I came, I saw, I conquered....

Recognize this quote? It was attributed to Julius Caesar, but this week it is an ode to our sweet dog Caesar, who suddenly passed away last Friday.

He was born in May of 1999 and came into our lives shortly afterward. I still remember a trembling puppy hiding underneath our deck. We had to send a five year old Joshua in to retrieve him! The two of them soon became inseparable!

Aren't they both so cute?!

In early 2004 he was joined by Romeo, who became his younger, more annoying brother, whom Caesar was forever tolerant of. Together they saw many sites camping and hiking, including the hike at Ft. Ebey, pictured below with Josh.

There were so cute together!

Speaking of tolerant, Caesar was soooo tolerant of the kids. Here are a couple of things they put him through over the years....

When Jaelyn joined our family in 2006, she was deathly frightened of the dogs, and would scream and cry anytime they got near. It was Caesar whom she first learned to feed, and he patiently allowed her to crawl over him and pull his fur without ever so much of a growl.  And Kaia, well she just adored him from the beginning, as you can tell by the photo below. Just as long as he was getting attention, he was a happy camper!

He conquered our hearts, and there were many tears with his passing. We will miss you Caesar*; thanks for bringing us nearly 12 years of smiles!


*footnote: although we will all miss him, the girls were paging through their "Dog bible" the following day, picking out the next breed of dog they will be getting. Border Collie,  really? I think not!

Princess Pirate....

This week was Kaia's post-glasses checkup, to measure how much her right eyesight has improved since wearing glasses. Unfortunately with the glasses she is only seeing 20/70, not the 20/40 we were aiming for. That means eye patch therapy began this week....

Like the glasses, Kaia was excited when she picked out the purple unicorn and the white kitty eye patches she is to wear. However, this excitement quickly dissipated as she realized exactly what this meant, being only able to use her poor eye to see. We had to pick up Jaelyn from a friend's house on the way home from the vision clinic, and at first she refused to even come out of the van due to embarrassment. I left the van sliding door open, and after about five minutes of me chatting at the house door, she slowly slithered out of the car to play with Jaelyn and her friend. This early experience had me worried, but I must say that Kaia has been much more positive about wearing them since then, more than I ever anticipated.

She has to wear one 4-5 hours a day, so on the drive home from school, she selects which one she wants to wear for the afternoon/evening. On Saturday and Sundays we can work around our schedule so that she can wear them while we're at home.  I think the biggest challenge ahead will be when soccer season begins next month. Saturday games shouldn't be an issue because we can work around the games, but evening practices may be. We will tackle that hurdle when it gets here. For now I am thankful she is keeping so positive, and I think she is the cutest Princess Pirate around!

Moving on up.....

Yep, our firstborn is "Moving on up....," to a top floor apartment that is, one that he can call his own! Well actually it's not his own, as he has a room mate, but you know what I mean....

I must admit I have mixed emotions. I know he has wanted to do this for some time, and we are ready for him to "spread his wings," but as a mom, I can only wonder if I have prepared him enough for this. I realize we all have to start somewhere and learn from the bumps along the way. Just hoping that the bumps aren't too rough, and that the road ahead leads somewhere. A positive is that it will probably improve my prayer life!

My first reaction to his apartment is that it is better than my first place, but it is quite sparse. If anyone needs birthday ideas, he needs lots (I realize his bday is not until August)! I will try and get pictures posted sometime.

And yeah, he's had dinner here twice since he officially moved out on Friday;-)

I'm Melting, I'm Melting....

Do you recognize this now???