Missing A Birth And A Brush With Death

My monthly Fly On The Wall post is part of a group of bloggers that allow you access into their homes to see what exciting and hilarious things happened on the home front during the past month. This month I was away from home. The beginning of the month I spent house/dog/cat/livestock sitting for my daughter who was enjoying the shores of Hawaii.

What I did not realize until I got there was that two of the sheep were pregnant.  The instructions she gave me in response to my wide eyes were "Don't worry Mom, there shouldn't be any problems.  If you see the mama is struggling and there is a little leg sticking out of her, just give it a gentle tug."

Every evening I heard a noise at the front door.  It was the goats.  They jumped their fence regularly to visit the house alerting me that it was feeding time.  They walked extremely close to my side to the fields and enjoyed the game of 'Let's See If We Can Trip The Old Lady.'  I wrote about their funny and sometimes painful antics in Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone.
The sheep were not born on my watch but had the presence of mind to hold off until the experts returned home.  They were probably as much afraid of giving birth on my watch as I was of it happening.  But, what is cuter than a brand new little lamb?

In the meantime, back home, my husband had to deal with two full weeks of very sick dogs.  We just got the two new rescues dogs and believe they brought the relentless parasite with them.  Have you ever heard of Beaver Fever?  It is not a laughing matter.  Usually it is contracted by tainted drinking water.  I won't share the gory details with you but will leave it to your imagination.

Every day when my husband came home from work, he would have to do several loads of laundry of all the towels he had placed around the house,  Fortunately we do not have carpet but daily he had to mop the floors.  As awful as it was for him, his heart went out to these little guys who must have been feeling just plain awful.

I only had a weekend between house-sitting my daughter's place and leaving on a speaking tour in Southern Washington. A million things to do but giving the house a thorough cleaning had to take priority.

I spoke in several cities - a different one each day. I would do it full-time if the opportunity presented itself.  I love every aspect of speaking in a variety of venues and sharing inspiration and laughter.

However, it was time to go home and I was ready to get back to normal.  What happened on my way home defies every law of nature and physics.  I wrote a post about an accident I survived that was nothing short of a miracle.  I was driving 60 mph and my SUV stopped within inches of hitting a car that had flown into a cement viaduct.  I did NOT apply the brakes - there wasn't any time.  My truck STOPPED.  There is no reasonable explanation.   Read that incredible story here.