A new arrival!

Well, we have a new baby at the Mitchell household. It is a 3month old puppy and her name is Finn.
The backstory: We had decided to wait until after vacation was over, then we would start looking for a new dog. Jim's requirement- not aggressive, my requirement-must be a rescue dog, female, not too short of hair, pref. not white hair, Cameron's requirement-puppy (Ethans suggestion for a small dog got vetoed by both Jim and I) We decided that we wanted a bigger dog, and had it narrowed down to Australian Shepherd and Irish Setter but Setters are extremely hard to find and we are pretty sure our old dog Tashi was Australian Shepherd and she was a lovely dog, and they are really good with kids, so we went that direction. We really weren't wanting a puppy BUT the boys did and since they put up with my old grumpy dog for so many years I figure they did deserve to have a puppy even if it did test my sanity. Enter Finn!
Finn is 3 months old, part Australian Shepherd and we don't know what else. She is chocolate (usually Aussies are red, black, white, not brown) She really looks like a lab but she has tiny little feet. We are expecting her to get to about 40 pounds. She has sort of long hair that is sooooo soft, and she has lovely puppy teeth that like to chew EVERYTHING! ACK!
We found her picture online, from a rescue place. She was in a foster home not too far from us. She is actually a double rescue! Her litter was found in Cleburne park in the middle of summer in a cardboard box. They were taken to the pound and the rescue people came and took all the puppies, so they wouldn't be put to sleep. They were all adopted out, including Sprinkles (this is the name the foster mom gave her) but she had a weird feeling about her home, and when you adopt a rescue dog you sign a contract stating that you will treat the dog with a certain amount of respect and not ignore the dog, etc., or the rescue agency has the right to take the dog back. Well, the foster mom went and checked on Sprinkles and she had lost weight, her hair was matted and she was covered in stickerburs :( so the fostermom told the woman that she was taking the dog back. She took her back home, fattened her back up , then placed her back up for adoption when I found her.

Yeah Tara!!!

Just a little brag for myself here, I started Weight Watchers in the middle of June, and as of last night I make it to 10 pounds! wooohooo! That is even after going on vacation! Okay, current migraine medications are helping with the weight- admitedly, but most of the work I did on my own. And as of today I am back on program. Off to eat my 1pt breakfast muffin now.....

not all roses

On the first day of school we didn't quite make it down to the end of the street before the bus dropped them off ( they were quick) so I got a picture the second day... Cameron does like riding the bus!

As for the rest of it though- he is ready for school to be over. and that is only 2 days into school! He doesn't want to go every day, he doesn't want to go for so long every day, he doesn't want to wake up so early, he doesn't want to go to bed so early, he doesn't want any part of it. He DOES like school and his teacher and the things they do there, but he is just over it and ready for a break already. I feel so bad for him. I knew the mornings would be rough- he is NOT a morning person but he is beat by the time he comes home in the afternoon and it just doesn't get better.

Then there is Ethan. First day of school: Principal informs him at lunch that he needs a haircut. F*%&ers!!! Seriously! it isn't LONG, and it isn't in his eyes at all. Jim is even pissed about it. I mentioned getting it cut but Jim said no- we will wait till we have a note in writing from the school. Oh, it's not often that Jim is a badass. And I must say, that attitude is pretty sexy on him! Fight the sytem- down with the man! yeah!!!
Our other option is the convert to Sihk- and claim a religious exemption and then they couldnt make him cut his hair. (Sihks don't cut their hair- I learned this from our lovely cab driver last summer from dc to pennsylvania!) Might get us in a sticky situation when he decides he wants to cut his hair though.....hmmmm
I imagine soon enough we will end up cutting it, and then I will just move him out of the school district in 7th grade- hair policy is one reason that drives me up the wall but honestly I am just not that happy with the joshua school district anyway and it seems that the burleson high school will offer more opportunites anyway.

Mommy's sad day (AKA Sloane's first day of school)

I did so, so well on Cameron's first day, but I think it's because I knew Sloane's first day was the day after that. Sloane was so excited- mostly about her lunch box. She helped me pack it. She wanted a peanut butter sandwich and chips, and she put it all in her lunchbox all by herself. Then she went out to get her picture taken. She knew just where to stand because she saw the boys doing it yesterday- LOL! This is Sloane's teacher Mrs. Lynn. She is super nice (and she even has a little girl that is in kindergarten at NJE too!)
We got Sloane a pillow pet to bring to school to nap with, and a new blanket too.
She was excited when we got there (she knows the school because that is where Cam went last year) then when I was hugging her I thought about maybe just brining her home instead......but Jim made me leave her there. He is so mean. LOL.
I only cried a little bit when we left. then I spent an hour talking to my mom, then went to lunch with the girls- a loooong lunch thank goodness, then grocery shopping, then it was time to get Sloane. Phew- not too much down time thankfully!
Mrs. Lynn said she had a wonderful day- learned to sit criss cross applesause (indian style) and did alligator hands, and she ate all her lunch and napped for an hour. Yeah! She even peed in the potty one time for them!

First day of school

Here are my guys- ready for their first day! Ethan is going into 5th grade this year and Cam is going into kindergarten.

