Remington's First Dental Appointment

Poor Remi. He needed his teeth floated and had two pulled. They were wolf teeth that would have gotten in the way of the bit and hurt him later. Doc Alexander gave him a nice "shot" of something that made him drunk and drowzy. His head drooped, eyes glazed over, tongue flopped out, and he was sky high. After it was over, he stood with his face inches from the ground and full of grass he had pulled but forgot to chew. I walked him around until he started to "come back" to us and then lead him out to the hay. He was so wobbly I thought he might fall over! He came back eventually, so hopefully now he can eat better without dropping so much feed. We got to stick our hand way up his mouth and feel his teeth before and after. pretty cool!

Who's crazy? Me! Me!! I'm Crazy!

Yes, this is CODY! He is making some good progress! Is he still a bully? Of course, but he is only bluffing. If he wanted to kill us, he would have already. Thanks to Lisa, we have learned how horses think and learn, and are finally able to read his body language and work with him! Thank you God for Lisa! And for keeping us safe around a big, scared, dominant horse. Wierd combination that scared and dominant behavior.

Pumpkin, Movie, and Smores Party

It started out to be a beautiful, sunny- but-cool, fall day. We decorated the fire pit trees with orange twinkling lights, candles, and jack-o-lanterns. The chilli was steaming hot, the brownies were chewy, the spiced cider was simmering and leaking the scent of apples and cloves in the air. The movie was set up and blankets were thrown about, while a pumpkin carving station waited at the side. The guests had arrived and so had the THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! The rest of the evening was spent inside the garage while the rain poured down outside. Everyone scrambled to move the set up into the garage, and we set it up in no time while the kids carved 16 pumpkins! It turned out to be a fine, fun time anyway!

Logan's Baptism!

It was 8:30 in the morning, a foggy, cold morning. The fire department came and filled the new rubber scented pool with crisp cold water. Logan bravely put on his swimsuit and his new Baptism t-shirt. They gave him a rubber duck with his name on it and the date. He climbed the ladder and stepped quickly down into the water. His gasping was held to a minimum as the three other pastors forced themselves in, along with the other guy getting baptized that morning. They were all brave and happy to be there. For 5 min. they waited for the live feed signal so that the church could watch from inside, and then they introduced Logan. His pastor, Ashlie Little, baptised him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Down he went, and up he came, a symbol of a sinner washed clean and forgiven by a loving God! He made the decision a year ago, but we held off until we were sure he knew what he was doing. His heart and resolve never changed, he wanted to be baptized to show everyone that he is a follower of Christ. Yay Logan! We are so happy for you!!!

Logan's Trotting!

Logan's favorite horse is Lena. She is very gentle with him on her back. He said, "Maybe she knows to be gentle because it's like counterweights on a tractor. I'm lighter, so she knows to be slow and gentle." Well, whatever it is, she knows. Here they are trotting.

Hindquarter Yield

I am teaching Remington to yeild his hindquarters with my foot. I want him to cross his right leg over his left and step sideways, but not go foreward or backward, when I apply pressure to the back of his barrel with just my right heel. You can see him thinking and with rhythmic pressure, he got it! Good, smart Boy Remi!!

A Girl and a Horse

Once apon a time, I was a 12 year old girl who loved horses. My parents bought me a pony for my 12th birthday named Brown Suzie. We called her "Brownie." I climbed on Brownie and trotted off into the horizon where I fell off. She stopped and I kept going! I didn't know how to treat horses or how to have a relationship with them that forms a partnership, so I got hurt alot. My head split open, foot stepped on, bruises and scrapes, even bitten in the face. Eventually I feared the very thing I loved most. And sadly, I lost interest, chalking up that time in my life as a "fad." But Jesus knew better!
Fast Foreward 24 years to a girl who was missing something in life. I have Jesus, I have a family, I have a ministry! What more could I want? Something was missing. I had no idea what God had made me for, what I was good at, or the point of life. There was little joy, only survival. I began to search for Jesus' plan for my life. I sought the Kingdom of God, and He gave me the desire of my heart, even when I didn't know it myself! As only God in His brilliance and perfect timing can do, He brought together a girl who was hurt by horses, and a horse who wanted to be loved by a girl. What was intended for evil, God turned into good. Possibly the Enemy knew of my destiny and tried to ruin it. But God's plan can't be ruined for those who love the Lord! This plan is not just for me.... there are sooo many people affected by this partnership, and many in the future, I believe! God does everything big, you know. In the words of Parelli, "Nothing means nothing and everything means something."
Last evening, Remington "joined up" with me. That's horse terminology for Remington chose me to be his partner, leader, and trustee. With no halter or rope, totally at freedom, he followed me everywhere, even into the path of the bully horse. I think she sensed our partnership because she saw me looking at her while she was about to nip him and backed off! "Oh, Remington has a predator partner. She's staring me down. Maybe I'll bite him later." (God is my predator partner!) No one dares bite me while He is staring them down!)
My hope is to live with my horse and have many more horses to share with people. I believe God loves horses and made a special partnership between man and horse. There is healing there, and so much to learn about God. I want to follow God and trust him like Remi trusts and follows me. God can be my lead horse and I'll trust him even in the path of the bully. I believe God would not have given me this gift if he had not intended on fully allowing me to go the distance with it. Someday, you will find me on a horse ranch, no matter how small and humble or big and great. We will be making a difference for God, and we will "join up" with Him, following his every move because we trust Him, and share it with others. My God is so Big, so Strong and so Mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!

