stinkydog: I have 6000 photos of my kids jumping into the Pool

I have on my phone at the moment, about 67 photos of my children jumping into the pool at the YMCA, otherwise known as, how we spent the majority of our Summer Vacation 2015. I've been meaning to do a photo dump for a while, but summer, weirdly, has gotten away from me. Don't ask me what we did for the entire month of June or July, other than play basketball and go swimming. Oh and take care of a horribly injured puppy foster. That's pretty much it.

First, the puppy. I got this email at the end of June about this puppy who had come into the shelter in San Antonio pretty much half dead. He was injured, possibly half eaten by some wild animal, left alone and the animal control officer found him "crawling with maggots". I'm not even exaggerating, after I had agreed to get him here, the shelter coordinator contacted me to let me know that I "shouldn't be concerned" if I saw new maggots in the morning after he arrived because they weren't sure they had cleared them all out. Yeah. No. I WAS CONCERNED. I don't "do" maggots. But this tiny little puppy was delivered to my house, stinking of rot and he was just... so precious. And so very weak and sweet. . I spent the night trying to clean him as best as I could without hurting him, and also without gagging because I will be honest: I do not have a strong stomach. I have many photos of these early days because I was half afraid that the monster who "owned" this puppy was going to show up after we got him healthy and well to claim him. But also so that we could document his progress. Rest assured that I am not going to be sharing any of these photos here. I will just share one of my favorites of sweet Paddington, about two weeks in, when he was feeling (and looking) MUCH better.

He was still bald on his back here, but, as I like to say, "MAGGOT FREE!" It's a new bar we've set. You might be feeling bad or even a little punky, but hey, if you don't got maggots, you're ahead of the game. Paddington was with us for 6 weeks before getting adopted. I think I'm always gonna remember him, not for the smell (although that was pretty awful), but because he reminded me why I do that Rescue thing that I do. It's important.

Then there's basketball. Oh, basketball. The boys had really expressed an interest in playing basketball and I'm allllllllll about sports that don't involve sitting out in the hot sun, so we signed up for basketball. Please feel free to remind me for the rest of my natural born life that we Hovlands are not so much into team sports. What you see here is the one and only time Hopper was ever in possession of the ball when he successfully dribbled down the court. Immediately after this photo was taken, he stopped at the free throw line, turned around and attempted to make a shot backwards. It went straight into the ref's face.

And then of course we've been swimming. After 15+ months of swim lessons, I opted to "take a break" for the months of July and August. On his last lesson in June, Hopper opted to actually start swimming. It was a little labored and he was fighting against his body's natural inclination to sink, but it was actual swimming! without any sort of flotation device. So, we've been going swimming a lot to reinforce what they've learned. Half the time, they look like they're drowning, as evidenced by the fact that the lifeguards on duty always sort of reluctantly edge their way off their chairs and hover over them and ask me if I'm sure I'm "watching them." I love when this happens because usually this is when I'm standing in the pool, approximately two feet from my children. (that was sarcasm, related: I might have obnoxiously responded to a 17 year old lifeguard a time or two that "nah, I just thought I'd let them go under and let you handle it.") In short, lifeguards love me.