And the bat...Leviticus 11:19

We spent four years at the seminary. Four years.The Man and I both received all kinds of instruction in how to handle situations in churches.  None of it prepared us for tonight.

The night was dark by the time The Man and the older children returned home from the midweek service at the church.  As the kids were tucked into bed, The Man told me that he was returning to the church and asked if I wanted to go with him.

I grabbed the camera and he grabbed his gear.

Tools every pastor needs:  fencing mask, head lamp, fish net, leather jacket and gloves.  The folks that had stayed after the meeting to clean the church confirmed that "it" was still in the fellowship hall.  Apparently doors left open to let cool breezes in can also let bats in.

Our church doesn't have a belfry, so it had to settle for a place high on the wall in the fellowship hall.

Caught!

The bat is now safely outside catching bugs.

Some pastors fish to get creatures into the church...some fish to get them out!  The Man does both.

Bear ye one another's burdens...Galatians 6:2

We are home! The weather was perfect for the church backpack trip.  G walked the entire two miles to the campsite.  Goldilocks was carried most of the way, but she did enjoy getting down and walking with The Man.

She chose her own outfit, by the way.  She convinced someone to put the orange one-piece romper on her when everyone else was getting dressed.  Before long she was back with the denim jumper on asking someone to button it for her.  A few minutes later she returned with a pair of jeans.  I drew the line there.  We are still potty training, and I didn't want too many layers to deal with!

The Man's pack weighed over 70 pounds, but that was before Goldilock's pack was tied on there (G had a backpack, so it was only fair that she also had one).

Not only did G walked the entire way, but he became an expert at pointing out the horse poop along the trail.  In case you are wondering, his pack contained a pillow, a blanket, Curious George, a toothbrush, two pairs of underwear, and a harmonica--all important wilderness essentials!

Don't feel too sorry for The Dog, he practically crawled from the vehicle to the trail head with his pack of dog food.  After showing off his puppy dog eyes, the pack was removed from him and put on Painter, with J carrying the chain for Painter.  The Dog is no dummy. 

Especially since once the dog food was eaten and we were ready to come home, the pockets on the doggie pack were the perfect size to hold the diapers and underwear of Goldilocks that didn't stay dry.

It was a beautiful trip, but I was glad to get home, and Goldilocks is happy to always be within a 10-second sprint of the bathroom.

Am I a dog...1 Samuel 17:43

Dear M,

Hi. How are you? Your mom left the computer on the porch, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say woof. I hope you are having a good time at that place called college. Do they have any dogs there?  If they do, I'm sure they aren't as good as I am.

Guess what?  We're going backpacking today!  I'm not sure why they call it backpacking, because it doesn't have anything to do with my back, and I certainly don't pack anything.

I want to let you know how much you are missed around here.  The other folks still feed me and pat me on the head and stuff.  But it just isn't the same.

Speaking of food...I wonder who will be carrying my food on this backpack trip for me since you aren't here to do it. 

Oh, I have to show you a picture of this ridiculous contraption your mom made.  I have no idea why they buckled it on my back. 

If that wasn't enough, they put a bag of dog food into each pocket.  A LOT of dog food.  Why, it is enough food to last me and that other beast at least two days. As you can probably tell, I was very annoyed that they put that thing on me. I was so glad when they took it off. I hope I never see it again.

Then your mom rigged up some other bag, put a chain in it, and tried to put it on the beast's back.  Of course, he just stood there and refused to move.  Your brothers talked about what they would do if he refused to carry his chain.  Hmmm.  I wonder where he's going to take a chain.

Well, it looks like they are loading up things now. I better go. I need to find out who is carrying my food for me.

Your faithful friend,
The Dog

Teach them diligently...Deuteronomy 6:7

I'm borrowing my first day of school blog title from a few years. We DID start school on Tuesday.  Here are the kids in their little room at the mercantile building.  This is the "delighted" version.  I'll post the version with the flash over on facebook.

I could try to come up with a creative explanation for the tilted picture.  I think it is easiest just to say that I took a bad picture and I don't feel like straightening it right now.  So sorry.

The kids worked for a while, then I started hearing suspicious sounds.  A quick peak out the back office door revealed they were playing learning about the principles of aerodynamics. I told J to measure first to make sure he wouldn't get scalped while zooming under the table.

It would have been terrible to have a first day of school made up of injuries, staples, and stitches.  Even Goldilocks joined in on the fun.