We usually carpool but our 'LVC' group decided to walk today- wow, what a large group of kids this year!

here we are all making the trek towards school....

This is our LVC kindergarten crew- Cameron, Caden, Mackenzie, Alex, and Braxton

Cameron and his teacher Ms. Trice. It is her first year teaching at NJE this year- I think she will be a fun teacher :)

Cam got to play with play doh when he first got to school- which is his favorite thing to do, so that makes for a good start to the first day!

my geocaching map!

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Yeah, we were able to add Idaho and Utah to our list of geocaches!!!!! We were in prime geocaching areas in montana and wyoming when we went to Yellowstone but completely forgot. Oops! Oh well! Then we only tried to get one when we were in Nevada and we couldn't find it at all.

Cameron update

Cameron had a GI update the day after we returned from our trip. She was pleased that the antibiotics helped his bad poopy odor. She also said she wasn't concerned about him having loose stool. She said that is just his normal and it is better than being too hard. That is true but she isn't the one that has to help him wipe or wash his underwear..... Oh well. She does seem very confident that he has lactose intolerance (at any rate it is something to do with dairy because his pain is completely eliminated when we give him a dairy free diet) but we never fully did the lacose intolerance test and he did have some milk allergy tests done when they did the stool samples BUT he was already on a dairy free diet, so it wouldn't have shown up in his stool. Due to the fact that he is EXTREMELY sensitive to things like yogurt and butter (alot of people that are lactose intolerant are okay with those things) she thinks it may be a milk allergy rather than lactose intolerance. I think he is just lactose intolerant but just very sensitive. But the nutritionist wants us to try giving him some soy (many with milk allergies also have soy allergies so we will see how he feels) up till now he has been drinking almond milk.
I was really hoping to have all this figured out by the time school started and I am really worried. Probably more than I should be, but he is going to have snacks with the class and lunch, and once a week they have ice cream. Then there are birthday celebrations..... I don't know what to do!!! I really don't want him to be left out! It is all so overwhelming, and I feel so bad for him. It wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't a new thing to us, but the dairy thing is new and then kindergarten is new, and it all just makes me sad.

Something interesting

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http://thetahealingtruth.webs.com/
I don't promote people on my blog ever, so that says something in and of itself. I am currently using him myself.

End of the trip

These are pictures of the salt flats. Ethan wondered as we drove by if we would be able to make a ball, like a snow ball. LOL! Nope, I don't think it would stick together!

Last night in Elko

Can you imagine in a few years what I will look like when Ethan is driving a car???

Sloane is having a good ol' time!
Time for grandpa to attack to kids. Is there anything more fun?

We all sure did have a great time in Nevada! What an action packed vacation!!

Now it's time to get ready for our trip to Utah tomorrow so we can catch our plane! At least we don't have to catch the plane at 6am!

Ruby Mountains, take 2

Well, since Sloane was sleeping the first time, we decided to come back. This time we played in the water and had alot of fun!

I bet this picture will be a great blackmail photo for a girlfriend or something like that in the future, with his shorts all rolled up like daisy dukes! haha!

I am not sure what this is, and yes, it is dead but they looked really cool so I made Jim stop so I could take a picture of it.

Mountain Climbing

Cameron has this idea in his head that we are going mountain climbing. Okay, so here we are in the mounatain, lets go! Oops, Sloane fell asleep in the car so grandma decides to sit in the car with her and wait for us while we go 'climb'This is as close as we can get to the snow. It is just too far away for us to get there. Maybe next time we come out here the kids will be old enough to handle a nice long hike.This was taken with my infrared filter. It didn't turn out quite as fantastic as I had hoped, and I never know how it will look until I get home, so oh well, better luck next time I guess.

Since we first got here, Sloane has NOT been interested in the 4wheelers at all. She thinks they are too noisy and scary, and won't even sit on them with them turned off. She has also not been too interested in going to Grandpa Frank. Imagine my surprise when I come outside and see this:

Afterward, she just kept saying FUN, ride, run, ride, fun, ride. She didn't want to do it again, but she did think it was fun. LOLAnd of course Cameron wanted a turn too!

4wheeling wore Sloane out! And Grandma is very good at rocking babies too sleep!

Finally we get a little R&R

Well, we get a LITTLE bit of rest, anyway! I was very disappointed in Idaho that there wasn't any snow on the mountain tops. there is ALWAYS snow on the mountains and we really didnt see any, so when we went to see Carole and Frank, we told the kids we would try to see some snow. The Ruby mountains (that you can see from their house) usually have snow that you can actually get too fairly easily. So as you can see, we already have some plans for the week.... In the mean time- 4wheeling, anyone???

Nevada bound

On to the next part of our trip today. As usual we make our lunch stop in Twin Falls. We drive down to the bottom and sit by the river to eat our lunch. It is the perfect little spot to stretch our legs. There are some fun places to walk around and explore for the kids too- we really enjoy coming here!

Back on the road, we see a mountain on fire. We did see an airplane dumping some flame retardants on the fire but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch that. Luckily this is the only fire we saw.