Free to Play 5K

No, I'm not running any races, but Matt, Sabrina, Kara and I went to help Genessa with the 5K she organized, she did an outstanding job! Sabrina and I directed traffic right in front of the Springdale hospital...at the intersection of Maple and Maple. It was really really cold but we had a good time! Good job Genessa, you did an amazing job! Looking forward to helping again next year.
http://www.stopht.com/index.html

Chandelier of Gifts

Changes around our house....

My dad and one of his friends built a cover over our patio and added gutters for us. We tried it out on Sat. night with a BBQ with Josh and Sabrina and Kenneth and Sarah.

Jason came over and added some pendant lighting over the sink so I can see to do the dishes.

And If you haven't heard or seen it, we got a new-to-us car. We traded in the Blazer and got a 2004 Accord. It's loaded and I love it. It has built in navigation, leather heated seats (after having leather in the Saturn, it's a requirement for me now.) Dual temp control, which Matt wanted and a bunch of other stuff that is run from the touch screen panel.

I took Abby and Remy on a walk this afternoon. I need to wear a sign that say "NO, YOU CANNOT PET THE DOGS." I don't like kids to pet them for a number of reasons, first, kids run up to them and they don't like that, second, kids travel in a herd and I don't like a bunch of kids around us, and finally, we are on a walk for exercise...if I have to stop and let everyone pet them, we aren't accomplishing what we have set out to do.

Another issue with our walks is the high population of cats that roam the neighborhood. I hate cats, they are the most worthless, useless animal and Abby and Remy have that dog instinct to bark and chase them...see post from last Nov when they caught one in the back yard...So, I came up with 2 solutions to the cat problem. First, Cat Punting could be a form of fun entertainment for the half time of local football games, second, if we gather all the cats in one place, and tossed one into the street in front of a speeding car in the neighborhood, so the cat would be like a speedbump, we would be eliminating the cat and slow down the traffic. Two birds with one stone. People really drive fast through our subdivision, that really makes me mad....there are kids that either play out in the street or run through it a lot. I just pray that none of them get hurt.

Healing Place Church Live the Dream

A group of us went to Baton Rouge to the Live the Dream Conference. April Simons, Chris Cane and Delynn Rizzo spoke. We had a great week.

The girls at Stacy's mom's house were we had dinner on Wednesday evening. It was an great meal!

Me and Sarah at the mall.

Me and Sabrina

Sherry Melara--she was here in August and spoke at the women's brunch and did a fantastic job

In the Friends lounge with our host, Chenelle.

Me and Sabrina again.

Amazing weekends...

So, I've been really really busy the past few weekends, and I'm really really exhausted now! But they have been absolutely amazing expirences! How blessed I am to have a group of lovely women around me!
Here's some photos of the Keypoint Women's Imagine Retreat.

Yesterday was WILD!

So, yesterday morning K and I went to Hobby Lobby to do some research on somethings for the retreat. We were in the bead aisle and an old man walks up to us and asks what a choker necklace was. K explains it to him. He asked if he could put his hands around K's neck! I'm thinking...."old dude is going to strangle her!" My gosh, I almost died, right there in Hobby Lobby. She handled it soooo much better than I would have. She was very nice and let him measure her neck, while I was trying not to fall apart next to her. I am thankful that God gave her so much grace with the situation!

Last night, Matt and I had to go to Walmart and since I had been gone all day and Abby had been such a good dog last week when we went to Petco and stopped at the AT&T store to see S., we decided to let her go too. When we parked, I got out and she jumped out with me, no leash. She took off around a few cars and up to the front of the store. There was another girl, probably about our age, that was walking in, and she called her name and Abby ran right to her, thank goodness! Abby is grounded from car rides for a while.

New Hair Color

Red is so much for FUN!!! Love the curls too, thanks Jen! You are the best!

New Toy...

Matt's new yoke for the flight sim games. He has the pedals too that are under the desk. This is very serious business!

Abby has intense concentration when she is playing fetch.












Remy's sweet little face over the back of the sofa.

Wednesday...

I'm running out of catchy titles for these. But here's some random thoughts.

Kafka was terrified of our water dispenser. The first day she drank from it, it bubbled and she ran away. We had to keep another bowl of water out for her. It was pretty cute.

Matt fixed my Scooba! Seriously, this was super important around here, I refuse to mop now, it's a waste of time and energy. He had to cut off the end of the charger and re-solder the wires back to the adapter. And it saved us $40 because we don't have order a new charger now. I used it twice today on the kitchen.

