Our dear dog Nemi, was recently found to have cancer in her hip and shoulder. Sadly, we will have to put her down soon. /She is the best dog in the world, and I don't like dogs. Sorry, but I really don't. but Nemi and I have always understood that- and she doesn't mind. The reason I like her so much is she has never messed in my yard, doesn't stink, doesn't shed hardly any hair, is quiet, and gentle, yet can scare the you know what out of strangers! I really will miss her. I will never forgt when we went to get her at the airport 7 years ago. The lady said that she was a ladie's dog, and that she would do best if I took her from the cage into the van. I was very pregnant with Hudson. The lady said to have hotdogs to feed her, so I vey cautiously reached my hand into this cage and fed her the hotdogs. I'm thinking " I really need my hands, you know, and if this dog bites one off we are all gonna suffer" Well she gobbles them up and slowly I open the cage, the coller goes on , then the leash and then she runs with me running behind her- it was a hoot. I am being pulled all over the cargo area of the airport- with my big stomach out front behind this massive dog! Phil yells " I have a whole pack of dogs on the front of the van floor see of you can get her close" I don't know how, but before I knew it we were in the van and she was scarfing down 16 hotdogs.. She finally sat down and as I stroked her back she went to sleep and then we suffered the horrible smell that we soon came to realize was "just Nemi" The aftermath of 24 hotdogs on the stomach of any creature can be somewhat unbearable! We love this dog, and will miss her very much.

Saturday fun with Dad

Some Saturdays Phil will get in the little dinky pool with the children, they could not be happier if it were an Olympic size! Oh! the contentment of children. Just another illustration of Jesus' words, " unless you become as one of these children you shall in no wise inherit the Kingdom of my Father" " for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" I need these daily reminders of what I am to be.

Each one picked an instrument of their choice. Either a harmonica, a flute of a mouth harp....not an easy thing to make music with- but Timothy has at least gotten a sound from it.

Vicksburg

The children seeing toys from the 19th century.

I am determined to finish this today! More pics from the last 5 mnths. Enjoy.

The Birhtdays that I have pics from: Here Ellie wth some of our dear friends fro her 4th birthday.

More pictures from life at the Weiands. The pics of Jon and Mary are from last year when both went to Haiti- oh well They basically look the same. Dear Ellie playing dress up.

July

This is really embarrassing! I never did post the last entry, so I decided to post it now, even though it is no longer June, but July! And the middle of it at that. wow !! Where has this summer gone? We intended to do school all Summer long- Ha ! Not hardly- to my great dissappointment. The girls visited their dear friends in Florida the last two weeks of May. Then Jonathan headed for Haiti in June. He had a gret time with friends and helping with the work down there of a P.C.A> pastor. The weeks have flown by and now we are about to begin our new school year August 4th. I am posting a few snapshots of our summer fun.

Summer

Here it is June already! So much has happened over the last few months. March was very busy. We went on vacation to North and South Carolina for 10 days. On our last day there the flu started it's way throughus all. Ten days later it had left us all pretty weak, but thankful that it made it through all 9 of us that quickly. ( Phil did not get it) The rest of March was recovery from the trip and the flu. April was full of gardening , landscaping, and baby sitting for a family going through a very difficult time.

Timothy and I headed to Memphis over Valentines Day for him to have a little surgical procedure done. It was a special time for me to be with just him. The Lord has been so good to have healed him from his illnesses and we hope this procedure will keep him from having recurrent infections.. One highlight of the trip was going to the Bass Pro shop where he looked at guns.

All of the above pics are just a smorgasboard of the last couple of months of Mary with her buddy Katherine and Katie.

It has been a while since I have had much time to post, as you will soon see, we have been very busy. But I will update all on a bit of family news. Since the last post, we have celebrated three birthdays, really four. Sarah's was celebrated late. Mary Ruth turned sweet 16. Jon hit the big 18! And Timothy will be turning 12 on Saturday! We had a big party last Saturday night. Several families came to help us celebrate. We had alot of fun with ping-pong and just talking. My resident baker, Mary, made a Mocha Italian Cream cake(um- um good!), which we used for all three times of " Happy Birthday to You" This was a hoot. I wished we had captured it on camera- of course we had dead batteries , so no pics. First Jon blew out 18 candles. I returned to the kitchen, removed 2, re-lit, and returned for Mary, then proceeded to remove 4 more, re-light and return for Timothy's 12. Timothy has this obsession with germs, so he will not blow his candles out. He rather snuffs them out with his wet finger tips. But never fear, we made up for his germs when 4,4-5 yr. olds blew their spit all over the top in a joint effort to help Tim. Thankfully the topping was Cool Whip with coconut, which I scraped off before serving to all the guests.

Mary Ruth did a superb job in her piano hymn festival this past Thursday night. she has worked so hard, and we are so proud of her!!!!!!!!!

We heard a very practical sermon of Hebrews 12, on the Fatherly discipline of the Lord to us as His children this past Lord's Day. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes. This quote was so encouraging to me several years ago during a very hard time, and remains one of my favorites. "Affliction is the saints badge and mark of honor. That the God of glory should look upon a worm and take such notice of him, so as to afflict him rather than lose him is a high act of honor. God's rod is a sceptor of dignity. Job calls God's afflicting us,His magnifying us. some men's prosperity has been their shame, while others afflictions have been their crown." Thomas Watson

We celebrated Phil's Birthday twice. First with our dear friends, the Butterfields. Then the following night we went to the Cock of the Walk . Lots of good food and fun. Ellie being goofy with a lemon.