It's been a big week around here. Yesterday, August 18th, marks the one year anniversary of Hans' first surgery to remove the stomach cancer. I can't even begin to say how much it means to me to reach this. Hans has been through so much this past year... so much pain. Days where we just hold our breath to get through it and hope that when we wake up in the morning that life will be better for him, and then realize that we are just grateful to wake up at all.

On a lighter...and crazier...note; yesterday Hans came home from work and handed a UPS box to me, claiming that the UPS man had delivered to our side door instead of the front. I was confused and told him that the UPS guy had delivered some mohair to me earlier and he definitely came to the front door. Hans shrugged and told me that he was pretty sure that this was something that he had ordered for my birthday, but that I had to open it now because it might spoil.

Oh crap, I thought, he's bought a fish for me. Or food...maybe I was lucky and it was chocolate. Anyway, I cut into the box and right there, nestled in bubble wrap, is a set of shiny keys. Shiny Keys. Shiny. Keys. My mind was totally blank. And then I started crying as it dawned on me that these shiny keys must belong to a shiny car.

Somehow he had managed to buy a new minivan for us. I really should have been suspicious when he said that he had made an appointment for the old car to get an oil change that morning. I always have to nag for weeks before that happens.

We've never had a new car. And seriously, I don't know how he managed to get this one. When I asked if we could afford this, he told me to hush and not worry about it. Worry is so my middle name. Amy Worry Rue. But I'm trying not to worry.

I do love this shiny mini. And it loves me too. The kids are so happy they can't see straight.

Ella in her beautiful dress that I found on Ebay. It's handmade with embroidery on the collar and puff sleeves. The best part is that it came with an organdy pinafore, just like my mom wore as a child. Ella looks like an angel in it. She was so proud, she sighed and said that when people tell her how pretty her dress is, because of course they will, she would tell them that it came straight out of the mail box.

When Finn was just a tiny boy we lived in a small community called Tate. We had a little white cottage with a picket fence and a riot of flowers. Our house was sweet, but very small, and we had to move on to a bigger shell. Our neighbor was an extra sweet widow, Mrs. Forrester, and she would come over to admire Finn on pleasant days. One day, Mrs. Forrester looked at Finn and said, "lord, when that little boy gets older you're going to have to beat the girls away from the door with a broom handle."

when Finn looks like this, I start polishing my broom handle.

The Lumpling adoption went well and everyone was adopted in about thirty minutes.

I was surprised at how popular Goober here was! I didn't know how he would be received, but he had the most requests and I think we'll have more Goober Lumps in the future.

A couple of people wrote and told me that they couldn't get the new page to load, even when refreshing. I really wish that I was more computer savvy to know what to tell them, but I'm not. All I can say is that the new guys were definitely there!

I'm looking into getting shopping cart software for the amy rue site. Where I could state that the quantity is just 1 and it would put a sold notice up as soon as someone purchased the Lumpling. Right now it's an email frenzy where people write to me asking if a Lumpling is still available and I'm writing back to everyone as fast as possible, while updating the site with adopted notices, and getting paypal invoices ready. I really hate telling someone that a Lumpling is already adopted. If there is a way to do this with the Paypal shopping cart, then I haven't figured it out yet!