Happy 18th Anniversary to Us!

Tomorrow is our 18th wedding anniversary! In honor of this occasion, we bought ourselves a Dyson Animal DC17 today! Isn't that exciting?!? We have taken turns vacuuming today and have picked up so much stuff that we actually clogged it... yes, we clogged a Dyson. Should I send them a letter? Naw... who wants to publicize they have that much dirt and dog hair in their carpet? Not me.

We bought Michael his first BB gun last Sunday. A Buck rifle. I think it took him all of five minutes to break the mechanism you use to pump the air into the rifle. I took it back the next day and exchanged it for the next bigger rifle... the Red Ryder. Do you remember this name from the movie"A Christmas Story"? Same rifle Ralphie wanted, except now the pump is plastic instead of metal and if you leave the safety on when you go to pump it, it will break. That is what Michael did to the first one. The Red Ryder is still in one piece... so far.

He was practicing shooting it everyday while it was warm. We put some cans in the creek behind the house and he was shooting them off the rocks into the creek. Visions of "Lucas McCain" in "The Rifleman" came wafting through my brain. Remember how he would walk and pump and shoot all at the same time? Michael has to put the butt of the gun on the ground between his feet, then use both hands to pump the gun. His arm and shoulder and back has been hurting. I told him he is really building those muscles up to be able to do what "The Rifleman" could do. I need to look on TV Land and see if they are running that show so I can record it for him. I think he would like to see that.

Tabitha is going out with Al again. I guess for about a month this time so far. She says he is trying really hard this time. I think she has already given him too many chances, but she says she is "in love". He actually came over to the house this week to see her because she was sick. He didn't say I was mean to him this time either. Amazing. He likes to play Michael's new Wii, so we may be seeing more of Tabitha at home if Al comes over to play video games.

Rick sent pictures from our get-together around Christmas at his and Pam's lovely new home. This is my favorite.

Almost everyone is smiling... and you can almost see Colton's face!

One of the private schools in Arlington is going Charter next year. I went ahead and put in an application for Michael. I think smaller classrooms would be good for him. We'll see what happens.

We finished all 30 of Michael's DSL sessions. He is still supposed to go back for a listening test, but he seems to be doing well so far. He still says he hates school every day, but nobody is attacking him and he's not having meltdowns after school... or at any other time. Yay for us!!