I don't know what kind of butterfly this is but it's about the most georgeous one we saw at the Butterfly Conservatory. We went while my mom was down a couple of weeks ago. I think I may have mentioned it in another post.
The butterflies are fluttering all around and will land on people from time to time. Becky is not looking at Katie with jealous disgust, it's more like, 'Make sure that thing doesn't land on me, would ya!'
This beautiful blue butterfly was taking a break under a nice bench when Allison decided to scootch down to check him out.
We have decided to expand our family...Hold onto your britches! I'm not talking about adding another person, I'm talking about a dog, specifically a Labrador Retriever. After deciding that now is the right time I began doing some looking online for different animal shelters in our area. Slim pickins. Then I expanded the search and found a few different Lab Rescue organizations. Ah Ha! I was onto something. These groups are run by all volunteers located throughout the Northeast. There is no shelter, so to speak. Most of the dogs are placed in foster homes awaiting adoption. Most of the dogs are rescued from 'high kill' shelters in the south. A very nice lady I spoke with from www.americanlabrescue.com was telling me that last year in the Houston area 26,000 dogs were euthanised. Once a dog comes to a high kill shelter they have three days to be adopted. After the three days they are put down. How sad. Labs are the most common type of dog in these shelters, many of them pure bred, many more a mix of some sort. Black labs and black dogs in general are the least desirable to adopt, I don't know why. This same lady told me that she received 26 pages of dogs from one shelter to choose from to add to the rescue. I don't envy her job of trying to determine the most adoptable dogs on that list knowing she only has a certain number of foster homes to place them in. After searching through many lists of dogs on www.petfinder.com we were put in touch with www.labs4rescue.com. We are planning to adopt Lucy, a 4 year old, pure bred, black lab. Apparently she carries around her favorite toy with her all the time and is very smart and obedient. She'll require very little training, and she loves children and other dogs. She's a real cutie! We've submitted our application and had a phone interview with Lucy's case worker. Now we need to schedule a home visit and then she can come to live with us. We are all so excited! Even Ed, believe it or not. I'm amazed by the whole process and the dedication of the volunteers at these rescue groups. I'll keep you posted.
We're off to the Bronx Zoo this weekend with my in-laws. That should be a lot of fun; I've never been to New York City before. It's only about 2 1/2 hours from us. I'll be sure and post some pictures from our zoo adventure.
Can you believe summer is almost over? Where did it go? I find myself asking, 'What did we do all these weeks?' It's been nice to loaf around without the strict morning routine that comes with school. We've also enjoyed the steady stream of houseguests we've had. It's fun to show folks around our new community and show them the things we really like about living here.
Allison is SO excited about going to Nursery School. Becky is lots less excited and Katie just shrugs her shoulders when I ask her about it. I helped Allison's teacher and another mom from the school put together a rather large rubbermaid shed last week. Between the three of us we had the tools we needed and decifered the directions and got the thing together in about 3 hours. Pretty good! We affectionately refer to it as the "She Shed" because no man helped! Tonight I'm going to the school to serve on the interview panel for a teacher's aide position that needs to be filled for the start of school. How cool to have so much input about who Allison will spend 6 hours a week with! I'm looking forward to it. It's a cooperative nursery school which means it's essentially run by the parents. I like that.
My friend Deborah recommened a good book recently, Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson. It was excellent! You know you've found a good book when you can't put it down! I just started a new novel called, Quite Honestly. I can't remember who wrote it. It's set in England and the charcters are obviously English, with their dry humor and funny phrases. I'm getting into it...I'll let you know how it goes. Becky is reading the Magic Treehouse series and really likes it. We're reading the American Girl Samantha series out loud too. I just love the American Girl books. They're educational, inspirational, entertaining... Our local library has the Left Behind for Kids series and Katie wants to start on those. I read the original series for adults and it was excellent, a definate must read!
Oops, Gotta go - my children need a referee!
