Potential of the human will

I found this speaker very inspiring:  "the only true disability is a crushed spirit."  A good reminder to be very careful with labels and the very word Disability.

Big little purchases

Today I made 2 little purchases that made me really happy:

a laundry sorter



and a hopefully-Oscar-proof trash can with a snap-top lid:




The swinging-lid trash can was JUST. NOT. CUTTING. IT. with our inquisitive dog!  We caught him on Sunday night with his whole head in the trash can, and this was just a few days after the sock "fun."


It's the little things in life and little improvements that completely make my day!

Flying leaps and tender mercies

When I came home from my morning sub job yesterday, Oscar was not in his ex-pen.  And the ex-pen was still intact.  Meaning the 16-ft fenced area attached to his crate was still up and fastened together in one piece.  I DID notice, however, that the fenced area had been stretched out into a rectangle shape, almost like Oscar had made his very own runway.

Using my impressive Sherlock Holmes deduction skills, I knew right away that

a)  Oscar had not been abducted by aliens.
b)  Oscar was not (yet) able to undo the metal locks attaching the fence to his crate and then fasten them again so we were non the wiser.
c)  Oscar did not have "beam me up Scotty" Star Trek powers.
d)  Oscar did not (yet) know how to open doors.

which led me to believe our 5-month-old, 40-pound dog had used his own powers of deduction to figure out how to jump over  the 30-inch fence.

Just seconds after that I heard the "tinkle-tinkle" of Oscar's collar and then found him upstairs!  Nothing looked like it had been disturbed in the whole house, so here's hoping all he did was enjoy a little freedom memorizing all the scents in the house.

That afternoon I barricaded Oscar the best I could in the downstairs kitchen/living room area because I had to leave again.  I dog-proofed the very best I could and then said a prayer that all would be okay.

Everything was fine.  Even better, I finally got over my phobia of shutting Oscar up in his crate and secured him in it this morning while I was out carpooling and running errands.  He did just fine!  Happy puppy and HAPPY owners!

Now here's the interesting thing, and it's just another example of how I know there is a loving Heavenly Father who knows every tiny detail of our lives.

I hadn't told anyone, but I was feeling really guilty that I hadn't crate-trained Oscar yet.

I was secretly very worried about how he was going to do for his "grandma" Cheryl next week while we're away during Spring Break.  

I'd been traumatized about shutting Oscar in the crate for long periods of time because of an experience with it the first week we got him (just picture a huge poopy mess).

And then today, because of Oscar's flying leap, I simply had to bite the bullet and make a choice between what I thought was the lesser evil--either keeping the house safe from Oscar and dealing with whatever I found in the crate OR letting him roam free while I hoped for the best.

I feel so much better!

2 trips to the vet this week, for starters

This week was one of those "blacked out" kind of weeks, where you look at the family calendar hanging in the kitchen and can't find space to write anything else.  It had its fair share of drama, too.

Monday:
Wade stayed home from school.  He'd been sick the day before but seemed fine the next day.  (I'm starting to wonder if he accidentally ate something with peanuts, though he won't own up to it.)  That afternoon he had an orthodontic appointment and got the thumbs up for doing a good job with his palate expander.  He's going to have that thing for several more months, but he's doing great with it.  He's excited to change the band color on his brackets at the next visit.  Right now he's sporting yellow.


Tuesday:
Rhiannon went on a field trip in the morning at a lab here on base and absolutely loved it.  She loved the chemistry lab and seeing different experiments.  (Ask her about the liquid nitrogen popcorn!)



I finally got Oscar into the vet that day after a week of his diarrhea--poor doggy, we just kept thinking it would clear up, but it turns out he had giardia, a water-born illness that is VERY common in Ridgecrest.  Came home with some medicine for him, and the very next day he was better, as though it had never happened.  Hurray!  The bad part is that he HATED being there at the vet and barked like crazy.  He doesn't have a yippy bark--when he's at the vet he has a cover-your-ears-and-hope-the-building-doesn't-come-crashing-down-on-us-earthquake bark.  At least, that's what it felt like to me!





