Barking Dogs=Bless my Neighbors and Back to School!

We are back to school!!  I love this time of year because it is leading to my most absolute favorite time of year which is from about Oct 20th-Jan 1st.  And yes, I actually listen to Christmas music for most of that time frame! 

3rd Grade!!!

Kassidy was actually also a little bit excited about starting school, which just made me so happy.  :)  I think that summers drag a bit even when you have family visiting for a month and a half like we did.  You still long for some kind of routine and normalcy and school brings that.  I am still not done planning or organizing, but I will finish soon (hopefully) and until then I have this whole week planned!




I love our house.  Love, love, love it.  It's twice as big as our old house and fits us perfectly.  There are a couple things that didn't get checked on my wishlist for a new house though.  1) a huge open kitchen with a great pantry and 2) a yard where my dogs wouldn't bark.  There are a couple more things, but those just popped in my mind and I'm not going to dwell on the things I didn't get, butttt....

I really, truly, deep-down inside have serious feelings of hate for my neighbor's dog.  It makes me want to hang my head in shame.  These are the neighbors that greeted us with banana bread a few days after we moved in.  They are a great older couple who introduced themselves and within the same few sentences said, "We hope our dogs aren't bothering you."  Oh they were, but we said no, of course.  They told us that their daughter and son-in-law are living with them and the dogs belong to them.  Oh, I cannot wait for them to move out!! 

They have 2 dogs, but only 1 barks.  My favorite kind of dog... a beautiful doberman.  Their other dog doesn't bark.  She just gets jumped all over from the other dog and often sounds like she is dying.  She's sweet and I would take her.  The doberman barks constantly.  Constantly.  Or what seems like constantly when it starts at 7 in the morning and goes throughout the day at the drop of a hat.  Or when my dogs actually go outside.  Their dog starts barking and mine join in and it won't stop until we go out there and break it up.  Yes, us.  Never them.  Ok, I think in the 2 1/2 months we have lived here they have gone out there one time.  So... I let my dogs bark and bark and bark at their dog, because I don't want my dogs in the house 24-7 and I keep hoping that they will get the hint.  My poor other neighbors.  My husband won't let our dogs continue to bark, he just lets them in where they bug me to death when I am trying to accomplish something... like school!!! 

But yay for school and yay for summer almost being over!!  Because after summer is fall and after fall is winter :)  Joy!!  It's pretty awesome that God designed the world for us each to have our own perfect time of the year :)