Gracie at 1 week old

This is Gracie at 1 week old with Matthias. She loves to cuddle up to Matthias and he doesn't mind at all. She has been growing so fast she has already doubled her size in just one week. It is amazing to see her growing so fast. You can really go somewhere for a couple of hours and then come back home and notice she has gotten bigger. She responds to her name now. For the last 2 days she has really been after the dog. Everytime he walks near her she runs after him and bites at him. I think it is because she likes to bite on strings and stuff. He looks like a walking mop. I don't think she knows the difference.

My retreat was wonderful!!!

I am still trying to sort everything out in my mind. I did have a wonderful time at my retreat! I really had a beautiful experience at the mass we had on Saturday. There was something that happened to me at that mass that I can't explain but it did leave me with a feeling of total peace and tranquility. I learned so much and had such a renewal of mind and spirit I wish it didn't have to end. We learned a lot about Carmelite spirituality and some about spiritual warfare. Since the retreat was a silent one I pretty much hid out all day in a corner studying my bible so I wouldn't be found and spoken to. It worked! I left the retreat with some great short meditations. I will be using these throughout the year. Here are a few of them:

Thy love be done

Learn from me

Gentle of spirit

Humble of heart

Come to me

I am with you always

My sheep know my voice

Stay with us

God within

Do you love me

Be transformed

I thirst

Gracie made some new friends

Gracie finally made some new friends. She has been very affectionate with them and likes to snuggle up and nap with them. She falls asleep whenever I place one of her friends over her. Hope you enjoy these pics.

My silent Carmelite retreat is tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going on my 1 day retreat. With all of the kids and the pets there was just no way to go for more than a day. I am really excited to go. The retreat actually started today and lasts until Sunday but I am going Saturday only. I learned so much last year at our retreat and I am hoping to learn much more this year. I went away from last years retreat with a short phrase I have focused on all year... "Thy love be done". Oh, how it has chaged my year and how I look and react to people. So short a phrase but so rich in knowledge! I believe that this year we have a different Carmelite Father than last year and I am really anxious to meet him. God has been so good to me and brought me so much closer to him especially during this lent. I will finally have all day to spend alone in silence with my sweet Jesus!

Our first whole day with Gracie

Gracie has been doing really well. Her first 2 days with us have been spent eating, sleeping, going potty, and following someone around the house. If she's not following me around she is following one of the kids around.
Last night she slept on a towel by my son for half of the night and then in her box for the rest. I didn't get much sleep because we have these 2 owls in my tree that talk all night long and last night they seemed more talkative than usual.
Since Gracie has been spending more time going potty we thought it was time to try the diaper. The first time I tried to put it on her I tried for about 10 minutes and then gave up. Later on I tried for another 10 minutes and finally figured it out. Now I can get it on in about 1 minute. Gracie doesn't seem to mind it at all. I figured out that these first diapers don't do that great of a job of catching her stuff but are basically just getting her used to wearing them so when she gets her adult diaper in a couple of weeks that really does work she won't have any problems wearing it.
My dogs don't seem to be bothering her at all and I am not sure what the parrot thinks of her quite yet. Gracie doesn't even pay any attention to any of them. Here are some new pics.















This is a picture of Gracie yelling at me for leaving her alone. She was looking for me and when she finally found me she told me what she thought!















This is Gracie eating her breakfast wearing her very first diaper. I thought I would try feeding her some grass along with her regular food and she really liked it. She has been a really good eater! I wonder what she will look like in a week from now???

We got our little baby today!

Our baby goose Gracie arrived about 8:30AM this morning. She was hatched on Monday April 20th at 7AM. We were expecting her to be shipped along with a duck for warmth and company during her trip but when we opened the box she was all by herself. I called the hatchery and they said they must have forgotten to put the duck with her. She seemed to do fine all by herself and that is all that matters. I was planning on giving the duck to my friend Dolores who has a farm anyways. She was really thirsty at first and as soon as I got her into the car we had water waiting for her. She has been sleeping or drinking water for most of the day so far and she has eaten a little of her food. She is so cute!!!

We are getting a new baby!

Actually the baby we are getting is a baby goose. She is a Toulouse goose here is a link about Toulouse geese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toulouse_Geese. She should be arriving tonight, actually very early tomorrow morning. The post office said I should be expecting a call around 3am to go and pick her up. She was hatched yesterday and has been on her way here since her hatching. We have everything ready for her and we are so excited. We even have her starter diapers waiting for her (they are hot pink). She will be a house pet so she will be wearing diapers:)

Here is a picture of her bed she will be sleeping in for the first couple of days.

Here is a picture of her hot pink diapers she will be wearing. She has 4 different sizes that she will be using for the first couple of weeks. Then we will be ordering her adult diaper from http://thegoosesmother.com/.