Donovan Challenges

Last night, I put the puppy to bed in his kennel, then realized I had a few last-minute things to finish up before bed. I'm sure he heard me in the Den, because he started barking. I was so focused on my chores, I didn't really pay attention -- until I went to bed. The kitchen is on the other side of the master bedroom and there's no insulation in the wall between our headboard and the kitchen. Huge mistake in the design of our home. Most nights, the chug-chug-chug of the dishwasher lulls us to sleep. Last night, however, Donovan's barks and whines were, literally, bouncing off the walls and reverberating in our bedroom. I'm sure it was even worse than being in the same room with him.

After laying there for 1/2 an hour with no evidence of his wailing diminishing, I went into the kitchen to check up on him. I let him out of his kennel, he ran for the waterbowl and downed a good bit of water. Then I re-kenneled him and walked out of the dark kitchen. The fuss that ensued was sure to wake even the neighbors. I finally gave in and let him follow me to bed, where he was so excited, he wiggled, yelped, licked, nibbled, panted, wagged his tail, and wiggled some more. Needless to say, there was NO sleep for me or Don.

I kept trying to settle him down, but he's a loud thing. Even though I finally convinced him to lay still next to me, he was panting with his tongue hanging out, a sound difficult to obtain optimum dream power while listening to. And he was restless. He really couldn't seem to be still.

All of this was a bit of a surprise to me. Don usually send him in to me after he tinkles in the early morning. After greeting me, he settles right down for a good nap, snuggled against me under the covers. He's quiet, lethargic, and snuggly. NOT last night, though. Finally, Don got up (I have no idea what time, but it might have been 3 a.m. or so) and I asked him to take the dog back to his kennel so I could fall asleep.

"And don't send him back to me after he tinkles!!" I warned, a glare in my voice. I had had just about enough of little puppy.

So, exhausted and grumpy, Daelyn climbed in bed with me this morning.

"Mama, can I let Donovan out so he can snuggle with us in the bed?" he asked innocently.

"No!!!" I practically shrieked. "DO NOT BRING HIM IN HERE. And be quiet so he doesn't know we're up yet."

The innevitable, however, happened. He heard us and began barking. I finally relinquished when Dane begged me and he took the pup out to tinkle before letting him loose, then ran to my bed himself to snuggle "loud, wiggly puppy". Donovan was very apologetic, and I had no choice but to forgive him, even though I made sure he knew I wasn't happy with him.

Tonight will be interesting. After barking his way into our bed, I'm not sure he'll be willing to settle down tonight in his kennel. My one saving grace is that he's going to the vet's tomorrow to board for the weekend, which I'm sure will break many bad habits.

He'll have to be neutered in a couple of months and I don't want that to be his first experience staying overnight at the vet's. And, occasionally, we might need to board him for out-of-town vacations, so he needs to get used to it. I can hardly stand the thought of him being away from me all weekend, but I know it's necessary. Anyway, it'll will give us a chance to break those bad habits, such as barking until Mommy lets him out of his kennel.

At least I hope!!

Dad's Current Mission

My parents are in Kazakstan on a Missions Trip. They left last Tuesday and will be gone for 3 weeks. It took them about 2 1/2 days to get there. They flew from Atlanta to London, had a long lay-over, then flew to Almaty, Kazakstan. Once there, they met up with some other missionaries and boarded a train which took them north.

Daddy called today. They're staying with a woman who has an apartment. Daddy said in an earlier e-mail that these are the best accomodations they've ever had on a mission. When he called today (obviously, he has access to a phone), he said that they can feel the prayers but to keep them up. He can't say too much over the phone but, apparently, there's spiritual activity swirling around them. I promised I'd get as many people as possible praying.

When Daddy visits Vietnam, he send us e-mails in a type of code. Because it's a Communist country, he can't mention Christian activity, so he talks about the flocks of geese, the fishing, the sights they visit as tourists. But his message is clear to anyone who can read between the lines. During his phone call today, I kept listening for clues. There were none. He just said that he couldn't really talk freely.

He told me that they're really on the southern tip of Siberia, which none of us realized before he took the trip. Today he mentioned that it warms up to the 80's during the day, but gets very cold at night.

Please pray for my parents. Pray that the Harvest is plentiful. Pray for their protection. Pray that the Lord directs their path and blesses the work of their hands. Especially, however, pray for a safe return.

I'll let you know when he's safely home. Thanks in advance for your support.

