It's Been a Rough Few Weeks

I swear, I have had plans to make sure I update my blog regularly. And I continue to intend to do so. But we've had a few curve balls thrown at us lately that have kept me away.

I'll try to explain.

On Tuesday, May 19, my little devils-in-disguise turned three years old. It was a school day, so we left the house early to hit Krispy Kreme as a special treat for their class.

We had a great day at school and that night was their favorite dinner -- enchiladas! We opened gifts that night and both girls got new bathing suits, new cover ups and a slew of hair doodles and bows. It was a lot of fun and both girls felt duly celebrated.

On Friday night, my parents came into town for more festivities. That Saturday morning was sports galore, as Dad and Jean spent their time between Devin's soccer game, niece Presley's soccer game, nephew Brendan's t-ball game and niece Addison's swim meet. Somehow, during all of this, Todd managed to disassemble both cribs and arrange the girls's room as official "big girl" abodes.

That afternoon was a rockin' celebration at Chuck E. Cheese. Devin had his third birthday party there, as have nearly all of my sister's kids, so it was a pretty easy fit.

The girls had a blast, although the larger-than-life-size Chuck E. was a little more than they wanted to deal with. They were fine keeping the rat at a distance.

After the party was church and then further celebrations at our home.

This is where it got ugly.

As you may remember, less than two years ago, the Pruetz family gained a new member -- Welsh Corgi named Zoe.

Well, Zoe has been a huge part of our family now for two years. She's loyal, sweet, outgoing, good on leash, excellent with the kids and totally obedient. We just knew she'd be ours for years and years to come.

Well, that all changed the night of the twins' birthday party.

The whole family was over here -- the five Pruetzes, Dad, Jean, ZZ, Brian and their four kids. When we're all together, we are a force to be reckoned with.

The kids were all outside playing in the nice, cool weather and Zoe was her usual, silly self, chasing after the swings on the swingset or roughing it up with one of her chew toys.

All of the adults were inside, and Todd just happened to look out the window.

"What's wrong with Zoe?" he asked. I told him probably nothing, but then noticed myself that she was hunched over and throwing up. We figured she'd probably gotten a hold of a bug or something and just brushed it off.

But moments later, we realized that she was really struggling. By the time Todd got out to her, she had collapsed. She died in a matter of minutes.

We're not sure what happened...was it heat stroke? Shock from a bug bite? Was she poisoned? We weren't willing to spend the money on an autopsy, so we may never know.

Needless to say, for this animal-loving family, it's been a hard week-and-a-half. Even the girls intermittently ask, "Where Zoe?" Devin misses her tremendously and when he got to make a wish book in his Kindergarten class, his only wish was "To have Zoe back."

That just about broke my heart.

We're muddling through. In perspective, I'd rather lose a dog than a child, but she was still a very dear and loved part of our family. We just really thought we had so many more years with her. It's hard to let go of that.

But we're moving on and continuing with life as usual. We finished up Devin's soccer season last night (Todd was his coach and loved it as much as Devin did!) and are gearing up for the last day of school this Thursday. It's just so hard to believe that my little guy will be a first grader in only a few days.

And then I think to myself, "What am I going to do with these kids all summer???" Thank goodness we have a fantastic neighborhood pool...otherwise, I'd be pulling my hair out by the end of week one.

And Finally

Now that the girls are finally speaking in sentences, I realized that Devin's Doozies aren't really going to cut it anymore. I'm going to need Gracie's Gaffs and Faith's Foibles. This outta get good. Maybe I should start a whole new blog just for this sort of stuff.

So, without further ado, here is my first of what I am sure will be a long list of sill things.

(Picture this, the girls are in their rooms, which are next to one another. I can't see this exchange, but I can hear it from the living room).

Faith (whispering): Gracie?
Grace (whispering back): Faif?
Faith (whispering a little louder): Faif here.
Grace (now in a totally loud voice): Faif...I love you.