Look at him close his eyes. He loves his girl.

Special Thanks to: My Dad for giving me horses and for boarding them and feeding them and paying for all the unfun stuff: Lisa and Mike Courtney for opening their ranch to me and teaching me about horses with hours of training! You are so patient with me!; My Mom for the genetic horse fever, my Mom#2 for sharing her home with us, and my loving Texas Dad for the awesome riding boots and cowgirl clothes!! You all are such blessings to me and I love you all!
And Thank you Jordan, the boy who started him well.

Spring Gardening

Kamdyn is lovingly watering Logan's marigold he has grown from a seed.

Logan really appreciated that when he found out.

This is the plant that GG's church provided for her funeral last July.

The New Order of Things

Well, I'm tired. Laundry x 5 messy people who wipe their hands on their clothes, spray eachother with the garden hose, play in rolly pollies and caterpillars and dirt and mud and sand and markers, playdoh, and the crumbs that fall off of their every step. so after a pep talk from the Mimi, which was a result of a temper tantrum prayer to the Lord, I got a blessed idea from God.

Do your own laundry! Clean up your own mess! wear your dirty clothes until they fall off! Well, maybe not that one. But brilliant as He is, He gave me this splendid idea.

The kids each take turns being a troop leader and organizing a task for their siblings such as clearing the table, cleaning the back porch, picking up, doing laundry. The troopers must obey their troop leader and the troop leader must encourage them. They all report on how each member did at the end of the project. Then they all line up and say "project finished, maam." I inspect. Therefore they do it again. Then they give a report on how each member did. So they are learning how to be a boss, and how to be a worker. They don't like either job, but they seem to like the result and accomplishment. Wow- Great idea, God! Sorry about the teen-age style temper tantrum..... gulp.

Reports: Logan ordered Kenzie to fetch a bird from the back yard. He got fired and Kenzie stepped up. She did pretty good, except Kamdyn disregarded her completely. (no tv for her) Logan ordered Kenzie to do everything while he sat and pointed and Kamdyn played toys on mission 2- clean up. No video games for him tonight.

Tomorrow should go better now that they know there are consequences!

We got the table cleared and cleaned, the toys and clothes and shoes picked up, and the back porch cleaned. Awesome!

As for laundry, Logan slapped Kenzie in the face with her own panties. This was not funny until just now.

Where is Jesus? He's in Heaven and in our hearts!
Look at older posts for the whole story....Aunt Karen's Easter!

Easter at Grandpa and Grammie's

It rained all day long on Easter, so we had an indoor hunt. the kids did a great job and had fun! Brenda cooked an amazingly delicious dinner and the ham was perfect! Dad was doing very well considering he just had surgery!

A New Easter Tradition

We went to Aunt Karen's on Saturday before Easter and had such a wonderful time! She made these little rolls with a marshmallow Jesus inside and when they baked, they were just an empty tomb of a roll! And delicious too! Then we colored eggs and then made some Easter egg cookies! We had a wonderful dinner and the kids just absolutely loved it! It was their favorite Easter to date! Thank you Aunt Karen for blessing us! You are amazing!

