Keeping in Teutsch

As most of you know, we are in the process of moving into the family housing apartments on campus and that means we can't have pets. So, today, we handed the leash over to Matt's parents and said "goodbye" to Zoe, although we will get her back in 3 years. (And, of course, we will see her whenever we visit them.) Three years can be a long time, though, so I decided to put together this little post in honor of Zoe...a walk down memory lane.

The only picture I can find of Zoe as a puppy! We got Zoe in March 2004, just a couple of weeks after we bought and moved into our first home in West Monroe. (I allowed Matt to get her as a "test" to see if he was ready for fatherhood...apparently he passed!) She was much smaller than this when we first got her and I remember sitting on the floor and holding her in my lap while she slept. Of course, those days didn't last long and soon she was like any other little puppy, playing and chewing and having to be housebroken. We had a little kennel for her and she slept by our bed in it for a while. In those first few weeks, until she got old enough to hold it, she would wake us up at night and we'd have to take her outside to use the bathroom. That was when she was tiny and venturing more than 3 feet from the back porch was her definition of "far away." I also had to come home at lunch EVERY day for a long time to let her out of her kennel to use the bathroom. We always left her in her kennel in front of the TV during the day with it turned to Animal Planet. It wasn't until she was over a year old before we let her out of the kennel during the day. I have to say, she was awesome at potty training, though, and had very few accidents.

Christmas 2005 (we took this picture right after Thanksgiving; just a few weeks later, two days before Christmas, I found out I was pregnant with Juliette).

One of my favorite pictures of Zoe, with a toy squirrel (that did not last long!). We didn't pose this at all...this is how I found her sleeping one afternoon!

I laid on the couch A LOT when I was pregnant with Juliette and Zoe was always right there wanting to snuggle and give belly hugs!

And then there was Juliette and Zoe's world was turned upside down! For a while, she didn't pay much attention to Juliette and even to this day, if I ask her where Juliette is, she won't go find her, but if you ask her where "Mommy" or "Daddy" is...she gets all excited. Oh, she knows who Juliette is, but I think she just chooses to ignore her unless Juliette gives her no choice...or unless Juliette has food! It's been so nice having a little vacuum cleaner! :)

As you can see, Zoe eventually realized that Juliette wasn't going anywhere!

Playing dress up!

Spring 2009

Early 2010 (Juliette took this picture of Zoe. Zoe has been her photography subject more often than anything or anyone else. As well, as her beauty subject--she would put bows in her hair; her tea party guest--she would set her place and one time put dog food on her plate for her; her student--she would lure Zoe into her bedroom with cookies or crackers, close the door, and then read books to her or play school with her; and, more than one time, Zoe stood in for me when Juliette would not go to sleep and provided a warm body next to her in bed. Zoe got treats for those times!)

Christmas 2009

Late Spring 2010

Our last day with Zoe at Matt's parents house right before we left.

Matt and I came home to an empty house this evening (Juliette is at my parents for the week) and it felt a little strange. A few times I thought I heard Zoe in the house and when I left and came back (with food), Zoe didn't meet me at the door or sit at my feet and beg for food. I've been telling Matt for weeks (as he sadly counted down the days to her departure) that it was no big deal...she would be fine at his parents and it's not like she's dying. She's alive and well and will be well taken care of and I'm sure will be just as happy. But there is an emptiness there that I thought would be easy to dismiss. Just sitting here putting this together (mostly for Matt), I've been overcome with a flood of emotions for this dog that I've been trying to distant myself from for the past year (because I knew this day was coming sooner rather than later). I had forgotten until now that Zoe was quite the companion during my year and a half of infertility and we snuggled quite a bit during that time and my pregnancy. I also remember the last few weeks of my pregnancy when I was on partial bedrest and would spend the mornings working from home, in bed with the laptop, with Zoe curled up sleeping beside me.

Needless to say, she will be missed by all of us and we will be counting down the months and years until she can join us again.

