Okay....

When push comes to shove, apparently Dan and I are really softies. From being tender-hearted towards babies and toddlers, understanding with children and teenagers, sympathetic towards the 20 somethings and empathizing with the elderly, we try to love our neighbors as ourselves. We also try to live peaceably with people. BUT, for whatever reason it doesn't seem like it's always returned. I see in elderly people more this very selfish attitude of "You don't understand what it's like to be old." No, I probably don't. That said, I think a lot of old people have forgotten what it's like to be in their 40's. It seems like everyone's allowed to have *mitigating circumstances* to excuse their behavior except for us. It's *okay* for someone who has far fewer children than mine to always be late in acknowledging my children's birthdays, because after all we are *such a big family how could they possibly be expected to keep track of so many birthdays* (choke, gasp, wishing I had some emoticons here). But, if the the tables were turned (which they wouldn't be, because I care enough to remember! ;-)), and I was habitually late in acknowledging a smaller family's children's birthdays *I* would be looked down, because *you have so many children you can't even remember anyone else*. The proverbial lose-lose situation, which I try to avoid, but sometimes they're just thrust upon you. Sigh.....

So, that said, Dan and I went to speak with the 80 yo dog owners. I will spare you the boring details but they were *very* nice to us. Invited us in their house. Felt horrible about seeing my very scraped up hand and very bruised leg.....wanted to know how we could work this out without them having to obey the law 24/7. I'm sure they're Christians. I'm sure I'll see them in heaven. They thought they were being very neighborly, wanting to work it all out. BUT, what they never said was, "This is our dog and we will make sure he never comes out in the road at you."...But since they were telling us all their aches and pains and medical history and in general being rather pitiful, apparently once again the duty fell upon us here is the solution. They will keep their dog penned on their front door from 7-8:30 every morning which is generally when I walk and the kids run. In the afternoon we have their permission (and in the interest of full disclosure they offered to pay for, we declined) to mace or high-frequency spray the dog. I'm not sure why it's our responsibility to train their dog, but apparently it is. Sigh....I just cannot ever imagine myself (even when I'm 80), explaining to a lady of 9 who was just injured by my dog (because that would never happen to begin with) that she has my permission to train my dog because I'm not up for it, and well, the deer eat our garden and that's why we need the dog.

So...that's that. I guess I won't take a picture, even though they only had 1 child (that's all they could ever have), but that said, at this point, they are receiving way more in SS benefits than they ever put in, and we'll probably never even see even half of what we put in...but hey...it's all about giving us a chance to *be a blessing to others* right? Gag.......Good thing I wasn't pregnant when I fell. I will have quite a scar. I guess I could post the picture I took, but why horrify anyone here who is just reading this innocently.

Let me tell you. Church was over the top today. After listening to a wonderful DVD by Voddie Baucham on Children of Caeasar, I was horrified by today's youth day. Church...it's not going well for you as you pass the baton. It's because you've handed your children over to Caeasar to be educated and they're turning out just like you trained them to: Secular Humanistic Romans.