Hiking In Grace & Capturing My View

Flashback Friday: Does It Wash Clothes Too?

01.29.10

My kids favorite movie is Ratatouille.

They love to watch the “extra” on the dvd about

“MY FRIEND THE RAT.”

Well, not to pick a fight with Pixar but…

RATS ARE NOT MY FRIENDS!!

We had a rats in residence in our ceiling above the master bedroom for the 6 years we inhabited the house in Davao City, Philippines. Quite often we were awakened by the scritching and scratching of the furry little pests. We could hear them fumble around and fall off of the joists that the ceiling was nailed to. Yeah, and with the termite problem that we endured in that house, we often wondered at what point is the ceiling going to give way from the termites eating it and the rat falling right through on our heads… oh, did you just shutter too?

Our dogs were forever on ‘rat patrol’ in the yard over the canal that ran the length of our yard cement enclosure. As documented here.

They were quite large and we were forever trapping them.

Catching three in one night was considered normal.

Well, one night, my husband came in and said,

“Get the camera, kids stay here, don’t come outside.”

I followed him out the door and he led me to our “laundry room”.

It was out in the building behind our house.

Seems harmless right?

BUT WAIT!

Then he lifted the lid…

Anyone see anything amiss here?

Yes, my friends, it is a

RAT

IN MY

WASHING MACHINE!!!

(Anybody else cringe when I did just then?)

Do you see the nails on that thing???

SUPER YIKES!

Just one more thing to add to my list of why

RATS are NOT my FRIENDS.

The story of this particular washer gets better!
When we moved back to the states we sold the washer to a good friend…

SHE found a SNAKE in it!!!

AND IT WAS INSIDE HER HOUSE!

…same washer …different animal.

This story is linked up to Mylestones where Jo is hosting Flashback Friday!
Click on over there and read some other ‘flashback stories’.

Tuesdays Unwrapped: Roofs, Rats, and Laundry

01.26.10

Being Tuesday, I am writing another Tuesdays Unwrapped to link to Chatting At The Sky’s blog. Emily hosts this day to stop and write about “any thing that offers a glimpse into your own journey of discovering the gifts in the midst of the ordinary.” “To share a moment that may have otherwise disappeared under the pile of daily tasks. Instead, stop. Notice. And be thankful.” To quote Emily directly. I went back to that post just to remind myself of the task of today.

As I was working in my kitchen in our new parsonage I looked out the window and noticed that it was raining. Torrential Rain. Like we had all the time in the Philippines. It made me thankful for a roof. In the Philippines we had a metal roof with no form of insulation to muffle the sound so every time it rained you would hear it and most of the time it was thunderously deafening. It would rain so hard, the sound of it pounding on the metal roof made your ears hurt.

Thinking about the rain and the roof made me even more thankful that the decision was made to put a new shingle roof on the parsonage when they could have put on a new metal roof.

As I lay in bed last night listening to the creaking of the upstairs baseboard heat expanding, I was thankful that we no longer sleep under RATS scritching and scratching over our heads in our ceiling above our bedroom. A ceiling that was so infested with termites that you would lay there wondering at what point is the rat going to fall through the ceiling. You know that first scene in Ratatouille? Yup, that was us …but not quite so many rats. However, for me ONE OR TWO WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH.

As I washed clothes the other day, I was thankful that I could do as many loads as I want and not have to worry about running out of water. In the Philippines I was limited to two loads a day, yup, with four kids and a minimum of seven complete sets of clothes (often more) per day being sweated in. I sympathize with Pioneer Woman and her continuous battle of getting the laundry done.

The parsonage is seemingly over run with stink bugs and lady bugs. Every time I smoosh another one and clean it up I am thankful that it is not a 2-3 inch cockroach, or a snake, or even a harmless gecko.

Don’t think that I was not thankful in the Philippines. While I was there, I was very thankful to have a roof above my head, and a bed under me. I was thankful to have a real washing machine and thankful to have a home to be able to chase the cockroaches, geckos, and snakes out of. For God had provided our wants not just our needs.

And today, I am thankful for that what God has provided again. Here in this present place. For the blessings I can unwrap in noticing the ordinary things around me.

More Dog Love

01.23.10

Have I said yet how much I love this dog?

I would not want to imagine life without her.
She is so attentive. She hangs on every word.

Her eyes, well, they just capture you. They invite you to tell her all your secrets because, unlike the Bush’s Baked Beans Dog, …she is very trust-worthy and will never gossip. Her eyes are so full of sympathy and it is like she is looking deep into your soul when you lock eyes with her. She will sit for long periods of time staring into your face just waiting for you to return the look.

We decided to add to the spoiling process and get her a new pad for her crate for Christmas.

I think she liked it.

