New toys for ME!!!

This week we've gotten THREE new things! And almost all of them were for ME!! Ha! This has been a really good week for me!

Sunday morning our friend, Ellie, showed up from Tanzania. We'd never met Ellie before but she is here to stay with us until her family moves to Uganda next January. She is a lovely six year old Rottweiler whose owners work in the same organization that I do. They have a little girl and boy Ella and Frankie's ages so I'm hoping that Ellie won't miss her kids as much, now that she has substitutes! Ellie is a calm, submissive dog who has done her best to blend into The Pack and our family. Phew! Her and the cat have an interesting relationship. Sometimes you'll see her chase him or sometimes he'll be chasing her with his tail all poofed out. Being as he thinks that he's a dog, he can totally hold his own :)

Okay, she's not exactly "for me" but I do enjoy dogs and she is nice and easy so I will enjoy her!

Our second big "me" thing was a mega sized American trampoline!! After jumping on our friends big trampoline at Easter i thought to myself, "Boy would it be fun to have a big trampoline that I could jump on, without worrying about hurting myself or squishing one of the kids." Frankie's been at the receiving end of my big old butt more than once and i would like to see him live through his childhood. But of course I can't (or wouldn't) get one shipped from the States so it was just something that I dreamed about. Until I heard about some missionaries who were moving and had their big trampoline to sell! And we got it!! We'll sell our old 8 footer, which is relatively knew and is in great condition, and I'm pretty sure that I can sell it for about $50 less than this new big one I bought. So I upgraded for only $50 and maybe the price of a few new springs!

And oh my goodness is it ever fun! I haven't jumped a lot for about 15 years (I jumped last summer at my parents but not that much!) and to be honest, I was never very tricky to begin with. Jump jump, sit, jump jump, sit... You get the idea. The hilarious thing is that my kids are AMAZED at my FEW, very simple tricks that I still know how to do. They seriously think I'm so cool! HAAAA!!!! And of course I get up there and act all bossy and like an expert and they buy it, hook, line and sinker! It's great family fun though and is much safer for Frankie, although I can still send him flying! But now at least I don't land on him as much. Ouch.

The third thing that I bought, since I saw it at the house of the folks who are moving and sold me the trampoline, is a bike! Yes, a bike of my very own! So now I can return the neighbors and will have my own bike to take my dogs on Pack Runs with!! Yeah! It's a nice bike with a really cushy seat, too. I didn't get a picture of it but I'm so happy to have my own bike!

Our new temporary Pack Member, Ellie

New Pack line up - missing baby Bill who is still too little to go on Pack Walks
Now I made a mistake here, faithful disciple of Cesar M*llan that I am. I thought it would be a good thing to take the Pack on a Pack Walk Sunday since walking together is such a primal thing, a good way to burn energy, etc. Well, I didn't stop to consider that Ellie would be WIPED OUT from her two day trip from Tanzania! I knew that she went walking and jogging (yes! Jogging! I can't imagine!) with her owner so figured she was in fine shape. Well, not so much!

We let her off leash and about 1/3 of the way through our walk I noticed that she was getting slower and slower. So I leashed her up again and gave her to Frankie (who LOVED a low energy dog that he could walk!) just so we wouldn't lose her!

Pretty soon though, plop. The old girl wasn't moving. Now, I could totally sympathize as Ellie is built totally like ME. Short legs (she's only as tall as little Madea!) and a VERY stocky body. An easy keeper is our friend Ella (and, um, ME!). I'd had a past experience like this with a flopping Rottweiler so after my initial panicked thoughts of either Ellie dying on her first day in Uganda and the pain and grief this would bring to her family (think two little kids like Ella and Frankie who LOVE their only dog!), or me having to lug her on my back all the way home and possibly dying myself, I remembered my past experience and just let her take a little break. After several of these she was good to go and made it home in fine shape! We're letting her rest couple more days until we take her out again :)

So yep, we are "those" kind of American missionaries now. I mean, Americans sort of have a bad stereotype sometimes with all their many, BIG, over-the-top fun things and well, we're living up to it now! Just get a load of our yard :)

Jumping with Frank. I noticed later, in trying to pick pictures to post, that my mouth was open in almost all of them! I think I was either GASPING for breath or yelling. And my kids thought this was cool? Yeah, go figure.

Showing off my famous "touch your toes" trick. Franks like, "Wow! Mom's really breathing hard! And boy, I never knew she could do such outstanding tricks like touching her toes!"

Ho ho! The sit down trick! Oh yeah!

Woohoo! And this is simply the "over the top!" trick! Look at me go!!! You don't HAVE to breath to be able to jump high!! And look at all that room between my big flying butt and innocent, vulnerable little Frankie! Safety first man! Glad we have a bigger tramp! This boy just might live to see his fourth birthday!
And here I thought it would be hard for them to get on the trampoline. As you can see, Ella simply bounces up - not a problem.
The wee Frank has perfected the method of using one of his LONG big toes to help clamber up, much like a monkey.
Mind you it did take him a while to perfect his technique and he did have a few "How did I get like this?" moments. Never one to needlessly pamper my youngsters, I stood around helping him figure it out and offering lots of advice and suggestions:) I ain't raisin no wimp!
Thankfully jumping off is way easier. And no, he didn't land on the dog!
They are SO happy to have a new trampoline! This is a great picture of a "natural Frankie" who was laughing because his sister had just let a LOUD and STINKY fart :) She's looking pretty pleased with herself, too.

