A Few More Firsts

On Friday, Timnah, Elias, and Nahum all got to experience their first '80s cover band. Timeless classics like "Funky Cold Medina" and "Smooth Criminal". The treat was complete with band member costume themes of Slash, Top Gun, Karate Kid, Mr. T, and Pee Wee Herman.

On Saturday, Timnah's Sunday School class had a slip and slide party. We were expecting visqueen and baby-shampoo. We had no idea there would be this:

Timnah and Elias both loved it.

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures from either event. We'll do better next time.

You heard it here first

Andrea just called a moment ago, and Nahum has taken not her first step, but her first two consecutive steps. I've not consulted a dictionary, but I think you need at least two to be officially considered walking.

Friday's Excitement

Last Friday, I was trying to close out a work week that was both busy and short (bad combo). Andrea had the luxury of staying at home with two people kids, two goat kids, a sick infant, a nursing doe, and another doe ready to kid at any moment. About nine in the morning, I got my first panicked call. Kelly, the doe ready to kid, was laboring, and things weren't going well. 

Kelly's kid was backwards, not uncommon, but only one leg was showing, and the other was caught. That's a problem. My advice was to call the vet and then let me know how it when it was over. She did call the vet, and also solicited the help from a neighbor. She called Mr. Duke, the local beekeeper / ag-expert / jack-of-all trades (he drives a tractor, surely he knows what to do!). He was about to go out of town, so it was nice of him to come and provide some moral support. According to him, when his family used to raise cattle, they just let them "do their thing." So when he saw the one leg, he figured all was well with world, and couldn't figure out why Andrea was in such a fuss.

To make a short story short, Andrea got her instructions from the vet over the phone (He was in surgery and couldn't come. Probably just as well, as time was a huge factor here). She washed her hands, donned a rubber glove, freed the leg, and saved the day for Kelly and the goat kid. Something that 95 to 1 would have been my task had I been home. Andrea doesn't have the nerves for such things when she has a choice not to. Thankfully, though, she is quite capably when need arises.

The kid is a beautiful little doeling, weighing in a 8 ½ pounds, and looks almost exactly like her mother. Despite her traumatic entry to the world, she has the good fortune of bearing the name Chod - administered by Elias.

Here are some pictures to make all of the above words worthwhile:

 

Chod

Hadawn

Tecot

Oscar with Hadawn

Timnah with Tecot (or Hadawn. Hard to tell.)

Strawberries from out patch (slightly embellished with a passion-flower)

Elias with his friend the worm

Kids

Well after a fairly restless, yet uneventful night (and a few trips to the barn at hours that I care not admit to in a public forum) we have been granted the gift of two new goat kids, compliments of Kate. The firstborn was a buck, Tecot* (tea-cott), and the second of the two was a doe, Hadawn (hay-dawn). The names come courtesy of Timnah. I'll have more info to follow on the morrow.

* - This is a correction. My post originally had Pecot.

Fodder for Foxworthy

After vacation, Andrea and I came home to an interesting voicemail message. It was our neighbor. He wanted to know if we had lost a chicken. We had not, in fact, lost any chickens...we did not have any to lose. So Andrea called our neighbor to inform them of such. But before just leaving it at that, Andrea had to inquire as to whether this particular chicken had laid any eggs...you know...just in case.

Also, over the weekend, Andrea and I broke (or upheld, depending upon perspective) our long-standing rule about leaving the house on Saturday. When we leave the house on Saturdays, we normally come home with less money than we left with. Andrea picked up a stand-mixer, as a replacement for our bread machine that had gone bad. I was much impressed at how Bed Bath and Beyond dealt with the return of a machine that was defective, but had also seen a good deal of use. But before we could leave it at that, we also had to run by The Home Depot and get a "wheeled trimmer."

A wheeled trimmer is basically a 22" wide weed-wacker with wheels. Its what rednecks use to find their missing automobiles. It did an excellent job of taming the waist-high flora that was populating the ditch in front of our house.

The only thing missing was a round of target practice at some old beer cans.

Time Off for the Spring Tour of Offspring

Well we're back from an all too brief vacation. Andrea and I have called this the Tour of Babies, because babies seemed to be nearly central to every stop we made. The first stop was Greenville to visit with the Stoddard's, and meet their sixth daughter Joanna. Stop number two was Florence, where we visited primarily with the Terrell's, Garris's, and Frost's, and meeting Lillie, Ethan, and David along the way. The last stop was a quick run through Birmingham to catch a glimpse of our adopted nephew, Coulton.

All that having been accomplished, I don't think the Tour will quite be complete until we get to visit Geena sometime over memorial day weekend.

Doubting Thomases

Well the stereotypical bible-belt church goer is known to darken the doors of churches around the holidays of Christmas and Easter and only when they feel like it in between. Well for '09 our family lost eligibility for the perfect attendance award because we didn't make it to church for Easter. With four out of five being sick at some point in the day, the congregation is probably thankful. We'll have to delay our public celebration of the Lord's resurrection for a couple of days like a bunch of doubting Thomases.

Chicken Leg

After Brent posted those awesome pics of thier kiddos on palm Sunday, I feel kind of bad for posting this; but the pics are funny enough, so here goes:


Geena - learning from her mommy!



Geena - learning to be a carnivore at a young age.

Palm Sunday

Its calling for snow today and tomorrow, but it was a beautiful Palm Sunday. Pictures were in order.

Look alike?

You know the famous question: "Who does your child look like the most?"

Well, at least for now, the winner seems to be me. What do you all think?



[I personally think Geena makes me look better:) ]