Nat'l Trails Day

Every year, my friend Irene, who is a forest ranger, organizes a fantastic time for the kids to celebrate National Trails Day. (Did you know there is such a thing? It's in June, the 2nd or 3rd...it's not ever preprinted on any calendar I've seen, but when you live in a National Forest and a bunch of your friends are rangers, you know these things).
















They have several activity stations set up...Anna's favorite was planting her very own pansy, (which before the summer was out was dug up by Sophie, but that's besides the point).

















Our friend Katie was dressed up as the "Dandelion Queen," and taught the kids all about how dandelions are survivors, let them try some dandelion honey, and made a felt dandelion! One of the other stations was for rock decorating, using colored wires and beads. They turned out quite nicely, and we hid them till Father's Day!

















After all of the activities, we had a picnic by the river with all our friends. Anna and Jacob both needed to catch their second wind, but then they were ready to throw rocks in the river along with Andrew!

Softball season...

I may have blogged some on softball before (that's one of the dangers of a 3-month hiatus from blogging pictures-you totally forget what you've done). But it's a fun 3-week season for all of us, despite the late nights which make for crabby kids.


Mark is on the field...




















The boys are racing here and there, catching bugs and building forts with their friends, while I attempt to keep them in view (Jacob's red coat=good, Andrew's tan coat=bad).





















Anna generally hangs out on the bleachers with me. Unless, of course, Tommy happens to be there. In which case, mommy is as good as chopped liver, and what would make me think Anna might want me to even sit by her? Nooooooo...she has to sit by Tommy all by herself. It's fine if Dakota is there. But should Dakota leave and mommy try to sit there? No way.
















She's happy with it being just her and Tommy! And watching the softball game, of course.

And he's off

Half-naked farmer boy runs away from his mother so that she can't take pictures of him. Again.

It's a Date

I don't remember where they were headed...maybe just out scouting our back "yard," but Anna was sure excited to be headed out with her Daddy!

Friday Funnies

Just a little political ha-ha:

"The mightiest of weapons is truth. And everyone
knows you're not permitted to enter a
Government building with a weapon"

The Covert Comic

Water, water, everywhere...

...and now a drop to drink!

Our water pump burned out on Saturday night. After spending most of the night trying to swap out parts from other pumps in the virtual collection of them in our basement, it was still not functioning. Which is highly ironic. Because on Friday night, Mark was up most of the night finishing the shower and toilet in the new apartment so that our VBS team that would be staying there could have running water, a shower, and flushing toilet.

By Sunday night, we had a new pump and had it installed by midnight or so. (Please note that I'm using the term "we" here quite loosely. As in "Mark did all the work while Wendy sat at the desk in the basement using Mark's computer for facebook, offering encouragement when applicable." Yeah...we). Despite many prayers, the new pump wasn't the fix-all we were hoping for.

New diagnosis? Bad check valve. After VBS on Monday, we met Mark halfway on his lunch hour to get new check valve, which Ben (Papa) and Matt (one of the VBS team members) worked on all day, and Mark and Matt worked on late into the night. Still not functioning.

New diagnosis? Pressure tank bladder is collapsed. Tuesday night, we (used appropriately here, as in "Mark and Wendy travelled together") went to Lowe's and got a new pressure tank. Thankfully Rebecca had come to hang out for a few days, so she stayed home with the kiddos. Arrived home about 1 a.m...keep in mind that Lowe's is 100 miles from our house, and we did stop at my mom's for showers.

Wednesday afternoon, the discovery is made that the location of the valves and fittings on the new tank will require rearranging all of the piping. After reworking it all and connecting everything, it was still acting the same way. Acting badly. Matt and Mark decide to try and isolate the few remaining parts that could still be bad by removing them one at a time to see which one is the culprit. Bingo! 11:26 p.m. Wednesday night, we are back among the privileged who have running water. A privilege I don't take for granted.

And this last little part that was removed? It doesn't really matter to me what it's called or what it's job is supposed to me. I wish I could attempt to keep up with my plumbing vocabulary, which may have deceived you into thinking that I have an inkling of what I'm talking about. But I really don't. It's just been the topic of conversation around here for, oh, say five days now. And it really doesn't concern me. Because my dishwasher is humming along nicely at this moment, and I know that a hot shower will be waiting for me in the morning, and that my kids can stop smelling perpetually of baby wipes and actually get clean. Thank you, Lord!!!

