We will rejoice with their return

Through this ordeal of the dogs missing and not knowing if they would return, I was reminded of God's love for us as sinners. I think I received a small smidgen of a taste of how HE feels when we go astray. We are crushed at the loss of a pet. How much more is God crushed by our rejection or loss when He created us?

A friend asked HAWK to come out this afternoon. As they walked across the yard, HAWK saw a dog in the farm pasture across from our neighborhood. He shouted and CASEY looked up. The boys sprinted to the fence, where they also saw Penny and called her over. They were able to separate the fencing enough to get the dogs through the barbed wire. THey walked the dogs home. Commander and I were at a TAX filing meeting and received the call that the dogs were home. What a relief. What a joyous feeling. I wanted to dance where I sat.

The boys bathed the dogs, fed them and then let them sleep on which ever bed they wanted.

What joy it must bring God to have us return to HIM. Heavenly host do sing and dance when we come home to GOD.

I thank you for your prayers. I'm still dancing and Praising God for His sweet blessing He pours upon us.

Our God is AWESOME!

They are missing !

Penny and Casey.

We have the darndest fence. We've had to keep the thing tied shut for years. Which is such a pain. Then at times it will work and you can't budge it. This past month it went back to being tied because Penny could pull it open enough for Casey to squeeze and then the pressure would pop it open for Penny. We have ran the dogs down about 5 times. Not counting the times after Casey learned to climb the woodpile and jump over. Penny almost learned that one too. We moved the woodpiles.
Monday during the storm, they vanished. Last report from the librarian in town, was that she heard somesay there were two dogs running loose along the road. "The road" would be Highway 7.  That was all she heard. No telling which direction or on what side of the road.

It is in the Lord's hands to bring them back or not. We have exhausted ourselves in walking neighborhoods until midnight. It hasn't stopped raining, so their sent trail for home is probably gone, and we have coyotes in the area - lots of them.
Please pray for our puppies that are out there. Please pray for the family - we miss them. The boys are devistated.

Thanks Chris C. for  making us some posters to put around town. We have the mailmen/women in the area searching, the police are looking, animal shelters are alerted. Your prayers are coveted.

Nice weather about killed me.

Yesterday was beautiful here in Northeastern Kansas. I started snapping branches from the mega kindling pile in the back garden. After a 3 foot high by four foot wall was snapped and stacked, I started on cutting the thicker branches with the circular saw.  This all began because Hubby mentioned a job opening in Kuwait. I needed the time to get my mind wrapped around the idea and become mentally prepared for anything in the near future.  Just like a Boy Scout - you must be prepared. Manual labor helps the process.
 Also, the fact that CASEY the schnauzer/terrier mix has decided that the dwindling woodpile was a great springboard over the fence to freedom. He must have cleared it 5 times yesterday before we finally caught him in the act and figured out where he was getting out. Next job was to move the firewood. THe stack has to be either so high that he can't get on top, or so low that it doesn't help him. Making sure the sides of the piles were steep without toe holds was another chore.

I was ready for bed at 7 last night.

The morton's neuroma seems to be getting better - I was able to work out in the yard, so I'd say it was better. I go in later this week for another shot in each foot of 4% alcohol.  The I'm tough, I can handle any shot you give me, disappeared the following day after the first round of shots into the balls of the feet. My right foot protested all weekend (during a trip to Oklahoma to recruit and athlete and attend a funeral) I was a hobbling mess. The left foot was fine except for the rash on top of the foot over the injection site - I'm wondering if the alcohol has a wheat gluten base.  I get another round of shots THursday and also next week. I'm hoping to be done with foot pain for at least 50 years. Yeah right. We'll see.

Track practice is going well. We will be done with 6:30 a.m. workouts this week. The kids are excited, I'm excited. Hawk has been going with me almost every morning and working out with the javelin throwers. We built him a javelin out of copper tubing with aluminum piping inside. It flys nicely.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week.

Boys and birds

The color in our backyard comes from the birds. I thought I'd introduce you to some of them.

This is October. He is a male Banty Rooster with lineage from Buff the Mini Fluer and R-Fal a black Japanese Banty.

Herogian wants to show this one at the fair.

 This is Tiny Might. The runt that we helped out of its shell this sping. Another Banty crossmix.

