I hate Goats..... Pictures.

Bruno, one of our billy goats

  

Ok, well, let me just say, God answered prayer. 

Yesterday, had all the potential for evil, as well as good. 

It was a great day.  The weather was perfect, beautiful to be outside all day.

We started off by having a big breakfast, and discussing as a family, stewardship.  How does God want us to be good stewards of what he has blessed us with, time, things, gifts, talents?

Ray then, handed out job lists to everyone, and we headed out.  Each had their part, whether is was mowing, so we could get the fence put up, feeding animals, herding them here or there, or handing Ray the tools he needed to fasten the fencing.  (a few of them picked blackberries along the fence as well, not part of the job list, but oh so fun.)

Good day of work

For those of you that have ever worked at Kanakuk, it felt just like work week to Ray and I.  The coolness of the day, the hard work we were doing, the fun we were having just being together and accomplishing something.  It was a great day. Certainly not because of me, I am naturally a griper.  But God, gave me a joy, working side by side with my husband, on a project.  It is not what I would choose to do on a regular Sunday, but it was exactly what we needed to do, and we really had a great time doing it, all together.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.


No, the fence is not complete, we still have some work ahead of us, this week, but a huge part was accomplished yesterday.

Working hard on the fence

Joshua by the post hole digger!!

Jesse on the mower

Anna helped some, but mostly picked blackberries.

Ruth and Esther

Enjoying frozen lemonade at the end of the day.

I hate Goats, or at least when they are on my porch!!

OK, I am in confession mode, and frustration mode right now.


We still have goats, I will soon post pictures of what spring has looked like out here on our little farm.


But, yes, we have goats, about 12 or so.  Our little heard has been doing fine in the back of our property, where they have been eating and having a great time, and I have been having a great time, because they are not up on my porch, or in my flower beds eating my plants.


Well, as of this past week, the goats had eaten most of the GREEN stuff in the back, sooooo, they broke through the fence, and are eating the GREEN stuff up by the house.  Which means, they are on my porch, pooping, and basically taking over wherever they want to.


I have been reading LOVE and RESPECT (highly recommend it for married people!!!) this spring.  A wonderful book, with lots of interesting thoughts on marriage, and how important it is for husbands to love their wives, and for wives to respect their husbands (UNCONDITIONALLY).

We have been having a great season in marriage this spring, (last year was rough!) But part of it, I am sure, has to be with how I have been applying the Love and Respect ideas in my marriage.


Well, when I woke up Wednesday morning to goats trying to ram through my glass doors on the front.  (I have double glass (storm) window doors on the front, and the goats see themselves in the reflexion, and try to butt themselves!!!) It scared us to death, like someone had a battering ram, and was trying to knock the front doors down!!! 


I screamed, yelled for Ray to get up and save the house from the goats, then proceeded to steam in my frustration of "why didn't he have the fence fixed better in the first place, to keep the goats in?!"


He ran outside, and I ran to the bathroom, so mad, knowing that this just meant more work for us, in fence repair, and/or new fence to be put up, and also, more goat poop on MY PORCH!! I know you are laughing right now, but believe you me, I was not!!
In the bathroom, I began to formulate the lecture that I was about to give Ray, then my heart stopped, as I heard the Lord begin to whisper in my ear, respect him, no matter what.


Without giving you the long boring details, Praise the Lord, I was able to march back out there, and give him the respect that God has called me to give, even with goat poop on my porch.  (we all have some kind of goat poop on our porch, in our lives, don't we? It just comes in different forms, shapes, colors.)


But, sadly, the rest of the week was hit or miss.  Literally, wrestling with my flesh, on a moment by moment basis!! Some moments, the Lord would win, and I would surrender to Jesus, and show great respect, join him in helping build the fence, encourage him in his work, remind him of all the great things he is doing with and for our family, and then....... sometimes, my flesh would win, and I would carry on like a spoiled, angry, frustrated wife, who was not getting my way, and who was sick of the poop!!!


