So, alot's been happening...

Flat Kendall has been visiting from Alaska. She is a class project from my Mom's Cousin's granddaughter Kedall. They send the flat representation of themselves to someone, who then sends it on. They learn about geography (you send them a postcard from your location), culture (you send pictures of what you did with Kendall) and they help some schools in Africa (you send a book to one of the 3 schools in Africa) I need to send her on her way somewhere else. She went on a missions trip to Mexico with Hannah (and Hannah did take pictures, but I accidentally erased Hannah's memory card... I would KILL her if she did that to me! She was very gracious and forgave me after much much much remorse on my part) she spent Christmas with us and Kendall has met Kiwi! I don't think that I will be sending the picture of the dog EATING Kendall to Alaska!

This week we have seen mostly RAIN! We have gotten 6 1/2 inches of rain (and it is pouring again this evening.. so that number is climbing) this month. The average rainfall for January is 2 1/2 inches, so we are pretty saturated.

Poor Kiwi, she thinks that we are torturing her, making her go outside in the rain and WIND (more on that coming up) to go to the bathroom. When I open the door, she looks out, looks up at me and then tries to sneak back to her kennel!

We have settled into a routine, Kiwi and I. She sleeps in a kennel in our room. Our bedroom has a "hallway" from the office to the bedroom that goes past the bathroom and the door to the back yard... it's all tile, so we thought that with the tile, the door to the outside and the ability to gate it off, this would be her perfect hang out. So, when I get up in the morning, first thing I do is let the dog out to go potty. She goes, comes in for a treat, then I lock her in the bathroom with me while I get ready for work. Once I am ready, she goes out again to poop, then we are ready to wake up the girls. She loves this part... not so sure if the girls love it or not.

Then we play for a while as the girls get ready for school, then I gate her up in her "area" and head to work. After work, and before I pick up Bekah from school, I come home, let Kiwi out, and then we go get the kids. She loves riding in the car... although, she is getting to adventurous and walks around the van now as I drive (she used to stay in her bed in the seat) so I will be buying a harness to buckle her in. Then we all play with her, she cuddles with us on the couch, we have dinner and ignore her, and then when it is bed time, I say "Kennel" and she goes right in to go to sleep. She really is a smart little dog.

So that is our "normal" routine. But for the past few days, we have been having a little change up. The WIND has been incredible. The gusts were in excess of 40 mph. That with the rain saturated ground made for some interesting sights. This morning we saw many BIG trees down on our way to church. We lost power on Saturday evening around 9pm and it didn't come back on until 1am or so. Well, the last time I took Kiwi out.. by battery operated camping lantern since there was no light to flip on, it was too dark to see. This morning, when I got up... we trekked outside, and this is what I saw!

Then we came back in, I got ready for church.. normal day, right? Wrong! Kiwi gets out of her bed, and stands by the bathroom door, nose to the door... I think "she is telling me she needs to go out!" this is a first! She has never indicated a need to go out before! BUT because of the fence down, and my fierce desire NOT to be chasing my dog through the neighbor's yard in my robe, I decide that I need to get her leash. She follows me out to the kitchen.. the leash isn't there, I locate it on the dining room table, but then I can find the dog! She is not coming when I call, there is no noise, I am looking all over. When I finally find her, she is coming down the hallway and heads to her bed. NOW she has no desire to go out. Well I am sure you can figure out what that means! She already went... so now I have to search the house for her accident. (she seems to like Hannah's room) So I am HAPPY that she showed me she needed to go out, but I now know that she means NOW! So we are BOTH learning!