They're Destined to be Car Salesmen...

As I write this, my boys are out in the front yard selling produce from their garden.

"Selling" involves walking up and down the sidewalk yelling "Produce for sale! Get your produce! First customer gets a free bouncy ball!"

Can you even believe that they haven't had one customer yet?!? I mean, who wouldn't want a free bouncy ball?

We do live in tiny town...so traffic is a little slow this time of day. However I'm sure the neighbors will be stopping by to shut them up show their support.

In the mean time, I have a to-do list a mile long.  First up:  Give Gus another bath.  It turns out, that Google (my source of information on any and everything) says that Hounds have a "distinct odor."  I can verify this to be true, it's distinctly smelly.

Bath time.  

Happy Thursday people, and if you'd be so kind, leave a comment and say hello.  Lately, I sorta feel like I'm just talking to myself...and I'm quite a bore.   Speak up and entertain me.

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The View I Love the Most

The other night, probably close to 9:00, I stepped out our front door to let Gus out.  I happened to turn around and get a glimpse of my home from the outside, with the lights all on, curtains open.  And it made me smile.


For a moment, I got to look in on my life, and its a good view.


Sure, it involves some chaos and mayhem.  Smelliness.  Imperfections.   All of which make it pretty great.

And then it reminded me of a country song.  Because I can pretty much come up with a country song for every memory I have...they just work like that.





And like it says...I see what beautiful is about
                          when I'm looking in...not when I'm looking out.
I'll never beat the view, of my front porch looking in.

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Garden Party

Lucy and I went to her first Garden Party yesterday.  

Hosted by her Great Aunt Di...who happens to have the most beautiful flowers.

Lucy enjoyed herself.

Can you tell?

We decorated a hat.  Ben's sister, Rebecca modeled it for us.  I know, I know, you all want one now.

We got our pictures taken.  This is Lucy and I with my sister-in-law, Mary Lou.  And as I look at this picture, I realize that I forgot to tell Lou how cute her top is.  Isn't it cute?!?

Most of these picture are courtesy of my friend Beth...let's face it, the pictures I take are not nearly this good. I'm fooling no one.

The End

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Too Hot To Trot

I apologize, but you'll have to humor me and tilt your head counter-clockwise in order to see the picture in the proper postion that I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET BLOGGER TO DO!

Grrrrrr.  Anyways.

Little Miss Lucy asked me if I would be so kind as to publicly thank Miss Amy Beth (oh yes, the famous one from Ministry so Fabulous) for the adorable onsie she's wearing this day.  She simply adores it, and so does her momma.

too HOT to TROT!

 Thank You Amy Beth!!

I adore Amy Beth.  I can't remember how I stumbled on her blog (ages ago) but I loved her from the first moment.  I know many of you read her as well, and you, like myself, are probably pretty certain that you're on her bff blog friend list...because she's just sweet enough to make all of us think that.  :)

I want her to move to Iowa and marry my brother Ryan.  And then we can be sisters.  Now if only I can talk the two of them into my plan of perfection....

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Gus

I'd like you to meet the newest member of our family.  


Gus.

Gus is a five year old Basset Hound.  Last Saturday we stopped by a local pet rescue open house in a nearby town.  


It was sort of love at first sight.  

He is mellow.  Mellow yellow.  Whatever that means, I just like that it rhymes.  

Back to Gus.  He has quite the story, and I love a good story.  Gus had an elderly owner who needed to be hospitalized.  No one in the family could take him, so he was sent to a "kill" shelter.  (That's what the pet rescue place called it, when they put them to sleep when they aren't adopted.)

Someone from the pet rescue place found him and saved him and then he went to a foster home.  And now...he's with us.  Doing this:

God bless a lazy dog.  He's adjusting so well considering all he's gone through recently.  I've wanted a Basset Hound named Gus, for as long as I can remember.  Their laid back personality and adorable body shape sucked me right in.

Some things I've learned about Gus since Saturday:

1. He is the messiest eater I've ever seen.  I put a rug under his food and water bowl and still there is water and dog food bits all over the kitchen floor.  My Haan steam mop and I have rekindled our best-friendship.
2. He barely barks.  But when he does, it is l-o-u-d .  He only does it when he know's were leaving him.  I think it's part of adjusting.
3. He always looks depressed.  Even when he's wagging his tail, his eyes and ears look sad.  It's adorable.
4. The door bell can ring, and he doesn't even care!  YAY!
5. He cannot be left to roam the house while we are out.  I made this mistake only once.  I came home to my garbage dumped all over the kitchen and him sleeping in Noah's bed.  Both no-no's.
6. Now, we are going to try the dog crate while we are away. :)
7. I purchased extra fabric refresher.  I really love the Up & Up Target brand.  It has a white bottle with orange sprayer and it's by the Febreze stuff.  I think it smells even better!!  Plus, the bottle is way cuter.  ;)
8. He fits with us.  The boys adore him.  He sheds a lot, and I don't even care.  The vacuum and I are already very close.
9. Watching him go up and down our steep stairs is quite entertaining.  I'll video it sometime for your viewing pleasure.
10. I'm glad I'm not one of the ones in our family that has to pooper scoop.

