I Need A Hero...

Dear Ones,

Today was Hero Day at Fort Caspar Academy. The day started with a parade throughout the school halls so the kids could all check out each others' costumes. Brennen's hero was Ulysses S. Grant. Although we couldn't figure out a beard idea that we could agree on (Brennen said he would just say he shaved today, and Kindrid wondered why I didn't just let Brennen grow a beard this one special time!) , we did come up with a coat that was similar to the one worn here by Ulysses S. Grant...

The kids were all assigned classrooms of mixed ages and got to listen to reports on heroes ranging from Shakespeare to Annie Oakely from kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. Here is Brennen reading his report...

And here is the report he wrote...

Ulysses S. Grant was an American hero because he served our country as the 18th President of the United States. He was brave, courageous and never gave up.
Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio on April 27, 1822. As a child he only went to school three months out of the year. His nickname was "Lyss." He joined the army when he was 17-years-old.
In his older years, Ulysses S. Grant was a General in the Civil War. His last job was being our 18th president.
Ulysses S. Grant died normally on July 23, 1885. He is remembered for defeating many armies who attacked the U.S.A.

Have a great evening!
Christy

Has It Really Been a Year?...

Hi Friends and Family,

My blog description claims "a recent cross-country move" as the reason for blogging. I'm going to have to strike the word recent though as today marks the one year anniversary of the children's and my arrival to Casper. A couple weeks ago I got to thinking about this day coming up and why this year seems to have gone by so very, very quickly. In true Christy-fashion, I had to pursue it by reviewing our calendar for the year. And here are a few reasons why the year seems to have passed so blurringly fast.

In the last year we've...

...spent 39 nights living in the camping trailer while house-hunting.

...had 59 nights of house guests.

...spent 34 nights away from home travelling.

...had seven puppies for 57 days (and nights!!).

...said good-bye to Daddy for six business trips.

In addition, the following items have been broken/needed repairs: the Expedition's transmission, the water softener, two leaking toilets, the grill, the microwave, the dishwasher, various windows, a leaking sink, a screen door, two fireplaces, the instant hot-water maker, the evaportive cooler, the water heater, and two nail punctured tires. (That I can recall!)

Wow!! No wonder my head spins a little when considering our first year here in Wyoming. But! What number to put on...

...finding a lovely home that suits our family's needs and feels very much like home to us?

...joining a church where folks are sincerely trying to follow Christ with love, fellowship, outreach and a firm, Biblical foundation?

...enrolling in a public school that is as close to a private school in its mission and excellence as it can be (and NO tuition!!)?

...being welcomed into the homes of new friends and getting to know some really warm, wonderful, Wyoming people?

...welcoming a new niece into the world just hours after her birth?

...being allowed to spend a lot more time with Uncle Matt and Auntie Carrie than has ever before been possible?

...sharing our gorgeous new state with lots of friends and family that bravely made a very long journey to visit us?

...having mountains and places to explore within hours of our home in every direction?

...having some great quality time with Todd's folks for the month they came and having my father-in-law fix so many of the annoying things that were broken around the house?

...learning to love our new dog and sharing as a family the wonder and magic of having puppies?

And so on. We are blessed! So, how about you all? Go back and look at your calendars for the year and comment here on what your year's summary looks like! It's pretty amazing when you condense it into numbers!!

I'm grateful today to the people that gave their lives that we can live free, worship free, say/read/write free, vote free, raise our children free!! Let's try not to take it for granted and remember to be thankful for our one nation, under God!!
Love you all,
Christy

Has It Really Been A Month?...

Hello Everyone,

I really don't think it can have been a month since my last post. Really. Where did the month go?

Well, for starters, it went to the circus! In order to get good seats (we got great ones) we went right after picking Brennen up at school to wait a little over an hour for the show to begin. A few snacks (gotta have cotton candy and popcorn at the circus) helped the time go by quickly! Doesn't everyone do their school homework at the circus?? Well, I guess if you attend Fort Caspar Academy you do! :O(

This circus had it all...note the white tiger!!Kindrid almost got sick she laughed so loud and long at these cotton-candy-colored poodles and their antics...She was truly delighted with them!
It wouldn't be a circus without the dancing lady on the elephant! (This picture is in loving memory of my Uncle Otto who took my sister and me to see them set up the circus tent long ago in Brainerd...he never could quite answer the "how many elephants were there?" question! I pray my kids' memories of this circus are as sweet as mine of that one!)