Mirror Shot

This is my feeble attempt at taking a picture of myself in the mirror. I had just had my hair cut and I thought it looked nice, but Grandma and Grandpa had taken the children to a park to ride bikes, and I was home alone. I decided to give it a try. The pictures that turned out look terrible - my eyes are looking in a strange direction and the field is far too small. Mostly what you can see is my expansive forehead.

So, I'm posting this terrible shot. It's not a bad picture of me, if you can get past all the glare and light spots. If anyone knows any tricks to remove the spots and glare, let me know.

Easter Morning Picture

These are my amazingly beautiful children on Easter morning, all spit and polished. Don and the two boys sported khakis and lavender shirts as well as new haircuts. Deanna and I both got our hair trimmed in West Virginia the week before Christmas.

Easter Morning Picture

I tried to upload this picture on Friday, but I'm really technically stunted and had no idea how to get it from my log-in to Don's log-in, where my Blog is located. Anyway, sometime over the weekend, he moved them for me so I could upload.

Here's the first one - my beautiful babies on Easter morning. Note the crisp haircuts sported by all. I clipped the boys' hair and Don's before leaving for West Virginia so it would lose that "just-cut" look before Easter. Deanna and I went to a hairdresser in Parkersburg and got trims. This woman does my mother-in-law's hair and cut Don's when he was growing up. It's sort of cool to take his daughter there, to the same woman who did his hair for years.

I got matching shirts for the boys and a shortsleeve shirt for Don that's the same color as the boys'. All of them wore khakis, as well. I had a lime green sleeveless dress with a jacket over it and we found a dress for Deanna that was the same color. However, it didn't fit and we were very limited in our options for her. She ended up with this turquoisy thing. She loves it, which is what matters the most, and it looks nice on her, but Mommy and Sissy didn't match.

There was another man in Church on Easter with a lavender shirt and khaki's. He laughingly commented to me that he should have sat with us.

Anyway, I think the kids look wonderful. Beautiful children dressed beautifully, giving glory to the Lord. Hallelujah!!

Safety Talk

Yesterday, Deanna's little girl's group (Little Sister's) met here. We had a police officer from the D.A.R.E. Program come and speak to them about safety. It was the most thorough and best presentation on this topic I've ever heard. The Officer was informative, moved quickly through the material, and kept it very interesting.

He started by explaining his equipment to the girls. He asked them to guess what his most important piece of equipment was. The guesses ranged from gun to badge, but the answer was his radio. His second most important piece of equipment was his pen.

One of the girls was a little frustrated and asked where the gun fell on his list of important equipment. He laughed and explained that some career policemen retire having never fired their sidearm. Wouldn't that be wonderful? The girls found that very disappointing.

He talked about the importance the police play in assisting the public. He identified lots of other public servants whose job is to help, such as crossing guards, firemen, etc.

Then he talked about how to protect themselves. He told the girls that if they ever were approached by a stranger who put his hand on them, they should first yell (at the top of their lungs), then kick, bite, scratch as hard as they could, then run to a safe place.

He explained what qualifies as a safe place. He also made sure the girls understood that they ARE targets and that people trying to kidnap them wouldn't look scary and mean. They'd look nice and, often, have dogs with them to lure the girls away from their safe place. He was very careful to scare the girls just the right amount - a good dose of reality without too much detail.

Then he moved on to "secrets" and what kind of secrets are appropriate. Not telling Mama about her Valentine's present from Daddy is a "safe secret". But if the neighbor says, "Don't tell your Mom about this," their response should immediately be, "I don't keep secrets from my parents!!!"

This hit home for Deanna, since we've had about 3 dozen talks about the importance of never keeping a secret from her daddy and me. I've explained that the only way I can protect her is if she tells me everything. When the Officer was talking about how important it is to always tell your parents everything, I glanced at Deanna. She was trying to catch my eye and was smiling. Slam Dunk!!

A bonus to the day was that one of the Officers who came along for moral support was a friend of mine from high school. We've haven't seen each other since Graduation which was - uhem - over 25 years ago. Neither of us recognized the other until he told me his name. Later, I noticed that his voice was the same and his mannerisms hadn't changed in all those years. I laughingly told him that his hair was shorter and he had wrinkles and couldn't possibly be the same age as me since I looked so much younger than him. I'm not sure if he appreciated my humor, but it really WAS good to see an old friend.