Welcome to the family Gus.

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This...

Three months ago today (early in the morning), I looked like this...

And by afternoon, Lucy and I looked like this...

And now, she looks like this...

And tomorrow, I promise I'll get around to telling you about this...

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Goodbye Odie, We Miss You...

Let's chat.  I need to fill you in on life.


Last Thursday, we had to put our dog Odie to sleep.  *Sigh*

If you've read for long, you may recall that last summer we found out Odie had a tumor.  Being that he was 10 years old, which is a "ripe old age" for a wiener dog, we decided to just enjoy the 6 months to a year, that the vet said he had left.


Odie made it a full year from his diagnosis, and he did indeed live it up this year.  Several months ago he decided he no longer wanted to eat dog food.  He was livin' the dream livin' on table scraps.


And his favorite thing...

We knew it was time, for various reasons, but man, it was tough.  Our whole family had been preparing ourselves this past year to say goodbye.  But it really doesn't make it any easier.  Odie had only been in our home for 3 years, but he really had become one of the parsonage family.  I went back through my old blog posts, so I could smile at some of his antics that I'd previously written about.  (I ended up using the google thing on the left side of my blog because apparently I'm really bad at labeling my posts well...note to self.)


Watching the boys grieve has been the hardest.  We buried him at Ben's parents farm, and we'll  be able to visit whenever we want.  But our home...it felt empty without Odie.  


There were many a day that I thought I might rip out my hair from his annoying barking. :)  But, now...it's just endearing.  We loved him.  And he loved us...just like it's supposed to be when you have a dog.  


Nothing can replace Odie.  But, like a good friend said, we still have room to love another.  


And so we did.  You'll get to meet him tomorrow.

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Just Thinking...

This week I had to share some bad news with my brother.  It just so happened that earlier in the same day, he'd gotten some really great news.  He texted me back, saying "that's the story of my life, whenever something good happens then something bad happens."  


My response:  That's the story of everyones life.


That's life.  I tend to try to keep a check and balance thing going, finding some contentment if the "good things" side of the scale outweighs the "bad."  But that's not how life works.  And it's certainly not how my God intends me to view it.  Life is always good stuff and hard stuff going on simultaneously.  


My perception of the bad is often what He intends for good.  


I can't shake the words of Paul, in the book of Philippians where he says, 

for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (4:11-13)

Contentment is not easily attained.  Especially in today's society, even among believers.


We sing a song at church...Count Your Blessings.  Count your blessings, name them one by one...count your many blessings see what God has done.  Even in the hard stuff of life, there is blessing from Him to be found.  Sometimes we just need to look at it through His perspective.

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I Found Her a Husband

Guess who Lucy and I got to have coffee with.


Seriously, just take a guess.


Click here to meet Lucy's future husband.  There's a picture involved.  But then, you must come back here so I can finish my story.  I'll wait.


So.  Here's the story.  Five years ago we move to tiny town so Ben can make me a Pastor's wife.  In our tiny church is a lovely family who also has three boys.  The mom's name is Trish.  Trish has a sister named Wendi who lives far far away but comes back a couple times a year for a visit.  I get to meet her.  She's very nice.  She also has boys.


A couple years go by and myself and Wendi discovers the wonder that is blog land.  We blog.  We become real life acquaintances and even better blog friends.  It's fun stuff.  


Then, Wendi has a baby boy, and I have a baby girl and they both have hair.  They must marry each other (obviously)  so that we can all live happily ever after.


What about the other 6 boys between the two of us, you ask?  So glad you asked.  If you have girls, we'll start taking applications.  It's never too early.  Hair is not required.  ;)

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Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog...

Good grief it's been awhile!  I ran into someone over the 4th, and they said, "I read your blog" and I thought to myself...oh that's right!  I have a blog!  I should write on it! :)


Summer is crazy fun and crazy fast.  I feel the clock ticking away already.  Apparently I can't have fun and write about it at the same time.  Too much work.


Instead, I sit here staring at the screen while drinking coffee and eating left-over graham crackers (from smores.)  Smores that we made in the microwave on the 4th because it was raining.  But really...they're better in the microwave anyways.  And interestingly enough, we always have left over graham crackers and never left over Hershey bars.

Lucy's first 4th of July

It wore her out.

Odie enjoying summer in his own special way.

And more of Lucy...because she can't run away from me yet. :)

Notice how Noah and Eli are missing from the pictures?  They've become increasingly annoyed with being in pictures.  And I have become increasingly annoyed with their annoyed expressions when I take the pictures.  It's time for an intervention.  

I'm off to take their pictures... *wink*

  

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