Here's some pictures I took today. First, I was cleaning this morning and piled all the dog beds and Remy decided 4 was better. It's like the "The Princess and the Pea" but it would be "The Prince and the Pea"

Secondly, Jason installed some pendant lighting over our kitchen sink and bar. I love these lights, they are fabulous. I can see to do the dishes now.















We are looking at building a covered patio on the back of our house. My dad came down today with someone else to price it out for us. We have a concrete patio now, so we are thinking of just building the roof over it for some more shade...and an outdoor ceiling fan, which I'm totally excited about! Matt always excited about anything blocking the day ball.

Walking the dogs

Last night I had the brilliant idea of taking all three dogs on a walk. I normally walk Abby and Remy by myself in the morning and have always had good control over them, so, since Matt was going with me, I thought we should take Kafka too. Kafka doesn't walk like ours do, they have to walk beside me with their shoulders even with me knee, so with Abby and Kafka trying to be different, they were making me very frustrated, so Matt and I switched. I took Abby and Remy and off we went down the street. A few houses later, Abby and Remy saw a cat. They pulled so hard, it pulled me to my knees and then I lost my balance and the next thing I knew, they were pulling me on my back across someone's front lawn. Matt was so surprised, I had to yell at him to help me. I was soooo mad. We have an overwhelming population of cats hanging out around the neighborhood, I think I'll start calling animal control to get rid of the issue.

I know I entertain some folks at JB Hunt with my dog stories, so I hope you guys get a good laugh out of this one!

Garage Sale

I had a garage sale today and sold a BUNCH of stuff. Shoes, Clothes, my palm tree, some chairs, Matt's old laptop...I made just shy of $450! Not too bad for one day of work. I had also sold some shoes on Ebay, so that was another $35. If Abby would have held still long enough, I would have tried to sell her too (just kidding!)

Kafka is staying the week with us. She's such a good dog. Unlike the hyper-active Weims.

So busy!

I decided that we have too much stuff and we are going to have a garage sale, maybe next weekend. We re-arranged the living room and now are getting rid of 2 trees, a chair, random home decor, a large dog crate and whatever else I think we don't use any more. Here's some photos of what our living room looks like now:

And the Scooba stopped charging correctly, if you plugged it in, you would have to prop it up against the wall for the charger to make contact, so Matt did an autopsy and corrected the problem, YEA!! I can't live without my Scooba!

New Laptop.

Somehow, Matt talked me into letting him get a new laptop this weekend. I'm not sure how he talked me out of going to Maine again this fall (tickest were cheap from XNA to Manchester NH, $340, I was excited) He told me I should read The Art of War. He found one on sale that he liked at Best Buy so we picked it up on Sunday afternoon on the way to my parents. Normally when we go to Best Buy, the sales people swarm like vultures, this particular day, we couldn't find any to help us. And of course visiting that store with Matt always goes something like this:



The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon In Computer Store from ubergeek on Vimeo.

Treadmill

I found this photo online tonight. I wish I could get Abby and Remy to walk on the treadmill. It would be so worth the money!

Remy and the Rat

Remington caught and ate a rat today. I'm getting really tired of all these dead animal shennigans when I'm home by myself. I could get it out of his mouth and he couldn't drop it. He ate it whole, so I was worried it would hurt him and called the vet. They didn't act to surprised and just told me if he wasn't eating or drinking to bring him in. He seems fine and it happened this morning. I was sure he would throw up, so I decided to take him on a walk so he would puke in someone else's yard and I would have to clean it up. And the vet said he should be able to digest it just fine, he's digested all kinds of plastic toys, so I can't see how this could possibly be worse. He's in a lot of trouble. He's been dgging in the back yard, and he and Abby escaped out of the house last night and Matt and I had to chase him down the street.

The self propulsion feature stopped working on the lawn mower last night, and Matt had to take it apart to get the belt back on. With out having a robomower, the self propelled mower is the only way I'm going to mow, without it, our deal on me mowing is off.

Here's some pictures from Matt's parents last weekend. They remodeled their guest bathroom and I helped Nan decorate it. I did the floral arrangment and we recovered the little stool. It turned out really cute!

Matt and I saw this car parked across the street when we got home tonight. We call it the mullet car, white conservative business on top, teal fun party on the bottom. Seriously though, it's supposed to look like that, it's not a half primed redneck car.

And the second photo is of a flower arrangement that I did at my mom's house yesterday. We picked some flowers out of her flower beds and each made one. I love the zinnias, they are bright and pretty and Matt isn't allergic to them.

For dinner tonight, I tried something new and it turned out really well. I don't enjoy cooking at all but this is super easy, check it out:

http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1827566

Busy, Busy...

