Dashing Through the Snow!

Here's our little puppy.....ha ha ha....Remington, enjoying a romp in the fluffy white!

Just Photos!

My two handsome men!

Here's a close-up of a very happy boy and a very, very, very, very, very proud father. Proud of the boy, but REALLY proud of the sled box creation!!

Our Elf On the Shelf, Elvis, came back Thanksgiving Day, and of course Addie loved reading the story of the elf to Garrett. What a special moment!

Here kitty-kitty! Wanna kiss me?

Video of Garrett Sledding in a BOX!

Grouchy had been pulling Addie and Ainslee around behind the 4-wheeler on two very small, flexible sleds in the snow this morning, and Garrett wanted to try it, but it was not a very stable set up for him. So after disappearing into our barn for a few minutes, Garrett and Grouchy emerge with this contraption.....a rope tied to a big plastic storage bog with Garrett INSIDE the box!!! It was so cute and safe for Garrett. He was all grins!! Hope you can catch a little of the fun in this 30 second clip!!

Godspeed,

CL

Thankfully, Prayerfully

I take lots of things to God. Sometimes I wonder if I take too much. The Bible teaches that in God's infinite goodness and power and mercy, He can handle everything and wants us to bring everything to His feet. But I still wonder, not if he can handle it, but if I dump too much of my junk at His feet.

So in reflection of Thanksgiving, I wish to offer thanks not just for the amazing goodness bestowed upon the details of my earthly existence, but thanks for all of the stuff God has to wade through when my prayers arrive.

Most of all, I am thankful that I know Jesus Christ, that He is so powerful and all-knowing, and that I am just in the tiniest beginning stages of eternal life. THAT'S HEAVY!!!

Godspeed,
CL

Lessons Learned....so far...

It's C-C-C-C-C-COLD!!!!
In experiencing this phenomenon for the first time in quite some years (since being in Japan for two weeks during a record setting cold spell and snowfall in 1996, to be exact), I have learned a few valuable things:

1. If you send a freshly-showered female child with long, wet hair out to ride her four-wheeler when it is 4 degrees, the hair freezes into dreadlocks.

2. Not everybody likes marshmallows in their hot chocolate. (HOW WRONG IS THAT!?!?!)

3. Horses are much, much, much more frisky than usual in the very cold and windy.

4. Electric blankets are proof God loves me and wants me to be happy.

5. When you see something black and shiny on the ground outside your car after you park at the doctor's office, DO NOT step confidently onto it as it will cause you to BUST YOUR _____ in the BIGGEST WAY.

6. When your husband offers to feed the horses and it is 6 degrees outside, swallow your pride and take him up on it. Then, later, make it up top him!

7. And last, at least for this installment, it is very, very, very hard to pick a wedgie through three layers of clothes....I'm just sayin'!

Happy Thanksgiving and Godspeed,
CL

I Wanna Ride My Twactuh da Snow, Mommy!

Garrett has been asking when he could drive his tractor in the snow for so long, way before we moved from Louisiana. Today we opened the blinds, and there was the SNOW!! It stayed around most of the day, but there was less than an inch. Tomorrow and Tuesday should dump at least a few more inches on us, and then the temps will PLUNGE!
So far, he does pretty well in the cold IF we catch him on the way out in time to get a hat and gloves and shoes other than his Crocs on!! Without them, he plays for about 15 minutes, then has a tantrum as his hands start to hurt and freeze. SO we have to get better at protecting him. All he thinks about is being OUTSIDE!!!!!! Addie absolutely loves the cold, and she has the clothes and gear for it, so that's a huge help! Ainslee has a fun time making snow angels...on her STOMACH...she has to do things differently. It's just her style.

Lucy was very happy to see her hay this morning. It wasn't too cold today. I love the snow in her mane and the big mouth full of alfalfa!

I saw some good lighting and a great backdrop of Addie's horse, Lucy, and then Remington wagged his way into this photo. It was a cute shot, but check out the next one, my new favorite.....

Wow, wow wow, so pretty, and she is MINE!!! Okay, she is God's and I have been trusted with her care, but I can claim her for a while!!! So blessed!

Ainslee took her turn making pancakes but then got tired of the task and left me ALONE....not always a good idea, but then I decided to write her name in pancake. She loved it!

Aunt Jen, Chris and Sarah are here from Louisiana. I prayed they would get to see some snow, and then this morning it was snowing and the ground was all white! It was so pretty! We had fun today skipping Sunday School to play, then attending Deer Flat Church. We came home for chili for lunch, and then Jen and I felt our tummies not feeling so great. I napped and chilled most of the day, but the children were in and out all day riding 4-wheelers, making snowmen and warming up with gallons of hot chocolate!!! Stay tuned for photos from the snow fun!!!

