The Monkey Barrel

Archive for March, 2008

Having the first Saturday with no plans in months we trekked out to my favorite breakfast establishment, Cracker Barrel. I love that place. It reminds me so much of 2 places up in the Blue Ridge that we visited all the time all sort of smooshed together. Rock Fish Gap and Whetstone were the most awesome gift shop and pancake place that you could hope to find and we got to visit both at least once a year for the annual trip to the mountains. This morning while waiting to be seated (as an aside, don’t let the full parking lot make you think the restaraunt is full, it’s just people shopping in the general store) we wandered up and down the aisles and found the 5 dollar and under toy rack. John and Luke discovered these curious things called whoopie cushions and wanted to give them a whirl. I got three, one for John and Luke and one to share with Owen later. This 99c contraption has produced many gales of laughter and a full afternoon of good ole fashioned fun. I know their gross in theory but good-ness they’re hysterical. I thought John was gonna burst a vein out of his forehead laughing the first time he “snuck” it onto daddy’s seat while dad was gettin in the car. I strongly encourage all mother’s of boys to invest the buck, even if only for one afternoon, and enjoy the sheer delight of boyish humor.

Thats what we have decided to call the baby.. Number Three Arters.

-fred

That’s right folks, number three is headed our way. This new little Arters will be putting in an appearance just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It still seems so surreal that it has happened so quickly this time. But it also seemed very apparent from the start that this child was God’s handiwork. We prayed whether to keep growing our family and literally the next day we found out that our fertility meds were on the 9 dollar list at Sam’s. Our insurance didn’t cover it so we were gonna have to shell out about 70 bucks a month for 5 stinky little pills. A chat with the doc and the script was written so I could get a three month supply of generic. I somehow knew that it wouldn’t take three months. Maybe it was the mega dosage they had me on this time, but my spirit just knew it would be quick. And so we’re expecting sometime in Nov. I have some sickness in the afternoon and sheer exhaustion by like 11 but other than that I feel pretty good. God is so amazing. Happy Easter everyone and thank you Jesus for this egg in my basket.

Well today we went to the bus stop and what should we find there but a sweet little puppy dog being held by one of our neighbors. She’s a cute little rat terrier who is 5 months old and only weighs about 7 pounds. I was really surprised to find that she was for sale and for way less than those little dogs are worth. It’s amazing but they are also really hard to find. John and I fell in love with her immediately. So I ran home and told Fred about her and to my shock and awe, he said absolutely, lets go get her. We had a brief play time with her this morning to make sure Fred won’t be allergic to her and he’s not and I’m so ecstatic. We had planned on getting a dog for Luke’s birthday and this is way sooner but this little girl dog is so sweet and opportunities like this don’t happen often, so, we bought her. She is hilarious too. She has one little ear that stays cocked up and she runs like a little jack rabbit. She positively prances around when she’s walking like a teeny tiny reindeer. I’m told her mom tops out at 13 pounds so she won’t get very big either. Fred says she’s my dog so I have named her Lucy. I cannot wait for you all to meet her.