Summer's here and so is Larry the Toad

Every year we have a summer visitor on our back porch. Larry the toad makes an nightly appearence on our back porch. We know it is the same one because toads are territorial and he always tries to hop in the house! Mickey has learned to leave him alone and the kids....well the kids just think he is the best.

I think he's grown this year!

The last Day of Pre-K

It had to happen. The twins had their last day of Pre-school. It was a fun but bittersweet day. The kids enjoyed face painting and watching Jori and I do up Ms. Kellie and Ms. Patty, their wonderful teachers. It soon became chilly and then rainy, so our plan of having a water fight didn't work. But we had some indoor play with a sand box and water and some "whoop it up time." They enjoyed every moment.

They both are going on to Kindergarten and I remember when they were born. Their journey was thick with peril and struggle. James had an oral motor problem that made eating extremely difficult. Whatever ounces I managed to get down him, he'd throw up due to reflux. He would loose weight and I fretted over him. Now he stands tall, healthy, never as stout as his brothers, but a well proportioned boy. No oral motor problems....and no speech problems. James was exited from the Special Ed program. Jimbo has left the building!

William was a mystery. Happy, content until too much noise, stimulation and changes. What was going on with my fair haired son? We finally have a diagnosis of a seizure disorder and high function Autism. But don't sigh or feel badly. Will is bright and eager to learn. He may even out grow the Autistic diagnosis. And as for seizures...let's just say it is a work in progress.

Let me thank as many times as I can the love, support and experiense of their teachers through three years of pre-school. Ms. Patty and Ms. Kellie are unique and incredible women. They will forever have a special place in my heart. And we still get to visit them often!!!

Boys, steady those wings, get ready....now FLY!

Funniest Email Reply...EVER!!

Okay, I got this silly story via email, about this guy who helps an elephant in the wild and years later sees this elephant at a zoo and it seems to know him. So he goes over to it, can it be the same one? The elephant reaches over grabs the guy and kills him....guess it wasn't the same elephant. It was a fiction someone wrote to counter act all of the heart-rending truely touchy-feely kitten infested forwards that go out all the time. I am guilty of spreading them too, so when I read this one and burst out laughing, I pretty much forwarded it to everyone I know. One friend, a rabbi, wrote back and said he hadn't laughed out loud from an email in a long while. But the very very very best reply was a simple note from my Aunt Vicki, who is the bestest and craziest person. This is all she wrote:

That was so touching, I almost peed my pants. Vic

That made me laugh harder than the orginal forward.

God Bless you, Aunt Vicki!

Where we come from..

Had a very funny conversation with Jimmy. We were talking about being first and last out of the bath. I said that he could be considered last, or second, because both were true. He said he was last. Feeling a grumpy mood come on, I teased him and said that actually, he came third. After he gave me his stink eye funny look, I said," Out came Caitlyn, out came William, out came you and out came Conner." He said, "Bella is older than Conner." (We recently had a talk about how old everyone was, animals included. As it turns out, Bella was foaled in April of 04 and Conner spawned in July of 04). So I said, "Well, Bella didn't come out of me."
Jimmy then gave me a pointed look and said, "No, Bella came out of a trailer."

'Nuf said.

Be the Change.....

There is the quote, "Be the Change you want to see in the world." A profound statement, but how do you act on it? How do you make the changes, one step at a time?

Jori and I were at the Curry County Trade Days. We had our booth up and were talking to people. We have a knack for getting people to open up. A grandmother comes in and talks to us a bit and mentions that her granddaughter, Katie (4), is dying. She has terminal cancer, a very rare form of it. There is no hope. We are both brought to tears and said we would pray for Katie and the family. Her grnadmother then went and looked at our clothes. She spotted our Frog Princess dress and started to cry. Katie calls herself "Princess Froggie". They loved the dress, but looked at the price and couldn't do it that day.

Now that dress was complex and I loved it, but no matter how many craft fairs we went to, no matter how many people professed to loving it, it never ever sold or came close. There must have been a reason.

Jori and I share a brain and it made easier to make the split second decision. We pulled the dress from the hanger and bagged it and told them to take it. They all started crying. We started crying. We told them that they should give it to Katie and tell her she is loved. Katie's kidney's no longer function and she is on a constant morphine drip for the pain. She is in and out of conscience, but her grandmother thought this would make her happy. We can't be sure, but there is a chance that this is the last dress she will wear, this side of heaven.

It was an incredible moment. We reached out and touched a stranger and changed their life. We made the world better, but giving on little dress. It felt so good.

Katie, you are a lovely little Princess Froggie. Go forth and be unafraid and out of pain.

God Bless you.

Amazing Story!!!

MOLLY THE AMAZING PONY
Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana, USA . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there."This was the right horse and the right owner," Moore insists. Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood (that) she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse.Molly's story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, her mane felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports. And she asks for it! She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too." And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. "It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse", she laughs.Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people. And she had a good time doing it."It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life", Moore said, "She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.""She's not back to normal," Barca concluded, "but she's going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself."This is Molly's most recent prosthesis. The bottom photo shows the ground surface that she stands on, which has a smiley face embossed in it. Wherever Molly goes, she leaves a smiley hoof print behind!