Our Sweet Girl Went Home...

Our sweet little dog passed away in the middle of the night.

I will be back later...I am crushed.

Update on Reese...

Reese is still alive, but they are very puzzled as to her condition. She was given IV fluids all night. Matthew said she was more aware today and would desire to be near him. Yesterday she was in so much pain and so close to death that she was just not there!

He picked her up at 6am and took her then to the "real" vet. She is staying there until Monday. They have seen no organ failure, there is no blockage in the Xrays. They are calling it a severe tummy thing...my guess is because they have NO IDEA what this is.

The vet was more or less very honest. He would have to see how little girl does today and tomorrow. Her treatment is very low key, pain meds to settle her, and IV to keep her hydrated. We are all pulling for her...and felt that she deserved the chance to make a turn around on Monday.

If we didn't try to help her to live, which she still shows great interest in, we would always regret it. Even though we are at 400 bucks total at this time due to the EM vet bill. *sigh* When they examine her now she trys her best to get to Matt. She is emotionally back to needing us. When I talk to her on the phone she perks up...I am her favorite. :)

The boys have really made me proud with the way they are handling this. For sure they cry and worry. But they quickly hug each other and pray for that puppy dog, that little friend. They know that Reese could pull through this, but they also respect that her time with us may be over. We have made sure that they know it is okay to cry and miss her.

This is one of the biggest reasons pet ownership is so important for our young people. They teach them so much...and when you show the children the proper way to care for them...you teach them even more.

Matthew and I laughed today while exhausted. We laughed because we couldn't believe we were aching so much for the little trouble maker to pull through! Hee hee! Reese is SOMETHING else! But she is ours and we adore her. The house feels so empty today. How a small little dog can leave such a HUGE print and space is surprising to me in some ways.

Juliet (Dewey) has been looking for her. I am hoping that if things take a turn for the worst that Juliet will not regress back to the state she was in before Reese came to live with us. She just came alive when Reese came along. *sigh*

Matthew and I had a date planned tonight...but we aren't feeling very romantic. He says he just feels sick not being able to fix this.

PRAYERS!!!!

Our little dog Reese is VERY ill! It came on very suddenly. She was fine when we left the house at noon and when I came home she was very very very ill! Matthew took her to the emergency vets and they have her over night! She has fluids right now and Matthew will take her to the normal vet in the morning at 6.

Please pray she makes it over night and that the Lord soothe our finances in these high cost moments. The boys are devastated! And we would miss her dearly!

Rainy Day Art

Today we were blessed with a cloudy rainy day. *soft sigh*

The kids worked on many things while I did my 40 minutes of ballet. They worked really well by themselves. I love that I helped them to find the ways to teach themselves. LOVE IT! I love to see one of them with a book in hand and that look on their face. I know I am about to be shown something delightful or help them make sense of something. These are the REAL teaching moments that make me smile.

I can tell I am getting more flexible again. My skin feels tight. It is just so strange! I had to buy a new scale...but I will speak of that another time!

The kids are really into the growth of that sweet potato! Look at it!

Eli started reading, "The Swiss Family Robinson" today. He is really into adventures and making your mark on this world. I KNOW he will love this book!

Eli drew an owl today.

And Remy drew a frog. How cute is this?

Remy has been carrying a notebook and a pencil around at all times lately. He can't get enough things out of his head and onto paper. He is even spelling almost 100% correctly the things he writes on the notebook. He is making up songs too! Singing all day! I mean ALL DAY! I will have to video him soon for you all. :)

He is reading almost everything. He read the word splendid today with such ease that I was shocked!

I caught him this evening after his bath with his notebook in his lap and him doing this:

He is studying Reese's paw! And then I look on the paper!!!!

I love these two boys so very much! They bring me such wonder and joy! They open up my universe!

Day 7!!!!

Today is day 7! And I am happy to say I have now lost a total of 9 inches and 6 pounds!!!!!!