Right now, this morning, we stayed home from church, to be together as a family (we have been going crazy the last few weeks, with spring football, volleyball, wedding stuff, out of town) and also stayed home to work on the goat fence!!! Again, what is more pleasing to the Lord, Obedience over Sacrifice.  We have a wonderful opportunity today to work together, hard work, but treat each other with kindness, respect, laugh as we work, or, we can be mad that the goats have kept us from church, gripe and complain about the fence, the poop, etc.  What, I ask myself again, is more pleasing to the Lord?
I am about to put my boots and jeans on, and head outside, to work side by side with my husband and kids.  I will be praying, moment by moment, that my heart will be to respect, encourage, and laugh.  Not to be bitter, gripe and complain.
I do have much to be thankful for.  Give thanks in all things, right?
God is good all the time, goats, not all the time, but God is still good.
If you want a great book for your marriage, read Love and Respect.


In Him,
JJ aka, fence builder

You can pay someone to do this!

A few weeks ago, we had just finished dinner, and were about to settle in, to what I thought, was going to be a quiet evening.  I had some plans in my head to work on a few things on the computer in the recliner, as the kids played outside for a little bit longer, before time to get ready for bed.  All was going as I had planned, until my husband walked in and announced he needed my help.


Being the Godly wife I am :), I quickly hopped up from my chair, and headed down to the barn.


He was on the last step of a project that he had been working on, for literally, months.  He was replacing the awning on the trailer.  You see, when we got this trailer, it was a hand-me-down from his brother.  A great little trailer, but the awning was in great need of repair, better to say, replacement.


We had taken it down to a repair place, here in Cleburne, a few months ago to see what they could do, and as soon as they quoted Ray the price, out we pulled.  No way was Ray going to pay that!!


So, he started looking on line, googling "How to replace your awning on your trailer."


There are youtube videos for EVERYTHING!!  


Anyway, all of these sites that gave instruction on "How to"... all had a warning that said..."This is very dangerous!!! Do not attempt alone, and must have at least 3 to 4 adults helping." The tension that is wound up inside the tube of the awning, is appearantly very strong, and can take a finger or hand off!! 


This is what ALL the websites said.  Yikes!! After reading that, I thought we would surely take it back to the RV place, but NO Way!!! Not Ray Ford.


After we very carefully took the awning off of the trailer, and took it apart, Ray found the part numbers and ordered what he needed to replace. Several weeks went by, and I kinda forgot about it, until he came in to get me the other night.


After briefly instructing me, and reminding me of the danger (He didn't have to do that, I hadn't forgotten!!) , we started the process.  We actually didn't have too much problem getting it threaded onto the tube, and then actually winding the tension.  It was a little nerveracking, thinking that this thing could spin, and take off one of Ray's fingers, but we did it!! The funny thing was, I was so nervous, that I lost count of the turns on the spring a couple of times, so we had to start over 3 different times!!! 


The worst part was yet to come.  After getting the thing wound onto the tube, we then had to pick up this huge tube, with the awning hanging off of it, and thread the other end onto the side of the trailer.  No problem, except the thing weighed a ton, and it was just the 2 of us. Remember the warning, "This is a job for no less than 3 to 4 adults!!"


All I can say is, it was a total disaster!!  Ray was trying to balance one end on his head, while I was holding the majority of it on my shoulders, and then needing to pull the end of the material, so it wouldn't bunch up as Ray was pulling it through the track!! It was windy to boot, so the tarp part was flapping in the wind, and eventually blew us over as well as the ladder we were standing on to reach the side of the trailer where the track was to attach the awning.


We just stopped, looked at each other feeling completely defeated, (I did), but not Ray.  He said, "Hey, let's get Joshua to help us!!!" 


"He is FIVE!" I said.  Not exactly another adult to help us.


"Ok" he said, "we'll wait until the big kids get home from youth."


When the kids got home, my sister,, Joy was with them, she had brought them home.  Oh, thank the Lord for another adult!!


We quickly recruited her and Jesse, our 14 year old son, to be the other 2 adults!!  As I was explaining to her about what we needed her to help us with, I said, "You know you can pay to have someone do this, but......" Joy interrupted, "Hey, another blog post, right!?"

Anyway, after recruiting a few extra abled bodies, things went alot better.  it was still rough, but we did it!!! Yeah, success, or so we thought.

