Puppies! Puppies! Puppies Galore!

Ok so I stated a few weeks ago or maybe it was days ago, that our dog is pregnant, well last night about 5:00PM Izzy started into labor. She worked all night long, panting, pacing, whining and digging. I was up most of the night calming her. This morning no puppies to be seen but a drastic movement from up high to down low as the puppies were coming down. This is going to be a long day I thought. So we started our traditional Saturday morning breakfast. Omlettes and bacon. The kids had some choc. chip waffels as well. Kristofer's statement..."the bestest breakfast in the whole world, choc. chip cookie waffles and bacon!" After some breakfast of which Izzy enjoyed a few strips of bacon it was time. At 11:33AM baby #1 came out facing the world.

Little dark brown & tan little girl. Izzy at first was scared of her, pushing her away, shaking, and as I calmly sat down next to her she calmed down and laid in my lap and then started cleaning her first baby. I love the sounds of baby puppies. Then at around 12:18 baby #2 came pushing out bottom first. A little blond male. What was interesting is that Izzy had climbed into my lap. So this little boy was born right between my legs (the better way to say where he was born). I was thinking to myself...oh gross..yes I have had 5 babies but this was grossing me completely out! lol! Izzy looked at me overwhelmed and I told her to keep cleaning. Not much longer and at 12:50 puppy #3 came, smaller blond female. So precious! Izzy is now resting as the babies nurse.

Well an hour later at 1:49PM out came baby #4. A coal black with white chest baby girl. Izzy was up walking and was getting a drink and out dropped this preceious baby girl. She is such a good momma, she immediately took it up in her mouth and brought her over to the others and laid down to clean her. I am very impressed with our girl.Unfortunately we did not want to have puppies but God had other plans it looks. Izzy herself is a pup of 10 months. So this was definitely not planned and or wanted in fact we had an apt in Feb to have her spayed. I am a fan of spay and neutering. It just didn't happen fast enough. UGH! There were no signs of her being in heat until after the males were shoing up. Yikes! But here we are with 4 beautiful babies. Oh and don't forget Mr. Squeekers. Her favorite toy in the world! I know she has at least one if not two or three more, I can feel them but I can't tell what we have. Ok so #5 came so quickly that I was shocked! I was on the phone with mom and here came a beautiful black and white little girl. So cute...so so far 4 girls one fella. All will beed homes in 7/8 weeks. Anyone intersted let me know!!! OK so an hour later and we now have #6...yay a boy he is adorable. Black and White definitely australian shepherd markings.

If you look closely in the bottom picture you can count 6 pups...one is tucked under her from leg.

Mamma Izzy is very tired!

Our little six pack before any others are born!

Well approximately an hour later maybe a little earlier, out popped #7. Another little girl, This one is a darker cream/tan with a white stripe down her head. We have noticed that two of them that are black and white have distinct markings and have opted to nick name them as Panda and Mickey. Mickey has three black spots that actually for mickey mouse...well here just look for your self. The other black and white is the one we call Panda.

In this picture we have Mickey as you can plainly see but

also puppy #7 the little girl in the bottom right corner.

Seven for three wonderful hours. Although I knew eventually there would

be another coming. I made sure to check her tummy. Then the waiting game started.

I have to say by this point the little whinning puppies were not only geting on Izzy's nerves but mine too. At one point she got up to get a drink and ou would have thought she was gone for hours because those puppies started crying. In fact they sounded like what Sara sounded like when she was first born. They sounded human the way they were crying. Izzy even gave me this pitiful look like what do I do now? I helped her lay down and showed her how to nudge each one back towards her tummy so they could nurse.

This whole time our 4 kiddos were besides them selves with glee. Kris said at one point,"Izzy is having thousands of puppies!" Sara immediately wanted to keep all of them and Jaron I believe is wanting to keep one, two, three well all of them too. Eli is the only one of the four that was completely reserved about the puppies. We told the kids that they had to let Izzy do what she had to do. That if they bothered her that she would be stressed and sometimes stressed animals hurt thier babies trying to protect them. Ok so maybe we scared them into thinking she would hurt them but what ever they thought it worked and they obeyed us about staying away from the pups.

Well three hours later came puppy #8.

I think I am as tired as Izzy is. Puppy 8 is a little boy!

So our grand total is five little girls and 3 little boys. Izzy has done fantastic, I am so proud of her! What a good job she has done. Right now 4 hours later all puppies are quiet and Izzy and the babies are resting. Now it's time for me to hit the shower and then off to bed for me as well.

