On to 2012...

Feeling so blessed, content and thankful this last day of 2011.

A "new" critter to ride

Saturday, the kids went out to help Todd cut and split wood and to spend some time with the horse, Beauty.  When they came in for lunch, they were excitedly telling me that their Dad had told them that they could probably ride Blueberry (the donkey) by springtime.  I wasn't too worried - spring was a long way away.  I told them they wouldn't be riding her without working with her and having her carry bags of feed on her back, and on and on and on... I really didn't think there would be much chance of them ever getting on her back.  I figured she would balk the first time they tried to put anything on her...  Well, I was wrong.  I looked out the window after lunch, and there they were, leading her around the yard with a blanket and big chunk of wood on her back.  They worked and worked with her and she followed them around like a puppy dog.  Oh well, at least I had until spring before I have to worry about them wanting to ride her, I thought.  I really wasn't excited at all about them riding her.  She is pretty tame and calm, and the kids have been leaning across her and "almost" getting on her back for quite a while now, but we have no idea what kind of training or breaking in she has had.

Anyway, I headed out to Wal-mart and pretty soon the phone rang.  It was Todd, letting me know that Laura had been up on the donkey's back for about 1/2 hour... I asked him what had happened to the "wait until spring..."  He just laughed.

When I got home, they of course were all clamoring to tell me all about it.  "Well, we just put Emily on her first because we figured we could grab her off if the donkey started to run away."  "We put the horse's bit in her mouth - I don't think it fits her very well, it kept falling out..."  "She did fine, she only  minded right at first and then we could lead her all over with no problem..."   And they wonder why my hair is turning grey!

Todd's midlife crisis vehicle

We took a quick trip down to Alabama Thursday night through Friday (or maybe it was technically Saturday morning before we got home.)  We found a van on Craigslist down there and went and picked it up.  The highlight of our trip was stopping at Alda and Ann's on our way down.  We stayed overnight Thursday and left after breakfast.  Yesterday, Garrett was telling me he wanted to go back to Ann and Alda's house! :)

I think we'll be happy with our new to us van - or bus as the kids like to call it.  One night, recently, I sat down at the computer and there were several tabs open to some 15 passenger school buses that were for sale.   I guess they were thinking it would be fun to tool around town in one of those.  Or maybe they were just hoping for a seat to themselves.  Anyway, we didn't end up getting a school bus, but the van we got is a 15 passenger, so they should all have plenty of room!  We were planning to get another 12 passenger, but this one was just too good to pass up.

We heard from the Doctor about Heidi's ear

The doctor was really happy with what he could see on the CT scan - which was nothing.  Whatever this is was too small for the CT scan to pick up.  If she didn't have hearing loss, he probably wouldn't go any farther.  Because she does have hearing loss, he is going to go in and lift up her ear drum to see if he can see what is going on under it.  There are several different possible scenarios.  The bones in her ear could be fusing together - in which case they will give her a hearing aid and the option of having surgery after she is 18.  The surgery can cause permanent deafness, so he wants her to be able to make the decision herself when she is old enough to understand the possible danger of it.  She could be missing a bone - in which case, there is nothing that can be done.  She could have a small aneurysm - if this is the case, he will refer her to an neurologist - (he is not expecting that it is an aneurysm)

So, we don't really know anything more than what we did know, except that he was glad for what wasn't evident on the CT scan.

Exploratory surgery will be scheduled some time after the first of the year, and can take from 10 minutes to 2 hours...

Overheard

Lincoln: What is the weather?

Garrett:  I checked the weather for you

Lincoln: What is it?

Garrett: It's 10 minutes

Country Roads

We took a little country drive tonight.  Have you ever noticed that in the country it is Dark?  And sometimes the roads turn into cow paths, or just end in a field.  You might get a little warning that the bridge is out... or you may not.  You may end up on a rutty, bumpy, muddy road and then all of a sudden there is no more road.  Just so you don't get nervous about our trip, the only eventful thing that happened was that we had to back up down the road for a while before we could turn around and find a different road.

