Good and Bad

A lot has happened since my last installment. September 6th, we celebrated our 5th anniversary by going out for dinner in town. Nothing too fancy but a nice steak was great! Hard to believe that 5 yrs has come and gone so fast!

The following Friday, we drove to Worland, WY. We had gotten a promotional flier in the mail about a car sale and we had won a prize, so we went down to claim it, hoping it was the grand prize of $30,000. It wasn't but we did get a $300 gas voucher. Oh, and we bought a new car! Something we both didn't really plan on doing, but we knew that our sunfire was going to need some much needed, expensive repairs and eventual replacement. So we took one for a test drive and went in to check prices. We walked out twice and every time they came back with a better offer. (of course they would) So we walked out of there with a great deal on a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica with 50,000 miles! Yes, it looks like a small mini van but they call it a "sports wagon". We've gotten some jabs about the new "family car" but you know what? It's roomy, comfortable and in much better shape than the previous. What's really funny is that on paper, they "gave" us $8500 for our car that had 183,000 miles and was only worth $900! So good bye little sunfire!

On a sad note, Jason had to put down his horse on Monday. I went to check on them and he was sweaty, rolling and kicking really bad. A sign of colic that can be deadly. We don't know how long it had been going on but it was a not a pretty sight. I got him out to walk him around and he would keep rolling every so often. Jason got there and I told him he needed to do something because he was suffering. He said it was the hardest thing he's had to do. It's always worse when it's your own instead of someone else's.

If you'll refer to 3 stories down, Jason was given another horse in case Cole didn't make it. So Saber has joined our little remuda with Emma. Saber is twice the size of my little mare and just a big goober. He's kind of the goofy kid in class and just a giant! We took him on a ride with our friend's Quin and Tracy and their son Gavin. Gavin was riding infront of Jason and pulled on a branch and most of the dead tree fell down in front of Saber and he just stopped and stood there! It didn't spook him at all. He's only had a couple of rides but he acts like he's dead broke. Jason just needs to fine the gas pedal on him, he's not too fond of running yet.

And thanks for all those that have been praying for us. Jason has had an abundance of work lately which has been an answer to a lot of prayers. The biggest job so far is to trim out 3 houses for a subdivision for a company from Casper. The division is 2 blocks from our house. They are behind on their schedule and still have 30 more homes to build. Hopefully everything will go well and they'll keep him for the rest.

This weekend I head to Billings with some women from church and friends from Meeteetse. We're going to see Beth Moore, she writes a lot of bible studies and we're doing one right now on Daniel. It should be a good time.

A Wet Labor Day Weekend

This last weekend was pretty uneventful for us, but it was nice to just hunker down at home and say warm. It was a cool and rainy weekend for the holiday. Saturday, we went down to Western Frontiers (CWAM) to take some of the new students in the DTS (discipleship training school) up to a deserted town in the mountains, called Kerwin. It's an hour drive on some rough roads and we had maybe 10 people in our pickup. Yes, we piled them in the back of the truck.
To drive to Kerwin, you must pass through Meeteetse. Labor day is the big party weekend for Meeteetse and with that, there is always a crowd of people driving/4-wheeling up to Kerwin. There were quite a few vehicles in the parking area when we arrived. We got out and walked around and showed the students some of the abandoned buildings and the mine. Had some lunch and decided to find some water falls that friend's of Jason, found on his DTS 7 years ago! Where has the time gone. We head off along the river, and I followed the 2 track road, but then was coaxed to follow the group along the river. Having to cross the river and soak your shoes is not the best feeling but we made it. We kind of had to find or make our own path up in the brush, not even knowing if we were headed in the right direction. We did find the falls after a couple of minutes. Some of the kids, (when I say kids I mean late teens, which I'm not anymore) climbed down the steep sides of the mountain and crossed to the other. Jason and I tried another route and came to a shallower crossing. Trying to not get too wet, Jason jumped and got soaked to his knees. He told me to jump and held his hand to catch me. The river was wider than my leg span and I knew I was going to get wet. I jumped and slipped on a slimy rock, twisted in the air and landed on my back in the middle of the river. I was soaked up to my chest and in not a very good mood. Wet jeans are not the most comfortable to walk in. Every garment I was wearing was wet. I was not impressed. I headed for the truck to wait out the group. They caught up and we found some wild raspberries and currants to snack on. My mood was slowly changing as the breeze started to dry my clothes. At least Saturday was a nice weather day.
We headed back to the base and Heidi Lancaster made us some spaghetti and we hung out with them for the rest of the evening. There was a rumor going around that there was a street dance that night, so the students wanted to go to that, only it was Sunday night and not Saturday. So we went out with Kurt and Heidi to a local hangout.
Sunday, was a the first time in a long time that we skipped church. We got home late the night before and slept past 9. Jason didn't want to go to church so we opted to stay home. Our friend's Jon and Sheila called us and said they were cooking prime rib, so we had them over for supper. It was really good. Monday was a cool, rainy day. One of those days you don't want to get out of bed or out from under the covers. I was in a chili and soup mood, so that's what I made and we curled up on the couch for a very long movie.

