Just Give me Jesus

I am going to the Just Give Me Jesus conference this coming weekend. You can find more information on that here.

I'm not entirely sure why I want to go. I'm not a huge one for wanting to go to these types of things. I've been "burned" too many times by bad teaching, or weird charismatic type stuff, but I saw this announced and I immediately thought to myself... I want to go.

I even have things competing with it.
1. A scrapbooking show RIGHT HERE IN LONDON. Yes I know...I'm one of those strange people, I like scrapbooking. I do. And it looks like it would be a nice and FUN show. Not going.
2. Connect 06. It's a teachers thing that our denomination is promoting. Not going.
3. something else that I can't think of right now.
4. Means I"m skipping out on teaching Sunday School this weekend, which means my student will miss out as well.

And for some reason...I still want to go.

Jim worked hard this week, despite his miserable cold (which I know is miserable because I'm still getting completely over it). BUT he was unable to fix my car (Jamie) so that means I have to drive the van (Quinn) to Toronto...and I'd rather have my own car...and I'm still wanting to go. Go figure that eh?

So...I'll go. I'll stay at a friends house so I don't have as far to drive. I'll figure out how to get there. AHH!!!!

I'll leave our son at my mom and dad's for the weekend. That should be fun for them.

Jim will stay home and get better and take care of the dogs and work and be all alone. He's not looking forward to that but he still says... GO. And then he adds... It will be good for you.

So ...will it be good for me? Will I learn more of the great God that I serve? Hope so. :)

And The Boy Surpised me

Today Justin surprised me. We were getting ready to go for a walk and I asked him if he was going to bring black cat or Collie. And from the door I heard "col-col". And off he trotted to get his beloved collie. I hadn't expected an answer...I just expected him to go get whatever he wanted. So it was kinda cool. :)

It was cute. We went to the Pet Store today. A new one opened up downtown so we just had to go check it out. They had the usual hamsters, fish etc. And at the back of the store was this fluffy young Himalayan kitten. :) OH BOY!!!! Was the look on Justin's face. Off he trotted. This kitten just made his day, because Justin stuck a finger through the bars and this kitten rubbed back and forth along that finger. Justin was just delighted! A cat that likes him! :)

And I surprised Justin. While Justin was napping I took the opportunity to clean the fish out and then move them around. Justin woke up just as I was almost done. So I brought him downstairs so he could observe me while I finished. But oh no!!! Mommy moved MIDAS!!!!! Talk, talk, talk, talk and point point point. This little boy was so taken aback at the nerve I had! I MOVED HIS FISH!!!!!!!! Justin just couldn't get over it. Even when I brought the bright gold fish in from outside and put them in Midas' old tank, Justin was just pointing and talking about Midas being moved! That boy....has a real love-hate relationship with that fish. :)

Update on Feeding our Dogs

As you know, our dogs are being fed a B.A.R.F. diet.

It's going well.

Riley, our senior dog, has the most trouble adapting to this diet. We learned with him, that he needs his food frozen so that he would scarf it down without chewing! We learned that he needs beer in order to keep his tummy working well. Three times a week he gets 1/3 to 1/4 can of beer.

Sassy likes her food in small pieces. She is VERY particular about her food. She learned that fruit is once again something to be enjoyed! Now if only I can keep her OUT of the raspberry bushes!

They get fed twice a day. Between 8-10 a.m. and between 630-830 p.m.

Morning meal: Riley gets 1/3 cup heaping of organ meats. Sassy gets 1/3 cup even of organ meats. Twice a week they each get a half cup. With this they get a 1/2 cup of schlump.

Schlump is a ground up mix of all types of veggies: carrots with their tops, turnips, lettuce, swiss chard, tomato (sparingly), cucumber, zucchini, bell pepper, beets or whatever I have on hand. Generally speaking 1/2 is leafy veggie, and the rest a mix of whatever I have. More above ground veggie than below. I also throw in 1-2 apples (depending on size) or a banana. SOMETIMES they are lucky (at least in Sassy's mind) because I'll give them cut up melon. I also put in all the egg shells from the week and have recently started adding some oil as I think they need something just a bit more, I'm hoping to add cod liver oil for the winter months (just need to find in bulk).

