The One Where We Climbed a Mountain

January 25-27, 2019

Now, THIS was a memorable weekend!  Not only did we celebrate Jake's 12th birthday - which he somehow figures out a way to spread out over a week and a half and gets to pick dinner like 2-3 times and everything we buy during those days is "his present" - but we also did something a little life changing!  (which is why this post is basically a week late!) But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.  We'll take it chronologically...

Friday Night
January 25 is officially Jake's birthday.  Although, I think we started "celebrating" last Monday...  But for his actual birthday, we got together at Fuzzy's Taco Shop on the strip with the WHOLE FAMILY, then went to our house to open presents.  We were very happy everyone could make it!

Emma, Nana, Lara, Jake, Finn, Mom, Dad, Grandpa

Lara and Emma after presents were opened

Saturday Morning:
(Emma had some things going on in her world, including a JackPot, so she wasn't around for all our craziness.)  Lara was on "Help Mom" duty as we had a big weekend with lots of people going in different directions.  First up, get Finn to basketball and cheer his team to victory!

Not sure the Eagles won, but this was fun! Thanks for the ride, Lara!

After (and I mean RIGHT after) Finn's game finished, Lara drove us to Tulsa *quickly* so we could catch Jake's 2nd game of the day in a tournament there.  This was her second time to drive to Tulsa, and she did very well!  I was impressed.  She spent the rest of the day watching Jake's games, helping us get checked in to our hotel, and generally being a great big sister and wonderful daughter.

Saturday Night:
In the evening, we went to watch more basketball in this large tournament.  A friend had a 4th grade girls' team that was playing near by, so we went to check them out.  Mom in the stands, Dad coaching, big sis on the team, and her little brother (7) and baby sister (20 months) in the stands.  Lara (of course) thoroughly enjoyed playing with the littles!  Once Finn warmed up to the other little boy, they had a great time!  Meanwhile, we convinced Baby Girl that Lara was Ariel from The Little Mermaid.  Little Girls' eyes got so big!  And she reached out to touch her to see if she was real.  PRICELESS!  And oh so cute!!

Ariel?  Or LARA???!!!?!

Also on Saturday:
This picture was circling Facebook.  Our neighbors, The "Other" Weavers, were helping a friend find a home for this little pup she had rescued with her 2 bothers...

Rescue Pup posted on FACEBOOK

Sunday:
Jake's basketball team fought hard to make it to the championship game, but fell one game short.  We had a late lunch in Tulsa, then headed back to Stillwater - with the dream of meeting up with the rescue pup we had seen on Facebook.  Plans had been made, but you never know...
We got home right at 5:00pm.  By 6:00pm, we were dog owners.  Complete with a bed, toys, a dish, and some food.  WHOA!  That was FAST!

Our Puppy's Name - we call her "Evie"

Follow Evie on Instagram: @evie.p_puppy

The name Everest came about by just bouncing names around in the car while we were driving through Tulsa Saturday night.  She is a vanilla white, so we were naming white things, and snow came in to play, then mountains...  Metaphorically, this is a mountain we have climbed!  We have had dogs in the past, with much turmoil and heartbreak.  The kids have been BEGGING since we got into our own home.  We were waiting for the right time, the right circumstances, and the right dog.  Serendipity finally came our way!

So the rest of Sunday was spent getting to know our newest family member.  She is SO SOFT!  And Fluffy.  We assume about 12 weeks old.  That's literally all we know about her.  Everyone slept VERY well on Sunday night, but amazingly got up without too much fuss on Monday.  I guess knowing puppy kisses await makes it easier...  Welcome Home, Everest Pearl!

OH!  And, BTW...  The keys are still lost...

Meet Stella

My husband and I walked into a garage sale on Saturday…  No, not the start of a bad joke.  Well, not THAT kind of joke anyway!  It’s a true story!  Seriously, we went to a garage sale at 7am on Saturday.  It was a large multi-family sale in a big tin building to help raise funds for some friends who are going to Haiti soon to adopt.  We wanted to help the cause, plus, we could use a few furniture items, so we were on the hunt. While we were not successful with the furniture hunt, we got 3 books (one for each big kid), and a PUPPY! Is it a bad joke?  So far, not at all! She is sweet, loving, fun, easy going, and a great addition to our home.

A mutual friend was helping our friends with the sale had 5 Chihuahua puppies on December 9.  Only one female and she was originally spoken for by another mutual friend.  But, due to her busy spring schedule, she decided not to take the puppy.  So, this sweet puppy was at the garage sale, open for adoption with a donation to the family.  We spent over an hour at the sale walking around, debating the pros and cons of taking this sweet baby home with us.  Emma has wanted a Chihuahua for a couple of years now (I am sure her Aunt Paula and cousin Savannah have something to do with that!), and with Einstein gone, I was having doggie withdrawals.  So, Britt finally caved in and said I could adopt the puppy!  Prying the puppy out of the hands of the son of the family we were supporting is a whole other story, but we finally got him to understand and off we went to take her to her forever home!

She has been home 48 hours now, and we are all so in love!  ALL of the kids were SO excited!  They have been taught how to feed her, how to take her out to do her business, and how to hold her.  I think the Twisters are going to be GREAT dog moms!  So proud of them!  Stella was already crate trained, so that it a bonus.  We had to buy food, a small crate, and a few toys, but now she can call this house her home, too.  We even found an old small blanket that was Emma and Lara’s when they were babies for Stella to have.  She has settled in well, knows I am her Momma and is well on her way to knowing her name!

What’s a little more chaos in our lives, right?  ;)