A title escapes me......so here goes

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the prayers during the last week! We have certainly felt them, and most certainly have felt the presence of God during this time. Last week did not go well and there were some twists and turns that we didn't expect, but yesterday we got encouraging news regarding my mom, so hopefully things are looking up!

In other terribly sad news we had to say goodbye to our faithful dogs of 10 years last week. Our chocolate lab, Lexie, had been limping around for a while and a big knot had come up, so I heard her whining last Tuesday night and took her in to the vet on Wednesday. He did an xray and found that she had a tumor on her right shoulder. He showed me on the xray where the tumor was growing on the inside of her bone, causing the bone to expand, which he said had to be incredibly painful for her. The vet said that this cancer is very aggressive and terminal, so he recommended we put her down to keep her from being in such awful pain. Carter was with me, so we went in to say our goodbyes to our faithful friend, and as she always did, she wagged her tail with joy when she saw us coming. We petted her and talked to her for a little while, then we said our final goodbye. Of course, Carter didn't understand that Lexie wasn't coming with us so when we left he was saying, "Come on, Lexie...Come on, girl".

So you can imagine my surprise when later that afternoon we were outside and I heard the whining again. I knew it wasn't Lexie, so we went off in search of our other dog, Sam, a yellow lab also 10 years old, who hangs out at the barn alot chasing rats, and squirrels, and trucks, and tractors. I finally found him. He was hurt pretty bad. It looked like either other dogs, or most likely a coyote(s) had gotten hold of him. His ear was chewed up real bad, and he had several gashes on his sides and legs. It didn't look good, but Sam has survived so much! We have said several times that he has 9 lives because every time you think he isn't going to make it, he bounces back! He even survived what the vet thinks had to be a bear attack several years ago, with a minor surgical scar on his leg! Anyway, I doctored him for two days with medicine the vet sent home with us but by Friday night it was obvious even to me that he wasn't going to make it, and I agreed to let him be put down. I just couldn't stand to see him hurting like he was any longer.

We buried him beside Lexie. Behind the barn. He'd like that, this way he could oversee all the action that goes on around here. Carter doesn't understand that they aren't coming back and still insists on putting out food for them everyday. I finally hid the dog food container yesterday in hopes that "out of sight" will be "out of mind".

So, needless to say I was looking for a "getaway" of any kind this past weekend when my husband suggested we take Carter to the rodeo that was in town. Yee Haw! Let's go!

And I'm so glad we did! Carter had such a good time! At first he was all about riding the ponies, but once he got on....he wasn't so sure. He held on for dear life for a few rounds, but then once he had the hang of it, he loved it! He rode with a smile the size of Texas! Then when he got off, as the man who helped him off the pony handed him to me, I asked him if he had fun, Carter said "Mama, I go ride bull now!" Well, Okay! The pony guy cracked up and so did everyone else within earshot!

We bribed him into sitting still to watch to rodeo by telling him that if he was good, he could ride the ponies again before we left. He was good as gold!

So, without further ado, here are the rodeo pics I just know you've been waiting for!

....and, this is my favorite pic of Carter, Lexie, and Sam....he used to sit in his high chair and watch them on the back porch for what seemed like hours. They just watched him back, I always wondered what they were thinking....all 3 of them!..lol