Starting Back, Bella's "Incident" & What's That Smell?

Still not much going on here...BUT things are slowly getting back to normal.

Whatever that is.

Well, ONE thing it is...is that Clark has gone back to school. He was home for 5 weeks on Christmas break, and I.loved.every.minute.of.it. When he left on Monday, I held it together until he drove away...and then I cried my eyes out.

Every one of our kids...every person in our family...have a special role that no one else can fill. Clark has been so helpful around here...with Joshua, with our new puppy, with Rhodie. I will sure miss him, and the dynamic he brings to our family!

I never thought I would like my kids growing up and getting older. They were just so much fun when they were little! But then, they were school-aged, and that was fun. And then they were teenagers, and that was fun. And now they are young-adults, and I LOVE THIS STAGE SO MUCH!

All you young Mommas out there...hang in there! But, more than that, keep at it. Work hard. Invest in their lives. You won't be sorry.

So, Clark is back at school. His first day of classes was today. Logan started back to grad school. His first day of classes was yesterday. And yesterday was the day Joshua has been wishing for for 5 weeks...his Therapeutic Recreation group started back! Joshua was so excited!

Yesterday, they stayed at the TR Center, and went over all the rules. Or, as Joshua calls them, the "roo-ahs." They ate their lunch at the Center, and had a great day! They all shared what they had been doing over the break, and had a "brain-storming" session, where they all got to give suggestions as to what they wanted to do this semester.

Today, his group did a volunteer project, went to the gym...and went out for lunch. It is a well-known and well-documented fact that there's nothing the FRIENDS like more than going out for lunch. Unless it's going out for dinner...or breakfast...or an afternoon snack.

Ha!

I asked Joshua where they went, and he said, "pizza." I said, "well, then you're probably not going to like what we are going to have for dinner." He said, "what?" I said, "left-over pizza." (Don't judge me...it's Wednesday!) He said, "oh no!" I said, "well, you can always have a sandwich." He said, "I'll take pizza."

JUST LIKE I THOUGHT.

On top of everything going on, we have this crazy puppy. She is super sweet, but puppies are a lot of work...just in case you forgot.

I forgot.

I mean, when you have a dog for 13 years, and they die...you forget what it was like when they were puppies...and you think, "ohhh...we should get another dog." And you forget about everything that goes along with that.

Or, I did.

Also? Puppies are messy.

On Monday, I "dreamed" that I heard someone taking a bath in our bathroom at 4:30 in the morning. Except it wasn't a dream. It was Clark...giving Bella-the-Labradoodle a bath in my bathtub. WHY in my bathtub, and not in Clark's bathtub...is a question that can only be answered by this one word: BOYS.

So, I got up to go in the kitchen. The SECOND I opened my bedroom door, it hit me...the SMELL. And things started to quickly fall into place in my mind.

Apparently, there was an "accident" of some sort in Bella's kennel.

I don't know what happened.
I don't know why it happened.
I'm not even sure who did it.
She looked pretty innocent to me.

Jim's story: I got up, got dressed for my run, smelled the smell, yelled for Clark to help, cleaned up stuff, and then went on my run.

Clark's story: Dad came in the living room, and woke me up (Clark had fallen asleep on the couch). Dad smelled the smell, saw the mess in the kennel, and "went to hollerin' and flailing his hands around in the air." Dad took the dog outside, and then went on his run. I cleaned up everything...AND gave the dog a bath.

I believe Clark.

Jim has always had a flair for the dramatic! HA!

All this happened on the morning that Clark was packing up and driving back to school...and on the morning that I keep my sweet baby grandson all day.

And even tho we cleaned and sanitized everything, my house still has a TWANG of a smell about it. Not a bad smell...but not a good smell, either.

I'm going to buy candles tomorrow.

Ain't life fun?

"For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:15