Blue Hole

Blue hole is a little known swimming hole about an hour from our house. We, the Ronnow's, have been going there since I was a teenager. It is crystal clear and very cold! Because of the freezing water, the best time of the year to go is late July/early August. This is when the temperature is steadily above 100 degrees. Joey and I took the boys and some friends last Thursday. We had such a great time! The family we invited had 3 small kids and they had never heard of blue hole. They were so much fun! Phoenix, the 5 year-old, jumped right in and started paddling around. Sequoia, is 3 and she also loved it from the minute we arrived. Bridger is 1 and he took a little more convincing. Before we left, he was right in there splashing and loving it! Some friends of ours from Owasso met us there. They took Trevor and Gavin around the bend in the stream to an area where they could climb up a hill and jump into the water. Gavin jumped twice and Trevor jumped over and over. We all had fun swimming and picnic-ing. By the time we left, everyone was smiling and exhausted. Too bad we won't be able to go again 'til next year.

Darby!

We have not made a final decision about Darby, a.k.a. the Darbinator. She is a wonderful girl and she loves the boys. I finally got a good pic to show you all. Here she is.

And in other news...

I am not sure all of you are aware, a tragedy occurred the Friday after we returned from Utah. At the age of 56 and without illness or warning, Carrie's father-in-law, TJ, passed away. Cindy, Gary's mom, called the paramedics that morning, but there was nothing they could do for TJ and he was pronounced as soon as they reached the hospital. Carrie and Gary rushed from Arizona to be with Cindy and to help in whatever way she needed. Joey and I went to visit and see how we could help on Sunday. In true Carrie fashion, she dove into the paperwork that had to be collected from the far corners of the house and organized. When we arrived, Carrie was reading through legal documents and preparing all that would need to be taken to a lawyer later in the week. We did a little to help her with collecting papers and identifying what was junk and what to file. Mostly we visited.

The following Thursday, JoAnn and I drove to OKC and picked up Carrie to come visit our neck of the woods. Carrie spent the night with JoAnn on Thursday and me on Friday. We had a good visit. We had Braums sundaes for dinner and went shopping at Hobby Lobby. Then we went home and made necklaces. Carrie's was this awesome combination of big acrylic beads and thin glass beads. It is amazing how she will pick things to put together that I would never think could look right, but then it looks like a designer piece. Anyway, we had a good time and talked until way too late.

So, returning to the unfortunate event that brought Carrie and Gary to Oklahoma. Cindy and TJ had taken in a dog shortly before he passed away. They were planning to find it a home and now Cindy would be doing that alone. Carrie had asked if I may be able to help, considering my connections. So, we met the "little dog" (as Carrie called it) on Sunday when we were in OKC. Only Carrie could call this dog "little". I estimated she was around 35 pounds! Enormous, in comparison to my brood all under 15 pounds. She was a pleasant dog and Joey and I said we'd think about it. Well, by the time Carrie was headed back to OKC, we agreed to foster her until we could get her spayed and find a suitable family. Saturday night, JoAnn delivered Darby to our door. She is a beautiful red-nose pit bull terrier. Her coat is a blinding white with big red-gold spots. She looks like a cow skin rug!

Fast forward a week and a half. She is spayed, up to date on her shots and not going anywhere. Joey is only half serious when he offers to divorce me. I didn't do it by myself, though. He likes her as much as I do. And she is way more manly than any of our other dogs. The final test will be when the boys arrive home. It may be that 4 dogs really will be too many when I have 2 boys to wrestle, too.

Whether or not she is right for us, I don't think I'll have any trouble placing her. She is so good natured and very smart. She hasn't had a single accident in the house and she tolerates my dogs just fine. (Of course, I don't think she believes they are dogs.) If I can ever get her to hold still and take a good picture, I'll post some.

Oh, one more thing... If you see the boys, please don't mention Darby! It is a suprise! ;)

Kids. Can't live with 'em...

It is hard to believe it has been 3 weeks since my last post. It seems like forever since we left the kids in Utah. Joey is on the road right now, going to pick them up! I will be happy to have them home. Being childless was fun for a while. We ate out a lot. Left whenever we wanted. Did whatever we wanted. It did lose the shiny-new-freedom feel pretty quick, though. I realized that if we had never been blessed with kiddos, I would be living my life just for me. I felt some of the purpose drain out of the things I do. I am not sure I am explaining this well. Maybe it is not something I can articulate fully. I know I would have a reason to live without my boys, I just think it wouldn't feel nearly as important. So, now that my husband is driving off into the sunset to get my babies. I find myself praying that all of them will return quickly and safely, and restore some of the purpose to my life.