Blessing Tsunami

We went to a basket raffel for our school and dropped a few tickets in a few boxes. Our chances were soooo bad, we went home thinking we'd supported our school a little bit. Then we got a call.... you won the grill! And you won two more baskets! The likelyhood that one family will win 1 basket is extremely low! God blessed us with three! Some people dumped hundreds of tickets in each one to get better chances. It is unmistakeable that God blessed us. We will be up for hours just openining! We won a family game night with movies, a popcorn machine, tons of games and a metal shelf to keep them on... and gift cards and a movie theatre card, and on and on. Then there is a coffee and tea basket ( I like to think God intended that one for me since I'm the one who put a few tickets in) Full of coffee and tea and a coffee maker, a decorative fountain, gift cards galore, and mugs, cups, soooo much more! THEN there's the gas grill! We are having hotdogs for the kids' parties tomorrow and our old grill is just barely alive. Not to mention a cover for it, all kinds of spices, tools, cutting board, grill accessories, I am in awe. God just decided to suprize us with a shower of gifts that we can't even store! Blessing Tsunami!

Malachi 3:10

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. "Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there won't be enough room to store it." Well, He ain't kiddin!

I am in awe of His goodness!

Thank you, God! We love you so much!

A Mountain Lion was in Our Front Yard!

We found this footprint in our front yard today. It appears to be a mountain lion chasing after a deer. There were fresh deer prints as well, consistent with the direction the mountain lion was going. The deer print shows some skidding, as if it were stopped in it's tracks. I'm so glad our dogs sleep in the garage. I wonder why they didn't bark! Maybe the deer came through and the lion was hunting it's trail and all was quiet. I don't know, but this is kind of exciting... I know there are mountain lions in our neck of the woods! Look at the size of that left claw! Isn't it gorgeous? ( Steve Irwin impersonation)

It is really hard to walk in! Logan fell in a ditch and called out for several minutes before Dad found him! He lost his boot in the process of pulling him out of the snow! We found it, though. Really, Really, deep stuff. It is supposed to be -9 tonight and more snow on Friday! We wish we had a plow to hook on our mower. A 4x4 truck tried to brave the hills of our neighborhood and got stuck. We walked out to the road and the tires had left knee-high ruts. Another 4x4 truck came along too, trying to mash down the roads, and found himself in our neighbor's yard. I'm not exaggerating. For the first time in history, our newspapers are not printing for 3 days! It's just amazing!

A New Kind of Stuck

We won't be going anywhere for a long time.

Too Much Snow! A 21 inch record for Owasso!

This is early on in the morning before it got bad. The van is surrounded by waist-high drifts on all sides, but not buried itself! There will be more on this tomorrow.

The final measure was 21" by the Nat. Weather Center in Owasso. Notice the culvert is buried and the entrance is nearly covered! It looks nice and peaceful, but stepping out, I sank to above my knees! I know, it's not saying much, but there is no snow boot that can handle this.

These are our air conditioners in a drift.
Taken early on, the photo does not yet show their full burial.

Justin coming home after being gone from 7a.m until 9:30a.m. We had to dig to get the truck in the garage, but we did it with little effort. The snow is powdery and dry and easy to shovel. The tiny double-peaked mountain of snow inside the garage is what blew in from a small variation in the garage door seal.

As we were eating dinner on Christmas Eve, we noticed Annabelle spying on us.

Kamdyn's cute outfit from Grandma B and Grandpa Dean- she dressed herself.

Kamdyn's Christmas Party at dance

Mackenzie's Version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer

Mackenzie's Dance class sang for us Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer. Kenzie blurted out her own version and stopped the concentration of the teacher and class so that they just had to quit and start over!

Merry Christmas!

Logan the Chrismas Elf: He was an elf with a speaking part in the school's second grade musical; Candy Cane Lane. He did great!

Mackenzie's Dance Recital; They performed "My Two Front Teeth" dressed as tooth fairies

Our Christmas Eve Chicken Noodles in quarantine with the flu. Grandma's table and china cabinet were well loved and did beautifully for their first Christmas dinner with us! It was a happy moment.

Logan was so upset at this box. He just knew it was clothes. He was so bummed. But when he found a Nintendo DS wrapped inside some old sweatpants, his sadness turned to awe! He ran over to the elf on the shelf and asked him to change his Santa order to DS games.

The long awaited and prayed for American Girl doll, Kit and Rebecca. Kit is from the Depression era, and Rebecca is a Jewish girl in the 1940's. The girls kept opening home made dresses from me before, and just knew they were going to get dolls. Mackenzie screamed and Kamdyn was very happy too. Although she said, "I hope it's Dora" while opening the box. She soon forgot Dora and was thrilled.