I just had to write and tell what happened yesterday. The girls and I were going to Walmart to get some much needed undergarments for Beth, tennis shoes, ect. They have built a new bridge from Ohio to West Virginia and to get to Walmart you have to go under both bridges then come to a 3-way stop to turn left to go over the bridge or right to go to town. We went in our 87 Dodge Ram pickup truck and I had noticed that my brakes were acting funny once I got over town to a red light. Well we were coming up to the three-way stop and I pushed to slow down and had NO BRAKES, I saw that I was going to hit the car in front of me so I instead went over the curb, hit a gaurdrail and ran into a pile of dirt from the construction going on. Thanks be to God that no one was hurt and I actually only did cosmetic damage to the truck (the same one that Earl had hit deer with and that deer had run into Earl with). While it was happening the only thing I can remember is that Beth was yelling "Were having an accident". 4 or 5 of the construction guys came over to checks us the truck and let me use their cell phone to call my brother. (Yes I called my brother instead of Earl, because Donny can fix the truck and tell me what to do) I did call Earl with my brothers phone and he came straight from work to check on us. I will post a picture of the brake line later today it had broken off. Needless to say we did not get to go shopping because as we were waiting for Bubby(Donny) to fix the truck the children went to play in the big pile of dirt and I didn't want Earl to go home by himself with the truck.

We are planning on going to a musuem today for their Founder's Day because it is free and they are having things for the children to do. Then a picnic and a shopping adventure with Earl. He is SO thrilled hahaha. But we are all looking forward to the musuem. It is called 'Our House" and was built in 1819 as a home and has a building out side that was the kitchen area.

Sammi admiring the cows and donkeys

Here is a picture of Beth getting ready to throw the stalks over.

Across the road from where we live a gentleman keeps his 15 cows, 1 bull and a family of 3 donkeys. The girls love any animal and yesterday I suggested that we go and look at the animals because the owner had just fed them and they were all down at the bottom of the hill. While we were there the owner brought corn stalks to give to the animals. The girls thought it was great fun to throw the stalks over the fence. At one point the gate was opened and we walked to within touching distance of the cows. Sammi wanted to go and "pet" the cows and Earl about had a heart attack trying to get to Sammi to stop her from going in. The owners girlfriend picked up Sammi and took her over to the cows which was a big deal to Sammi. There was also a 4 month old calf. The cows were so used to people that when the gate was opened all we had to do was say "hiya get in there" when they would try to walk out of the gate, even the bull just sauntered around calm. When I told the girls that we had to go home to feed the dogs, Sammi said "I'm not going home yet, I stay with the cows". She is definitely our farm girl.

I had my Dr. appointment yesterday that was to be just routine, urine tested, heartbeat listened to, ect. But when the Dr tried to listen to the heartbeat with the instrument he uses, he couldn't find it, so he said that he would do an ultrasound and he still couldn't find the baby or heartbeat, then he said that he would do an internal ultrsound. By this time I was starting to get fearful, Beth was asking why she hadn't heard the heartbeat yet. Thankfully with the internal ultrasound there was the little baby with a heartbeat of 167, a little head, body, and 4 little stubs where the arms and legs will grow. I told the Dr that the first thing I was going to do was spank this baby with all the sickness and problems she/he was causing. I joked with the nurse that the baby knew I wanted another picture of him/her and that if this was a clue of what was to come with this kid, I am glad this is the last one. We will find out what the baby is in Nov. Earl is highly convinced that this one is a boy, I am convinced that it is a girl even though this pregnancy is nothing like it was with the girls. More morning sickness, more tired, more emotions. The bad thing is that I have never enjoyed being pregnant, I love having the baby, but pregnancy has never been fun for me. The only part that I like is when the baby moves, which hasn't happened yet and when the baby comes out which of course won't happen for another 6 months.

Earl goes to see the wound specialist today to get his bandage changed and see how the leg is doing. He is not allowed to get the bandage wet so he can't take showers ( I told him to duck tape a plastic bag around it) so he takes baths with his leg hanging out of the tub. He is afraid that his leg is going to stink like it did when he broke it and they took the cast off, I told him that I didn't think it would be that bad and who cares as long as his leg is getting better.

Sammi got a clean bill of health yesterday. Beth is busy with her homeschool work.

Today we went to the Ohio river to look for interesting rocks of drift wood. We went to the boat launch area in Pomeroy. I let the girls take off their shoes and let the water splach on their feet. Sammi didn't like the splashing of the water, however my waterbug Beth was having a ball until she fell face forward because it is slippery at the launch. Earl thought that Beth was going to be sucked under because of the waves from the boats and barge in the river and ran forward to get her and slipped in the same spot as Beth and fell on his backside getting his hurt leg wet. I wound up getting Beth then their buckets that were floating away then trying to help Earl up, while Sammi sat there saying "I not go in the water no way"

Beth loves to use my camera to take pictures, in fact she took this one of Earl and I

Earl tried again the other day to get one of his beagles to run rabbits, for an old hand at running dogs, the fact that NONE of his beagles will chase the rabbits is really getting under his skin. The girls have to wear hats because of the ticks down here. One time we went and I didn't make them wear hats and we found 3 or 4 ticks on us. Yuck!!!

Notice around Beth's waist is the dog leash that is how Earl is teaching Beth to carry her leash, she is doing OK with her training but is having doubts about whether or not dogs really chase rabbits.