Rehoming and a "NEW HOUSE!"

Oh my heavens, I am tired. In the last six weeks, we have rehomed six of our foster dogs, repainted our daughter Emily's room (after 10 hours of wallpaper removal) and painted the girls' bathroom (finished today) and gotten new carpet and a new couch that DON"T REEK OF DOG PEE. For the first time in 14 years, I can lie on my carpet and KNOW that there is not one drop of urine on it. Praise be to God. We found great homes for the dogs and the only dogs in the house now are Quinn, Samson, and .......................... Maggie!!!! I am way too tired to tell the whole story now, but basically, I grew up with a mom who bred and raised Ibizan Hounds. They are the love of my life. I always wanted one as an adult and Maggie was in rescue and now she is here and she is just amazing. She reminds me so much of one of our dogs, Hotep and is named for our last surviving Ibizan, Maggie. My old school and college friends will remember the Ibizans at my mom's house. Here is her picture. More later after I die and resurrect.

I'm back with a bang!

Well, every fall I get into a "funk"- my depression kicks in with the cold weather and so does an old neck injury, so I have been going to PT and sleeping alot, but I am up now and ready to be creative again. I guess I will write about the things that have gone through my head alot lately. You may agree or you may heartily disagree, but here's my take on two things- Michael Phelps and pink ribbons. The idea for this starting rolling around in my head after I bought some club crackers and there was Michael Phelps. On the box. What box has HE NOT BEEN ON??? What magazine cover, what TV show, what newspaper? "Yea, well he won 8 gold medals in swimming, Anne!" SO WHAT. There is one thing in this world that I think indicates how screwed up our morals are as Americans. What honor and glory we give athletes and how little glory they give God for their talent. I just looked up the top NBA salaries and they START AT $24 MILLION DOLLARS A SEASON. Am I the only one who finds that just a bit ridiculous? Now, Michael Phelps worked hard, and he trained hard, but the bottom line is that God gave him the talent He has. And who does he thank??? HIS MOTHER. His mom was probably was a huge influence on him and I have nothing about his mom or him, but I just think that there are some other people who should be on cracker boxes, cereal boxes, and magazine covers. How about Jimmy Carter, who has been promoting peace in the Middle East for the last 20 something years- where is he? How about the missionaries who give medical help to those in Africa dying from malaria? Have you seen THEM on the cover of People lately? Have Katie and Matt Lauer interviewed THEM?? No, they interview a girl who got herself into $22,000 of debt buying Gucci purses and Prada shoes at $200 a pop and getting her hair done for $300!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT??????????? For God's sake, Matt, get a life, get some priorities and quit making heroes out of idiots.
My second question is this- why is everything around me pink? Now, before you go getting all testy about me not being sensitive to breast cancer, let me say this- I love and personally know some very WONDERFUL AND FINE breast cancer survivors. So I am not against breast cancer research. BUT, why aren't there purple ribbons, blue ribbons, orange ribbons, green ribbons, and black ribbons all over stores? Why doesn't Cystic Fibrosis have green ribbons all over the paper, the grocery store and magazines? Why can't I buy Prostate Cancer coffee in an orange can? Why can't I buy a blue umbrella to help fight Lung and Throat Cancer? You know why??? BECAUSE WOMEN ARE DETERMINED. And they will work their butts off to get a cure for what affects them most and I think that is AWESOME. However, I think that if you were to look at mortality rates ( I tried to do this and couldn't find it fast enough) you will see that there are LOTS OF DISEASES with much higher mortality rates than breast cancer and where are their ribbons??? Get some women on that, would ya? I want to see Cystic Fibrosis knocked out too.

A new chapter in life begins, and an old one closes.............

After long and careful deliberation, we have decided to stop rescue permanently. We are rehoming the foster dogs we have and keeping our personal dogs, most of whom are old, (over the age of nine). Pharaoh's Haven was started to help older and abused dogs find a permanent home, and we have helped place over 100 dogs in that time. We now are looking forward to spending time with our parents, our kids, and attempt to have a "normal" life. We have downsized one other time but this will be permanent. We have 6 dogs to rehome. We have several good leads but could always use other names - people who know IGs and would give a dog a forever home. I won't be writing alot in the next few months as there is much work to be done here- reviewing applications, rehoming dogs, visiting my folks, and making plans for the holidays. I am here, I am fine, and this is a good step. Prayers are appreciated as always. Love, Anne

Kids are doing great- adjusting beautifully!

I am happy to report that the first two weeks has been pretty free of bumps in the road. Both kids like or love their teachers and their experiences have been pretty positive. Homework isn't drowning anyone yet and we've ALMOST gotten into a routine. Sunday school, junior high, and all the "extra" stuff starts right when school starts, so we were thrown from a "no schedule" into "oh my gosh, we are supposed to be there RIGHT NOW!" kind of mind frame. That's kind of a bummer, but that's life. Now if I can just straighten out which nights some of us will be home, none of us will be home and two of us will be home, I'll be fine- means I can plan real dinners when we're all home and lighter ones when it's just one or two of us here. :) I would really prefer Oprah's chef, so when you see her, tell her the delivery address for dinners is 2819 St. Road 13. I'd really appreciate it.