Toby comes home

While I was out getting my driver's license on Monday - I passed by the animal shelter. I had started looking for a white highland puppy but the doors just didn't seem to opening easily, if you know what I mean. So I had prayed about it and felt like I should at least go look at the animal shelter. And here's what I found: a little stray terrier mix dog. The animal control officer told me he was under two and he seemed very sweet so I asked Ryan if we could bring him home to foster for 2 days and see how things went. Long story short - he's home to stay and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect little dog to share our lives. We named him Toby - somehow we've found ourselves calling him Mr. Tob too. Ryan wanted to call him Gramps cause of his brindled coloring. (He's sleeping on the carpet right behind me as I type this. How sweet!)

Looking pretty bedraggled and quite nervous on the 1st day. He piddled (as Ryan's Gramma says) every time we reached down to pet him. Every time either of us left the room he cried though. He also wouldn't eat for over a day until I fed him out of my hand.

All wet but much cleaner after a nice warm bath!

This is his favorite position which he assumes almost every time you pet him. He takes naps like this, lays next to you like this, and lays in my lap like this. He's a snuggler and will come get in my lap often.

Out on the prowl with Ryan

His other favorite position - right by our feet

Clean and happy!
(Sometime this week we'll get him a haircut)

We're so thankful God sent us this little bundle of love to share our home!

Saved by a wood stove, hot water, and a little dog

For those of you who don't know and are wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth this week - we were hammered with a terrible ice storm starting Monday afternoon! The power went off Tuesday around 3 PM, came back on briefly Wed. then was off until Thursday afternoon. We were also without water for awhile on Tuesday because the same tree that fell and took out the power also broke the school's water main. So needless to say - we've been trying to keep warm in very cold temperatures as well as find food to eat. It looks like a war zone around here - branches down everywhere. The ice was a solid carpet over everything which made walking and driving a little tricky. We were VERY thankful for hot showers and our wood stove - it came in handy! The temperature never dropped below 50 in the house (it was in the teens outside I think) and we got it as high as 62 in the house burning it all day.

The academy was also without power except for 2 generators - we were glad Ryan was NOT a boy's dean this week! We have been amazed at the staff's hard work to make sure the kids were fed and taken care of through all of this.


The icicles on the bird feeder lengthened as the days went by


All of the power lines were covered with ice - and this was only on the 1st day - it got much thicker than this.

Ryan went out to move his truck for fear branches would fall on it (and they would have) but he found that he couldn't see out. When he rolled down his window he had to punch the sheet of ice out too - you can see its remnants still in place.

Our decimated tree in the backyard - this picture doesn't do it justice but there are at least 4-5 major branches that broke off this tree. Imagine this and worse to every tree in the whole area. We heard snapping branches about every 5 minutes during the worst part of the storm.

Our birdhouse was the "watering hole" - we went through over 5 lbs of birdseed in 2 days.

The ice became deadly as it started to fall off the trees. Ryan wore his NY Giants hardhat when we went outside - I was not so lucky and I think a few of the pieces gave me a headache when they bounced off my noggin.


We made burgers, hot chocolate, warmed baked beans, and roasted hotdogs using this stove. We were so thankful for it!

Just to show you how powerful this stove is when heated up: I moved this candle away from the stove thinking this might happen but apparently I didn't move it far enough!

And I'll save the little dog part for the next post!

Southwestern Hoop Fest

After 2 days of class - Ryan and I headed to Keene, TX with the basketball teams for the yearly basketball tournament with academies from across the US. We barely knew any names to begin with - I think I know them all now. I now have a much greater respect for the academy faculty that supervised trips when I was in academy! Teenagers have a lot of energy. It's a lot of work and there are never any breaks!

Here are a few shots from the long weekend. It was interesting trying to get good shots in gym lighting! You'll get to see the gyms of the SDA schools we saw in the area too!

First game against GAAA at Chisholm Trail Academy

SWAU gym - first guys game against GAAA
The SWAU gym has nice elevated seating which is great for pictures - I sat on the stairs in the bottom left of this picture to take shots a lot.
Folks in this area pronounce SWAU like a word (SWA-oo) which seemed different to me - no more S-A-U :-(

Jeremy looking to pass

The other great thing about this trip was seeing people from all over the country that we knew!

Guess who's shooting this freethrow: Patrick O'Brien, Hollie's cousin
We also saw Chadd Moffit (former boy's dean at MPA), some people from Bass, Ryan's cooperating teachers from FLA and their team, and lots of people from Collegedale that reminded us of home.

Here's our girls taking on CAYA from Collegedale with Matt Nafie - they beat us soundly.
It was always fun to watch CAYA's cheering section as they were quite boisterous and we knew most of them. This game was in Burton Academy's gym.

Sam goes for 3 at Burton

Most of our cheering section - other parents filtered in and out over the weekend

Raquel goes up against a particularly agressive player from CTA - Chisholm Trail

Back at SWAU - you can see the elevated seating in this picture.

The tournament ended at 1 AM Saturday night. We intently watched the big school girls and guys finals between CAYA girls and Spring Valley girls, and FLA guys and GAAA guys. FLA and SVA won. Ryan was cheering so loud for his guys from FLA that he lost his voice. That game was especially fast and they looked like their legs were spring loaded!

Now we're back at home - Ryan's in the throws of teaching and I'm waiting to start my new job in the local ER. We had a big ice storm yesterday - hope ya'll out east survive it cause its coming your way!

Ozark: Home of the Skyhawks

Lady Hawks

Skyhawks

Our backyard buddies

Here we are eating lunch on Sabbath: we'll share our view and who our backyard friends are with you!

Junco

Male white-crowned sparrow (Carrie helped me figure this out, finally)

Female white-crowned sparrow

Red headed woodpecker

Nuthatch of some type

Tufted titmouse

Venus - our neighbor's dog (they also own a rooster who pecks around in all of the yards)

The white horse was pretty skittish but the brown and white one was very friendly and loving