I've been really busy this week. This isn't quite what I was planning for my "retirement" but God had other plans for me. With Lauren gettinga new job, her position on KPC staff was open, and I have stepped into it doing Women's ministries. She did such a wonderful job and is a tought act to follow. I'm really excited about everything that's been going on! We have several things coming up and this afternoon, I've been expiriencing a lot of anxiety that I can't pinpoint to a cause. I hate feeling this way--maybe I have restless leg syndrome.

Other news:
Abby and Remy are now spending all their time out of their crate. Even when we aren't home, which, they aren't used to and they still bark, paw and stand at the door to the guest room waiting to get into their crate. I took it down on Tuesday when Matt's mom and uncle were here. They haven't destroyed anything or been bad in the house at all.

Someone created a new profile for me on Facebook. Or one strangely similar--same first and last name (married name) same high school, same town, with one contact in common. It's very creepy and I basically got a big "I told you so" from Matt about the security of online usage, so I really toned down my facebook info. I have a friend of a friend who posted all kinds of things about her and her fiance...addresses, family info, dates of thier wedding and honeymoon and I just couldn't believe it, so, if you post info online, BE SAFE!!

I love IMDB.com. Thinking I saw someone in one show and then thinking I saw them in something else and not being able to prove it, just drives me crazy.

The Mighty Hunters...

Abby and Remy caught a bird this morning. Two cats were in our backyard and were stalking the poor little robin and I think they may have injured it and the dogs caught it. Remy ran around the yard with it dangling from his mouth. I chased after him yelling at him to "drop it" which he didn't do. I got some food and took outside and he let go and it got the bird into a walmart bag to dispose of it. Oh the drama!! I think Remy was proud he caught it!

A/C

The AC has been repaired! We called the Bud Anderson Co. first thing this morning and they were here by 11 and had it completed by noon. Our total was $412, which isn't good, but it could have been much much worse, so we are very thankful for them!!

The dog days of summer....

is from July 3 to August 11 and we're right in the middle. Our AC went out tonight. I think it's the compressor, we noticed shortly before midnight, so we'll have to wait until the morning to call someone. We're surprised it hadn't happened sooner, with our outstanding service from Carroll Electric, the electric always seems to go off when the AC is on and has happened the past few mornings.

Luau

Another Greyhound update.

Matt calls the black greyhound "rat dog". It really does behave like a rat. It scurries around, runs away when we want to pick it up, and looks at you with big frightened eyes no matter how nicely we talk to her. Her name is Pie, as in Sweetie Pie, not Pi, like 3.14. They are constantly underfoot, when cooking dinner the other night, 4 dogs in the kitchen were too many. With Abby and Remy, I at least know they are there but I've tripped alot over the others. Matt created me a baby gate by opening two cabinet doors and hanging a walmart bag in the middle. It actually worked. We are working on making Abby and Remy stay out of the kitchen when I'm cooking, Abby was counter surfing tonight and got a piece of pizza.

The tan and white dog has had 4 accidents in the house so far. I think I've picked up more dog crap off the carpets and rugs in the past week than I did the entire time I was housetraining Remy. I don't understand why they always go on the carpet or rugs: Most of our house is either tile or laminate. Thursday evening, I was getting ready to leave to have dinner with friends and was in the bathroom getting ready while all the dogs where eating, all seperately, of course. I went into the guest room to get the greyhounds and Jackson had pooped in the floor. I had previously not been able to prove which dog it was, but since he was the only one in there, I went to get him to show him what he had done and give a stern "NO!" I carried him in the bedroom, set him down on the floor while holding his collar so he didn't run away. He flipped over on his back, had his four legs wrapped around my arm and peed on me. I cannot even begin to tell you how mad I was. So, I had to get the mess cleaned up as well as myself. I'll be glad when these dogs go home on Tuesday.

Greyhound:

Remy and Jackson. Remy's not a big fan. He grumbles everytime one of them gets on the sofa, I think it's because they don't get up there and sit down, they are up and down constantly. Remy is king of the sofa, so if you sit there, you have to play by his rules, so you have to stay still so he can nap. I haven't gotten a good picture of the other GH yet.






Some photos from the back yard. Abby's enjoying the breeze, her ears where flapping in the wind. What's better on a summer's day than rolling in the grass. That's a lot of leg flying throught the air!

Abby and Remy LOVE ice. When they hear someone getting ice out of the the freezer, they come running. We had the production team from church over a few weeks ago and after it was over, I let Abby and Remy eat the ice out of the cooler--JACKPOT! It's an entire chest of treats.