Whether it was raining out or I was falling in the river, it made for a "refreshing" weekend.

Update on Cole

Jason talked to the vet yesterday to see what the results of the blood test were for his horse. He said they were thinking it was the result of a chemical or from the bite of a brown recluse spider. He could have been bit as he ate the new hay and got bit in the mouth and face. The brown recluse spider has a poison that will kill the tissue around the area of the bite, causing holes in the tissue. So that could have caused the huge hole in his bottom lip. I did have a dream that the hole did close and heal itself, so we'll just keep believing it will. As far as his attitude, he is no longer lethargic, which the poison in his body would have caused. He nickers at us when we feed him and he's got more energy to walk around and I don't know how much he's laying down anymore. So hopefully he's on the mend. It will take a long time for him to get back to his prior physique, but we've got all winter.

Blessings amidst the Storm

Did you ever just have one of those months that everything seems to pile on at once? August has been like that for us. One of our biggest struggles, has been dealing with Jason's horse. He has had a hard month health wise. Let me back up and tell you the tale.

The end of July we went for a ride with friends. A few days later we noticed his withers were really swollen. So we took him to the vet and got a treatment going. We gave him bute and packed hot water rags on the area for a week. A couple days later of being done, he got really lethargic was laying down. We were thinking colic but he didn't have the symptoms. He wasn't eatting a whole lot so again we went to the vet. Cole (horse) had a cut on his tongue and it was kind of brown. The vet thought maybe he ate something that cut it and he had an internal infection. More antibiotics and an ulcer guard in case there were some ulcers. His weight went down and down until he was skin and bones. He would perk up and then get down again attitude wise. Then he had swelling under his jaw which we thought was now strangles. It's just been one thing after another. We took him in again and then vet did some blood and thought it was cancer! He took a biopsy and set it away and it came back today as negative to cancer but he still has an infection. So now, we're thinking, maybe he's got a chemical burn going on in his mouth from maybe some pesticides from some grass he ate. Not to get too graphic, but he's got a big hole in his lip and he's just not looking very good. Lost a lot of muscle and weight and the taste buds on the end of his tongue. We just have to wait until it goes through his system and get him on some penicillin for a month. We were already of the mind set that if it was cancer, he'd have to be put down today. Now, I guess we'll wait and see and nurse him along. Hopefully he'll get back to looking like this.

In between of just feeling attacked by the enemy in a lot of areas, there have been some huge blessings.

Last friday, it was my first day back to work, getting ready for the kids on monday. I went out to my car, early in the morning and found a card on my front seat addressed to me. I opened it up and found a card about being a faithful person. Folded in the card was a $10, $20 and 2 $100 bills! $230! The card was signed, "Your friend and sister in Christ." I cried and prayed a blessing for the friend, all the way to Cody. Money has been tight this month and this was just a sign for me that God was still there and was going to take care of us. What's funny is, the night before I was praying in the truck, "God, $10,000 would really help us with a lot of things." The next day I found this card! So I didn't get the total I would have liked but I'm not ungrateful. This is the second time this has happened to us in our almost 5 yrs of marriage.

Then Saturday came around and I checked the horse and he was worse off. I broke down in front of our friends. The weight of it all was really bothering me. We had all planned to go riding the next day after church and Jason would have to borrow a horse. Our friend's Quin and Tracy, asked me to keep a secret. They had both been feeling like they needed to give one of their horses to Jason in case his doesn't make it. Well, that afternoon, Jason got there and they said he could ride this horse Sabre (the one they were giving him) on Sunday. We were outside and Quin couldn't take it anymore. He told Jason that Sabre was his if Cole didn't make it and he could use him during hunting season until his was on the mend if he did make it. He was floored! So we've been blessed amidst the struggle. God is still in control and we live one day at a time.

Where did the summer go?

Summer holidays are almost over for me. I go back to work on the 18th but have a meeting on the 15th of AUGUST! We really haven't done a whole lot of anything this summer. We've both been busy working which we finished the painting job on the 24th of July. We had my auntie Dorothy and Uncle Dave come down for the weekend and we showed them alot of country that they probably wouldn't have seen on their own. They just loved the mountains.

