Pictures that made me smile . . .

Summertime and the livin' was easy.

You would think the toilet man would have given us

a break on the new septic system with all the help he had.

Miss Personality Plus

Dad with dark hair and a monkey on his back.

Levi preparing to live in Russia.

Gracie - flash forward a dozen years and this won't be funny!

Scooby and Joel before the growth serum.

New Friends

Scooby and Misty

Misty missing her girl.

Scooby being a good friend.

*Note: This picture WAS NOT staged.

Ginger

Ginger and Me.
c. 1973

Dog Days of Summer

Praise God for the break from the heat!
Scooby thinks it's even cool enough
to snuggle under a blanket!

Samuel Robin a/k/a Sam

Pictures of a younger Sam and younger Joel and Levi too!

Too bad this picture is so blurry, but Sam is a hard one to catch for a picture.

Sam is our family's first best dog. He is about 13 years old now which makes him 74-76 in human years according to my internet research.

Here's a brief overview of Sam and his life in bullet form.

• History

Found in a box with his siblings outside of Walmart one early fall day
The box said Free to a Good Home
Original name was Adam
Had short, slick hair as a puppy
Ate at least three pairs of black dress shoes as a pup
Joel was 2 when we got him and was the only one of the kids who wasn't terrified of him - Joel would wrestle him for hours behind the dining room table
Sam caused Brian and I an extreme amount of marital conflict
When we moved to our current house, Sam became an outside dog
He carried off survey flags, 2 pair of gloves, and a hat from the man who put in our septic system
He is the best mole-hunting dog this side of the Mississippi

• Tragedy Sam has experienced:

kicked by a deer in the leg
lip busted by someone or something - He spent one whole winter on the basement couch recovering from this injury.
hit by a truck on the highway - We seriously thought he was dead! He laid on the couch for over 24 hours in a daze.
shot with a BB in the hip - He has almost recovered from this although the BB remains lodged in his hip.
the plague - I don't know what else to call this. He lost all of his hair one summer. He had red, scaly, and horribly itchy skin. This bizarre skin affliction was also accompanied with severe constipation - which is probably way TMI!

• Things Sam loves:

digging up moles
chasing butterflies
killing bees
riding in Levi's old truck
working outside with the boys
sleeping in the sunshine
the FedEx guy, UPS guy, and water company man - they all bring him treats
hotdogs
his other family
life

The retired couple that live down the road from us share Sam with us. This is really a perfect thing for all parties involved. They love Sam. We love Sam. They travel a lot and therefore can't have their own dog. We are in and out a lot during the day and appreciate all of the hotdogs, biscuits and gravy, and left overs they give Sam. And Sam loves us all!

Sam is just too good of a dog to only be loved by one family.

• Things Sam hates:

fire works
big birds
storms

Sam seriously hates storms.

Despite unfortunately going deaf this last year, Sam still somehow manages to detect a thunderstorm long before it ever thunders or lightnings. The local weather station should seriously think about hiring him.

He even can discern how serious the storm will be:

Thunderstorm - he is satisfied with laying on the floor in the middle of the basement bathroom
Severe thunderstorm - he insists on laying behind the toilet in the basement bathroom
Potential tornado - he knows the only place to be is in the shower of the basement bathroom

Sam also hates fire works.

One July he spent 72 solid hours hunkered down in a laundry hamper. You could only see his eyes peeking out.

I used really hot water to wash that load.

There is one kind of morbid theory at our house regarding Sam. It has been proposed that Sam is actually a ghost. Yes, a ghost.

It seems he can get inside when all the doors are closed - leaving no open door behind him.

Case in point - one morning Megan woke up with Sam in bed beside her.

She was very disturbed by this because Sam's last bath was 7 years ago.

He is not clean. His beard has turned into dreadlocks and he's been known to have more than one highjacking tick on his back.

I can see why Megan was upset.

Joel was once surprised to find Sam laying in a pile of clothes in the bottom of his closet. Just a dark pair of eyes peering over dirty socks and basketball shorts.

