It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's....

Super-Man and his sidekick Super-Girl!!!















(If they're not playing this routine, they're busy being Bibleman and Biblegirl, brandishing their light saber and plastic fireman's axe handle, assuring me that they know the Sword of the Spirit is really the Word of God).

Have a SUPER Saturday!!!

Imagination Extraordinaire

Okay, we give up. How does Jacob come up with some of his stuff?

This, my friends, was the show presented after dinner. Jacob had whispered to Mark about the "trick he can do," and proceeded to do this fantastic trick on his horse (a.k.a. kitchen chair). Mark convinced him to repeat the trick so that he could video it...which he did, but the horse was more tired so it's a bit shorter than the original version. Mark does a wonderful job of clarifying what Jacob is saying if you have trouble understanding what's going on here...



Seriously. Tea cups? Three of them on a stick? 100, I repeat, 100 miles fast.

Random.
My son is King of Random.

In trying to find some kind of link in his brain, we asked him if he had ever seen a trick like this in the movies.

"No...but remember at the fair, they were standing on each other's shoulders on the back of the horse? Well I'm standing on one leg."

The seed for this was a horse show we watched 5 minutes of at the State Fair, last August. Wow.

Spring is coming!

Know what I just noticed? It's 8:37 a.m., and it's starting to get light out. Not bright, mind you, but getting there. Dawn. And I remember that we got home the other night at 6 p.m., and it was still dusk. Woo-hoo! Days are getting longer!

Movin' Right Along

Last week was a great week on the homeschool front.
We greatly appreciated & enjoyed our Baptist State Convention's annual evangelism conference on Mon/Tues, and we managed to get back to school yesterday.
We're milking the goat every morning.
I'm back to exercising *almost* every morning.
We're having Jacob and Anna's friend over for preschool on a weekly basis again.
We're caught up on laundry.

Like I said, we're mooovin' right along. If I was milking a cow daily, that would be funny. Since we're milking a goat, it would be more like "Maaa-vin' right along," which somehow doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

And my daughter was just asking me something, to which I replied "What, sweetie?"
She had something to show me, but I was still looking at the computer screen.
"Is 'dis your paper, mommy?"
I apparently didn't look up soon enough to see what she was referring to.
"Move your head, mommy." and after I was looking her way she proceeded with the conversation!
She tried it again a few minutes later when I was supposed to be looking at what she was talking about, not just responding verbally.
"Move your head again, mommy."

This girl cracks me up. Too. much.

Sophie

Okay, I don't know if blogger is being a pain for everyone or if it's just me, but after two tries of a post with both pictures and video, I give up-for tonight, anyway!

Sophie has completely recovered, and I'll show you pictures later to prove it. :)

A great day!

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers for getting over our accident emotionally. As is the nature of stuff like this, that was then, this is now!

We had a super day today. I turned the phone off, and we got through an entire day of school...plus all the inside and outside chores, and some recess time! During said recess time the goofballs climbed up the snowbanks and over the fence of the outdoor goat pen-looked like I had them fenced in! (The goats and chickens are all snowed-in in the barn for the winter, so no worries about them climbing out since the kids could obviously climb in). They even lifted Anna over to join them...unfortunately I was out there to actually get some work done, not take pictures.

But alas, I'm still not in bed by 10...one more post and I'm off to bed!

Not what I was expecting

Tonight I finally cleared my desk in search of my lesson planning book. School around here has been, for lack of a better term, sporadic since the car accident/Christmas break/illness stretch we've been on.

So I found my lesson plan book. And looked to see where we were at, what I had last planned that we didn't get to, etc.

And suddenly I'm in tears, looking over our plans for Dec. 16th. Overcome with emotion looking at the note I had written in geography to listen to the CD's I had checked out of the library of music from France...Bizet's Carmen became the soundtrack of our accident. I had grabbed them on the way out the door to listen to on our way to town. If I hadn't remembered to grab them, we would have been at least 10 seconds ahead of ourselves, and beyond the woman who pulled out in front of us.

I'm seemingly weeping over the fact that we never made it home to read about moon phases. We were in the ER instead. But I know that's not why I'm really weeping.

I thought I would just get some lesson plans done. This isn't what I expected.

Help me, please

So this was Anna the other day.




















Hat and boots. Kneed pad and wrist guard from "bike safety set" given to boys this summer. Brown bag as her purse (I wish I could type it the way she says it). Get-ups like this are a common sight.

Anna's daily chore is to feed Abby. But she couldn't do it today. Or yesterday. For the same reason she couldn't flush the toilet or hold her brother's hand to pray at dinner. "My hand is tired."

Her new line at nap time lately? "But I'm not a sleepy girl."