Wednesday:
Drama Day.
I volunteered at both Rhiannon and Wade's schools that day, and then that afternoon the kids helped me give Oscar a bath, the first one since his neutering.  It was so fun, and he was such a happy, clean puppy!  10 minutes later was a different story.  Long story short, he found one of Rhiannon's anklet socks and swallowed it whole.  I didn't even know it was in his mouth until he went out to the middle of the yard, turned around and looked at me, and opened his mouth.  I guess he knew he was in trouble because he WOULD NOT come to us, no matter how we encouraged and enticed him. 



By the time we caught him, the sock was gone.  (An overnight visit to the vet, more earthquake barking, lots of tears, x-rays, catheter, IVs, and $500 later, I picked him up from the vet the next day and no sock had shown up yet.)  I called Jason to ask for his help getting Wade to his baseball scrimmage, and then Oscar and I hung out at the vet for a few hours.  Wade did well at his game, and we survived the cold, too.  It was weird and depressing to come home though after the game to a quiet house and no tail wagging--we all felt really bad and scared for Oscar.

Thursday:
Went visiting teaching in the morning and picked up Oscar in the afternoon.  Still no sock.  They'd tried to fill him with fluids to help him pass it, with no luck.  I asked to take him home, and they said to watch for vomiting or diarrhea and to bring him back asap if that happened.  Oscar has a nice bare patch on one of his front legs from where they shaved him for the IV, but otherwise he was jumping and happy and completely oblivious to the horror and sadness he'd caused his owners!  The vet techs guessed that he was barking so badly because he was being protective of me--they said he'd calmed down and had been a dream patient for them, thank goodness!  I took him home, threw some pillows on the floor, and took a long nap with the puppy--we were both worn out.  That night Jason played raquetball with the young men from church, Rhiannon learned some first aid in preparation for Girls Camp this summer, and Wade and I stood outside in the dark for 90 minutes waiting for his baseball team pictures to get taken.  It was a weird set-up, but the weather was nice!


Friday:
I helped out at Wade's school book fair for a bit.  That afternoon Oscar and I were running around in the yard when all of a sudden he froze, bent over, and threw up the sock!  I think that's got to be the weirdest thing in my whole life to see, and weirder still that I was so happy about it!  Check out this news story about another dog with a laundry problem.  It's something I came across when I was scouring the Internet with worry:

Turns out it wasn't a tumor after all...




That night we all sat back and put our feet up.  We needed it!

Saturday:

Today we all



Rhiannon went to her Expanding Your Horizons science/math conference at 8am.  She got a t-shirt, a fun bag, made interesting projects, and enjoyed being with friends.  She says she will DEFINITELY do it again next year!  Ask her about the forensics class and others she went to!

After that Wade and I went to his baseball Opening Day festivities, then home again so I could quickly change and go to our stake Women's Conference.  The theme was President Uchtdorf's Forget-Me-Not talk, and I loved every minute of it.  The last class was my favorite, on being happy.  The presenter, one of my favorite people Sister Foster, asked everyone to close their eyes and think of something that made them happy today or yesterday.  I raised my hand and said in a loud voice, "I had a rough week with our puppy.  He swallowed a sock, and yesterday it finally issued forth!"  That got a pretty good laugh from the whole room.   Sister Foster made the point that if you think you're supposed to be happy all the time, you're delusional.  But you do need to find things to be happy about!  She shared a wonderful quote that we all appreciated:


 


How awesome is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the conference I raced home again, changed, and joined Jason at Wade's first official baseball game of the season.  His Red Sox team won, thanks to Wade's game-winning run!  His hitting was awesome, definitely a huge improvement already from last year.

That night Jason had about 10 young men over for another pizza/planning/Playstation 3 evening.  The boys were great--it's nice having a house full of young men who are fun, funny, and well-mannered!  Oh, and Oscar LOVED having that many people in the house!  He hardly made a peep and loved walking around sniffing everybody, tail wagging!  The boys were good sports about it!

Sorry for the long post, but it's been a long week!  This upcoming week will include 2 sub jobs, more baseball, a barbecue with our new neighbors, and preparation for our Spring Break getaway to Utah.  Hope everyone has a great week, too!