This however provided me with a good object lesson to teach Joel the dangers of having piles of clothes in the bottom of his closet.

Joel, however, wasn't nearly as grossed out as Megan was - I guess being a boy, Joel somehow understands Sam.

The crazy thing is that both times no one heard Sam come inside - no one let Sam inside - and the doors were all found to be shut behind him.

See what I mean about the whole ghost theory?

Bottom line is we love this old, dirty dog.

He is the Head of Lodge Security even though he wouldn't hurt a fly.

Just don't tell the bad guys.

Gone

We've been gone so much this week Scooby thinks he's an orphan.

Poor orphan dog Scooby - sweet puppy with no family to love him.

Sounds like the beginings of a book.

I would write it if I had time.

Snow Day

What does a snow day mean to a teenage boy?
Quality time on the couch with your dog.

What does a snow day mean to a dog?
Quality time on the couch with your boy.

Essential Winter Wear

Hoodies!

Free Time

Who would think that the down turn in the economy would effect nursing!

I showed up to work this morning only to find out that the doctor moved today's clinic patients to Thursday because there were only five patients scheduled for today. I guess he had better things to do than come in for five patients.

Being a PRN (as needed) nurse - I was the expendable employee today.

I have never worked full-time as a nurse. When I first graduated from nursing school I took a part-time evening shift job in a great hospital on their Cardiac Step Down Unit. After four years I changed hospitals and took another part-time evening shift job in a not as great hospital this time on a med-surg unit. Working part-time (actually I called it part-part-time/usually 32 hours in a two-week pay period) allowed me to still technically qualify as a stay-at-home mom and yet feel like I was contributing to the household. Working part-time also gave me paid vacation but it required that I work every other weekend.

After a year of missing every once a month Patch Club performance at church, I decided to take a leap of faith and go from part-time to PRN. I stayed at this PRN status during the five years I worked in OB, and I remain PRN now that I am in oncology. During this time, I have come to expect peaks and flows in staffing, and I realize that full-time and part-time employees get first dibs when the hours get short. My hours although usually very dependable are not guaranteed.

Thus, I am unexpectedly home today.

Considering the fact that I am awake, dressed, and presentable I decided to weigh my options of what to do with my day.

I could . . .

- forget the fact that I am awake, dressed, and presentable and climb back into bed and sleep until the kids get home from school;
- send lurid texts to Brian and seduce him into coming home and joining me for the above;
- opt to spend a few hours on the couch under a blanket with Scooby watching worthless daytime TV;
- start a cleaning project;
- go shopping at Old Time Pottery for nesting bowls and Mexican restaurant style dishes for Joel's birthday dinner (the bowls are merely a new addiction of mine - hey, better than Little Debbies);
- spend the day blogging and emptying my head of all of the random thoughts circulating around.

Although spending the day in bed does sound tempting I am quite certain Brian would not heed to my texts. I didn't say he wouldn't enjoy them - but in the end he would say something about the mortgage, electric bill, and Levi's Jeep's ever empty gas tank being what keeps him on the straight and narrow and ultimately a good boy who can't come home in the middle of the day.

I would start a new cleaning project - like tackle the mound of clothes in Joel's room. But how can Joel learn responsibility if I am always cleaning his room? Whew! I am glad I thought of that.

I would love to go shopping for nesting bowls and Mexican dishes, but feel the shopper's remorse I would suffer after spending money while missing a day's pay would just be too great to bear. Who am I kidding? I just don't feel like driving to town by myself.

While I am sure I will spend some time today on the couch with Scooby, it looks like my day is going to be spent emptying my head of random thoughts.

I feel lighter already!

Samuel Robin

How do you reward years of faithful service? Well, in Sam's case you let him sleep on the couch when the windchill is -27 degrees.

Sam is our faithful first dog. He is 12 years old and has spent 11 of those twelve years outside guarding "the Lodge."