The two little ones were sick yesterday.  Since S wasn't feeling so great either, he took yesterday morning off to stay home with them. J stayed home in the afternoon so S could do some school.

Today we will get ready for our backpack trip we are leaving on tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will be backpacking.  Back to school on Monday!

I might learn...Psalm 119:71

I've said we're going to start school "after Labor Day." Now I'm contemplating WHICH day after Labor Day we are starting...today? tomorrow? next week? I'm not feeling very motivated today, but I don't foresee that changing with the calendar pages.

I need to go back in to the office today, so I think we will do a dry run with our new school room with no patients in the building. I am not sure how we are going to do and balance everything, but we can all learn together.

Indignation...Job 10:18

Last Thursday the kids and I rode down to the big city with The Man. He works in a clinic down there 3 days a week, and sometimes we go along to do our shopping and visit the library. This time, I printed off The Man's Friday schedule and held on to his cell phone (he had his office number forwarded to his cell phone). As people called throughout the day to make appointments I was able to schedule them immediately instead of them leaving messages to be returned the next day. By the time I picked The Man up Thursday evening, his schedule for Friday looked pretty full.

The kids and I had just walked into the Goodwill store to browse when the phone rang. I answered it as I removed the schedule and pen from my pocket. It wasn't a patient, but a pharmacist wondering why The Man hadn't responded to faxed refill requests. I knew The Man had many problems with this particular pharmacy. I knew that within the past year I have called and talked to one of the employees about the inappropriateness of leaving personal patient information on our home phone voice mail--especially when our message only has a number and no name to identify it as belonging to The Man. The list of problems goes on with this pharmacy to the point that The Man is just about ready to no longer call or fax anything to this pharmacy.

Since I've only been helping out in the office for about a week, I didn't have any firsthand knowledge about the particular case. I told the pharmacist that The Man was out of the office, but I'd check into it and be able to help him Friday morning.  

Five minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was the patient that the pharmacist had just called about. She also wanted to know what was going on.  She stated she had known The Man for many years and trusted him, but she was beginning to wonder what was going on because the pharmacist had told her that The Man was the only doctor that they had problems faxing things to. She suggested that we had problems with our equipment. Grrrrrrr.

I was able to schedule 3 more appointments for Friday before leaving the Goodwill, but I certainly wasn't feeling a lot of good will. I was very annoyed and upset that the pharmacist had suggested to a patient that The Man was at fault for her not getting her refills. How dare the pharmacist blame my husband when they were the ones with all the problems!

That night when we got home, we assigned the children to unload the van and help the little ones to bed, then The Man and I got in the pickup and went to his office. I sat down at the computer and pulled up the fax log for the last few months. I sorted them so I could see all the faxes from the pharmacy in question. There were only a dozen or so that had come in from them since The Man updated his computer in June.  Out of those few faxes, only 3 were for that patient, and none of them were for the drug the pharmacist had asked about.  

As I looked at those 3 faxes, I noticed one of them had been sent to a different fax number, then the fax number crossed out and The Man's fax number written in beside it.  BINGO! The pharmacy had been sending the faxes to someone else's number! Satisfied with my detective work, we went home.

The next morning the pharmacist called again. This time I asked him what number he had been sending that fax to. When he replied with the wrong number, I politely informed him that that number wasn't, and never was, The Man's fax number. However, I knew they did have our correct fax number since we had received several faxes from them. Oh. Then The Man talked to him to straighten out the patient's prescription. The pharmacist never apologized, but he did say he thought it was all straightened out in the system.

A few minutes later I talked to the patient to let her know that the situation had been resolved. I did emphasize to her that the fact that The Man hadn't "returned" the faxes had nothing to do with our equipment! 

Even though the situation was very upsetting to me, I'm glad that it spurred me to figure out the underlying problem, so hopefully the patients can be better served in the future. I'm also glad that the situation wasn't our fault, and that I handled it as graciously as I'd want the other party to handle it if it had been our fault. I know that I have and will make mistakes.  When I do, I hope I can admit my mistakes, apologize, and move on.

The rest of Friday was a blur for me. At 5:00 The Man left to do a home visit and I stayed for another 45 minutes to wrap up some things that needed to be done before the weekend. There are still a lot of other things I need to do before The Man is back in the office on Wednesday, but I'll go in tomorrow and work on those. Well, maybe I'll do it Monday.  My house was very neglected last week and it shows! 

P.S. Next time you call your doctor's office to schedule an appointment, will you imagine the person sitting at a desk, or walking through a Goodwill store? ;-)