Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is difficult ~Oswald Chambers

I have called you friends.

~John 15:15

Stand loyal to your Friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life.

~Oswald Chambers

For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

~Matthew 12:37

...because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

~1 Peter 1:16

Dear Friend,

How do I do that?

What does holiness look like lived out?

Help me control my words, they come out so easily...

Baby Names :)

I was going to include this in my last mass e-mail, but decided I'd put it on here instead. Supplemental information, you might say. These are the names of the 2010 fawns on the Machen Ranch and why that is their name (more to come, so check back for updates). The number indicates birth order.

1. June: she was born June first

3. His Majesty: also called 2X. Sickly, but incredibly spoiled. Barbara's lap has been dubbed his throne.

6. Kiki: after Kiki's Delivery Service

7. Mae: after the little girl in Totoro

8. Sophie: after the heroine of Howl's Moving Castle

12. Cleopatra: her eyebrows and eyelashes are very pronounced and lovely

14. Zibiah: means deer in Hebrew

15. Salsa: moves his feet like a salsa dancer when he's nursing

16. Kaylee: such a sweetheart, named for the mechanic in Firefly

17. Twitch: he seems to have a nervous tick in his entire head

18. Grace: because she's not graceful

19. Jade: also called Jadice, after the white witch in The Chronicles of Narnia (she's a brat!)

20. Lila: named for a certain Miss Goodwin. She's also a very pale deer

22. Little Lee: his ears often form an 'L' shape, he's a dark red fawn, and he's a lady's man

23. Izzy: after the wonderful soda. She also has a lot of spots that made me think of carbonation for some reason

27. Angel: one of the nicest babies ever, never sick, ate immediately, and has lovely blue eyes

30. Loca: she's crazy. Need I say more?

31. Esperanza: named for the flower and the character in Zorro

32. Olivia: the darkest deer we have, almost named her Olive instead

33. Chase: she likes to make you chase her

34. Diana: named for the Roman goddess of the hunt, because I felt like being ironic

35. Wren: she's the smallest deer I've ever seen, and also one of the feistiest (like the bird)

36. Shirley: named for Shirley Temple. Tiny, and the only curly haired deer I've ever seen

38. Athena: named for the Greek goddess, and also because she can be kinda cranky

40. Miss Scarlet: one of our reddest (and most dramatic) deer

41. Cinnabon: sticky buns... also called sticky butt, because her poo has always been super sticky

42. Trillian: named for Trillian Astra in The Hitchhiker's Guide. Her number is 42, I mean really, what did you expect :P

43. Ava: you know, I don't know why we named her that...

46. Fiona: we were going to name her Princess Jasmine, but then her poo smelled so bad we named her after the ogre princess instead

47. Clementine: she was super orange when she was born

51. Indy: she has such clear, defined stripes on her neck that they look like racing stripes

54. Holly: a very small deer, named for Captain Holly Short the elf in Artemis Fowl

56. Savannah: she is a lovely tan color; makes me think of an African serval, with her big ears

58. Alley: she was born in the alley between two of the deer pens

59. Maya: she has an incredible overbite that makes her look just like my dog Miaya

64. Juliet: a very pretty but difficult deer, with big dark eyes. Also a daughter of Romeo

66. Eowyn: named for the heroine in The Lord of the Rings

68. Tinkerbell: just as tiny and feisty as Wren, and because we all love Disney

69. Penny: a pretty copper colored little thing, I call her Miss Money Penny

70. Tay Tay: our second curly haired fawn so we gave her Taylor Swift's nickname

71. Brad Paisley: Aunt Dawn suggested I named a brown eyed cutie after my favorite country singer, so I did

72. Wendy Darling: because we were on a Peter Pan kick after naming Tinkerbell

74. Snow White: she has two white socks and two pink hooves

76. Nokia: it was Hallie's birthday and she got a Nokia phone for her birthday and was allowed to name one fawn, so she decided that the fawn should be named after her phone

77. Mister Rob: his tail was bitten off, so he's a bobtail. Rob is more subtle than Bobby

78. Victoria: looks just like His Majesty, so we decided she should be named after a queen

83. Flora: one of triplet does, the biggest. So of course we had to name them after the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty

84. Fauna: the second largest triplet

85. Meriweather: the smallest triplet

87. Iris: because she has the most gorgeous blue-green eyes I've ever seen on a deer

88. Liberty: born on the 4th of July

89. Amy Rose: (also called Hedgehog) named after Sonic's girlfriend because she seriously looks like a hedgehog.

90. Faith: named for Faith Hill, because we're on a country music kick

92. Nani: named for Lilo's older sister

93. Lilo: because she is small, whiney, and always acts lost (Lilo means lost in Hawaiian)

95. Toby Keith: because we're still on a country music kick

96. Evangeline: no particular reason, I just love the name

97. Aurora: because she acts like a little damsel in distress. Hence the princess name

98. Giselle: tall and blonde, named for the supermodel and for the princess in Enchanted

12Y. Clarisse: also called Big Mama, she's a big golden colored girl. Clarisse just seemed to fit

