:) :(

Yesterday was rough. But first I'll update you on our goings on. We've been working on our new room, we finished sheetrocking it on Tuesday and we're slowly making progress. We got new missionaries a couple of weeks ago, Elder Hagge and Elder Sevy, both from California. (Actually Elder Sevy is also from Idaho- he moved there before his mission.) We really like them and they've been so helpful in getting us excited to do missionary work and unifying the branch. They've also been helpful in getting us as far on the room as we are.


I'll post updated pictures soon. When I took this picture we were insulating the ceiling while we sheetrocked. Elder Sevy is on the left, Johnny in the middle and Elder Hagge on the right. (Oh, they're pronounced Seevee and Hagee-long a.)

So with all the construction, our house looks pretty bad. Our table is covered in tools and supplies for the room, as is our dining room floor and some of the living room. It's going to take longer than we wanted to finish and clean everything up because I can't do it by myself and Johnny started school yesterday. His final semester!!! We're really excited about that part, but we really wanted the room finished before he started, so we could be more organized and nothing would get in the way.

Here's what's next on the room: Level the subfloor. The existing construction that we started with had several different floor levels. We are going to put tongue-and-groove wood laminate floor down (like what's in our kitchen), so we need the subfloor to be semi-level. That means adding some 3/4" plywood and then 1/4" plywood over some of the room. Next, we have to put 3/8" strips of wood along the bottom of the wall studs (3 rows) to nail the beadboard too. We sheetrocked the top half of the bedroom and bathroom because we want to add beadboard so it'll match the rest of the house. Then we can use the brad nailer to put up the tongue-and-groove beadboard. After that, we can float and tape the seams and screw holes on the sheetrock. Then texture the walls and PAINT! The bathroom and closets will have tile, so we have to put down hardiback and lay the tile and grout before finishing installing the toilet and sink. Also the sewer has to be tied in, and some final plumbing. We'll do chairrail and crown molding later. One other thing- we have to install doors.

SO, if you need a service project some weekend- come watch the kids while you watch us work! Or you can join us! (We're very serious, we'll even grill some chicken for you.)

Okay, now to the real reason I need to blog. Yesterday wasn't just Johnny's first day of his last semester... Normally when I take the kids to school, our dog Bullet is there to greet us and bid us farewell. She wasn't there. I didn't notice at first, but after I took the kids, I called for her for a long time and she didn't come. I decided to load up the girls and go look for her. I drove around the neighboring streets calling for her and went to City Hall, down the street and they said they'd call if they heard anything. Then I headed home, but I decided to drive a little further to see if maybe I didn't look far enough the last time, and I saw it. I pulled to the should and parked. I walked behind the van and examined the pavement. There was too much blood to have been a raccoon or an armadillo. She must have been hit. I immediately started crying and I assumed the city picked her body up, because they do that. Around lunchtime, the missionaries stopped by and I told them what had happened. They walked out there and came back and said they found her body in the woods. Whoever hit her drug her body into the woods, I think, so our kids wouldn't see her on the side of the road. Everyone knows we have a black lab and that we have kids. They all drive by our house and see us playing with her. So I felt like they were being sensitive to us. It must have been during the night. She would go across the street to use the bathroom. We caught her doing that a lot and got onto her for it. Anyway, Johnny said he left our house around 6 a.m. and had a feeling that she was dead, but he shrugged it off because it was 26 degrees outside and thought she was probably sleeping somewhere trying to keep warm. Anyway, Johnny called to check on things at home and I was crying telling him about her. He said we could keep the girl puppy too. He got home right after I picked the kids up from school and we both told them what happened. Katherine took it especially hard. She tries not to cry usually... she'll try to laugh and if she can't keep from crying she'll go to her room or somewhere private to let it out, hoping no one will notice. She didn't make it. She turned toward the hallway and tried to hide her face, but when her cry became audible, she tried to turn it into a laugh. Then she turned to Johnny and burst into tears. By now Johnny and I are both crying and Travis has his head in his arms on the coffee table. We told them we were going to go get her and bury her. Katherine said she didn't want to be there for it.

We wrapped her in an old, navy blue full-sized fitted sheet- one we got when we were first married. Elder Hagge and Johnny dug the grave and we had a prayer. Katherine watched from the window in our new room, with Bryn. I held Ella and Travis and Olivia stood with us and Elder Sevy. The puppies sniffed around the sheet a lot, especially Colt. He's the most curious of them all. We're glad we have the puppies. We gave one black male to our friend Larry, from church. He named him Bubba. We sold one to a family in Liberty, they named him Sam. We gave one to our friend from Ritter Lumber, Charles Proctor. He put a blue collar on him and will pick him up this week probably. That leaves us with Colt, the girl and 2 more black males that we want to sell. Our friends, the Iles, have a yellow lab we were going to breed Bullet with next year, so maybe we can breed the girl instead. I'm having trouble coming up with a name for her. I named Colt, but I can't think of one for her yet. She's the smallest one, but has a beautiful coat. The boys seem to be a little fuzzy compared to her. I'm going to take her to the vet tomorrow. Their office is closed today. I need to get worm medicine and Johnny says the hair on her neck is thin, so we want to get her checked out.

Well, in our tribute to Bullet, here are some of our fondest memories of her...

She LOVED tennis balls and playing fetch. She could play for hours and when she got tired she would catch the ball one last time and then go lay down with it and hold it. She barked only when a stranger drove up. Sometimes they were friends, and sometimes they really were strangers. She always came to greet us and said goodbye when we left. She got to live inside while her puppies were small. She was a good mom. When they were newborns, if one of us, or the missionaries held one, she would sniff the puppies and come looking for the missing one until she found it in our laps. That made her nervous and she would stand there with her ears perked up until we put the puppy back, then she could relax. She kept me and Johnny company when we would stay up late studying after the kids were in bed. She'd come and lay on the floor in front of the coffee table or by the couch or under the dining room table. She loved to cuddle and would get in our laps if we'd let her. When we pet her she made a noise of contentment, but also as if she was saying "don't stop"- breathing with her mouth closed. If we gave her a milk bone, she had to go outside to eat it. She liked to put it on the ground and take her time knawing on it. She was smart and beautiful, just the kind of dog that Johnny (and I) always wanted. I didn't know I wanted a dog like her. When we ate supper she'd go on the front porch and get in the windowsill and peer in so we'd know she was ready to come it. She'd wake us up to let her out at night, when she got to live inside. And she'd scratch on the door when she was ready to come in, very gently. She liked to play with the puppies. Johnny and I said she had recess with them and p.e. because sometimes it looked like she was teaching them and other times she was letting them have "free play". If we ever had leftovers or scraps for them, she'd let the puppies have it. If she got the chance though, she come inside and clear the plates. She was great at washing the dishes! All-in-all, she was a great dog, friend and pet. I can say that growing up I had 2 dogs that I loved, Pepper (a female German Shepherd) and Clown (a male Border Collie), but I never cried more than I did with Bullet. She's definitely changed our family for the better and we look forward to raising the puppies with our children.




Incidentally, one of our goldfish died this morning as well. We bought two goldfish with our 30 gallon tank in the spring of 2006. We still have one, but it's not looking too good for him/her either. Johnny wants to get blue ciclids. We'll see. We never really named the fish, sometimes I called them Frodo and Sam, and sometimes Thelma and Louise (I don't know why, I never saw that movie.) We're not as attached to the fish, so there was so funeral or tears. But it's still sad. AND, last night we bought an underground fence for the puppies, so they'll learn not to go near the road. We plan to put it up tonight when Johnny gets home.