And, lo, Kindrid was sitting eating lunch and calmly states, "Mommy, I just lost a tooth." And indeed she had. Her first one. And we didn't even know it was loose. :O) The one next to it is going to come out any day now! She was in total awe and sooo thrilled about it!

The puppies turned 8 weeks last Thursday so Todd took out a month long ad in the paper offering them for free (we did ask folks to cover the first shots). We thought it would take forever to find homes for all of them. It didn't. It took ONE DAY. Friday was one of the most bittersweet days I've ever had as we said good-bye to five puppies out of seven (we are keeping one and holding one for my sister and brother-in-law). Poor Brennen...he went to school without even saying good-bye to them only to come home to find half of them already gone. He handled it well, though. I think us keeping a puppy has made that easier. Anyhow, here they are one last time...

This one went to an older gentleman who has never had a dog and excited to get her....


This one went to Denver to a friend of Todd's sister, Carrie....We hear her new name is Lola! Cute!!

This was one of our most favorite pups...he was the only male and we came very, very close to keeping him ourselves. The family that took him also took the next little golden colored one...

Here is our new little girl. We still don't have a name although Sofie and Lucy are in the running...

This one went to a family that wants to train her to play with their ferret (!)...

And this one is my sister's new doggie...Cute!...

And one final picture of the whole gang...or most of them, anyhow!! :O)

Let's see...what else?

...Kindrid asked me a while back why airplanes don't have turn signals.

...We hosted a cookout last night of folks from Todd's work. We had 21 people here. It was so fun to see the deck full of people. It was a gorgeous evening!

...We've done a bunch of work in the yard lately. We got rid of some ugly shrubs by the front door, mulched a bunch of gardens that were just dirt and planted lots of flowers on the deck. I'm going to wait on several gardens until after the house is painted (which will hopefully be done in the next couple weeks. My brother-in-law is coming in a week to help do that huge job. This also means my sister and NIECE are coming too...hooray!)

Well, that's all there is time for! Hope your day, er, week, er, MONTH is going great!

Love to you all,

Christy

Never A Dull Moment...

Hello All,

You might want to get your second cup of your hot beverage of choice before reading this one. I've waited far too long to post and we've had a lot going on. :O) As always, I'll just give it to you as it comes....

We had quite a March, and so far April has been the same. Each week brought at least one, and sometimes two, winter storm warnings. The "last day of school" keeps getting pushed further into June due to school cancellations. Here is the deck in one of the last storms. It comes fast and then melts fast. This week, however, it looks like Spring might finally win the battle. Time will tell!

Brennen got part of his wish and lost one front tooth on his birthday!

My mom was here the whole week before Easter and over Brennen's birthday. He turned 8 this year. For his actual birthday, he requested a steak dinner. We made his favorites to go with it: corn, cornbread, and cantaloupe. He opened gifts from family. We were proud of how gracious he was about each gift, and how much attention he gave each thing. Here he is playing with a racing engine sounding birthday card. To celebrate with his friends, Brennen asked if he could take a few bowling. The four boys had a great time bowling and then on to Pizza Hut for supper, gifts and cake. It was a simple party, but one of the best ever for Brennen. Bowling looked so fun that Mom, Todd and I even joined in. Of course, this would have been a great time to show you some pictures, but I didn't have my camera. :O( After Grandma left, we colored eggs.

Easter was pretty quiet for us this year, especially considering the busy-ness it represented the past few years in Peoria when the entire kids program at church was moved off-site to the high school in order to do a huge community outreach service. I was grateful for the quiet this year, but it did make us miss our Peoria "family."

While Mom was here, she did some research to find out what the big birds that visit our yard are called. Last fall I posted some pictures of an entire flock of them in our back yard. I'd been calling them prairie chickens, but Dad was pretty sure I was wrong about that. However, he didn't know what they were either. Mom found it. They are "chukars," imported from the Middle East. http://sdakotabirds.com/species/chukar_info.htm Cool! They are very striking birds. As I've been unable to get a decent photo, be sure to visit the link. (We must learn something each day, remember. Here's your chance!) :O)

A month or so ago, Kindrid insisted we all try Brussels sprouts. I was thrilled to comply as I'm always trying to get us to eat more vegetables. I'd read somewhere that kids need to try things at least 10 times before they learn to like them. Well, one down and NONE TO GO. In our first, united family campaign against any food, we are unanimous in this: This horrific vegetable will never again be allowed on our table. Seriously, WHY would anyone eat this? It was even in a butter sauce. We loaded it with salt and pepper. Gagging was heard. It's the first time in decades that I actually used my water to swallow something whole rather than chew it. Sorry to you sprout lovers...ain't gonna happen here!

