Love you all,

Gma Audrey – I got your messages! I’ll try to call you back soon – I keep falling asleep as soon as I get home and not returning anyone’s calls! I’m not avoiding you, it’s just your great-grandbaby’s fault. hehe

~Lisa

A couple disturbing thoughts about my situation: I hadn’t eaten any breakfast (which is normal for me to wait until noon-ish and eat a “real meal”), and would be doing physical work requiring a small bite of something shortly; I hadn’t showered and wasn’t prepared to be seen by anyone.

Since I was out there to work, that’s what I did. I raked all the grass, using it to mulch around the baby fruit trees and grapevines, and under the pool deck; carried branches to the burn pile; emptied the ashes from the grill; checked every door and window for a way back into the house. I was definitely hungry and ready for a little rest.

It was around 1:00 p.m. now and I was looking for a way to handle my homelessness. I could walk or ride my bike to the school to get a key from the kids, but like I said, I hadn’t showered and had been working in the yard. Too embarrassing. So my options were to wait patiently on the deck for 2 1/2 hours or think of someone to call for help.

The two friends I thought of were both at work, but one would be off at 2:00. I called her to see if she had plans for right after work and she said she could help me. Fantastic! So I only had about an hour to kill. I gave in to the situation, laid out some deck chair cushions, and settled in to attempt to take a nap. Everyone knows I don’t like naps, but I had been up too late the night before, due to drinking coffee beyond my limit the day before. A nap sure wouldn’t hurt me. It took me 50 minutes to fall asleep (probably the reason I don’t like naps) and I woke to the sound of my cell phone. She was on her way and I was free from my homelessness!

From now on I’ll unlock a couple doors AND take a key with me! A better plan would be to spend more time in quiet and restfulness, because it was kind of nice to sit and listen to the sounds, and have absolutely nothing else I needed to do instead. This makes me want to start working all the more on a flower garden with a bench for those often unwelcome–but necessary–moments of solitude, rest, quiet, contemplation, prayer.

I must have treated her ears daily for a month, and it required twice a day. First I would flush the ears with a solution the vet “gave” me, dry them as good as possible, wiping away anything visible, and later go back and put in the antibiotic ointment. She was very good for me while doing this, but it made her not like me as much, and also gave her a dirty, greasy look.

After doing this for so long, and wondering if we were making any headway, I began to search for help on-line. Many people swear by vinegar, or some concoction with vinegar as a main ingredient. One person assured me that giving a final vinegar rinse after each bath would fix the problem. I tried this and it obviously caused her much discomfort. As soon as she was turned loose she began running around crazily, stopping only to roll around on the floor and rub both ears. She has never behaved this way before or since.

The next couple days I tried to use another home remedy that many have raved about. It contains 6 oz. water, 6 oz. vinegar, 1-2 tsp. boric acid, and a drop of liquid soap. I used cotton pads and/or cotton balls dipped in this solution, and wiped out the ears, letting some drip down into the ear canal. After treating both ears, I went back and dried each ear as much as possible with another cotton pad. HOWEVER, Jamie acted like this solution hurt her and I discontinued it after a few tries. There was visible flaking skin around the opening of the ear canal. The vet said the vinegar could have burned the skin. I let it rest a couple days, doing nothing to treat it.

Not knowing what to do next, but knowing I had to do something to keep after the yeast, I used the vets treatment a few days. My thinking was that this would be gentler, providing some moistening ointment for healing of the burned skin, and at least I would be doing something, as opposed to nothing.

When it looked like it was better, and the vet said the ears were almost clear again, I decided to try the home remedy again, diluting it with a little more water so the vinegar wouldn’t cause so much discomfort. I did this daily for three days and then a week later. The directions I read said to do it once a week after that, but I was so weary of the routine that I just let it go after that.

I did, however, have her groomed shorter than usual, asking that they trim very short around the ears to let more air flow in and around the ears. The groomer said another idea is to make a head sock to hold the ear flaps up on the head, allowing the air to flow freely into the ear canal. She also said this condition should pass as Jamie matures, just as children outgrow ear infections with the changing of the body.