He was a Magician back in High School, and a pretty good one, at that. I told the girls, and they all ooed and aahed and, of course, wanted a demonstration. He looked shocked. I don't know if he didn't expect me to remember or if it was something of the past. Later, he gave me a business card with his website address. I looked it up last night. Not only is he still doing magic, but he's perfected the art of different types of magic shows. He combines his shows with motivational talks for adult groups, with learning tools for children, and even does what he calls "walk-around magic shows", where he mills through a crowd like at a cocktail party, and performs magic tricks one-on-one with party guests. His business rents cotton candy machines, blow-up play areas and even has a section where they spell out specific party planning details to help you plan your function.

I was suitably impressed. Before he left the house yesterday, I asked him which was his "day" job. He said that he works for the police department to pay the bills, but the magic is his joy. I sure wish he could make enough of a go to be able to do the business full-time.

But I'm awfully glad that yesterday he was an Officer with the D.A.R.E. program. Our girls received valuable information and hearing it from a professional source that's worked with these kinds of crimes brought it home in a way a talk with Mom and Dad never could.

The Mine

On the way to Don's parents in Parkersburg, WV (in the northwestern tip of the state, just inside the Ohio border) I saw a billboard for an Exhibition Coal Mine in a town two hour's south of Parkersburg called Beckley. Deanna's been studying fossil fuels in school and with the recent accidents in WV Mines, we've all become interested in coal mining.

Dad and I visited a Welcome Center the next day to get information about the Mine. It opened on April 1, so we planned a trip on Tuesday.

I was amazed by what I learned. I guess I had some sort of romantic image of coal mining. Instead, what we saw was a pitch black (the mine owners refused to light the mines - it cost too much), wet (amazing how much ground water drips into the mine constantly), cold, narrow, and the heighth of the mine, from the very opening, ranged from 18 to 36 inches, based on the heighth of the coal car that was being used at the time.

The miners began their day crawling on their bellies with only the light on their hats to assist them. They had to purchase all their own tools and had to know how to use explosives. They would blast an area and, after lighting the fuses, had only 30 seconds to crawl out of that area or be caught in the falling rock. They were required to fill 10 1-ton cars before they could crawl out again. This typically took 16 - 18 hours - in the cold, wet, lonely darkness. Their only companionship was the canary they were required to buy and take in with them. If the canary stopped singing, they had 45 seconds to get out before the fumes would kill them, as well. For all this, they were paid 20 cents a ton. They made a whopping $2.00 a day for their 18 hours of work. Out of this came their fees to the doctor and dentist, their rent on their shack, the cost of their food and provisions, their tools, their canary, clothing ...

They weren't paid in cash. They received Company Script which could only be used at that particular mine's store, which charged three times the usual price for everything sold there. The Company Store would cash out Script for 80 cents on the dollar, but the miners didn't have time to go anywhere else to shop, so why bother?

It became extremely obvious that once a mining family, always a mining family. No man could break the cycle and get out of the mine. He couldn't afford to. And his children had no options available to them but the same mine.

It was a shocking revelation for us. It's an experience I'll never forget. I know that conditions are very different these days and miners are paid well, but somehow, the stain of the past still washes this industry. The recent mining disasters are evidence of that.

One last interesting thing we learned. In the gift shop, there were display cases with memorabilia. There was a newspaper article about the War that occurred when the miners attempted to Unionize. The Mine Owners hired private militia. The Miners stold cannons from the Mine Owners and there was a real war with many deaths. The Governor finally came and begged the Miners to give up, which they did, to spare needless deaths. The Mine Owners, however, continued to refuse to allow Unions. It wasn't until the death of that generation of Mine Owners that Unions finally were able to make an enroad into mining. And, for a generation, any men involved with the Unions or who had helped to try and Unionize were blackballed and not allowed to work at all.

This whole experience made me ashamed of our country, ashamed of humankind and the greed that drives industry. A fitting revelation to have during Holy Week. Mining was far worse than slavery, because at least slavery was appropriately named and had people willing to fight a civil war to ban it from the future of our country. The Miners, however, had no support for their battle. The Government was well-paid by mine owners and, therefore, sided with them.

I know that there are many other injustices in the world, but I'm glad to see that this one has been battled and won, even if many lives were lost to accomplish it.

And I'll pray more fervently for our Miners in the future. Their lives are still hard, their work harder, and their future dim. May the Lord bless their work and those of us who benefit from it.

We're Back

We got home Friday from a week-long visit to Don's parents in West Virginia - me, three kids, and a dog. Don couldn't go because he couldn't miss handbell practice on Wednesday, but I wanted to see his parents and the kids were out of school.

