Sunday night for the dog

*Little disclaimer: Not recommended if you're a big animal lover.* :)

Most people know I am not a huge animal fan. In America I never owned a pet. Here I have a love/hate relationship with the things.... we actually owned a couple cats for a while - because I hate rats more than I hate cats. :) Dogs here are not usually viewed as "pets." Some people eat them (sorry, but true) and some people keep them for security purposes, but very few people have the luxury of a pet. Our neighborhood is full of mangy, scrawny, dirty dogs that wander around and chew any toy the little boys leave outside. Our landlord's dog is the worst. His college aged daughter, Kathi, got the dog last fall as a puppy and it was actually half-way cute and the boys loved it. But, alas, it too grew into a scrawny, nasty dog who was particularly fond of scaring the boys and chewing on any toys they dropped in fright as they ran crying inside.

I do not like that dog.

We got in last night from our weekly town team meeting/prayer time and it was raining buckets and the boys were cranky, tired and hungry. We rushed them through baths and food, yelling the whole time as the rain on our tin roof is pretty loud. In the midst of it all, Kathi comes to our back door... the dog wrapped up in towels.

The dog is sick.

Will Brant please drive her to the vet in his car?

We are the only people that own a car in our whole area. Saying "no" is not an option.

We figured out pretty quickly that it wouldn't be real appropriate for Brant to drive her... which left me.

Driving at night. In the rain. Did I mention that they are in the middle of paving our little dirt road which means our "road" is kinda like a very dangerous obstacle course... all to help a dog that I have secretly been praying will be turned into someone's dinner!

But God is gracious in giving us opportunities to show love to our neighbors so off to the vet we went. I prayed the whole time we drove - not for the dog, but that we would actually make it to the vet's! And we did make it... yes, to an actual vet. I'm not quite sure how he would compare to a vet in the States, as I've never been to one in the States, but I'm pretty sure there were some huge differences. :)

It was quite the cultural experience. The vet's "office" was just an empty bedroom in his house. He had a metal medical looking table with a bunch of "supplies" underneath and a desk in one corner. Nothing else. He never ran any tests or gave any type of diagnosis. But he did poke at it some and asked a whole bunch of doctorish questions. Then he gave it some medicine "to make the fever go down".... gave him a shot of "vitamins" and then put the dog on an IV.... for about 5 minutes. That was it. Then we left. I don't know what I was expecting, but something a bit more???

When we got in the car I talked with Kathi and asked a bunch of questions just to clarify everything I saw and to get her perspective. She was quite relieved that the vet was able to help "so much" and that the dog was already seeming better and that the IV helped so much. I asked her what was in the IV...

"Gatorade."

Of course she didn't say "Gatorade;" she said the local brand equivalent (which tastes way better in my opinion!) but that's what she said! I almost drove off the road laughing... inside, of course. :)

So we did make it home fine and I just was so thankful we were all okay despite the rain and darkness and road construction and she was so thankful the dog was okay.

But then Brant ran into her this morning as he was getting ready to leave for work.

The dog died in the middle of the night.

So much for the Gatorade!

I don't know if I should cry or laugh or be thankful or all three!

100 Day

Last Friday we celebrated the 100th day of school. (No, we did not really keep track of how many days of school we've done; but the kinder class as the MK school in town celebrated so we decided to do our own celebration here.) It was SO much fun. The boys haven't stopped talking about it and keep asking to do "another number day" celebration.... like 110. :)

Our friends we co-op with came over. Each boy had 100 toys he had picked out, so they made trains to see whose was the longest. Elijah picked train track pieces; Caleb picked little plastic animals - he didn't stand a chance. :)

We played games outside - throwing a ball 100 times and jumping 100 times and writing 100 tally marks and big "100"s all over the driveway. Then we counted inside - made groups of Lego's and stickers and pennies so the boys could practice counting by 5s and 10s to 100.

By far the favorite part of the day was eating 100 snacks! The boys couldn't believe we were going to let them eat so much!!! :) We even busted out the mini marshmallows and pretzels from America for the celebration. We piled all the food in the middle of the table and they had to count out 100 pieces of snack before they could eat any....

Caleb just practiced counting his pieces... he can only count to 10. :) And yes, he has dirt on his face. :)

And the Ez didn't bother counting anything... he just shoved it in as fast as he normally does. We starve him, you know; you can tell from the pictures. :)

After snack time we made snakes 100 INCHES LONG. The boys LOVED it. We had them decorate them with 100 finger prints (20 hand prints) and loved having nice washable paints from America. :) Then they used 100 stickers to finish decorating them. They turned out way cute. (We did one snake for each family) Our snake is hanging in Elijah's bedroom... I haven't gotten any finished pictures of it.

Overall, a WAY fun day, despite paint and stickers and popcorn pieces all over the house. Will definitely do it again next year... the boys are already counting the days. :)

How time flies

I switched the boys' clothes out the other day... nice thing about stair-step boys is that I just move the clothes down from one little boy to the next.... and I get a tangible marker of how fast they are growing and changing...

Caleb, May 2009


Ezra... just this week


I'm sure I have one of Elijah in the same shirt, but it's going to take some digging on our old computer to find it!

Decision

We decided on the "beautiful house." We made the decision last week after talking to a local friend who said that the "ugly house" wasn't really in as good of an area as we thought it was.... and also because we really, really did not want to move more than we had to. We are at peace with the decision. It occurred to me a couple days ago that our safety doesn't come from our controlling landlord or neighborhood full of people always watching our house... it comes from the Lord. Then, two nights ago our friends in the "ugly house" got robbed.... so, so much for it being safer! :) When I called to talk with my friend and ask how they were doing, I asked if they had found anyone else who would live in their house for them. Her response was "Not yet; there are so many electrical and water problems that most people don't want to deal with it." Ha! They had omitted that LITTLE detail when we were considering their house!

So, we will be moving come June 1 and will trust the Lord that nothing will happen to us that He hasn't already planned. I am SO excited about having our own place... and also very excited not to have to move again. And excited to have such a nice house!!! The little detail about furniture we're still working on... :) Our main need is for a dining room table and chairs... we can go without a couch or bookshelves, but will be a bummer eating on the floor all year! :)