To this morning mix they also get all of Justin's leftovers from the day before. Yum Yum!

At night they get raw meat. As mentioned earlier...Riley's comes frozen. 8-10 oz. Sassy's is nicely in smallish chunks 10-12 oz.

They are both at a good weight. Sassy could stand to loose another couple of pounds. Riley shouldn't lose any more SO... twice a week Riley gets Sassy's portion and vice versa.

They have both nicely blown out their coats. They look shinier and nicer than ever!

We took canned fish out of their diets as they both consistently had diarrhea with it. And I figured I did NOT want to deal with that (and figured they didn't want to either).

What the dogs don't like is
1. empty food bowls! Riley grew up ALWAYS having food available, now it's not.
2. Sundays. They only get one meal. At night. And it's just a larger portion of their morning meal with yogurt and oatmeal added. All they get in the morning is ONE LOUSY dog cookie!
3. they have to SIT before I feed them, and
4. they are tied up to eat. Sassy doesn't mind, Riley hates it since he eats faster and likes to steal Sassy's food.

So what do I like about this diet?
1. Dogs are healthier
2. Sassy LIKES to eat now.
3. Easy to adjust if dog is a bit over or under weight or going to work hard (i.e. Sassy at a trial gets more the night before/morning of)
4. Costs about the same as feeding mid-range kibble
5. Riley occasionally plays again
6. Easy to vary what goes into diet to avoid allergy issues.

What don't I like?
1. more labour intensive with meal prep, clean up etc.
2. harder to travel with
3. hubbie dislikes feeding it himself, BUT likes that they are on it.

So that's our update on our dogs and their new eating patterns.

1, 2, 3, 4 .......

So how many teeth do you think a 14 month old boy should have?

1? 6? perhaps even..... 8?

Well, let me tell you...this boy of mine thinks that having TEN teeth is a really good idea!

6 on top
4 below.

AND THEY ARE SHARP LITTLE TALONS TOO!

He got them September 7, 2006.

Recently Read books

"Life of Pi," by Yann Martel

This book was interesting to read. I"m part of a book club at the local library. Not that I've ever been able to attend a meeting yet, but I'm at least a reading member. This book had some funny lines, some very questionable theology, and I left wondering if Pi made up the whole story, OR if things really happened as people at the end of the book. Not entirely sure. Here's a review of it that I found on-line. It's not a bad read. Check it out.


Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey.

This overview sums up this book fairly well

Overview:
Kit Pitman is fourteen and lives in a ramshackle cottage on the outer banks of Newfoundland, where isolation is all she knows. The only visitors are fogbound fishermen and an occasional young man brought ashore to keep the bloodlines clean. But Kit's isolation is compounded by the mystery that surrounds her family and her illegitimate birth. Her mother, Josie, is mentally retarded and often runs wild among the clapboard houses that dot the shore. Meanwhile, her grandmother Lizzie staunchly guards them both from the disapproving glances pious townsfolk cast their way. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life's harsh realities and to unexpected dangers that repeatedly threaten to break them apart.

It's not the type of book that I normally read. I found it fascinating to follow Kit's growth as she matured. She found a "peace" of sorts by the end of the book. Unfortunately, it wasn't a peace found in God, in fact, religion was seen in a fairly negative light in this book. But somehow her story was fascinating.


Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller
Now this book is a GOOD book. Talks about how people (primarily pastors) can change what they are doing, and what their focus is, and influence their congregations for the glory of God. How pastors can put the gospel message into everything they do.

I'll write more on this book at another time, in a separate post as it deserves to be properly chatted about. :) In the meantime, here's one review and another review and one last one here.

Justin has a cold

So our boyo Justin has yet another cold. This I think makes cold number one in about 2 (maybe 3) months... he had at least four over the winter.

No, I'm not particularly surprised since we were out and about a lot when we went camping and he is at that stage where EVERYTHING has to be mouth-tested.

This one is NOT a fun cold. Lots of mucous and irritable tempers and so forth.

