A Fall Blizzard

*Ashley's car in a drift. *Looking out the kitchen window.

*Our propane tank in the backyard. *A bull trying to get on our front porch.

We had our first blizzard the last two days. Our furnace won't stay on because of the winds being 40 mph, that the house was only at 50* this morning at 6:30 when we got up. We have lit the woodburning stove, so it has gone up to 54* in the house. The temperature is only 4* and the windchill is at a -20* below right now. It's COLD here!!! To make things more interesting, my husband is in MO at a Director of Operations meeting for the last 3 days. I pray he can get in to Omaha and has a safe flight!!!

Aren't Babies of ALL Kinds Precious?!

I have fallen in love with these tiny baby marmosets. One day, I pray, I will own one. I have earnestly prayed for one. Strange? Maybe. But in one sense, I haven't ever really felt that I have gotten to mourn our baby boy, Samuel's, death. So much has happened since his birth, and death. We had our memorial service, then said Good-Bye to Hannah, and then a week after his death, our 2nd oldest had her first baby, and he was in the hospital a full week after developing a wet lung shortly after birth. Once he was home, it was 2 weeks after and our oldest daughter had out first granddaughter, Alona. Then Alona ended up with jaundice and had to be under biliroubin lights for several days, and had to have her biliroubin blood count checked daily at the hospital. Wow, see, one thing after another. And while I LOVE helping out my children, AND being a grandma so -so much, but life has gone on and I haven't really just sat and mourned. I haven't gotten truly ecstatically excited about anything special since then. Oh yes, I may be happy about many things, and my grandkids make me smile every day, but that "gut bursting excitement" isn't there in the same way. Well looking at these babies (yes baby monkeys), has given me that excitement back. I would love one to pieces!!!!! And yes, I know that they are not humans, and they are animals, I have read much on the subject and found that they can make very good pets if bottle fed from a week on to older. I have this great desire in my heart to have one, and I believe that God will make a way to give me the desires of my heart if I am living for HIM. I believe in God's promise to give us the desires of our heart, and one day soon, I pray to actually own one. :+)

Babies Of All Kinds

Isn't this baby Capuchin monkey just the most precious adorable baby?! This baby is owned by a true breeder in TX (http://www.wildanimalworld.com/gpage.html). I would so love a baby Capuchin monkey! You have no idea how much! We thought that we finally had one we could really get, but found out that it was ALL a scam. We would send the money to them, but no monkey would arrive at the airport. That kind of thing is just WRONG! It makes me so mad that people can so easily lie about about things like this!! It hurts when people get their hopes and dreams up, and yet they promise you and they say they only ask "that you keep their original names the same as they are now, and that they just want a good home for them, and that you only have to pay for the airfare to ship them here. If something seems too good to be true...IT PROBABLY IS!!!!!! (Unless it is 100% God's doing that is!!) My daughter and I were sooooooo disappointed for several reasons, and me personally for quite a few reasons. I won't go in to it all here, but just know that when I say it hurts to be scammed, especially when your heart is set on it and you are soooooo excited, then the pain is twice as bad! BUYER BEWARE! I am thankful for the wise words of caution about scams like this from legitimate breeders such as http://www.tagalongranch.net/ !

Meet Aidrein Dawn Taylor

Name: Aidrein Dawn Taylor
Born: Aug. 23rd, 2009
Weight: 7 lbs. 9 oz.
Length: 20 1/2" long
Hair: long & dark
Time: 5:54 p.m.

Saph did wonderful delivery wise! She only pushed 2 1/2 times before she was here! Sapphire didn't have all the bleeding that she did last time, and the baby's APGAR Scores were excellent! Andrew got to cut the cord, and she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger already. :+)

A New Laundry Recipe

I found a new recipe that another mom, Lisa Metzger, had found and brought to light, (and also found in the wonderful "New Harvest Homestead Newsletter" put out by Lisa Vitello), that originated initially from Michelle and Bob Dugger (who are a family of 20, so far)! I really wanted to share this with you...

It is a recipe that will make enough for a family of 11, to last for 1 year for $18.00 - $21.00. I probably use about $18.00 a month for all of us, or more. It only requires 4 ingredients:

4 cups of hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha Soap bar
1 cup of washing soda
1/2 of Borax


1. Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water.
Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap
dissolves and is melted.

2. Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.
Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well
until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with
more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to
thicken.

3. Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser
half full with soap and then fill rest of way with
water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)

4. Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil
per two gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas:
lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Top-load
machine: 5/8 cup per load. Front-load machine: 1/2
cup per load.