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This past month has flown by and I didn't realize it had been so long since I had blogged until I logged on tonight to write this one. We've been pretty busy, I guess!

We've had mostly pretty weather here, although it is bordering on being sweaty hot. I know that almost everyone who reads this blog (all four of you) are in North Louisiana, so you may not realize it, but South Louisiana temperatures can actually be 5 degrees warmer than North Louisiana. You wouldn't think just a couple of hundred miles would make that much of a difference, but it does and although we were here for the hot part of last summer, we still aren't looking forward to it. (Although I know no one in Louisiana ever looks forward to the summer heat!)

Juliette's last day of preschool was at the end of April and they had a special end-of-year program and picnic for the parents on the last Friday of April. The theme was "Learning the Ragin' Cajun Way" (Ragin Cajuns is UL's mascot.) The teachers went through each college of the university and had different activities for them to do based on a course from each of the colleges. For instance, for the College of Engineering they had to build something out of blocks. For the College of Business, they were given play money and were allowed to "shop" in a play store. For the College of Science, they went bird watching. For the College of Liberal Arts, they paired items that rhymed. For the College of Arts, they directed parents in playing musical instruments. (UL separates their arts and liberal arts colleges, unlike other universities.) For the College of Education, they did an obstacle course (like you would do in P.E.) and there were a few more activities too. After the kids finished all the activities, they sang some songs for us and then each of them got a little certificate showing they completed either their junior year (3 yr olds) or senior year (4 yr olds) of preschool. After that, we had an indoor picnic...although technically, we just ate picnic food, since we didn't sit on the floor or anything like that!

Looking for birds!

This is Elias, one of the little boys in Juliette's "junior" class who she always talks about. When we got there that morning and saw Elias he blew her a kiss and came and hugged her. The teachers told me that they are always holding hands.

If you look closely, you can see that the kids are all sitting on colored squares. This is what they use at preschool everyday for when they need them to sit and do circle time. They sat them all on these for their songs because it wasn't really a formal thing (more like them showing us how they do songs in circle time) and I imagine they wanted them to behave and stay in one s

The Junior Class!

By the way, this is not her preschool classroom or building. This is the horicultural center's building. The preschool classroom is too small for all of us to fit into it. Almost two years ago, the preschool building was struck by lightening and burned to the ground, right before school was supposed to start for the year, so the preschool has been right on campus in the education building until a new one is built. I don't think the new one will be ready until next summer, though, so we will probably never be in it.

Just last week, Matt finally finished what seemed like a long spring semester and got all A's again, so he's got a perfect 4.0 so far.

Just a couple of random photos that I thought were cute!
Above: Juliette brushing her teeth while sporting her little towel wrap.
Below: She didn't want to take her towel wrap off and she wanted to help me do dishes, so here she is. This was the last thing she washed. (I had to rewash everything as I was rinsing it because she's not strong enough or coordinated enough to get them completely clean, but I don't think she noticed what I was doing.)

Juliette and I spent Mother's Day at my parents' house, while Matt was at home grading finals.

Usually I have no problem getting Juliette to pose or smile for pictures, but she was not wanting to participate that morning. We tried again after church but didn't have any luck then either. She had just gotten out of the bathtub in the picture above.

Me and my mom! See those red walls? She painted her dining room red and I LOVE it! Of course, I'm certain they will never, ever, ever paint anything that dark of a color ever again because they had a ton of problems getting it to not streak and there are layers upon layers of primer as well as red paint on those walls! When Juliette first saw them, she asked mom where they bought them at!

Matt and Juliette will be home for the next couple of weeks until school starts back on the 7th. Juliette will be going to the campus daycare all day, every day and I think she's going to really enjoy it. Once preschool starts back in the fall, she'll go to the daycare at lunch time, so I'm glad she is getting to go full-time this summer so she'll get to know everyone and the routine before she starts going half-time.

Well, that is all from here for now. I have two videos I want to share with you guys, so check back later to see if I've got them up. I was having problems earlier, so I couldn't post them.

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