Tumbling Trio

I was fixing supper this afternoon while Laura and Abigail were practicing a duet on the piano and Charlotte was turning pages for them.  Laura announced that whoever made a mistake had to turn a somersault.  I turned around to uproarious laughter to see 3 girls head under heels. Wonder what the chances are that the "mistakes" were on purpose...

Our littlest cowboy with his sister...

... on a real horse. 

They're all looking forward to some great times with this lady once she gets used to her new home.

Meet Cheyenne...

...the newest addition to Jordan Creek farm

Loyal...

We didn't expect to find a dog to fit in with us so quickly, but we didn't want to be without a watch dog and playmate too long so today I looked on Craigslist and found this dog's picture.  I sent an email to find out more about her, and it turned out that she belonged to some of our friends.  They had her for a sheep protection, but she ended up being a sheep herder and spent her days sending the sheep from one side of the pasture to the other and then back again.  So, we brought her home this afternoon and so far she seems like she will be a good dog for us.  She's pretty gentle, quite active, but not hyper, and, unlike our other Great Pyrenees, hasn't barked constantly (in fact, we've had her for about 4 hours and haven't heard her bark yet - we'll see what happens when the trains and coyotes start up tonight).  Her father was an Australian shepherd and her mother was half great Pyrenees and half Merremma/Anatolian.  So as long as she doesn't end up killing chickens for enjoyment (like Bridget) or doesn't have some other undesirable habit, it looks like we may have found a great addition to our critter population.  She'll not replace Autumn in our hearts, but hopefully she'll share just as special of a place as Autumn had.  She was named Loyal by her previous owners, and so far that name seems to have stuck.

Autumn...

I'm not sure I've ever written a post about Autumn.  She was our sweet Yellow Lab.  We had her for about 10 years and she made her way into all of our hearts.  She was one of those dogs that just became a part of the family and we were all very attached to her.  She was our kids' playmate, climbing toy and protector.  She was our "alarm" when a car drove into the driveway.  She was always happy to see us and would come wagging her tail when we would come out the door or arrive home from somewhere.  When we were home, she was just content to lay on the porch and listen to the sounds of the household inside.  We wished we could have her always.

Autumn was getting slow and arthritic.  She couldn't get around very quickly anymore.  It took her a bit to get up and start moving.  Wednesday morning, she was laying under the van and I didn't notice.  She would normally get up and move as soon as we started getting into the van.  But this time, she didn't make it and ended up getting run over.

There were lots of tears and sad, sad, people around here.  And now all we have are memories - but they are all good ones - of a loyal, devoted, and content friend of the family.

The Germans are invading!!!

One thing I don't worry too much about is everyone in the family sharing germs (unless, of course a stomach bug is going around and then I'm constantly reminding everyone not to drink out of someone else's cup).  It would drive me crazy to try to keep the little ones from drinking out of someone else's drink, etc.  It is not uncommon to hear someone say, "Taste for taste?" when having a treat.

This morning, however, Garrett apparently reached a new stage.  I overheard one of the girls tell him that 'No, I'm not going to get you more milk'  and then he came running.  "MOOOOOOMMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!"   Me: "Garrett, did you pour your milk out?"  (That stopped his crying, after all how could I know that he had poured out his milk without being told???)  Garrett:  "Um, yes..."   Me: "Why?"  Garrett (with the return of tears):  "Because Heidi drank out of my cup and she has Germans!!!"

This from the little boy who regularly greets our dog with a kiss...  Apparently dog germans aren't nearly as bad as girl germans...

Remembering 11 years ago...

The kids had realized what time it was and that it was close to the time that the first plane hit and were all gathering outside to have a little quiet ceremony of remembrance (although the younger ones weren't even here yet nor do most of them understand what the significance of the day really is) so I grabbed the camera for a quick picture. It is amazing how clearly the feelings of that day come back to memory.

Only two screws left over... hmmm... wonder where they were supposed to go!