On the good side, when he sleeps, he sleeps good.
On the bad side, when he coughs...he coughs hard and wakes up. Which makes the sleeping a bit more of a challenge when the Dimetapp wears off.

AND even more good news..... JIM HAS CAUGHT JUSTIN'S COLD!

No... not good news...just scratchy throat news and hopes that it's not going to affect his preaching in the morning AND his sleep tonight!

JUSTIN WITH THE SEALS

Here is some video of Justin with the seals during out trip to the Toronto Zoo.

Vacation Report

If you want to read about our vacation, I blogged it over here.

If you want to know about two books that Jim has recently read you can find that here.

Cheers!

And we're off.....

So we're off to go camping.

To find where we are going, check out Jim's blog.

 

I was going through the pictures on one of our digital cameras, and found this wonderful picture of Justin on his first birthday. He really liked his birthday cake. 

immunization

Today Justin had two shots! They were due when he turned a year, but chicken pox happened so...he had them today. He received the Measules, Mumps, Rubella one and then the meningococcal C-Conjugate.

he cried.

he got a bubba (bottle) of milk.

he relaxed again, holding mom-mom the bottle and Collie.

He played for 15 minutes.

He went and got him weighed and measured. He is 31.5 inches long and weighes 26 lbs, 2 oz. he's growing.....

He follows instructions!

Justin can do it!

I can ask him...Go find your collie. And off he trundles to find collie (as long as collie is on the same floor as he is).

It's cute!
It's fun!

For those who don't know...collie (also known as col-col) is his most treasured stuffy in the whole wide world! He is a stuffed collie dog that he found at the towns rummage sale benefit for the hospital. He occasionally gets into other stuffies but ONLY col-col gets that special smile and special bite on the ear!

Here is the article about my second cousin

Boy, 12, dies in go-cart mishap

Youth is hit by tractor on country road

BY: MELINDA DALTON

KURTZVILLE, ONT. (Aug 12, 2006)

A 12-year-old Palmerston boy died yesterday only metres from his grandmother's house after the go-cart he was riding in was hit head-on by a tractor.

The victim, Alex Van Oostveen, was celebrating his 12th birthday and visiting his grandmother in Kurtzville at the time of the crash.

The collision happened at about 4:15 p.m. on Perth Line 88 near the intersection of Line 178.

The boy was riding around the yards of several neighbouring houses in a homebuilt motorized go-kart, said Perth OPP Const. Glen Childerly.

The go-kart pulled out onto the shoulder of the highway and was crushed by a tractor pulling two grain trailers, Childerly said.

"The front end of the tractor collided with the go-kart and it was dragged," he said. "It hit almost straight on . . . The tractor then rolled onto the lawn of a residence."

North Perth firefighters and emergency crews arrived a short time later and an air ambulance from London was summoned.

CPR was performed at the scene, but the air ambulance was called off before it landed. The boy was taken to Listowel Memorial Hospital by land ambulance where he died, police said.

The boy was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, but his injuries were too severe, police said.

The tractor wasn't travelling fast, but the nearly 3,000-kilogram load of wheat it was pulling made stopping quickly impossible, police said. The driver of the tractor was not injured.

Yesterday evening, the tractor remained on its side on the front lawn of a home, the crushed cherry-red go-cart under its wheels.

Solemn neighbours filed past, some shaking their heads at the scene.

The roadway is generally quiet, they said, but this time of the year traffic picks up as farmers bring in their crops.

"It's wheat harvest season and there's a lot of farmers taking their wheat to the mill up the road," said Murray Williams, who lives around the corner from the scene of the collision. "It gets pretty busy."

Police were continuing their investigation.

mdalton@therecord.com

found online "the record" at this address.

Please Pray

My mom phoned yesterday, and I learned a bit more today.

I have a second cousin, 12 years old, who has just passed away.

He was at his Oma's (grandmother) house celebrating his 12th birthday. He was riding around on a cart, having blast with a neighbour boy, waiting for his mom to pick him up after work.

And he got in front of a tractor with two grain wagons behind. The tractor couldn't stop. There would be no way he could have stopped with two full grain wagons behind him.