We all waited in anticipation as we watched Ray pull the switch, which should have caused the awning to roll up all by itself, with ease, into a nice tight roll to travel down the highway.  Much to our dismay, nothing happened...well something happened, we heard a whizzing sound inside the tube for a moment, but no movement of the awning rolling up. Nothing. What??? What was wrong?

Much to our dismay, we had wound the tension in the wrong direction!!  So, it was going to roll out like a champ, but rolling back up was a different story!!
I asked, "Can we just leave it, it is sooo late?" No, we couldn't, a storm was coming in that night, so we all had to use our strength, to roll it up, as tight as we could get it, but it was very heard, as we were all rolling against the tension, the super tight tension, that we were warned about on the websites!!


It took all four of us, but we finally get it rolled up enough for it to not catch the wind, but I was done.  The thought of having to take that thing down, and start over was a little too much for me.  Needless to say, I think Ray knew that, and actually he and Jesse were able to reverse the tension and get if fixed, working perfectly, without me at all.  They both felt a huge amount of accomplishment, and what a great feeling to get it done, and save us all that money.


Anyone need any RV repairs, check with Ray first!


Have a blessed week, and remember, He is Risen!
JJ

Unexpected Trip

Just a quick note about a trip Ray and took last week.  

We HAD to, we really did, Have to go on a CME, (continuing medical education) trip for Ray's work, in ARUBA. 
 Yes, that is right, Aruba.  It was bad timing with work, kids, etc. , but since Ray had a quick approaching cut off date to get in all his CME's we really did have to go. It was amazing, God knew best that this would be a good thing for us! But the funny thing we realized  when we arrived, is that our personalities changed somewhat.  
When we arrived in Aruba, I, who am usually the cautious one, didn't care if anyone knew I was a tourist or not, I was just sooooo excited to be in another country, and to finally have my passport stamped.  Ray on the other hand, the adventurous one, who usually is the risk taker, became like Jason Boerne on Boerne Identity!!  I am not kidding!  He was analizing every person we passed, every street we walked down, every alley we went by.  I didn't care, I was just so happy, but he was totally in CIA mode.  It really was funny to me.  
Ray's name means "protector", and boy was he doing that.  

We did have a great time, went snuba diving, kite surfing, and walks on the beach, and Ray got all his CME credits in!!
Just had to share how my man was totally into "Operation Treadstone" mode while we were there, and I was "Sabrina," clueless to any danger, if there was any.
Thankful for my protector,
JJ

Boer Goats

If you have been a part of our lives for the past year, then you know about the goats.
It is almost hard for me to write about them, because this is not just a distant memory, it is closer to home than I want to accept and has been a source of contention to say the least.
A little over a year ago, back in October of 2009, the kids and I were at home getting ready for our evening routine, when the phone rang.
It was Ray, of course, calling to let me know that he was on his way home, but for all of us to come outside to the porch... he had a surprise!!
Oh Boy, was all I could think.  The kids all got so pumped, because Daddy's surprises were always very exciting.  Not like mine.  My surprises were things like, making brownies for dessert, or renting a fun movie to watch as a family.  Good surprises, but not life altering.
Daddy's surprises are always, "in your face, get ready to embrace whatever curve ball he is about to throw our way, you REALLY will never guess" kind of surprise, and always very exciting.


We all went out to the porch, where we stood and looked down our driveway for Ray to come home.  We saw a truck, that we didn't recognize, pulling in the gate through the trees.  As it got closer to the house, we could see Ray in the back, holding on to something.  It was alive.


As the truck pulled up to the porch, the kids all started to scream, "It's a goat!!"  The girls, especially Esther and Anna started calling it "adorable." The rest of us just approached it slowly to check it out.
Now, to Ray's defense, we had discussed having some animals on our 10 acres, besides dogs and cats.  The summer leading up to this, we had started raising chickens, and had entered the "farm fresh" egg business.  We had also talked about getting some goats, eventually, because I love goat cheese, and thought it might be kinda fun to have fresh goat milk.
But, at this point, our property was not fenced for goats.  Cattle and horses, yes, but not for goats.  We have bob wire and pipe fencing around the entire property, and cattle guards.  This is great for large animals, but not so good for goats.
After the excitement wore off from the kids, I inquired as to where we were going to put this goat.
Ray said, "Oh honey, it will be fine, he will just walk around and eat all the weeds and brush."
So, for the night, we turned her loose, by the way, her name was "Sassy."  Also, she was FREE.  You have to be concerned as to why someone wants to give you a FREE goat.