I will keep an eye on Jamie’s ears, but so far we have the “all clear”!

I took Jamie to the vet yesterday for a fur-cut. For our blog fans out there who seem to keep reading our boring posts, Jamie is a five month old Lhasa Apso Miniature Poodle mix. Her hair was getting very long and we decided to take a chance on getting her clipped, even though it might mean that she would lose her dark color. As you can see, there is plenty of dark left, and I think it will come back as it grows out. Karla said I should be prepared to giggle when I first saw her. She was right–it was quite a change from the furry monster she had become, but I actually couldn’t help saying,

“Awwww! You look so cute!” I’m quite relieved to be rid of all her shagginess. Bath times will be so much easier, not to mention we’ll use less shampoo. I still can’t resist sinking my fingers into her silky soft fur and telling her how pretty she is every time I see her!

2) High five, Toby and Leah! Can’t wait to see your tricks…but not the chewing part. I’m sure if Jamie was free to roam the living room, she’d be doing that and worse. She chewed a lamp cord also. I’m just very glad for her that it wasn’t my laptop cord. She’s already been banished from the living room unless she’s on a leash or sitting on someone’s lap. Period. It won’t always be like this. About a week ago I could see that one of her bottom front teeth was crooked so I touched it and it wiggled. Our big girl is getting ready to lose her baby teeth…and she’s getting way bigger than I had hoped. Maybe it’s all of her hair making her look big.

She’s getting shaggy looking with her cute chocolate tips growing out, as Lhasa Apso’s do. She has an appointment for grooming in two weeks. I have to decide if I want them to take some length off of her body, or just do another foot, face and fanny trim. She’s also going to get her ears checked at that appointment to see how the infection is coming along. We started an oral antibiotic a couple days ago, and I’m still doing the flush and ointment every day. It looks better.

3) We love our jewelry. I’ve been wearing something every chance I get. I especially like the necklace that doesn’t really hook and just sits there. I bought white gold ball earrings (just like the yellow gold earrings I always wear) to match the silver necklace.

I also wore the other necklace and earrings to church on Easter. They’re so pretty! This picture was taken at G’ma’s on Easter, when G’pa cooked some amazing pork chops on the grill,

to go along with all the other good stuff!

4) Way to go Chris! You’re touching lives with all that you do. What movies did they watch at the all-nighter?

I was going to head for bed early, but here I am still sitting here, all wound up in my thoughts. Too many good things are happening lately. We’re very blessed. Love to you all, and goodnight!

Pam/Mom

1) I finished knitting my pretty Norwegian Stockings!

That picture isn’t mine, but I’ll post some pics of mine soon once I’ve finished weaving in the ends.

2) Toby and Leah are obeying a couple commands now – sit, lie down, up/dance, off and release. Of course, they only do them when there’s food involved. Oh well, we gotta start somewhere! Leah has been a busy girl too – she’s now chewed through two lamp cords, one Nintendo DS charger cord, one laptop cord, one feather pillow, and several wooden corner moldings. We’re so *bleeping* proud.

3) I hit my first lia sophia goal of $1500 sales in 5 weeks! Well, I actually blew past the goal, because I had that many sales after 2 weeks. Thanks for your help Mom and Grammy with throwing the party and buying jewelry! I hope you like the pieces you got – Mom and Jessie, I know you liked yours – what do you think of yours Gmaudie?? I’m supposed to get some more new jewelry for myself today I can’t wait – I bought lots of cute earrings and a couple necklaces. http://www.liasophia.com/lisarenee

4) Chris is keeping busy with church, of course. Really, that’s his only hobby – church. I can’t wait until we hire a children’s pastor so Chris can get back to being “the youth pastor” and we can have a normal life! No real complaints though, it is so exciting to be involved with our church right now – so much growth, so many young families coming and growing in their relationship with God. Our Easter service was really great – we got to hear testimonies from a few new Christ-followers, and their excitement and joy was really contagious. If you want to listen to any of Pastor Dave’s sermons, you can go to http://www.acchurch.org and click on “Sunday Mornings”. There’s a list of podcasts on that page. It would be fun if we could have some recordings of our worship music too, but maybe that’s something they’ll do in the future.

