. So much going on for little Bug. =) He is at that age where he is infinately comical, infinately exhausting (haha), and infinately adorable--quite often all at the same time. ;)

Last, but not least, the doggie update. Pumba went to his new family, his hopefully forever home (though I think I learned my lesson about declaring that too early), last Wednesday, July 2nd. It was so bittersweet--we were very happy for him, but we still miss him. He is such a wonderful dog! Ultimately, we told ourselves it would be selfish to keep him to ourselves; we had to spread the Pumba love. HAHA. We hope to get updates from his new Momma. She has big plans for this boy, aside from the good life with 4 kiddos and another dog in the house, she has started him in obedience and hopes to get his Canine Good Citizen and possibly even a therapy dog certificate. Go Pumba! We know he can do it!

We still have a foster dog though:

Can't you just hear Mischief's confident declaration here? "I'm back!" The day after Pumba moved on, this guy was back. The search is on again for a forever home for this little guy. He is such a pup...whew...I'll leave it at that. He's coming along though and definitely keeping things interesting around here. =)

So that's that. A summary of the happenings at the Jackson house. Riveting I'm sure. ;) Happy weekend to all. Off for playtime, coffee, and maybe snuggles, if I'm really lucky. =)