The story of how we got Sam is a little bittersweet for me. You see, Brian had been adamant about the fact that we were not to get a dog. He didn't want one - not yet. We were planning on moving in a year or so and Brian wanted to wait until we had more room for a dog.

Actually I might have just made all of that up. The fact was Brian didn't want a dog - he just didn't like dogs. A fact that would later change - but I digress.

Anyway, the problem was that I really wanted a dog. I wanted a dog now.

One weekend, Megan and I had to run to Walmart for some screws for a dresser Brian was putting together. As we walked into the store we passed a box of "free puppies." That's where we saw Sam. Instead of smiling at the puppies as we passed them by - we stopped and fell in love.

Megan and I agreed to do our shopping and while in the store pray about whether we should take one of those adorable free puppies. I realize now that praying about whether I should blatantly disobey my husband doesn't exactly line up with Scripture.

Needless to say, after five minutes of shopping and "praying" Megan and I had both come to the conclusion that we should take one of the puppies home. We picked a puppy originally named "Adam."

He was so small and sweet. He fit on Megan's little 6 year old lap and she wrapped him in her sweater. You would think we would be ecstatic that we finally had our puppy - but instead we both cried all the way home.

We knew we had disobeyed. We knew we were in the wrong. We should have just turned around and taken little "Adam" back to Walmart, but we didn't. We took him home.

Brian was upset, but even worse than that he was disappointed. It was the first time I had out and out disobeyed his request. And to top it off, I had dragged Megan into my disobedience.

"Adam" who we renamed Sam was everything Brian didn't want in a dog. He pooped on the floor, constantly chewed on things - especially shoes, wouldn't stay in the yard, dug under the fence, and Megan and Levi grew to be afraid of him and his needle sharp puppy teeth.

"Dog Whisperer" Joel, who was only 2 at the time, would wrestle Sam and and carry him around. And I would try to defend Sam's actions and make excuses for his behavior.

It was a rough couple months.

I finally apologized to Brian for my disobedience and asked him to forgive me and swore I would never blatantly disobey him again. We did end up moving and Sam became an outside dog. Things immediately improved and Sam became our beloved mole-hunting, guard dog.

He has served our family well. Brian loves him and appreciates his service to our family.

Sam is old and deaf now. He has arthritis and he smells bad. But I still love him and the lesson I learned from getting him is worth me giving up the couch for a few days.

Family Picture

Me and mine - October, 2008

So far the fall has been pleasantly busy. I plan on posting a pictorial update soon complete with lots of pictures of Levi as Long John Silver (peg leg and all!), Joel's first year playing soccer, my college girl Megan, and our overnight getaway in a 5-star hotel!

But until then - here are a few bits and pieces . . .

- As of this week, Megan is an official substitute teacher for our local public school corporation!
- We are thinking of an arranged marriage for her. Just joking - I think.
- She is saving for a Mustang. Don't tell my parents.

- Levi hasn't gotten in trouble for his sideburns yet this year.
- Levi's entire senior class spent an hour in detention because they went to class via the attic - Levi's idea.
- Basketball season starts Friday. I don't think Levi is going to get to start this year. I am more upset than he is. I hate basketball.

- Joel made student council - he is a natural leader.
- Joel wants to be a Marine. Megan has reminded me not to get too freaked out yet - he wanted to be an Olympic swimmer this past summer.
- Joel is starting JV and dressing Varsity for basketball. If the coach makes it a competition between my boys as to who gets to play, I may have to hurt him - the coach not Joel. I hate basketball.

- Sam got a dog house. He is so proud of it. He laid in it for three solid days without getting out.

- Scooby has been wearing his sweater because the house is too cold for him. What a sissy.

- I have a new responsibility at work. I am the Nurse Navigator for the Tuesday clinic in the Breast Center. I don't know why, but nobody at home wants to hear me talk about work now.
- I have had two very good witnessing encounters at work recently. Although working as much as I have been is not what I desire, it is obviously where God wants me right now.
- I spent the last hour looking up Spanx on the internet. I am in need of an industrial strength pair in order to make me fit in the hunter green formal dress I have to wear as the accompanist for Ensemble.

