Laughter IS the best medicine!

Wii Boxing has led to some need for further exploration of the sport.

Mayan Adventures

What a week it has been with our new golden, Maya! Each day brought a new adventure. First, she and Molly had a "misunderstanding", mostly about who's boss. Then Maya decided to introduce herself to Lenny, the guinea pig, by shoving his cage off the table and scaring a few years off his already short life. Then, on a walk with the whole family and 2 neighborhood kids (we were babysitting a 1 year old and a 3 year old), Maya was confronted by a german shepherd who was off his leash and quite interested in greeting her. Maya proceeded to drag Aidan to the ground (flip flop skidmarks were left as evidence) and slipped her collar to befriend the new canine and his walking companion, restrained, thankfully, by the wife. Luckily, Maya was easily caught, releashed, and we cut our walk short. And THEN... today, after Amy and I read a few chapters in her book, I got up to get a drink and saw the front door WIDE OPEN! Yes, our foster dog was now exploring the streets freely. Again, luck was on our side and Maya has learned where her new home is, and when we called her name, she came bounding home like Lassie. It brings a tear to my eye (ok, not really). But other than that, she is settling in quite nicely. No, really, she is. Really.

Here's Maya, going after her beloved Kong. She is obsessed with Kong. It bounced under our deck one day and she was determined to retrieve it. She she shimmied under the deck steps and got her slobber and dirt covered lovey. Ya gotta laugh!

Art Gallery

Amy and Aidan picked some art they wanted to share on the blog. One is Amy's first drawing of baby cousin Maren, drawn the first week of her life (Maren's life, mom, not Amy's) as an angel.

The next is a picture she drew when she was mad at me. It was really funny because she was not supposed to come downstairs (again), so she dropped her "angry face" with the tongue sticking out from the top of the stairs and on the back of it she wrote "I love you."

Aidan chose a picture he drew of a "sea house".

More Gymnastics

A New Addition!

Yesterday afternoon, our new foster dog, Maya, joined our family. Maya is an owner relinquishment from a family in Austin. She is 2 years old and was raised in a family with kids the same age as Amy and Aidan and dogs similar to ours. So far she is settling in nicely. I took her for a long walk in the park this morning and she did great, but she pulls and is very strong. She is undersized for a golden, about 50 pounds, so I'm told, but still bigger and stronger than we are used to! My hope is to train her to be a therapy dog and take her to work with me, perhaps once a week.
Amy graduated from Kinder Gym Thursday and is now a Level 1 gymnast. Her coach is impressed with her recent progress. She suggested that Amy try out for team in December. We'll see how she feels about that when the time comes!

We got a substantial rain last week several days in

a row and Amy and her friends enjoyed getting

soaked!

Aidan's latest project. Can you guess what this is??

Schallas in SATX, est. 1999

Well Jere suggested we start a blog to post updates about our extraordinarily exciting life (ok, I added that part), so here we are. We have really enjoyed keeping current with the Schallas in WA, and I figured I could manage to keep up with this thing once a week at least!

This summer was a lot less exciting than the last, mainly because I worked more, so there were fewer trips out of town. My neighbor, who has 3 kids, ages 5, 3, and 1, agreed to keep Aidan and Amy two days a week when they were not in "enrichment" camps. It worked out really well. As you can see, Aidan always manages to find something creative to do with his time! This summer we have seen Aidan grow more than ever! He saw Kung Fu Panda, drove Pop's boat twice, played a group game at VBS, learned to play on our Wii, and learned how to bowl!
School starts in September. Amy is looking forward to kinder, but Aidan thinks third grade will be boring since he "already knows it all." This will be his last year at the small St. Andrew's school. He has done exceptionally well and we are very proud of him! He has developed a love for bowling, thanks to the Wii, which gave him the confidence to try "real" bowling. He entertains himself by drawing pictures of bowling alleys or making his own. We laughed at his latest creation, which included a Brunswick bowling pin arm sweep, complete with two bowling pins. When we stepped back and admired it, we realized it looks like a nativity scene, with Mary and Joseph! I hope God has a sense of humor!

As for Amy, she is doing very well in gymnastics, and got to ring the bell twice in one month, which means she has learned a new skill well enough to do it on her own. Her coach wants her on the team, which means she would get to attend meets and train more, but not compete until she is 7. Something to consider, in addition to tae kwan do and music and dance! Needless to say, she LOVES the Wii! Her favorite part is making the Miis or boxing with Dad and knocking him flat! She also enjoys real bowling and gets lots of air time when she releases the 6 pound balls!