Remembering the blog/Bible Studies

Wow. I had forgotten about setting this blog up, as anyone can tell by looking at the post dates. I will take advantage of this blog and post my thoughts about the Bible studies I'm doing. One is a Beth Moore study on the life of Paul: To Live Is Christ. The other one is by Nancy Leigh DeMoss about Proverbs 31: The Counter-Cultural Woman. The first one is over half done, so I won't comment much on that one, but the Proverbs 31 is just beginning and I will try to comment on it daily as God works on my heart to create in me the person He intends me to be.

Day 1

I like the possibility that King Lemuel is King Soloman and that his mother, Bathsheba is the one teaching her son. She wants her son to learn from her and avoid the mistakes others have made. I have failed at this job. I have not taught my children how to live for God and how to choose the right mate in life; what qualities to look for and what to avoid in a spouse. Is it too late? I don't think so. I vow to begin now, looking forward rather than backward, and remember how to teach my children. One way is by example, another by teaching and yet another by prayer.

Wow. I can feel God talking to me already. I pray that my mind and spirit will remain open to His Spirit, and that I will be teachable and receptive to what the Holy Spirit is showing me. Help me to teach my children in the way that they should go, even though they are all grown now, so they can learn from the mistakes of others and not have to learn everything the hard way.

I'm ready for fall!

It has been a long week at work. I didn't read all the way through a project and ended up doing more work than I needed to do. At last I realized my mistake and corrected it. A hard lesson to learn. From now on I will make sure I read every word and thoroughly understand my projects before beginning. I will not make that mistake again! Talk about FRUSTRATING!!! Add to that the fact that I haven't gotten near enough sleep this week, and you can see why my week has been so long.
On the bright side, Cristine and her husband, Elior came to see us this week. We had a wonderful visit. Elior cooked us one of his native meals that is absolutely divine! I'll have to get him to give me the recipe. He said that when we go to Denver to visit them, he will put together a big meal and we can get more exposure to his culture. Christine kept teasing me that she knows some older Russian men that she can introduce to me. LOL... like I want to get involved in another relationship at this point in my life!
My petsittig business has done nothing. I just didn't have the money to advertise, so I guess that's what did me in. I would get calls now and then, but the people lived too far away. Oh, well. It seems like I am just destined to work for other people, rather than myself. I plan to pursue a career with Lowe's. The only way to make a decent living is to get into management, so I have set some goals to achieve.
I would love to be able to get far enough in management that I can move around the country if I want; just pick a place, find a nearby store with the right opening and apply for a transfer. Christine wants us to move to Denver so bad. Maybe some day I can do that. I think it would be cool to live there for a couple of years. I really want to move back to South Dakota some day.
I hope you all have a wonderful, very blessed week. God bless!

Possums In The Yard!

On August 17, 2008 around 10PM or so, a mama possum and her six babies were in a tree that kind of hangs over the back part of the fence in the back yard. The dogs must have heard them making noise or something, because they ran over barking hysterically and jumped up on the fence. They kept barking ferociously, and I thought they were attacking one of the cats. I ran outside, in my pajamas and barefoot, to see what the uproar was about.

I guess they really got excited when I showed up, because Ellie went crazy, barking and jumping on the fence. The other dogs joined in, and by the time I reached that back, very dark corner, whatever was on the fence fell into the yard. The dogs started attacking it. There were growls, snarls and hisses reverberating off the fence and shed. I made the dogs back off, screaming at them to stay back while trying to get someone to come out to help. I could hear scratching in the grass and was afraid they had hurt one of my cats. I was saying "here kitty kitty" over and over, but since I couldn't see anything and the cat didn't meow, I just knew he was hurt really bad.

I shooed the dogs back, ran into the house and grabbed the flashlight. When I got back to the corner and started shining the light around, I saw several pairs of eyes light up. Talk about surprise! There were several baby possums! A pair of eyes glowing on the other side of the fence was the mama, I'm guessing, or maybe another possum.

We finally got the dogs herded in the house without injury, thank goodness! The next morning somebody went outside (I can't remember who) and saw that the possums had taken up residence in a hole in the ground next to the house, right under Julie's bedroom window. Possums are nocturnal, so Julie shoved the little plastic pool over the hole, upside down, to keep the dogs off them. Oh wait, I remember now. Julie had taken Ellie and Shula outside and the dogs found them. Ellie was trying to pull the mama out by the tail and Julie finally got her off and away from the hole. That's when she put the pool over the hole.

I made several phone calls after 8AM, but couldn't find anybody willing to come out at remove the critters for less than $369... can you believe that?!? I had to be at work at 9:30, so after I got off work that afternoon, I started making calls again. I finally found a lady at a national wildlife volunteer organization, but she said that the only way they would take them was if the babies were orphaned. She was very helpful about how to make the possums want to leave and told me everything that we needed to do.

When it started getting dark, Endy and I went out making lots of noise so that they would want to leave. Nothing happened. They didn't come out of their hole. Finally Endy came up with the idea to flood them out of the hole. Part of the waterhose was thrown over the fence, so I went over there and kinked the hose while Endy went to put the end of the hose in the hole and turn the water on. Oh yeah, did I mention the hole is right under the water spigot?
When the hole started flooding, the babies started coming out. Endy was watching the hole. She told me to go ahead and fill it up so the mama would come out. I did, but the mama was dead. Four of the babies ran into a piece of rain gutter that was laying on the ground. The other two stayed close to the hole. I grabbed the dog crate that was on the patio and we scooped the two that were out into the crate, then Endy picked up the gutter pipe and dumped the other four into the crate.

This afternoon I finally contacted the right person at the wildlife organization. She contacted the volunteer closest to me and we made arrangements for me to drop them off at her house. Julie buried the mama in the side yard. Sorry to say, we did not have a funeral for it. The babies were delivered witout further delay to a wonderful lady that will raise them until they are old enough to be placed in the wild again. Alas, an end to yet another dramatic moment in my life.