Anyway, the next morning, was a Thursday, and I was leaving on an annual get together with some friends from college.  I had lots to do, as the homeschooling mother of 5.  We had to pack their bags, leave meals for Ray, load up all school work, pack my bags, get the kids to where they were staying, and just get out of town for the next 3 days.  This is always a stressful thing anyway, getting out of town with 5 kids, but then to top it off that we had this goat roaming around.


Now, I will say, that it would have been no big deal, except that this goat is a friendly goat, loves people, and thus, wanted to be as close to us as possible.  So, she had camped out on our porch all night, and if any of you know goats, anywhere they stand for any amount of time, they poop. (Sorry if this grosses you out!!) Little goat poop everywhere on the porch.  And if you don't know goat poop, it doesn't really look like poop at first sight, it looks like little black balls, not really that noticeable at first, until you know what you are looking for.


Well, I had not been outside that morning, I had just been sending kids out with armfuls of stuff, loading the car for the 4 day weekend.  On one of the many trips, my sweet daughter came marching in to get her pencils for school, and I saw her tracking, what I thought was mud, into the den on the carpet.  Once I started cleaning it up, with her helping, we realized, it was not mud, but poop!!!


I screamed halt, for all people to remove their shoes, thinking at first that this had been a mishap, and Ruth had accidentally walked in the grass.  What I didn't realize was that all of them had been walking back and forth through the goat poop, since it was all over the porch, and we hadn't noticed it, since this was a first for our family.
I went outside, after cleaning it up, and saw that it was EVERYWHERE.  We were living in a goat litter box!!
I screamed at the kids, to get in the car, we were running late now, because of the clean up, and I called Ray on my way out of town.
With the most Godly voice I could muster :( , and with the most respectful words I could find, I basically told him, that was it!  After only one day, it was the goat, or me.  That goat had better be off my porch when I get home!! I am sure the Lord was honored in that conversation!!


I headed off for the great weekend, hoping to forget this all happened.
On Saturday, my cell phone rang.  It was Ray.
He said, "Did you know goats can jump 12 feet straight up in the air?"
"What?!"


Ray had decided, since he wanted the goat to clear out the brush on our property, and the only place we didn't want the goat, was on our porch, that he would lay an electric underground fence around the house and yard, so that the goat would not come onto the part where we lived and played, but would still have access to all the other parts of the property to eat the brush down.


Do you know that goats are related to sheep.  Sheep are thought to be some of the most dumb animals in the world!! That is why the Shepherd has to LEAD them to water, and MAKE them lie down.  We are compared to sheep in the Bible....but anyway.
Ray thought it would be a good idea, to put a shock collar on the goat, Sassy, and then flip on the electric fence he had soooo diligently worked on to keep this goat off of my porch.
He turned it on, then shooed the goat towards the house.  Ray said, as Sassy approached the electric underground fence, she began to baaah a little louder.  By the time she was on top of the wire, she jumped straight up 12 feet in the air!!!
Ray couldn't believe it.  She turned and ran!! Ray thought he had Victory!!
He was so proud of himself as we drove in on Sunday afternoon.  So proud of the way he had fixed the problem.
He demoed it for me and the kids several times to show us how she would turn and run. Success.
That night, as we unloaded the car, and all were on the porch, I guess Sassy just couldn't stand it.  She would get closer and closer, and as the current would get stronger, she would just keep pushing through, until finely, she would leap across the current, baahing loudly the whole way.  She would then happily walk up to the porch, for us to pet her.
Ray thought maybe he just didn't have it turned up enough, so he cranked up the current to the highest setting, then we all snuck into the house so Sassy wouldn't see us, and prayed that she would stay outside that underground fence.
To our dismay, the next morning, there sat Sassy, all curled up on our porch, happy as could be to see us!!
UGHH!
Well, all I can say is the Lord is using this as a refining fire for me.
More to come on the goat story later.

