Peruvian prank or hola from amios!?!

Hello Hello....static.. I hear some more shuffling and I repeat more Hello's. I am about ready to hang up, but decided to hang on just another minute to see if the connection will work out. I hear "Katie Ford!" and familiar voices greets me over the phone. Yes can it be half way around the world I hear the laughter of two friends!
Ah two friends have decided to call to see what I am up to!! They tell me about their exciting adventures in the jungle and about the wonderful pineapples and mangoes they are enjoying with out me. Yep Andrew still runs however he finds that he must do it in the morning because of it being so hot. And apparently Ever thought my pizza was pretty good cause 5 months later I still hear about it. I ask about the Spanish/English lessons well I guess its a learning process. I can't wait till there will be heavenly language and no static. However there is one language that I clearly understand is laughter its contagious and just simply good. I figured out the mystery animal! ah so much to say in so little of time, we all want to ask a million questions from each other. I wish I was there even if it was just a day.
lol I am sure you are laughing as you read this Andrew and Ever, but I have to say that was about one of the most fun phone call I've ever received! :D

Just a few thoughts

sometimes when we go to church and they ask for money, we may think "oh their just trying to get my money!" but when we go to the store and take a look at the clearance rack...we never think "they are trying to take our money. oh course they are just trying to give me a good deal!"

The earthly things we buy and stock up on, well they simply fade away get lost, forgotten, broken, stained. these things never make me happy at night, I never lay in bed at night thinking, "I'm so glad I have this!"
But the money I give away, the things I give away, I always remember! I remember what, when and who I gave it to.

It is better to store up treasure in heaven then here on a rotting world.

What’s going on at the Ford’s house!?!

Arriving home from camp this summer was an adventure in its self. This story actually starts before I was even born. My parents bought an older farm house, with the intentions of fixing it up. However this fixing up process has been going on for over 20 years!
When I got home my parents excitedly planned their newest remolding project. Dig out the basement, add a PORCH! And add 12 FEET to the house!! Little did I know at this was really going to go into action and little did I know how many people would be suddenly involved in this project! And still I have yet to know what the extra 12 feet are for.

6:00 A.M.! (now don’t get me wrong I am a typical morning person, but I was enjoying having the luxury of sleeping in just a bit later than what I would wake up to at camp.) I am woken up to a very annoying beep Beep BEEP!!(and this didn’t have a snooze button). The construction men had come to dig a hole in my back yard with a backhoe and dump truck. Yes I said “a hole.” With the construction vehicles cluttering my lawn, tearing up the grass and boxing me in; I decided I’ll take my school books and escape to school.
When I placidly arriving home and thoughts on nurse/client care, I take a lark in the back yard with my dog; to almost fall into hole going to china. I skid to a stop at the very edge I peer over into the hole I see my dad and Teddy(who is helping us with this project) working laboriously away, “are you searching for treasure I ask?” they just laugh at me.

The next day after coming home from school I find that the hole has grown to the in the front yard and around the side of the house. I start to wonder if this going to be a castle with a mote around it. I hadn’t thought my dad was that serious about waging a war with every young man who comes to seek my attention.
However, I believe my dad saw that the dog may be more affective in chasing off the gallant knights than searching for a sea monster to put in the mote. And so the hole was soon filled in with brick, forms and cement, and the house had made progress.

Speaking of the dog, who is very confused at this commotion feels it is his job to saw off people’s lower legs to let them know, this is his house and not to mess with it. fortunately for most of the legs that were sliced into, are protected with work boots and sturdy jeans.

However the next predicament started with the windows. Poor Teddy has spent hours trying to level and square our windows, but that is nearly impossible with an old slanted farm house. The first set of windows he put in was of different sizes, so that it looks extremely unlevel. Teddy is a perfections and could not stand this so he finally convinced my dad(who is not a perfectionist) to fix the problem. But then my mom decided to take a look and added “why not just take one out and make this one bigger.” Ok so out come both windows. Now these two windows face the road and they are also the two windows that are in our dining area. If you know my mom she is an amazing cook and had lunch ready for the guys. Now remember BOTH windows are out and with PLENTY of view of the road. Pretty soon we see our (nosy) neighbor whom has been getting plenty of excitement watching our remolding project go up, come driving by. He cranes his neck out of his car window as he grins waves vigorously to us through our wide open dining area.
After lunch my dad decides the fastest way to fix the window’s framing is to use the chain saw! To mom and I this is no big deal…chain saw ideas is just something that dad does. However my friend Elizabeth who is also stay at my house had never met someone who CHAIN Saws through their house!! Wood chips fly every where as she stares wide eyed and yells to me to Come quick and bring your camera!!

So this is the state of the Ford’s house, the remolding and construction continues on and I wonder if this will be the last year our house is an ongoing project….

Laugh a little

The original stress reliever ....Laughter!

