My Endearing Children

We’re not very mushy around here and we don’t believe in flattery. Yes, we have been known to butter each other up in hopes of a favor but usually our compliments are well earned and genuine. Which means I get very few! But I must have done well in the last few days because these are a few of the touching compliments I have received.

First of all was Friday when Ella told me, “You’re a good mom. You don’t drive crazy and you’re not a drunk.” Um…. Okay!! Glad she appreciates my careful driving and non drunkenness!

Then the little darling left me this message – on the toilet (?). 

What's written is, "I love my mother I kown you love my butya." Um, what?? Although I was deeply touched by this note of affection I did have to question her on what “butya” meant and how she knew I loved it.  She explained that she was NOT referring to anyones butt – it was more like, “I know you love me, so yah….” Aw right, the Montana English…. ;) The interpretation is, “I love my mother. I know you love me, but ya.” 

And then little  Frankie was telling me about a kid at their school. I asked him, “Is he a big kid?” and Frankie responded, “He’s as big as you only not as fat. He’s in P3.” Aw, nice! Not only are third graders as tall as I am but I’m fat!!! Haaa! Love it! If nothing else, my kids are honest!  

Snuggling with Ed

One cool thing that has happened as they’re getting older is that they are more interested in the “unadulterated” versions of Bible stories.  As in children’s bibles and  Veggie Tales goodbye, we want the real deal with all the blood and gore and personal information! They watched Dave and the Giant Pickle and it perked their interest when I told them that actually David chopped off Goliaths head afterwards. They liked the idea of that so we read the story from my Bible. They failed to mention in Veggie Tales Dave and the Giant Pickle that Goliath (The Giant Pickle) was uncircumcised and after David chopped off his head, he carried it (his head) around with him and gave it to Saul! Well now they know ;)

So now L is flipping through my Bible reading all her favorite Bible stories . I’m still so amazed that she can read!!! 

Blogs going to the dogs!

Since I am overloading facebook already with pictures of my dogs, I thought I might just head on over here and overload my blog too :) This Granny dog that we got a week and a half ago is just TOO SWEET, especially with puppy Dot. She is a true Granny - she is kind and gentle with the puppy but doesn't take any crap from silly Rusty and doesn't mind whooping on Ed if she has too. Love her!

And I have to post some pics of Rusty. He is the one of the silliest dogs we've ever had! He is a clown and always getting into trouble. Well actually he's always doing naughty things- not exactly getting into trouble because he looks up at you with those big eyes and ridiculously big ears and it's hard to do much more than laugh at him! Last night I was sitting at the table eating popcorn and he walked over, climbed up on a kitchen chair, stood on it and just LOOKED at me. I offered him a piece of popcorn and he didn't want it, just continued to LOOK at me while standing perched on top of the chair. Go figure!

Granny kind of got mixed up about the pillow - your HEAD is supposed to go on the pillow, Granny - not your bottom! 

Puppy Dot, fast asleep on her nice warm, soft mattress

Everyone who gets a puppy from the shelter should get a granny dog with it too, so that puppy has someone to sleep on! 

 L gussied Granny up with a nice manicure and pedicure. LOVE THIS DOG. Although old she is not snappy or cranky at ALL. She is a happy soul, even when getting her toenails painted by a serious eight year old!

The finished product. You look beautiful, Granny!

 Dot and Bonnie - nice face Bonnie! 

Dot watching a movie with the kids

 This is an unusual picture of puppy Dot as she is being calm and not biting. She is a crazy little monster pup and SO full of energy! Love her!

Wearing a pink leash and wearing a pair of underpants - couldn't of happened to a nicer dog, Rusty! And just look at how proud Frankie is of himself. That's my boy! 

 Always wondered what that little hole in boys underpants was for. Now I know! It's for a tail :)  

 Some more Granny/Dot sweetness. Love Bonnie in the background :) 

Going somewhere I should know about, Rusty? Since we picked up the mattress he had to settle on using the suitcase for a bed. Funny dog!

 Asleep in his suitcase... wouldn't be hard to take Rusty to the States! Just zip that sucker up and we're on our way! 

 Puppy Dot hogging the pillow. What would she do without her Granny? 

I promised Granny that she would never have to go another night without a pillow or a roof over her head again. Unless Dot steals her pillow that is!

So now our Pack is up to six girls (Malaika, Bonnie, Bessie, Hazel, Granny and Dot) and three boys (Bridger, Rusty and Eddie) of our own, plus my friend Robin's two dogs, Kovu and Keenai. Six of our dogs came for the USPCA shelter in Kampala (Rusty, Bonnie, Bessie, Eddie, Granny and Dot) and three of those have ridges (Rusty, Eddie and Dot) :) Malaika was found at my office and Hazel at a convent. I bought Bridger from a boda driver for about $20 eight years ago :) So blessed to be able to have this lovely Pack! They put up with a lot :)

Home improvements - slowly but surely!

We’ve been in our house for a year and a half now – incredible how time flies! It seems just like yesterday we were waiting for it to be built.

The place has seen a lot of changes, mainly in the yard. Our fruit and avocado trees have grown like nothing this Montanan has ever seen. Our avocado trees are over ten feet tall now and will probably start producing fruit next year! You have to wait YEARS for a tree to grow that fast in Montana. Our flower beds are beautiful and full and our hedge in the back is big enough to give us some privacy. With the guard house, dog house and pit latrine finished, the outside looks amazing!

The outside is what has changed the most – the inside has seen fewer accomplishments but it too has been changing slowly but surely!

In May we got the floor in the master bathroom finished. LOVE IT! Especially since the water goes down the drain now and we don’t have to stand in a basin to bathe! 