Have a great day in Him, the Maker of all things, even Goats,
JJ

Ski Trip?

Well, we just got back from what was supposed to be a wonderful ski trip with my family, the Janszen's.  This was going to be a special treat for all of us, kids, spouses, and grand kids.  Mom and Dad had invited all of us to come meet them up in Colorado for a week of skiing in the beautiful mountains.
The mountains are MY thing, by the way!!! Love the mountains, topped with snow. Just love them!!
We all also love to ski, well, sort of, Anna, our 6 year old still isn't really sure yet, but all the rest of us LOVE it!!
Well, as you know, if you have kids, a job, a house, a life, it is HARD to get away, out of town.  After Ray,  flipping the call schedule around, making arrangements for all the animals, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, house, mail, etc, we headed out 2 weeks ago on a Monday morning.
As we headed out, Jesse, our 14 year old son, complained of a sore throat, cough, and ended up having some fever.  We treated him for the fever, and felt this would probably pass, so we kept going, definitely not going to turn around for that.  This would pass, he rarely gets sick.
That night, in a tiny town in New Mexico, as we all slept in a hotel room, Jesse was delirious with fever, so much so, that he tried to leave the hotel room mistakenly, then started breathing soooo labored that we had to throw him in the shower, then out in the -12 degree temp outside, to shock the chest into opening back up again.  After we got him calmed down, we treated the fever again, and prayed for the morning to come.
Good thing, the next morning, we were able to drive into Co. Springs to pick up some medicine that would help.  Still thinking that this would pass, we headed on to Beaver Creek.
We arrived that afternoon, so happy to see my family, parents, brother, sister, spouses, fiance', and niece and nephew!!
We told them to all just stay away from Jes, but the rest of us were fine.
Poor Jesse was not doing well at this point, feeling awful, just wanting to rest. No skiing for him.
The next day, we got Jesse situated, then headed out for our first day of skiing.

Ruth and Joshua on our first run!!

I made ONE run with Ruth (my 12 year old daughter) and Joshua (my five year old son). As we came down the mountain, Ruth said she thought she might throw up, then said she was so weak, she might faint.  I told her, "Don't you dare faint, I cannot carry you down this mountain, and get your little brother down also, this is his first run this year! Whatever you don't, don't faint!"
Praise the Lord, she did make it back down to the lodge.  We quickly popped our skis off, and one of the guys from the place we were staying saw I needed some help.  He ran and got Ruth some water, then he helped Joshua while I took Ruth on in.  I really thought she must have altitude sickness, and felt if I got some water in her, she would be fine.
As soon as we got indoors, and sat on the bench, she fainted!! Scary!!! I have never seen anyone faint before, especially my own child. I scooped her back up onto the bench, and she came back to me.  The guy who was helping me with Joshua, came in about that time, and I quickly got Ruth back to our room for her to get re hydrated, and rest. (I did go back and get Joshua right after that!!!)
So, first day of skiing was over.
Next morning, as all the family began to wake up, my kids started filing into mine and Ray's room. Anna first, with fever, then Joshua, then Ruth.  Oh no!!! Now we had four with fever.
We talked with my whole extended family, about us just packing up, and taking our sick crew home, but they all wanted us to stay, knowing we had just driven 2 days to get there to be with them.  We decided we would stay, and hoped this would be a quick sickness, and give it another day or two, and we would all be skiing together soon.
Esther, who was the only one without fever, wanted to go ski with the cousins.  I bundled up, and we headed out.  After about two runs....., you know what is about to happen!!! She starts talking about how weak she feels.  Yep! She had fever too!!! So now we were 5 for 5.

Hanging out in the pediatric ward, doing crafts and watching movies.

Ray ran to Walmart and got crafts, Lego's, and anything you can think of to do together in our room.  For the next few days, we didn't sleep much at night, doing med call for fever and cough, for 5 kids.  Ray and I had a few turns skiing some runs, while my Mom and Dad took turns hanging with the kids, but for the most part, it was pediatric ward for us.
We thought a few of them were doing better the last day of our stay up there, but the morning we left, all 5 had fever of 103+ Yikes!! One was even 104.9!! Scary!

