Introducing.....

Our dog Skip!!! For those of you on Facebook, this was the BIG commitment decision in a short amount of time. I don't make decisions like this very quickly, but the circumstances of Skip's "adoption" went VERY quickly! Larry has been talking about a "fluffy white dog" for so long. I have resisted and teased him (and enlisted the help of extended family members, too!) trying to convince him that we just can't have a little "rat" dog around the house! I grew up with big dogs, Larry grew up with small dogs - and since Mia was part of the package when we got married, I knew this day would come, but not so soon!

I think it all started when the kids and I were walking through Target looking for birthday cards and Kaylynn brought me a card with a West Highland Terrier on the front and Happy Birthday on the inside. Perfect, right! We'll give him this card and say, "here's your fluffy white dog." We love to try and surprise each other big on our bdays, but this was HUGE-a commitment to a brand new member of our family. Then I made the "mistake" of looking in the paper, just to "see." There it was, just one ad, with a litter of purebred Westies, 8 weeks old and at a price I would never see again. God's will? So I called last Thursday morning and the owner said she was on her way to town to sell the last four to a person who wanted them all, but encouraged me to call back in the evening to see if they were indeed gone. Answer to prayer?

I called 10 minutes before we left for our softball game that night and she said the previous arrangement didn't work and she still had the four left; "I can meet you in 20 minutes in Riverpark!" An open door? Ahhh! Well, I couldn't arrange it with the game and all, so I told her I would call in the morning and make arrangements to come up to Coarsegold to "look at them!" When I called in the morning she said there were 3 people on their way to pick up a pup! One from Clovis, one from Parlier, and a couple from Bakersfield. A closed door?

Well, now it's decision time. I called Larry and spoiled the surprise, but he was so excited he said, "You should leave now and if there is one left, you should get it!" I raced to get the kids in the car, went to the bank and got on the road, trusting my GPS not to make any wrong moves! I was nervous and anxious for the first twenty minutes! God really helped me in this situation (maybe another blog post later to talk about my anxiety and difficulty trusting God's soverignty!) Well, I was the second to arrive and there were two pups left now, the runt and another male. (Having a fluffy white BOY dog is certainly better for a man than a girlie one, right?) So we left there with Larry's bday present....and a HUGE sigh as we walked down the driveway with our newest addition to the Munoz Family. We met Larry for lunch at PetsMart and celebrated with another $100 invested in a collar, leash, crate, dog treats, etc...and many more to come!

He is sooo cute and actually so far a real blessing in disguise! I have really needed some structure to my summer schedule, especially in preparation for school and both Larry and I needed a reason to get in bed earlier...so we can get up and walk Skip at 6 a.m. It's actually been a great start to our day!! (It's only three days in so far, but so far so good!)