Cracking me Up

It's been a barrel of laughs around here today.

This morning, Andrew was wearing a plastic bead necklace of Anna's. (At least it was orange and matched his t-shirt, right)?
Jacob walks up to him and says,

"Andrew, that's a girl's necklace. If anyone else were here visiting our house right now, they would say to you 'Oh what a nice little girl you are.' "

(Is it wrong of me to find that positively hysterical)?

Later, the boys were having a common conversation about how old Andrew would be when Jacob is a particular age, and vice versa.

Andrew pulled me into the conversation.

"Mom, when I'm 18, how old will Jacob be?"
"Well, he's two years younger than you, so how old would that be?"
Silence.
"What, do you want me to solve that?"
"Yes, actually, I do."

By this time, Jacob has seemingly turned his attention elsewhere.
Andrew stalls solving the problem.

"Why was I two when Jacob was born?"
"Well, we thought you were such a wonderful little boy, and you had been such a wonderful baby, that we thought we would like to have another baby as wonderful as you."
"Is that for real?"
"Yes, that's for real."
Jacob pipes up, apparently not tuned out: "That's when it was time for me to pop out!"

After our laughter, Andrew did solve the problem...not to worry.

Sobering

I met a sweet, sorrowful woman yesterday.

Her name is Valerie, and I happened upon her as headed up to Kindra's to pick up some fencing for our new goats. Mark was home early again to work on the pen, and the kids and I were just heading up quick after leaving the library, making better time than I expected.

Valerie had a flat tire, which I didn't know until after I had stopped just ahead of her truck to see what kind of help she needed. I pulled over as far as I could on the dangerous highway curve, and walked back to talk with her. It was more than I expected, more than I would have felt prepared for.

"I have a flat tire," she wailed. "My husband just died Saturday, and I don't know how to change a flat tire!" She fell into my arms, sobbing, and I cried right along with her.

I hugged her until she had composed herself, traffic flying by us on the highway. She explained that she was on the way to the airport, and that she had friends meeting her in Girdwood to drive her the rest of the way. But in her deep anguish, where even taking a step or making a phone call is too much to bear, she was beyond coping with being stranded on the highway.

"...Mourn with those who mourn."

I assured that we could get her back on the road, turned and went back to where I had cell service so that I could call Mark to come change her tire, and then went back to wait with her. By the time I got there (after a potty stop for Anna), two gentlemen had stopped and had her tire nearly finished.

While she waited, she told me her story.

They had been vacationing here...driven their RV up for Florida. They had taken the ferry to Kodiak Island, and on the trip back to Seward, he dropped dead from a heart attack. So young. So sudden. She had to have been just in her 50's. And now she was trying to obtain a death certificate and arrange for his body to be flown home.

There are no words to describe what emotions coursed through me as I watched her struggle to manage her sorrow with her need to "keep it together" just to get herself home. It was exquisitely painful. I told her that I was a Christian, and would she mind if I prayed for her? She clung to me once again as I cried out to God on her behalf, begging Him to make Himself real and known to her, to be her great Comforter and Refuge.

We exchanged phone numbers, I jotted down her address, and then followed her in her truck on my way towards Kindra's. Once more she stopped. She had been juggling both her phone and her husband's, and now she couldn't find his. She searched. I prayed. She cried. And then she found it! "Thank you, Jesus!" She was on her way.

I called her anxious friend again, who would be meeting her, to let them know she had indeed left and at what time to expect her.

You would think that would be the end. A chance encounter, a complete coincidence. Moving on.

But it isn't. My God is not a God of coincidences. He's a God of divine appointments. And I learned at least as much from Valerie as she gained in help from me. You just never know. Be at peace with your loved ones. Make the most of every opportunity. Be ready.

In the works...

For any concerned about our current farm situation:

Mark is home now, after taking half a day off work (salary pay has its benefits) to do a monumentally important task.


He's out building a buck pen as far from the house as possible without putting the boys (goat boys, that is), out on the highway!