The trip home.

We knew we had a miserable trip ahead of us, but we had to do it, so off we went.
The next two days, we had kids throw up 5 times in the car, 2 times had diarrhea in the car (YES that is right!!), one fainting in a Taco Bell parking lot, had to change clothes in a Casino in Oklahoma, and a gas station in Kansas, one go to the bathroom on the side of the road, with 30 mile an hour freezing winds howling, as we held them up between two car doors, constant coughing day and night.  Let's just say, it was a rough trip home!!!

Pure misery!!

As we approached Ft. Worth, Hallelujah!! We realized that something we had been planning to buy for Ray's business was going off of sale at midnight that night, the same day we were driving in.  We thought, "Why not?" We have made it this far, the traffic is bad in Ft. Worth, let's stop, let the traffic clear out, and run in an buy this item at Lowe's.
Boy, did we look like a motley crew.  Had not showered in two days, kids had on half clothes, half pjs,(because of the diarrhea incidents) hair a mess, all of us still wearing snow boots.  We looked rough!! I think the salesman felt sorry for us, he certainly didn't think Ray was a doctor, which was good, we didn't want him to know that anyway.  He gave us a great deal, and he even gave us a better price than what was on sale.  I'm tellin' ya, we looked so bad!!
So, finally home.  Yeah!!! Praise the Lord everyone slept good that night.  That was what we needed, because the sickness was not over, and to make a long story short, the kids stayed sick that whole next week, as well.  Another whole week off from school.
While we were trying to survive the second week of sickness, the challenges continued.  We had pool equipment freeze!!, audit letters come, and a pipe freeze, burst, and flood our storage and part of the apartment in our barn. After that pipe burst, Jesse thought I was losing my mind.  I just started walking around thanking the Lord for sickness, busted pipes, frozen pool equipment, audits.  Just thanking God for what He was doing.
Jesse said, "Mom, what are you doing??!!"
"I am thanking the Lord for these things, scripture tells me too." "I don't have to like them, but I will thank Him, somehow good will come out of this!"
I have to say, not sure what that is yet, but I do know this.
Because we were sick in Colorado, it really made us slow down.  My family is a go getter kind of family, lots of activity, fun, adventure. Because we were forced to be inside more, together, we had some sweet times of prayer with my Mom, Dad, Sister, and her husband.  My kids had some sweet times of dominoes with their "Buddy and Babe." We watched some fun movies together, and played scrabble.
So I can say, though, it was not the ski trip I would have chosen, some sweet times came from the sickness. As far as the frozen pipes, and things once we got home, not sure how the Lord will redeem those yet!! :) But like my father in law always says, "If money can fix it, it is not a real problem."
So I will continue to praise God, in the midst of the stuff.
God is faithful,
JJ

Hunting Coyotes on the porch

I am in bed right now, with my 5 year old little boy next to me, sound asleep.
What is my adventurous husband doing?
He is on the porch, with our other son, Jesse, and 4 other guys from our church, all dressed in camo, listening to a horrible sound coming from some speakers he has strategically placed out in the pasture, next to a dead animal.  Sounds nice doesn't it?
They are trying to call in coyotes, and Ray thought it would be fun, to invite a few friends over for the excitement.
I thought I would be the good hostess, so I baked a few brownies, and put the coffee on.
I am afraid, with the smells of the coffee, brownies, and the laughter coming from the porch, those coyotes aren't going to come within 10 miles of our house, but oh, are they having a good time.
Sometimes, it is the crazy things we do, that bring the most joy.  So what if they don't see a coyote, they are bonding, right??


Have a blessed night,
JJ

Married to Mr. Fix-it!!

