Day One Hundred and Seventy-Three

Actual Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I have an exciting new announcement. Well, you might not be as excited as I am but to me, it's pretty exciting!

Brian bought me a lap top!!!

I am beyond excited. This little baby is going to change my life. You have no idea. Our regular computer is way back in the sitting room off of our bedroom. It was hard to find a good time that I could be on it when I wanted to, or needed to because there was no way to hear or see the kids from where it is located. Even if I snuck back there for a minute, the whole house would fall apart.

I once caught Parker unrolling the whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet. And with him becoming more mobile, it's getting tougher to leave him alone, even for two seconds.

Basically that's why I have gotten so far behind on my blog. The only time I had to work on it was early in the morning before the kids woke up. Or during nap time. But I usually had other things to do to keep the house up during that time. So then I would try to get on after all the kids were in bed. But then I started to feel bad because that's the time Brian and I get to spend together.

Now with this snazzy new laptop I will be able to be be mobile! I can even take it to the gym and take advantage of the whole 2 hours of childcare (which is huge for me because we have no family here to babysit when I need a break) while surfing around on the Internet. After I work out of course. ;o) Seriously it's going to change my life.

Thank you babe! You're the best!

OK, now for today's post...

Contrary to what you all my know, Brian and I actually welcomed our first baby into our life 6 years ago.

His name is Chester.

Look at that little puppy face. That's is him on the day that we first got him.

Brian and I had been living in Texas on our own for awhile and we had been talking about getting a dog to add to the mix. Every weekend for about a month or so, we would head to Petsmart to look over the dogs during adoption day.

We were being really picky because we didn't want to pick the first cute little thing that we saw and get stuck with a barking, pooping on the floor, mess.

We noticed a pattern, during our searching process. If you stood there long enough you would see which dogs barked like crazy every time another dog walked by. And which dogs were a little more laid back. On the day that we found Chester, about a month and a half into the search, he was the only dog that we had seen to that point that didn't go nuts whenever the other dogs got all riled up. He was just kinda sitting in his crate with his sad little puppy dog eyes.

We asked his handler if we could get him out and meet him and she was so excited. When she let him out we saw that his whole back left side was shaved. His foster mom told us that she had found him and his brother and sister living in field, eating a dead cow. When she took them to the vet to get them checked out, the vet noticed that Chester's left hip bone was completely shattered. He probably had been hit by a car at some point.

Instead of amputating it, they decided to cut off the whole head of the femur bone (the ball part that holds the hip in the socket). They said with some work, he would eventually build the muscle up enough to hold that bone in there. Though that leg would be a few inches shorter than the others, he would be completely fine.

Once we heard his story our hearts broke for him. Plus, he was such a lover. He leaned into us begged us to pet him. We fell in love on the spot.

We told his foster mom that we would love to do a trial adoption and see how he liked living with us. She was excited, until we told her that we didn't have a fence. But she agreed to come out to our house and check it out (we had a pretty big lot of land and we lived on a cul da sac petty far away from the main road).

The next day, his foster Mom and Dad came out to our house to check it out. They said that they thought it would be ok, and we told them that if we had to we would get one of those invisible fences installed. They were good with that. They even left him there with us for the night!

We took him to the park that day and played ball with him most of the day. He never even once tried to run out of our yard, and never went to the bathroom in the house. He was perfect! We were in love! And have been ever since.

So that's the story of how our first born came into our lives.

Here he is today. He is seriously the best dog in the world. And I'm not just saying that. We've had tons of our friends and family say that too. Everyone wants to keep him after they meet him.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He was pouting because there was like a foot of snow on the ground and he couldn't go out and play ball.

Here he is with his "little sister" Brooke when she was just weeks old.

The date is wrong on there. It would have been sometime in June of 2005.

Once again, Chester is the best dog ever. He has such a special bond with all of our kids. You can tell he loves them. Anytime anyone of them cry, he comes over and kisses them. If one of them is sick, he sleeps by their bed.

Once a few years ago, during the time when Brian used to have to travel a lot, Brian came home late in the evening after being gone for a few days or so. Chester was upstairs and must not have heard him walk up the driveway. Brooke and I went outside to great him. When Brian picked up Brooke, he threw her up in the air and she let out a squeal. She screamed because she was so excited but all Chester heard was his "little sister" screaming.

He barrelled down the stairs and came outside growling and barking. He was showing his teeth and the hair on the back of his neck was standing up. We had never ever seen him like that before. Once he realized it was Brian, he calmed down and got excited to see him.

It's comforting to know that Chester would come to our rescue if he thought we needed it.

Here he is playing ball with Ava when she was a little bitty.

If an adult wants to play ball with him, he won't let you take it. He would rather play tug-a-war.

But if a kid or a baby tootles up to him, he just lets them take it. It's amazing how gentle he is with them.

"Hey, where are you going with that?"

"Can I have it back please?"

"Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!"

Ava and Chester at Grandma's house. He always gets tuckered out at Grandma's house. She has tons of land and other dogs for him to play with. Anytime you ask one of the kids "do you want to go to Grandma's house?" Chester is the one who gets the most excited.

Once again, I love that he lets the kids "love" on him. And our kids LOVE this dog. Heck, all the kids in our neighbor hood love this dog. How could you not love him?

He never does or ever has (except when he got really sick once) gone to the bathroom in the house.

He catches a ball like a major leaguer. Even with a bum leg.

He never jumps up on you.

He gets along with other dogs and cats.

And he's just a lover. period.

In the past 6 years this dog has won over the hearts of many. We couldn't imagine our family without him.

Seriously, all of my kids said "Chester" as one of their first 5 words. That's how much love we have for this gimpy mutt.