Special Autism Story

Couple Lives With Autism,
Comfort of Each Other
Love Bloomed After Socializing Was Learned
By THEA TRACHTENBERG and LINDSAY GOLDWERT
Feb. 25, 2009 —

David Hamrick, 29, and Lindsey Nebeker, 27, look like a typical couple in love, but what's not apparent is how hard they've worked to be together.
Hamrick and Nebeker live together in a Jackson, Miss., apartment, yet they have separate bedrooms, eat meals apart and spend most of their time focused on their own interests.
This unusual setup is how Hamrick and Nebeker, who are both autistic, make their relationship work.
About 1.5 million people in the United States have autism, with varying degrees of severity. Many people with autism struggle with the most basic social interactions, so finding love may seem like an impossibility.
Hamrick and Nebeker are high-functioning but, since childhood, both have found it difficult to make friends and even harder to keep them. "All of her socialization had to be learned, usually by hard experience," said Nebeker's father, Gordon Nebeker.
Autistic people can also be hypersensitive to touch and sound. Hamrick can't stand when the room is too warm and cringes at certain sounds; Nebeker can't take florescent lights; and both are profoundly uncomfortable with small talk, said Lynn Harris, who profiled the couple for Glamour magazine.

Learning to Interact

Despite their difficulties, they both kept trying to reach out and connect with others. Nebeker learned to make friends by reading Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Hamrick had tried to untangle the rules of dating by reading self-help books.
"No one teaches you to flirt," said Diane Twactman-Cullen, editor in chief of Autism Spectrum Quarterly. "Individuals with autism would really be at a loss. So there might be some missed signals."
When Hamrick and Nebeker met in 2005 at an autism conference, Hamrick was smitten.
"I pretty much liked everything about her," he said. "She was very sweet, easy to talk to, and a good listener." But Nebeker was unsure.
"In my early 20s, I had decided I was no longer going to seek a relationship," she said. "I was mainly going to focus on my career and my friends that I had been able to make and keep."
They became friends. Then one day when they were at a café, Hamrick knew he was making progress when he put his hand on hers.
"My heart was racing," Hamrick said. "I was fearful it might not work out the way I had anticipated, but the fact that she didn't pull back and she was able to hold my hand there for at least five minutes, I was very touched by that."

Living Together With Separate Needs

After two years of dating, they took the huge step of moving in together, despite their unique and separate needs. Nebeker admits that it seems highly unusual for a typical couple to agree to separate bedrooms. "We both understood the importance of an individual with autism needing their own space," she said.
When they are in their apartment, they are rarely together. Hamrick, a meteorologist, is often in his room on the computer or absorbed in the Weather Channel while Nebeker, a musician, can get lost for hours playing the piano and working on her music.
A romantic dinner for two presents major challenges. "There are a number of sounds that are unpleasant to me," Hamrick explained. "Such as chewing sounds and crunching sounds."
And Nebeker has many complicated eating rituals. Her napkin has to be placed just so and her meals prepared in just the right way.
"Sometimes Dave will spontaneously ask, 'Hey, you want to go out for dinner tonight?' And I break into sobs and I say, 'I am so sorry, I just can't. I just can't,'" Nebeker said.
The couple's parents have seen their children struggle with their disorder and are in awe of the way the two care for each other and express their love and devotion. "Being high functioning is almost more difficult than being low functioning," said Gordon Nebeker. "You are so close to there, and yet not quite -- and that is heartbreaking."
But for all the compromises, the couple's love story is actually a pretty traditional one, one of deep understanding and acceptance.
"When I have had a bad day at work or just a bad day for some other reason -- and I come home, I don't even have to say anything, he senses it. Dave will come up to me and start cuddling up to me and that's really all I need," Nebeker said. "I know that I am with a partner who is not going to judge me for certain eccentricities I have."

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Typical conversation in our house!

Calvin & Hobbes

India Circus...guest writer

Wanted to share an awesome poem by my dear friend Jessica. You can catch more of her writing at: Simple Beauty

India Circus

by Jessica Smith

“Momma, look, don’t you see?

“The circus has come just for me.”

“Tommy dear, their in town,

for everyone that is around.”

Sitting in the brown wood seat,

The lights went dim, things hard to see.

“Ladies and gentlemen, time to start,

Get the animals, out from the cart.”

Horses and goats, came out first,

I took a sip from my Big Gulp.