His grandmother rushed out to see what happened and found him dying.

The medical people say that he died on impact.

Visitation is Monday and Tuesday with the funeral on Wednesday. Two of his uncles are ministers and will be doing the service. It will be tough.

Please, if you would, keep his family in your prayers.


UPDATE::::

I found a newspaper story with the information on my second cousin. It is found at The Record. I have no idea if they will allow you free access or not. In case they don't I'll copy the article out and paste it as a separate entry.

Isn't he just adorable???

This is day four of the chicken pox. He is NOT a happy camper! Though he tries hard to be....but sometimes his discomfort gets the best of him. I get alot of "mom-mom...pick me up" (this of course is NOT spoken, it is cried with tugs at my shorts).



Here he's trying hard to organize where Charlie is to go so he can lie on him. :) You'll note the ever constant presence of tiger and collie. They are a MUST to have with him these past four days. Oh, but he loves his tiger and collie dog. :)

Chicken Pox!

Yesterday Justin had TWO blistery like spots on his body. One on his backside, the other "in a hot spot".

Thought nothing of it really. Just an anomally in the life of raising a boy child.

He had a hard time settling to bed last night as was still awake (but quiet) when I gave his bottle of water for when he wakes up in the morning.

This morning, he woke up, I got him up. He seemed a wee bit dozey. We did our morning inspection of the property. Then we got dressed properly for the day and he has spots over his back!

Since we were planning on having a day trip to London (Jim has to visit a parishoner) I thought I'd do a quick stop at the ER. Found out that he has chicken pox...and they didn't even do the whole check in thing. The out-going doc just gave his back a quick peek and said YUP! That's chicken pox!

So we came home, had a nice breakfast, Justin got a bit fussy and back to bed (with a bit of tylenol in him). He's having a nice nap.

Our breakfast reading....

One of the things that Justin and I do at breakfast is read a book.

I tend to be done breakfast before Justin is, so while I am waiting for him to finish I read from a book. I know that he's a bit young for the books I'm reading to him, but I figure the words are good for him to hear. I do occasionally paraphrase passages for him though.

The book that we most recently read was Heidi.

It was a good book to read. In the process I discovered that Jim has never read this delightful little book. One of the things that I most appreciated about it, was how it continually points people to praying to God. That God answers questions and requests in ways that we don't always expect. I plan to read it to/with Justin again as he gets matures abit in his understanding.

I'm not sure which book I'm going to read with him next. I"m thinking..."my teacher is a martian" but I"m not sure. :)

For the curious I also read him books that are more at his age level throughout the day. Yesterday he was quite taken with "brown bear, brown bear what do you see". He wanted it read over and over and over again. :) I do have to admit...I got a bit tired of it after the sixth go through, even with making different voices for each of the critters and colours listed within.

The Woes of Having an Older Dog

Riley and Sassy (our dogs) went camping with us this past week.

Our camping neighbours LOVED our dogs. See...our dogs... they don't bark when we camp. They are very quiet, well-behaved dogs. Sassy also LOVES people and is a total wiggle butt and people seem to really like that. :) They even seem to like that Riley is a big stand-offish until he gets to know you. They aren't aggressive with passing dogs and they just lay out quietly watching the world. Sassy impresses people with her frisbee and ball catching skills and.... she even did some freestyle moves for our dog-loving neighbours.

Sassy (who is our barker at home) only barked one time and that is because she was eating her supper and a neighbour (Lee) tried to visit with her. It was more of a "hi, I'm friendly bark, but I'm eating so leave me alone." What can I say...she was REALLY hungry (that's what comes from not eating most of her supper the night before).

Anyways, Riley spent the last couple of nights we were camping OUT of the trailer. Why? Because he got the runs and didn't know it. He was still lying in it when I said JIm! Put that dog out! ICK!!!! We were up at 5 a.m. cleaning up the trailer and TRYING to do it quietly AND then Justin woke up and well....what can I say...it was just a mess. We did succeed though in keeping quiet. None of our neighbours got upset with us, or even seemed to wake up through the whole mess.