I will post pics of them eventually. For explanation on why we have two boys, read here. It would be easier to just refer to the goat boys as bucks, but it's not technically true. I mentioned that their names are Jingles and Wepeat. Wepeat has already been renamed.

Stinky Pete.

Fits him perfectly.

Its a malodorous life

It seems we are olfactorily challenged in the area of our van lately.

A few weeks ago we had an unfortunate incident involving the carpet in the back of the van and diesel additive. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but needless to say, the fumes were both unbearable and dangerous. We had to take the van to the "Auto Spa" (ha ha...but that's literally the businss name) to see if they could get it out. After a long drive with all the windows all the way down, we arrived just in time to get the van in and leave with one of their rentals. Poor April was along for all this...it will be a wonder if she ever wants to come back.

Regrettably, they could do nothing to get the smell out, and we resorted to cutting out the carpet in the back. It helped a great deal, but there was still some on the back of the seat (we have a Honda Odyssey, which is losing value at a rapid rate they way things have going for it, but the back bench seat actually folds into the floor...and when it did, it apparently caused the bottle of diesel additive to leak. So, it wasn't just in the carpet, but on the seat-back also). Fortunately they didn't charge us for the failed cleaning.

After the carpet cutting, it was at least bearable, and this weekend I had planned to scrub the seat with baking soda and Pine-Sol (a treatment suggestion I found online).

Fast forward to finding a buck for sale in Wasilla. And needing to pick him up on a weekend during which Mark wasn't able to just take off for 6 hours, as we're desperately needing to finish the downstairs apt. for our VBS team to stay in. Combine that with the fact that Wendy doesn't drive vehicles connected to trailers, and we've got an issue on our hands. (I'm okay driving with a trailer as long as the vehicle is already pointed in the right direction...but if there's a remote chance that said vehicle and trailer will need to be turned around, well, I'm not your girl).

Goat bucks stink. We knew this. They have some disgusting habits, which as distasteful as they are, are a necessary evil if one needs to breed goats. (Let's just say that in the goat-world, buck urine is a powerful and attractive cologne, so they take it upon themselves to spray it liberally all over themselves). We knew that the buck would need to be housed separately, because he, well, stinks.

What we weren't quite prepared for is the sheer tenacity in which the odor clings to everything within breathing distance. For those of you who know the layout of our farm, he is in the barn, and we can smell him from our front door. You know something stinks badly when it stinks too much to live in the barn.

That said, you might be able to imagine what it did to our van over the course of a 3 hour drive. We duct-taped a plastic sheet behind the back seat so that he was in a semi-enclosed space, but that wasn't enough. Even my hair smelled like buck when we got home.

We have pulled out everything from the van, literally everything. I spent the day yesterday rubbing every upholstered surface with baking soda, then scrubbing it in with a vinegar and Pine-Sol mix, then after letting it sit, shop-vaccing it out. The carseats all had to be entirely dismantled, seating pads washed, plastic parts scrubbed, and then put back together. We have had an ionizer running out in the van for the past 12 hours.

I still need to vacuum everything again once it's completely dry, to get the rest of baking soda out. And I might re-shampoo the back carpet (what's left of it) and the back of the bench seat, since it was obviously the strongest back where he was transported in the kennel.

But there is good news in all this. It's really not a bad thing for children's carseats to be dismantled and cleaned every couple of years (just being honest here). It's not a bad thing for the upholstery in a vehicle to be scrubbed out with a little brush. The van looks just fabulous. And the smell is slowly but surely returning to normal. And the diesel smell? Victory over that one!

Thanks for listening to all this malodorous drivel. It's been therapy for me. Much-needed, I might add.

...

I'm running out of titles for posts that say I'm too busy to post. Any clever ideas?

I have two solid months worth of pictures in Picasa waiting to be blogged. And over 1200 pictures waiting on my camera to be loaded into Picasa. Either we're too busy or I take too many pictures, or both.

I will tell you that our camping trip was fantastic! We had a great time, Andrew thoroughly enjoyed his birthday, and the weather was even great for half of the weekend.