Day7:

weight: 184.5

arms: 14 inches

thighs: 26

Bust/Chest: 42 inches

Waist: 37

Hips: 46

It feels as if the fat that is still on my body is finding new positions. For instance when I run my hand down my chest and stomach it is not as lumpy. My lovely lady lumps are getting tighter and smaller!!!! Poor lovely lady lumps! Hee hee!

I had another breakdown cry last night. Mattmos got me through it again! I did get my workout done and I even finished painting the school room. YAY! Now Matthew can put the animals on the walls. I can't wait for that!

Keep me going ladies!!!

I will be back with an actual homeschool post soon!

Day 4 of the New Me!

Okay, day four!

The morning of the first day:

190.5 pounds

arms: 14.5 inches

Thighs:26 inches

Bust/Chest 43.5 inches

Waist: 41.5 inches

Hips: 48.5 inches

This morning on day 4:

185 pounds

arms: 14 inches

Thighs: 26 inches

Bust/Chest: 42.5 inches

Waist: 38 inches

Hips: 47.5 inches

LOOK at my waist measurements! From 41.5 inches to 38 inches!!!

I have worked out everyday! And I felt tighter yesterday and now I know why! I lost inches!

I once did cardio and a stepper workout with weights for 3 months, 5 days a week, about a year ago. I gained 5 pounds and never dropped a pound! I cried at the end of it!

The thing this time is the cleansing I am doing. I really feel my body needed a reset button. And I am only eating clean foods that cleanse and support my system. The first two days were hard! Yesterday was easier. I find that midnight is the worst! This is the time I CRAVE the sugar and carbs the most!

Matthew has been such a support to me! He will get me a healthy snack and then keep me going anyway he can. He rubbed my back until I fell asleep last night. I wanted something sweet and carby so bad! I can't wait for this addiction to go away!

It is so hard!

I am loving the salads with my own fresh cucumbers from the garden. :)

I have to share a picture that Eli drew.

He loves to go potty and then weigh himself! *LAUGHING*

Remy is so cute with his Monkey. Here they are playing Leapster together. :)

Elijah is starting a science project today. He is very excited about this since it is his kind of thing to do. :)

Okay ladies, keep me going on this journey to a smaller and healthier me!

The Journey Begins

Most that read this blog are aware of our desire as a family to grow. Not just in the Lord but also in membership! Hee hee...

I need to lose:

42 pounds!

I will not go over 200 pounds! And if I were pg, I most certainly would. I have a GREAT support team in place. And I am following a program set forth from a past doula client. What is neat is that I have helped her and now she helps me. LOVE THAT! The biggest reason I support women in birth is for that sense of community in women to grow. :)

I thought of NOT posting this here...but I wanted to share with some of the mama's I really adore. And I wanted people to see that I have struggle's too!

So...the journey begins! Pray for me!

I had to share - a Blog Highlight

I started reading a new blog last week.

Today I see this post.

http://dinghome.net/2008/07/13/homemade-do-not-disturb-sign/

And I wonder why we even bother to teach them to read and write! HEE HEE!

How funny is THAT?

My Childhood Friend and Geocaching!

Okay...I need to start out with the spore print we made!

Isn' t that NEATO???

My childhood friend from the time I was 4 years old came to visit me this weekend. She was in need of some time away from the mighty pressures of wifehood and motherhood. I was extremely blessed to be the place to chose to come to. :) I love you HEATHER!!!

We went geocaching in a small town about 30 minutes away.

We also came home to swim, but the baby in her belly made the water pressure feel strange. Hee hee...

That night we went to see Hancock. I loved the time to be right there with her with NO CHILDREN! :)

After she left on Sunday we went to Vicksburg, MS. What for? GEOCACHING!!! *laugh*

Word to the wise...do not attempt to find your coordinates on the site on a Sunday. It will NOT happen! I almost lost my mind waiting on that site to load. UGH! Heather can tell you all how crazy it was!

We got to Vicksburg late in the day because of it. But on the way we bought some figs! YUM-O! They are Remy's favorite food.

In this photo I am waiting for him to blow a bubble. I never did catch the bubbles but I did get what we call his secret smile. :)

We have to say that Vicksburg was a NEAT place to geocache! And old town with lots of charm and a deep old feeling that only a place so rich in history can give you. Matthew and I fell in love with this place.