Wade's First Pinewood Derby Experience

After a month of hard work teaming up with his dad and Howard's power tools, Wade experienced his first Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby last week.  He named his car Lightning McDerby and miraculously came in 2nd place with over 20 contenders!  Way to go, Wade!!!!!  I am so thankful for all the time that Jason put in to help Wade with his first car--there were a lot of things that Wade couldn't do (POWER TOOLS), but he learned a lot and had a great time doing it.  Designing, cutting, sanding, painting, weighting, and lots of waiting between paint coats....it all paid off in the end!

Wade had a lot of support at the event from some nice boys, too--every time Wade's car went up to race, you'd hear "Wade!  Wade!  Wade!  Wade!" really loud in the gym.  I don't know how that started, but I know the boys' support meant a million bucks to Wade!

Enjoy the pics!

The Lightning McDerby "team" got 2nd place and Most Awe-Inspiring Design

2nd place Winner (and one very happy boy)

These were pictures Wade took at the activity--he did a good job!

Always thankful for perspective

The kids helped me empty the trash cans in our house this morning, and most of them were full of tissues.  It's that time of year.  Thankfully the itchy throat problem isn't as bad--now I just have to sneeze and blow my nose all the time.

I was feeling pretty miserable, and then I watched this:



What a pick-me-up! Brittany's faith helped me to put things in perspective and carry on, no matter how big or little my own trials appear to be.

Fashionista

Rhiannon is still loving every minute of middle school.  She's already dreading the time when it ends for the summer, too--I can't believe it!  I am the total opposite and cannot wait for summer!

Rhiannon has a fun sense of style, and she watches carefully at school to be in on fun fashion trends.  Again, total opposite of her mom. 

Some of the fun things she's tried this school year are:

Tall boots





Feather hair clips






Cut-off gloves  (she made her own by cutting off the fingertips on some knit gloves)




Glasses without lenses




Rhiannon has even started a little fashion trend of her own--she made some long ropes of yarn using the chain stitch, and then wraps it around her wrist several times likes a bracelet.  She made one for all of her friends in the percussion section of band, too.  Her favorite thing to do is to use two colors at once, usually black and another brighter color.  She calls it her "Punk Rocker" look.




I'm glad she can keep up on trends, because I lose track of what's in and what's not.  Hopefully the latest trend will hang on for a couple months, because I'm considering getting it for Rhiannon's birthday:



Apparently crimped hair is baaa-aack!

Sunday morning inspiration

This morning is Fast Sunday in our church. It's a special day that we have every month. We're asked to skip 2 meals and donate the money those meals would have cost (or more) to help those in need in our community and congregation. That day in our congregation we have a special testimony meeting, too, as part of our regular sacrament meeting, where people are invited to stand and share their testimonies of the gospel. There is usually a very strong, uplifting spirit in the room during those meetings--I love it!

A phrase we hear a lot is "fast with a purpose," meaning have something or someone in mind to fast for and make it a matter of faith and prayer throughout the day while you're not eating. People in the Church joke that if you don't fast with a purpose, then you're just starving, not fasting! I've fasted for myself and others, for family members and strangers, for personal problems I might be having at the time, for both big and "little" issues. The possibilities are endless, and I've found that when I take full advantage of fasting and really put my heart into it, it is a wonderful, spiritual experience. And I've seen prayers answered and problems solved because of it.

You'd think that such a unique day is hard to forget, but it happens every once in a while. The key for us is to talk about it the night before at dinner time, kind of a not-so-subtle "hey, don't forget tomorrow is Fast Sunday" conversation. We did that last night. :)

So, I thought I'd share how a typical Fast Sunday morning goes for me. Today I woke up to let Oscar out and my stomach growled. I started thinking about food and what I could eat to stop that pesky growling. I went downstairs and felt my stomach growl again, and then this happy exclamation point popped into my head--"It's Fast Sunday today--don't forget about the things you're fasting for!" I still feel hungry, but I go about my day and pretty soon that hungry feeling vanishes.

