Our Hectic Week. :)

"Jane...Jane stop struggling so like a wild, frantic bird!"

(Pardon my lapse into a quote)

We have had rather a crazy week--thus the lack of posts! Last Sunday Dad, Sarah, and I took a roadtrip up to Patrick Henry College to collect Daniel who was just flying into Dulles airport from iGovern West in Colorado. That was oodles of fun, and we took lots of pictures! (There will be a post about that later)

Then mid-week we had an exciting little earthquake.

Then Thursday we had company and I went out for a birthday/graduation day with the T. girls.

Then Friday our black lab/shepherd mix, Licorice, got hit by a car. :( Her femur and a spot in her hip are fractured (spiral-style.) and the price to fix it would have been monumental (think $2,500 or more) so we were left with two choices:

Put her down or amputate her leg. We chose the path of the tri-paw'd. We have been keeping her crated and taking her out now and then to go to the bathroom, but the vet didn't want to do the surgery till Monday.

Then our stunning vet-tecchy-ish friend, Abigail, said that their office could do the amputation much cheaper, so tomorrow Daniel and I (and maybe Sarah) are off to drive down to Warrenton, NC to get poor Licky fixed up. She'll have her surgery Tuesday morning [I think], then recover overnight at least, but perhaps into Thursday. We can't know until we see. :)

It was a hard knock for poor Licorice but I am overjoyed to get to spend the better part of the week mooning around Abigail's house! ;)

Oh! And as if the week wasn't busy enough, we had a smashing storm! Hurricane Irene came through and though she didn't have *quite* the winds they thought she'd have, we got at least 12 inches of rain from her!!! (Some places along our corridor got 16!! I'm not sure if we were in there) We had all the Walkers here too, since their mobile home was a little scary in the high winds. So 21 people, an injured dog, a perfectly fine dog, a hyper cat, a sleepy guinea pig to keep us company! :) Interesting, interesting week! But for the record, apart from the car hitting the dog, it's been a blast! I love intense weather--I can feel God's power so clearly in it! And the scouring of yesterday is resulting in absolutely drop-dead gorgeous weather this morning!

Church was cancelled for today due to the hurricane so we are just hanging out here, will probably have some family worship-time, that sort of thing. I ought to be going!

~Rachel

I'm No Mary Poppins! :)

*SPOILER WARNING FOR ABIGAIL!!!! THIS POST CONTAINS SUBJECT MATTER RELATED IN A LETTER YOU WILL RECEIVE. READ AT OWN RISK!!!!* :D

We are all so blessed for the rain that has been falling for two days now!!! :) We have not had any rain for any length of time since the threat of Hurricane Earl, and even then, it was only a shower or two! So the earth was extremely thirsty! :) I decided to take a walk yesterday in it! And yes, this time I did take an umbrella! :) It did not take me long to find out that in the county, you are looked upon as strange anyway for taking walks, but stranger for taking them in the rain, and if you are without an umbrella, they want to send you to the funny farm! :P So I was a good girl. But I wish I could learn how to walk gracefully with an umbrella! Doubtless I could do it if I were she:

But I am not. And I do not believe even if I had a cute umbrella and not our lumpy black one, that it would make any difference. You see, I cannot walk and look forgetful of my umbrella. I either look as if my arm is tied to a very strong helium balloon, or else I drop it to low and nearly decapitate my head up amongst the ribs. I am always twirling it absentmindedly and accidently twisting my hair all around the pole, only to find I cannot get my head away from the handle five minutes later. And I like to enjoy the view when I walk, so I get wet anyway, from pushing the umbrella from this side to look at something, and from that side to look at another. Umbrellas are so unpoetic! :) And they seem to be in my way no matter what I do. Witness this scene:

Me. I see a brilliantly colored maple tree just across a ditch. Sarah has been complaining of no fall color around here yet, so I determine to gather a few leaves to cheer her up. But the ditch is too wide. No it isn't. Yes it is. No it isn't. Where would I put my umbrella? Just hold it. What!?! Yeah, hold it! Okay. So against better judgement, I agree with the other half of my brain to get the leaves. The opposite bank look very slippery, but I am resolved. With one quick move I straddle the ditch, and reach for the leaves. Blast! They are all out of reach! So with the tippiest tips of my fingers, I catch hold of one leaf, (mind you, I am still holding my umbrella!) and pull the rest of that branch to myself. Triumphant at last, with a fist full of leaves, I stand there panting. Oh joy. How do I get back across the ditch? I am almost doing the splits as it is! But somehow or another, and maybe with some help from the ever-present umbrella, I make it back over, and walk home with a wet skirt, but a happy heart. *bows* "Thank you!" :)
Isn't it so true what Laura Ingalls Wilder said? "It is the simple things in life which are the real ones after all." I do believe I got more innocent pleasure (with a dose of irritation) out of walking in the rain with an unruly umbrella than I could have gained doing many another thing! Try it! I bet no one who reads this blog is too old to enjoy a good hour of puddle-jumping! ;) -Rachel

Oh! Sarah made this cute little button for our blog! Please take it! :) Thanks Matthew for being such a good photographer! :)

Thar' She Blows! :)

Well, as we speak, Hurricane Earl makes it's way toward us. Oh boy! I love a good hurricane if it doesn't do any damage! Actually, I prefer Nor'easter, but oh well! I am not picky! I warn people in case we lose our power and I get to read Bleak House and write letters by candlelight, and convince Daniel to take a walk in the middle of it around Friday or so! :D Well, perhaps we wouldn't walk in the middle of the worst of it, but perhaps in the eye of it! :) I love powerful weather! It reminds me of the Lord's might, and His power over all He has made! So while a hurricane behaves itself, I welcome a cosy night or two! Now, when you begin talking hurricanes like Katrina, and others that leave considerable death and destruction in their wake, I waive my compliments of the magnificence of an ordinary hurricane! :)

Now, I would ask for prayer in a certain area- if the hurricane is bad enough and comes over the Outer Banks, our friends the Travers, with their 11 kids, (13 and down) will be staying in our home as a storm shelter. So we could use prayer that our power won't go out, because 24 people living off of one generator would be quite something! Not impossible, but not quite comfortable! either!:)

We went with the Walkers and some of the T. family to see Toy Story 3 today! It was very good, and my favorite of the trilogy. (I did not like 1 or 2 of that series! :) And I do admit, it made me cry. Because I thought up how sad they could make the ending and my own fancies brought the tears! :D Oh well. At least I haven't a heart of stone! ;)

So this was just a little post to let you know about the amazing show of God's power I hope to witness soonish, and about the rare movie-going trip we took as a family this afternoon :D

p.s. The picture is just some hurricane, not our's! :D

-Rachel