Addition to the family

On Father's Day, we bought a Golden Retriever puppy. We've been wanting to get another dog to keep our 5 year old Golden "Honey" company. We looked at the Humane Societies and adoption agencies, but nothing really seemed to be the right fit. We finally decided to get another Golden Retriever, because they are such a great, friendly breed. After a couple days of making phone calls, we found some purebred puppies ready to go that day, only 45minutes from home. Both parents were onsite and were very friendly. We had our choice from 4 males. They were all great, so we just picked one.

Honey has been enjoying the puppy. She's learning not to eat the puppy's food. She shares her toys and water dish and sleeps near "Hunter" while he naps. It's quite cute!

Shortly after 9:00 this evening, Honey started barking and looking out the back window. I heard my youngest say "Foxes!" He was correct, we had a pair of foxes bouncing through the back yard. That was pretty exciting--it was the first time we've seen them here.

The garden is growing well now. Finally! I've started mulching around the plants using grass clippings. I am hoping that will keep the weeds down. We've had a lot of rainstorms recently. We still have a downed tree blocking half of our road from Saturdays' storm. All the rain is helping the garden and unfortunately the mosquito population grow. Michigan is known for having a lot of mosquitos. There are t-shirts at tourist stops here with a picture of a mosquito and the words "Michigan's State Bird." Anyway, between the humidity and mosquitos (both caused by the rain) it's not been very comfortable working outside this week. I usually go out in the evenings, but the skeeters are just too much!

Josh has officially hung all the drywall today for our finished basement. I know a few families who have lived in their homes for years still planning to finish their basement "as soon as they have time." Fortunately, I have one of those husbands who makes time to do the projects that are important to our family's safety and enjoyment. Drywalling actually improves the fire rating our our floor, so it is a safety related project. We've also installed a storm room where we'll keep all our storm supplies.

We all love our new home so much! We're really building family memories here and we've only lived here about 10 weeks!