Then came the lions, and little cubs.

Tommy swatted at the flying bugs.

Elephants and clowns danced in line,

as traipse artists flew just fine.

“Look up there, can you hear?

It’s a funny looking bear.”

Laughter rang across the crowd,

Smiles followed, cheers out loud.

“Now for one of our favorite few,

Baby Jim, it’s time for you.”

Limping down the metal ramp,

Baby Jim, was a grey elephant.

Six months old, no tusk yet.

His feet were cracked, torn and wet.

Whips lashed out on his back.

“Go on now Jim, get on track.”

Pushing him into the ring;

He cried out against the sting.

A tug was felt, as Tommy cried.

“Momma, stop them, they have him tied.”

Shoving spikes into the ground,

His little feet, felt the pound.

Rising in anger, I went down stairs.

“Sorry, Ma’am, stop right there.

No one’s allowed past this rope

Head back up, there’s no hope.”

“What do you mean, look at over there.

The trainer is hurting the little dear.”

“Yes Ma’am I know, but it won’t work.

This isn’t India, that’s the quirk.

“What do you mean? What’s to know?

“Lady, that’s enough, now on you go.”

With a wave, he shooed her off.

Instead she went in a lauf.

Grabbing the mic, people grew still.

“Elephants’ here are treated ill.

Stop this violence, stop it now.

Little Jim deserves better, this I vow.”

Suddenly, in a burst,

Little Jim took off his cuffs.

Stomping and swinging his gleeful tail;

Freedom had it’s final hail.

Better

Well just a quick post, as soon as Sean returns with dinner I am heading over to the church. My plan was to spend all week working on the children's church room of which I must say is really coming together. But since I fell and saw the doc I have basically not done much of anything. I can say my head is no longer pounding and my neck and shoulders are a lot better, still hurt but better. The biggest problem right now is my lower back. I have a nice big bruise on my bum which just proves to me how hard I actually hit. My doctor thought I was going to say that my dog tripped me or something. Nope not this time.
Oh my dog...our dog...Izzy. We believe she is pregnant. Not all that happy about it! Honestly we were planning to get her fixed. Set the appointment and everything it would have been this coming week. But well in Jan she came in heat and we never even knew it until she broke her chain and returned with two male dogs. One big yellow lab and the other a red chow/lab mix. UGH! The next day we had a lot of visitors...a daschund, jack russel, a red nose pit, yellow lab and a golden retriever. Thankfully we realized the uh oh weeks were upon us and kept her inside most of the time. But there were a few times she escaped when the kids were coming in...
SO unless she is really good at having a false pregnancy we will have puppies in March sometime. What we know is Izzy is a border collie/australian shepherd/lab mix so no matter what the puppies will be big and beautiful. She is a beautiful pup herself. She will be a year old on Kristofer's birthday. Yes we know for sure her birthdate she was our neighbors puppy.
She is such a great dog. Hyper but as gentle as she can be. She thinks she is a little lap dog. She likes to aly on my lap with her head nuzzled in my shoulder like she did when she was a baby. She loves to play fetch with mr squeekers and she knows what I am talking about when I say, "wheres squeekers" she will run as fast as possible to find it.
Just an update on Kristofer. He has been attending a group therapy session learning living tasks and social skills twice a week. He loved it so much he cut his hair the other day. Told me he wanted to look like his new pals at therapy. So we buzzed it down. Then today Eli wanted his to be like Kristofer's so out came the buzzers again.
We are looking forward to spring break in two weeks. We were hoping to head home to Florida but those plans got nixed. Now we (the kids and I) are going to go visit our friends in KY. Heading over to see Elaine, Marty and Angie. I wish there was time to see all of our friends in KY but we are unable to. Sean does not get to take any vacation time until May.
Right now I am reading a great book, "Parenting Your Asperger Child" So far its great! I won it from Angela over at Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy . Thank you Angela!!!
It has a lot of helpful typs on how to teach your child practical skills. It's great! This book and the therapy Kris is going through has been such a blessing to us!

OUCH!

Ok so Monday we were suppose to be on the road by 8am the latest. I was scrapping ice off the van at 8am! At one point I went to step backwards and fell. I fell so hard I hit my head against the house and no have a slight concussion and my back and neck is killing me. I should have known this was going to happen. Funny thin is I was no wear near any ice or snow.
Actually my knees where not too happly with me but I am so glad nothing happened.