 This in Panda Bear our first Japanese banty. The one who has protected our birds for the last 3-4 years. Well, his time is up, the other roosters are out to get him. He and R-Fal and Quailee have to be put in the berry garden every morning to protect them from the other roosters. They are out to kill him for his position as leader is over. I'm the sucker that goes out every morning and catches him and the other two before they get attacked off the roost and transport them across the yard, feeds and waters them, and puts them back in the coop after all the others have settled. I know, real sucker here. He's done such a good job for us, I just can't see letting the others beat the tar out of him, or , he flies over the fence and Penny and Casey try to corner him. We will see how this all goes, berry picking will be in full swing by the weekend. He attacks us too many times, raising my bristles and he might become teriyaki chicken. Wouldn't that be fitting?

 Here is Waddles and his dame Quackers. She is not laying anymore eggs for me. Poo. I really enjoyed them. They might end up as dinner - freeloaders. But they are sooo cute.

 This is Hawk. A seabrite banty. The miracle about this bird is that T13(Hawk) named it and it hasn't died. The poor kid has had every bird or hamster of his naming kill-over or be killed.

Here is Buff at the rock. He is a Mini Fleur and the father of October. Herogian would like to show him at the County Fair, too. Beside him is "Lucky" the only Pekin duck to be with us now. I'm hoping she starts to lay eggs soon. In the foreground is PeeWee. PeeWee is totally stuck on himself as king of the coop. "NUT-JOB" as Herogian has named him. With him is Comet. one of the chickens now laying for us. She has a twin somewhere in the yard. Have you noticed how many of these birds are roosters?

These are the ladies that have about two more months before they start laying eggs. Six total that I'm waiting on. There is also another new rooster - the white one. A Buff cross with Comet. We thought it was female for some time, she/he looked pretty with the white feathers growing on the legs. The cackeling try at crowing occurred yesterday.

THis is what we have enjoyed over the last two weeks. The third duck was for Father's Day.

The boys have deemed summer to be sleep in time. You can see that Casey has other thoughts about that.

Casey has turned out to be a great alarm clock.

Yes, there is a boy under there, somewhere.

Have a great day.

What a day

The last 24 hours have been up and down. Literally. The boys and Commander spent about 8 hours at Worlds of Fun riding roller coasters. They arrived home after midnight. The boys were wound up. Four boys (Cam was staying the night) were telling me about their night all at once.  The excitement in their voices, faces, was refreshing. They headed off to bed with their heads still spending. Literally. (twice) T12 shows up in the bedroom at 3:30 am. 'Mom, my head won't get off the roller coaster, I can't sleep. Can I try sleeping here. He wanted to sleep in our bed. For a moment or two I think I let him. Sleep haze was heavy around us. THen I reaized there was no way I would get any sleep if he stayed where he lay. I sent him to his own bed instead of where they were camping out in the game room. He had forgot he had his own bed to sleep in.
The next morning I got up to take care of the animals and then get ready for church. I planned to leave all the men in the house sleeping. They needed it before they leave for camp. The dogs followed me out the check on the birds. Izzy is really interested with the chickens. She must have jumped against the fence and nocked the hook off, for the gate leaned enough for her to squeeze through (she's so thin - Just ribbing Alyssa) As I lean over to collect eggs, I hear a scream behind me and enough to know that something isn't right in the coop. I turn around to find Izzy has pinned Panda Bear - the mean ole rooster to the floor. I had to twist Izzy's collar enough to get her to let go. I didn't want to grab her mouth. That's words from experience.She let go and Panda went out the door. I got her out of the run. That was enough trouble with the gate. I bought a metal gate this afternoon and installed it. It looks a lot better, locks better, too.
Heck, if we are going to change the gate then we should change the fence, right? Well we decided the birds had too much of the back yard. We moved the fence from west to east at one corner and turned it north to the back fence. They now have the east half of the back yard, THe archery range is in the middle and the garden is still on the west side.  The boys were happy. They have been shooting bb's, airsoft, throwing knife practice and sling shot practice in the back. Now they have more space.
We dropped Cam and t12 off at camp. All the way up there and back I worked on writing another VBS program.  It was such a fast trip, since I was searching HIS word for the right stories. It will be fun to lay out another program.
This one is called A.S.A.P (2).    I'll tell you more later.

Have a great week.

Pictures of stuff

Here is Izzy and Casey. They are finally getting along. Ony took about 32 hours. Young Family  I'm going to fatten up your dog. She is way toooooooo skinny. Just thought I'd let you know. I'm not giving her the raw hides either, they cause urine infections around this house, so we won't take the chance. She is doing great. She sits and stares at the birds (chickens and ducks) until it is too hot to be out side in a fur coat. Then she and Penny go after the lightening bugs after dark. Hilarious.

