I am sooooooooooo thankful for my daughter...
and her gift with animals.

Friday nite was a terrible night yet one to remember. We were sitting in our bedroom with the dogs at the foot of the bed. Suddenly my husband got up and went to the dog saying frantically "Something's wrong with the dog!" I looked up and saw the dog shaking violently and convulsing! He was foaming at the mouth and had complete loss of his bladder functions. I immediately called our daughter, who works as a Vet Tech at a local animal hospital. She raced herself to the house and found the dog outside. We had finally 'baited' him outside after having been cornered in our bedroom until he could move away from the door. Once outside, we were able to leave him there for Rachel to find him and care for him. She was able to get him calmed down and ultimately put him in his crate for the night, or so we thought. Once Rachel left, we went to bed, but it wasn't long before the dog began crying and whining again. Tom decided to try to let him outside, but once after coming back in, Tom was unsuccessful in returning him back to the crate. We had no choice but to let him stay out of the crate for the night. Saturday morning, Rachel called me to see if the dog was ok. I told her that oddly enough I'd not heard them as I usually did by 7AM. So I got up to go check on them. When I arrived in the den, one dog was sitting at the base of the steps waiting for me...but the sick dog was leaned over against a far wall and was beginning to convulse again. I quickly called Rachel and told her that it was happening again. She told me to get the dog to the animal hospital immediately. It was also obvious that she had probably had many seizures through the nite. The carpet was completely ruined by all of the accidents that she could not control. We tried to get the dog to the van and in her crate for the ride to the hospital, but the dog was completely dilerious. According to Rachel, after an episode such as this, the dog will see multiples of people, so that explained why he would not come to us. Tom tried and tried for nearly 30 minutes to get him to respond to us, but he just avoided us. Ultimately, Rachel came home and had to literally 'lasso' the dog and then inject him with a shot of valium. Then she and Tom hauled this 80lb canine into the van. The dog stayed at the hospital all morning with IV glucose and then we brought both the dog and Rachel home. Rachel has stayed her all weekend to take care of her. After we got home, Tom took up the carpet in the den and began to place peel and stick tile on the floor. The room now looks like a combination of Victory Lane at Nascar, Mel's diner and a chess or checkerboard...(Black and White squares). It is going to actually look pretty good I think and I believe that it will be much easier to keep.

Again...I could have never gotten thru this weekend without Rachel and her knowledge of how to handle animals in distress!

Well, its time to play CATCH UP and tell about what is going on now in my life. Ministry wise, we are STILL in the same place we've been...but God is good and he CONTINUES to assure us that we are following him just as he plans. We are loving being involved in the church where we are now. Jim Tippins is such an amazingly creative minister. Last Sunday he spoke about THE VINEYARD...and we had communion,but all throughout the worship area were grapevine leaves that added to the imagery of his sermon. On the altar table around the Communion elements was a beautiful grapevine wreath, grapes and all the necessary things to creat such a truly environmental worship...WOAH--Ev Robertson, you'd be proud!! And this Sunday is going to be incredible as well. He is speaking on A WEDDING (the parable Jesus told about a wedding)...Jim, Tom, and several others are wearing Tux's, some of the girls are wearing bridesmaid dresses, I, being on the keyboard this week, am playing "Jesu, Joy of Man's desiring" for offertory. Between Sunday School and Worship there will be wedding cookies and punch in the hallway. And all of the members were sent an invitation that said "The King of the universe invites you to attend a wedding feast at Summitt Heights Baptist Church---blah blah" HOW COOL, right!! I'm just so excited about it...and of course, as I say, God is blessing in all of it.

As for other parts of my life, things are same ole same ole. I will say that I am very excited to be typing this blog on a new laptop that I purchased as a whale of a deal on Ebay. LUVADEAL, that's my middle name.

PRAISE GOD for how He continues to reveal himself to us.

Well, its time to play CATCH UP and tell about what is going on now in my life. Ministry wise, we are STILL in the same place we've been...but God is good and he CONTINUES to assure us that we are following him just as he plans. We are loving being involved in the church where we are now. Jim Tippins is such an amazingly creative minister. Last Sunday he spoke about THE VINEYARD...and we had communion,but all throughout the worship area were grapevine leaves that added to the imagery of his sermon. On the altar table around the Communion elements was a beautiful grapevine wreath, grapes and all the necessary things to creat such a truly environmental worship...WOAH--Ev Robertson, you'd be proud!! And this Sunday is going to be incredible as well. He is speaking on A WEDDING (the parable Jesus told about a wedding)...Jim, Tom, and several others are wearing Tux's, some of the girls are wearing bridesmaid dresses, I, being on the keyboard this week, am playing "Jesu, Joy of Man's desiring" for offertory. Between Sunday School and Worship there will be wedding cookies and punch in the hallway. And all of the members were sent an invitation that said "The King of the universe invites you to attend a wedding feast at Summitt Heights Baptist Church---blah blah" HOW COOL, right!! I'm just so excited about it...and of course, as I say, God is blessing in all of it.

As for other parts of my life, things are same ole same ole. I will say that I am very excited to be typing this blog on a new laptop that I purchased as a whale of a deal on Ebay. LUVADEAL, that's my middle name.

PRAISE GOD for how He continues to reveal himself to us.