Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was the one year anniversary since we closed on our first house! I can't quite believe it has been a whole year already. I feel like there is still SO much that I want to do with it. I haven't painted at all, but the colors were already pretty perfect when we moved in. A few weeks ago when we were walking our "terrific three" I saw a Papa John's delivery guy and said WOW we have never had a pizza deliverd to our actual house! I thought well money is kinda tight but pizza is not too bad of a price so we decided to order pizza for our one year house anniversary. Last night Stephen ordered the pizza and we got to work on our pumpkins. We had so much fun sitting on our porch carving pumpkins and then eating pizza. I decided to carve a "haunted house" and Stepen did a raven with the word nevermore above it. I think they both turned out pretty awesome looking. Well we only had about 3 kids come by for "Trick or Treating" but we had a great night just spending time together with our dogs in our cute little house. This weekend has been just what I needed after a rough week. Now we are onto November! I can't believe 2010 is almost over. 

A Perfect Saturday Adventure

A few weeks ago we decided to see how far it is from our house to Starbucks at Sandhills. In the car it was about 2 1/2 miles. I thought well that's not too bad, we should start walking/jogging that on Saturdays. Last Saturday we walked there and Luke picked us up in the Tahoe and brought us home. It was a lot of fun. 

Last night we went on one of our regular walks, but decided to check out some trails in the woods we had seen the weekend before that are close to our neighborhood. We ended up kinda lost but eventually found our way home, and had a lot of fun. During our "lost" walk I discovered what I was pretty certain were trails I had been on before that connect to the Sandhill's Clemson Park. 

This morning I eventually dragged Stephen out of bed and we got Sadie and Lucy's back packs ready to go with water bottles, a bowl, and plenty of poop bags. We also got the brand new doggie sling I got on sale for Pepper. Poor guy can't keep up our pace for as long as the rest of us and my arms get tired of holding him. The sling is like one you can use for babies, except it has straps to attach to a dogs harness, etc. So we started off down the street and found our trails from the night before. We had a few "discussions" on which direction to go a few times, but being that I have a good sense of direction I usually won, or we turned around. Well we eventually made it to Starbucks and everyone had a chance to rest, drink water, and I got a coffee!! We also met a couple who also had their 2 dogs with them. They mentioned hoping to come every Saturday, just like my plan! So I hope we get to meet them again. 

Stephen and our 3 dogs at Starbucks

Pepper and his sling after a walk

We sat for about half an hour and then headed back home through Sandhills park. There were once again a few wrong turns, but it was easier than on the way there. It was such a great morning and we ended up walking about 6 miles! So really great exercise for all of us too. We made sure to stretch when we got home so we can get up and walk the neighborhood in the morning. It was so nice to be in the woods on a trail with just Stephen and our 3 dogs. I kept saying "This is like a hiking trip but we are SO close to home!" and "You would never even know that so many houses and businesses are close by, I LOVE THIS!" This was my perfect Saturday adventure, and I hope to make it a weekly adventure!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Yesterday my Mom, Dad, Luke, Stephen and I went to the fair. We were having a great time eating food, looking at all the exhibits and just being together. We decided to ride a few rides before leaving. Well my Mom doesn't really ride rides, so she would wait in line with us until it was time for us to go on, or at the point where we couldn't stand together anymore. We rode the ferris wheel and got to listen to Miranda Lambert since she was playing the fair that night. It was great. then we decided to ride this new ride and waited in line for probably 30-40 minutes. Well as we inched our way closer and closer we saw this group of kids trying to be sneaky and cut in line. At this point we were where my Mom couldn't stay with us and she had gone to the side. My Dad said something to one of the kids who were cutting and while he was talking Luke saw Mom saying something to the same kids friends. Just saying hey there is a line and you need to go to the back like everyone else. Well apparently one of the girls didn't take to kindly to being told she was in the wrong because she then proceeded to punch my mother in the face!!!! Luke and I must have seen it at about the same time because he ran at the guy he thought pushed our Mom and I ran at my Mom. She was hit so hard she fell to the ground. Obviously this was very upsetting to her children. I got Mom up and she saw Luke with the guy and she got upset thinking Luke was going to get hurt so she took off after him, and of course I followed. At this point Stephen had followed Luke in case the kids started to hurt him. That is when we realized that the guy had not hurt Mom, but the girl he was friends with did. Well all the kids took off running from us and Stephen grabbed a police officer that was nearby and they apprehended all the kids. Arresting the one who punched my Mother. I just don't know what has happened to basic respect. People need to all follow the same rules, no one is "special" and you just can't cut in line. If an adult person, or someone who is older than you corrects your behavior I would think a person would say "OK you are right" and follow the persons advice. How has this behavior and attitude become an alright thing in our society? My poor Mom now has to go through an ordeal of courts etc, but maybe this will teach the girl a lesson on respect. Sadly it may also have taught us not to always stand up for ourselves and the common courtesies due to all people. Well one thing I know for sure is I will NEVER go to the fair at night again!

