The Nelsons are in Wisconsin!

They arrived at 3:45 AM after 500 miles in their Honda Civic. Let the fun begin!

Zack's Bad Day

Since our last post was about Zack I felt it would be appropiate to report on the bad day that Zack has had today. He was watching his dad and the other siblings enjoying a little riding adventure when he deciced to jump on a bike and head down the road. He has never been good at figuring out how to use hand brakes so going down hills can get rather hairy. Well, today Zack took a good spill off his bike onto the paved road and came back with lots of scrapes, blood and pain. It was a scary sight to behold but my fast thinking kids and their father decided that this would be too traumatic for mom to see so they whisked him in the house and into the bathroom. I was busy having a good little chat and some tea with some dear lady friends who stopped in for a quick visit and did not even notice the poor boy's predicament. Well, Praise God it was not as bad as it looked. After they got him cleaned up a bit they could see that this was not going to be a job for the emergency room at the hospital.

After they had him all bandaged up the first thing he wanted to do is to call his beloved Courtney and tell her (and Toby) to pray for him. So with that update, I will end with this picture and prayer request for a fast recovery for this battered boy.

From Zack

Dear Legos,
(How do you spell legos? Oh, I know: F-A-I-M-N-O-P! No... Oh, here we go...)
Legos

I love legos. J-H-I-M-O-P-Q. I make houses, build doors, windows, two windows (one, two...). I can't build a porch. Oh yeah, I can build a porch. I build in my room, and livingroom, and dining room. (Do you know how to spell "house", Blenny?) I love the roof. I can see the door, windows, porch, livingroom, and kitchen and my room.

LOVE,
ZVXYUK
ZVXUYK
ZAC
ZACHARX
ZACHARY

The Wissmanns Visit

It was a great time together... Which ended all too soon. 9 or 10 hours isn't near enough, especially when part of that time you have to sleep.

Until next time...

What We've Been Up To

We’ve done some more home improvements!

We are trying to get most of our fixing up done before the Wissmanns and Brittney come. We have got a lot done so even if we don’t get all of what we want finished. It should be good enough (I hope;)).

Mom has been on a painting spree for the last couple days. She has the porch almost finished. And she just got the bathroom done. Both rooms look sooo nice now!

Part of porch

The sponging in the porch made it look so much more cheerful and inviting.

The bathroom is sponged too. But it has a variety in the style and colors. It had been painted a mauve color a few years ago so Mom went over it with a white color-washing.
That looked really nice but it still needed something else. Then Mom sponged with a little white, Levi put chair-rail trim up on the one wall and that made it look even better. We debated on whether we should leave it as it was or do something else. Mom did a little more sponging with white on the bottom of the trim but that made it look kinda funny so I suggested she do a light sponge with sage green. She tried it and that put the finishing touch to it all!

Close up of sponging

If 6 Billion Can't...

...why do I keep thinking I can?

Zoo Images

Otter Tracks has been lying waste and wanting, neglected by all the little otters scurrying around in their own business, apparently unwilling to relinquish the events and snapshots of their lives.

Shame, shame, shame.

I am still in Nebraska, so I can't really fill you in adequately of real Otterson life, so I must give you a glimpse into Nelson life in Nebraska.

Time only permits me to give you a glimpse...

Of our trip to Omaha Zoo.

For more pictures and details, go to this page: Omaha Zoo.

Just Like Daddy

Today I was complimenting my little nephew on how well he was cleaning his bowl of cereal up. "Landon, you're doing such a good job! You're eating like a big boy!"

"Just like Daddy," he muttered to himself between bites.

I've noticed he says that a lot.

"Wow, you really cleaned your room! Good job!"
"Just like Daddy."

"Are you taking such good care of Jea?"
"Just like Daddy."

In fact, even the day he disappeared and we thought for sure he had escaped outside, he was having a daddy moment. As panic started to set in to his terrified mommy and aunt, a little voice from the bathroom declared, "I on da potty chair, mommy!"