The drive we took was for a purpose.  Because every child needs a puppy, right?  To remember our trip to pick her up, her name is Bridget (Bridge Out).  We thought it was a slightly better name than the runner up - Dangerous Road.

From the sounds of the yipping right before I went out to take this picture and from the tongue licking the nose, I am pretty sure she had just gotten put in her place by one of the cats.

Critters in the grain bin

Speaking of charging animals (Mom, you might want to skip this post)

We've been "renting" a bull for a couple of months from a farmer near Arthur.  We rented this same bull last year, and he was pretty gentle and easy to have around.  This year he is a little older and a little more grumpy.  Thanksgiving weekend, when the men and kids were cutting wood, they took Clint & Dawn's Suburban into the pasture and the bull grumbled and pawed and bellowed and tried to start a fight with the Suburban, so we got him fenced off in a different pasture to keep him from ramming into anyone.  He behaved pretty well then, but still grumbled and pawed a bit at all the commotion going on in "his" pasture.

I probably shouldn't put this on here, but since it all turned out OK I guess I will.  I was gone for a little while one day last week and left some of the kids home.  The older girls do pretty well taking care of things here and Todd is only 5 minutes away so if they need something they can call him and he can be home in a jiffy.  Anyway, here is a copy of their chat with Todd after they came back in the house from a little excitement.

2:27 PM the kids: We just looked out the window and noticed that the gate was wide open, Blueberry (the donkey) and Beauty (the pony) were in the yard, and the bull was about 5 feet from the gate (in the yard).

2:28 PM 

Todd: did you get them in?

  

Do I need to come home?

2:29 PM the kids: Charlotte, Abigail and I (Laura), went out there armed with a shoe and chunk of wood (Charlotte), a broom (Abigail), and an ax for me.

I think they know now to call their dad BEFORE they head out with their weapons of choice, but it must have made quite a picture...

Our 70+ year old neighbor and some of his friends asked if they could come bow hunt on our land.  We warned him about the bull and he said he'd keep an eye out.  He called later and told us the bull had chased him up a tree...

So, tomorrow the bull goes back home!  Maybe we can figure out how to increase our herd without a bull next year!

(Lincoln's explanation of why bulls are so grumpy - They never sleep."

New critter for the porch

Lincoln: "Mommy, an elephant would make a great pet!!!"
Mommy: "Really? Why?"
Lincoln: "Because if a lion or tiger comes near our house and an elephant hears it he will make a loud noise and put up his ears and CHARGE!!!!"

Guess it's time to start keeping our eyes open for an elephant.  The lion and tiger population needs something to keep it in check around here.

Those storms are out to getcha

During our thunder and lightning storm some of the kids were playing out on the porch and running around the house.  Later, Heidi was complaining of her tummy hurting.  I asked her if she was scared.  She burst into tears and said, "I don't know if I was hit by lightning!!!"  "Um, are you tingly all over?" "No." "Do you hurt?" "No." "Did you feel like you touched an electric fence?" "No." "Why do you think you were struck by lightening?" Apparently she was afraid that if she was outside and there was lightning it would find her and ZAP!  So I told her she should go soak in the bathtub and relax and it might help her tummy feel better.  "But Mommy, you told me one time that it wasn't safe to take a bath during a storm!!!!"  So we rocked, snuggled in a cozy blanket instead...

No news on Heidi until early next week.

We got home this evening and discovered that we had missed the doctor's phone call at 7:00 P.M.  Unfortunately he didn't call the cell number...  In his message he said "Nothing to be too excited about, but we need to talk about what we need to do." So we are taking that as good news.  Anyway, he will be gone until early next week so we'll have to wait for results and plans until then.

Heidi non-update

For those of you coming here to see if there is an update on Heidi, there isn't.  We haven't heard from the doctor since her CT scan last Tuesday.  We're planning to call in the morning to see if they know anything.

Sweet Dreams...

For some reason, the sense of responsibility is strongest when I go look in on our sleeping children before heading to bed.  So sweet, so innocent, so precious, these little and not so little people who have been entrusted to us.  I love them all so much!