And the other day, she carried the stool from the bathroom into the school room. She climbed on the stool to reach a pair of scissors from the scissor drawer. She got into the kitchen cupboard for a snack bar. And carried the snack bar into the school room where she proceeded to cut open the wrapper and eat most of the bar before her brother caught her.

She's only 2 and half years old, folks.

Send help, please.

Doesn't Everyone?

Okay, so maybe not everyone takes pictures of their stacks of paperwork, and I seriously doubt many take pictures of their FedEx guy!

But I do, at least in this case!

Today's the Day

My date with the copier was actually on Tuesday.

Everything is in order. Check for $7200 attached.

Our 52 page dossier, in triplicate, will be on it's way out the door with FedEx (later) this morning!

Stacks of papers are brilliant photo shoot subjects. I'll share them eventually!

Our Exciting News!

Okay...I finally just stayed up late to post about our exciting news! I hope you'll head over to check it out and see what God has been up to to get our precious daughter home from Ethiopia!

Sophie Update

Well, I wouldn't say that Sophie has significantly improved, but she has improved. To help her get outside to go potty last night, I had to sling a beach towel under her belly to help support her rear legs. But today, she actually went out twice without being supported. She's putting little to no weight on her rear leg, but she's hobbling around better.

I fear being a neglectful pet owner on this one, but we may give her yet one more day before taking her to the vet if she's not much improved. There are two factors in that. One is obviously finances...the vet would most likely want to do x-rays. The other is pure logistics, which reminds us why smaller dogs are tad easier in many regards. How do I load up 100 lb. of lovable fur that can hardly walk and certainly can't jump into the van? If Mark were going to be able to be here when I had to leave, I'm sure we could manage. But she is just one. big. dog.

We will manage. If worse comes to worse, I'll call the poor unsuspecting neighbors over to help. But we're praying it doesn't come to that...

PS: I was also encouraged when I took her out tonight-bribing her out the door with a bite of hot dog. As she slowly made her way across the porch to a place to go potty, she stopped, looked towards the woods, and let out one solid "woof," as though she was warning everyone that just because she was down it didn't mean she was out!

Lara...Sophie is 1/2 St. Bernard, 1/4 Great Pyrenees (the breed we were looking for), and 1/4 Landseer Newfoundland. Great Pyrs are excellent Livestock Guardian dogs, and St. Bernarnds and Newfoundlands are excellent family/property guards. She has proven herself true, even though just over a year old, on all accounts!

Poor Sophie

This poor girl has had a quite a day. (Yes, enough to warrant her being settled in for the night in the entryway)!
Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what transpired to give her such a day.
The last any of us remembered seeing her outside was this morning at about 11:30. Andrew and I went out to do all the animal chores at about 3 p.m., in preparation for loading up the (goat) kids to take them to be disbudded.

No Sophie.
No coming for her dinner.
No coming despite calling for her all over the property.
We called neighbors.
Checked in the outbuildings to see if she got trapped inside.
Still no Sophie.
We were worried, but convinced ourselves that she would show up from her exploratory romp and would be eagerly waiting for us, as always, when we returned home.
But she wasn't.
We called some more.
I cried.

Mark got the (human) kids into bed while I returned the (goat) kids to the relieved Butterscotch. And as I was coming back in from the barn, I saw Sophie's fuzzy head sillhouetted up on the front porch! I called her twice to come down and eat, and she didn't respond. So I raced upstairs...and the poor dog can hardly walk.

It took coaxing her with treats to get her to limp into the house, and we checked her over thoroughly. The trouble is her right rear leg, though there's nothing visible and she doesn't wince in pain at being touched at any particular place on her leg.

Our best guess is that she was kicked by a moose. She could have been hit by a car, but we live in 45 mph zone, and drivers are rarely going "that" slow. So a hit by a car would likely have done her more harm. If a moose charged her, it could have planted a swift kick causing localized pain like she has...though Sophie has never chased any wildlife that we've seen. She usually checks out what's there, and comes back to the house to patrol and bark until it leaves. The neighbors heard the wolves carrying on late this afternoon, but I would think she would have cuts and tatters if she even managed to make it out of a tangle with a wolf pack.

So we're just going to wait and see how she does. If she's not significantly improved by tomorrow, we'll take her to the vet. For now I'm giving her a dose of Arnica every few hours, and she's getting lots of loving (can I just say that Abby is exhibiting a very put out attitude that that outside dog is in her space)?

I just wish I knew what her day has been like. Did she get injured early this afternoon, and has been trying to make it home all this time? Did she try and make it back home when she heard us calling, and just laid there and gave up when we left? How far did she have to come in this condition? If only dogs could talk...

