Elphaba

We entered a raffle when we were at Relay for Life. They announced that at one of the booth's they were raffling off tickets for a 10 week old Labrador Retriever. We went to the booth, saw the picture and fell in love. We decided to buy a ticket, and that if we were supposed to have a dog, then we would when. Tori (Bret's sister) also bought a ticket, she really wanted us to have a dog.

At 10:00 that night we got a phone call that we had won. So, while we weren't sleeping that night, we thought about names all night, and about 6:00 we came up with Elphaba. She is named after the character from Wicked, who is the black witch. So, we now have Elphaba, who in her 8 months, has brought joy and frustration to our lives. We enjoy her so much, and she is a fun addition to our family.

Katelyn made this sign to welcome her home.
This was when she was learning her new backyard.
So cute and tiny.
I love my little girl.

Kat

We were so excited to come have Kat live with us for the summer. She is my 21 year old sister, and we invited to come live with us while she was home from school. We found her a job working at the County in the Child Support Department, and working for Food Ex. We loved having her here. She was a wonderful addition to our home, and brought joy, love and laughter while she was here. Katelyn is a darling girl, and we had fun with her, learning more about her, and the unloading of the dishwasher and dinners were a nice perk too.

Relay for Life

We had our Relay for Life Team again this year, our team was the Cancer Dodgers, and our goal was $5,000. We had a late start, and were concerned we wouldn't make it. No worries there, we met our goal without a problem and made almost $6,000.

We had so much fun, walking laps, participating in the luminaria ceremony, eating midnight pizza and playing Mafia, and of course staying up all night.

My amazing survivor! 6 years and going strong.
We are so happy together!
Bret and Josh, our two survivors.

Bret and Amberly and Josh and Sarah, through thick and thin,

we have stuck it out, Bret and Josh as Survivors and Amberly and Sarah as Caregivers.

The back of our team shirt, thank you Urners for being our team sponsor.

We were so happy to have Kat here with us this summer, especially for Relay. She was a huge help, and Halle and Michael adore her.

The Cancer Dodgers

Bishop and Ruth Davis came at midnight to check in our team.
Bret's collection of luminary bags.

While at Relay, one of the teams was having a raffle for a labrador puppy, we decided to enter, with the thought that if we won, we were meant to have her. And we won. More to come about our new member.

Bloggity, Bloggity, Blah!

So, that's what this blog has become, just blah. I lost a good majority of my pictures that we took of our summer (user/camera error) and so because of it. I just kept not posting. We have been having good times and bad times for the past 6 months. So, throughout this next week, I will vow to post, to play catch up, and not make it so Blah! Wish me luck.