The Grass is Always Greener...

Why is it that we always want what we don't have? It seems like I can always look at something someone else has and think " I want that!" or "Why not me?". As humans it seems like we always think oh if I just had this or if only my hair looked like hers or if only I lost 10 pounds I would be happy. But these things will NOT make us happy. Only the Grace of God can help us be truly happy. This is a hard concept to deal with. We are sinful by nature and are selfish and tend to think only of ourselves and what we don't have. 

Recently it seems like its that way with my dogs too. Lucy has always tried to control when Sadie eats and we have been working on it because we don't want Lucy to think she is the "alpha" as we are supposed to be "alpha" in our "pack". Now with the addition of sweet little Pepper they both seem to think that whatever food he has MUST be better than what we put in their bowls, even though they all  have matching bowls and all eat the same exact food.  Why is it that what others have always seems SO much better. BUT maybe from where others are my life might seem so much better.... I guess NONE of us, human or animal can escape the idea that someone else might be getting dealt a better hand than me!

I have been struggling with many of the feelings of "the grass is always greener". It takes many forms and I am trying to recognize it and overcome these feelings of jealousy for certain things that I desire ALOT! Recently God has given me a wonderful sense of calm, a gentle nudge that seems to say "April, I am in charge and I KNOW what I'm doing!!." Maybe this struggle will make it that much greater when my prayers are answered. Many people keep saying to me that God doesn't always answer the way we want, and that is hard to accept.Maybe this is all to teach me patience and to trust in the Lord! Only time will tell. But for now I just continue to pray for strength and peace and the knowledge and understanding that God is in control of my life!!

Three's Company!

As if our life wasn't crazy enough we decided to adopt a third dog! This one is a 7 year old yorkie. His family must have been going through hard times because they left him at a shelter in Camden. We saw him there last Saturday but his information sheet said he was 11 years old. I said Oh NO!! I don't think I can go through another "old" dog right now, so we moved on through the shelter. No other dog jumped out at us like our first two had so we left. All night and all day Sunday I was sad, this little guy was on my heart. I kept thinking no one wants old dogs, he will be put to sleep and I couldn't stand this idea. I know they have to do that some places and that there were other dogs at the shelter that would be put to sleep soon and this makes me VERY sad, but for some reason I couldn't get this particular dog off my mind. 

On Wednesday Stephen and I talked more about him and we decided that old dog or not we could give him a good home and LOTS of love. I was praying that he was still there or had been adopted, not euthanized. I called the shelter Thursday and they told me he had been taken by a rescue group in Camden and gave me their information. I called them and found out they had taken the little guy to the vet and had his teeth taken care of and his shots updated and a full physical. They also found out that the shelter information was wrong and after contacting his previous family for confirmation told me he was actually 7 not 11 years old!!!

Needless to say this was music to my ears. A 7 year old yorkie! I couldn't believe it, we could have MANY more years with him! So we arranged to meet at the rescue's home, they actually run the rescue out of their home and farm. We got there and met the nicest two guys with huge hearts for all animals. We gave them a donation that doesn't nearly cover how much care they gave to our new doggie, and we were on our way home! The girls were excited and we made sure they were gentle but the first meeting went well.

We have named him Sgt. Pepper to go along with Sexy Sadie and Lucy in the Sky! On Friday after work we all walked and it was great. We have had many more walks since then and everyone is getting along better and better. Stephen and I are keeping an eye on everything but things are going REALLY well. I am SOOOO excited to have a little dog again, and that my wonderful girls are behaving the way I knew they would. It's gonna be an adjustment for us all but we are ready for it. God keeps giving us the perfect dogs, I am so thankful for the blessing of my animals, they bring so much joy to my life!