- Brian loves me despite my womanly hormonal moodiness and took me to a 5-Star hotel last weekend!
- His blog is getting 500+ hits a day. What a goober.
- He will be proud of me for finally posting!

and a little randomness . . .

- there are five loads of laundry in the laundry room and the dryer isn't working right
- we NEED another car
- the wood stove does a good job keeping the house warm as long a there is wood in it
- I need to make a menu and get groceries
- I think I have to help make and serve spaghetti tonight for a senior fundraiser
- the Patch Club's Christmas program is in 4 weeks . . .
- I think I am hyperventilating because the Patch Club Christmas program is in 4 weeks
- so far I have bought only one Christmas present (it's for Levi - he will LOVE it!)
- Scooby needs a bath and so does his little red sweater
- my plan to eat only Raisin Bran and excerice three times a day hasn't panned out, and there is no way I am going to fit in that hunter green formal dress even with industrial strength Spanx.

What's next?

Getting ready to do it all over again!
Levi - Senior 2009

But first - Scooby's 3rd birthday!!!!

A boy and his dog

Joel and Scooby

I think they are starting to look alike!

Best Friends

A pup named Scooby Doo

Brian spent the last four days at home thanks to a abscessed wisdom tooth - ouch! Looking back, I don't know that he has ever been "confined" to the house for that long - at least not in recent history.

Pain, nausea, and dizziness aside I think it was good for Brian to be at home. This may have been God's way of slowing him down and giving him an opportunity to just "be home."

One thing that happened over the last four days is Brian and Scooby really bonded. I think Brian now understands what a good friend Scooby can be - that whole man's best friend thing.

Dogs are great because they -

like napping on the couch with you all afternoon;
don't mind if you wear the same pair of sleeping shorts for four days;
don't expect you to talk to them when you don't feel well - they just like sitting next to you;
will willingly clean up any crumbs you drop when eating on the couch; and
aren't bored with watching 6 continuous hours of Justice League episodes.

Living Green - God's Way

We try to "live green":

Use supplemental wood heat - from fallen trees even!
Try not to use a lot of paper products (ie. paper plates, cups . . .)
Keep electricity use as low as possible - turn lights off, keep thermostat turned down
Plant trees
Use a reel mower instead of gas mower

Ways we don't "live green":

Drive a SUV - or we'd never be able to get up our hill in the winter
Keep our hot water heater turned up - I like to be able to make hot chocolate with tap water:)
Don't recycle - I plan on starting as soon as the garage gets cleaned out!

I love animals - I always have.

Hershey - one of the many cats we have bottle fed.

As a kid I raised several litters of orphaned baby pigs. As an adult I have bottle fed at least 6 kittens. I even tried to get certified by the state to rehabilitate injured wildlife - what a hoot!

Wouldn't you know the day the conservation officer came to check out our property to see if we "had the proper facilities" to care for injured wildlife, our outside dog, Sam, showed up with his "kill of the day" which happened to be our state bird! I don't think we left a real good impression on the conservation officer.

Come to find out I probably could have adopted a baby with less red tape than it would take to legally care for a wounded or orphaned raccoon. So I gave up on that venture.

The point is I think that as Christians we should take care of God's creation. In Genesis 1:28 it says that God told Adam and Eve to subdue it. This means to study and explore it. I think you can take from that that we are to have an appreciation for all of God's creation.

Adam naming the animals - Creation Museum.

Genesis 1:28 also says that Adam and Eve were to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. J. Vernon McGee put it this way, "Adam was not just a gardener to cut the grass. Man was created to rule this earth." We are to have dominion which means we are above the animals.

