Papa

My Mom called Thursday night to let me know my Dad was in the hospital.  I decided Friday morning that I would pick Franklyn up after school and head to Jefferson City to see him.  We arrived at the hospital late that night and got to spend some time with Dad before heading over to their house to spend the night.  We had a good visit and Dad was so happy to see Franklyn.  I was really glad I took the time to make the trip.                               

Silliness

For some reason, Franklyn likes to wear his goggles around the house just for the heck of it.  He'll walk in the room wearing the silly things and act like it's nothing out of the ordinary.  Today, after lunch, he sat at the kitchen table in his pajamas playing his DSI wearing his goggles.  Strrrraaaannnggeee boy.

A Week Without Daddy

Scott went on a trip with a friend from high school last week, so Franklyn and I were home alone for several days.  We spent time playing soccer and climbing trees.  I have so many pictures of me climbing trees and playing sports when I was little.  It struck me that I don't have a single one of Franklyn.  We remedied that!

We had Pepper outside with us and big neighborhood dogs kept coming around, so we weren't outside very long each time.  We did, however, get some good shots of Franklyn in the tree and playing soccer!

Poser....  His birth mom is a model.  Maybe that's what he will do when he grows up.  I HOPE NOT!

The Puppy....

A couple of days after Thanksgiving, Scott and I made a completely last minute, IRRATIONAL, not well thought out decision.... to get Franklyn a dog....  I honestly have NO idea what we were thinking at the time.  Actually, I am beginning to think we weren't thinking AT ALL!  We woke Franklyn up the Saturday after Thanksgiving and told him that we were going to Chattanooga to look at Daddy's school (where he is currently working on his doctorate) and that we would have to go on in to Georgia to meet with someone he knew from class.  We loaded up the car and headed to a small town in Georgia, way off the interstate and completely out in the boonies.  Franklyn had no clue where we were actually going.  After what seemed like a lifetime, we arrived at the breeder's home.  They had snakes, lizards, horses....  Any animal legal to own, they had it.  We walked in and the lady handed the puppy to Franklyn and we said, "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!"  Franklyn decided to name him Pepper.  Pepper has been a sweet, loving, stinky, precious, annoying, playful, thorn in my side ever since!  I have gone back and forth from loving the dog to wanting to literally kill him all within minutes.  I have shattered a cabinet door trying to vent my anger over the dog doing "number two" numerous times on the carpet.  I love the dog, but I often hate the dog.  Don't know if that's normal, but that's how I feel...

 Pepper is a miniature schnauzer and he is really sweet.  He has a great personality and he adores Scott and Franklyn.  I don't think he's too keen on me, but considering I yell at him more than I love on him, that is probably to be expected.  

We discovered Franklyn's allergy to dogs not long after bringing Pepper home.  Luckily, Franklyn only breaks out if Pepper licks on him, so we just try to keep that from happening very often...  Pepper has been an interesting addition to the Whaley house.  I wish I'd had the time to blog over the last few months so I could have shared details of some of the crazy, off the wall stuff that has happened since he arrived.  Hopefully, I'll do better in the future.