Rest In Peace ~ Sweet & Loyal Keisha ~ We Love You

Keisha ~ 12 years old

I am in tears tonight as I write this post. My Mom called today with some very sad news. Our beloved Keisha is gone. After a little over two weeks of trying so hard to fight an unknown illness, she lost the battle. My heart goes out to my parents, who love their dogs as if they are children, as they had to make a most heartbreaking decision this morning. They decided to end the pain and suffering their precious pup was going through after given no hope from the vet. My Mom speaks highly of her love and compassion as she took Keisha under her care when others could not determine the cause of her symptoms and tried her best to heal her. I can only imagine how awful it must have been for my parents to see Keisha becoming more and more ill to the point of not even recognizing them. Although it is hard for me to imagine going home to visit and not have her greeting me at the door with her tail wagging, showing the unconditional love she has always had for all of us...I truly believe she is in a better place...at peace and pain-free...perhaps if she could talk she would say something like this...

IF IT SHOULD BE

If it should be that I grow weak

And pain should keep me from my sleep,

Then you must do what must be done,

For this last battle cannot be won.

You will be sad, I understand.

Don't let your grief then stay your hand.

For this day, more than all the rest,

Your love for me must stand the test.

We've had so many happy years.

What is to come can hold no fears.

You'd not want me to suffer so;

The time has come -- please let me go.

Take me where my need they'll tend,

And please stay with me till the end.

Hold me firm and speak to me,

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time that you will see

The kindness that you did for me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I've been saved.

Please do not grieve -- it must be you

Who had this painful thing to do.

We've been so close, all these years;

Don't let your heart hold back its tears.

--- Anonymous ---

I wish I had more digital photos of Keisha, but it seems I used to take tons of her with my film camera. Here is one of her getting to know Rachel when we were home in February.

Shopping, Swimming & Sushi ~ Oh, My!

It is the end of our second full day in Eugene. We got a bit of a late start, but we accomplished a lot once we got started. The girls surprised me this morning by sleeping in until about 10:30. Of course, that meant Mommy got to sleep in too:). Yay! I needed that. I think we all were just enjoying sleeping in the air conditioning and with the dark curtains in our hotel we couldn't even tell it was light outside. The above picture is Rachel having breakfast in "bed"...she's been sleeping in her PacknPlay while we are here. The first night was a bit of an adjustment as she just loves her crib, but she let me hold her and rock her and sing to her to help her fall asleep, so I am not complaining:). Last night and also tonight she did very well. I have the light on next to my bed and the PacknPlay is at the bottom of it with baby fast asleep. I like travelling to places in the car because I can bring the little fan and her cd player and create a nursery-like environment for her. The fan is her "white noise" and we play the Baby Einstein Classic Lullaby cd for her every night after story time. We love that cd! Frank and I plan to play it forever...long after Rachel is done with it:). I actually made extra copies of it just it case we wear it out:). Anyway, she just picks up her blankie and protests a little as we are sitting right here and she is in there, but then she kind of talks to herself and lies down and goes to sleep...such a good girl. She likes when I say that now and claps for herself:)...

So...lots of photos today! After breakfast and taking Sheena out for a bit, Rachel and I headed over to the Valley River Mall for some shopping. After seeing my little shopper-to-be in action I had to pull this photo from last Fall.

She was about 6 months old here.

We had lunch, then browsed around in The Children's Place and Gymboree. No luck at TCP, but I found two cute pairs of jammies for next Summer at Gymboree. Our last stop was JCPenney's. I changed her diaper and let her walk down the aisle to the baby department while holding my hand. I noticed people let their kids run all over the place, even little toddlers, so I let her have some freedom from the stroller for a change. The store was so empty and she seemed so thrilled at the idea of being able to walk around a bit and stretch her legs...I decided to let her "shop":). The only "catch"...she had to stay on her feet, no crawling around on the floor. She did great...check it out...we have quite the future shopper here:)...