A Very Sick Baby

Our poor grandson Kaden (who is 18 months old), has been very, very sick with an uncommon staff infection that he got from a mosquito bite that he got on his tiny little tush! He is allergic to mesquito bites, and when he got bit on his tush last Wednesday, he kept scratching and scratching it. Well it started to swell up terribly badly then on Thursday and he started to run a temperature, so I suggested that I that they take him up to the ER at the hospital in Onawa to have it looked at. Well the hospital staff told them to just take him in to his primary doctor in Woodbine the next day. So, they did. By the next day though when they went in, it had turned into a staff infection already. They put him on some very strong meds, Tylenol, Ibuprofen. etc. They were having him soak in Epsoms Salts several times a day and so forth. That was on Friday. By Monday it was still getting worse and spreading, despite the antibiotics and soaking. He had high temperatures of between 103* - 103.8*. So, we called the doctor again and she said "to bring him right in and she would fit him in even though she was booked full that day!" Niki picked up Saph and Kaden and took them right in. The doctor saw the severity of it and sent them to the hospital right away in Missouri Valley. They did blood work and other tests and ended up sending him to Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha which specializes in Pediatrics. They ended up having a surgeon come in that evening and doing surgery on Kaden to open the infection and drain it out. He has 2 holes the size of quarters in his tiny tush right now, and a drainage tube between the 2 holes. Poor boy! It had spread between his legs, and that whole side of his tush. His white count was 29 when he went in. The next day, they once again took him in to surgery and drained more infection out of it and packed it with gauze. His white blood cell count went down to 19 however. That was a good step. However, it needs to be between 4 - 10 on the average healthy person. He was connected to IVs antibiotics and fluids the entire time he was there. Plus the fact that Sapphire is due to have their new baby in 3 weeks or so, and is already dilated to 2 cm and was having contractions every 10 minutes for quite a while when we were there. However, Saph & Andrew stayed there with him the whole time, and I was up as much as I could to help out for hours at a time. I felt so bad for him!

PTL!! He got to come home yesterday afternoon late. He is still on some very strong antibiotics, pain meds, and having to have his holes packed with gauze at least once every day, if not more. He still has his drainage tube in also for at least another week. The holes are open and not sewn closed, so they have to be extremely careful not get it pulled out, dirty, infected, etc. Please pray for his full recovery! And thank you to everyone who has already been praying!!

Kaden leaving the hospital...

Happy 4th!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I pray that everyone has a safe, wonderful holiday!

Unexpected trip to South Dakota

This is Andrew, our Son-in-law. I had spent the night at Saph and Andrew's house Thursday, so that I could go with Saph to her OB appointment with her Friday morning. We were almost to town (having been in the car for an hour already), when she got a call from her husband saying that he was in the hospital and had cut his finger badly on a feed truck at work. He said that it was bad enough that they needed to do surgery on it. So, we turned around and headed to Sioux City where he was in the hospital. Then we found out that he had been sent to a Surgery Clinic in South Dakota specializing in this kind of injury. So, we headed there. We got there at about noon, and they didn't start the surgery until almost 3:00. They ended up putting a a pin into the length of his pinkie finger because he had severed his tendons of his finger and broken off a piece of the bone. He was in recovery until about 6:00 or so, and we got back to their house by 8:00. Long day and an unexpected trip to South Dakota, but at least we could be there for him!! His family has disowned him for choosing to stay with his wife, and soon-to-be two kids, and not "choosing" them. However, the Bible does say, 5 different times...

"A man shall leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

*Genesis 2:24, Matt. 19:5, Mark 10:7, Eph. 5:31, & 1Cor. 6:16

3 NEW GRANDBABIES?!

Our 2nd oldest daughter, Sapphire, and her husband are due to have a baby girl in August!! Then our oldest daughter, Niki, and her fiance' are having TWINS in January! We are all so surprised and excited!!! They are in two different sacs, so they are fraternal twins, but we are so thrilled!! We have never had twins in our family before. (Above is the twins first ultrasound.)

Preparing Our Children for Life...

I have been taking any available opportunity to read a book by Catherine Levison, titled, "More Charlotte Mason Education." In one of the chapters, she discusses something that Charlotte Mason wrote regarding her thoughts on a Liberal Arts education. I have thought about this comment, and think that it is a wonderful motto for our upcoming school year that begins in September. It is this...

"We want to provide our children with an education that will qualify them for LIFE,

rather than just for earning a living."

The end result of a Charlotte Mason education is the children "find knowledge so delightful that it becomes a pursuit and source of happiness for a lifetime."

In Memory of Samuel

We planted a Red Maple Tree in our front yard this spring,

in memory of Samuel,

our son who died last year.

Something beautiful to live on until one day we see him again.

Family Vacation

This year for our "family vacation," we decided that we all really couldn't afford to go "out-of-town," but that we could still do fun family things together, even without staying at a motel. So, we did things like go to the Henry Doorly Zoo for the day on Sunday, swimming at the motel (where Saph, Andrew & were staying), garage sale hunting, shopping at Walmart, we went to Big Lake Park to feed the ducks and play on the playground equipment, ate out at McDonalds, Fazolis, Taco Bell, and had Ashley's final senior family picnic/BBQ, etc. I think it was, over-all, a wonderful, relaxing, fun time for everyone!!!!

Graduation After Party for Friends

Ashley wanted just a few friends to come to her graduation dinner the following day after her graduation, so we booked a room at Golden Corral (which is one of her favorite places to eat!) We had a wonderful time with a lot of laughing, joking and goofing around! :+) The food was good too! LOL!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I have such wonderful children that I love more than I will ever be able to show them!!! They make me so happy in so many ways! Here are some of the cards and flowers that I have received already over the last two days. The flowers are from our oldest daughter, Niki. There are 5 pink & white roses (one for each of my daughters), 4 orange roses (one for each of my sons) & 1 white rose (in memory of our son, Samuel, who died almost 1 1/2 years ago now.) Aren't they beautiful?!?! God has blessed me sooooooo much!!!

Graduation Day!!!

(Our oldest son, Zach, was unable to be at graduation.)

The day is finally here!!
MAY 2nd, 2009!
Today was Ashley's graduation!!! What a great graduation it was! (Though long with 34 seniors this year). Ashley gave her speech, we saw slide shows of her growing up years, and then Doug & I went up on stage to give her her much deserved diploma. It has been an exciting several months for her with speech practices, senior meetings, laughter and new friends.