Dead Bird

The term "Dead Bird" has many meanings. To duck hunters it is the command that they give their dog when there is a bird that has hit the ground that they did not see fall. To some it is a movie or even a rock band. To our family it is exactly what it sounds like....a dead bird!

Yesterday we had some friends come up from Alabama to stay with us for the night. Everything was going well....food, fellowship, and rock band. We were all sitting upstairs when one of our guest comes up from downstairs and says "did you know that you have a dead bird in your trash in the bathroom in the basement". You can imagine that we were quite shocked by this comment. Yes, we are known to pull the occasional prank...but a dead bird..no way! I said, "you're kidding right...I just took out all the trash today from all the bathrooms and cleaned and there wasn't a dead bird there".

Just then my sweet precious boys appear and we asked "boys, did you put a dead bird in the trash can?". Andrew answered, "yes, Eli did it....he got it off the back porch and brought it in and threw it in the trash". I don't know what is worse.....that my kid picked up a dead bird and brought it inside....or that my guest had to find a dead bird in their trash can. I'm just glad someone saw it the same day it was put in. I never go downstairs and I can't even begin to imagine the smell that would have penetrated my house, or the hunt to try and find where the smell was coming from........But still, A DEAD BIRD....you have got to be kidding me!

Twizzlers

I don't know what it is about these things, but my kids LOVE them! I know I am a terrible mother to let Payton have one at 7 months, but there was no getting it back once she got a hold of it. She worked on this thing for at least 30 mins. I also found this picture of Eli when he was 2 eating a whole bag. We were opening presents on Christmas morning at Mom and Dad's and Eli disappeared. We found him in the next room with his jumbo bag of twizzlers going to town!

Doggone Dog

As you may have heard, we have added a new member to our family....Belle the retriever. Belle is a 10 mth old chocolate lab who has been in training for duck hunting most of her life. Jesse is so excited to have her and to be training her himself. She is very obedient and very loving, but she hasn't been around people, kids, cars, houses, or anything except other labs in kennels training. So needless to say she is not house trained. However, she has done an amazing job picking this up. She only had one accident since we've had her home and it's been over a week. This brings me to my story......not so much about accidents....well you'll see.....


Yesterday when we arrived home from school I took Belle out for her walk. I had all 3 kids outside letting them play with her as well. Andrew went in and changed out of his school clothes and returned with shorts, t-shirt with a jacket, and tennis shoes with no socks. May I remind everyone that it is still freezing cold and we still have a foot of snow on the ground. I told him he would get cold, but he didn't agree. Anyways, here they all go running around, shoes getting soaked, toes getting frozen and Belle using the bathroom....all is good......except.....Andrew decides he wants to sled. I again tell him this is a bad idea, he doesn't have any snow clothes on.....again he disagrees. Sometimes lessons are better learned lived. So off he goes down the hill and Belle chasing after him. Meanwhile, I am standing on the driveway with my nice shoes on holding Payton and talking with Eli. Andrew is yelling "whooo HHOOO" this is so much fun. He returns and starts down again. This is when I mention, "if you go down in the same spot you will go much faster". So off he goes again in the same spot, Belle chasing after and Andrew yelling again. This time he looks like a pro, smooth sledding and I have to say I was a little impressed...until....he ran out of room and didn't fall off the sled. So I begin yelling, "fall off, fall off", nope he didn't "fall off", he went right into the woods and down to the creek. When he stopped, Belle was right on top of him, and Andrew was now yelling...screaming...crying!!

Well, my snow shoes were inside and I couldn't carry Payton down the hill and then carry Andrew back up, so I told him I would be right there and went in to put Payton down and get my shoes. When I made it down the hill I see he is just fine, just a little scratched from the branches and he calms down. This is when I look over and see Belle rolling in something...digging through the snow and rolling again! And with that, Andrew says "WHEW....something stinks". It is at this point that I see that Belle, my well trained dog, is rolling in poop! You know, snow is beautiful, but it sure does keep everything FRESH! I start yelling commands to Belle and you know what...she didn't listen....just rolling, rolling, rolling in poop! I grab her collar and grab the sled and grab Andrew and up we all go (poop and all) up the steep hill. The next challenge was getting the stupid, yes stupid, dog in the shower. Thank goodness we bought this house for the shower! We like to call it the cow shower, because it's big enough to fit a cow in....or a poop dog! Three attempts to get her in the shower and finally I had Andrew hold the shower door closed and I got in with my clothes and washed the stupid dog that doesn't listen to commands! And you know what else....Labs are a lot bigger than wiener dogs and are a lot harder to wash. It took a whole bottle of shampoo and by the time it was all over I was drenched and Belle was clean, hair was all over my shower and it took 3 towels to dry her off.

Now what possessed us to get a dog....oh that's right....Jesse, and where was Jesse....work!

A Tribute

My Aunt Louise passed away suddenly yesterday afternoon. This is my mom's sister who was also her best friend. I have never met a woman with more true authentic faith than Aunt Louise. She loved the Lord with such a vibrant passion. Whenever someone needed prayer you knew that you could count on her, she would pray without ceasing. There is no doubt that she is rejoicing in Heaven today. What a life of testimony she lived. The lesson for all of us here is to live life with the faith that Aunt Louise lived. She was a blessing to be around and infected you with her positive outlook. She was a mother, a sister, a friend, but most of all she was a woman after God's heart. What a privilege it was to have her as part of our family. We love you Aunt Louise and miss you...but we will see you again!

Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This

Ever had one of "those" days where everything seems to go awry? Yesterday was that day for me, and I should have just crawled back into bed and waited for morning!

