need a third parent

Okay, these schedules are getting a bit ridiculous. Hubby last night decided we need a third parent in our family. With boy scouts camping on the 13-14th of next month, track decathalon on the 12-13th, track cleaning project on the 14th, soccer tournament on 13-15th, the cc course needing mowed every weekend. We are stretched a bit thin, to the point it is ridiculous.  Will have to wait and see which way the chips fall.

Last night I had this awesome dream about high jumping again. I kept clearing the bar, they raise it up two inches, and I'd wait for some people to get out of the way then jump again. Each time they raised the bar, 5, 5-2, 5-4, the number of people I had to wait on, to move out of the way, kept increasing. By the time the bar was at 5-8, it was like a cross country meet in front of me. Weird how thoughts get tangled. I never had a chance to jump at that last height. But, boy, did that ever give me the bug to want to try jumping again.

At the end of practice I asked Karoline if I could borrow her spikes and the 'J -heel' she wears. I took a couple of jumps at probably 4-11 - to maybe 5- 1.  It felt great up to the point of take off, and then gravity grabbed hold of the backside and set my butt right down on the bungee bar. Never felt so stuck to the ground in my life. It was fun though. Probably ruined my reputation as a high jump coach! Thanks Karoline for letting me try.

recruiting Friday, track meet Saturday. Doing a lot of driving. Travel mercy prayers please. Praying for no panic type attacks.  I keep telling myself "I love to drive".

Have a great weekend.

Track meet traveling went okay

The traveling to the meet and back went okay today. Only had one small episode of panic attack if that's what it might be. Will be looking into it more.  I'm so thankful Commander went with me. We had a lot of fun being at the meet together. He tried to just sit in the shade all day while I went back and forth from field events, but his face says it all - he's red.

J.J. threw the javelin once, then had to rush back down the road to the track to do the High Hurdles and warm up for the Pole Vault (which he hasn't done at all this year).   I made it to the Pole Vault in time to see him clear 12'6" which is good for his first time. He is a Decathlete so he doesn't specialize in one event, he has to learn them all. His javelin throw was 1 meter short of making finals. That was a bummer, if he could have thrown his three throws, there was a definite chance that he would have placed.

S.M. our long jumper went a foot farther today jumping off his non-dominant foot then he jumped indoor. Being trained as a triple jumper allowed him to make the jump when he saw that his steps were off.

K.B. our female high jumper and 800 runner gained points in each event. I think she lowered her time in the 800 with her teammate "NINJA".

We had a good showing on the track in the distant events, points in the 10,000 and 5000 meter runs. One of  our sprinters ran his first ever open 200 meters (open means it wasn't part of a relay).

Can't wait to train this week and get to another meet next weekend.

Have a great weekend.
Remember: the pain of training is less than the pain of being out of shape.

Consistent ly weird

Okay, I was going to say how sweet my husband is while I seem to get weirder every year. He just told me I'm not, I've always been weird. I'm consistent, he says. Thanks, Sweetheart.

Tomorrow, we have a track meet about 1 hour away from home. The head coach informed me yesterday that I'm driving the van with as many as it will hold, and then he will come down later with three long distant runners, so they don't have to wait around all morning. Real reason, he can send them home in the van,  make a mad dash from the meet straight to his house, and cut an hour out of his trip home by not having to come back to campus.

I'm okay with having to drive, as I sit here typing this. I was okay with driving the boys to Power Play and then to Mission Lake Camp last weekend - before we went. For some reason during the driving, I experienced either panic type attacks or blood sugar spikes. I have no idea what was going on. I pulled off at one point to use the glucometer and was shaking so bad I couldn't get the pricking needle in place. I drank some coke while trying to calm down and eventually got back on the road in a calmer state. I've never had it repeat, but it did on the way to camp. Too many times to be comfortable. Felt like I was going to hyperventilate when passing a slow car. Then watching the train pass in front of us made me nauseous.

SO - The whole point of this is that Commander is giving up his Saturday to accompany me to the track meet and be beside me in the van, in case I flip out again. I think he is wonderful to do this. I would tell myself to suck it up and get your panties out of a wad.

If you wouldn't mind a travel mercy prayer, I'd appreciate it. I'll be doing more driving this spring than I care to do.

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.

productive day

A great start to the Spring Break week. Commander helped me mow the cross-country course at campus today. He rode the mower and I led the way around the course picking up limbs and broken branches. Thank you, honey, for helping me.

I then had the chance to tackle the bunk bed in HAWK's room. I've been wanting to take the top bunk off for sometime now. It took a while to get Hawk to go along with the idea. The wood from the bunk just needed to be cut down into a single with room underneath the mattress for two rolling storage units.  I'd do pictures, but for some reason after the last computer crash, the computer doesn't want to read the camera when plugged in.

With taking the bunk out, it freed up two twin mattresses. Commander and I need a new king size, since the hand-me-down has started coming apart at the seams. I squeezed the two mattresses into the platform frame, filled the  extra length with folded quilts and put the memory foam mattress over the top. It feels great!. Now we just have to get the old mattress to the trash. Anyone have any recycling ideas for a mattress?

Tomorrow, our youth director and I will be taking about 8 kids to PowerPlay for the afternoon. Afterwards we will drive them up to church camp (1 1/2 hours away) for the night. THey will then be ready to help clean the building. After committing to the trip, I remembered that the college kids are back in school - they had spring break last week, thus, we have practice. Then after Thursday's meet, we also have a "Consequence" meeting with one of the athletes. I'll be ready to hit the bed Monday night.

Still praying for Commander's job to extend for another year. They didn't look at his packet this past week, so we are still waiting to hear. Drop dead date is 26th.  I really enjoy having him at home. He is a big help with the boys and their activities. He likes doing his TKD class and helping out at church more. I'm not looking forward to him traveling again.  Your prayers are coveted.

Praising God with the Stars and Whales

This is awesome. It gives you chills. I hope you will take the time to listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWKm-LZWm4&feature=player_embedded