We had a wonderful time. Don's parents are amazingly considerate, thoughtful, kind, loving, generous, and fun - a lot like my parents, just in a much quieter way. The kids and the dog did great on the trip. We left at 4:30 a.m. so they would sleep for the first leg of the 10-12 hour drive. On the way up, no such luck. Even the pup was unhappy in his travel kennel, yelping and whining until we finally took him out. From then on, he sat in laps and was happy as a clam.

We also discovered he's a water dog. My father-in-law has a lovely pond with a man-made stream going down to it across the far end of their yard. He and the kids cleaned all the leaves out of the pond and stream and turned the water in the stream on. Donovan went for several swims in the pond and rolled like a balloon in the stream, drenching as much of his body as he possibly could.

While there, we visited a Exhibition Coal Mine. I'll tell you more about that another day. We also had dinner at Red Lobster ("Shrimp Scampi, Dane, there's your shrimp scampi") which we can only do when Don's not with us since he's highly allergic to seafood and swells up just from walking though the door. We also went to Pizza Hut and I cooked out hamburgers on their huge, wonderful gas grill one night.

The trip home was great. Everyone slept except, of course, the driver. Even Donovan was quiet in his travel kennel. We were almost half-way home before the children roused, but the puppy was still sleeping so we ate in the van instead of stopping for breakfast. All-in-all, it was a wonderful time.

Hope you all had a great week. Happy Easter.

Puppyhood

I never realized how much having a puppy would be like having a fourth child. When I was about 12, an adult dog adopted our family. His name was Blacky and we loved him. I don't think I've ever met a smarter dog. We could tell him to go to the kitchen, go upstairs, go downstairs ... and he would follow every command. But he was full-grown when we inherited him.

The last puppy I can remember having was when I was in, probably, first grade and we were living in Taiwan. We had a very tall cinderblock wall around our house and I was sitting on the top of it one day when I saw a tiny animal lying on the other side of the wall. I watched it for a few minutes and finally realized it was a dog. It laid so still, I thought it was dead. I picked up
some loose rocks from the top of the wall and threw them at the dog. It wiggled. In shock, I jumped down, picked it up, and carried it around to the front and in the gate. I took this tiny little puppy, only as big as my 6- or 7-year old hand and gave it to Mama. It turns out, the puppy had just been born and the mother was transferring the litter home. This was the last one. She hadn't yet returned to pick it up when I claimed it.

My mother fed that puppy with a medicine dropper and he lived. We named him Lucky. He was a German Shepherd and very loyal to our family. But I was so young, I have very little memory of him.

So, here I am, a 45 year old, with a puppy for the first time in 39 years. He has to be walked several times a day. He needs to be played with - he gets depressed if he doesn't get playtime with his people. He has to be watched constantly so he doesn't tinkle on the floor. I have to be always sensitive to time to be certain he's let out when he needs to be (the key to potty-training, I've discovered). I have to constantly chase him down and take shoes, slippers, stuffed animals, etc. out of his mouth. I have to be certain he gets his 3-squares. And I have to make sure each of the children get time with him daily and he gets lots of affection and training from me.

Whew!!! He was taking a nap on the loveseat the other night. I left the room to go to the kitchen and he woke up, realizing I was gone. He began whining and then outright barking. As I walked back into the Den, he jumped up and down and wagged his tail. I was gone all of 2 minutes. Don snickered. "Your fourth baby," he announced.

In some ways, I think having twins, triplets, quads, etc. might be easier. At least all your children would be dealing with the same issues at the same time, instead of potty-training one, teaching another how to ride a bike and what vowels are, another is learning to cross the street safely and how to play soccer, while Deanna has a whole other set of needs.

Four babies. All with their own set of very real needs. One Mommy.

Mercy, Lord. Send your rain of mercy.

Frosty's for Three

Daelyn decided that he wanted to have his birthday dinner at Wendy's, which delighted me - no clean-up, no preparations ... He asked for a Spiderman cake so I decided we'd have cake and ice cream and open presents at home as a family after dinner. I made him a double layer round white cake with white frosting. Then I decorated it with black icing to look like a huge spider web. Next I took some Spiderman decorations I bought at Wal-Mart and placed them in the web. Although it wasn't perfect, it did look pretty cool, and Daelyn loved it. Dane said I should make spider web cakes for Kroger.

