Halloween

Hooray for Nana!! She went to Anslee's school costume parade and Halloween party. After the party Nana took Anslee home to play with her. Anslee said that was one of the greatest days EVER.
Anslee is helping clean out her pumpkin. This is one of the many expressions she made for the camera. Keith always does a great job carving the pumpkins!! Andrew didn't want to dress as something scary but he didn't want to be anything babyish. He decided to be a biker.

How cute is our little ladybug?! This is probably the last year she dresses like this. I have a feeling next year it will be something like pop star diva!

Growing up too quickly!

Anslee enjoys a very busy social life!
At a birthday party this last weekend, one of the mom's walks up to me and tells me that her son says Anslee is his girlfriend. Anslee changes who her "boyfriend" is all the time so it is fun to meet the current one! He is a cutie!

His mom said she can tell Anslee really keeps him in line... Hmmmm. I'm not really sure that's a compliment!

Anslee is such an independent, assertive child. I think it will help her go far in life, but I'm not so sure she will get along great with her mother in law!

It's raining, it's pouring.....

It has been raining for days now. I don't want to complain because this is a lot better than the drought we were dealing with. BUT... Andrew, Anslee and all the children in my class are going stir crazy!!Luckily Herschel doesn't really seem to mind the rain at all!

A new family member...

We were so sad when Buster passed away on August 26th. He was 14 years old. If you loose a dog, the greatest book is Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant. We cry every time we read it. (I know you are supposed to underline books, but I can't figure out how to on blogspot!!)

We rescued a dachshund named Molly right before the end of the school year. We kept her for a

little over a month and tried to potty train her, but we couldn't. We couldn't even crate train her. We felt horrible when we took her back, but after talking to the rescue people, they reassured us that they would find a home for her. She was rescued from a puppy mill and had more issues than we were able to help her with.

We really thought we might not get another dog, but we missed Buster so much that we all knew we needed a family pet. We looked at a lot of rescues and asked many questions. Finally we found the cutest little 4 month old scottie puppy. The lady who rescued his mother owns a puppy training business. She said he was born in her house and she trained him for the 4 months she had him. He is pretty much potty and crate trained. She already named him Herschel Walker and it stuck. Glad we're Georgia fans!!

Andrew is so excited because he's always wanted a "fetching dog". Herschel loves to play fetch. Keith has already taught him to heel and sit when being walked. He has the funniest little personality and he fits perfectly in our family!!

If anyone is looking for a dog or puppy, she rescues and breeds dogs. I can give you her name. We found her on the site kijiji under the pets section. She also has a web site. With Herschel as an example, she does an incredible job with puppy training!!

Bamboo for the pandas

In June I saw a Zoo Atlanta truck outside with bamboo. So being nosey I asked what they were doing. The employee told me that they go all around Atlanta collecting bamboo from private landowners for the giant pandas.
I found this on the Zoo Atlanta website:

Donate Bamboo!

Our giant pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, have vigorous appetites, dining on bamboo 10-16 hours a day. They require a variety of bamboo species and with a 220-pound-a-day consumption, a significant supply. We are always seeking donations of bamboo from private land owners.
We can only accept bamboo that has been harvested by Zoo Atlanta in order to make sure it meets our harvesting standards. To enquire about donating bamboo located on your property, please call the bamboo hotline at 404.624.5884

We went to Zoo Atlanta yesterday. Today and tomorrow (Aug. 8 & 9) are Family Free Days for City of Atlanta and Fulton County residents and employees. They are expecting about 16,000 visitors! I'm glad we went yesterday, as I think everyone was waiting for these two free days. It wasn't crowded at all for us.
If Zoo Atlanta does keep the pandas long term, I hope they are built a better habitat. The zoo in Chongqing, China has big outdoor areas for their pandas.

Watching the orangutans is one of our favorite things to do. Did you know they have the longest childhood of any other animal?

One other interesting thing we saw yesterday is that the naked mole rat had babies that morning. They live like ants in a colony, so just the queen has babies (every 82-90 days!!) and all the others are just workers. The last time she had babies, none survived because they were constantly stepped on by the adults and the queen stopped feeding them. I'm crossing my fingers for these little ones. They were so interesting to observe!!

Another Family Member

I'm so excited! Keith's sister and her husband are expecting baby #3!

Rosemary Beach

We had so much fun at the beach. I love ending summer this way!

Just some highlights...

Swim lessons were successful! Anslee was a fish in the pool. She has no fear at all!

Andrew and his cousin flying kites.

Going crabbing at night.

These "Blue Button Jellyfish" were all over the place this year. We were nervous about getting stung until we looked them up and found that they really aren't jellyfish at all.

The cousins all cooperate to build a sandcastle.

Anslee just doing a little happy dance on the beach.

Taking a walk with Granddaddy.

Andrew was able to catch 3 small fish with a net. He was so excited!

Eye update

This is after the surgeries. Even though it was not fun having my eye sewn closed for a week, I was so excited that it wasn't closed for the eight weeks the doctor predicted. Rosemary was so much more enjoyable with the use of both eyes. My skin looks horrible because it had tape all over it for a week which I was allergic to! Now all the stitches are out and no more hospital visits for me!!

Scroll down the blog to see what happened before this.