Not a creature stirring

Blessings this Christmas Eve to all of our family and friends, and everyone else. 

I am missing the Philippines this month.  As materialism wraps us up and we lose sight of the real gifts, I think of how much simpler it is when the only gift you have to give is yourself; your time, energy, heart. 

God's gift of coming down, in a shape we could relate to, in a man we could speak with and strive to follow - that is Love.  My prayer on this eve of Christ's birth (yes I know it's much more likely that He was a spring baby as the shepherds were out and the sheep were birthing) anyhoo.... I pray that we will all seek to walk in His steps, with gentleness, not turning an eye on the dirty and downtrodden, that we will share what most of us have in great excess, that we will serve our brothers and sisters in some capacity. 

And now some random photos of our little life:

The one day I wore my slippers to pick up boys after school and I had to pump gas.  These are my slippers, none of my boys borrow my slippers, hmmmm.  

Tom selfie.  I just recently learned what that meant.

Buster asleep in our big bed.  Looks like turkey legs.  

10 inches of snow!  All of our boys finally got to experience waking up to snow, and lots of it.  

Ducati, my current Stray Rescue buddy.

Toad from last month.  Toad is still waiting to be adopted.  He is so handsome!

3 degrees here this morning.

With love, prayers, and thoughts of missing many of you - Merry Christmas from the Kropp family.  

Rescue

Now that our five boys are all in public school, what's a Gretchen to do?

Volunteer of course, and get a little job. 

I volunteer at an amazing organization started by Randy Grim in St. Louis.  Stray Rescue is what it says....we rescue abandoned and dumped dogs.  We don't take owner surrendered animals.  Much of St. Louis has been abandoned; I have never traveled through a city and found much of it deserted, run down, burned out.  Dog fighting is big business here, and many people simply dump their dogs.  We rescue dogs who have been used in dog fighting, lost and thus been dumped - often times literally dumped in dumpsters.  We get bait dogs; those dogs who's mouths are taped or wired shut so they can't fight back, that is how the bad guys improve the confidence of their fighting dogs.  Many of the dogs, close to 50%, have been shot.

Here are some before and after pictures.  I love being part of this.  Is it hard?  Yes, but I get to see the whole cycle.  These dogs are rehabilitated and adopted out. 

These photos are from the Stray Rescue website: www.strayrescue.org




















I also help out with the local Humane Society, Heartland Humane Society.  I care for the cats that are kept at PetSmart's adoption center; once each week I clean litter boxes (yuck!) and let the kitties out for play time! 

As for the little job?  Well my df (dear friend) L talked me out of substitute teaching and into doing something I would actually enjoy, and where I would get to use my awesome animal skills.  I applied and have been hired at PetSmart as a dog trainer.  I'm the trainer in training right now, looking forward to teaching my own classes in the New Year.  Yeah!  Thanks L. 

Do MO

So what does our family do in Missouri? 

The good: our new church, new friends, good schools for the boys, lots of sports and activities, nice weather much of the time, a growing sustainable living community, raw goats' milk, free range hens in the neighborhood.

The bad: Monsanto and GMO crops everywhere, farmer conglomerates  who grow corn and soy for cows and fuel, rather than food for communities to eat, cold winter winds,  when I asked the school for vaccination exemption forms I was told "no one has ever asked for those before"! 

Checking out the Mississippi.  That little rhyme for spelling Mississippi still works!

Artery clogging picnic in Forrest Park.  Forrest Park is in downtown St. Louis, it is larger than Central Park!  Cool place.

"Tom Goes to Homecoming" part two coming soon.  

Number 44, Yosef "Skinny Legs" Kropp.  The Panthers are undefeated, going to the 2nd playoff game this weekend. 

Over 100 pounds of produce!

Going Batty!

Halloween crack up

You can tell this kid has been homeschooled: sorting, organizing, counting his candy!

Seth turned 13

Yo turned 14.

We now have 11,11,13,14,15

Smile at someone today!

Special Yellowstone Edition

Yellowstone National Park is really spectacular!  We loved it and took hundreds of pictures.  Here are a few of our best.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 

Wolf print.

Ground Squirrel whisperer.  

Lamar Valley - recommended to us by my Aunt Sally - thank you so much!

Lamar Valley

Cow Elk

Gotta go get dinner on the table.

Nice to have you back.  Thank you.

Zip It

Part two of Counting Kropps to begin now!  or more aptly part three?  maybe four...whatever.

I stopped blogging for months because I had a bad attitude about it to be totally honest.  We went through some poopy stuff as a family and I just didn't feel like I could get on here and not vent, so I didn't.  'Nough said.  Side note: poop had nothing to do with our actual family members, rather with our year overseas, months preceding that year, and transition back.  Ouch. 

Mostly you will find photos on our blog, and occasionally I will give my opinions, not to be confused with the opinions of my whole family, sometimes we differ.

From Boracay we went to Mindoro, then to the Seattle area.  Leaving Seattle we camped across much of the Country with some of our family.  It was fun.  Now we are in Missouri learning how to pronounce things the midwestern way; it is different.  We live with family right now, but in the spring will be building a home on 4.5 acres. 

Here is Seth about to dive into the most delicious breakfast on the planet.  This little restaurant is outside of Yellowstone Park.  Seth talked with a movie star about fly fishing - it was very cool.  Remember Knots Landing?  Well the main guy, William Devane, is a regular at this little place, they all called him Mr. Bill. 

Seth and his cousin fly fishing.  It was chilly!

Saying goodbye to some of our family.  I cried, it was sad.

Tom and Ethan in South Dakota at Devil's Tower.  

Two pokey things.  One pretty, one uh interesting, it's a porcupine.  

Not our camper.  

The lake from National Treasure 2. 

 Strange man getting goosed in Hill City, South Dakota.  

Strange boy eating wings in SD. 

Knife throwing practice to fight off strange beings in SD.  

Seth hopping to go far and fast. 

The Badlands is real bad!

The Bad Boys of the Badlands.

Coming home to Uncle Doug squeezies. 

That's good for now.