 T12 is taking after his MUM. How Awesome? Killed the snake and chopped its head off, then sliced it open to check out the organs and what it ate for its last meal. Too bad I was at work for this one.  That's the snake head in his right hand.

 T12 again, this time in Casey's kennel. This is one of the smaller pet taxi's for small dogs and cats. Houdini. Thought about leaving him in there. That way he'd at least stay out of trouble for the day.  Twelve year olds are worse than 2 year olds - they know better.

Commander and the boys plus 2 friends are off for  World's of Fun this afternoon. With their Homeschool I.D. School Cards we made a few months ago, they should be allowed in at a cheaper price tonight. We will see. This is the first night that W.of.F. is open until Midnight. You know how long the boys want to be there - midnight.
Tomorrow after church we will be taking two of these boys to Mission Lake Church Camp for a week. They are going to start the week off tired. Thank goodness Chris.C.  gets to put up with them.

Safety alert dog

Two post before this one tells you about T11 getting busted for playing his IPOD way past bedtime. You might want to read the story real quick just to know the background.

Today, we ended up on the internet looking at pictures of puppies - miniature schnauzer puppies to be exact. T11 really wants to have another one in the house. He wants it to be his. Don't blame him, I'd like to have one too, but this will be his lesson to learn in life.
Commander told him to make a Pro and Con list of having a dog. I tried to help him be realistic. Cute and snuggly really don't strengthen the PRO list. T11 was trying to get across that barking would be a good thing. I agreed that it would be good to have a dog downstairs with him, since he is the only one that sleeps in the lower room. I said we could put it down as a safety alert to warn him of danger.
T11 agreed - "Yeah, that would work, the dog could say,' Mom's hiding in the closet, turn off your IPOD'." He and I started laughing. Brothers were looking at us like we are nuts, so we had to explain the story to them. Then we were all rolling, and had to call Commander to get him in on the joke.

We wouldn't  have so much fun together in the middle of the day if they weren't homeschooled. Laughter is good medicine for schoolwork.
If you have any odds and end jobs T11 can do to make a little money, he'd like to do it. He pointed out that it would take him over 70 weeks to save enough money from his job chart. I didn't want to burst his bubble and remind him that there are only 52 weeks in a year.  I was pleased that he figured up how many weeks it would take him to save. At first he had Herogian and T13 offering to split the cost. I think he is on his own now.

busy day, busy week planned

I'm not scheduled to work at the store until next Thursday. Thank goodness for that! Herogian just told me I needed to sit down and watch a movie with him, I was working too much for a Saturday. I work from son up until son down and then some. Don't all mothers?

The drywall is up. The mudding is in stages of either 1 or 2 coats. I did receive a nice tip today from a friend who paints professionally. He told me to prime after the second coat of mud. That way if there are any dings in the drywall they show up better and I'll be able to fill them in while doing the third coat of mud. Excellent. Tonight might finish the second coat of mud on the two large walls. Tomorrow I can then sand and paint, and apply the second coat to the rest of the seams. I'm really pushing to have the room painted and ceiling in place before Christmas. The carpet should come the following week. I used a plastic corner bead in the room and like how it finished. I now know what to do with the corner edge in the kitchen, family room, and the stairway. You know the beaten up edges that flake everytime a hand grabs hold of them. Or, as in our case, everytime the boys climb the walls and brace themselves in the doorways.

I opened the box of ceiling tile from Ceilume. I can't wait to hang it. I'm amazed at how thin and light the panels are. Check them out if you are wanting to change the look of your ceiling. You can nail them to the ceiling or use them as drop panels. http://www.ceilume.com/ .

 Here we are at the point of starting Christmas break and I'm looking forward to spending time planning out a couple of new subjects for the boys. Don't tell them. We will be starting some SAT prep. It only takes a few minutes a day, but you know boys, they don't like anything added to their schedules.  We will also spend some time improving our reading speed and comprehension. Herogian is only excited about it if it will get him through history faster.

Penny is getting to be a challenge. Especially for T13. He has lost his dinner twice in the last week. "I only turned away for a moment." That's all it takes for Penny to eat your lasagna. It is sure different having a big dog in the house.

Hope you have a great week.  Keep your eyes on your food.