A Bunch of Burts

Remember that dog?

The kids love their dog. At least when they do not have to clear the yard of Ginger bombs.

Not a small puppy anymore. Time to take her into the vet and make sure we do not have to find homes for puppies of our own.

What? What’s that you say? I can’t make an appointment to get this dog fixed? My dog may be what?!

Have you EVER heard of a dog being a hemophiliac? You have got to be kidding me.

Even Ginger is taken back that she has a problem. You can see the denial in her eyes.

I took Ginger in to get a vaccine booster, and the night before she broke out in a rash on her underside. We all just thought she tangled with the weaver ants that are taking over our yard. They do pack a nasty bite. No big deal.

Well, the vet thought it was a big deal and was very concerned. She asked if Ginger had ever had ticks. Yes! She was loaded with them when we brought her home. The vet took some blood to check for a tick borne disease (did not have it), and called me back the next day very agitated and insisted I bring Ginger back in right away.

When they ran the blood, she did not have the tick disease, or any blood parasite. So far so good. But the platelet count was a bit low. Instead of being somewhere in the neighborhood of 300.000 to 500.000, she had a measly 2000. Not so good.

Needless to say, we could not schedule her for spaying. Now what to do? The vet gave her a shot to ’stimulate platelet production” . Did not know you could do that and we bring her back in tommorrow to recheck and see if her count has gone up.

What do we do if it does not?!

How do we take a female, unfixed dog to the Thai countryside where nasty, fully ‘functioning’ male dogs roam the countryside and without a fenced yard?

Suggestions? Anyone? (crickets chirping?)

What to do when the pool is closed and it is super hot out?
Make do, right?

Actually, we are out particpating in the biggest holiday of the year in Thailand.
Thai New Year, or otherwise known as Songkran.

We do not have our truck available this year to go out driving around, so we camped at our mission office with another family and armed ourselves with buckets, garbage cans (don’t worry, they were clean and never used for trash), water guns and anything else we could fling water with.

Songkran is a huge event here in Chiang Mai, with people coming from all over the country to celebrate in this city.
The water part of the holiday began as a way of honoring the elders and recieving a blessing from them.

Of course it has changed into one big water free for all.

There are many spiritual elements to this holiday as well, being a Buddhist celebration in a Buddhist country. There are elaborate and special merit making ceremonies at every wat.

As we had fun joining in the water fight, we had many reminders of why we are here.

Truckloads of people passing us by, on their way to play and make merit, looking for peace and joy, but lacking the One who can actually give it.

We do enjoy the play and fun associated with Songkran, but know our real joy is Christ, because of Him we are secure in all circumstances and can rest in His care of each day and the next, no matter what comes.

Not exactly sure how Greg got the water to come of that side of bucket. He must have Songkran skills :0

Songkran ‘happens’ to fall right at the height of hot season, when everyone is looking for a way to cool off. We were using water right from the hose, so it was like bath water. But many of the passing trucks had stopped at one of the ice vendors and their water was very chilly! But welcome as we baked out there in the heat.

As we encounter and particpate in these Thai holdiays for the second time around, there is much we appreciate and enjoy about the Thai people and their traditions. We are eager to see them celebrate their culture while at the same time glorify the Lord and know Him. Not apart from their culture, not rejecting what them Thai, but as the center of it, bringing meaning and fullness that was not there before.

After one of our many moves, and I had to once again decide what should go into the cupboards. As I was unpacking, I had an
A-HA moment.
Our kids were old enough to help wash and put away dishes, but I always seemed to be the one to put them away since the dish cupboard tended to be one of the uppers.
By putting the everyday dishes and cooking equipment in a lower cupboard, everyone could easily put dishes away AND get them out for setting the table.

Perhaps not the most organized cupboard, but manageable.

And children are not the only ones who tend to drop things if they have to stand a chair to get to them. Don’t ask how many sets of glasses and plates we have gone through at my house, before the kids began helping with dishes.

We have the kids rotate each week through chores of washing, putting away and clearing the table. All the dishes, ‘tupperware’, ect, are low and easy to reach. No excuses! Well, at least no one claiming they cannot reach things anyway. We hear plenty of other kinds of excuses.

I am heading off to see what other wisdom is available today at Shannon’s Works For Me Wednesday. I always find something useful and interesting there!

Just before we left for our holiday adventure in the NE, Ema had her birthday too. We were able to find an afternoon for her to have her party in the midst of packing and preparing to leave.
Can you believe she is 11? Yikes!

She had a backwards theme for her party this year and it turned out to be lots of fun.

Of course, you eat cake first.

hmmm, there appears to be some sort of madman in the background. Better serve that cake quick and placate him!

And blow out your candles and then sing Happy Birthday, backwards, what else?. (That is not as easy as it sounds. )

We even came up with some backwards style games.

Silent Chairs : you sit when the music comes on

I am Who? : each child gets ‘tagged’ on the BACK with an animal and they must guess who they are by only asking yes or no questions. But here is the tricky part. The answers are backwards!
Yes= no and no=yes. Tricky and silly

Pencil in the bottle: This is a game of partners. The one with the pencil tied to a string around their waist is blindfolded, and they must try to dip down and get the pencil in the bottle by only using the verbal directions of their partner.
Of course the pencil is hanging down the BACK side.

You may be wondering why all the girls are dressed alike. They came home with Ema from school, and had all just had PE. Does make for some nice coordinated pictures though.

Happy Birthday Ema, we love you!

P.S.
We are always on the lookout for great and easy birthday ideas. Zach turns 10 in March, do you have any suggestions? As a girl myself, boys parties are always harder for me, and I could use some help.

I had hurriedly carefully prepared and uploaded a lovely, wonderful and heartwarming post about my oldest daughter and how much we are enjoying seeing her grow into a young woman. It had some great pictures from her birthday party and of course I said sweet things about her.

Imagine my surprise when we got back from Isaan and it ubruptly stopped mid-post, mid-sentence even! arrgh.

Not sure what happened, but surely was not user error. Of course not.

I wanted to make sure the rest of the pictures got posted, so here they are.

Isn’t she turning into quite the young lady?