However, this is not the view of everyone. Here is an excerpt from an article I read online today:

Oh, if we all just disappeared. According to The World Without Us, Alan Weisman's strangely comforting vision of human annihiliation, the Earth would be a lot better off. In his doomsday scenario, freshwater floods would course through the New York subway system, ailanthus roots would heave up sidewalks, and a parade of coyotes, bears, and deer would eventually trot across the George Washington Bridge and repopulate Manhattan. Nature lovers can take solace in the idea that the planet will thrive once we've finally destroyed ourselves with global warming. But Weisman takes the fantasy one step further: Let's not wait for climate change, he says. Let's start depopulating right now. Instead of burning down our numbers with oil and gas, we might follow the advice of the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, who tells Weisman that everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once. Weisman isn't up for quite so drastic a measure, but he makes his own pitch, moderate in comparison: Let's cut the birth rate to one child per couple, for a few generations at least. The population would dwindle by about 5 billion people over the next century, he says, ensuring the habitability of the Earth for the 1.6 billion who remained. At that point, they could all reap the rewards of a more spacious planet, sharing in "the growing joy of watching the world daily became more wonderful." It seems like a notion from the fringe, but Weisman's book has become a mainstream best seller. Could population control be the next big thing in green culture?

This is the kind of thinking that comes out of a society that embraces the teaching of evolution. How tragic that we in America have become that society.

This type of thinking clearly contradicts the truth found in the Bible. God's Word tells us in Psalm 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

The church and we as individual Christians are partly to blame for our society's view on the sanctity of life. How many good, Bible based churches are silent on the matter of abortion. How many of us as Christians buy into the lie of "us 4 and no more" when it comes to our families - afraid that God won't provide if we have more than our token 2 kids.

We bought the lie after 3 kids. I remember distinctly our family physician sitting in my hospital room holding Joel and asking Brian and I (age 28 and 24 respectively) what we were going to do to "keep this from happening again." She was serious - before discharge we needed to have a plan. So when Joel was 3 months old, Levi was 3 1/2, and Megan was 4 1/2 Brian had a vasectomy - 100% covered by insurance. This proved to be a decision that has brought much heartache into our family and a decision that has cost thousands of dollars to try to correct.

In Sunday school we are studying the book of Joshua. The last two Sundays we have learned how God called the Israelites to be different, set apart - a peculiar people. As Christians we have that same calling. We are to be different from the world - we are to have a different mind set.

We are to value life - unborn life, young life, old life. The world doesn't and that fact is becoming increasingly more obvious.

We are to care for God's creation, but we are to worship the Creator not the creation. We also need to keep into perspective that people have souls - animals do not.

It is past time for Christians to stand up and proclaim the truth. I fear that the world we have helped mold with our indifference will prove to be an inhospitable place for our children.

Happy Birthday

(The birthday boy doing his impersonation of the Green Lantern.
I found out the redeye feature in Picasa doesn't work on dogs!)

We celebrated Scooby's 2nd birthday tonight. Megan made a funfetti cake with white icing and sprinkles. Joel picked out his present and wrapped it. Levi teased him all day about having to wait until tonight to have his party. Brian only rolled his eyes a little at all of the fuss - but he did rub Scooby's head and tell him he was a "pretty good boy."

Joel loves to watch Animal Planet. His favorite shows are E-Vet Interns, Emergency Vets, and Animal Miracles. Little did Joel know he would live out one of those shows.

At the end of January, we came home one Sunday evening to find Scooby not acting right. He had vomited several times and seemed lethargic. Joel and I took him to the vet on Monday morning.

The vet suggested that we leave Scooby there for the morning and they would do blood work and x-rays. I took Joel to school and told him not to worry.

I had no sooner gotten home when the vet called. The x-rays revealed that a foreign object was in Scooby's stomach and was blocking the sphincter that leads into the duodenum. He would need surgery in order to live. The vet we had taken him to was unable to do the surgery and recommended that we take him to an emergency animal hospital right away.

I called mother and Brian with the news and then left to go get Scooby. Daddy just happened to be in town buying tires for the truck, he met me at the vet where we both looked at the x-rays. None of us could tell from the x-rays what the foreign object was. They brought Scooby out. He was groggy from the sedative they have given him, thin from the constant vomiting, and pitiful to look at.

