Thursday, August 31, 2006

Yes, We Are Still Alive!!


I've been thinking about writing a blog since my last posting. My time has been entirely consumed with reformatting, binding, and covering books for the kids this school year. I'm nearing the end now. My printing is finished, nearly all of the books are glued. What remains is mostly the covers to be put on. I'll be sure to take a few pictures when my "library" is complete.

We've had many things happen here since my last posting, which has been nearly a month. First of all our kitty Sandy could no longer refrain from taking a shopping trip to what Mike calls our second home, Walmart. We had no idea that she accompanied us on our trip, so as we dissapeared into the store she took a stroll through the parking lot. Since we had not predetermined a rendevous point, not knowing she would be coming along, she missed the bus. At least this is the best we can come up with about her dissapearance.

She has not one but two replacements. Once you get started with these little furrballs it's hard to live without one. Our friends were "cat sitting" a momma and her kittens when we visited and we were originaly going to only get one to keep Sandy company. Since Sandy's dissapearance we decided we'd get the other a wrestling buddy. So here is a picture of our kittens, Shadow and No Name. That's right we have not managed to come up with a name for him. We have however figured out a name of our pet tarantula but that's getting off the topic for the moment. Shadow and No Name are both boys. Some of the friendliest cats we've ever had were males, and since there was only one female in the litter we really didn't have much choice. They are once again holed up in Debbie's room until they are of a suitable age and size as not to be carried away by the numerous large birds that dwell here in the dessert. To name a few would be Mr. Raven, Mr. Hawk, Mr. Turkey Vulture, and Mr. Owl. Not having anything to hinder their site from seeing their prey puts the kittens in more danger than if they lived in wooded areas where these same large birds dwelt.

Oh by the way, the tarantula's name is Fuzzy. She can have quite the appetite at times. One day she consumed a 3" (including tail) lizard, a small toad, and the following day she consumed a cricket. No one, has of yet, been brave enough to hold her on their bare hand.

Mike has taken a trip to the field for the week once this month. This was in the middle of my book binding so this gave me a little extra time to get the books done, I thoroughly exhausted myself by staying up till my eyes couldn't stay open any longer, which usually fell around 2:00AM. Though some may find it strange the fulfillment of doing this that's exactly what it gives me. Putting hard work into my children period, wether education or otherwise is very fulfilling for me.

I can't wait to see them as they devour the reading material that I've created for them to use this school year. As it has one day after returning from the library they have read all of the books I got there. We usually bring home around 15 books at one time, minimum.

Another thing that has occurred during the past few weeks is that Katie has began to crawl. Within a week and a half after crawling she is now pulling herself up. I guess once she figured it out there wasn't much stopping her. I suppose by next blog I'll be writing about her walking, who knows.

I'll have to arrange to write another blog in the near future and try to catch up on the rest of what has happened lately. For not I just wanted to write a fairly short one, post a picture of the kittens, and let you all know that we are still alive here in the desert.

Denise

Friday, August 04, 2006

Mikey

Slowly but surely I'm getting around to writing about all of the children. At this rate I might have a new one to right about (that's only a joke).

Lets talk about Mikey. In the photos you can see Mikey is pulling his share of the work around here. In these pictures he is shoveling rock into the wheelbarrel and unloading it at the end of our drive way, where we have found it to be quite muddy this time of year.

While the girls do their chores of cleaning on the inside, Mikey has a morning chore of sweeping off the porches and picking up any trash in the yard. He does a good job so long as Sandy, our kitty, doesn't distract him, which happens often.

Mikey is every bit of boy, and though at times it is bother some, thankfully God has given me an understanding about it. Having been a tomgirl myself growing up I spent a lot of time with boys. We were always playing football, climbing trees, making home made bows and arrows, etc. I think this has been helpful to me as a mother, having a house full of girls, I still understand my one boy for the most part.

He does his usual pestering of his sisters which is where the majority of his getting into trouble comes from. This is why I decided we best channel some of that steam into being useful around the house, and leaving the girls to get their work done. This is how the chore of sweeping and picking up trash got it's beginnings for him.

Just yesterday Mikey crawled up in my lap and cuddled with me. As I looked at his face I noticed one of those sudden changes that had taken place, it's the kind that is expected but sometimes spring upon you rather suddenly. His face is looking even more handsome and grown up.

He can be sweet as pie at times, rubbing my feet while I read to the family at night, assisting one of the two youngest girl with needful things, and being compassionate toward his other sisters when they are truly hurt.

Faith is, as we call her, his older brother. We thank God that he gave Faith to Michael. While Faith bares her feminine side well, she's her brother's equal when it comes to rough housing. They do the most fighting and bickering with one another, but I just know that when they become adults they are going to be the closest.

I look forward to seeing what God will make of Mikey as Mikey submits his will to Him. I always have fun picturing what the girls will be like as teenagers horsing around in the kitchen while baking up some of Mom and Dad's favorite goodies. With Mikey as I picture him in his teenage years I see protector (after all he does have all of these sisters). Though I don't wish to rush the years, I look forward with joy in seeing what kind of man Mikey will become.

Denise

PS I'm having trouble posting those pictures with this blog. I will attempt to edit it tomorrow and include them in the blog.

PSS After another attempt at downloading the photos with no success I decided to post them in an album in my yahoo photos. Follow this link http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos and look at the album titled Mikey

Thundestorms




A couple of days ago we were told that El Paso had made the news two days in a row on the the news in New Hampshire because of the flooding. Though our yard was a complete sheet of rain at one point we have trenches on our property dug to channel the water into ponding areas so it wasn't bad for us. However many areas in El Paso had homes that were flooded out. We saw video of some of the flooding and two of those big heavy business dumpster were picked up and hauled down the streets on the water. Some areas in Las Cruces New Mexico (about 35 minutes from us) and El paso, Texas (20 minutes from us) got their annual rainfal in one day.

It has been great for the kids. We take them to the ponding areas and let them hunt for toads and frogs. Our tarantula enjoys eating the little ones.

Here are some photos of a coming storm

Denise