Dog or No?

I think that I mentioned that my dog passed away this past October. I loved her dearly, and I miss her a lot. I especially miss her when I go for a jog, cuz she loved to go and I feel badly that for much of her life I was a lazy slob and did not take her for many walks.

I was going to get a new dog for Christmas, and even drove halfway to the shelter to pick up said puppy, but then turned around cuz I was crying too much. Not ready. My kids very much want a new dog, and talk about it every now and then. I am still not sure I am ready. And part of this is because I know how much work a puppy is, and then all of the work that goes into dog ownership in terms of going out of town and all of that. This, especially given that my older child is going to be in softball and we'll be out and at games. Sigh. What to do???