AAAHHHHHHHHH!

Ok....story time once again. So our furnace has been out for 3 1/2 weeks. We called a repair person who came out and looked at it and did some troubleshooting. He said we needed a new furnace. We figured as much since it has broken half a dozen times in the last year. So we had him order one. After a bunch of confusion and what not, the man and a helper came and installed the new furnace. They were pretty quick...only two days. When I got home from work last night it felt great in the house. I didn't even need to keep my coat on. When I felt the vent for the heat coming out, there wasn't any. I thought that it was weird because the house was warm. I did some more checking and I discovered what was going on. So.....for all of you out there like me who don't know a lot about this kind of stuff, there are two types of vents that SHOULD be in each room; vent (blows into the room) and intake (that returns the air to the furnace from the room). Well....the warm/hot air was coming in through the intake vents. YUP....our furnace is running backwards! It sucks air in where it should be blowing it out and blows it out where it should suck it in. Usually I would not care, as long as the house stays warm....which it does. However, two of our rooms do not have intake spots, only vents. So in the current situation, two rooms....the only bathroom and the playroom/Isaiah's bedroom are still without heat. The guy is coming back Monday to fix it. So until then we will supplement with space heaters.....AGAIN! Maybe this next time, the air will come out of our phone.

More Fun

This was our first snowman of the season and likely the last. He sort of looks like Shrek. Lemon for a nose, celery for the ears, and tomatoes for the mouth. He was highly edible as we found out from our dog.

This is what you do when you can't reach something. They are partners in crime!

Ready Daddy

This was Adonyah's first time riding the horse by herself. Notice her riding goggles?!

Almost time!

Ok...ok. So it has been 20+ days since we have been on here. Life has gone on without us, or with us....whatever way you look at it. We are on the last couple of weeks before the baby comes. Everthing is set up and ready for her...we think.
I am going crazy with all of the school work and papers. I was 85% of the way done with one this past week and I hit the save button, like I had been doing through the entire paper, and I got a fatal error. Basically what happened is....I LOST THE ENTIRE PAPER AND FILE where I had saved it. It shut down so I couldn't even print it before it closed. That was on Thursday morning and the paper was due Friday morning. I e-mailed my teacher to let her know. I worked all day Thursday and Friday morning and I finished it. Right before class, I was talking with another student, telling her my ordeal, and she said that the teacher just e-mailed everyone Thursday night that it wasn't due for another week. There was some blood shed over this! I turned the paper in that day so the "experience" would be over. That is my week in a nutshell......loaded with gunpowder! Tennille and the kids have been troopers putting up with me and my not so pretty moments over this past week!
--Eric

Sledding with Small One...and Daddy

Bringing in the NEW YEAR!

Our special gifts from GRANNY

Granny Gus made all of the grand kids an "old fashion" monkey sock! It is a treasure to us!!!

My turn!
Your turn!
Our new towel collection!

Daddy Time

Taking a quick spin on the motorcycle with Isaiah's new helmet!
Daddy's little helpers...can you tell these girls LOVE to dress themselves!
A little DADDY time! What a fun night for Isaiah to have some one on one in his bunk bed =)

Welcome home ... "SMALL ONE"

Our new adventure has started the year out FUN! Eric, my amazing husband that he is, has the most sensitive heart when it comes to children and animals. He was looking on our new addiction of crag's list at a bookshelf...when he wondered off to Farm and Garden category. It only took one look and he ran in to get me. I just smiled and told him it was a nice dream, but we have to think REAL ... you know, fence, food, care, and of course...we don't have a clue what to do! Eric then had the great idea of just emailing the family to talk about the horse. That was a mistake in the makings....this amazing family (about our age) has a field of RESCUE animals. You see, the dad is a FARRIER and when he cares for people's horses he will run into many sad situations where animals are starting to be neglected because of the economy. Many people will ask if he will just take them with him to find a good home. Now that our heart strings were being pulled, we let it go for a couple of days while we quietly researched Miniature HORSES. We then kept our contact with the family... and they were keeping the mini horse on hold for us, while we were figuring things out. She said there was quite a list of waiting families to take him, but she wanted to give us a try.

As time ticked away, we thought we had things figured out....with the little research we put into it and the encouragement from our Farrier family, we took a drive JUST to meet the mini horse and see the children around him. At that point, our hearts thought for us. We took about 3 hours to play with him, brush him, ride him, get more advice....and he was ours! It was sad to see the all of the goats and horses that were in 'foster care', but the amazing part was the family really only charged what they have had to spend for the upkeep while they were there. To put that into perspective, we payed almost 1/2 for a horse as what we payed for our Labrador DOG! (which we got a very good deal on as well!) We may turn into a 'rescue refuge' once everything is said and done with how adventurous this has been!

It is all in the NAME....SMALL ONE! On the way home, the kids were brain storming the perfect name....and this is what they came up with. Our neighbor's (the Sidwell's) have a very special book about the Donkey that Mary rode on (with baby Jesus in her tummy) while Joseph let them to Bethlehem. It is a sweet story of this strong donkey that took care of them through their many adventures. Hence....we may be going through many adventures our selves, and that is a fitting name for our MINIATURE HORSE ............. SMALL ONE!!!

Loading and Unloading "SMALL ONE"

Sequoyah is ready to to take him home!
O.K. Small one....take a walk up the plank! NICE TRY
1-2-3- LIFT... they say little, does not make him light!
Unload was much easier! We just pulled down in a dip on the side of our drive way....and Small One just jumped out! Lucky Eric =)

Fun

Isaiah is great at taking care of Small One. The kids love to ride him. He does very well with them even though he is only 2. We walk around the house with the kids on his back....not all at the same time. Don't worry....he can take it. He is over 200lbs himself.
What a mess! This is the back of the car after we brought the horse home. The kids are smiling because they did not have to clean it up.

Hello there!

Dragon's first encounter with Small One.
Part of the family on the way home. It's interesting to discover how Adonyah's hair looks like hay.