Thank you

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the loving and helpful comments. It means very, very much to me, well to all of us really.

Today the babies are doing good. Justin buried Gretta out by the pond, and he noticed that she seemed like she had some kind of infection, and that's probably what caused her to die. So he was talking to his mom, and when their goats have done that in the past, they give the babies each a couple drops of tea tree oil, and that helps them get over any of that that they might have gotten if Gretta was infected. I think she probably just had ketosis - she had 4 live births (mom thinks maybe a 5th was stuck or dead inside), and sometimes when they have that large of a brood it is too much stress on the body, and they build up toxins and even if you catch it in time, which is very rare, they usually die, because their bodies are basically poisioning themselves. Anyway, whatever it was, at least the babies are doing good so far. Thank you Carol for letting me know about the colostrum, I was really worried about that, and how I was going to dig up the energy to feed them every 2 hours for 2 weeks. That was pretty daunting.

Anyway, babies are good, they're inside enjoying the warmth. Mya is pretty sure she needs to love them and lick them clean, so I've been trying to slowly teach her how to love them without getting too excited and scaring them. She's a good dog. I think she would snuggle them all and love them if we had a way to do that. 2 just stares and sniffs them, but Mya is really worried about them.

This morning was pretty much the perfect ending for the week I've had. I woke up after sleeping from 3am - 4am, and I was just sick, I'd been so sick after Gretta passed, and the stress of everything else that I started throwing up, and pretty quick I was throwing up red, so after trying to lay down and calm down I decided I better go to the doctor, and since it was Saturday I had to go to the ER (that'll be a nice couple thousand dollar bill) and after a bunch of blood tests the Dr. said everything looked really good except I have an ulcer, and the throwing up had just scratched my esophogus, and that was the blood I was seeing. He said not to worry about the blood, and he gave me 2 acid reducers, and 2 anti-nausea pills, and told me to eat a bunch of small bland meals, so my stomach will stop attacking itself. I really liked the Doctor. He's an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I'd been wanting to see him anyway, for myself and Justin - me for my tonsils and me ears, and Justin for his nose (its been broken at last count 26+ times poor guy!). So it was nice to meet him and know that he's a good doctor. So someday when we have a little disposable income we'll both go in and he'll get his nose cartilage re-attached, and I'll get my tonsils out.

Sorry for all the bad news, I hate to post bad stuff, but I guess the bad stuff is important too. Thank you again for all of your kindness and love and prayers and support - its much appreciated and helps a great deal. Love Alicia

Oh, little good news, the local radio shack/computer store was having a Mother's Day Sale, and we got the laptop we've been needing so that I can do the accounting we need for a really good deal. So we have a nice, BIG, hp laptop. Justin got the one with the 17 inch screen, almost full size keyboard, and it has the 10-key keyboard for numbers, so that will be really helpful. So at least we had something good. :)