This last weekend we played host to quite a few people. Jason had set up a workshop/seminar on worship at our church. So we had his friend Travis and Jenna Vaad and their daughter and son. Scott Macleod and his wife Sarah and son and daughter were staying at a friend's ranch which we so appreciated because it was a last minute change from where they were going to stay. Sarah just couldn't stop raving about the mountains. They were also going to Glacier National Park in Montana which is supposed to be out of this world beautiful. Scott and Sarah have been doing inner city ministry for the last 15 yrs in Nashville. They also run a worship school called Thunder School. check out HarvestSound.com for more on their ministry.

We just had a great time getting to know them, showing them alot of firsts for their family. Jason took their kids on their first horse ride. There's not many horses in the inner city. They were really down to earth people and we've really made a connection with them all. They've invited us down to visit them and their school.

The seminar was really quite powerful. It really made some people stretch their boxes that we so often put God and church into. We need to break out of those confining boxes and let God really work. There was a time of prophetic worship and prophetic words spoken over the few people the came. It was a small group of only 15 or so but God had something to say to everyone present. Jason and I had a lot of words of worship and leading the younger generation into worship and a new sound of music coming forth for this region and maybe even bigger. Sunday service was also very powerful. Our pastor Roger got excited about the change that is coming forth in our church. Our church is not going to be one that people just stay in the four walls but that we are going to be a difference and spread God outside of the building. We don't know what the change will look like but we're tired of the way the "church" of America is. That was kind of the word that Scott felt for our church body. We're excited!

OF course the weekend couldn't go with out a hitch. We were watching our friend's dog Cubby. And wouldn't you know it that the friday night everyone came and we weren't home, that the dog slipped out and ran away. We came home and I was in a panick. We prayed we'd find him, Jason and Travis walked around the street in the dark looking for him and didn't find him. I felt awful and lost a couple hours of sleep and tears. I sure didn't want to lose a friendship over a dog. Thanks be to God, the police picked him up and he was at the pound! So the next day I picked him up and Cubby was sure happy to see me!

My time has ended. Got to go.

I have a New Laundry Room!

Okay, so we already had a laundry room when we bought the house, but we painted it this last weekend and put down new flooring. It feels like a new room and is the most updated room in the house. This may sound a little bold for some people (MOM) but I did a red wall and 3 yellowy cream. Jason had also textured the walls and the cream actually looks like dry mud. It looks really nice. For flooring, I bought some sticky tiles to put over the old 70's brown and beige linoleum. So now it looks like dark brown slate tile linoleum. So to finish off the room, we have to do the base board and trim around the window and kitchen door. But that's on the back burner for a trip to Billings, because around here it's pretty expensive or the selection is really outdated. Pictures to come this fall.

Almost a month!

Sorry readers, it's been almost a full month since my last installment.

Well, I guess recently at the end of June a friend asked us if we wanted to go camping with him and a possible "special friend". We said we would and planned for a weekend at a local FREE cabin up in the mountains close to Meeteetse, WY. It's a quant little cabin with 4 beds, no water or electricity but we all like to rough it a little. We trailered up 4 horses for us and thankfully we did because we couldn't drive the truck to the cabin with all our gear. So we had to pack it on the horses. It was also my birthday that weekend and it was just nice to lay around, read and sit by the fire with friends. We did do some horseback riding and enjoyed seeing the horses grazing on the green grass. We had to learn of course, to keep two horses tied while two grazed. We learned the hard way that a pack of four will move as one and they were moving back towards the pickup even with front hobbles keeping there legs together. So a brisk walk/run down the road helped with exercise. There is nothing like cooking over an open fire and seeing the many stars come out and listening to the running river.

The 4th of July was a fun day. We met friends in Cody for the Parade and the Annual Stampede. The weather was warm and the seats were very crowded but fun was had at least by myself and Faith, who had the task of occupying her 16 month son. The next day Faith, Erin Kreider (yes Wiebe from Manitoba) and I drove to Billings for a day of unloading our "bulging" wallets. A few purchases were made by all and back of the car did have some new treasures. I also went yesterday to help out my friend Sheila. Her friend Trisha was out and needed to get to the airport, but Sheila's car was unreliable and so we took mine. I had gotten all my painting done at the college so I had a free day. More treasures were found for me. I did receive $20 from my mother-in-law for my birthday and I blew it on 2 new piano books which I'm excited to try out.

So our plans for the next couple of weeks is work at home and the job. Keep the lawn green and garden weeded. I do have to say that I will have a bumper garden this year. I have many small tomatoes on my 11 plants, corn, 1 cucumber which tasted just heavenly, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, carrots and I've already reseeded for more radishes. Our one little row is already gone! One lesson I've had to learn is that plants like to have water everyday. Something I didn't really have to worry all that much about in Manitoba, but here they get watered once or even twice a day and it sure is helping.