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...