When in doubt...make a pro & con list.

So the latest question in the Buie household has been:: Do we get another dog? If you'll remember, a few months ago our dear kitty, George, passed away tragically & very unexpectedly. So our family of 6 was once again a family of 5:: 2 humans, 2 dogs and 1 cat. As you well know we foster dogs pretty regularly through the local organization C.A.R.E. We have been known to be "foster failures" by adopting the first dog we ever fostered - Scooter. He captured our hearts and we knew within days that we couldn't let this one go. Since then, several others have been in and out of our homes - Huckleberry, Maggie, Anabel, Maggie, Pepper, & Domino.

This brings us to our latest foster - Joe Joe, who we have renamed Harvey for the time being. Neither one of us thought that Joe Joe fit him. But he seems to be pretty happy as a Harvey. :) He immediately won our hearts. He is not only energetic and happy but he is the most well behaved 6 month old puppy we have ever been around. He learned the commands "sit" and "down" within the first few days of living with us. So what's not to love, right? Well, we are trying to make this decision as 2 reasonable adults with a mortgage and a limited income, NOT as 2 dog loving people who would do just about anything for our 4 legged friends. And when it comes right down to it, this is a HARD decision to make. So as the title of my post says: "When in doubt, make a pro & con list"... so here goes.

Reasons to keep Harvey:

1. He's smart. Learns commands quickly

2. He's ADORABLE! I mean, look at that face.

3. He's only a puppy, so we could train him from the ground up, so to speak.

4. He seems to get along well with Scooter. They play well together and wear each other out.

Reasons NOT to keep Harvey:

1. Another dog would mean more vet bills, including monthly flea/tick & heartworms meds.

2. He's not too sure about Hazel, our cat, and sometimes growls at her. :(

3. Conner is not the fondest of him. While they tolerate each other, Conner is a bit stingy with his bones & toys and WILL NOT share with Harvey.

4. Because Harvey is a puppy, he needs lots of exercise and entertainment. If he is not constantly stimulated he has a tendency to get into things... See previous post.

5. If we keep Harvey, we probably won't be able to foster dogs in the future because of the quantity of dogs in our house. If we had 3 dogs, then fostered a dog to make FOUR dogs running wild, I might lose my mind.

6. And the #1 reason we probably cannot keep Harvey is that we will one day have a child. I just cannot foresee me at home with a baby, 3 dogs and a cat. Talk about crazy!

So after writing down all of the pros & cons we have decided not to keep this little fur ball. Fostering is a definitely hard job but so worth it in the end. I can't wait to meet the family who takes this pup home with them.

Must Love Dogs

You know us = you know our love for dogs. They go hand in hand. The minute you come into our home you are greeted with a wagging tail and probably a lick on the face. Dogs are such a joy in our lives about 99% of the time. But today I am talking about that 1% when you just want to strangle your pups. You all have those days, I'm sure. When you come home and your favorite shoe is chewed up or your rug has a mysterious yellow stain on it.... or how about this one... when you find your outdoor couch cushions everywhere in your back yard! And I do mean, EVERYWHERE! Just watch this video. :)

Culprit #1: JoeJoe, our foster dog

(who we renamed Harvey for the short time he has been in our home)

Culprit #2: Scooter

But aren't they so cute? How can you be mad at them, seriously? It reminds me of the time Conner got in to a bag of shredded paper. Remember that?

My crazy weekend!

I am just now getting a chance to blog about my long weekend in Louisiana! It was a crazy weekend that went by in a flash. I had so many things I wanted to accomplish in 3 days and I believe I managed to do all of them.

My weekend started out by me spending some quality bonding time with my new niece, Makaylan. She isn't sleeping well in her crib still so I did my part to take care of her by holding her for hours and hours. But don't worry... I didn't mind one bit. :) Friday afternoon I took her newborn pics. She's so tiny and didn't like not being wrapped up. Every time we took the blanket off her, she let us know she didn't like it. But we managed to still get some cute pictures of her in between her mom and dad snuggling with her.

I stayed with my brother and sister in law in Ruston for a couple of nights... It was so neat to get to see my brother be a dad. I am convinced that the best thing about being an aunt, besides all the cuddling with new babies, is getting the see my brothers become dads. Such a special thing!

Saturday I met my mom in Shreveport for a little mother/daughter bonding. We went antique shopping and had tea at the Glenwood Tea Room. I love that place!

Afterwards I headed over to The Gazebo to shoot a sweet garden wedding with the most precious couple. They found me on Facebook and I hadn't met them until their wedding day! Just another reason why I LOVE Facebook! :) Don't worry, I'll blog about the wedding soon!

After the wedding I was ready for a little fun with my girls! Alicia and Jessica drove down Saturday to meet me and Andrea, who now lives in Shreveport. We went out for a little dancing out on the town. :) I always have so much fun with them. My cousin Lauren also met up with us at Superior Restaurant. We all had a blast!! Wish we could do this more often!

All of the Arkansas girls spent the night with Andrea. We woke up to a wonderful homemade quiche that Andrea made us. So sweet! She even made me a gluten free one all to myself! After breakfast I headed to The Norton Art Gallery for a photo shoot with my cousin Lauren's family. It was a PERFECT day for a shoot and the hydrangeas were gorgeous! They'll be on the blog soon, too!

It was a jammed packed weekend but sometimes those are the best! Lots of memories made with my wonderful friends and family! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Pinterest Inspiration

I just found this on Pinterest and thought I would share it with you, my friends. And if you are wondering what the heck Pinterest is, go check it out and follow me! :) And above all, I hope that this quote is true for all of you.

source

Mother's Day Fun!