Godspeed!

CL

Finally, the End of the Rainbow!!!

Know how "they" always say there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I always wondered who came up with that and why it's a pot of gold. So a couple of weeks ago when there was a magnificent rainbow centered right over our new homestead in Idaho, I ran across a wheat field (sorry, Jake, I tip-toed the best I could!!) trying to get far enough away to capture the sight to have to enjoy again and remind me of God's many, many promises, and this was what I actually ended up with .
There's a JOHN DEERE TRACTOR at the end of the rainbow!! I have to say that's even better than a pot of gold!!

Hope you find something wonderful at the end of your rainbow, too!!
Godspeed,

CL

My Kids Went NUTS!

I really don't have much to say. No, that's not me. So here:
Know how you see kids doing things and you know it's your parental responsibility to throttle them back, get them into check, get things under control, etc.? Well, this was one of those times, but instead of restoring order, I just started shooting them.......with my camera. So here's the wildlife emerging one last time in Idaho before the hard winter hits us:

Godspeed!! And when you visit us, keep your camera handy. You never know what wildlife may emerge!!!
CL

Toilet Seat Covers....gggrrrrrrrr....

My husband, Grouchy, will roll his eyes at this post, but sometimes I just have to get things out onto paper or screen. Hey, it's bound to be cheaper than therapy!!!

Wow, now I think of it, there are two things I want to talk about, now three, but I will stick to #1 and blog separately about #2 and #3 at another time. So here's the thing that has caused me such trauma that I have to share my agony with all of you:

TOILET SEAT COVERS..........those very, very, very thin paper thingies in holders above toilets to "help us keep save and clean." Seriously?? First, how many of you have ever pulled one of those thingies out of the holder without it tearing into at least 5 pieces and rendering useless? Second, how many of you have ever been able to tear the center of it correctly so you can place it on the john without tearing it even more? Third, can anything that thin and fragile REALLY protect us from ANYTHING???? I'll take 10, thanks.

I enter the bathroom ready to do the thing my mom taught me in my childhood. I take a hand full of toilet paper and wipe the seat. Next I take two long pieces of toilet paper and fold each in half, then use them for each side of the seat. There, dry, somewhat clean, and now protected!! But these paper thingies, really!?!?

Wait, I just figured it out. I think they are used to slow the flow of people through the bathroom stalls. THAT'S IT!!!! With the population of the USA booming like it is, I betcha most sewer systems cannot deal with the huge volume of, well, you know. SO they plant these paper thingies as something to help us, but in fact, they are placed there to slow us down. If you have to try two or three of them to get one suitable for use, then it slows turnover of stalls, thus easing up things on the septic systems! Am I genius or what?? Don't answer that.

So there is one of my many random thoughts for the day. I think I will stick with the method my mom taught me once I was tall enough: Hover Method. But then there's a glitch with that now, and that's the flushing under me when I am not done, and that SERIOUSLY grosses me out, but that is dealing with the topic #2 I want to blog on later!!!

Godspeed and yes, the kids are doing great in spite of my insanity!!!
CL

Words Can't Add To This Photo......

A Dream Come True

WOW!!! Garrett has reached all sorts of milestones I wasn't sure he would meet, but this is one I never ever assumed I would see! I have led Garrett around on a horse...me on the ground. He has ridden Lucy (the one he is on in the photo) in our little arena "alone" with me within arms' reach, but today I ponied him off of Ernie. So as you see in the picture, I rode Ernie and he rode Lucy, and I had a lead rope attached to Lucy while we rode. This is huge because it means we can ride longer, maybe even on some trails someday. Even cooler is that he completely remembered the things I taught him like how to stop, turn, back up. So we would be riding along and then suddenly Lucy would pull on the rope and I would look back to see Garrett was turning or stopping Lucy. How cool!!! We rode from our house across our big alfalfa field to Farmer Bob's, which is about 1/5 mile, then around the field some before returning home. We jogged the horses a little twice, but Garrett looked a bit to wobbly to keep that up, so we did lots of walking. It might have been a ten minute ride total, but I was on top of the world, and so was Garrett. Garrett got a huge laugh when Lucy would make a snorting noise as we rode. This was a memory I was surprised to get to make. Ahhh, how sweet!!!