More pictures of dogs, kids and beautiful weather

We went to the Gardens yesterday evening - what a beautiful day! It has really been a huge blessing to live so close to the Gardens.

The Pack

Ella kept charge of Madea the whole time! We kept the pups on leashes for a while just so that they could exercise their minds. The only thing is, I'm not sure that they really have minds in the first place!

We had to stop half way for a Pack Snack, carried for us by Sanyu

So what does a Pack Snack consist of? Little candy dog bones of course! The dogs had treats too!

Thank you Sanyu, for carrying our water and snacks!

I love Rangers face in this one - he was yawning

Kids and dogs having fun - beautiful! Makes me want to be a kid again :)

Sanyu, Ranger and I didn't run. Me and Sanyu aren't the running types :)

Whew!

We ended our Garden Pack Walk playing a bit on the beach

Madea trying on Sanyu's packs before a Pack Walk

Get a load of this face! She didn't like them... :)

Ella learned how to make scrambled eggs this weekend. There was raw egg everywhere! Luckily she has her faithful K9 to offer clean up services. Yes, we have a damn small kitchen - but get a load of the nice spice rack that me and Frankie built!

Dear little homemaking Ella even washed the pan afterwards, under the careful scrutiny of over half the Pack. Maybe that's why the kitchen seems so small... ;)

The Pups have welcomed Baby Bill with open arms - or jaws!

Why I don't like the kids to eat gum. I thought these days of gum stuck to the dogs was over! Unfortunately gum seems to be an intregal part of Ella's education at the moment. If she doesn't fart around and does a good job she gets some Easter gum. Many times it's all that keeps her going!

Extensions are out! Waiting for the next due.

Sleeping baby :) He's not big enough to go on Pack Walks yet!

1st Grade continues, + some other stuff

Life in first grade is going well. I'm beginning to like the Lifepacs more now that we're through the first workbooks. Ella is not much for review and gets bored easily. When she's bored she really starts fooling around so the first workbooks were a bit exasperating for me. I figured out that you DON'T need to do all of the teachers activities that are in the teachers book and that teaching ONE child, fresh out of kindergarten, is much different than teaching a class of little youngsters (like the teachers books are geared for).

I'm liking the worksheets that they provide and the SIMPLE crafts/worksheets that you can copy. I am NOT crafty AT ALL so this really helps! And Ella really likes to cut and paste things, so it makes her happy too.

Ella with her little Joseph's. I colored the one on the right and L did the one on the left.

You can't see it too well, but L is wearing a hat that I helped her put together. SERIOUSLY crafty for me! The point was to somehow drive home the point that God made her special... Yeah, whatever - through making a hat?

One of the perks of doing your work without farting around - you get to hold the puppy :)

Web caming with their Granny - I think she was reading them a book :)

Awwww, seriously, what could be cuter?

Maybe this? He's growing!

And, since I don't want to leave Frankie out...

The Hunter, stalking a grasshopper. This activity can occupy him for HOURS.

He catches them and then, um, talks to them. Really long conversations until he accidentally squeezes a bit too hard and the guts come out. Then it's off to find another little "friend." Here he is waving to the helpless little grasshopper.

Life (and our trampoline) is a battle field

I was enjoying an evening off from 1st Grade, reading a WORLD magazine out by the trampoline, sort of trying to ignore this. But I gave up after a while and just got my camera out, in hopes of getting some pics for Granny.

Little did I know the fun that could be had with bouncy ball on a trampoline. Or that a bouncy ball could double as a weapon! And that beating your sibling, or being beat yourself, with a bouncy ball could be so darned fun.

Surprisingly no child was injured during the course of these pictures. Then I decided to humor the children a bit and jump with them, did a "bottom" (yeah, what was I thinking with a butt as big as mine?!), sent Frankie flying, he landed wrong and hurt his leg. Figures! An ice pack, movie and a sucker, and an hour later and he was fine. Yep, I'm definitely up for Mother of the Year award for sure!

BAM! Perfect aim!

It's so funny to be choked!

Get her while she's down! Show no mercy, little bro!

Cuz she sure isn't going to show any mercy to you!

Ranger made the mistake of jumping onto the trampoline. Yeah, what was he thinking?! It was rather like watching a baby monkey fall into a pen of hungry lions...

He didn't actually HIT Ranger - probably because I was sitting right there but he sure did sound scary! ;)

Good use of your feet, Ranger! And your nice long legs! Right in the gut!

Survivor. Saved by those long legs.

I know, what kind of a mother sits out watching her children beat the crap out of each other and the dog with a bouncy ball? Me.