9-day blog

I hate it that I haven't been able to blog as much as I used to. Last week was a busy week. I went to a three day conference on worship at New Life Church. It started on Thursday and went through to Saturday. The conference was really great. New Life Worship and Desperation led worship the first night. Paul Baloche (he wrote "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and many others) led the second night. The following morning worship was led by Gateway Church (Revelation Song).

There were many breakout sessions and lots of great information for worship leaders and choir directors. I went to two breakout sessions. One, on vocal techniques and the other or leading a choir rehearsal. I left so pumped and ready to get to work.

That same weekend Vance went on a two day hunting trip with his good friend Kyle and our oldest, Glen. Bow hunting is hard hunting and Vance said that Glen really did great. However, they didn't get anything. Vance has a couple more opportunities to get us some meat for the next year so pray for him.

We also had a little trial last week. Our dog Gunner is a Labrador Retriever and has all of the typical characteristics of one. The most prevalent being that he's an escape artist. We've tried everything from kennels to zip lines and finally an electric fence and collar. In fact, we've had to purchase two of these very expensive systems. For the most part, the electric fence keeps him in, but every once in a while the battery in the collar runs low and he'll risk the shock to get out.

He goes to the same place every time he escapes. It's a house about three miles away and there are two female dogs there that are not neutered and the owner swears that Gunner has fathered at least two litters.

On Thursday night last week Gunner escaped and came home acting very strange. He wouldn't sit, wouldn't eat and wouldn't drink. We thought maybe he had been hit by a car. We called a vet to get some advice and we came to the conclusion that maybe he had internal trauma. Vance thought that Gunner was dying.

We were able to get an appointment the next day and the vet said that he had broken his tail. Yesterday we took him in for another check up and they did some closer looking and found that he had extreme trauma to his backside and he had to have several stitches. The vet said that he had to have had blunt force to break the skin so badly.

Vance and I both think that Gunner went to that same house again and the owners there had had enough and either took a bat or a shovel to Gunner. This is the type of people we think they are. Of course, there's no way of proving it. Hopefully, Gunner will have fear of ever going there again. He cried all night last night. Fortunately, he seems to be doing better today.

So, that's why I haven't sat down at the computer and taken the time to record my life. Everyone else is doing well. Tristan is huge. We go for a check-up tomorrow. I have no doubt that they'll say he's at least 15 pounds. My five week old, who is supposed to be a tiny newborn isn't so tiny. I'll share pictures next time.