Chicken Love/Hate

 Grace begged Papa all afternoon to catch a chicken so she could hold one. He finally obliged and somehow, the chicken ended up in my lap!! Grace sat next to me and pet her for a while.

 Then she insisted that PAPA hold the chicken so she could "hold" her.

And then...the chicken wasn't so trusting of this wild child's handling.....

(is the video working? I can't get it to play when I bring it up...???)

Oh Grace. You certainly keep us on our toes and keep us laughing!!

Flooding at Ponderosa Trails

 We have been getting so much rain the last few weeks. My garden is at my parents' (Ponderosa Trails) and it's been under water for over 2 weeks now! And still more rain to come next week. Thankfully no damage to their house or Grandma Mary's house, or really any of the other buildings. But Dad hasn't been able to get to work a few times because of flooded roads! The water over their road and driveway usually recedes fairly quickly, but a lot of the other roads around them remain flooded for days (or weeks in some cases!).

My poor fruit trees! We planted 6 of them this spring and they are definitely getting plenty of water!! I just hope they can survive until things dry out...if they ever do!

Dad went canoeing in their yard!! To the left of that tree row is where the driveway should be!

The pond is overflowing and almost to the bottom of the bridge. We're realizing that it's possible the entire area where we planted my garden,the pumpkin patch, and fruit trees might have been an extension of the pond originally! They've only lived there for 2 years, and we had been in a drought for a couple years before that so the pond was very low when they moved in! We never imagined it would reach this far!

My garden is to the left, behind the chicken wire fence. My compost pile is about to float away!

The dock is almost under water.

This little pergola used to be quite a few feet from the pond...actually, before the drought ended we were able to mow between it and the pond! now it's about 2 feet under water.

The tin fish is about to become a real fish!

My poor garden. This is my peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes (and volunteer onions from last year!). It's all about 2 feet under water and has been for 2+ weeks!! To the right of this pic is the pumpkin patch, which now has fish in it!

More rain tonight, tomorrow, and Tuesday at least...we might float away!

8th Grade Promotion?!

Welcome back! I've missed blogging. Unfortunately, social media and cell phones made sharing so much easier but as I found when I tried to print off some pictures of Anna for her 8th grade promotion...social media is a bear to track memories and photos!!! Now that we have a desktop again, I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to a little blogging. But don't hold your breath...

How is it even possible that we will soon have a child in high school?! That makes me feel very, very old. We celebrated Anna's 8th grade promotion with a ceremony with our homeschool group, then had a party at Ponderosa Trails (that's what we've named my parents' place). If you couldn't tell, Anna's favorite color is yellow! ;-)

 My sweet, beautiful Anna Rose. How is she ready for high school?!

Grandpa & Grandma came to celebrate with us.

I never did get a picture with all the food out and her "cake"...she said she didn't want an actual cake (she tries not to eat too much sugar because it makes her feel bad and usually she ends up sick after eating it!), so I cut the rind off a watermelon and used other fruit to "decorate" it. Then we had a spread of yummy fruits and veggies and nuts! 

Sisters...one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling has been the relationships my kids have had the opportunity to build with each other. Anna has always been like a second mother to Grace. But if she wasn't home with us every day, Grace would honestly barely know her, given their age gap! Such a blessing.

Thank you to Krystal Images for the family shots at the promotion ceremony!

The RCHE 8th graders

I cannot count the number of times I have thanked the Lord that Grandma Mary is now so close to us! My kids all love to go over to her house and play or visit. Such a blessing!

And needless to say, we LOVE having Papa & Binga so close!!

Anna was so nervous about walking in and being on stage! I told her she looked like someone was holding a gun to her back the entire time! LOL!!

Now, to finish out the school year this summer and get ready for high school. I'll admit I'm nervous!!! Ha! It's going to be a bit different...with transcripts and thinking about college/career in just four short years. The days are long but the years are short.

Anna's Day with a K-9 Officer

At the Healing Hearts Ranch Rodeo's silent auction in October, we won "A Day with a K-9 Officer" for Anna. She has been looking forward to this day for 2 months! The Great Bend PD went above and beyond to make this day special and meaningful for an 11 year old girl!

