ROLLER COASTER

No, I am not riding roller coasters 33 weeks preggers, but this weekend was a wilder ride than any I've been on at Six Flags! Saturday afternoon my parents delivered one of the best gifts any soon-to-be mom can ask for.......a plush, comfy, oh-so-soft glider and ottoman. This was a gift to us from my parents and my grandparents for mommy, daddy, Grant, and any other children to come. We LOVE it and look forward to rocking miles and miles in it! :)



Well, the roller coaster ride started as Dad and Jason were unloading the chair. Dakota was going in and out with them as they brought in the 2 or 3 pieces and then when we called her to come in so we could shut the front door, no Dakota. She couldn't have gone far, right? We'd just seen her 45 seconds ago. We all fan out into the street calling her name.....nothing. Not too panicked, we know she's not far. We start walking around the block, nothing. Time passes, Dad starts driving through the neighborhood while the other 3 of us continue on foot....nothing. It's now been 2 hours and no sign of her and we have to leave for a baby shower- FOR US - in 30 minutes. Quickly print out posters (Did I mention I'm a total idiot and had her collar off???!!! Meaning no tags, no nothing.) Post flyers all over the neighborhood and have to leave for the shower. My sweet brother and sister-in-law come over after we leave to search a little more before heading to the shower themselves.

So, I'm crying buckets all the way to the shower and finally get a grip enough to enjoy the evening. And what a lovely evening it was. Our sweet friends, the Walks, who had moved into a new house just 10 days ago, yes 10 DAYS ago had a BBQ dinner and shower for us and it was fabulous!!!! Mandy, you outdid yourself girl! The tables were darling and the house looked like you guys have been there forever! I don't know how you did it! The dinner was catered by Eddie Dean's BBQ and man was it good. Grant ate him some seconds it was so good! We had such a good time visiting with everyone and loved all the precious gifts you all lavished on us! Thank you so much for celebrating Grant!

















So we get home around 10:00 from the shower and I grab the flashlight and head out calling for Dakota. I see a few neighbors, ask if they've seen her, nobody has seen anything. We go to bed completely distraught. I don't know if I've cried that hard literally in years. Not even over the melanoma!

I get up early the next morning and the tears are still flowing as I brush my teeth. We can't even pull ourselves together enough to go to church and lead our small group (thank you Fitzhughs for filling in for us at the last minute!). We put up more flyers.....any lamp post within a 2 mile radius of our house has had a picture of our dog on it! We did finally decide around 10AM to go to church and try to get some perspective and leave our furry baby in God's hands. It was ROUGH!

This is turning into a very long, boring story but around 5PM on Sunday we're sitting in the living room and we hear Dakota barking. We know our dog, we know her bark....that was her. We run outside and try to follow the barking which leads us to our neighbors house right behind us. Apparently Dakota had walked into their garage Saturday afternoon and they kept her all night. Never mind that we were worried sick! Dakota had slept in their bed with them Saturday night! Are you kidding me? She doesn't even get to do that at home. Anyway, I guess they hadn't bothered to go outside and see the 50+ signs with Dakota's picture all over the neighborhood but we were grateful to have her back safe and sound. We think she had a grand adventure and has no idea the anguish she caused us!

Lesson learned: NEVER TAKE OFF YOUR DOG'S COLLAR!!! She does have a microchip but someone would have had to take her to the animal shelter to find that out and get our information.

Anyway, our household is back to normal and we are exhausted from a truly roller coaster weekend! It's a wonder I didn't go into labor!! :)