In June we got a second toilet put into our second bathroom. LIFE CHANGER! We’ve never been a two toilet family before and WOW do we ever LOVE IT!

October saw the addition of a POWER POLE right outside our gate. The awesome thing about this is that the neighbor arranged everything – three of us neighbors split the costs for the two poles that were needed and wallah – a power pole sitting right outside our gate!! A HUGE accomplishment!

November God then provided us with some unexpected money, so this month we added BEDROOM DOORS!!! Also a huge life changer! Not only do I have a bit of privacy now and can shut kids OUT of my room, but we can also shut dogs in and out of whatever rooms we need to as well. LOVE IT and our handmade, custom made doors are BEAUTIFUL!!

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Next project (thank you Cody Bible Church!) is wiring the house so that we can get it hooked up to that beautiful new power pole sitting outside our gate. And have power! Ironically out of the three of us neighbors who pitched in towards the pole, we’re the only ones without power and the only ones living in our house. Ha! That will change soon though and we are SO excited! Can’t wait to run our refrigerator again and hook up the washing machine, let alone be able to charge our phone and computers and have lights!

So God is finishing this house, slowly by surely. And the longer you wait for things the more you appreciate them so I can honestly say I love everything about this house! To get such joy and delight from a simple toilet or power pole outside your gate is a beautiful thing ;)  

Hazel the Hog

It does get cold here on the Equator at times and during such times one must do what they must to keep warm. In our family this means cozying up with one or more dogs, depending on how cold the night is. Now some dogs are great for this and others, not so much. Hazel would be one of those 'not so much' type dogs. 

Not only does she emit deadly gas emissions, but she sleeps like THIS all night. A definite bed hog!! 

 

The price you pay for keeping warm I guess. Gotta love her hanging out teeth! 

Tail of two kitties

I had decided some time ago that our cat needed some feline company. She does really well being one cat in a Pack of nine dogs but her hunting skills, which is mainly why you keep a cat, are questionable. So I figured she could use some backup. She likes to sit on our wall and watch the rats run underneath her (thankfully they don’t get in the house!), then when the mood strikes her, runs over and catches a bird which she then likes to bring into the house. So I thought that maybe we should try to get a couple of kittens that might actually try to DO something about the rats, rather than just watch them!

I had seen on facebook that the USPCA had just gotten a big litter of kittens, so that was one of our goals last Saturday – to go and get some kitties! We had three goals actually. 1. Stop at Game and get some dog food and flea shampoo 2. Find and eat at the new Kentucky Fried Chicken that is alleged to be in Kampala, and 3. To get two kitties.  I had also seen a lovely mother dog on their facebook page (that page has gotten me into a lot of trouble!) that I wanted to check out being as she looked older, sweet and had a rockin’ ridge.

So our day didn’t turn out quite as planned but each goal was met in its own way! Number one goal, Stop at Game and get some dog food and flea shampoo, went without a hitch. It actually went better than expected as they now have Ol’ Roy dog food (Good old Walmart brand!) which is considerably less expensive than the other brands AND I got 5% off because I got a ripped bag. I was also able to find windshield wipers ( my old ones are SHOT!) and even bought some Christmas wrapping paper. How’s that for thinking ahead??

Goal number two took a bit more work. I knew the general area where the new KFC was supposed to be but unfortunatly couldn’t find the area. On our hunt we got stuck in TERRIBLE traffic, which would have been okay if we’d reached our destination at the end of it! But we didn’t. Another unfortunate thing was that it started to rain heavily and being as I had dismantled my windshield wipers, I didn’t have any! So yeah, driving in traffic, in an unfamiliar part of Kampala, in the rain, looking for the illusive KFC, wasn’t much fun! We were all getting pretty hungry at this point but bless their little hearts, the kids didn’t whine or start fighting too badly. Bless them! We were finally able to get back to Game and settled for eating at Mr Tasty Chicken, which I think we appreciated just as much as we would have KFC because not only do the kids not know the difference, but we were starving by then!

After filling our bellies with chicken, off we went to the USPCA. Now for someone with a dog addiction, this is a DANGEROUS place to frequent. But I was in search of kitties so didn’t think there would be a problem. We looked at the kitties and whoa, they looked bad! Most had one eye gummed shut and they just looked poorly. Sick kittens are easy for me to turn down but why we were there, why not check out the mother dog I was interested in? Come to find out she was already spoken for (darn) but she had a nice litter of puppies and one had a… RIDGE. Whoa! That was just too tempting. But I really wanted an older, more mellow dog to add to our Pack as we’ve already got a bunch of year old dogs. So then we made the terrible mistake of looking at all the others J. And guess what we found… a dear old lady dog who had been there forever and was just what I was looking for to add to the Pack! I was looking for an EASY addition and there she was, fat, happy and grey! After a bit of pondering I said we’d take her and we really couldn’t leave the beautiful puppy with the ridge behind, either, so instead of coming home with two kitties, we came home with two more DOGS!! Haa!!!! And we love them!

So here they are – pictures of “Granny” and Dot. 

Papa Frankie has barely put the pup down! 

The Pack checkin' out the new baby

 "Oh crap" Bridger is thinking, "Another one?" He's come so far in the last three years - he used to be AFRAID of puppies! 

 Sweet old Granny with Frankie and Dot the puppy. She was the much needed energy in our Pack! 

 A Man and his Dog on a bunk bed. It's a beautiful thing people, a beautiful thing... 

 My Mom saw pictures of Granny and immidietly said, "That looks like Bridger's long lost mother!" Haa! And she does! It's amazing how much they resemble each other! 

 Sweet, sweet old soul. She really was a great addition!

 And the puppy, Dot. Isn't she a little beauty?!!

Dot and her dot

Whatcha thinkin' about, Granny?