There HERE! Finally!

YAY!!! The last of the puppet friends have finally arrived. WNot only amd I excited but so are the kids. The next two in the puppet collection are a Probiscuis Monkey and a Marine Iguana. I have to say the monkey compared to the orangatang (Jeffery) does not even compare in quality but it is still a very nice puppet. When Eli and Sara met them the first time Eli was laughing so hard..."Oh my goodness, that monkey has a huge nose!" and just laughed and laughed. Which is exactly what I wanted to happen. I plan to use him to express the uniquiness that GOd has given each of us. There are so many possibilities to use him for. The problem I have no name! SO make a comment and give me a name!!!Then we have the marine iguana. He is very cool as well. Jaron picked him out. It was either him or a snake and personally I did not want a snake. Oh I know there were a lot of things I could do with the snake but I just didn't want to go there. Personally I do not like snakes they don't scare me per say but they do freak me out. Again with this guy who is like 3 ft long from head to tail, he needs to be named. Any ideas?? Please let me know! I could use some new names.

Noticing...

How many times have you noticed something after days, weeks or months have gone by and feel like such a heel. Well that is me today. Yesterday I took our two kittens to the vet to get "fixed". No they were never broken but we do not want to add to our little petting farm that we have going on right now. Although we are now down one pet...Big Claw died (the hermit crab) we still have quiet a few animals. I love them can't help it but I think at this moment we need to lose a few more. Well maybe.

Anyway, this morning I was loving on Sugar, our white with gray patches (female cat) when I noticed for the first time that one of the large patches is the shape of a heart. It is actually very pretty. Here see foryour self:

I promise you I have NOT doctored this picture! This is a true heart shaped patch.

It's funny, it took me 6 months to notice that there was a heart on her. Now normally she is not allowed in the living room. We keep them in their own room because of the agreement with the church board...remember we live in the parsonage. But with her and Mr Jingles not being able to defend themselves from the dog we kept them in side last night. Both are doing well. Mr. Jingles just basically bounced back, less evasive surgery does that. But Sugar has been hurting today so we gave her some of the pain meds the Vet gave us. She seems a bit more happier now.

I wonder how many other times God has tried to get our attention through small things such asa patch on a cat that we have over looked. It just reminded me that God has a plan and purpose for everything and today seeing the heart on our Sugar Baby reminded me that no matter how much I mess up God still loves me!

When does life slow down?

ANSWER: NEVER

There never seems to be enough time in the day to do what I want to do. Like to day I spent 3 hours trying to figure out this crazy photo software. It's great and it does a lot! I am really excited about it too but 3 hours is a lot of time spending on one photo ya know! It was all good though. Learning is always a good thing. Specially when you plan to use what you are learning to start a business or use it in ministry or even just enhance your talents. Well here take a peek at the picture that took me three well actually almost four hours to complete and its still not exactly what I wanted.

I would like to introduce you to a few new members of our family. The first two are Jeffery the orangatang and Pete the Macaw. They are puppets I will be using in church. We are waiting ont he arrival of two more. When they come in I will post them.

The other animal members that have come to live with us are Pebbles my 4 mo old cockatiel and Jasper a 12 week old ferret. Both have been a blessing to have. The kids love both. Personally I am so happy to once again have a bird. I grew up with parakeets and cockatiels. In fact my first pet was a parakeet named Petey. We thought he was a boy and then my grandmom "Mom" gave me another parakeet named Petey Boy and well my Petey was no longer considered a boy.

Pebbles was giving Kristofer kisses, she was liking his cheek.

Here Jasper had climbed up on my lap and was typing a message to Michele on facebook.

Sara loves Pebbles! Pebbles was playing hide and seek in Sara's hair. It was really cute, she would hide and Sara would say, "where are you?" Pebbles would chirp and peek out. It was so funny.

Besides te change of new pets in the house, being snowed in or sleeted in 4.5 inches of sleet and 4.5 inches of snow on top of that, we have been busy with the kids having snow days and I am still working on the Children's church room. Almost completed...well maybe not, still have a lot to do and its been hard to do with the kids being out of school plus having sick kiddos. Sara has battled strep and a UTI the last couple of weeks. I am praying that Monday all 4 will be able to go back to school. I need a break and I need to finish the stuff at the church. Which is where I am heading in a few minutes. I am hoping to get more pictures tonight and get things really moving and done. As soon as I have it completed I will post before and after pictures. Hope everyone has a great weekend.