Dear Ellie
This month has been full of Girl Scout activities. We got our delivery of Girl Scout cookies and you hit the streets to start selling. You are about half way to your goal of 1000 boxes. You are definitely the cookie boss that Girl Scouts encourages you to be. I am so proud of the people skills you are learning the more you talk to people and sell cookies.
Then later in the month I arranged for our troop to meet at the Humane Society of Yuma. You discussed dog safety, made a custom dog tag, toured the dog kennels and cuddled kittens in the cat condo. The purpose of the visit was also to allow you girls to see how you could create a service project.
As we draw closer to your 10th birthday I am seeing lots of growing pains. We have our ups and downs, I am sure the next 8 years will be full of many more. My job as a mom is to help guide you in the right direction. Yes, sometimes I might nudge (or even shove) you back on the right path. I will always be your safe place and your constant rock. Always waiting in the wings for you, even if you can’t see me and don’t think I am listening.
Love,
Mom
Please follow along to Kristin Gourley for her letter to her daughter.
This month’s theme for Life & Lens is noise. My first thought was to have photos of all the noise in my life, but then this quote came to mind:
And I just finished up some adorable Valentine mini sessions of my little guy and a few little friends. In my circle of friends at church we once counted and there were 18 boys born within 18 months of each other. To say that noise is everywhere when they are together is an understatement!
Continue over to Kristin Gourley to see her interpretation of noise for the Life & Lens blog circle.
I joined up with some other moms a few months ago for a new blog circle called "Kids Were Here" but this is my first actual post of the series. The idea is to document the evidence left behind to show the impact kids have on our homes and lives.
This month I decided to take a twist on this to show off our new dog/puppy Goldie
She is a Humane Society rescue and about 5-6 months old. The paperwork said “Lab Retriever Mix”. I thought that she was just an underfed lab with her size. Once we had her home and we really got to watch her, I think she has more of a terrier in her mix, than lab or retriever. This is our first dog, and being that she is a rescue we are still adjusting to having her and she is still adjusting to being in a loving home. She seems to have a touch of puppy boredom combined with separation anxiety. She has been making her mark on the house, quiet literally.
My dog is also apparently a master escape artist. When we first brought her home we had a kennel inside. The first day she was home alone she managed to squeeze out a not fully locked gate. Then the next time she managed to jump out of the kennel (it had an open top). We stopped trying to barricade her after that but she is destructo puppy. So we decided she would need to be outside when we are gone and she can't come with us. She dug under the fence the first time we left her outside. So we fixed the hole and blockaded the area. Well she used the blockaded as leverage to jump OVER the fence last night while we were at the grocery store. We removed the item that was used as a step and thought we would be good for the morning. NOPE! She dug under the OTHER fence (that was hard packed dirt not just loose gravel like the first side)
So now we will be crate training her. Anyone else have a learning curve with a new dog?
Please continue on to the blog circle, up next in the circle is Kim Schory
(not my photo) 
Stop by Deidre's blog to continue reading more letters to our sons.