Sure enough, he was in there making a valiant attempt at potty training himself. Shocked at his own initiative to sit on the potty chair for the first time, and relieved that he was not running down the street somewhere we made many overjoyed exclamations at how good he was.

"Wow, Landon, you're turning into such a big boy! You're going on the potty!" (Never minding the little puddles on the linoleum.)
"Just like Daddy." He muttered.

He spends much of his 2 year-old energy imitating his daddy. His ultimate goal in life is to be just like Daddy. He hates to wear shorts, quickly donning a pair of jeans instead that are "just like Daddy". Few things matter more than his likeness to Daddy.

It reminds me of Romans 8:14-15:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear;
but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba Father."

Let the likeness of Daddy mirror your soul.

My Kids and Their Horses

This is turning out to be quite an adventuresome summer. With all that is going on with the children, music, animals, remodeling, and the garden, we find never a dull moment.

So far this summer, Hannah has taken a real interest in horse training/riding on the BIG Quarter horse that Gabe gave her for Christmas. Well, I was very reluctant to see my little girl undertake such a huge adventure but God gave me grace and peace to let her at least “try”. Little did I know what great horse trainer/rider she would develop into! I must admit I am very impressed and glad I did not stop her back in the spring. She and her horse have developed a real bond of love and friendship and I must say that this horse is very well trained.

Well, the horse stories do not end there, as little Levi had to get in on the action too, so we let him work on the 2 year old filly quarter horse in the round pen. He uses the Monty Roberts training and really impressed me with his determination to see obedience, but when the time for mounting came, we felt something was not quite right with this young horse so we talked to Gabe and found out that she was really too young to ride. So with that big let down, we weren’t sure what to do when Amigo happened to come up to us as if to say, “here I am, try me”. Levi and I were now on to another adventure, but I must say, I felt I was pushing my luck with this new idea. I told Levi, we would see how he responds to him in the round pen and take it slowly, as this is one spirited horse that in the past, only Gabe could ride. I was really doing some praying but again saw positive results. Before long, Levi was in the saddle and has been there ever since. Wow, my children never cease to amaze me with their abilities!!!! Amigo has turned out to be the perfect fit for Levi and now him and Hannah are out riding every chance they get, (with Tabby tagging behind on her miniature stallion).

Now speaking of Tabby, she just so happens to have miniature horses to ride. She is constantly chomping at the bit to ride her little stallion named Tinker who is the best invention for a little 7 year old who loves horses with a passion. He likes to be naughty and has a mind of his own but then so does she so they do real well with each other. How fun it is to watch the three of them go off riding their personally trained horses but believe me, it is always with a prayer for their safety.

Now on my next post I hope to write about the instruments that everyone is learning and how much we enjoy this part of our family and home.
Till next time….

Life in Nebraska

In case you didn't notice, I've been away for awhile. Come to think of it, looks like all of Otter Tracks have kicked their paws up for the Summer. I expected to find all kinds of interesting posts made during my absence, but there was nothing but a continuing tale of a runaway cow.

Nebraska is staying warm and busy. Moving, Nelsons arriving home from Haiti, shopping, dinners, vacuuming up ants... An endless divulge of activities to keep one's life interesting.

With Toby's parents in the area, there's always the endless last minute Nelson things to do. One of those was the special family tradition of Nels's "Big pancakes". He has them down to a T. The best pancakes I've ever had. They're Crepes, well buttered, rolled up in brown sugar, doused with a healthy dose of syrup, sprinkled with strawberries and dolloped with real whipped cream. You don't know pancakes until you've had Nels's!

And this is what the kitchen looks like in the process of cooking:

Crowded, busy, loud and fun.

And of course in the mean time Toby has arrested Jeremiah and Braxton for some misdemeanor.

Upon calling the "Copper" he was instructed to put them in the lock up for "20 years".

Once the 20 years were up, they were allowed to go free...

Criminals:

But there's nothing like Gramma to calm things down.

And of course I could go thusly go on and on, but I shall go on to more profitable things like folding laundry and vacuuming up ants.