Just a quick story.  
Yesterday, while the rest of the DFW area was coming home from church, sitting by the fire, watching the BEAUTIFUL snow fall to the ground, we were not!!
You see, I am married to a "fix it yourself" kind of guy.  I guess that is why he makes a great surgeon.  He loves to take things apart, see how they work, then fix them, and put them back together.
He can't stand to pay someone to do something that he is very capable of doing.  
I, on the other hand, feel God has given us each a gift.  Let the repair guys do what they know best, the doctors do what they know best, the car mechanic do what he knows best, etc.  You get my point!!
Well, not my man.  
We have just recently had a pump go out on the pool.  Not too big of a problem, since it is winter, and not a big fear of algae growing in the pool, but with these freezing temps, the pump had to be repaired, so that the water could flow and not freeze in the pipes and do serious damage.  
Ray has been tinkering with it for the last several days, we have had beautiful weather, so no problem.  But yes, Saturday night, the temp started dropping.  He and Jesse were out there in the rain trying to work.  They needed light, a dry space to work, and a little bit of warmer temps to finish the job and let the glue set up.  Not happening at 9pm at night.  Why is it that these things always seem to get stressed, and rushed into a tight schedule? (Thus, the feeling of the pickup truck flying down the road, I referred to in my first post!!)
Anyway, I came up with the brilliant idea of putting tarps over the equipment, and putting heat lamps in there, (actually, it was my Dad's idea from another repair time), just to get us through the night, except we almost melted one of the pipes, we saw the next day, but anyway!!!
The pipes made it through the night.
So, as we were leaving church on Sunday, and saw the breathtaking snow that was falling in huge flakes from heaven onto Cleburne, I enjoyed it only for a moment, knowing what lay ahead of us.
I asked Ray if he wanted to ask one of his "guy friends" to help him in this task, you know?, share the burden, scripture encourages us to do that.  He would have none of that, and said that he would be glad for me and Jesse to "share the burden. " 
We got home, bundled up in several layers, and out we marched, into what was quickly turning into snow mixed with sleet.  We put up some table and balanced some chairs on top of them on either side of the equipment, and stretched a plastic tarp over the top of us, to keep the area dry while Ray worked.  For the next couple of hours, Jesse and I ran back and forth, getting whatever Ray needed to keep working and eventually complete the job.  I felt like a scrub tech in a huge O.R. with freezing rain coming down.
After several hours and two trips to home depot, the job was finally done.  By that time, the snow had stopped, and it was just damp and cold.  Yuck.
But I have to say, he did fix it, and the pipes did not freeze last night, and we only had to pay with our time.  Way to go Ray!  Sometimes I am thankful that he is "Mr. Fix-it."
I only hope next time I get to "share in the burden" of Mr. Fix-it, that it is not in the freezing rain!!
Hope all of you, who are in our area, were able to enjoy the snow yesterday!!
In His grace,
JJ

God used the Long, long Trailer

Just an after thought on the long, long trailer.
Did we make a huge mistake buying the long, long trailer? 
Good question. Romans 8:28 promises us that "He uses all things together for our good."
I pray this verse in, around, over, and under my family all the time.  I trust Him at His word.
How did God use the trailer for our good.  
Probably in many more ways than I can see at this moment.  Just to name a few: Great memories, great stories, great patience, growing as a family.
But one of the most tangible ways was in a financial provision.
You see, that same year that we bought that trailer, Ray had began to cut back on his schedule, mainly in his delivers.  He was getting up 2 - 3 times a night, sometimes even 4 nights a week to go deliver babies, as well as keep his normal office schedule up, and weekend call schedule.  He was getting exhausted, and as a result, depressed, simply because of lack of sleep.  He wanted to back off on his schedule so he could build back up his reserves, and have more of himself left over for the family.
Sounds like a good plan, except that once we did this, we were not able to pay ourselves for 2 months in the fall.  
When we sold the trailer in June, months before we had this defecit, Ray felt that we should put the money in the bank, instead of doing something really smart like investing it, or putting it into the kid's college funds, etc.  We questioned this, but felt this is what we were suppossed to do.  
Little did we know that it was that money, that the Lord would use to provide for us months later.  
And even deeper than that, I believe God had us buy that long, long trailer, so that the money would all be in one spot for use, instead of spending it on a bunch of little things or investments originally, that we might not have been able to get it back from.
So was it a mistake, perhaps. But God is faithful, even when we are not.  He never changes.  He is good, all the time.  Be encouraged, we serve a Mighty God, who uses even our mistakes, for His glory.
Have a great day in Him, even if you make a mistake,
JJ