Puzzles!

Both our kids love to put together puzzles, but Miss Smiley amazes me with her abilities sometimes. She is often the first one awake in the morning and her favorite thing to do is to go out to sit at the coffee table in the living room and work quietly on a puzzle until everyone else rouses.

She started putting together simple 25 piece puzzles at age 2. For Christmas this year we gave her two small 50 piece puzzles in her stocking. I didn't really think she could do them since the pieces were tiny, but they were just from the dollar store so I figured why not? I was amazed when she sat down one day for about an hour and put them together all by herself! I guess we're on to 100 piece puzzles now...

Tractor Boy, on the other hand, doesn't have enough patience (or attention span) to put together more than 10 pieces, so he likes the card matching game we gave him for Christmas. It only takes three cards to form a tractor, truck, car, ambulance, military vehicle, etc.--perfect for him! He gets pretty proud when he makes a match.

Highlights from the Eagle Cap Extreme 2010

Back home

Yesterday we got home from the 100 mile sled dog race FarmDad participated in at Joseph, OR. It was quite an experience for us all. FarmDad says that it was the hardest thing he's ever done in his life--that was coming from a guy who runs around Mt. Adams in a day (30+ miles) for "fun", can still outrun the high school track team he coaches every year, can wrestle a 500 lb. heifer to the ground, and has bucked countless loads of hay summer after summer!

The race is called the Eagle Cap Extreme, and FarmDad says it was definitely "extreme." The terrain through the Wallowa Mtns. is beautiful but rugged. The race starts at 4500 ft. elevation and reaches over 7000 ft. in some places! Apparently, the elevation gained throughout the race is about 20,000 ft.--the equivalent of climbing Mt. McKinley!

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

The beautiful Wallowas

Miss Smiley and Grandma H at our B&B

The pre-race BBQ

Leaving the start

A musher on the course

Waiting, waiting, waiting for Daddy to finish.

Yay--finally done! The dogs were so happy to be back! Tired and sore, but wanting to run again the next day. FarmDad, on the other hand, will probably need a week to recover!

If I can figure out how, I'll post some video from the race. Meanwhile, I have mountains of laundry to do...

Off to the races!

Everything is packed and in the truck for our early start tomorrow to head over to Joseph, OR for the Eagle Cap Extreme sled dog race. The race won't start till Thursday, but the vet check and musher meeting are tomorrow. Here is a link to see the OPB special they did on it last year. Beautiful country!

Adoption update

Just wanted to share that our agency, Adoption Advocates International, reviewed and mailed our dossier out to Ethiopia this week. They expect it to arrive sometime next week. We should be on the wait list by that time and I'll post when I know what number we are. We have requested a boy or girl 0-4 years old and our homestudy approved us for up to two children (siblings.) We would love to have siblings, but the chances of getting that young of siblings are very small. Since there are many more requests for girls than boys, we have a 98% chance of getting a boy. Currently, the wait list is about 10 months long for the referral of an infant boy. We hope to have our referral by the end of 2010!

Dog sledding

Three years ago, we got hooked into the fun, chaotic, unpredictable and addicting pasttime of dog sledding. It all started when I went skijoring with a friend who owns and runs sled dogs. Skijoring is cross-country skiing while being pulled by one, two or more dogs--the brave (or perhaps insane) ski with four or five! The dogs each have a harness that is attached to a bungee line that is attached to a person wearing a climbing harness/skijor belt.

I loved the whole experience and soon convinced FarmDad to try it. He had the same reaction and was soon trying to convince me to get one of our friends' many sled dog puppies. I finally gave in, but when we went to pick it up it soon became obvious that we couldn't just get one of those cute little bundles of energy. So, we brought home two.

Needless to say, after going to several races and getting FarmDad's parents hooked as well, after buying some dogs and rescuing some dogs and raising some puppies of our own--we now (along with Grandpa and Grandma P) have a total of 16 dogs.  Of course, once we had enough for a dog sled team (4 or more), we had to buy a sled (3 actually) and give that a try.

All that being said, three years after I said "Okay, fine, but only two," my dear husband is training an 8-dog team for a 100 mile race. Thankfully, we only keep five here at our house and the rest are over at my in-laws.

I have to admit that I love dog sledding. Feeding, untangling ganglines, repairing ganglines, thawing frozen water, picking up poop and washing endless amounts of clothes that shall forever smell like wet dog can get tiring. However, five minutes after our dogs take off on a sled run with me standing on the back of the sled, the chaotic barking turns to the quiet huff, huff of the dogs' breathing and the swish of the sled across soft snow. The world immediately turns peaceful. The dogs are in their element--it is what they were bred for, what they live for. They would run forever if they could, and their contentment is contagious.

Following a generally crazy start (with dogs chewing lines, breaking lines, and sometimes starting a fight because they want to go so bad) the peacefulness of the snow covered trees and open trail is soothing and relaxing. There is nothing more fun than a long dog sled run through softly falling snowflakes. It's as close as I can get to "Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh," and I relish being able to live in an area where we get snow 6 months of the year.

The first winter I lived here, pregnant and stuck in the house for six months, I nearly went crazy wondering if I could live in a winter wonderland for 6 months of every year. It didn't take me long to learn that in order to survive, I would have to learn to love it.

So I did. I learned to cross-country ski, ice skate, skijor and dog sled. Now I love the winter and look forward to it every year.

This winter is the first time FarmDad has trained for a race longer than 12 miles. I know, crazy huh?  It has been an adventure to train 10 sprint dogs (half still young and inexperienced) to pace themselves to run long distances.

We are very excited about the race though. Our friends did it last year and loved it. The race takes place in the Wallowa Mountains in eastern Oregon. The whole town of Joseph, Oregon gets involved in helping out with the race and hosting the mushers and their dogs. We get to stay and a B&B in Joseph that looks beautiful. Here is their website: http://www.cowgirlheaven.biz/

Here is the website for the race: Eagle Cap Extreme http://www.eaglecapextreme.com/

If I can figure out how, I'll try to post a video of one of our training runs. Meanwhile, I'm trying to prepare for our trip next weekend. So far, I have compiled a list of 4 whole pages of things to take along. I will never complain about packing for a family vacation again. Try packing for 10 dogs in addition to all the necessary family gear and food! It will definitely be an adventure! I'll give an update when we return.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010! A brand new year and a brand new decade! God continues to be so faithful to our family and--in the words of my favorite Chris Tomlin song--how can I keep from singing his praise? We start the new year looking forward to having one or two new members added to our family through adoption--hopefully this year.

I finally decided to join the realms of blogland. We'll see how consistent I am. My pre-apologies to those who hope for frequent postings from me. I love to read others blogs, but I wonder at the time they have to post epic musings several times a day as well as work, play and raise families! This will be a "whenever I get a chance" blog. Another warning: I may ramble, misspell and sound confusing on occasion as this blog is mostly for my own journaling and memory-keeping purposes. I'm hoping to use this blog as a recounting of God's faithful work in our lives and as a way to remember lessons learned.

May you be blessed by stopping by--and may God bless you and yours in 2010!