This Mother's Day weekend my parents drove up from Louisiana to see their grandson, Landon, be dedicated to the church. My brother, sister in law and nephew live about 40 minutes from us. It's so nice to have them close. I wish I lived close to BOTH of my brothers, but I'll take one rather than none.

Landon's dedication went well. He behaved so well! :) I snapped a few pics from the front row so that they would have a memory of this special event. Here they are with the pastors of their church. He is one lucky baby to have Craig and Nicole as parents! :)

Afterwards we went to eat at BRAVO Restaurant and it was so yummy! We gave our mom gifts, ate a great lunch & laughed at Landon, who is now ALWAYS our dinnertime entertainment!
Nicole had the great idea of doing a girls getaway weekend in Dallas. So she put together little gift baskets for my mom and her mom. I'm looking forward to getting away with our moms for a little shopping, eating and laughing! :)
Speaking of laughing, Landon's new "trick" that he has learned is to force himself to laugh. It's sooo cute! He will be sitting still and quiet then all of the sudden just BURST out in complete laughter that is so loud and soooo hilarious!! He knows he can get a reaction out of us, so when we laugh it makes him laugh more. I was able to snap a picture of it. He tightens up his fists too. I'll have to catch it on video soon so you can hear it! :)
Here is Nicole and her mom with Landon.
me and my mom on Mother's Day.
then Craig hopped in the picture. This is mom with 2 out of 3 of her kiddos. We will all be together for Father's Day! So looking forward to it!
And last but not least, my brother's family on Nicole's first Mother's Day. My OTHER sister in law is also celebrating her FIRST Mother's Day this weekend too but they are in Louisiana. I will be headed that way this week to take their first official family pictures with Makaylan.

Sunday morning, B and I woke up early to drive to Rison to go to church with HIS parents. It is always such a pleasure to go to his home town and spend time with his family. Since the only thing we did with their family was go to church, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. But we still had a great time with then... only wish we could have stayed longer but alas, B had to get back to work...

We are both blessed with wonderful Christian moms who raised us in solid Christian homes. I'm thankful to my mom for always being there for me, always loving me and for letting me be who I am....which most of the time is a little different than what she had imagined. ;) I am thankful for my mother in law who raised a man who is now my husband. I must say, she did a great job!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Our new foster dog:: Joe Joe

This past week has FLOWN by and this little guy is the main reason! Meet our new foster dog, Joe Joe... or JoJo (really not sure how you spell it). I got a call about a week ago from Melanie, who works with C.A.R.E. She is the rescue coordinator at the Central Arkansas Rescue Effort Melanie pulled three pups last week from the Conway shelter. I told her we were ready to foster again so when she told me that Joe Joe was waiting for us a local vet, I said SURE and picked him up that day! :)

Look how cute he is.

I knew immediately that this guy was special. He is obedient, sharp, well groomed and BEAUTIFUL! What more could you ask for? I can't imagine anyone giving up this pup but that is his story: he was surrendered to the Conway shelter. Oh, I want him as my own so badly!

My husband and I immediately started trying to come up with a name for him IF he were to be ours. We didn't think "Joe Joe" fit him very well. Charlie, Henry, Harvey were just a few of the names we through around... Of course we aren't sure at all if we are going to keep him. Right now we are just assuming we AREN'T keeping him. I mean, after all, we have three animals already:: 2 dogs and 1 cat. Three dogs might be a little much. If we don't adopt this dog, my only wish is that he gets the BEST forever home possible (besides us, of course). ;)

Here's a video of the little guy. Check out the little cutie pie!

Pinterest

Pinterest. In one word. OBSESSED. I am obsessed with Pinterest. Never heard of it? Well, then head on over and start "pinning" away! You'll quickly learn why this site is so addicting. Browse through thousands of photos in any category imaginable:: home decor, gardening, food, children, photography, crafts, flowers, seriously anything! Follow your friends on Pinterest to see which photos inspires them. Here are just about .1% of the inspiring photos I pinned just today.

Happy pinning!

Our week in iPhone pics

I take TONS of pictures on my iPhone every week & most of them just stay on my phone. I occasionally go back through to reminisce but I thought I'd try to start doing a weekly iPhone blog. This is mainly for a journaling purpose so that I can remember what I did with my life from week to week. I started last week, so here's week 2 (from last week) through the eye of my iPhone.

Our first born son, Conner, likes to sit on the couch like he's a human. So we put the remote on his chest like he was watching TV. hehe. Isn't he a cutie?

We dealt with more rain and bad weather this week. I'm sure you heard about the devastating tornadoes that went through Arkansas, Alabama and many other Southern states. Our prayers are with those affected by these storms.

I took this picture of B as we made our way to Louisiana on Thursday. We got a call at 3 am that baby Makaylan was on her way! B was my chauffeur for the day trip and a good lookin' one at that! :)

This was our plan of attack for Thursday:: Drive from Benton to Monroe, meet baby Makaylan, take a few pics with our new little niece and drive all the way back. Mission Accomplished.

Meet Makaylan Joy Walker. Isn't she precious. I wrote a whole blog post about her birth. Read about her birthday here.
Friday we found 2 cute pups that I fell in love with. Their owners were found but it was fun to hang out with them for a few hours anyway. Read more about these pups here. :)

I hope everyone has a great upcoming week and stay tuned for more pics later in the week!