Daddy helped me get him in the Explorer. Scooby laid motionless on the Batman sleeping bag in the back seat.

When I got home, I carried him in the house and laid him on the couch. I can't even explain how I felt when I looked at him. He was dying right in front of me.

I thought of all the nights Joel held him and snuggled him in bed. I thought about how much fun he had been going to "dog school" with Joel. I thought about how loyal he was. I thought about how much Joel loved him. I thought about how much Scooby loved Joel.

I went over to the couch and knelt beside him and petted him. I kissed his "kissing spot" - right where his mouth ends and his cheek starts. He didn't move. He didn't open his eyes. I pleaded with him not to die.

I called Brian - crying hysterically. He told me to "do whatever we needed to do" to keep him alive. He told me that Tom's (one of his bosses) son was married to a vet who had a practice about 20 min. away. He said he could talk to Tom's wife who worked there and see if they could get him in.

A few minutes later, Scooby and I were on the road. Scooby again was laying in the backseat on the Batman blanket - nearly lifeless.

When I carried him in it was obvious to everyone how ill he was. They got us right back to a room and again took x-rays. A man working there asked me if my kids had any finger puppets. It was then that I remembered - Scooby had eaten a plastic finger puppet on Christmas morning. How could we have forgotten?

Now that we knew what was blocking his stomach, it was even more clear that surgery was the only option. I left Scooby there with no guarantee he would survive the surgery.

His surgery lasted three hours and took two surgeons. I have a ziplock bag containing everything they got out of his stomach and intestines. He had in his short 1 1/2 years ingested a lot more items than just the finger puppet.

Joel and I went and got him the next evening. He was still hooked up to IV fluids and was a little groggy - but he was clearly happy to see us. He had a 5 inch incision on his freshly shaved belly, and he wore a cone-shaped collar to keep him from picking at his stitches.

He was not to run or jump for one week, and he was not to climb stairs for two weeks. His post-op diet consisted of mashed potatoes and baby food meat mixed with chicken broth - two tablespoons every two hours. We fed him this for two weeks - slowly decreasing the amount of chicken broth.

It was a long, slow recovery. Adding both vet bills together it came to a little over $1,000.00. But when I go upstairs before bed to check on Joel and I see Scooby laying there beside him, I know he was worth every penny.

It may seem silly to bake a dog a birthday cake and buy him a present - but I don't care. We almost lost Scooby this year and I'm glad he's here to celebrate turning 2!

A Dog's Life

Well it's official, Scooby can't ride in the car any more. Scooby will never be one of those dogs you see riding in the car - head out the window, ears flapping in the breeze, smiling as cars pass by.

Car trips for him are more like head hanging low, ears laid back, dry heaving in the backseat, drooling on whoever he's next to, and vomitting in whatever container we are lucky enough to find. Very unpleasant.

I thought he would enjoy a trip to Grandma's house. He enjoyed being there - even though Grandma made him stay outside. He just didn't enjoy getting there - or the trip back home.

That look

Scooby has that look on his face like he knows there is something going on - he's wise to us. We have spent 15 minutes packing for us and 2 days getting the house ready to survive "Scooby Unsupervised."

Joel made a tent for Scooby in his room - he even left a cat food trail to lure him in. We froze peanut butter and cat food in his two kongs - hopefully these will keep him busy for, let me think, maybe the first hour we are gone.

I covered the upstairs couch with a blanket, put out his pee rug (I know that's gross, but when a dog's got to go a dog's got to go), and pleaded with him to be good.

I admit I am a pushover when it comes to him. I'm a bad dog mom. Hopefully, I am better with my less furry kids.

Man's best friend

(Joel and Scooby)

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

(Me and Ginger)

Irony

Renting a carpet cleaner and buying dogfood at the same time.
Is this what you call "feeding the problem?"