Cousins

CR,JM, Little sis, Big sis and C

Doggie Dilemma

A few weeks ago I got the girls a butterfly tree house. You know, the thing where you send in for the caterpillars and they come in the mail. Then they grow and make a chrysalis and you put them in the container until they come out and then you release them. Super Fun, especially with two little girls who love butterflies. After our release I left the container out on the back porch for a few days. Well our puppy found it and got himself into a predicament. Somehow he stuck his huge head into the door and couldn't get it out. I saw him out there running around the yard with the thing stuck to his doggy head. It was pretty comical, needless to say I snapped a picture. It would have turned out better if he would've sat still for me. But, turns out a puppy with his head trapped doesn't like to pose.

I thought I would add one more picture of Thunder after I saved his life from the dreaded butterfly cage. Has he grown? He is just about 16 weeks old. What a bruiser. We are hoping he grows into his ears and paws someday.

Meme for Big Sis

I read this meme on Alana's blog. I thought I would play too. It uses only 6 words. I thought this was appropriate considering what has happened here at our house this past week.

Where did all the time go?

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Yesterday my husband made a comment to me about laundry. He had run out of clean uniforms and didn't know I had clean ones ready to be hung up. The words that he said weren't offensive to me but it was the tone and inflection of his voice and the look on his face. I was livid and went on a rampage about laundry and how if he'd fix the washing machine it wouldn't take me all day to do one load. I was angry!!

Later we both apologized. We don't like to stay mad long. But this little incident got me thinking. Josh has confronted me a few (okay,many) times about the way I speak. He calls it my delivery, and that if my delivery were a little more gentle then he would take the things I say much better. I know how it feels to be at the receiving end of a bad attitude and I can definitely dish it out with the best of them. This brought me to a question. Why do we save all our sweet and friendly words for people outside of our immediate family? If I am the only one who struggles with this please tell me how you manage. I know I don't pick on, yell at, criticize and talk down to my friends or people I meet out on a daily basis. What is the problem? Why do we so often hurt the ones we love the most? I sure could use some advice from all you bloggers out there. Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles in this area.

Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Stay tuned.

Josh and I closed on a refinancing loan today. The signing of the papers is always a good work out for the writing hand. We are excited because we cashed out some of our equity and refinanced and our house payment will only be $18 more than it has been. We got a great rate. We are excited to do a few updates on the house and land. I will try to post before and after photos. Get ready for great changes.

A word of advice.

If your husband is a thousand miles away in the middle of training, do not text message him the word HELP followed by an exclaimation point!!

I found this out the hard way and want to share my new found wisdom with my readers. Yesterday morning I got up to let the dog out of his crate. He sleeps in it in the garage. In my tired stupor I opened the garage door and let him out to "potty." I then went to his water and food bowls to make sure they were filled. Much to my complete disgust there was a furry little bloated mouse floating in Thunder's water dish. Well, I did what any self-respecting woman would do. I screamed. The girls were watching me at this point as I flapped my hands and jirated around the garage, yelping and screaming. I looked around and there next to the tractor was another. Thank the Lord, they were both dead, but I was still in extreme horror. I didn't know what to do. I did know that if anything were to get done it would be done by me. This fact did not pass me by. I love my husband and I do pretty well (with God's help) when he is out of town. But this was way above and beyond the call of duty for me. I wanted him to feel my pain. So I called him. I heard him pick up the phone and then hang it up again. This was a signal to me that he was in class. I didn't really care. I tried again. This time the call ended right away. I was appalled that he would do that to me while I was facing a crisis. So I did it. I texted "Help!!" I can say that this was the wrong choice for me. A minute later Josh called me in a panic. He thought someone had died. I told him two mice. He had absolutely no sympathy for me. He was worried and didn't understand where I was coming from. I was mad that he didn't see how horrible this situation was. We both hung up.

I can say that I admit that was the wrong thing to text. He called me later to say he was okay and that I had just scared him. I got a chance to tell him of my horror of tossing the mice out while I screamed the entire time and the girls looked on in shock. I still get a chill if I think about it.

Don't worry I went out right away and purchased mouse traps and some of those plug-in pest repellants. I hope they work. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Perspectives

I took the girls to Church today. There is nothing unusual about this, we are there almost every Sunday. Without Daddy in the pew with us it gets a little trying for me. The girls are wiggly and loud. I feel so self concious about their behavior. I can't believe how loud Little Sis colors on her paper and how loud Big Sis chews her Starburst. It's like every move they make and thing they do is magnified. There was an older woman next to us that kept staring at us the whole service. You know how you can feel someone looking in your direction? I could see her turned our way, out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure what to do about it, so I did nothing. It turns out though, they must have been better that I thought, a different lady behind us told me when church was over, "Oh, your girls were so quiet." I said thank you. I am sure I had a surprised look on my face.



Our music minister left a while back. We have had a guy filling in. He's really good, but today was his last day. Our pastor was up on the stage talking about how much we liked the guy and how grateful we were for his help. We gave a standing ovation. I guess at some point the pastor called him "Brother" I didn't hear that part. Little Sis leaned over to me and said, "Oh, I didn't know Dr. Marshall had a brother." At first I didn't know who she meant then she explained it was the man leading the music. I smiled at her childlike thinking, I was also proud of her. You see the two men are two different colors. She didn't think anything about it.