New Van

Yes, we have a new (to us) set of wheels. Can life please return to normal now?

Today we made our third, yes third, trip in a row to Anchorage to get our new vehicle.

Used Honda Odysseys are very hard to come by. We understand. If it hadn't been totaled out from underneath us, we certainly wouldn't have let go of our old one. Interestingly, we really thought we would like to go with a used Toyota Sienna...but in our test drives, we've come to find out we really just prefer a Honda!

But I digress.

On Monday, we were at the chiropractor (70 miles away). On Tuesday we were in Anchorage looking at several different vehicles. On Wednesday we intended to re-look at just two vehicles, and bring one home. I'll spare you the details, but we had to go up yet again today, but did bring a new van home. (For clarification for those of you not familiar with where we live, Anchorage is 100 miles one-way from home. Add in crappy winter roads, and you're looking at almost 4 hours of just coming and going, not to mention the time spent doing what you went to do. I'm not complaining. Just sayin').

Sorry to be a boring blogger, but no pictures yet. It's a 2001 (our old one was a 2000)...so with the exception of the exterior color, which is now green, it's interior is identical. Which is really nice when you've had the same vehicle for six years and loved it through it all. This also means that the huge pile of stuff that belongs in the van can now vacate it's corner in the basement. Phew.

So for those of you who I'm supposed to have called, emailed, written to, or actually accomplished something for you...I'm very sorry. We're finally mostly well, but between all our travelling have accomplished precious little. A trip back the chiropractor on Friday, company for dinner, take the (goat) kids to be disbudded on Saturday (hopefully, Crystal...does that work with you guys still?), and then *sigh of relief* to have just normal stuff at hand.

And I haven't forgotten I have fun news, too...I just want to do it justice, and a hastily-written update jotted down moments before I head to bed just doesn't seem enough. Let's just say God has provided for us in a big way!

Our Christmas Break

This has been quite a week. I went from dreadfully sick to on my deathbed. I'm only half-joking...I'm recovering from the sinus infection of the century.

I made my "List" post on Monday, carted the kids and I to the chiropractor that afternoon, and by evening my head was pounding so much that I couldn't even cart us back home. Thankfully my mom was willing to try and nurse me back to health, but it was beyond anything I've ever experienced.

Mark (who had taken a half-day from work b/c he was sick) came over and got us, and took me to the dr. before we headed home. I added the dr.'s list of remedies to my extensive arsenal, and thought that surely I would be on the up-and-up shortly. Tuesday night, in the wee hours of the morning, I was ready to have Mark take me to ER, convinced that I must have a brain aneurysm or something...why else would the pain in my head be so bad that I had to resort to childbirth breathing patterns to make it through? (I'm no pansy, either...if anyone who has been through natural childbirth like I have says something hurts, I generally believe them based on their reference point). My cry of "Jesus, help me!" was answered, because the pain subsided enough that I was able to slowly relax and eventually fall asleep.

Bless my husband for staying home the next day until it was apparent that I could move and breathe and watch the kids supervise small children while they took care of themselves.

Needless to say, it's been an uphill battle, and my list is even more of a joke now than it was on Monday.

But...we have been feeling mostly better that past two days, so a few things have gotten done.
Note the list (with a few additions in bold as compared to Monday's list. I know I must not be the only person who adds items to a list simply to be able to cross them off...right)?!?

Things I Want to Get Done Over Christmas Break:
1. Clear desk (again!)
2. Catch up on blogging (July-Dec. I bother since it's our family's memory album).
3. Trim goat hooves All sixteen adult goat hooves done!
4. Gather milking supplies
5. Clean out Sunday School room
6. Paint Sunday School room w/ girls
7. Organize church library
8. Update sidebars on adoption blog
9. Adjust 2nd semester lesson plan schedule as needed.
10. Write, send, and mail Christmas letters
11. Fold at least four loads of laundry.
12. Take down Christmas tree. (As long as you count it sitting naked in the corner...actually getting the tree out of the house is on Mark's list, not mine).
13. Put away Christmas decorations. (Ahem...almost. Carting them down to the basement is, you know, on someone else's list. Someone else who, if he actually made a list, would have a ton of things crossed off for today and yesterday. He's amazing, that man of mine).
14. Trim Butter's udder. (Don't laugh. No, this was not on the list of things I thought I would do someday. Yes, we really do have to give her a haircut around her udder to keep milking clean. No, I didn't use the same clippers I use for the rest of the family. Yes, Mark totally wishes that he had taken the camera out to the barn).

So there you have it. Our Christmas break. I will desperately try to get blogging after church tomorrow, because I have some super-exciting news to share with you on our adoption blog!!!