Dog Gone It!

Well, as you may or may not know. This is a pet friendly household. We have 2 dogs and a cat (and just returned home to a dead fish). One of our dogs has decided that she does not like cars to drive down our road if she is in the house. When she is outside she really doesn't care. Living in an old home, we have windows that go to the floor and are single pane. I'm forever trying to get that dog to stop jumping on my windows. Maybe she just taught herself a lesson. One day not long ago Kelsi tossed a book up onto her bed (she's our bookworm) and it bounced off and hit the window, causing a small break in the glass, kind of like you would expect if it had been shot by a bb. I guess that weekend the glass. Yesterday Maddie jumped on the window and it shattered. I heard the glass breaking and ran to check it out. I was soooo mad that I sent her straight to the laundry room and I went to inspect the damage. It wasn't until later that I realized she had cut herself. On a dog there is a small pad in what I would call the ankle area and she cut herself just above that. It was a pretty bad cut, but I could tell it wasn't the kind that could be stitched, so we just closed it the way it should be and bandaged it up very well. This morning when I got up she had chewed on her bandage and bled through it. So, I took her to the vet and lo and behold she had to have minor surgery. They had to sedate her, remove the pad, then pull the skin together and stitch it up. We will have to take her back to the vet every couple of days for a bandage change for the next week and a half to two weeks and she will be on an antibiotic. It was so strange leaving the vet with my dogs collar and leash in my hand, but not my dog. I actually teared up a little. I called this evening to check on her and everything went well and we can pick her up tomorrow afternoon.

What in the world would I ever do without all of this excitement?

Our Crazy Trip

Well our trip was interesting to say the least.

We headed out very early Saturday morning. Went to the airport to pick up our full-size rental and were blessed with a free upgrade, so we traveled in one of these:

It was a cute little Jeep Patriot.

We got into Mobile and checked into our hotel room. We stayed in a Quality Inn and were fairly pleased. There were some things that could have been improved, but for the price it was really what we needed. We had a room with a king sized bed and a double sized sofa bed, which worked out really well. Mason slept with us and the girls slept on the sofa bed. We left he hotel and spent an hour at Patrick's parent's house. Then we headed downtown to a parade. Traffic was horrible and I was so stressed by the time we actually found a parking place, which we paid $10 for. We drove through a very full parking garage and I thought we might not find a place unless it was maybe on the top floor. So, I just asked the Lord to find favor with us and give us a place and on that same row on the ground level floor someone pulled out and we were able to get a parking place very near the exterior exit which sat right next to the parade route. The parade was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast.

When it was over we left and headed to a restaurant for supper. My brother and sister-in-law were parked on the top floor and we made it to the restaurant long before them. We already had our table at the restaurant and they were still stuck on the top floor of the parking garage. They called and my sister-in-law jokingly asked me to pray that they would get out of the garage. They had been trying to get off the top floor for 30 minutes. So, I prayed and within 5 minutes they were out of the garage. Just more proof that God cares about the small stuff. We had a very good dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. After dinner we headed to the hotel to go to bed. At 2:30 in the morning I woke up and heard Kelsi in the bathroom vomiting. I headed in there to take care of her and began to feel sick myself and before long Keeli was feeling horrible too. We were all up the entire night. I made a 4:30 a.m. run to Wal-Mart to pick up some stomach bug necessities. Around 7 I was able to sleep for an hour or so. Mason did not feel great that day either. So, as much as we hated it we had to make the decision not to visit with any family that day. The girls just felt too bad and at this point I was certain we would be contagious. I called our ped. here in Huntsville and they called in some medicine, so I headed back to Wal-Mart to pick it up and picked up a few inexpensive toys and a card game as well. So, we spent the entire day in our hotel room. Then we headed home on Monday. We were able to stop at Patrick's parent's house for another hour before we left Mobile.

The great thing about this trip though was how we all looked at what had happened. We all realized how much we had been running lately and feeling tired and overwhelmed. We just all felt really grateful to God for how He knows best. Even though we did not feel well, it was so nice to have a day to spend with just each other and to be able to get some much needed rest. God is so faithful. I was very proud of all of my family and how they all realized what the Lord had done for us and how good it had been for all of us.

We're still not feeling totally up to par, but are definitely on the mend.

Hope you all have a great week. Many blessings!

Heading South

Well, we are about to get in the van and head to Mobile for a short trip. We're leaving this morning and will return on Monday. Patrick's family lives there and they always want us to come down for Mardi Gras. Mobile's Mardi Gras is MUCH different from New Orleans. It's very family friendly. This week has been crazy and this trip is proving to be very expensive. We had some issues on the last trip with sleeping arrangements, so since I'm overly tired from the crazy past two weeks and really need some rest, we will be staying in a hotel. My van has also been making a funny noise. It's probably no big deal, but Patrick didn't have time to figure out the problem, and after having car trouble on the way home three times in the last 13 years, we've decided to rent a car. My work week was also so nuts that I am actually taking work with me. Please be praying for us, that we would have safe travel, that the children would all get along well and safety for all of them (last time we were there my nephew broke his arm). Please also pray that it will be a good visit, with no drama, and that God would continue to open doors for us to share our faith while we are there. Last time we were there we had some awesome conversation with Patrick's brother and his wife.

Also, please be praying for the Mardi Gras invasion mission trip. There are quite a few people from our church campus that have gone, including my younger brother. Pray for safety for all of them, that all would go smoothly and that many hearts would be turned to the Father.

Be Blessed!

Yvonne Welch

I will be attending a women's retreat in March. Each year our homeschool cover puts together this retreat that is always a little bit about homeschooling, but mostly about godly womanhood. I usually come home refreshed, craving more of the Lord and more of His word and equipped with much needed info on how to walk out who He has called me to be. This year the speaker is Yvonne Welch. She has an amazing testimony of how the Lord brought her out of bitterness, anxiety and depression (much like my own testimony). She was a guest back in the summertime on Revive Our Hearts and my friend encouraged me to listen to her. Well I did and it was great! She has a outline that she uses for her quiet times that a wise older lady gave her many years ago and she still uses it today. My friend has started using it and I think I'm going to give it a try as well.

You get a notebook and you write the word PRAISE and then 5 things you want to praise Him. for. Then you write CONFESS and write 5 things you need to confess to Him. Then THANKSGIVING and write 5 things you are thankful for. Then INTERCESSION and write 5 things to pray about for others. Then SUPPLICATION (def.-humble prayer, entreaty, or petition) and write 5 things you want to pray about. Finally you write PSALMS. You will begin reading in the beginning of Psalms and every time you come across an attribute of God you will write it down, until you have written 5 attributes. The next day you will stop where you left off and each day you will write down only 5. The goal here is for you to truly come to know the character of the Lord.

You can listen to her or read the transcripts here: http://www.reviveourhearts.com/topics/series.php?series=237&topic_name=Forgiveness

You can print an outline of the Quiet time outline here: http://www.reviveourhearts.com/topics/downloads/index.php?id=9966