This picture brings to mind,

"So many racks, so little time!"... "I think I'll start over here!"
"Yes! Right where I can see them!"

"Just looking:)"

"This is a nice one."

"Mommy, how much is 25% off of..."

"Hi, Baby!"

"Hi, Mommy!"

"I'll take one in every size!"

"But, they are only $4.99!"

We made our purchases at JCPenney and headed back to the hotel. The hotel we are staying at is literally at the end of the mall parking lot, so...very close. We could easily have walked over there as we have done on prior visits, but we opted to drive in today's heat. Well, from the mall parking lot to the hotel parking space, Rachel somehow managed to fall into a deep sleep! I unloaded the car, took her out of her car seat, buckled her into her stroller and all she did was let out a little sigh:)...never even opened her eyes! I then wheeled her into the hotel, spoke to someone at the front desk, walked past several very loud women, stopped and talked to the housekeeping lady, let Sheena run up and down the hall while the housekeeping lady played with her, and finally wheeled Rachel into the room and parked her by the window. The little angel never stirred! She then proceeded to sleep for almost an hour and a half in her stroller. (I often feel that way after a long day of shopping too:)) When she was well rested, she opened her eyes and looked right at me and said "Hi!"...a long, drawn out, breathy "Hi" in her beautiful little voice:). By then Frank was back from work and had changed into his swimsuit and was ready for a swim. So, I changed Rachel and we headed to the pool for a second day of swimming...

Waiting patiently to go in the water... "Hi, Mama!"

A hug for Daddy...

Mugging for the camera...

Daddy took this one...

Hanging with Mommy while Daddy heads to the hot tub...

Standing in the raft...

Prefers to be outside of the raft...pushing it around. I believe this was right before she went completely under. Yep, Mommy's heart stopped for a moment as I reached down and scooped her up. She whimpered for a moment and then was fine:). This earned her compliments from several spectators who were watching her swim:)...they were impressed with our

little "almost no fear" baby girl...

All done! Time to change for dinner!

We finished off the day with a delicious dinner at a sushi restaurant. Rachel loves the sticky rice and chicken teriyaki. She even ate a few pieces of tomato from our salads. I think she liked the ginger dressing:). She especially enjoyed it when we fed her using our chopsticks. I'm going to have to get some of the ones for little kids. When we got back to hotel, our sweet Sheena was waiting quietly, thank goodness, and we all went for a walk. Now, with everyone sleeping I am going to check out the two new books I bought today! When Rachel was born, two of my favorite books were "The Happiest Baby on the Block", by Dr. Harvey Karp, and "Baby 411". I had several others, but I really loved these two. So, today I picked up "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" and "Toddler 411"...whether I want to admit it or not, my baby has fast become a "toddler"! I'm not sure why I didn't get the books about four months ago...denial, perhaps:)...Seriously, I love every age and stage she has gone through so far, but as I have said before...it is going WAY too fast!

*I am so excited. It looks like I finally figured out how to post the pics so we can double-click on them to make them bigger:)...Enjoy!*

Fun in the Oregon sun!

The girls and I are roadtrippin' it this week! We travelled down to Oregon to spend a few days with Daddy:). He thought we could use a few days away to enjoy some air condtioning and a pool after last week! Hopefully we also get to meet him for lunch at least one day and get some nice walks in around the river too. Today was a fun day despite the heat. We went to Mucho Gusto for lunch...I love their tacos:). Then we went over to see if there were any homes for sale in an area we really like. We also walked through a gorgeous home/mansion that is part of the "Tour of Homes" going on down here right now. Wow! It was pretty amazing...huge! Rachel and I stopped at Kohl's for a quick peek at the racks and bought Daddy a new bathing suit since I forgot to pack his:). We stopped at SBUX for two green tea lemonades...so refreshing in this heat...and returned to the hotel for a swim. We so need a pool as our little sweetheart LOVES the water! After the swim, we got cleaned up for a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was a hot, busy day...but we enjoyed it:)...some pics of the little swimmer and her new raft...