Here is the first cache.

Remy found it!

We went to another one. And. We didn't find it. We will be back one day!

It was a micro cache that we should have been able to find. I went to the site and it looks like others are saying it is gone? Oops!

In Vicksburg they have this HUGE 16 mile loop drive through National Military Park where the main battlefield was. There were many statues. Just a pretty place. And VERY NEAT for a cache!

We saw a wild turkey while there!

They have the U.S.S Cairo preserved and a museum that was closed on a Sunday. Loved that old ship!

On the way to the next cache we snapped some photos...

Here is the Grand MS. river!

The next cache is an old church that took only $925 dollars to build in it's time. I know folks who pay that in gas per month! YIKES!

We didn't get to open this one...

Because a huge snake that looked like a boa constrictor was in the WAY! We will have to find it another day! I know I walked right by him. And Eli almost did as well to get to the cache! We are all very careful to look and be aware. This huge guy was as still as could be while he waited on those four big animals to leave his domain. Sorry big guy! Thanks for not striking at us!

Anyone know what this is? He has a light brownish red stripe down his back. Matthew thinks everything is a rattler...hee hee...cause he lived in Texas as a child. But this guy never made a sound! We would love to know and I am tired of searching!

I am 30 years old TODAY!

I had a neat birthday today! All of it was so unexpected and this made it even more of a treat!

We went to starbucks, yum! And then we went GEOCACHING! I wanted to go in a direction we had never went and so we went north to Arkansas. We ended up in a little town and a cache led us to the sweetest little zoo that is FREE and is run on the kindness of donations from guests. They had animals I didn't expect like tigers, wolves, etc. They were closing when we arrived and the man found out we were cachers and how much Remy and I love the animals that he gave us a tour after hours!

Here I am putting the cache back!

We loved these guys! They were NOT shy!

Of course Remy had to tell our friend Melissa that he saw the tortoise couple mating! Hee hee! Melissa just loved it and said that is one of the reasons she adores him! He tells it like it is and has no idea that it is anything but just the truth!

The staff worker there today is an AG professor and also cares for the animals at the zoo. The zoo started in the 40's when a traveling circus broke down and to pay for the repairs they left a bear and some other animals. This was the start of it all! Almost every animal is a rescue animal. The tiger was from a grocery store that showed it in the parking lot, one monkey was raised as a woman's baby and ate with spoons and forks. He came to live there because his "mommy" died of cancer. He had a hard time learning to be a monkey. If you were there you would see that EVERY animal is a baby doll! They all come to see you! They all have a sparkle in their eye! They are well tended to and loved. It was such and odd experience to be so close to every creature and for them to want me there. They welcome you into the zoo, and they make it your experience. This is just one of those out of the way little gems you can't believe you stumbled on!

They have a petting zoo!

Big mama loves to eat peppermints!

The farm animals are there because after being shown the children who raised them and showed them could not stand to see them meet with a bloody end. And so they live out a sweet life in a sanctuary they were blessed to find themselves in. It did this vegetarian animal lover's heart good!

Here is one of the monkeys that found his way there.

The HIGHLIGHT of the day was when the staff worker told me to follow him because he had something to show me! He brought out this little fella!

And I was able to pet a baby LEMUR! Can you believe it???

I almost cried as I told him that he had forever made a memory for me. I will always think of my 30th birthday as the day I was able to love on a baby Lemur!

This was taken of me right after the blissful event!

I want to set up a homeschool group day for the zoo and he gave me the number to call and said they would love to have us! I can't wait!

We found one more cache before we headed home. It was on the state lines of Arkansas and Louisiana.

Thanks for a wonderful day boys. And God thankyou for the sweet gift you gave me in setting up this sweet day. You know I love to pet and speak with animals! And you knew that man would see that joy and offer us that sweet tour where he told us the names of each animal and the history of this sweet place. He didn't have to give us that after hours...yet he did! Thanks to the professor's time! You made my day!

My childhood friend Heather is coming to visit me this weekend! I can't wait!