Catching Up!

Well, we bit the bullet and re-upped our dial up. It bites. 'Nuf said. At least I'm back on line!

We've had the most wonderful week! Too busy to stop and record it all while it was happening - so here is our week in a big nutshell!

Our eldest child, Hannah, was baptized on Sunday, March 30! We are so thrilled to know that her salvation is secure as she has been born a child of God into His family, by her own choice! We had been studying over the past 2 mos and were able to have some of my family come out to bear witness to this and to celebrate with us! My parents: Charlie and Sue; my sister and her baby: Casey and Ellie; and my nephews: Tanner and Zachary all came out! So, we had quite a full house!

Aimee - you'll appreciate this one... I got a speeding ticket coming home from picking them up from the L-ville airport! Not just speeding... but flying! 22m over the limit - in - a - construction - zone! Needless to say, my tags were overdue... and now I get to go to court far far away! I haven't had a ticket since before I got married (coming up on 13y next Tuesday, BTW!) and I think this is only my 3d ticket ever! I was so nice - and he still nailed me... oh well - such is life.

I got to bond w/ my neice! She's such a cutie pie! Love her and miss not being w/ my fam! She loved the animals, so that was the opportunity to take for bonding! The chickens were her fave - but the rooster... she did not care for him! Neither do the hens, FWIW!

While here, the kids fished in our pond, canoed in our pond, built rope swings over the pond, dirt biked, cared for the farm animals, collected chicken eggs, ate at the local Family Affair restaurant, went antiquing ('Teeking' as we call it), played kickball, basketball, capture the flag, trampolined, played Shang-Hie Rummy, Rummy 500, RISK (no, I didn't play... I'm not allowed), Bluff (aka... BS... like on "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days), had a cook out, met more relatives, drank tons of soda, drank tons of bottled water (as evident by my growing pile of recyclable bags in the garage!), shot off fireworks consisting of Roman candles and M1000s... and they also had opportunity to do some cow wrangling as a result of the fireworks!

Our cow, Dory, yet again defied gravity. On Monday morn Don went out to feed the beasts of burden and it was my sissy who said - "You're missing one." So - we all gear up and start the search. Three hours later my dad, sister and I were far far from home, and out of nowhere we see cow tracks that lasted about 50 feet and then mysteriously disappeared. We were getting close to some scary looking homes and I suggested we best turn around and head back. By the time we made it to the RR tracks we heard 6 shots fired off from a 22 pistol. We got home and told Don that the 3 of us needed to go back to investigate the shots. So, low and behold, we drive to these scary looking properties and an old farmer is coming down the dirt lane in his pick up. Don gets out to ask him if he's seen a roaming cow. And the ol' man said, "Yep - Bear Tree Farm - Dory? Well, we got her locked up in our barn up yonder. She sure is a pretty thang!" So, we head back to get the trailer and load up all the kids. The farmer's wife was waiting for us in her jeans and muckin' boots, make up and hair net! She swore up and down that Dory was so gentle and easy to lead into the shoot! (yeah, right...)

Anyway,she's home now - pinned up in one of our horse stalls until Don gets back from Chicago. She's angry as can be! As best as we can surmise, she jumped over a total of four 4' barbed-wire fences, climbed up the RR embankment, across the tracks, down the embankment, over more fences and came within 300 feet of stepping out on the major highway that runs by our place.... she went at minimum a mile from home. How we found her - only the good Lord knows. I guess there's something to the nursery rhyme "The cow jumped over the moon..." If she goes again, I'm not going after her!

So - all in all we had a great time, lots of laughs, many memories made, many videos shot, and pix taken. Sorry - not able to download right now... but I'll get some pix up asap! Tanner is excited to come back this summer - we told him he could live w/ us and go to college here... the wheels are turning... just preparing you, Jennifer! And let Zach know that the animals are all depressed now that he's not here. PugPug hasn't left the couch! Hurry back!

Life is good... real good - as Nacho Libre says!