16Y. Alejandro: has a dark mask coming up from his nose, so we named him after Zorro

20Y. Neytiri: named for the heroine of Avatar, because she also has a dark mask that looks something like war paint

99. Joe: triplet bucks, named for the Jonas Brothers. Don't judge us, it just seemed to fit :P

100. Kevin: "

101. Nick: "

103. Lucy: named for Lucy Pevensie of The Chronicles of Narnia

107. Willow: because she looked like she was crying when she first came in, so we called her our weeping willow

110. Tully: named for Tully's Coffee :)

111. Latte: because Felicia was on a coffee kick, after discovering that she actually likes it

112. Mocha: "

113. Macaroon: she's a light, toasted coconut color. And macaroons just sounded really good at the time.

114. Luna Lovegood: named for the character in Harry Potter... and because she's a little weird

116. Celia: named for the receptionist in Monsters Inc. because Felicia and I started singing "Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me... so help me!" when Justin brought her in.

118. Guinevere: named for a certain queen and a certain Furry Eell

119. Zoe: named after Zoe in Firefly, and because Z is the last letter in the alphabet. Here's hoping she's the last fawn!

Life Amuses Me

I have these great aspirations to be a great blogger, and have lots of people being entertained by my writing skills... yeah... ha... it seems all I can do well is listing, so here goes:

~I got the morning feeding off this morning; my goodness, is sleeping in nice!! Though apparently my computer skills were needed at 6:30 am... oops?

~We got a new set of twin fawns yesterday that are the tiniest ruminants I've ever seen! I can put my hands around little Wren and engulf her body!

~I'm trying to design a t-shirt for Father's Heart and my creative juices are dripping... at best.

~I like being organized, it helps everything go smoothly

~I'm glad that I am developing antibodies against homesickness

~It's a weird experience (for me) to have more animal experience than my co-workers. The new intern has had a dog, and that's it!

~The Machens are going to let me go to church on Sunday mornings. I love these people!

~Any feedback on my most recent crazy idea of going back to school to become a certified veterinary technician? There's a good school in San Antonio, and it takes 2 years...

~Have you ever had the privilege of being in a situation that you always told yourself that you wouldn't let yourself end up in?

~I like a young man who is not a Christian, and he likes me (I won't let it go further than that, but it's still an unusual situation. I really don't want to hurt him, I've been praying for two years that he would encounter God, I've talked more about religion with him than with anyone else... *sigh* still can't figure out why he likes me)

~I bought myself a cowboy hat the other day, and I love it!

~My next investment is probably going to be cowboy boots :P

~I love listening to Pomplamoose, you should check 'em out http://www.myspace.com/pomplamoosemusic or check youtube, their videos are wonderful too :)

~I've been listening to Mark Driscoll's sermons on prayer, and they're rather convicting...

~I wish I was better at keeping up with people, why is that always so hard in the summertime?

~My mind is kinda spastic, my life is kinda messy, but I'm happy

~God is still bigger :)

I love my job

I had an interesting day yesterday. Okay, it was also amazing, and also gross.

I got herded into the back of the deer chute with gloves and some lube and got my diploma in deer midwifery. The poor baby was being born upside down and would have suffocated pretty fast had we not pulled him out. I have the skinniest hands here, so I got the honor of reaching in and pulling out the hooves so that the rest of the little man would come out. We dried him off real good and brought him in the house because his mama didn't have a lot of milk. Funny thing though, it turns out he had a twin brother who was born later and seems to be nursing alright. Oh well, the mama certainly didn't have enough milk for twins! So I'm now the little guys mama (or at least he's fully convinced that I am!)

Interesting facts about newborn deer. They're immediately hungry. They're immediately trying to get up. They have a soft wax-like tip on their hooves that eventually dries and falls off. And yes, when they first start walking, they walk exactly like Bambi :)

I like this life

Here are my thoughtful musings for the day:

*Fawns are squeeably adorable, especially when they're trying to nurse on your arm, leg, neck, or armpit with their soft little lips and noses (My word, does that tickle!)

*Fawns aren't quite so adorable when you have to wipe their little butts to make them go to the bathroom :P

*Texans are remarkably friendly, polite, funny, nice people. They cuss a lot, and yet most claim to be Christians. I suppose you could say they kind of define old school America. Or at least the old school America of country music.

*I hear tell of a non-denominational cowboy church in Uvalde. If I can manage it, I think I'd really like to go.

*I saw a roadrunner today!

*Siestas are still in style down here. Woot!

*I feel like I'm being paid, fed, and housed to have fun. Not that that's a bad thing :)

*Yup, that's all.