Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The "Calm" Before the Storm

I took Mark to the airport yesterday at 4:45am.  He's leading a mission trip from the Harbor to Cambodia for the next 11 days.  I was home shortly after 6am and Piper blessed me by starting off the day and Mark's departure by chasing down a large rodent, killing it, and playing with it like a beach ball in a mosh pit in my front yard.  When I went outside and yelled "Release!" in my best Cesar Milan voice, she merely volleyed the rat/shrew into the air and went chasing after it.  I had to bribe her with tons of treats before she was willing to put it down.  Then I had to come between her and the large, nasty dead thing, get her into the house, and muster up the nerve to pick it up and put it in the trash.  In an effort to quickly get rid of the rat/shrew before the kids work up and before missing the early garbage truck I decided to use a shopping bag to pick up the rodent.  So nasty.  It was squishy.  

The whole ordeal was disgusting, but much less traumatic than the time that Zoe was 10 months old and I found her playing with a dead rat in the backyard--also on Mark's first day out of town for a trip back then too.  

I've noticed an increase in rodent body parts in my yard and parking lot over the past few weeks--I think Piper is a hunter.  Eeww.  Below is a picture of Piper with the "toy" in her mouth.  Trust me, it looked way bigger in real life.  I had to capture the moment on my iphone and email Mark what he was missing already.  He may be going to to a third world country, but I bet he won't hold any dead rats this week. 



I've been spending tons of time with Kristie and her sweet son Hudson, as Kristie's husband Ron is also on the Cambodia trip.  Here are our kids tonight devouring frozen yogurt and playing on the beach. 

Hannah got a massive haircut, but I'll have to blog about that later.  Suffice it to say she looks adorable! 

Gotta love the kanji sign for Japanese food on the left, right next to A&W "All American Food" on the right, with the ubiquitous Japanese ferris wheel in the middle. 



It's hard to tell that we have a Category 4 typhoon bearing down on us.  The girls and I prepped all day for Typhoon Muifa's forecasted arrival tomorrow.  It's supposed to be pretty bad and last through Sunday morning. Here's a picture of the gigantic storm and itty bitty Okinawa on the left. 


We're expecting sustained winds over 110 mph and gusts up to 150.  I'm scared.  I do trust the Lord, though, and it'll be a chance to walk by faith.  It's not a willing walk, but it's a walk in faith, nonetheless! 

1 comment:

  1. Dan and I went through a hurricane our first year married, while living in Florida. I'll be praying for you that you feel God's wings of refuge during the storm.

    ReplyDelete