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
Job 8:21

Playing the "I" game

Flipping through some books on our shelves I came across one from the 60's a psychology book on how to make friends and influence people....hmm I thought I wounder how interesting this could be, just to give it a kick, I skipped around in it and read a bit.
The book talked about how to be a good conversationalist. What is a good conversationalist? To sum it up, its basically being a good listener.
Well I thought to my-self I know people's favorite person is always "me, my self and I" so...the next day I tried an experiment...

I sat down to eat lunch with one of my new class mates...I asked her a few questions about her self, general stuff...where she was from, what she did for work, where she went to school before...need I say more? No, the rest of the meal I hardly got two words in. And even by the end I was getting just a bit annoyed for not being able to talk about "Me" I chided my self when I realized what I was thinking-

I hadn't really cared about hearing that she worked at the pizza place, or about her long distance relationship. However I thought about this as I drove home from school. As a human race how far have we fallen into selfishness and pride, I see it a lot in my school, I hear conversations I do not even want to hear or imagine. Conversations are filled with mindless chatter and degrading to the human intelligence (at least to mine). How often do people take a genuine interest in someone else life, of others' thoughts and opinions? I had to ask myself How did Jesus talk in His conversations and how did he listen to people as they talked? taking a look at myself I realized, I have fallen short of a good Christian conversationalist. Lord please let it not be "I" but "You" and "Others!"

Horsein Around

what adventures you can have when you work at the horse barn...so here are just a few of them... :) hope you enjoy this horse staff, ;-)

The first thing that always makes me wounder is why on earth you put children with animals that have the mind capacity of a 6 year old and are about 800-1000 pounds. why? I ask my-self, but we do.

"can I ride pixie," "I want to ride Pixie," "no I asked first"..."I WANT Queenie," "I am going to ride Yankee,please Please!!!" "I am not going to ride Red," "I want to ride Abby." All rings in my ears I wish I could climb the flag pole to escape the crowd that clamors around me squeezing in tighter, tighter, they pull on my sleeves. gasping for air,I call out roll call. then bracing my-self I desperately try to keep the kids charge up to the horse barn, over the fence cantering into the stalls.

You know you've worked to long at the horse barn when you start calling the riders the horse's names and the horse the rider's name.

You adjust stirrups for the billionth time and give the rider on Pixie a crash course in 5 seconds on how to steer the horse. While Red wanders out of his stall and his rider is yelling to me, "my horse is backing up!! what do I DO!!" while at the same time Gent and Kiwi are having a squabble over personal space issues.

The real adventures start when your on the trail and the horse trot through the mud...I here shouts of WHOA WHOA Queenie! I grit my teeth as I see her rider pull the reins up past his chin, as he clings to the the saddle horn with a white knuckles.
Then there are the adventures with...
Gent and Yankee, they hungrily eye the leafy branches that grace our trails. They wait wait...then yank their heads around at the right moments and shred the innocent trees of their leaves. If Yankee happens to see the fern bed that is rich with vitamins and fiber he dives in into the mist of them and up roots as many as he can before the drag rider can call to his rider to "tighten up the reins" tearing Yankee's tongue away from the leafy deliciousness.

Pixie what an Innocent name you would think... A calm spirit, a dusky brown color with a long tail and mane she seems so relaxed...but ah don't be fooled the adventure campers will warn you that she for sure was trying to kill them by barrelling straight through the brush and nearly knocked them off by going so close to the trees.

Queenie and Yankee made good friends with two crafty girls this summer and begged me every day if they could visit the craft house.
There is Thunder hooves Abby who has tried to kiss Alex however he strictly told her that was unacceptable!
...oh and don't ride George bare-back, at least not un-till he gets a little more meat on his bones, hmm...need I say more?

yet there is one more lark I must add(since Alex did bring it up in one of our conversations)
once upon a time there was lots of water and lots of dirt in our stable area, this was so thick, that when trekking across it you had to yank one foot out at a time...and on some occasion by the time you reached your destination you may find to your dismay, you left your boot about ten steps back. the only comforting thought as the mud squeezed between your toes, as you trekked back for the boot, was that the soil was well fertilized and for sure you was grow tall and strong. However thanks to my parents for make it possible for us to have gravel for this area, we no longer have to worry about growing too tall.

there is quiet a few more adventures I am sure our four legged friends could tell if they could blog...do ask them however to tell a story to you... :)

"I don't want to, Katie!" I had heard for the about the hundredth time, Well I don't want to hear you say that one more time, I growled to my self! and I am changing my name, its no longer Katie!!
One of my adventure campers had been wining pretty much from the day that she had arrived. And was trying my patience to the core. Each morning I prayed God please give me wisdom and patience for this camper. Each day I prodded her along, scolded her, coaxed her, sympathized with her and disciplined her.As I worked with her I began to think about how God does the same to us.
we wine we say we can't, we say God am not good I DONT want to!
But God says no you can't, but I can give you the power to. how much patience He has for us, when we complain...how He never tires of us being children is beyond me.Thank you Lord for being patience with this child. :)