We met the police chief at the station and he talked to Anna a bit while we waited for the K-9 officer, Detective Hales, to arrive. Det. Hales took us up to his office, where he gave Anna some "trading cards" of him and his dog, Kia (pronounced K-eye). We also met another Detective, Joel, who would act as the decoy (aka pretend bad guy). From there, we went outside and "met" Kia (he stayed in the back of his car) and then went to the fire station so they could show Anna the things a K-9 does. Anna got to ride with Detective Hales and Kia!

 Once there, Det. Hales got Kia out to actually meet Anna. He put the muzzle on Kia just to make sure he didn't try to hug Anna with his teeth ;) Kia is a Belgian Malinois, not a German Shepherd. According to his handler, Kia is far superior to the other K-9...a German Shepherd. HA! Kia came from Holland, so his handler gives him commands in Dutch.

 It didn't take long for him to decide he loved Anna and the muzzle came off! He actually went to Anna two or three times instead of me. She was happy to oblige with lots of love and pets!

 Happy, happy girl!

 The first exercise we saw was drug sniffing (all those pics are on my phone. I think there's actually only one...). Anna got to hide 4 or 5 different narcotics around the firehouse bay for Kia to find. It was really fun to watch Kia go to work--as soon as he walked into the building, he was a totally different dog. Alert and intense and focused. The next exercise put the decoy, Det. Joel, to work! He volunteered for this! He actually had to get special training because if you don't do it correctly, you can hurt or even kill the dog. For the first "suspect hunt", they set up in the firehouse with Det. Joel hiding behind a boat. Det. Hales brought Kia in and yelled his command for the suspect to show himself. As soon he started yelling, Kia started barking. And it is a fierce bark! You couldn't pay me enough to be a decoy!!! 

 I think she's enjoying herself!

 It only took Kia about 30 seconds to find Det. Joel!

 They play it up like it's real, with the decoy yelling and acting in pain for a couple reason--to build the dog's confidence and to make it as real life as possible.

 Once Kia gets ahold of the decoy, his handler puts his leash back on quickly and gives him the command to drop.

 In these cases, the decoy will let go of the arm pad and a happy Kia walks away with a very big chew toy!

 Next we moved outside to a training building. They set it up with some barricades around where Det. Joel was hiding. As soon as his handler let him out of the car, Kia was alert and ready to seek and destroy!

 The saying about animals smelling fear is 100% true, especially for K-9s! We do put off a stronger odor when we are afraid and these dogs can smell that.

 Det. Hales is giving his orders for the suspect to come out and Kia is chomping at the bit to get in there! This time, it took Kia about 60 seconds to find the decoy and he did it by jumping over a half-wall that was about 4.5 feet tall!!!

 Next up, we headed to an old air strip for a mock car chase and foot pursuit of the "suspect"!! Anna got to ride along!!!

 There's Kia in the back (you can barely see the tip of his ear)--he never is still in there. Always circling to get out and get after it!

 Anna got to turn on the lights and sirens as they had a high speed chase up and down the air strip!

 You can barely see Anna over the dash :)

 The "suspect" has gone off the road, abandoned his car and is fleeing on foot!

 Det. Hales pursues on foot. He has a little remote on his belt...it has a button that will open Kia's door, so if he ever gets in trouble and needs Kia's backup, he can just push the button and it pops open Kia's door.

 I've never seen  dog run as fast as Kia. Wow!

 The "suspect" is now firing at the officer (you can see the smoke on the right side).

 It did not take long for Kia to catch up to his handler and pass him!

 Closing in quickly on the "suspect"!

 Now you can see why I would say that Det. Joel is the crazy one?!?

 Got him!!

 Takes him down in a split second, and he even loses a shoe! :)

 His handler gets the leash on him and gives him the command. 

 He really doesn't want to leave behind that giant chew toy...

 LOVIN' IT!

 The "suspect" with his "getaway driver" (also known as the other K-9 handler)!

I am so thankful for the GB PD and these two guys. They took a lot of time out of their day to make a little girl feel special and have a blast! They went above and beyond what we were expecting! It was fun to learn more about the K-9s and how they help keep us safe! We appreciate our law enforcement and are so blessed to have good guys like these on the force!