We need a fence!

I mentioned, kind of off-handedly, in a previous post that we recently had to give our dog back to the lady who originally gave him to us. Cruiser was a nice, sweet, golden retriever, who, as golden retrievers are, was VERY friendly. What does this have to do with us giving him back you ask? Well, being the friendly boy that he was, all 100 lbs of him, when let out to go potty in our fenceless yard, would go wandering off looking for attention. When he was in the house, he was lazy enough to be regularly found laying, without the slightest hint of movement, near our front door. So, I, being the ever vigilant pet owner that I am, would often let him out to do his duty and subsequently forget about him. Assuming that he was manning his usual post near the door I would go on about my business, until someone (Quenton) or something (not tripping over him to get up the stairs) would remind me that I'd not let him back in in a rather long time.

Well, the woman who gave him to us was supposed to change his microchip so that when looked up it would register us as his owners and not her... obviously. Alas, I'm not convinced she ever did that. Why? Because each time he wandered off, if he didn't feel the need to come back later on his own and someone picked him up, they always seemed to come in contact with her long before me. Unfortunately after several times of this (again, vigilant pet owner that I am), she became worried that I was not watching him properly (I wonder why?) and said she would like to have him back. I reluctantly (to some extent) agreed. After all, I did feel horrible that he kept wandering off and that I kept allowing it to happen; not to mention the dislike I knew my husband harbored for him. It seems Geoffrey has no tolerance for an animal that will not stay around regardless of how many hours without monitoring. So, with very little thought, I agreed that it would be best that she take him back.

Upon hanging up the phone, what should enter my mind but my two, dearly loved, children. They, of course, did not share my or their Dad's (admittably, I had my share of irritated feelings toward said shedding, scaredy cat during thunderstorms, needy 100 lb dog) vague dislike of Cruiser. Quenton is the more vocal of the two, as well as more comprehending. He has gone through this before, unfortunately. I'm very thankful that he took the news graciously. I felt HORRIBLE telling him. I consoled him with the "bone" that we might be able to get another dog sometime "soon". Unfortunately, soon for a three year old typically means tomorrow. Surprisingly he hasn't really brought it up all that much though. I guess he's consoling himself with the cat. Dear Ari though, as mentioned in a previous post, is an out and out pet lover. I can just see it in her. If she's got an animal to love on, all is right in the world. I felt a huge pang when I thought of how she loved to sit with her little bottom between the dog's legs and just lean on him. He had the patience of Job. *Sigh* Oddly enough she hasn't "seemed" to notice the absence of one very large, amiable golden retriever. She's really not mentioned him since, and yes, she could say his name, surprisingly. A child's short term memory can be a blessing at times. She has however, on several occasions been looking out the window and pointed out with much enthusiasm the "dog, woof!?!" that was passing by. I believe I saw a physical look of pain pass over my husband's face the first time he heard that. Then when we went to our friend's farm and I watched her love on their dog, again, another stab of remorse.

So, we need a fence!

Hmm..

Well, I typed out a rather long blog post earlier today, and when I went to publish it was furnished with a lovely page that told me blogger was not available at this time and sorry for my inconvenience. So... I'm wondering, what happened to the "automatically saved draft"? Hmm... What I wouldn't do to have that post back.

Well, I can't believe it's Wednesday already. Time sure flies! I'm not complaining, because each day brings me that much closer to holding my little baby in my arms. But, then again, as I think of how fast time goes by, I see my other two growing up in front of my very eyes. Why do they have to grow up so fast? Occasionally I find myself looking forward to them growing up (some) because there are things I long to be able to do and enjoy with them. Yet, I look at Quen and think, he's already SO big!!

Sunday was a much needed relief to my "emotional" week. I and my family enjoyed a wonderful time of fun and fellowship with a couple of families from our church. We went out to our friends farm and enjoyed a cookout by their fresh running spring. It was an absolutely beautiful sunshiney day, in the upper 70's. Food always tastes better outside and in good company.

Quenton just about scared the snot out of Geoffrey (my husband) and I while we were out there. Geoffrey went walking alongside the creek that ran away from the spring with some of the other kids, and Quenton started to follow a ways behind, but further away from the creek. I was sitting up near the fire, eating and chatting with our friends, when suddenly I heard Quenton screaming bloody murder. I mean seriously, it was the "we're all going to die" type scream. I could see Geoffrey was heading back his way going to see what was wrong. When Quenton's screaming didn't subside at all, I, in my very pregnant state "ran" over to see what was wrong. His Dad got to him before I did and it was then that Quen clued us in that nothing was too terribly wrong when he said tearfully "I want Momma!" I stayed back and instructed him to talk to Daddy. Come to find out he was walking in a boggy area and got half stuck, but more than anything just soaked in the shoe region. *Insert eye roll here* That was it. It was his first experience with deep mud, so I'll give him that. But, I was expecting nothing less than a bee sting. He's not prone to overreacting to things at all. I was a bit embarrassed to report back to the circle of friends that he had only gotten his shoes wet/muddy. Ah well, thinking back on it, I'm glad that nothing was truly wrong. He did however get a stern talking to about not "crying wolf" and screaming when nothing is really wrong.