Usually I feel a lot of heavenly help on Fast Sundays, too--I've definitely had some help already today, and it's barely 7am:

I decided to get out of the kitchen and do a little preparation for my Sharing Time message with the Primary kids at church today. In March we're focusing on living prophets. I wanted to put something together on this inspiring prophet of God, President Thomas S. Monson:

I got on the Church's website and found this great article about him, written by the woman he asked to write his biography.  It was so great and perfect for what I needed today.  I got even more excited when I saw that it was in this month's issue of the Church magazine, the Ensign:

Have I Done Any Good In the World Today, by Heidi S. Swinton

I think I will tell the 2 stories about his German friend, and the boy and his mother in Brazil.  We'll also play a little numbers game:


President Monson--In the Numbers


How many siblings does he have?  5

How many people are on President Monson's friends list?  "At least 14 million."

How old was he when he was called to be a bishop?  22

How many widows were in his ward at the time?  85

How many years has he been an Apostle? 48

How old is President Monson now?  84

How many years has he been president of the Church?  4



Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the article:

"He is an unusual man who has reverence for everyone he meets and who is interested in their lives, worries, and challenges. He relates to a visiting dignitary from a foreign country with the same attention he does the man who polishes his desk at night. Clearly, one of the measures of his greatness is that he can relate to anyone and finds he can learn something from each person he meets."

"For more than half a century, President Monson has given the suits off his back to the destitute. He has sat at the bedside of the ill and elderly. He has given countless blessings to people in hospitals and in their homes. He has turned the car around to make a quick visit to one friend and rushed from meetings to speak at the funeral of another. (If you ask him how many he counts on that list of friends, he will say, “At least 14 million.”) He will go to someone in a wheelchair who has a hard time coming to him, “high-five” a group of teenagers, and wiggle his ears at deacons on the front row. He exhibits great reverence for the lives of those he describes as “unnoticed and unrecognized,” known to few but their Father in Heaven.  Put simply, President Monson does‍ what most people only think‍ about doing."

I know that President Monson is more than just a great example and a great man--he's a prophet on the earth who gets direction from Heavenly Father for us and our day.  He's the real deal, and we'll be blessed and protected if we follow him!

Happy Sunday!

LOVE this

I love this message.

Weekend!

It's been a nice week, with plenty to do and keep us busy.  Other than the Oscar drama (see the Dog Dooty post), all is well.

Yesterday the students at Wade's school completed 750 Accelerated Reader tests for Dr. Seuss's birthday--translation:  they read a LOT of books in one day! 

I helped out in the school library for a couple of hours helping with the test-taking there.  It was fun and went by fast!  I also mingled with the flex Friday crowds and did a ton of grocery shopping and last-minute prepping for this morning's Primary activity.

Jason got together with a group of co-workers in the morning and shot guns.  Later in the day he went for a run outside and got over 4 miles in--way to go, babe!  Gotta love flex Friday!

In the evening, after Rhiannon got home from babysitting and I had finished making 3 batches of Wilton's Buttercream Icing (also for the Primary activity), we sat down for a family movie night and watched this:

It was surprisingly good!

Stay tuned for a report on Wade's first Pinewood Derby experience....

Doing my dooty

This is one of those posts that I'll probably delete later, but I had to write about my frustration.

It would appear that our normally very reliable 5-month-old puppy has forgotten how to do his business outside. Yesterday I celebrated Leap Day by cleaning up several piles of dog doo in the house, over and over and over again. Oscar refused to "go" outside, and he wouldn't "go" on our walk, either. Instead, he decided to "go" inside. On the bright side, he was in his fenced-in area every time he did it, but STILL.    After cleaning up 3 or 4 messes during the day, I decided to mop the whole downstairs because no matter how much I Lysoled and Febreezed, the smell was permanently part of me.  I mopped, and, wouldn't you know it, not 5 minutes later he had another pile waiting for me in his pen.

This morning I heard him making noises downstairs at 5am--I rushed downstairs to try to get him outside in time, but I was too late.

We went for a long walk after breakfast this morning, and he still wouldn't go.  I'm letting him rest and then we are going to go for another walk until he goes.  Otherwise, Rhiannon is going to come home to a huge mess after school while I'm gone volunteering.

I am seriously perplexed.  Is he sick?  He doesn't show any other signs--he's happy, runs and jumps around the yard, eats all his food, and seems to think there is no problem with "going" in the house. 

If he's not sick, then the next answer is that he's terrified of the wind.  We've had strong winds for 2 days now, and he hates it. 

Well, you're going to need to deal, dog, because it's windy all the time here!