Ummm... What kind of nuts did you put in these?

I learned something tonight that I should have probably learned a long time ago. When making cookies, turn off the mixer before you put the egg in, just in case the egg shell slips from your fingers and is quickly broken into hundreds of pieces by the beaters... (I should have listened to you, Mom, and broken the eggs into a separate dish before putting them in the mixing bowl :) )

Is this an emergency?

We learned something Friday evening. If a cell phone has been deactivated, it really shouldn't be used for a toy. Because... if you dial 911 you really do get 911.

The kids had our old cell phone along with them in the van. They have been playing with it for several days. They set the alarm, and when it rings, they "answer" it. I didn't think anything of it when I heard them talking about calling 911. After all, the phone had been deactivated over a year ago. Then I heard them saying, "Hello, Emergency." and then they said it again and then it clicked. They were imitating what they had heard. I grabbed the phone from them and said, "Hello?" and I heard, "This is 911, can I help you?" "Oh, I am SO sorry, my kids were playing with our old phone and dialed 911. Everything is fine, there are no problems..." "Ma'am, you need to remove the batteries from your old phones, even if you de-activate them." "What is your name? What is your location?" Nobody came to check us out, but our lesson was learned. The batteries are out of our old cell phones.

Happy 11th Birthday, Sweet Charlotte!!

Happy Birthday to our dear Charlotte.  I can't believe you are 11 already, so soon.  We love your sweet spirit and willing helpfulness.  In fact, we love everything about you!

The Statue of Liberty

Pre-Brothers

15 Years!

15 years ago, I married the man who carried my heart in his hands. (And made it flutter)

 

 

Thanks for taking such good care of it.  I love you so much!

Heidi's CT scan

Heidi had a CT scan of her temporal bone today.  She did a great job laying still for it.  Now we wait for the results from her doctor to see what the next step will be.

I thought the occasion was worth her having the day off school, so the two of us left a little early so we could do some shopping, ate lunch at  Wendy's after her appointment and then did a little more shopping.  I'm not sure if she enjoyed the shopping as much as I did, but we did enjoy our day together.  At one point I reminded her again not to touch things and she said, "Oh, I forgot... It's soooo hard!!"

Heidi's ear

A couple of years ago, Heidi had fluid on her ears that just wouldn't go away.  She was basically deaf at one point, so we ended up having tubes put in her ears and that took care of the fluid and restored her hearing.  She seemed to be doing fine for a long time, but one morning I called her name a few times when she was laying in bed and realized that she was again quite deaf, but this time only in one ear.  I called her ENT and they made an appointment for a few weeks from then.  Thursday was the appointment.  We went in to the office fully expecting the doctor to say - yep, she's got fluid in her ear again... But instead he said - "hmmmm children don't normally have hearing problems in only one ear from fluid...  I think she's got something else going on here..."  He took a look in her ear and found a tumor of some sort in there.  He couldn't tell by looking at it what we are dealing with, but she'll have a CT scan next week and then possibly an MRI and hopefully he'll be able to see what it is and what exactly it is attached to.  After that, he will do surgery to remove it.  We really like her doctor.  He did a great job when she had fluid in her ears.  He explains what he is doing and seems to be very thorough.  From what he can see, he doesn't think this is malignant, although he isn't ruling anything out yet until he can look at her scans or even until he does the surgery.  Heidi, has full confidence in the doctor.  After all, he put tubes in her ears and made it so she could hear again.  And he gives her suckers when she comes to see him.  This last time, he even brought her a blue one that matched the color of her jumper, so that was pretty cool!  So she's bouncing around like her normal, healthy self, and we're trying to think positive and not worry.

Pesky sister...

Garrett was upset with one of his sisters today.  She had picked him up to keep him from getting into something he wasn't supposed to be doing.  He turned around and looked at her and said, "You are just a mean old cwywote (his pronunciation of coyote)!!!"  A little later, the sister was spinning him around and having fun with him so he softened his pronouncement a little.  "But you're a good mean old cwywote..."