Our pet guinea pigs, Lady and Tramp

Betcha didn't know that some vets actually see/treat guinea pigs!? Never thought I'd ever care that they did. Actually would have cost us less to let the one die and buy a new one. Sounds horrible but I just couldn't see the little animals suffer anymore. So, Monday we made an emergency (unplanned) trip to the vet with Lady and Tramp who have been scratching furiously for months. Well, they were found to have, are you ready for this? They both have scabies and
Lady has it so bad she also has pneumonia and has lost weight etc. The amazing thing to me is that I didn't even say anything to the vet about putting her down. He said they would both get a shot for the scabies and then we'd go home with meds for the pneumonia and hope it gets better. This, I accepted along with a pretty big bill. Honestly, I'll probably get flack for this but, our wonderful dog has heartworms and we didn't even spend the $400 to get her better. She was diagnosed with this at least 5 years ago and you should see this girl run. Anyway, this was nowhere near $400 but much more than a new one would have cost. She'd better live!! She's actually eating and drinking pretty well and taking her meds very well. Just one more thing as a parent that I never thought I'd do. I told Tradd that she may not make it but we were going to do what we can to help her live. He started to cry and I'm not sure what all he said. I think he said something about getting another one to which I quickly said "no." Made him cry more. See, I should have let her die and just bought another one. He would have been fine with that. UGH!! Well, today we went crabbing and caught one and lost our crabbing basket. UGH! UGH! Anyway, we thought we'd go ahead and cook the one because we never have. Well, Tradd cried for 45 minutes because he thought we were putting the crab in our salt water aquarium. At first I joked with him about eating the crab and then it got serious. He couldn't breath right from crying so hard. So we conceded not to eat the crab but to take him back and let him go (we already have a small one in our aquarium). When he could finally breath right and there were no fresh tears he said, "let's eat it." You should have seen him dig into that crab. What a week!

3 Cheers for Pastor Scott!

Scott was "ordained" Seacoast fashion on Wednesday night. He was officially made a pastor 2 months ago but Wednesday was the public recognition of that calling. I'm so thrilled for him and so proud of him!! Scott puts his heart and soul into everything he does; work, play, being a father and husband. I'm just so glad to see God blessing him for his excellence and faithfulness to the Father. I could not have married a better man and am so thankful that God chose him for me and vice versa.

Blessed beyond words!

Not a day goes by that I am not blown away by God's provision!! The kids and I traveled 2500 miles during our vacation and the car ran great and just turned over 200,000 miles!! Only traveling set-back was a flat tire. The fact that we were kept so safe from accidents is also a huge praise! Gas prices were exhorbitant (about $4.29 in Michigan) but we had the money set aside in savings thanks to the IRS! (HA!HA!) Work was done on our house while we were gone that we never could have afforded. Work is still going to be done that is necessary for our health and safety and again it's all been provided for. There's been literally thousands, probably millions, of other things that God has taken care of for us but the incident that prompted this post came in the mail a few days ago. I have an OBGYN bill that I've paid a very small amount towards and I've been putting off making larger payments because I've been watching our very high insurance deductible slowly being met! I called the insurance company today to verify that in fact, we have $127 until our big deductible is met and after that, everything is covered 100% including hospitalization!! That means baby Drayton's prenatal care and delivery will not come out of our pockets. Can I just tell you that I complained like you wouldn't believe when the insurance changed to this high deductible? I, needless-to-say, have been very humbled by what a blessing it has turned out to be. There's a lot more detail to the whole story but what is also evident is that we never would have reached this amount if it weren't for Coleman's need for therapy and regular checks of her thyroid, heart and hearing. (Medicaid is her secondary insurance so all the bills go first to our insurance and then to Medicaid which is what helped us meet the deductible without it being a hardship on us.) More and more chapters keep getting added to the book God wants me to write! I've spent the second half of this day praising God and crying over his abundant provision!!

The Kinney Family Northern Tour

Lots of miles over the past two and a half weeks have gone into our van and we praise God that it survived. Let's see if I can give you the highlights of everything that has been happening in the Kinney household and on the road...

Meghan and the kids went to Glennie, Michigan for vacation with her family.

Tradd, Cooper and Uncle Rob with the catch of the day!

The Kinney Kids on the boat.

Swimming in North Lake in Glennie, Michigan

Meghan's parent's celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year! Here is some of the family...

I met up with Meghan and the kids and we headed to PA to visit my family...

Enjoying more fishing with mom and dad at Hidden Valley Camp grounds in PA.

COUSINS ARE FUN!

My parents and their grand kids!

I'll post some more pictures and some videos of the trip later.

Nine Years of Bliss...

Meghan and I are celebrating our 9th year of marriage today! I was thinking back on our wedding today and all the many wonderful and fun memories. Here are nine memories, one for each year...in no particular order;
* The wedding coordinator losing the reception center keys till 1 am.
* All our wonderful friends and family who traveled from all over the U.S. to celebrate with us.
* Meghan's brother reminding us that no matter what happened during the ceremony we would be walking out as husband and wife.
* The church being in the middle of remodeling and me calling Joan every day to see if the auditorium would be ready in time.
* How the wedding party got along so well, as if they had all been friends for a long time.
* Beautiful Meghan!
* Jeff's forever long toast
* The wonderful prayers of our friends; Jerry, Lana, Dennison, Colleen, Jim and Janet during the service
* Pastor Michael standing up in front of the church the Wednesday before the wedding and inviting everyone to join us at the ceremony

The list could go on and on...
Nine years and still counting, thanks for marring me Meghan! And thank you God for sharing Meghan with me.

A Weekend Packed with Fun!

What a great weekend! On Friday, after Coleman's PT, we headed up to Myrtle Beach to visit our friends from Raleigh, Debbie and Paul and their children Paul and Rose. We haven't seen them in over 3 years. (They never met Cooper or Coleman). They were vacationing at a great place in MB and so we headed up to see them and spent the day visiting and swimming. It was a BLAST!

On Saturday I officiated my second wedding. My assistant's daughter got married at the Woodlands, the only 5 star restaurant and resort in SC (at least that is what I am told). It was so beautiful and the food was amazing. They had all my favorites - Prime Rib, Shrimp and Grits, and a really cool french fry bar - french fries and about 100 different toppings including chocolate. It was so cool.

Then on Sunday I got to do what I love doing and that is teach children about Jesus. What a perfect way to end a wonderful, fun filled weekend with friends!

First Pictures of Drayton Elizabeth Kinney

These are Drayton's Feet!



Here is her beautiful profile!

Drayton Elizabeth Kinney - coming to the Kinney Home this fall!