Ari really enjoyed our friends' dog. He's young still, probably 11 months or so, but getting pretty big. He looks to be mostly black lab. I guess he showed up on their farm randomely and they've just gone ahead and kept him. (He was obviously homeless) He is a cool dog. We had to drive from their house to the spring which is about a mile and a half to two miles away. Their dog literally ran that entire distance going 25 mph!!! We could not believe it. It was cool to watch him poor on the heat when she would rev the engine of their van a bit. Anyway, Ari is apparently an animal lover, and spent a good deal of her time loving on that dog. Up until Tuesday we had a giant golden retriever for her to love on, but wound up having to give him back because our yard isn't fenced. She also loves our cat to pieces, even though the cat isn't the nicest around. It's so amazing how some of their traites (the kids') come out so early. It is very obvious she's a pet person. Soooo cute!

When we went back to our friends' house we all got to hop on their four wheelers and ride out to round up the cows for milking. Thankfully I was able to pawn Ari off on Geoffrey for the ride. As one might imagine, it's not so easy to ride on the back of a four wheeler over rough pasture land while VERY pregnant... adding a 19 month old into the mix... nothing good would have come from that. Thankfully, the baby, my bladder and I all made it back safely and in one piece ;) I actually really did enjoy the ride though.

So, while my week started out rough, it ended on a very nice enjoyable note. And, I got to call my Dad and harass him about being out all day and it being warm enough my entire family got a sunburn. He, after all, had gotten snow only a day or two beforehand :D

Quen's newest phrase

I had a sweet little conversation with Quenton, my 3 y/o the other night. I must say, I'm often blown away at the things he comes up with to say. My most recent example occured the other night when I went to go say goodnight to him. His Daddy had put him to bed, to his chagrin (Quen's not Daddy's) and I wanted to go talk to him for a few minutes. I sat down on his bed and started chatting and eventually said:

"Why don't you like Daddy to put you to bed?"

Quen: "I don't know."

Me: "Well, there must be some reason, right."

Quen: "I don't know."

Me: "Don't you have a reason?"

Quen: "Yeah, I guess."

Me: "Well, what's your reason."

Quen: "I don't know what my problem is."

I struggled hard not to laugh hysterically at that. Something about hearing a 3 y/o saying "I don't know what my problem is."

Silly kid.

The last couple of days

Well, it's been a few days. I can't say a whole lot has gone on, per se, but I've been feeling rather drained.

I had a big "pregnancy emotional moment" earlier this week. As mentioned previously, we just moved (about 7 months ago) 2000 miles from "home", away from everyone and everything we've ever known. It's only been this last week where I've really struggled a lot with this. I guess I've just been extra lonely lately. Well, Wednesday morning I got a lovely phone call from a friend I've made here, asking if I'd like to come out that afternoon and help with planting their garden etc. I was very VERY excited. YEAHH!!! Someone wanted to spend time with me, and I could get out of the house. I needed to take my husband a lunch at work, so I headed down there. He came out and sat in the van for a few minutes to chat and said that he'd talked with my friend earlier, because they'd needed to cancel their daughters piano lessons (he teaches piano lessons among other things), and he casually mentioned that he'd suggested to her that she call me and invite me over, as I was "getting stir crazy". Bless his heart, my husband was really trying to think of me, and I've not mentioned this to him, but that broke my heart. I want so badly to make friends down here and for them to WANT to invite me over on their own, without my sweet husband having to ask them too. SIGH. I held it in while I was chatting with him, but I had tears rolling down my face as I drove away. Pregnant much?? Oh well.

Beyond that, I've mostly just been working on training my precious kids. It's a whole new "monster" when you have to learn how to deal with the emotions of two siblings! Wow! Now that my dd has "opinions" and can speak well enough to voice them (she's HAD the opinions for a long time...) my ds is not so sure what to think. Mr. Command son doesn't appear to like to be told "no" by little baby sister ;) So, we're working on little sister saying "no" nicely... as opposed to screaching it in a way that could curl the paint of my toe nails. And big brother is learning that, well, Mommy is baby's Mommy, not Quenton. Did I mention he is a Mr. Command? My husband and I have found it darkly amusing, in a way, to hear her put him in his place. But, I think some of that amusement has led us into not correcting her for being rude. Oooops.

