ashes & wine

One of the doctors in my dad's firm lives up the street from us - his daughter was a senior when I was in eighth grade. Dr. Cherry was divorced and married Amy a few years ago, and we all loooove Amy. She's always out running in our neighborhood, sometimes dragging their super-fat rescue dog Penny along for a lap or two. Penny and Molly are buds :)

Anyways, my dad told us a few weeks ago that Amy moved out, and she took Penny :( Nothing's final yet, but it's still really sad. Both of Dr. Cherry's kids (Katherine and George) are in college, and now he's all alone by himself in that big house.

Exceeeept, Katherine and George got him a puppy for Christmas! Or, a puppy IOU. Little Bonnie was only old enough to come home with him this past Tuesday. Dr. Cherry is absolutely transformed - he told my dad that it's the happiest he's been in a long time. And that just makes me smile. Dr. Cherry's the sweetest guy.

He brought Bonnie over to visit today! And she is the CUTEST THING, you guys. She's an English lab, meaning that she won't get as big as regular labs do. She has the sweet puppy breath and those big paws and the loose skin and super-soft fur, and she just ruuuuuns around everywhere, tripping over things and rolling around and just being absolutely adorable. Love her to pieces.

This is what Bonnie looks like...



Love. Love love love love love.

Anyways, I took my English exam at 7:45 this morning. Not fun. But I felt incredibly accomplished afterwards. I love mornings - definitely a morning person, and just that time of the day is absolutely lovely. I'd get up early every day if I didn't like to sleep so much.

Also, Emma had a date last night! Sort of. His name is Derek (he's Lauren's little bro), and he and Emma have been hanging out like crazy recently. They go to church together, play tennis together, go to social events/dances together...all that fun stuff. So she invited him over to hang out last night. They played ping-pong and he played piano (points for the dude) for a while, and then they came up to make pizza...and Derek and I played Lego Harry Potter on the PS3. Oh yeah. I asked him if he wanted to come join me, and he jumped on it, haha. So much fun!

Derek's a fab kid, I want he and Emma to just go out already. He's really good for her - really calm and laid back (which she needs), but they're interested in all the same things. He's actually kind of a mix of the two of us: Emma's tennis, churchiness, and excited humor + my laid-back personality, love of music, and general chillness. It's a match made in heaven. :)