It was kinda funny later on. Riley was just a stinky mess, it had rained the night before, and I wanted him cleaner. Riley is normally a dog who will splash through puddles and wade around. NOT this morning! Oh no! When we want him too he won't! So here I am, the big meanie that I am, I make him SIT in a puddle and I swish him around in it. Got most of the poop off, he's complaining to beat the band (whine, whine, whine). I let him up. Note that he's still a bit poopy so the next big puddle I have the audacity to do it again!

You have to understand something here. When Riley is displeased by something...the whole world knows the life is not good. Must be the combination husky-shepherd ...husky's are talkers and Riley talks. Shepherds are facially expressive and Riley can pull this "Ah, life is not good look". It was funny. BUT he was cleaner! Not as smelly! YEAH!!!! yes, I know...I'm a big old meanie for washing him in a puddle....TWICE!!!

But on a sadder note, Riley has been doing this pooping thing without knowing it, much more frequently lately. I am getting tired of the cleanup - happening way to frequently lately. And there are days when he looks like SUCH an old dog. I don't like those days when he's looking so old and so sad. Makes me worried for him. And the days that he just seems to get tired going for a short walk ... He's getting old...

I called our vet the other day to see how much it would cost to put him to sleep. Not as bad as we thought...$35 - We'd have to bury him though. Jim says, the backyard, a big hole and a nice marker. It will be hard to let him go....but we're starting to think that in October (when the weather starts to turn too cold to let him out all day and early in the morning) That we'll have to say good-bye to this good old dog.

Oh...i was going to add...the last night we were camping two little coons came by our campsite. We had supper garbage bags hanging out and they were curious. I woke up to the "grr" noise that coons make. They had noticed Riley out in the x-pen and where making "we're not scared of you" noises "see how big we are". Riley's response seemed so classic "What? I'm here you're there. I"m not doing anything. What?" Stupid baby coons! :)

Vacation

Ah...the joys of summer vacations....through the eyes of a one year old boy.    More on that later....once I get pictures that I can access at least....

Jim had his birthday (40th) this past Sunday and he didn't want to work on his birthday so he decided that this past week would be a great time to take off.

It worked out, providentially to be good timing.   Most folks didn't know, but at least that I know of, guessed... I was pregnant, and at the beginning of our vacation week, I lost that child.   It's our second miscarriage.  Still not a pleasant or good thing.   I had just gotten to the point of looking forward to this little one, when God in his providence, chose to take that child home.

This wee one, I called Angelina, will be missed even though we scarcely knew her.   (and yes, I know, we can't know if the baby was male or female, but the baby just seems an Angelina to me).

We took off.  Spent the first couple of nights at Jim's mom's house since she was away pet-sitting.  I didn't feel comfortable going to a camp-ground at that point.   On Wednesday we headed up to Fanshawe Conservation Area in London.   We spent the days just kicking around.   Did some window-shopping, walked the dogs, swam at the place where Jim's mom was staying (nice pool that Jim and Justin enjoyed thoroughly), and just relaxed with each other.

JUSTIN HAD A BLAST.   But I'll write more on that later.

NOT THE WEEK WE WOULD HAVE LIKED

Today we arrived home from our week off. The weather was good, all be it, hot. The camping was lots of fun for Justin with lots of things to discover and get really dirty doing it. However, for myself and Annette, it was not what we had hoped for. Although we had not told anyone (some had guessed) Annette was pregnant. This was her third pregnancy, the first ended in a miscarriage, and the second in our wonderful boy Justin. We hoped that this would be the time for a brother or sister for Justin as we are now both in our 40's (I just turned 40 on Sunday), but that was not what was in the providence of God. On Monday the 10th, Annette told me she was spotting, and by the middle of the week we had lost the baby. Although it was only 2-3 months into the pregnancy, the loss is no less. Annette picked the name Angelina for our unborn baby. Rather than being restful, this vacation turned into a very tiring emotional stretch that left both of us drained. It was good to be together through this, and not have to work. I worked the last time and paid for it in being completely drained emotionally and from that physically for months afterward. This time I had the time to work through things a little, but it was not the vacation either of us wanted.