And on the homestead front, we've found a buck! On Saturday, the kids and I will drive up to Wasilla to pick up the most affordable buck ever, along with his friend Jingles. (Being herd animals, you always have to have at least two goats together. With only two does, eventually someone would be by themselves. Hence the addition of Jingles, a wether (neturered buck). So we're doubling our goat population this weekend! Just this past week, I've started to become concerned about Jacob's speech, as his /r/ is still nowhere to be found. And in case you think I should have started a new paragraph for this digression, I just have to say that the addition of this buck will in no way help Jacob's speech. Why? The buck's name is "Wepeat." LOL!

At any rate, I'm also really on a paperchasing push for the adoption, so that's taking my blogging time. Though I tell you what, I would love to be at least posting pics here, since there really aren't any over there. Soon.

Sophie is doing great...I have a love/hate relationship with her. Right at this moment, I love her. She's been out barking intermittently for a good hour now, and the neighbor just said today that he has fresh bear scat on his property. We had a moose and a calf hanging around for a while, which got a little annoying (there's really no way to train the dog to bark at some strange animals but not others). But she only barks if something's out there...the goats really should show a little more appreciation for that dog.

And oh, we have more chickens. Butchering date is Aug. 8th if you want to come over. Tricia will be here with her camera. Should be fun.

And VBS is in two weeks. Even though we have a team coming to run it, it still takes a good deal of prep work for me.

With all that's on my list, I should be getting to bed. I think Sophie's calming down...I really need to get the baby monitor on out there again.

More of Anna's Birthday

Many special friends and family members came to celebrate with Anna!
















The weather was gorgeous for a picnic on the deck...even if it was actually a bit too hot! The only mishap of the day was that while Andrew was playing with balloons, the glass door of the entertainment center came open, and it fell off and broke when Andrew's foot connected with it. His toe was pretty sore but not broken...Melanie was sweet to sit and read with him while he recuperated!
















Just a darling birthday girl!
















Anna received so many wonderful gifts, and she was such fun to watch as she opened them! If I had known she would react so excitedly to her new doll, I would have had the video running! (3 bottom right corner pictures).

















And then, of course, came the cake. The "I'm the 3rd child, so mom doesn't care if it looks like it's been frosted with Pepto Bismol and she uses ugly blue trim because that's what she has on hand from a boy's baby shower instead of making something pretty to trim it with" cake. Anna was okay with, really, and it tasted just the same!

On the move...

The kids and I just got back from swimming with Mark at the pool in town (twice a week on his lunch hour we take turns swimming with the kids while the other swims laps), and we're grabbing a quick lunch before heading up to do a quick Costco trip in Anchorage.

To catch up with our life at least a little bit, from the past week, you can head over to see April's Alaska pictures!

Also, my sister Tricia has alot of pics of my kids from a few weeks ago...just keep scrolling down, though her work stuff is pretty interesting, too!

The big focus of our time and mental energy over the past week and a half is over on our adoption blog. Rare that I have 3 posts within days of each other, but that's they way it's been going!

Tomorrow, our firstborn turns 7 years old! I can hardly believe we're old enough to have a 7 yr. old. We're heading out camping for the weekend to celebrate, and won't return till Sunday afternoon.

In between now and Saturday, we may actually be squeezing in the rest of our home study interviews! (Judy will be heading down to Homer, and may be able to coordinate stopping here on her way down and catching up with us where we're camping on her way home. Since she's willing to continue the process and all). Please be praying that they go well!

And one totally unrelated, unimportant, though highly amusing note:
Our neighbors' 12-yr.-old granddaughter is staying with them right now. The other day she was over here, and saw Abby for the first time. She gave me a laugh that has sustained me over a few serious days around here:

"Oh, what a cute dog. She's really short though. I bet if she had longer legs, she'd be taller."

She's Arrived!

April has arrived safe and sound! Other than a slight luggage mishap, making them the proud new owners of a bright red suitcase compliments of Delta airlines, all has gone well! I can't even describe how good it is to have her here! I was going to download the pic she took of us at the airport, but let's just say that perhaps I should have taken the picture, purely based on arm length factors. :)

As of 1 a.m., she's sound asleep in Anna's room (which has been vacated by Anna for the night), and hopefully she'll be able to catch up on the major chunk of sleep she missed in getting here!