AND a new dog bed. We bought the kind with sides because she loved her plastic tub in the Philippines so much. However we bought one WAY TOO BIG. Yup, it would fit a GREAT DANE. Oh well, she loves it and, well, we sort of plan on adopting a daughter for her some time in the next few months so she will have room to share. She and Butterscotch used to share the same tub. (see the two-headed dog photo in this post)

Carmel became even MORE spoiled and is now an INSIDE pooch. Now that we have moved, we are in a home with hardwood floors.

…Hardwood floors + dog ≈ Bambi on ice.

I almost feel sorry for her.

Monkeyin’ Around the Christmas Tree

12.22.09

As I sat staring at the Christmas tree, trying to gather my thoughts together all in one place, something seemed kinda odd. The tree has been decorated for days now…

but there seemed to be some new ornaments added which had not been there before. Four of them to be exact. All identical. They seemed to be laughing at me and having a grand old time dangling from their respective branches. Apparently, some plastic monkeys had escaped from their blue plastic barrel and were swingin’ their way up the tree.

As I sat there staring at them they brought my thoughts to settle on trying to decide which one of my snuggle-bugs had placed them there. For surely my husband had not added them, nor my parents and certainly not the dog, as amazing and wonderful as our Carmel is…

…it had to be a kid.

It helped me stop and appreciate and be thankful for the blessing of my little ones and their creative imaginations. I unwrapped a blessing in that moment. The small and unexpected that helped me appreciate that God has blessed us with four of these snuggle-bugs and that they have wonderful minds full of creative ideas and they all have a great sense of humor. Even the littlest. And you should hear her giggle!!!

She is NOT an L.L.Bean Cover Model

12.21.09

I had always wanted a Golden Retriever. I grew up drooling over them in the L.L.Bean catalog. They have always used the most cuddly looking fur-babies in their advertising. They are often pictured jumping off the end of a dock into Lake Sebago or bounding across the Sand Beach in Acadia, Maine in the Summer issues. In the winter catalog, they are so often seen romping in the snow. In. Nose-Deep. Snow. They are seen having a wonderful time helping to bring in the freshly cut Christmas tree from the forest. In. Really. Deep. Snow.

When we lived in the Philippines, God brought us a wonderful Golden Retriever named Carmel. She was named after missionary Amy Carmichael but CARMichaEL was too long so …it eventually transformed into Carmel. She became a dessert topping when we got a second one and named her Butterscotch, which was often shortened to Butter by my daughter…. thankfully, it did not shorten to Butt.

When we moved back to the states our dogs suffered a bit of culture shock. They had doggie culture shock in the form of seeing fuzzy rat-like creatures with fluffy tails that could run straight up a tree and tight-rope walk on the utility wires above the yard. Squirrels were a new thing to chase, very different from the rats and snakes they were accustomed to. They had lived mostly on cement so a huge yard full of green grass was a new experience too. They went from being 100% OUTDOOR dogs to being spoiled high-maintenance divas, thanks to my parents. They settled quite comfortably into being furry-grandchildren.

Butterscotch was not doing well even before we moved stateside. She had an enlarged heart and an enlarged liver, we knew ahead of time she would not be long with us. She did a great job growing grass this fall.

Carmel, now playing the card of sad-dog-in-mourning,

became even more of a WUSS, aided by her ever-dotting grandparents. She was given a comfy fleece bed complete with pillowed-edge. Although it was second-hand to her, she dove onto it the first time it was dropped on the floor and claimed it as her own.

As the weather turned cold, her non-fuzzy sister bought her a pink cable-knit sweater complete with sparkly silver thread throughout, for she was a tropical dog and not used to such extreme temperatures as 65℉.

A few days ago, the weather grew colder and the forecasters started talking about white stuff falling from the sky …a lot of it …A LOT OF IT.

So, Carmel had her first experience with the stuff we call SNOW. If it is possible to sink from Wuss to Wimp … she did it. No, you will not be seeing Carmel working as a model-dog for L.L.Bean any time soon. She will never make her parents rich that way for she has made up her mind to NOT LIKE SNOW. She was shoved outside, expected to follow the kids lead and the spectacular example of the fur-kids in the yard next door. She would have nothing to do with it. She was dragged to the middle of the yard on a leash and she sat down and refused to romp, bound, or catch snowballs. There she sat in DEEP SNOW up to her chin.

The whimpering began and she, in fact, became a WIMP.

The dog once bragged on for being a JOCK is now a WIMP.

BUT- she is such a cuddly wimp, so soft and fuzzy and good with her non-fuzzy sisters and brothers. She is willing to be a pillow,

my companion in my early morning quiet hours,

a foot-warmer, and a sympathizer when one is sad. She is willing to endure long periods of petting and scratching. She is a very faithful and constant companion.

…except when it involves cold wet white stuff fallen from the sky.