The day started as usual...get up, get kids ready and off to school, feed Payton and so forth. Except Andrew had his annual ultrasound and blood work so we had his appt set for 9:30 at Kosair Children's Hospital. Jesse took Eli to school for doughnuts with dad day so this allowed me to get Andrew and Payton ready and out the door for his appointment. Everything was going great until I reach the interstate and notice that it is "jammed up" (this is how Andrew refers to traffic). Not a car was moving and they were backed up as far as I could see. So I made the quick decision to turn around and not get on the interstate.....I actually thought "wow, how lucky that I caught this before we got on the interstate".
So I turned around and headed down another road that would take me a little out of the way, but would put me on the interstate further down. Only, when I got half way down that road I hit traffic again. Bumper to bumper, but at least we were crawling. So I thought, no big deal, we might be a little late, but we will get there. That is when I happened to look down and notice...I AM almost OUT OF GAS!!! I can make it to the hospital, but it will be a stretch and now I am going to be really late. I was getting frustrated, because despite what my husband says I really do hate being late! As I neared the interstate I looked at my clock and see that it is now 9:30, the time of Andrew's appt. So I called the hospital to let them know what's going on and to see if I needed to reschedule....only I couldn't get anyone on the phone, so after leaving a message I decided to still try and make it there! I also thought "I might as well stop here and get gas...I'm already late, better not take any more chances". So when I pull into the station I see a sign posted on every pump which read "NO GAS DUE TO POWER SURGE". Now I start to chuckle to myself....because it is quite funny....but if only my story ended there.....
Well there are no other stations around so I hop on the interstate and pray for the best...I am still 15 mins away at best. I made it downtown and to the hospital and I was even bright enough to have Jesse pick up Eli from school because I knew I would never make it in time and that would have been another disaster! So as I am pulling up to the parking garage I let out a sigh of relief..."we made it", only to be interrupted by the parking attendant and his HUGE sign that says "NO PARKING GARAGE FULL". So what else do you do at this point but start belly laughing, (either that or crying)? I roll down my window and yell, "Can you tell me where I need to go to park" (and yes I was being polite...it wasn't his fault). He informs me that the closest parking garage is 3 blocks away and then gives me directions. So I did my U-turn in the middle of the street and headed in that direction. I have to admit at this point I was thinking I should just pack it in for the day, but I pressed on. I found the parking garage (hallelujah) and now we started winding our way up trying to find a spot in this one...when we got to the 8th floor on the tippy top I found my spot and parked. I bundled Payton up and got the stroller out, because I knew we had a haul to make 3 blocks away! When I entered the elevator I had this panic of where in the heck am I and how am I going to get where I need to go. Especially when the elevator opened and we were standing in Norton Hospital and we were on the 2nd floor......where was the ground floor where I could get out to the street? I walked over to the information desk and to my astonishment there is a walk way that connects the two hospital (hallelujah again). Now I feel as if my luck is changing. We beat it to the registration desk and they still will see us (hallelujah)!!! So after our test I am feeling like my day is on an upswing, and we never ran out of gas!
We drove to the first gas station and filled up and then went and picked up Eli. Well now it is 12:00 and it is time for Payton to eat. She still breast feeds and I have nowhere to do this and no bottle either. I decide to run into toys r us and get some formula and bottle and I sit in the parking lot with the two boys in the back and feed Payton...whew! Well since she is fed and the boys are good and we are in town I thought I'd run to the store and pick up some things I needed. We go to Lowes and I get the rug that I have been eye balling for a while (thanks tax return)! This baby is 8 x 10 and is balance on top of our cart. So here we go..I have Payton on my hip, Andrew pulling the buggy, Eli ridding on the under carriage of the buggy and me (trying) to steer! I get everyone in the car and manage to finagle the rug in and we are headed home! Now I really feel like my day has turned around!
Later that night when Jesse got home we unwrap the rug and start to place it when I notice...IT"S DAMAGED!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! So back in the car we all go with the rug back to Lowes! Only to find out when we get there that they do not have any in their inventory and we were not going to drive to a different one! Silver lining...we bought the rug back with a discount and way more of a discount than we both thought! The manager gave it to us at their cost (hallelujah)! So I got a rug needle and stitched the bad boy up myself...and you can't even tell the difference.
The Bible study I am taking right now has challenged us to pray for God to reveal himself in everyday life. My first class was Tuesday so I wasn't expecting to see Him so quickly ; ) So here is how I saw God in this day: We never ran out of gas (and it was a battle of the needle people), they still allowed Andrew to have his test, and I got a huge discount on the rug I wanted (and that made me really happy)!!!! So...thank you God for showing me that you are still here....even on days like this!

Heaven

The other night the Red's got into a huge conversation about heaven. It all started when Andrew was praying, he said "and Jesus please come back soon so I can go to heaven forever and ever". At this point Eli starts crying and freaking out a little. He kept saying "I don't want to go to heaven forever and ever". So I decided to sit and talk with them a little about heaven just to calm Eli down so we could all go to bed! Every time Andrew would say how much he wanted to go to heaven Eli followed with squalls of tears proclaiming he did not want to go. So I told Eli to think about the best place he could ever go and the best things and that's what heaven would be like....still he refused to budge....he didn't want to go forever and ever.  Finally after about 30 minutes Eli started coming around and he said through tears "but will McDonalds be there?"....I had to chuckle a little, but then in the same breath he asked...."and what about my snacks, will they be in heaven too?". Got to love a 4 year old mind. And by the way, in case you all were wondering .......there is McDonald's in heaven ; )
On a side note...Payton is now officially crawling, and sitting up all at the ripe age of 6 months. Looks like I have an overachiever on my hands!