Relaxing weekend and finding a lost friend

Jake was down with malaria this weekend so we didn't do too much, just stayed around the house. Saturday I was able to mulch my whole front flower garden (about 60 ft long), a project I've been wanting to do before the rains get really serious and weeds sprout up quicker than you can pull them out. Praise God that Jake was doing a lot better by Sunday but we decided to stay back from church and just rest (The thought of sitting squashed on a backless wooden bench for three hours wasn't very appealing to him). Unfortunately the electric was off all day (as it often is) so my poor husband had no fan. He told me I should stand over him with a palm frond and fan him, I reminded him I was eight months pregnant :-). So laying in bed wasn't much of an option as it was super hot, so we played eight games of Settlers throughout the day instead (such an awesome game, highly recommend it). It was a lot of fun and kept Jake's mind off of the heat.

In the afternoon we were out in the garden, watching the boys play and I was cutting some shrubs back. As we were cleaning up the branches, Seth shouted out, "The turtle, I found the turtle!" Now about 3 months ago a man knocked on our gate and said he had a turtle for sale. Since we love animals and we've never owned a turtle I though it was a great idea. After negotiating the price we brought him in (he is actually a tortoise). We though we would put him out in the yard and let him eat the grass and then we'd put him in a box at night. So we put him out and checked on him during school break but couldn't find him anywhere (I thought they were meant to move slow!). Now we have a pretty big garden/yard, almost an acre with tons of shrubs and nooks n' crannies. We looked and looked but couldn't find the little guy. There's a wall all the way around the property but there is a rain grate in it at the back. I thought he would be too big to get through but wasn't sure. Also at that time there wasn't too much rain so was worried about him not having enough to drink. Anyway, needless to say we hadn't seen him since then and Jake joked that one day we're going to see this giant tortoise come out of the undergrowth. But we finally found him yesterday, he looks great and lot healthier than last time (he was very dry and he shell was all sort of peeling). He munched some carrots and seems fine. So we are probably just going to let him go again as we know he can look after himself, maybe spray paint a bright yellow strip on his back so we can find him easier.

Thanks to everyone that was praying for Jake, he is doing so much better and will be heading up to the bi-weekly staff bible study at HHCH this morning. God is Good!