I have very exciting news! Grendel the dog is getting a sister next month. Yup, a very cute lovable lab. And you get to help me name her! If you have a Smartphone, then scan this code (you can download a free app that reads QR codes—a good one is

i-nigma). You just place your phone over the barcode and it will take you directly to the page where you can submit your suggestion for the new puppy’s name. The winner gets a prize!

Scan this code, suggest the winning name for Grendel's sister, and win a prize.The ultimate in cute.

Each year when spring starts to show its face I think, crap. Why? Because I have serious allergies, the weather behaves like a manic-depressive, and it reminds me of mud. Rain plus the leftover deadness of winter. I love the snow in winter and around D.C. I always feel like we didn’t get enough. (With the exception of the 2009/2010 winter.) I love summer when it’s warm enough for the beach and the fall feels so good and is so pretty.

Poor spring. I’m hard on you but there are days when you prove to be so lovely and so uplifting that we can’t help but say you are beautiful. Today I walked the dog and felt the cool sun on my face. Last weekend I hiked through a park with my family and the dogs. It’s a time of newness when we watch as things grow and bloom all around us.

I was thinking of all this because of my nephews. They are just the sweetest boys. They are still kind of little but growing up fast. I love visiting with all of the family to see how all of the kids are growing and blooming. Even my neighbors and friends kids are delightful. Another year, more new skills, and the things that come out of their mouths just make you smile. It’s that same feeling of spring. I don’t want to leave the last season but a little reminder of something new makes you enjoy where you are and what you are doing.

So last weekend my nephew Harmon said something to me that made my heart grow a few inches. I was telling my brother that I might want to hire the girls (my nieces) to come down and help me with some landscaping work on my house. Harmon asked if he could come and I told him that he was too little but that in about ten years he would be my go-to guy. “What’s that?” he asked. “It means when I’m old and need help with heavy stuff, I’ll call on you,” I replied. And then Harmon said, “Oh, okay. Well, I’ll come down and help you and you don’t even have to pay me.”Love it. Love him. All those years of presents and trips have paid off. I’ve got my ticket now and am no longer worried about my old age. My nephews are going to have my back. Awesome.

But for now I am going to enjoy the fact that they are still little. Harmon and Tyler, we can linger a little longer in this season—you don’t have to grow up too fast.

I am blessed.

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.
(Proverbs 29:17 ESV)

I had an epiphany this morning. I found something that Grendel didn’t want to eat. Now don’t get me wrong, we’ve been through the puppy phase and he’s come out of that pretty well and avoids some of the random things he used to eat, but he still counter surfs and eats some bizarre stuff. So naturally I was blown away after seeing what was left on the coffee table this morning.

He did not touch the banana. Bananas not only are food but they are loaded with sugar, something he definitely likes. I’m thinking that maybe I should take him to the vet. After all, he will pretty much try anything including:

75 Advil tablets.
He once grabbed a bottle off the counter, chewed through it and barely survived. Cost me a bundle that one did.

Dead fish and random seaweed.
You got to watch the pups when they are young and first go to the beach. The stuff comes out eventually. Yuck. 

Drywall and a plastic electrical socket cover.
I can only imagine that he was sticking his tongue in the socket getting shocked and just not realizing the connection. What a huge dumb—.

Arthritis cream.
I put this horrible product on my hand once. It practically burned my skin off but for some reason he gave it a go. I found it on the kitchen floor with the packaging all torn off and the tube chewed open.

Cold ice pack.
You know those gel packs that you stick in your freezer and use for sprains? I left one out on the coffee table the other night only to come home the next day to see a corner of it ripped open. Yum!

Books.
When the Grendel dog was a puppy he took out half my graduating class in my yearbook. He also destroyed my chemistry and anatomy books from college. I didn’t care as much about them but I did have to throw out some others. I guess he thought knowledge was power and eating it would be good.

I won’t mention the other gross stuff he still eats (I have two cats in the house—just saying). So now we can add bananas to lettuce and carrots as his no-go items. What is the weirdest thing your dog has eaten?