Respite Care...

Last Wednesday Emory and I received our first call about a "frosted kid" aka a foster child. Aidan prefers to call them frosted kids. Anyway, they needed an emergency respite home for a 12 year old boy. Soooo, we said YES. Of course, did you actually think Emory and I would be able to tell a child NO. Definitely not. So, Thursday afternoon they dropped of the sweetest 12 year old boy you have ever met. He is cute, sweet, polite, well mannered, soft spoken and just plain great. He fits in very well, and we have enjoyed every second with him. I think Aidan probably drives him a little crazy, but other than that I think he has really enjoyed the stay. He will be leaving us tomorrow, and we are very sad. It doesn't take but 1 second to fall in love with a child. We would keep him forever if we could. Anyway, I can't tell his name on a blog, but we will refer to him as D. And he really needs your prayers right now. Please pray that God will place a hedge of protection around him, and show Himself mightily to D in the next few weeks. Before coming here, he had never heard of Jesus Christ. What an awesome opportunity to share Jesus with this child. This is why we chose to do Foster Care, to show Jesus' love to children that need him so desperately. Please continue to pray for his salvation, his new foster family (as of tomorrow), and his new school. We will keep in touch with him, so I will keep you updated.

The school bus

So, I forgot to mention that as of yesterday, Mina is a bus rider. Scary, huh? I said I would never let her, but I had a change of heart. She has been begging since last year to ride the bus, so I finally gave in. She sat with a friend from the neighborhood, and the bus drops off and picks up in our driveway. You can't beat the curb-side service. So, I must say...Never say Never. She is really enjoying it, and it really gives her a sense of independence.

My crazy life...

So, I was at work yesterday. Because I am always at work, and I was thinking about how I never talk about work on my blog. And now that I am spending so much more time there than I use to I decided it was time to talk about my other full-time job. The one when I am not taking care of my 2 beautiful children, husband and dogs. I am a veterinary technician. I have done this since I was a teenager, in fact, I went to Auburn University with plans to attend vet school. That did not happen, I'm not really the stay in school for 8 years type. Anyway, I decided to stick with what I know and love, and practice my technical skills with animals on a daily basis. I work about 7 minutes from my house, at a very large practice. It is a 3 doctor practice with a support staff of over 25 people. I am now the manager of most of those 25 people. My title is "Clinical Manager" or the bad guy. Which ever you prefer. I am responsible for all clinical tasks and staff. If something goes wrong I get blamed for it, always!! Anyway, I really love my job. It is a lot of work, and I am really worn out after 50+ hours a week, but it is very rewarding. I love animals, and I love being such a large part of the team that keeps them healthy and often times saves their lives. I took pics of some really cool things at work, so you could see what I do. I will post them this weekend. I am typically responsible for making sure surgeries are ready to go, I check them in, get their vitals, calculate doses for drugs, place IV catheters, start fluids, induce anesthesia, clip, prep, clean area for surgery, monitor anesthesia as well as the patient, and then finally I recover the patient. Techs do everything, except the surgery! :) That is part of the reason I am a tech and not a Vet, teching is a lot more hands on. Anyway, just thought I would share about what I do all day, I will post pictures this weekend. I have pics of a chewed up pit bull, and another dog that was hit by a mini-van TWICE. The dog that was hit by the mini-van had a really cool knee surgery, so I will show you pics of the busted knee. Alright, gotta go to bed. I have to be at work at 6:45 am!!!

Hayrides and Pumpkins

Saturday night we took both kiddos and my littlest brother, JI, to the Cagel Dairy Corn Maize. We didn't actually buy tickets to the corn maize, but we did take a hayride, roast marshmallows, make s'mores, get baby punkins, and jump on the jumping stings (that is how Aidan says things). We had a great time. We started out on the big jumper, but after the first 2 falls I decided we really couldn't afford a hospital visit and we moved to the little jumping sting. Loads of fun!!! Then we made our way to the punkin patch, picked ourselves out 3 of the cutest pumkins you ever saw. Of course it took us 45 minutes to pick out these perfect pumkins. But, we did it. Then we made our way to the hayride. We waited in line for like 20 minutes with I swear two hundred teenagers. Then we rode the hayride with 200 teenagers, down to the bonfire. We had our own private bonfire, and we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. The kids loved it. I don't know that JI had ever roasted marshmallows before. He loved it. He didn't like the way they tasted, but he enjoyed setting the marshmallows on fire. Then we rode the hayride back, and made our way to the car. What a night!!

Waiting in line for the hayride!

Daddy and Aidan

This is JI!!
Isn't she cute?

Aidan on his tractor, JI was too busy jumping for a tractor ride!!

Mina driving her tractor!!

Fun on the "Jumpin' Sting"

More fun!!

Mina's first Busted lip...

We had dinner with a bunch of our very good friends last night, and anytime we see Uncle Phil our kids get really rowdy. (Sorry Phil) Aidan and Mina started playing a little to rough and Mina got her first fat lip. And boy was it a doozie. She has such big lips anyway, and when they swell, they are huge. She was so mad, only because she didn't want to go to her soccer game with a swollen lip. Soooo, Phil made her a nice ice pack for her lip, and I believe she slept with that ice pack all night. Take a look at this lip...

She looks real happy doesn't she? Lucky for her, it looked a lot better this morning. I think she's cute even with a fat lip!!

B-I-B-L-E

Check out Aidan! He should be on American Idol!!

George Winston

Since I am in the mood to update, I figured I would add some pictures of our puppy. I think the last time I posted he was only 12-14 weeks old. He is now 8 months old, and he is large! He is the greatest dog though. I will forever be a St. Bernard owner, and a boxer owner, Thor is great too! We have great dogs. Winston is 110 lbs, and still growing, he loves toys, and loves to play with the kiddos outside. He chases them through the woods to make sure they are safe. He really is like "Nana" from Peter Pan. He thinks his sole purpose in life is to babysit my kids, and he also thinks that I am not capable of doing it correctly. He is so funny!