On a sad note, my mother's mom, Clara Burrett, died today, in her home surrounded by her three children, one day before her 96th birthday. "Buddy," as will call her, will always be remembered by me for the love and interest she showed all of her grandchildren, her beautiful artwork of needlepoint and watercolor that we have in our homes, and her deep love of animals. She always had at least two rescued dogs worshipping her every move. I had the wonderful experience of enjoying time with my grandparents at their home on a lake in north Alabama. We would swim, fish, enjoy meals together, celebrating years of Christmasses together. Our family will miss Buddy terribly, but we know we will be reunited in Heaven. Tonight she is free of suffering and pain, finally reunited with her husband, "Pappy," and surrounded by all of her faithful dogs!!!

Wow, the views!

I have no way to know how long we will live here, what tomorrow or next week hold, but I do know that as long as I have the chance to see things this beautiful, I will have my camera out, and I will catch as much as I can.

I have affectionately claimed our neighbor's tree as MY YELLOW TREE!! Soon it will be my brown tree, and a few weeks ago it was just another green tree. But the weather is changing, the days getting shorter, and among the green wheat and the brown of the desert mountains, my yellow tree is spectacular. Enjoy it with me:

This photo has a yellow tree too, but it is not mine. Mine is fuller than this one!! Yesterday and last night, some snow fell in the mountains just in front of our house. We only got drizzle and a few tiny flurries, but up higher in this photo, you can see the tops of the higher hills dusted with snow.....
And along the same mountain range, just looking a little farther west, these areas have even more white on them!! Pretty!!! I love the contrast of winter and summer, browns, greens and now whites!

And I had to include this kitty, Diamond, Ainslee's cat because it's cute AND that's MY YELLOW TREE you can see in the distance!!!!

We enjoyed both of the girls rock climbing at the YMCA today. They were VERY proud to have Grouchy there to watch and cheer them on. Addie climbed for over an hour and is gaining so much strength!! I am so thrilled to report this!

Oh, and another big piece of news: Last night while Grouchy had the girls at gymnastics, Garrett began to complain about his ears hurting. Keep in mind his 5th set of tubes has fallen out. He was fine, but the big news is that he stood by himself and allowed the PA to LOOK IN HIS EARS without being held down like a wild animal. It took so much for him to hold it together like that. It was the first time he has EVER done that!!!! His ears were clear. He has cut a molar, so maybe that's the pain. Who knows? He fell asleep in my car on the way home, and I know he hasn't slept in the car for any amount of time in literally YEARS!!

Off to pray prayers of thanks for everything....every blessing I can think of!!

Meanwhile, please pray for my mom's mom, Clara Burrett, 95 years old, who is hanging on during her final hours of this earthly life. I love her, and I hope she knows it!!

Godspeed,

CL

.....Shake Your BOOTY!!

Oops, I put a tease in that last post but never let you off the hook, just in case you noticed!!

So the last night while my parents were visiting us, we went to this really, really yummy Mexican restaurant. My mom had given Garrett a Halloween card with a ghost on it, and when a button is pushed, the card plays the song Shake Your Booty. Garrett LOVES anything that produces sound of any sort, so he would play the card over and over and over. He had also learned the song quite well, even the first of the chorus that says AAHHHHH....
So we are finishing dinner and Garrett gets out of his chair, drums on the table with his hands (very, very common anywhere we are for him to drum on things) and starts to dance, then sing at the top of his lungs for our table and the other 8 occupied in the small restaurant, "Aaaahhhhhhhhhh, shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your BOOTY. Shake your Booty!!" Needless to say, this restaurant no longer needs to look to Mariachi bands for entertainment when Garrett is in the house!

Godspeed, and Shake YOUR Booty!!!
CL

Guests, Answered Prayer, and SHAKE YOUR BOOTY!!!

We have been so busy that I couldn't find the time or energy to blog lately!! We had our good friends from Whitefish, Montana, the Nargis, here this weekend. These are the same cool folks that put us up in their guest house all of July this year. Nadia, the beauty on the left, was born a few weeks before Addie, and we were neighbors in Virginia while her daddy and Grouchy were on aircraft carriers with the Navy. The girls had so much fun, and so did I!


Here's beautiful Addie in the new leotard she bought with her OWN MONEY!! Go Addie!!!

My parents' last name is Horn. But that doesn't explain this confrontation between my dad, known as Pop, and Garrett. Garrett put his sippy cup on his head for his horns!

Aaahhhhh, another magical sunrise. And I just cropped this but did NOTHING to get this color. It was really that beautiful! I turned around after taking this to see the most vivid rainbow over our property, but I couldn't get the camera to see it as well!!! It was a reminder of all of God's promises to us!

In this shot, you can barely see the end of the rainbow near our house. Still nothing like what I witnessed that morning!!!! Here's our house with Lucy and Ernie grazing their 2 hours this past Sunday morning before church.

Godspeed,

CL