Benni Missing

photo by Shannon Mucha

Benni had been with us for 12 years, I hardly know America without her. On Sunday night she didn't come in for dinner. We searched the woods around us for hours, put up fliers, called and visited neighbors, but she has disappeared. She was about 15 and had been sleeping a lot recently. Even though we didn't expect her to live much longer to have her just disappear and be gone, a whole part of our life over so suddenly, is just so sad.

We have heard of dogs who go off to die, and it would be in her character to not want to bother us with a messy death. I can't believe that she went out of our door one day and never came home. I love you Benni, the Rocket Dog. I miss you on your bed and wandering around our house. I will always love you and remember you as the best dog we could have ever had.

She had a good life, I am glad we gave that to her.

It actually snowed today!

For the first time in our 12 years in the Houston area it snowed today.

We were doing school and Lily asked what was falling from the sky, I looked out and said 'that is snow' so we all went charging out in to the front yard. After years of reading storybooks set in snowy places, think Narnia, my kids got to see real snow falling from the sky! We even got Annie up from her nap to experience it and dug the hats and scarfs out of the toy box for the occasion.

We took a walk in the 'snow'. After about 30 minutes it was gone. But that was a joyous 30 minutes, we celebrated with hot chocolate covered with marshmallows and whipped cream on top. Mark had put on a fire earlier in the day, so we had the whole winter experience!