We headed out for dinner with Daelyn in his Superman costume that Grandma and Grandpa gave him. We were standing in line at Wendy's waiting for Don to make up his mind when two older gentlemen walked in. I encouraged them to go ahead of us since Don was having trouble making up his mind - Wendy's doesn't serve too much Atkins-friendly food.

The children had gotten a table in the middle of the restaurant that seated 6. I went and sat down with them after placing their order while Don waited for the food. Daelyn was quite interesting in his costume. I noticed the younger of the men, who were sitting at the table behind ours, watching him.

"It's his 4th birthday today," I explained. "Guess what he got for his birthday?"

He laughed, told Daelyn happy birthday, and we smiled at each other. Then Don arrived with our food. After I set everybody's food up in front of them, Don asked Daelyn to say the blessing. We all joined hands. I squinted my eyes, a habit I developed after having children, so I could keep watch on the boys, who think prayertime is a wonderful opportunity to pull each other's hair or kick a sibling under the table or, just in general, to be silly.

"Lord Jesus, thank you for this food and my wonderful family that loves me so much," Daelyn said. Dane suddenly leaned over and kissed Daelyn's arm and added, "And thank you for this wonderful baby brother you've given us." As he kissed his little brothers arm, the younger of the men, the one who had spoken to us, jerked his head up and watched us.

While we were eating, the men got up from the table and threw their trash out. I thought they had walked out the door but, just as we were finishing up our meal, the younger man appeared at my elbow and put three Frosty's down on the table next to us.

"I wanted the children to have these for dessert," he said. I stammered, "Thank you," but couldn't seem to say much else. He went on. "I thought it would be nice if the children had something special to celebrate the little guy's birthday."

I finally found my voice. "Thank you," I blurted. "That's very kind of you. Thank you so much."

As he walked away, he stopped and turned back to look at us.

"And that blessing you said was really special," he added, then walked out the door.

The entire family sat in silence and watched him and his friend drive away. After they were gone, Deanna said, "Mama, why did that man buy Frosty's for us?"

"I don't know for sure, honey, but I think it's because the blessing we said blessed him and he wanted to bless us back in return."

"Hmh," Deanna said, thoughtfully.

"I think he gave us those Frosty's because the Lord wanted to give Daelyn a special blessing on his birthday," Dane said.

I think you're right, Dane. I just hope those men didn't give the kids Frosty's thinking there would be no birthday cake and that was Daelyn's only birthday dessert. In any case, it was a very kind gesture.

St. Patrick's Day photos

Our new baby, Donovan. He's already grown a lot since this picture was taken. Isn't he beautiful? In the words of Deanna, "He's the perfect dog for us."










My little Leprechaun. Don bought head treatments for all the children for St. Patrick's Day (my birthday) as well as green spray for their hair and face paint for the exposed skin. Deanna was the most green. I also spent a lot of time greening Dane. Daelyn just got a kiss and a promise.

Deanna marched in the city St. Patrick's Day Parade, carrying a cross. I was very proud of her. It was hot, very long, and the cross was big and heavy. But she persevered, despite all those issues.







The Family Doughty. Notice Dane's very green face and hat. It's been a long day by this point. We finished the parade, then went to the Festival and let the children play on the various Moonwalks. We took in some Irish Dancing and bought some lemonade and Daelyn had a nice nap in the van. About 5:45, we headed for dinner at a local Italian Restaurant that I've only been to once before. My sister and brother-in-law joined us, as well as our friend, Ken. We had a wonderful time. My sunglasses even look green in this picture!!



I do have a few more pictures that I'll post tomorrow. Hope you're not too bored by all these.

A Few Pictures of our Life

I finally got Don to download the latest pictures off my camera so I could share a few with you.

These are a couple of shots of my Cowgirl on her steed. The first is Deanna having just mounted her Paint. The second is part of the line of girls, including Deanna.

Notice how confident she looks. See that big smile?




The next two are of Daelyn's birthday party this weekend. He turned 4 on Saturday and wanted a Cowboy Party. The first is my Daelyn (on the far left in the black vest) with two of his buddies. In the background is my 6-yr. old, Dane. The second is my parents, Donovan and Daelyn. My parents, always game for a little fun, bent over backwards to dress in the Cowboy Motif. My mother even appeared at our house Saturday morning with a bandana she had made for Donovan. If you look closely at the picture, you can see his little blue bandana - our cowpup




Hope you enjoy the pictures. More to come tomorrow.