This week is Spring Break for the kids around here, so instead of having Oasis (our Sr. High Youth Group) tonight like we normally do on Tuesdays, they’re having a Movie Marathon. The kids are probably just gathering at the church right now (10:30am) and eating Chris’ homemade pancakes and bacon, and then the movie-watching will commence. They will be watching movies from 11:00am-7:00am tomorrow morning. Isn’t that sick? LOL the kids LOVE it. They did it last year too, but it wasn’t planned to be an all night thing last year, it just kind of turned into an all-nighter, and it was such a big hit that Chris decided to turn it into an event for this year. I think I’ll stop by for a couple hours tonight, but since I have to work today and tomorrow there’s no way I’m going to stay up all night vegging out in front of the big screen. Maybe if I was still in college I would, but now I’m a grown-up. Right?

K, I can’t think of any other pertinent updates for now. Love you guys! Talk to you later!

~Lisa

So, every day I’ve been using an ear wash to flush out the ear, and then later putting in an antibiotic ointment. Her head is always greasy. Every day her ears are still disgusting. It looked like it was clearing up a couple times, not so red, but the next time I looked it was red again, with lots of brown stuff.

Back to my research online. Many people were sharing their miracle remedies, most containing some vinegar. I asked the vet about one concoction in particular that sounded like it had been successful over time.  It has 6 oz. water, 6 oz. vinegar, 1-2 tsp. boric acid, and a drop of liquid soap, and you use cotton balls soaked with this mixture to swab out the ears.  The vet said it would be worth a try so I went to the store to gather ingredients.  She has had two cleanings today with it.  The first time she shook her head several times after I let loose of her.  This evening she acted like it bothered her when I did the first ear, and she actually yelped when I did the other side.  I’m not feeling too good about this, but will try again tomorrow to see what happens.  The person who shared this cure said after they got through the daily routine to clear it up, they only had to do it once a week for maintenance and their dog never had the ear infections again.  Sounds good to me!

My reaction was similar. Even though you think you know all there is to know about the life of Jesus, from reading it in the Bible or listening to sermons for 25 years, the story takes on life when you see and hear it in person. Blended with songs, all the senses are reaching out to take it all in. How many times have you heard the song “Watch the Lamb” by Ray Boltz? Ah, but how many times have you actually seen a father and his sons walking toward town, carrying the lamb (a live lamb with baa-ing!) they’re about to sacrifice, while a man is singing the song about it? I mean, that song made me stop washing dishes and get on my knees 20 years ago, but with the visual of this man stopping to explain to his sons what they’re going to see and do in Jerusalem, it’s mighty powerful.

When the performance was over (90 cast members with captivating scenes and songs, moving the heart through deep emotions), we were asked…hmmm…how did he ask that? The play was called “Bow the Knee” and in the end the Roman Centurion bowed at the foot of the cross and acknowledged the belief he’d been struggling with, that Jesus really was the promised Messiah. We were then asked what we would do with Jesus, if we would bow to Him, or walk away unchanged from all we had just seen. All who wanted to accept Jesus were invited to come to the altar. With over 700 people in the building, no one wanted to be the first to go forward, but once the ice had been broken there was a flood of people. It touched my heart to witness such tender happenings–it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an altar call. I’m not a newcomer to this style, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the kids were thinking. Being transplants into the Mennonite Church for 14 years, they’ve experienced a much quieter style of worship. All things considered, I would have to say it was a great experience for them. One went forward for rededication, and one said the sinner’s prayer for the first time and wants to be baptized! Praise the Lord!

 byebye for now!

 **Jess**