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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Life Happens

Life...

• Lucy turned 2 months old yesterday.  Jake, my 5 year old, took this picture of us while we were in the nursery during church...while my husband was preaching.  I blame the baby for my goofing around in the nursery.  The photographer:  

• We had lots of fun on Fathers Day, partying it up with family.  I ate no less than six pieces of cake.  I wish I were exaggerating.  
• I stole this idea from my friend Wendi.  That's what I do.  Let you creative ones come up with the idea and then I steal it.  I'm like the generic store brand kind of product...it works for me, what can I say?!?

• Notice the strap going across Eli's chest.  It's my old camera case.  He's storing his game boy and misc. treasures in it.  He refers to it as his European Mens Handbag, which he no doubt picked up from some movie. 
•  Jake started running a fever yesterday.  This occurred after our goofing off in the nursery and during the Father's Day/May & June Birthday Bash.  He's ok as long as I keep him pumped full of Tylenol/Advil.
• Lucy gets shots tomorrow.  
• I've been running now for about 4 weeks.  S-l-o-w-l-y easing back into it.  Ran 4 on Saturday and it finally felt good.  Haven't lost a pound.  Friends keep telling me how great I look...because they are liars kind.  I know they're saying it to encourage me...yet part of me wants to blurt out the number that my scale gives me because they would gasp and be surprised, and it would prove me right that I have a LONG LONG LONG ways to go....but sometimes it's just better to be wrong, no?
• Lucy is sleeping through the night.  And taking a bottle on occasion when I need her to.  During the day, however, she sleeps lightly, and doesn't like to be put down...and she especially likes her mama, which is oh-so-sweet...except for when its not.  She redeems herself during the evening hours.
• It's been raining buckets here.  If it continues, tiny town is going to flood.   For real.  Please God let the rain stop.
• We're doing a parenting class at church on Wednesday nights.  It's by Chip Ingram, called Effective Parenting in a Defective World.  It's really good.  Punch-in-the-gut kind of good.  I'll share more on that another time.
• Gotta go, my baby is crying because I have disobeyed her rule by actually putting her in the bouncy seat.  Little stinker. :)  

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