Drop Kick the Devil!

SO! Isn't it funny the things God uses to get our attention? Sometimes, to me, it gets a little frustrating discerning between God wanting to get our attention, His tests to us and the straight up evil attacks from Satan. I want to believe that they are all similar in function, but at the same time, I believe the Devil attacks hardest when we are on the right path in life and doing what God has for us because let's face it, the little red man with the pitch fork hates it when we're happy in God's plans. On the other hand God wanting our attention means (to me) that there might be an area in our lives that we need to work on, something we need to give up or clean out.

The past few weeks for me seems to be a combination of all of them! It's been everything from car problems, health problems, and to top it off a creeper of a neighbor (whose creepiness only seems to keep escalating) It's been one interesting year so far! But every day is a new day. I was exhausted this morning after only 2-3 hours of edgy sleep but still found the strength to run my errands, go for my run and will shortly be going to school for the night. As I was out for my run I thought that every day is a new day. A chance to start over. A chance to make today better than yesterday. We can only live so far ahead in this fast paced life - we move so fast that we often forget to live in the moment.

So for me, today I promise myself this - I promise to take every day and make it it's personal best. To clean my body, soul and mind daily. To ask for forgiveness daily as well as learn to daily forgive myself. I promise to daily ask God for wisdom and guidance; to be able to discern the difference between tests and attacks.

For you, I hope you can learn to make every day its best. We can only live today. Tomorrow is not promised and yesterday is gone.

You will never regret yesterday if you live today to its fullest!

O! For the love of dogs!

As many (to all) of you know, we got a new puppy! YAY! We call her Mona. WELL - As I was walking her through the (1 acre fenced-in) yard to let her wander and play I got somewhere around the middle and noticed poop. I stepped again, more poop.

[Now, keep in mind I don't very often walk the entire stretch of my yard. I usually walk trigger down the road or take him hiking or for car rides and when we play fetch I mostly stay in the front half of the yard throwing the object he is to retrieve.]

Soon I noticed that every other step (if not every) was poop! Poop to my left, and poop to my right. Now, my way of thinking was that Man! My dogs have some amazing digestive tracts and brilliants amount of fiber in their expensive dog food OR maybe they just love this particular place right in the smack dab middle of the yard. I make a small detour to the left and notice the pattern is not changing but slowly only growing worse. I gaze across the yard and wonder when the last time it has been mowed (not that it needed it since it has been dead for the wintery seasons). I then concluded that my wonderful, AMAZING husband must have stopped picking up the poop since he hadn't been needing to mow.

I lightly tread back across the yard and into our cozy and clean home. I notice Rob in the room so I very curiously ask him when the last time he had picked up the dogs messes in the yard. He very honestly and innocently looks over at me and says "I thought it would dissolve into great fertilizer so I never picked it up." Now, I LOVE this man, I do! And these are the times that you want to be a little miffed, but can't do anything but stare into the big, brown, gorgeous eyes and laugh and only love him more!

Well, Rob had to leave back across the state for work so this task was going to be - you guessed it - ALL MINE! TUESDAY - I put on my big girl "trench through the poop" boots and grabbed a shovel and started to work. I started in the front of the yard scanning it like I was looking for hidden diamonds. Thirty minutes in (and probably only about 45-50 piles later I had only covered the front left section. I needed to get back in the house to clean for a house showing so the rest would have to wait.

WEDNESDAY - Yawn, stretch, whatever will I do this morning - I know! Let's pick up more poop! I gear myself up, let the dogs run free and start to scan. This was quickly cut short though due to the large vulture-like creatures that were scanning my yard as well - although unfortunately, unlike me, were not scanning for piles of dog poo to consume, they were tracking my sweet little Mona. It started with only one of which Trigger was having fun chasing into the sky, then it left and came back with three, then they settled and several more came within only minutes! I could hear them whispering in the trees and they were evilly planning on distracting the big, loud, brown one while another would swoop down and pick up their dinner - Mona. So as they were bickering over which one would do the swooping and which ones would do the distracting I put my poop cleaning desires on hold and moved quickly into the safety of my home.

THURSDAY - Day three of cleaning poo from the back yard - how much fun has this week been! Trigger is now jumping up and down the fence line and running frivolously up and down the yard SO happy that I was finally cleaning his yard! I finally reached the middle to back of the yard. Now by this time, I have deemed myself a master Pooper Scooper as well as a professional poop reader. There were all kinds, kinds with green mold growing on them, blue mold, colonies of little critters staring to live off of them and even one with a hot pink balloon inside. - What a surprise! -

Counting this day how many piles I had actually cleaned I counted well over 100!! This thought made the insides of me squirm intensely. It made me want to run (as fast as I could) to the nearest convenient store, but the largest tub of hand sanitizer and run up and down the rows of the yard squeezing it out generously yelling bye bye parasites, bye bye!!! Now, I did not do this in fear that the neighbors (who i'm pretty sure already think I'm crazy) will see me as certifiably crazy!

I did finally finish cleaning up the yard. YAY YAY! YAY! This is, needless to say, going to be added to our WEEKLY to do list from now on! My dogs are my babies and to know they were living in such filth. I wouldn't want to lay or play in my own feces either. Ugh! Eww! Gross! And to all of you out there who may think to yourself, but it'll dissolve and be a great fertilizer... it's not. It hardly breaks down and actually KILLED patches of grass. And if you're like me, who wants your pet(s) to live long, happy, healthy lives... you'll pull on your "poopy boots", grab a shovel and head to work!

Oh! Oh!Oh! For the love of our dogs! :)

Welcome Home Mona

We are so excited to announce a new member in our growing family! Mona! She was born on November 21, 2010 and came home to be with us yesterday. Our car ride home was great! She is smart and incredibly sweet! But oh! the puppy teeth! lol! She is so energetic and gets into everything! We have amazingly gone one full day as of now without any accidents in the house. Yay! Although I'm sure the worst is yet to come. She gets to meet her daddy and brother (trigger) tonight and we're all so excited! We can't wait to watch her grow up and grow into our lives and family! And hopefully we'll be able to give our family one more addition within the next year or two - but this time maybe it'll not have fur, or four legs - we can only hope!