Introducing Cocoa Puff Purington

Not sure if I have introduced Cocoa yet. He has been in our family for 2 years now :) I have to admit that I never wanted to even think about having a dog. I know that they require a lot of attention and they restrict you from going places. But somehow Cocoa found his way into our home and I am going to tell you just how that happened :)

My daughter Emily has a very good friend Abbie. Abbie's grandmother breeds Yorkshire Terriers. Emily would spend a lot of time at Abbie's and she would see lots of dogs and puppies over there. One day she was visiting Abbie and she was told that one of the dogs was expecting a litter :) Abbie's grandmother told Emily that she would gladly 'give' her one of the puppies (haha). Thanks Grandmom!!!! Well, Emily told me this and I told her that we aren't getting a dog. We are getting ready to move and it will be too much to deal with and it's just not a good time. Well, Emily continued to visit Abbie during this dog's pregnancy and the day came when the puppies came and Emily got to see these little babies that fit in the palm of your hand. She was so excited and always wanted to go see the puppies. I kept telling her we couldn't take one. We got a call from the grandmother one day and she told us that the puppies were ready to find a home and we could come and pick out the one we would like to take home. I was confused because I was clear that we weren't taking a puppy. I think my daughter was telling the grandmom that she still wanted one (cute, right??) I got off of the phone with the grandmother and sat down to talk with Emily about this dog and how we couldn't bring one home. All I saw was this look on Emily's face like life itself had stopped and I couldn't do it to her. So I told her I would talk to her dad about it and all along my heart was pounding heavy because I knew she had to have this dog and I wasn't ready. As you can see, we did take a puppy and now I am so glad that we did. Cocoa is the life of our family :) He does need a lot of attention and he can be a bad boy sometimes but he is so full of love and always wants to kiss and play :)

We did ask Abbie's grandmother for a girl puppy and when we went to pick out our puppy she separated the girls from the boys and we picked one of the girls :) Emily actually did the picking and she had planned to call this dog Cocoa Puff. Unfortunately, Cocoa Puff wasn't eating and a vet visit was necessary. The vet was the one who informed us that our sweet little puppy was a male :) Cocoa Puff had already been adorned with a fluffy pink bed, dog bowls with roses on them, a pink leash, and plenty of other frills :)))))) It was a little disappointing for Emily to find out Cocoa was a boy because she planned on primping Cocoa with bows and I even think there was talk of prim and proper dog shows (haha). Cocoa proved all of that wrong and is proud to show his masculine side by thumping on the cats, splashing through puddles and rolling in the mud..........he is a true boy!!! And we couldn't be more thrilled with him and are all attached like glue to this little boy :)

We head off to vacation this weekend and we have to leave our little boy for 2 whole weeks. Another thing that makes it hard to have a dog. Nobody wants them in their homes.......so Cocoa wont be able to join us in our beautiful beach house. It makes me sad because we will really miss our little baby :) And I know he will miss us too. We are so lucky that Jim's mom is willing to care for him for all of that time. I think she has become attached to this guy too...........the last time she watched him, she didn't want to give him up :)

A Visit With Michael :)

Jim, Emily and I spent the last weekend of June visiting Michael. Michael lives in Virginia and has been living there for a year and a half now. We see Michael but he usually comes to visit us. We wanted to get a glimpse of his life in Virginia so we decided to go check it out. We had a great visit and I am going to share some of it with all of you :)

Michael lives in Lansdowne, Virginia which is very close to Washington DC so we added a trip to DC as part of our get together. Michael introduced us to the metro and that rode us right into Washington DC. We spent all of Saturday touring those 'oh so famous' monuments and memorials. One thing I noticed about Washington DC is that it is a very clean city. It looks like a movie set, that is how clean it is. We spent the day walking through Washington DC, taking pictures and walking and walking and walking. We walked so much that my legs felt like rubber when the day was over. Michael led us to a place he had been to before for dinner. It was so nice to sit down and enjoy a meal in the air conditioning. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the weather was so hot that day........somewhere in the 90's!!! We took the metro back into Virginia and spent a few hours swimming in the hotel pool. Emily would never allow us to forget about the hotel pool :)))) Swimming, I think is one of her reasons for existence :))))

Sunday, we visited Michael's church and met some of his friends. His church is so beautiful and welcoming. I really enjoyed it and his friends were very open to us and very welcoming as well :) We did have a little excitement after services but I wont get into that.........the possibility of embarrassment is there and Jim would kill me (oops.........I almost spilled the beans :) It was a small, little fender bender in the parking lot of the church (oops, did I say that?).....and Jim was driving.......oh my goodness, I think I said too much :))))) It was a very small scrape and it held us up a little but no worries. The other person who was hit was not concerned at all because the car they were driving was soon to be passed on to their college bound daughter. They said that they expect this car to get a few bumps and bruises so they wouldn't take anything from us. Wasn't Jim lucky????!!! I think so :))) And MY car, yes, you heard me correctly, MY car only had a small scrape on it and isn't too much to have it repaired :)))) I am expecting it home today all back to it's beautiful self :))) After that we enjoyed a lunch with Michael and all of his friends. It was refreshing to sit with all of these young people and be a part of their day :) Lunch was finished and we headed over to Michael's apartment to spend some time in his pool :)))) Yes, more swimming :) Michael has a great little apartment and it has plenty of amenities that are all very nice. The pool was beautiful and a great way to just relax and cool off. We ended our visit with a visit to Jim's cousin Eddie's. Eddie and Gina, his wife, live 5 minutes from Michael. They opened their home to us and had a meal waiting for us. It was a fun time for everyone.

We enjoyed being in Michael's environment and spending time with him :) I look forward to doing it again and next time I want to see the Smithsonian Museum. We didn't have time for that this time but hope to next time. I haven't been to that museum in so long and from what I remember it was a pretty amazing place to see :)

I included some of the photo's I took while on our visit.............I will give a little explanation for each photo..........Take a look!!!

We started each day at the IHOP :))) How could we not????

Here is Michael being silly :)

The Metro....and if you look close you can see Jim, Emily, and Michael's reflections.

Jim and Emily riding the metro............Jim very happy to have his new GPS who we call Jill :)

First stop.......The White House.....This is as close as we could get to it. We asked if they give tours and they said yes but it takes about 6 months to get clearance for it :) No grand tour for us :)

Second stop the bench outside of the White House and Emily was already getting tired (haha).........we have a long and hot walking day ahead of us.

A White House Fire Hydrant!!! I really was surprised it was green........thought it would be white :) I took this for my dad because he likes to see these :) *just kidding*

A close up of the Lincoln Memorial..........that place was packed. The steps to go up were probably 50 steps and everyone was racing inside because it looked like it was going to rain. I am sure there are that many people visiting there even if the rain isn't coming. A popular memorial :)

This is the view of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial with the reflection pool in between. It was really beautiful!!

This is what I really wanted to visit........the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It is very amazing to see. Sooooooooooooooo many names and the way it reflects everything is so pretty. This is me in the reflection here :)

Another view of the wall............

Emily and Michael having fun in the hotel pool :))))

We loved Virginia :)