Kiersten's new running partner

Goats. Never had them. Never wanted them. But somehow we ended up with one for roughly 30 minutes.

Kiersten went for a jog on a beautiful January Saturday afternoon and returned home with a pet. A white-eyed, black beauty with one horn who absolutely ADORED her.

Erik and Nate watched her leap the back fence thinking she was on safe ground. Nope. That goat managed to get through the fence and whine at our back door for her to come out.

He'd run around to the front and then appear again at the back. Tyler solicited info on Facebook as to whose goat he might be. No response. I was afraid he was going to start eyeing up my plants and make a meal of them.

That crazy animal followed her all the way home for a mile and a half. If she stopped, he'd stop. When she started running again, he'd trot along right beside her. I think she was a little embarrassed from all the crazy looks and comments she got from people. Only out in the country would your goat become your running partner.

Well her pet had to go home and I wasn't about to run another mile and a half. I'd already run 5 that day. So we attempted the van. And by golly it worked . . . at 20 miles an hour. Several times I would have to get out and coax him along, "Here goat. Keep coming," bleating several times in between. What a spectacle we were. The only thing more unconventional than a goat cantering after a vehicle would have been if it was one of our legendary Lake Point peacocks. As soon as we escorted him back to the area where he latched on to Kiersten, we floored it and left him in the dust to find his way back home.

Tallest in the family

Ash was very disappointed today when she opened my blog to find that it was pretty much the same since the last time she viewed it. Life is busy. And I've been working on a couple of posts. I just haven't put the finishing touches on them yet.

So this one is for Ash and will be a short post dedicated to the tallest in our family.


Every January we take the usual measurements -- age, weight, height.

And every year I seem to be a little shorter.

One day I may be as tall as Kiersten :) She seems to have stopped growing and isn't all that excited about being a shorty. Sad for her but she did not score in the tall genes with her parents.

Erik is an anomaly and has superseded his dad's height.

He now lays claim to being the tallest in his family. Grow Erik grow.

Someone just lost all their wisdom

We love our dentist! We've been with Dr. Pettit since before we had kids and longer than any other health care professional and are even willing to travel to Salt Lake to see him and his staff.

He's been telling me that there is this window of opportunity to get wisdom teeth out. You want to do it when the roots are there but not too deep and the tooth is big enough to get a grip on to pull it out.

Kiersten went in to get hers out yesterday by Dr. Stoker, an oral surgeon recommended to us by Dr. Pettit. And ya know, Dr. Pettit was spot on. Or at least Kiersten has been the best case scenario.

Ash spent a good chunk of the evening Thursday night finding YouTube videos of patients coming out of anesthesia. I was under strict orders to film Kiersten. Well I didn't have the heart to pull out my camera while she was lying there in the chair, eyes closed, mouth opened. But Kiersten let me film her in the car. At the time I thought she was sounding okay, but after watching the video I could tell she was still out of it. She doesn't remember me helping her put her coat on or walking down the hall or getting in the elevator or getting in the car.

She has taken it somewhat easy. But after a day of sitting around, she convinced me to let her walk on the treadmill. And at this moment I'm listening to her create beautiful music on our piano. When we got home, the others had created a soft, comfortable spot for her to relax and had even set our dinner bell close by that all she had to so was ring and they would be at her beckon call.

There has been very little pain or discomfort other than the numbness wearing off her tongue and lips.

I hope all the others go so smoothly.

Boxes for me

Look what came in the mail!! All the way from Israel.

I'm so excited and can't wait for New Beginnings in a month.

I ordered these babies several weeks ago thinking they might make it in time.

In fact we've been getting on average a box a day from dad on his mission. He's been sending us fishing supplies that he orders online that we are going to turn around and ship back to him in the Marshall Islands. So when these boxes showed up, needing a signature, I was pretty sure they were his until we opened a box that looked damaged and I realized they were mine.

I'm sure the mail lady thought I was a little cuckoo in the head as I danced around excitedly.

Oooooo. They are so awesome. I think the girls are going to think they are as cool as I think they are.