Losing Lucy, Claiming Charlie

Nervous Lucy Girl 

We recently had to part ways with our rescue dog, Lucy. We had her for nearly 5 months. While she was a pretty, sweet miss she was deathly afraid of children--especially mine. It was plain and simply "not working".

Growling at my girls all day long as they ate breakfast, did homework, and danced about the house was incredibly stressful. For all--the girls, my husband, me, and the dog.

We learned the sad way that no matter how hard you try to love something there can be far too much damage done before they enter your world.

Adopting a dog in need and having to return it is brutal. You feel like a sell out. That is, until you do your research, speak with professionals, confess to your closest most trusted confidantes and most of all --search your soul-- and then you come to realize where your loyalties lie and revisit the goals in the first place.

In our case the goals were to provide a family dog for our children and offer a safe nesting place for a dog in need. In the case of Lucy, none of the criteria was being met. Thankfully, we adopted her from the local basset rescue woman who more than understood the struggle and strain. None of Lucy's litter mates were adoptable as they all suffered in a puppy mill for more than 4 years--crated and unsocialized. These dogs were terrified of children which was unbeknownst to us until Lucy moved in.

So, we returned the scared girl and in her place we adopted Charlotte (the girls call her Charlie). She came from the home of a man who lost his job, house, and marriage. She is a jolly, big, happy gal who loves people and simply wants to be loved.

Welcome, Charlie

Stay tuned for updates on Charlie and how she settles in to life at Wilkinson Manor. You can see she's quite the people pleaser.

Best TV watching pal in the house for Bliss

Rise and Shine, Audrey!

Go State- sporting Green and White colors for Eric!

Meeting Charlotte

Audrey lost her first tooth on Wednesday.

She could not wait to find out which tooth fairy was hers. Olivia's is "Tabitha" and the girls wondered if each household was assigned a tooth fairy or each child had their own.

Audrey's biggest concern was where to place the tooth at bedtime. She did not have a special box and she did not want her tooth fairy near her bed. After much thought she placed the tooth in a simple box on her bureau.

Thursday morning she woke to find a new keepsake box surrounded by fairy dust with a note and money all from her very own tooth fairy--Charlotte!

The best part according to Audrey? A special note from Charlotte left on our entryway board.

"Audrey is a sweet treat! xoxo, Charlotte"

Audrey immediately sent her a message back.

"Thank you! Love, Audrey"

Audrey set to wiggling the other middle bottom tooth straight away in hopes it would come out soon so Charlotte would come back and see her thank you note.

Stay tuned! It's getting looser. And Charlotte is ready!