Kindrid told me a while back, "Mom. I really want to own a gas station when I grow up."

Last week was "clown night" at AWANA. I was so stressed about how I was going to get homework, dinner and clown paint done between school getting out and AWANA beginning. I decided the best way to manage was to do some before they ate. First time I've fed a couple o' clowns at supper (well, on second thought....).

Here they are at church in all their glory...

Brennen's birthday (April 7th) marked Todd's one year anniversary with his company and last week his one year anniversary here at the hospital. His co-workers surprised him with a "disciplinary" meeting where they greatly encouraged him with lots of positive feedback and support. I'm so proud of him and thankful for the great folks with whom he works. Census has been way up the past couple weeks which makes for some stress, but it's a wonderful thing for "business." Mom was able to be at the hospital for a tour at the time several patients were discharged. A special "code" is sounded and every available employee gathers round the door and cheers the patient as he leaves. These folks have worked so hard and almost always leave far better off than when they arrived. What a blessing to work in such a positive, helping environment!! Here is the link to his facility: http://www.ernesthealth.com/hospitals.html

Uncle Matt and Auntie Carrie came to visit over the weekend. We like to think they came to see us, but I suspect the puppies were the main attraction this time. Carrie, brave soul, brought a fairy-sugar-cookie-decorating kit for her and Kindrid to do. Big fun...serious artists!!

The kids have been practicing for a long time for a church play called, "It's Cool In The Furnace." It's about the Old Testament book of Daniel and touches on the highlights of Daniel and his friends' adventures. Brennen got to be a guard that pitched the three friends (notice I'm doing everything I can to avoid having to look up how to spell their names!!) into the fiery furnace. The book of Daniel relates that those guards died in the process. Brennen said he had to die, too, "but, don't worry, Mom, I just crawl out the back and sneak back around to the choir. I don't really die."

Kindrid was part of the choir. She was groovin' in this shot:

The puppies are Growing Bigger Every Day. It's time to consider what the next enclosure for them should be. We have about four weeks to go before we'll let them go to their new homes. Puppy number 1 is claimed already. Any takers for puppies 2-7???? :O) Uncle Matt took some amazing shots of them this weekend that I hope to share with you soon.

If you've visited you know we have a huge deck with lots of patio furniture badly in need of new cushions. Hooray!!! Found some at Wal-Mart that we love, bought 'em and I get to put them on today. I'm so excited as the others were so nasty one couldn't sit on them any more. This week promises such fine weather that I know we'll get to eat dinner outside - yay!!!

Oh! My fingers are getting tired...I never type this much! Hope all is well with you. I sure enjoy keeping in touch with so many through blogs, Facebook, email, house guests and phone. Wyoming is pretty far from everyone we love, but it doesn't feel that way with all the means we have of staying close. What a blessing!!

With love,

Christy

Puppy Post...

Hi...I have other stuff to post soon, but wanted to get some new pictures of our ADORABLE puppies up quick. They really changed a lot this last week. They are three weeks old now with their eyes open. They are walking but fall down about every fifth step, have started play-fighting with each other and will come over to us for attention when they see us. They are now just out in the big box so Bailey can come and go as she likes to feed them and I DON'T HAVE TO GET UP IN THE NIGHT WITH THEM ANY MORE! :O) They have darling little "rrrruuuuffff" barks and little growls. They grow a LOT every DAY - that part has been simply amazing to see. The coloring is changing on some of them. They had their first softened puppy food today and loved it. These pictures are in the same order as the ones previously posted.

Puppy 1: Female, white stripe, brown eyebrows and "socks," white "shoes," medium size puppy

Puppy 2: Female, mid-brown color, black white collar, white "shoes," this was one of the medium puppies at first but is now the biggest by far

Puppy 3: Female, golden color with black and white places, looks most like the mother, gentle, one of the smaller puppies

Puppy 4: Female, mostly white with one big "black eye," black ears. In the last couple days, this puppy has had some brownish spots coming through on its head and back...should be interesting to see what color it ends up!

Puppy 5: Male, white puppy with blackish ears, the only male

Puppy 6: Female, mostly black with some brown, smallest of the puppies, very sweet and gentle

Puppy 7: Female, this one started off as mostly black and has gradually gotten more of a dark brown color

Aren't they so much cuter than they were?? :O)

It's Good Friday...have you had a chance to spend a quiet moment remembering the great sacrifice made for us on this day so long ago?

Love,

Christy