Food for thought

You know how sometimes we, as parents especially, long for just some "me" time.  A time with quiet and solace.  The eerie kind.  Well, Sarah and Bayley are in Pennsyvlania visiting her family and have been since Saturday.  I am not going to go get them until next Wednesday, so that left me with a week and a half of that kind of quiet I was describing.  Now, that I have it, it's very weird for it to be so quiet in the house.  To be honest, too quiet.  I miss my two favorite girls in the world and it's so different without them in the house keeping me occupied.  However, I suppose I will relish the time I do have to sit.  It just goes to show it's not always greener on the other side. 

On another note, I saw the video at the bottom or your screen tonight on Facebook.  The story is sad and touching.  Watching this video and relishing how this man viewed his life makes me examine my outlook on things in my life.  Do you ever see some of these sad, even sometimes tragic, situations and ask yourself how you would handle that hand had it been dealt to you?  I do that quite often.  Most times I disappoint myself by knowing I would not have such a fantastic outlook on life, because I should know better and have a better perspective.  I hope I have that perspective one day. 

I encourage you to watch this man's video and let it sink it.  One line that really caught me, which you will hear, is.."If God choosed to heal me, then God is God, and God is good!  If God chooses not to heal me and allows me to die, God is still God, and God is still good!"

Transparency

This is something I've been thinking on for about a week now.  It came to me as I watched 60 Minutes' interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.  Now, agree or disagree with what the man has done regarding all the classified documents he has released and the many more he promises to release if punishment is brought upon him, there is one thing he aims for that I whole-heartedly agree with...transparency!

Now, he aims for transparency in goverment and business.  I would hope we aim for it in everything.  So much is cloaked in secrecy with so much of our lives, and I can't help but think if life wouldn't be better for all if everyone was transparent to one another. 

I find it mildly amusing how people believe they can hide things from their spouses, children and family, but even more ridiculous is how people believe they can hide things from God.  If there was ever a person to be completely transparent with, it's God.  He's the least judgemental person I know, because no matter how many times I fail in the race of life, I still get the gold medal.  It's quite amazing how that can be so.  Even if you are transparent with everyone else in your life, there will still be problems between people.  But not with God.  It's fantastic. 

Puppy Love

Our family has 2 very special dogs, a beagle named Scarlette, and a puggle named Brutus.  We adopted Scarlette from the humane society a couple months before we got married, back in July 2007, and then a few months later, we went into Petland to look for a toy for her one night out after dinner, and we found Brutus.  We were in love instantly, and ended up bringing him home with us a couple of days later.  Our dogs have been like our children these past few years.  Funny thing is, that we used to make fun of people who were that in love with their animals, probably because we didn't understand that a person could feel so strongly about a pet like that.  Well, Scarlette and Brutus are a very important part of our family, they have been since the minute we met them, and we wouldn't trade them for the world!  They really have been like our children though, and we even joke that sometimes they act more like people than dogs.  They sleep in the bed, sit on the couch, and Brutus has even been known to hop up in a chair at the kitchen table at dinner time and just sit there, as if he's waiting for his plate to be served.  Before Bayley came, we were kind of concerned about how the dogs would act around her, and our parents were all VERY concerned about their grandchild with these 2 crazy dogs.  The first night we brought her home, we were pretty skeptical as the dogs both got pretty crazy and curious.  Since that night, however, they have been so great with her!  Scarlette is always looking for opportunities to smell her and lick her and Brutus has been pretty indifferent for the most part, acknowledging her presence, yet not seeming to care much about her, just stealing her toys.  We are so thankful that they have been so good with B thus far because we can't imagine our lives without the pups, but just in case there were any doubts, I think today further assured us they'd all get along and be alright!  As Bayley has gotten older, she has become more interested in her puppies, but it was as if she discovered them for the first time today.  As we said yesterday, she has been discovering her world and loving it, and today she discovered how much fun the dogs are!  We were all sitting on the couch and she grabbed Brutus' fur and his tail - he turned around and she squealed with delight!  He then proceeded to shake his ears, making her laugh even louder!  Scarlette wanted to join in on the fun, so she came over and licked Bayley's hand, causing even more sweet laughter!  It may not be exciting to you reading this, but it was so precious to us to see her discover the dogs, and that they let her squeal in their faces, pull their ears, tails and fur and they all had fun together was just so exciting!  Here are a couple pictures of B playing with her dogs this evening - Brutus is looking at the camera while Scarlette hides behind him.

you can't really tell here, but she kept petting his leg 

she thinks their faces are soooo funny

We are pretty big picture people (at least Sarah is), so we will try to post at least one picture in our posts for our family and friends who we don't get to see very often.  Thanks for reading and God bless!