Thursday was nice, because I again got to get out of the house (hooray!!) when dh wanted to drive 3 hours away to Peoria, IL for a backgammon tournament. While there I was blessed to be able to eat at one of my all time favorite restaurants: Chili's. I did get some weird looks though. Dh was not with us, as he was still playing the tournament. So, there I was with a 3 year old, an 18 month old (who looks younger) and very VERY obviously pregnant.... by myself. I'm sure the waitress was thinking "please, tell me you're married." hehehehe. Ah well, the kids were very well behaved, and Quenton surprised the waitress by ordering his meal all by himself. Makes a Mom proud ;) Oh and this time Ari was kind enough (as opposed to the last time I was out of town) to wait until we were leaving to poo out of her pants. Imagine my surprise when I went to put her in her car seat only to find I had a big lump of something stinky on my arm....*groan* What we mothers go through. Thank the Lord, it didn't get all over her clothes at all... just my arm.

Cat litter...

Ok, not a fan of changing out the cat litter box (as though anyone is). But, my father in law is coming to visit today, and since the litter box is in our downstairs half bath, I figured it would be nice of me to clean out the stinkiness. You know what I'm talking about. That beautiful vinegary smell that makes you want to ralf during the best of times, let alone when you're over 7 months pregnant ;)

So, what's the upside here? My absolute blessing of a 3 y/o son Quenton likes to help! Before embarking on my stinky messy journey, I said in my most cheerful tone "Sweety, would you like to help Momma change the cat litter pan?" He was finishing up sorting his mastermind beads and asked politely to finish, stating he'd be right there. He comes running in with only the excitement a 3 y/o can muster for the special task of cleaning out cat poo. I, of course, have two pooper scoopers for just this purpose and he and I set to work. Somehow the task just isn't quite so disgusting when you've got one of the cutest little boys in the world working by your side.

Noteably, naptime came in short order after he came running in from the garage where he'd been sweeping around the second cat litter pan and yelled happily "Momma, look I found more cat poo." Not my favorite thing to find in my son's hand!

Missouri

I must say, it is a different life I have here in Missouri. Moving here was one of the more drastic changes that has occured in my relatively short life.

In general I would say I have adapted well. As well as one can adapt to moving a couple thousand miles away from everyone and everything that has, for so long, been apart of ones life.

Truly, I do like it here. It's beautiful, and it's quiet. We live in a smallish town, which is certainly not new to me, having been born and raised in what started out a small town. Coeur d' Alene (the town in Idaho I was born in) is not tiny anymore, with its population of nearly 40,000 people, but it was much smaller during my growing up years. The town we're living in now is home to approximately 18,000. This area is interesting because we are surrounded, so to speak, by larger towns all within between an hour and a half to two hours away. So, there are plenty of things to do and go see if I'm willing to do a bit of driving to get there. And, for those of you who know me well at all, I'm always up for a drive ;)

I guess the big changes for me have been in the area of staying home a lot more. It is so foreign to me not having any number of friends or relatives a very short distance away that I can go visit at a moments notice. Somehow flying with 2, and almost 3 kids is not quite as convenient as hopping in the van and driving 15 minutes down the road.

I have made a couple of friends here, but, it is much harder to do than it was in high school. After all, the vast majority of my close friends from Idaho came from my high school years. I've met a couple of wonderful ladies at church, but all of them are a good ten years older than I, and obviously for the most part at different places in their lives.

Hmm, as I was typing, I stopped to think about what to write next, and was thinking about asking "how does one go about finding friends in a completely foreign place?" The blessed Holy Spirit was kind enough to point out the obvious: Pray that the Lord would bring just the right person into my life. Thank the Creator of Heaven and Earth, He knows the desires of my heart, and can bring me someone better than I could have asked for or imagined. How silly of me to wonder where to find such a person. If a friend is something God has in store for me, then a friend He will bring.

Everyday

I was just thinking how great it is that every new day is a clean slate. We have a new fresh start, whether it's in our child training, our relationships with others, or our walk with God. So many times we mess up, but each day brings us hope of starting anew. I have a feeling that is why God made the cycles of the sun and moon the way He did. In His forsight, He knew that we would get bogged down if the days seemed to drag on and on. But, with the rising and setting of the sun, there is a sense of renewal.